Darkness into Light

Last year was an extremely hard year for me. I attended five funerals, two of which were within one week apart. Many people have died during my lifetime, people my parents knew, but aside from when my uncle passed when I was in 4th grade, last year, I have a personally tie to each person who passed. Some were tragic, some for old age. Generally, I don't have a hard time moving on or letting go, but each funeral was hard for me to deal with.

Since last year, this year has been much lighter, but this morning, reality hit me again as I woke up to news to about the tragic death of a dear friend's colleague/friend. A young man of 25 died on his birthday. And although my only connection to this late young man is my friend, I can't help but be reminded of how painful it is to lose people we know.

For some reason, whenever I am facing loss, two songs always come to mind. One is "This is my Father's World" and the other is "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus". They are near and dear songs to me and God has lifted me up from so many tough circumstances in my life. I couldn't find a version of "This is my Father's World" that fit the way I generally sing it but here's "Turn Your Eyes...":



<3 Thank you for saving me.

-E.H.

"When the storm is raging all around me, you are the peace that calms my troubled seas.
When the cares of this world darken my day, you are the light that shines and shows me the way."
-"Beautiful Lord" by Leeland

I love this song. I've shared it before and I'll probably share it again. It always captures everything that it inside of me, how I see God, and how he works in my life. It's how I rejoice and cry out to God.

I am a mess.insecure.a hypocrite.judgmental.brutal. But, while the world tells you to take a look in the mirror to see the "real" you, God never says that. He tells us to look at him, the cross, and his love because that changes everything.

<3 I hope everyone has a blessed Sunday.

Smile big,
E.H.

Kids Say the Darnest Things

I had a lot of new students today in my Sunday School class, so I scrapped my original plans and decided to do a "get to know you" activity. Each of my students drew themselves and I asked them three questions: (1) What is your favorite activity?; (2) What do you want to be when you grow up?; (3) If you could have anything in the world, what would you want?

I never make my students do things that I wouldn't do (I think...) so, of course, I did the activity with them. I drew: (1) Art stuff; (2) Urban Planner; (3) A big family & a house.

While I'm sharing the last one, big family and a house, one of my students goes, "That's easy peasy. You just need to get married. If you get married, you will have a family and he can buy you a house."

...

HAHA =P And then he proposed that I should marry his older brother because he wants to be a dentist...so I would have perfect teeth...HAHAHA I love it.

So, it's the end of the day, and I'm thinking, "Where the hell you at, Romeo?"
Shakespeare just don't keep it real the way I do.
HA. JK. I can wait! Promise...I can!


Smile big,
E.H.

P.S. I started a new job and I lurve it! <3

Shrek is pretty awesome.

A secret that won't be so secret about me: I think Shrek (the first) has the best soundtrack ever.

Here's one of my all time favorite songs. <3 I finally replaced my strings on my guitar this weekend, so playing on it today while in the sun room was pretty nice... =)



Smile big,
E.H.

NFL Draft 2011 and Other Things

It's most definitely Spring and I'm most certainly ready for warmer weather! April's been a busy month and it seems that the quiet(er) chapter in my life has passed. Already, I'm busy catching up to all the plans I made when I had nothing else better to do. It's exciting, but I'm constantly thankful that God's been giving me such an amazing period of rest in my life.

This past weekend, I went on an sort-of-impromptu trip to NYC. I say "sort of" because I had been planning to go for a month, canceled, then morning of decided to go. My brother got me tickets to the NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall, so I went with two of my girlfriends. I thought people were going to hate on us for loving the Eagles, but this one chick was a Patriots fan...and apparently EVERYONE hates Boston and Tom Brady...so she and her one friend kind of got owned...really bad.

At any rate, it was fun and I even cried a little when this one dude got chosen. I forget his name but the man was so emotional and he dragged his whole family, all 55 cousins and aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews out onto the stage with him.

I have to especially welcome Mr. JAIQUAWN JARRETT from TEMPLE UNIVERSITY to the PHILADELPHIA EAGLES!!! 2 for 2, from my school, for my team!!!

Seats were right in front of ESPN reporters




















Mission IMPROMPTU NYC - Success. OH! And I bought a bathing suit!!! TAKE ME TO THE BEACH SOMEONE...I'm so ready to pig out and tan. =P

Smile Big,
E.H.

Yellow Makes Me Smile

I don't think loving beauty or beautiful things is vain. God is beautiful and he made beautiful people and things. When I find beautiful things, I smile, big, big, BIG! Always, yellow makes me smile. And...I don't really follow fashion, but I ADORE Kate Spade and she got the YELLOW FEVER this season! ...I want to remember it forever.

Pie Makes Me Smile

We just got a new stove and I wanted to be the first to bake something in it. So, I made my very first apple pie. ^^















My elephant measuring cups ^_^















Not the prettiest pie ever...but it's my first and my favorite =)

Smile big,
E.H.