Graduating

Life has been crazzzyyyyy these past few months. First, I graduated in December. Yesterday, Austin graduated from high school and next Friday, Caleb will be graduating from 8th grade. I've discovered a new hobby in the midst of these graduations: I like making invitations/announcements! I've always been enthralled with photography and paper products, so I suppose that it shouldn't come as a surprise that I enjoy making invites. Here are the things that I've created for the graduates (The big blank spaces are where the party details were; however, I'd rather not have you randomly showing up any my house so I covered the info.):

(Photography by Scott Boss, Card Design by Bri)
(Photography & Card Design by Bri)

(Photography by Tricia & Scott Boss, Card Design by Bri)

It's been fun. Both making these cards and journeying through life with these boys. I've enjoyed watching our relationships strengthen as we all get older. I've enjoyed watching my brothers becoming who God has intended them to be. Turns out, they're pretty funny. I love them a ton and couldn't imagine life without them. I thank God every time I think of them and I'm so excited to see what God has in store for their lives. Congratulations to all classes of 2011!

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'" -Jeremiah 29:11

Funny The Way It Is

Any DMB fans out there? Well, there's a popular DMB song called "Funny the Way It Is." It kind of just talks about the irony of life and it makes you ponder some pretty intense concepts. For example, the song talks about how in one place a child might walk miles and miles just to get to school, while someplace else a child might be taking education for granted and dropping out. If you haven't heard it, listen to it when you get a chance.

Anyway, one of my best friends and co-workers, Mary-Anne and her husband welcomed sweet baby Malia into their family on Sunday night (congratulations you guys!!). I got to go and visit them at the hospital and as I was walking out of the hospital, I witnessed the reality of one of the lines from "Funny The Way It Is."

I had just gone into Mary-Anne's room and witnessed the most precious baby girl ever. She's a miracle and a beautiful blessing. The labor and delivery unit is on the same floor of the surgery unit and as I walked out of the labor and delivery unit, I saw the doctor in his scrubs talking to a group of family and/or friends of a patient. His face was grim and the people he was talking to began to sob. Some had fallen to the floor, while others grieved in one another's arms.

Immediately, my heart sunk. And in popped the lyrics from "Funny The Way It Is:"

Funny the way it is, if you think about it
One kid walks 10 miles to school, another's dropping out
Funny the way it is, not right or wrong
On a soldier's last breath his baby's being born

And that's kind of how life goes. One person's beautiful moment or day might be another person's horror story. All of this to say, don't take anything in life for granted. Life is so short and so unexpected. It's not our own and we need to make the most of what we have been given.

"There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God."

-Ecclesiastes 2:24

In The Light

I'm not sure if this post will make a ton of sense. It's currently 3 minutes until 1 am and I'm going off of very little sleep from the past 3 days. My roommates and I moved this weekend...and moving is a lot more work than I remember!

Here I am though, laying in bed...wide awake. Why? Well, if you know me well, then you know that I have a fear of the dark. I've been scared of the dark since I was about 4 years old. I think I watched a show with Frankenstein when was 4 and thus began the sleepless nights. I'm 21 and I can't say that a ton has changed. I hate it when I my roommates are all gone and I'm stuck at home alone. I just flat out, hate the dark.

In this new house, my room is not quite as close to all of the other bedrooms as I would like it to be, so I'm having a tough time sleeping. As I was laying here, I started to think about how I just wish it was light. All I want at this moment is to be living in the light. In the light, I feel safe and secure. And then my bumbling mind switched gears and put the "light" concept into perspective for me.

What if I treated the metaphoric "light," also known as God, the same way that I treat daylight or room lights? What if I craved to be in God as much as I crave being in literal light? I feel like my life would look a little bit different. I try my best to let my light shine for God, but if I went after God with as much gusto as I do toward lit places, then I'd be on fire for Him. Just some thoughts.

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." -Matthew 5:16

Casting Cares

This morning I woke up and I felt sad. I'm not sure why. I think part of it was that I'm feeling really anxious about moving (yes, I'm moving again. I'll still be in Fresno, but now I'll have a POOL!!), part of it is that the month of May is just crrrrrazy always and the other part is that I felt as though one of the relationships that's been really present in my life for that past year and a half is disappearing. And I just woke up feeling alone and overwhelmed.

That's the thing though. I get in these mindsets where I think, I don't need that person - I'm fine on my own. And I try to be all "Miss Independent." Or I think, I don't need people to help me move. I don't need to quit packing my schedule. I get to a point where I think I'm invincible and the way I fill voids where people or activities once were is by packing tasks into my day so that I'm too busy to notice that they're gone or that something's missing.

And then I start to get anxious and overwhelmed because I'm overdoing things. And I eventually get to a breaking point (much like I was at this morning) where I realize that this is right where God wants me. Because in my moments of extreme weakness, that's when I realize that I need God's strength. I've tried everything on my own and I can't do it anymore; and that's when my Type-A personality is willing to put it in God's hands.

As I realized my brokenness and my need for God's strength and His plan, I prayed to him the entire time that I got ready for work. The more I talked to God, the more my anxieties were quieted. It's a continual lesson for me to realize that I can't make my life's schedule - I can't try to fill it with the people that I want to, when I want to...I have to trust in God's perfect planning skills. After all, he created my Type A-ness, so surely he understands where I'm coming from. :)

If you're feeling overwhelmed or anxious, just let it go. Cast your cares on God. They might not all get fixed right away like you want them to, but at least do yourself a favor and give your worries to Him. He'll take care of it from there.

"Be still and know that I'm God!" -Psalm 46:10
"Give all your worries and care to God because He cares for you." -1 Peter 5:7

An Unfair Trade: Death for Life

Today is Easter. Most people know that there is a deeper meaning to Easter than bunny rabbits and Easter egg hunts, but not everyone lives their lives to reflect that.

Simply put, God sent his one and only Son to die on the cross many years ago, to save the world from their sins. Three days after the perfect, innocent son of God died on the cross, He was raised from the dead so that those who believed in Him could have eternal life. (John 3:16)

So what does this mean? It's not too difficult of a concept to understand, but often times it is a concept that many people have difficulty believing. Christians who believe in the death and resurrection might believe that they are saved from Hell, but they might have a difficult time believing that their sins, ALL of their sins - past, present and current - have been washed away through the death of Jesus Christ. So...

• If you have ever gossiped, lied or cheated...that has been forgiven.
• If you have ever struggled with addictions such as alcohol, drugs, pornography, etc...those addictions have been forgiven.
• Do you have a rough past that you feel as though you can never escape that old self? That past is gone. If you have accepted Christ as your Saviour, then you are a NEW life.
  
• Was your childhood filled with difficult times - were your parents abusive? Were your parents just flat out absent? Scars from that type of upbringing can be healed through Jesus if you believe in Him. You are not bound to the mistakes of your parents, you are a NEW creation through Jesus Christ's death.
• Anything that you think is impossible...has been made possible through Jesus Christ.

But you might be thinking that even though you know these things to be true, you just don't understand how someone could love you so much and how someone could forgive you for such terrible things in your past. I understand that. And if we're being honest, it's true. We are so undeserving of such a great love and life that Christ has given to us. It really is an unfair trade: death for life, but that's the beauty and greatness of our God.

This is the meaning of Easter. No matter what we've gone through or where we've been, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ - the old has gone and the new has come for anyone who believes in this great promise. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" -2 Corinthians 5:17

Believe it. Live it. Happy Easter!

Questioning God

Do you ever question God? I do. All the time. My favorite questions to ask are, "What would have happened if I had stayed in LA?" or "What was the purpose of placing him/her in my life?"

Maybe if I had stayed at Biola I wouldn't have done this or that and I wouldn't have met him or her. But if I hadn't experienced those fun football games and been able to live with those girls, then I would have missed out on some really fun memories. But if I wasn't here, then maybe I wouldn't have made that poor decision. Or maybe that person wouldn't have been able to hurt me. Why, God? I feel like I can go so many different directions with this post because I think that pain and discomfort has a lot to do with our walks as Christians, so the Bible has a lot to say about difficult situations and about questioning God and his plan, his grace, his sovereignty, his goodness, his mercy...you name it.

One day I can be in the mindset of, "Yes! God totally has a plan for me. I can rest in that plan and I have no worries. I don't need to try and work that out because I know that God will take care of it." And then the very next day I can be completely questioning everything that I thought the day before and turn around and try to take matters into my own hands. In which case, I usually start with the usual round of questions for God.

Here's what I know though, I know that God brought me back to the Central Valley 2 and a half years ago for a reason. And I know that he placed me in different houses and placed different people in my life at various times for such a time as this. And even though I fall into the trap of human nature and trying to figure things out on my own, I know that God does have a plan in every single thing that happens in my life. And I'm going to tell you right now that I'm not perfect...and I literally do trust one day and doubt the next. It's the result of sin in human nature. Thankfully, God is always good and no matter how many times we may turn away or question him, he will never let us go.

Moo.

I had the opportunity to represent the Calf Ranch today at Farmersville High School's Career Day. We brought out a trailer with two baby calves who were just a day old and one bull who was 4 months old. We discussed how to apply for jobs, as well as available jobs in agriculture today with the students. I think we had at least 3 people step in cow poop today though...oops! All in all, it was a fun morning getting to hang out with a bunch of high school students and a few cows.

So Cal, Where Art Thou?

Things I miss about SoCal:

1. Beach
2. Fashion

The beach is an obvious one. I remember the days when we would go to Huntington to do our homework. Would we actually get homework done? Not usually. We had fun though.

Fashion. Gosh, I miss how people dress in SoCal. It's hard to describe. In fact, I don't think I can describe it. I can just see it in my head and I miss it. I don't feel like I can dress like that in Fresno anymore...I almost have to dumb my clothing style down a little bit.

Case-in-point: Today I went to a place called Plato's Closet in Fresno to try and sell some of my clothes. Plato's Closet is kind of like an upper-end thrift store. I used to go to a place similar to this in Fullerton called Buffalo Exchange. I got so many clothes from there - it was awesome. Cute, brand names at sweet prices. So, I went to Plato's Closet today expecting something similar...I should've known better.

Plato's Closet was living proof that Fresno is not quite up to speed on clothing trends. (I do need to say that there are a few people who know how to dress.) And of course, Fresno's fashion can be compared more to the Kardashian sisters, while SoCal fashion is more, eh, Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen-ish. That's not giving it justice, I'm sorry. But it's the best I can do in my sleepy state of mind right now.

Moral of the story: I miss So Cal.

When Strangers Become Friends

I'm sitting here in the Fresno State library (yes, I'm a poser...I don't actually go to Fresno State. No one knows that though.) and my favorite part of the library is being able to just sit here and watch people. People fascinate me. Here there are people from literally every walk of life and it's intriguing to me how unique everyone really is. People from different cities, states and countries all in one building.

Not only do I love watching the individuals, but I love watching how they interact with each other in groups. People are brought together through classes, group projects, sports, sororities and fraternities, dorms, church, you name it. To me, that's the beauty of college: being able to witness and be a part of when strangers become friends. You can learn so much about God's creation when you interact with people outside of your typical social norm. I think that's a great thing - and you don't have to agree with the differences or change your beliefs, but I think that there's a lot of good that can come out of being exposed to the differences among people. Not conformity, but when strangers become friends it opens the door for love.

For Christians especially, I think we should take hold of all of these open doors and use these opportunities to show Christ's love. Those differences shouldn't cause us to become lukewarm Christians, but instead to live openly for Christ and let our light shine in hopes that they will know we are Christians by our love.

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." -Matthew 5:16

First Inspiration Board!

Ok, so I definitely need to keep working on my inspiration board skills, but here's my first one. :) It would be used for a fall wedding - the deep eggplant purple makes for a good fall color, but the lime gives it a vibrant feel. And you can't go wrong with caramel apples as favors!

I had a blast making it, but truth be told, this little bad boy took me a while to make. Trying to find complementary shades of color to go with the color that I originally had in mind, etc, etc. I shall keep practicing!

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him." -1 John 5:14-15

The Definition of Classy.

"Why change? Everyone has his own style. When you have found it, you should stick to it."-Audrey Hepburn

One night I was playing "Apples-to-Apples" with my family and it was my turn to judge. The card that I pulled was "classy." I said out loud, "Hmmmm....my definition of classy...if there was such a thing as an Audrey Hepburn card, that one would win hands down!" As I grabbed each of the five cards that were waiting to be judged, I realized that there was an Audrey Hepburn card laying in the pile. Apparently, my 14-year-old brother, Rob, just happened to have an Audrey Hepburn card. He won, obviously. He said, "I don't even know who that is...but you said Audrey Hepburn."

I could make an entire blog post of Audrey Hepburn quotes. She is the epitome of classiness and she's the star of some of my favorite movies (Sabrina, The Roman Holiday, Breakfast at Tiffany's). All that bumbling to say, stay classy.

Pre-Monday-Pick-Me-Up

Mondays always just seem to be...bleh. Mondays mean that there's 5 work days left before the weekend. I came across this picture on the internet and it just made me feel happy, so I figured that I would share it with you all in case you're feeling the pre-Monday blues, too!

Oh Baby!

One of my co-workers and best friends (she was formerly my admissions advisor) at Fresno Pacific is having a baby! So we had ourselves a grand old time and threw a ladybug-themed baby shower for Mary-Anne and growing Miss Malia. I wasn't sold on the ladybug theme when Mary-Anne told me about it, but it all came together and I LOVED the final product.

If you don't know this about me, then you should...I love parties and I love crafts. I love these two items so much that I'm trying to figure out a way to make a living off of event planning...but that's a work in progress. :) Anyway, I started making crafts for the party and once Mary-Anne saw my crafts, she asked if I would mind making more. Of course I didn't mind! So, I'm finally providing you with a blog filled with pictures. Below are pictures from the baby shower. Enjoy!

Chasing Passion

Let's face it...sometimes we all need something to take our mind off of other things. Whether it be boys, girls, school, stressful home life, etc. - we all need something to distract us from emptiness, brokenness, stressfulness, you name it. Lately, for me, I have needed something to take up my time. I am the type of person who always needs to be doing something and if I am not constantly busy then I tend to get lost in my thoughts (always a bad thing) and I become very anxious.

I don't have homework this semester to occupy myself so I have been trying to make a point to work out enough to exhaust myself so that I am able to fall asleep at night. On top of that, I have been doing craft projects to keep myself busy. The craft projects are fun. They're fun because art is something that I am passionate about. As long as I am always involved in something that I love, I don't feel anxious. However, if I ever stop for just a brief moment I find myself worrying about petty things, which is no good. I do not want to be that person. I'm glad that I have found my passion in planning parties, baby showers, crafts and all of that good stuff, but if I stop...I feel empty. Why? Because it will all soon fade away. I want a passion that is eternal.

Obviously, I want to be in love with my Saviour. There's a song called "One Pure and Holy Passion" and I think that it sums up what I'm trying to say. Be sure to listen to it. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la9UkseBxwU

And I know that my blogs are wordy, I'm sorry. I don't call this blog "Bri's Bumblings" for nothing. :) I'll try to put less words and more pictures in the upcoming blogs though, for those of you who aren't huge readers! Night all.

A Sense of Belonging

I'm back! I'll admit that the main reason why I've been away from Blogger for so long is two-fold. The first reason is that for the past 18 months of my life, I've been pretty much swamped with school work. However, I'm a graduated woman now! Yes, I do still have more schooling left yet, but I'm taking a semester off for right now. The second reason is that I was having the most terrible time trying to change my background on this thing. Today was a new day though, and I was determined to get it to work! And voila! I got it. :) So I'm back. That's not what I want to talk about though...

Today I had an epiphany. I mean, there's things that I've always known, but it just takes certain moments to get me to really understand them. I went to Starbucks this morning before I headed off to work and as I walked through the doors, the usual friendly face of the Barista who usually helps me when I come in, greeted me with, "Hey there, Bri!...a Cinnamon Dolce Latte for you this morning?" I responded with a smile and a "Yes please!"

Up until this moment, I wasn't sure why it always made me so happy to have the baristas at Starbucks know me by name, but this morning was different. This morning I realized that the reason why it makes me so happy is because it makes me feel important. It makes me feel like I belong. There's just something special about having someone know you by name (and an added bonus when they know your drink order!) I was able to be comforted in knowing that the sweet Barista isn't the only one who knows me by name.

That seemingly simple moment at Starbucks this morning reminded me that I have an awesome God who not only knows me by name, who not only knows my drink order at Starbucks, who not only knows that it's extremely difficult for me to get out of bed at 6:00 am in the morning, but He knows how many hairs I have on my head and He knows that more than anything in the world, I want to feel special. And thankfully, I'm loved and cherished more than I can even fathom by Him. So even though it is easy for me to forget that, it was a great reminder this morning. All thanks to a delicious cup of coffee and a sweet barista.

"You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it.

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!”

- Psalm 139:13-17