you can find me at the KAPPA HOUSE in room 207!!!

So yesterday was room picks for the girls that are living in the Kappa House next semester! It was super hectic and everything kept switching around with who was rooming with who! Everyone was antsy because we all just wanted to know how it was gonna end up! But everyone kept saying that it will work out the way it is supposed to! So yesterday my friend Maggie Jo and I decided that we would for sure room together but we'd try to get a 3 or 4 girl room with any other girls that wanted to. Morgan Newton, a senior, got a hold of Maggie Jo somehow and said that she was interested in living with 2 sophomores next year in a 3 girl room! Maggie Jo and I look up to Morgan so much and so we immediately got so excited about it and decided to all room together! We got to pick the exact room we wanted because Morgan is a senior and gets one of the first picks! Ahhh the Lord is SO faithful and constantly reminds me that He has a FAR better plan for me than I could ever imagine! So stinkin' blessed to be rooming with Maggie Jo and Morgan next year! Love you girls! Watch out world because here comes ROOM 207!!!!!!

PEACHY KEEN!!

So this is my attempt to be Pioneer Woman so don't judge to harsh if I'm not as legit (http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/ is my favorite blog EVER)! When I was in Tucson over spring break Louie and I experimented with something he saw in a cooking magazine! It ended up being a total success! SO YUMMY!! we had it for breakfast but its kind of like a dessert too :) aka the best kind of breakfast! This is the "not exact measurement" recipe!

What you need:

-2 ripe peaches

-1 package of Pillbury crescent rolls

-Brie cheese

-Brown sugar

-Cinnamon sugar

-Cream

-butter :)

**FIRST preheat oven to 375

1) Cut the peaches in half and scoop out the pit and a little of the center to make room for the brie.

2) Pack the brie in both sides of the peach

3) Put the peach back together with the Brie now in the center and wrap (approx 3) triangles of the crescent dough around it until the whole peach is covered.

4) Roll it in a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon sugar

5) Place on greased cookie sheet. TIP** we had extra dough so we made a little base so they wouldn't roll around :)

6) Pop those babies in the oven for for 10-12 minutes at 375

7) While that is baking we made this DELICIOUS sauce! Throw in some cream, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon.

8) YAY they're done baking :) golden brown goodness! But hold up... we're not done yet!

9) Drizzle on yummy sauce! Is your mouth watering yet?!

HOW ABOUT NOW?!?!!? Gooey-sweet-peachy-make ya black out for a sec-delicious masterpiece!!!

aaaaand 5 seconds later.

A special thanks to Louie Christensen's for his outstanding hand-modeling in this photo shoot.

Have an lovely Sunday! Go share some Jesus :)

happy.diagnosis.anniversary.farewell.kidney.birthday

Wow I don't even know where to start on this post.... its crazy to think that a year ago I was in the doctors office finding out that I had a cancerous tumor in my left kidney. I can't believe it's been a year! Part of me feels like it was an eternity ago but the other part of me feels like it was just yesterday that my diagnosis was this scary news that I didn't know how to deal with. Last night I went back and read my very first blog post (you should read it too). It was such a crazy flashback to know exactly what I was feeling, fearing, and praying when I was writing it and now I'm on the outside of that trial looking back. When I was in that deep it was hard to see an end to it all. It's amazing to reflect on how the Lord has strengthened and grown me in the past year. It's definitely been a year of change and growth!

One of the ways that I've grown is through prayer. I've learned how important it is.... how powerful it is.... how it changes your walk with God. My mentor from KC, Stephanie Donyes, gave me the journal, Praying God's Word by Beth Moore. It is still apart of my quiet time and has transformed my prayer life! I've learned how important it is to be in constant communication with God; not only for the sake of talking with Him, but it also keeps your eyes focused on Him constantly. I believe that God healed me through the power of prayer. It wasn't the power of "people keeping me in their thoughts", but it was the power of people keeping me in their PRAYERS! I am so thankful for every single prayer that mentioned my name to God because He listened and answered!

Another huge thing that I learned was the real presence of the Holy Spirit. So often we focus on the characteristics of God the Father and Jesus Christ but I feel like we forget sometimes the movement of the Holy Spirit. I can account almost everyday when I was sick how the Holy Spirit moved in someway and provided me with the exact hope, encouragement, strength, or grace that I needed that very moment! You can't help but be in awe of God when those things happen.

Fellowship is another way that God changed my life a year ago. I was blessed with an awesome group of girlfriends that I studied scripture with and prayed with and walked with. That was as far as my view of fellowship went. But when I got sick, God rallied His people around me. People that I had nothing in common with and didn't know personally at ALL joined in fellowship with me because of our bond in Jesus Christ together and encouraged and strengthened me. AHH so cool how God can bring together people like that!

I know this post is a little heavier than my more recent ones but I feel like it was an awesome opportunity to reflect on how God has moved in my life in the past year!

And thats the way the cookie crumbles :)

Hey look I actually blogged today!

Son of a gun!! I was doing so good at blogging regularly! I have fallen back into the pit of bad bloggers! GRR! I would like to take a moment to make a formal apology to my readers (which probably don't even exist anymore haha). Alright, well now that we have established that my blogging consistency BLOWS I think we can move onto more exciting topics!

Well after having 9 DAYS off of school (thats right... COUNT EM) due to a major dumpage of snow in Fay-town it is kinda nice to have a consistent schedule again. Last weekend I went home to KC because Louie was coming to visit, Dalton and his gf Emily were in town, aaaaand sweet little Meggles got her wisdom teeth out! Yep, it was a parTAY at the Phillips house!!

Louie showing off his mad drawing skillz on the iPad... and mama phillips gettin her leafy greens for the day!

Grandma and Grandpa approved of me and Louie's quiche!

Miss Meggy P lookin' rockin I-C-E

Louie and I made din-din for the fam-jam saturday night! Mahi mahi with homemade mango salsa, asparagus, berries with mint, and kraft mac and cheese (that was megan's addition) haha!

and now I'm back at school eating pad thai from a box... mmm this is culinary art of a college student! I am also currently accepting care packages ;)

peace.love.simply asia.

***sNoW dAy***

Last week we had two snow days on campus so a bunch of Kappas went to my friend Courtney's house to sled! I lugged my new camera around which I was beginning to regret at first but I ended up getting some cute pictures! Thought I'd just share a few :)

once upon a time i went to tucson...

I apologize for taking so long to post about my trip to Tucson. Everyone has been asking me how it went so I think it's about time I blog about it! I think the simplest way to describe it is to say that it was a whole week of constant F-U-N! I apologize for my kindergarten vocabulary but that is just the word for it! It was a vacation for me. It was 65 degrees and sunny the whole time (KC was having a blizzard at the same time)! I was completely taken aback by the beautiful mountains, palm trees, and HUGE cactus! It is such a gorgeous city! I was absolutely SPOILED rotten the whole week! Louie took me to so many cool local restaurants (confession: I had an affair with this sandwich),

he showed me around the University of Arizona campus, he took me to the Arizona v Cal basketball game (we won 73-71 so stinkin intense), lots of date nights, we went hiking in a beautiful canyon where I saw a mountain lion... on a danger sign,

watched breathtaking Arizona sunsets, went golfing and.... ok let me pause on this golfing thing for a sec because I have an announcement to make.... I, KATE PHILLIPS, AM GOOD AT GOLF!!! And contrary to what everyone says, Louie was NOT just giving me false flattery thank you very much! haha! I don't know if I've ever mentioned this but Louie is an AMAZING golfer (like "watch out Tiger" good)! So he wanted to take me golfing once just for the fun of it... after my first time I loved it so much we went 3 more times! Apparently I was impressive (the farthest I hit it was about 175 yards... which, according to Louie is really good for a beginner)! haha I don't mean to boast but this is kind of a big deal for me because, if you know me at all, I am the farthest thing from "impressive" when it comes to athletics! PEOPLE, I HAVE FOUND MY SPORT!! haha! I'm sorry if this sounds cocky but I am honestly just shocked that "Kate", "golf", and "impressive" ever made it in the same sentence! So my next move is to start up an awesome collection of argile... just kidding... sorta!

But on the other side of the trip I got to spend an entire week with Louie's family and friends. This was my first trip to Tucson and it was such a blessing to be able to be in his world. I was immediately warmly welcomed into his family's home and just fell in love with them. I even got to spend time with his grandparents who prayed over us, which was so touching to me! Honestly, one of the sweetest, giving, Jesus-lovin' families I've ever met! I was blessed beyond words to be apart of their lives for a week! Getting to meet and hang out with all his friends was such a blast as well. It was so funny to realize that if we all would have gone to the same high school as me and my friends we would have all been really tight!

Louie and I joked about how this was the official full integration into each others lives haha.... but it really was! I hope you enjoyed the obnoxious amount of pictures I decided to include! I just think that showing my trip does more justice than telling it!

the end.

BOBS???

So today I'm in shoe carnival and as I walked in I saw a front display of TOMS and got excited that shoe carnival would sell them but as I got closer I noticed the huge sign that says "BOBS by Skechers, Every pair gives a pair to a child in need". My eyes got all bug eyed as I picked up one of the shoes on display. WHAT THE HECK?!?! It was the same EXACT shoe as TOMS. For some reason I this feeling of bewilderment and a little anger. I started thinking, "They completely copied them!! Thats so dumb! They just want to copy a successful business model and tac on philanthropy for the money!" I immediately called Louie to tell him how crazy I thought this was. I was freaking out telling him about it and his first response was, "Well thats awesome that more kids in need get shoes." SMACK! Wow thank you God for adding a little taste of perspective to my life. Who is supposed judge the motives of the heart??.... eh not me! My job is to give praise to The Provider that used a huge shoe company to provide children in need with shoes. It got me to thinking about how God is never limited to who He can use to accomplish his plan. We can't judge others and say that they could never be used by God in that way because they're not a believer or they are not "good enough". And on the other side you can't tell yourself that your inadequacies are too great to be used by God. What a valuable nugget of truth from God. So thankful for a boyfriend that loves the Lord so much and gives me loving correction when I need it :) 1 Peter 1:3! So yet again I am reminded that it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; therefore I must be stripped of the flesh DAILY! Even when my flesh has a passionate loathing for Skechers for making those ridiculous Shape-up shoes (I apologize for my sassiness if you wear them- if they tighten your hiney, then more power to ya girlfriend)! Hope you have an awesome weekend!