Love this

I just really love this picture, this song, and this band.

"Where you invest your love, you invest your life"-Mumford & Sons

Check out my brother's blog!

The second most beautiful redhead in the world. 

For some words of wisdom and a sometimes immature (but always witty) sense of humor, check out my younger brothers' new blog!

www.zacheaton.blogspot.com

Secret: that giraffe is still his best friend. 

To be clear, he's the tall guy on the left, not the elderly woman in the wheel chair. 

Full house!

For the first time since this Summer everyone in my family is back under one roof! My brother and sister-in-law drove in from DC tonight (with two cats!), which means Buck, Anna, Collin, Kalli, Tyler, Caroline and Zach are finally together again! It's pure happiness.

My parents

Time to take a moment and talk about how amazing my family is. Truly, they are incredible, and my proudest obsession. Something amazing happens in the room when all of my family is back together. We all get each other. There's a level of closeness there that I don't think I'll ever have with another group of people--and no one can make me laugh harder than my family. They're the best group of people I know.

Another thing I love about my family: we're all passionate about something, and we're all chasing the thing we're passionate about. This year my parent's have started travelling all around the US preaching at conferences and furthering they're ministry, and it's just the beginning. Along with pastoring a church here in Texas, I believe they'll spend a lot of time taking God's Word all across the globe. And they love it.

Collin and Kalli

On the front page!

My oldest brother, Collin (24), and his wife, Kalli (23), just got back from Washington DC, where he once again amazed his editors at yet another prestigious newspaper. You can always tell that someone is doing what God wants them to do when they are succeeding far beyond everyone's expectations. I'm so proud of him and his wife, Kalli, who is also acting on her dreams of working in the fashion industry.

A screenshot from one of Tyler's movies

Tyler, Zach and I are chasing our own dreams too, but our futures are less defined than the older members of our family. Tyler (21) is studying film, and he's amazingly gifted in all things editing, writing, directing and whatever else comes with the field. He's going to be huge. I'm currently studying journalism, purely for the reason that that's where God has me, and I like it. But don't ask me what I want to do with my degree, because I don't have a clue. My passion is Christ, so I know that I'll always end up where I'm suppose to be when I'm chasing him. Zach (17) is the bravest of all of us. In about 3 weeks he'll be at a ministry school in Colorado, training for a month long outreach somewhere in the Himalayas. He has a fire in his heart for evangelism, and he's not letting his young age keep him from sharing the love of Christ now.

Zach and I at Collin and Kalli's wedding

Sorry this blog was so long and drawn out, but I think it was worth it--I could talk about my family forever. I'm happiest when I'm with my family, and I'm so beyond ecstatic that Christmas has brought us all back together.

Merry Christmas! I hope you are cherishing your family this holiday season.

Tales of Happiness

Well, my first semester of college has come to end. So...I'm done!!! In a few hours I'll be on my way to sweet Sugar Land, Texas for the holidays. A whole month of Sugar Land sounds really incredible right now.

Roommates :)

I can't believe this first semester is already over. Even though a lot has happened, it feels like just yesterday I was moving into my dorm room and meeting this curly haired girl who has the same name as me. Flash forward four months, and now my beautiful roommate Caroline is one of my closest friends, and along with that I have two incredible suit mates and a lot of other kindred spirit friends that I've made here. Moral of the story: God knows what He's doing. Always. He's never left me hanging - He's always taken care of me. It's almost as if He's in love with me or something... :)

So, in order to put off packing a little while longer, I'm going to write about a few awesome experiences that I've had here lately. I'm also writing about it because...well I love writing down my experiences and keeping everyone who is praying for me updated on what's going on in my life.

Last week I went with my friend Emily to get my guitar strings changed. One of my strings broke way back in October, but I still hadn't gotten them changed because I don't have a car and didn't even know where to go to get it done. Luckily my friend Emily needed something from a music store here in Cleveland, so she offered to give me a ride (because she's awesome). I was hoping that there would be someone in the music store who could change them for me since it's been a long time since I learned to change strings and I didn't want to mess anything up. I was expecting this to be a pretty pricey deal, but worth it all the same.

My beautiful guitar that Dub even cleaned for me!

When we got to the music store the man sold me strings for about a third of the price I would've gotten in Sugar Land, which was really awesome considering I'm a college student and money never seems to stay in my pocket. He said he didn't have anyone in the shop who could change the strings for me, but he knew someone who would do it for $5 a guitar. He gave me the man's name and number, and next thing I know I'm calling a man named Dub and asking if I could drop my guitar off at his house to get my strings changed. Dub was an adorable elderly man who used to be a preacher, and said when he was young he had hair the same color as mine. He changed both mine and Emily's guitar's for $5 each, and couldn't have been any sweeter. I just wanted to go into his house, have some tea and hear his story. I didn't, but that would've been awesome.

So, the point to this story is that I love small towns. Really, they're awesome. Everyone is friendly, and when they say "How are you doing?" they really want to know. I'm so glad that God placed me in such a sweet town. The people here are teaching me to enjoy doing things for other's just because I want to help out - without asking anything, or very little, in return.

The next story is about this weekend when I got to go to Nashville!! My friend Lisa must've known that I've been wanting to go to Nashville all semester, and that I needed a getaway from a boring finals week, because she invited me on a trip that her hall was going on over the weekend. She didn't end up going, but somehow I was still invited to go to Nashville with a hall full of girls that I had just met, and it was so much fun. We went to the Opryland hotel to look at the Christmas decorations first - it was so beautiful. Then after that we went line dancing in downtown Nashville, which was an absolute blast.

Nashville is my favorite city in the world. I blew a kiss to the Grand Ole Opry and promised I'd be back. One of my goals is to live in Nashville for a little while after college. I don't know what I'd do there yet, except I know that I'd go to the Opry as much as I could and soak up the heaven that comes out of that place.

Downtown Nashville, such a beautiful place.

Opryland Hotel!

Tennessee sunset. See you in January :)

Anyways, I've had an incredible semester, and even though I'm more than thrilled to go home for a month, I can't wait to come back here next year for part two of freshman year. You know something...God really knows what He's doing.

If you've stuck with me this far, congratulations, because you're about to read the most important part. Here goes: some parts of this adventure of a first semester has felt like a compete free fall. I really didn't know what I was doing when I came to Lee University in Cleveland Tennessee, except that I was going where I felt the Lord was leading me.  But the thing about free falls is that once you get over the fear of the landing, they can be an incredible experience. All you can do is enjoy the fall, and trust that someone, or something, will catch you at the end of it. The Lord has repeatedly told me that He'll be there to catch me. And even better than that, He's come in and taken over completely--acting as my wings. So now, my free fall feels more like flying.

Well, that's all. Sorry this post was such a novel. Actually I guess I'm really not sorry, but I really do hope you stayed with me!

Love always to you and yours,
Caroline.

Now playing: "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" -Alan Jackson
First semester of college: check.

Finals week!

Studious Abby

Finals week is finally here, which means my first semester of college is just about over. Crazy, right?
I still remember leaving my house on August 18th to make the 14 hour drive from Texas to Tennessee, and now I'm about to be back in Texas for a whole month.

Midnight breakfast!

My finals week is going to be really relaxed; I just have two papers due and two exams next week that won't require much studying. So I pretty much have a week of laying around ahead of me, with a little bit of studying thrown in.

But since I'm clearly not studying right now I'll just post some pictures of what's been going on in my crazy college life lately!

So much active brain power in this room

No shave November final results

Adorable Lisa

Christmas tree lighting

Quizzing Allie for her biology test at 2 AM and taking pictures...clearly productive. 

My campus loves Christmas, therefore I love my campus

Bare trees!

Emily and I, not studying

New music will definitely help this week pass quickly :)

December Peace

Well friends...it's December :) You know what this means.....CHRISTMAS!!!! I love being a little kid when it comes to Christmas.

I've been back at Lee for a week now and even though I love it here, I'm ready to soak in a month full of Sugar Land. Thanksgiving was such a tease.

But seriously, I really do love it here. This week has had a lot of ups and downs, but God has done some amazing things in my life just in these past few days, and right now I'm so at peace. The Lord is so good! If you're reading this and you ever want to get coffee and just talk about how seriously amazing God is...let's do it.

I've been reading Ephesians lately, and every time I read this book I'm so amazed at Paul's unceasing joy. I mean...the man was in prison. Tortured. Yet he never stopped spreading the joy of the Lord. He never stopped sharing the Gospel. I pray that in times of tribulation I can still spread the Lord's joy. How sweet it is.

And now, for some worship. A friend of mine just introduced me to Bryan and Katie Torwalt, and their cd has been wrecking me all week. Here's my favorite song (but they're all amazing):

"I've tasted and seen, of the sweetest of Loves
Where my heart becomes free, and my shame is undone
In Your Presence.

Holy Spirit You are welcome here 
Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere 
Your Glory God is what our hearts long for ,
To be overcome by Your Presence, Lord."

I hope you are blessed this December. Never lose the Lord's joy; He delights in YOU.

Love always,

Caroline.