Skype is Awesome!

Today was a girly day for me which i think every girl needs once in a while....I treated myself for my birthday and went to get highlights for my hair, which has become a nice yearly tradition. Also I watched the european champion's league final game while i painted my nails...just a note: it took me the whole game to finish them so they look really nice, atleast for now.
i just think that it is funny and when i told someone that, they just laughed at the irony of a girl watching the game seriously and still painting her nails so intensely....what can i say, i am a good multitasker!
But the highlight of my day was getting to talk to an amazing friend on skype which just blessed me so much! i thank God everyday for such amazing friends that are encouraging and caring. and fortunately, today's technology allows for connections to be made even from a distance. If you do not have skype i advise downloading it because it has been the source of many great conversations and the strengthing of friendships! the best part it is FREE! can't put a price on that...hahaha :)
I wish that skype had an option to do conference calls and maybe it does but i have not figured out how to perform such a task. so for now i can only talk to one person at a time....atleast that is better than nothing!

"Worry is a mild form of Fear"

Worry is definitely a form of fear, why would we worry about outcomes if we weren't afraid of them or how they would effect us. Ultimately, it comes down to a lack of faith for God's control and plan for your life. but for some reason at this point in my life i seem to be worried about everything, whether conscienciously or subconscienciously. i feel like in these next few years, there are a lot of pending decisions that are going to have to be made, and just like everyone, i don't want to make the wrong decisions.
things i am afraid of...whether rational or irrational:
~that i will loose contact with everyone and my relationships with ppl will suffer
~that my Faith will be tested more than ever and i will not be able to stand up to the pressure
~that i will straight up fail my courses in Australia
~disappointing my family
~discovering I'm not as strong of a person emotionally or mentally or spiritually as i think i am.

Encouraging words from God Himself:
Romans 3:2-4
2Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
3What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness? 4Not at all!...

Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

James 1: 2-4
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

now for the challenge, putting that teaching into practice....

almost official and some what anxious

So yesterday I officially applied for my Australian visa and it turned out to be more expensive than i thought, but i couldn't really do anything about it because it is just as necessary as having the plane ticket to get over there. With this final step finished, i have been feeling a bit more anxious about getting closer to my departure. As i was telling my mom about this increase in anxiety, she was saying that i shouldn't be worrying and that i need to rely on God more intensely as the anxiety builds... the funny part is however that as i was discussing this with her, we past a church with a church sign that read : "Worry is the thief of all joy"....i just had to bust out laughing because it was perfect timing, absolutely perfect....God must have a sense of humor!

I want to be there and live there~

Hype!

so tonight i am helping my grandmother serve drinks to her bridge club which consists of several women...all of whom live in my neighborhood and so feel as though they have some vested interest in my life the 5 times a year that they talk to me....hahaha humorous i know!
anyways, of course they wanted me to tell them all about my summer plans which did not even need to be said because my grandmother had already talked about my my travel plans the previous bridge club night. Long story short, before i could get out where i was going and what i was doing, they interrupted me before i could even get it out, so instead of just explaining it to them with my own excitement i had to confirm with excitement...there is a difference if you have ever been in this type of situation...anyways it was kinda like having a bubble popped and then immediately inflating it with the excitement of the confirmation. Food for thought i guess...if you know something that someone is about to tell you, especially if its good news, let them tell you because they get just as much excitement from telling you as it is for you to "find out".
maybe i am being critical but id rather like to see it as using my lessons ingrained in me from my critical writing and thinking class as commenting on a situation in which i have never given much thought to before....and plus i wanted to blog about something! hahaha lol

Australian Visa

So today i was thinking that i have just about all my ducks in a row for Australia, then it occured to me that i have been putting off filling out a visa application for australia... and i checked my email todayand i got explicit instructions about when and how to fill out a visa application so that makes feel a little less anxious about that process. also it turns out that the application fee is
330$ instead of like 450$ which i was thinking it was going to be...so i suppose that is a blessing. as excited as i am to be going on this adventure, money is going to be tight and i am going to have to be really responsible with the little extra that i do have. I'm sure it will all work out!

This was Interesting....

Rules:
a) Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search (http://www.flickr.com/).
b) Using ONLY the first page, pick an image.
c) Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Mosaic Maker. Change rows to 3 and columns to 3 (http://bighugelabs.com/fli
ckr/mosaic.php).

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Katie
2. What is your favorite food? Cookies

3. What is your favorite color? Teal

4. Favorite band? coldplay

5. Dream vacation? carribean
6. Favorite hobby? photos

7. What you want to be when you grow up? A Vet

8. What do you love? Patrick
9. One word to describe you? Goofy

G'day mates

After staying up till 3am talking to someone special, i was able to sleep in till 11:30 and go meet my good friend for her birthday. we ended up talking for about 2 1/2 hrs and then went shopping for a little bit. It was so good to catch up and its funny because everytime we get together we can talk for hours on end. one time we sat in panera for 5hrs until they closed just catching up and talking about stuff. I really hope that this friendship will last a long time because i could deff. see ourself sitting in rocking chairs talking about our lives as elderly women.
I made dinner with my mom tonight and which was really fun. I decided that cooking and figuring out what to cook is always more fun if you have someone to do it with and i can't wait till i have a family in which i can cook for. fun times....
I figured out the other day that i will only be home for 6 days for the whole month of June...and only 10days in July before i fly out to LA and then to Australia....as excited as i am for this upcoming adventure, i don't want the summer to fly by too fast though im pretty sure it will.
Summer Conference was so amazing, not just because the weather was amazing and i got to go surfing, but i got to know my friends better and the seminars that i attended were so informational.
i attended one about dating and though i did take the same one last year, it spoke to me more this year. one thing that hit me pretty hard is the fact that petty arguments and fights that happen in a relationship all stem from selfishness and expectations that were never expressed to the other person. i think the fact that it was all spelled out was really good because i feel like i knew it all before but understand it much better now.
the other seminars were God's Will, and Prayer. prayer was interesting because it wasn't about how to pray but it was about why we don't pray. a different angle and very important to examine. Praying is our communication to God, though i am guilty of not being consistent in this area, i wonder why I and others would not want to talk to our Heavenly Father. some students responded that it is hard because we can not see God, and thus feel silly for talking to air, but that is where Faith comes in. and Much faith is needed. I believe we can always continue going in our faith because we will always be put in positions where our faith will be tested. and this fact should not be discouraging.

The begining of prep work

Today I decided that i would go ahead and create this blog which i intend on keeping up with during my time in australia so that all may be able to keep up with adventures,...hope it lasts
so i decided that i wanted some tevas and i started to research the type of hiking backpack i want to ask for my birthday with the intention for using as a carry on for my flights...it was somewhat successful.