Austin Roadtrip

This weekend was much needed. It was one of those unplanned, very disorganized, highly spontaneous best weekend of your life kind of thing. Saturday morning, I embarked on the 2 hour drive to Austin, Texas at about 9AM, windows down and OneRepublic’s new CD “Waking Up” blaring through the speakers of my very un-reliable black xTerra that I love. My mom always jumps for joy-(sarcasm) when I take un-planned road trips, since it is always a gamble to whether or not my car is going to make it. I think this adds to the adventure, although I would hardly know what to do if my car broke down on the side of the road, which has happened before. I also had a Route 44 cherry-limeade from Sonic in hand, which upped the success chances of this trip by at least 10 times. There was not a cloud in the sky, it was 75 degrees and I just drove, by myself, screaming the newly memorized lyrics of “All the Right Moves”. I love driving by myself—(for 3 hours or less at a time, and only in good weather). It’s a time that I really treasure, and I get a lot accomplished emotionally. Anyways I really needed the get-away, and who better to do it with than two of my bests, Beef and Meg. Here is my weekend re-cap:

1. Got to Austin, ate lunch, & went to a house party to watch Dustin, Beef’s boyfriend, dominate at beer pong. And when I say dominate, I mean they made it to the second round and then lost. Apparently the swim team was throwing this party to benefit…I don’t know, themselves? It was a huge beer pong tournament where every team had a perverted team name. I stood at the bracket for close to 20 minutes just laughing at them. “Ginga ninjas” is my favorite blog appropriate team name. They were also cooking crawfish, but since I hate crawfish, that didn’t add anything to the party. We only stayed there for an hour or two.





2. Later that afternoon was the infamous “Lakeway Festival” which was hardly a festival. We were told it was going to be a lot like the Quadrangle Festival—outdoors with lots of activities to participate in. No. It was more of a Senior Citizen Sing-Along barbeque dinner/geriatric nursing home western party, fully equipped with a Texas History questionnaire. I knew one answer—the Texas tree which is the Pecan tree. I did not get a prize or even a piece of cake for knowing this, which I thought was unfair. Anyways there were 65+ year olds everywhere, dressed in their most impressive Texas pride outfits. We saw shiny belt buckles and cowboy hats that were bedazzled with rhinestones and feathers. And boy were they happy to see us. Dustin was in a contest of who could eat a 72oz steak which is disgustingly huge. He did not finish. No one did. I think its impossible, although the overweight cook said that it is not. Anyways we barely made it to the bathroom because we all almost peed in our pants from laughing. I may or may not have earned myself a six pack from this experience.





3. That night we went to eat and then out to 6th street because Meg had never been there. We met half of the soldiers from Fort Hood who then latched themselves to us like leeches for the remainder of the night. One particular dude named Joshua had a swell time pretending to be my boyfriend, and taught me some sort of sock hop on the dance floor. We found out later that he was actually quite the creep, and it’s a good thing we made a run for it, eventually losing him in the mass of drunken people trying to find cabs at 2:30AM. Meg's leech was a larger man in an arm brace. He had a sick nasty scar. And Beef was instead, trying to painstakingly explain her outfit all night, which in my opinion was something Tara Lipinksi could have worn in her ice skating debut at the 1998 Winter Olympics. She never succeeded in this venture.





4. Bright eyed and bushy tailed at 8:30AM the next day, I drug Beef and a cursing Megan out of their beds/air mattresses to prepare for the day’s float trip. I really wanted to be on the river during the good sun, which according to Google research is 10-2pm. We did not make it. Anyways we hopped into the freezing Comal River about noon, and floated until 4. This may or may not have been the best day of my life. An unfortunate battle with the tube chute cost Megan a pair of Nike Tempo shorts, and also provided her with a sore throat from swallowing an unbelievable amount of water after a fat hairy man convinced the two of us to brave the tube chute minus tubes. They call it a tube chute for a reason. Later in the day we almost died again, as we missed the turn off for a quiet and gentle float, and instead went face first off a waterfall. What really hacked me off though is that there were at least 15 people around us who failed to warn us of our looming death. I was further ticked when I was caught below the current and all I could hear was Megan screaming her lungs out for me to get her tube. Meg, I cant breathe, and I am brink drowning here, forget the tube and get me out of here. I love her.






5. After being drained from the sun, we got sandwiches and sat outside in the sunny park. The it was another two-hour drive back to College Station with the windows down. Only to get home around 7:30PM and essentially walk straight to my bed. Exhausted beyond reason I crashed on top of my covers with my swim suit and clothes still on to conclude a great weekend.

Back to school for 2 more weeks, then I am done forever. PRAISE THE LORD.

Sunshine On My Shoulders

As it stands, I am blogging from a poolside chair. Talk about joy in its finest. The song “Sunshine On My Shoulders” by John Denver comes to mind hence the title of this post. God decided to show me that he loves me today by making it 75 and sunny in College Station, my definition of perfect weather. Why I think I will be able to survive the Colorado winter next year is beyond me. I shiver when it’s anything below 50 degrees. I am doomed. I really love God for pretty weather; it is one of my favorites of His gifts. I smiled when I woke up to the sun shining in my eyes at 7am, that is saying something.

Becca and I got to the Rec pool today at 10am to catch some rays. Game on. We are currently in an unspoken tan-athon, and she is winning...shocker there--good luck with your skin cancer, Becks. Its a good thing I am not above cheating in this race by going to fake bake at Darque Tan…I feel its only fair since I have class during the day and she does not. She does not agree with this theory. Winning is key here, though, so whatever it takes. Here is why I love laying out with Becks. We both brought our bible studies, bibles, pens, highlighters and scripture books; our stuff sprawled everywhere. Every 5 minutes we will find something: a verse/a convicting statement from Beth Moore/etc, and of course we feel the need to read it aloud to each other. We spent 10 minutes straight “one-upping” each other on good advice from the bible. I love that I can have a serious conversation about the Lord with her and end up in tears from laughing so hard. Sometimes we end up in tears for other reasons like being overwhelmed at how messed up we are and how faithful God is to save. Today, this was my favorite: Becks found something that I needed to hear in her Beth Moore-Daniel bible study. The scenario went like this:

“OH my gosh Ally, listen to this…this was written specifically for you.”
(then she read it aloud…I would type it but it was long and I didn’t memorize it. It said something about being obedient in the small things, even the things that you don’t think are a big deal, because God is trying to prepare you to be obedient in the big things. Becca knows the part of my life that I like to avoid when it comes to being convicted and she loves reminding me that it is sin. $150 dollars says I receive the quote again via text from her sometime later this week. An extra $50 says that it will come at a time when I am struggling in my sin, and the Lord will use it to convict me. He is so faithful about using Becca for things like this.)
“Crap. Yeah that is definitely God talking to me huh?”
“Yeah Ally, I told you. I am writing your name beside this right now in my bible study. You know what, I will just read it to you one more time. You need to hear it one more time.”
“Thanks yea, maybe twice actually. Go ahead.”

Haha we died laughing, and she really did read the entire paragraph 3 times out loud and sentence by sentence pointed out the things she thought were really important for me to hear. Thank you Becca, for being so faithful in accountability.

Last night, we were talking about how we are the luckiest girls at A&M. Our reasoning? Let me tell you. In the past 3-5 years God has essentially crippled us. He has been faithful to shut our mouths, crush our pride, and give us the tears of a broken life. We have both been so quick to move instead of listening to Him, but he has allowed our worlds to fall apart before our eyes in order to remove our idols and woo us back to our first love. Even when we have forgotten Him, He has not forgotten us. He drew near to us when we had all but given up, for example-times when I was in the fetal position in the floor, pathetic and helpless. He has destroyed us in order to redeem us. And I am FOREVER THANKFUL for this display of his grace. It would have been far more un-loving of Him to let me remain in my sin, and God knows I was deep in it. Beth Moore says it like this:

“There is nothing that can make God stop loving us. God is love. Love is not only something God does, love is something God IS. God would have to stop being God to stop loving. Only the places that we allow the love of God to fully penetrate will be satisfied and, therefore, liberated. God stands by us until we are free. He uses various forms of discomfort to woo us to cry out to Him, but He never forsakes us. God is the only One who is not repelled by the depth and length of our needs. No matter how long we have struggled, God is not giving up on us, even if we’ve drained all the human resources around us dry, He is our inexhaustible well of living water. He may allow the life of a captive to grow harder and harder so she will be more desperate to do what freedom in Christ requires—but He will never leave her. The measures God takes to woo us to liberty may be excruciating at times, but they are often more powerful evidences of His unfailing love than all the obvious blessings we could expound. Few truly know the unfailing love of God like the captive who has been set free.”

I could tear up reading that. It is so true, and that is just too much. Anyways back to why we are so lucky. Although God loves us more than enough to satisfy every desire in our hearts, he has given us a group of friends this year like none other to walk with, to comfort us, to laugh with, to cry with, to run towards the cross with. No one has friends like we do. I look around and see a lot of people who have more friends than me, but nobody has the quality of friends that I have. Oh I am so very blessed by the friends that I have made here in my senior year at A&M. We both realized that God PROVIDED these friends when we finally decided to be obedient to Him. When we CHOSE to believe His truth over Satan’s lies, He did what he said he would do. Why does this shock us? He is FAITHFUL. And let me say, we both see a light at the end of the tunnel. GOD IS GOOD.

Speaking of the greatest friends in the world, the infamous Laura Grubb, Rita & Erin O'Connor, Alex Feagin, & Lauren Wood alongside some of the boys just walked in to join us in the tanning festival. Alex is already in the pool. Grubb is sweating profusely from biking here, she’s wearing vans and as always, looks like she biked straight from California. Rita thinks she’s going to study yea right, and Lauren of course looks the cutest. Today is the greatest day ever. I am so happy. Time to take the headphones out and socialize, thanks for your help though Christy Nockels, you are always so greatly appreciated. I will leave you with this: be obedient to Christ...and yes, even in the small things that you think are not a big deal. He is faithful and so worthy of your whole heart. And be so very thankful when he blesses you with cool people to walk through life with. Even just one person can make all the difference. Believe me, I would know.

"Come Thou Fount"

"Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy, never ceasing call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it, mount of Thy unchanging love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I come. And I hope by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God. He, to rescue me from danger interposed His precious blood.

Oh to grace, how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be! Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. PRONE TO WANDER, Lord I feel it, PRONE TO LEAVE THE GOD I LOVE. Here's my heart Lord, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above."

Well I was just listening to David Crowder's acoustic version of "Come Thou Fount," as I like to flood my room with Christian music in the mornings. It starts my day off the right way, with the right thoughts. However the lyrics in this song, I know a little too well. "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love." This is so true, and so so sad. It takes my constant and daily surrender of my sinful nature to come back to the cross and lay my inadequacies at the feet of the King. Why am I/are we so prone to wander? God proves his love for us daily, all the time, and then he goes as far as to tell us about how much he loves us in his Word. His never ending, never changing, ever present and unfailing love is offered to us in infinite proportion, and yet there are many days when we say "um, no thank you". WHAT is wrong with us?

I like the verse that says "Bind my wandering heart to Thee" because it makes me think of essentially handcuffing myself to Jesus, so that I have to go where he goes. Metaphorically that works well in my head. I think that's what I need most days. Who am I kidding? That IS what I need, every day. Often I feel that things would be so much better, so much easier if Jesus could just come hangout with me so we can talk face to face. Savannah says that would probably turn into a sleepover, because there would be too many questions for just a dinner date. That would be fine with me.

I am so much of a miserable failure apart from God, and yet He loves me the way I long to be loved. The way that nobody else can. "Agape" love is how the bible describes it. The only perfect love. Proverbs 19:22 says that what every man desires is unfailing love. I agree with this. I just don't understand my own heart and why it refuses to do what is best for it. My mind keeps telling it that dependence on God alone is the only thing that will ever satisfy it's deepest desires, and yet it constantly seeks other remedies to the gaping hole that resides at its core. My heart is dumb, and extremely stubborn. It is like a reluctant toddler and the fact that I cannot control it just really ticks me right off. Becks started a scripture flip book a while back after Beth Moore told her to, and I decided to take Beth's advice too. I am almost finished with filling it with scripture that applies to me. Funny that the ones that most apply to me are mostly verses from David in the Psalms when he is like "Hey self, why do you suck?" ..."Why are you downcast, oh my soul" comes to mind. I have been beating myself to death with truth in scripture, and I am actually starting to see a few results. Maybe my wandering heart eventually will agree with my mind and start working on the same team here. God knows that is what I am praying for. I guess the answer lies in the final verse: "Here's my heart Lord, take and seal it for thy courts above."

Blogging: Like or Dislike

I am not sure I want to be labeled as a blogger. I do not know that I even want to have a blog. It seems a little cliche these days, and cliche is something I know I don't want to be. However as it stands, the blog world allures me. Currently I am working on a blogging pros and cons list. According to how that turns out, I will either continue or discontinue this adventure in cyberspace with you.

This weekend was fun for me. I was genuinely really happy. I didn't think much about all of the weighty decisions that are looming ahead of me, and instead I just lived in the moment. The moment was good this weekend. Theta 5K and my family was in town for parents weekend, which for the Rice's means PARENT weekend as in singular. So my mom was here. And brother. However, the 'moment' always seems to pass me by quicker than I would like it to. Before I jump head first into the depths of my being, vomited all over the world wide web...I should probably introduce my starting lineup in life per say, the characters that I will be referring to on at least a weekly basis. Lets begin:

Brittney Rice. My beautiful baby sister....who looks a lot like me and is actually half an inch taller than me, I might add. She is my rock. My accountability and my sanity. We like to call each other our other half, and that doesn't even do it justice. She is the one person that I can not/would not live without, we have already planned to die at the same time...or would just ask that Jesus rapture us up together which would be preferred I think.

In my opinion, she is the coolest girl in the universe and I like her a lot. She is the only person I can be around 24 hours a day, every day and never get sick of. She keeps me on my toes and calls me out on my junk. And not only is she my sister, but shes also my roomie...hands down the best living arrangement of my life, keeping her a mere 2 doors and maybe some stairs away from me at all times. Lets talk a little about her. Boo is black and white. There is no grey areas with her. She has a right and a wrong, and very few things fall in between the two. I like this about her. She is very stoic and very rarely shows excessive emotion....she always plays it cool. While I am on a constant rollercoaster of emotions full of hills, dips, and loops; Brittney likes to ride the mini-mine train, keeping her emotions at a near constant. She has been this way since she was born. I think she passed me in maturity when she was age 2 and I was 5. Maybe one year after this:

Things havent changed since then. Brittney will let me whine and vent to her constantly and we can basically read each others minds. She knows me better than anyone, and still likes me. I look up to her in most aspects even though I am the big sister here, but I think she looks up to me too. I am brutally honest with her and sometimes she asks that I not share as much detail, like when I get poop on my hand ALL THE TIME--(still a mystery). Brittney is firm in her faith, and constant in her walk with God. Consistant would be a good word to describe most every aspect of her life. She is very very wise, and our whole family refers to her as Oprah which is kind of sac-religious but we are just saying that people listen to her advice, seeing that she is most always right. (I learned this the hard way). Anyways, she is always willing to go along with my stupid adventures, as long as 'Friends' isnt on, because in that case you would have trouble prying her off the couch. Anyways God really knew what he was doing when he made us sisters. She is my better than best friend in the world, to which there is no comparison. We are the perfect team.



Savannah Rowland. Savannah is my best friend, the most original best friend I have ever had, and also the weirdest person I know. I do not understand much of anything that she does. I met Savannah at Kanakuk last summer and to be honest didn't care much for her in the beginning. In my defense, she didn't like me either. A day of pulling weeds together during work week turned things around for us, and after discovering our common lack of enthusiasm for weeds, Tony Horton and p90x, and for people who are fake--we formed a bond and haven't looked back since. It was the most God ordained thing that has ever happened to me, and our friendship has followed suit. Savannah brings out a side of me that I haven't known before. I seem to be a lot more carefree around her, like I can breathe out and pretend that I am a kid where I have to worry about nothing. I occasionally get "little sister syndrome" though because I am slightly naive compared to her. She labeled me as her quiet friend which is weird, considering that I am hardly the quiet type. My newly developed meekness frustrates her a little as she would rather me speak in funny voices or burst into song alongside her without thinking. Regardless, I am absolutely happy and absolutely joyful when we are together. I think that is how a best friend is supposed to be.

However, Savannah and I have basically nothing in common....and when I say basically nothing, I mean we can only think of about 5 things which include: a love for Jesus, musical preferences, sarcasm, traveling/missions, and an uncontrollable desire to run away on most days. Other than that it is more of an "opposites attract" sort of friendship. She likes dinosaurs, I do not. She is lazy and hates any sort of competition, I don't sit still and thrive on winning. She is a dancer, I am an athlete. We handle most every situation totally different, as I love confrontation and she is the queen of avoiding everything. This makes things interesting to say the least. She marches to the beat of her own drum and is what you would call a "free spirit". She has a new shiny silver nose ring which I do not approve of, but she likes it, and I am warming up to it...nonetheless I love her right through it. She is always wearing way too many bracelets and frustrates me to an infinite degree, but I really love the snot out of her. For some unknown reason God has specifically placed her in my life and has brought about a friendship like no other that I have known. Christ is so clearly and obviously the reason behind us. Through Him alone we have walked through the past year together and it has been an absolute blast.

Savannah keeps me on my a-game, seeing that I never know what she will do next. Its a constant guessing game with her. She lives in Columbia, Missouri so she can attend Mizzou against her will, therefore we only get to see each other about every 2 months. That is a serious bummer, but those rare times that we do hangout are well worth the wait, a breath of fresh air, and highly anticipated with a unavoidable countdown. She truly pushes me towards the cross, makes me want to be better, and Jesus teaches me so much through her. She is the biggest blessing, and the fact that we get to walk together through this life produces an overwhelming and endless amount of praise and worship for the God that ordained it.


Megan Templin. Megan is my "best friend with no categorization whatsoever," and I like to call her my mini-me. She holds an extremely special part of my heart. We first met 3 years ago at kamp but were not close friends, due to an unfortunate misunderstanding. However, being in sister cabins exactly one year later and gave us unforgettable memories and an experience that could lead to nothing but an everlasting friendship and partnership in crime. Especially kabin search day...but that's neither here nor there, and a story for a different day.

Megan is the fastest friend I have ever made. It was an instantaneous kind of thing, and I think it happened on a bus or maybe the dock. We have a lot in common, and we handle most issues the same way. We like doing most all of the same things and I can almost always count on her when I am looking for an adventure. We share a common love for skipping class to do things like kayak in the snow, or go rock climbing with friends. Everything is more fun when you are doing it instead of class, in our opinion. Megan is kind of like another sister to me, basically another part of my family, and she fits in well. She is almost as close to my sister as she is with me, and my cousin may or may not be in love with her. I try not to go more than a month without seeing her because when that happens it stresses me out. She is a Baylor Bear but I try pretty hard not to hold that against her too often. The Lord loves me visibly through Megan. She knows her stuff when it comes to God and gives good advice, like the time she told me that this is the worst hell we will ever have to experience. Praise the Lord that this world is the worst it will ever get for us, and we have nothing but things to look forward to. Some of my favorite things about Meg include the way that she knows exactly how to love me well in my own love language. She really cares about me and does a good job of showing it. There is freedom in knowing that you are loved like that. Megan is the BEST in stressful/hard situations, and can always make me laugh even if I have been crying for hours. She seems to know exactly what to say. She loves everyone in her life really hard. I like this about her, because I think you should love as hard as you know how to and if you get hurt, well it was better to have loved. I think there is a saying that goes something like that..Megan probably knows it. The Lord teaches me about unfailing love through her, and it is such a blessing in my life. Another one of my favorite things about Meg is that we always end up doing things together we would never do unless we are with each other. Its like this mini-rebellion happens every time we hang out and it ROCKS.

Some of these things include sleeping in the back of my xterra in sleeping bags, building a campfire and form tackling each other via photoshoot, making video documentaries, being spontaneous, substituting perverted words for common every day words just so people wont know what we are talking about, and much much more. Adventure is inevitable with us, and I love it! Megan is one of those people who I know I will be friends with forever, who will be like my family forever and for this I am so so very thankful. The "friends come and friends go" slogan absolutely cannot and will not ever refer to her. She is my best friend and I plan on it staying that way for a long long time.


Becca Feagin. Oh where do I even begin? My best friend in college, and the only person that I know who COMPLETELY understands me. Becca is the only friend I have who knows my complete story from start to finish, and all the gritty details along the way. She gets my thought process and seeing that I am basically a wack job--this makes her legit. She knows most everything about me, even the dark stuff that I wish no one knew and loves me anyways. Talk about my own tiny little God given miracle.

Becks and I are on the same level in alot of ways. We are both very competitive and therefore never need to compete against each other seeing that one of us (probably me) will always leave frustrated and pissed. (*Although I am better at powderpuff) Becca and I's deep conversations are my favorite ones to have. This girl can call me out on sin faster than lightning, and by the way she never holds anything back. She sees through my crap and disregards any front I try and put up. Becks is the most honest person I have ever met, and AUTHENTIC as heck. She tells you exactly how she feels and exactly what she thinks and it is my favorite thing about her. I love that she knows exactly who she is, owns up to her flaws, and works hard to seek the Lord's strength in healing the heart issue behind the sin.

Becca loves the Lord harder than anyone, and I look up to her in that aspect. I aspire to be a little more like her when it comes to pursuing God. She pushes me to be a better person and to flee from sinful desires. She encourages me to live a life radically sold out to Christ and to not live ashamed of the sinful nature that I used to walk in, but to instead give all glory to the ONE GOD who can save anyone. The Lord renews my love for her daily as we have been on a heck of a joy ride for the past 3 years. I am always anxious to see how the Lord will glorify himself through us next.


Brittany Forrester. Better known as "Beef"...long story that is based out of 'Fitness Camp' circa 5th grade. Beef is my best friend from high school, "HBF" as we like to call it, but let me explain. While actually IN high school, we were of course close friends, but not best friends. SINCE high school and the inevitable fall-out of friends there after, Beef and I have become closer and closer. We are the only ones who opted out of thirteenth grade at Arkansas to go to Texas universities, and would later question our decisions seeing that school is like 10million times harder down here.

Beef is the anti-Ally. She is perfect and pretty and rarely spotted without makeup. Even when she is dressed comfy, she looks cute. Dont you hate those people? She looks beautiful when she first wakes up, in her Victorias Secret matching PJs, and Coach slippers. She does pageants and wears heels on a daily basis. Beef graduated in December from UT with a degree in Communications, and now has a baller job in Austin where she lives with her perfect-for-her boyfriend, Dustin. Beef and I have known each other since the 4th grade when I had glasses and braces and usually had my hair slicked back in a pony tail (sick) glittered up on the eyelids, and she was rockin the bob haircut, or as we like to call it--the 'Haley Fomby' cut. Definitely friends through the awkward stage although she hardly went through one.

Beef is hilarious and she doesn't even know it. She is extremely blunt, says what she thinks and doesn't put up with anyone's crap. This might be my favorite thing about her. She is straight forward and never compromises who she is. I think this is what I look for in friends. I have SO MUCH FUN every single time that I am with Beef. We enjoy making fun of our high school decision making skills (mostly mine) and we like reminiscing the 'good old days'. Maybe we are too young for that but we don't care. I love this girl with my whole heart and I love her for exactly who she is. Pageant ready and perfect, while I am grunged out and always in sweats. Gotta love standing next to her in pictures, her in all her brilliance. Thankful doesn't even cover how happy I am she is such a huge part of my life.


Well there you have it. My 'starters' in this game of life. These are my rocks, my 'go-to' girls and my absolute favorite people to be around. I guess we will see how this blogging thing goes, I am not making any promises. Until next time!

Ally :)