Friends

Can I just say how thankful I am for blogging? I know I haven't been writing a lot lately, I've had a pretty rough month and it's not something I can share about online but regardless, the blog world is awesome. 

Yesterday I got to hang out with Meg, Jamie, and Kasey in Temecula. It was my first time meeting Kasey & she was a doll. And really tall! :) Anyways, these are all girls that I met online through blogging. It sounds funny, I know. 

I am someone who loves my alone time, but I need time with people. I love hanging out even if we're not doing anything, just being with friends. I don't get a whole lot of that where I live.

Most of you know I live on top of a mountain with 25 other people, and an hour away from any civilization, including a gas station. I have some really great friends up here, but I miss my friends from home, I miss having girls nights, I miss going out for Happy Hour when we get off work early, etc. Hanging out with girls my own age, with similar interests, a strong faith, it was so rejuvenating. I loved having lunch with you three & just hanging out after.

Also, the best part in my opinion, is that they brought me birthday cupcakes & gave me a gift! Seriously?! Yeah, I am blessed. 

It's funny the friendships that have come from the internet. I never expected this to happen, but Lord am I thankful it did!! 

Thanks for the fun Sunday girls :) You make my heart full!!

My Birthday cupcakes! Meg even asked Zach my favorite flavors :) Thanks sweet friend!

 Meg found this, I find it hilarious :)

Sweet Friends and La Jolla

La Jolla: Pronounced "la hoy-ya" fyi :) 

We are so so blessed to have had an amazing community in Seattle. We each had our own friends and we also had awesome "couple friends" as well. One of our favorite couples got to visit us last week! We love visitors.

Emily and Joe had a trip planned to Disneyland and decided to spend a night at camp before they flew home. We were SO excited to see them and get to spend quality time together! We hung out around camp and before their flight on Friday, took them to La Jolla to see the beautiful beaches and views. (Thanks Tammy for your recommendation!)

We loved seeing you two and hope we will get to spend a little more time with you next time! Thanks for making the trip up here - we love you guys. Also we won't forget to take you on the zipline when you come back haha.

Seriously, we live here. Soo amazing!

Joe's cool iPhone case! 

The Start of My Three Day Weekend

First things first, how amazing is my blog design?! Thanks to Nicole at Poppy Pixel Designs, it looks absolutely amazing. I'm in love with it.

So I get to have Sunday through Tuesday off (yesterday, today, tomorrow) and I am stoked about it. We would have gone somewhere to take advantage of the 3 days of glory, but we didn't know about it til last week sometime (we didn't get our April schedule til this week). Anyways, we had a pretty fun Sunday!

We missed church - when you live an hour away from anything, there are a lot of opportunities to get stuck behind slow drivers. So we walked around Old Town Temecula - which was adorable.

Lots of cute gift shops, antique shops, and cafes. All the buildings look old fashioned with that wood you can see in the picture above. We will definitely be going back to explore a little more :)

Then we met up with Meg [henning love] and her husband, Sean! We went wine tasting together and had a blast. Meg and I got to meet in February but have wanted to get together again ever since. I'm sure glad we brought along the boys, we kept having to interrupt them if we wanted to talk. Zach and I loved getting to hang out with them & can't wait for the next time :) Meg took most of the pictures so check out her blog until I have time to steal them from her!

By far best quote of the day was from Sean, "So Zach.. how much of your life is taken over by blogging?"

I loved that wisteria ... mmmm!

After winetasting, we were deciding if we should eat in town or trek back up the mountain when I realized Zach has never been to BJ's. When I lived in Thousand Oaks, I was at BJ's pretty regularly. It's just so good. Zach has heard me talk about it more than once, so we decided to go out :) Why is their pizza SO GOOD?! And their homemade root beer / cream soda / orange cream soda ?? To die! 

No BJ's trip is complete without a Pizookie!! YUM!

We also bought paint and flowers at Lowe's... I know how the rest of my weekend is looking! So excited :) Hope y'all had a great weekend too!

Did anyone play any April Fools jokes? ? I thought about telling my family I was pregnant, but I was afraid they wouldn't think it was very funny, lol.

Beautiful Weekend With My Fwiend

Source: 27.media.tumblr.com via Katie on Pinterest

I have been very blessed since making our big move in November. Both of my best friends and my parents have been down to visit already, and one of our closest "couple" friends are coming in April!
This weekend, I got to spend four days with one of my very favorite people in the world. Elise flew down for training at a YL camp for her summer assignment, and extended her trip in order to spend some time at the Harris house! We had so much fun together.

I make a lot of silly voices, and when I am around Elise, it just gets worse. Like all we do is talk to each other in weird voices without noticing.

We talked a few times about how when you try to describe why you're friends with someone, you just cant. We just are. We've been friends for almost six years now and pretty much don't know how I'd ever live with out her. We just get eachother.

Love you Elisey!! My life is better because you're in it. See you in June :)

For Kaylee

My darling Kaylee,

You are beautiful. 

God created you to be you, and by being true to yourself you are obeying him. 

You are His faithful servant. You are His masterpiece, when He sees you, He smiles. 

You make Him proud.

God has given you a gift of a beautiful singing voice, and a nack to play the guitar. 

You continually use this for His glory, and He is pleased with you.

By pursuing your dream of music, you are using the gifts He gave you every single day.

He loves you. Oh, how he loves you.

You are able to inspire people twice your age. 

Your radiance brightens the darkest spirits. 

Your honesty is also a gift, something not every one knows how to use, and being real will take you far, Kaylee. He gave you the ability to be so real.

You hurt much because you care much. It may be hard now, but it is a good thing to care so much.

Miss Kaylee, you make people laugh -- all the time. Do you realize what a gift this is? The gift of bringing joy. God has chosen you to have these specific qualities. You are so wise and you follow Him so faithfully, this will only bring you more understanding of Him. High school and college are so hard.. figuring out who you are is so hard. Keep leaning on Jesus Kayls. Only He can truly make your heart whole. Only He can strengthen your character. I admire you more than I say, and I wish I had your humor, joy, compassion, and dedication. The music you write reaches deep into people's souls, and blesses them more than you will probably ever realize. Jesus has put those words and notes in your heart for a reason. I am so proud of you, so so proud of you for allowing Him to use you through music. Keep going friend. Keep being you. Because that is exactly who He designed you to be.

I love you always, and I'll forever be here for you.

xoxox,

Katie

Juice Fast and Blogger Meet-Up!

Welp tomorrow starts our 7 day juice fast. I keep saying juice fast, but I actually mean raw fruits & vegetable fast. I will still eat bananas and make smoothies from frozen fruit & orange juice I made tonight.   Just no dairy in them. But I am super stoked and ready to start this cleanse and see how I feel at the end of it. I'll keep y'all updated, and I will definitely need some encouragement! I've never done anything like this. We were starting to get the "clean eating" thing down before we moved, and since then camp food has taken over. Somehow I've managed to lose weight while being here but I think that's just because my job is so active. Anyways, this is a huge deal for me. I love food! This week will be a huge test of my discipline. I know I can do it, I know I can do it.

It really does look delicious though, doesn't it? And so colorful!

Luckily Ashley is hosting this whole thing & there will be lots of encouragement through that group along the way.

Speaking of Ashley, I got to meet her and a handful of other bloggers today. Namely Jamie, Julie, Meg, and Hollie. I've gotten to know these girls via their blogs, emailing, twitter, and texting but it was SO COOL to meet them in person and actually hang out! I met a few other girls too but I was mostly excited to hang out with the girls I already have a relationship with because I was meeting them for the first time today. Maybe next one I'll try to mingle more :)

Jamie & Julie 

I am so mad I didnt get a picture with Meg! (Mine and Hollie's will hopefully be posted soon!) Just means we'll have to hangout again soon, Meg :)

I also won this awesome print from Orange&Park. They have tons of cool prints of California and other places like South America, Africa, & stationary too! 

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I loved meeting these girls and feeling like we'd been friends for a long time. Seriously, you guys are amazing. Now lets set up some hang-outs chicas!

PS. Thank you to the girls who hosted today's meet-up, y'all did an amazing job & it was so nice to be included!

Don't forget to linkup on Monday with your favorite Blush, Bronzer, etc! :)

Liebster Award

*Disclaimer: This post is way overdue*

I started this blog for no reason other than to occasionally write when my head felt like it was so full of thoughts it was going to burst. I had NO idea where it would take me and how much I would fall in love with blogging. I also had no idea how many incredible friendships I would make along the way and how dear to me these girls would become! 

With all that said.... I am incredibly honored that not only one, but two people awarded me with a Liebster Award! 

Renee blogs at This Wont Hurt A Bit and I am loving getting to know her recently!

Victoria blogs at Vibrantly Victoria and I have so much respect for this girl.. she's on a serious weight loss journey & is so inspiring!

Thank you sooooo much Renee & Victoria. It honestly means so much to me!

......and as I was writing this post and reading my friends' blogs I noticed that Jamie  [News From LaFuze] also sent this my way. Seriously, love her.  I get to meet her on Saturday and I just might pee I'm so excited. I was about to give her the award but she beat me to it :)

So I guess I got three awards. I'm like about to cry... I've never felt like I was "good" at anything before and this whole blogging thing just brings me so much confidence and the best part? It's confidence in me.  I do this for me, I write about me, and whats on my heart. SO THANK YOU LADIES!! Seriously, you are making my week!!

Ok... moving on :)

Liebster is German for loved, beloved, dear, favorite, or something like that.

and this award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers to bring attention to their blog.

The rules to this award are as follows:

#1. show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

#2. award the award to five of your favorite bloggers with less than 200 followers & link them.

#3. post the award on your blog.

#4. bask in the love from the most supportive people on the internet - other bloggers of course!

#5. and best of all - have fun & spread the LOVE.

This is really hard to choose.. but here goes:

Ashley [christian wife life]

Laina [recycled interiors] *she just had a baby! thismorning.

Beth [Until Only Love Remains]

Ali [Not Hip Enough To Blog]

Lauren [lauren darlings]

Allyce [Riemenschnieder Ramblings]

Love those girls. Their blogs are worth your time. Plus I like to think that they are my 

friends, and I like to show off my friends :)

Until next time! Yes I broke the rules and picked 6. I just had to, okay!?

PS: Fun facts.... Allyce was actually my manager when I worked as a restaurant host a few years ago (and I got to do her wedding hair), and Laina was friends with Zach in high school and he introduced me to her blog! Crazy, huh.

If I Used "best friend" This Girl Would be One Of Them!

So.. I don't use the words "best friend". Growing up, I moved around a lot and everyone always had their best friends and I never did. It always hurt my feelings because its so excluding to other people.

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As I've gotten older, I have developed some incredible relationships with a few girls that have pretty much kept me sane and gotten me through some tough times. They make me laugh constantly and they GET me like no one else ever can! I am beyond blessed to have these kinds of relationships, and I know they dont come often, which is why I prioritize keeping in touch even from afar.

And.. lucky me.. one of these girls, Amy is here this weekend!! Perfect timing to pull me out of my slump this week.

We are gonna have so much fun :)Heres a photo evolution of our friendship.

 Circa 2007 We Worked Together on Campus

circa 2008 @ The Rodeo!

2011 @Miranda Lambert Concert!

2011 @ Our wedding! :)