Too Much is Never Enough

Musically, at least...


So over the past month, I have acquired many new CD's. Thankfully, I have been blessed with some music-obsessed people in my life who feel it is their obligation to expose me to all of their favorite bands. But I have created for myself an interesting problem. Now on my iPod, the number of songs I have NOT listened to, almost outnumbers the number of songs I HAVE listened to.

Aaahh!!

Here's where you must know something about my music-listening habits.
I love music, no doubt about it.
But I feel like I can't fully enjoy a song unless I can sing along with it, yes?
Ergo, I can't enjoy all of this music yet.

Grrr.. I feel very overwhelmed.
In a good way, of course.

And I wonder if this is a parallel for my own life. I spend so much time outputting information. Taking tests, writing papers, giving performances.
Information doesn't become real unless you can turn around and regurgitate it for someone else to learn from.
So I can't enjoy music unless I can fully experience it by participating in it.

Mmm.. Strange.

So look out Bright Eyes, Lostprophets, Fall out Boy, Lykke Li, Lovedrug, Mewithoutyou, Air, The Killers, Jason Mraz, Ida Maria, Eisley, M.I.A., Death Cab, Dear & the Headlights, Brand New 3 Doors Down and ALL OF YOUR ALBUMS I HAVE SOMEHOW GAINED.

You're all going down.
Fo Sho.


In other news..
Jessica, you are so gone. It's SO time for you to come home!!
I'm ready for a break, I'm ready for my best friend to be back on this continent.
I realize that we're on the downhill slope as far as the semester is concerned, but that means finals and juries in 9ish classes.

Which is no small feat.
But I just keep thinking that I'm doing well in all of my classes, God has been so faithful to bring me through this half of the year. 19 hours is no joke... Plus all of my responsibilities at Wedgwood with 720 and with the kiddos that I work with every week. This semester has truly been a testimony that faith can move mountains. So many people told me that I was crazy to take on everything that came my way, but I just said that I knew that this was what God had called me to do. And I had to pray every day before I started my homework. I had to say a prayer before all of my tests, before I wrote all of my small group lessons, before every worship set for 720.

But praise the Lord. He has delivered me in a powerful way. If we ask Him to work miracles in our lives, He will because He loves us and is faithful to complete a good work in our lives.

I'm just so full of joy because of the power of Christ in my life.
It hasn't ever been easy, but it's been so much more rewarding than just taking the easy way out. I can't wait to see what He has for me next semester, next year and for the rest of my life.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
What are you thankful for?

Remeniscant Ramblings

Everyone is kicking my butt at blogging.
I will not be beaten!!

Something that has been on my mind lately, is the fact that my friends and I are aging.
THAT'S RIGHT!
We are getting old, people.

Some of us can remember back to before we'd lost all our baby teeth and were still wearing knee socks, penny loafers and plaid headbands to school.

Here are some things that blow my mind.

1. We graduated from high school
I remember being in 7th grade and thinking that graduation was five years away and we'd never make it. That seemed like an eternity to me, and we're almost two years on the other side of that day.

2. Everyone went their separate ways.
Kaitlin and I to DBU, Jess to Abeline, Clayton and Michael to Seminary...
I knew we'd be apart after high school, but it's still so weird to not be a collective unit like we used to be. In some ways, I think that helped us grow stronger. I definitely value our time together more than I did a couple of years ago.

3. We completed a year of college.
Does anyone else feel like that year went by INSANELY fast?? Dear Lord.. It seems like yesterday I was moving in for SWAT and freaking out about finding my classes. Now I'm a freaking junior. What is going on?!

4. We met new friends.
God has been so good to us. He has brought people into our lives both individually and as a group that have truly blessed us. I know that my DBU friends are amazing and Jess has some great people at ACU that she loves. And we've got Steven, Matt, Nick, Krista and others that have come into the group. We're incredibly lucky to be surrounded by such amazing people.

5. We grew individually, in Christ and together.
Despite the distance, despite the challenges, we are all still close.
It's really amazing, I can't believe that I'm still best friends with the people that I loved and grew up with in elementary school, junior high and high school.
We are a strange bunch of people, my friends. But we work so well together.

I love my friends so fiercely and I can't imagine my life without any of you guys.
I would be lucky to have just one of you, but I'm more than that because I have all of you.

Thank you for accepting me, good and bad, and always encouraging me to be a better person and a stronger force for Christ. I hope that we carry on in these friendships for many years to come.


Ok enough sappy-ness for one day.
We're the best, end of story.

In the name of: Love, Life, Friendship, Continual Growth and Corporate Unity...
KatieIrene.

Music Minded or Empty Minded?

As we all know, music is a huge part of my life.
I'm always happy when I'm involved in some type of musical activity, whether it's analyzing chords in Theory or screwing up songs in praise band so Michael gives us all that famous 'dirty look', it just gives me so much joy to do anything musical.

Lately, now that I'm back at DBU and thoroughly immersed in my musical sub-culture out here, I've felt like somethings been missing. Every day is filled with musical analysis, history, practice and performance, but it feels incomplete somehow.

I know that everything I'm doing on a day-to-day basis will impact my future and my ability to serve God through my career, but apart from doing my homework for His glory, I can't seem to connect the study of music to my spiritual life. I've been praying fervently that God would give me a song, something to give back to Him as a form of tangible praise. I've been really frustrated. I know that I can give Him glory and worship Him in the small ways, but for some reason I've really had this strong desire and conviction to write a song.

Every page of my prayer journal for the past two weeks has contained that sentiment.
So FINALLY last night, while i was doing my devotional and listening to my iTunes, God gave me a poem. There's no melody or rhythm, yet. But it was so amazing! I just sat there and wrote it out, and I'm so grateful that He constantly answers my prayers, even when I don't deserve it. (Which is always, of course.)
The other crazy thing is that my iTunes started playing "God of this City" right as I was finishing the poem. That's one of my favorite praise and worship songs... Coincidence, I'm sure. ;D

So here you go, my first internet poetry/songwriting debut.
Be nice, I'm not a pro.


You purchased me
You bought me with Your blood
You provide for me
Through your grace and endless love
You placed me
In the center of Your will

And I can't move
I don't even want to try
If I didn't have you holding me
This life would pass me by

I won't take one step
Not in any vague direction
Not for any selfish purpose
Only You lead in perfection
So I must follow you

'Cause You lead me
Where I know I couldn't go
And You light me
So that all the world will know
That You love me
More than I could ever show

And I can't sing
I can't smile
I can't laugh
I don't even want to try
If You're not speaking through me
Every word would be a lie

Worthless noise
Empty sound
Pointless speech
Raining down

Everything I have is nothing
Everything I am is nothing
You are all to me

So minimize me
Bring me to my knees
And silence me
If the words are not Yours,
Please.


So there you go.
God is good!

PeaceLoveandMusic.
KatieMac
<3

Labor Day '08

We swam!

There's your update. Haha!
This is mostly so that I can put pictures up for Jessica to look at without making a zillion Facebook albums every time there's a new set of 20something pictures.

Steven, Michael, Kaitlin and I swam and laid out and just relaxed.
I miss the sun, I will be sad when I'm all white again.
:(

Here are pictures!

Kaitlin likes it when I take pictures of her.

Michael playing football with Steven.

Steven should wear those sunglasses and not squint so much.

He's actually not catching anything, the ball is behind him on the grass.
This is a posed shot.

Action Shot!!

Stud.

Cuuute.

Zoooom.

Better.

Hahahaa.

Aaaand Over!!

Studs. (Plural)

HAPPY!!

Just some acrobatics.
Don't try this at home.

Smoothies are good.
Michael is too cool.

There you have it, folks!

MissOurJessicaaa.
:(

Blogging is Contageous

Ergo, Jessica posted a new blog... Which reminded me of how painfully behind I am on my blogging.

Hmm.. What has happened since our trip to Blanco?

LIST

Clayton left for South Africa
Michael, Steven, Jessica, Kaitlin and I went to South Padre for a week
The 720 Band led worship for the Wedgwood congregation
Jessica left for Uruguay
Steven and Michael started school
Kaitlin and I moved back into DBU and started classes
The 720 Band performed it's largest set to-date (12 songs, 720 NOW.. Night of Worship)

Yikes Yikes Yikes...
Where to begin.

Padre was amazing.
We had so much fun just being able to relax and be together before we all disbanded for the next semester. Kaitlin posted a lot of details on her blog, and all of my good pictures are on Facebook. It's just so much, we were there for a week. We spent a lot of time on the beach, got sunburned, went jetskiing, slept in the middle of the day, ate a TON of food, tried our hand and boogie boarding (I stink), hung out in San Antonio and basically just spent time together.

Jessica left us.
I am sad. I can't remember a time when Jess and I weren't friends. Maybe not always BESTFRIENDS, but we've always been friends. Over the past few years we've become even closer. I was worried that when we went to school, we'd loose track of each other. But thankfully, it was the opposite. Being apart really strengthened our friendship, and when we get together again, it's like we weren't ever apart. I've always said I'm thankful that I don't have a sister, but I'm going to be cliche and say that that's not really true. I'd do anything for her, and I think she'd say the same about me.
I'm really excited that she's fulfilling one of her goals and studying abroad. I know she's going to have an amazing time, I'm just sad that I won't see her until Christmastime. But hey, we've got the rest of our lives to be BESFRANS. I'm not anticipating a few months to take away a HUGE chunk of our time. ;D

The band has been doing really great. We exposed our semi-conservative congregation to some of the college group's favorite songs. It went pretty well, we had some issues with the people in the sound booth turning Steven and Matt's volume down.. Which was sad, but I had fun.
We also did a Night of Worship last Thursday. It went really really well. God has had that on my heart for a long time. I felt that our group was really apathetic about worship, and I knew God wanted to use us to try and change that. They were really responsive and seemed to loosen up a bit and really let God speak to them.
God-willing, it will happen again.

And, of course, school's back in session.
19 hours on the schedule. So far, I'm still standing.
I like a lot of my classes, and I'm so happy to see my friends again. It's a little daunting, but the challenges of my schedule have really served to bring me closer to God. Every night as I'm doing my homework, I start to get really overwhelmed. INSTANTLY I feel the need to pray. I've been reading my Bible and writing in my prayer journal every night, something that has proved difficult for me in the past. I love it. I'm so glad that God has used this challenge to pull me closer to Him. I continually underestimate His provision.

So there's your catch-up Blog.

OH and I dyed my hair.
Haha.

Life is good. It's a constant battle and I'm emotionally exhausted by the end of the day...
But I can't even begin to count the number of ways I've been blessed.

From my journal:
"I praise You for continually using me through my broken spirit and painfully sinful,
yet perfectly saved, body.

I can do nothing to deserve You.
I can do nothing to separate myself from You.
I can do nothing but praise You.

I am increasingly unworthy of Your love for me.
I am indescribably blessed by Your grace and mercy.
Who am I that I can call myself a daughter of the King?

I am nothing. He is everything."

Our Sojourn to Blanco, TX

::whew::

What a weekend! This past weekend was our first "out of Wedgwood experience" as a band... Or at least, as a partial band.

On Friday afternoon Michael, Steven and I left Michael's house in my giant white van packed up with music equipment and a few suitcases. We drove just over 4 hours and arrived in good 'ole Blanco (home of the fighting Panthers) in time for an amazing spaghetti dinner. Steven's mom was so sweet and she sat with us and got to know us while we ate.

Saturday was spent touring the town, complete with an amazing breakfast at the Bowling Ally (who knew?) and a trip to "Market Days" in the town square. We also go to visit Steven's mentor, Neil and his wife Kelly's GIANT ranch on the outskirts of Blanco. They have two kids and as a family they manage the ranch where they breed exotic animals from Europe and Africa. They also host retreats and functions there and allow people to hunt certain species of animals. We got the grand tour of the ranch and they served us lunch and had us tell them our life stories. They were so sweet and interested in us!

After we left the ranch and had a tour of the Young Life building they've started in town, we took a walk down to the river.

Then we had our practice time at the church because we were using a drummer and a bass player from Steven's old band to play for us on Sunday. Rob and Paul. We went through all the songs twice and they sounded great so we decided to call it a night. Steven's mom made us chicken fried steak and we rented a movie and just relaxed.

Sunday we were all pretty anxious, the church is a lot different from Wedgwood and even though we were playing in their "contemporary" service, the pastor is still not a fan of drums and things like that. But it went really well! We played six songs and there was a good crowd there and they really seemed to worship, despite our use of drums ;) It really was an amazing experience. Steven's mom, sister Jessica and nephew Blaine came to see us and took pictures. Neil, Kelly and the kids were there also. After the service, everyone was very sweet and encouraging and had so many nice things to say. The youth pastor even asked us to come down in October and play for a crowd of like 300 kids after a football game (Go Panthers!) Haha!

And obviously we made it back in one piece.
Tired... But in one piece.

It was really great, I'm so glad we did this. God really presented us with this opportunity and through this one weekend, I feel like we got a lot of experience and hopefully touched some people's lives. They certainly touched ours. I can't wait to go back :)

Blanco or Bust!!

Me and Steven on the drive down.


Sunset

The boys playing Sega.

Weird moose, reindeer animal.
He was HUGE.

Me and Michael petting "Precious"

Ryann, Steven, Michael and Precious.

The Jeep.

The boys.. Looking cool.

Me and Michael :)

We climbed a tree!!

The river.

BesFrans.

Michael.

All of us on Sunday morning before we left.

The Couple's Shot.

Leading worship.

And again...

One of the girls in the congregation drew my picture and gave it to me!!

The Learning Center

Lived up to its name, that's for sure.
I'm actually not sure who learned more, me or my kids.

Today was my last day of work. For the past six weeks I've been teaching a summer school class all day on Mondays and Wednesdays. The first two weeks we had 9 kids. Then 12. Finally, for the last 2 weeks we've had 14.

Two-year-olds.

By God's grace alone I not only survived these past 6 weeks, but I had an amazing time. I got to know some amazing kids and their wonderful families. I caught a glimpse of my future as a teacher. I was Miss Katie, how weird is that?!
I healed boo boo's with kisses, changed multitudes of diapers, stopped fights with a single word, received tons of hugs and kisses and watched kids grow up over a short period of time.

I've never been more sore, exhausted, frustrated, elated, overwhelmed and inspired in my whole life.

So here's to Campbell, Christian, Grant, Baker, Ryder, Zoe, the two Carters, William, Caden, Gwen, Rileigh, Jordan, Elise, and Kaleb.
And of course Miss Shea, my partner in crime.

I can't believe it's over...

The Kiddos

Me, Campbell and Baker

Campbell, Ryder, Baker, Kaleb and Grant

Christian and Me

Rileigh, Campbell Ryder and Miss Shea


Grant and Campbell


Ryder, Campbell, Baker and William


Baker


Zoe, Ryder and Grant


Baker


Christian


Campbell, Grant and Me


William

Of Summer and Someones...

::whew::

Summer.

I can honestly say that a month ago, I never thought I would make it to this season.

First year of college?
Check.

It was hard. I must say.
I grew a LOT. Not physically, but in so many other ways. Spiritually, Intellectually, Emotionally... College is amazing. I can't believe how quickly this year went by, it honestly feels like just last week I was graduating from high school.
I'm proud to say, that after just two semesters and after the summer classes I'm taking, I will officiallly have 60 hours to my name. In case you don't know what that means, I'm a junior.
Which is AMAZING. I'm taking 19 hours next semester (pray pray pray for me!!)
I finished with a cumulative GPA of 3.7 and the award from the music department;
Freshman Student of the Year.

God is so good. I constantly remind myself that it is only because of Him that I am able to succeed. Everything I do, academically, I do for His glory. I am unbelievably blessed to be at DBU.

After just a couple of weeks home for the summer, I can also say that I've been blessed here at home as well. At DBU I made a lot of great friends whom I love and will miss these next few months, but I can't believe how much I love the people here at my "home base."

Tanter!! My crazyamazing brother. I'd venture to say that few siblings truely love each other as much as we do. I'd do anything for this kid. I'm excited for him to get done with school so we can hang out some.. I miss him and his antics while I'm at school.

MichaelRyan. Obviously, I love him. Everyone at DBU developed relationships during the year (some even got engaged, whaat?!) and they were so upset when they had to leave each other for the summer. But the day I left DBU was SO awesome because I knew I had this great guy waiting here for me. And a whole summer to spend with this amazing guy whom I love so much. :)

Jessica and KP: My gurrlz... The only women who can stand me for long amounts of time. (And, quite frankly, the only women I can stand most of the time) KP and I made it through our first year as roomies despite what everyone thought. But I'm really stoked to get to spend some quality time with my Jessica!! I've missed her soo much this year, and I'll miss her even more when she's gone next semester. I'm lucky to have them.

Steven!! Ahh the new kid on the block. This guy is awesome! An amazing guitarist and an amazing friend. We're blessed to have him around, he brings fresh eyes to our group and it's really great to look at each other through a newcomers perspective. He's a great one to vent to and even though he hasn't known me for 12 years, he still manages to never judge me for my crazy-ness. (hard to believe, isn't it?)

Look at those amazing people!! And they're all mine. Haha! I'm amazed at how, even though I screw up so much with relationships, God continues to entrust me with people. I can be difficult sometimes (a GROSS understatement, I know!) but somehow there's always that one person in my life that can calm me down and make me sane again. I kind of like to think of them all as Katie-Wranglers. Specifically trained to handle the ways of this wild beast ;D

So there you have it. I'm ready for summer.

Ruidoso Roadtrip '08

Some things about growing up totally suck.

Like increased responsibilities, lack of sleep, more homework, having to get a job, attempting to establish independence, figuring out how to pay for school and trying to convince your parents that they can't control you like they want to anymore...

However, on the other hand, some things about growing up totally rock.

Like being able to go on a road trip with your best friends sans parents.

What and awesome feeling. To know that you can just pack up, jump in a car and take off.

And thank the good Lord that Kaitlin has a beautiful house in a secluded New Mexico town right by an amazing ski resort AND generous parents who love us all enough to pay for everything.

God is so good to us.

We took a week before we all went back to school and stress and work and just got away to relax and spend some time together. It was great, and we fully intend to do it again.

We drove up Monday and got settled in and did some grocery shopping.
Tuesday we spent in town walking around and shopping, then playing Catchphrase and watching The Office on DVD.
Wednesday morning was the start of an interesting day.

Jessica and I decided Tuesday night to eat some salsa that had been in the fridge when we arrived at the cabin. We couldn't find the expiration date and the jar was already open, but the salsa smelled/looked/tasted just fine. So we had a little snack.

Oohhh did we pay for that mistake.

Wednesday morning dawned with Michael and Kaitlin getting ready to go skiing only to find Jessica and I laying on the bathroom floor sufficiently nauseated and in our pajamas.
It was quite a silly picture.
But they took good care of us and eventually got us up and onto the couch for the rest of the day.

But by Thursday we felt well enough to hit the slopes which was amazing.
I'm not the skiing fiend that Michael is, but I haven't fallen yet and I've been three times now.
We drove back Friday.

I can't wait to go again!!

My birthday is Sunday and I move back into DBU Monday.
Classes start Tuesday.

::whew::

Playing Catchphrase

Michael washing the dishes!!

Skiing Studs

The snow made my teeth suuuper white.

Aww.. What a great trip!!