A New Year
So I barely post for months, and now three posts in just a few hours. 
I wrote this post for HSA though, and thought I’d come share it here too.
I haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions, per se. However, at the start of this new year, I have been rather contemplative and have several goals I’m working toward.
In general, I’m working at becoming more disciplined, both in my spiritual life and in other areas. I’m trying to become more diligent in studying the Word, memorizing Scripture, and generally reading, watching, and listening to more things that are edifying. I want to be more purposeful in studying and improving in the things I’m interested in, such as web design and photography.
To sum it up, I want to spend my time wisely, to live to the fullest serving God and others, to grow and advance, both in my walk with God and in my hobbies and interests. I want to be able to look back at the end of this year and see ways I’ve done these things, to see ways I’ve grown and changed and things I’ve learned.
It’s also been a time of reminiscing, thinking over ways I’ve changed over the last year, and even two years. I can see ways I’ve examined standards and preferences we have, and adopted my own. Not that I didn’t do that before, but I’ve fine-tuned them a lot in the past year. Though, in some ways, I feel like I’m turning into an old fogey, especially when I realize I’m almost 24. 
Oh, and another thing I want to work on this year: getting to sleep at a reasonable hour. I had started getting to bed and getting up earlier several months ago, but, well, old habits die hard.
Birthday Present
My early birthday present:
Isn’t it pretty? 
I got it a couple of weeks ago, before I went to the wedding. I was trying to make myself a skirt, but was having issues with the machine we already had. My parents were already going to get it for me for my birthday, so they got it early. I like it a lot, though I haven’t gotten to use it much yet.
My Life Through Trips and Pictures
To update on a few things from my life in the past several months…
Okay, so to pick up where I left off back in August…
I went to Dallas back in August, to meet up with some friends from HSA. Spent time with lots of awesome people and went to some fun places. I had met a lot of them in person already and knew them well, and I got to meet new people too. We played Ultimate Frisbee and Capture the Flag, went roller skating, went to downtown Dallas, and just generally had fun hanging out and talking. And…I got to fly for the first time and loved it!
In case anyone is really interested, here are my pictures from that trip:
Album 1
Album 2
Album 3
Album 4
Album 5
Album 6
In September, we evacuated for Hurricane Ike. We stayed with family in north Louisiana. Thankfully, we had little damage done to our house and yard. We were without water for a few days, but really fared better than so many people. The following are pictures showing what Wal-mart looked like when we got home:
Then a couple of weeks ago, I flew up to Little Rock to see a couple of HSA friends get married. I’m so glad I was able to make it to their wedding! I’m friends with both the bride and the groom, and they really mean a lot to me. I’m so happy for them, and their wedding was beautiful. She made a beautiful bride too. While there, I stayed with my aunt for several days, and got to see my cousin and her new baby.
Wedding pictures
Baby cousin pictures
So yeah, I like taking a lot of pictures. If anyone is interested, I can be found here on Flickr.
Right now, I’m working on designing a website for my dad’s company, and want to learn and do more with web design. I’m also very interested in photography, as you may have guessed, and I want to improve my skills in that area a lot this year as well. I have a photoblog here.
I also hope to blog more this year, so hopefully you’ll all hear from me more often in the coming months.