"I'm Workin' On It!"

It's so hard to keep up consistently with anything. With writing in a journal, or on a blog. With practicing piano or taking pictures. With keeping in contact with friends and things of the like. With working out. And with praying to God or reading His Word. Seriously, none of these things should be difficult. It should all come so easily for me, but it doesn't. :( And that sucks.

I wish I kept a daily journal so that I could look back at it and remember everything about my life! I wish I would practice the piano more than once every couple months cuz maybe that way I would actually improve. I wish I had the drive to take pictures more often because that's supposed to be what I want to do with my life! Trying to hang out friends is also a chore because not many of my friends want to call ME to hang out, and so if I do want to keep a relationship with them, I have to do the texting/calling. I wish I would work out every day that way I could lose all the weight that I want to and keep it off. Then of course the most important thing is praying and reading. How could something so important be so easily forgotten? Honestly, it's really eating me up.

So then I ask myself, well what do I need to do to change it? Just DO all of those things! Like I said, it should be easy, but it's not. But anyway, I just wanted to share my thoughts, not like it'll really change anything but maybe someone will have some words of encouragement. I'm really not trying to be negative...but I know it's totally coming across that way. Trust me, I'm still happy and joyful, it's just these are the things I've been thinking about a lot lately and I wish I was trying harder!

Hmm,
Hillary.

Sharing My Thoughts!

The other night I was sitting at my house watching TV with Mike and my dad walks into the room and says, "What are you doing with your life?" He said it kind of as a joke but the conversation that carried on changed everything for me! My dad started asking me what I like to do, what I'm good at, what I can do for the rest of my life. I didn't really have an answer for him. So Mike asked me, "If there was a genie that could make it so you were able to be the best at one thing and you had sixty seconds to decide, what would it be?" Sixty seconds went by and I couldn't answer him! By this point I was very discouraged and didn't really want to keep talking about the subject. But Mike kept going....

Basically we kept talking for about an hour about the whole thing and finally hit a breakthrough! It took writing out a list, establishing that I have the tools to accomplish what I want to do, and understanding that it can all happen right now!

I've decided to follow my childhood dream of becoming a rock climber. I don't know why I've waited so long to attempt going for this goal, but I'm doing it and I started yesterday!!! Now I have a purpose to run, exercise, lose weight, eat better. I'm so excited and it's going to be so much fun!!! Just wanted to share :)

My Interesting Life!

Busy Busy Busy!!! That has been this last week in a nutshell!! But let's start off where I left off...

Ohh the last couple months have been so relaxing. Hanging out with Mike and my family and friends has been medicine to my soul! It has been so amazing to be able to just hang out and not have anywhere to be or anything to do! But I am totally ready for the busy part of my life now, there is always so much to do and always so much on my mind, I don't have time to think of all the things I want to think about!! Haha.

I've been reluctant to post because I haven't really been taking any pictures, so I'll just put up some fun random ones from the past couple months!

Far Out!

Today me and Mike decided we wanted to tie-dye some shirts!!! It was so much fun, but the finished product won't be ready until tomorrow. :( It's okay though because we took lots of pictures and they look so fun! I used to tie-dye shirts when I was little! And I just realized today that the name comes from "tying" it and "dying" it. HA! Hilarious. :D


This is the supplies we used for our shirts! We just bought a little kit from Michael's for about ten bucks! And I already had a plain white shirt I was going to use, Mike bought one from Michael's.

This is Mike and his giant plain shirt from Michael's! ($3.99)

And this is me and my normal cute V-Neck from Kohl's. Haha :D


Dying shirts is very messy so I made sure to borrow my mom's apron! It's so cute, isn't it?! (The shirt, not the apron!)

I love this picture of Mike and his shirt! Excited to see what it looks like after 24 hours!

1-2-3- SUMMER!!!

So this summer, much like last, has been utterly blissful and magical. Mike is one of the greatest gifts that God has given me and I am so grateful and blessed to have him be a part of my life. I couldn't have made up someone in my head that's as awesome as he has been. *Dreamy*

BUT ANYWAYS, aside from my "smitten-ness," the past couple weeks have been packed full of fun times. Swimming, beach, and working out. Plus watching old home videos, getting to know Mike's dad more (through the videos), and having fun with friends and family. It's really just been so much fun. The beach baptism was really cool, seeing people publicly declare their faith always leaves me speechless. Allie and Trevor's wedding was wonderful, Allie looked beautiful. :) Seeing them get married only makes me more anxious to tie the knot!! Seriously, I'm just so excited. Haha!I do have a couple prayer requests though. I'll make it very general, because I'm sure I'm not the only one who struggles with these kinds of things. Just pray that I (and all of our other brothers and sisters in Christ) hold true to God's Word and understand it's full meaning and follow it beyond what we THINK we're capable of. Also just that we're all around more kind and loving toward our family in Christ as well as those who don't believe and/or are our enemies.


Thank you in advance...if you're even reading this blog. Haha it's not like I get comments or messages so who knows if anyone but me reads this thing!!!

Sweet As

Okay so the last few days, the college group took an awesome trip up to Northern California to go white water rafting! It wasn't really the whole college group...it was more like the girls of the group and Mike and Ruben. Haha! It was totally fun though and everyone had a blast!! The tedious 7 hour drive up there wasn't as bad as everyone thought it would be. And once we got there, we were pleasantly surprised with beautiful scenery and not-as-rugged-as-we-thought camping facilities.


We were told that we were to stay in tents, so we all brought our sleeping bags and pillows. The tents we stayed in were humongous, they had bunk beds inside of them. A luxury we didn't take for granted. :) So we arrived Sunday night and went rafting Monday afternoon after 2 delicious meals provided by the camp. Our guide on the raft was named "Nacho", but he was a tall, lanky New Zealander with blonde dreads! His real name was Nigel but that's a whole 'nother story...:P


There are so many funny stories attached to our rafting experience! Too many to tell in one sitting on Blogger! Just know that we all came back alive and with an understanding of what adventure feels like.


We all want to again really soon, and more people should definitely come to experience what we did! Fellowship, adventure, and so much fun. It was an incredible experience and it all happened over the course of a few days.


God is doing amazing things in all of our lives, and even the life of our guide, Nacho. I can't thank God enough for all that He's done in our lives! It's truly incredible how He speaks to us through other people and His Word.

"The eyes of the Lord are in every place, watching the evil and the good."
Proverbs 15:3

Turnaround

"Come on it's time for a brand new page.
Come on it's time for a turnaround.
Open your eyes to a brighter day.
And see the corner you're turnin' on.
This time, oh, it's time for a change."

I've been loving her music lately. In fact, her blog is what made me want to make my blog! I love her style of music, and I'm so glad she has it because there aren't really any other Christian music artists like her! So within the past week I've gone to Puddingstone Lake a few times. My family and I go there often to go on bike rides, we've been doing that since I was little! But we go now every once in awhile to have some fun on the 6-mile trip around the lake! My mom actually came with us this time!! But...she didn't ride. She only sat in the car and read her book (go figure, haha). But before the ride my dad said, "Whoever comes back first gets to choose where we eat!" And I just laid back the whole ride trailin' behing everyone. But once we got toward the end, Mike took off up this dirt hill and my dad followed him. So it was just me and Sky and I didn't want to let a 14-year-old beat me! So I took off and went really fast! I got back first and I chose Warehouse Pizza. We hadn't been there in a super long time and Mike hadn't tried it before! It was awesome! And Mike said, "That was probably my favorite pizza I've ever had." WOW. :)

But anyway, I just wanted to share my experiences with that. The other two times I went to Puddingstone were also fun, not as adventuresome but fun! I went with Aubrey and Joel cuz I really wanted to take some pictures. On the bike ride that I'd been on a couple days before, the way the sun was hitting the lake and the hills looked SO beautiful! So I asked them if they'd go with me and of course they did! It was beautiful, but we were a little late so the sun was going down fast and we only got a couple good shots. (Including the one posted above!) The third time I went to Puddingstone was a double date picnic with Nick and Britney. It was also beautiful, but it was weird because there was lots of people there! And we had to pay to get in (10 bucks!) which we usually don't have to pay! Overall, three lake trips that were a success. :)