Where can I find this soloist and why aren't we married yet?

My Good Samaritan

You never know just how much your day and actions impact someone else. Last fall, I was in my second week of classes. I was sitting down waiting for lecture to begin for How Things Work - the easy physics class when my nose started bleeding profusely. I was wearing new shorts, which I had now ruined. I ran out of lecture to find a bathroom. I found a bathroom on that floor and approached the janitor who was cleaning it. I asked if I could use it and she replied that I had to go downstairs because it was a boys' bathroom. UGH! Then she asked what was wrong. I told her that I had gotten a nosebleed. I had not been in my current house very long and I wasn't adjusted to the lack of humidity from the air conditioner or the dust was irritating me or something. She was so sweet. She got me a wet paper towel and then just sat with me and asked me if I was stressed. She talked to me and told me that I needed to stop rushing around and relax a little bit. She was so sweet and sacrificial. She sat with me until I was better to go back into class and she sent me off with some paper towels, just in case.

That made my day. She was a complete stranger, yet she took such good care of me. I don't even know her name. I would occasionally run into her before or after class sometimes. We would always hug. I will not forget her for a long, long time. I was struck by her generosity and ability to care so well for a stranger. Her little actions have made a lasting impression on me. She told me that she looks for me around. I told her that she was an angel sent to me. I really feel like she was.

The point is that small and seemingly insignificant actions can mean the world to someone else. People notice when one are selfless and sacrificial in the little things. I think that these can often mean more than the big things.  They are small, but so often over looked. What little things can you do to help others out today? You might just make someone's day, or inspire a blog post, or change the world, one small act of selflessness and change at a time.

Proud Sister

Things to note:

1. This punk, also know as my little brother (who is not so little anymore), hit his first home run in a little league game. He is definitely the veteran of the team this year. He was the only 10 year old to play on the Orioles back in the spring of 2010. Now he is the biggest and the best on his team. He would never tell you that, but I'm his sister. I'm allowed to brag. I'm proud of you, little brother. Keep on doing your thing. 

Ladies, stay away. Please, I am not ready for girls in his life. Let his loves be Jesus and baseball for right now.

**This was back from last spring. Hopefully, I will get some pictures of his games when I go home. He is too awesome.**

2. My sister broke a six-minute mile this week. Holy smokes. Who does she think she is? First of all, she is insane because this season she has been fighting through an injury of her IT band. It's crazy that she runs that fast despite the wear and tear on her body. Also, can we talk about how she improved by 22 seconds in one week? Last week she was complaining about a 6:20 minute mile. I will have you know that this is faster than I have ever run the mile in my life. So poor thing... but then for her to go and break a six minute mile, while injured, while improving by 22 seconds in one week. That girl is crazy. And I'm crazy proud. She's a gem.

She is light into my life.

3. The first-born of our family is about to finish his second to last week of undergraduate higher education. When did I blink? I remember it like yesterday. We were heading out to the creek, or throwing acorns at passing cars from the bushes (they may or may not have stopped the car, found us in the bushes, lectured us on how the acorn could have broken their windshield...yeah, right... you were going 25 mph... and then told us to go home and tell our parents...which I never did), or playing Sega - lion king style, or painting the swingset with water, or starting a bead war, rollerblading around with our hockey sticks in the garage, playing in the flooded basement, getting up after we were put to bed and sleeping on the floor, or jumping on the trampoline with all the neighborhood kids. Or that time when I was six and sprained my ankle and his eight-year-old self carried me home on his back. Well, thanks for going down memory lane with me for a bit. I cannot believe Ryan is old enough to be graduating in a few short weeks. I am so proud of the man he is becoming. He has emerged: working hard, achieving so much, growing in relationships. He is a stud for getting all the internships that he gets. In a year he will be heading out into the real world at the ripe age of 22 with his master's degree in accounting. I am so thankful for how I see the Lord repairing and restoring our relationship. This summer should be a time of growth and continuing reconciliation for us.

I'm thankful.

Could they be any more good-looking? Seriously.

This boy is crazy.

I am blessed.

Dorothy Sayers and Francis Chan

"To do them justice, the people who crucified Jesus did not do so because he was a bore. Quite the contrary; he was too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround him with an atmosphere of tedium. We have declawed the lion of Judah and made him a housecat for pale priests and pious old ladies."

“But God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through."

If by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son! 

Matthew 11:28-30

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”


I believe every heart needs a healer. If you are weary and burdened today, there is one who is waiting to heal you.

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Acapella Addiction

This past weekend I went to the Hullabahoos concert. I loved every minute of it. It's amazing what those boys can do with only their vocal cords. It blows my mind every time. So in honor of my current acapella obsession, I complied some of my favorite tracks to share! Here is my countdown!!

10. The Twelves Day of Christmas - Straight No Chaser (Indiana University)

9. Fix You - Exit 245 (JMU)

8. The Blower's Daughter - Exit 245 (JMU)

7. Put You In A Song - Hullabahoos (UVA)

6. Come On Get Higher - Hullabahoos (UVA)






5. Not Over You - Hullabahoos (UVA)





4. Wonderwall - Noteworthy (UGA)





3. Collide - Fundamentally Sound

2. Breakeven - The Hullabahoos (UVA)

1. Stay With Me (Brass Bed) - The Madison Project (JMU)

This is my all-time favorite. During my senior year, they were performing at a local high school. I think I went for three years straight, but once I met the soloist, Drew Brittle. I.about.died. the end.