"The Everyday Me."

From bluegirlsministry.wordpress.com

I wrote a bio a few months ago for the church website. Bios are supposed to make you sound good and are usually formatted in a formal way. That's great and all, but let’s be honest...I'm just a normal person. So can I tell you a bit about me informally? You might be able to catch on through my posts, but let me just lay it out for you.

• I love rainy days. (Much like the one today, while I'm writing this.) I think it's cozy.


• Laughing is my favorite activity.
• I love to travel, and especially cherish the summers I've lived in South American countries. Chicago is another favorite traveled place.
• Also, I have a fetishes with the Spanish language, tea cups, pearls, and purple. (gift hints, yup...just kidding)


• I'm currently living at home with my family. And it is fun. We're not perfect, and it's not ideal for a post-grad, student working on a master's degree to be living with her parents, but it's where God has me right now, and I really love my family. I have two brothers, a loving set of normal parents, and an old golden retriever named Molly.


• I just moved back to Frisco from Arkansas and I'm dealing with a bit of culture shock. I mean, really, who doesn't shut down the town for lunch breaks? And the traffic!! I count my drives a success if I get out of the car and am not stressed or angry. I'm working on it. With that said, I left a wonderful adopted-family, church, friends, and university in Arkansas. I am who I am today because of what God did while I was there.


• Squirrels are my favorite animals. I know, most people think they're gross, but I just think they're really cute. Not that I want to own one, but I sure like to watch them. Bats are another fascinating one to me.


• I'm bad about cleaning up my room or car...I'm working on it.


• I love old-fashioned things: Antiques, old barns, real honey from beehives, tea cups from my grandmother's China cabinet, etc.


• My favorite time of the day is that moment when the coffee cup and I become friends while listening to God's daily whisperings.


• I have insecurities, I have doubts, I have attitude issues; I'm impatient and I distrust; I forget to be thankful. But more importantly, I know that I can give my flaws to God to fix, and I know that He uses my weaknesses for His Kingdom.


• The grace of God is more than I can wrap my mind around. And because of His great love, I have freedom to live rightly and completely.


• I was called to missions in the 9^th grade, but God decided that it was only for a time. In college he placed a love for youth ministry on my heart, and here I am…doing girls ministry.


• I love teaching truth to younger girls. I was fed so many lies as a teenager and struggled with so many things of the world; I think it’s important for me to share what I have learned with those around me.


• Middle school girls don’t annoy me. Most of my friends think I’m crazy for spending weekends with 13-year-olds, but I think it’s a blast! The drama that goes on is silly, but I never tire of hearing it. Maybe God has me in the right ministry.


• My favorite weekend pastime is to watch movies! In my mind, movie nights should happen every day. And I’m pretty open to every type of movie except horror films. Chick flick, comedy, action, cartoon. You name it and I’ll probably enjoy it.

So there’s a little about me. It’s not a complete list, but you get a picture of what I’m about. I read this quote by an author, and I think it sums up my daily life.

“I feel like a success in my everyday life if I get through the day having spent time with the Lord, exercised in some way… and made a friend smile.”

Until next time, Brittany

September | A Month of Pictures in Review

I know, I know, I'm lame. This month has flown by and I'm not sure where all it went! But here's a month in review of my picture-a-day project. I have two or three pictures that I took on my phone that I'll put up later. And this past week has been absolute chaos, so I'm missing a few days. But if you want to know where I was in my absence, I was taking the GRE and Spanish tests. It's been insane. Hopefully after a presentation Monday and Homecoming this weekend life will slow down. Despite the craziness, God is doing big things! Maybe later I'll fill you in on them. (: 

I uploaded the pictures as if I had posted a new post each day, so they are in reverse order. You might want to start at the end of this post to get the full effect because some pictures relate to the ones before. (: I also found a neat collage program on my computer, so I can now upload many pictures and not take up so much space! (: 

Day 31 | See You At The Pole

September 28

Always a favorite time for me in the Fall! I went to the middle school to pray with our kids in the morning and then we ended with a community-wide service that evening. God did big things this day.

Day 30 | School House Rock

September 26

Our theater department put on School House Rock and Becca and Angela and I went! So much fun to remember all the songs that taught us Grammar and Math! 

Day 29 | Tiger Serve Day!

September 24

We got a Tiger Serve Day team together with our youth girls. Such a good time to build relationships AND help the community. It was good. Really good. (:

Day 28 | Sunset

September 22

We have a terrific view from our window and the sun was setting perfectly. So I took lots of pictures of it. This one is my favorite.

Day 27 | Austin's Picture!

September 21

Austin drew me a picture as I was leaving the school! The green person is me and the blue people are him. It was so cute and basically made my week! (: 

Day 26 | Flowers + Sun = Fun

September 20

These were too happy and the sun was too pretty not to take a picture of them. 

[I got these by basically laying in the grass. One of the guys in some of my classes walked by and thought I was really strange. ha! All in the name of photography!]

Day 25 | Fender Bender

September 19

A man ran into my car. Poor Eugene has some lovely scrapes on his rear. Not a fun start to my week.

Day 24 | Rain!

September 18

It rained for the first time in many weeks! Not the best picture, but at least I took one! (:

Day 23 | Boomtown Classic

September 17

The OBU band traveled for the first time in 6 years to El Dorado, AR for the Boomtown classic. The team won, the band was great, and despite being really bus-sick, it was a great little road trip. 

Day 22 | Clark County Fair

September 16

Becca and I explored the fair. It was so cute and fun! I mean, we were finished walking the entire fair grounds in about ten minutes, but it was definitely a fun time of craft rooms, people watching, animal contests and of course, cotton candy and carmel apples!

Day 21 | Little Italy

September 15

After band practice one day, Erica had a craving for Little Italy so we introduced Kelly to the great restaurant! 

Day 20 | Sonic

September 13

Kim and I took Laura (one of our youths) to dinner at Chick and then to Sonic one evening. A good time of fellowship and relationship-building. (: 

Day 19 | Abnormal Starbucks

September 12

Erica, Angela, and I are taking Abnormal Psychology this semester and we had our first test. We got together and reviewed the material. We all aced the test, too!

Day 18 | Decisions

September 11

We have hired new interns to work with our youth this year. Most of our crew graduated last year, so we expanded to hire on awesome new ones. Many applied, and it was our job to accept or not accept the applicants. This was taken as I was thinking and praying over the candidates and if they were fit to work with our youth. It was a heavy decision. I take the lives of our kids very seriously and we only want committed interns. It was an intense, but good decision. (We kept all five applicants, in case you were wondering, and it has been a good decision so far!) 

Day 17 | OBU Football

September 10 

I can't remember who we played, but I remember we won! This was taken at our first football game. It was surprisingly more fun than previous years. (:

Day 16 | CogLab

September 9

Every Friday night we have an assignment due for my Cognition class.  We get to participate in psychological studies and learn how the brain learns. Crazy!  This was taken as I was finishing up one Friday night.

Day 15 | Spanish Homework

September 8

A typical sight on Monday and Wednesday nights as I try to finish up "Tarea de Espanol" for the next morning. 

Day 14 | America Reads

September 7

I joined the America Reads team this year as a volunteer. America Reads is a program that sends students into the elementary schools to help students learn to read. I get to tutor a 1st grader named Austin. It has been a blast! September 7th was the first day of tutoring, and it has been amazing ever since. Austin loves to learn to read! He is so excited everyday as I show up and loves reading to me. We play fun games (which teach him letters and words without him knowing). He is a precious kid! Tutoring has definitely been a stress-reliever in my semester. To get outside of normal activities and be around first graders is a definite change, but so worth it!

Day 13 | 125th Musical Showcase

September 6

This year is OBU's 125th anniversary. Sept. 6th has been named state-wide Ouachita Day by governor Beebe. The music department put on a showcase to celebrate and I snapped a few pictures while I was in the audience. The performances were awesome!! 

Day 12 | Labor Day

September 5

This one might should be called "Labor-less" Day. I spent the day reading and relaxing. 

Day 11 | Frisco Date

September 4 

Kelly, Erica and I are all native Frisconians and happen to all attend OBU! It has been an absolute blessing and a blast having all three of us around this year! (Kelly joined Erica and I this fall). We decided one Sunday afternoon to go on a walk to the train park. It was such a relaxing and fun time!

Day 10 | Downtown Photowalk

September 3

I wanted to go shoot some pictures, so I picked a theme for today: Buildings, wheels and reflections.  I wandered around downtown for a few hours and had a blast finding a few neat gems. Next time I'll have to take someone so its safe to explore sketchy parts. (: 

Day 9 | AHS Football

September 2

I went to the football game with Becca and Angela to support some of our youth in the band. These little girls were precious! So I kinda stole some pictures of them. It was fun to join in the community event and actually sit at a football game. I've realized that I'm not sure how to behave at football games if I'm not in the band. Arkadelphia football games are definitely a community event. I've decided that I like football (Americano and futbol!)

Day 8 | "Men Working"

September 1

There has been construction in our lobby for a few days to correct some water damage, and I passed this sign a few times today and found it really funny. One time that I walked under it, it was hung on a clothes hanger... Oh Arkansas! 

Day 7 | Youth Games

August 31

Our first official "regular" youth night! It was actually the parents' meeting, so I'm not sure how regular it was, but Nate and I got to lead games, which is always a blast

Day 6 | Bugs!?

August 30

Danielle and I were getting ready for bed and we found this lovely slug on the wall. Naturally we freaked out a bit. It took some guts ( no pun intended ) but we captured the little guy and flushed him. The next morning, I got up early and went to breakfast and came back to a text from Danielle saying she had found the giant bug on the ceiling when she woke up! Not something fun to wake up to. This time we were real grossed out so we got our dorm mom, Sarah, to come help us. He was flushed too. We don't usually have gross bugs on the third floor of new buildings, but we think these guys were from some construction they are doing to the lobby. They have sprayed our room twice since, and we've only found a few crickets. I know God made them, and they are sort of neat, but I sure hate finding them in my sleeping space!

Day 5 | Ice

August 29

I opened my fridge today and found this stalagmite (or is it a stalactite?) on my little ice tray. So I thought I should photograph it because it was kinda funny and neat. My life is exciting, I know. (:

Things I Forgot...And Things I Miss

I haven't forgotten about posting pictures from Chile, I just haven't taken the time to do it. I apologize. However, I'm going to do that now. I also realized that I left out many details from our time in Chile in my last post. I intend to fill some of those in at the moment, which is always easier with pictures anyway.  They're a little out of order, but that's ok. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed taking them!

This is one of the central post offices. It used to be an old mansion, but the government now uses it. Gorgeous!

I think this is a Catholic church. I fell in love with the architecture of Chile!

First bus ride on the public transportation!

This was taken inside one of the cathedrals. Chile is very Catholic. 

I think this is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

On the second day we were in Santiago, we got introduced to TranSantiago, the public transportation system: Buses and Subways. We toured around and got to explore Central Santiago. We went in about three or four cathedrals and a few markets.

Another Catholic church.

We got to hang out with lots of youth kids, and this was taken during a game for one of the youth meetings. We laughed so much that night!

The first weekend we were in Chile, we got to help out with a clinic down by the beach, in Vina. It ended up storming that day, so we took the clinic to the people, and my job was to keep these precious little kids entertained with face painting. It was a blast being able to be creative, but the day was spent in confusion trying to understand Spanish-well Chilean actually. It got better, but I'm sure all the Chileans were laughing at me. This little girl wanted a butterfly, but I couldn't ever make her happy because my "artwork" wasn't as good as the girl before her's. Kids are funny. (:

Brandon got to play lots of soccer! He loved it! I only made it to one game because they would play late at night and it was cold! But I enjoyed the one game I went to. (: The courts they would play on were about the size of a basketball court and they would play 7 on 7 or 5 on 5. Brandon said it was so much fun. (:

This was at Los Dominicos, a really expensive but awesome artesian shopping center. I found some really pretty leather journals that I would have loved. But they were about $40 and I wasn't about to spend that much on a journal...It was a fun day of shopping though.

Los Dominicos

The entrance of Los Dominicos

Ah, Santa Lucia! This is a hidden treasure of Santiago. It is a hill in the middle of downtown and just looks like trees, but as you get closer there is a castle in the hill. One of the founders of Chile built it and basically it was his fortress while he invaded the natives and made Chile European. There's about a dozen things named after Pedro de Valdivia in Santiago.

Graffiti was everywhere!

On Thursdays Brandon and I would go to a preschool with a lady from church and tell the kids Bible stories and sing songs with them. The kids were crazy but really adorable! The preschool songs get stuck in our heads all the time...only slightly annoying. We know how to sing "This Little Light of Mine" and a few others in Spanish really well. (:

View of Santiago from San Cristobal.

Aaron and I on our way to San Cristobal.

San Cristobal is a hill that you can climb (or drive up) and at the top is this giant statue of Santa Maria (Mary-mother of Jesus). Like I said, Chile is very Catholic. It was a beautiful monument. After we saw the statue, we got a glimpse of the view of Santiago. We also went Geo Cacheing. Super fun!

These boys. Sleeping with the dogs. (:
I'm so glad that these three guys were part of the trip! We laughed so much and had so much fun together.
(And I guess we'll accept Aaron even if he did graduate from Henderson..) (;

Our little San Cristobal group. The other girl is Michelle, one of the members of the church. She is a ninth grader, I think, and speaks really good English. She was fun to have around!

Sporting our school spirit! Aaron was out numbered on the OBUness.

(:

It looks like there's mist on the mountain, but really it's just smog..but it makes for a cool picture! (:

Sweet missionary friends, taken at our MK girls' slumber party.
Lauren, the blonde, is in Santiago for the summer doing journalism for the IMB. It was a blast to have her around!
Chloe is an MK and always good for some laughs! (:

We went skiing! This is the view from the slopes. The Andes Mountains are gorgeous!!

Oh, we're just waiting on the bus after a great day at Grace College.

This is the mountain we skied on. It was a blast, and I can now say I learned to ski in the Andes, but oh goodness was it hard! I was sore for days.

Bus ride from Grace College

They put my name on my skis. Cute (:

Lunch at Grace College. (: Yum!

Fun kids at Grace College. (I actually don't know these kids, but I was taking pictures and they wanted a picture, so here it is. They're cute, whoever they are.) (;

For all my library friends and Mom, this is the library. They're a little short on books.
 We would hang out here during class breaks because it was warm and quiet.

After a long day of skiing. (:

Franco! He was one of our favorite 3rd graders. Sort of a class clown, but real fun!

Again, at the ski slopes. Sorry they're so out of order...

The cheesy "let's take a picture of ourselves" picture taken from the Air and Space Museum.

Santa Lucia close up!

Santa Lucia. Love it!

Taken at the top of Santa Lucia.
Behind us is what we found to be the local adolescent hangout and make out spot. Talk about awkward!

Our group from the Air and Space Museum. (:

National Library
Biblioteca Naccional.

First graders before chapel.
We worked with this class many times, and I came to love them! They were a bit nuts, but I loved it. Maybe since I wasn't their regular teacher I could enjoy their craziness. (:

We got to color at the school. (:

Brandon's favorite 6th graders. They enjoyed getting beat by him in ping pong. (:

One Tuesday, a group from Brazil came in and held chapel. It was awesome to get to work with another missionary group from a different country. And it was really awesome to worship God in multiple languages and know that we were praising the same God. He is a God that is not bound by language like we are!

Trip to Vina del Mar with the 9th graders from Grace College to deliver blankets to a drug rehab center. Pictured with us is Mister Ariel, the chaplain of Grace. I cherished his friendship while we were there.

The group at the drug rehab center.

Yes, they have Starbucks in Chile. There were quite a few, actually.

And Pizza Huts, and Domino's and Papa Johns...and Applebees!

Coca-Cola!

You can't really see it in this picture, but this is a university "En Paro" or on strike. They students of many high schools and universities had taken over the schools, mainly the public ones, and were trying to get the government to reform education. There were many marches while we were there. The students were staying in the schools during all of this. We found it almost ridiculous and interesting.

Comida Tipica del Chile.
Typical Chilean food. You would never guess to put french fries, onions, fried eggs, and stew meat together, but it was actually pretty tasty. Really unhealthy, but tasty!

Pastor Ariel and "El Rector" (Principal) of Grace College.
Wonderful men with big hearts for the children of Grace.

Youth Meeting with Iglesia Bautista de Argomeda.
We were invited to come to their youth meeting and had a blast! We danced (yes, in a Baptist church) and sang and played games and laughed a lot!

This is what most streets look like in Santiago. The mountains so prevalent in the background and the buses everywhere. This is actually clearer than usual. Usually there's people everywhere!

Back to the Argomedo Church. Brandon got labeled as Justin Bieber and the kids found it hilarious! (Not going to lie, I did to.) He actually sang part of "Baby" for them. It was awesome! I think I cried from laughing so much.

They guys like to stop and smell the roses. Aren't they sweet?
(:

At the Argomedo Church, we were served these hot dogs. Yum...
Chileans are almost obsessed with hot dogs. It's interesting. But they're not just normal hot dogs. They put lots of mayo and tomatoes and sometimes guacamole and tons of other stuff on it. I'll pass. I seem to always go to the countries with interesting hot dog habits...

Believe it or not, this picture was taken in a Home Depot! It looked exactly like ours do, except everything was in Spanish. And they were selling candies and jams. Bizarre!

Back at the first youth meeting pictured. (:

Well, this is totally out of order, but I'm not going to change it. This was right before we went through security in DFW to leave for Chile. The excitement is brimming over on our faces! (:

I can't put up all the photos, so I think the easiest way to see them all is from Facebook. Here's the link to my albums from: Photo Album 1 Photo Album 2 Photo Album 3 Photo Album 4.  Let me know if they don't work and I'll try to figure something out. I also uploaded pictures to the Picassa Web Album, but I think the majority are on Facebook. I put the favorites on Picassa.

Well, I think that about sums up the Chile trip. It was a long time to be away, so it's hard to sum everything up, but I think those were the highlights. (: