Peponi

I feel like everyone should listen to this cover of Coldplay's 'Paradise.' It. Is. So. GOOD. It's better than good. 

It's....incredibly beautiful.

'Peponi' is the Swahili word for paradise.

It makes me want to take piano lessons again and learn to play this gorgeous piano piece. Around 2:45 in the video, the piano kind of mesmerizes me and then I become sad that I quit taking lessons years ago. Maybe one day I'll pick it back up...

This post has no point, but I hope you like the song. I do. :)

And... I know that I don't post as much as I should or used to. I guess the "new-ness" of my blog has worn off. But I struggle with knowing what the purpose of this blog really is. I have no idea. I have thought about scrapping the entire thing and forgetting about it, but I find it a little, teensy bit fun at times, so I decided against that idea. Hopefully SOON I will figure this out and get myself on track.

Until then....enjoy this beautiful song. :)

♥ Victoria

New Page! (Finally)

I finally made an 'about me' page and it's finally ready. :) If you read it, maybe you'll learn a little bit about me. And if not.... I won't hold it against you. ;)

"A woman is never late if she is worth waiting for." --Not sure who said that, but I'm sure they said it.

♥ Victoria

New Life

As of Friday morning, I am a big cousin (again). :) Rita Michelle was born at 5:46am. She was 6lb 4oz and 19 1/4 in. long. I am in love with her! It was funny, because she was born the day before her baby shower.

Yesterday, I went to the hospital to see this precious baby girl. ♥

 She's six pounds of adorable.

If you know me, you know that any baby will capture my heart instantly. She did.

Her lips are precious. She is so stinkin' gorgeous.

She came home today. We are all thankful for a healthy baby and mama. :)

This is the first time a baby has been born into my mom's side of the family in a while. Like, 11 years. So last time, I wasn't old enough to realize how beautiful it really is. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. In His image. How crazy is that? It blows my mind.

Psalm 139:14

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

   your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 

Genesis 1:27

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 

♥ Victoria

Good News! ♥

I went to a follow-up appointment with my pediatric cardiologist today. I've been seeing a cardiologist for ten years since I was diagnosed with Pulmonary Valve Stenosis. Those big words simply mean that the valve in the pulmonary artery that controls the flow of blood into my lungs is narrow, and that causes my heart to make a "click" sound when it beats because the valve doesn't open and close properly.

Through countless EKGs, echocardiograms, stress tests, and appointments over the past few years, I developed anxiety over my heart. I always think that something is horribly wrong with it, even though the degree of my stenosis has always been very, very mild. It's sort of like I'm a hypochondriac about it. It's scary to know that one of the main things your life depends on doesn't function just right. But not anymore. :)

Today, I got really, really good news. The stenosis has corrected itself and I am completely normal! Music to my ears. This almost always happens in PVS patients. You are born with it, and depending on the degree of severity, it will either correct itself and go away altogether or there is a procedure that can be done to correct it.  I was just waiting for that day to come. And it's finally here. The stenosis is gone!

My doctor sent me home with a 30-day event monitor for my own sanity, to sort of validate for myself that I'm in the clear. After 30 days, I'm free! Dr. Singh discharged me from her care and I don't have to go to the cardiologist again unless I ever have any problems (which I shouldn't, she said). I'm a little sad about not seeing her again. She is my favorite doctor and I love her! But I'm so so so so soooo happy that I'm healthy! :)

♥ Victoria

My heart is heavy

for this child. Isn't he precious? I was searching the Compassion website, thinking I would like to add to my little Compassion family, and his was the first sweet face I saw. And I knew. I don't have the means to sponsor him, but I just contacted Compassion to see if it is at all possible for me to correspond with him. He has been waiting for a sponsor for 190+ days. Can you imagine feeling like no one cares? Like you're not worthy of love? It absolutely breaks my heart.

I'm praying that I can somehow get to this little boy.

♥ Victoria

I survived....

the SAT. I just feel like I need to tell y'all about my awesome day for some reason. It was such a happy day!

Here's how it went:
-woke up at a horrid hour of morning and went to take the SAT
-arrived at the school and I ended up being assigned the seat RIGHT BESIDE my best friend which made us both so very happy!
-survived the SAT!
-my parents picked me up in a brand new BMW convertible. (wish I could say it's ours, but it's a loaner; ours is at the car doctor trying to feel better and they provide free rentals...)
-drove said convertible with the top down in the beautiful sunshiney warmness that was today
-.......to the pretty park and walked three miles with my sweetie
-went to frozen yogurt shop with sweetie.. yum! :)
-took little cousin for a spin in the "bertiful"... she loved it
-and now I'm about to eat a yum-o dinner :)

It was such a great day. Just...yep. :) I'm so thankful to be able to enjoy these blessings! How was your day? Tell me about it!

"He will fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy." Job 8:21

♥ Victoria

High Five for Friday #2

It's that time again! Join me?! It's fun!

1.  DNOW was so awesome last weekend! For some reason I never grabbed my camera to take pictures, but I did get this one on my phone. Mary Margaret painted this to hang in our youth room at church. :)

2.  I can't stop listening to this song. Coldplay is my favorite band!

3.  My cat, Oliver, hopped into my lap yesterday as I was reading to snuggle. He rarely does this by choice, so I was touched... he's my baby. :)

4.  This is probably the best thing I've seen on Pinterest all week.. X)

5.  I did this little workout yesterday and I am very sore today. But it felt good! I will definitely do it again in a day or two. When I can walk again. :P (also found on Pinterest)

It was an uneventful week, but a great one! :)

High Five For Friday!

My first-ever High Five For Friday post! I heard about it through Lauren over at From My Grey Desk. Go check her out! And I do realize it's only Thursday, but I really wanted to do this and I will be running around like a chicken with its head cut off tomorrow so I'm doing it today. The point is to list your top five favorite things from the week, and have fun with it. Got it? Here we go!

1. The weather this week has been incredible. Today I'm dressed like it's summer. But alas, it's only March 1st... And I'm beach dreamin' but what's new?

2. Today is my beautiful friend McKenzie's 17th birthday. She's really cool! Check out her blog here and tell her happy birthday!

3. Tomorrow is the start of DNOW (Disciple Now) at my church. It's a youth retreat type thing that is described as "a full week of camp crammed into one weekend." The theme this year is 'Rooted' and I am so excited to experience it with some of my best friends!

(this isn't the exact picture, but I couldn't find the real thing)

4. Tomorrow my daddy comes home!!! I am so excited. He has been in Chicago for two weeks training for his work. I'm very much a daddy's girl. I'm practically counting down the hours until we go to the airport to pick him up. :)

Twins?

5. Midterms! They will be over tomorrow. So all in all, the weekend should be splenderific. :)

I had a great week! Want to join me and share your High Five For Friday?

♥ Victoria

♥ Day

Happy Valentine's Day! I know a lot of people don't particularly like this day and call it a "Hallmark holiday" but it's still fun to do something special that you couldn't normally do everyday.

Today at school we did an old-school Valentine swap like everyone does in third grade. We had the little bags with our names on them all in a row and everyone dropped adorable cards and yummy candy and baked things inside. So much fun! Then, of course, everyone ate too much candy and are now in sugar comas. Somehow it's worth it.

We played Valentine Bingo in my Spanish 3 class... :D

After school I rushed home to get ready for a "date" with my sweetie. I don't like calling it a date, though. Logan gave me three roses: a full red one representing our first year together, a white one representing the other half year together, and a half-open red one for what is to come. And he thought of that himself! Sigh... We went to dinner at a yummy place in my little town called The Little Hawaiian. It is so good! En route to the coffee shop up the street for dessert, we made a stop at the car for me to change my shoes. Turns out 4-inch heels were a bad idea and my mama can tell me she told me so... I digress. Then I got my mocha. Mm! To end the night, we sang in the car all the way home and that was it. We had so much fun. :)

It was a beautiful day. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!

♥ Victoria

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a 

Blog Changes & Welcoming a New Blogger!

Happy Sunday! It's an absolutely beautiful day. Every time you visit my blog, it probably looks different. I know, I know, I'm sorry! I'm still learning the ropes around here and trying to decide on a layout and design I like. I think I've almost got it nailed down. Finally!

As I've wasted a lot of my life this past week on Pinterest, I've come across LOTS of crafty things I want to do. I'm so excited! I'll let you know how that goes...

I am SO excited to introduce to you my best friend Mary Margaret's blog. She's just getting started like I am and she's lots of fun! You can visit her here.

That's all I have for today. There's a book calling my name. :) I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

♥ Victoria