awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim

2013 is finally here!!!!!  As amazing as 2012 was in so many ways, I am so grateful for this new year (which is already almost into February, I can't BELIEVE it!).  This year is a whole new start for me.  I will spend this entire year in school, for one thing, which also means I will spend it in Denton.  If I'm lucky.  Things I am praying for:

• I SOOOOO want a job in Denton over the summer.  If all else fails, I will go back to my Chick-fil-A in Dallas, but honestly, I maxed out there about three years ago.  I'd really, really like to move beyond that store.  And I'd really, really like to stay in Denton for the summer.  So I'd love a job still in the food service industry - maybe Starbucks, maybe a waitress job, or even if I could work at one of the Denton CFAs, that would be better than having to move back to Dallas...so very much wondering what God has in mind to do!
• I would also love, love, LOVE to go on a mission trip of some kind over the summer.  Ideally I would like to go back to the Bowery in NYC, but I would also be beyond excited to spend a week or so at BSF headquarters in San Antonio.  Much closer and much more affordable and much easier to arrange than the Bowery.  Again, very much hoping God has some sort of opportunity like this up His sleeve for me this summer... :)
• My roommate situation come July.  My lease on my apartment is up then, and Sam keeps talking as though he's moving out then, which - well, he knows what he's doing at least slightly better than I do, but really, who on earth can say what he'll end up doing come July.  If he moves out, I'll need a roommate or else a heck of a lot more money than I can currently imagine having.  And there are very few people I can imagine living with in any situation, and even fewer who I can think of who would actually be able/willing to move in with me.  I desperately do not want to move out of my apartment, like I so so so so SOOOOOO BAD DO NOT WANT TO MOVE.  So God might have to do something crazy in July to find me a roommate!!!

All in all, God is going to be doing some crazy, crazy, unexpected things in my life when the spring semester is over.  I'm a bit nervous anticipating it all, because honestly it will have to be SO crazy!  This time in August, I wonder what will be going on...I'll never be able to imagine it, so good thing God's got it all in His way and His time.  Honestly, it sucks that His time and my time are so damn different.  Ugh.  I'm still not entirely convinced He's seen my version of the way this summer should go, because really, I've got it all worked out.  If His way lines up with mine, great!  We're all winners.  I just wish He would tell me beforehand, so I can be totally sure...sigh.  "But my thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways, declares the LORD Almighty..."

Anyway, this semester so far is going excellently.  I'm taking Conducting, Vocal Ensemble, Understanding the Arts, private flute lessons, Flute Choir (for which I am playing bass flute, so cool!!!), Wind Symphony (for which I sit second chair next to my friend Stephanie, YAY!!!!), and Women in Music.  Everything I am learning is fascinating and actually useful and beneficial to my education as a musician and a music educator.  (Kind of a redundant sentence, but you know what I mean.)  I'm really just so pleased with my life at TWU.  It's finally beginning to resemble the life I wanted when I first came to Denton in 2008.  We've still got a bit of a ways to go, but slowly and surely we're getting there.  Really, God's goodness to me is abounding this semester.

I'm also so, so grateful for my group of BSF girls!!!  We are really bonding as a group, and I am absolutely loving it.  Since apparently I must be tied to Dallas in some way, BSF is the perfect way.  Despite the fact that it takes up more time than my 3 Tuesday classes combined, I wouldn't give it up if you paid me.

Take my voice and let me sing
Always, only for my King
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee
Filled with messages from Thee