*good music does make me s m i l e.

...there really is no reason for me to be awake right now... but i cannot fall asleep tonight. i can hear rain & heard thunder earlier outside my window, which is one of my top favorite things. r a i n.

so when i can't sleep i talk to Jesus or listen to music. randomly i was listening to erin mcCarley the other day & made an iTunes genus bar playlist for one of her songs & now i am listening to it & it is a rather relaxing selection of music i love & haven't listened to in a while...

*Erin McCarley, Brooke Fraser, Eisley, Jon Foreman, Death Cab For Cutie, Imogen Heap, Ryan Adams, Sara Bareilles, Jimmy Eat World, The Afters, Mat Kearney, Damien Rice, Anberlin, The Fray, Jon McLaughlin, Matt Wertz, Until June, Dave Barnes, Augustana, John Mayer, Band of Horses, Rogue Wave, Stars, Tegan and Sara, Keane, Vega 4, Mute Math, Five for Fighting, Feist, John Mayer, Sigur Ros, Sufjan Stevens, Athlete, Lifehouse, Coldplay, Filter, Jason Mraz, David Gray, Michael Bublé, Colbie Caillat, Augustana, Josh Kelley....

*here i stand r e s o l v e d.

i so badly want to sit down & write about this past weekend at the WSM retreat. (Resolved). but i only have time to give a quick version of all that went down. God is so good & moved in so many hearts from the youngest sixth grader to the oldest volunteer that came to help out!! in the past week or so God has even done so much in me, just taking my burnt out, stressed out heart, and then putting me on that retreat, and taking my bad attitude & changing it to a heart ready to serve & a heart softened to the word of God. it was so just so refreshing & just let me throw all these things that don't even matter aside & see how amazing my God is & how much He can move in the lives of almost 400 people in just the matter of a few days. :)

*My God, My God, thank YOU for such a wonderful weekend. Not that it was about us, but that it was about YOU. Thank YOU for stirring in the hearts of everyone who heard Jason speak or heard Eric & company lead worship, thank YOU for those times. Just be with everyone who was on that retreat that what they took away from camp, they will always remember & hold YOU close to them when they need courage to do something huge for YOU. Give them courage & a willingness to do what YOU are calling them to resolve in their lives. YOU are so good to us, YOU love us so much, YOU deserve everything & more.

-amen

*real childlike magic...

mad props to my sister for this picture...i just had to steal it though. not to sound cliche, but i really do think a picture is worth more than a thousand words. i could go on for hours probably talking about this picture. it just shows so much innocence, simplicity, love, joy....

although there is a lot going on in this picture, obviously the three girls on the tire swing definitely stand out the most. i love that they are wearing their summer clothes, it looks like the blonde darling is wearing her bathing suite, they are having an amazing time at a week of camp, their hair is blowing from swinging, they are meeting new friends, they are laughing, learning, growing, they are holding on super tight, they are probably giggling, & they are totally embracing their turn on that tire swing. . . . i l o v e t h a t.

so how does a picture of the nashville skyline & the batman building have anything to do with a darling picture of some girls on a tire swing...

well, those girls in that swing, may or may not remember that experience at their week of camp in the summer of two thousand and eight, but i definitely have fond, delightful, enjoyable, wonderful, nostalgic memories of being in the nashville area with my family during a large chunk of my childhood.

i think that i have fallen in love with such a city because of all my favorite memories from growing up are related to being in the nashville area at my grandpas old house, his crazy huge backyard with a hill up one side, downtown franklin, uncles & aunts, 8-10 hour rides in the car to get there, downtown nashville, the batman building, country music, opry, driving with my uncle during his senior year of high school to pizza hut listening to brown eyed girl, rec-world for go-carting, driving around the hills to see crazy huge houses, even my grandpas new house with my younger cousins, always having deli-style sandwiches for lunch, riding scooters up & down my grandpas street...

sigh... along with all that, for a really long time i wanted to work in the music industry in nashville, because i really do love music and always thought that sort of job would be a lot of fun to have... but this last semester i definitely changed my mind and am 99.9% sure i want to be an elementary school teacher. i still want to live in nashville though.

i honestly pray often that God would send me down there eventually, and i do believe that God puts desires in our hearts & wants to bring us those desires. He knows i want to and long to live there so badly, i just have to wait on His timing, to see if that is where He takes me!

hopefully one day i can call the 615, nashvegas, or music city usa h o m e.

ps. it is raining at the moment..i l o v e the sound of rain outside. i also l o v e sitting in my grandpas covered back porch in nashville when it is raining...

*philippians 1:3-6

3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.