Day TWO-All Fired Up Pottery Painting

   As part of our fabulous week of endings..we decided to finally use the gift certificates that Lib gave us for Christmas and go paint pottery together. All Fired Up is a pottery painting place that has tons of plates, cups, bowls, figurines, frames, vases, etc. that you can pick out to paint. Once you've picked out what you want to paint you go over to the paint station and pick your colors. There are SO many colors so sometimes it can take forever to pick out what you want. I went with specked red and black because i wanted to do a tree on my plate. It's a really neat atmosphere where you just sit and paint and listen to music. Even if you aren't that creative there is something wonderful about being able to just paint and enjoy quiet time listening to music. One of the great things about being such close friends is that we dont always have to entertain each other as much as it really is just nice to be in each others company.
 It always takes a good amount of time painting the pottery because you want to wait for each coat to dry. Periodically one of us will stop and ask what the others think we should do next, paint next, which color to choose, etc. By the end we actually ending up spending a good part of the day there. The worst part is you have to wait like 2 weeks before you can get it because they have to put it in the kiln and then it gets a great glossy look. oh, and your colors totally change, which is very exciting. Overall a successful and very fun day. i cant wait to see how it turns out! Enjoy the photos below!

until tomorrow.
Leslie

      

DAY ONE-Falwell Farm Senior Picnic

As promised i am beginning my blog documenting the entire last week of my college life with my roommates. Today one of the biggest events of the year happens. For seniors, and seniors only, Jerry Jr. and Becky Falwell (our chancelor and his wife for those of you who do not know) have all seniors over at their farm. Now, let me first start by saying that this is not some po-dunk farm...in fact, this was the most beautiful place ever.
We made sure to get their extra early because the first 500 seniors got free, yes FREE t-shirts (which by the way were fabulous and we were soo excited). We signed up to do horseback riding. This was surely eventful because thus far i had gone through my life never riding a horse (mainly because i think they are stinky animals that are hard to control) which really, they are stinky animals and "whisky" my horse desired to eat grass and disobey every command i gave him (maybe he sensed i thought he was stinky and dumb). To be honest, i think i can go the rest of my life never riding a horse again. but hey, it was def something cool to do.

   

Then we ate free food and got a picture with the man. the man is jerry jr. and so that was really cool.

Becky told us before we leave we should def go check out the house, which i mean Lindsay and i are all about checking out homes so we jumped right on that. all i have to say is wow. HGTV has nothing on this massive and amazingly beautiful house. One of the rooms had these HUGE, i mean HUGE beanbag like chairs, that literally i want more than anything else in my house. below is a picture of this

What a great way to cap off the beginning of the end...more tomorrow..

-Leslie

this week.

The most surreal week of my life is about to begin. I graduate college in exactly a week from today. May 15th. i have been staying up late, my mind swirling with thoughts about the ending of my college career coming near. Moving out with my four best friends who i have lived with since freshman year..is well, sad. No one can understand the depth of the friendship i share with these girls. For 3 of those years i have shared a bed next to Lindsay. In one week we move across the country..possibly the world from each other. A new phase i am both excited and nervous about. I am so thankful for the sweetness of these last moments together. i am fully prepared for a week of hugs, tears, and the butterflies i get in the pit of my stomach when something new and unknown is about to happen. They way i felt four years ago when i walked on the hall of 33-3 and had no idea the Lord was about to bless with me not one lifelong friend..but 4. As a tribute to this week i am going to blog every, yes every, day. enjoy what my words will not adequately describe....

(top to bottom: freshman, sophomore, junior, senior)

        

“Much of the vitality in a friendship lies in the honoring of differences, not simply in the enjoyment of similarities.”

Fence Riders

"i know it dont make sense for those who ride the fence, but i'm sold out to Christ. You call it loosening up, LOOSENING it up, i call it Spiralin' down...."

I often wonder what it takes for people to come to a point where they completely deny everything they once believed in. This week i read an article about an artist whose music i loved who has just came out as a active homosexual. I literally grieved over this article. There was not even a hint of conviction or remorse for their lifestyle..in fact, they denied that scripture even addresses this issue as wrong. REALLY?! I mean, i can understand this for someone who doesn't believe in God, or see the bible as truth..but this is a professing Christian whose old music was extremely scriptural. I was so grieved that they had taken the lies of the enemy and given up their position to be a light in to a literally dying world.  Now, i want to be careful not to point a finger and "stone" this artist to death. Sin is epidemic, and we all struggle with things. I am not even trying to place her particular sin as worse..my point is..When have we become so deceived by the enemy, that absolutely truth, black and white, right and clearly wrong, have become areas that are subjective to our personal interpretations.
        If the word of God is not ALL true, than NONE of it is true. 


And hey, it's not just this artist..one of my long time favorite artist has thrown their gospel message completely out the window to promote their own political venues. I went to 3 concerts of this musician and by the 3rd concert i stopped listening to their music. Why? Because somewhere along the way they forgot that Christ had literally given them a platform for the gospel..and yet, it was less and less important  in light of their popularity, clever views, and shock value. And wouldn't you know..these two are touring together. misery loves company huh?

All week i have kept thinking about the Jimmy Needham song, fence Riders. (quote above). i love the song, because now, in our society..Telling someone that living a homosexual lifestyle is wrong, for that matter SIN is wrong, and denying his will for ours is wrong, well all that means is you haven't evolved into our society. Praise God he continues to work in our lives and through the work of the Holy Spirit we find conviction to change the wrong in our life. Because Christ loves us in light of our sinful lives..we are called to do the same. And thank God that he loves us even when we deny his truth.

So like Jimmy: you call it loosening up,

I CALL IT spiraling down..

1 John 1:6
  "If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth."

hidden place.

"I cannot see with HUMAN eyes
       The SECRET plans you have devised
 My heart is full as i contemplate
         The frailty and the fullness
Oh i MARVEL at your goodness -- to me.

But for now i REST in this in between
  In the heavy clouds of this WAITING
Knowing you are as close as the clothes i wear
   These hours, my soul will SAVOR
You surround me as i waver

WHO AM I TO HAVE KNOWN SUCH FAVOR?

it's a gettin' closer...

"Oh every day it's 'a getting closer
Going faster than a roller coaster. "
                       (James Taylor)

On my way back to school today, windows rolled down, my hair going crazy in the wind, pollen in my face (well, so it wasn't exactly picturesque..but hey, it's real life) i had a little James Taylor playing in the background and an old song of his was playing (another day). i was singing along thinking about the fabulous weekend with Daniel and realizing how every day we are closer to marriage. This weekend we celebrated his birthday and after sufficiently stuffing our faces with chocolate cake we talked about marriage and being excited to graduate and get married..all in the same year. Even though there is like tons to be done..there is this excitement about being able to come home to each other. To start something new, together. I wonder sometimes, if married life will be anything like we imagine. In ten years will we laugh at how differently things were from what we thought? Will we smile at how accurate we were? There is so much expectation and even more questions..and yet, there are days the excitement seems like it couldn't possibly grow any more.

Right around the corner from something big...

ice lollies, homeless people, and friendships.

Well needless to say it has literally been forever since i have posted a blog. I think i have gone to start a new post like 20 times then stopped myself because i somehow convinced myself i didnt have anything quite worthy enough to blog about. how silly is that? It's not like drowns of people are reading this thing anyway,lol. Alot has been going on around here. things have been so busy. I started my spring break off with a 6 hour drive with Jas to Ridgecrest, NC to work Fuge winter camp for the weekend. This meant that we were going to be leaving at 4 in the morning..a time i was largely unaware existed. We got caught in the most wicked fog i have ever seen (detailed below in this special picture) and after finally pulling in somewhere and exclaiming we had finally gotten lost..Jas turned his headlights on to the Ridgecrest welcome sign. Thank you Jesus. it was an awesome weekend investing in students and seeing lives changed. It really is what i live for.

( The extreme fog) 

                                                      (our winter camp team)

My spring break consisted of wedding planning with my mom and spending time with daniel at night. Even though it was fairly uneventful, just having time without worrying about homework or school and getting to spend time with daniel was so good. It ended with a DNOW weekend with the 10-12th grade girls..excellent weekend learning about what our actions say about what we believe about Christ.

                                     (10-12 grade girls)

i also went with miranda tonight to get the first ice lolly of the year..man it was good! i love those things..

                        (Rock & Roll (grape and blueberry) ice lolly)

Mir and i had a really long conversation the other night about friendship. The conversation went somewhere along the lines of how some friendships take more work. Im talking about the kinds where you do all the pouring and they do all the taking. It led us to another subject of how we become so consumed with our own lives that sometimes we just fail to recognize what's going on in people we say we care about. I know i never want to be that kind of friend. The kind that never initiates calling or spending time together, never asks about the other person, never sees beyond themselves. This brings me to the book i just started and finished. "Same Kind of Different as Me" is one of the single greatest books i have ever read. I was so challenged by this true story that often times i couldn't read because my eyes were so blurred with tears. The basic premise of the story is about a homeless man who becomes  friends with a highly successful art dealer. The story convinced me on so many levels again, how easy it is to place a value on people and forget to really love them... like Christ. Something to chew on for a while..


John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.