This is awesome!

Boomer! Sooner!

Old Navy Sweater Song

Sometimes I get really sick of the same old junk on the radio. I remember my father telling me that people thought Karen Carpenter had the purest voice ever. I keep looking for new Karen Carpenters. I love it when I hear that greatness like in the late Eva Cassidy whose "Songbird" makes me wanna cry everytime I hear it. (You may remember it from Laura Linny's love scene in "Love Actually")

Anyway, I love this song. You may have heard it in the Old Navy Sweater commercial.
It is by a lady named Ingrid Michaelson. Enjoy!

Blogging Beyond the Fad

I have decided to keep blogging though the widespread popularity came and went like Sanjaya Malakar. I don't care so much if you want to read my thoughts but I realized lately that blogging has been my most consistant journal in the past few years.

I am a teacher. Have I mentioned this? I feel like I have found my calling. I love it so much. I teach at a Private Christian school that is bursting with character. The kids are so bright! They will all succeed in life because of the education they are getting here and more than that, because of the amazing families they come from.

I teach science. I never thought I would use all of those classes from my Nursing major days but I am . I remember specifically crying that I had suffered through Anatomy at OU (the class where 60% were returning after failing the previous semester) and gettting an amazing C (almost B) and then changing majors.

Now I am teaching Anatomy, Biology and Earth Science and I love it! I see Science everywhere and am constantly looking for cool resources. Mythbusters are my heroes. Life is sweet.

Life is just so incredibly different than I thought it would be...this season of life is quite an adjustment and I miss my friends and family terribly.

Hmmm. Comment if you ever read this!

Amy

Last morning in Norman

I am leaving Norman today. Almost everything I own is in storage or in a pile in the next room. My alarm woke me up with "Semi-charmed Life" singing in a high, lovely falsetto "Gooodbyyyyyyyye!"

I found it quite appropriate for obvious reasons. That song was also the most overplayed song on the radio when I spent my first summer ever in Norman when I was 15. I learned to drive that summer and it was the song on the radio during my first solo drive. 11 years later and my life is completely altered. Mostly because of the BSU and having such a great college experience at OU.

Last night after Spiderman 3 I was standing in a huddle of some great girlfriends and as we were bawling I was so struck with the finality of this all. My life as a Norman resident is over. I got in the car and got a bit hysterical but I got a great moment of clarity.

Here is my prayer this summer as we prepare for a new life in Ft. Worth and as my friends scatter to the ends of the earth for the gospel of Jesus Christ:

Father, You are good. Thank you for letting me love your people so deeply. Thank you for friendships deep enough to break my heart when they are stretched. Thank You for the amazing privilege of having heart friends (and a sister) in love with you enough to risk their lives for people who need you desperately in other parts of the world. Thank You for being trustworthy and for the amazing peace that comes from being in the very center of Your good and perfect will. It's gonna be worth it, Lord. I know that. Going where You lead is worth any heartache. It is the greatest joy in my life and in the life of my amazing friends. Because you came to give your life as a ransom for many and in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.


Pray for me friends. There are students coming to California on the verge of inheriting a great vision of Disciplemaking for themselves. And prayer is the ministry.

See you soon,

Amy

I miss blogging

I think I have decided not to let blogging be a fad for me. I just went back to my Xanga and read some great posts. I would really put some great thoughts and funny stuff on there...and it wasn't totally information overload like facebook.

So many things are happening in my life right now. I am closing a chapter and opening another.

Dan and I are leaving for Project in exactly 2 weeks. 2 Weeks?! My life in Norman is officially over in 14 little days. I have to pack up my life and prepare for something new. It is a big undertaking.

I just want to say that I am so thankful for my husband. It is not that I couldn't do this on my own. I am just grateful that God has blessed me with a partner to lean on in this adventure. On days when I am at my breaking point, he holds me up and reminds me of God's great truths. When he is having a bad day I return the favor.

Some days we just look at each other and declare that we are crazy. But I love it. Oh the things God can do with a life surrendered to Him. I just pray that we really learn a lot in this next phase and get some more responsible things taken care of before the kiddos come along.

Totally off topic but Matt J. put up the staff video and it makes me smile...Big! So check it out and laugh. (Did the slap dissapear or is it just me?)

Have a great day!

Ode to the BSU

Not sure if this ever posted! It is a very old draft of not. Trying again:
The end is near. Dan and I are preparing for our transition out of Norman to Texas so we can go to Seminary and prepare for a life of Ministry.

I couldn't go without an ode to my favorite place on earth! The OU Baptist Student Union.

I know it is just an old building but this is the place that shaped my life as a young believer. Here's the story.

It's my second day on campus in August of 1999. I moved into my dorm and my family left me. I only knew one person on campus: my roommate.

I joined the hoopla on the dorm lawn where a hundred campus organizations were gathered. I saw a sign through the hubub: Baptist Student Union. Then I saw a friendly face! It was Jen Kelsey, to whom I declared like and idiot, "I'm as Baptist as they come!"

She said "Alright! Let me introduce you to some of my friends." She walked me around and introduced me to the staff. I got a flier for the Pizza Bash and joined everyone in the BSU parking lot. The rest is a total blur. But a few days later Tami Hunt invited me to lunch and started asking me about my life and my walk with Jesus. I was impressed. Jen showed up a few days later just to see my dorm room and chat it up with me for a few minutes.

I liked the people I met but with so many options I still wasn't hooked. Then came OU/Texas weekend. At the very last minute I decided to go with a group from Couch down to Ft. Worth. I met a ton of Freshmen and upperclassmen. We had a blast and everyone loved on me all weekend. I also met Holly Kimbrough whom I clicked with immediately. We started meeting one on one the next week. She has now become (almost 8 years later!) a great heart friend.

The rest is history.

During my time at the BSU I was part of:
7 Spring Break Trips
7 Spring Banquets
7 Bible Studies
6 Ministry Teams
5 One on One with God groups
3 Summer Training Programs
2 Discipleship Teams
1 Focus Trip


I had four wonderful mentors: Holly Kimbrough, Amy Crawford, Nancy Jaques and Jen Kelsey. I was under the teaching and leadership of 3 Ministry Team leaders: John Crawford, Dick Jaques and John Kelsey.They poured their lives into me and changed the way I live my own life! What greater gift is there?

I got exposed to the greatest people and I believe the greatest training available for college students in this country. I have rubbed shoulders with people who give their everything to Jesus every day! They love the unloved and they take the gospel to the nations.

The BSU gave me a chance to grow in ministry in a safe place. They gave me leadership opportunities when I didn't deserve them, letting me try and fail and then try and succeed. They taught me how to get the Word into my heart.

I always joked to Jen that I wanted to be her when I grew up. My first staff meeting for the BSU was a great day for me. I feel like I had made it partway there. It was a great privilege for me to be a part of the staff for a year.

Neil Walker said once in a workshop that a person who thinks culturally can be dropped anywhere in the world and have a ministry. After my time here and experiences I feel like that could be true of me.

How do you even begin to say goodbye to a place that has been your home for 8 years? I can't. I am slightly in denial! If you see me a mess a Spring Banquet you'll know why.

Thank you to the staff, previous and present, who poured your life out to undeserving students like me. This will always be the place that I learned how to fly.

Amy Hay

OU-Texas Weekend 1999. The weekend I bonded with the BSU.

Christmas Vespers 1999

Highpoint 2000

Secret Sophomore Skit 2000

Tod and Amy Spring Break MCs 2002ish??

State Fair with EGroup 2002

Spring Break Band 2004

Germany 2004

Duplex Gang 2006

Just a few pics to show my BSU years.

Dan's ASU Fan Story online!

Dan's Fan Story is online! Check out this video that aired at an ASU homegame in front of 84,000 screaming fans.

Click on "Friend of the Devil"

Ridiculous Antics at Work

Okay...antics is a bad word. More like ridiculously pathetic. This story is so sad it is funny. Enjoy. Or you could cry. Whichever seems more appropriate.

Super Fun Times at the End of College!

I borrowed some of this post from an email to a friend (whom I adore, btw). I totally just typed "btw". Notice that I didn't change it though...that would disrupt the stream of consciousness theme that I am working on.

I finally did it. I emailed my professor yesterday with my final paper which I did about Christianity. What a cool way to end college! The last question on my last test was "What do Christians Believe?" Can we say A+++? It was just a great way to end school talking about how Jesus came to earth and died on the cross for the sins of the world and by accepting Him as a payment for your sins you can go to heaven when you die. Although, I said all of that in a much more scholarly way.

I finished up my paper with some information about the emergent church (I'll spare you my own personal thoughts on that topic) and then I put in some really cool facts about martyrdom.

Did you know that there have been more than 45,000 Christian martyrs in the 20th century alone? That is more than all previous 19 centuries combined. An interesting thought.

Josef Ton is an amazing Romanian man who has dealt with it head on. Because of his beliefs, in the early 70's he felt God telling him to go back home to Romania but he knew that there were people waiting there to kill him for his faith. He had this to say:

"I saw how God always conquers by a love that is self-giving and self-sacrificing. It was there that I understood God’s method of sending His lamb into the world, followed by many thousands of other lambs, to overcome the world by proclaiming the love of God and by
dying for the sake of their proclamation. This astonishing biblical principle that God always conquers through people who will preach the gospel and then die for it helped me immeasurably to be able to go back to Romania" (Ton, xi).

I am personally amazed by this truth.

Anyway, on a funnier note

We went to Chickasha again and this year, to step it up a notch, Jenny decided to bring this snowman costume that our friend Megan bought at a garage sale. It was hilarious! Jenny wore it first and then when she got too hot I took a turn. The kids loved it...well...not the little bitty ones. They just screamed and tried to crawl onto their parents backs but the 3-7 year olds all wanted hugs and pictures. I wore it and got in line for Santa Claus. While I was waiting for my turn a group of carollers came near and started singing "Frosty the Snowman" so I ran off to dance for them and almost tripped over some lights that were strung along the sidewalk. Somewhere behind me, muffled through my furry exterior I could hear Dan laughing histerically while trying to get out a "watch out!"

I only had two little eye holes that were way too far apart to see out of at the same time so you were lucky to get an inch of view of the outside world and use the other one as a vent.

Santa thought it was hilarious too. He made me sit on his lap and told me I was a great frosty. I kissed him on the cheek...which actually meant that I just knocked him upside the head with my wobbling monstrosity of a head and poked him with my carrot nose. He didn't mind and just thanked me.

I was waving goodbye to some snotty little preteen when he said, "Bye you big, dumb, ugly snowman!" I pretended to rub my eyes (which were about 8 inches above my real eyes) and then sulk off. Man, that kid was a brat! :)

Okay. This post was crazy long but I wanted to say Merry Christmas to my friends. I'll try to keep posting over the break! You should too! I want to know what you got for Christmas!

Bloggy, Bloggy Time is Here...Time for Joy and Time for Cheer!

I am thinking that I am the only person I know who still blogs. I went down my list the other day and everyone had deleted theirs or was severly past due. I want to bring blogging back like Justin Timberlake wants to bring Sexy back. Hmmm.

I have one paper standing between me and my college degree and it is on my favorite subject in the wide world: Christianity.

How hard can this be? I keep putting it off. I mean I am so close to being done. I could stay up for a few more hours and knock it out...yet...

I went to the laundromat tonight. We had a whole heckofalotta laudry. I used 7 washing machines and 8 dryers and a billion quarters. Then I came home and cleaned/organized all of my drawers, all of Dan's drawers and the whole closet. I am procrastinating but it is amazing how productive I can be when I have something really important looming.

Then (GULP) I did something really pathetic. I mean...brace yourselves people! I was here in the apartment all alone listening to christmas music on the only station that plays it non-stop- 104.1 which coincidentally is the station that Delilah is on.

I turned off all the lights. The only glow was from my color changing snowman and mini- multi-colored lighted tree in the bedroom and lied down on the bed and relaxed to the sounds of Delilah and almost cried at some sob story that came on.

Mocking season is now open.

Have a Merry Christmas people. And for the love. Update your blogs over the break so we can revel in your thoughts.

Amy Hay

P.S. Have you seen my new Moto Rzr? It is Fabu!

My Major Thing

Hello! You can check out my awesome story and find out MY MAJOR THING!

Turning into my MOTHER!

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely adore my mother. What is not to like? Her humor, her beauty, her drive, her support....her gigantic handbag??

My mom is fun but we have always bugged her about her ENORMOUS purse. I mean, she used to have this 12" by 12" blue, faux leather purse that we could put anything into. They should have named the movie "Eight Heads In My Mom's Purse." It was comical. One time we smuggled a popped bag of popcorn into a movie. One time we found a full sized dinner plate in her purse. I am not even lying.

So, yesterday at Wal-Mart I got a little frustrated with diggin in my sack purse for my phone and missing every call. I would also stab myself with earings and pens diving for my keys. So I decided to get a cool new purse with some pockets. I got this:
Look at its size compared to my computer monitor! HUGE!
Dan even asked me to carry around some Ibuprofen in it in case one of us gets a headeache. So, I am just going to let it happen. I love my mom. I don't mind so much carrying around a bunch of stuff.

After all, she always has what I need in that big purse.

Color Blind?

Are you color blind?

Diet Coke.

Just one calorie. Not Evil enough!

I have made a cataclysmic decision this past week that has affected me every day. I have given up Diet Coke. I know, I know...hundreds and hundreds of my hard earned dollars have been poured into Diet Coke drinking in the past 11 years but enough is enough! I need to break my caffeine addiction. I don't want anything in my life that rules me to such a degree that without it I have massive, migraine-like headaches.

The headaches are gone and so I think my addiction has gone with it. The hardest part of all of this is finding a replacement for my beloved drink. I made it go with everything! I have been sampling an assortment of juices but it just isn't the same. CURSE YOU COCA-COLA COMPANY! (Though I must admit the five free magazine subscriptions I got from them was nice)

Alas, I will reserve my Diet Coke drinking for special occasions and will try to drink water day to day.

I am just feeling naive. I thought I would feel monumentally different after overcoming this hurdle. I have heard so many people say, "I gave up caffeine and I feel so much better!"

Oh really? I just feel like my eyelids weigh four hundred pounds. I am getting cranky. Sorry if I snap at you...maybe Methadone will help.

Any reference to drugs is only in the spirit of jesting and not intended to offend heroine addicts or the late son of Anna Nicole. I am just cranky.

Office Season 2

I have been swimming in "The Office" season 2. It is pretty much hilarious. The whole Pam and Jim thing was a terrible cliffhanger.

This video is AMAZING!

Dan and I only get a few fuzzy channels right now so we have been catching up with TV shows by watching them all at once. It is a great destressor from our crazy days around here.

Of course if you have known me for long you know how I can obsess over things for a while and then be done.

Swing dancing
Movies, Movies, Movies
HP
blogging
geography
NPR
Scrubs
The Office
Alias
Horatio Hornblower (thank you Martha)
Homestarrunner.com
Myspace
YahooMusic!
Pride and Prejudice
Thai food
Etc, Etc

I am a mess but I have fun obsessing. Maybe I should buy a really nice pen... hmmmm

Crazy Theories Continue!

Ryan commented on how blogs are going out of style. I totally agree. Call me old fashioned if you will, however I have a theory on why they are out of style.

I believe the only reason blogs are going out of style is that they were the quintessential stalking device and now that has been replaced by the mini-feed. Plus, I know this will show up on Facebook. I continue to salute Mark Zuckerburg for continuing to make old internet obsessions obsolete by combining them.

Facebook allows you now to catch up on everything people are saying to each other...it is more conversational blogging. I dig it.

Don't count on me to give up this baby yet. I think blogs may be like the 80's...they just keep coming back!

Amy

P.s. I still think it is hilarious that the blogger spell checker thinks the word "blog" is a misspelled word. Odd?
p.p.s. that picture is just for fun...don't try to figure me out.

I still love Facebook!

There are over 500 new groups on Facebook centered around the premise that the new mini-feed= stalking.

Give me a break! It is somewhat tediously detailed but don't all you facebookers feel like stalkers already? I think this new mini-feed actually just highlights an already prevalent tendency of college students to learn little details about each other...and to spread gossip. It is like a facebook-wide rebuke. Relish it.

Don't lie- all of you use Facebook to see if that "so and so broke up" rumor is true and to see if one of your mentorees has been out partying over summer break. You may also use photo comments as a way to initiate some innocent internet flirting with your new crush.

The simple fact that you are on facebook and have the ability to look at all of these personal facts makes you a stalking candidate already. If you don't want people to see that you are in a "it's complicated" relationship then DON'T PUT IT ON THE INTERNET! If you don't want people to see whose group you just denied then let your request box fill up.

Personally, I love the new Facebook for a few of these reasons:

-You can now see what exactly has been recently updated on your friends' profiles instead of hunting to see if they added one more band or quote to their lists...meaning you would have had to have memorized their last lists.
-Everything is streamlined so you don't have to click all over facebook to see which of your friends are coming to Paradigm.
-You can locate trends in your commenting (and if you find that you just keep saying "you're hot" over and over again on picture comments then you can spice it up a bit)
-You can hide any mini-feed story you don't want people reading!

Consider the rant through.

Two of My favorites: Harry Potter and Star Wars!

Crocodile Hunter

I am so sad! Steve Irwin has died!

Get the full story here.

Stuff on Walls

My addiction to "Stumble" continues. To those of you who work in Mozilla, you should consider downloading the extension called Stumble...it brings up the coolest sites ever and tailors to fit your wants. I dig it.

I was particularly inspired by a site dedicated to pictures of grafitti found on walls. Though some of it is vulgar, I enjoyed the rest.

Enjoy!































In other news, things are going well for me and Dan. Dan had 12 at Noonday yesterday at Seminole. That is a pretty big group for such a small campus. I get to go out there with him on Tuesdays.

We are playing some pretty cool songs at Paradigm tonight. The song by Weezer is one of my favorites. Hip Hip!