if you like unicorns...

Y'all, IT'S SEPTEMBER!!!!!

That means cooler temperatures and fall-y things and...EEEEEE, I'm excited!

SO...one of my dear sweet youth girls celebrated her 17th birthday yesterday and she absolutely LOVES unicorns. She has a unicorn pillow pet whose name I believe is Veruca LaDome {not sure on the spelling}.

Last year we saw Despicable Me to celebrate her birthday and I thought she was going to die of laughter after this scene.



Yes. So cute.

A picture of what her dream bedroom would look like?

I think that little stuffed unicorn may actually be what Veruca looks like. Maybe not. Hmmm...

So for her birthday this year, I wanted to give her a birthday greeting that she'd never forget. Something involving unicorns. I searched: unicorn, birthday song on YouTube and came up with this. 



YES! Seriously. How can you not like that? I laughed so hard. She loved it. My nephew, however, thought it was stupid. Boo.

I can't decide which of these vids is my favorite:

Your Haircut Is Growing On Me
Sorry You Failed Your Test
Sorry You Lost Your Phone
Thanks For Always Liking My Status Updates

I'm kind of thinking the status update one. Mostly because I have this sweet older lady I go to church with that "likes" almost every single status update of mine. Sometimes nobody has liked it and days go by and I'll get a notification that she just did. It really does make my day every now and then.

I'm not sure what that says about me. :-/

So, what's your favorite? Shall we put it to a vote? 

The real winner? Juicy Fruit. I mean, who comes up with this stuff?

It's almost the weekend!

AND IT'S SEPTEMBER!!

Woot. Woot. 

i laugh {REALLY LOUD}.

For those of you who aren't from around here, (here, being Northeast Mississippi), we had ourselves a little blizzard Sunday evening/night. Blizzard being a relative term. Because, you see, there were 5 inches of snow, and to us Southerners--that's a blizzard.

I've never seen this much snow in my entire 27 years. Does that mean I've missed out? Methinks, perhaps.

I got out at 6:45 IN THE MORNING and took a bajillion pictures that are beautiful and awe-inspiring, but those will have to wait til later, because I really just want to share this video with y'all.

As an introduction, I live about 100 yards (maybe) from my church and there is a 'monstrous' hill in the back. Well, the 5 inches of snow and icy/slushy country backroads didn't stop some of us from getting together and having a GRAND OLE TIME.

I have watched this video at least 50 times (and I know I lean towards exaggeration, this, is not one of those times. For real...50 times.) And each time it still makes me smile. So...enjoy.

And, for those of you who know my dad, I OBVIOUSLY get my laugh from him.

Obviously.

I may need to tone it down a bit.

How do you feel about snow? Like it? Love it? Want some more of it?

{see what I did there? ;) }

Let me know in the comments!

i promise i'm alive (ep. 2)

Oh my goodness.

I just wanted to drop in and say a big hello to all the tens of you that read this blog.

{Grin}

:)

But really.

It's been kind of hard to blog because as some of you know, I don't have a computer at my house. That makes the whole blogging thing kind of hard.

{If any of you want to buy me a computer because you love me and my writing that much or simply because you're the most awesomest person ever and have a generous spirit. Let's talk.}

;)

I would say I'm kidding, but crazier things have happened. I assure you. And...I'm really not kidding. Well...only partly kidding. 98% of me is completely serious.

And I would blog at Mom and Dad's but their computer was shipped off somewhere to be fixed 2 1/2 weeks ago and it has yet to return. They're not expecting it back until the END OF DECEMBER.

How does one survive? Good thing my sister and mom can check Facebook on their phone or the world just. might. end. (And mine too, I ain't gonna lie).

Anyway, so that's why it's been the crickets around here lately.

I had the best of intentions to tell you all about the crazy awesome trip to Deeper Still {if you pause the video at the 45 second mark that's TOTALLY me in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. What's up with my hair? And my mouth? Oh well. Moving on.}

I also was going to tell you about the first Thanksgiving without the sister. A synopsis: having Thanksgiving on Saturday is BIZARRE. And I kind of liked it...but at the same time, I was completely thrown off Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Weird.

I was going to tell you how my Christmas tree is STILL not up. Neither is Mom and Dad's. I still have my wreath hanging on my front door. And there isn't a single bit of me that's freaking out over not having my Christmas decorations up .

Not a single bit.

I was going to tell you all about the most fabulous birthday I've ever had in my life. For real. The. most. fabulous. birthday. ever. The only actual gifts I received were 3 packs of sweet tarts {just because I'm curious, what side of your mouth do you chew sweet tarts on? Let's do a study. I'm serious. Stop laughing.} and a very special ornament with the letter 'R' on it that blinks. Oh, and a WHOLE LOTTA LOVE.

Like, a bajillion people wrote on my Facebook wall. I got just as many texts and phone calls and emails. Having caring friends and family and people that you barely know is SO hard. I mean really. So hard.

And...what else...ummm...I met a ton of cool and awesome people at Deeper Still.

Example 2 {example 1 is the link above} ;)
Melanie aka Big Mama. She was so so so sweet. And I told her how I'm awkward too. That in and of itself is awkward enough. But really. I can be so awkward.

P.S. That is one CRAZY eye on my behalf. For real.

Example 3


Kelly from Kelly's Korner was sitting with the Compassion Bloggers and due to some seating issues we got to sit with them on Saturday morning, but this was Friday night when I was like, "Yeah, I read your blog and Harper is so cute and you're just the cutest little pregnant lady."

More awkward.

And while not a cool and awesome person. How about these cool and awesome SEATS thanks to (in)courage and DaySpring??


And again, not cool or awesome people, but I GOT TO EAT CHIPOTLE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OVER 16 MONTHS AND IT WAS JUST AS FABULOUS AS I REMEMBERED.


Oh, Chicken Burrito Bowl. I'm quite sure you will be served in Heaven. And guacamole, you too.
Sigh.

Okay, so...that's all I have time for. And there were very serious and spiritual things that happened and yes this post is just fluff, but I had to share. I couldn't keep it in any longer!

OH and I got to meet Lisa-Jo and Ann (we are on a first name basis now...ha.)

And I'm being COMPLETELY serious when I say the first words I said to Ann Voskamp were,

"I LOVE YOUR WORDS."

Yes. For real.

I can't go on anymore. Because really. Those were my first words to someone that writes the most beautiful words that I don't even UNDERSTAND sometimes.

Sheer fabulousness.

And awkward.

But we've established I rule at that.

Y'all have a good weekend.

:)

{Sorry, I just don't have time for more words!}

Fall, Blog Design and More Random Things

Happy Fall, y'all!

First off, let me apologize in advance for this post because it is about to be all over the place.

1 - If you've been around my little corner of the interwebz long, you might notice that we (by we, I mean, the blog) got a new fresh fall look! I am LOVING the background. Golden and dots just say 'fall' to me. And evidently, they aren't viewable on the mobile version? Because...on my iPhone it just looks tan. So...anyway.

AND you might notice the new banner up at the top! Am I the only one that thinks that looks super cool? Hopefully not. What's even cooler? I DID IT MYSELF! This whole blog redesign (there's more to come) is courtesy of these super-helpful tutorials over at Mandy's Yellow Corner. YES! She rocks!! And I don't even really remember how I found it, but I think it involved trying to make a wreath...more on that in a sec. Anyway, the blog looks awesomer (yes, I know, it's not a word) because of her and her great instructions! Also, the fonts I used in the banner came from here. I also created a blog button (with the help of Mandy again) for Sarah's blog and it's right over there -->

I don't necessarily know if Sarah approves, but...I'm the handler sister, so, let's just go with it.

2 - I decided last Friday that I was going to make a wreath after seeing these cupcake wreaths. Let me just say, that either all my craftiness has left me since college or...I'm silly. My wreath looked rather puny compared to theirs and this made me all forms of sad. The reason I was trying to make a new wreath is because this is the wreath that has been hanging on my door for at least the past 13 years. At least.

You see why it needs to be replaced? I mean, I love that wreath. That wreath was my Mawmaw and Pawpaw's, but...that wreath needs a break! I won't show you a picture of my attempt at the cupcake wreath. I'm just too ashamed.

3 - Have I told you how much I love this time of the year? Fall is MOST DEF my favorite time of the year. Ugh, LOVE. IT. I always wanted to fall in love in the fall. I mean, I've never fallen in love, so who's to say it won't happen, but now I'm just rambling. I say all this because Fall also makes me want to buy school supplies. (You've Got Mail anybody?) And yesterday during bible study we were talking about the greatest gift we've ever been given. Apart from salvation. Because...that's obvious. And I decided that the greatest gift I've ever been given is this -


It's a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils (again...with the YGM) that I received about 2 years ago from my very dear friend and neighbor Molly. And the ribbon was tied much prettier than in this picture. I don't particularly know why a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils is the greatest gift but let's just say that I arrived home from working in Albuquerque one week and it just so happened to be the day that I got called a crazy Christian by a co-worker (and I wasn't really that upset, but I definitely needed some encouragement at the moment) and I open a package that I had received in the mail from Mississippi and that's what was inside. And I just burst into tears. I remember it like it was yesterday. I'm so blessed to be surrounded by awesome friends. And at that moment I wasn't even surrounded by them physically...I was 600 miles away, but, again, with the awesome friends. They are the best.

And as if that isn't enough, her husband blew off my walk the other day where I trimmed the hedges. My other awesome friends let me use their electric hedge trimmer thing (what's the appropriate word??) and it did not take 5 hours, but rather, 35 minutes. Anyway, the following Saturday when I went to clean them up, Matt had blown them off the walk that morning. I texted Molly and said something to the affect of "Did you or your husband do this? Because...you really need to stop being so sweet because I'll never be able to repay you for this lawn kindness." (or something like that). Of course, they did and Matt said not to worry because, of course, they don't expect me to repay them. They just love me. Is that not the sweetest? I mean...really. The sweetest.
They are much more even than last year. :)

4 - I accidentally killed a cat last week. It was possibly one of the most traumatizing experiences I've ever had. What's even worse is that I go to church with the owners. I ran over it on my way home :( It was running away and then all of a sudden it doubled-back and I couldn't slam on my brakes. It was so tragic. Anytime I've seen cats since then it's like they're looking at me saying 'Killer. Killer.' And now that I think about it-Wendy, the neighborhood cat, has not visited my house since then. I bet she found out. I don't blame you Wendy. I'd stay away too. :S

5 - Never in my adult life, or non-adult life for that matter, have I ever washed clothes using bleach. That all changed tonight. I washed my pretty white waffle-weave shower curtain and I put some bleach (after conferring with my mother) in the machine as well. The only bad thing is that I read the instructions for washing the shower curtain AFTER I had put the detergent and bleach in the washing machine. It most definitely said, 'DO NOT BLEACH.' But...I think we're going to be okay. I mean...really. What could happen?

6 - I have become something of a fantasy football phenom. My team, The Controllers, is dominating (points wise) in my 12-team league at work. Albeit...I'm 2-1, but...the game I lost was close. And I think I've become known as the team to beat. I go up against the only undefeated team this coming week. She said she needed to figure something out or she's going down.

At least she realizes it.

{And is that not a clever team name? I mean...my job title as a team name?? It's clever. You should be nodding right now.}

7 - D-NOW is this weekend!! WOOT WOOT! I'm so excited. Last year, Molly and I had the 10th grade girls at my house. This year, a different group of women and I have the 11th and 12th grade girls at my house. I've been prepping the past two weeks or so and the curriculum is absolutely fantastic. I want so bad for these girls to 'get' what I didn't 'get' until the past year. To be living a life of victory over Satan. A life of authentic worship (that's the curriculum). Every day. Please pray with me for them? They are such sweet girls and some of them are already MILES ahead of where I was when I was there age, but, everyone could use prayer. :)

The end. Hope y'alls Monday was as good as mine! :)

P.S. Texted came up in the spell-check. Come on Blogger. Get with the program!

sweet sixteen.

It was a super busy weeekend!

Friday night was the football game.

Then Saturday a bunch of girls from church who I'm privileged to call my friends from a completely different generation, got together to celebrate Chelsea's Sweet 16.

She had actually turned 16 the Tuesday before that but a proper Sweet 16 celebration could not be had on a weeknight! ;) So, we celebrated by having breakfast at IHOP, going to see Despicable Me, spent some time shopping, grabbed a snack, then rode the carousel. Followed by a much-deserved Saturday afternoon nap (at least that last part was me.) :) Here are some pictures from our day.

This man was just sitting out on his swing waving at every single car that passed by. Made me wonder if he does that all the time. Am I'm not talking about one of those little 'Hey, how ya doin' waves' that we're partial to in the south. This was a full-out 'Hey, I hope you're having a great day and I want you to see me and wave back' waves.

Birthday girl!
She reminds me a lot of myself at 16.
She talks.
A. LOT.
She never meets a stranger.

But on the flip-side, she has a passion for bringing people to Christ that I did not have at that age. A while ago, I was talking to her about Ricky, a homeless guy who I helped out last winter. I hadn't seem him in months and he just popped in my head one night. I was sad because I had never outright asked him if he was saved or knew about God, church, anything. Chelsea said, "Well Bekah, that's why you should ask people about God the first time you meet them. You may not get a second chance."

That really stuck with me. I'm all for building relationships and actually getting to know a person and witnessing to them by showing them love, but sometimes, you just have to come right out and ask. She reminded me of that.

Mostly everybody got chocolate chip pancakes. YUM!

We went and saw Despicable Me and it was ADORABLE!
If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
SO. CUTE.
It has so many cute one-liners that I can't even remember them all, but a little girl, Agnes, really steals the show. :)

We took a mirror picture in the bathroom.
Mainly because I had never done it before and this was a day all about having fun and feeling free and...so...we did. :)
The quality isn't that great. But...oh well. :)

This is our silly faces mirror bathroom pic.

I just love this pic because of the stripes.

They are such teenagers. Love it.

Since we were already at the mall, we did some afternoon shopping.
Cori is such a model and was trying to decide on this hat.
She didn't buy it that day, but eventually winded up going back the next day and getting it.
Ha!

I love this pic. Minus the price tag.
Charlotte Russe had some beautiful jewelry.
I got a bracelet that I love.
And I'm not entirely sure this is legal.
Taking pictures in a store, that is. :-/

$2.99? For some cute clothes?
Yes.
Please.
And thank you. :)

Our breakfast had kind of worn off so we snacked on some pretzel from the pretzel shop.
I got a cinnamon sugar one.
Oh my goodness, it was sooooooooooo good.

The carousel at the mall.
This may be one of my favorite pictures that I've ever taken.
And I've taken a LOT of pictures.
The girls rode while Molly, Kristin and I stood and watched.
But all the pictures of them actually riding are really blurry.

Second favorite picture I've ever taken. I think. I don't know. I just love it.

All in all, it was one of the best Saturdays I've had in a really long time.
Who knew that hanging out with 6 girls that are 10 years younger than you could be so much fun? We're going to have to do it again really soon.
Birthday celebrations or not.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.
For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.
Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.
And a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

-Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

this is how i spent my friday night.

Many moons ago {in reality...it was as little as 5 years ago} I spent every Saturday in a band uniform. See Exhibit A below.

Yowsa, that's a bad picture. That's me, second from the left.

Before that, I spent 5 years of Friday nights in a band uniform. {I was in the high school band in 8th grade...I was quite good.} There are no pictures of me back then. Well...at least not handy. There are and I'd rather not go back and relive those days!

Before THAT I spent my Friday nights being a band groupie when my oldest sister, Leah, was in high school. I'd hold music for band members in the stands. I worked in the concession stand. I was quite good at making popcorn. I was all-around awesome. And I had multiple crushes (I was 9 or 10) on Leah's friends. Nothing like a teenager with bad acne that played an instrument to make a girl swoon. HA! :)

With all that being said, I love football. There's nothing like the feeling of sitting under the Friday night lights and watching boys take their teen angst out on the opposing team. However, I have not been to a high school football game in 3 years! Until Friday night.

Our youth pastor's son is the star quarterback at a local high school, one of his daughters is a cheerleader. Another younger girl from youth group was a cheerleader for the opposing team. We go to church with one of the coaches from the opposing team. So, I figured I'd go to this one. Here are some pictures of my night and boy how it made me feel young again. I absolutely love the smell of hamburgers being grilled, the sounds of the band and cheerleaders, not so much the smell of the boys (we were standing on the fences because there were NO seats available in the stands...it was a rival game and we got there 45 minutes early and still there were no seats. crazy). It is all fabulous.

a dog most definitely got on the field.

mooreville's team coming out. they were swaying and it was scary.
very intimidating.

look at this sunset!!!! is that not ridiculously gorgeous??

ridiculously gorgeous sunset, again.

mantachie was about to score a touchdown.

helmets held high when they were about to kick-off after scoring the aforementioned touchdown.

my good friend, holli. this is a great picture of us if i do say so myself.

there's not much better than being surrounded by great friends.

this random little kid was sitting next to us.
i looked down and this is the face he was making.

chelsea! she's the cheerleader for mooreville.
we were pulling for mantachie.
such a cutie.

is this not one of the most adorable children ever?!?
her name is emma, and we go to church together.
she refuses to speak to me.
one day she will.
one day.

love these girls!
kelsy and madi, who i also go to church with.
madi is the only of the youth pastor's children that wasn't on the field.
they are best friends.
such sweeties.

that's dalton.
i really like this picture.
by this point, they were getting beat pretty badly :(
but, this boy is a winner regardless of what the scoreboard says.
he's one of the few boys i've seen that has a winning attitude despite losing.
he's a leader of that team and i'm so proud of him.

my good friend, lilly.
we took like 6 or 7 pictures and this was the best one. :S

this is lilly and her fiance, les.
they both went to mantachie and are getting married in less than 2 months!
they're such a funny couple.

holli and her husband, brandon.
he went to mantachie.
holli went to fulton with me and we played softball together.
we weren't that great of friends back then but now we're tight.
like...something that's tight. :)

molly and matt.
they're my neighbors.
and molly and lilly are sisters.
i've known matt since junior high and molly for the past 5 or 6 years probably.
they're the sweetest couple i have ever known.
you think i'm exaggerating, but i'm not.
i don't remember if i've mentioned their housewarming last weekend, but molly has an interior design degree and she did a fabulous job designing the interiors. ha.
it looks like a pottery barn catalog except better.
awesomeness.

i have no idea who #15 is, but #21 is trent.
that boy has an awesome testimony about what God has delivered him from.
and he's only 15!
i don't remember if this is right before or right after he scored one of the last touchdowns for mantachie.
it was a special touchdown because they had just buried his grandmother that afternoon.
he wanted to score a touchdown for her and he did.
so so so sad.
that family has been such a light for Christ during this tough time.
they're one of the best families i know.
no joke.

game over.
mooreville won.
chelsea was picking up trash.

overall, it was one of the best friday nights i've had in the past 8 years.
i'm definitely looking forward to making it to some more games this season.

one year olds, anniversaries and packing...

Well, I'm a week and a day late, but last Monday was Mr. Levi Hall's 1st Birthday!! I was so sad that I had to miss his ball-themed birthday party (I was in Mississippi for my unexpected interviews), but I DID get to see him on his actual birthday :) We celebrated with some ice cream and ball-pit playing.

Levi in his cool 'Wonder Pets' ball pit!!

The birthday boy and me! (with chocolate ice cream on his chin) :)

I'm sure going to miss this special family once I move back to Mississippi. They know how to have fun! Plus, they're the first people that I met in Dallas that were genuinely just full of niceness (is that a word?) and God's love. Inviting me over to their 'supper club' after having known me for less than 5 hours. Speaking of which...Wednesday, September 23rd is 'our' 2 year anniversary! Two years ago on that date, I walked into Lake Highlands Baptist Church and met them! And we've been together ever since! :) The Halls, albeit, only a little bit ahead of me in years, have become my 'parents', siblings, best friends, etc. while being in Dallas. I go to them with questions about what to do (they've seen a lot in their life), just to hang out, or whatever. So...happy anniversary to us!!

Christy was eating ice cream and made a funny face, so I had her re-enact it. But...it didn't really work out :)

I've been packing up for the past week and I'm ALMOST there. The main thing left is the bedroom, which means, clothes. Can I just say that I do not like folding or hanging up clothes? I'll wash clothes, fold towels, whatever, but t-shirts and jeans and shorts and that sort of stuff? I hate it. I thought the kitchen packing was bad...I may have been kidding myself. I guess we'll see if the bedroom is worse. I've also discovered that you have to have good tunes to have playing while you're packing. My fave albums that have been on repeat are Switchfoot's 'Oh! Gravity.', Coldplay's 'Viva la Vida', Carrie Underwood's 'Carnival Ride', Nichole Nordeman's 'Woven and Spun', and the 'Across the Universe' Soundtrack.

Wow, that doesn't really look like a lot...but it is. What a pain!

Wish me luck with the rest of packing! The moving of stuff happens Thursday!