We're Cheetah Sisters. We Stand Together. We Make Up One Big Family Though We Don't Look The Same.

On January 13th, I celebrated 106 years of sisterhood, service, and scholarship with my chapter sisters. This celebration wouldn't have come together if my oldest spec and I hadn't set up the event. I hadn't seen her in a year. I hadn't seen one of my line sisters in 6 months. A long time had passed. These are people I really care about. Everyone just gets so busy, and you start to worry whether or not it will be awkward. I woke up at 9:00am. I showered, curled my hair, and did my makeup. By the time 11:00am rolled around, I was late to church. I made it at about 10 after. There was a guest preacher who came and spoke about the disciples. Particularly Matthew. He talked about how Matthew had been a tax collector working for the Roman Empire prior to leaving it all to follow Jesus. He talked about how different the people who left it all to follow Jesus were. How they all still managed to work together. We also ended the service with a deep prayer about how it is possible to hear Jesus speak to you. The service ran over and I knew I was going to be late. I ran to Walmart to get an elephant for the gift exchange. I also got a card for my sorority sister that was recently diagnosed with cancer. By the time I had made it home, I realized that I had bae's key. I had to have my kind, caring baby brother take it over to him. I threw on a shirt I had with all the founders name on it, put on some lipstick, and rushed to get ready as fast as I could.

What I didn't know was that my ride would also be making a stop in Leavenworth. 40 minutes away from my home and 40 minutes away from the restaurant. If I had known, I would have driven myself. I know that sounds bad, but I wanted to be on time. I was one of the people that put the event together and I felt that being late was disrespecting everyone's time. I knew that the stop in Leavenworth was important and had to be done, but it put a little damper on the day.

The rest of the day went wonderfully. We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. When we arrived everyone had already been seated and ordered food. I went ahead and ordered the Cajun chicken littles, macaroni and cheese, and mashed potatoes. It was delicious as always. Before we had even finished our food, some guests were ready to leave. We have a sorority sister with a new boyfriend who couldn't wait to get back to him. I understood, because two founder's day ago I skipped in order to spend time with bae at a hotel bae and I had gotten together. New love means always wanting to be together. I thought it was cute, but everyone else was roasting her and rolling their eyes. It's hard to understand if you've never felt that way before. We got up in the middle of our meal and took photos by the staircase. It's funny, because this made the waitress assume that we weren't going to pay for our meal. I was very offended and kept ensuring her we would be back to pay. She wouldn't let it go. We got some decent pictures. I was just happy that all of us were together again.

Four of us stayed and chatted about various things for quite awhile. Some of the conversation was interesting and some of it was boring. Some of it we had talked about at least 50 times before. We talked about how one of our lines never get along. We talked about the made vs. not made stuff Greeks can't get enough of. After dinner, we headed to a get together for all women in our sorority. I was expecting a boring party, but it was actually really fun. They had cake, drinks, and a DJ playing great music. I got to see all my delta mamas and the women who led me to Deltaland. We got to take photos with them and talk a bit.

The best part of the night came from visiting my soror who was recently diagnosed with cancer. We went to her home for the first time. We told her what's been going on with us. She told us about how she's already done two rounds of treatment. She told us that she hasn't been having terrible side effects aside from a sore mouth. She told us about how cooperative her job was being even though she doesn't have paid time off yet. She told us about how she had been praying on the word trust for a year. She ended up getting a job at a trust fund and now has the hard journey to go through. She was positive which left me encouraged. We gave her a card and some money that we had donated. It brought her to tears which almost brought me to tears. She deserved the small token of our appreciation and more. It was the most special moment of the day to me. When people treat you well, it feels good to have an opportunity to return the favor and show your love and appreciation.

I ended the day feeling whole.

Song of the Day: Cheetah Sisters by the Cheetah Girls

Quote of the Day: “Never hold resentments for the person who tells you what you need to hear; count them among your truest, most caring, and valuable friends.”   (This meme is going around about valuing friends that tell you the truth when its not easy. It really spoke to me, because that was a big friendship issue I had last year.)

"Eyes Haven't Seen. & Ears Haven't Heard. The Kind of Blessings That's About To Follow Me"

I haven't put much thought into my New Years Resolutions this year. I had a nice end of the year review, but I didn't do much looking forward. Since I'm sitting here at my job with nothing to do, I might as well.

1. Grow in my relationship with God. I have grown in some ways over the last couple years and fallen off in others. I had gotten to the point where I read my bible every night and prayed every night, but that all kind of changed. I grew in my faith enough to not feel like I have to constantly beg God to make things go my way. That wasn't the relationship I wanted with him anymore. Especially when it came to school. But I do long for daily quiet time with the Lord. Time to read his word and set my mind of the right path. Since the new year started, I've been having trouble falling asleep. I think its because I need that time again. I would also like to continue attending the bible study I joined this last fall. I want to work towards being more open with them. I need a group of people I can be completely honest with. I've become very closed off in the last year and a half-ish.

2. Graduate and make progress on my degree. No need to write even more about this. It's just something that I have to buckle down on and do.

3. Stop worrying about things outside of my control. In May, I decided that I was ready to start trying to have a baby. No one knows this, but I had become pretty much consumed by this in my free time since I made the decision. I read all these blogs, I stalk all these mom accounts or fertility accounts on Instagram, and I'm always hoping that this is the month it'll happen. I have no doubt that 2019 will be my year, but I really have to stop fixating on it so much. It's not healthy. I think some of it stems from boredom. I need to spend the mental energy I put into thinking about that in to something else.

Same goes for fixating on my BFs family and whether or not they like me. I will treat them with the kindness and respect that I show everyone else. If that's not enough then *shrugs*.

4. Make more memories with people I love. Time is the most precious thing we have and I don't doubt it for one minute. If I want to bother my mom, dad, and brother at least once a day for no reason, then I will. If I want to call them all the time, I will. I want to send more texts saying "I love you". I don't want to be involved in any more silly arguments with friends. I just want it to be all love from here on out. I want to give out as much love as I possibly can.

5. I need to make healthier lifestyle choices. It's embarrassing that this is on my list every year and every year I gain more and more weight and do not exercise. This year I want to start with exercise. Even if I don't lose weight, I want to work out more. I also want to stay away from fast food as much as possible. I will initially try to cut it out  all together, but if that becomes too much I'll limit it to once a week. In 2018, I had weeks where I consumed fast food every other day. Food cannot be my source of joy or comfort when I have to deal with school related stress. If I make those two small changes, I'll be proud of myself.

6. Learn to trust more. I need to have complete faith in my relationship. This is really hard to do, but I'm going to work on it. We can't move to the next step without me loosening the leash a bit. We'll see if I can do it.

I think that list covers it. I didn't add any work related goals, because I don't have any. I want to chill on work this year. The 14 hour days I was working last summer wore me out. As much as I love and appreciate material things, I don't want to go through that again. I want to rest. I want to budget my money better, so I don't have to work as much and live paycheck to paycheck. I work part time and go to school full time. I'm no longer interested in trying to keep up with people who work full time. I don't want to live above my means. Can't wait to see what joy and blessings this year brings. I'm staying positive about this year, because I have no reason not to.  God is good to those who love him.

Prayers for long life, good health, love, laughter, and joy for me, my family, and friends.

Song of the Day : I'm Getting Ready by Tasha Cobbs

Quote of the Day : "Let go of yesterday. Let today be a new beginning and be the best that you can, and you’ll get to where God wants you to be.” – Joel Osteen