Love Never Fails and Hope Doesn't Disappoint

Remember that this week.

A Little Photo Booth Fun...

You can tell Dani was loving it...notice the progression of her faces... (she's the one on the left)...






I have fun friends :)

If I was a flight attendant, I would want to work with this guy...

I hope there is a fun flight attendant like this guy on one of my flights this summer!

Where does the time go?

I seriously think that time always goes by fast, but it seems to fly by even faster during the spring time! Had some fun stuff going on with some pictures to be posted soon. A quick recap:

--Went to Nevada for a few days with two wonderful and crazy friends, Dani and Mallorie. Mal is from Nevada so we stayed with and hung out with her family, while we enjoyed the small town feel. And when I say "her family" that pretty much means half the town...that girl knew everyone! It was a lot of fun. Love those girls a lot. Pictures to come soon.

--Just got back from my first wedding of the year tonight (two more to come in April!). I dated a guy in college and while we were dating, I got to know his family pretty well. Today his sister got married and I was invited to join in the celebration. I also got to see and spend a good amount of time with my friend Courtney and her husband Drew, who are wonderful and so much fun. I went up Friday afternoon and stayed the night at their place and came back late tonight. After spending time with them, I always leave having laughed a lot and feeling incredibly refreshed. Time with them was good for my soul. Really good.

--Got my first pedicure of the year today too. It was about time to start wearing flip flops and bring those toes out from their winter hiding!

--I now have internet on my phone and it's crazy addicting. What have I got myself into??

--I'm continuing to learn the power and value of a listening ear. I've tried to be better at listening over the past month or so and have been incredibly grateful to those who have offered a genuine ear to me.

--My brother was in town for a few days and we had the chance to hang out for a whole evening. It was a lot of fun and so good to catch up. There is surely no one like that guy.

--I filled out my first NCAA bracket ever this year and it's been a lot of fun to follow. Tim (my brother) was the one who told me I had to do one...so I did...and I have to say I'm doing pretty well!

--As I look ahead to summer I'm really looking forward to all the summer fruit!!

5 Nuggets of Wisdom From My Grandma...

My grandma has always told me to be smart with my finances, but to not be cheap when buying any of the following things...

1. Shoes
2. Bras
3. Make Up/Face Lotion (Oh and she has always reminded me to put lotion on my neck morning and night...it's the first place that starts to show aging, so she says... AND wear sunscreen!)
4. Pots and Pans
5. Kitchen Knives

How do I answer that??

I was a part of a panel of women yesterday at the 3rd annual FPU women's day retreat. Myself and my friend Kimi (also the other RD at FPU) along with the help of our wonderful RAs took a bus full of women to Cambria for the day. There we enjoyed time on the beach, watched matting elephant seals, ate some barbecued ribs and enjoyed a day at the coast together as women. We spent some time at a local church where along with other things, we had a panel of women that answered questions that the ladies wrote down earlier in the day. We told the ladies no question was off limits as we wanted this to be a time where real questions could be asked and real answers could be given.

We divided the questions up between each of the three of us on the panel. One of the questions that was given to me to answer was:

What are some tips for getting over and dealing with the pain of a break-up?

"How do I answer that?" I thought. I often joke with many of my friends that when I'm not in a relationship I become this "relationship expert" and can give all kinds of good advice about dating and relationships. Although I know when I'm the one in the midst of a relationship, I haven't always followed my own advice.

I could think of plenty of things that I did to deal with a break-up, however when I look back I'm not convinced they were all the best things. As much as I would like to pretend they were...the reality is that they were not. But I learned A LOT through it. A LOT.

So I basically broke my thoughts down into four parts. Tips for dealing with a break-up...

1. Allow Time - This is one area I failed in. I didn't allow enough time for myself to heal or for the reality of things to set in. Even though I knew the relationship wasn't working, for whatever reason I still wanted it. And I had to ask myself the question, "Why do I keep wanting "it" when "it" isn't working?" I came to my own conclusions to that question, and had to acknowledge certain things and in the end simply needed time to get up, let go and look ahead.

2. Find People - I'm not talking about a rebound person. I'm talking about those people who will sit with you as you process ALL of your feelings out loud. Someone who will listen to you on the phone talk about the same things twenty different times. Those people who will change their weekend schedule for you, so that you're not left sitting home by yourself alone with all of your thoughts. Those people who can give you insight from an outsiders perspective, who won't bash the guy over and over again, but will be honest with you and tell you those things that you may not want to hear, but in reality, need to hear.

3. Acknowledge that there is a purpose for it all - This one can be really hard, because often the reasons and purposes for why things happen in life can't be seen right away, or even shortly down the road. Sometimes the road to understanding is a long one. I had to cling to this idea a lot as I reminded myself that I needed to stop making my own decisions and allow myself to rest in knowing that God sees and understands FAR more then I do, or ever will.

4. Maintain your integrity - We all have things we could say or share that could make the other person look really bad. But why? There's no reason to and when we do that, it's often a reflection of our self. I really believe that a person's character isn't determined by their actions, but by their reactions to the difficulties and pain that life brings...

Although I broke it down into 4 clear cut parts, the bottom line still remains that break-ups can suck. They hurt. A lot sometimes. But although a broken relationship can influence a person greatly, it shouldn't define who they become or how they view relationships from that point on. I've seen first hand what can happen when a person holds on to past hurts and pains and doesn't allow themselves time to acknowledge it all and heal. And I'm not saying it's easy...but it's necessary.

And I would like to make the disclaimer again, that I am by no means a relational expert. Some of these things I've had to learn the hard way myself...