hello from cobb county!

well, it is official. i am a cobb county resident. soo crazy. i have spent the past few days endlessly working on getting everything organized and in its place...& i must say, it looks pretty dang good :). but for real..it is really strange. i go back & forth from the feeling that this is just college living to holy crap..i live here. by myself. i pay the rent. & the bills. with the money i work for. i mean, really strange. but i like it. it's gotten a little bit lonely only because i don't know too many people here yet, but it's ok :). it is slowly beginning to feel like the place where i live. katherin godwin is from here & she drove me around all day yesterday directing me to places & making it easier for me to get around here. i can get home normally, now, without my GPS! haha. but i think Caitlin Davison is going to come visit me Friday night before she goes to work at the Young Life camp, Frontier, out in colorado. so that will be fun! & then me & lindsay smith are going to go to her church & then go see HARRY POTTERRRRR. i am so excited. AND, one of my committee members brother-in-law is the manager of one of the regal theatres here so she's going to get us in free. SCORE. i'm pretty pumped.

anyways...today is suppose to be my first official day of work. HA! funny story. so, the official office hours are from 10-4 & instead of looking like a slacker i got to the office at 5 till 10 but no one was there...which i almost halfway expected. so i went & did a bunch of errands & then went by there again...no one. so i drove around to get my bearings of what was around the office a few times & all the while driving by the office quite a few times. well at 1145 no one was still there, so i went to caribou coffee that is like 10 minutes from the office. played around on there, got a good idea for another blogging thing [more on that in a bit] & at 1 i was like someone has got to be there by now. so drove there...no one. so finally i left a note saying someone call me, came to the coffee shop over by my house & i have been hanging out here ever since. so, that's my first day of work. haha. so young life typical.

but on my other blogging idea...i made a blog that is going to keep my internet-savvy supporters up to date on my life with young life in cobb county. you should check it out, i'll send y'all the link. 

anyways, talk to y'all soon. i love you much.

helloooooooooo friends.

so i'm in marietta right now in my office [woo]. it's fun. i just went & checked out the basement place, and for real..it is SO NICE. & only 200 bucks. the other place is the apartment with two leaders [one of them is actually on my team] & 363 + plus utilities a month so i think that's a no-go. number one, i don't want what happened with alana happen. way to much drama. & number two, i don't make a lot of money. haha. so i found myself making my first "big girl" decision today. i laid out my budget stuff & there is no way i could do 363 + utilities RIGHT now. i barely have any money as it is & i need time to save. SO, i think that i am going to take the basement place. it's a little further out than everything else, so that takes me away from the community, but it's okay. i'll want my alone time anyways and not to always feel like i'm on the job. so i might not be homeless anymore! YAY!

i also got to hang out with the two area directors today more, and it's getting easier. i can feel myself relaxing and it becoming more natural to be hanging around them. i don't miss jeff & kathy as much this time, which is good. God is definitely working in that way. last sunday i went to Midtown Community Church [which, if you are ever in atlanta you should definitely go to their afternoon service because it's INCREDIBLE] & we were singing this song & it was saying "come fill me up & send me out" & we kept singing that part over & over & when i closed my eyes to sing it i just could see the halls of kennesaw mountain high school & marietta flashing in my mind & then at the end it just kept repeating "i'm ready now". & i definitely felt God in that instant just be like ok...you're ready. you're ready to go to marietta. you're ready to start your ministry over. you're ready. it was a really awesome feeling. sorry if you didn't get any of that..haha...but i really wanted to share with y'all. it was cool.

house sitting is still really boring especially now that katelyn is gone. &, yes you can make fun of me for this, last night i got maaaaaybe 3 hours of sleep because i was scared. haha. i slept with the lamp on in my room. it was just so creepy down in atlanta in this little house by myself. plus, they have a creepy basement. it was just creepy. i'm hoping i get more sleep tonight & get not so creeped out because i'm becoming exhausted. other than being creeped out, i spend my days watching soap net & doing arts & crafts [aka finishing y'alls gifts...which are almost done! YAY :)]. & taking the dog to piedmont park & occasionally stalking the streets of atlanta looking for ashton kutcher. i won't be able to be this lazy for much longer though so i'm soaking it up.

anyways, i should be able to see some of y'all soon which i am SO HAPPY ABOUT. my hearts needs to see y'alls beautiful faces. anyways...y'all are wonderful. love you all very much. i'm going to go work on my support letter stuff now...

much love, me.

my beautiful friends.

so far being away from milledgeville sucks majorly. as you can imagine, knowing me, i cried for a good while after leaving. it was a sweet goodbye. a bunch of us had breakfast at waho & then i went & saw everyone off at the bus for Windy Gap. it just hurts a lot. i wish i was with y'all. i wish i could drive down the street and see y'alls beautiful faces. & just be with y'all. in fact, it aches right now. i seriously miss each & every one of you terrible.

but i know that this is life. i know that people grow up & change will, inevitably, occur. but knowing this doesn't make things any easier. i'm just ready for this feeling to go away. to get use to calling and being more intentional than i was before.

anyways..i have been house/dog sitting for one of my region bosses tom. katelyn has been here helping and we have done a lot of nothing. i have been writing my support letter and i go to marietta next thursday to knock out some work in the office [woo]. & pick out my office [woo again]. also, when i am there, i am going to this one lady's basement apartment that i might be able to live in. she'd charge me rent, but only around 150-200 bucks so that's the best deal i'd get in marietta. i'll keep y'all updated on it. it's the same lady that has been saying she might rent it out to me. it has it's own entrance, so that's good. we'll see.

that's about all that's going on in my life. nothing big, pretty slow right now. i do have a fun story from last week. i was at lunch with josh mills, and was talking about how much i was going to miss y'all and milledgeville and living within minutes of my best friends...and he was like "i don't know everyone real well in your little group, but what i can see...y'all have something real special and a sweet dynamic. i like it." of course, i replied with an "i know." i mean...duh. that pretty much means everyone wants to be us :).

i hope i see each and everyone of you soon. my heart hurts to be near y'all. i'll get use to it...i know i will. i am always praying for y'all...continually loving. you're never alone ;).

"I thank my God every time I remember you."

Love y'all.

they wanna be like us :).

wednesday during my jma team family time, we were all sittin around talking. & one of the questions i asked everyone was "what was your favorite moment with leaders this past year?" and sweet, precious freshmen amanda cobb said...and this is exact words..."well, i have really enjoyed getting to know all of the girls that became leaders when i did. i mean, when i look at erika and her friends...i just, i want that. i want at the end of college to be so strongly connected that we can't think of as each other as anything BUT family. it's encouraging and it's something i definitely want."

& it's true. i can't think of y'all as anything less than family; as my sisters. 

but for real.

y'all really are the best friends anyone could ask for. im serious. i couldn't be luckier :). my heart like bubbles over with happiness because of how thankful i am for y'all.

love y'all from the deepest parts of my heart. 

overwhelmed.

..but in a good way. overwhelmed by who God is.

i decided to re-read A Gentle Thunder by Max Lucado. it was one of the very first books i read when i first decided to follow Christ and it has some gooooood stuff in it. so i thought, hey..why not? i bet i'd get a lot more out of it this time around. i was worried that it would be all marked up [i'm definitely a marker in my books] but even the first chapter wasn't! & it is SO GOOD. so, there's proof that i'm definitely going to be getting a lot more out of this book than i did eight years ago. 

here is a little compilation of the first chapter. read on, it's good stuff. it'll make your heart go pitter-patter for Jesus :).

"good pilots do what it takes to get their passengers home. so how far do you want God to go in getting your attention? God does what it takes to get our attention. isn't that the message of the Bible? the relentless pursuit of God. God on the hunt. God in search. the Bible has a simple story: God made man. Man rejected God. God won't give up until he wins him back. & God is as creative as he is relentless. tender & tough. faithfully firm. patiently urgent. eagerly tolerant. softly shouting. gently thundering. God will whisper. He will shout. He will touch & tug. He will take away our burdens; he'll even take away our blessings. if there are a thousand steps between us & him, he will take all but one. but he will leave the final one for us. the choice is ours. please understand...His goal is not to make you happy. His goal is to make you His. His goal is not to get you what you want; it is to get you what you need. & if that means a jolt or two to get you in your seat, then by jolted. earthly discomfort is a glad swap for heavenly peace."

what a gracious & faithful God we have. mmm..so wonderful. our warrior. our safe place. He is so many things to us...& so consistent.

our last regular club was monday & it was senior club. this group of seniors MADE me young life experience here in milledgeville. & it's kinda like your first love. the group of girls that i have hung out with for these past 3 1/2 years will never be replaced. they were my first group of girls that i was so close to & shared life with. & in West Cobb next year, & for the next three years, i know that i will meet wonderful girls that i will grow close to...but nothing will replace this certain group of girls. 

but i don't think that just cause people move on to different places & different things there should be any "replacings". no one will replace jeff & kathy. no one will replace y'all. not one. y'all are my best friends, & will remain that way for an awful long time :). so get used to it. like i said that one sunday, my walk with Christ would look completely different if it weren't for y'all..& that is for the future as well. 

ok, i'm done being mushy :). 

tottles bloggers, haha.

-erika. 

helloooo west cobb.

prepare for this, because y'all probably have no idea...but...

im on YOUNG LIFE STAFF! still can't believe it. seriously.

& i'm headed to West Cobb County to be a leader at Kennessaw Mountain High School. holler.

:) & i'm going to miss milledgeville. the town. my best friends. the community. walking to places. blackbird. i could go on...but then i would cry. & then everyone would make fun of me cause i was crying for no reason. but then they would look at this i see why..but then still make fun of me. bahaha. i love them lots. & lots. & then some more :). yup.

mmmmkbye.