Getting To Know You: Bailey

A little over a year ago Kait, our friend Robert and I accompanied our choir director to a local private school to observe their choir rehearsal for our choral conducting class. In that rehearsal sat my now friend Bailey. Last August he started school at UT Tyler and joined the choir. I was “graduated” by then, but through some conversing we all slowly started to figure out that he was there that day we went to observe! However, he remembered everyone else but me. Thanks, Bailey.

The first time we officially met was at our traditional after choir concert dinner at Yamato, a Japanese restaurant in Tyler. We barely spoke but everyone said he was cool. I’m naive and believed them. Good thing it turned out to be true! Since then, we’ve bonded over our shared love of photography and music. I found him on Instagram one day and realized he’s a pretty awesome photographer and about 900 Instagrammers feel the same way. He’s much…much better than me. (Remember the instameet? He was there! See if you can spot him in a picture.)

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If our names were a hashtag, what would it be?
#bailody
Is that good?

What do you remember about when we first met?
It was at Yamato’s after our choir concert and Kait kept saying, “Melody is coming!” and I was like, “I don’t know who that is!”

When is your birthday?
June 16, 1994 (This past Monday! Happy Birthday!)

How do you relax when you’re stressed?
I take a nap because usually the reason I’m stressed is because I don’t have enough sleep.

What makes a place home for you?
When I can walk around in just boxers and not feel ashamed. I’m probably going to read this later and wonder why I said some of these things.

What’s your biggest passion?
I really love to give.
My other passion is music. One of my favorite things to do is play piano in the house when no one is home and sing at the top of my lungs.

What’s your favorite time of day?
Night time when it gets dark out. I hate the morning.

Pet peeves?
When people are on their phones and won’t look at me when I’m trying to talk to them.

This guy loves music. I crashed the university choir’s Christmas party last year and we all stuck around the piano all night and sang while he played. It was a blast. He’s introduced me to new music and new artists that I’ve never heard of but I’ve fallen in love with. See? Cool.

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Bailey is funny and sweet. Oh, and smart. He’s a biochemistry major and wants to be a doctor! So ambitious. I know a doctor, sorta.

It’s pretty amazing how in such a short amount of time we’ve become pretty good friends. I love when a person just fits and feels comfortable enough to just stride right into a group of total strangers. You’re so great, Bailey. I can’t wait to spend more time together and get to know you even more! Here’s to your 20s. 🙂

photophoto by Shel from the Instameet!

 

#SisterWacoDay

If you guys don’t know, my sister Shelby has been officially accepted into the Baylor Truett Seminary! That’s kind of old news but it’s still awesome. So since she found out she’s been apartment hunting and job hunting. Last Monday I had to work, but the rest of the fam drove down to Waco for an appointment to look at a pretty great apartment. However, when they got there, the landlord told her it had been leased the day before and just forgot to tell her. Talk about upsetting. But God had something better! That same day Shelby found a perfect and beautiful apartment with creaky old floors and huge windows and a cute kitchen. Just for her. That Friday she and I drove down to sign her lease. It was a pretty good day.

PS. Sorry, if you follow me on Instagram you probably already saw these. Still a good post though. 🙂

 

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Three hours in the car with your sister/best friend never feels like three hours. Lots of Coldplay, Anberlin and worship music with long talks and snacks make for a pretty awesome road trip. She signed her lease like a big kid, we toured it (I’m dead because it’s so cute), then wrapped up our day at Common Grounds with delicious coffee. Also it’s where we saw the Civil Wars a few years back. Ahhh… memories. 🙂

 

Be sure to keep up with Shel on her blog at ihavethislife.com where she’ll post pictures of her new place when she moves in! Eeeeek, right?!

 

 

xx

Getting To Know You: Candice

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It’s totally possible for this picture to be this entire post of getting to know my friend Candice. This picture embodies her personality completely. Giddy and bubbly and sweet to her very core.
One of my first memories of Candice is how well she can pinpoint someone’s personality. I remember sitting in the lobby at school one day and she gave me a personality test to take and nailed me before I even took it. She said I was outgoing and loved people and needed to be around them to be happy. (I didn’t even really know those qualities fully then.) She said she was introverted and quiet and observed the dynamic before coming forward to be noticed. She could not have been more right. Candice loves analyzing people and showing them who they are and encouraging them in that place. It’s one of the most unique and beautiful qualities about her.

When we sat down to dinner to do the official Getting To Know You and caught up for an hour while turning away our waiter a whopping five times (a new record) because we were talking too much to even glance at our menus, I asked her the same questions I asked Kait.
I love her answers.

 

If our names were a hashtag, what would it be?
#candimelody. Like a sweet melody!

What do you remember about when we first met?
(When I asked her this, we both sort of looked at each other confused. Neither of us remember meeting each other but just sort of falling into a friendship. But she remembered some details!) You were Kait’s friend, so that’s how I remembered you. My sister was friends with Lauren (another mutual friend of ours) so I hung out when them all summer. Then when we went to school in the fall I clung to Lauren because she’s outgoing. I am not. You and I didn’t really get to know each other until our second year of school together. The first time we really hung out was on our choir trip to Houston for the weekend. We roomed together! (Here’s a hilarious story about Candice from this trip. She took melatonin to sleep but beforehand our room had been designated as the hang out zone. So half the choir was hanging out in our room while Candice was in a melatonin daze in the floor coloring a picture of a shoe. She eventually got tired enough that she crawled into bed where four other people were sitting, but only after telling us, explaining how melatonin makes you feel, “it’ll knock you ouuuuuuuut!” Then, once everyone left, I turned out the lights and heard a quiet, “Melody?” “Yeah, Candice?” “Do you mind if I turn on the air?” “Sure, Candice. Good night.” I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard.)

When is your birthday?
December 28, 1989

How do you relax when you’re stressed?
I close the door and get by myself. I have a playlist called a soaking playlist. The first song is In Your Presence by Jason Upton. I get in His presence and just ask Him what’s going on. Sometimes I take a bath or lay in my bed or get on my keyboard and sing. But it always starts with that song.

What makes a place home for you?
Wherever I’m sleeping! But really wherever I have a sense of peace. Like that’s where I’m supposed to be.

What’s your biggest passion? Something that makes you feel like what you’re on this earth to do.
Being on a stage. Leading worship. I love being able to share that and help people figure their problems out. I love being able to be there for someone and be your battle buddy. I love the feeling of knowing I’m being used by God.

What’s your favorite time of day?
Depends on the day! But the afternoon after school’s out. When it’s still early enough you can sit outside in that peaceful bird chirping and sun shining and enjoy the day before homework or the night stuff comes.

Pet peeves?
Bad drivers and chewing ice.

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Make a note, people. Don’t chew ice around Candice.
Candice grew up around Houston until her teenage years when her parents moved to Doha, Qatar. (I know, right.) Candice spent her last two years of high school there making friends and traveling the Middle East and Europe. But when she moved, technically she was going to be a senior. Nervous, Candice decided to retake her junior year and take two years of high school in Doha. She just wasn’t ready to graduate yet.
To her, Doha is home even though her early life was spent in Houston. Like she said, home is wherever she finds peace. Peace right now is in Tyler living with her brother and sister, but she’s getting restless. God is getting ready to pluck her up and move her for His purpose and I’m so excited to see where that takes her.

Remember that choir trip to Houston she was talking about? Well that trip was about a month before the final date of our divorce last year. No one knew then except my family and Kait, but I was tired of hiding and it was getting too hard to keep such a big part of my life a secret. So I promised myself I’d tell Candice that weekend. I didn’t know this until months later, but God had laid me on Candice’s heart that very same week to pray for me and talk to me about what was going on without knowing a single thing. And this. This. is who Candice is to me. She’s God’s sweet daughter. She’s humble and willing to serve at His feet. She will pray for you any second you ask her and she’s there when you need her. She is your battle buddy. She freely lets God use and speak through her and that’s why I’m always so encouraged every time I’m around her. We could only talk about the paint on the walls but because of her sweet spirit I’m encouraged. She lets her light shine bright and all that know her are blessed because of it.

 

Candice, I love you. Be encouraged that God knows where you are right now and is going to catch you in that free fall and before you know it His path will be laid out for you and you’ll walk on it freely. 🙂 Go for Tennessee, girl.

 

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xx

Getting To Know You: Kait

I first met Kait my second year at our local junior college. I was a few months away from being married, didn’t have a lot of friends, and was really focused on being the good kid. I was quiet, only making jokes in the awkward moments or during the ruckus. I remember there being new faces on that first day in choir especially in the alto section where I sat. We were rearranged and I was sat next to a girl named Kait. There was a specific moment, and I don’t remember the joke or what was said, that I realized this girl gets me. A few weeks later we were passing around a roll sheet or something and I glanced at her last name. Grogan? How the crap do you even pronounce that? And thinking very seriously about how we could exchange numbers and become best friends. SPOILER ALERT: we exchanged numbers and are now bffs.

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From the very first day we met we just clicked. If you’ve ever met me you know my humor is sarcastic and weird, so basically if you’ve met me you’ve met Kait. We are the same. It was such a relief and actually a shock to find someone so much like me. I was blindsided by our friendship because I wasn’t looking.

Our friendship grew like an awkward teenage boy into something neither of us probably expected. Kait has been my confidant, my encourager, and someone who still gets me even when I don’t think anyone does. She constantly surprises me by how much she gets me. It’s pretty cool.

She is gentle and caring and crazy about dogs. Beware if you’re walking your dog within 500 feet of her. She will find you and she will pet it. She’s generous and hard-working and has a serious work ethic. She once made an A on a project and was so upset about it she explained to our teacher why she deserved an A+. She got it.

Kait grew up in Ohio with her sister and parents then moved to Louisiana. Her teenage years were spent here in east Texas and for that I could not be happier. She still talks about snow like it’s a real thing, though.

We’re often together and where one of us is the other will be, as the rest of our friends have figured out. We text all day every day about all the girl crazy, embarrassing daily things and deep fears that we realize in the middle of Ulta. I can’t imagine how I deserve a friend like her.

Kait loves music. Like, loves music. So much so that her high school choir teacher inspired her to major in music and teach! The very same teacher she will get to student teach with this fall. She’s so happy. Kait’s a teacher. She teaches me and has taught me over late night text messages when I didn’t understand the homework. She’s smart, you guys. Real smart.

So like a really smart and good blogger I came up with some questions after I’d already started this series but just in time for this week’s GTKY. 🙂 Here are Kait’s answers to the greatest list of questions ever created:

If our names were a hashtag, what would it be?
#kaitodylynlisegrich #isthatwhatyoumeant?

What do you remember about when we first met?
I’m assuming the first day we met was my first day of college at KC but I don’t really remember the first day. I just remember sitting next to you at some point in the semester and being like “she gets me.”

When is your birthday?
October 4

How do you relax when you’re stressed?
I like to turn my mind off and play an instrument. I’ll either go sit at the piano and just play random songs, or I’ll sit and try to play the guitar. I say try because I suck at it.

What makes a place home for you?
The place doesn’t make the home, the people do.

What’s your biggest passion?
My biggest passion is music. I would say teaching, but I don’t think that’s the case. I wouldn’t be as happy teaching something other than music. Oh, and also chocolate.

What’s your favorite time of day?
I would say I’m a morning person. I don’t typically sleep in too late. I like to wake up early so I can be lazy more hours in the day:)

Pet peeves?
Uggs and shorts. Walking on grass. When you drop your shoe and it turns over. YouTube ads.

 

Kait, when you move to Dallas in December come down every weekend and stay with me in my cool downtown apartment that I’ll magically be able to afford by then. Go be cool in Dallas and follow your dreams and teach and be an adult. Eat a lot of chocolate and get a dog but text me every second because you won’t be twenty minutes away anymore. (Okay, why are you moving there again?) I’m really going to miss you and I’m only just realizing that we will be hours away for real and it’s making me sad and nostalgic already so I love you. You’re my best friend and you know I hate being sappy but you’ve literally been there through it all so it can only go up from here. 🙂 Love ya Kaity. 😛

kait2

 

Home

Sometimes you just need to remind yourself how good it is to be home. To have a home and a family.

So to remind myself of this I’ve been taking more pictures inside our house. My favorite places are our backyard and my room. Even though Shel and I share this room and most of our stuff is in storage and clothes cover almost every surface it’s still a place to come home to and call mine. As long as my bed is all snuggly and comfortable I feel at home. 🙂

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How do you feel at home? What do you like to do to relax? Netflix, bed, my puppy and some chocolate make me feel better. Always.

 

xx

Sister Style: Short Shorts

A lot of the times when I take outfit pictures my youngest sister Rudy is around and forces me to take her pictures, too. So I do. Because I’m a good sister.

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#derp.

 

Love ya, Ruby! 😉

 

xx