Provision

Folks, this is going to be one of the shortest blog posts ever...its simply here to remind you that our Lord PROVIDES. Its so easy to forget or overlook, but store it away in the depths of you heart so you will always know that he comes through. Whether by time, money, friends, restored relationships, or rest.

Just a lil nugget for you. :)

Peace <3

Blessing of time

I'm sure pretty much all of you know that I am a jam-packed-schedule type of girl. I like to go-go-go and rarely make time for myself. I have always felt that I thrive under pressure and can get things done on the fly.
Sometimes this leads me into situations where it seems I have too much to do and too little time. I have been able to see God working in my life in these times... some this week!
Let me lay out the homework that I have had this week....
discussion questions due Tuesday, quiz due Wednesday, 10-15 page interview paper due Friday, and 30-40 slide powerpoint due Friday.... on top of this I babysit every morning, go to class from 11:30-1 and then babysit from 1 until 5ish.
Holy smokes, right?? Well on my way across town to babysit Wednesday morning, I was praying (cause car rides are phenomenal for that) and was asking God to work through my schedule to allow everything to get done and get done well.
Well God answered my prayer less than 30 minutes later. The woman I babysit for teaches exercise classes... and no one showed up for her class that morning---so I got to leave 15 minutes after getting to my babysitting gig. This allowed me to get things printed off for class and do a 45 minute interview necessary for my paper! WOW!
I share this with you all in the hopes that it will remind you to 1) pray to God-its not our first instinct to lift up our day to day situations, but he still cares and has control over them and 2) to remember to look for the answers to our prayers-they may not be what we expect, but He does answer them, and its such a blessing to realize that.

Home

A few things about my home/hometown that may differ from yours:

• You can go to the coffee shop and have a conversation with 70% of the people who come in (case and point, I'm at the BRCC now and have seen 12 people I know so far... and only about 8 have come in that I've never seen before)
• The cashier at the coffee shop knows my name and the fact that I go to ECU... and she graduated 3 years before me
• I live in "Uptown Shelby" yet have land that takes up an entire block.
• My dad can tell me to get a basket from the barn and I have to ask which barn...and again, I live in uptown
• We have 0 Starbucks (sorry Urkos)
• I still know the majority of the seniors at Shelby High School
• And quite a good number of the underclassmen
• You know exactly where someone lives when they tell you they moved into the _____'s old house
• Some of the biggest news in town recently has been whether or not to allow alcholic beverages be served to people seated outside at uptown restaurants
• If you try to go to the grocery store and not see anyone you know, you fail
• Every elderly person I meet asks me if I am Shem and Martha Blackley's granddaugther. I am in fact....
• When giving directions it is rare to go without saying pass by so and so's house, then turn on to the road that so and so lives on.

Oh Shelby. How you make me laugh.

I love it.

Out of the mouths of babes Part 2

Last week when I was driving Mac home from school, we had some really fun interactions. He's normally very calm and not very talkative in the afternoons, but this day he was something else!
I was taking him to Toys R Us to spend some of his birthday money.. as we pulled into the parking lot, I made a smart comment about him buying something from Babys R Us instead.
He responded: I could get something from there for my girlfriend...she's a baby.
me: Mac, that's not a nice thing to say about your girlfriend!
Mac: Well she acts like one.
Me: How so
Mac: She just does. But everyone in our class says we're going to get married and have a baby. When we say we aren't and argue back, they say, 'that's right, you're going to adopt'
Me: Whooooa you don't need to think about getting married yet, you're only in 4th grade, I'M not even thinking about that and I'm in college!
Mac: I know. But if we were go get married, it would work because we're both on the same timeline
Me: What do you mean?
Mac: We're both ten.

Not sure what that last bit means.. but okay!
The following day he gets in the car and after a few minutes I ask:
Did you talk to your girlfriend today?
Mac: Yeah, I'm thinking about breaking up with her
Me: What? Why?
Mac: I don't know
Me: You don't?
Mac: Well, she is attracted to my other friend and he makes her laugh more, so I think she likes him now.

Oh 4th grade love.

Absent

This is an apology...for the past and future for my absense on blogging. Not that many of you care or rely on my posting often.. but I'll flatter myself a little and pretend like it may make a difference to half of a cell in your body.
I'll leave it simply-8 projects due by the end of the month take a toll on you. Add in weekly assignments in classes, little diddys for fun that teachers throw in, and the normal reading and studying and you have one stressed college junior.
Comprende? Neat.
Ciao

Precious Hampton

And here is another "out of the mouths of babes" episode courtesy of 4 year old Hampton.

Yesterday I load him up in his car seat, close the door, circle around the car, climb in my door, and just as I sit down he says, "Miss Baird," and if that isn't precious enough, "Do you like to move it, move it?"

HOW THE HECK DOES HE KNOW ME SO WELL? I LOVE to move it move it. Especially while watching the credits of Madagascar with my roommate and ex-suitemates. Last year we would watch and dance...and I can't lie.. we were good. We pretty much memorized the dance sequence. Because we're 7 years old and all.

Here is a youtube I like to move it from Madagascar 2. I think it will be our next hit performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a91pJDut50E

Yummy!

So I looove toast with butter and cinnamon sugar. But we have no butter in my apartment right now. (Weird..) So I made it with peanut butter instead! WOW. Its so amazing. Plus its more protein which is great since I just got a crazy workout...aka...went to my indoor soccer game but only had 4 people on the team so we had to run around like crazy kids. I was in goal second half (btw I've never played in the goal before... mainly bc I flinch when the ball is being hurled at me) but anyways... I was in goal. It was so funny. I just talked to all the players and spectators the whole time. :) It must have worked as a distraction bc they only scored once. And it was really close to the end. And I ALMOST blocked it. But I did block like 5 others. :) I can't lie.. I'm proud. Of my goalie ability and of my chef abilities.

With heartfelt prayer

So often when talking with other believers about difficulties in our lives or decisions we face, they ask us if we have prayed about it. If you are like me, you say, "Yes, of course I've prayed about it... but I haven't gotten an answer."
So often we pray to God for direction or answers or consolation... anything...but we feel our attempts are futile. Some lose hope, re-evaluate, and begin to turn to others for direction, but that is not at all what we need. In our re-evaluation, we should see that our attempts are in fact, futile...but futile in a different definition.

The first futile that I referenced is by the definition: trifling, frivolous, unimportant. The second, is every different....but also the definition of futile: ineffective, useless.

Amazing how one goes from placing the blame on God... the one who hears our prayers, to placing it on us... the one throwing the prayers out to God.
This verse from Hosea has come up multiple times this week... this week in which I have been in a lot of prayer about decisions that need to be made.
They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts. Instead, they sit on their couches and wail. Hosea 7:14-NLT
This verse let me know that in conversation with God, I need to honestly let Him into my heart in order for His will in my life to be done. Let me be done with wailing on my couch...my couch of comfort and security...and open up my heart to him, so that all my prayers will be the laying out of my soul to the creator of all.

Challenge those around you to do the same. Challenge them to be heartfelt and sincere, for OUR God knows the difference, and he doesn't put up with futile calls for help.

Lake

I thought I just heard a jet ski go by. But since I am in my apartment in Greenville, I really find that highly unlikely.

But I think that means I'm very much ready to be on my dock at my lake house.

Spring Break

So my plans still aren't set for spring break... and it begins tomorrow. Now that's what I call procrastination. Or lack of interesting things to do.

I was hoping to take part in Extreme Makeover Home Edition out in eastern NC..but apparently its too late to sign up or something... that baffles me because I feel like they need just about as many people as they could ever ask for. Oh well. If I get to help, I will.

If this falls through though, you better believe I'm not staying in Greenville for long. The mountains are calling me home. I haven't been home since Jan 4th or something like that.... so its due time. But honestly-one of the things I miss the most about home is the beauty all around me. I miss seeing elevation changes for goodness sakes!!

Flatness is not that intriguing. Show me some hillsides and valleys... let me see towering mountains in the distance...as I'm driving down the road, let me get lost in what lies ahead.

Anyone up for a hike next week?

This was taken in Haywood County, NC. So yes. I love the NC mountains. :)

Free time

I tend to make to-do lists while not listening in my classes. I always seem to have about 386 things on each list. Some little, some normal, some major. I try to refer back to it throughout my day and try to get as many things checked off during free time as possible. Unfortunately I often don't have much free time, so the things that don't happen every day don't get done for a long time. Today I was making a list in 3290 and really didn't see much time in my day to get these things done.
But amazingly everything else for the rest of my day disappeared!
-My group project meeting got moved
-Normal babysitting was canceled
-Babysitting for ECU Coach's Wives' Night Out was canceled
-I was reminded we didn't have bible study this week

Wow! So I was able to fit in some important things!
-Got ice cream with 2 girls from SCHS--one of which I just met then and there. (She came with a girl I already knew)
-Went and visited my previous campus minister, Kerri, and held her little 1 month old baby
-Chatted with the lovely Sara Jennings at her apt
-Got dinner and caught up on life with CJ
-Cleaned my room

And now I am about to do my summer staff application.
Ah, its SO nice, and SO rare for me to have free time. I need to cherish it. And I do love updating a blog. :)

Out of the mouths of babes

I love hearing the comments that come out of the mouths of kids! They can be soo funny and a wonderful source of continuous entertainment. This week I got a few good doses of laughter from the boys I babysit. Here are a few that truly made my days:

I called Jennie, an amazing woman on my YL team, to wish her a happy birthday. I ended up leaving a message on her voicemail, and in the midst of it said that I had tried to get Flo-Rida to come perform for her, but he was all booked. (She loves some Flo-Rida). After I hung up, Mac (9 years old) says, "How did you get Flo-Rida's phone number? I laughed and said that I was just joking when I said that. He said, "Oh (pause.....) Will SHE know that its a joke?"

The next day (when the dictionary incident occured--see previous entry) Mac was asking me if I could help him on his homework once we got home. This is normal since I help him most days, but the way he asked me wasn't..."Miss Baird, are you like a dicitionary?" "Umm..what do you mean like a dictionary." "You know, are you like a dictionary, do you know a lot of stuff?"

Precious precious.

Seriously Pitt County??

So maybe I was just spoiled with what I felt like was a very solid preparation for college...
Sure I will be partial to my alma mater of good old Shelby High (especially compared to nasty Crest... :0) Love you roomie) but I legitimately feel like I got a solid education through what was the Shelby City School system and later joined to become the Cleveland County School system. I always enjoyed school; and felt that it was preparing me well for later ventures in education (minus calculus and AP chem which I knew wouldn't help with anything).
But thinking back to elementary school, I really enjoyed learning and enjoyed my teachers. Now that I am babysitting a boy in 4th grade, I can't help but compare our educations at that age...and there seems to be little to compare, but A LOT to contrast. Granted its a different time and his days would focus on xbox and killing people on call of duty, when you take that out of the picture, his schooling is very much subpar. He's a bright kid when you sit and talk with him, but when he does his homework, he knows nothing. He can't read a passage and then tell me what its about. He can't think of creative sentences for his spelling words. It scares me on how little he is being challenged. I feel that if his teacher wants him to write a sentence with the word revive, she needs to take off points if he writes: My friend was revived. That doesn't show any thought or effort!! But he gets away with it. My reason for writing an entire blog post on this subject is because of what happened yesterday. He didn't know the meaning of a word, so I suggested that he looked it up in the dictionary. He got the dictionary and then came back to me 5 minutes later saying he couldn't find the word. In fact, he wasn't able to find any of his 6 spelling words in the dictionary. THE KID IS IN 4th GRADE AND HASN'T BEEN TAUGHT HOW TO USE A DICTIONARY!!! Heaven forbid! He said that he has yet to learn how to do that in school.. but later said, actually, they taught him 2 years ago, but he hasn't used one since.
Come on Pitt County. Please prepare your kids to make it through the school system without using their parents as crutches. College is going to crush them.

Katie started it.

The lovely Katie Smith has tagged me in a blog ordeal dealio thing where you post the fourth picture in your fourth album and say something about it. I have done so because she tagged me. (Which I feel very honored for because she could only choose 2 people and I know she's a popular gal.)
Sorry its not more exciting... its just my face... but its my face surrounded by LONG curly hair. This was during the year that I was growing my hair out for locks of love and I would take pictures to document the process.... not for anyone else to see... but oh well, guess that's changing now. This was taken August 31st, 2007. I straightened it this day to also see how long it was straight. I got it all chopped off in late November.
I guess I can tie this into my weekend plans... I am getting a hair cut on Saturday. Happy Valentine's Day Aaron! You get my short hair back. :)


And I tag Kristen and Blair.

Psalm 62

Psalm 62:2 Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

This was part of my devotional this morning, and I have already seen it working. Mondays are usually the most hectic days of my week... and this one was shaping up to be even more hectic with usual with a lot of last minute complications with club... but God is steadfast and always by our sides. To show me that he will not let me be shaken or thrown down like a leaning wall or tottering fence (v. 3) he has given me the day off from babysitting.. freeing up 2.5 hours, and let me out of Neuroscience 30 minutes early to get things done here.

Verse 2 is repeated in verse 6.. just to remind us and emphasize that nothing will bring us down with God as our rock.

Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. (62:8)

A day with....

ALI JO!

Today has been a crazy day. Long.. and it had an early start...let me walk you through it.

I woke up at 6:15 to take a shower and get dressed to head out the door at 6:45. You see I had to be at the Young Life office at 7am to carpool to Raleigh. Young Life had our regional leader and committee training day. I got to see SO many lovely people that I have met throughout the years in young life...and of course they are such fun people. The day was so rejuvenating and wonderful. Exactly what the doctor ordered. Fellowship coupled with lessons of our ministry is a combo you just can not go wrong with. :)

On the way home Ali Jo and I chatted a lot and per usual with her, it was so so wonderful. We had decided the previous day that we would go to the basketball game tonight, so we added in plans for cooking dinner too! We fixed up some pasta with mixed in veggies. So delish. :) We headed to the game against UCF...which we WON. Go Pirates. The game was loads of fun. Sitting with all sorts of different friends and just loving life each second. Now we will say that UCF has some poor sports on their team and they should learn to play a little less... elbow-y. Haha.

Since we got SOO hot during the game, Ali and I decided we were going to get milkshakes from cookout after the game. We brought Aaron along for that fun as well. Now I'm at home for a shake of a lambs tail before heading over to 202 with guess who.... ALI.

I love this girl and she is such a blessing to me. I love how whereever our conversation ended, we can pick back up on life no matter how long it is between our dates and hangouts. I just wanted to share how blessed my life was today being able to be with her from 6:45am to now.. with only about 2 hours without her within my reach.

Babysitter

I am going to the aquarium on Monday! :)
I just thought I would share because I'm super excited! I'm going with 3 South Central girls: Tina, Katie, and Emily, and Katie Maloney and 3 of her Ayden Grifton girls. :)

I'm pumped for some fun car times, making beautiful fish faces, and sweet times with precious ladies.

Returning

I had mixed feelings about returning to Greenville this semester. Sure I love ECU and my friends, the families I babysit for, and Young Life, but I really don't like Greenville much outside of that. Plus, I had just been on all these amazing adventures, so who would want to return to a common place where you follow the same routine every day... psh, I'd rather be snowboarding. :)

But after being gone for a month, returning to see what God has in store for me this semester is exciting in its own way. So what does he do?? Blows my mind with my first experience back in Greenville....yay for Young Life Leadership!
I got a later start on the road than I had initially planned for, so I rolled onto Allen road right at 7, when I was supposed to be at leadership... obviously, I don't have time to go home, so I head straight there, and I couldn't have been more blessed. All the smiling, excited faces that filled this house warmed my heart and made me so happy to be back. Greenville is home for now, and since it is that, I can't help but be joyful. My friends, especially those that I am in ministry with and that I live with, are the most amazing people for this part of my journey in life.
Thank you, Lord, for that sweet reminder that you've made this place specifically for me in this season of life.