orange circle

a few weeks ago, a few friends and i went down to the orange circle for a little shopping and lunch. we found a spotted moth there (which i guess has been there for quite some time! i just don't pay attention?) which was fun because i recognized it since they sponsor a lot of bloggers! natalie ended up getting a really cute shirt (which means i get to borrow her really cute shirt) and a sweet vintage suitcase. she loved it!

we had lunch at kimmies, which is always really good and then walked over to the fountain. it's so nice walking around old town orange. i'm looking forward to our next visit back! which hopefully is soon since we only live like 15 minutes away.

and since we were in the area, we had to stop at bookman. we love it there! so many books in one place? oh we could spend all day there! i think if natalie and i could really do anything (as in career-wise) we would do something with books. we'd either be book editors, or publishers, or authors, or own a bookstore. something like that! we love love love books. which reminds me that i really need to start unwholly! just as soon as i finish this present darkness :) which might be a while since it's so long... but i'm a fast reader so we'll see how long it really takes me!

the days after romania

the first few days after i got home from romania looked a lot like this:

natalie and i saw the bourne legacy.

we were very happy to see jeremy. and after that we watched the amazing spiderman and the dark knight. all in one day. but i kind of fell asleep in the dark knight. but it's okay because i had seen it before (and again since then!)

natalie, jessica, and i went to the beach. jessica survived a day on her crazy diet of only eating fruit. and my dad joined us in between two of his jobs to go swimming with us!

i met up with my longtime pal, mary, and we had a good long conversation over panera bread and yogurtland.

and i had to go represent CPSA at the freshmen orientation career fair. good thing my friend amy was there with me!

and now i have a little over a week of summer left before it's time to go back to school. did i mention it's my last year in college? yeah i did. ahhhh crazy!

last night with the kona team.

sadly, our friends from the kona team left us last sunday and headed off to london for the next six weeks. we were sad to see them go! we had such a fun time hanging out with them and working with them during the baseball camp. we really enjoyed getting to spend time with other people our age. it was awesome to see God letting us come together, even though we were all so different and from so many different countries. God's just cool like that.

we ended up running around the city all night. we eventually made our way up to the top of a hill that overlooks all of cluj. it is beautiful up there! we had only been during the daytime before, so seeing all of the city at night was absolutely beautiful!

after the hill, we walked to central park. we had done a lot of ministry work there, but it was fun just getting to go there on our own to do our own thing. plus, it was really nice being at the park so late. essentially, it was empty minus a few other people walking around. 

we miss the team! but we're happy that the ywam cluj team is still here with us. we love them too :). i felt super thankful that God let us meet all of the people from kona. i'm praying for the rest of their time in london! if you could pray for them too that would be awesome! i know God's going to use them in big ways over there!

baseball camp: days 3, 4, & 5

the last few days at baseball camp were bittersweet. we starting missing the kids as soon as they left. it was sad to think that i might not see some of them again in this life. but, i was happy to spend the few days with them and get to know them all better. our group had the best personalities! they would bring the biggest smile to my face. especially when they all would shout, "CHANEL!! I LOVE YOU!". haha! a little embarrassing but mostly just the sweetest thing ever. oh i miss them!

paul wanted to braid my hair

vanna, me, maria, and emma

natalie and alisa

on the second to last day, i got to share with the kids during our bible time. the theme for the day was love and sacrifice. after i shared a little story, i got to read the kids a few verses. 1 john 3:16: "¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." and 1 john 4:9-10: "⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." it was so awesome getting to share with them! they seemed really into it, so i'm just praying that God will continue to remind them how much He loves them.

the last day ended with a water fight. well, only between me and the kids. it was great! as you can see in one of the pictures above, they got me completely soaked. it was fine by me since it was so stinking hot that day! and at the very end of camp the kids asked all of us for our autographs. seriously, the cutest. i love them! i am so happy that God had us here in cluj to be apart of this camp. i had the best time!

pool day.

today was spent laying by the pool and getting some sun. it sort of reminded me of the hungarian baths, but not really. those pools there are so big and weird. but i had such a good time when we went to those! and i had a great time today. mondays here are our "free days". we were hoping to go to a lake today, but it looks like that will hopefully be during another week. also coming up on the schedule: dracula's castle. i heard it was okay, but i'm excited to go. i want to see as much of romania as i can while i'm here. 

tonight we're going to go grocery shopping (yes i love grocery shopping. and yes i can spend literally three hours wandering a grocery store. so fun!!). after that, we'll head on out to dinner. just the six of us again. it will be nice. and it's always interesting trying to order our food when we don't speak romanian. as long as it's not pork, i will probably be fine with it. probably ;)

today was just what i needed after being so sick over the weekend. i'm looking forward to whatever else we are going to be doing this week (which i think will include a cleaning project on thursday!). i'm also looking forward to reading more. i finished a book yesterday (the fault in our stars.... IT WAS SO GOOD! go read it right now!). and now i started another book today. man, i stinking love reading so much. okay, bye for now!

missing hungary

charee, me*, natalie, jessica

what else is new? i miss Hungary every single day. i miss my friends there and i miss the long days and long nights that i spent there two summers ago. i wish i could go back! i'm praying that i can.


it's funny, because i was talking to my mom one night and i asked her to pray for me and for what i should do next summer. well, more importantly, what God wanted me to do next summer. i wasn't sure if that meant trying to get an accounting internship or going on a mission trip. i was hoping that God was going with mission trip :) {side note: i love going on mission trips and serving. and last year i was praying hard that i could go to romania! God had different plans though (i had the privilege of going to haiti). and romania wasn't even in the works yet (haha! God must have been laughing a little at me jumping ahead of Him about romania! silly silly).} so literally, as soon as i hung up with my mom, i got on the phone with my friend ryan. and what does he tell me? oh that we might be going to romania for a few weeks in the summer on a mission trip. excuseeee me?! seriously!? and i had just spoken to my mom about this? but i was torn. because lately, i have been feeling like the best thing to do is get an internship. i'm planning on graduating in about a year, and i need to prepare for that.


so, i just don't know what to do. i mean, obviously God is going to give me peace about what i should do and what i am called to do. and i know my heart wants to go back to hungary so badly... but sometimes God asks us to do other things. things that we didn't think were ideal or what we wanted- but God knows whats best! it's the biggest lesson He has ever taught me. how to deny myself daily and just follow Him. to trust Him with all of my heart.


Mark 8:34* "When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."

i'm excited to see what God has in store for next summer! praying and looking to Him for guidance! love you God!!

TTI: borders

sandy and casey are silly

TTI: this is the story of the time natalie and i went to borders (sad day because they are all out of business now!!). seriously, we had the best time. we tried taking videos of each other dancing down the aisles and just being silly. we even saw our pastor's wife there and definitely giggled about it for a long time. i think people got annoyed at how loud we were being. natalie is my best friend! God blessed me so much with her as my sister! i guess now natalie and i will have to hang out at barnes & noble.... we'll see about that though. these pictures were taken at the beginning of summer and they make me smile!

cute outfit natakie!

cute sister bear!

i love whipped cream

whatttttt