I was driving to work today, cruising past Boone Pickens Stadium, and instantly I became overwhelmed with happiness and excitement. As you may know, I'm a die hard-first person in line-bleed orange OSU fan. Since I am sadly (seriously holding back tears) entering my final year as a student here, I have decided to rank my top OSU sports moments of my college career.

1. OSU Basketball beating the #1 ranked team Kansas. There are no words. Every player was on fire. I remember before the game, the Kansas players were warming up and of course, an OSU fan was talking trash and this Kansas player walked up to him and said "I'm sorry, what are ya'll ranked?" HA! There was fury on the court before the game even started. When the final buzzer sounded, everyone stormed court (Matt picked me up like a sack of potatoes and ran with me, somehow I survived!) and we were all on such a high. I made my way over to KP and did the alma mater with him! Hands down best OSU game, ever.



2. Dez Bryant being drafted to the Dallas Cowboys. I was sitting in an autotorium at OSU watching my little perform in the musical "Thoroughly Modern Millie." I remember sitting with my phone clutched in my hand waiting on an update whenever my phone exploded with dozens of text messages saying that Dez Bryant was drafted to the Dallas Cowboys. I nearly fell out of my chair. Now, I know Dez has had a few bumps in the road in his professional career, but he is young and still learning, so cut him some slack.





3. At the Texas vs. OSU game my sophomore year, Jordan Shipley was about to kick off whenever I yelled "Suck it Shipley!" He heard me and turned around. That was so mean of me! I usually do not talk like that, but I was all wriled up. Jordan Shipley, if you're reading this, I'm sorry. But this was still my #3 moment.

4. Free-Dez. We were celebs that day.



Well, there you have it! God bless OSU!

Hidden Treasures

Hello, bloggers!

If you didn't already know this about me, allow me to enlighten you! A side hobby of mine is being an amateur talent scout. If I was not pursuing the career path that I currently am, I would likely love to do something in the music industry. To me, music should either be black or white. Unfortuneately, the demise of country music has led to a grey industry. Musicans either have it or they don't. Since the past ten years of country music has been 95% trash, I have sought YouTube to find new treasures. As you probably know, YouTube is filled with millions of people covering mainstream songs. There is a delicate art to successfully covering a song, and so few get it right. Here are my basic guidelines for avoiding embarassment and achieving stardom.

1. I feel awful saying this but, a good singing voice is absolutely imparative to a good cover. That being said, some people try to over emphasize their country twang or change the natural pitch of their voice-- and this just never works. Your singing voice should be natural and unique to you, it should be effortless. The viewers will know if you're over-doing it.

2. Make the song your own! There is no point to covering a song if the melodies and tones are exactly the same as the original. People are just going to listen to whatever artist recorded it in the first place. Keep in mind that inevitably, your cover is going to be either better or worse than the original. One or the other, no grey area. So make it better! Make it your own and make it different.

3. Don't stray too far from the orginal song. Keep it close with your own personal touch.

4. Don't be cheesy. Don't smile and wink and dance and make hand gestures. Once your famous and in front of a crowd, that's your perogative. But whenever your alone sitting infront of a video camera, just sing the song and be done.

Follow these simple rules and you are guaranteed to successfully cover a song!

Need proof? Watch this video. This person did it RIGHT. Simple, effortless, perfect, better than the original.


This girl, although she may not seem to have that 'wow' factor, did really well with this song. You can tell it really came from her heart, and she has a really good tone to her voice, making this cover unique to her. She just sat there and effortlessly sang the song. Perfection!


Now, go find some treasures!

-C

It's the hap, happiest season of all.. SUMMERTIME! I am officially done with my third year of college. I'll be in Stillwater all summer, working and starting a very important application process. If you're one of my close friends, you know exactly what I am talking about! I'm a little overwhelmed with all of the "business-ish" things that I have to accomplish in the next few months, but I have promised myself that I'll squeeze in some time for some fun in the sun :) Here are a few things things that I am looking forward to in the next month or so:

Seattle w/ my mama

My Big's Wedding

Moving

Speaking of miss Leslie, I already miss my friends so much :( Luckily, our COV group made an awesome summer bucket to complete :)

Hmm, what else is going on in my life?

Oh yes, 'tis Mother's Day! I have the most amazing, funny, beautiful, wonderful, smart, loving mother! She is seriously superwoman. I don't know how she does all that she does-- but I love her to death! I'm so thankful to have a mom that invested in me, rather than investing her time and energies into her own social agendas and plans. She's awesome. Mama, thank you for teaching me all about makeup. And George Strait. And quoting movies. And The Golden Girls. And everything else that we love! Xoxox

I really have no rhyme or reason to this post...

Also, a side note. Sometimes you may feel like you're just spinning your wheels (metaphorically speaking) but it's okay. It's not always necessary to be going anywhere specific.

-C

Oklahoma Happenings.

I'm obsessed with this picture at Aspen. I mean, who doesn't want to lay on a hammock in the mountains? This weekend I stumbled upon the cutest, most quaint bookstore that I have ever seen! Much of it reminded me of Kathleen Kelly's "Shoppe Around the Corner" for all of you "You've Got Mail" fans. The store had a very wooden/rustic feel to it and was furnished with unique pieces and Oklahoma Native artwork. I instantly fell in love with the floor-to-ceiling book ladders. At the time, the only person in there was a cute little grandma who was reading to her grandkids. There was a little toy train station set up and this little boy, barely able to walk, was pushing the train around saying "Choo Choo!" It was so picturesque and perfect and refreshing. This cute little treasure would be any shop owner's dream!

That's all for now!

He washed it white as snow.

Mmmm, the two most precious words any student could ever hear.. snow day. Snow days growing up in Texas were all too seldom, maybe one every few years if we were fortunate enough. I will never forget the excitement that came with waking up at 6 o'clock in the morning, watching the news channels and anxiously staring at the scrolling screen at the bottom listing closed schools. "Dallas, Decatur, Denison.. DENTON!" For me and many others, snow days meant staying in my pajamas from sunrise to sunset and watching daytime television with my Mom. Living in the Texas heat, we never really had an abundance of warm clothes, so we had to improvise by extreme layering and wearing socks on our hands when it came to snow man building time. Snow days are fun, but the pictures are not! My sister and I always looked so ridiculous in whatever warm clothes my mom had dressed us in. The trick was not to make us look cute, but to make sure the clothes we were wearing could stand a harsh winter beating. After two Texas girls attempted to make snowmen the best way we knew how, we'd come back in, strip down at the front door where my mom would collect our dirty clothes and shoes, and then we'd just relax the rest of the day. It was every child's dream day, and I'm glad I have such good memories to look back on. No one on this earth could convince me that snow days have anything to do with weather or science. Snow days are God saying, "Take a break. Make some memories. Take silly pictures."

It's kind of funny, whenever I heard that OSU was having a snow day tomorrow the first thing that came to mind is, "YES! I can study all day!"

I still plan on wearing my pajamas all day though.

-Caramie

The Zumba Queen

HELLO :)

Well, it's officially that time of year again. Three exams next week, assignments due every other day, and a constant state of "I should be studying for.." As long as balance in between the lines of non chalant and completely neurotic, I think I'll be okay this semester :)

Among my circle of Christian friends a common question that we ask each other and ourselves regularly is, "What is God doing in your life?" This question, though often difficult to answer, is really eye opening to anyone willing to answer. I think that it is easy to forget that every second, every experience, every interaction, every conversation-- God is molding and teaching and directing and shocking us. He is dying for us to have epiphanies and revelations regarding who we are in Christ. God is not this invisible man lurking at us from heaven above, He lives in our hearts and is 'working' on us incessantly. So, back to the question, what is God doing in my life?

He is teaching me how to break cycles.

In my current bible study, "Breaking Free" by Beth Moore, she discusses something that I had never really considered before. She explains how the devil may attack us the same way that he attacked our parents, grandparents, great grand parents, and generations before them. It seems like a pretty fool-proof plan, right? He sees their weaknesses and assumes that those same weaknesses will be passed on, generation to generation. Half the time, he's right. After reflecting on how the devil may have attacked my grandparents or parents, God is begging me to stop the cycle. Don't get me wrong, my parents are the best people you will ever meet in your life, but just like any sinner, we all have our faults. Don't let the devil succeed in the generational approach to bringing us further away from God!

Continuing on with cycles, I am just going to make this short-and-sweet. My beautiful sister Lauren will be having a precious baby boy very, very soon! I am inexpressibly elated to meet this kid for many reasons, but one reason has more significance than most. Without going into too much detail, I have aunts and uncles who.. how shall I put this.. are uninvolved in my life. This is something that I cannot fathom! For the longest time I wondered what I ever did to make these people so disinterested in me, or what I could do to impress them or make them proud. But I digress, whenever I found out that I was going to be aunt, I promised my self and my family that I was going to be the best aunt ever :) God is teaching me to break the cycle! This verse always comes to mind when I thinking about breaking cycles,

"Do not conform any longer to the PATTERNS of this world, but transform yourself by the RENEWING of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve God's will. His good, pleasing, and perfect will." Romans 2:2

Isn't this great? What patterns or cycles can you see evident and harmful in your life that you are willing to recognize and break?

Anyways.. here is a plethora of other things going on in my life..

I love Zumba
I am going to run in the Remember the Ten Run
The Fort Worth Stock Show is my favorite place on this earth.. sad it ends next week :(
I'm immune to coffee but it's soothing
I see Kathleen! She's such a blessing
I cant wait for me and the mister to get our PUPPY, name still pending
We lost to Texas..
Big, twin, little.. sanity sanity sanity
Is it Spring Break yet? ;)

Break bad cycles, start good cycles, have fun, safety first, Glorify God :)
-Caramie

iPods and Blood

Hello all ;]

I recieved an iPod nano my freshman year of high school-- and I have barely used it since. The only occasion of which I use my iPod is when I'm working out, which is not that often anymore! All the songs on this thing are several years old. I never really got into the whole iPod craze. I even have an iPhone and it only has one song on it! If you've been on a college campus in the past year or two you'll know that every other student is listening to an iPod. I never understood why someone would want to listen to an iPod while walking to class or studying. To be honest, I kind of thought people looked dumb with their headphones permanently attached to their ears. Prime example, my brother. He always has that dumb thing on his person. Anyways, recently I decided to test this super-fad and break out my ancient Nano and see if I could study with it. Well-- that was about six days ago and now I'm addicted to the little thing! What has happened? I thought silence was the best study aid. I'm slowly integrating myself into the world. My next step is to put my music on my iPhone so that I can just use that instead of my Nano.

I digress,

Today my friend Jana and I went to give blood for the Bedlam Blood Drive. As we were waiting for our numbers to be called, a girl sitting right beside us passed out of her chair and fell on the floor! I started screaming "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Jana thought that a backpack had fallen on the floor--no, it was a person! It was really frightening for me, so I can only imagine how scared that poor girl must have been. When I was going to get screened they checked my iron levels and told me that my iron was a 34 and it had to be at least a 38 to donate. Sadly, I was not able to give blood, but I was able to sit and observe others giving blood while Jana was being poked. As I waited, I looked around the room to those giving blood and those waiting in line to give blood. It was pretty packed full of students, more so than what I had expected. I sat there and wondered what their motives were for taking an hour out of their day to give blood--surely not the ugly free T-shirt that they give you. Things like this--really small things-- are what overwhelm me with happiness. Last I heard, over 600 students from OSU have given blood so far this week. SIX HUNDRED! I can imagine the joy that God feels when he sees his children working here on Earth for him. As believers, it is our duty to serve our God in every way possible, including giving blood! Service is one of the biggest parts of the Christian walk-- but the act of service has been dwindled down into very specific things like donating money, volunteering, etc. Believe me when I say-- God gives us opportunities to serve and glorify Him every second of every day. Here are some examples:

1. Donate blood (Or if you're like me, and can't, be there for a friend who is donating)
2. Hold the door open for someone
3. Pass up a good parking spot to let someone else have it
4. Offer to bring a friend coffee if he/she is stressin!
5. Lend them your shovel when they are burying a time capsule
6. If you're turning in homework in class, offer to turn in your neighbor's papers as well

These are just a few ideas :) As long as we keep our eyes open, God will provide the opportunity. As Christians, we are called to be his servents. God depends on us to do his work here on Earth-- and our reward is eternal life with Him! My days that I have a service-filled heart are so much more incredibly wonderful than days where I only think about myself. Test this theory! Tomorrow when you wake up, dedicate your whole day to serving God by serving others and see how enriched your life will be!

Do your job!

-Caramie