Everlasting

Everlasting are the memories that I made this weekend.

Everlasting is my love for God and all he does for me.

Everlasting are the friendships I've made that will never die.

Everlasting is my appreciation for my entire Bobcat Awakening #30 family.

Everlasting is my faith in how much BA can impact lives.

Everlasting are the times I will look back and smile on this past weekend.

Everlasting is my new understanding and appreciation for fellowship.

Everlasting are the emotions I felt pour out from my heart.

Everlasting is my immense love for my BA parents and all their love and support.

Everlasting is my faithful relationship with the Lord.

Everlasting is my passion to always remind myself what I learned over the past 3 days.

Everlasting is love for praise and worship.

Everlasting are my thanks to those who helped push me to go to BA.

Everlasting is the indescribable presence of the holy spirit.

Everlasting is the impact that the BA Staff has had on so many lives.

Everlasting are the laughter and tears of joy that were shed this weekend.

Everlasting is my thankfulness that God led me to this amazing experience.

And most importantly,

Everlasting is God's undying love for every one of us.

This weekend just proves how amazing God is. His will and His love and His power in this world is incomprehensible. I've learned so much and grown so much closer to Him, and I am so grateful for BA for helping me do that. I will never ever forget this weekend and all the wonderful loving people that I've met and now call family.

On Friday afternoon Heather and Bryson dropped me off in the parking lot where we were meeting for Bobcat Awakening. One of the staffers ran up to the car as I got out, greeting me and insisting on taking my bags over to the sidewalk. They were all dressed in different crazy sport outfits and they were all so energetic! From that moment I knew it was going to be a good weekend. The staff was so welcoming and amazing, we were instantly family :) There are many things about an Awakening such as this that are supposed to be kept secret so that people will have the true genuine experience, as I did, completely unknowing to any events of the entire weekend until they were actually happening. All I can say is, this weekend was the first time that I really felt like I wanted to stay in Texas for the fall semester, because that would mean I could be a part of BA again, but next time as a staffer. If I did happen to choose to stay, BA would be one of the main reasons. I also felt for the second time since I've been here, truly homesick...missing my family and their hugs and company.

I have so much love in my heart from this weekend, it's overwhelming. I am so excited to uphold the promises that I made to Him this weekend, in how I am going to glorify Him in my life from now on. I have so many memories and moments and a loving support group to remind me of that and keep me on track. Even though I've been back for a few hours, and have shifted back to my life that includes my cell phone and computer, when I close my eyes I still feel like I am in that room with all those people. So much love, I can't even describe. I never want it to go away, and I know as long as I keep close to God and live my life in his image everyday I wont. Of course I will have bad days, and moments when I forget about His love and support, but that's what all these memories and notes and letters are for. To remind myself, and remember and always keep him close to me.

Some of the things that I learned this weekend are:

♥ Being a Christian is a daily choice. Every person and situation you encounter is an opportunity to share God's love in the way you live your life.

♥ It's easy to get caught up in the demands of daily life, and keeping to schedules and deadlines, but in the end what really matters is being on God's watch and going by his time. No matter how busy and stressful life gets, always make time for the Lord.

♥ The only love that will never die is God's love. When relationships fail and love dies, you can always rely on God's love to carry you through.

♥ Getting stressed and anxious about things in life that ultimately we cannot control draws us further from God. We must fully submit ourselves to Him and trust that He knows what's right for us.

♥ No matter how far you stray from the Lord, you can always know and trust that God will be at your door knocking, waiting for you to answer and invite him in.

♥ I know if I do my best, God will always do the rest.

♥ Heaven is not a hotel for saints, it's a hospital for sinners.

♥ Love comes in many forms. But agape is the greatest of all love because it is selfless and requires/expects nothing in return. This is the love that God has for all of us.

This is my BA Family. The Enchanted Roses :)

LOVE YA'LL!!!

♥ Chantal

Monday Mania

I had a fabulous weekend, and probably didn't get as much sleep as I should have. Mondays are my longest day of the week. I have class from 9am till 2pm, and then again at 5. During that 3 hour break I get lunch and go to the rec. I had a test this morning, and I think I did pretty good...but I was pretty tired in class, and actually caught myself nodding off in between test questions hah...oops!

This weekend was amazing. On friday night a bunch of people went to Midnight Rodeo in Austin, which is like a country bar/dance hall/concert venue, and we saw Aaron Watson play! He's a 'texas country' singer. He was awesome! We got a picture with him and I bought a shirt too. His fiddler player was SOOO CUTE too. Dang he was eating it up though...smiling at alll the ladies for the camera hah. We took so many pictures of him lol. That definitely wasn't the best part though. Two-steppin' is my new favorite thing!!! And one-steppin' for that matter, which i didn't even know existed. Basically I got to dance a ton with a bunch of random cowboys and it was SOOO FUNN! They were all so nice and I picked it up pretty quickly so I did tons of turn combos and it was a blast! I can't wait to go back again, and Friday night is ladies night, meaning we get in FREEE!!! Next place I gotta check out is Cowboys in San Antonio! From what I hear it is HUUGE, like 10 times the size of Midnight Rodeo, and just as much fun!

Then on Saturday Gospel Expressions had an all day gospel fest at Baylor University in Waco. I don't know if I even have words to describe this experience. It was 5 or 6 College Gospel Choirs all coming together to perform for each other and together and just to praise God through music all day. And that's exactly what we did. We had a four hour Gospel Fest Concert at the end of the day, where we worshiped and praised the Lord together and shared it with each other and anyone who attended. There were so many tears and hugs, and fantastic music. There was no doubt in anyones that the holy spirit was present. Wow.

Yesterday, Valentine's day was pretty chill. I've had a Valentine for the past 3 years straight, so I wasn't sure how I would do. But actually, I had a good day. I've never really understood the whole "boo hoo it's valentines day and I'm single thing." You can celebrate any kind of love on Valentine's Day! Family, friends, anyone can be your valentine :) I just relaxed, did some laundry and watched the Notebook with friends. It was nice.

Today was super busy, but Monday is almost over and the week always flies by. Can't wait to figure out what we're doing this weekend! :) Besides my choir concert on Saturday afternoon.

♥Chantal

Sleet

Today we had sleet. I had heard of it before but never really knew what it was exactly. Now I know!

As it was falling, I called it "baby snow" and "wannabe snow." The thought of it snowing exciting me so I tried to convince myself that it was hahaha. Officially sleet is defined as "precipitation in the form of ice pellets created by the freezing of rain as it falls." So hail right? When it hit my jacket and I looked closely, it looked like tiny hail! And you are probably wondering what the difference is between sleet and hail as I know I was. Sleet occurs usually during winter when the air in the clouds is warmer than the air below, and as rain falls into the colder air it freezes into small ice pellets. Hail however occurs usually during summer storms. It starts as rain too, but goes through a series of "updrafts" through the cloud, moving from the warmer lower part to the upper colder part and freezing, and then coming down. As hail falls, it collects moisture and goes through the same process in another cloud so the more updrafts the larger the hail.

I know that was random...and honestly I don't really have anything else to write about right now. Hmmmm...

Oh! So this Saturday is the Gospel Fest at Baylor University in Waco, TX. GEA (Gospel Expressions Association) is going and I am so excited! It's a whole day of gospel music and worship. I just know it's gonna be one of those days here in Texas that I'll never forget. :)

So that's my exciting news for the week. It is also one of me and heather's friends birthday this weekend, and they are going to Midnight Rodeo in Austin friday night. We're trying to decide if it's going to be worth getting practically no sleep for, basically on the same day as our gospel choir trip. I will probably blog this weekend to let ya'll know how it goes!

ps. Heather and I both thought Lent started today hahaha so we've been talking about what we're giving up and had our "last milkshake" last night, and we even showed up at the Catholic Student Center today for Ash Wednesday service. Whoops! LOL But shhhh! No one is supposed to know. We totally knew it wasn't till next wednesday :/ Yea...haha

♥

Chantal

Dark Chocolate

Dyed my hair "dark chocolate brown" yesterday!

My roommate Sara unfortunately got in a car accident middle of last week , which totaled her car. But she didn't get hurt, and she got to rent a car to have for awhile till she finds a new one...and she got a convertible seabring! It's so amazing. So she drove me and Heather around in it yesterday to run some errands. Yay for Target and the Outlet malls! I had some things to return and exchange. And I FINALLY got a couple pairs of pants that arnt shredded on the inner thigh from wearing them so much:P haha. Yay for jeans from Charlotte Russe!

Dyed my hair and then just chilled for awhile! I still can't believe how dark it is, it hasn't completely hit me yet. Then we were up last night (or I guess this morning) till 5:30am! It was pretty ridiculous but we had fun. Lots of King's Cup and Beer Pong haha :D I was having fun singing disney songs at the top of my lungs to everyone at the party...hehe.

BEFORE...

AFTER!

Let me know what ya think...!?!?!

Today is the super bowl! And God knows with all the guy friends me and Heather have made, we'll be watching it :P But we both have two tests coming up this week....So probably gonna be studying at the same time! HAHA

♥Chantal

Rain Rain Go Away

It has been a rainy couple days in San Marcos. I've always enjoyed the rainy weather actually. I like the idea of cuddling up inside and reading a book, or going out to the movies on a rainy day. Even putting on some rainboots and going out and splashing around in a few puddles can be fun. Walking 20 minutes back and forth everyday to and from class isn't quite the same. I'm not complaining really, just saying after 3 days in a row of it, I'm ready to break it up with some sunshine :) It's hard to see that in about 6 weeks I'll be tan, and in my swimsuit on the beach. However, that is the reality...and I am definitely okay with it.

Coming up on the end of my 3rd week of classes at TX State. Weird. It's already going by so fast! I have tests coming up next week too...two of them actually, and one more the week after. Luckily, most of my classes are just lecture/reading, and tests. Yay for no busy work! I have definitely managed to fill up that "extra" time however. I am already involved in 3 on campus organizations :D Gospel Expressions Association, The Loud Crowd, and The Psychology Association. Plus I am signed up for a retreat with CSC, the Catholic Student Center, and I'm going to a couple events there too. Pretty sweet if I do say so myself. Besides all that I'm usually in the dorm hanging out with friends, or at the rec. I am SO enjoying the rec being right next to my building. No excuses not to go :) I have a group exercise class almost everyday of the week. Gotta get the beach body ready for spring break!!! :P

It's my huge long break in the middle of the day, so I'm gonna go do some pleasure reading in Boko's living room. One of my new favorite spots on campus. A low lighted area with couches, and tables and a couple tv rooms, where you can rent out pillows and blankets and romote controls and chill or take a nap between classes. It's Brilliant.

♥ Chantal