When I grow up...oh wait, I don't want too.

Today was just like any other normal day. I woke up, went to class, studied, saw friends and took a test, solved a medical case study and took a quiz. Then I walked into the student store to grab a scantron sheet to take my physiology test when I saw a man advertising class rings. He asked me how long I had been in school and I said only a year, but I'm considered a junior. He handed me a brochure advertising class rings. He said, "it's about that time, soon you'll be needing graduation announcements." My heart skipped a beat.
I remember when my middle and high school years and how I could not wait to grow up, go to college, get a master's degree, get married and have a family. Now, most of that is no longer a dream... it's reality. I'm only 20 but my goodness I did not know that time would start going by faster and faster the older I got. I remember my first day of high school, graduation, first day of college and now I'm over half way done with it. It's a little scary and overwhelming to think about. I've always been one to have a plan and go fifty million miles an hour without stopping until that plan is completed. Now I find myself wanting to pull back and a little bit and slow down. I think this is something that God has been trying to teach me for a LONG time. I now have a desire to enjoy everything that He has given me instead of planning for the next bigger and better thing, because everything that I experience now is just a step in where God has me going. In order to appreciate the things that I want to accomplish one day, I must remember all that is happening now, so I can remember all that happened to get me that stage.

Lord, give me the strength and the will to slow down and hear Your voice. Help me to enjoy the time that I have to myself now, the things that I am learning, the education that I'm receiving, going out with friends on weekends, being able to drop what I'm doing to go to a football game, because if I blink one more time, I'll have so many more responsibilities.

I'm starting to understand what my parents tell me over and over again, "slow down, don't be so hard on yourself, enjoy it." Thank you, Lord, for giving me such amazing parents who believe in me and are proud of me, but want me to enjoy the time that I have here.

It's exciting growing up, but terribly scary. Thank goodness that I serve a God that has gone before me, yet is even here with me now as I take it all in, step by step.

Spiritual Growth Pains...

I am convinced that spiritual growth pains are far more painful than physical growth pains sometimes. I think I'd rather be sore from running miles on end that go through spiritual growth. (ok, I really don't mean that, spiritual growth is good, it's just HARD). I'm sitting here truly feeling the Spirit move in me, but not knowing what He's moving for or towards. I find myself either on my face or driving down the road just begging God to show me what He's doing. Of course I get the answer that I do not want to hear, "it is simply not time for you to know yet, but just trust me." That comment always puts me at peace but also frustrates the mess our of me. Like I've said in previous posts, I am a girl that loves to have a plan. God is very good at changing plans. Especially the plans that I think are all awesome. Of course, He always winds up winning and everything turns out better than I could ever imagine. It's just the waiting period that hurts the most. I am truly thankful that I'm not feeling no growth.
Speaking of growth, my roommates (Lauren and Brittany) and I are beginning a Beth Moore Bible study about Esther. It's entitled "Esther, It's Tough Being a Woman," I am really looking forward of digging deeper into the Word and learning more about God and His incredible love for me. I'm also looking forward to growing closer to my roommates and really looking into what God is doing in their lives too!

Two weeks ago, I went to Knoxville, Tennessee, with my parents, brother and my good friend, Andrew, and we met up with his parents and sister. We went to visit and attend the University of Tennessee vs. University of Alabama game. It was a lot of fun! My family are pretty big Tennessee fans (besides me, I'm a Gator) and Andrew's family are HARD-CORE (and when I say hard-core, I mean it) Alabama fans. It was fun watching each family's reactions to the different plays of the game. We all had a great time. I posted a picture of my brother and I at the game. I love him so much!

The only game that I really care to talk about, though, is ECU vs. NC State. Let me tell you, that game was by far the greatest game I've ever been to (well, at least the ending was). NC State was expected to run all over us and we beat them by a touchdown in overtime! The reaction of the fans in the stadium was crazy! I had a ton of fun! We take on Navy for military appreciation day on Saturday and it should be a good time!

So here's the news that I have been waiting for a long time to say: I passed my fitness test for my major with flying colors! I don't think anyone could've wiped the smile off of my face on that day. I was so nervous about it and was surprised with how well I performed. I was able to go beyond the expected goals of the test. I am very excited to say that I am now a junior in college and am working harder each day to get closer to my dream. I meet with my new advisor to plan my route to graduation! I'm going to try to be graduated by May of 2012, which would be a year and a half ahead of schedule. We'll see how it goes!
As for what's next in my fitness route, I'm not really sure. I've been taking it a little bit easier lately because I had been putting my body under so much stress while training for this test. I plan to get back to hard core training next week. No goals, no deadlines, just back to the gym, which is where I like to be.

When I began this blog, I was a lot different physically, emotionally and spiritually. I started at a size 10 and about 147 pounds. I am now a size 4 and about 137 pounds. I have no desire to be any smaller and I may even try to tone up a bit to a 6 just because I don't know if I want to be a size 4. The most important fact is that I am healthy. As long as my body is healthy, than it is all ok! :) I am happy that I have met my fitness goals! It of course took me a little longer than I would've liked, but I surpassed my goals!

It's been a while...

The semester has certainly caught up with me, that's for sure! School, studying, running, training, cooking and sleeping when I get a chance! Friday is the big day! The fitness test to declare my major. Kinda nervous! I took the practice round running test and passed it, so I'm definitely more confident about the test than I was this time last week!

So last blog, I bragged about my super-awesome run like the wind brother. I am proud to say that he made All Conference Cross Country Team!! He also placed 4th in the conference championship...and he's only a SOPHMORE!! I am the proudest big sister on the planet! I want everyone to know!!

Lately, a lot of my friends are either a) getting in to a relationship b) getting engaged or c) have gotten married. Sometimes I have an emotional girly moment where I'm like, "ok God, when is it going to be my turn?" Then before I can blink, God reminds me (over and over and over and over again, I don't know how He puts up with me half the time), to just chill out and wait. I'm really not a good waiter at all. God promised us that ALL things work together for our good. We just need to wait on the Lord and trust in Him. I will see His goodness! I'm extremely happy for all of my wonderful friends who God has blessed them with a companion. I know that one day they will be extremely happy for me too. I just have to wait a little longer than others. :) Plus, I'm kinda a hard girl to handle. Stubborn? no. I'm just...me. I'm definitely not your typical woman, but God made me that way. I scream at football games, I think working out is fun, I like action movies, BUT, I love the color pink, do not have a high pain tolerance, love to exfoliate my face and believe it or not, I do like to dress up and wear heals from time to time. One day, there will be a man to come a long and think, "my gosh, I thought no woman on the planet was like that....THAT'S HER!" So, I will wait for my prince charming, because prince charming does exists! I don't care what society says these days! :)

My cousin is in Nicaragua right now. She is working with malnourished children in an orphanage. She is there for three months and really has a heart for these children. Please pray for her, though, as she has started to come down with some type of illness. She is not supposed to come home until December. She is visiting a doctor tomorrow and hopefully they will be able to help her out.

I know this blog is a lot different from others, but there was a lot going on and I just felt like rambling! Speaking of ramble....I'm off to Tennessee this weekend! (Ok, Tennessee and ramble have nothing to do with each other, but it seemed like a good transition phrase). I'm going with my family, a dear friend of mine and his wonderful family (who I have not met, but am looking forward to meeting). We're all going to the Alabama/Tennessee game. Who will I cheer for you ask? I have no clue...I personally hate both teams. I'm a gator but most importantly I'm a PIRATE! (DOWN WENT THE WOLFPACK THIS WEEKEND!! ECU BEAT THE PACK!!!) It's been an incredible week to be a pirate! Anyway, I'm most likely going for Tennessee because I had some family go there and I'm still incredibly bitter at Alabama for beating the Gators and my man! (Tim Tebow, for all of those who are wondering. I'm convinced that he is my prince charming, so back off ladies)! ;)

As for when I'll update again, there's no clue! Please pray for Anna and my fitness test on Friday. I'll update about it when I get my results!

Unless you faint, puke or die, keep running!

I've never been much of a runner. I'm very much a short sprint type of athlete. My brother on the other hand could run for days at a time. He's seriously amazing. I have absolutely no idea how he does it! I wish that I had his skill! He's built to be a runner. Me, not so much. I am proud to say that he is one of the top runners in his conference and possibly the state. Sorry, I had to brag on him for a minute.
There is a reason why I am talking about running. As a health and human performance major, there is a fitness test that has to be passed in order to be fully declared into the program. You'll never guess what a portion of this test contains, yep, running. There are no words for me to even begin to describe how much I hate running. I have been running like a mad woman the past few weeks, though. I have discovered that interesting things happen when I run. I don't know about you, but I tend to go through a period where I freak out because my breathing starts becoming irregular, thankfully, that's not as much of a problem anymore. Another thing I have discovered is that I am ALWAYS hungry after I run. It's kind of annoying, but another great thing about running all the time is that it helps body fat percentage get lower and lower! :) So, challenge for the week (or however long it is before I post again with a new challenge) go out and try to run a mile every single day. I recommend in the early mornings or evening. It's a great way to relax and make you feel good about yourself!

Running is a great stress reliever. It makes you stronger, helps you breathe better and it gives your heart a good workout. What about the spiritual aspect of running?
"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope." -Romans 5:3-4
I know that when I get caught in a stressful situation, I tend to either a) run away from the situation or b) run to everyone who I think will give me sound advice. Sadly, sometimes one of those important people is not Jesus. Just like I have to make myself daily put on my shoes and run, I need to do that spiritually too. Why is it so easy just to forget about it and sit around just thinking, "I'll run tomorrow or I'm tired?" That mentality is getting me no where. It takes discipline. Sometimes spiritual discipline is even harder than physical discipline. My hearts desire is to run hard straight into Jesus' arms every single day. There are many days where there are big hurdles to jump over in order to get there, but Jesus always promises that He will never leave us or forsake us. He also promises not to give us more than we can handle. In every situation, there Jesus is, standing there with His arms out just waiting for us to call out and run straight towards Him. With that mentality of running towards Jesus every single day, we can never lose the race.

oh, how I love my roommates!

"Sarah, you know of Reggie Bush, he's a NASCAR driver, right?" haha :)

So my roommates and I are very different Some know who Reggie Bush is, some do not. I laughed at this question for days! God really knew what He was doing when He gave me my awesome roommates! We have a clean freak, health freak, singing freak and just a freak. We do have one thing in common, though, our love for God and our love for the wonderful place we live!

I also have awesome neighbors! There are some girls that also live in my building that go to my campus ministry and we all went to the first home football game last week. It was such a good time! It was a last minute win in our newly renovated stadium and the fans went crazy! Our school even made the number one play on ESPN's Top 10! It was a great day to be a part of Pirate Nation!! Yesterday was our second home game and our second win of the season! I love being a pirate and am proud of my team! Now it's time today to watch my Panthers kick some butt!!


Update on my current training program: my workout partner is the greatest ever! She was a competition cheerleader in high school. She is ridiculously strong! Way stronger than I have ever been, so I try to keep up with her! I love it! Her and I both push each other hard and we wake up sore every other morning because of it. Even though days seem shorter in college and they're packed with stress, a good workout helps me manage my stress so much better!

Lately, I have had another challenge thrown at me. When I am not in class, I'm studying. When I'm not studying, I'm working out. When I'm not working out, I'm at home recovering from my day because I'm exhausted. It leaves very little energy or inspiration to pick up the Word and read it. I get so frustrated (perfectionist mentality, I'm working on it every day), because I want to be able to study it and soak it up. In reality, I just cannot do that at this point in my life and I truly believe that God understands that. I have 2 different short devotionals that I go through each day and then read a few chapters in the Word. I'm actually almost done with the whole new testament which is awesome! When I'm driving down the road, I blast worship music in the speakers. I have learned that it is about asking God to be with you every minute of every single day. I want to be in His presence constantly. Knowing that He is there at all times is the most comforting thing to me. I am never alone. I do not have to be a Bible scholar to have any more of His presence throughout the day. Thank you, Lord, for meeting me at every place I am in life. I challenge you, ask Him to meet you wherever you are. He wants to be with you and He desires that you want Him.

"I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am in." -Philippians 4:11

He who promised is faithful!

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful." -Hebrews 10:23

So, I wake up this morning feeling awfully sore (new squat exercises on friday, it was painful to say the least), but I did get up early and got ready for church! Why? Cause God is cool like that, that's why. He has been teaching me about waiting on Him and to be ready to see what He will do. So, here I am, sitting, even though it is extremely hard to sit right now, and waiting to see what God will do. Anyway, back to church, I was there and having trouble focusing in on what was going on until Pastor Mike gets up and quotes my verse!

"I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! WAIT for the Lord, be STRONG, and let your HEART take COURAGE; WAIT for the Lord." -Psalm 27:13-14


I will have you know that I am one of the least patient people on the entire face of the universe. I hate waiting on pretty much everything. For example: I hate resting during reps at the gym because it's a form of waiting until I can continue, I hate waiting when something is cooking, I hate waiting on professors to get to class, I hate waiting when someone is late etc. You get the picture. One of the biggest things I hate waiting on is something good to happen, especially when you have to work in order for it to get that way. Which brings me to my fitness point of this blog:

It is impossible to get results over night. I have worked with a few people over the last year or so that get mad at me because I make them sore after one workout and they do not see a difference the next day. It takes proper exercise and nutrition on a consistent basis for about 6 weeks before the average person sees any kind of results. Just thought I'd throw that in there ;)

Same goes with God. Something was said in church today that made me feel a whole lot better about myself. "The Bible is a story of people who failed miserably at a lot of things, yet still changed the world for the sake of Christ." This means there's still hope for me!!! Totally made my day!! I do not even know where to begin when it comes to things I've messed up miserably with yet somehow it still came out to glorify God. Thank you, Jesus, for making me a walking talking disaster! If that's what I have to do to bring you praise, well let me continue to make a mess of things! God promised us that we will see His goodness, as long as we are walking with Him. So, the big question is, are you walking faithfully with Him? Have you given Him every single part of you? I know there are days where I take matters into my own hands (that's usually when the walking, talking disaster episode takes place). Be encouraged! The goodness of the Lord is coming for those who love Him!

on my own...

I am now living on my own. Well, kinda, I have 3 awesome roommates. I have a kitchen to cook in, laundry to do and an apartment to clean. My mommy is 4 hours away and cannot help or teach me how to do these things (thank goodness I did listen all those years living at home, even when I acted like I wasn't). I have a new found appreciation for her. At night, after I come home from training and classes, dinner is not sitting on the counter staring me in the face. All the items are sitting in various places in the kitchen saying "cook me or starve." You wouldn't believe the things that you can come up with! I've learned to cook healthy meals using the same ingredients about 1000 different ways. For instance, last weekend my roommates and I wanted to cook something fun, but with me having to get into better shape for my major, the food has to stay healthy. I went to the store and bought a fresh pineapple and some teryaki marinade that was low in calories and sugar. I came home and cut up some chicken and lean steak and also had some fresh shrimp. Marinated those for 24 hours, then put them on skewers along with the pineapple and put them on the grill. It was soo good. I know my mom would be proud! :)

My mom has taught me so much about managing my time wisely and to get things done the night before so I'm not rushing before class in the morning. This may seem like a silly post to you, but this is a new phase in life for me and I wanted to brag on my mom a bit. :) Because of her awesome super-power greatest mom ever skills, I am learning to balance my time between keeping the apartment neat, going to class (while making good grades), studying, training and extra-curriculars.
Speaking of extra-curricular activities, my campus ministry meets for the first time this semester tonight and I am pretty stinkin' excited for all that God is going to do on this campus!!

So mom, thank you for being so awesome and teaching me these things. Without you, well, I'd be failing out of school, buried alive in a mess of dirty laundry, my kitchen would reak from dirty dishes and I'd be just about dead from starvation. Thankfully, I learned from the greatest and none of those terrible things are happening to me. You're my hero and one day when I grow up, I am going to be just like you because I want to have an incredible life and I want my kids to have an amazing mom like you. :)

"Charm is deceptive and beauty if fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Proverbs 31:30. My mom lives by this passage. She is just awesome!