welcome 2014

welcome 2014. i'll look back on 2013 fondly. it was challenging and wonderful. and i'd say by the end of the year that i had grown and learned quite a bit. and God continues to grow me and to meet me everyday. if only i would choose to meet with him everyday. i definitely have some resolutions, just to re-focus myself and work hard towards goals for this year. my top priorities being:
meet with God everyday. allow Him to be my top priority and my number one love.
learn to serve my fiance with all of my heart. i want to be as selfless as i can be.
focus on my relationships with my family and friends.
learn to love as Christ loves us.

i'm so excited for what 2014 holds. i also can't believe that this is the year that i will be marrying my sweetheart. it seems like forever ago that austin and i were meeting at a friends house for the first time. really, it was 10 years ago that we first met. i am a blessed woman to call him my fiance and soon to be husband.

the verse that keeps coming to mind for the new year is this, "therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" (hebrews 12:1). praying you have a blessed year and will choose to run your life race for Christ as I am choosing to run mine.

regenerate retreat

my sister and i have been going to a new church now for the past six months and it has been wonderful. natalie and i grew up with the pastor's wife (our families are like families) and it has been awesome to see how God is using her and brenen. back in january, we went on their college retreat up in lake arrowhead and had such a rad time. we even made friends (i'm still so proud of us!). we didn't spend a whole lot of time outside, but the weekend rocked. i hadn't been on a retreat in a while and it was nice to get away and just hang out with some good friends and spend some time with God. and the worship was phenomenal. i loved it!

 it was so great getting to hang out with people i grew up with! the photo above is of a group of us who grew up together and who's parents are still very close. it's so cool seeing us all grown up and those of us who have a relationship with the Lord. we are blessed! i can't wait to go on another retreat and to get to hang out with these long-time friends again (hopefully that happens before next year!). God is awesome!

heather's 22nd

heather's 22nd birthday was last month in january and we had a great night going to pf changs (so heather could eat some yummy gluten free food) and then seeing a band play at house of blues in downtown disney. happy late birthday heather! looking forward to going to washington with you this summer!!

i had to include an this blue picture of me, jessica, and nat in honor of tobias funke ;)

salvation mountain

so my friends and i had been planning to go to salvation mountain for months. it was just so hard finding a time to go with everyone's schedules. so over christmas break we managed to fit a day to go. salvation mountain is located in niland, california, and is near the salton sea (which is HUGE by the way. it's the largest lake in california!). it was created by a man named Leonard Knight, who wanted to share the message that "God is love" and that Jesus died for our sins. 

i was so excited and so happy, i didn't even care that we were leaving at 5 6:30 a.m.! we started the drive down there and only managed to get lost twice (which i partially blame becca for. because she doesn't pay attention. haha. but i also blame google maps because the directions to niland we're wrong. dumb!). eventually we made it to the mountain (some 4 hours after we started) and spent a few hours there. it was wonderful! if you ever have an opportunity to go or live in california, do it! it's worth the drive!

hopefully i'll go back one day. it's definitely a sight to see! and it was such a great day with all of my friends. del taco for breakfast. long talks on the road. listening to stupid songs and singing at the top of our lungs. pretzel m&m's. coffee bean. it was great :)

started out the new year right

i wanted to start off the new year (it was january 1st!) doing something active and out of the norm. so what better way to do that then to go on a hike with my sister and our friend, siaira? gotta start prepping now for our trip to washington in june!!

we hiked peter's canyon (which is about a 15 minute drive from my house) and managed to make it out of there just in time before they shut the gate and locked our car away for the night. we also survived "death hill" (as we like to call it) which basically goes straight up for what seems like an eternity. we're pro hikers, what can i say? i can't wait until we go back! 

january recap

so i was thinking of doing a 365 project and was planning on taking a photo everyday. but once i started, i knew i was going to quickly get overwhelmed. but i finished out the month of january and am so proud i did! it definitely inspired me to try to take photos everyday, but now that i've finished the month i don't feel as pressured to have to post a photo everyday. but here are the photos of what i was doing for the month:

1/1. went on a hike at peter's canyon with natalie and siaira. great way to start out the new year!

1/2. went to salvation mountain with the girls.

1/3. wore my mouse rat t-shirt and loved it.

1/4. went on a hike with natalie and jess down in irvine.

 

1/5. went on a hike with natalie, siaira, and justine on the trail behind our house.

1/6. celebrated heather's 22nd birthday at house of blues anaheim.

1/7. ate a delicoius free burrito bowl from chipotle. i'm so glad i worked there!

1/8. started reading the bell jar.

1/9. picked and purchased our tickets for our washington trip!

1/10. first official day at school. wore my mouse rat t-shirt again.

1/11. first night at regenerate's college retreat.

1/12. grabbed a quick photo with friends i've known my entire life.

1/13. headed back down the mountain after the retreat.

1/14. went to the brea mall. had to take as many sandwich samples as i could grab.

1/15. school day.

1/16. kean coffee with jess. so good!

1/17. finally donated blood so the red cross can leave me alone finally. 

1/18. date night workout from Tone It Up.

1/19. celebrated melissa's 25th birthday in downtown fullerton.

1/20. lunch and church with cathee. had to go back to pieology.

 

1/21. went to downtown orange to watch parks and rec being filmed. best day ever!

1/22. attended my first work event. in my business attire and all. strange.

1/23. took a body pump class with jessica then went to her house and passed out on her floor.

1/24. woke up to rain. i looooove it!

 

1/25. it was still raining. so i wore socks under my TOMS. i'm being smart here you guys.

1/26. casey and i tried to distract natalie while she was doing her homework.

1/27. went to mario's with my aunt and sister after church. i think i eat about 5 lbs of chips + salsa everytime.

1/28. my typical breakfast. two homemade waffles + coffee.

 

1/29. wore my bangs down for one of the first times ever.

1/30. went to kean coffee with tricia. this time, we added a donut to the mix.

1/31. studied for my auditing class in the school's starbucks.

so that was my january. i'm so glad i took a photo a day! maybe i'll do it for another month this year :)

submission.

via

happy new year! i am so happy it is 2013. 2012 was not a fun year for me. don't get me wrong, there were some very fun times with friends and i did get to go back to Hungary (my favorite place!), but more than anything it was an extremely trying year. i'm not sure how much i shared on here on how my trip to romania actually went, but it left me feeling very bitter and angry. and that bitterness and resentment rolled over into my walk with God. and there is no excuse to blame God or be disappointed in Him for what people do. but i let it go there. so as i was driving home the other day and reflecting back on 2012, i was so disappointed in myself. 2012 was all about me, and not about God. it was about what i wanted to do, not what God wanted me to do. and as i kept driving and had the radio on, a message on kwave mentioned the word "submission". and i knew it was my word. and that's scary, coming from someone who struggles with allowing God to rule over my whole life. it's going to be a challenge, but my main goal or resolution for 2013 is to daily submit to God. i don't want to waste anymore time being consumed with myself and not with God. i know i'll fail at this, because hello i'm a sinner (the worst) and there will be those times where i don't want to submit. but i'm praying that my heart will be changed and i'll allow God to go there and to really have His will be done in my life. i'm glad that once the new year rolls around it feels like it's a fresh start. and 2013 really will be a year of starts for me. i'll be done with college in march, starting my career in july, and hopefully moving out on my own for the first time in the fall. i'm pretty sure this new year will be a lot better than 2012, and i am excited to see what God has in store.