True Love Waited

This weekend rocked my world.

Not only was it my first time working as a wedding coordinator (woo!) but it was the celebration of love between two of the greatest people.

Eugenia Delbono has been such a blessing in my life.  I came to UCLA and fell in love with the Athletes in Action ministry and she was a huge part of that.  I went to the AiA Winter Retreat quickly after I started attending and got to know Eugenia on a personal level.  Her story is moving and the way she has completely changed her life to glorify the Lord is incredibly inspiring.  She has a way of connecting with each of us girls and encouraging us to stay connected and grow in our faith.  That retreat was also the moment Eugenia told me she was finally truly content being single.

She met Travis Wittick a couple weeks later.

What is unique about this couple is their commitment to glorify the Lord in every aspect of their relationship.  Eugenia felt as though she had given away too many kisses in the past and Travis immediately honored her decision of waiting until their wedding day for their first kiss.

Her last first kiss was given to Travis, her husband, this past Saturday.

More than the kiss, the entire weekend seemed to be filled with God's presence.  The rehearsal dinner was a moment that I feel as though changed my heart forever.  The way their friends stood up, one after another, speaking the kindest words about them, both individually and as a couple, was breathtaking.  They were described as the model of a Godly relationship and a personal inspiration to several of their friends and family.  It not only made me feel incredibly blessed to have their friendship in my life, but also their example.  I want to look for a husband who is more than a "great guy".  Travis was described as constantly emulating God's love.  As one of his Air Force friends said, "Travis is a guy who loves to mess around and have a good time.  But the one thing Travis doesn't mess around about it ungodliness and ungodly relationships."  How amazing is that!?

Mr. and Mrs. Wittick, your wedding was not only beautiful but also a testament of God's love for his children ... just like you live your lives.  

My life has been forever touched by your loving words and inspiring relationship.

So thank you.

Ethan Emerson Hunt

Let me tell you something people ...

This little man has already wrapped me around his little newborn finger!

Ethan Emerson was {finally} born on May 17, 2011!

It's hard to explain the feelings that were happening throughout the entire labor process.  But when I saw him for the first time, like as an actual human being rather than an alien in Katie's stomach, I just knew.  I knew that we would be buddies.  I knew that he was the cutest little thing I had ever seen.  I knew that my heart grew a little bit that day and was bursting with love.  I knew that he would change all of our lives forever.

I can't wait to see what life is like with a nephew!!

Thank you to all my wonderful friends who were not only praying for Katie and her little family but also celebrating with us.  It was so fun to come back to school {a day I was dreading} and receive all of your excited smiles and hugs!  I will never get tired of being yelled at, "Auntie Courtney!"... seriously, don't stop, I love it.

Wondering

I'm sitting in my room, awake at 2:15 am, wondering...

Wondering how different life will be after my nephew is born in {hopefully} a few short hours.

Wondering how I can already feel my extreme love for him.

Wondering what my relationship will be like with him.

Wondering how I will leave him to go back to school.

Wondering how amazing of a mother my sister will be.

Baby E:

I hope you forever know how much you have been loved from the moment we knew about you.

I cannot wait to cuddle you in my arms and smell your sweet baby skin.

I promise to be at every sports event, music concert, play, graduation, school dance, and everything in between.  Because one day, I know your beautiful mama will do the same for me.

I love you buddy.

Auntie Coco

Because He first loved us.

You have no idea how lost I felt when Blogger was down the last two days!

I've wanted to post so badly but I think God was forcing me to work on my paper that's due on Tuesday so it's all good.

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Anyways...

This week at UCLA is Jesus Loves the Bruins 2011!

How cool is that?!  A whole week has been created by Campus Crusade with events like handing out breakfast and Otter Pops on Bruin Walk to students passing by and an outdoor worship night at the pool.  It's so simple yet so amazing!  I'm involved with Athletes in Action on campus which is a branch of Campus Crusade so I popped on one of these sweet shirts on Thursday and had some really great reactions.  First of all it was so awesome to see these shirts all around campus.  Sometimes at a public university it can feel like you are in the minority being a Christian but this week really opened my eyes to all of my brothers and sisters around me!  In the elevator a guy from my building asked me about my shirt and responded by telling me how he was a part of GOC {Grace on Campus} and how encouraging it was to see all of us walking around with these shirts!  How great is that?!

Remember how I told you how much I love love...?

Spreading God's love, not only this week, but striving to every day, feels so great!

It can be something as simple as holding a door for someone or sending an uplifting text to a friend.  Not only will you be helping out but you'll probably catch people off guard!  What a great opportunity to share the Good News!

Dianna Lynette Shannon

Tomorrow is Mother's Day and I am lucky enough to have the greatest mom in the world!

Seriously.  It was voted on.  She won.

My mom is one of my best friends in this world.  I feel like that is said so often but I truly mean this with all of my heart.  I wish I could find the sentences that truly express the kind of woman she is ... but I can't. 

For right now, simple words will have to do.

Honest.  Lovely.  Kind.  Funny.  Supportive.  Giving.  Emotional.  Passionate.  Beautiful.

I could go on and on.

Mom,

You are incredible.

I will be grateful if I grow up to be half the woman and mother you are.

I thank you for not only giving me life but living life with me each day.

I am blessed beyond measure.

I love you.

Monkey Canyon

Sometimes I like to convince myself that I am adventurous.

I full on believe that I would love to go camping, randomly decide to go skydiving, or wrestle alligators for fun.

And then I realize something.

I'm not adventurous.

Exhibit A: Monkey Canyon.

My totally awesome friend Ryan is adventurous.  Like the real kind of adventurous.  He gathered up some of our friends {Kevin, Taylor, Kaelie, and I} last Saturday to go on this hike in "Monkey Canyon".  It's in the Angeles National Forest but if you didn't have a handy sticky note with directions like "Turn left at the Jack in the Box" like we did, you'd never find it.  No joke, this is how we knew we had made it:

An "X" in the dirt.

And a stick with a sock on it.

Yes.  I'm serious.

So after a quick stop at Rite Aid to buy Aquasocks {which ended up saving our lives} we trekked to the middle of the forest.  Then we left our car on the side of the road with our out of service cell phones inside.  

The non-adventurous worry wart inside of me was freaking out.

Especially when we started down the side of this stinking mountain.

You'd think that being a gymnast for almost 15 years of my life would give me balance or basically any kind of athleticism at all but no-o-o.  I am always the one to fall, trip, or run into something in the first five minutes.  Which happened.  Of course.  I ended up flat on my back with a scraped up knee laughing so hard that I couldn't even speak to tell them I was okay.  Luckily Kevin fell about five minutes after me  which helped the awkward factor.  Once we finally got down the hill we proceeded to climb boulders, swim through ice baths, and each fall a couple more times.  

I had to ditch my camera pretty early on when I realized our backpacks would not be dry for long so unfortunately we didn't get a group victory picture {or last picture together before we were left for dead in the middle of the forest ... whichever}.

It really was a fun day after our feet thawed out and we picked the gravel out of our wounds {okay, that was just me}.  

What I really realized on this adventure though was that it didn't matter that I'm not truly adventurous.  Having fun, adventurous friends makes me do stuff that I would never do alone!  I think that's why I'm loving college so much.  I live in a beautiful city with great friends who help me enjoy life to its fullest.

What more could a girl ask for!?

Here's to many more adventures ... and hopefully surviving them.

Royal Wedding Mania(c)

I don't know why, I don't know how, but I was one of "those girls".  You know... the ones that knew everything there was to know about Wills and Kate, obsessed over their out of this world adorable engagement pictures, watched the Lifetime movie on premiere night, and made a countdown on my computer for April 29, 2011.

It's true.

The thing is, I just love weddings!  I love the joy, I love the beautiful flowers, the gorgeous gowns...but most of all, I love love.  I never get tired of seeing love in action.  The way a groom looks at his bride as he sees her walking down the aisle.  Her shaking hands being steadied by his tender touch.  The way they act like the only ones in the room as they kiss each other.

Told you.

I love it.  I can't wait to experience it myself, but for now, I love just seeing it.

Needless to say, the fact that the Royal Wedding aired at 3 am California time was not going to stop me.  I invited some friends over to my dorm room, decorated as much as you can in a dorm, and soaked in every moment.  We laughed, drank lots of Diet Coke, tried to get on CNN via Twitter, and watched, eyes peeled (at least mine were), as history was made.

{The crafting begins}

{We started out with CNN on the TV and the E! online feed}

{The essential window shrine ... that I still need to take down}

{Stand in Wills and Kate}

{The moment we stayed up an extra two hours for ... the double kiss}

{Just in time to get up 2 1/2 hours later for work}

Definitely a night/morning I will look back on and smile about. 

William and Catherine ... can't wait to see you in LA in July ;)

New and Improved!

Oh hey.

Yes, this is my second attempt at blogging.  Get over it.  I just couldn't keep up with the pressure of the daily entertainment news and gossip that was happening on TPAMP.  I promise I will try my best to be just as witty and charming as you all thought I was before (ha) but I think we'll get a little more personal on this one.  First item on the agenda, I'm not crazy about the name I have lazily come up with.  Help!  Suggestion box will be passed around at the end of this post so feel free to give me some ideas!

There.  First post out of the way.  Sheryl Crow once told me "the first cut is the deepest" so I was a little nervous about what I should write.  So I decided to write about nothing basically... makes total sense.  I promise there will be more exciting posts to come.  Hints about what's to come very, very soon (as in like after class today): Royal Wedding, Osama bin Laden, and my nephew.  That totally sounds like it could be some kind of riddle.  First one to figure out the connection gets their picture on my really popular blog!