I Heart Shoes.

So I really love shoes. A lot. The problem is my feet are not typical feet. They are small (size 6 to be exact) and W I D E. Basically it's like someone took a size 9 and squished it down to fit in a 6. No bueno. I also have these bumps on my heels that make my feet even more difficult. So, naturally shopping for shoes that fit my Fred Flinstone-esque feet is a bit of a challenge. Yet, I do not let these challenges stop me from searching for the perfect pair.

I have realized that for me, dating is like shoe shopping. You may be laughing and thinking that is an absurd statement, but I digress. If I date a person, it is generally because I see something that could lead to further committment, not for a fleeting interest. Which means there are specific criteria I am looking for; ie he must be a Christian, to name the most important. If he is not a Christian, the relationship will aquire blisters that I won't be able to live with, just like those flats that are clearly too small, even if they are the cutest ones I've seen yet. Now, there are some things that may cause issues in the beginning that can be worked out. If we don't see eye to eye on the types of movies we like to watch, I'm sure a compromise will be reached. Shoes stretch a little bit to fit your feet, and chances are that at some point you will have to stretch to fit a relationship.

On top of all that, I know that God knows my perfect shoe. And when the event comes that I need that perfect pair we will guide me to them, and my perfect date. Or perhaps it will be revealed that I am meant to go barefoot. I trust the Lord with my heart and with my life. Sometimes its so easy to get frustrated with being single, and feeling likeI'm never going to find someone. Trying on dates, or shoes, can be exhausting! But I rest easy when I remember, its not my timeline, its His.

"...For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future..." Jeremiah 29:11

I know I promised some pictures last time. I'm seriously slacking. Maybe later.

Oh, Monday.

It's 2 p.m. on Monday and so far the only thing getting me through the day is:

1. By noon on Wednesday, I'll be on my way home for the week.

and

2. There's cheesecake in the office fridge offering me a mid-day sweet escape.

I had FABULOUS weekend. It was filled with late night catch phrase. "Turkey hunting" for Pat. Dinner in SF with amazing girls. Inspired worship. Uplifting fellowship. Side splitting laughter. And feasting! I've got pictures to post. Later. Not now.

Because now, its time for cheesecake.

I Miss You.

Dear Sunshine,

I just wanted to say hello, since my time with you has been limited as of lately and I know it will only be more sparse from here on out. At least for a little bit. I thought you would like to know that I watch you everyday from my desk and dream of basking in your rays. I do, however, appreciate that you have left the heat behind for now. I still think you are really pretty, especially shining through the colorful leaves of fall. I love the time we spend together early in the mornings, and look forward to our time on the weekends. I know that you are spending some much needed time in the southern hemisphere right now, and I am sure they are grateful for your time there. Saturday is right around the corner, and I promise to spend some quality time with you.


With Love,

Ari



P.S. I've included a picture with the

two of us in case you
forgot what I look like.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

Ok, I am absolutely LOVING this weather. I am thrilled that for the last few days it has actually felt like November, and not May. I love the turning of the leaves, the chill in the air that makes you put on your favorite scarf, and the spirit of the holidays hanging in the air. Oh and did I mention how giddy I got when I saw starbucks has busted out the holiday cups?! How can you not be in cheery mood just by looking at it? Have that baby filled with a peppermint mocha and even Scrooge would become jolly. My heart is actually flittering with excitement just thinking about it all. It is hands down my favorite time of year. There's something enchanting about the changing colors on the leaves. I am just in awe of God's artisitc abilities. He never misses a detail.

I had a great weekend with no agenda, which is always nice. I spent Saturday running a few errands, and I decided to actually do one of the projects I've been dreaming about. So I busted out the sewing machine (which needed some MAJOR dusting off) and got to work. I got the idea from the blog Ruffles and Things, she did a t-shirt for her daughter and I thought it was too cute to not do one for myself. A lot of her ideas of J. Crew inspired which I LOVE LOVE LOVE. But their shirts can be a little pricey at times. So I did this one for $10!! All I needed was the shirt. I was going to attatch the pearls to the shirt as well, but I loved them too much to limit them to one shirt :)

I finished my weekend off on Sunday with Church, which was so inspiring. We had a man from India give his testimony and it was so moving. A stroll in the park, and college group Sunday night put me in the best place to start a new week. It was some much needed fellowship and worship time, that I was beyond grateful for. Sometimes I get so wrapped in my day to day routine I loose sight of the small blessings that make huge differences.

"So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ." Romans 10:17

God bless you.

You Know Your Life Is Exciting When...

Your mood can be greatly effected by a staple remover.

This is my personal favorite model. Oh Bostitch, be still my beating heart.

On a more exciting note, had a BIG test today, and I'm pretty sure I ROCKED it.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phil. 4:13

Including removing the meanest staples ever.

What is that, a rollercoaster?

This will probably be a little bit of randomness but here it goes:

I got diagnosed with vertigo last week. If you don't know what it is, its not a roller coaster at six flags, which it sounds like. Actually it's exactly what it FEELS like. I get really bad headaches, which are then accompanied by intense dizziness and nausea. When I walk I feel like I'm a boat. Anyways, I have to go get a CT scan to rule out the possibility of a brain tumor, which is highly unlikely. None the less, if you could throw me in the mix during your prayers the next week or two, I would be much obliged.

Last week(end) was full of Fallapalooza madness, concluding Saturday night with the festivities. The event went off without a hitch, except for a few blown fuses. We had a massive turnout at Crossroads, 700+!! It was such a blessing to see every ones hard work and dedication come together for such a great community outreach event. So many members contributed something, whether it was time, money, prizes, or cupcakes nothing went unnoticed. And there's no way we could have done it without every little bit. So if you weren't a part of it this year, I strongly encourage you to do so next year. And if you didn't come, you missed a great time, and there will be room for you next year!!

Sunday afternoon/night, I spent in SF with a few members of my growth group on a prayer walk. What an eye opening thing to do. It was so empowering to walk around and pray out loud for anything and everything that we came across. God has BIG plans for that city, as believers we need to help in any way we can.

On a little more serious note, I am blown away with the ease the God communicates to me exactly what I need in my life. Sometimes its difficult but only because I am not patient enough to understand. He tends to put reoccurring themes in my life, often its something that I have been struggling with personally, and God brings it out in every turn in my life until I can see what He has placed in front of me. Lately its been faith. And it hit me like the most pleasant sack of bricks.

My friend told me little story about a woman who lost her son, and throughout her son's medical struggles she could her God whispering,

will you still praise me?

Her answer, yes Lord always.

And that was the attitude she still carries today. I was told the story a few weeks ago, but it didn't resonate until this morning. I had a rough night last night and had reached out to a good friend for some counsel. And she, gently, put me in my place. She had grace and compassion towards my feelings, but was so quick to turn my focus to the Holy Spirit, and to how blind I was being to its presence in the situation. I spent a lot of time in prayer this morning, I did some reading both from the Bible and few different sources, I reflected on Bruce's sermon yesterday (which was AWESOME, I could totally feel the presence of the Holy Spirit through his message), and I blog stalked. It led me to this amazing blog that was recommended to me a while ago; http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

"What you will find is that God is constantly asking us where we are, even while His eyes are fixed upon us. He wants our accountability, our recognition, our understanding of who we are compared to Him."

This quote really jumped out at me. Regardless of the situation I am going through God is watching me. Not only is He watching me but He is wanting to guide me to the right choices. But I have to have the faith in Him to give the power of the situation to Him. We are hopeless and lost without the guidance of Christ. But to be guided to His glory, we need to have faith that He will get us there. All too often I find myself forcing situations to happen how and when I see fit. And the timing is generally horribly off from God's and it never works for me. But when I give Him what He is looking for, He is quick to reveal Himself to me.

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrews 11:6

I have probably rambled on for too long and have probably lost the few of you who are reading, but I pray that your faith is continually strengthened. I pray that you are still long enough to hear Him whisper. And I pray that we never loose sight of just how amazing out Saviour is.

Hopefully I'll get a few pictures up in the next couple of days. In the mean time here's a funny one of my good friend Jenny's dog, Allie, smothering me because I didn't want to give her kisses. Ok Allie, you win.

Have a wonderful week. God bless you.

There's something about this time of year...

And the skies.

There's lots of crafts involved in my weekend. I'm really excited about it.

She's crafty. Have a blessed weekend.

I love you too.

If you haven't heard yet we are reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan in our women's study group, and like everyone else in the group, I am STOKED. We started out with really good intentions with our first book, unfortunately the spark was never there with the un-named book. But before any of us even started Crazy Love we were excited. I truly feel this is a book that is going to grow as women of Christ and sisters in the Lord. For so long I've felt the pull to have a closer relationship with women in my life and I couldn't think of a more awesome group of girls to grow closer to then the ones God has placed in our group!! It's so much easier to make it through the harder moments in life when you have a sister holding your hand, and even more fun to celebrate the highs.

Yesterday at work was rough for me. I had plenty of things to do but nothing that seemed to motivate or inspire me. So for a mental break I turned to the Crazy Love website, http://www.crazylovebook.com/, and watched one of the videos they have. It was called Stop and Think. And in 15 minutes it rocked my world. I know that I have "accepted Christ into my heart as my Saviour" and am forgiven of my sins through God's Son, Jesus, that he gave to us an eternal sacrifice. But seldom do I recognize what a tremendous amount of love that really is. And that without asking for it, it is given to us. Just waiting for us to realize that its there. The creator of the universe is waiting for us to simply say, I love you too.

Last night in growth group we touched on letting God be the Lord of our lives. And how when we stop doing things because we think it will please God, and start doing things because we WANT to please Him, and we WANT to love Him, how much easier our walk becomes. That thought was on my mind while I was watching this video and it all seemed to really click for me. His love is so easy for us to have. And He wants us to have it. That's all He has ever wanted for us. So to embrace that love and the One who gives it to us should be what dictates how we live our lives. Our motivation should stem from that. I was so overwhelmed with a feeling of complete love after this. Our actions for the Lord should be out of love. Our actions toward each other should be out of love. Its a really easy thing to lose sight of, I know I do often, but it should be something we are always coming back to. The love of Jesus Christ. And how we can emulate it in our lives.

God bless you. I love you.

Oh man.

This is pretty embarassing. But I also think its pretty hilarious. My friends always get on me about singing to songs that I don't know the lyrics to. I thought I pulled it off quite well. Apparently I'm wrong.

I'm off to brush up on my kareoke skills. God. Bless. You.

I.S.T.

This past weekend, my good friend Anne and I attended my cousin Kristen's wedding. She was marrying her boyfriend of 5 years, Jasvir. The unique part about this union is that Jasvir and his family are Sikh, which is a branch of Islam, so there were two ceremonies to appease each side of the family.
(The temple where the ceremony took place)

The first ceremony was the Indian ceremony, taking place at a temple in Sacramento. Anne and I were very excited for this first part, because it was a glimpse into a different culture that we otherwise would not have had. The invitation stated 9 am as the time the first wedding would begin. So I arrived at 9:15 figuring they may be running a few minutes behind. Well I was wrong, they weren't running 10 or 15 minutes behind, they were running 2 hours behind. This is when were told about I.S.T. Indian Standard Time. Apparently the times on the invitations are merely suggestions to them, and they show up whenever they feel like it, even if the event is waiting on them.

So while we waited we made some small talk with some of my relatives and killed some time in the parking lot. Soon the groom and his family arrived. He looked like a prince! After the bridal party was on their way we were aloud to head towards the temple, it is customary to wait for the groom's family procession first.

Once we got into the foyer of the temple we removed our shoes and covered our heads with scarves. For seating inside the actual temple we sat on the ground with men on the left side of the room and the women on the right. Just a note if you ever find yourself in a Sikh temple and you are sitting on the ground, do not put your feet in front of you. Apparently its a huge sign of disrespect for your feet to pointing towards the prayer book. Trust me. I know. Once the ceremony began it was interesting. Everything was sung in a different language, that I think was Punjabi. They translated on big projection screens. My cousin looked as much like a princess as Jaz looked like a prince. Despite the cultural and belief differences, I was very honored to be able to expierence that. I gained some knowlege on Islam and their culture.

The American ceremony also started nearly two hours late. But as soon as dinner was served we had a great time. They sure do know how to throw a party. There were some traditional Indian drummers that played along with the band and they were legit! Not to mention how amazing these people are at dancing. We danced until 11 then it was off home. Poor Anne was so wiped she was asleep before we hit Davis. Overall it was a great time. So here's some pics.

I hope you had a beautiful weekend. That didn't run on IST. God Bless.

Amazing, God.

I found myself driving the other day, talking myself out of a cranky mood. I was actually praying, asking God to clear my mind and give me peace for the day. As I did this I was reminded of the two kids I used to nanny for.

They were young, 5 and 7 and temper tantrums were a common occurence if naps weren't taken or their favorite toy was snatched by the other. I had developed a way to calm them down. We would take three deep breaths, then we would count our blessings. Usually by the time we got to five they were laughing and smiling, their problems from a few minutes ago gone.

I was really humbled thinking about this. They didn't ask God to take away their troubles, they decided to instead praise God for all of the good things that far outway the bad. Here I was cranky because of this or that, yet I had just come from an amazing fellowship with the girls. I had a meeting at Jessup and its looking like that process is going to be reality in the next few months. I made it home safely in the rain. I was fed and warm.

I decided that I would not pray for God to take this anxiety away, but I praised Him for all of the blessings I take for granted everyday. A big one for me this week, was my drive to work. I complain about my commute more then I should, but as I slowed things down this week, I took the time to see the beautiful pictures God was painting for me on my way home.

This was Monday during the storms. I was amazed at how low the clouds looked
This is by far my favorite view this week, it was on Wed. after the storm was clearing.
This weekend I am attending my cousins wedding. It should be beautiful.

Count Your Blessings.

Hello.

Hi. My name is Ari, of course if you're reading this, that is probably a fact that you are already well aware of. Anyways, I'm going to go brainstorm some sweet blog ideas and make it look all fancy. I'll be back with more later. Promise. God bless.