the New Dabo Song

just a little clemson pride this evening :)
Apparently, some redneck Carolina fan wrote a "Dabo Song"...but leave it to some Clemson students to avenge it with "The New Dabo Song"



my favorite line is "Come, Mr. Spurrier, please throw your visor..." hahaha!

and probably the best Dabo Swinney quote I've heard (this even trumps the "dang toilet bowl" comment pre-gator bowl!)

"We're not a broken team. We're not an old jalopy, hoopty car that we put a new paint job on and some new rims; we got everything on this car. We got a six-disc CD changer, we've got a moon roof, cruise control, nice paint job. When you see this car, you're going to say, 'Man, I'd like to drive that one."

What a fun coach :)
Can you tell I miss football season already?!

what i love about sundays...

i actually like the whole day :) it's been a very relaxing one for me! Church, then a family at my church who "adopted" me and some others (Thomas Austin, Preston Stone) had us over for some great lunch....then I just relaxed with Charlie for the rest of the day...it's been great to slow down after the past week i had!

School is now in full gear - getting stressful and busier by the day! Just gotta remember that there is a light at the end of the tunnel...May 8th can't get here soon enough! This semester is gonna be tough, but I also want to enjoy my last one in tigertown, so I'm gonna try not to stress too much....diet coke and chocolate help a lot :)

Let's see what else is going on in life...I'm starting to help out with worship up here at Crosspoint (my church) and sing with them starting this coming sunday...I can't wait! If you know me, you know how much I love to sing...so that's a huge blessing to be able to help lead worship there! I definitely miss worshipping at FBC and LifePark in Mt. Pleasant though!

Also, it's been so so so good to be back in the swing of things and getting involved at FCA again...I didn't realize how much I missed it! Seriously, if you've never experienced Clemson FCA, you need to come visit me and go with me. (I could get on my soapbox and go on and on about how passionate I am for our FCA!) Or you could check out the website too. (It's clemsonfca.org) This past week at FCA the message was about suffering, and why bad things happen to good people...a question so many of us ask at some point or another. It was a great message for me to hear! Last Friday, we had to put my faithful lab Carl down...and it was crushing! He was seriously the best dog...loved everyone, was patient with everyone - and all around had a great personality and demeanor about him. We've had him since I was in 7th grade...and now I'm in 17th grade at Clemson ;)...so needless to say he was old, and it was time, but it was tough. Then this past Wednesday I got word that an old friend from home (in recent years, he had become more of an acquaintance) was killed in a car accident. So I was a bit down this past week (especially on Wednesday...which I've been advised to start skipping ;) ) and Thursday night was very refreshing! Matt, the speaker, turned the question around to ask why do good things happen to bad people. I have to admit, I have never viewed that question in that light before. It made perfect sense though - naturally, we are a sinful people. We deserved death, and nothing more - but we have been given the amazingly good and merciful gift of eternity in paradise! Why would something that good be given to people so unclean and filthy with our own selfishness? You know the answer - Jesus and HIS grace. He took what we deserved - the bad...worse than we can possibly imagine! Pretty amazing stuff. Matt also pointed out that ultimately, all suffering brings glory to Christ - which it does, whether we see it now or later down the road. I've seen that played out before, like when I struggle, I always tend to pour myself into the word and prayer...and I grew immensely in my faith. One particular instance I found that I grew more in a few months than I felt I had in a few years (and my roommate told me she saw that change too...so there's some of that glory for ya!) I'm not gonna lie though, there's still some tough stuff that I've been through that I haven't seen the glory of God revealed yet. I'll let you know when I do ! :)

So yeah - if you're wondering why bad things happen to good people...check the fca website, because they post the messages you can listen to...I promise it's worth it!


Final note, I have the sweetest puppy alive. He's snuggled up around my feet under my desk right now...think he loves attention? :)

Be blessed and be a blessing!!

grump face

Yesterday was just a plain old bad day. I was in class from 8:30 to 5:30 - in the same building. It was miserable...welcome to my wednesdays :/. Not to mention, on a campus of 17,000+ undergrads, i ran into the one person i didn't care to see at all. ever. and that was in the morning, so it sort of set the tone. then, i was in class all day, getting stressed out about projects and such...it was great. Then, I thought, ok I'll just go to Fike (the gym) to work out my mood and stress. I thought I was in luck, there was a fitness class, so I wouldn't even have to think about working out, I'd just mindlessly follow the instructor. But oh no, every new-years-resolutioner was in fike last night...so i couldn't even get in the class. So I decided to just run the track...but lasted a little over a mile before I was tripping over more new years resolutioners trying to run/walk. This is why I don't make resolutions, because give it a good month, and the gym will again be near empty in the evenings. (Can't wait!) So my frustrations were rising, so I decided to leave. I didn't feel like going home, so I went to Cooper (the library) to print some slides off for class, but can you guess what happened? Of course, the printer ran out of ink. Thank you budget cuts. So, now thoroughly frustrated/depressed/and generally on the outs, I went home. American Idol provided a brief escape from the day, and then I was exhausted and decided to go to bed. And I was then in full feeling sorry for myself mode, and then got mad at myself for pouting all day (i know, i'm a crazy person). But then, I was praying myself to sleep (as I often do, either on purpose, or accidentally...) I just got the feeling that, "Courtney, it's ok. It's ok to have a bad day every once in a while. Everyone's not happy all the time. You can't control everything. Sometimes the gym's crowded, the printer's broken, and so are some people and your relationship with them. You can't always fix your surroundings." So, then I listened to my amazing roommate's music (Emily Lynch - go find her on myspace - I promise it's worth it!) and actually went to bed at peace.

Point of my rambling: It's ok to have a bad day. It's ok to be grumpy, and even shed a few tears.

You know what else helps? Little orphan Annie...and her great tribute to "Tomorrow" :)

Being In Tune!

Goodmorning! Wow - it's 30 degrees in Clemson this morning! Where is my 75 degrees in December Charleston weather!? ;)

Anyways, I'm sittin here waiting for class to start, and I was reading my older blog...and I thought one of the posts was worthy of re-posting so yall can see it :) Again, surprise surprise, it's about music!



I just watched Rob Bell's Nooma video "Rhythm" and maybe it's because I'm a music nut, but it totally spoke to me. I thought I'd share with you his words:

"When I think of God, I hear a song. It's a song that moves me. It has a melody, it has a groove. It has a certain rhythm. And people have heard this song for thousands and thousands of years, across continents and cultures and time periods. People have heard the song and they've found it captivating and they've wanted to hear more. There have always been people who say there is no song, and who deny the music, but the song keeps playing. And so, Jesus came to show us how to live in tune with the song, that He's the way, the truth, and the life. This isn't a statement about one religion being better than all the other religions - the last thing Jesus came to do was to start a new religion. He came to show us reality in it's raw...that's who God is, that's how the song goes...

...The song is playing all around us all the time, the song is playing everywhere, it's written on our hearts, and everybody is playing the song. See, the question isn't whether or not you're playing a song, the question is, 'Are you in tune?'...

...An infinite, massive, kind of invisible God, that's hard to get our minds around; but truth, love, grace, mercy, justice, compassion - the way that Jesus lived, I can see that. I can understand that. I can relate to that. I can play that song."


He then goes on to talk about how when we're selfish and stingy, we're out of tune - and that it's possible - especially if you know a lot about the music - to get caught up in the technicalities that you can miss the pure beauty of the sounds. He ended on this quote:

"May you come to see that the song is written on your heart. And as you live in tune with the song, in tune with the creator of the universe, may you realize that you ARE in relationship with the living God."

Amen! Let that be our prayer - that HIS song be written on our heart, and that we may constantly be in tune with Him.

Nothin but love,
C

Woohoo for God teaching me/reminding me what he was teaching me a year ago!

music :)

The past couple days I've been on the lookout for some new music, and after suggestions from some pretty sweet people, It's been a success :)

Patty Griffin has some pretty great folk-ish stuff....especially Heavenly Day and Up to the Mountain. Landon Pigg is relaxing, Eef Barzelay is interesting...as well as Gogol Bordello. They're definitely unique and fun :).

BUT the best find was Lindsey Kane. I've loved her song "Measure of Beauty" for a long time, but now she has a new one called "Least of These". The lyrics are so encouraging...you really need to listen to it!

Ok copy and paste this link into your browser because i can't figure out how to do the link thing...it wasn't showing up...
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=26031973
Measure of Beauty should automatically start to play, and you should listen to it, but then listen to Least of these (it's like 3 songs below it).

Praises for a great Sunday of finding great encouraging music!

And at the end of the day, there's always some good ol' "Turn Your Lights Down Low" by Mr. Bob Marley. :)
C

Welcome!

So I used to have a blog, but I updated it for like a month...then forgot about it. Now it's been a whole year and I'm just gonna start over! 2009 should be a big year for me...graduating from Clemson, getting a job *hopefully!!*, and much more. I hate New Years resolutions, so I generally don't make them...but I really want to keep up with some people back home, and just speak words I feel like need speaking, so I'll try to do better this year :)

Plus, I just got a sweet new MacBook Pro today, so I gotta waste a bunch of time playin with it!! As for now though, it's almost 1 am and I'm sleepy.

One bit of encouragement for the evening though: "So I commend the enjoyment of life because nothing is better for a man than to eat, drink, and be glad. Then JOY will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun." Ecc 8:15

Goodnight friends :)