Faith.

I stand in awe of Your Beauty

Taken at a TCU football game

Yesterday, I was talking to my sweet friend Patty. I asked her how she was doing. She said "It's been a tough week, but I got to see God answer a prayer this week." You know you have a good realtionship with a person when they are willing to tell you everything's not "good". I said, "Yea?" She said "Yes!"

It went like this: her good friend went to be with the Lord one year ago, and Patty, following graduation, went to the big city and out on her own. Her family and friends from home are a thousand miles away in the frozen tundra of Michigan, and this week was tough being apart on this one year anniversary. Like every other day though, she woke up in her shared apartment, went to work surrounded by coworkers going about their daily lives, and all she wanted was time alone. She had a really sad day remembering the beauty and life of her friend, but she prayed to God and asked for some time alone to just sit and be with Him. She finished her long day and decided to stop by the Y for a quick workout on her way to her apartment. It was a beautiful day, so she decided to run outside. She started down the path and stumbled upon a sign that said "Chapel in the Woods" this way.

God answers our prayers in His time.

"...Lose Yourself in the Service of Others"-Gandhi

My favorite part about my job (ok, so I've said that a lot. I love lots of things about my job!) is doing work for our philanthropy The Ronald McDonald House Charities. As a collegian, we visited the Ronald McDonald House (RMH) of Greenville at least once a semester. What I love about our philanthropy is that we don't just raise money for a cause. We actually go to the RMH and do service. My Eta Xi girls and I did chores or cooked dinners for families staying at the house.



We really did do work. There's always time for a photo op.

As a consultant, I have been able to go with two chapters to RMH. I went to the RMH of Delaware with my fabulous sisters of Theta Delta and to the Loma Linda RMH with the beautiful ladies of Eta Kappa. For each visit, we cooked meals. So much fun!

Baking cookies with Theta Delta





Cooking Spaghetti with Eta Kappa. Big Day.



Also, a part of our philanthropic efforts as Alpha Dees is our annual Lion's Share Challenges. Now, this might be a new phrase for many of you, but let me be the first to introduce to you Alpha Delta Pi's annual philanthropy event: the Lion's Share Challenge! All chapters are doing them. They are all different events, but we're all raising money for the same cause...the Ronald McDonald House Charities. This week I've been at the Zeta Mu chapter at Appalachain State University, and today was their Lion's Share Challenge. They held a "Spring Carnival" for the community. Such a great idea! They did really well, and we had a lot of fun!

The Alpha Delta Pi Foundation is our non-profit organization which helps to provide educational and philanthropic resources for the chapters as well as scholarships and emergancy grants to current members and alumnae. Take 5 minutes to watch the video below. It's kind of incredible what the Alpha Delta Pi Foundation has done, but it's because of the wonderful women I have had the privilage to meet this year and the 105 chapters I won't visit this year that have helped make this all possible.

Gandhi said that "the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."

GO.SEEK.FIND.SERVE.

Thankful Thursdays (yes, I realize it's already Friday).

I've just been thinkin' that there are loads of reasons for me to be thankful this week. Here are a few from this week:

1. family: had so much fun with the fam at the wedding and then the ones that took me to dinner this week!
2. hour long phone calls: sometimes you just need to vent and solve world problems of course
3. country music: calms the soul every time. Who knew songwriters knew so much about my life.
4. long runs: my me time every day. Have great chats with the Big Guy and self tours of the towns I'm visiting. ps-I kinda love this little mountain town where I am currently.
5. thin mints: remember that time I sold 52 boxes to my mom. I like being on the receiving end of these things now. Because I am a product of the Girl Scouts, visit their site to see what the cookies do for young gals! Bet you'll want to buy more next time!
6. blogs: I follow some really talented and inspiring bloggers. Thanks!

Hopefully I'll be able to make this a weekly post.

Love, Love, Love.

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love."

~Dr. Suess

This was the quote used to open the wedding of my oldest brother and his beautiful bride just yesterday in Bethesda, MD. For those of you who do not know my brother, please breathe. It's not crazy or from out in left field. it.was.perfect. At first, I too was shocked. Saying weird in a wedding? What's that?! But really, honestly, it was quite appropriate. Then it was time for the ring. Well the wedding rings didn't come in due to money laundering, corruption, police activity, and the like. Ok, so I don't know the real story, but it doesn't matter. What matters is the replacements that were used. Please see below.  Notice the extremely large, LED, blue ring on Andy's hand. Deidre has a matching white one.



Priceless.

After their handwritten vows were exchanged and ya girl shed a few worthy tears, we all kicked off our wedding shoes and put on our dancin' ones. We partied until the last song and then the second last song too. I loved spending this special day with my friends and family. Speaking of, I spotted my entire family out on the dance floor at least once during the day. I was so proud!

The colors of the wedding were brown and robin's egg blue, and everything was color appropriate even down to the chocolate martinis and electric blue lemonade. Deidre happens to have a second love of

birds cute little small birds too, so those were included in the decorations as well. Super cute!

The greatest hit though might have been the photo booth that entertained guests for hours, incorporating props and as many people as possible into the little booth for six frames to create a lasting often hilarious memories for the Birde and Groom. Such a great idea!

Photo Courtesy of Budge Bean and the Photo Booth folks

When everyone had danced, laughed, and mingled long enough, we left the beautiful Strathmore Mansion and took the party back to the hotel restuarant. I had the honor of driving the beautiful Bride and her maid of honor back for the post partying.

I wish it could've lasted longer, but this lady had to get to bed early so that she could head back out on this morning. It was definitely hard to say goodbye to my family, but I'll see them again soon. Next family wedding: Cousin Sam will marry his beautiful fiance, Whitney, Next June! I've decided I love this whole wedding-going thing.

Countdown to July 16th for the Best Friend's wedding already on the way. WHOO HOO!!

Title: "All You Need Is Love"-The Beatles

First, You were like, whoa! And then you were like, WHOA!

Pi Love y'all.

Here I am in Vancouver, Canada. Yes, my job is the coolest and allows me the opportunity to travel international. Yes, yes. I'm sure some of you have those jobs too, but can you have your meetings at the aquarium? I can. Here I am with the New Member Coordinator and the Alumnae Relations Chair. We had our meetings. I provided feedback and suggestions all while visiting the fishes. These fabulous ladies of Beta Kappa chapter at the University of British Columbia took me to the Vancouver Aquarium.

We had an absolutely fabulous time. We saw the Dolphin AND the Beluga Whale show. Click here to see the live Beluga cam!
I loved spending time in the city and getting to know this gorgoeus part of the continent. I surely do hope to have the chance to come back. I hear I must go to a Canucks game and go skiing on Whistler (or just tubing).

Spinnaker, Hana and Helen doing some tricks.

Now it's off to Washington, DC (headed from BC to DC, ha!) to be in brother #1's wedding! Check the site. They are kinda cute! Can't wait to spend a few days with the fam!


Title is a direct quote from Crush the Sea Turtle in Finding Nemo.

It's the Little Things

If you're in a sorority, remember the first time you put your letters on your car?
For me,  I did it as soon as I got that bid (hope that was ok Poppie!). Finally the whole world knew I was an A Triangle II (let's be honest, I probably didn't know the Greek alphabet then. No worries, I soon learned and can recite it to you to the tune of BINGO). My Alpha Delts can understand how excited you get rolling down the interstate, passing another Alpha Dee and what all that entails! eeeee! I remember the first time that happened too. So, let's just say, it's a big day when this happens.

My Handy Work. They don't train you for this stuff. You just know.

I've been traveling for 7 months now, and I helped put letters on a new members car for the first time a few days ago. She asked me to help her! Good ole Eta Kappa aka Cal State San Bernardino for all you none ADPis knows how to make a consultant feel loved. She was just as excited as I. We wiped the window off (like my dear ole Dad taught me), lined it up with those little lines on the back of the windshield (again, thanks Dad), and then stuck that sucker on. We took a credit card to it to smooth it out nicely, and then we stepped back to see how good work. It was a big day! Welcome to the club, New Delta who is now Executive Vice President!!!

MIA: My Accent

Photo Courtesy of Southern Bells

Yesterday, I met a lady here in Southern California. We did the whole introduction thing: hi, I'm Mary Kathryn. Hi, I'm (insert name). Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Where are you from? Just on the other side of 215 (what is that?). Where are you from? Georgia. Georgia! What are you doing here? and so on and so forth. Well we were talking for about 3 minutes before the lady says, How long have you been in Georgia? I think that's an odd question so early in the game, but whatever. I respond...my whole life. She says, Where's your sweet Georgia accent? Immediately I wanted to cry (and clearly haven't stopped thinking about it since). Where did my accent go?? Did I leave it in Missouri or was it Wisconsin or perhaps Washington? It's time to put a call into brother #2.

If found please mail to....oh just shoot me an e-mail.

Can You Feel This Magic In The Air?

Cinderella's pumpkin turned mini-van? Spotted in the parking lot of our hotel

I did it! I ran my second half marathon. Megan and I met up at Disney World this past weekend to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon. We have been talking about this since the end of September, and I can’t believe it has already come and gone. It was truly a magical experience. The race route was lined with Disney characters from Lilo and Stitch to Goofy and Pocahontas. There were bands, DJs, and cheerleaders too. I got to run through Cinderella’s castle right before mile four and give Captain Jack Sparrow a high five just after mile 10. Through I don’t recommend training for a half marathon while traveling the country, I think the training kept me sane and gave me some consistency to my very flexible schedule.

So proud of Megan's first 1/2!!

True life: we love the white and blue

I know some of you think that running a half marathon seems impossible. Maybe you’ve never even run one mile. Let me tell ya, I was in your boat just a year and a half ago. I couldn’t run a mile without a stitch in the ole side; however, I decided that I wanted to run 13.1 miles (thanks to my pals Abby and Katie). You can read all about our Journey to 13.1 if you feel up to it.

No need for a white horse here. He'll just run to meet me at the finish line.

Need Inspiration? Watch this!

Blog Title: Taylor Swift's "Today Was a Fairytale"