on tuesday one of my best friends turned twenty-two.  i could tell you all about how beautiful she lives and how much of a gift her life is, ooorrrr you could watch this video and see how well she loves and how well se lives.  the lives that are impacted around her are evidence of Christ within her and it's beautiful.

nou renmen ou, coral <3

(why yes, i did google translate that :))

sorry to have been gone so long, friends!  i'll be back soon.  but my gramma's birthday is today and i just couldn't let the day pass without honoring a very special woman.  this photo above ^^ with my pretty gramma is probably one of my very favorite pictures in the world.  i've always held gramma especially close to my heart.  i wish every single person could know her.  truly a neat lady.

she's so sassy and makes me laugh all the time! and she calls me lexi and makes me proud to have my quirks compared to hers (like crazy bed-head and our love for milk and learning about world war II).  but those days when her and grampa visit our house to have coffee and visit are my favorite times.

at christmas this year, dad worked on a little video project with our family, and took each person aside and asked them to share their highs and lows for the year 2013, as well as where they saw themselves in the next five years.  this little clip below is my gramma's response to these questions.  it makes me laugh so much and just miss her so darn much! (she's in arizona right now) but if every person can't know my gramma, at least they can see a little bit of her sassiness (:  haha, i especially love when she says "and a refridgerator for my dip" and when she sings! oh she's my favorite!  so much love in my heart for this person.

xoxo gramma! i love you...
happy birthday!

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.

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! **

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.

Day Thirty
30th October 2013
Yesterday included: breakfast with Angela & her peaceful words, seeing Ariel in Bible study prep group, meeting with Molly and reflecting with her on Fall Conference and prayer, seeing & hugging Becca in passing on the bridge on the way to Philosophy class, and praying with Anna

Day Thirty-One
31st October 2013
Today included: not enough sleep, skipping class to study for another one, beautiful fog in the midst of pretty fall colors on a peaceful walk to class, a Research Methods test, a breakfast sandwiched served to me by festive ladies in costumes (:, sitting by the fire in Davies among friends, lots of group work, a happy unexpected walk up the hill with my dear friend Leah, hummus and pita chips and new friends at dinner, tiny trick-or-treaters in Towers (say that ten times fast!), learning about Jesus' presence- always -in our lives in Bible study, a belated birthday surprise for Yui in his room with lots and lots and lots of balloons and really wonderful friends... like, lots and lots.. I think there were 24 of us in there at one point! (: (hence the picture above... and, yes, Yui wears a giraffe jumpsuit out & about), watching Yui eat his birthday pie from Isaac (you thought right, friend.. it's from the best pie place in the world!  Just look at Yui's face!  Enough said.  I don't kid around about that stuff..), silly friends watching one of those Air Bud Halloween movies (you know those talking dogs movies?  That's the one!), and just overall exhaustion..

but, I think I kind of like being exhausted, because it means my days are full (:  This life that God has given me sure is a wonderful one, and I'm so thankful for every minute.
But, rest is good, too, so I think I'm gonna go do that...

**p.s.  Hey, we made it through October!  (Minus one or two days and a few late ones...whoopsies...)

(: Sweet dreams!

**and for your viewing enjoyment, Happy Halloween from your friendly
neighborhood pumpkins back in the day** (:

Day Four
4th October 2013
I think this picture is my favorite one of the day.  Today, my best friend turned twenty-one!  So we took her on a scavenger hunt and to dinner and helped her pick out a fish (:  What can I say about this beautiful person other than I know I wouldn't be the same without her.  Truly, it was an honor to set aside a day to thank Jesus for her and celebrate who she is.  Plus, I really like how Amy is in this picture, too (:  Oh, such beautiful people.  Such beautiful living.

I love these pictures of my aunt, Tia.  She's always been Tia to me.  Her real name is Karen, but I didn't find out until I was at least seven that that is her name. (:

When I was little, my favorite memory of Tia is when she took me to the James J Hill House in St. Paul, just the two of us, and we walked through the old-fashioned rooms, soaking in the ways of another world, it seemed.  I have loved that place ever since and that memory is particularly special to me. 

She still does that: shows me beauty.  Beauty that fills the soul.  I am constantly amazed at her depth and the way she sees the world with such wonder... her capacity to be moved, to notice detail, to seek out knowledge: about culture, about art, about writing, about me.  She deeply loves language and words and has always encouraged me to write, and write often.  She is one of the reasons I have kept blogging these years.

If there is anything I can say about this woman it is that her depth comes from Jesus.  And it's really wonderful. 
And as of yesterday, this woman has been finding and bringing beauty to the world for fifty years!  I'm so grateful to God for such a well-lived life.
I love you, Tia.  So thankful to celebrate you.  Honored to be loved by you.

Saturday was pretty much my favorite day.
One of my very dearest friends from home, Nicole, drove a whole two hours to visit me (:

We started that breezy, sunny day with going to The Goat coffeehouse to enjoy some breakfast foods and cinnamon teas (:
Refreshed my heart.
Then, we ventured to my fave, Just Local Foods, where she bought me some ginger beer and coconut ice cream bars for us to share, and I took her to one of my favorite spots on campus, a wide window sill in Schofield where we ate our goodies and talked about everything.

This friendship is so dear to me.  She is so wonderful, I can't even tell you.  So Jesus-filled.  So wise and discerning. So giving and caring.  So affirming.  So radiant.  I wish everyone could know her.

Thank you, Nicole, for being my friend, and thank you, Jesus, for making such a beautiful soul.
This quality time meant so much to me.

Yesterday was my dear friend, Coral's, birthday.  And this means CELEBRATION, because this girl's life is the BIGGEST gift.  So, my friends an I surprised her in the BBC Lounge on campus and later moved over to the cafeteria upstairs to dig into the beautiful cake made with love by Holland and Isaac.  Those two also wrote and played the most amazing song for Coral!  I feel so blessed to know that I have friends who love on each other so well.
So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Coral, a person who has made this world a happier place for twenty-one years;
a person who has caused this girl to turn to her Savior time and time again in gratitude for such a friend.