Language- swear words, curse words, bad language, whatever you want to call it: these words are said way too often, written way too often, and there is never EVER a point to using them.  I find it funny how some people think by putting an * instead of one of the letters makes it okay. Ha.  No, it doesn’t.

2 words- thank you: 2 words that anyone can say, but no one hardly does any more.  So many people take things for granted and think they “deserve” things.
Recent experience: I gave 10 high school girls cookies for something they did.  Out of 10, only 1 said thank you.  Reminded me of the story where Jesus healed 10 lepers, but only 1 returned to give him thanks… “Where are the other 9?”

Manners- there’s so much to cover… saying excuse me when burping or needing to pass someone.
Waiting to hear a “come in” instead of just opening the door (sometimes knocking)… again, this is a recent experience.

Attitudes- many attitudes are very poor these days.  Not studying for a final because it’s “only 10% of the grade and failing it would drop the grade by 1 letter.”

Facebook hacking- it’s never happened to me, but I can always tell when someone forgets to log out of their facebook because whoever finds it changes the status to something about being gay… really?  How mature are we?

Maybe I just need a break from these students… Good thing CHRISTMAS (not winter) break is coming up.

My senior year in college has been a fun one, but also stressful.  Fun because our soccer team was 9-8-1, it was good to end on a winning record, and I led the conference in assists.  Also, because I was a spring weekend champion.  Spring weekend is a fun weekend with competitions in open skits, lip syncs, sync swims, obstacle courses, food eating contests, art competitions, trivia, etc.  My team won the whole weekend!  It was exciting.

Stressful because I’m living in a house with 5 other girls.  When 6 girls live together, it can be crazy, but we agreed to paint and do housework for 2 months free rent.  Sounds great, right?  Well, it was at first, but then no one wanted to do more than just their own room.  I have done a lot more work.  That sucks, but what sucks even more is that no one even said thank you for the work I’ve done.  And then to hear them talking and say “we’ve done all of this,” it’s not a we.  Every time I would say things need to be done, everyone would complain and get upset with me.
Then, I picked one of my housemates up from the airport on my way back from Easter.  It added an extra hour (if not more) to my drive, plus the plane got in late at night.  No gas money was offered, no thank you for picking me up was given, and she didn’t even ask how my Easter was.
Okay, I’m done venting.

Needless to say, I’m excited for this beginning.  I’ll be starting a new job, meeting new people, and getting away from the current unthankful and complaining bunch.  Also, I’ll be getting away from where my ex’s are!  I’m finally over my recent ex.  It feels wonderful!  I know I deserve better.  He is immature and needs to grow up and learn how to treat people the way the deserve, especially ones you “love.”

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!  Jesus has risen!

 Thank you Josh Groban for this wonderful song.  It’s what I need right now.  I’m still struggling with a broken heart and all the “why” questions, but this reminds me that God raises me up to stand on mountains, to walk on stormy seas, and gives me strength to be more than I can be.

I remember a dream I had as a kid two or three times… I was in our house and I look out my bedroom window to see a bunch of alligators coming up the street.  End of dream.  At the time, I was scared of alligators… I probably saw something on TV that made me afraid of getting attacked by one.

Another dream I had a few times as a child… again, I was in my bedroom and inside my closet was another door.  I open that door and it took me to a completely new part of our house.  I was in a carpeted living room, stairs on my right up to a bedroom, and a few stairs straight ahead that led to a wooden floored dining room and kitchen.  End of dream.  I remember checking my closet for that extra door, but couldn’t find one.  At the time, my parents liked to go look at new houses.  So was this the house I hoped we would move in to?  I don’t know.

A more recent dream… my dog died, I was crying.  When I woke up, I was actually crying.  My dog has been gone for almost 2 years… I had this dream about a year ago.  I miss having a dog, but what was crazy is the fact that I was actually crying when I woke up.

Really, what brings me to write about all this… is all the dreams I’ve had lately.  It seems like I have 5-6 different dreams a night that I remember!  After the break-up… at least twice a week I would have dreams about my ex-boyfriend and how I would tell him I still love him and want to be with him.
About a week and a half ago, I had a dream about the new guy I wrote about in my last post.  I haven’t told anyone about him, but my dad and brother have “teased” (that joking way where you’re trying to be funny but are actually serious, that kind of teasing) saying he’s a nice young man and hinting they would approve of him.  Well, in my dream, he and I were just having a friendly lunch when he made the comment that it seems like everyone wants us to be together.  Unfortunately, I woke up before the dream could get any farther.

Two nights ago, my dream was about my recent ex-boyfriend.  In my dream, I was in my room here at school asleep in my bed.  He comes in my bedroom needing to borrow my car keys because his car won’t start.  (This semester he would always have to leave around 7am for student teaching).  I “woke up” (in my dream) because of the noise, he told me he was just getting my keys, and then he was right beside me and whispered to me, “don’t give up on me, wait for me,” and he was gone.  Then, I literally woke up and had to look around the room a couple of time.
I don’t get it.  I know I shouldn’t even consider this meaning anything, but what if it really does??

I’m 22, about to graduate college, and will soon be entering the working world.  I’m excited, but it’s also a scary though.  I’d be lying if I said I also wasn’t scared about my future… not so much about finding a job, but about finding someone I can spend the rest of my life with… someone who will love me forever and treat me like the best thing in the world.  I think what makes it even scarier is my most recent break-up.  I’d like to think I’m over it.  The dreams have been gone for about a week and a half (thankfully!)… I still think about him sometimes, but not as often.  However, I know it’s going to take more time to completely heal.  It makes me wonder IF any good guys are out there… I hope so.

I shouldn’t settle for something less than I deserve… because if I do, I’d end up being unhappy.  Your significant other should always be a priority and not just an option.

I might have actually found the perfect guy… but I don’t know if he sees me that way.  When you marry someone, what do you marry them for?  One of my teachers told me that if you aren’t’ marrying your best friend, then you’re in trouble.  Looks can change.  Money can be easily spent or lost if not managed well.  Sex drives will someday decrease.  However, personality never changes.  Values never change.  I’m not saying that physical attraction isn’t important, because it is… however, personality and values should come first.
I went to school with this guy 8 years ago… we’ve talked through Facebook recently to catch up on things… we’re both Lutheran, we’ll both be graduating from college in less than 2 months, we both love sports (play and watch), we both love to travel.  He’s graduating in the top 5% of his class from college and wants to go on to med school!  This says to me he’s responsible (doing homework, studying, etc.) and he will have a reliable future.  And I think he’s pretty good-looking.  All I need now is for him to come riding on a white horse up to my door… haha, kidding.  But is it too good to be true?  Maybe.

I just have to trust God’s plan and God’s timing.

Well, right now, the biggest thing on my mind if the break-up.  I’m still completely confused.  We spent Christmas together with both of our families and it was wonderful.  He told me he wanted to marry me and even talked to my dad about marrying me and supporting me… less than a month later, he said he didn’t love me anymore.  He said I never did anything but treat him wonderfully.  He said he knew how wonderful and special I am, but he didn’t love me anymore.

Is love something you can fall in and out of?  I don’t know.  It’s been 4 weeks since the break-up.  We were together for 9 months… which probably doesn’t seem very long, but I still love him.  I even still dream about him quite often.  3-4 nights ago I dreamt that we kissed.  Last night I dreamt that I told him I still loved him.  I wish all this pain and confusion would just go away.

I just want a man to tell me he loves me and mean it.  Love lasts forever.

A lot of times, when people go through tough times, they ask “why” or “why me?”  Without pain and suffering in our life, we wouldn’t know just how wonderful the good times are.  Tough times like these will help me to reach out to others… they will help me comfort others when they go through heartbreak.   No one goes through life looking to experience heart-break over and over, but it is something most of us experience.  It sucks.  The best we can do is learn from the past, so we can make better choices and decisions in our future.  So we can appreciate what we have in the present.

Now I’m 21, and I’ve never been married before, but with all the divorces happening today… do people really take these vows seriously?  Or is this something people just say and not think about to get through the wedding?  And then, if they don’t take the vows seriously, then why even get married?

Through these wedding vows a person promises to be there for his/her spouse for better (during the good/happy times of holidays and birthdays and children), for worse (when times are rough because or arguments or misunderstandings), for richer, for poorer (no matter what the financial situation is), in sickness or in health (if your spouse is sick, take care of him/her, if your spouse is healthy, you still take care of him/her), to love and to cherish ’till death do us part (for the rest of your life).

What does the word “love” mean to people?  If you love someone, don’t you always want to be there for them?  Don’t you want to make sure they are happy and taken care of?  Don’t you want to make sure they don’t have any doubt at all about your love for them?  If the answer(s) is yes, then you will stay true to your marriage vows, ’till death do us part.

Thanks for reading!

Commitment, an important thing in relationships, among team members, and everything we do.  Without commitment, we would not care.  I’ve played sports year-round for 16 years.  Right now, I am in my senior year of college soccer.  Being committed to my team has been both easy and hard.  It’s easy to stay committed and wanting to be a part of the team when we win and have fun (like relationships, it’s easy to stay committed when things are going well).  However, when things have been rough after tough losses and our coach makes us do extra fitness, it’s easy to think about quitting (giving up in a relationship).  Everything will not always be good.  The top teams will suffer a loss in some way through games, injury, lack of teamwork.  And in relationships, they all might seem good on the surface, but sooner or later something will come along to complicate things.  You can either quit, or stay committed and work through those tough times.  I know in soccer, when the team has a tough workout, afterwards, we look back at what we accomplished and realize we all were in it together, going through the same struggles.

Christ wants our whole hearts.  “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you,”  1 Peter 5:7.  God cares for us.  In tough times, we need to turn towards him, not away from Him.  He wants to be there to help us through those tough times, through that last sprint, through the tears after an argument with a loved one, and through any troubles you may have.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”  Philippians 4:7

I finished my summer internship, and now I am back at college going through soccer preseason.  I’m a senior.  My final year of college, my final year of soccer, my final year (at least for a while) of not being out in the “real world.”

I learned a lot from my internship this summer.  I was waking up every morning at 5:30 so I could run before being at work by 8, then working 8 hours (plus a 30 minute lunch).  This had both ups and downs…  It was nice coming home in the evenings and not having to worry about writing papers and doing homework, but I found myself looking forward to the weekends for a little free time.  In college, I have free time throughout the day, but I have many papers to write, projects to work on, and homework to complete, on top of soccer.

Soccer has taught me putting the work in ahead of time, does pay off in the future.  We are to arrive to preseason fit.  My running every morning prepared me for the fitness testing we have, and I passed both tests.  Many other girls did not.  Now they have to be on the field ready to go at 6:15 for the next two weeks for an intense sprinting workout and other workouts as well.

I am looking forward to my final year in college.  Soccer should be the best season we have had so far, classes should be enjoyable and beneficial now that I have completed all my Gen Ed requirements and have classes all pertaining to my major/minor, and I will finally be reunited with my boyfriend (on Friday).  We have been apart for 95% of summer… seeing each other only 2 days since June 1st.

Thanks to everyone for reading.

I never want to go through a divorce.  I never want to put my kids (when/if I have any) through a divorce.  And I am very glad my parents have never gotten a divorce.

When you marry someone, decide that divorce will never be an option.  Don’t even bring up the word or threaten getting a divorce, because then you’re trying to scare your spouse into staying with you.  That should not be the answer.

My ex-boyfriend’s parents were divorced.  They divorced when he was 3, and his mom remarried when he was 5.  Today, he sees his real dad only a handful of times each year.  This always saddened me.  But on top of that, he always thought divorce was an okay option if things just don’t work out once you’re married.  RED FLAG!  If you don’t want to go through a divorce, you better marry someone who will also say divorce is never an option.

Don’t be selfish.  If you once loved each other, you still love each other.  You just need to spend time together.  Quality time.  Intimate time.  You won’t have to go through a divorce, your kids will not think it’s their fault, and you will abide by what the Bible says.  The only reason to leave your spouse is because of marital unfaithfulness.