For this poor Americana/Who knows a little of your speech

Hello again!

Let me tell you about this 30th birthday trip though! Just like when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and like Beyonce's Lemonade album and visuals, this trip changed my life! Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to go to Venice. Not sure where this urge came from, what movie or tv show inspired this, but I have always wanted to go. From the moment I got my first "real" job, I had been meaning to get a passport and it took me 3 years, but I finally did and I headed straight for Italy. With two of my very best friends we planned and executed the best trip. Let me introduce you to the key players:

Shantel: Trip navigator de jour! Without her, we would have be hopelessly lost, because Lord knows I am terrible at directions. Literally went for a walk in my new neighborhood the other day and almost got lost.

JUST LOOK AT THIS LOVELY HUMAN BEING! I CAN'T HANDLE IT! 

Lezlee: Planner of da gods! As soon as she found out we were going she did all the research and knew all the things. It was like having our own personal tour guide. 

JUST LOOK AT THAT FACE! I JUST CAN'T HANDLE IT! 

Me: Really just happy to be here and glad that I didn't get anyone kidnapped, because I'll definitely walk into sketchy situations without any questions. 

YOUR GIRL IS THIRTY, FLIRTY, AND THRIVING! 

First stop: Rome! I enjoyed Rome, but I'm glad it was the fist stop on our trip. If we had ended here, I think I would have been slightly disappointed. I just felt the trip kept building into better and better things. Lezlee and Shantel thought that Rome had the best food and I enjoyed the history of everything. Like, I thought America was old, but Rome is literally ancient! They'd be like, before Jesus showed up, and I'd be like, BEFORE JESUS?!

I felt like I was in a Wes Anderson movie! So many beautiful backgrounds! 

Added stop: Naples and Capri! I would love to come back and spend some more time in Capri! It was so lovely and picturesque! Lezlee and Shantel didn't enjoy Naples, but I loved the gritty feel of it. And not to mention we had the wildest cab ride of our lives trying to get back to the train. Like, clearly we didn't die, but this is probably the closest to death I have ever been. It was mad exciting! Also, shout-out to all the trains in Italy, they are so efficient and fast! It's amazing : )

Capri! 

Literally my only picture of Naples, but it least it's a castle! 

Second stop: Florence and Tuscany! Yoo, when I die bury me inside an shoe store in Florence! When we were waiting for the boat to take us to Capri, a lady told us to watch out for our wallets in Florence and Tuscany. And we were like, oh yea, we've been being careful and keeping an eye out for our stuff and she was like no, I meant for the shopping. I think we all spent the majority of our money here on gifts and goods. I got a backpack and some shoes that I will treasure forever. In fact, bury both these items with me, they can belong to no one else! You heard it here first.

Also, on my birthday, we got to do a wine tour around Tuscany and stopped in all these cute little towns whose names I can't remember (ask Lezlee, she definitely knows!)

Third stop: Venice! I literally got off the train (shout-out to the trains again! This can't be said enough. They have wi-fi on them! Just #blessed) and cried. Not even out of the station and just had a total moment. And then I walked out of the station and saw that iconic city sitting on all that water and it's a feeling that I will never forget. It was the feeling of a dream coming true. I'm so happy that this was our last stop. I felt the most sense of community in Venice. We were staying very close to a school, so we saw a lot of kids. We were also staying close to a retirement home, so there were a lot of senior citizens. It was really cool to see the life of a city and how it moves. Venice, I love you.

Added stop: my fair Verona! Because I am a literature major and I of course needed to stop and see where Romeo and Juliet were hanging out. Verona surprise, surprise is gorgeous!

More added stops: Murano, Burano, and Torcello! We did a day tour of these three islands, which are so beautiful! Murano is known for it's glass-making, Burano for it's colorful buildings and lace, and Torcello, I believe Hemingway hung out here, got drunk, and wrote for awhile and, to top it all off, it's a popular spot for weddings.

In conclusion, it was amazing and I'm learning Italian for real, for real right now!

love, 

       ktv

I did some things...

Hello all!

Here we are again. Me, haven't written in like a year and life just chugging along with all these big changes. So, the last time I wrote was last year in April and it was sermon notes. The title was "Becoming Your True Self" and let me tell you, what a ride it's been on that journey! How serendipitous for that to be my latest entry, because I truly feel that this past year has been centered on me leaning into that.

 No entry of mine would be complete without lists, so let me go ahead and catch you up on all the things that have been happening since last April!

1. I finally turned 30! And got to join the ranks of other women and men in the thirty, flirty, and thriving club. One of my good friends once told me about a conversation that she had with her her friend and she mentioned that by the time women turn 35 they really come into their own. Obviously, people take their time coming into their own, but that really resonated with me. I feel that the older I get the more secure of myself I am and of my wants and needs. And equally as important, what I do not want!

 I have never been one to bemoan growing older, in fact I love it, because I do feel that I learn more and more about myself each year. I learn my faults a little bit better and I learn how to love myself that much better. And in turn, that makes me learn to love others around me a little bit better, or at least that is my hope. I never want to be stagnant, I never want to be so set in my ways that I can't learn new things and be open to new opportunities.

One of my best friends asked me, over my birthday dinner what have I learned in my past thirty years and I stumbled through some answer, because I was just so happy and tired after a full day of activity, but in a perfect universe, that is what I would have wanted to say to her. I recently read an article that said, "Part of being alive is awaiting the "revelation" of who you'll become," and I can not wait to meet that woman and enjoy every step of the way.

2. I also got to go to Italy for my 30th birthday! In fact, I think I'll do a separate post for that since there is plenty to talk about and so many pictures to share!

3. I decided to quit my job and move to New Orleans! I had been pretty miserable at my job for awhile and had a total breakdown when I was doing a one on one about my year. After that, I went back and forth about whether to leave or stay and finally at the beginning of the year, I decided to leave!

I turned in my resignation in January and wanted to be down in New Orleans by March. I had been searching for jobs there for months with no bites, so I was ready to risk it all and move down there without one. Luckily for me, I have family down here who were going to allow me to stay with them, so I didn't have to worry about finding an apartment or anything, which took a lot of the pressure off.

Well, life has a funny way of working out and I got a job offer in the beginning of February, so I moved my timeline up by several weeks, loaded at my car, loaded up my mom and dad's car, made half my family come with me, and in the midst of some snow I made my way down here. This post is about to spawn several other posts, because I feel that New Orleans also deserves it's own!

I think that about covers it! My memory is absolute trash, so these are the three things that stick out to me the most. I mean, I feel like they are pretty big ones, so sorry to all my other life events that I may be forgetting about. I'm going to leave it here and go write my other posts. See you in a bit!

Love,
                ktv 

      

Sermon Notes - 4.8.18

Good afternoon!
I didn't make it to church today (car troubles, bleh!) but, I do have notes from last week!

Sermons series: Becoming Your True Self

- Psalm 25:1
 You are fearfully and wonderfully made. The problem is, we try and live other people's lives.
- "In the coming world, they will not ask you why you were not like Moses, but why were you not yourself?"

- 2 Corth. 5:17
True self: Calm, content, wise, and unafraid
False self: self-agitated, grasping, foolish, and afraid

- Soul = where Heaven and Earth meet
Our souls, when properly formed, reflect God
Only when God is in the center will you be true to who you are

 - 2nd Corth. 3:18 - our souls have a nature to reflecting what we turn towards

- Psalm 131:2 - I am calm
- Psalm 23:1 - I am content
- Psalm 51:6 - I am wise. The person who is impatient, does not trust God.
- Psalm 27:3 - I am unafraid

love,
ktv

Four moods - Music Monday

Oh, hello there!

Been a minute since I've done a Music Monday, but Janelle, Drake, Lizzo, and Cardi have all collectively snatched my scalp continually over these past few weeks and so I had to share all their videos, because for the rest of my life, I'll be in one of these four  moods.

Django Jane - My girl said "let the vagina have a monologue" I still have yet to recover!

Fitness - "Booty vicious/Mind your business" My newest mantra. I say it every morning.

Nice For What - "That's a real one in your reflection/without a follow, without a mention/You really pipin up on these niggas/You gotta, be nice for what, to these niggas?" My next tattoo.

Best Life - "I'm my own competition/I'm competing with myself" This line just resonates within my very soul. Shout-out to her for doing a song with the hometown kid as well!

If you haven't seen the videos for Django Jane, Fitness, or Nice For What, I don't even know what you are literally doing, but go watch them all right now!

love,
ktv

Sermon Notes - 3.25.18

Hi!
Could it be possible? Could I actually be making a post about sermon notes and getting it out on the same day?! I told ya'll 2018 was going to be my year!

Pastor Peter has been taking us through the last weekend of Jesus. So today he talked about Saturday. And let the notes begin:

John 11: 1-44
- "The day with no name"
The in-between day with the silence that you can feel.
Maybe God's silence is not His absence.
Instead of asking "why?" ask "What can God do in this?"

John 11: 17
- 4 days = no hope. People believed that a spirit could linger over a body for 3 days, but after that the spirit was gone.
What do you do when you feel like Jesus is taking forever?
Are we going to judge Jesus love by our circumstances?

- I know that He can. But, sometimes He waits. And I can trust him in the meantime.
Psalm 56:8

- Do you think that someone like Jesus would withhold good from us?
On Saturdays you can be with God unlike any other day, because Saturday God is your only hope.
Jesus enters our Saturday so we can enter His Sundays.

love,
ktv

Sunday series

Hi!
Ok, so usually I try and do notes from church, but I haven't been taking them (don't @ me!), so instead I'm going to tell a story that happened on a Saturday and that I was supposed to tell like two Sunday's ago, but am just getting around to it today.

Anywho, it's a story about love, me trying to find it, and being encouraged to find it by people that I already love, and I feel like that is appropriate for a blog about Sunday, since Jesus is love. And this story just contains a lot of love and answers to why I am single. Besides the obvious fact that I really don't like sharing a bed.

 So, this happened like I said a couple of Saturdays ago, I was with my work tribe and we were out and about on the town, for like sort of a work event, but like we were cutting up so I'm not sure if work wants to be associated with that. There was a guy there that Rosie pointed out and said oh, he works here. I turn and look and as soon as I turn back around, Adrianna and Rosie go, oh, he's your type. I immediately start laughing, because they were of course, very correct.

So, I proceed to spend a good chunk of the evening, clocking his moves. At one point he was helping out behind the bar and they send me over to do some damage. And below is the exact conversation that happened.

Me: Walks up and smiles
Him: Smiles
Me: Continuing to smile and getting impatient
Bartender: Very confused, tried to take my drink order.
Me: "So, do you work here?"
Him: "I don't actually work here, but I'll help you out."
Me: "Perfect! I'll take a club soda."
Him: Makes drink and hands it to me.
Me: "Thanks!" I'm pretty sure I smiled again at this point.

I then proceed to walk back to our table and recount this whole story and Rosie and she says that I let down all of Oak Park. So, my bad Oak Park, didn't mean to do it to you! I still feel like this is a W though, because me a couple of years ago wouldn't even have gone up to the bar. So, still no L's in 2018.

As always my loves, stay hydrated, stay moisturized, and stay woke!

love,
ktv

Sermon's notes - 3.4.18

Oh hey!
Look at me, I'm just writing all over the place! I figured it's time for me to bring back Sermon notes. Mainly, because I was in church this Sunday and actually took notes. So, a successful day all around. Anywho, without further ado, here you go!

Daniel and the Lion's Den - Daniel 6
- Do you justify sin in your life, because everyone else does it?
John 3:20
- Do you have a Daniel effect on people?
- If Daniel's prayer life was inconsistent, or random, they would have never hatched this plan.
- False self: You are what you do, You are what you  have, You are what other people think of you
True self: You are beloved
- Are there Darius' in your life?
- Faith's about obeying, despite consequences.
- We can not read the story moralistically.
It points to the salvation we have waiting for us in the future
- The miracles in the Bible highlight the way God intended the world to be (it's the restoration of how God wants it to be)
- Because the real Daniel went through the lion's den, we can face whatever lions we have with poise and confidence.
- We can not do this unless God is the lion in our life.
- Daniel looking towards Jerusalem is us looking towards the cross.
- Where can I make the greatest kingdom impact?

love,
ktv

As a side note, Amy and myself had some logistical questions about this whole lion's den:
- Where was this den?!
- How far outside of the city was it?
- Why did they have to roll a stone in front of it? Why was it not always there?!
- What did the lions eat regularly in between people?