thank you for being my friend.  as i'm growing up, i've never cherished that more. 
thank you for loving God and setting your heart after Him.
thank you for leading our family with your love for God and establishing our house as one that serves Him.
thank you for giving me your eyebrows and your nose and your forehead (:
thank you for making me laugh.. all the time!  i definitely have a sweet spot in my heart for your humor!
thank you for your patience and for being slow to anger.
thank you for always letting me drive.
thank you for putting up with me.. all of me.. even the ugly parts.
thank you for leading our family towards healthy lifestyles that honor God with our bodies and food.
thank you for the way you treat women and the respect you give.
thank you that as long as i have known you i have seen you treat and love mom with so much faithfulness.
thank you for those car rides after home depot, beating the steering wheel like a drum with paint-stiring sticks to loud music.
thank you for loving music.  i know you're the reason i love music as much as i do.
thank you for being a person i know i can come to with my questions about God, and thank you for never shaming me for them.
thank you for being baptized with me. i’ll always treasure that.
thank you for introducing me to dark chocolate.
thank you for those times you go out of your way to come and visit me and spend time with me.
thank you for challenging my thoughts and opinions.
thank you for the questions you ask.
thank you that switchfoot’s song, your love is a song, will always remind me of you.
thank you for those spontaneous texts that affirm and encourage me.
thank you for the ways you work hard to provide for our family and support me.
thank you for showing me what it looks like to follow God with your life.
thank you for knowing how much i love eggs and always saving some for me on the stove when i'm home.
thank you for those times you watched i love lucy with me, even though you reeeaally didn’t want to (:
thank you for all of those summers you took me, paige, and nooms camping with our friends.
thank you for being so so interested in my friends!
thank you for being so interested in my stories even when they're about people you don't even know.
thank you for not being afraid to do hard things.
thank you for your humility.
thank you for loving me so much, always.  i've doubted many things in life, but never your love.
thank you for being a father who is so much like my heavenly Father.  you're not perfect, but your life has helped me understand the Lord more.


you’re the best man i know, dad.

happy birthday to one of the people i love most in the world.  cheers to beautiful living.

[marriage]

http://www.ajesuschurch.org/loveology-series/?sermon_id=998

^^^ click on this ^^^

i'm not married.  but marriage is something that i have always always desired for my life.  but i think if i were honest, i don't really get it sometimes.  a lot of times.  i get confused about the purpose and have questions.  if you're like me, or even if you're not, this podcast is a 42 minute investment that i promise is worth it.  so so eye-opening to what marriage is, as God intended, and its hardships and its ultimate purpose.

these videos are my favorite thing to make!  i absolutely love being able to show you all these people who are so special to me, and the unique ways they bring beauty to the world and to celebrate the great JOY it is to be ALIVE!

this one is documenting becca on her twenty-first birthday, and my idea behind it is to show you how she creates and how she loves and how she is always inviting into adventure!  i dearly love becca and thank God for the gift of twenty-one years of her being on this earth, creating and loving like she does!






** & please keep in mind that the focus in these videos that i've been making is on celebration, love and light and laughter, which i think requires one to recognize going in that this is only one part of life, the sunny side, but that life and friendships are not perfect and hard things happen too!  i just never want to give you all a false impression of how life is, so please keep that in mind! **

dang.

thanks, chase!

for sunshine and warm walks to class
for breakfast with angela.
for the thick realization that i won't always have wednesday morning caf breakfast with angela.
for the unique time of life that college is.  what a gift it is!
for God always calling me back to Himself when i stray
for adventure.
for finding God.  He never denies Himself from me.
for coral and holland and anna feeling like my sisters
for a text from dad saying, "do you have time today for a visitor?" (:
for music that loves
for jenna. stromberger.
for solomon teaching me about wisdom in 1 kings
for quiche and coffee with a dad who knows my heart and my struggles more than anyone
for sarah walking into my room just sayin, "can i give you a hug?" what!  make my day why don'tcha!
for a creative writing class with talented, inspiring people!
for afternoons with holland, just to be together. to be human and question and not know and feel.
for emily's stinkin beautiful heart.  seriously, it is a treasure unveiled every time we spend time together!
for so much love from a dear friend taking time to skype me & listen to my heart... all the way from germany!
for being able to spend time with friends in davies in the middle of the day!  seriously, how cool!

& thanks isaac and holland for helping me finally think of this song when it was stuck in my head so long!  thankful for those two.  just somethin cool about friends who can help you think of the song in your head after giving them next to nothing to go off of. (:

& i really like this song!


goodnight, friend.  you're loved.. i hope you know that!

what if i am broken?

what if i am empty?

what if i am not who i say i am?

what if i fall and fail and sin?

what if i am dry and thirsty and have nothing left to give?


i am just feeling the weight of my own brokenness tonight and this isn't meant to make you concerned, and this isn't meant to induce sympathy-  i just want this blog to be a place that's real, one that has parts of life that are hard, too..

like being a broken, messy sinner in need of a Savior.



will Your grace run out if i let You down?

i am a sinner and if it's not one thing, it's another.

caught up in words, tangled in lies.





but You are a Savior and You take brokenness aside and make it beautiful.

i'm so thankful God is who He is.

i have this friend.  her name is holland.  not helen, not the place in the netherlands... holland.  she says 'zoombazoo' and is fluent in both english and spanish and she wears farm shirts and she makes everywhere she goes a home and she believes in humans and loves the rain even though she is like sun and she loves big, wide, and deep.  and it just makes sense that she would be born on valentine's day, because being with her is like getting hit over the head with a valentine all the time! (:  she notices and creates beauty everywhere she goes, because she herself is beautiful in a way that could only mean Jesus is inside of her. 

and yesterday, i got to not only celebrate LOVE on that favorite holiday of mine (besides christmas, and probably easter... okay, it's not my very favorite holiday, but it's up there! :)) but i also got to celebrate LIFE and beautiful living with some of my very favorite people!  holland turned twenty and that means we blindfolded her right up and took her on various surprises, and then to her final destination: a cozy sleepover!  she is one who sure lives life beautifully, and is most special to me!  so this day was JOY.




& i'm trying to get my foot in the door a little more with videography, so sorry not sorry for the quality (: i'll get better, promise!  but for now, hope you enjoy!


p.s. a little disclaimer: that is sparkling juice at the end.. not alcohol (notice the zoom in :)) ha

life is indeed worth celebrating.  thanks, Jesus, for holland and for life and love to the full.

a day to celebrate love?! are ya kiddin??  i'm ALL about that!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S, FRIENDS!

you are loved.

i've been learning a bunch lately about this idea of being a gracious friend.  i've mostly learned, in various ways, specifically through dear friends afton & ally & austin & justin, this idea of being gracious with people.  each of them have demonstrated this to me in really beautiful ways.  i still remember justin saying something freshman year that i still think about every once in a while:  he said "i don't think that the things people say or don't say or do or don't do should affect the way we treat them or love them."  when i think about the kind of person i want to be, it is that kind of person!  a person who people feel at rest around, like they can breathe and be exactly who they are and do not have to alter themselves... even their dorky or weird parts!  afton also said something to me the other day that really meant a lot.  she said "it doesn't matter what we do together, i just want to be with you, alexi"  wow!  i'm so thankful to have so many examples of this in my friends!  how beautiful.  i want to be that kind of person. 

i want to be gracious with people.. when they're crabby or sick or tired or happy or dorky or awkward or even rude. 
when they believe the same things as me and when they don't. 
when they talk about themselves all the time and when they don't talk at all. 
when they're sad and struggling and when they're not.

and it's interesting to me how the first characteristic given of love in 1 corinthians is patience.

just some food for thought.  let's love people well, friends.  i believe these are steps in unconditional kind of love that Jesus is so good at. (: