In awe of the cross...... daily.

life?

2009-07-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

graduation

orlando

baltimore - next 09

orlando

ladies retreat

new york city

titusville e-team

arkansas

orlando

nashville - immerse 09

maryland/dc - worship god 09

orlando

ormond

^that's my summer

fall = art/art/art/uf/ghfc = one month and two days

Sing with me, sing for the years...

2009-04-11T19:57:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my favoritist little girly! EllaBella turned 1 today!

Oh I can't wait for you all to see pictures (Steph should post them!) of her first bite into her cake! HAhahaha!! *cuteness overload*

Tomorrow we celebrate Resurrection Day! I am amazed, overwhelmed by God's amazing grace and mercy displayed on the Cross. Last night we had the privilege to play at Metro's Good Friday service and got to hear 7 small messages on the 7 words of Christ on the Cross. Absolutely fantastic. To me, one of the most powerful points made was when Jesse was talking about the people mocking Christ for not saving himself, and he made the point: "Christ was not unable to save himself - he was unWILLING to" Oh man! How good is our savior! How wonderful and merciful and unfathomable is his love for us! Even now as I write this I am affected... and cannot wait to celebrate our savior tomorrow!

This next week I'm adopting 2 baby rats!! Oh yes, you will see pictures of them. They're brothers, one is a blue-hooded dumbo eared, and the other is a tan standard eared. NO they are not feral. NO they are not feed rats. Rats are actually a common pet, and I'm getting mine from a breeder. I'm so excited!

So, some big news! This week I found out that I was accepted into UF!! So in the fall I shall be a gator, and the University of Florida - Department of Fine Arts - Sculpture studio shall become my new home for the next 2 years =) Also, we had a great time at our 2009 Student Art Show Gallery opening. I invited several of my friends, but then found out mom and dad invited a ton of people, so we had over 30 people from the church, haha. But it was really cool because my marionette won 1st Place, and my good friend won Best in Show. Pretty awesome.

Me and Jack the Curious =)

Happy Resurrection Day, friends!

On the Flip Side

2009-03-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

What happens a lot when we come to David's... we plan on watching a movie... we discuss/argue/go back and forth/finally decide on a movie.... then decide it's too late and we should just work on music. So here we are =) And I like what I'm hearing.

I have been sick all week... which made the last few days of finishing my portfolio/application packet pretty rough and stressful.... BUT..... yesterday morning I personally handed that packet to the people at UF. SO now I give it to the Lord (well, he's had it the whole time, but now I've done all I can). Praise the Lord it's done!! That was a ton of time... and now I can have a life again! (let's hope). I have a my portfolio online.... but if you're on flickr... please don't comment on anything (atleast until after the 30th) just because there's a chance it may reviewed.. and I don't want to have comments on it if they do. thanks =) but here's the link - www.flickr.com/photos/angelagillandportfolio/

We've been spring breakin it up this weekend. Yesterday was a FUN day with Steph and Chris and the kiddos! This involved Mr. Quicks, Liki Tiki, Outback and the Contemporary Arcade! Since we didn't get into town till about noon, this was a packet day! And then today has been way chill. Slept in, fun sisters' shopping trip =), and tonight we've been hanging out with David. Today I have been taking random naps.... Still feeling the effects of the virus and lack of sleep over this past week... blahhh. Spring Break wasn't quite a big break... but this weekend has been fun =)

I must go to bed. I can't wait to worship our Lord with the church I was born and raised in tomorrow morning. Goodnight!

"wowww, art student... us zoo kids aren't that weird.." - Jeff Finch

2009-02-23T17:02:00.000-08:00

hello!

i know, i know. you can't believe it!

well here i am.

you probably think I've been living under a rock. well, close. haha

I have been living (and almost sleeping) at school.

This past week was pretty exaughsting... school hours along with work came up to somewhere around a 75 hour work week for me. a few long 19 hour days, one over-nighter in the workshop, etc. Thank the Lord this season is almost over (for now...).

Tomorrow I'm gonna go see an advisor to look over my application to UF, before I submit it. Then all that's left is finishing up 2 pieces, and putting together the rest of the documents for my portfolio. It's been tiring, but rewarding. Deadline is the 15th... but Spring Break starts the 9th... so I'm trying to get done at the beginning of that... we shall see! I'll post some pics of my current work on here later this week or next.

The Lord was gracious to me! We had a jurying this last friday for pieces to be put in a national catalog (and further competition). It's called the League of Innovations, an organization involved with community colleges across the nation and Canada. Each school chooses five works to enter and to represent the school. So Friday, our whole full time art faculty juried and chose 5 pieces out of some 130 submitted. By God's grace, they chose one of mine! So that was kind of a big deal and really exciting. It will be a part of the catalog and part of the national/continental competition.

In other news, I need to tell you that Erin Hettick is God-given iron in my life. I feel like every time I spend time with her I am sharpened and reinvisioned. Her passion for the Lord and sweet spirit, challenging questions and remarkable encouragement has been such a blessing in my life. Alli and I got to spend Saturday morning at Starbucks with her, which is something we plan to do far more often!

I love Saturday mornings. they are the best.

Tall Tree is leading worship for an FCA event friday, should be awesome. Be praying for the hearts of these junior high students! I pray the Lord captures this generation!

I can't wait to go to Orlando next week and see my dear dear family. Steph and Chris and kiddos! I miss you guys so so much! I also miss my dear Rayna. These are who make heart aches to see.

My prayer right now is this: that I would see EVERYTHING as loss in comparison to knowing my Lord. That I would find my identity in Christ alone, not in what I do, not in who "I am", not in what others think of me, not in what i've done, but in Christ. That I would be willing to lay down everything I love if that is what the Lord desired. That I would desire Him more than anything... ANYTHING else. These are things you can pray for me, too. Because, let me tell you, I need it!

This quote has been on my heart and I pray it be true in my life...

"I'll make my boast in Jesus, the One who is my life [light]. His glory is my gladness, in HIM I'm satisfied!" (from SGM's Psalms project)

and with that I will leave you, my friends.

(I've gone crazier since you've last heard from me...)

This is gonna be abstract!

2009-01-17T09:05:00.000-08:00

HAPPY

*takes a big breath*

Christmas.eve.Merry.Christmas.Happy.New.years.eve.and.newyears!!!

So yes, I know it's been close to two months since my last post, but here I am!

Let's catch up...

Since November 26th life has looked something like this...

Final fall semester projects.

Finals week.

Christmas partaysss

Orlando for the bash!!

A week in Gville... finishing projects, working, painting sets, Christmas shopping =)

Back to Orlando to see JJ and to spend time with friendies!

Back to Gville for 24 hours to work

Back to Orlando for Christmas eve, Christmas and the day after!!

Back home to work

Mamaw and Papaw in town!

Working over double my normal shifts New years week

Hanging with all the fam while the grandparents were here!

A terribly boring New Years celebration (or lack of one)

Chelsea leaving =(

Work work work...

Photo shoots!

School started Jan 6

Ormond to be with the Urquharts (my favorites!) for the weekend!

Back to Gville Sunday

THHHEENNN working 25 hours this week and spending 40+ hours at school this week.

That made no sense probably.

But it's been busy.

Last night I got to hang out with my caregroup ladies which was AMAZING. And then stayed up way too late. I woke up about 11:30 and decided to take it easy this morning =)

The Lord is SO kind to me! He has been filling me with grace for this season. He is using small things to remind me of himself, and causing my heart to fall more in love with him. Yesterday at work we had a guy there who was promoting this seminar that was all about life coaching. He himself was a life coach and we got talking about faith. I found out he was a Hare Krishna who had been practicing the religion for 25 years. I had a GREAT conversation with him... very peaceful (He IS a life coach after all). I asked him a lot of questions and learned alot about the religion (which I'm hoping will be helpful because I have a couple friends this semester who are hare krishnas) and got to in turn explain alot of my faith. The Lord helped me communicate sensibly and humbly, especially when it came to the point where I was having to tell him that even though I don't understand all of how God works... I know that Jesus is the only way to the Father (I also had to explain to him why I believed my God was a different on from his). It was way cool. Then later that day I had a long conversation with one of my friends about Christianity and God and spirituality in general. This one was more frustrating, mostly because they are what I call a "wanna be intellectual". He would make statements about the bible with such confidence that were so ignorant and all he has done is take one religion class and kind of skimmed over the gospels and revelations. But it was a pretty good conversation, no doubt one that'll come up again (we had one last semester too)

Anyway... all this to say, the Lord is already giving me opportunities to represent Him and stand up for what I believe. Last semester I learned alot about my self in this area, and the Lord grew me so much! This semester I think I will be doing this alot...

School is a bit overwhelming but incredibly awesome! I'm gonna be working my butt off, almost non stop till college Application deadlines end of Feb/beginning of March.

I no longer can think of what to say without going on another long random spiel.

I'll try to post more often.

One picture...

pretty much a best friend of mine...

I'm out...

Giving thanks!

2008-11-29T20:02:00.000-08:00

So as tradition for, I will reflect this Thanksgiving weekend on what I am thankful for.

* First off for my amazing family! My parents who are incredible... for their wisdom and guidance in these times of decisions (and for all other times, too!). Steph and Chris for being the coolest, for letting us not only crash at their house multiple times this year, but welcome us and take time off to hangout with us (and stay up last to watch movies with us and keep their "young" rep! haha) and just being awesome. David, who is the best brother ever, who also lets us come and crash with him and for staying up late with us watching/making crazy videos or many other various things. Alli, who is my best friend and is extremely patient with me (most of the time ;))

*My Church Family! Specifically the Mayfield Caregroup, our driven group and Erin Hettick! SOme of my favorite and the most encouraging people in my life. The care for me and urge me to continue and be strong in this season of life!

*My friends. Specifically a few. They have been huge sources of encouragement this semester and year. You know who you are. =)

* My job. A total answer to prayer! For awesome coworkers and a good environment.

*SCHOOL! For my scholarship, and my awesome teachers. School is a huge part of my life, mostly because with art majors it has to be. I have been practically living at school this semester, and I think it'll be this way for the rest of my school years, so I am grateful for the way cool people I've gotten to know, and the opportunities to share the gospel through presentation and through the way I live. It's been really difficult in some areas, and really awesome in others.

* This country. It's because of our country we have a whole day to reflect and be thankful. This is a great country. And I pray the Lord will have mercy on our new president and give him grace through the next 4 years to lead us well!

* Mostly for the work of the Lord! Not only how he has saved me, but how he does not let me go! "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love... Here's my heart Lord, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above!"

My beautiful grandparents came to be with us this Thanksgiving!

Aren't they adorable?!

See Thanksgiving DAY photos here - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2087703&l=5f86c&id=201410486.

Much love.

I was tagged!

2008-11-26T11:16:00.000-08:00

I was tagged by Stephanie - and this is the picture I was told to post. This is a portrait I took during my dig photo class last semester. ha!
It’s my job to tag 5 more bloggers: Rayna [Santos], Maria [Tschannen], Jennski [Romanski], Jage [Leach] & Chrissy [Smith]!

The Rules: go to Your Pictures file go to the 5th folder open up the 5th picture and post it then tag 5 people when you are done.

Come back, let me paint your face!

2008-11-11T15:37:00.000-08:00

So drinking hot tea and reading about art sounds alot better than studying for a big art history test. I think I should do that. I think I should enjoy this more. I mean, why not, right?

I don't have long... but wanted to to make an appearance in the the blog world =P

Our church took time out on sunday to pray for our new president. Pretty cool.

a couple notable things approaching - - -

- in TEN days one of my bestest friends in the world comes to see me!! Only for a day, but that day is going to be awesome. And it shall include the opening reception/party for our Faculty Show at SFC's gallery (which I will help install)! And the Jazz Band will be there, shall be a fun night indeed. *can't wait*

- in THIRTEEN days till our marionettes are due. Still a TON work left with that. I'll have to post some pics of the progress later this week!

- in SIXTEEN days it will be Thanksgiving! AHhhh so beautiful!

Now for colorful converse and back to studying...

Since when was Robin Hood running for President?

2008-11-04T17:34:00.000-08:00

It's been funny, this election year, being one of the very few conservatives in the art department. Last night I made it known to my obama-loving teacher that I was going to try to get a McCain shirt to wear today (I ended up wearing my RDP shirt, haha). He was like "you should, you should!" and then anytime he was about to say anything bad/humorous about republicans or mccain or palin he'd be like "I'm sorry, but I saw this thing..." in a very sweet trying-to-not-make-me-feel-bad way. Then I said "I'm not really all that pro-mccain, I just hate obama" (as he [my teacher] is wearing his obama shirt) and he's like "Oh yeah, that's cool, just say that while I stand here wearing my Obama shirt, it's not like I control your grade or anything!" Haha. He's one of my favorite teachers.

God is in control. What peace that br

ings. The early church lived under Roman rule... so what if we live in socialism? (ok that's sarcastic, but you know what I mean...)

Current random life facts:

- I pretty much live at school. But I love it.

- The Lord has brought a few new godly girls to our church who I LOVE and can't wait to get to know more!

- I think I'm gonna be a fine arts major. Specifically Art Studio Studies.

- I dressed up as a twinkie at work for halloween. For pure irony.

- I got free coffee this morning!

- I seriously miss my long lost orlando family.

- I got my Photoshop CS4 for my mac! woot woot!!

- life is soooo busy. I wish it would slow down cuz it's going by too fast!

Now a couple pictures...

Erin and me! How I love her.

This is me at work, dressed as a twinkie, with my supervisor's Spartan costume sword!

We hung out as families with the Coursons on Halloween. Kayla and I went into the pitch black with a small flashlight and played around with some light and SLOW shutter speeds! this is one of the ones that turned out cool! How sweet is that?!

peas OUT

and we're counting....

2008-10-15T08:20:00.000-07:00

Happy Celebration North Eve!

And I'm really glad for my calender reminders... I totttalllly forgot I picked up a shift tomorrow morning. THAT coulda been bad. WHY would I pick up a shift tomorrow morning?? Ughhhh.

Pour Your Spirit Out, Lord

For it's YOU we're desperate for

Here me calling, calling to You....

"Please Don't Stop the Music-music-music" - - -no! please PLEASE STOP IT!!

2008-10-11T19:35:00.000-07:00

If I hear the songs "please don't stop the music", "pocket full of sunshine" or that popular one by gwen stefani, I might shoot myself. AH. It seems that not ONLY are these (and many more) obnoxious main-stream songs constantly playing at the gym, but EVERYwhere I seem to go. Except Starbucks... I walked into Starbucks to hear the Decemberists playing the other day. Oh how very happy I was.

Anyway...

So last week and the beginning of this week screamed to my face how busy this semester is. But thankfully, after few back to back over-nighters and countless hours of monotonous deatails on my projects, with the obvious grace of God, I got through my first faze of deadlines. I am done with my Fall A class - Thank the Lord! It was a lot of work... pretty much the took a 16-week course, knocked 2 projects off and squeezed it in to 6 weeks. Yeah. Funnn. No, it was actually good, just a little trying at times. BUt my other classes are awweesome. We finished building our chairs, our cube projects, and I did well on my first paper and test in art history. SO that's all good.

I would ask for prayer - this next week I am going to be talking to various knowledgeable people about my major. Over the last month I've been feeling the door close, and my heart change towards the idea of graphic design. In place of that, I have been more interested in the classic visual arts and photography. Also, I have been starting to have faith to (if I make it that far) go for my Masters Degree so that I can become a college professor. For now, I am trying to discern where the Lord is leading me, and which field to major and apply in (there are a couple I am contemplating). So, if you think about me... be praying that I will feel the Lord leading me in this decision.

In Driven (our college group) we've started going over the book "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" by Donald Whitney. Last night we discussed the chapter and topic of worship... SO GOOD! I encourage everyone to read this book, thus

far, I am being so blessed and challenged by it. And on a similar note - I am in LOVE with our Driven meetings. They are pretty much my highlight of the week when we have them.

Some bullets of other stuff going on...

- this week I helped install my first gallery (not MY, but the first one I helped with)... opening show on tuesday should be cool

- tomorrow is my and alli's birthday partay! should be awesome... special thanks to rayna for helping me decide who to be! =)

- our Kohls just opened and I just got a cute outfit there!

- celebration is FIVE days away!!!!!

- tall tree ep arrived! shirts should come at the top of the week (which I'm actually more excited about... ha)

- ELLA is 6 months old...whattt??? half a year? whattttttt???

Some little faces I miss terribly..

(This picture cracks me up because I kept asking caleb to smile, alec did, but not caleb... and so I said "caleb, you didn't smile, come on!" and alec turns to him and was like "Caaalllllleebbbb!" and then punched him... hahahaha. don't worry, it wasn't that violent, just funny)

Sweet baby girl and her favorite auntie =) =)

And here is my chair! I spent more time on this piece than any art piece in my life... (it's taller than Celeste, who it 5'3")

And now to bed....

Procrastination.

2008-09-23T17:49:00.000-07:00

So I haven't had to write a paper in a year. And I'm afraid I've forgotten how to....

Thank the Lord for Priscilla Ahn and Green SUPERFOOD Juice Smoothies!!

I haven't decided if I like Odwalla or Naked better.

Back to work...

So it's been a while...

2008-09-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I believe we are at the end of week 4 of this semester. What?!?!

Life has been non stop since August 25th (actually, before that) when I started my new job and new semester.

I tell you what, it has been insane! Great, challenging, crazy, but really good.

I LOVE most of my classes. I just love the Art Department at Santa Fe, in general. I kind of just want to stay here forever. But I can't do that. I'm taking Sculpture, 3D Design, Art History 2 and then Fall A - Illustration Methods and Fall B - Digital photography. They keep me quite busy. But for all but one class I have awesome professors. And really cool friends.

Work is great! I'm getting the hang of it all. I'm getting to know the procedures of our place really well, getting to know the people, and also getting used to waking up at 3:40 am 3 days a week. The schedule has really changed my life, for the better, I think. I am usually in bed (on work nights) before 10pm and before 11pm on non-work nights. But sometimes it's hard because I get really tired early on in the evening and that can toll of my overall enthusiasm and awareness, haha. But God has been so kind to me to help me in this whole process.

This semester I knew that it would be really important for me to get involved with a caregroup since most of my time with people would be spent at school and work (which can wear on the soul, I've discovered), plus I just have needed to for a while. I have found this to be one of the best things ever! I always dreaded the idea of another meeting during the week, but what I didn't realize how encouraging and helpful it is to get to know other people and benefit from sharing about our lives and hearing the wisdom of other people and their hearts to pursue God. I have found my new caregroup to be a lifeline for me! Namely some people I have been spending a lot of time with these last few weeks have been Erin Hettick and Ana Moon. I love these ladies soo so much. I find it SO beneficial spending time with them, plus they're just so awesome to be with.

Sunday our college/career age group (aka Driven) took a trip down the Itchatuckney River! I haven't been in about two years, so I was SO looking forward to it! We had an amazing time! We had a great time catching up with each other, laughing and having good biblical fellowship. And after that we hit up the Retro 50's Diner called Floyd's in highsprings (yes, the one by Camp K!) I absolutely love Christian being the head of our group now... he always brings our conversation to have some weight and relevance to our lives and is always drawing our group out on how we're doing spiritually and in general.

God has been revealing alot to me these past few days. Alot of my own lack of dependence on Him and areas I've been prone to sin in because I haven't been leaning on His strength. God is SO kind to reveal this to me, and to still keep me standing even when I self-righteously think I can handle things that would have weighed me into the ground without Him. I've found a new plan for spending time in the Word that I think will work and will so benefit my soul!

There is SO much more I could say... But I'll leave you with a couple of bullets of exciting things going on....

-tomorrow I will be 19 on the 19th, and to top that off, it is also National "Talk like a Pirate" Day! How appropriate for my golden birthday =)

-tomorrow I go to ORLADO! yay!!

-this weekend I get to see Steph and Chris (who have now been married for a decade!) and all the adorable little munchkins that come with them! I canNOT wait to see my baby-love and my boys! =) (yes, sometimes I feel the urge to call them my own.)

-TALL TREE EP is in production! We should be getting it back i like 2 weeks. We are so excited!

-Only 2 more weeks till my Fall A class is over!

-Tomorrow I finally have my orientation for the scholarship (delayed due to FAY). That should be good... if nothing else I just get to talk to talk to all my favorite professors, which makes me happy =)-We're less than a month away from Celebration! Woohoo!!

Alright... That's all for now... Maybe a picture =)

This was a couple of weeks ago when Ellie came home for laborday weekend. We had some time with her and hit up Hagen-Dazs and Barnies! =) I miss her =(

Oooo See pictures from the River here - http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2081310&l=6cdaf&id=201410486

Hallelujah, All I have is Christ!!

2008-08-30T07:33:00.000-07:00

Isn't it amazing how faithful God is?

And how ridiculous my tendency to lose focus and faith is?

Ah, the Lord is teaching me alot about this sin in my heart.

I prayed and prayed and prayed for things, and after a long period of waiting for them and learning to trust God, he supplies all I need! YET in the middle of God faithfully providing for me, I oh so quickly turn my eyes off of God and on to me and my situations. Yes I say "Praise the Lord, He is faithful" but I realized that in my heart I started getting stressed out, mostly because somehow, somewhere in my heart I said "now I can take it from here". And from there I SOMEHOW begin to think about how great I am and that I was able to do all of these things and that I really don't need to make God number one in this season. Isn't this sick?

And yet, again, the Lord is SO faithful to remind me how weak I am. To remind me that HE is the ONLY reason I am where I am, and HE is the ONLY WAY I am going to make it through this next season. He reminded me of His unchanging grace, and how He will be there to guide me. And also how I need to rely on Him, and Him Alone and He will give me strength.

Wow. What a wake up call.

I am so amazed by God's gifts. But I am so ENTHRALLED with the giver of these gifts!

God is teaching me that He wants to be my all-in-all. And when I react to closed doors with "Hallelujah, ALLL I have is Christ" the Lord never ceases to provide.

Praise the Lord!

Thank you Lord for your amazing gifts and for answering my prayers! But Lord thank you even more for how you gently take my eyes off of myself and fix them back on you. Thank you for using people and situations and your very WORD to draw my heart back to you, time and time again. I want you to be ALL I'm living for! Oh Jesus, please be my all...

Waling it up...

2008-08-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Praying for you, JJ!

Love you, and miss you!

Job Update!

2008-08-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

So I want to thank all of you who have been praying for my job situation...

God has provided me with a great job!

I finished all the training today! I have it officially!! (after 20 hours of training)

I am now a receptionist at Gainesville Health and Fitness Center (aka, our really nice gym).

I start monday, and I am going to have to change my sleeping schedule dramatically. However - I am thrilled! Here's to the last couple of days of summer!

That's all for now.

But here are a couple of faces I miss terribly!

Welcome to the crazies!

2008-08-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

So, I have so many pics I would LIKE to post.

I have no energy right now.

Here's what my life has been looking like for the past couple of weeks....

grandparents/family in town, excessive job training (not that I'm complaining... at all), recording (which requires a lot of time in orlando), band stuff in

general, doctor visits, pancake fundraiser, helping my best friend pack for college/throwing a going-away-party for my best friend/saying a sad goodbye to her last night, finishing up summer projects.

Here's what the next couple of weeks look like....

More job training, finishing re-writes for the album, finishing all school prep, scholarship program orientation, missing Sam Storms for another weekend of recording, starting new job (Lord willing) with a CRAZY early shift (which will require dramatic lifestyle change), school starting........ and so forth.

but it's AWESOME.

I am loving life, even if it is insane right now.

Just got to hang out with one of my best friends - Mallory! She is amazing.

And I get to do one of my favorite things this afternoon - PHOTO SHOOT! For the Water's family (some of my favorites)!

Now I know you're just dying for some photos... (haha) ;-)

Here are a few.... (recording at full sail)

Lack lack lack

2008-08-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

I apologize for not meeting my promises to post more pics sooner.

I do have pics. But time to post them I have not had.
BUT here is an album from when the boys were here!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2076758&l=5fe9e&id=201410486

These past few weeks have been insane. We spent a week in orlando and ormond... which was AMAZING! I will post pics soon hopefully. We spent a few days with Stephanie which was a blast! And then we drove over to Ormond and spent a few days with Rayna and her family (!!!). David and Abbott came to the beach while we were there! What fun! And then we went BACK to Orlando again! THis week was definitely a highlight of the summer! (if only I had gotten a picture my octupus' garden plate, steph!, haha)

When we got back we got straight involved with the petition drive our church was involved in. (long long story into a sentence - the city went too far and passed a very bad law and so we reacted in getting petitions signed to bring it to a vote). THe Lord was SO faithful to us. Oh my goodness, the stories I could tell you! While we were protesting, there were other protesters that came protesting against us; calling us liars and many other names. One very angry, very emotional lesbian lady told me she would kill me if I took another picture of her. haha, fun times, eh?

Other fun things: ladies game night and scrapbooking day! tennis, our night and all day Saturday with my dear friend Ellie (who is about to move to go to South Eastern :-( ) and many other things. And now Mamaw and Papaw are coming tomorrow! And Steph and the kids later this week! Amazing!!

And for some very exciting news - - - I am now and art scholarship student! The scholarship I wrote about months ago, the one I thought the door had completely closed on... I got a call from SFC saying I was an alternative for the scholarship... and somebody didn't take it! So I am now under the scholarship program! I am going to be a lot busier this fall as a result of it, but still! God is so good!

All the while God is moving and doing cool things in us! How I love our savior!!

Here's a picture for you.

Now I must go and clean.

the fun continues...

2008-07-09T20:37:00.000-07:00

Well, we have been having a blast!
On Monday morning we met up with some of our friends to go swimming in Haile.
We had a chicken fight, and I had Alec on my shoulders... Let's say I probably recieved the most damage in the game (what with him constany smacking and pulling on my face...haha). We've played Mario Kart, and the Legend of Zelda (old school!!).
Tuesday Alli got sick... so we mostly hung low most of the day (and I got my hair cut!) But this morning I took the boys to see "The Pirates Who Don't DO Anything" at our theatre (which is doing free kids movies in the mornings this summer). That place was packed out! The boys seemed to like the movie!

We've been having fun. Every night we either read.. or I make up a story for their bedtime story. Tonight's featured King Jaleb and Sir Prince Michael as they joined together with the other kings of the West (King Phillip, and others) along with their own friends... Sir Tolin, Sir Shacob and Sir Koshua (see anything familiar?? ;-) in their battle against the evil dark dragons and the menacing eastern Island giants otherwise known as the Shebels! It was a story of epic proportions, with a suprise ending in an aliance with the Western dragons. But I don't want to give it all away! ;-)

Tomorrow we're heading over to a friends to go swimming and then we'll probably hit up the Museum of Natural History, and depending on how it goes, West Side park. It will be a busy day!
I haven't gotten many pictures, but I will tomorrow! Here are a couple:

Chilling by the pool on monday

Me and Stacie!

The boys helping me make some Rice Crispy Treats!

The Park

2008-07-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

Well the boys are here for the week and boy are we having fun!

I'll post more about the weekend later. But I wanted to post a few pics from today!
This afternoon we went the the park (yes, our very favorite kanapaha)
It was hot, but we had a blast! Stevo joined us.
Then we all went to McDonalds... then home to get cleaned up, have some N64 Mario Kart races... A theatrical bedtime story (narrated by myself, acted out by alli and stephen), which - might I add, the boys LOVED.

After they went down a few people came over and we played CatchPhrase and had a great time fellowshipping (Stacie Hubert is in town!)

Many more adventures lay adead of us this week. Until then - here are some pictures.
(yes, I am normally not a fan of slide shows for myself, but for the sake of time...)

Cheer Me Up Thank You

2008-06-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

I will post for real sooon, I promise!
But in the mean time - check out this amazing song/video/artist!
This really inspires me to get going on my stop action movie!

Scrapbooking Rookie!

2008-06-09T08:12:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be surprised to learn that I, the daughter and sister of two scrapbooking queens, have never scrapbooked before (well, that's not entirely true - my SWEET ABC book I did in middle school!). My friend Ellie is also a scrapbookER and has been trying to get me started for a while, and finally last night I got to put my cool Christmas gifts to use! SO yesterday afternoon/evening/night we had an extremely hilarious/fun/productive night!

Ellie and I were scrapbooking, while Alli, Stephen and Karyn hung out with us in the living room. (this evening included a Michael's/Starbucks run, and a very intense game of "Mister Bolliball")

I decided to start with New Attitude (tho I'll probably work backwards some) since it is fresh and I was inspired. So, it ended up being alot more fun and relaxing than I expected. I've actually hand crafted art books before, which is fun but takes a lot of work, this was all together a different experience, I found out.

So here are a few pictures from last night (all taken by Alli!)

Ellie and me going to town

(it took her forever before she had enough inspiration to get going)

I LOVE this. Great job, allibert!

My *first* ever real page!

Stephen joined in on the fun while Ellie was on the phone, and started

cutting off the heads of people in her pictures (haha, just kidding!)

I can't wait to scrapbook with you, Stephanie!

Now For His Love I Bare HIS Name

2008-06-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

The past several weeks have been crazy/amazing.

God has been doing really cool things in me since New Attitude. I really came home with a new attitude - especially in regards for love of God's scripture. I STRONGLY encourage EVERYONE to download the messages (they're free @ newattitude.org) and listen to them! If you only have time for a couple to start with - I would suggest Josh Harris' and both of CJ's to start out with. My love for Jesus has grown so much, I praise him for it!

This last weekend, Todd Twining came to our church. Wow, what a fruitful time. How our church has already benefitted so greatly from his time here. In fact - a man in our church was healed miraculously! How good of God! And Todd had some pretty encouraging words for me. I am excited yet trembling with the fear of God for what he has for my life.

Vacation was wonderful and relaxing. I just love my family, and my ormond friends, so so so much. I miss this -

See all my pics here - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2072408&l=640ab&id=201410486

On the way to KY - playing around with slow shutter speeds and cellphone lights-

To see all pics - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2072103&l=1ecb2&id=201410486

Enjoy the pics.

With Your Shirt Tucked in and Your Shoes Untied

2008-05-15T07:14:00.000-07:00

I do apologize for the lack of posts in the last few weeks. I'm afraid that life has not slowed down too much, but I kinda like it that way.

Since school's been out, it has been nice to not have deadlines and go to class. but I was sad for like a week, because I do miss it. But, ahh! Summer!

Last week was quite eventful. Starting with my mom throwing her back out really badm alli waking up sick, me cleaning and taking care of sick and crippled people (that's a joke :-P ), the sutters coming! and then all the family coming!!
What a crazy/fun week.

We had a great time with the sutters. One day, the girls and I went to the Harn Museum! (my FAV - it's UF's art musuem) We ran some errands, and then the four of us went to Kanapaha Park (another favorite), had a picnic, played music, frisbee, swang, etc. What fun! On Satuday all our family came in and with the sutters we all went to ANOTHER favorite! Conastogas! On Sunday I took a bunch of pics of Ella and Steph :-) It was so fun! Ella is the sweetest little baby! I just love her so much.

This week I have two graduations to go to, two gift projects to finish, we leave on saturday for VACATION! woot woot! And then RIGHT after that we drive up to Louisville for NEW ATTITUDE! it's gonna be an insane next couple of weeks!

Here are some pics. (no, I'm sorry, i do not believe in doing a slide stuff :-/)

Mrs. Sutter wanted a few pics of us girls, which, of course, turned into a mini photo shoot :-)

At the park, during our picnic!

Yes, I swang and *tried* to play banjo at the same time :-)

On our way to lunch... aw, we miss you all!

An out-of-focus picture :-D

Kisses for Ella Bella :-)

Now for the pics we took of Ella!

What a beautiful baby girl.

That's all folks, for now anyway :-D

I feel it all, I feel it all...

2008-04-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

Three finals down - one to go!

Well, of those finals, only one was a test, which is nice. But I will be up for a long time and up really early to finish my projects due tomorrow :-P

But while I'm taking a quick break, I figured I'd put up this video from sunday.

Yesterday was one of my best friend's 18th birthday! We had a not-so-surprise party for him, and during the party sang the song we wrote him in order to become his friends (originally performed at MY 18th birthday party in september - that's when we "officially" became friends - long story, haha.) But basically - this is the song that won our friendship with the one and only Stephen White! And here we go....

Happy Birthday, Stevo!

"It won't be long (yeah), yeah (yeah), yeah (yeah)..."

2008-04-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

...Till Summer!

In one week to be exact.

I turned in my portfolio for one class today, so that leaves three more finals/projects due.

Please keep me in your prayers, Friday I am going to be interviewed and have my portfolio reviewed for a possible SFCC Art Scholarship that would really help me out!

This past weekend was quite eventful! Involving a concert, two photoshoots, a night on the town (well, downtown alachua =) and a going away party for our dear friend, Jenn =(

All the while - Ariel was here visiting us! What a joyous weekend!

Here are a few pics, and then I'm off to bed! Just a bit exaughsted... (but what else could you expect from final weeks?)

Friday night was an outdoor concert at the Reitz. Our reason for being there - Band Marino! But my friend's band ("Oh Fortuna") and another band ("White Rabbit") played. Very fun night!

Saturday night I took photos for Alli, Celeste and Karyn and their dates :-) They make Prom look good. Here is one of many -

And then on Sunday I did a shoot AGCC's very own Class of 2008. This was so fun! Thanks to Ariel for her mad reflecting skills! It's hard to pic a favorite, but here's a couple -

I'll be getting the rest of these pics up on facebook and/or Flickr soon. I'll post the links when that happens!

Do Not Be Anxious

2008-04-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

It's that time of the semester; projects are due, finals are coming fast, all-nighters are typical for most college students (atleast the ones I know). Being worried is something that is easily fallen into. [aka "stress"]

The last couple of weeks in our church we've been looking at "What is Prayer?" and we have further talked about it in our college group. We talked about different ways we are prone to get anxious and worried. Some specifics for me right now are these:

Will I be able to get everything done by next week?
Will I be able to get a a new job soon?
And the biggest one: What if I don't get transferred to UF?!

These things are on my mind frequently right now. Specifically that last one. I have started feeling really anxious about getting accepted into UF, especially after all that I'm doing to prepare (Fall 09 is my hope). I was convicted about how much I analyze the statistics "Only EIGHTTEEN people get accepted in a given term" rather than considering "My God is so much bigger than that". I'm having to challenge myself to see if I'm becoming too dependent on my own strength rather than submit my thoughts in prayer to the Lord. Is this even the path that God has for me?

But I also had become numb to the fact that the Bible clearly tells us NOT to worry about ANYTHING.

Phil. 4 - 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

And several times Jesus talks about anxiousness, for instance in Luke 12 -

22 And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24 Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!"

He goes on to say in verse 31 - Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

What a promise we have in the Word of God! He not only loves us and will take care of us, but he has opened up for us the honor of bringing our every thought to Him in prayer!

As Mr. Courson said, we can go from anxious and worried to peace of God through our prayer to Him!

A question to ask ourselves:
- Do I believe that at any moment, God can change my situation?
With one command He calmed a raging storm. Why do we limit God in our minds?
By being anxious about something, we are functionally not trusting in God and his sovereignty over our lives. Wow!

So, my prayer is that I will be able to humble myself before the Lord daily, submitting my worries to Him -the Creator of all - and stop relying on this self-sufficiency to stumble through my day.

And how kind of God!

"And now your hands, your tiny pink hands"

2008-04-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

ella grace jessee

I have the cutest niece in the world.

And you could probably say that I'm the happiest auntie in the world...

[cuz I've got the best nephews and niece]

And just for kicks and giggles: I introduce the mask pictures.

see jesseefamily.wordpress.com
or go HERE for more pics

Please don't shake my nest!

2008-04-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

(this is a nest some little bird built on our front door wreath!)

It seems like sometimes I think that life's suppose to be comfortable.

But who ever promised that?

Jesus didn't. Paul didn't. Infact they ensure that it won't.

Learning to being used to being uncomfortable (as oxi-moronish as it sounds) is what I'm trying to do. (wow, that's a lot of "being"s!)

For the past month and a half we've been studying apologetics in our college group with the church. It has turned out to be on of the most beneficial tools in helping me be bold in evangelism. We've been looking at the book "Questioning Evangelism" and how using questions really help our sharing. Boy is it true!

A couple weeks ago I was talking to my brother about our calling in the faith. We were talking about how we are to take up our cross everyday. And my brother said something that really challenged me; he said that he regurlarly has to ask himself, "Am I ashamed of the gospel?"

Am I ashamed of the gospel? "No way! Of course not! I would DIE for the gospel!" is my first response. But as I started to evaluate my heart and my actions the question became way more serious. AM I ashamed of the Gospel? Am I afraid to look like a fool to my professor and classmates? What if they laugh at me and write me off, closing any future conversations? God knows my heart, he knows I love Him; but am I being disobedient in His commandment of going and making disciples?

These were/are serious questions I had to ask myself. If I answer "yes" to those questions, than I'm not living as I ought. David was talking about how we HAVE to be ready to DIE for the gospel! For people in other countries, this is quite possible. In the US, probably our biggest threat is being mocked (rejected, humiliated, you get it) which is really NOTHING. Compared to being burned at a stake, or being thrown into jail - just for believing in Christ! We really have nothing to lose.

So these past few weeks I've had to keep this in my mind, as a priority. I want to share the gospel, but I haven't been bold enough to bring it up out of everyday context. So, in our college group, Christian Heddick prepared a list of questions to help us bring up the topic, and a list of likely challenging questions to be prepared for. SO helpful!

By God's grace, I've been able to die to myself and my pride and start finding ways to bring up the gospel while talking to my classmates. It's been pretty amazing, and God has not at all abandoned me through the process! In one instance, I had the opportunity to share the gospel with a few of my classmates, as well as having most of the class listening in. Last week I got into a few conversations with classmates and one of my professors. At times it was really difficult and I was in over my head (with my professor). Even still, as inept as I am - GOD is FAR Greater! And all I'm doing is planing a seed. It seems like the more we step out, the more natural it feels.

I guess when I realize that I was a sheep - headed for a slaughter - and the amazing shepherd came and saved me from this slaughter, I want to go tell the other sheep about this shepherd who can save them, too! I asked my atheist friend "So, if you don't believe in God, do you ever feel any peace?" and his answer was surprisingly honest - "Very, very rarely. I'm practically a nervous wreck!" How sad is that! It changes everything, when we get our eyes off of ourselves, and our image and then focus on our savior and the lost. Wow.

I write these things not to build myself up, or to share how great I am (not that you could really get that impression from this blog), but meerly to share what God is doing in me! It is so exciting to me, and I hope it is encouraging to anyone else who also has had trouble being bold. If anyone wants those lists of questions - just comment and I'll post them.

Oh Jesus! I pray I can live my life in abandoment to you. I pray that I will be able to effectively share your saving news to those around me who are desparate for you, that I won't be too caught up in myself and fail in sharing the greatest news imaginable! I pray that I will not display a shame of your gospel in how I live, but that I can shine for You!
I ask these in Your Holy name. Amen.

shout'out

2008-03-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

SO I recently learned that my dear grandmother (Mammaw) and my great aunt occasionally visit my blog. If you dear ladies see this - Hello! I hope you enjoy this blog!

Love,

Ang :-)

(a real post coming soon, I promise!)

Ingrid Michaelson

2008-03-25T16:37:00.001-07:00

Ingrid Michaelson is one of my new favorite artist! Her voice reminds me a bit of a less eccentric Regina Spektor, and so far, of all I've heard has good lyrics. I just got her album - I LOVE it. Here are a few of her songs.

(for some reason the player doesn't want to work, but if you see the button "launch stand alone player", click on that)

Celebrating the Resurrection Day

2008-03-23T15:30:00.000-07:00

He is risen.
He is risen, INDEED!

What glorious hope we have because of the cross and the resurrection of our Lord!

Happy Resurrection Day!

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Come close listen to the story
About a love more faithful than the morning
The Father gave his only son just to save us

The earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt the Father's broken heart
Tears were filling heaven's eyes
The day that true love died, the day that true love died
When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn't move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that true love died, the day that true love died

Search your heart, you know you can't deny it
Come on, lose your life just so you can find it

The Father gave his only son just to save us
The earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt the father's broken heart
Tears were filling heaven's eyes
The day that true love died, the day that true love died
When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn't move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that true love died, the day that true love died

Now Jesus is alive
Jesus is alive
Jesus is alive
Jesus is alive
Jesus is alive
oh He is alive
He rose again

lyrics by Phil Wickham

Spring Break Recap

2008-03-15T09:16:00.000-07:00

Spring break is coming to an end.

Though, what a joyous week it has been!
As mentioned in an earlier post, kicked it off with a very artsy couple of days (ha). On thursday night, alli and I went to this concert thing at school where they had music from classical to jazz. The jazz was AMAZING. The next day RAYNA came to see us! We watched an artsy movie, went to an art gallery, ate at the Mellow Mushroom and went to see The Avett Brothers! It was a wonderful day.
Saturday, we got up and got ready to leave for Orlando. We met up with David and Abbott and ate at Johnny Rockets and went to Guitar Center. I found this banjo I reallly want. Deluge was that night, which was really amazing. The next few days wre spent with my amazing sister and her family. STeph and Chris - I LOVE you guys! These days consisted of a 29" pizza, movie watching, Mr. Quicks, Liki Tiki, Contemporary Arcade, The Office, organizing, American Idol (with Heather), picture taking, doctor's visit (getting to see Ella's face!) , starbucks and so much more. Wednesday night we hung out with Emily and Tyler and went to see I Am Legend (good movie). And Thursday we went to disney! that night we got dinner with Steph and Chris at American Pie again. So fun. Uh. I miss that.

Well, now that you have read a long (probably unwanted) recap of my spring break, I shall leave you with some pictures.

The Concert: (see all pics at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065649&l=6eb02&id=201410486)

Orlando:

Eating at Johnny Rockets. I love my brothers!

At Liki Tiki. the water was so cold!

Ella's almost here!

Aw, I love you both so much. Thanks for being so amazing!

At Disney, the land of joy and joyness!

Ah!

Well, I'm off to eat and work on a piece I've been neglecting.

A great weekend to all!

p.s. - what do you think about the new look?

Maybe it's just me...

2008-03-03T16:41:00.000-08:00

But I think this is AMAZING!

Watch it, what do you think? It makes me want to go to Paris.

I can just hear a comment concerning my weird music from Chris Jessee. Atleast Maria will like it!

Regarding life, the Lord, and art

2008-02-28T08:19:00.000-08:00

I have time for a quick update, then i should probably do my ridiculously easy math homework for my next class.

There is this fantastic young couple that moved here last year. They're missionaries from Africa (northern) but are from the States. Their names are Christian and Erin Heddick! What beautiful people they are, such arrows of the Lord. Christian is going to UF for graduate school so they'll be here for a couple years. They are now serving our college/career age group at our church. Christian, along side of Mr. Courson is helping lead the group. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is having them! We just started a book/topic study on apologetics. I have already learned so much. I am so excited to see what God has in store for us, especially with this couple being involved.

Well, life overall is good. Been trusting in the Lord with certain things, having to cast my cares at the foot of the Cross and recieve His grace. But life is good.

School is so much fun. Most of my homework consists of taking pictures and drawing. Now, don't be fooled, it's not as easy as it sounds (particularly the drawing, that can be a pain at times) but I'm definitly not complaining! :-) However, in my Mixed Media class we're having to work on a themed series (which takes a ton of thought to put in it, and several rejected ideas - from the teacher - many "flesh your ideas out more" or "how are you going to visually make that interesting to the audience" or "you can't just do something because you like it, how does this relate to YOU, and tell us through the picture WHY it's important to you". You get the idea, it can be frusterating). But yesterday, my teacher said my work looks like something from a psychedelic 70s rock cartoon. I'm not gonna lie, it did, and we laughed.

This past weekend, my good friend Emily came to see us (well, for a party, but mostly to be here). On Saturday we (Alli, Emily, Tyler D., and myself) drove to Alachua and spent a few hours taking pictures for my photography class (we're in our portaiture assignment - SO fun!) We had an amaazinggg time! Picnics, pictures, fashion stores, Blue Bell ice cream, memories. The whole weekend was a blast!

And now I must go, but I will leave you with this.

T-minus 8 days until Spring Break starts! Gonna kick start it with a day with my dear friend Rayna - an art gallery opening - annnnd an AVETT BROTHERS concert!

Love you all.

Excercising Freedom

2008-01-29T19:24:00.000-08:00

Today I got to, for the first time, participate in one of the greatest privileges as an American - the right of voting! Praise the Lord for freedom!

But not just a free government. Yes, it is such a HUGE blessing to live in a country that we don't have to fear being persecuted to the point of physical harm for our beliefs. But even Christians in those countries where it IS extremely dangerous to be a Christian... we see that freedom from the bondage of sin and death is something a good government can't give us.

Tonight after our college/career group prayer and worship night, a friend and I were talking about how when Jesus died the holy curtain that separated God from man was torn, and that made access to God direct and personal for us!

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Matthew 27: 50-54

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Hebrews 10:19-23

Oh Lord! We thank you for this free access into Your presence! Let us never lose site of this amazing grace and never move away from the glorious gospel that makes this possible.

Flickr

2008-01-19T19:36:00.000-08:00

I thought I should share that I just got a Flickr account to share photos in an easier fashion. A friend of mine has been telling me to get one for a while, so I gave in. I actually really like it because you can view the photo full size, which makes it nice for photosharing.
Anyway, I don't have much on it yet, but be checking for updates in pictures in the months to come.
http://flickr.com/photos/22961562@N07/
Here's a link for more (I have them set on private) http://www.flickr.com/gp/22961562@N07/tE70a0

For a quick update, we are in our building! We got our CO last wednesday.... since then, we've had a wedding, our first sunday, and a two-day men's retreat! Tomorrow is our second sunday, and next week we have our grand opening celebrations! God is so good. I had the oppurtunity to serve all this weekend in preparation for and during the men's retreat. It was so cool to be serving in our own "home". I love it!

A more detailed update to come soon, but in the mean time, check out these words to this song.
It's an oldie, but I found the chart last week and have been playing it on my guitar a ton. I love to worship to this song.

Into Your Presense I will come
To lift my Voice to Lift You up
My feet are planted on the ROck
That's Higher than I

For Your Name
For Your Glory
I will live
I will worship with my heart
For you alone are God
For the Cross
For Your Kingdom
For Your Truth
I will boast of Your Great Love
For You ALONE are God

Oh How You have restored my soul
Your word will always light my way
And I will follow after You
All my days

For Your Name - Will Pavone (2003)

A Brand New Year; A Brand New Day

2008-01-08T07:46:00.000-08:00

I do apologize for my slacking on keeping up with this journal. But life has been very busy since I last wrote, but I have a few moments during my break.

For an update: Christmas was unusual, but great this year. We celebrated with all different sides of the family, thus making many celebrations! Though all fun and grand, I think my favorite was just being at our home in Florida, with my parents, siblings and nephews just being together, reading scripture (and hearing Caleb recite Luke 2 :-) and giving gifts. We did have a great trip up to Indiana and Kentucky, but no snow :-( Apparently, a day or two after we left, of course, it snowed. Oh well. Some highlights were: seeing my grandma's reaction when I gave her my gift, multiple trips to Starbucks, Chris Jessee (enough said, haha), Making fun of Alli's "thunder thighs" (please don't be offended by this, it's a long story), late nights at the hotel hot tub, walking through downtown Nashville, making (or watch) Stephanie laugh so hard that she has to pee, driving aimlessly around Evansville with Chris and Steph, spending time with the Lord, seeing what a fine young man my little cousin is becoming, Well, just spending a week with my best friends! This was a fun trip to be sure.

The Metro New Year's Lockin was a blast. Much different from last year, atleast for me. I don't know why exactly, but it went by so much faster. We had a large representation of our youth show up, which made the event special for us Gainesville people (haha, poor Metro, having us crash their party). The Gilly's played. About 7 or 8 of us girls decided to have a time of prayer to just interceed for the new year and for each other, it turned into an hour and a half of the Spirit of God falling on us, what an incredibly sweet way to start the New Year! I am so grateful for God's kindness to us! Games were played, pictures were drawn, pizza roles were eaten and movies were watched. Follow that with sleeping all the next morning... it was a great night!

Enough of that.

For our church, 2008 really will be a "new" year in the sense that it is the beginning of something we've never experienced before. Lord willing, we will get our Certificate of Occupation for our building today or tomorrow. God's blessings to us can not be doubted! We are so grateful. We've had different teams going out to set up, and clean and such this week. Tonight the singles group will be out there. I can't wait to see how God uses this tool in and through us for now and time to come. Our grand opening is suppose to be the last weekend in January, but before that, we have scheduled: a wedding and first Sunday this weekend, and a regional men's retreat next weekend. I can't do anything but thank God when I think about it.

For me, I am hoping that 2008 will be different for me. Every year for the past few years have been very different, and very good times of growing and of change. But this year I feel the need to reach a new level, to grow up. I pray that I can grow spiritually this year, but also to establish a more organized life style. I spent the last few days of winter break totally reorganizing and rearranging my room. And, somehow, I've managed to keep it really clean since then! I hoep to grow in time managment skills, to not get behind on home work, to more effectively serve my mom around the house, and make as much time as I can to serve the church. That is my prayer this year, that I'd be less "me centered" and become more selfless. Oh Lord, let it be!

Here are a few pictures I took Saturday at the building.

Here's a view of the stage from the crows nest.
(we'll be getting all of our drapes and our grand drape next week)

Here's Alli testing out the phones.

Beautiful Chairs.

Eric playing with the new lighting board!

Stephen Courson as a silhouette.

Well, that's all for now. Be praying for our church as we enter this new season of life! I think God has a lot in store for us this year.

On inhailing Chemical Fixative and too much Charcoal!

2007-12-06T13:05:00.000-08:00

SO let me start this off by saying GOD IS GOOD!
People, people! Everyday we wake up and can rest assured that our BIGGEST problem has been taken care for us! We don't have to worry about eternity, or anything really, because Jesus has overcome sin and death for us! WHAT GLORIOUS NEWS!
This morning as I was running late to school after getting only a couple hours of sleep, I was listening to the Phil Wickham song "True Love". Read these lyrics:

Come close, listen to the story
About a love more faithful than the morning
The Father gave his only son just to save us
The Earth was shaking in the dark
All Creation felt the Father's broken heart
Tears were filling Heaven's Eyes
The day that true love died, the day that true love died
When Blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn't move came crashing down
Now we are freed and made alive
The day that TRUE LOVE died, the day that True Love died.
Search your heart you know you can't deny it
Come on, lose your life just so you can find it
The Father gave His only son, just to save us...
Now Jesus is ALIVE, Jesus is alive, Jesus is Alive... He rose again!
When Blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn't move came crashing down
Now we are freed and made alive
The day that TRUE LOVE died, the day that True Love died.

Isn't that an amazing song? (On Phil Wickham's album "Cannons")
But not only does he secure our future, he gives us peace and grace for the NOW!

This week was the last week of class before Finals. And for me, this was when all my art portfolio, sketchbook and papers we due. Now, the sketchbook is something we're suppose to be doing on our own to match what we're doing in class each week, and is suppose to have some 85 drawings and 16 journal entries in it by the end of the semester. Well, as of Sunday I had about 40 drawings to (by today), along with some other stuff due (A self-portrait, an art history paper, etc.). On Sunday the load of all I had to do finally hit me. I have to be the laziest person in the world to let my work build up on me (of course it made me feel better to know that only a few in my class even met the requirements of the sketchbook). I started getting overwhelmed and thinking there was no way I'd be able to do 40+ drawings in 4 days. So I prayed. I acknowledged my sin of laziness, I acknowledged my weakness and how I would not be able to do this on my own, and I asked for peace and strength to get everything done. So I started.

As I worked, and as the deadline got closer and closer, I am amazed to say that not ONCE did I feel stressed or anxious. Now that is TOTALLY God! Because left to myself, I'd be so stressing out that I'd probably losing time over it. Somehow, by God's grace alone, I was able to sumbit everything today, and I was just thanking God in my heart as I heard my fellow students complaining how they did not get done with everything. I am just so overwhelmed by God's grace this week. I so did not deserve it, yet, He is so faithful to provide!

On the subject of art class, today we were discussing the warning labels on these cans of Fixative Spray we use on our drawings (to hold the material on the paper, and to keep it from smearing). This spray is pretty toxic, and you have to go outside to spray it (believe me, I know from experience that it can give you a nasty headache if you inhail too much). SO my art professor, Matthew (who is one of the most hilarious men I have ever met), reads the warning label that went somthing like this "WARNING: It is known to the State of California that the inhailing of this can cause brain damage and birth defects." So Matthew goes on this hilarious spill about how it's dangerous in California, but perfectly safe - in fact the recommend the inhailing of it in FLorida! Haha. "Man, they must just be very fragile people in California because it says 'It is known to the State of California'" said Matthew. I was laughing so had. This led to a conversation about birth defects and why don't you ever hear of birth-enhancements. We talked about additional arms, heads, fingers, longer eye lashed and mutant powers. It was quite entertaining.
Ahhh, I love art people :-)

So this is pretty much what I looked like all week, Except usually my face would be even blacker than it is here.

And just for kicks, these are some of my favorite shoes, I added the decor, I call them my "Shoes of Emotion" :-P

"There's a bus up there" -me
"What did you say??" -alli
"There's a bus up ahead" -me
*alli starts dying laughing*
"ahhhh I thought you just randomely said 'God Bless America'" -alli

(This lead to a bunch of "God bless Afghanastan", "God bless the eskimos on Greenland", etc. And lot of laughter :-D)

On Giving Thanks

2007-12-01T09:47:00.000-08:00

With Thanksgiving being last week (not too far in the past), I felt I should write a little on the subject.

This year has gone by faster than any other year of my life, yet it seems to be as full if not more full than any other year (which, now that I think about it, is probably why it's gone by so fast). Anywas, in this year much has changed, or the transitions of change have occured. The Lord has given me MUCH to be thankful for. So, I'm going to give a list of some specific things I am THANKFUL for. (in no particular order)

- The grace that God provided for our family as we got used to David's move away. For the blessings on David's life since he's moved, and the strong evidence of God's will for him to be there. Even though this past year I have missed him SO much being with us at home, God's undeniable plan is for him to be there, which brings joy and peace to us all.

- My parents!! Specifically for the way they care for me and provide for me. For my dad being so amazing with the whole car situation! You know, first he is basically making sure I have a car, and then they work around making sure I have it when I need it even though we only have two cars right now. And just with... everything. I would be so lost without my parents. That they support me SO much in a field most parents would be like "And you're going to doooo WHAT with an art degree??" They are pretty much the best parents ever. And I will fight you if you challenge that statement :-)

- My friends. This year the Lord really blessed me with good, deep biblical friendships with a few in my own church. I am particulary thankful for one of my best friends - Ellie. Also for a growth in my friendship with my sister, Stephanie! I can tell you, I can't really think of any of my friends that'd I'd rather be with than her. Also, my new good friends this year like Stephen and Emily. As well as my many other good friends that are such blessing to me!

- Music. Yeah. Listening to, playing, learning TO play, etc.

- My church. My church is so precious to me. And for how God has blessed our church - our building is almost done!

- And certainly the gospel, and the teaching of how to walk out a gospel-centered life. I am so amazing by God's UNBELIEVABLE grace in saving such WRETCHED sinners! We are not even worthy to worship One so Holy, but he allows us to! And he even calls us friends! Yes, more than anything, I am thankful for Jesus and the cross that washed my crimson stains away.

I'll end there, because - believe me, I could go on for a LONG time and more than anybody would want to read.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."

Colossians 3:16

To all my EAGER readers...

2007-11-24T20:28:00.000-08:00

(thank you to the both of you) :-)

I will update soon!

Lookee lookee I got Hookee!

2007-11-09T09:31:00.000-08:00

I don't know how to start this blog other than stating how EXCITED I am that ELLA GRACE JESSEE is going to be my first niece! Wow, our family is just too happy. Though, I would of loved to have a Hudson Daniel in the family, Steph needs a girl :-)

Well, this past week has been interesting. I've been praying a lot for friends whose trials in life are much greater than mine at this time, all the while God showing me areas of sin in my life that need to be addressed. I realized that my heart was as much as an idol factory as ever, putting things higher than they should be, and not prioritizing God and his glory above anything. How kind of God to reveal my sin to me, even when the correction can hurt, the benefits are so much greater!

This week at youth, Mr. Courson went over "What Is the Gospel" again, as he does periodically. He read from some of Marc Devor on the subject and we discussed different points for a while. One question Mr. C. posed was "What does Jesus want to be to us?" Yes, he wants to be our savior and friend, but he wants to be our LORD! He wants us to lay down EVERYTHING for him. I was so convicted of my mindset... He wants to be my everything! So I must give Him everything! I found this challenging and encouraging.

I cannot believe this semester is coming to an end. All of my classes are really involved, big project deadlines are approaching. Though it can be hard, I love school. I am really looking forward to next semester too. I'll hopefully be taking Photography 1, 2D Design, Print Making and some sort of math (maybe my last math EVER!). It will be excting :-)

This weekend will be fun. Tonight is the Homecoming Football Game of my good friend Stephen White. He is the only senior on the team, so we're all gonna be there to cheer for him. ANd this Sunday, we're having a big church-wide party at the Klinger's house, and then a few of us are going to the Avett Brothers Concert!

Well, I must go for now. I hope you all enjoy the grace of God today!

A day of Birthdays

2007-10-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from yesterday (all for you Kristen :-)

In the morning we had the joy of surprising our dear friend, Emily Sims, on her birthday! We woke her up, and then went to Mimi's Cafe for a birthday Breakfast with the McGaheys. I love that family.

I love her so much!

After that we went to have our nails done, went to starbucks and just had some wonderful sister time :-)

Chris arranged for the family and close friends of Stephanie to go to the fancy "Gargi's" which had some amazing Italian food!

The Birthday Girl and Hubby. Aren't they wonderful!?

Jonathan and Medana

Kristen and Medana :-)

Kyle and Tara!

Mr. and Mrs. J

Dad and Mom :-)

*sisters*

My handsome brother :-)

One of many hilarious attempts....

There we go.

Beautiful Birthday Girl.

David.

Story telling.

Gift time!

The Gilly Happy Dance.

New Camera! She was pretty excited.

Adorable :-D

And that's a wrap...

Life in the fast lane.

2007-10-27T20:09:00.001-07:00

Well, I am very sorry for my lack of posts. I honestly didn't think anybody knew about this blog until I was told to update from my sister's friends. So, this is for you, ladies! :-)

Life is amazing. Amazingly busy, amazingly good. School is great, I can't believe we're half way through the semester. Seriously, since this semester started, life has not slowed down... at all. It just keeps getting crazier and crazier. But that keeps things interesting, so I can't complain. I love my major. I love getting made fun of for being covered in charcoal at the end of the day. I love when my friends make fun of me for using an "eeeeiiisal". For those of you who don't know, I'm currently getting my AA in Art Studio, and hopefully can transfer to get my BA (or if not, my AS) in Graphic Design. Some people are freaked out at what we have to draw, but it's just for a season. I love art. I love art teachers.

We just came out of Celebration(North Florida). It was a fantastic conference. I found it very refreshing, and very encouraging. At the end of the conference when we were singing "The Glories of Calvery," I just had a strong sense that the Lord really took "me deeper into the Glories of Calvery." That is a wonderful feeling.

The Lord has been so merciful to me in this season of life. I am so grateful for the friends he's given me as tools to work on me. For the family that is vital for me. For my church which is essencial for my growth. For His word, which is the very food for us as Christians.

I have lately been very impacted by Hebrews 9 & 10. If you haven't in a while, read that chapter.

Here is a passage from Hebrews 10: 36-39 -

For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while,and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith,and if he shrinks back,my soul has no pleasure in him.”
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

We just returned from Orlando from spending the day with my sister for her birthday. And yet again I leave them in such awe as to why God has blessed me with such a wonderful family. Stephanie, Alli and I went and got manicures and Starbucks today! What fun "sister-time" we had. If I could only describe a portion to you of how much I love, respect and appriciation my sisters... wow. I don't think it is possible. They are amazing.

A couple pictures from today:

Stephanie and Alli:

(and if you're wondering, the pin says
"I'm not fat, I'm Pregnant") :-)

Alli and me:

That's all I've got for now. Leave some comments and I may write again soon ;-)

Much love,

Angela

2007-07-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

The Bahamas trip was fantastic. You can see all of my pictures on facebook (if you want to see them and don't have facebook, comment and I'll give you links).

If you want to read about the specifics of the trip, see the bahamas mission: x Blog (on the links list).

BAHAMAS UPDATE

2007-06-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

Well, this is our second day (first FULL day) in the Bahamas!
Everyone is doing well. The camp we're staying at is pretty nice... we have air conditioning!

But I tell you what! If any of you says this is a vacation I laugh at your face! We have been working our tails off. Last night we put together 3000 Hurricane awareness packets,whcih were really sweet traks (sp?). Today we went to different intersections and spent a few hours passing all of them out. We went to the boys home, where our guys will be reaching out next week, for a few minutes and then got some lunch. After that we came to the church and then got stocked up on flyers and candy and went into the neighborhood and did door-to-door evangelism. It was really amazing to tag along with Rich Graham and see God work through him, and us to talk to people. Right now I'm waiting on a bass to practice for tomorrow's worship!

Well, I've got to go, but I love you all...and we miss you Jake!!!!

In awe of the Cross,
Angela

To live the commision...

2007-06-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

In four short days I, along with many other fellow believers, will be embarking on a new adventure - one called Bahamas! Now when you hear this, you may think "Oh pleaassseeee, Like the BAHAMAS is reallly a missions trip." Well, I'm sorry if you think that.

I am so excited about what God will have in store for us. Our schedule is full, our bags our getting packed, our hearts are getting ready....

We're going to be spending a lot of time with kids ages 12-16 that have been ruled "uncontrolable" by there parents and put into special houses by the government. I pray that the Lord will give us favor and that they will be receptive the the Gospel's message!

We'll be working and painting and other various jobs for the church in Nassau (which is in the process of become a SGM church).

I am praying that God moves beyond what we are expecting and blows our minds with His amazing glory!

Be praying for us!

http://bahamasmissionx.blogspot.com

The Great Commission
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in [2] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
(Matt. 28: 16-20)

A temporary state.

2007-06-11T18:41:00.000-07:00

During summer, I typically work for my dad at the church office. Right now we are going through construstion for our new building (yay!) so the house which once served as our church office is no more. For now the desks, computer as well as most of the church's other posessions are crammed into our jiffy-lube-like garage. It's not so bad, except that there is no bathrooms. Solution: porta-potties.

Yes, we are all aware and all have a mutual dislike for these things, although they serve their purpose well, you always feel a bit uncomfortable using them, especially with the thought of sweaty workmen using them too. A handful of liquid hand sanitizer usually follows my few visits to this thing.

The other day I was thinking about this, and I realized that this is not a permanent state for us, but meerly temporary. Temporary - and THEN, yes then we will have our building! Our building we have waited for so long for, and it will have very nice bathrooms!

Why am I writting about this? Well, because I realized that maybe this time is symbolic. Not only is our time on earth temporary - and we will have such a great prize when we reach heaven! But maybe this could relate to times of trials and perseverence and what God is doing through it.

God will bring us through times of hardship, but he will still be with us! He still leads us, even when the situation seems ugly and frusterating. But He knows - He KNOWS what's in store for us! Our struggles seem tiresome and miserable, but there is grace - and there is hope! Because God promises that He will complete the good work that He started. Trails prepare us for the next step of our faith - whether it be a new understanding of His grace, a deeper relationship with Him, or any other blessing that you can not imagine - All to the glory of God!

So take heart.... this porta-pottie is only temporary!

"Where grace reclaims what the world disowns"

2007-06-04T19:18:00.000-07:00

Ever since New Attitude I have been listening (almost constantly) to this band Starfield. They are AMAZING! Two of their songs ("Great is the Lord" and "Unashamed") were used during NA... I highely recommend this cd "Beauty in the Broken".

I listened to thes song "Great is the Lord" multiple times last week while we were uncertain as to what was happening with my dad during his time in the hospital (see THIS post by my brother to read more). God has proven Himself, yet again (!!), to be so faithful and sovereign! How grateful I am.

It seems as though nothing settles down in my life right now, I have found the statement "Constant change is here to stay" to be true. Graduation, New Attitude, Graduation (again) have all come and gone.

The fact that my total existence is based on the fact that God made me to make himself more glorious is so incredible to me. I just can't help but thinking about His amazing glory! Alli and I have started writing a song on it.

Now for some random notes:

I wish I had a natural love for reading. I really enjoy it, but I'm not drawn to it. I am much more compelled to sitting down and drawing, or do various time-waisters rather than reading. I have always wanted that thirsty book-worm hiding down inside of me to pop-out and make its full-appearence. I guess it'll come with practice.

I finally got my camera today, a Nikon d40. I'm pretty stoked. I will hopefully post some pictures soon.

I hope I will continue to post on here (more frequently). Check out the Bahamas Mission:X link on my link bar, that's our e-team's blog!

In awe of the Cross,
Angela

Give me a Y!

2007-02-07T12:07:00.000-08:00

Memories are amazing.
Making them is even more.

Basketball is almost over. I am glad that it is over, though I know in a couple of monthes, I will wish it was back. So much of this year (so little of it that has yet to be had) has been full of amazing, memory-making times. From various church events, such as our great Ground-Breaking day and different youth meetings, to basketball practices and fun car rides with dear friends, and conferences, out of town friends, a mixture - and add ALOT of Starbucks! This has been an incredible start to this year.

Not only has it started good - but I know that so much more is to come.

But I can't help but think - All of these fun-filled events are great, they're true blessings and I don't ever want to take them for granted. And even though this year is going to be different in so many ways (for instance: I am graduating, I have more things to do and places to go) I want it to be marked differently then ever before - in my heart.

I so desire that I have a change in lifestyle. To defeat my lazy habits - to grow in my relationship with the Lord. I want to grow up this year. I want to leave my childish ways spritually and truly grow into a young woman that God's heart desires me to be. I am in such need of God to do a work in me.

I thank the Lord - for I have full faith He will complete this work He has started in me! I am such a failor - a sinner - But alas! God is GREATER than all of that. He is much greater than me and my pettyness. He is GOD. I am not.

Isn't He Good?

So basically - I can't wait to see all that this year holds. Because I know it's gonna be good. :-)

Deeper Meaning?

2006-12-19T20:45:00.000-08:00

HOLY God in LOVE became,

Perfect Man to bear my blame

On the cross he took MYsin,

By HIS death, I live - again.

(From "the Gospel song")

Christmas is one of my most favorite times of the year. The whole season of it is joyous, fun and refreshing. But it is so easy to forget exactly what Christmas is about. Yes, we know that we are thankful that Jesus came to earth, but do we realize what this event was to Him? Our HOLY, wholly God became wholly man. The creator joined the creation. He left heaven, for our sinful earth. He left divinity to walk with men. He left his home to die to save us. This birth, though everything to us, must have been difficult. It is purely and totally mysterious. Why? Why would he do this? We did not love Him, but He loved us enough to leave His Father, and forever be scared by the cross - Just so we might come to be with Him.

Truly an awesome and amazing God.
I am going to be reminding myself of not only that Jesus came, but the immensity of His love in leaving Heaven to save us. And that, my friends, demands thanksgiving!

The EAC, that's where it's at!

2006-12-09T20:42:00.000-08:00

Hello to the both of you.

So I was told to post on this. And I will! As you can see, I am.
Amazing.

Anyway.

Life is SO different since I last posted. It's crazy.

Let's see, well the only thing of real importance is that my dear brother moved to Orlando.
God has been SO gracious to me through this time, I am truly amazed by his hand on me.

This semester is almost done....thank the Lord!

Here are some pics -

~tyler.celeste.alli.brandon.micah.ellie.me~

~brandon.alli.me~

*walmart+bestfriends=goodtimes*

~me.alli.david~

I have the privilage of know two of the coolist people on earth. Oh! Did I mention I'm related to them?? :-)

Pretty much all I have to say (truly) is that life is full of change. I am a wretched sinner. A wretched sinner, but a child of a GREAT God! I stand amazed as I wear these robes of righteousness that were given to me by my spotless savior. Wow, thank you Jesus!

Lead me to the cross and show me his wounds,
the hateful nature of evil, the power of Satan;
May I there see my sin asthe nails that transfixed him,
the cords that bound him,
the thorns that tore him,
the sword that pierced him.
Help me find in his death the reality and immensity of his love.
-Valley of Vision

Life in General

2006-09-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

You know, of the things I remind myself, my favorite is that "GOD is God, and HE is Good". That is the honest truth. And that brings me much peace, especially when life starts to get overwhelming.

School is going well. This year I'm pretty much fully at the college, a complete duel-enrolled senior! It's crazy, it feels as though I became a highschooler only last year. Now I'm almost done. Absurdity.

But these recent times have been great. I love my life, living totally in God's grace. I feel as though God is always showing me something new in need of growth or change. And it's great!

This weekend is going to be a blast for sure! Some very good friends from Daytona are coming here to visit us. There will be a party for my friend! And my Grandparents (from Kentucky) are arriving also! AND my parents are getting back from their 30th Anniversary getaway. 30 years - wow! What an example they are in such an unfaithful world.

My Birthday is almost here!
Upward is almost here!

Well I must be going now. This has been quite a pointless post, but oH weLL.

Truly,
Angela

"Let me find thy light in my darkness,

thy life in my death,

thy joy in my sorrow,

thy grace in my sin,

thy riches in my poverty,

thy glory in my valley."

(Valley of Vision)

Hello.

2006-06-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

Hello, I have this to comment on my brother's (who, by the way, is the man) and other friend's blogs.

Enjoy,
Ang