If you really knew me.

If you really knew me, you would know that I love coffees and teas.
But you would also know that I don't like strong flavors and that I have a pretty bland palette.

If you really knew me, you'd know that sitting down and watching a movie at night with a blanket and bad weather happening outside is actually one of my favorite things to do.
And I love going to the movie theater. I just love movies.

If you really knew me, you would know that I am really creative and I love to make things. Papercrafting is pretty much my zen.

If you really knew me, you would know that I actually really like science. Specifically anatomy.

If you knew me, you would know that I would much rather receive flowers or candy than a stuffed animal. Not a fan of stuffed animals.

You would know that I love lemons so much, but I'll skip out on lemonade. What's up with that?

You would be well aware that dogs make me really happy.

If you knew the deepest parts of my heart, you would know that I really struggle with God's decree that homosexuality is a sin. But I love the word and think it's perfect, so I trust in Him.

You would also know that I struggle with some of my appearance. I don't often voice it, but I don't care for my smile, the paleness of my skin, or the size of my breasts. I am reminded of the verse in Song of Solomon that says "All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you" (4:7 NIV), and that makes me feel lovely again.

You would know that, deep down, I really want to be pursued. Like most women, I want to be the beauty of some great story or adventure. But that want is often buried because it seems like a luxury granted only to the women who have their acts together. What I hear is that I need to "try harder." So I buy romance novels and movies to pretend like this want is less than it is. This struggle is being buried the more I travel on mission trips, the more I dive into the word, the more I follow Him.

If you really knew me, you'd know that I want to be right a lot. Being wrong is something that is hard to accept for me. Sometimes it brings out an ugly side of me.

You would know that I like to play the Diablo games. And Unreal Tournament.

You would also know that I love listening to scores for movies. My favorite ones tend to be with animated movies because they are so creative and sound really joyful.

You would also know that I love cupcakes. That's probably the most important thing to know about me.

:D

A fun experience.

I'm here in LA for the next fall 2014 fashion week and God has been actin' so crazy. Basically, Models For Christ had a huge hand in the productions of these runway shows. One of the girls from our group was head of the dressers and another two of our girls became assistants to the director backstage. And the cool thing is that everybody pretty much knew who we were and why we were there.
We always pray each day before the day starts that we will be the source of light in this dark industry. That we would be gentle, kind, patient, peaceful people in an unorganized field of designers, models, and stylists being "fashionably late" all the time. I can't tell you how many times our group has heard how we are some of the best to work with because of how we behave. It's so wonderful to see the MFC girls let God use them and watch the joy that comes from it.

I have a fun story that I really want to share about what happened one night. Earlier in the week, we did a show called "Go Red." It was a charity show that supported heart disease and they had some reality tv celebs that were walking, although I didn't recognize most of  them. There was a few America's Next Top Model runner ups and Miss America, Universe, State, etc. girls. I ended up getting Miss Nevada 2013 to dress. She was a bombshell- just totally gorgeous. But I had no time to talk with her and we just didn't really connect. In the mean time, my good friend Shannon is chattin' it up with Kiara Belen, who was the runner up on America's Next Top Model's cycle 19 (college edition). Kiara was super cool and exchanged numbers with Shannon and ASKED ALL OF US TO COME TO HER BIRTHDAY PARTY.

 

picture from: http://bijoux00.blogspot.com/2012/08/americas-next-top-model-19.html

So. Last night was her party but it was pretty hilarious because there were some discouraging things happening. We all get ready, lookin' super fly for a celeb party, and then realize, as we are standing around the tiny car that is our ride, we can't all fit in it. Mind you, we are already late because we took so long to get ready. So we split the group up, drive the car to a friends house, get the friends car, load up in that car, and sent one person back to pick up the rest while the other group continues on.

It got a little crazy.
Us four girls drive to Bel Air but none of us are from LA so we got really confused with the directions. We took some wrong turns, some of us we getting irritated and saying things that were not helping our situation. This whole outing was not working out very well.
It came down on us all at once that Satan probably didn't want us at this party. God made an awesome impact at fashion week and the enemy had enough of that. We prayed about it and everything got way better. The evil one still tried, though. One of the girls was getting more information on Models For Chirst out of her bag for a christian model and the latch on her purse was stuck. Satan is a jerk. She still got the information out though :)

The party was awesome. It was very small- maybe about 30 people were there and it seemed to be friends, family, and close co-workers (really crazy that Kiara invited us). It was on Carolwood drive, which is where Michael Jackson, Marylin Monroe, and Walt Disney once lived. Shannon and I found ourselves talking to the host of the party, Wayne Kao (a highly successful music producer and real estate investor), and telling him about Models For Christ. We told him how much we love volunteering for the fashion industry and he was interested in having us volunteer for some of his shindigs so we exchanged contact information, which is awesome because he is fully aware that we are active christians in our volunteer work.

Later on in the night, Kiara's agent took notice of one of the MFC girls and exchanged info with her because she is sooo gorgeous and definitely model material.
It's crazy how God had so much favor on us in this adventure.

Some of the dressers. Beautiful girls.

 

 

Our Models For Christ girls!

 

 

 

Struttin'.

 

 

Sittin' around. Lot's of time to build relationships and have fun!

 

 

 

Charity and Lauren. Two of our girls that became assistants to the director backstage. This was for the Hollywood Dolls show for kids.

 

 

Little cutie.

 

 

Lauren and Jessica. Perfect girls!

 

 

Jessica's note to us when someone stole the battery out of the car! :(

But it got sorted out :)

 

 

It gets really crowded in the dressing area. We still love it.

 

 

 

Getting a lovely model ready.

 

 

Awesome male show. This is the designer of Civil Society and some of the models. These guys were total goofs.

 

 

Got to meet this lovely lady from the Walking Dead.

 

 

MFC girls on a crazy couch at Kiara Belen's party.

 

 

The birthday girl :)

 

 

We stayed at a church where we all slept in the children's room on air mattresses. Lauren and Shannon thought this was the only way to deflate the mattresses... oh dear.

 

 

Finished the week off with the beach! Praise God for experiences like this trip.