The final countdown.

Hey. Remember me? And how terrible I am about updating this thing?

And remember three months ago when I talked about how excited I was to be offered a job with WinShape Camps for Communities? (Click here to read the post). 

Well, I leave for camp in one week. ONE WEEK! 

I could honestly write a post rambling on about how pumped I am that would take you like 20 minutes to read.

BUT I'll spare you the word vomit and just give you a breakdown of what my summer is going to look like. 

What: 

(Taken from the WinShape Camps Facebook page)

"WinShape Camps was created in 1985 by Chick-fil-A Founder and CEO, S. Truett Cathy.

WinShape Camps for Communities is a day camp that offers campers a week of fun, faith, fellowship and adventure by partnering with local churches and faith-based organizations to create weeklong day camp experiences in over 60 communities throughout the nation."

Who: 

WinShape Camps for Communities staff is split into teams of 20-25 college/seminary students.

I will be serving alongside the Purple Team. 11 guys, 12 girls. Our team director is a seminary student and the rest of us are students at universities throughout the Southeast.  I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that we are between ages 18-26. 

Where: 

Here is the route my team will take:

June 4-8 / Moss Point, Mississippi / Wade Baptist Church 

June 11-15 / Lafayette, Louisiana / Easy Bayou Baptist Church 

June 18-22 / Niceville, Florida / First Baptist Church

June 25-29 / Baton Rouge, Louisiana / Istrouma Baptist Church

July 2-6 / Lexington, Kentucky / Crossroads Christian 

July 9-13 / Dacula, Georgia / Hamilton Mill United Methodist

July 16-20/ Huntsville, Alabama / Whitesburg Baptist

July 23-27 / Oxford, Mississippi / OPC Activity Center

July 30-August 3 / Joplin, Missouri / Bridge Ministries

How:

Seeing as this is my first summer with WinShape, I'm not 100% positive on every detail, but from what I've gathered...

we travel in vans, stay in hotels/college dorms, and eat at the hotel/Chick-Fil-A/church kitchen/restaurants. Sounds like the perfect road tripping adventure to me. 

Why:

(Taken straight from www.WinShape.org)

"To impact young people and families through experiences that will enhance their Christian faith, character, and relationships."

Sounds totally awesome, right?

JUST WAIT.

It gets better.

Each staff member leads a specific "skill" throughout the summer. The campers each choose three different skills and go to the daily sessions.

So, guess what I get to teach kids how to do all summer?

...COOK! I get to teach kids how to cook all summer! 

And in addition to that, I get to teach kids about the message and love of Christ in a small group/Bible Study/devotional setting. Which is equally as exciting to me. 

Like I said before, I could probably write a book about how ecstatic I am about all of this. 

The fact that I get to work for an organization that includes Christ in their mission statement is a huge blessing in and of itself. But when you add in all the other super cool details I get so excited that my head starts to spin. 

Anyway, I leave for staff training in a week. 

Please be praying for me, my team, and the communities on our route. 

Can't wait to fill you in after this adventure ends in August. 

Love you all! 

Forgive and be forgiven.

Hey folks. 

This past Sunday I heard one of the most beautiful and relatable messages of grace and forgiveness and I wanted to give you the opportunity to hear it too. 

The sermon a little under 45 minutes, but it is so so so worth being reminded about the forgiveness we are called to extend to others as a response to the infinite grace God gives us every morning.

This link will lead you to the video:

http://vimeo.com/38325474

(Michael Mears is guest-preaching because City Church's lead pastor was out of town. I'm pretty sure he is the director of Campus Christian Fellowship at FSU. 

...How awesome is he?!)

Rest your feet up on the dash.

I live in the South, so I'm pretty much obligated to love football season more than anything. 

Which I do.

But I also really enjoy spring semester.

Spring semester is road trips. Lot's of road trips. 

Whether we're headed 9 hours up to the mountains or an hour and a half down to the beach, my friends and I completely take advantage of our weekends. (And weekdays when necessary...)

Take a peek at where I've gone and where I'm going this semester:

February 17 - 20.
Tallahassee to New Orleans.
387 miles.

February 24-26.
Tallahassee to Birmingham.
300 miles. 

March 2- 7.
Tallahassee to Stuart.
380 miles.

March 17 (Weather permitting).
Tallahassee to St. George Island.
78 miles. 

March 20 - 25.
Tallahassee to Boone, NC.
575 miles.

Road trip snack of choice: Sour Patch Kids. 

And if you don't eat an entire 1,500+ calorie  bag in under 20 minutes, you're doing it wrong. 

Happy Daylight Savings! 

Just kidding. Daylight savings stinks. And it's irrelevant and outdated. Can we get rid of it already? 

Post title: Days Like These,  Jason Aldean

Open road and an empty itinerary.

"Hey, I have an interview in Birmingham this weekend. 

Wanna come?" - gal pal Jordan.

"My cousin will be out of town, but she said we could stay at her house." 

The view from the back yard.
 Jordan's cousin just happened to live in one of the nicest parts of town.

The inside was just as gorgeous.

"My interview is at 9:00 AM on Saturday, so I guess we can just spend the rest of the weekend exploring."

Photo cred: Jordan

Some gorgeous church downtown. 

English Village. 

Photo editing cred: Jordan.

Photo cred: Jordan. 

"I heard FLIP Burger Boutique is really good. Wanna check it out?"

Country fried beef, pimento cheese, bread and butter pickles, and SWEET TEA SAUCE.
The stuff dreams are made of. 

Our swanky view. 

"Remember that MTV show 'Two-A-Days'? That high school is only like ten minutes away."

If somebody were to stop and ask us what the heck we were doing I had
an elaborate "well, we graduated a few years back..." story all planned out. 

"WOAH, I just saw a sign for a Blockbuster close out sale!!!"

99 cent DVDs.

Just happened to find Season 1 amid the Blockbuster chaos.

And then we found Tim Tebow as a high schooler. 

"Isn't David Platt's church in Birmingham?"

The author of Radical/pastor of The Church at Brook Hills.

photo cred: Jordan.

Obviously, I had a blast this weekend. 

And obviously, my friends are awesome. 

And obviously, I'm blessed way, way, WAY than I could ever deserve.

Sooo....when can I move to Birmingham?

All smiles.

Happy Friday, folks!

 I have some really exciting news that I wanted to share with all my family, friends, and family friends that love me enough to continue to come back and look at my blog even when I promise to do a better of job of updating it but never do.

 ("Yeah, I'm going to update it every day this month!"... HAHA.)

I started the summer job search a few months ago. And by summer job search, I mean summer camps because I've spent the last two summers evolving into a Camp Counselor and it's obviously the best job ever. Seeking an upgrade to the local YMCA, I spent hours looking at dozens of Christian sleep-away camps in the Southeast. And then I applied to two. 

I entrusted my summer to the Lord, sent in my applications, interviewed, and then played the waiting game. 

And HOLY SMOKES, did He provide. 

In a little less then three months, I'll be headed up to Rome, Georgia for a week and a half of staff training for WinShape Camps for Communities. 

Click here to check out WinShape's website. 

Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-Fil-A, also founded WinShape. Summer camp is only one of the many facets of this charitable, Christian organization. Since 1985, they have offered sleep-away camps for girls in Young Harris, GA and boys in Mount Berry, GA. In 2007, WinShape Camps added its "community" aspect. 

Basically, it is a day camp that travels to over 60 locations in the Southeast and partners with a local church to host a week long camp.

Potentially, my team of 20-25 college students could go to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, and the list goes on. 

On March 15, I will find out who is in my team and where exactly our team will go. 

I've had a full 24 hours to process all of this, and it STILL sounds to good to be true. 

The milkshake I celebrated with yesterday after receiving the news. 

It blows me away how perfectly the Lord knows the desires of our hearts. 

And how desperately he wants to lavish His love and abundant blessings on us. 

And how neatly things fall in place when we give him the reigns. 

Tonight I'm headed up to Birmingham with a few of my gal pals to spend the weekend exploring. 

And then next weekend I get to go home to enjoy a few days of my spring break. 

And then the weekend after that I get to hang out with some family friends that will be visiting Tallahassee for a soccer tournament. 

And then two weekends after that, I'll be in Boone with some of my favorite people in the world. 

My life is way too fun. 

I don't even know what to title this post.

Welp, I guess I totally lied when I said I'd be updating my blog every day this month. 

I'm sure that all six hundred million billion of you are outraged. 

I've had my iPhone for three months-ish and didn't get the hang of Instagram until recently.

Not only are the filters and photo editing options super awesome, but the social media aspect of it is pretty sweet too. You can follow me at @amandabee13 and I'd love to follow you as well. 

 I've stuck with the "Photo of the Day" challenge. Surprising, I know. 

Check it out:

Day 5: 10 AM.
My favorite way to start the week.

Day 6: Dinner.
Crock pot chicken parmesan. I followed this recipe.

Day 7: Buttons.
I've accrued quite a collection. 

Day 8: Sun.
Love my forest view. Not so keen on my tacky vertical blinds.

Day 9: Front door.
Remember this post?

Day 10: Self portrait.
Drawn by one of my third grade friends. Apparently I need to reevaluate my use of mascara and neglect of hairspray. 

Day 11: Things that make you happy.
Dinner at Waffle House. The people watching is almost as good as the food. 

Day 12: Inside your closet.
Boots and button downs edition. 

Still not tired of my attempts at being a cool photography girl? 

Feeling SO blessed that I get to live with these girls next year.
(Left to right: Me, Paige, Tara, Kate)

The first of probably a hundred more visits to Lucy & Leo's Cupcakery. 

Glitter nails. BAM! 

The College of Education was hosting an open house at the same time I had class. Which meant I scored a free lunch and a koozie. Thanks, Bright Futures! 

THE BEST snack for laying in bed catching up on Sweet Home Alabama. Don't judge. 

It had me at the cookies and tank included in the $15 registration fee.
Next stop: 10k.

(P.S: I'm watching the Grammy's, live tweeting my roomie's hilarious commentary, and flitting around on every other social media site and therefore this post took me roughly an hour and a half to finish.) 

The Hunger Games.

((minor spoiler alert))

My weekend was consumed by finishing The Hunger Games. 

And by that I mean I read on the couch Friday night, all day Saturday, and then until 1:00 AM Saturday night.

And I'm glad to be done with them.

Because, honestly, I wasn't the biggest fan. 

The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and The Mockingjay. 

I'd heard people singing their praises for months but not one person mentioned anything about their dark, depressing, and slightly traumatizing nature. 

The series is about an oppressive government that forces the children of its starving citizens to kill each other so I probably should have seen it coming. 

Stories of heartbreak and tragedy seem to be more bearable when, in the end, good triumphs evil. 

But in The Hunger Games, the line between good and evil was blurry if apparent at all. 

The inherent flaws of humanity were magnified through instances of violence, deception, and greed in both the protagonists and antagonists.

However, there were undertones of sacrificial love. And hope. And the beauty of peace. 

To sum it up, it seemed to me that the author's main message was:

"even if you win a war, you still lose".  

Pretty powerful stuff for novels written at the fifth grade reading level. 

I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see the movie the day it comes out. 

What did you think about the series? Are you planning on seeing the movie? 

Did you fall in love with Peeta as much as I did?