Wednesday, May 26, 2010
summah time.
summah time.
SUMMAH TIME.
boooyahhh baby. while may term is still in full swing, the weather outside will have nothing to do with it. the sun is shining and the temperature in this past week has been hotter than michigan's temperature's in all of july last year! WHOOT WHOOT! life is goooooooooood, the beach is calling, and school can kiss my tush.
in other news:
- laura grimm is engaged! she was studying abroad in spain this past semester and i guess (according to jill) that her family came to visit and brought her boyfriend with them. he proposed to her in ROME. say what?!?! she is living the dream.
- american idol season finale tonight. LEE DEWYZE AND CRYSTAL BOWERSOX. in my opinion, i think that lee is going to win! (did you know he went to the same high school as jill valentino?!)
-sandra bullock adopted a baby back in january and kept in it a secret and now she was on the cover of people! whooaaa baby.
-stat's and cultural hertitage suckkkk.
- i think that caleb and calla broke up. :( sad day.
-emily is leaving to go back to ireland!! i believe she is going to be there for two weeks! lucky doggg. ireland sounds magical!
hmmmm. i think that's all i have for today. :)
lots of love. <3
Thursday, May 13, 2010
may term, shmay term.
if only i could express to you my disgust with your amount of work, your long hours, your boring ways, your lack of fun, and your unwillingness to let me skip. it might be fair to say that i do NOT like you.
okay, okay... i will be fair in saying that it isn't all bad. wesco runs, free housing, downtwon holland, fast wireless internet, and good friends do make up for my hatred for cultural heritage and math.
so with that, i begin my summer blog, after much request from laura. :)
let the dirty work begin.
- STEVE HOBSON HAS SECRETLY BEEN DATING KELSEY HAWKINS. kendra short - were you aware of this?!
- i'm moving in with jill, madelyn, brittany, and madelyn's friend jenny for june, july, and august. as for right now, there is a random girl named katie living in my upcoming room. jill has been calling her "rando". it's so funny to walk into their house and listen to them talk about her. apparently she is quite known around the men of hope. i believe she is also known as a party girl. when moving in, i guess she only brought a small suitcase and a large pack of beer.
bahahaaaaa.
- i miss playing dutch blitz everyday.
- wesco has this popcorn bucket that i bought for 7.00 and i can get free refills for the whole year. i'm not sure if you were aware of how AWESOME wesco is, but here is just another great fact.
-speaking of wesco, (this piece of information was a heartbreaker for em. ) there is a boy named jarrett who works pretty much everyday. emily was convinced that i should marry him and have cute wesco babies. (haaa haaa haaa. :p) everyday, she would tease me about how much he wanted to ask me out and how much he liked me. ohh gosh. first of all, he is not my type. secondly, not ever happening.
sooo. long story short, julia saw him making out with a girl right outside of wescooooooo! BAHAHA. emily was crushed. i was just relieved. :)
-i'm going to miss spring hill terribly but i couldn't be more excited that kendra is an area director!!!!!
well folks, i think that's it for now. i'm sitting in stats class and haven't listened to anything he's said for the past hour. whoops. better change that.
love you.
hill
Monday, November 16, 2009
jesus and dreads.
i have found Jesus in my brokenness. i have discovered His uncontainable love and His never ending mercy. i have been filled with the Holy Spirit and i have been brought back to life by the power of Jesus Christ. while i am still processing the events of this weekend, i wanted to write down my every thought, before it escapes me. i want you to know how i have been changed.
i was overly excited to see shane this weekend at the gathering. i made it my mission to be there by 6:15 to stake out a seat, and of course, i was front and center. i thought it was great that he was coming to speak because i really thought that hope could definitely benefit from what he had to say. what i was not expecting was for it to break me and shake me.
the music was absolutely fantastic and started the night off on such a high. (there is a new song that we've been singing called, "you'll come" and its amazing. my new fave. ) as i looked around, i couldn't help but stand in awe of the crowd shane drew. there was not an open spot left in this place. it was literally a fire hazard. i've never seen it so packed.
as shane came onto the stage, my eyes were drawn to his long dread locks, his wispy gotee, his baggy looking, all beige sweatshirt and cotton pants, his worn and ragged shoes... all of which was completely opposite of everything hope. but he swept the stage wtith such a presence that you couldn't help but be completely comfortable in a matter of seconds. he was tender, kind, loving, gentle, funny, inspiring, questioning, humble, and genuine. he spoke of his journey's and living as a lover. i can't explain the feeling that came over me, but in that hour and a half it was if i was looking into the face of Jesus. (i am not saying that shane is Jesus, by no means. what i am saying is that jesus was a part of him and completely and one hundred percent speaking through him in a way i have never seen before) as you might of guessed, i began to weep. and as the sway of the music rose to finish the night, i began to weep harder, feeling as if i had found the Jesus i had been looking for for such a long, long time.
i don't know if you know, but i have been desperately struggling with my family. my dad is getting re-married next weekend and i am completely against it. while my dad has always been slightly verbally abusive, it has now come to an extreme low. i've been called every name in the book and have been told multiple times how he loves his new fiancee more than his daughters. i get calls from both of my sisters often, sobbing over the most recent attack of my dads words.
my mom on the other hand, has not talked to me in three weeks. she refuses to believe that im not some drunken loser because i am now 21. i came home for my birthday and she wouldn't let me come home. i had to stay with my aunt. she warned me not to come and because i did, i am now being taken off her car insurance. all of this i am finding out through an e-mail, not a phone call.
and so with that knowlege, you know why hearing Jesus speak through shane about brokenness was one of the biggest blessings. my cries did not fall on deaf ears. God heard me and sent shane.
after the gathering i wanted more than anything to talk to shane. i wanted to tell him what a blessing he had been to me but he disappeared among a sea of faces and i left feeling slightly restless. and then God moved again. shane was having sessions at western seminary all day monday. while i knew he would be speaking to much smaller and intimiate groups, it cost 60 dollars to attend all of them and I didnt have that kind of money.
here is where it gets really great. julia came to my room and said she had gotten a ticket for the last session of the night but was not able to go. she wanted to know if i would go in her place. i think i almost cried on the spot. God knew my heart.
hearing shane again, in this small, quiet setting was absolutely what my heart needed. we were able to get a better more intimiate view of who shane really is and by the end of the night i knew i had to speak with him. i waited around until the crowd died down and walked cautiously up to him. when i looked into his eyes, i saw love. it was almost as if he knew my soul and i instantly started tearing up. i told him how i hadn't felt Jesus in such a long time and how he had blessed me. i wanted him to know that i would be praying for him and that if he ever felt discouraged, to remember that Jesus is using him to make such a difference. just look at me. i stand changed by the power of Christ. as i wiped the tears away, he hugged me three different times saying. " you are beautiful, sister" and "god bless you".
Jesus was here at hope. goosebumps.
while this post isn't the gossip fest you were expecting, i hope you were uplifted by Christ.
i love you. i really, really, love you.
Hill
Sunday, November 8, 2009
keeping up with the kardashians.
It is in the quiet of the night that I seem to do my best thinking and I feel that tonight is one of those nights. I'm sitting up in the small nook of our house and listening to a song called "Hosea" by an artist named Shane and Shane. It's giving me goosebumps. I'm hearing God's voice so clearly through this song and I'm feeling comforted by it. This song is based off of the bible verse Hosea 6:3. My favorite line is: " Let us press on to know him/Let us press hard into Him/and as surely as the sun will rise/He will respond. " It is a good reminder to me that even in my times of need, He is always there, waiting for me to fall into Him. God is good.
I also wanted to share with you about last weekend. :) While I'm not jumping a plane to Paris, surfing the waves of Sydney, climbing one of the seven wonders of the world, or coming close to meeting the Queen, I did find my little piece of heaven here, in the mitten. Six of my friends from camp and I decided it would be amazing to visit two of our campers, Mandy and Abbie, and take them for a girls day at the mall. It was incredible. My heart has been captivated by those two girls and I can barely talk about them without getting choked up. They are truly one of God's most beautiful creations and I'm was so lucky to get to have the opportunity to work with them both. What's even more amazing is that their families seem to be heaven sent and welcomed us into their home with open arms. We had an AWESOME day and just loved on those girls with everything in us. It honestly was one of the most filling days, just watching their faces light up and hearing them tell us that they loved us. Gosh, how am I so lucky?!
Now in other news:
- There is a new twilight movie coming out very soon and I just learned that one of the new characters in the movie is from Hudsonville! HOW CRAZY IS THAT?! Also, rumor has it that he is dating Taylor Swift! Whoooaaa baby!
-KEN! I was sitting in the Kletz the other day and I overhead two guys chatting about J.LaPorte. I instantly perked up my ears and to my delight found out that one of them was a TA for him. He was talking about how he's had to work closely with J. LaPorte because he has a NEW BOOK coming out. He's going to be an established author! I guess he's been working on it for two years now. I knew you and Rae-Dogg would die. I'm sure you will be the first in line to buy that sucker.
-Emily...Apparently at the Kletz they are starting "Chili November" where you can pay 5.95 for all you can eat chili. Ohhh no. I don't think they were aware that their number one customer was out of the country.
-There was a terrible shooting at a Texas Army base this past week and there were many people killed. It was such a tragic and awful story.
-ELLEN FREAKING DEGENERES IS THE NEW JUDGE ON AMERICAN IDOL. I'm flipping a lid. I'm sure I've already said this a million times, but I needed to restate my excitement. I watched Ellen on the Oprah Show (Ellen really wanted to be on the cover of O magazine and after many months of begging, Oprah said yes and now they have a holiday issue coming out!) and it made me that much more excited!
- I'm not sure if any of you have heard of twitter but it's all the craze right now. Everyone tweets. Basically, it's just like putting new status up and you have followers who follow you. I'm not sold on it. I think I'll stick with highly addictive Facebook.
-Shane Claiborne is going to be here at the Gathering next weekend. I'm literally getting there hours early. I need to be front and center. Seriously.
-There has been a little tension in the house because no one would fess up to the dirty kitchen on the first floor. It has been filled with dishes for about two weeks and most of them were Hashi's community plates/pans. About a month ago I moved all of my food to the third floor because I couldn't stand the kitchen downstairs. Finally, Hashi wrote a huge note in the kitchen and said that there was 48 hours to clean up the filth or she would take her dishes away. And of course, no one came forward. Are you kidding me people?! HOW HARD IS IT TO DO YOUR DISHES?! All I can say is I'm glad I moved upstairs before it started getting worse.
Well friends. I need to head to bed but I'm still keeping lists just in case new and exciting things pop up!
Love to all,
Hill
Saturday, October 31, 2009
im so blessed.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
PARTY IN THE USA.
Well HELLOOOOO all.
It really IS about to be a party in the USA. EIGHT DAYS PEOPLE, EIGHT DAYS. The universe might explode. I'm just sayin'. :-D
I wish that you all could JET back here ASAP because I'm about to have the party of the century! There's a bunch of us headed to Applebee's next Friday night and we're going to eat great food and some of us (reason for chosen Applebee's is because some cannot drink and I wouldn't want to spend my birthday in a bar!) are gettin' our drink on! YESSSS. I mean, I'm not about to rock the boat or anything, just live the good life with a Strawberry Daquiri. :D
AND THEN. Get this. My friend Marc has strobe lights and such and so we're setting up our basement as a rockin' dance party/game room. YEAHHH. BALLER. I cannot even wait to boogie down and laugh lots. Life is SO good. (The only thing that could make this better would be for you all to be here!)
In other Hope news:
-Everything is SO pretty here. You know I'm not a fall person, heck I'm not much of anything but a summer person, it is beautiful to walk the streets of Holland and see all of the trees. This past week its been extremely warm and I'm lovin it! It's pretty and nice outside!
-Last week they had a protest here because the screeen writer from the movie Milk wanted to speak and Hope wasn't allowing it because Milk is about a gay politician, not to mention that the screen writer is also gay. (Rumor has it that Arin is dating him. It wouldn't suprise me. ) Seth was on the cover of the Anchor which I have extra copies to send to you all. Haa.
-Did you girls hear about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize? I mean, I know it's not just Hope news but I thought it was interesting. I guess I have my own opinions about that whole thing. What are other countries saying?!
- Things in the house are pretty good! We've been having house dinners which are super nice and I believe there is one tonight... too bad I have to study my brains out and cannot partake in TACO night. My life is OVER. (Just kidding... but not really:-) No juicy gossip to keep you updated on.
-WOLFIN WEDNESDAY's are heaven sent. For those of you who are unaware - its all you can eat personal pan pizza's at Pizza Hut for 3.99. I'm drooling just thinking about it!
-50 schools were closed in the Kent County district because of the H1N1 virus. Whooaaa baby. This better not be a repeat of the Noro. (I mean, I would only love the break!!)
-And last but not least, I have been trying to post this for days with a video attached and its been TERRIBLE and won't let me do it. Just imagine me dancing around my room to a Miley Cyrus song. Got it? :-)
Lots of love!
Hill

