What a week! I may have started this that exact same way last Monday, but it has just been too true. I’ve still been totally knocked out by getting sick! Naps and sleeping long hours at night have been my friend lately. Not that they normally aren’t. Also medicine.

In the midst of being sick, I had to plan my talk for CRU! Cru is the college ministry that we work for at Radford. I truly have the best jobs in the world, friends. Sometimes I’m shooting weddings and surrounded by all the pretty things and others I’m camped out in our campus Starbucks, talking about life and Jesus with college women. It’s all my favorite things, and I try so hard not to take it for granted. Anyways! Part of the DNA of our Cru ministry is to have a weekly meeting of around 100+ students. We have fun, we share the gospel and the scriptures in the form of a talk, and we worship through music together. And this past week, it was my turn to talk! Eek! It’s a heavy responsibility, but definitely a worthwhile one. I got to spend all of Monday afternoon and Tuesday preparing to speak on memory and God’s redemption story. It’s something that God’s been speaking about to me since last summer and it was really exciting to get to share it. And really encouraging to hear from the students after!

The rest of the week was fun too because it was my birthday weekend :] I turned 27 on Friday! So crazy. I think it was especially crazy because that for real feels like I’m in my late 20s. Having a one year old doesn’t make me feel old…but being 27 sure does. (I know some of you are eye rolling at me right now) We did lots of low key fun all weekend and my best friend and her boyfriend even came into town to visit! She’s just my favorite person ever (besides david and ollie) and we’re long distance BFFs so it was good to be together. We had lots of yummy eats (at chain restaurants because that’s just me) and bopped around and did a long trip through Target. And my friends made me lots of Irish food and some oreo cheesecake on Sunday to celebrate! And now it’s Monday again and I’m feeling a little sour about it. Monday’s are so much harder when you come out of a restful and wonderful weekend.

But now, for feels.

• My friend posted this on facebook after I said it during our coffee date: “I just like things that are really unoriginal. Like I like chain restaurants, I like the mall. I just like normal things.” It’s true. If anything is me, it’s that. People on the other hand, can be as original as they come.
• David bought me a Hufflepuff cardigan for my birthday. Totally normal, right? :] No, probably not, but dang I sure love it and him.
• We let Ollie do a lot of walking around restaurants this weekend and he always jetted straight to the kitchen! So embarrassing! He also waved around two balloons at Red Robin for the entirety of our meal and almost knocked most things over. Ollie+balloons=love.
• Last week was Tuesdays Together! I love getting together with the Roanoke and NRV creative business owners and talking about entrepreneurship. Even when our topic is FINANCES (ugh) we figure out a way to be helpful and have fun. If you’re interested, you should totally join our group. I recently joined my friend Ashley as one of the group facilitators and am loving it!
• We convinced my best friend to play scrabble and she is SO not a board game person. She’s the most fun person I know, but sitting down and paying attention to rules is not her strong suit. She ended up spicing up the game by cheating (stealing someone’s J), but it came back to bite her when she was left with the letter for the rest of the game. Sweet karma. 😉
• We saw Beauty and the Beast and LOVED IT! Specifically Le Fou, any scene in the ballroom or library, the Gaston song, and well…pretty much all of it. Annnnd all the scenes with Maurice made me cry because #parenthood.

Guys, Ollie walks with little pinchers out. He’s a little bit of a crab right now, but I super love it.