the end of an era.

Sooo I'm moving out of College Station for good today. I've pretty much put this moment off for as long as possible...I don't do transition well. I packed up most of my things at the end of June and moved a bunch of it home slowly in small trips. Then I moved myself to my sister's apartment for the last two weeks of my summer so I could spend more time with her. It really helped to ease the transition because I moved out of my house but not out of town. Then on Monday, I moved my things up to Dallas but drove back here that night, and I will be moving up there for good on Sunday afternoon just in time to start bright and early on Monday morning (nothing like waiting until the last minute!). Yet despite all of my best efforts to prevent myself having to reach this point before it was necessary, the time has finally arrived. Today is my last day here in the grand ole' town of College Station, and I am having quite the difficult time with it.

In order to make this slightly easier on myself, I am going to post about one of my favorite memories of being in College Station...our Harry Potter premier extravaganzas!!! Two weeks ago, when the last installment in the Harry Potter series came out, my friends and I joined the massive crowds of HP enthusiasts dressed as the characters to celebrate the end of an era. I love the timing of everything Harry Potter: our class of youth (2007 from HS, 2011 from college) actually grew up with Harry. I know I sound cheesy here, but check this out: we were 11 when the books came out, the last book came out when we graduated high school, and now the last half of the last movie came out right after we graduated college. As if we needed one more reminder that our childhood is, in fact, technically over, Hollywood drove that point into the ground by perfectly aligning the movie release with our last summer before the real world hits. To commemorate this special occasion, I would like to bring to your attention some pictures of my very hard-core friends!!! :-) Enjoy this reminiscence of the lazy days of childhood! :-)

James and Lily Potter! ((yes, I did dye my hair RED for the occasion! more on that later...))

Lily Potter (and baby Harry!) and Goyle :-)

XENOPHILIUS LOVEGOOD!

a reinactment of Harry's reception of the infamous scar!!! ha! :-)

McGonagall, Hermoine, Lily Potter, and Narcissa Malfoy

Narcissa and Lily

THE HOUSE OF BLACK!!!

(Bellatrix, Regulus, Narcissa, Sirius, and Kreacher)

this is my favorite picture! Everyone at the theater was so hard-core, and we pulled people who weren't with our group to make epic group pictures!

Quittach Players: Goyle, Crabbe, Oliver Wood, and Viktor Krum!

THE MALFOY FAMILY!

(Lucius, Draco, Narcissa)

Lucius and Draco weren't with our group...they were just PERFECT fits for the Malfoy family photo!

Hermoine, McGonagall's animagus - the cat!, Luna Lovegood, Lily, and Hedwig!

(the Castle girls!)

Doloros Umbridge!!!

HAGRID! yes, he is on stilts, and yes we stood in line to take a picture with him :-)

epic movie theater decorations! ahhhh!!!

So there you have it, folks! Our epic adventures into the land of Hogwarts! The end of an era of children's literature masterpieces and fairy tale magical worlds has come and gone, and in a few days time I will be embarking on my journey into the grown-up world! oh my, how times flies!

With all my heart!

Hello blogging world! Welcome to my first blog :-) I decided to begin a blog a couple of months ago, but I delayed the start of this process in an attempt to find an un-awkward way to introduce myself to the blogging sphere. I have yet to find one, so I woke up this morning and was filled the certainty that today I must proceed forward, awkward or not!! So here I am! I just graduated from Texas A&M, and I will be moving to Dallas in T-minus 12 days to begin working for a non-profit organization spreading the THEOLOGY OF THE BODY! More about this later, but suffice it to say that I stand in awe of our God who is so gracious and merciful to choose this little one to be His hands and feet in spreading this powerful and life-changing message. That's where I got my blog title: I so desire to LOVE God and others with everything that I have...with all my heart :-) and I put my whole heart into everything that I do. I would love it if you would come on this journey with me! I'm quite a mess, and the passion with which I do everything in my life typically requires that I backtrack and proceed with a little more discipline and focus in developing opinions and spreading truth...but I hope that you would be patient with me as I search for truth and love and joy in this craaazy world! I want to begin my blog with the lyrics to the song from which I took my blog title. These lyrics give you a peek into who I am! God bless you! :-)

Search My Heart

-Hillsong United

Search my heart and search my soul
There's nothing else that I want more

Shine Your light and show Your face
In my life, Lord have Your way

With all my heart and all my soul
With all I am, Lord, I will follow You.

You took the cross, you took my shame,

restored my life, now I live to worship You!

Hear my cry and hear my prayer
Draw me close, I know you're near.

So with all my heart and all my soul
With all I am, Lord, I will follow You
You took the cross, You took my shame
Restored my life, Lord I will follow You.

Without You I am nothing.

Search my heart
And search my soul.

:-)