Summer of Happy.

This summer has truly been the best time of my life so far.
and it seems that even though it is ending my life can only get better from here :)

I have grown so much as a person and in my understanding of God.

I have met people that have changed my life.

I have experienced so many new exciting things.

I could go on and on about the cool fun stuff I did this summer.

But I wont.

Ask me and Id love to tell you.

I would rather tell you about some of the brilliantly fantastic people

God placed in my summer that will be my friends for life.

I dont even know where to start.

First of all there is DANI! who I have known forever at liberty but we didnt really become best friends til this summer.

I cherish every moment I am with her. I have never had a girl to just go to. A person I know will always be honest with me even when I dont want to hear it :).

We had MANY deeep life talks this summer that made me so happy.

I feel like everytime we talk I walk away feeling like I just had an epiphany. HAH!

DANIELLE I LOVE YOU. thanks for always being there.

KAYLA MINER!

When I met you at prom in May I had no clue what the future of our friendship beheld.(if thats even a word)

I COULD NOT EVEN IMAGINE NOT KNOWING YOU.

We are the same person.

I almost cant handle it sometimes.

And even today we had so many times where we just LAUGHED haha.

Like my creepy way of knowing who people are.

HIPPIE BUS! TRACTOR! JEEP! OCTUPUS GARDEN! AUSTRALIA!

ahhhh there is so many things I love about you and our friendship.

WE have had brilliant adventures. Like attempting to sneak into the fair. Hahah Finley Ghost three times! lol wow we are just crazy. I love it. I know we will be friends for a long time.

MIC NEWLAND

I trust you with my life.

I have loved our coffee dates. Some that have lasted hours. hahah.

I love how we can talk about literally anything. And its ok.

I enjoy your opinions. and thoughts. I will miss you so much when you go to school.

We will keep in touch. I have no doubt.

Your a fantastic person. :)

Ethan Dufault

You are one of my very best friends!

I love how long it took us to become like this hahah. I used to really hate you. ;)

You always make me laugh.

You understand what I truly care about... like gesa pens haha! I am super sad that you wont be at school with me. We will still be besties i have no doubt :)!

CASEY, RALPH, ISAIAH, DUSTIN, TONY, IAN RU, JOSH MAIER, HEESH, and KEEFE

I could write a bunch about each one of you but I dont have time. I just wanna say you guys made this summer so much fun. I definitely would not have had so many crazy random adventures if it werent for you.

I love you guys so much! Its beeen so fun being friends with you and I KNOW we will continue to hang out.

You guys are GREEEAT! I love you to death.

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISAIAH!

Honestly I think everyone always wants to be apart of something. This summer I was lucky enough to be apart of this ammmazing group of friends who changed the way I see the world and understand life. I love them. I would not be who I am right now if it were not for them.

I want to name everyone in that group and individually say how important they were to me. but I know for a fact i will forget someone. Dont be mad know that you are apart of that group and you belong. You have a special place in my heart :)

BRENNA AKERS AND SYDNEY NACHBAUR

I wish you guys knew how deeply I really care for you. I never though I could find such ammmazing friends. Its been unbelievable. God knew what he was doing when we all met :)

KALLI AND PAIGE

You guys are so beautiful. I still just am in awe of how close we became so quickly. I love you so much. Kalli we WILL hang out more. I will never forget what you said the night we were all at my house about me being apart of the group one is down we are all down. It made my heart melt. i love you. Paige i miss you. We will keep in touch for a long time i know!

TYSON JONES!

we are the same person. hahah i love you so much. hahah oh man. we spent so much time together this summer i freaking love it.

SEAN KENNEDY

I wishh you could see how much we are missing as our group when you are absent. You are fantastic.

JOSH SHELDON

You are so great JOSH! I am stoked we are seniors now life is gonna be great. we will see eachother lots.

CONNIE LOVELACE

I am so happy i met you :) we could talk for hours. haha i love you so much we are gonna have so many fantastic time this year i cant even wait.

GARETH UNWIN

I wanted to save you for last. We have been through alot this summer. I LOVE LOVE LOVE spending time with you. We always have fun and I love just talking with you.

Your fantastic. Never forget that. :).

We will be friends for a long time. I know it.
Thanks for being so great!

wow so I pretty much just ranted about the ammazing people in my life for thirty minutes. I know there is more. THere is more that mean just as much to me as these guys but I have to sleep tomorrow is the first DAY of SENIOR YEAR!!!!!

others who have impacted my life in a fantastic way this summer have been TAYTE, TESSS, JESSICA :), BREANNE, MACKENZIE, KIRBY, ZACHARY, JUSTIN YOKE, ASHLEY WOOD, KATIE ELLIS, ALDEN, JORDAN MILLER, EMILY LONG, IDA, TANGUY, KADEN MATTHIS, JAMES HAYES, CHRIS CUEVAS, RYAN STACK, CURLS, ADAM JONES, POWERS, POLVI, MAGGGI JONES, NATALIE FREAKING APRIL, KEITH NICHOLS, HAN AND HIMES, ALLISON CREAGER and so many more. I love you guys. You are what made this the best summer of my life.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS NEXT I HAVE NO CLUE BUT I HAVE A FEELING ITS GONNA BE GREAT!

Love is gonna keep us together.

"...We can travel to Spain where the rain falls
Mainly on the plain sounds insane
'Cause it is we can laugh we can sing
Have ten kids and give them everything
Hold our cell phones up in the air
And just be glad that we made it here alive
On a spinning ball in the middle of space
I love you from your toes to your face..."

If Its Love by Train.

Its not about not judging its about LOVING. People as a whole are generally pretty judgemental.

But like Dani says we focus to much on the fact that we have judgement in us. Instead we should just let it go and begin loving people. Everyone loves people. But not everyone loves all people. hmmm okay... what I am trying to get at is usually our love for people is limited to the people who WE think are cool. Very few people just accept anyone no matter what they act like or dress like or what they do for fun. People catagorize to dislike. For example hearing someone be called a cheerleader can have a negative thought just because a person can have a pre judgement on what all cheerleaders must be like. The fact is no one is the same. Dani is a cheerleader and she doesnt fit the worldy thought of cheerleader at all except for the fact that she is good at it and is often happy lol. She is not blonde or ditzy or whatever else comes to mind when you hear cheerleader.

ANYWAYS... those are some serious thoughts I have been having lol but what has come out of it is a new challenge for myself. TO love people. Not just "cool" kids or people who like the same things I do. But even hard to like people or people who steal stuff.

You may be thinking "Amber, I understand where you are coming from but shouldnt we be wise in not liking people who are bad becaue we can be influenced by their bad behavior?"
My response to that legitamite statement would be..

"That is a legitamite statement" and then I would retort with the commonly used but not thought about deeply enough phrase "but What Would Jesus Do?"

Then you would feel awkward as most people do when that is the response. The truth of the matter is Jesus is a heck of alot better than we are. He was perfect. So he kinda beats us in that whole sinning thing. We all make mistakes. What Jesus would do in this case... is love people like he does. He would not have to worry about getting humanly caught up in anything though and falling into following their footsteps like we very well possibly could.

This is why loving people isnt like eating cake. Its a longer process of changing ones own heart and personal motives. And that we can not do without God. Well we can try but the usual finish to controling our own lives end up empty. I have found that repetitivallly. God is always smarter than me and his plans are far better. I like them. alot. This reminds me of the whole taking the plank out of your own eye before you take the speck out of your brothers. In all reality their problems could actually be FAR worse but God sees all sin the same right? thats another confusing thought process that I am not sure I will ever understand.
SO as I am ranting on about all this I am actually convicting myself. hah. seriously. just there I was like wow I need to cleanse my heart and alter my motives in caring for people.

Perhaps it was pointless to blog about it cuz it could be just for me but ehhh If God can use what he is teaching me to help others to... YAY! lol

You know what gets me excited... recieving a text message or a facebook update. I love people and being social and it means alot when you know people are thinking of you. But I dont want to become obcessed to the point that when it doesnt happen as often I feel like no one loves me. hah.

I have had the best summer of my life. When I say that I sometimes feel like I am bragging. Becuase if someone just read that sentence and they didnt have that greatof a summer they probably got a little jealous and feel bad about themselves. IF that was you dont feel bad about yourself. You are fantastic. I feel like a motivational speaker hah.

God has been so good. He has taken me through numerous trials and everytime I come through them and understand why I had to face that giant I am so thankful I did because I grew alot and learned to trust God more and more.

My life is blesssed. I am so lucky to have the life I do. sometimes I just sit and ask God why he was so nice to me. I dont even deserve it. I dont deserve alot. Thats the greatness of God. He supplies my needs even when they are stupid. LIke this morning I could not find my work shirt anywhere and I was feaking out then I prayed and asked God that it would be in teh one place i had not checked yet in my house and it was! That may seem silly but He didnt have to answer my prayer. I didnt do anything good for that specific prayer to be answered so quickly. But that is just how God loves his children. ITS CRAZYY! His love isnt if you do something for me then I will do somethig for you. That is hard to understand cuz its common for people to think like that even when they dont reaalize it. What ever happened to going out of our way to do something nice for someone? For no reason? and no pay! Rewards in heaven will be so great we do not even realize. But we focus so much on the here and now that we forget about storing our treasures in heaven.

Yup yupppers! lol summer is coming to a close and school is starting soon I am very nervous excited about it! :) Senior year! wow its crazy. The senior year became a reality for me when the people I have known as the seniors all year starting actually LEAVING! for college. Now I am like wow.... I am the old one. hahah. Its gonna be great. :) I had a blast seeing JACOBY YESTERDAY! I miss him wish he lived in town still :( gahhh.... lol.

A brilliant love.

"When Jesus heard this, he said, 'Healthy people dont need a doctor- sick people do"

Matthew 9:12

Life recently has been BRILLIANT!

Getting hip surgery this weekend has made me realize how AMMAZInG God is and how many wonderful people he has put in my life. I love my friends and family dearly. I wish I could recap every moment of this weekend but then you would just get annoyed with me. hah. If you saw my facebook status's you probably got annoyed with me. hahah I just wanted people to know how much I love them :)

I have the best friends in the world. Honestly. I dont know where I would be without them.
Example the first visitors I had when arriving home was SYDNEY, KALLI, TYSON, and JESSICA. and what get well present did they bring you ask? A BAMBOO TREE :) it was magnifiscient! Many great people with fabulous treats came after that like Tyson bringing an ice cream cake for our Boy Meets world Marathon! So much ice cream and drinks I can hardly remember. KAYLA and BREANN brought me all the spiderman stuff I could ever want. I wore the socks:)

Ralph and Tonys mcChicken was a good change up. hah and all the ordered pizza was great. The cookies my Nana made were so delicious we went through them so fast she had to bring another huge plate! I could go on and on... HAH!

I also accomplished watching alot of movies this weekend... I will give you the list in order.

Hot Rod :) of course that was the first one.

Lord of the Rings, I fell asleep haha.

The Dark Night.

Dirty Dancing.

Madagascar 2.

I love you Beth Cooper, but just the end.

Boy Meets World season seven. From 330 to 11 :) with long breaks hah

In her shoes.

Started Batman Begins.

GlEE several episodes.

WEEDS like not even a whole episode. sorry tyson

Nacho Libre.

THE HANGOVERhahahahhahahahahahah

Tried to was SPIDERMAN but by that time i was so sick of tv i just played

super smash bros all day with people. :)

SO BASICALLY THAT WAS MY LIFE ALL WEEKEND.

I went out last night for the first time for an hour and a half. It was to albertsons to say goodbye to SEAN KENNEDY. He leaves for school today WSU. So of course we spent his last night in the albertsons parking lot also where we spent his birthday!

I also got to say goodbye to Casey Casillas.. who left for spokane today. :(

Its been a good summer. One I will never forget. It sucks that its coming to an end and everyone is heading in different directions.

I guess its Life though and God always has a plan and a purpose. I am thankful for that it makes people leaving easier.

The Verse at the top of my blog wasnt because I was injured (sick) its actually cuz God really put it on my heart. The Church wants us to hang out with the church and be good kids and all that jazz but JESUS hung out with sinners. I dont want to judge people by if they go to church or not. I want to be like Jesus.....

I want to be like Jesus. Seems like an obvious goal right? I think we who grew up in the church often miss what Jesus is really like. He had dinner with a bunch of people the world would consider bad and corrupt. Jesus didnt lose who he was. He continued to be Jesus among the filthy.

I love people. Even thinking some people are filithy seems weird to me. Cuz I see people as all having some kind of good and having the potential to change and know God.

I am not niave in thinking I can trust everyone. but you get what I mean.

I read this book by this realist Christian Guy who said that he once lived in the woods with hippies for two months. He was not a hippie. He was a christian when he did this. The hippies accepted who he was and he accepted who the hippies were. He said Those were some of the best times of his life.

I wish I could be a hippie sometimes. But a Jesus loving Hipppie. I had this conversation with Heesh and Curls yesterday lol.

I plan to accomplish this goal at some point in my life. Perhaps when I first move to Australia cuz I will be poor.

Anyway... LIfe has been great and I am so thankful for what God is doing in my life and the peopel he has placed in it.

BRENNA AKERS AND SYDNEY NACHBAUR! I love the two of you so much :) thank you for your ammazing words on your blog. I cried. You dont know how much it mean to me. I could not imagine not meeting you guys this summer. Its been the best summer of my life.

Dani thanks for all the deep life talks i love it.

Ethan thanks for making me laugh.

"YOU HAVE A BLACK CAT!"

I wish I could go on and say what makes me so happy about each one of my friends but ill save that for another time :)

Have a fabulous day!

thanks for listening to me rant and ramble. ahahah

p.s. Gareth this blog is all about you. hah!

Peace Out, Girl Scout.

"O God, listen tomy cry!

Hear my prayer!

From the ends of the earth,

I cry for you for help

when my heart is overwhelmed.

Lead me to the towering rock of safety.

For you are my safe refuge

a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.

Let me live forever in your sanctuary.

safe beneath the shelter of your wings!"

Psalm 61:1-4

So I had another epiphany in my car last night. I realize I often have ephipanies in my car when alone and listening to music that is written and sang by people who love Jesus.

The epiphany goes like so..... Fall in love with Jesus and all else will follow. Simple eh? ... not exactly. See .. I have known this thought for like ehhh my whole life but it is EXTREMELY easy to get distracted. I feel that I am always distracted. I always run after God when I feel alone. One cuz I hate feeling alone and Two I know God will give me peace. I dont want it to be this way I want to be running after God all the time despite my circumstances in this world I want to be all for him living for him excited and happy to be with Him.

The fact is we think we can do it on our own.

We do most things with a self motivated mindset. We lose weight for us and push ourselves... we make our own goals and do wat WE can to accomplish them. We make friends and do what we can to strengthen those friendships. All these things in themselves are not bad. But at what point do we decide its something we need to give to God. When is a good time to start relying on God to give us peace about how we look or if we have friends?

I believe its from the start but not many people do that. Like who prays before they start a diet or workout? ehhhh I know I dont.

I think our lives would be alot more fillled up with joy and peace if we trusted God with EVERYTHING ... not just the stuff that makes us sad or lonely.

We are never alone. Its nice to know God wants me.

Its even better when I turn to him and he tells me personally.

Like this morning as I awoke not exactly the best morning ever... feeling a but depressed then God gave me this scripture Psalm 61...the one at the top of this blog. It was what I needed to hear my heart was feeling overwhelmed. Now God has given me more peace... Dont get me wrong life didnt just all of a sudden turn to PEACHES AND CREAM HAPPINESS but with God you get a clear head and peace just overcomes you its fantastic.

I am not enjoying August as much as previous months this summer. Everyone seems a litttle off in august.... Maybe its cuz in the back of our minds we know its all gonna end soon... the craziness of summmer. The fun. People are gonna go to college and its gonna be sad. I will admit that two nights ago I had a pretty swell evening with a group of my friends all wearing matching white V necks sitting in the dark at playground of dreams listening to two girls we have never ever met talk about their boy problems. I laughed the whole time mostly cuz Josh Maiers comments get me every time. that Kid. Sooo he didnt have a v neck but he did have a white tshirt so he just CUT a super low vneck in it ahahah it was great! After the park we all went to Walmart and adventured around quite a bit. Brenna rode a motorized cart thing like the whole time she even raced a worker hahaha. THEN WE GOT FREE CUPCAKES! shout out to Janine the worker who gave them to us. It was a good night.

Anyway people need to get over this strange haze called august and enjoy the last month of freedom we have left until schoool starts.

On friday I went to a wedding. Grant and Kristens. They were adorable. I cried :) CONGRATS TO THEM.

I dont know if I like weddings. People say that your wedding is gonna be like the best day of your life. Maybe I just dont know until I find that right guy and get there but it just seems like so much stress for one day. and alot of money! I am nervous for when I have to make that decision. hah I know that sounds silly I am seventeen I still have lots of time and growing up to do. But truthfully there is people I know who got married at my age. I dont really think you should get married that young. I believe people can be in love at this age but you still have so much changing and growing to do wether you like it or not. Waiting always seems best even when it comes to dating... dont rush ya know. But hey what do I know :) everyone is different lol. Thats just how I feel.

Speaking of Love.. I have recently been discussing with close friends what they think of true love. If they believe in soulmates and alll that such. Some of my dear friends think there is not just one person right for you but you get to chooose. A good thought. I cant seem to try think that way. I am not sure if its just my fairytale mindset but I think there is one right person for everyone. Or at least I want to trust God knows what he is doing when I finally meet the one I will marry. haah well thats my two cents about love. Take it or leave it :) I dont mind if you disagree.

This blog has the correct name... amber thoughts. lol thanks for listening. Friday is my hip surgery I should be home frieday night and plan to have movie marathons all weekend. For sure Lord of the Rings saturday and Boy meets world season 7 on sunday. Come visit me :)