Bows, dresses, high heels, the pinks, the purples, & just all around girly town is what it started out with. The McMillon’s were having their first little girl and everyone was pumped! Naomi Joy was born on Sunday morning & came out with beautiful dark skin & a head full of soft dark hair. She is gorgeous! Yesterday, we shopped for some premie pjs & cozy outfits for sweet little munchkin. After a time of shopping, we came back & Aunt Cat took control. I brought her in the house, immediately took her out of her car seat & held her for as long as I could. Holding her made me realize how excited I am to have my own family one day! It’s incredible to see God’s creation played out. How He created her little toes, feet, and fingers & gave her a head full of hair already. So cool! Alright, well are yall ready to see a really cute baby? Meet lil miss Naomi Joy!
Lil Miss Naomi Joy
Colts Kids Camp (Year 2)
COLTS KIDS CAMP is quickly arriving! It’s crazy to think in a few weeks, we will be tending to the needs of 150-200 kids, hopefully! ; ) I can’t wait to see how God uses us this summer & how He works in the lives of the kids and the parents. Last night, we had orientation for the parents and kids. My favorite part of last night was watching some of the kids from last summer run up to me and say “I have missed you, Miss Cafrin or Hey, Miss Cafrin!” If that didn’t help me wanna come back this summer, I don’t know what will! Seriously, I am kinda attached to these kids already! God has already definitely worked and given us about 40 new kids at camp this summer. Well, I will share more later on in the summer or after (haha) Here are a few “capture memories” from last night. Meet the camp staff of 2012!
Playing games with Miss Jenn
Showin off the new shirts!
The future: Mr & Mrs Stan Blinson
Wow, time flies! Less than a month away, my brother will be married & I will have a new sister in law! How exciting & crazy to think about! Everyone is graduating, growing up, getting married, & having kids. Well, I thought I would take some time to share some captured memories that I took from who knows when…. 
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Stan, you are such a great BIG brother to me! I can’t believe you are getting married. You are such a hard worker, care giver, and provider. You have such a big heart & are always making sure that everyone is taken care of. We have come along way. I will never forget that time you asked me to jump into the wheel barrow, after I did, you decided it would be funny to wheel it down the stairs (not funny to mom, hilarious to me!) You are always watching out for your two sisters! I am so proud of the man you have become, thank you for loving me! I love you SO much!
J, B, EC, & J
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to take the Ownby’s family pictures. First of all, let me say the Ownby’s are very special to me. I met them at my church OD last year & we have stuck together ever since. They are like my second family. ( all we need is Kaytie ) They are such a caring, loving, & crazy bunch! But I love them dearly! I have been working on their session for the past few days & love seeing all the funny expressions they have. I am so blessed to have them in my life. It’s been so awesome to be apart of their family. I am so thankful for their wisdom and advice that they have given me in the past. May God continue to use them at OD & with the people around them. Love you guys!
Meditation & Prayer
When I was reading for my class this week, two topics popped in my head. Meditation & Prayer. Am I consistently in prayer? Am I spending time meditating from my time in the Word to time in prayer? Have you ever thought of that? I immediately texted my friend and told her how guilty I felt, what a time of conviction! She agreed. We both knew we needed to spend more time in prayer and meditation on the Scripture. God has called us to pray and meditate. God expects us to be devoted in prayer.
Psalm 119:97
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Psalm 19:14
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But how do we do this? How can we always remember or pick a certain time during the week to do it?
1. PLAN.- You have to plan when you are going to do it. If you are going on vacation, you plan ahead, right?! I hope so. 
2. DISCIPLINE.- If you want to improve, you have to discipline yourself. Even when you are tired or feeling lazy, continue to stay on top of it.
3. ACCOUNTABILITY.- Grab a friend or your mentor and ask them to keep you accountable. Ask them to pray for you so that you can improve on these two disciplines.
I want to discipline myself to not only read the Scripture and be done. I am going to read the Scripture. Read it, so I get something out of it. Ask myself questions and focus on how it is applicable to my life. Afterwards, I will transition into a time of prayer and meditation. Those two go hand in hand. They are made to be together. Meditation is intake of the Bible and intake of prayer. How much joy I will have, once I discipline myself to do this. This is my plan, I pray that I can achieve it. It will be awesome to watch how my relationship with the Lord will grow, how my faith will become stronger, and how it will become daily. I pray that each of you readers will partner with me to discipline yourself through prayer and meditation. Or something that you know needs correction in your life.
Any thoughts?
2 Peter 1:3-9
This semester has been awesome. I love all 15hours of classes that I am taking. It’s awesome to learn something new each week and be able to apply it to your life. School has been difficult this semester with the amount of work given, but I am staying on top of it and getting ahead! God has been teaching me so much and I can see Him growing me in so many areas of my life right now. Recently, I have been broken over my sin. Their have been many incidents that have happened recently that got me worked up. The fact of the matter is those things were heavy on my heart and tough. It’s something that I don’t know what to do in the situation or know the advice to give. It just is what it is, you know? My mentor and I were talking through those things one night this week and she brought this passage to mind. I wanted to share it with you. I pray that it will speak to you, as it spoke to me that night. This passage shows us how God has given us everything we need to live a godly life. This was so convicting to me. I tend to always want to fix my problems and never let them go. Let’s face it, sometimes in life we are put through things that never seem to disappear. Or they do disappear and come back to haunt us. That’s been me. I have been learning that I can’t let this dark shadow hang over me anymore. God has given me everything I need to move on in life. He knows what’s going on and has got it all under control. We have to TRUST in HIM. We have to remind ourselves that He cares and love us so much that He is not going to give us anything we can’t handle. He is here for us. He wants to hear how we are feeling and what is burdening us. Give it to Him! I pray that I will continue to grow in Christ, while remembering what God has given us, so we will seek Him through the good and the bad.
2 Peter 1:3-9:
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him (F)who called us to[c] his own glory and excellence,[d] 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become(G)partakers of the divine nature, (H)having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith(I)with virtue,[e] and virtue (J)with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control (K)with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness (L)with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection (M)with love. 8 For if these qualities[f] are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or (N)unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he (O)is blind, having forgotten that he was (P)cleansed from his former sins.”
DIY projects
Happy rainy Saturday! This weekend I volunteered for our 20/20 Conference at SE. It was a great time of worship and preaching!
I decided I would spend my Saturday night creating some “do it yourself” school projects, to make school a little more fun or easier
First, I started by grabbing the 89 cents Target 1-subject notebooks off my book shelf. I grabbed the modge podge and scrapbook paper and went to town by creating new and approved “fun notebook”. Here’s a few photo booth pics for proof….
Before making notebooks, I found some bright stickies that hold your reading spot….(Pics below to explain what I’m talking about) Each Monday, I try to remember to look at my schedule and see what reading assignments I have. I go find those books, put a sticky in it and write down how much reading I have to do that week AND will write down if there is a quiz in that class. This technique has helped me stay organized and stay on top of things for school!
Well that’s my short and easy blog post for this week. Does anyone else have short techniques that have helped them? Please share!
-Catherine-
February.
It’s February already?? Crazy to think about. This year is already flying by! The weather has already confirmed that summer is on it’s way. It’s time to say goodbye to the scarves, gloves, and sweaters and say hello to tank tops, shorts, sunglasses, and flip flops. I can’t believe I leave for Tampa that soon, only one month away! HOORAY!!! I have already been through 2 weeks of classes and enjoyed all of them. It has been incredible the changes from last semester to this semester. I am talking like going from 12 hours to 18 hours with jterm, taking all 3 hour classes, taking classes that I really enjoy, it’s been a blessing to say the least. So I know you are all dying to know my schedule. So here it is. . .
Cat’s Schedule:
Mondays- Christian Growth & Discipleship, Communications
Tuesdays- Evangelism
Wednesdays- History of Ideas 4
Thursdays/Fridays- Weekend begins, NO CLASSES!! Work days/HW days…
It all started out with my first week of class. I opened the door, walked into the classroom and there they were, MOVIE THEATRE SEATS!! It was like a dream come true, I head to my next class and their are about 30 people in Communications but the professor makes it so we all can enjoy the class. Monday night we had our usual class time but at the end we all talked about our favorite Bible verse and why we liked it. After the last person was done speaking, we spent intentional time praying for a student who has serious health issues and the docs don’t know whats going on. It was an awesome experience. All the students laid hands on our brother and began to pray for him. About 5 minutes into the prayer, tears start rolling down our prof’s face, then the students , it was such a God moment. You knew that God was working in our class right then. After prayer, we gave him our contact info and just tried to encourage him. He had the biggest smile on his face, after we were done. I couldn’t stop crying, I knew I had just seen another time of how God works. I was to thankful I was able to experience that moment. So it gets better, I go to CG & D class and our prof gives us time each class day to have time with the Lord and meditate in the Word. God is really working in my life and my school. I can’t tell you how much I have been learning from the past two weeks, I have been able to apply it to my life and share with others around me. I look forward to going to class each time because you just don’t know what the Lord is going to do. Thank you, Lord for blessing me with another year at SE. One other thing, my care group went out and served the community at our local nursing home. We sang a few songs, painted the ladies nails, and just started a brief conversation with each of them. It really made me think of something so little can touch someone and make a difference to them. We hope to go back soon and get to know the senior citizens better. They gave us a few songs to sing next time we come
