Inspiration List - Impact Your World

So last night I made the mistake of going on Facebook before I went to bed. And of course my feed is full of pictures from your going away dinner last night. Which I actually didn't have any idea about until 7pm and I also didn't realize you were actually moving back East. Huge curve ball right in my face. Anyways the reason going on Facebook was a mistake is because I couldn't stop crying. Probably for a good hour. I was going to write this post then but I was really tired and thought this wouldn't help me falling asleep. 

Side note - this post doesn't follow the order I was going in but it needs to be shared now so I will resume with my regular order after this post. 

Last time our youth pastor left I was absolutely devastated. So devastated that I refused to meet our new one for a few months. I didn't want anyone to replace Jared and I didn't think anyone could live up to my expectations. (Jared if you're reading this don't worry there is going to be one about you soon!)

One night my parents decided to have our new youth pastor and his wife over for dinner, and that night I decided I wanted him to be my new best friend. 

This happened some time in the Summer of 2010. And little did I know at that time - he was going to become one of the most influential people in my life. 

Theres a statistic like 80% of all high school graduates that attend church stop attending church once they graduate. And if it wasn't for you I would be part of that 80%. 

I believe in God today because of what you have taught me. 

I don't know that I've ever been able to look at someone and say "you can see how much love they have for this," with just about everything they do. But with you its there. 100% - everything you do there is love pouring out of your heart and soul and it inspires me so much. Whenever you talk about your students I feel renewed in my love for helping them. I want to be  just like you in those moment - I want people to see how much love I radiate for the people around me. 

And how you are with Laura make my heart sing. You love her so much. And everyone knows it. The other day I got an email from you and one of the recipients was "Sweet Cheeks." It might be silly to some people but its just another example of you radiating love. One day I hope that I can be in a relationship where the love is that apparent. 

And to Laura - I have been so excited to start spending more time with you. I feel like I'm finally starting to get to know you better and I love the person that you are. I know it took some time for you to get used to being the pastors wife and having it be the super outgoing youth pastors wife probably didn't make it much easier. But I love watching you interact with your girls. You are such an amazing role model and they all have such an amazing time with you.  

I love that our youth group was called Impact. It fits you perfectly. You impacted us all so much. You told us to impact the world around us - to inspire people to be the best that they can be and to show love in everything they do. And now more than ever I can see how perfectly you lived that out. 

I have gone through many "life" moments that make you want to just give up on everything and stop having faith. But you have been there for me in all of those moments ready with the perfect advise to help me persevere and keep my chin up. 

My freshman year of college was so hard for me but coming to Impact on Sundays helped me remember how many people cared about me and how much love I was surrounded with. I was ready to give up on God, but you kept that from happening. 

I said it before in one of my posts. But I credit the church for who I am today. Without MMCC I wouldn't be someone that I'd want to be around. And right now, I can say I love who I am. And most of that is because of you. You have helped me learn to surround myself with people who are loving and inspirational. And these people are around because of you. You have so many leaders for your students and we all are there because we believe in you and your mission. You helped me become a leader and you've shown me that I too can impact the world around me by doing everything with love. 

At our most recent beach camp we talked about Mother Teresa's quote - doing small things with great love. And I believe with all my heart you did more than that. You did great things with great love. And because of that you have changed so many peoples lives. 

I told my girls at camp that they could be there during the leader meetings so they could hear you talk about your students. And how much love he has for each and every one of them. I think its incredible how much I can see love just pouring out of you when you talk about them. 

I think I could make this post go on forever. Thats how many things are going through my mind about how much you have done in my life. 

I was heart broken when our last youth pastor left. And I should've known that my heart would be broken this time as well. 

So 

Ryan Chaisson 

This one is for you. 

Ive been blessed to have experienced so many things with you. From your first dinner at an Arizona family's house to you meeting your sponsor child. 

And besides you being this amazing loving person, you also happen to be one of the funniest people I know. 

When I first met you I didn't consider you an adult. Over the years you have grown so much and even though you will always be a kid at heart, I now can see that you in-fact are an adult (you're welcome you are now officially an adult in the eyes of a 20 year old - incase you weren't aware of the fact that you were in fact an adult.)

I know you already know this but just incase you have forgotten - God has huge plans for you. Even though you have already accomplished so much in your life, you have so many more incredible journeys ahead of you. I know you have had your fair share of curve balls thrown at you. And you have taken them with a smile on your face and faith in your heart and thrived in every way. 

Everything Jesus did was traced to the root of love and with all my heart I believe the same can be said for you. 

Ryan's first beach camp - Summer 2010

I pray that you never forget how wonderful you are. 

Regardless of circumstance - you are so loved 

Overnight is here!

Are any of you Parachute fans? I love love love Parachute. And their new album "Overnight" came out today.

Im listening to it on spotify right now and I will probably buy it once I get some money for my birthday (:

So far it sounds a bit more pop-y than usual. I'm not sure if its my favorite of theirs but I'm only on my second song of the album.

You should go check it out. And if you don't know who Parachute is heres a list of songs you should listen to by them:
Words Meet Heartbeats
White Dress
Ghost
The Mess I Made
What I Know

Basically just go listen to all of their songs. They are amazing

Forever and always

Inspiration List - Second two for one: since grade two

So I met one twin in second grade
I met the other twin in third grade.

Which is probably why my whole life I could tell them apart even just but talking to them on the phone. I don't think I ever mixed them up.

I wish I had pictures of this. I'm sure if could find them somewhere if i really searched. But we did "Young Olympians" together. Which was like a little cheerleading thing. We would go to a gym at some random school and I remember going in the bathroom and playing bloody murder with them.

We didn't necessarily have the same group of friends but we were almost always on the same softball team. And when you play softball on a school team you spend a lot of time with people.

I don't think I ever really had a fight with either of them. I mean sometimes softball would cause some drama but it would blow over so quickly.

Freshman year they were kinda in my group. Not the girls who were mean but sometimes we hung out with them. And even though they were friends with the other girls too, they stuck by my side.

I think they were the people I could always be 100% truthful with about how I felt about things and not have to worry about them judging me. There are so many times where I would just sit and vent about life with them (reoccurring theme? I think yes.)

I really don't know where we went our separate ways but for some reason we did. But that doesn't change the fact that I love both of them with all my heart.

The more I think about my memories with them the more I realize how much they actually did effect my life. And now I miss you girls a lot.

Freshman year of high school 

So.
Gianna and Nicole
Thank you so much for sticking by my side for so long.

Its so unlikely for people who get along when they are 6 or 7 to still get along when they are in high school. And for some reason I was lucky enough to have you guys there with me the whole way.

I hope college has been an amazing experience for you so far. I would love to see you girls soon, because you are amazing

So much love,
Dyl

I give you some pooh

When I was around 5 my sister passed out for a long time one day and we had to have the fire department come. I thought passing out was the same thing as passing away so when it happened I went to my room and grabbed these books to give to her cause they were my favorite books.

Found these today at a thrift shop and reminded me of that little experience.

Ive been so busy

):

guys I have been neglecting you and I am terribly sorry about that. I just moved into a new apartment and with that I need to find a job closer to where I'm living cause I don't have a backyard for my dog anymore so I need to be home more to let her out.

So I have been doing that and I have been knocking things off of a super long to do list and that has left me without new blog posts.

I am going to be picking up my game again soon I promise.

Honey I'm Home

Hey guys. I just got my computer back from getting serviced. I took it in before I went out of town and had to wait till today to get it back.

Most people usually say something along the lines of "I'm so happy to be home" but really I'd much rather still be in the Dominican. Hopefully the pictures will be sent to me soon so I can share them with you guys (someone put all the pictures onto a terabyte and it ended up being around 8000 photos!!!)

My camera is broken which makes it really hard to show you guys all the wonderful thing I'd like to share with you but my birthday is coming up and hopefully a camera will be received by me.


My dog bullseye went to California for a month and stayed with my grandma. She went cause I was going to be out of town a lot and we needed someone to watch her. She is finally back and she is moved into my new apartment. I think she's a little confused about being in a new place, but I'm glad she is back.

My sister was also in California for a month doing an internship for my aunt who happens to be an editor for movies! So she had a great experience while she was there and I missed her face so so so much.

I missed y'all too.

Hope you've been having a wonderful time

xxx
dyl

MK Glam! The Mary Kay Look

Have you guys heard of influenster? I hadn't heard of it until I started my blog and I thought I'd give it a try. And within a week of joining I got sent an email saying I was going to receive a "VoxBox" - thats what they call their trial boxes - from Mary Kay.

It came with:

lilac cream eyeshadow

cream eyeshadow brush

lash primer

mascara 

and hot pink lipstick

In the past when I've used cream eyeshadow I hadn't really been a fan of it. It always seems to come off in the creases of your eyes and makes your makeup look all funky. And I usually stay away from purple colors. BUT. This eyeshadow stayed on all day. And the purple looked really good with my green eyes! I just wish I had another color I could blend with it cause I like to have multiple tones on my eye. The brush it came with was so soft and silky. I'm so glad they gave me a brush cause I wouldn't have wanted to get the cream on my other eyeshadow brush.

Ive never used lash primer before. I'm assuming its just like a clear mascara. On the website it says that its supposed to help your mascara stay on longer. The mascara seemed to have stayed on all day so I guess it did its job :p

I loved the case that the lipstick is in. I don't know how to explain it but its really cool. The pink wasn't too overwhelming which was nice. It actually matched the color of my blush really nicely. 

Ps. If anyone wants an invitation just let me know and I will totally send you one (: