YoungLife camp take1

For the past 8 days I was in Weaverville, NC being a part of a YoungLife camp called Windy Gap.

For the past 8 days I formed deeper friendships & had hard conversations.

For the past 8 days I was given the opportunity to love on my beautiful high school friends.

It was one of the most draining weeks of my life, but also one of the best weeks of my life.

The week was jam packed with the craziest/most fun things you could think of.

From western night to banquet night. Being pied in the face to being pelted by cold water going down a zipline. From fighting my fear of horses to singing Celine Dion at the top of my lungs.

Windy Gap was an experience to be a part of.

Themed volleyball tournament. If you couldn't tell we were african cats. some thought we were mice, others went as far as myans? whatever. we went with it.

These girls were my saving grace while living in a cabin with 17 girls.

All of the Baldwin/Putnam leaders.

Probably my favorite night: western night.

Yes, that's right. Those last two pictures were an ice cream eating contest. It was called a T-Ralph (no one actually knew why) with 10 scoops of ice cream, 3 toppings of choice, along with whipped cream & chocolate syrup? Is your mouth watering yet? mine isn't. Several boys did it first, so a few girls thought we could beat there time in finishing faster. Let me just tell you, girls get aggressive when they want to beat boys. This led to scary faces & ice cream everywhere. Yes, even in hair. I know you're hoping I am going to say that we won, but we didn't. sorry. But we do now have a story of eating the biggest ice cream batch we've ever eatin in under 5 minutes!

How beautiful are these girls?!

If you've never been to a YoungLife camp, I highly recommend it. It's something everyone should experience, whether it's being a leader, being on work crew, or taking your family to one of the family camps. God is so good and He revealed so much in such a short period of time. As hard as this week was, it has never felt so worth it to go home with these girls and walk through life with them.

In just two short weeks, I will be venturing out to Colorado to be on summer staff at another YoungLife camp called Crooked Creek for an entire month! I will be making people their yummy coffee drinks, and I couldn't be more excited about it. Can't wait to fill ya'll in soon!!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful, relaxing start to June,

 from all of my friends!!

A Charleston Weekend get-a-way

Watching the mile marker signs drop at a rate that isn't preferred as we drive closer and closer back to milledgeville, Ga is when I wish the road home was longer. Knowing that in 17 miles, I will be dropped off as my weekend get-a-way comes to a close, my boyfriend will head back out of town for work for the week, and having to work on an economics homework assignment is clearly not the best feeling in the world to come home to.

BUT. pushing those things aside, ya know what IS the best feeling in the world to come home to?!? Being able to sit in silence for awhile thinking back on a truly memorable, fun, short-lived (sadly) weekend in Charleston, South Carolina (moving up to one of my new top 5 favorite cities) with some fantastic people.

James and I went to visit his sister Lindsay, and her fiance Ben. Let me tell you, they are some COOL people. When we arrived, they were still working, so James and I ended up cruising down King Street and spent the evening spontaneously doing things like...

walking miles down old historic neighborhoods

James might have rang this doorbell but thankfully, no one answered.

james smelling the flowers. this is a favorite of mine because it is completely candid.

horse drawn carriage tours. SO awesome.

After we left King Street we went back to the house and watched "Into the Wild". If you haven't seen this movie, I highly recommend it. It was fantastic, and I still can't get over this true story. 

Saturday was packed filled with fun, including both a zoo trip & an engagement party all in the same day! I wish I had taken pictures from the zoo, but sadly I was way too wrapped up in it. I will say, being able to celebrate Lindsay & Ben's engagement was SO great! It was such an exciting thing to celebrate and I am so happy for the two of them!

I have a new friend!!!!!

haha so funny

Ben proposed on April fools day, so the party had a 'joke'' theme......ahaha

I loved my weekend; I loved the people, and I loved Charleston.

Another school year in the books

As May begins, I am proud to say I am no longer a sophomore in college, and am now moving on toward my junior year. I feel old even saying that. My junior year is going to consist of many new things in my life. I will be starting the Early Childhood Education cohort, and I'm a little nervous to see how it will all unfold. My life will consist of teaching, teaching, and teaching. Butttt...I am also excited for the new opportunities that next year will present to me.

This past school year, was probably one of the best two semesters (august-may) of my life. I know that's a bold statement, but I mean it. My sophomore year consisted of so so many things it's hard to even remember them all. I will say, that I enjoyed every second.  There were hard times, but for the first time in a while, the happy outweighed the sad. I am so blessed by my friends. I can't even put to words what they mean to me.  Looking back on my 2011-2012 school year, I get sad knowing this school year has closed, and many of my good friends have just graduated and are moving on with their lives. But hey If you are wondering what all was a part of my year that made it so stinkin good, here are some pictures, but I don't even think this will describe the way I feel about the past 10 months of my life.

My friends are all back together for school

One of my best friends became an ADPi with me!!

Some friends & I road tripped to Athens and went to a Phi Slam duct tape party.

Athens again for the Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors concert!!!!

I got a little sister in ADPi :) (ellen sentell to the left, me, stephanie, and ellen staton-her little)

I went to Disney world with three of my favorite people on the planet.

Went to formal

Went to the Dominican Republic to help build Pico Escondido-A Young Life camp

Went to Semi-formal (Kentucky Derby) with the most good looking man alive who just so happens to be my boyfriend.

I am a part of a younglife team with the greatest group of people. Gatewood high school & team will forever have my heart.

Took way too many pictures of the same pose, but would do it all over to capture memories with these three girls.  

Okay enough reminiscing. right now, on this very day, I started Maymester. That's right. summer class. Now before everyone forms a thought of why I am doing this, I will have to say it's not too bad. It's only for 3 weeks and it's from 9am-12pm every day. Not too bad right? well...we'll see on the last day of these 3 weeks if I have the same opinion. Here's to summer (sorta) and an upcoming new year that will have to try hard to beat this one.

xo mer

helppppp

Okay friends, someone please help me with the side pictures on my blog. I have no idea what I am doing! I'm in dire need to figure out how to make them certain sizes/add borders to them. I have searched all over to figure out, but each time I get stuck. I also tried to download Windows Live Writer, but it doesn't work on macs :-( someone HELPPPP a fellow blogger.

Everything's bigger in Texas

I guess I've always grown up going back and forth between Texas and Georgia, so I haven't ever had the outside perspective of what people think who haven't been to Texas before, until a conversation with my best friend.  She asked me what Texas looked like and I'm pretty sure she had this in mind...

or this...

yikes.

I mean...I guess that's what happens when you type "Big Texas hair" in google, so maybe some of that is true. But not entirely!! Texas is cool. Texas is cool because of many reasons, and one being my family lives there.  This past weekend I got to go on a short trip to celebrate my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. Let me repeat that FIFTY years of marriage!! Now that is awesome, and what's even sweeter was the heartfelt conversation I had with my nana about the development of their sweet sweet relationship leading up until marriage. Talk about holding back tears.

We spent quality time eating good food, catching up, and looking through old embarrassing photos...here's one that was a little scary...

Meet my dad. At the ripe age of 17 (left). Meet my boyfriend. At the age of 21(ish). (Right)

                        

   

Scary huh. These shirts are oddly similar. I'm not sure whether to laugh or be scared. o well. My two favorite men enjoy similar styles? I guess that's how I'll leave it.

In other news...me and my big brother were clearly livin the good life during the elementary days.

Overall. My weekend was ballin. I loved everything about it. I hope your weekend was as good as mine :)

Mer

ps. ADPi's are the basketball champions for greek week!!!!!!! You can read about that Here!!

spring blog makeover

Okay..so maybe it's not a complete makeover, but I'm trying to establish a cool blog that people get excited about seeing.  Maybe thats a bold statement...but you know everyone thinks it, why else would you decorate your blog in fun ways?! anywho...I hope you like my new look!!! I'm stoked about it. My favorite color is orange, I love polka dots, and I LOVE cute birds like THEEESSE!! Maybe I'm a little too excited about this background, but I'm stepping up in the blog world with this new and improved look. I feel like things will only get better from here!! Okay..maybe a little dramatic, but hey, everyone has a little drama queen in them somewhere, mine just might come out in my blog.

I also changed the title, I thought this title suits my blog well.  Maybe sometimes my posts are a little less casual but for the most part, I like the word casual. I somehow feel peaceful when I say casual. Its just...well...casual.

If you have any cool blogs tips. PLEASE tell me. I'm open for anything, I want to learn!!

Have a casual weekend.

xo Mer

Vida Joven

After 8 long days in the Dominican Republic, I am back in America.

  Things are different. 

Mostly different in my mind, but things are different. 

This wasn't my first time going out of the country, but was the first time I experienced the things I did.

19 of us helped contribute to the building of Pico Escondido.

Pico Escondido means Hidden Peak.

The pictures don't do it justice.

It was breathtaking, in every essence of the word.

We shoveled. We dug through rocks. We raked. We made cement. We made mortar. We drilled.

Personally, It was hard physically, but it was also hard mentally.

I dealt a lot with lies of the enemy being fed through me, and was discouraged at times.

I learned a lot about myself this past week.

How I handle situations & how I handle people.

I learned what I need to work on & what some of my strengths are.

I learned a lot about God's word & how true it is when people say that scripture is 'God breathed'.

I learned the true meaning of Colossians 3:17.

I learned to "just be".

I learned to live simply. 

In my opinion, living simply is one of the most refreshing ways to live life.

I was reminded time & time again how loved I am by so many people.

I believe we wrestle with things to allow us to persevere.

James 1:3-5

Back in Milledgeville, Georgia my mind is a little different.

For the lovely person that made up this name. I will sign my post this way for you.

   

Mer cat