To Go Further Up, and Further In

You should probably go buy the song: With Everything (Hillsong United)
Number of paintings I am currently working on: 4
Number of paintings I am working on that have birds in them: 3
Days until I come back to Houston for Christmas break: 5
Amount of excitement I have for seeing family/friends: ∞
Finals until I’m done with this quarter: 5

Okay, so, God is so good. Have I mentioned that lately? I’ve been learning to trust that he is perfect even when I don’t understand everything about him. (Which I’m learning is all the time, but it’s okay!)

Also, I’ve started watching Miyazaki movies. They are all amazing. You should probably watch Spirited Away, and Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and Porco Rosso, and Princess Mononoke, and My Neighbor Totoro. And the rest of them, too.

What Have You Been Doing Lately? Your Life Could Use Improving Greatly.

I’ve got so much on my mind right now!

Just a short update: Austin is feeling more and more like home. God is good, and, I’m learning, more in control than I give him credit for. I’m learning, if nothing else, that there is so much I don’t know and don’t fully understand about Christianity and it’s exciting and beautiful. I had a conversation with Riley today on the drive back from Houston about how there are many things that we don’t realize are such crazy gifts from God for us to enjoy (music, art, and others). That conversation had many more topics in it but it would take forever to recap.

I saw the play at Creek last night (AJ was running sound! And Callie was a lead.) And it was very funny. Glad I saw it.

I went to a small group for the Austin Stone on Thursday and it went very well. I really like almost everything about that church.

Two other people’s posts I’ve enjoyed immensely in the last week:
On Creativity and Masculinity by Adam Amberg
and
Aptin’s Feast by Sarah Clarkson (via The Rabbit Room)

Both of these posts made me want to yell “Yes! Thank you!” Adam’s because I’ve always kind of struggled with the whole america-not-viewing-art-as-masculine thing, and Sarah’s because I’ve feel very strongly about Christian community and I think her assertions at the end of her post are very correct.

What did you think about those posts? Or about this one? Or, how are you? haha.

Relocation

Hello, four people who ever read my blog!

A lot has happened since my last post, friends. For one, I’m now living in what has proven to be one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever been to. Austin, Texas has been my home now for almost three weeks and I’m definitely enjoying it. So far, I’ve just been settling in and looking for a job (I’ve applied to a bunch of Starbucks, haha), getting my apartment all set up, finishing up my online Art History class, and hanging out with some of my friends who live here also. The fall quarter for the Art Institute of Austin begins on Monday (the 4th), and I’m really excited for it!

Let’s see, I’ve also very much enjoyed The Austin Stone Community Church. And I’ve pretty much decided to make it my official church, I just need to get involved in their small groups now.

In other news, I’m going to turn 20 on Friday! No more teens! I must say, I don’t think I’ll miss being a teenager. Also, I’ll be in Houston this weekend to celebrate my birthday and my mom’s too with my family (because hers is the 7th).

Anyway, I miss you all!

Here at the End of All Things

Okay, well, The End of All Things is a tad dramatic, but that’s kind of how I’m feeling.

I have one week left of classes at the Art Institute.
I’m moving to Austin at the beginning of Fall.
I have started researching churches in Austin.
So much is changing at HNW!
I’ll have to find a new job.
All my just-graduated senior friends will not necessarily be here when I come back to visit.

I feel like I shouldn’t have to go through this all again, I just did this last summer! dag nabbit. I guess I’ll just have to keep reminding myself everything ended up being fine this year, so why wouldn’t it happen again?

Good things:
Austin is amazing for Artists/Musicians. (and anyone remotely extroverted.)
I have/will have friends in Austin already!
While I’m not happy about leaving this college ministry in Houston, (I’m enjoying it immensely!) the prospect of finding a new church is kind of exciting.
The Art Institute of Austin is further along than the one here, soo…that should be a good thing. (Plus, they have the culinary program = free food! )

As is life, I suppose: Always changing.
In the immortal words of AJ, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave.”

A Wonderful Day In All Aspects

Today, simply put, was a wonderful day from beginning to end. I decided some things I’ve been pushing away, I spent time with some of my favorite people (though not all of my favorite people! haha.)

Instead of going to the church picnic and outside service this morning (gasp!), my family went to Denny’s together for breakfast like we used to do when AJ and I were in elementary school and went to the Saturday night service at HNW. It felt like old times, which is odd to say, but it really did. Let me take a moment to just say how much I love my family. We fit together so well, and it is wonderful. Of course we aren’t perfect, but I love us. Being at Denny’s on Sunday morning reminded me of when I was still a “kid” (and of course I’m still pretty much a kid, but you know what I mean hopefully). It reminded me of when my knowledge of the world was on a local scale. My mind only really saw the Earth on the plane of my neighborhood, church, and school. It was before I thought much about anything outside my ‘sphere of influence,’ if you will. Of course there’s a time in life when that’s no longer a good thing (and I’m pretty sure I’m almost if not definitely in it now), but it was just a nice start to my day. Especially when it’s the day I decided that I’m going to be in Austin by the Art Institute of Austin’s fourth Quarter. Yep, there you have it.

Shortly after getting back from Denny’s, AJ and I left to go to the church picnic to see if anyone wanted to go with us to see the Narnia exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science in Sugarland. I convinced Mitanjeli to join us and we had a freaking blast. The HMNS in Sugarland is in the middle of this really scenic and fancy neighborhood/subdivision. It had manmade lakes and bridges and trees that perfectly leaned out over the roads and names like “Lakewind” and “Homeward Way” and other pretentious and precocious and precious names like that (and probably every other pre—-ious words, too). But anyway, the actual museum was really small, and looked like an early 1900s boarding school house, but it fit a relatively large amount of stuff. The Narnia exhibit was on the second floor and was pretty legit. They had like every costume and piece of set from both movies. I was excited. And also everything in the gift shop was like 97 cents. I was also excited about that. I bought what I thought was an appropriate magnet for my life that quotes Aslan from the second movie (psshh, movies. Books are better!) saying, “All that you know is about to change.”

Afterwards we had some extra time, so we typed Dairy Queen into AJ’s phone and took the directions deep into the heart of the aforementioned, scarily-perfect neighborhood. But it said there was a Dairy Queen halfway down one of the streets where there were only houses. It was odd. We figured it must be a franchise that doesn’t have a sign for tax-evading reasons. So we knocked on the door and headed on into the people’s house for ice cream-y goodness.

Just kidding about that last part, we had to find one that was not a house, so we drove like 20 minutes to find it. We got ice cream and it was wonderful except when the manager gave us the wrong one and when we pointed it out he stared at it like “How DARE you tell me you got the wrong pie-based blizzard when I have to put up with all these IMBECILE workers every day!!” or maybe it was more like, “Curse you meddling kids!” Idk. Anyway…

We got home after that and I went to Shindig. It was very productive I felt like. There wasn’t ministry night after so we got to talk a lot afterwards which was cool. I got to say some things I’ve been wanting to for a while and we decided finally on the Food for the Hungry thing. Which reminds me: I need to go get that made official! Also, Mrs. Weise made pancakes that were delgit, which is a word I just made up that is a combination of delicious and legit, because they were. Also, I love the Weise family. Well, I don’t really know Jeremy and Daniel all that well, but I’m sure that through the transitive property or by osmosis or transduction or D) all of the above, they are also awesome and I’d probably love them, too.

Good day. Thanks all that participated. I needed a day like this.

Lots of Music

Hello anyone who reads this! I haven’t updated in a while, and a lot has happened! So here I go…

Two weeks ago, Riley, Trey, Nathan, Molly, Katie, and I got the wonderful opportunity to play the spring weekend at James Roberts’ church! It was a ton of fun and such a blessing to be a part of. It was also kind of odd, because it wasn’t our church, so we didn’t have all of the extra responsibilities we usually have at camps, so we could just focus on the music and hanging out with all the students at the camp. It was so. much. fun! Good gravy. Anyway, there was wafflehousing. Something funny that happened was that all the guys slept in James’ living room, and Emily informed us (at 1 am when we all went to bed) that Hazel had just learned to turn on Finding Nemo on the TV and would do it at 6:30 in the morning. And it happened! And it made me laugh. The Roberts’ we awesome to us also.

Last Friday, CyCreek’s NHS held a Haiti benefit concert on the high school side of 249 and it want off almost without any flaws! I was highly impressed with all the acts and Trey, RIley and I played too, which was great. Old Knaves!