a season with myself.

This season of life is hard to sugar coat. I am a jobless fiance, who spends her time planning her wedding, kayaking, reading, sewing and learning to cook. I have gone from living in a dorm of thriving and busied college students to living in a house alone (with an occasional hi or hello from my mom) an hour away from the community I will be moving to in the fall. I almost feel as if I have been given a season of grieving... grieving four years of relationships I have moved away from. And here I am starting over from scratch relationally, yet that is difficult and hard to explain no matter how good I am at meeting new people. It's a season of being alone and feeling lonely. A season of getting all the time I ever wanted to rest or be creative or escape to my safe places.... and yet it is not a bright spot for me, because it misses community. It misses people that drive me crazy but I choose to love anyway. It misses discipleship. It misses mentorhsip. It misses meals that don't revolve around a television set. It misses communcation. It misses laughter. In a few weeks I am sure it will change (I know it will) but I know this will be a difficult season and adjustment for me. I strive to not pity myself, but to embrace where I am at.

I think it's okay to own up to the season we find ourselves in, even if it is one that seems dry. One filled with many blank stares. I've been reading a book about simplicity by Becky Freedman that has shed light on rest. If you ask me, I did not rest like I should have this past year. I rested, but not in ways that were reviving for my soul. Watching TV does not revive me. Even sewing, though I love it so much, does not revive me. Becky entertains the idea that women in the Bible were exiled while on their Woman Time because, in some way, it was their time to rest. Their time to stop going stir crazy, take a step back from kids, family, and parents.... I'd never thought of it as a rest time, but boy do I like the idea of it not being an exile or shunning of the female race... but a much needed escape. I wonder, in some divinely humorous way that I won't get perspective on until months from now, if this is my exile/escape. Do you hear that? It's God laughing.

 I think there are pieces of my heart that need to be changed during this season. I think I am being humbled by much (not just moving in with my parents post-graduation) (and not just not having a job either). I am learning what it is to be with myself again and to get int tune with who I am, what I want, what I think my purpose is, and if I am living to fulfill that purpose every day.

And if I learn anything from this season, I hope it's that I learn to cook better. Not becasue I'm getting married and "that's what a wife's suppose to do", cause I wouldn't believe that gender lie for a second....I honestly suck at cooking and have come to admire it since my days of watching Julie and Julia. I want to say, give me some food people, and so I can make it taste dang good.

coffee shops and pretty rocks.

After an adventurous and romantic friendship my devastatingly handsome He Friend decided to ask me to marry him. I kept wondering how he'd ask me when I got back from New York  (my bestie and I had left for a week in the big apple to celebrate our graduation)... but alas, he surprised me at my favorite coffee shop in Brooklyn on a sunny Saturday.

My bestie, because she knows how much look'n classy means to me, made sure I dressed pretty that day. The inward romantic and slightly vain Me has cared for years and years about what I'd look like when it'd finally happen, and, thanks to my bestie, I had on a revived polka-dot blouse tucked in to a high-waisted skirt. It was the ONLY good hair day I had while in Brooklyn. I even had make-up on. Hallelujah. My biggest fear for the past two months was getting asked right after I'd worked out in the 95 degree Texas weather. I still would have said "yes" as a sweaty mess, but I'd have had to dress all cute the whole month after to make up for it.

We had stopped in for some joe at Qathra, my favorite coffee shop in Brooklyn (where I had previously evaluated and prayed over my relationship with my Mr. a year before). We took our seats in the back garden, and, after a few minutes, I looked up to see that my man was bringing me the cupcake I had ordered, with a pretty ring sitting next to it. MY MISTER! Walking towards me. And I knew he was only there for one reason. I'm not sure if color drained from my face or flooded it, but inwardly I felt a surge of relief, love, and divine peace. Apparently I went into hysterics, but I honestly can't remember. I was overwhelmed with joy to see him. And after I said yes, he asked me to marry him (I know, it's my fault it went out of order.... adrenaline made me do it), and I didn't stop smiling at him the entire night.

The pictures say it all. We have quite the adventure ahead of us as we enter into our season of being engaged...one I'm sure will be overwhelming, beautiful, filled with gratefulness as well as challenge, and, in my opinion, I hope it's good but short cause I certainly like getting to do life with this kid.

Standing Outisde With Your Mouth Open Wide

A few days ago my friend Michelle was visiting, so we whipped out the water-colors and made drippy masterpieces and colorful stationary. Water-coloring is one of my sweetest memories as a kid. Recently, it has become one of my favorite creative outlets.... I love inviting others into my nostalgic world of child-like imagination and giggles. Not pictured below is Michelle's Masterpiece: A high-heeled shoe with the word "SWAG" written underneath it. She's the next Pablo Picasso I'm sure.

Learned.

Back in high school I had absolutely no desire to go to college.

I even made a mental "Why Stacie doesn't need to go to college" list...
1. I don't want to learn anymore... algebra did me in, I can't fit anything else in my brain, the Pythagorean Theorem is taking up A LOT of space.
2. I have to leave my mom? Nope. Not gonna. You can't make me. She's too cool.
3. I just want to be a wife. Give me a man, I'll marry him. We'll live happily ever after...with no children. (At 17 my mind had made a cemented decision after a bad round of babysitting, that I didn't want children. My mom mourned my decision and told me I would change my mind later in life. I rolled my eyes at her. And 5 years later... I want children).
4. I don't want to learn any more. I just want to frollick.

I went to college because my mom researched universities for me and forced me to fill out every college application before I could go hang out with my friends. And I've always been an obedient perfect child, so I did. Obedient and perfect... the 'rents lucked out so much.

And somehow, here I am, 5 years later, almost graduated from college, loving it so much I have a list of daunting grad school possibilities sitting in front of me. When did I get like this? Wanting to learn all the time. Grieving the times I took my education for granted. How many hours did I waste on Myspace and Facebook when I could have been reading good books and discovering what I was passionate about?

So here I sit... not sure where to start. Research. Apply. Be super radtacular in interviews.

I'm a girl with a capacity to grow and learn. Wanting to take the next step in pursuing an education because I, Stacie, want to, not because my parents want me to.

I am learned. And learning. And pretty soon, soceity will call me a "grown up"... and then I get to figure out that I really know nothing at all.....

... and for the first time, I'm excited.

Acne-Shmacknee.

Today someone told me she admired my facial complexion. For most of my life "admired" might not have been the word of choice to describe my face thanks to my acne...

ACNE (ac-ne): the mountainous atrocity that tends to bubble and burst on the most prominent and visible places on a person's face.

Sometimes a definition just isn't enough so I create new words to give more meaning to things... ACNasty, I want to smACNE my face for looking so gross, I think my ACNEeds ProAvtive.

My acne came earlier than anyone elses, which was devestating as a ten year old.  My mom let me start my makeup journey in middle school but I never "painted the house" correctly and ended up looking like a vampire or a dead person most of the time. I gave up on makeup eventually, or at least discovered how to use it in moderation.

For some reason it left about three years ago. And I hope it never comes back. Cinderella was so concerned with getting to the ball and I didn't even care about the ball, I just wanted my face to clear up by the touch of some Fairy-god-mother wand wave. It's ironic because once I really stopped caring, it stopped intruding on my face.

 I get the occasional blemish, but I don't even remember what I looked like with a spotted face. And unfortunately I don't have a picture for you of my ghostly middle school years, but maybe someday I'll dig one up and embarrass myself by posting it here for all to see.

So whether you have it still, you bypassed it completely (and for that we all hate you), or you think you have finally stepped out of the "Acne Arena", here's to acne, and every time it has "ruined" our lives. And here's to focusing on putting a smile on our faces and genuineness in our hearts, because those things bypass all things pimples in the end.

Woman of the year.

This is my mom.... isn't she beautiful?

The first photoshoot.

I loved using two of my most wonderful friends for my photoshoot for a boutique close by.... this was my first photoshoot, and with the amount of fun I had... I hope it's not my last...

Want to know the hardest part about photoshoots? You don't get to keep the clothes...

Want to know the hardest part about dreaming about having a new wardrobe? You wake up and you don't have a new wardrobe....

On that note, here are some pretty pictures.....