Wow God Moment!

Ok so every time I think back and reflect on this moment I get all giddy and excited so please bear with my as I attempt to share with all of you just how awesome God is!

As most of you know I am a theater teacher and work steadily in the Chicago theater scene. It has been a major blessing for me to be able to teach at a Christian school and I love every single second of it, but working in theater around the city I am usually the only Christ follower in a cast and production team full of people. It is just not the norm to have believers in the main stream theater circle most of the believers that I know that are working in the arts work for Christian companies.

So when a good friend of mine asked me to come on board his project and stage manage for him I was of course more than happy to help a friend and have another opportunity to shine Gods light and love into and onto a cast and prod. team that I was sure didn't and would not know him.

As all of the actors and production team were getting to know each other with the first week of rehearsals there came the ever so  common find me on facebook. haha. so slowly I had friend requests trickling in on my facebook page. One of those requests came from the actress playing the mother in the show. I accepted and the next day I had a cute little message from her in reference to my religious views -"I love Jesus" she said "you love Jesus,Me too! :) "  I was so excited that there was another believer here to go on this ride with me, another person here to share the love and light of Jesus!

The next day at our rehearsal we were chatting about the Christmas programs at our churches and our producer walked over and said "Are you guys believers?" We were both like yea and then found out that he is as well. My head was spinning, like I said this is not the norm. I was happy to have one more believer but to have three of us I was already in awe, but God was not done yet another one of our actors overheard Les our producer asking us what churches we went to and walked over and burst out and said are you guys Christian? Both she and I answered yes (He and Les go to  the same Church).

There are 4 Christ followers working on this production! None of  us could deny the awesome-ness of this and fact that again it is not normal to have even one believer in a cast or on a production team let alone 4. None of us could deny that God is doing something great and moving in a mighty way and that this small army of believers is no doubt going to be used for HIS GLORY! This is no accident God knew exactly what he was doing when each of us signed on to take part in this project!

I am still in awe and I am humbled and excited to see where he will be taking us over the next 2 1/2 months. God is doing something big and the fact that he is using me to do it just knocks my socks off! I am so thankful for this opportunity that he has given us to be his walking talking billboards! Please Pray for us as we take on what ever God puts before us!

Happy Thanksgiving

This year my thanksgiving plans were not the usual. I did not go home to Michigan this year due to finances, so I spent my turkey day here in Chicago with great friends. I woke up somewhat early and headed downtown to take in the Thanksgiving parade! That was great fun! After the parade I headed up north to spend the day with some great family friends!

Even though I was not able to go home and spend the time with my family I still had a great day. It was so nice to be with friends and fellowship and share. This thanksgiving holiday I had/have so many things to be thankful for.

• My Saviour! God has blessed me and my life well beyond what I deserve! I may not always get to do the things that I want to do and its rough financially but I still have a roof over my head,food in my fridge,clothes on my back and shoes on my feet. warm coats and hats to see me through these winter months. God has given me everything that I need to survive and he has also given me the most precious gift his son! Because of his son my life is secured! God is Good!

• My amazing family! They are so supportive and wonderful my momma is always there to talk me down and give me prospective when I am rambling on about things that frustrate me and annoy me,my grandmothers! they are my most amazing examples of what a good christian woman,mother and wife looks like and they are always there to encourage me! My sister she is my sunshine I love her so much and I am so very proud of her and the young lady she is becoming! LOVE all of you!

• My amazing Church family!! In this past year my church family and small group ladies and young adults group have been a major blessing! praying with me teaching me challenging me and encouraging me to be the person that God has called me to be! I love all of them so much! Because of them I have gone from having no one here in the city to hangout with and feeling so lonely in this great city full of people to having so many wonderful and amazing friends to fellowship with and call on!

This thanksgiving and this Holiday season I have so many wonderful people and things to be thankful for. I thank God for his amazing blessings and his grace and for giving me so much to thank him for! I hope all of your thanksgivings were wonderful and that you all took time to allow your heart to be grateful for what God has done in your lives this past year!

Playing catch up!

Sheesh! Talk about lack of post updates haha.It has been an overwhelming,crazy,busy past couple of months. Of course work as usual and I have started working on a new show so that takes up a lot of time, but one of the most major things that has been going on here is the accidental death of the daughter of a great friend and mentor at church. Her Daughter was standing outside her car talking to a friend when it and her were sideswiped by a vehicle. The man who hit both her and her friend ran and not only that was drunk. So needless to say it has been a rough couple of months.

The man later turned himself in and is on trial. We as a church family have been really trying to support the family in prayer,cooking and  offering services like that but we are also showing our support by attending the court dates. I was not able to attend the first one but I hope to attend the second one coming up in mid December.

We are just trying to stay prayerful for the family and show our support any way we know how! I urge all of you to keep the Rodriguez-Gamez, Cardenas family in prayer too! Thanks!

love,creativity and Alyson Stoner

Ok so I have a lot to say today which means that this post if going to just be all over the place haha. You have been forewarned, so I will continue. I love my job, I am a youth theater arts teacher here in Chicago and I really do love every second of it. I adore working with all of the fantastic students that I have and watching them grow and explore their creativity. It is my goal to start a Christian based youth performing arts company that focuses of many creative outlets such as theater,dance,vocal and instrumental music,creative writing and spoken word just to name a few with Christ and christian values at the center of it all, promoting love and respect for your self and each other while exploring as many creative avenues as you can!

With that being said in my attempt to keep this post flowing in a some what fluid manner there is a young lady who is an Actress/dancer/singer who made a name for herself early starring as a dancer in numerous missy elliot videos and went on to work with artists like Eminem and outkast in videos as well as live events. She later went on to work on the super fun films cheaper by the dozen 1 and 2, and has more recently gained popularity starring in those fun and spunky Disney channel originals camp rock 1 and 2 and as the voice of Isabella in the totally infectious Phineas and Ferb (which I totally love watching btw). By now your probably thinking so how exactly is this flowing fluidly, well here it is. Of course my students absolutely love her, and I try to make it a point to check out all of the stuff that they are talking about and all of the things that they are interested in so that I can 1. engage in conversation with them about things that they care about and 2. I can be aware of things that are appropriate and things that are not. so of course I had to watch that catchy camp rock 2 and one day I just decided to totally google some of the young stars and Alyson was one of them.

My google results bought up Alyson's website and blog I decided to take a little looksey. What I found was amazing and refreshing. This young lady is so intelligent and articulate and has so much integrity,class and heart!  I was just blown away! As I read further into the post and read some earlier entries she had written I just wanted to cry. This girl has such a beautiful and gentle spirit, she is full of love and respect for herself and others! One post that she had written really spoke to me.She was talking to young girls about respecting their bodies, purity,and modesty. I just was sobbing reading it because it was so honest and heartfelt and it touched my heart to know that this young girl was putting herself out there and trying to let other young ladies know that love is patient and respectful and you don't need to engage in those acts to show your love to a boyfriend! Working with alot of young girls I am always trying to speak to them in love about respecting their bodies, making good choices when it comes to boys and relationships, and speaking to them about remaining pure without over stepping my boundaries.

I just want to share a little snippet of the post with you just so that you can get a glimpse her sweet and loving spirit:

"True love is patient and respectful; it aims to preserve the wholeness and innocence of those involved. I’m going to be bold here and stand for self-respect. This Valentine’s Day 2010, remember just how precious you are ladies......   Be wise, my sistas! Keep it clean and brand new. Like anything, once it’s used, the value depreciates. Preserve yourself and you’ll become the girl that every guy wishes he could have. Though you may hurt his ego by not giving in tomorrow, later on, he’ll have mad respect for you. And if he doesn’t, do you really want to be with a guy like that, anyway?I believe in you and I’m standing with you for respect. You got it, girl!"
-Alyson Stoner

Ahhhh I love it! I just get all teary every time I read this because it's something that I can integrate into conversations when the opportunity arises and my young ladies will really stop to listen because its not just coming from me now haha its also coming from someone that they "look up" to and aspire to be like. So thank you Alyson Stoner. You are a beautiful young woman with a beautiful spirit, and I am so glad that God is using you to be a bright light in a dark world!!! Ok my ramblings have come to an end. Even though I still have much to say on the subject my tummy is quite hungry haha. To learn more about the lovley Alyson Stoner go here.
 
Lots of Love,
 

The soundtack of our lives

Those of you that know me well know that I dont really listet ito alot of radio. It makes me angry because they just play the same things over and over again and the majority of it it just absolute garbbage to me.A lot of it is just this factory made insta hit no heart stuff. I have those few songs that I really like, those few guilty pleasures if you will haha but for the most part I really do not enjoy whats on the radio these days.

With that being said I have always enjoyed the great talent singer JoJo has, and recently I came across a free download for her new mixtape that she recently recorded.Let me just say it is amazing and I just can not stop listening haha.

This mixtape showcases her undeniable talent of course but it also shows just how much she has grown as a woman,an individual and as an artist. It is so great to listen to this mixtape and hear her as an idividual as a young woman to hear her her thoughts,her heart!

Here is just a little taste of what you can expect if you go and download JoJo's mixtape!!




You know you want to get this mixtape, so you can rock out!!Just do it haha!



Lots of love-

Hail to the Victors!

It's that time of year again, that special time that causes even the best of friends to go up against each other... Football season!! Let me tell you I could not be more excited that my wonderful boys in Maize and Blue the mighty Michigan Wolverines are back on the football field!!!

I am just overcome with joy haha. May I just say that even though we are just about 2 1/2 weeks into the season we are already lighting up the field. As always we have some fantastic talent on this football team. The name that you will be hearing the most this season though is probably that of our QB Denard Robinson. I can't even put into words just how amazing this young man is on the field but I can show you :)



It is going to be one great season to watch!!! What teams will you be following this season? Both college and NFL.

fall is just around the corner

Well as usual its been a busy and crazy couple of weeks! The show is over now it went pretty well there were some bumps in the road but we got through them and moved on.

Now Its back to school, we have been back for two weeks but I have only been back for about a week. We have a lot of new students and of course we have returning students!I am praying for a great year full of fun and great kids! I am grateful for this long weekend though haha.

For this Labor Day Holiday I am planning on keeping it pretty low key. I am planning on going to a friends house for a bit and the meeting some other friends from church at the lake front to bbq and just hang out and enjoy the last bits of summer. Before you know it it will be October and we will be well into fall.

After summer fall is my favorite season I love the crisp temps where you can wear a sweatshirt or a light jacket and a cute scarf, if only winter didn't have to be right on its heels lol. Of course my favorite thing about fall is the fact that football season has arrived! GO BLUE!!! The Michigan Wolverines had their first game this past Saturday and we whooped some uconn booty! I am hoping that this season is a good one for my wolverines. The last two seasons have been ick! HAIL TO THE VICTORS!!! HAHA.

I hope you all have a great Labor Day and enjoy your day off!

It's Show time

Well we have reached the end of the rehearsal road and are rolling full steam ahead to the performance road!!!! This weekend marks the beginning of the end of 2 long months of hard work! If you are in the Chicago area and would love to come see a great show please come support 4 his glory performing arts companies run of "The Wiz" Today Friday at 7pm and Saturday at 2pm and 7pm. The show will take place at Hamilton Park Auditorium on 72nd and Parnell. Tickets are $25.00. Its a great show and its tons of fun, it has a great urban twist even more so than the original!

So here goes a busy weekend!! Hope you all have a great weekend yourselves. I am hoping to get out to the Chicago air and water show too this weekend. It was great fun yesterday to have the US Navy's blue angles fly right over my head yesterday while walking around the city!!

Again wishing you all a happy weekend.

the monster that is tech week is coming

It has been quite the full week this week. I have had work and rehearsals for "The Wiz" which opens in one week!!! ahhhhh! haha. So that means next week for me is pretty much non existent if its not work or the show lol. Although I am going to find a little time to get out and enjoy the air and water show next weekend. I always love to go to the Air and Water show it's such great fun and it is a great way to go out and support our armed forces, they are all represented there flying and they always have a great USO show!

Since next weekend will be taken over by the show I am glad to have a great friend from home visiting this weekend. Our families went to the same church back in Michigan until her mom who is a pastor got assigned to a different church a bit further away. Her brother and I are the ones who actually grew up together she is great friends with my little sister. She is here in Chicago visiting colleges since she will be a senior this coming school year. It is always so great when people from back home from for a visit. I love to get a little Michigan love haha.

I am also excited about my churches burger wars cook-off on Sunday. 10 "burger masters" will be whipping up their best burgers for us to judge. It should be great fun and a good time of fellowship! Well that's about all I have time to write my "break" has come to an end back to work haha. I hope that you all have a great weekend!

where has the time gone

Well WOW it has been forever and a day since my last post. I have just crazy busy, and they say summer is supposed to be the time to take it easy and relax. While I have had my share of summer fun and relaxation it has still been a busy summer. I am nannying this summer which has been great fun we have had a wonderful time getting out and about and enjoying what summer time Chicago has to offer. So needless to say both my weekdays and my weekends have been jam packed with activity and as a result I am whipped haha! I just need one of those do absolutely nothing days but those are few and far between these days with work,rehearsals for my show and church activities. Now don't get me wrong I am so grateful to have a job and to be able to do what I love in the arts world and above all to have a great church and a fantastic church family to support me and help me grow, but a gal just needs a breather. I admit a lot of this is probably my fault; what with my serious lack of the word NO in my vocabulary but hey here I am lol.

Since my last post I have had a few Doxasoma classes and I am pleased to report that I love it! It is a great way for us woman to come together and exercise and fellowship it has been such a blessing!!

I also have started another great Beth Moore study called "Stepping up" A journey through the psalms of the ascent. So far it has been wonderful and if all the other Beth Moore studies are any indication this one is going to be just as wonderful and I will be greatly blessed by it!

All in all this has been a great summer filled with lots of great times and wonderful friends. I am so incredibly blessed to have the friends that I have and the Church Family I have. I often times miss my family back in Michigan but having all of these wonderful people in my life now has made all the difference in my life and I thank God everyday that he has put all of these people in my life at this time in my life. I hope that you have some super great,fantastic friends to go through these crazy days with too :)

a cryin shame

HAHA my last post dated for June 27th because that's when I started writing it but obviously its almost July 6th. I need to pick up my game, I am dropping the ball haha.
I am super excited tomorrow I start my first Doxasoma classes. The best way to describe it is its kinda like Yoga. It isn't yoga it has some yoga like qualities but to help people understand kind of what it is a lot of people say its like christian version of yoga. I will let you all know how it goes! Have a great week!

the last week or so and the 4th of July whew

The last week and a half or so have been busy busy busy ones. Even though I haven't been working on any shows I have still been a busy little bee. This summer I am not teaching any theater classes either but I am nannying instead. It has been great fun! We have filled our days with endless fun activities like the zoo,parks,pools(well fountains haha) and many of the great summer stuff that Chicago has to offer!

My weekends have also been filled with the great things that Chicago has to offer during the summer months! Of course as with any Sunday after church if the weather allows I go to the beach so my summer has been filled with tons of trips to the beach witch I absolutely love! I have also been able to get to the pool a few times this summer for the first time in years!

Even though I haven't done it yet I am super pumped and excited for something called summer dance! Summer dance is a great fun program sponsored by the Chicago Park District, every Thursday through Saturday a different dance studio comes out and teaches about and hour long lesson of a beginning dance like salsa,merenge,swing,tango,bachata,belly and so many others and then the rest of the time there is live bands or DJ's that play the appropriate music for those dances! It's a super fun way to get some exercise and hang out with great people all at the same time haha.

This weekend was no different. This 4th of July Weekend was fantastic!!!! Friday a friend and I went to see that darn 'Eclipse' movie it was fantastic I think that this one was the best on of the series and is also my 2nd favorite book in the saga after twilight it self. Saturday was also a fantastic day friends and I cooked out and had smores on my back deck and just hung out it was a great time of fellowship and fun and of course on Sunday it was a beautiful day so after church some friends and I went to the beach for a couple of hours and then a great family from church invited us all to their house for a bbq. We had a great time swimming in the huge pool,playing volleyball,jumping on the trampoline,dancing salsa in the backyard and watching great fireworks! I hope that your 4th of July weekend was just as great!

I'm Alive and kicking

Wow it's been quite a while since my last post I have been a busy little bee with rehearsals and lots of things going on with church and such. Where do I even begin haha. Well this past week was the last week of school for me and summer projects will begin the week after next, so next week and plan I enjoy a fairly low key week with just rehearsals at night and tons of hangage with good friends.

The past two weeks have been filled with tons of fun and wonderful events. Two Saturdays ago some close friends had a graduation party for their daughter Natalie. She just finished her senior year and Whitney Young High School on of the top high schools here in Chicago Michelle Obama's alma mater along with many others. Natalie will be going off to Grinell in the fall, I am so proud of her and all of her wonderful accomplishments and I am praying that she has a wonderful and enriched college experience but remembers who she is and who she belongs to, the Most High God!

This weekend I had some great things going on as well for sure the high light was being able to celebrate the quinceanera of a wonderful young lady who goes to my church. This was my very first experience with attending a quineanera ceremony but from what I understand the ceremony does have a faith based component to it but the way that they did Selena's ceremony was amazing! It had all of the traditional aspects of a ceremony but the main focus of Selena's ceremony was her vow to remain pure until marriage the ceremony was a public declaration of her promise to God to stay pure until marriage and live for him. The ceremony was so touching, after the presentation of her purity ring there were many people who had major influence in her life other than her parents that came and prayer for her but the one that got was her older brother! He just has sooooo much love and adoration for his baby sister and to hear him praying for her and the love and tenderness just touched my heart! And of course her Dad praying over his daughter was so touching as well :)

The ceremony was amazing and the reception afterwards was super fun I learned how to dance salsa and bachata and tore it up on the dance floor haha. well maybe not but I had tons of fun.

I am so proud of Selena and the young lady she is becoming she is such a wonderful and amazing little lady and she is such a blessing to her parents and her friends and all those that come in contact with her!

Saturday and Sunday were fun filled days as well Saturday I went to a festival held on the south side of Chicago that is to raise awareness for various causes for social justice and promote love and an understanding of people to help end the violence in our communities. It was great fun for all ages all day and great concerts including some big names like Mos Def and it was all free! my favorite price haha. Sunday of course I went to church and our pastor had a great message for fathers and men in general it was so powerful and then trying to keep up with my Sunday ritual some friends and I went to the beach after church and just relaxed by the water and hung out it was GREAT!

Now I get to enjoy a great quite week yippee! I hope that all is well with all of you and that you all have a great week!!

It's official, summer is here to stay!

Finally summer has entered the building to stay! Gone are the days of the summer weather making a one or two day guest appearance to tease us and then letting winter take hold again. We have been in the 70's and 80's now for a steady 2to3 weeks. I am thrilled to have summer here to stay and excited to get my summer fun plans going.

Memorial day weekend was an awesome start to the summer fun season. Saturday the pool opened and some friends and I took full advantage of that and swam our little hearts out, and when we got too cold we hopped over to the hot tub and then once we were warmed up we hopped right back over to the pool.

Sunday was another amazing day of course I went to church and had a great time of worship and time to reflect on what the memorial day holiday is all about,being thankful for all of our wonderful service men and women because without them and the call that God put on their hearts to fight for our country and protect this country I would not be able to even be in church praising my God,and I would not be able to enjoy my weekend filled with pools,beaches and fun. Speaking of beaches after a great service a friend and I took the weekend partay to the beach! It was an absolutely great day for it and the beach was packed with tons of people and families out having a great time and enjoying each other.

Of course Monday was another great day. I had a lazy morning around the house with the four legged kid.we just lounged on the couch and watched a movie and relaxed.Most of the morning Monday was rainy out so it wasn't hard to to lounge and relax. Once the rain calmed though friends and I went to see the Sex and the City movie which was great fun. Then we got dinner and came back to my apartment and watched our hometown boys the Chicago blakhawks take down the Philadelphia flyers in game two of the stanley cup playoffs.

All in all it was a great weekend full of fun and I am always grateful for ling weekends because that means a shorter work week haha! I hope you all have a good rest of the week and a great weekend

Long weekend woot woot

It has been quite the busy week full of work,rehearsals and running from here to there,but the weekend is finally here and it's a nice long 3 day weekend YIPPEE! It is officially time to celebrate the beginning of SUMMER! I have been waiting for this time of year for what seems like forever! haha, but now its here and I intend to take full advantage of this long weekend.

We are supposed to have some great weather this weekend which works out perfectly with my plan to visit the beach and the pool as many times as possible between now and Tuesday of next week.

I went to the beach for the first time this season last Sunday and it was wonderful and I am hoping to make it my new Sunday thing- beach after church.

To start off my holiday weekend I went to dinner with some friends form church tonight after work. It was a great time of fellowship and together-ness. We had a blast eating and talking and just being in the company of one another.If tonight was any indication of how my long holiday weekend is going to be then I am ready for it!

I hope that you all have a fantastic Holiday weekend and even though I am not able to be with my family this weekend I will be with church family and friends and they are most definitely the next best thing to my actual family and I am sure to have a great weekend!

Chicago in the flesh, but Ann Arbor in the heart

This weeks show us your life over at Kelly's Korner is: Show us your hometown. This was hard for me because I currently live in Chicago, IL but I am from Ann Arbor, MI and I LOVE both of these places so I am gonna show ya both :)

I have lived in Chicago for about 6 1/2 years now. I came to Chicago to go to college and loved it so much I stayed. There is always something to do and I am gonna show you some of my favorite things to do and some of my favorite places to go



One of my favorite places to go is millennium park,there is something to do there all year round. There are concerts there in the summer almost daily and I love to sit and watch all the kids play in the fun fountain (that spits at you haha)





I also love to go ice skating there in the winter. Millennium park is just a blast!



And I cant go a summer without going to the beach! I love going to the beach on the Michigan side and Chicago side of lake Michigan





I love to eat and Chicago is a great place to do this ha. We have sooooo many great restaurants and whole neighborhoods devoted to great yummy cuisine. Some of my favorite places to go are Greek town for some yummy Greek food and delicious sangria, Little Italy. need I say more ha, China Town,and Devon st. for yummy Indian food!!! We also have a whole festival devoted to the many different kinds of cuisine offered here in Chicago, the taste of Chicago is one of my most favorite summer festivals/events.



If I want to enjoy a mostly social sporting event I head up to the North side to take in a Cubs game haha dont hate me cub's fans but its true but if I really want to watch a good baseball game I head down to the south side for a white sox game. And I try to get to the United Center every once in a while to see my home town boys the Detroit Pistons take on the Chicago Bulls.

Well that's just a little peak into Chicago, so lets head over to Ann Arbor the hometown I love so much!




This is easily my favorite place in Ann Arbor.



Oh how I LOVE the BIG HOUSE!!!! Many happy times spent here!! There is a great place called Kerrytown in Ann Arbor that has a great farmers market that my mom,sister and I went to all the time and is also where one of my most favorite places to eat is
Zingermans deli mmmmmmm haha. I told you I LOVE to eat haha I don't know how I am not 1,000 pounds HA.





For a good concert,live theater show or the yearly trip to see the nutcracker we head over the the power center. and Ann Arbor would not be complete without the Art Fair or 'the top of the park' which are not necessarily places more like festivals/events but are essential to Ann Arbor and one of the many reasons why I love it sooo much!





Thanks for coming along with me to two of my most favorite places,I hope that you enjoyed it and hope you go visit someday! :)

The weekend

I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend. Mine was busy but super fun. Friday was a lazy night I had dinner with a wonderful family that I have known for about
4 1/2 years and then I came home and watched my recorded shows for the week and went to bed early. Saturday was great I got to sleep in, I slept in a bit longer than I was supposed to though haha so I ended up being late to the pancake breakfast that I was supposed to be helping out with for a good friend of mine and her church (oopsie haha)I made it just in time for clean up duty so I stayed and helped clean and she talked me into buying a "s'mores wizard" cause it was only a dollar. So now I have this little s'more thingy that actually lets you roast the marshmallows. so maybe this summer I can have friends over and we can make yummy s'mores on my back porch.ha.

Sunday was by far the best day of my weekend. I went to church and we had a great message I think I have mentioned before that we are doing a sermon series on the book of James and our message this Sunday was on faith without works, and basically James is saying yea you can say that you have Faith in the one true God but what are you going to do about it how are you going to show that faith to others. It was a great and challenging message. After church my friend Sara and I were supposed to go to a concert but her dad called her late Saturday night and said that him and her mom were heading to Niles Michigan (which it about 2 hour drive east of Chicago.) to celebrate her youngest sister Julia's birthday so she asked me if I would like to go and of course I said yes. It gave me a great excuse to get out of the city and to take in a bit of my home state :) I even have some ties to Niles as my home church has a summer camp just outside of Niles in Cassopolis Michigan,but any who we drove out to Niles for the day after church and had a great time Julia and her husband Matt have a cute little ranch out there on a great deal of land so we got to go out and get a little "hike" in out on their property and just sit outside and take in the beauty of nature actual trees and grass, and breath "fresh air" haha none of that icky Chicago air ha.

We got back from Niles around 10:30 and I got to bed so I could be up and at em Monday morning. So now its back to the work week,back to classes and rehearsals for my show and helping to launch a theater company and so on...haha oh my life is a crazy one but so far its a good one hehe.

Books galore

For this weeks show us your life at kelly's korner the topic is favorite books or children's books. Oh do I have oodles of books that I love both adult titles and children's books.In the 'adult' category ever since I was about 12 years old I have loved:



I also love:



and...



and more recently I have been reading a lot of Karen Kingsbury books. So far I have loved them all!

there are so many books that I love that I cant even remember them all nor do I have the space to put them all so instead I will move on to some of my favorite children's books ha ha.

This one is an all time favorite of mine since childhood.Its also a favorite of all my youngest little thespians we love acting this one out in our drama class "warm-up" in my 4 and 5 year old class



this one is also a favorite to act out in drama class:




and these ones have been favorites since I was a child as well:






These were some of my favorite series growing up:







Reading was always happening when I was a child I loved it then and I love it now :)Have a great weekend and take a little time to enjoy a great book :)

Beth Moore is.... I have no words

Praise the Lord it's Friday!!! Even though it's been a good week I am still glad that Friday has come ha. I have bible study on Thursdays and yesterday was no different. Currently for my Thursday bible study we are doing Beth Moore's study on the life of Jesus called 'Jesus the one and only.'Those of you who have taken a Beth Moore study know that there is a video teaching to go along with each weekly lesson So yesterday was the point where we reached the last supper and Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.This is one of those things that you of course hear read all the time obviously when ever you take communion the last supper in regards to the bread and the wine are read before you take each but last night When Beth was teaching in the video she went through and explained a traditional passover celebration and she talked about the 4 cups that are usually taken during a passover what they represent, they are the 4 I will's of God (that we read about way back in exodus 6:6-7): I will bring you out. I will deliver you from their bondage. I will Redeem you w/an outstretched arm. I will take you as my own people.

Now this is already quite interesting as I have never been to a passover and never heard this before but then she points out something that just blows me away. All of these cups are the life of Christ he is conducting this passover meal and at the same time teaching his disciples through these cups what he was sent here to do and what is to come and the cup that we hear about every time we take communion
(Mark 14:23-24) is the 3rd I will of God,I will redeem you w/an outstretched arm.

Now at that point in Bible study I am just in awe of how the whole thing is fitting together and then Beth takes it even further and goes on to talk about when Jesus went to the garden to pray after the last supper. First of all she points out something that I have NEVER noticed when ever I have read this portion of scripture when Jesus prays the son of God Kneels!!!! This just blows me away Jesus Christ the son of the Most High God kneels in total submission! whoa! The second thing she says is this: When Jesus is praying to God to take this "cup" from him he is speaking of that third cup the cup of redemption,the journey that he will take to the cross to redeem us, but after he has prayed and spent time with the Father he has made up his mind he indeed will take that cup, we are in fact worth it!

Oh I was just without words... of course I knew that Jesus died for me to save me but this whole lesson was out of control (in a good way haha) my heart was overwhelmed and I was able to grasp just a small bit of how much God the Father and God the Son LOVE me. Of course I know that God loves me but this whole lesson really helped me put into perspective at least a little bit just how immeasurable His love is for us! I mean I still don't even have the words, or the right words to express how amazing that 'aha' moment was and how full my heart is getting a small glimpse at how much I am loved by the father!

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and that you will remember that Jesus LOVES you and he felt that you were worth it to take on that 'cup' of redemption

feeling like myself

Ahhh finally I am feeling back to myself. This weekend was a major bummer I was not feeling well at all this weekend. It started Thursday at work I had the worst stomach pains and had the worst nausea ever. It was one of those things like I didn't really want to throw up but I felt like maybe if I did I would feel better. Well I felt like that Thursday, Friday and half of Saturday. finally Saturday night I started to feel like I was getting back to me :) Sunday was even better I was completely back to normal.

Sunday was a great day even though it was mother's day and I was missing my mommy :) I got to talk to her for a good while on Sunday morning. after talking to my momma and getting myself ready I headed out to church. I had a great time at church and as always our pastor preached a great message on the power of a woman.

Monday was back to the weekly routine working and all that. So far its been a good week pretty light. Bible study tomorrow Those are the days that get me through the week,the days that I get to go to bible study and just bask it the greatness and Glory of My Father!!!!

sick day

It's been quite a busy week, I have been running around all week long and will be super duper busy all weekend long, but today I am confined to my bed cause I am not feeling well :( So I have been laying in bed all day watching movies and tv. that's the only good part about being sick is the laying in bed and watching movies and tv.

Well regardless of if I feel better or not tomorrow its back to the real world although it would be much better if I was feeling back to my normal self by tomorrow. Two days is more than enough, and I wasn't even home resting yesterday at the peak of my sickness I was working. It was the worst I had a class full of four and five year olds and I was just in a haze. good thing my principal didn't come into the class yesterday lol.

Well I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

makes me wanna smile, I'm free I'm free !

Yesterday was a full day of working but thankfully in all hub-bub I found some time to treat myself to a yummy lunch at chipotle. It was pretty crowded as it was lunch time so I sat at a table next to someone, now the table was super close to the other obviously intended for a group but since there were no other non grouped tables I sat next to this woman. As I started eating she started chatting and I just listened. as she talked I found out that she was spending her lunch hour going over her many medical bills as she was not feeling well and went in to get a aeries of tests done. She just went on and on and when it was appropriate to talk I did but mostly I just listened. When she had finished eating her lunch she got up and got herself ready to go and before she left she turned smiled at me and said "Thank you so much for listening most people wouldn't have."
That just made me feel so good inside to be able to have that woman share her life her troubles with me a complete stranger that she felt comfortable to do so and that I was able to help her just a little bit by listening to her!

In other news on Monday I had a crazy dog experience, so my box spring has this netting on the underside of it and it is on its last leg, my dog likes to sleep under my bed for some reason even though he has a wonderful and most comfortable doggie bed and Monday he got himself caught in the many pieces of netting that are hanging down. I had to craftily cut him free it was successful in the since that I got him free but un-successful in the since that b/c I couldn't see how to cut him free I was just feeling around blindly and sliced my finger w/the scissors haha.
But he's freed and I'm healing and its time to get a new box spring lol.



phew I'm free,thanks mom



I hope that everyone is having a great week!

A relaxing weekend to a manic Monday

The weekend was so nice and relaxing Friday was my girls night and then Saturday I just stayed close to home it was a pretty nice day but half way through the day it got cloudy and cooled down a bit so just hung out and it was great to be able to eat dinner out on the deck and just enjoy being outside. Sunday I went to church. Currently we are doing a sermon series on the book of James. It has been so powerful and so uncomfortable all at the same time. Its one of those series that pushes you to go further, to really reach out show the world that you indeed bear his name and you want to love and serve a broken world. Often my pastor challenges us to really love and serve people.

Often times here in Chicago it is so hard to do that. there are soooo many homeless people in the city and often times I want to help them so I will stop by a McDonald's or something and get them a little meal and I cant tell you how many times my little McDonald's meals have been turned down by so many homeless people b/c they don't eat chicken or burgers upset their stomach or some other reason. I try not to give them money cause 90% of the time they will spend it on alcohol instead of food but I just feel bad for leaving them and not attending to their hunger. sometimes though when a person is honestly asking for food (which is really hard to tell) the amount of gratitude they show is overwhelming.

Now that I have rambled on and on about that lets get back to what this post was supposed to be about lol, my Monday... Oh Monday was a crazy day I worked all day and then I went straight from work to a rehearsal for a show that I am working on. It was our first read through last night. It went well.

I love theater, doing theater in any capacity makes me happy.I fell in love with live theater when I was 11 years old it opened up a whole new world for me and I want other children to be able to experience that to be able to feel the wonder that theater holds! I am praying to be able to start my own Christian performing arts company for youth that will allow them to explore different areas in the arts from dance, theater,creative writing,music and so on but in a christian environment. Because it has been hard for me as a christian in the theater community there is so much that I don't agree with and so many things that compromise what I believe in and I want kids and teens to be able to explore the arts without facing that and to know that you can do this and not compromise who you are!

It's ladies night and we're gettin' crafty!

On the last Friday of every month some of the ladies from my church get together and just have a fun time of fellowship and togetherness. Its a time where we just get to be together and for a few hours forget about school,work,spouses or children. We have so much fun and it's really great to be able to build life long bonds and friendships that are built on our love for Christ and our love for each other as sisters in Christ.

So last night we got together and hung out and made handmade cards. It was so great to just be together and let our crafty sides take over. There were so many wonderful cards made, for birthdays, New Babies, New Mom's, mothers day,kids ect... everyone had some great crafty ideas.

Having these ladies nights mean so much to me and so many of the other ladies.For me it has been really difficult because in the last 2 to 3 years I my relationship with Christ has grown and flourished I was kind of stuck in the same old spot for so long within my walk, but when I started to grow I realized that alot of the people in my life needed to be cut out of my life. It was such a painful thing to have to do and left me no close friends in Chicago and a best friend that lives 4 1/2 hours away in my hometown in Michigan. So I really have no one.I mean I talk to my bff often via phone and email but as far as having someone to physically hang out with and do things with I have no and this ladies night is really helping to change that.

For most of the other ladies this is a welcomed event because our church is a baby church. We come from a church that has many different what we call satellites (locations) because chicago is such a different city in each neighborhood, every Chicago neighborhood has its own vibe b/c there are neighborhoods that are polish or Puerto rican, or Mexican,or Italian or Greek,or even a neighborhood that is mostly young families. and so each of our church locations are tailored to fit the people who live in that community but still bring the same message of the gospel truth of Jesus Christ to all, so our specific location has only been around for a little over a year and everyone is pretty new so we really haven't had that time to really dig in and get to know each other deeply. We have weekly bible studies/small groups but ladies night is not about a bible study its just us hanging out loving each other and building strong friendships. We all love it!

Lazy bones

I just came from bible study and that Beth Moore gets me to thinking every time. I love her and the way she teaches. She is so dynamic and so full of truth. She always says something that is a challenge to me that pushes me right out of my comfortable little bubble.

I have just been having so many of those days lately where you are super busy and running around like crazy that when you do have a minute you want to do absolutely nothing but lay around and watch bad TV ha ha. but I am allowing my want for lazy days keep me from doing the things that I should be doing on a regular basis, things that are essential to my life as a believer in Christ. There are so many days where I put off reading my bible and so many days that I don't spend nearly enough time before God in prayer, pouring out my heart to him truthfully and reverently.

This puzzles me somewhat because I know that after I read my bible and after I spend time with God in prayer I fell so much stronger and maybe even saner :) so why is it so hard sometimes to just dive right in and do it, and how in the world do you go about getting in the habit to do it daily?

God knows my heart, he knows that I love him and that I have grown so much in my faith in the last year and a half. learned so much about who he is and who I am in him, things that I knew before in my head and that I grew up hearing in church and sunday school, but that I now know and feel for myself in my heart.

Because of this I need to step it up and really grow even stronger and seek him so much more, and I hope and pray that my heart will shift and it will fall into place, I need him everyday in everything that I do in my life.

I'll take a whack at it

So the time has finally come, after careful consideration and deep thought I have decided to start blogging. haha. So here goes nothing :) Hope you enjoy my daily... (well maybe not daily) rambling