Girls Just Wanna... Laugh, Bond Eat, not Sleep, Have the Absolute Times of their LIVES. Yep. All that AND a bag of chips.

Ah! I just had the best week in the worrrrrld! I went to Indianapolis to stay at Val's house for a week along with 4 other girls. Never in my life have I eaten so much, laughed so often, and loved life more than I have when I was with these girls. Each of us was from a different ranch of the People of Praise-- coincidentally! I'm from South Bend, Mary Hannah's from Shreveport, Shannon's from new Orleans, Heidi's from Buffalo, Gracie's from NOVA and Val's from Indy. WOAH. Sooo wonderful.
To begin the week, we kicked it off by buying $90 worth of groceries. Can you saaaay ice cream, party pops, cocoa puffs and... guacamole? I can :]
I can't even express how grateful and blessed I am to have these girls in my life. Each one of them makes me a better Mary and I love every second I'm with them. It's crazy to think that I either hadn't met or seen 3 of these girls in yeaaars, and after ten minutes of being with them, I already felt like we were best friends. There's POP magic for ya!
I'm really going to miss Shannon's singing, Heidi's Greek accent, they way Mary Hannah finds a way to use y'all about 8 times in one sentence, Gracie's love, and my Valllyyypants. It was just such a good week, I'm so grateful.
In other news, we had our house appraised today because apparently we are trying to re-finance our mortgage? In any case, I've been hardcore cleaning for the past 24 hours. Its ridiculous how clean our house is. My poor mother works so hard and she's begging all of us kids to keep it this way. My bedroom is immaculate, I'm so excited. It took me like 8 hours to clean it out completely. wow. I sound like a disgusting little slob. It wasn't that bad.
Anyway, I have to shower nowwwww.
I love my friends, I love my family, I love summer, I love LIFE.
4 weeks and counting until I move away.
HOLY COWS.

moo.

Flip Flop Tans and Some White Sand

Dumdaduuumm!!! I'm in BEAUTIFUL Pensacola Beach, Florida!! The water is green and blue and wonderful and the sand is sugar white as always. It makes my soul so happy. I love to be here, I've come almost every summer since I can remember. So many memories! The Blue Angels did an airshow RIGHT over our beach house today! There is honestly not a more sexy, soul-shaking, amazing noise than an F/A-18 flyover. LOVE IT.
Last weekend [4th of Julyyy] I went to my Valerie's house in charming Cicero, Indiana where she has a beautiful home right on Morse Lake. It was a completely hilarious, wonderful, relaxing, shenanigan-filled weekend full of laughs and heart to hearts and adventures. I am so blessed to have Valerie in my liiiife!! And everyone else who lives in the Indianapolis area. Weekends with the Indy crew always promise to be unforgettable :]







Oh, I also spent some time in Washington DC and Arlington [my future homee!! weird] for Orientation. I saw the lovely Porter girls and Mike and lots of other pals. It was such a fun time! We went into the district late one night and walked around the national mall at midnight. it was SO pretty!! Hooray for summertime, adventures, wonderful people, and the metro running late hours on weekends!

Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Getting to College in One Piece

Hellooo world. I feel like I've been hibernating for the past few weeks. POP camp has come and gone, it was enlightening, humbling, and exhausting as always. I'm always grateful I go even though I usually dread it beforehand. I GRADUATED which is about at the top of my reasons-to-be-happy-about-life-right-now-list. I am ecstatic to be done with high school forever and am terrified and completely excited about opening a new chapter of my wild and precious life at Marymount University in the fall :) I have orientations coming up this weekend. My mom and I are driving down to Virginia a few days early so i can hang out with my sister and play in DC before I go to orientation. I am so excited. I keep hoping I feel better before I go... I've been sick for about a solid month now. Coughs, cold, sore throat, you name it. It's dumb BUT I think I'm getting better.
I had my graduation party on Saturday! It was a joint party with three of my friends, and I think it was a smashing success. There was a ton of food, there were tons of people and I think everyone had a good time. We had a keg ;) No underage drinking, obviously. My dad manned the beer. No shenanigans get past that man. I owe my parents big time. our power was out for a good 24 hours and our party just happened to be during that time. Despite all of the food-rescuing from powerless refrigerators and retrieving of generators, they were stellar hosts, I am so grateful.
At the moment, I am soaking up the peace and quiet. Four of my six siblings are out of town! It's just me and little William here, and I miss everyone a lot. Poor Will probably has been bored out of his mind. i took him to the library and Starbucks today to lighten the mood. I think it helped a little.
I'm reeeeeaallly in the mood for just driving. I don't care to where, I just want it to take a long time. There is a lot on my mind and I need to ease my thoughts somehow. I would run, but I rode my bike today for about 2.5 miles before I started shaking and had to stop. I hate being sick. Meanwhile I'm praying for all my anxieties and troubles to be lifted up-- God knows what he's doing, and he won't give me anything he knows I can't handle. I have two quotes of the day; One deals with not worrying, the other deals with not being discouraged with myself, which I tend to be.
"Do not worry over things that generate
preoccupation and anxiety. One thing only is necessary:
To lift up your spirit and love to God."
~Blessed Padre Pio

and

"Have patience with all things,
but chiefly have patience with yourself.
Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections,
but instantly set about remedying them -
every day begin the task anew."
~ St. Francis de Sales

God, You Astound Me

Nooo matter how stressed out I am or how sick I feel or how confusing life gets, God always finds ways to astound the heck outta me. Seriously, he is so cool. I am so blessed to have friends who share my love of Christ, eyes to see the world He created, and the mind and heart to appreciate what i am given. How great is our God, he loves us infinitely while we are finite.




Laughter staples my soul to life's simplicity
like third grade construction paper.
It colours my walls and draws on my heart.

Just by running, keeping pace with the sky,
leaving behind road dust and sandy sidewalks
my soul is exploding, it wants to laugh for joy.

I laugh at mistakes, laugh at myself
I am young and unprepared, I am not getting through life alone.
God, ground me.

Glue gun my mind to life's adventures, tack me to its edge.
I love the wind, the rush of it when it combs my tangled hair.
Ill shout and run, sprint if I can to reach the arm of forever.

Feet out the window, new perspectives unwind...
dangle the stars over my head,
I want to gape at my inability to count them.

Dizzy me, wonderful world.
God, you astound me.

By the Way...

I should Add that to the already prospectively blissful coming months, I only have to pay approximately $4,000 to go to school every year. WHAAAAT. I have $29,000 in SCHOLARSHIP money. God is so cool.

new ordinary

incandescent love
burning holes in my irises as
flaming sunsets melt the rain away.
the husk of my world dangles threads of
color-coded memories and pop tab wishes.
when night comes alive with neon conversations
and the clicks of sensible heels, i will try to
convince you that my smile is just because
and i'll cross my fingers for you to catch my drift.
minty secrets, sore heels, breathless laughter and
sugar crushes that melt in my thoughts;
they all tell me to never stop loving
this windows down adventure, these peeling billboard signs.

It's almost over!!!

Ohh my goodness, well look at me. I have five days of high school left until I'm DONE. foreverrr! That's so crazy! Tomorrow is senior skip day and we're going to the beach :)
My soul sister best friend twin kindred spirit Valerie came to my house yesterday and it was so. much. fun. We decided that having an adventure was very appropriate, so off we went with ourselves and a camera. We found a field, and a very muddy construction site, and the fun began. Needless to say, we came back with about 500 hilarious pictures, and war-paint mud stripes on our faces and our hair tied back like hippies with construction site.. stuff. It was glorious. She makes me so happy. We've only known each other for about 6 months, but she's honestly one of my best friends. She brings out the absolute best in me and i am 100% completely myself when im with her. I ruvv her.
Oh I am so excited, my friend Allesha is getting married next weekend and I have TONS of friends coming in for the wedding. It's going to be suchhhh a good weekend... so much merriment.. ahh I can't wait :)
I have to go to bed because despite my ridiculously long nap today, I'm beat. Hooray for skip day tomorrow! Goodnight moon.