MYSTERY OF THE MISSING WARDROBE

The goal of dressing like Nancy Drew has been going well. Solving the mystery of where my money goes though, still on the hunt for clues.

(funny how clue rhymes with J.Crew.)

T IS FOR TORREY

I haven't used my camera in a good couple months. I couldn't even remember how to set properly set it, the lens kept fogging and disgusting gross men kept getting in the shot. But all in all, I'm grateful for this gem of a friend and   that she a.) exists and b.) made me break out the camera again. 

My mission trip moment

You guys, I finally have it.

That quintessential white-girl-holding-an-african child-, emotion evoking, heart wrenching, Jesus proclaiming photo. 

Only I prefer the term slightly-semi-tan, and the child wasn't African and the photo was taken three seconds before said not african child burst into tears.

 (So I guess it was emotion evoking after all)

It was such a letdown, my mission trip moment! Here I was, serving the Lord in a poor, remote village, miles away from civilization and working restrooms and this child just didn't have the decency to cooperate. Didn't she know what was at stake? How would anyone on Facebook know I gave up everything for a week to serve Jesus if I didn't post a photo of me holding a sweet little black baby?

 Apparently Dominican babies are not trained to make sure that semi-tan short term missionaries feel useful in the kingdom of God.

As I handed the uncooperative child back to her mother, I realized how stupid it all was, myself included. I don't know at what point stock photos of missionaries holding babies became the pinnacle of missionary greatness and successful sharing of the gospel, but that's what I had in my head. Because the only way to share the gospel is to hold children, right?

Serving the lord is different for everyone. And I know, we've heard that a million times in stuffy Sunday morning services, but it's true. Being a true missionary, whose sole purpose is to share the eternal Gospel of Christ, is not exactly. There is no "hold and african baby and smile" formula for spreading the good news. Some are called to build churches and some to pastor them, others to lead worship and others to clean up after church.

And some of us are not called to hold african babies, it turns out.

I held this child for three seconds and learned thirty million things about my faith, my savior and my mission here on earth.

And so we wonder, who is the actual missionary here?
SaveSave

MAY: THE MONTH OF ME.

"We are a generation of young women 

who were told we could do anything 

and instead heard that 

we had to be everything."

This month I admit: I can't be everything. This month I acknowledge my weakness, my shortcomings and this month I'm making choices that will make me whole again.

You should too.

An anthem for April

APRIL ANTHEM:

Be intentional. With my time and my talents and my gifts and my shortcomings.

Create creativity....and Clean my room. Hang up the dresses, tidy the chocolate stash and create like crazy.

Hustle. Hustle hard and hustle fast, work smarter and harder.

Rest. When I'm finished, fully done and hey,  rest well.

Broken thumbs are dumb // part three

ALL THINGS REALLY DO WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD.

I guess Jesus knew what he was talking about after all.

It took me 4 weeks to come to grips (ha!) with the fact that my broken thumb wasn't all bad. Sure, it's annoying when you're trying to shave or open boxes (especially when there's food inside those boxes and you're really hungry.) but all things considered, I still have it pretty easy.

The broken thumb threw a wrench in my plans. No going in the ocean over Spring Break, no handwriting for school or pleasure (a blessing and a curse.) It was hard for me to watch softball games at first. I was jealous! And this time not about the fact that they could throw the ball well, but that they could actually throw it at all.

It showed me that I'm not in control.

And I didn't like that very much. 

God has a funny way of teaching us things. Sometimes its through people or experiences. Sometimes, it's a broken bone. And one day it hit me that the entire ordeal of breaking my thumb wasn't just so I could be annoyed or irritated or drop my phone 1000x per day (#coordination), but so that I could learn something. What is God teaching me, you ask? I wanted to find out before another thumb was broken to get my attention.

After checking out at Target a few days ago,  the thought "I'll miss my splint!" popped into my head. I took it back a few seconds later, I hate my splint! It's horrible!....or is it? My right hand has been suffocated by savage looking splints and bandages for the past month, and within that month (and because of that splint) I've had the opportunity to talk to more people than ever before.

The little neighbor girls ask about it every time I walk by, it'll be the thing to stir up a conversation with an old friend. Heck, even the 7-11 employees are convinced I broke it doing extreme thumb wrestling. I've heard more life stories, regaling of broken limbs from strangers and I've loved every second of getting to talk to different people. And I'm grateful for this fractured, fragment of a thumb because without it, I wouldn't have had the opportunity or a reason to talk to any of them.

So next time you break your thumb, it's okay to be mad at it and yell about it if you must and eat some chocolate (if you can get the package open). But then, take a chill pill (or some ibuprofen) and see what God is trying to teach you. Because whatever that is, it's always worth the pain, the tears and the difficulty of showering with your dominant hand wrapped a garbage bag.

I PROMISE.

(Thanks to sarah for these photos! And thank you to everyone who has been so wonderful to me during this process.)

Fresh cream/cookies

I debated over this perfume for a month. Should I buy it? It's kind of expensive! Do I need to smell like fresh cream....does fresh cream even smell good?

You know what girl? I'm worth it! I'm worth the hefty price and I deserve to smell like fresh cream! So I bought it in a hurry and haven't used anything since. And for the record, fresh cream smells eerily similar to freshly baked cookies. Which is a glorious scent indeed!

Philosophy Fresh Cream; buy it here!

1/35- SENIOR YEAR

HERE'S TO THE 

LAST FIRST DAY OF HIGH SCHOOL.

and to less typos, more Jesus and an abundance of false lashes.

To 2015 and beyond!

I have typed out a thousand variations of this post, and yet! None of them work. My feelings for this year are mostly a mix of denial, fear and cautious curiosity (which feelings like that can only lead to one thing: Nutella!) I mean, my senior year begins and I turn 18 (I demand a recount!) and just in the past few days I've been hit with the "WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFE!?!?!?" feelings.

(Besides lots of pajama days, I've got no grand plans for my future....In case you were wondering!)

On this January 1st, I have NO idea what is in store for this year. But I know that through God's grace, little by little,  I'll travel far. He's got a plan and a path for me to follow....I'll take it day by day and let you know where I end up.

These things sound cheesy (I can't help myself!) I'd love to fall in love with my life. Even on the most boring days, my life is amazing. Sure it's not perfect, our family fights and I have bad grades and sometimes we run out of chocolate....but I hope this year I'll truly be able to appreciate how blessed I am. Even though we fight, I do have a family! Even though school isn't fun, I go to a great school and have so much support. And yeah, sometimes we run out of chocolate....but thank god I have an emergency stash!

2015 won't be about the latest or the greatest, it'll be about appreciate what's right in front of me. I may not be able to go to New York on a whim, but I have those memories! And those alone are enough....for now ;)!

TURN THE PAGE, A NEW CHAPTER HAS BEGUN,

HERE'S TO THE GREAT MYSTERY THAT IS 2015

A HABIT TO BREAK// I first wrote down "staying up late" and the next one that popped into my head was "stop gossiping"....and then i realized, they go hand in hand! The earlier I go to bed, the less chance I have to stick my nose in other peoples business and the better I feel in the morning. It's amazing how all these things work!

A NEW SKILL TO LEARN// In the past few months it has because painfully obvious that I enjoy singing and dancing....I say painfully because, I'm pretty terrible at both! And while it might be weird to be starting ballet at 17, YOLO! It would be even weirder at 20 so I'm just gonna suck it up and wear tights. Pray for me. ;)

A PERSON TO BE MORE LIKE// I have this wonderful friend named MaryHelen who is literally an angel. And she has this one habit that always leaves us speechless, jealous and determined to imitate. She has this magical gift of sensing when someone needs help (whether its picking up something, saying hello to someone who's lonely or cleaning up) and it's amazing. I'm not sure I can get up to her level this year, but MaryHelen is the person to be in 2015. (Did I also mention, she's 14? And then I question what I've done with my life....)

A GOOD DEED TO DO// 1.) PRAY FOR PEOPLE and 2.) Tell people whom I appreciate, that I appreciate them!

A PLACE TO VISIT// Our travel destinations have been greatly limited (more on that later!) ....sadly my list of places to visit hasn't diminished quite as quickly! I'm really just hoping to explore and appreciate Florida more. (Maybe Charleston? Savannah? Somewhere with good biscuits and gravy.)

A BOOK TO READ// ALWAYS the Bible, because you can never get enough. But I'd like to knock 10 or so of my Goodreads list (aka, my non school list!) Just some nice and cheesy books, you know!

TO WRITE// This is one of those things that sounds great in your head....and really dumb out loud! So I'm just going to keep it secret (like, we all know how well I do with those!) and work on my secret project. Meanwhile, you super sleuths can have a ball guessing what it is!

A NEW FOOD TO TRY// Working on my wife skills, I'm planning on preparing the Thanksgiving feast! Boys like that right? And depending on how it goes, I may or may not leave you all with my number...JUST in case ;).

SIMPLIFY// My wardrobe. I really only wear about 50% of it (and mostly black now, crossing my fingers this is just a "winter" funk!) But regardless, I need to downsize and curate my wardrobe a bit more. Didn't that sound fancy?!

FOR FUN// -Do childish things with my hair! Win the eyebrow game (or at least play it!) and GET A DISCO BALL!!!! WOOOOHOOO!

2015....we can do this! Let's go forward in grace and as always, consume a lot of sugar.

(2015 and 2014 might have more in common than I originally thought!)

"Conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness, and patience. Accept each other with love."

E P H E S I A N S   4 : 6

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HAPPINESS

MERRRRYYY CHRISTMAS!!!!

May your day be merry and bright...and may your Christmas be white! (sand or snow, whichever.)

O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

CALI, I LOVE THEE

This trip to California has been long awaited and much anticipated! We were going to do it in March and then August but BOY AM I GLAD we waited till December because the weather was perfect. When dad rolled up in a convertible I was anxious (uh hair!) and excited (mostly anxious.) But as we were driving down the coast with the top down and the christmas music at full volume, I realized it was actually pretty perfect.

MORE PHOTOS TO COME.

But for now, here's a rockin' cotton candy sunset over Santa Monica Nostaligia was in full force guys!

(and of course, a few photos of me. Look at that folks, Christmas came early!)

Thank you to the Joe's and Rose's

Not to be redundant, but there's this one scene in You've Got Mail that perfectly describes today. It also, as a matter of fact, happens to be about Thanksgiving! But then again, when is You've Got Mail NOT appropriate? 

The scene I'm thinking of  is the one where Kathleen Kelly's credit card is causing all kinds of problems and unexpectedly Joe Fox (with the help of Rose! And Henry!) swoops in and saves the (Thanksgiving) day from disaster and doom. Because, that's just what Joe Fox does my friends.

And so on that same note, I'm thankful for the little, unexpected saviors that change my days from terrible to not so terrible. God has put people in my life who shine even brighter on my darkest days. Sometimes it's a close friend, sometimes it's a stranger. (Sometimes it's one of those people you only half-know and it's really awkward when you run into them in the grocery store). It's all so sudden (and in the oddest ways!). how God can stop me in my tracks and show me that things are not so bad after all.

Yes, I'm thankful for my house and my family and health and all that. But I'm also thankful for the unsung heroes, my Joe Foxes and my cashiers named Rose who come in all sorts of forms (special Chocolate, a good book, a nice complement, an extra hug at the just the right time... to name a few.) 

Sometimes it doesn't seem like I've got a lot of substantial things to give thanks for. (No 25 days of Gratefulness for me....or so I thought!) But somehow, all those Joe's and Roses add up faster than I can count and I realize, I've got a whole darn lot to praise Jesus for.

Happy Thanksgiving to You and Yours! Hope your day was brimming with pies of pumpkin and stuffing of stuff.

Now, It's your turn to say Happy Thanksgiving back....?

PS: Photo by Sarah. She's one of my Roses.

Patience, friends!

Christmas music go date is set! Hold the carols, the high pitched children and the sugar cookies until November 25th, please and thank you!

Having a December birthday has taught me to respect the seasons, and also exhibit self control when it comes to things of a holiday nature. I have a natural instinct to avert my eyes from anything Christmasy (think pure thoughts, kids!) I mean, Thanksgiving would be really thankful if you didn't get too wrapped up in your Christmas lights before the big Turkey day!

My name is Thanksgiving, and I approve this message.

When is your Christmas festivities go day? September 1st? I need to find others who defend the pure innocence of Thanksgiving!

A WORLD OF OCTOBERS

not to be pinteresty but....

I LOVE OCTOBER BECAUSE......

FALL BREAK (a chance to reconnect with my first love Pinterest.)

CHOCOLATE (from trader joes...cheating on my first love just a bit.)

GOOD MUSIC (meghan trainor over taylor swift ANY day.)

GLASSES (pair #1: nerd. pair#2: nerd from 1970.)

A SKIRT THAT FITS JUST RIGHT (and it comes in pink too! hallelujah!)

EVEN WINGS (of eyeliner)

CRESCENT MOON MANI (because I finally have some time.)

THE PROMISE OF A COMING PUMPKIN PATCH....

what's been good about your fall, y'all?!

Hola to you, October!

Cue everything pumpkin spice, because it's October kids!

(but if you're on instagram, you already knew all this.)

Anyway, I've had a mild case of Downton Abbey obsession, which naturally comes with a side effect of tea cravings. I mean, I've only watched like 6 episodes today. Like I said, a mild case. Nothing major.

But anyway! It's October (like we've previously stated) and with that comes all the pumpkin fall craze....for everyone but us because Florida isn't very good about being seasonally appropriate. Once again we didn't get the cooler weather memo or the falling leaves. But then again, it's not like I really have time for anything.....

Except for Downton Abbey, of course.

OCTOBER GOALS:

Post on social media once a week

Blog weekly

Make pumpkin stuff!

Fall shoot with Sarah

Work on Christmas boxes

Get back to bible studying

Enjoy the end of volleyball

get my permit (ha. that's a joke.)

COLOR MY HAIR, GO KRYN.

What goals are you planning up? Bathing in Pumpkin Spice Lattes? I wouldn't blame you!

XOXO,
PS EVERYTHING

THE GREAT MAKEUP DEBATE

While staying at a friend's, whose sister is (basically) a professional makeup artist, I flitted into the bathroom as said sister was doing makeup things and casually asked if she would do a cat eye on me.

In other words, would she put more eyeliner on in one swoop than I've had in my entire life?

(by the way, she said yes.)

And then, of course as it would be, at church we had a discussion (with girls! and boys!) about makeup. Which actually first made me self conscious, ragey, then angry, confused, determined and then all those emotions can only lead to one thing: chocolate. After consuming more Hershey kisses than I'd like to admit, I began processing what I felt about this (which may or may not have involved a little lana del ray and, of course, MORE chocolate.

I wrote a blog post as soon as I got home! Then I face timed a friend. And called another. To each I asked, "Do boys really write us off as shallow if we wear makeup?". My friends didn't really know, and neither did the blog post. Darn! That question was at the forefront of my mind for nearly 2 weeks. I even got to the point where I questioned every swipe of mascara. MY MASCARA people. That's like questioning my love for chocolate chips!

Speaking of chocolate, I think I could use some more.

As a Christian girl, it's hard to find the fine, blurry line between looking nice and drawing attention. It's hard to take part in life's simple pleasures (mascara! blush! lipstick!) without feeling overly shallow and self focused. And when you hear it straight out of a guys mouth, that they don't like makeup, they could care less, prefer it when you don't have any on....what does one do?

I prayed, looked up talks on makeup, tried to find scripture that shed light on my questions. 

But my questions were answered at a Pentecostal wedding, of all places.

For those of you (like myself!) who are not familiar with Pentecostal ways, in addition to pew jumping, they also do not wear makeup. I honestly don't think I've EVER seen a group of women completely make up free, and it was refreshing in an unexpected way. Because it reinstated the fact that to me, I wear makeup to enhance my natural beauty, not cover it up. It's an art form, something we girls bond over, a way to express myself. Never ever, to cover or hide what God gave me.

I come to you now, fully assured of my convictions on makeup. But I'm curious, where do you stand?

Weekends and such!

A few things about this photo, and life in general!

We went to Universal this weekend and apparently I am not a Universal person? I think Disney is more my style- there's a lot more pink, cute little mice and high pitched singing. I can handle that! And E.T! Whoever came up with E.T hopefully  has become a hermit and whoever thinks that E.T is cute should hang their head in shame. I am all for extra terrestrial whatever,  but COME ON. At least make it a cute alien!

And also, Volleyball is over which means I ACTUALLY HAVE TIME again! My Birthday in in a month,  have a sickness called pumpkin fever, and have a serious urge to wear sweaters.

So in other words, not much is new!

How have you been?

Greetings from the random department + other un important matters!

Hiya!

Let me try that again.

Hello there! How are You! I'm fab! Use exclamations points for the rest of your life! Okay!

Notice, I said un important.

The bulk of this post will be me telling you things of which I am very excited about. Which might be kind of be the story of my silly little life because I was nearly giddy over a one dollar gift bag from Target. HOLLA! Target has this magical way of leaving the closets full and happy and the wallets oh so very empty. And Target stories make for fine insagram hashtags, but that's all I'm gonna say about that.

 ▲▲ SO! EXCITED! FOR! FALL! This fall we are planning all kinds of lovely things including seeing pretty tree's in fun places. It's pretty much set in stone! Which for this family means we are actually considering it. But that's about as close as we come until' the night before, so I'll take it.

▲▲ And these triangles? Are they not so rad? And now I can make hearts! ♥♥ See?! I do love this.Oh, and here are some music notes, let's dance. ♪♫♪ (can you tell what song that is?) (it's crazy love.)

▲▲ Did you know I have a flamingo? Well his name is fred and he is one fine flamingo if you ask me. He's been a good sport about all the dressing up I've done to him (he'd look preetty dang good in a suit I'll bet!) and ALLLL the photos. Thanks instagram for making Fred my favorite subject. A special handy dandy hashtag is sill in the works for fred....if you have a lightbulb-flamingo-hasthag-moment, be sure to alert me! And tell me what you came up with, of course.

▲▲ summer time is sweet sweet sweet. I do love splashing in the pool almost more than anything else. Seriously, I am smiling almost the whole time I am swimming. I feel as though that could be a great joke in a cheesy movie - but what do I know?  I've only watched like 12 billion cheesy movies. So not much.

I'm done blabbing , your life may resume now. Random department, OUT!

▲▲ After trying for about 80 years for a decent picture, I gave up and decided to go with the blurry one. And eat some cookies. They were quite soothing. 80 years though!

▲▲ And tropical fred, yet again! He's quite a hunk. Totally pulling off the lei trend like nobody's business.

▲▲ And I swear she gets squishier every day!!! Look at those cheeks...err, furr?

I'm done blabbing, your life may resume now. Random department, OUT! Have a great day kids!

NEWS FLASH! Cheeseball caves for instagram!

 One thing I hate is when people are like "I am SO not doing yada yada!" and then 2 seconds later they are doing exactly that.

Well, thankfully I waited a bit longer than 2 seconds to change my very made up mind about instagram. I caved. I feel somewhere in the middle of ashamed and YEAH!

The real reason I didn't like instagram was all the stupid pictures of I'm not really sure what (yogurt containers come to mind?) in the ridiculous Nashville filter (which I used to be OBSESSED with back in the day.)But apparently, there is a very artsy side to instagram which is a little more inventive than bathroom mirror selfies and duck faces. I'm taking it more as a project.

The last straw (I always want to say spaghetti noodle!) was/ is all the fun and dandy projects/hashtags things. #4picsinwhite and #popsicleproject and #organizedcolor really sent me over the edge - finally something worthy of all the time I give instagram!

Well, not totally. But I can  justify popsicle's better than yogurt, just saying.

thegirlkryn is my username - it's full of cheesy goodness! (I hope!)

HEY MAY! and goals.

Mondays, I am your friend. Maybe even your BFF??! Yesss.

I feel like Mondays get a bad wrap....why!? I for one actually do not enjoy weekends. I actually like having things to do and stuff to accomplish, and weekends are just kinda blah. So when Monday shows up I'm dancing and cheering.

Like today for example, I was dancing in the diaper aisle at Walgreens.
THREE CHEERS FOR MONDAYS!

Now that we've got that foofoo stuff out of the way - it's time to get straight to it: goals my friends, goals! You love Mondays too right....?


MAY GOALS:
-paint once a week
-write once a week
-walk new places
-make ice cream!
-order pictures



Whatcha been up too lately? Catch ya later!