Now on Polyvore!

Well this is something new. I knew that this site, Polyvore, existed, but I didn't know if I should look into it. I've created two different "sets" now and I really love this website! I might be posting some of my ideas for you all on here! The first is an outfit that I basically have, but have never put together to wear!

Top That by hunterfoote featuring pink gold jewelry

On Polyvore, you can enter contests as well. This one was to put together an outfit for a white on white ensemble. 

Void of Color, Not Class by hunterfoote featuring mid-rise jeans

Grow Daily

There's been a countdown for awhile now, but Bee Happy, Live Simply has finally hit a big mark: 10,000 page views. That's not very many in the whole scheme of things, but it's encouraging because people are in fact reading my blog. Thank you so much for all of you that keep tuned in on my life and who are so encouraging. I'll continue writing, you keep reading! 

Nostalgia and Homesickness

Above: These are my biological brothers (Hayden, Jack and Nate), but I have a lot of boys that I call my "brothers" even when there is no DNA involved. Below: These are just a handful of women that mean the world to me (Paige, Laura, Emily, Morgan and Ali). 

One of the things that I pride myself on a lot is my lack of attachment. That sounds strict, awful, cold and many other things, but it's not. All it means is that I don't get homesick very easily. During my experience at the Island School, I like to say that it "beat" the homesickness out of me. We had no Internet, no cell phones, virtually no contact with the outside world save for one 20-minute phone call a week. 

During my phone call, my friends would go to my house and everyone would sit around the kitchen table while I was on speakerphone. The 20 minutes were never long enough, but never short enough either. It was the perfect amount of time to get homesick enough that you wish you hadn't called or that you could simply transport yourself through the receiver of the phone. It was an incredibly hard process for 14 weeks and I never failed to cry my eyes out afterward. 

This tough love in the form of distance was good for me, however. It taught me how to be on my own and how not to rely on my family as much as I had. So, when everyone else around me thought the idea of moving from Michigan to California was going to be so crazy and lonely, I simply brushed it off. 

Being away from my family did not have a profound effect on me at all last semester, as I predicted. But this semester is way harder. With only five weeks left, I'm anxious to get back to my home state and to be with my family. I have three little brothers who are all growing so fast, which seems impossible that they would grow while I'm away. My mom and dad are the people I love most in this world. I simply have an incredible family. Being so close to see them, but still having to wait is killing me. 

Not only that, but I miss my friends back home in Michigan. I have nine girls and a couple guy friends whose friendship is hard to explain, but irreplaceable. I've grown up with all of them. Those girls know who I am to my core probably more than anyone else in this world, and my guy friends are just additional brothers I count as family. I have a staff at the camp I work at that build me up in ways that I can never explain. There's something so powerful in serving with others. I can't wait to spend the summer with them again. 

I miss the changes of the seasons in Michigan - there isn't much of that here. I miss Yesterdog, my favorite hot dog place. I miss being just a short seven-minute car ride away from Noodles and Company, here I have to drive two hours to San Diego to get to one. I miss my cats and my dogs. I miss the woods surrounding my house. I miss driving down my long, winding driveway past the fields and seeing my neighbors' cows. 

It's incredibly hard for me right now 1.) to be away, and 2.) to even admit that it's hard. Prayers and words of encouragement would be invaluable right now. I only have five more weeks, but it's going to be a long five weeks. 

PS - Tell your friends and family you miss them today. You probably take for granted every day what it's like to have a structured group of people around you. 

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5 products I love to use

Welcome to this new thing I'm starting: products I love! I always enjoy seeing different things people value or use every day or find extremely useful. So, when I think I have something worthwhile to share, I'll post it and tell you what I like about it! 

1. Herbal Essences Long Term Relationship ($6) and Dove Intensive Repair ($5) conditioners - I actually use the two of these together. After I grew my hair out over the past two years, I had a hard time finding a single conditioner that would do the job of keeping my long, blonde hair manageable and tangle-free. I have used Dove for as long as I could remember and swear by it, but saw the Herbal Essences in the store and decided to get it and try it out. Neither did the job on their own, but when I use both in tandem, my hair smells delicious and is way easier to brush out. 
2. Moleskin notebooks - I absolutely adore using these notebooks. I first started using them at Island School as a journal, and now have gone through at least five since my junior year. The one I use have no lines so serve as a perfect free-flow brainstorming/journaling/listmaking idea book. You can almost always find them in a Barnes and Noble. 
3. Amazon Kindle - I use this thing almost every day. It connects to your Amazon account and downloads purchases almost immediately. The bonus for the cost of the reader - the prices of the books are cheaper. I have an older version, but I know a lot of people who like the newer ones because they connect to Netflix and can play video. If you're strictly a reader, go for an older version. It's completely worth it if you enjoy reading, travels and packs easily and keeps battery life for a long time. 
4. Vera Bradley - This one is for my friends on the west coast. Based in the midwest, Vera is pretty popular in the mitten; however, a lot of my friends at college don't know what Vera Bradley is! They offer every kind of bag you could ever need in really beautiful paisley-esque prints and patterns. I use them for everything and they are incredibly durable so will keep for years. 
5. Keurig coffee brewer - I have recently realized just how valuable this little guy is. I have a tiny one that has lived in my dorm with me and now is on vacation with me. So convenient to only brew a cup of coffee for one - Ellen isn't a big coffee drinker. Simple product, but one I use every day and is the soul provider of my energy in the morning. 

My First Vacation

Weekend/Life Update: Currently in Corona Del Mar, resting and relaxing with my good friend Ellen (Check out her blog, A Thousand Gifts) on spring break. 

There are a couple incredible things about this experience

1. We are staying at my friend Madi's house. She lives in Arizona and is currently home with her family on spring break. The Masons have been so hospitable in offering up their beach house for us to lay low in for the week. Otherwise, this girl would be trapped in the dorms. Yikes. Thanks so much to the Masons for their incredible gift and for providing us with a safe, beautiful place to stay. PS - I can see the ocean from the front door. Dope. 
2. I get to spend a whole week with my friend Ellen. She is going to be one of my roommates next year (along with Sarah Smith who you'll find out about later) and it is fun to be able to do this "trial run" with her and be able to live, cook, do laundry, etc together for the next few days.
3. This is my first vacation on my own. That is taking a little bit of time to sink in. Any vacation I have ever taken has been with at least one member of my family. So this whole being on my own thing is something that I'm getting used to. I guess more than anything, it solidifies the fact that I am really on my own out here. I am 2,000 miles away and I am an adult and have the ability to be on my own. Ellen and I cooked a full meal tonight, we are making decisions on how we will spend our time and are even having "company" over for the day to cook them dinner and fellowship with each other. 

I feel silly in saying this is a big thing in my life, but almost every other experience I've had on my own has been structured and monitored, not me on my own. I'm surrounded by stand-in parents at the camp I work at, Island School was incredibly structured and I had faculty watching out for and providing for me, and at college I'm on my own, but in a dorm and monitored by an RA. Here in this house this week, I am the authority of what I do, when I do it and how I do it. If I want to sleep in, I can totally do so. If I want to sit on the couch, blog and watch "She's The Man" (which is what we are currently doing), I can! This week I'm looking forward to some free time of lounging about and some time to learn how to cook, studying the Word (for my self and for my Luke/Acts test when I get back to school) and figuring out what's important in my day.

If you could! Pray for sunshine! It's a little chilly and cloudy and Ellen and I would love to get out to the beach this week! 

On The Air Waves

As many of you know, I am a journalism major and have wanted to be one for as long as I can remember. In high school, I got to work with broadcast media and print journalism and really loved both of those, but I'm now learning a new medium: radio broadcasting! Look out world, I'm on the air.

Along with two of my friends here at school, Becky Kay and Katie Brown, I wanted to try out a radio show that would count towards my print journalism class here at APU. So, we pitched the idea to our advisor and lo and behold, she let us on the air. Three freshmen, with no experience, then pulled together.

We had our first radio show Tuesday, March 12 and we just finished our second about at hour and a half ago. We are loving it so far!

You can listen in on Tuesdays from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Pacific Time (except for next week when we'll be on spring break) at www.kapuradio.com/listenlive.

APU Color Run 2013

I got to photograph my friends doing the Color Run on our campus. If you haven't had the chance yet, I recommend that you try to find a Color Run near you. It was such a fun way to get exercise and super easy to stay with your friends through the whole thing, and let's be serious, the pictures turn out awesome. 

Weekend Update

From March 8-9:

I had the privilege of going to a military ball with my sweet friend Calvin. It was incredibly interesting to see the military routine and how structured the whole night was. And of course, I loved dressing up.

Trust and Patience

Let me know if I'm wrong here, but I think I'm sensing a pattern. 

On April 1st, 2010 I got a letter back from the Island School that they didn't have a spot for me, but that I had been wait-listed. "Sit tight," they said. "A spot might open up for you." I honestly can't remember my reaction, but  I can only assume that it was bad. Rejection hadn't shown itself in my life until this point, and for the first one, this one was rough. On Memorial Day Weekend of that year, I got a call from the Island School that a position had just opened, and that I had to let them know of my decision in 24 hours. Clearly, I made the decision and ended up hauling myself and 100 pounds of gear down to the Island of Eleuthera. 

On April 1st, 2012 while on my spring break in Mexico, I found out via Facetiming my grandma that I had not been accepted to the University of Southern California. They don't offer a wait list, this one was a clear rejection: we simply don't have room to accept you. When I got home and actually got to look at my rejection letter with my own eyes, there was a second piece of paper behind the official decision entitled, "How to appeal your admission decision." The process wasn't long, just to write a one-page letter explaining why I thought I deserved to be at USC. The chances of actually changing their mind was slim, but I tried anyway. I found out on May 5, 2012 that they did, in fact, change their mind. I got accepted for the spring semester of the next year, just not the fall so I could take the place of potential transfers, graduating students, etc.

I'm incredibly good at being on a wait list or getting something that wasn't supposed to happen originally. 

Yesterday, at 10:30 a.m. I opened an email that said there was not a position for me to be an RA next year, but that they would be keeping my file open as an alternate. 

In no way, shape or form am I holding onto certainty, belief or pretense that I will granted a position. My point I'm trying to make is not bragging about my accomplishments. It's not saying that I will always get what I want. My message is that there is incredible power that comes from the humility of rejection and honoring and praising God even in (or especially because of) that rejection. 

The night before I found out about my RA decision, I was reading from Jesus Calling, a daily quick devotional and this is what Sarah Young wrote:

"If you mouth the words 'I trust you' while anxiously trying to make things go your way, your words ring hollow." 

I am not waiting for Residence Life to call me and tell me they have an open position. I am simply listening and waiting, reflecting and praying on the next opportunity God will present to me. I am not waiting expectantly for what I want to happen, but for His will to be done through me. 

Come On Down To...THE PRICE IS RIGHT!

My friends on the LAC, and my RA and another RA from my hall all got to go to the Price is Right on Wednesday, March 6. If you ever go to LA, trying to get tickets onto a show is so worth it. A lot of APU students have been to the Price Is Right, The Ellen Show and even America's Funniest Home Videos. It is so worth going and one of those funny stories you can always pull out. Plus, you're on TV. That's always fun.

It was one of the most interesting experiences - and one of the most exhausting! We had to wait in lines for hours...yikes. But once we actually got in, we got to sit in the front row! I can't say what actually happened on the show until it airs (April 29), but it was so fun. There was a lot of dancing, clapping, screaming and yelling involved...and a whole lot of denim. Watch for us!