safe and sound...

I have arrived!!!!  Well actually, I arrived yesterday... but this was the first chance I could get to write you guys!  So the plane ride was not the best, but I'm here and thats all that matters!  Everything came to the house with me, nothing was missing or broken, just how I packed it, it came!  I made it out of the airport and onto the bus just perfectly... I had no trouble getting where I was supposed to be, especially being brave and smart enough to ask questions!  Then Richie, the director (a.k.a. my boss) came to pick me up and we got a coffee, which is SO much better then Starbucks!  But I didn't feel good throughout my whole entire trip over here, it wasn't nerves, I know that.  I think it was just that my body was adjusting, it knew what was coming and it said... "alrighty then, I'm gonna treat you bad since you're screwing with me!"  And I'm really excited that I didn't yack in Richie's car, cause I was pretty sure I was going to!

Anyways, I'm having a great time already and its almost end of day two, I just have to go to Crosspoint tonight, which is the nightly youth hangout thing!  I'm so excited to see people from last year, but I'm kinda scared that they won't remember me.  But oh well, it's okay!

I miss all of you, but I have to keep looking at it in this way: it's not like you're not going to be there when I get back!

To a few of my IAW ladies, I love you and miss you so much, KEEP IT UP!  I don't want to recognize you when I get back!  I want a shock and awe effect!  You girls are amazing and beautiful, I hope you remember to wake up on a daily basis and feel that!  Look at what you've accomplished!

Time for tea! (thats what they call dinner over here!)

Love and miss you all!

Hopefully you all have gotten your letter!  Keep up the work, crush the devil!  Have fun in the nice summer weather!!!

A picture worth a thousand words... and there's over 500!!!! Thats a lot of words!

Okay, so, I have all of my pictures finally up from last years trip to Northern Ireland!!!!  I know, FINALLY!!!!  It's pretty awesome too!!!  God's creation is amazing and all you can do is stand in awe when you're over there!!!  So take a peep... I know some of the pictures are blurry, I had a new camera so it's not my fault! :) hehe okay well maybe it is just a little bit, but it was being difficult!  It's all going so fast, I only have a few more weeks!  I almost want to go now, only because I'm so excited for the journey I will be taking for God!

Keep praying, it's working!

Love you all and God bless,

Elyse

My site for pictures would be nice to have wouldn't it... hahaha, finals really do take a toll!!!!

www.elysepurtilar.shutterfly.com

40 days

Yes, that is right... 40 more days until I start another journey on my own!  Am I nervous, scared, anxious, excited, ecstatic, amazed, awe-struck, or worried you may ask.... uhhh YEAH!!!!  All of those combined into one!  Now I'm not too sure what you would call that but it would probably be something like nervo-sc-anxio-cit-ati-maz-awe-orried!  Yeah, thats right!  I'm NERVOSCANXIOCITATIMAZAWEORRIED!  Yeah, okay, I know Chet, I'm a nerd and don't deny it, you love it!  Cause thats just who I am and I am fine with it!  

So anyways, back on topic... leaving!  So I got a new MacBook so that I can see people when I'm gone... so my screen-name is dixieswim16 and I wanna see some faces people!!!!  Oh, and I was thinking, how cool would it be for me to just walk outside and just be like, "oh hey, look at NORTHERN IRELAND!!!!  Freakin' amazing I know!!!  Don't have to tell me twice, obviously!"

P.S. I'm still single, more than I was before (long story, don't ask, unless you want to chat on AIM with me :) haha) and it feels so amazing!  I'm tired of best friends trampling all over me and not giving a flying hoot!  Thats right, they don't give a flying hoot, who ever knew!  Ugh, and boys in general, yeah I'm just going to fast... well technically I have been fasting, but it has been really hard!  But "it's only life"!  Nicki knows what I'm talkin' about!  Oh and thanks for the boots for NI Nick, I will think of you every single time I look at them and wear them!  Anyways, yet again, where was I...

Ah, yes!  SINGLE is my middle name and I'm so proud of that!  (if you can't tell!)

Let us see.... what else... I finally declared my Athletic Training major... well PRE AT!  So exciting, and frustrating!  And... thats about it, oh I went to Florida for SB08 with mi madre y mi abuela!  Loved it!!!!!

Alright, I have to go grocery shopping, yes, I go grocery shopping, I do live by myself now!!!  I know, WEIRD!!!!  But I really love it!!!  Talk to you guys in a little!

Bumper Stickers!!!!!!!!!

I know, I know... You're thinking, 'why in the hell is she writing about bumper stickers?' Well, I have come to know that these little stickers are 'pick-me-ups' for the times in my life that I hit a really low point. Like right now. But hear me out... this is what it said... "I believe everything happens for a reason. People change so you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you can appreciate them when they're right, you believe less so you can only learn to trust yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together!" Good, right? I know, I know... now you're thinking, 'man, I'm glad she wrote this!' This was written by Marilyn Monroe... I know, it blew me away too! So, my point in writing this is to update you on my life... cause it has been a while! I have always been the person who believes and lives by the works and words of God... like, everything happens for a reason! People have changed recently in my life, no matter how hard I didn't want to get hurt by yet another best friend, change is always inevitable! My best friend, who I lived about 5 months of my life with, just wasn't the person who I thought she was. It still breaks my heart to this day but God is mending that together! And then, the man I though I was supposed to wait to marry, also broke my heart. Despite me telling him that I was pulling away because I didn't want to get hurt by another 'little boy' again... needless to say, he turned out to be another one of those 'little boys'! And another one of my friends who I took a 'break' from told me that breaks were childish and that this little 'break' could be permanent, I do really miss her but my life is so less dramatic than it was. So now, I'm just waiting for something else to fall apart so that everything else can fall into place. I miss each and every one of these people but it is time to let them go. My best friend, Aubrea, once told me - "if you love something, let it go; if it comes back it is yours forever!" So if it happens then it will. God will take care of me, I think my Northern Ireland trip is coming up for a reason. On and P.S. I'm going to Northern Ireland for two whole beautifully amazingly awesome months!!!!!!!!!! I just get relief talking about it!
I hate realizing that "I'm still in love with who I wish you were", 'little boys' are SO dumb! I just have to completely trust God to take care of me and wait for Him to bring 'my pursuer' to me!
Love and God bless!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If only life had a fast forward button...

So much has happened and it has happened so fast! So many ups and downs recently in my life and all that I can do is hold on to God in seasons like these. One of my friends just continues to bring me down in life and I think it is time to let her go. It is going to be hard but it has to be done. My best friend is not sure what he wants me to be to him, more or less, and I just wish life had a fast forward button so that I can know what our answer is to each other. My roommate who is my best friend, now more than ever, feels more of an aquaintence and I just want things to be better. I passed out in my bathroom a week ago and I am not feeling the greatest now. I have been having dizzy spells to the point of loosing almost all of my control of my body. I am stressed out because of finals and at this point I don't know that I really care if I pass or fail. I just want to be home, I want things to feel right, I want to be with him. BUT, it is always in God's time and in God's hands. It is not my own decision and it most certainly not his and not yours. Do not define life by what you want out of it, define it by what God wants to give you. I don't want to go home, I need to be home but I don't want to be there. I cannot explain the feelings I have right now... I don't know that God has me exactly where He wants me yet. I guess we will have to see! Transferring just might be in my future... you never know what God is going to do next!