Catching Up

Wow! Has it really already been almost a month since one of just wrote on here! Sorry to keep y'all waiting! We know you were sitting on the edge of your seat waiting right :) Well... where to start? How about Big Break?

Me, Anne, Ellen, Mandy, Bri and Jade in front of the stage.

Mallory, Me and Erica having some fun while playing catch phrase.

We buried Jake and Jon in the sand and then they struggled to get out.

Ellen, Erica and I playing lay exactly on. So much fun!

Big Break was a lot of fun! I made so many friends! I love being apart of Cru! It is so much fun! I had an interesting experience. I didn't get the pleasure to lead anyone to Christ this year, although many people did! God, was working more on me I think. He was showing me that I might just not be as strong as I thought I was. Through out the week I was feeling really disconnected from God, which is weird because during these kinds of things I usually am really close to Him. I started having doubts, I ignored them because I knew the answers to ward them off. That wasn't the smarted decision on my part. Thursday I got sick and didn't go out to share, but I forced myself to go to the last session. At the session we had an extended worship time to celebrate everything God had done that week. All of the sudden all my doubts came back, things like: "God doesn't love you. How could he? You are such a horrible person. Are you sure you are even saved? Who are to even have gone out and shared with those people? You don't deserve God." Those kinds of thoughts kept circulating through my head until I just stopped worshipping all together. I just didn't want to fake it anymore. If my heart wasn't in it, I wasn't going to act like it was. I confronted the doubts and lies in my head. I knew God loved me. I knew I was saved. I just felt so disconnected, like God was a million miles away and walking away. I can't explain it very well, I just felt lost and a lone. I realized later that night back in my room that I wasn't in love with God. I know that sounds like a romantic and weird thing to say about God, but we are supposed to love Him and be in love with Him and I wasn't there. I wasn't going out to the people on the beach because I loved them and wanted them to know God. I was going out to them because that is what I was supposed to do.

Don't worry, I am not in that state anymore. I have asked God to help me experience His love everyday and help me to love Him more everyday. I am definitely experiencing His love. I love Him now more than I ever have. He is doing really cool things everywhere I look. I praise Him for all those things.

Anyway, after that heavy stuff Kels and I have some exciting news! We signed our lease! We are living on S. Vanburen in IC! We are really excited. If you follow either of us on pinterest we apologize in advance for all the pins tagged at each other. If only pinterest had private boards, then you wouldn't have to see it all!

Here is a pic fo our apartment complex:

I think this is the back of one of the buildings? But you get the gist right?

A funny thing, at least to me it was funny, happened while Kelsey and I were running the other day. We were running along just hit the .17 mile mark and all of the sudden Kelsey wasn't running beside me anymore. She had fallen flat on her face. She skinned her knee (and her ego) pretty bad. Good thing her bf had bandages and ice ready when we got to his house because she was complaining pretty bad. It is all bruised and gross now. She limps very dramatically. First thing she will say when she sees you is, "My knee hurts." She will also continue to say this about every 5 minutes. You may want to avoid her as long as possible :)

Prayer for Kelsey:
~Her knee (obviously)
~Her roommate moved out and now she needs furniture! She is looking frantically! If you have any or know of anyone who has some they would like to get rid of, she would really appreciate it!

Prayer for Mary:
~Discipline. As the end of the school year approaches I feel as if I have seniorites all over again. It's bad. Also discipline in reading my Bible. I always let it go. It needs to be my number one priority.

Thanks for reading and praying! We love you all!

-MM-

On the Road

Well, as Kelsey told you yesterday I am on the road to Panama City Beach, Florida! I am so excited for this week. I can't believe we are already on Spring Break! I am now closer to finishing my freshman year at Iowa than I am to starting it! Crazy thought. Anyway, it has been quite an eventful trip as you all know, nothing ever goes perfectly... I got on the bus at about 6:35 so we were late, but that's ok! My phone was already dying because it is stupid and dies three times a day. I searched my bag frantically and realized I didn't have my phone charger! I am hoping it is in my big suitcase under the bus. Luckily my friends, Ellen has the same charger as me and came to my rescue! Thanks Ellen :)
Now, I will take a second to introduce you to my lovely seat mate, Jade- I do have more exciting things to tell you but I will rest your minds for a second!

We should have taken a picture last night when I looked better, but I didn't think about it, whoops! Oh well! She is in my Bible study in Burge and I am really excited to get to know her better through out the week, not that we don't know each other right now, because we do! 


Back to exciting things! (not that you aren't exciting, Jade, because you are) As many of you know sleeping on a bus is not very fun. Jade and I discovered this again last night. There was no room in the aisle for me to sleep, so we had to share a seat. It was quite pleasant! Well, we did ok and what could you expect on a crowded bus right? Anyway at about 7 this morning the bus pulled over to the side of the road, which is never a good thing! We had blown a tire! We had to wait for a truck service to come and fix it. We were back on the road by 8 or 8:15. The tire looked like someone had come and tore it apart!


Then we played speed dating. That was really fun. Erica and I read questions in the front while people moved every minute and a half. I think (and hope) they had fun! I got to use the microphone and wanted so badly to shout "THERE IS COLONIAL WOMEN ON THE WING! SHE IS DRESSED IN TRADITIONAL COLONIAL GARB! THERE IS SOMETHING THEY AREN'T TELLING US!" I did however refrain from doing so, into the microphone that is. I might have repeated a few times up front to people near me. PS is you don't know what that is from, it's probably a good thing!


We are watching Lord of the Rings now, but I am so not in the mood for that movie so I thought I would bore you all with my thoughts of our trip so far.


If you could pray for everyone in our group and who will be at Big Break just to be open to what God has in store for us and that God would open the hearts of everyone we will be sharing the Gospel with that would be awesome! God has some really cool things planned for all of this week and I am really excited to see what He has in store for me specifically! Also, Kelsey wasn't kidding when she asked you to pray that I wouldn't get burnt! That would not be a good thing! I hope I get a tan with out the burn (here's hoping!)


Anyway, thank you for spending time reading our blog! We really appreciate you guys taking time to read our crazy, scattered thoughts! We also appreciate comments :)


MM

Shopping and other fun things.

Sorry for the lack of blogg-age. I've been working, and then sleeping, working then sleeping all week. This new job is wiping me out! But every day I leave feeling a tiny bit more confident.  At some point every day, I found myself thinking, "I love this job!" Guess this is where I'm supposed to be! 

A week ago Mary and I promised to blog about our shopping trip to Williamsburg to the outlets. Well, mother nature caught word of our fun shopping trip and sent a snow storm right our way! What are the odds? Seriously, it's been like spring all winter long. So we made another plan. We went to Coral Ridge Mall! I love having an actual "mall" with good stores close by! (Sorry Ames, that thing you call a mall, isn't really a mall.) We started the day out by eating breakfast (ok, it was 2 pm.) at ihop because I had been craving pancakes all week! They did their job!

First bites!

I promised our waitress I would finish all of them. But I had to disappoint. I couldn't eat them all. 

     

After breakfast, we headed over to the mall. We hit up Old Navy pretty well. If you're looking for cute spring/summer clothes, that's the place to go! Super cute clothes!  Mary got some "supes cute" (she'll kill me for saying that :) silver Sperry's, and like all good sisters, I was extremely jealous. I guess I know how she feels now... she's always been jealous of me! HA! As for my shopping day, it was at Target. Buying bathroom cleaning supplies. Woo-Hoo! As we were leaving, and after the snow, we headed out to the car. Mary was climbing in passenger side, and got "Snooped" on. (Snowed and Pooped on) (yes, i made that word up.) I thought it was quite hilarious. And so we took another picture.

SNOOPED!

It's time for me to wrap this up. I was supposed to be in bed early tonight. Whoops! Mary is on spring break in Panama City Beach this week with Cru! Pray that she has a good time, grows in her time there, and doesn't get fried like a lobster! (Seriously, though.) Have fun, Mar! We all will be looking forward to a detailed post about your trip! Love you!

-KM-

Color Run

Kelsey and I (and maybe Ashley) have decided to do The Color Run. It raises money for the Children's Hospital in Chicago. Pretty much what you do is run (or a run/walk most likely) and people throw colored stuff at you. You get really colorful and messy. We are really excited for that part, the running part on the other hand... we will just say we are in training. We started tonight. We are one day closer right? Yeah... not too close to three miles but almost.. sort of. Ok we ran for 30 minutes and we are dead now. But we will get there, some how, some way. A little bit every day or every other day. After we ran we did Big 10! That is where you start with ten push ups and sit ups, then you go down to 9 of each and so on. (Thanks to Ellen and Kennedy for this work out) Here's a video of what we are in training for:

I just have to say one thing. I am so happy that Kelsey is here. Last night I laid down to go to sleep and realized I was really happy she was here. I was probably happier than I had been for a while because I have seen my big sis everyday since Saturday! That hasn't happened since well I guess Christmas Break, but whatever. I am still really thankful she got a job here and her boyfriend is here because if we are honest I may be the real reason she is here but he was a good factor :) 

MM

PS: we know these first few posts are boring, but we will try to make them more exciting. We are going to the outlets this Friday so look forward to that! I know I am and I will bring my camera along!

First Adventures

Kelsey Martin

Good morning fellow bloggers! I'm Kelsey. I just moved to Iowa City, 4 days ago to be exact. I'm new to the city and can't wait to venture out and see all the new things I can get my hands on.  I started working at Bellisimo Salon and Day Spa yesterday as an assistant to one of the lead stylists there.  I can't wait to start working and getting paid for doing something I love. (Plus it's my first "big girl" job!) I am also currently looking for a church to get plugged in to, so keep me in your prayers. If you have any suggestions to where I might try out, leave a comment!  I have given myself 4-6 weeks to "church shop." Hopefully by then, I can find that one place that I need to be connected.  


Last night, Mary and I had our first "adventure." Who knew a trip to the mall could end in soaked jeans, shoes and socks.. for me. If you know me at all, you know that I tend to misplace things. Often. Mary and I went to the mall quick before she had Bible study last night.  We were having ourselves a nice, fun time. I dropped her back off at her dorm and drove away.  I reached for my phone, and little did I know it wasn't in my purse. So I did the coat pocket check. And the front of the jeans check. And the butt pockets check. No where. Pulled over and emptied my purse. Nothing. I decided to stay calm and drive back to Coralville to the mall. This part is where i step in the puddle (more like river) and soak my jeans, socks and shoes. No big deal. Went back into both stores we went to (yes.. we only went to 2 stores!!!!) and still nada. At this point I'm semi-panicking.  Drove back to my apartment to get on facebook to break the news to all the important people. Mom, Mary, Isaac. But not Dad.... don't tell Dad! Thank goodness for facebook messenger. Got a hold of Mary and drove back to her dorm. (Side note: If you don't know Mary, you don't know that she is amazing at finding lost things!) She looked through my purse and my car and not even she could find it! So what did we do? We drove (it felt like all the way) back to the mall. The mall was closed by now so all the cars had emptied out of the parking lot. Except for one green Subaru. Mary's superhero powers spotted that car and she knew right away that that was the car we had parked next to! We walked up to it and found my phone laying right under the wheel.  Ok, maybe that's a little bit stretched... but it was under the car! Yay for Mary and her superhero-like ways! 

 I'm excited for all the other adventures, fun times, sisterly fights, and everything else that Mary and I might encounter while we "take Iowa City!" This might be the blog where you know too much, want to know more, or just enough... But we promise to keep you on your toes. Well, I do at least. Mary won't know she promises that until she reads this post with the rest of you. (Sister fight #1?) 

KM

 

Mary Noel

Hi! I'm Mary! I'm a freshman at the University of Iowa. Blah blah blah. The introduction posts are always so boring! Anyway, my sister Kelsey and I are taking Iowa City by storm! I can't wait to get started blogging about all the memories we will make in our time here. A little more about me: I am a pretty normal (at least I think so) girl. I love God and strive to do all that I can to follow Him and do what He wants. I fall short a lot, but that's ok because that is where His grace steps in. Another thing you should know about me is that I love sports, especially football, especially Hawkeye football! Go hawks! I love to laugh and to make others laugh and I can look pretty silly in the process. Who cares though right? Because those who care don't matter and those who matter don't care. Anyway, I can't wait to share with you all our adventures down here in Hawkeye land! Until the next post- Adios!

MM