Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to me!!

My Christmas presents! A Vick Eagles Jersey, a robe, a verizon mobile hotspot, new shoes, a framed drawing of Virginia Tech (its beautiful!), a pop culture game (my brother's fiance knows me well, haha) and a signed copy of Sports Illustrated with Michael Vick on the cover. I love all of it!!

My brother and his fiance both had to work this weekend, so we did Christmas last weekend. :) It was short, but really fun. And the best part; every single one of us got this for someone else (we didn't even plan it!):


My family is awesome!

Radical Obedience

I am conservative. I am conservative in pretty much every way. Politically, fiscally, in my views on modesty and purity... you don't get much more conservative than me unless you are Amish.

This poses an interesting problem for me living in Philadelphia. Shoot, it even poses a problem being a Christian. See, being a conservative Christian is... well apparently its not like Jesus. Jesus was a radical. So, in order to really be like Jesus, apparently I have to be a radical.

Most people would say that to be a radical means to challenge authority. It means to do crazy things, to be extreme; to stand apart. That is definitely not me. Sure, I graduated from college and instead of going into the business world, I moved to one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country to live and work. I am a single woman living in a dangerous neighborhood, spending my days loving and serving those that most of the country wants to ignore. I do have piercings and tattoos as well, but none of that is quite radical enough. In fact, any "radical" cred I gain by my life or having piercings and tattoos is immediately canceled out by the fact that I mostly vote republican in elections, haha. I believe in the laws and strictly follow authority. I believe in capitalism and that it is NOT the government's responsibility to fix everything. That does NOT fit the definition of a radical.

And apparently, in order for me to be made more like Jesus, I need to be more radical. I think I would agree with that statement. However, not in the way most people mean it.

What I hear people point to most when describing Jesus as a radical was His incredible love for people. He loved people like no one in history. He loved people that no one else would love. They say we should model ourselves after that. We should love like Jesus loved; with a radical love.

Here comes the twist in the story, I kinda disagree with that last sentence. What?? Yup, I am not seeking to love people the way that Jesus loved them. Instead, I want to love people like the Father loved them, and I want to love the Father the way Jesus loved Him.

Take a second and re-read that statement. The characteristic in Christ that I am seeking most in my life is His love for the Father. And the characteristic of God I am seeking the most is His love for people.

How did Jesus love the Father? He was obedient to the Father.

Doesn't seem to make sense, does it? I mean, God never walked among the people, Jesus did. So, why don't I want to love people the way Jesus did?? I hope I can make this make sense...

**Quick time out for some trinity talk, and please bare with me as I have only taken one theology class so far, haha. I am VERY aware that the Father, Son and Spirit are one. Therefore, when I say I want to love people the way God loves them, I am essentially saying that I want to love them the way Jesus did. I see that. However, the trinity are one AND three. For the purpose of this post, I am referring to the relationship that the trinity have with one another... being completely one but ALSO 3 parts. Its really confusing and I don't have a complete understanding of it all, so please take that into consideration. The trinity ARE ONE, and yet they are ALSO three separate parts in PERFECT union with one another. So, please know I do believe that the Father and the Son are one. They have the same attributes as one another and are ONE God; and they exist as three persons (Father, Son and Spirit). This post will be discussing them as the distinct persons that they each are; if that makes any sense at all. Hey, I tried, haha.

Okay, back to my original point... God loves people. We all know that. But what I am suggesting is that of the 3 persons of the trinity, it is GOD who radically loves people. You know that verse that everyone and their mom has memorized? Read it again:

"For GOD so loved the world that HE GAVE His one and only Son..." ~John 3:16 (emphasis placed by me)

God loved the world, and He gave us His Son.

Now of course, Jesus is the one who did the actual dying, so He really loves us the most, right? Well, let's look at the night before He died...

"Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. ³⁸ Then he said to them, “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”" ~Matthew 26:36-39

So, here is my crazy suggestion. Jesus was a radical NOT because of how He loved people, but because He was obedient to the Father. In fact, I think that when He walked on this earth, Jesus loved people so incredibly; so radically because He was being obedient to the Father; a Father who loves us radically.

I'll give you a minute...

All of this is going to sound blasphemous if you remove the trinity. I am NOT saying that Jesus didn't love people. By being fully God, any love that the Father has for people, Jesus has as well. But, I think when we look at Jesus' life on earth, we often see ONLY His love for people, and ignore a love that was much greater; a love that (I believe) ultimately sent Him to the cross: His love for the Father. Because He loved the Father, He sought His will and was obedient to Him in every way.

"Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work." ~ John 14:10 (again, emphasis is mine)

In John 13, Jesus does tell His disciples to love others just as He has loved them. Obviously, I agree with this, haha. Please note that I am NOT saying that Jesus isn't a model for us on how to love people. I am simple saying that we often overlook that He is a model for us in how to love people BECAUSE of His obedience. And we additionally ignore the incredible model of love that the FATHER is in the incredible sacrifice that He made for us.

So, I will repeat my earlier statement: I want to love people like the Father loves them, and I want to love the Father the way Jesus loves Him.

In His final moments, Jesus cried out to the Father asking for there to be another way, yet His final prayer to the Father was, "Yet not my will, but your will be done". He died on the cross for our sins because He was being obedient to the will of the Father.

I want to be obedient to the Father the way Jesus was.

And God... well He loved people enough to make it His will for Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.

I want to love people the way the Father does.

Because the Father loves us, He sent His Son to the cross for us. Because Jesus loves the Father, He was obedient to Him.

That's the kind of radical I want to be.

Christmas Decorations!

I am so excited that we actually decorated for Christmas this year!! We didn't go all out (gotta build up to that, haha), but its definitely Christmas in my house!

I think the last time I decorated for Christmas was probably 2006, maybe 2007. I had an artificial tree for a few years, but Gizmo kinda broke it. (Its actually hilarious. He climbed into it and his weight caused the branches to bend, permanently! HA!). I was living alone at the time, so buying a new tree and all that just didn't make it to the top of my priority list.

This time last year was the beginning of all the craziness with the girls moving out. We were still living at the Potter St. house and it was for sale, so we were constantly cleaning and having people walk through it pretty much every day. So, once again we decided not to decorate.

Now, I have an awesome roommate and an incredible new house, so we decided to decorate!!

I got a new artificial tree (thanks Craigslist!), and had a blast decorating it yesterday! Gizmo wasn't exactly helpful...

Somehow I lost all my old Christmas decorations (I tend to throw away/give away things pretty often if I don't use them), so we started from scratch. Thankfully, there are some great deals out there right now! We went with just some generic ornaments for the most part, but we did get a few "sentimental" ones (hopefully I will add to those over the years... assuming I don't give these away, haha).

An "A" (Ashley), "T" (Trish), "L" (Lindsay), and "G" (Gizmo). We are a family, haha!

Gotta represent the Eagles!!!

And the Phillies!

We really love to eat cupcakes (seriously!). Plus, I called Lindsay "Cupcake" in my blog before she turned 18. :)

Cause I love America, haha:

And of course, an ornament for Giz:

We still need a few more that represent us; namely a VT ornament, a Wisconsin one (that's where Ashley went to college) and I want one with a house on it to represent moving into a new home this year. I think I have caught the Christmas bug. :) Gizmo seems pretty happy with the decorations as well. :)

(I apologize for his laser eyes, haha. The flash doesn't mix well with his eyes)

We didn't do a whole lot other than the tree. We did get a wreath, but didn't want to risk putting it on the front door (until we can get a screen door at least), so we put it on a door in the house. :)

And we put up some stockings (One for me, Ashley and Lindsay. Lindsay doesn't live with us full time, but we still consider her a member of our house!) I am still looking for one with a cat on it for Gizmo!).

The final touches were a few things for the "outside".



We drank apple cider and watched the movie "The Holiday" (my favorite Christmas chick flick!) while we decorated. I finally feel like I am in the holiday spirit!!

Decorating the tree definitely had me thinking back through this past year. It has been a roller coaster to say the least, and I can't say that its all been great. Still, the blessings I have been given; especially the incredible blessing of being able to live in Philly and serve the Lord here, make me SO thankful. Merry Christmas!

Vacation Cruise!!!

On Saturday I returned from an AMAZING vacation!! Ashley, Lindsay and I went on a 7 day cruise from New York to the Bahamas and back. It was SO relaxing and fun!! I am going to post a little bit about each day following this, so check out our vacation!

Cruise- Day 8

This was the last day of vacation, so sad!!

We got up, ate breakfast and then headed off the ship. It actually took a while to get off the ship and through customs, but it wasn't too bad. Ashley's friend got stuck in traffic on her way to pick us up, so we ended up spending some time hanging out in the cruise terminal. We actually didn't mind, we were so relaxed from the cruise, not much was getting to us!

Once we were picked up we decided to spend some time in NYC before driving home. We made a stop at the NBC Studios store so I could pick up some Christmas presents, and then walked around a really fun outdoor market where we found the biggest (and yummiest!) cupcakes I have ever seen.

The hilarious part about the cupcakes is that we didn't want to eat them right away, but they didn't have any boxes for us to put them in. So, we carried with around New York with us for several hours, haha. In fact, we had to carry them all the way home! They were definitely worth all the effort. :)

We left New York around 1:30 and expected to be home no later than 3:30 or 4. Unfortunately, traffic was out of control in New Jersey and we were stuck there for 3 hours! No accidents, no road work, just way too many cars. That part was pretty miserable, but we survived and made it home just in time to go to Chick Fil A for dinner (with some of our free meal coupons!).

One of the best decisions I have ever made was to clean the house completely before we left. So, we came home to a really clean house!! All we had to do was throw our clothes in the washer and relax at home with Gizmo (he missed us)!!

Overall, I can't think of how this vacation could have been any better. It was so relaxing and we had so much fun!! God is tooooooo good to me!!

Cruise- Day 7

Day 7 was our last full day on the cruise. It was another full day at sea, so again not so many pictures.

We did try and spend some time out by the pool, but it got a bit chilly, so we went back to the spa. :)Sorry for the lack of pictures, but it was our last chance to just relax! I finished my second book of the cruise, Ashley finished her book and Lindsay continued to fill up her sketch book. Oh, and of course we ate really yummy food.

A great final day on the ship.

Cruise- Day 6

Day 6 was Thanksgiving!! Unfortunately (at least for the purposes of this blog post), we didn't do much that warranted pictures. We spent the day doing pretty much the same thing I always do on Thanksgiving... watching football and eating. :)

We did get a little dressed up for our official Thanksgiving meal, and we even had some tiaras, haha.

I promise we did leave the room, haha, but we really did enjoy relaxing. Besides, why leave the room when this is your view during the day:


And this is the one at night:

Thank you Jesus. :)

Cruise- Day 5

Day 5 was our last day on land before heading back north and we got to spend it in the capital of the Bahamas, Nassau. It was another beautiful, sunny and warm day, and we loved it!

We decided to get off the boat again and booked a tour on a glass bottom boat. The name of the boat is a bit deceiving as the entire bottom is not glass. However, they do have glass squares on the bottom of the boat, so you can see all the amazing sea life underneath. Plus, we got a really nice water tour of Nassau. :)



After the boat tour, Ashley decided to do some shopping. Lindsay and I aren't so into shopping, so we decided to go back on the boat and hang out by the pool.

We decided to make this night our "dress up" night, so we spent some time getting ready and then going to a fancy dinner. But it wasn't just any dinner; we signed up for a Mystery Dinner. It turned out to be so much fun!!

First, we were put at a table with 3 other people. All 6 of us were given a character and a story line and it was our job during the meal to figure out which one of us was the murderer.

The 3 ladies we sat with were SO fun! They were on vacation with their families, but wanted a girls' night, so they came to the dinner. We laughed with them a lot and had a great time! And it turns out, I was the murderer! Whoops!

Anyway, after the dinner I made everyone take a few pictures, before we changed clothes and got ready for...

That's right, there was a chocolate buffet that night!! SO MUCH CHOCOLATE!!! It was awesome!!

Thankfully, we were able to pile our plates full of chocolate and take them back to our room, to relax for the rest of the evening. It was yet another awesome day. :)

I'll leave you with some of our photos from the night. :)






(This last one is my favorite!)

Cruise- Day 4

Day 4 of the cruise was absolutely my favorite. We spent the day at Great Stirrup Cay, the private island that Norwegian Cruise Lines owns. Our ship anchored at sea and then we took a smaller boat onto the island for the day.

Because Lindsay and I had booked a jet ski excursion for the morning, we were able to be one of the first people on the island, which was awesome! Ashley went and reserved lounge chairs for us while Lindsay and I went on our excursion.

Unfortunately, because we were on the water the entire time, I wasn't able to take any pictures of our jet ski tour, which stinks because it was my favorite part of the cruise! We got to drive the jet skis to several different islands, over crystal clear water. We could see all the way to the bottom!

One of the islands we went by was a former drug smuggling island. Apparently no one knew it existed until a plane crashed on it, alerting the coast guard. They discovered an 18 year old and two 25 year olds running a drug ring off the island (its only about 125 miles from Florida). The 25 year olds got 10 years in jail, and the 18 year old now works for the FBI. :)

The last island we went to was called "Starfish Island". It was AMAZING! We got off our jet skis and were surrounded by starfish, conchs, and even some sea cucumbers. We got to touch all of them, and then just put them back in the ocean. It was sweet!!

After we returned from our tour, Lindsay and I met up with Ashley for a barbecue lunch that the ship provided. Then we went swimming for a while; with the fish! The water was just so beautiful!

Of course, we also spent some time just relaxing in the lounge chairs and enjoying the beautiful Bahama sun. SO GREAT!!

We got back in the boat just before sunset, and we spent the rest of the evening just hanging out on the ship; mostly in our balcony. Another great day!!

Cruise- Day 3

Day 3 was our first full day docked at a port; we were in Orlando, FL. Pretty much the only thing to do off the ship was shop or go to Disney, neither of which we wanted to do. So, we stayed on the boat for the day! It was nice with so many people off the boat. :)

We spent the morning in the spa, and then the afternoon hanging out by the pool for a while (it was finally warm!).


In the early evening, it got a little chilly outside, so we decided to enjoy some time playing cards together.

Then, we (and by we, I really mean Lindsay) decided to try out the Rock Wall.

And finally, we tried our hands at shuffleboard.

We discovered that Lindsay is an awesome rock climber, but none of us are very good at shuffleboard.



It was another really fun day!

Cruise- Day 2

Day 2 was spent completely at sea. It was a little warmer outside as we made our way down the east coast, but not quite sunny Bahamas just yet. So, we spent most of the day like this:

Hanging out in the spa; reading (or drawing for Lindsay) in between time spent in the whirlpools, sauna and steam room. I can't remember ever feeling that relaxed!

After hanging out in the spa for several hours, we went back to our room to enjoy something else we love:


Football!! We were so excited to get to see the Eagles beat the Giants while on vacation!

Other than that and eating some really yummy food, we didn't really do much else. It was great!

Cruise- Day 1

We had been talking about this cruise for months and couldn't believe that the day was finally here! After some really really tough weeks for all 3 of us, we were SO ready to get away for a while! The best part about taking a cruise was that our cell phones wouldn't work, so we couldn't be distracted from relaxing. It was SO great!!

We were able to drive Ashley's car to New York and leave it with her best friend for the week. Then her friend came back and picked us up so we could drive home (after spending some time in NY, hehe). It was really nice to not have to worry about the travel at all!

We got to NY around noon and were able to get on the boat pretty fast. Our room wasn't available until after 2, so we decided to start off by getting some lunch.

After lunch we decided to take a tour of the spa, which turned out to be the best idea we had! They not only offered every service you could imagine (hair, nails, acupuncture, hot stone massage, sea weed massage, and SO much more!), they also had their own "relaxation" area. This was separated into male and female areas, as well as a common area. In the separate rooms, they had a sauna, steam room, and two individual whirl pools.

In the common area, they had a therapy pool (massaging bubbles everywhere!), a hot tub, heated stone lounge chairs, and cushy lounge chairs looking over the bow of the ship as we head from port to port.





Needless to say, we fell in love. At the end of the tour, they mentioned that we could buy an unlimited pass to the spa for the week. The best part was that although there were over 2000 people on the ship, only 84 would be allowed to get the unlimited spa passes. So, it would never be crowded! That sold us and we bought our passes! Oh, and each time we went in, they gave us a really comfy robe to wear. We spent a lot of time there throughout the week, and it was awesome every time!

After our spa tour, we were able to get into our room... which we LOVED! We had a king size bed and then a couch that pulls out into a bed. The bathroom was a good size (for a cruise), and we actually had storage space for all of our clothes, so we could store our suitcases away for the week.


And the best part: we had a balcony!!!

We slept every night with the doors open, listening to the waves. It was so great!

As we were hanging out in our room, we started to sail away from NY. We watched NY float by from our balcony, at sunset. It was beautiful.

From there we went to a really yummy dinner and then saw a comedian in the main theater. It was fun! And then we went to sleep listening to the gentle waves of the Atlantic ocean. It was a great first day. :)