fall, fair, and fun...

This past week the weather has really begun to change here in the city. It has been abnormally warm here recently so I have been waiting for when fall would show up, and it finally did. The fall weather was perfect timing for the plans a bunch of us had this week. As you probably know, the state fair is in town. I love the fair and everything that is associated with it. From deep fried foods, to lots of blinking neon rides, to exhibits and fireworks, it is all amazing. The fair has a really cool deal one night where if you bring four canned goods you can get in. The cans go to the local food bank, and you can also get into the fair for 1.60 instead of 8 dollars regular price. It is a win-win situation and so worth the crowds that night to go. While at the fair you have to eat some not so healthy food. It is a fair rule in my opinion. I indulged in a Krispy Kreme Burger, and then later on some deep fried oreos. They both were oh so good. I don't care that I now have to run every day for the next week, it was well worth it. Doesn't the picture below look scrumptious?

I was so happy to be able to go to the fair with all of my friends. They are so much fun to be around. Unlike last year, we did not attend a concert after dinner and I think that was a good choice. We ended up having a great time looking at exhibits and riding the Ferris wheel together. My roommates are awesome.



The Ferris wheel was the only ride we went on because the tickets were a little bit expensive. Once I got over my fear of the car rocking back and forth a little more than I had remembered in the past I took some time to enjoy the sights and sounds.

I think the most exciting thing that happened at the fair was the fish adventure. The boys really wanted to win a fish. They bought some ping pong balls and long story short, they ended up winning three!!! They were so excited and we ended up going to walmart at midnight to get fish supplies. It was hilarious and made the night so much fun.

 The fair was great and I had so much there. It was the perfect fall festivity. The only thing better that would really wrap up the fall activities would be pumpkin carving. Well lucky me Friday night was date night for Chase and I. It was our 3 year and 2 month anniversary. Yes we are weird like that and celebrate monthly with a little date. But that is what makes us, us and I would not trade it for anything in the world. Anyways, our date night Friday consisted of eating pizza and carving pumpkins. Chase had never carved a pumpkin before so it was a special event. We decided not to go the traditional route in our pumpkin pictures. Instead of scary Halloween stuff we both ended up picking cartoon characters. It was awesome.

Chase worked so hard on his. He had a couple of setbacks, however is engineer like brain solved those problems super quick and his pumpkin ended up look spectacular. he did such a great job for his first time around. As you can see I ended up making Snoopy and Chase created the minions from Despicable Me.

This weekend is going to be one of those lazy college weekends. Football and homework is what I shall be doing. I have a really big test on Monday so please be in prayer for me on that. I hope everybody is having a great weekend and really getting out there to enjoy some fall festivities. It is such a beautiful and fun time of year. Most of all though, I hope that your journey is always blessed.



learning about love...

Since the last time I posted on the blog world a bunch has happened. As you can tell I have changed the background and layout of the blog. It was time for a change and I have to admit, it was so much fun to go through and pick and choose a new design. I am pretty content with it. I went home for fall break and had a great time with friends and family, took a bunch of mid-terms that fried my brain, helped out with my church's kids retreat, and interviewed for my second summer at passport. Also, after about a year and a half of searching and emails and phone calls I have finally found an internship for my major! I needed this internship to graduate and I was become frustrated and worried that I was not going to find one that worked for me. But silly me for not trusting fully in the Lord. I now have an internship at my local hospital and over this upcoming Christmas and Spring breaks I will be shadowing in the OR. I am so excited and cant wait to start.You can now see exactly why I just have just not found the time to blog my thoughts. However I have a semi-easy week right now and have some fun things planned for this week so be on the lookout for more Sara Bumgarner happenings!!!

In the middle of this crazy busy month, a certain concept has been on my mind and I wanted to share it with you. This past semester at the church I attend here in Raleigh while I'm at school, they are putting on a relationship series in the college class. The overall concept of this series to to teach us as college men and women how to treat each other, and what a Godly relationship looks like. As I am in a serious relationship myself, and also have many other types of relationships with all types of people, I was quite interested in what they had to teach me. So far this semester we have learned about the good news of God and how he loves us, What Mr. and Mrs. Right looks like (and what they don't!), how men and women are different by design and how each of us should act in accordance with each other, and how to love being single until God calls you into the next phase of your life which is known to us as dating. To me this series has been very insightful so far. It has taught me how to love others more deeply, how to focus on the love that God has for me, and how to invest in my dating relationship in a way that is pleasing to God and to the advancement of our relationship. I know that sometimes relationships and the Bible can be a touchy subject, especially when it comes to the roles of the man and the woman. However the college class really summed it up well for me and clarified it in a way that I think is pleasing to most people. In a relationship men lead, provide for, and protect the woman. He keeps her best interests in mind as well as the interests of the Lord in everything that he does. Women in the relationship affirm, receive the strength and support, and help strengthen the man as well as the Lord, in everything that she does whether that is in the home or in the workplace. In other words, men and women should work together for their own relationship and their relationship with God. I think that is pretty awesome and it has really helped not only my dating relationship, but also my relationship with my family and friends, as well as with God. I am so thankful to have a great church away from home that still encourages me and teaches me and lifts me up. God is so good to us. Below are some pictures of the relationships that I have and that I thank God for everyday. What relationships do you value the most?

My dating relationship with the wonderful Chase Smith

My relationship with my family

My relationship with my friends

My relationship with the younger generation as a mentor

(this picture was taken this past weekend at the retreat witch went so well and the girls, along with me learned so much about how to pray)

One more little side note that I wanted to share before I left. Tomorrow I am getting my hair chopped off. I don't cut my hair very often, so this is a big deal. I love my long hair and I see it as a great attribute for me, but it is down to about my elbows and it is starting to become a little hard to manage. So after tomorrow if you see me I will be rocking shoulder length hair!! I am so excited to be adding yet another change to this crazy month.

I hope everybody is doing well and that their week is off to a great start. I will continue to pray for y'all, and as always I hope that your journey is blessed!!!



learning to live simply...

I promised y'all in my last post that I would talk about what I am learning in Bible study this semester.

Before I do though I must make a disclaimer:

 I was apprehensive about Bible study this year. I am new to this Bible study, while the majority of the other girls have been in it together for over a year. However both of my roommates are in it and invited me along this year. I am so glad I chose to go along because these past couple of months have been so wonderful and the girls in the group, along with the leaders are such powerful women of God. I am glad to have them as a part of my life.

OK, back to the post. This semester we are going through a book together chapter by chapter as a group. It is entitled "Becoming a Woman of Simplicity" by Cynthia Heald. Below is a picture of it. I recommend all college girls and working women to read this series.

This is just one of a series of books written by the author. All of the books in the series are focused toward women and how they can live out their lives in order to draw into a closer relationship with the Lord. "Becoming a Woman of Simplicity" aims at teaching women the power of living a life simply devoted to Christ. What a perfect read for super busy and stressed out college students. It seems as though each week, as our group tackles a different element of simplicity, it is though the author as well as the Lord is speaking directly to me. So far we have covered living simply with God, Christ's acceptance allows us to be free of the worries of the world, learning to not love the things of the world, remaining devoted to God through troubles, and learning to concentrate on really knowing God. All of these things, once learned lead us to live a more simple and less complicated life. Isn't this so cool? Although all of these principals are so simple and it seems like we should know them already, the truth is...we don't. That is why this semester it is one of my goals to truly live a more simple life. No I am not going to go off the grid or anything. But I have made a promise to myself that I am going to limit my exposure to the media world and focus more attention on getting school work done, and more importantly focusing on my "me time" with God. Who knew being a simple girl could be so rewarding, fun, and liberating? Like I said earlier, check this book (or any of the other books in the series) out today and dig deep into what God has in store for you as a woman of faith. One of my favorite quotes of the book so far is this:

      The world had never known a man like Jesus-absolutely good, unfailingly gracious, the visible expression of the invisible God. And what was the world's answer? A cross. As the cross was the world's answer to Christ, so the cross is the believer's answer tot he world. The world will sometimes mask its face and pretend friendship for the Christian. It will offer its pleasures, money, methods, and applause-but always at the price of compromise. The Christian's answer is the cross. (John Phillips)

Such powerful words but they ring so true. Can you tell that I am in love with this book?

One last side note pertaining to this before I leave. I am beginning to catch up on my Bible reading since I have set aside more solid "me time" with the Lord. I have now finished 2nd Corinthians and have started on Ezra. Ezra was such a humble servant and lived his life simply devoted to serving the Lord. How ironic that I would be reading about him as I am in the middle of this Bible Study. God is so good!

As a peek into my next blog post...

My college class this semester is putting on a relationship series. Each Sunday we are taught about a new dimension of how a good relationship built within Christ works. I have learned oh so much and my heart has been spoken to a bunch in the past couple of months. i cannot wait to share with you m thoughts and observations of my own relationship and of those around me.

Until next time, I pray that you are well and as always I hope that your journey is blessed! 

a night out with my favorite boys...

This past Sunday was AMAZING!!! Remember a few blog posts back when I told you that Chase had bought me tickets for the Brad Paisley concert? Well the time had come to cash those suckers in. I have to confess something before I go any farther. I am in love with country music. It is what I grew up on and what I will always listen to until the day I die. Yes I do listen to all other types of music (even rap thanks to my camp staff this summer) and I enjoy other types a lot; however nothing makes me more happy than a good ride in the car with some country blaring on the radio. Anyways back to Sunday. Below are just a few pictures that I captured while we were at the concert. I sang the entire time and had the best time I have had in a long time. I just live concerts. I am surprised that I still had a voice the next morning.





The line we had to wait in. It was incredibly long but well worth the wait. We got there at 4. The pre show started at 430 on a cute little side stage, then the main concert with Jarrod, Blake, and Brad started at 7. It was a long night but oh so much fun.

 Chase and I chilling in our seats in between Blake and Brad. He is so great for putting up with me at concerts. I get a little excited and like to sing loudly and take tons of photos. We had pretty awesome seats, and along with my great zoom I could capture up close and personal pictures of the singers.

 Another view of where our seats were thanks to Chase. Notice the tarped platform to the left in the picture. I had no clue why it was sitting there until about 30 minutes into Brad's performance. During one of his songs he began to walk out into the crowd and ended up standing on that platform. I about died right there in my seat. Of course I took many pictures.

 Out of all the pictures I took I believe that this one is my favorite. I only had to zoom like two clicks to get this up close shot, which makes it even more real. Ah I still cant get over how cool this concert was. Thank you Chase Smith for such an amazing anniversary gift. He is way too good to me.

Well that was my weekend. i am still recovering from the lack of sleep, but it was well worth it. I am now looking forward to the release of next years concert dates of my favorite artists. Maybe this can become an anniversary tradition? I would be perfectly fine with that!!!

I hope all of y'all are doing well. I know that I am very busy these days and I am sure you are as well. Know that I pray for all of you who follow my blog, and I hope that you will do the same for me. I am currently in the process of getting opportunities lined up for next semester and the summer. Nothing is set ins tone yet about what I will be doing, but I ask that you continue to pray that whatever happens is a result of what God wants to happen in my life. He is so good and I love him more and more each day. Look out in the next few days for a post about what I am up too in my Bible Study this year. It is pretty great and I want to share it with everybody. Love y'all and I hope and pray that your journey is blessed.

there is a difference...

This semester I am taking a class called World Prospects: Population, Food, and Hunger. It is a class about third world countries and how their populations are expanding, yet their food is not, and what we (America) can do about it.I took it originally because I needed an easy general education course. However after I walked out of the first class I knew God had something in store for me through this class and that it was going to challenge not only my mind, but also my heart. The class is taught by this little old man who has traveled the world many times over and has thousands of stories and souvenirs to share. Not a class goes by when we do not get the chance to meet another family from Africa, or touch a native plant from the Philippines.

Our assignments in this class other than our tests are all what our teacher calls "out of class experiences". We have had to write family value papers, find our ecological footprints, and analyze the millennium development goals. I have learned so much and it has only been 5 weeks. The two big out of class projects though are to do 15 hours of community service, and write a grant proposal for a service project that will help a developing country. I have not yet decided what to write my grant proposal on, but I have a few ideas. The real reason I am writing today is to talk about the community service.

I had a really hard time deciding and finding where to do my community service hours. There are so many possibilities through NC State to be involved in and I was slightly overwhelmed. Then one day in class we learned something that sealed my decision. My teacher spent one whole lecture explaining the difference between aid and development. Aid is something short term (like disaster relief) while development is more long term (like teaching skills). One problem in developing countries is that developed nations are only providing aid and not development, so the developing countries are not getting better.

It was then that I decided to do my community service at the food bank in Raleigh. Yes the food bank provides short term aid in the form of food. Yet they also provide long term aid in the form of programs and government intervention. When people come in to get the food they are directed to programs that can teach them life skills and get them back on their feet and walking in the right direction. Every time I go in and give a few hours of my time I leave with a deep feeling of contentment knowing that I am helping provide development to many people around Raleigh. Just to be able to spread the kind of love God gives to everybody all the time every day just makes my heart happy.

Yes this post was kind of boring and not super exciting, but it was something that has been on my heart and my mind for the past couple weeks and I felt like I needed to share it with everybody. There really is a difference in the kind of service you can do for people. It is like that old saying, "You can give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, or you can teach a man to fish and he can eat for a lifetime." How many fisherman will you create in your lifetime?

I love you all and thank you for listening to my heart. I pray that all is going well and of course that your journey is oh so blessed!!!!

a very special day...

Guess who turned 21 this past Tuesday?!?!?!?! No, not me...Chase!!

I just wanted to wish Chase a happy belated blog post birthday. I have been busy the past couple days with school and birthday stuff that I was not able to get around to the blogging world. His birthday was fun though. Since we were not able to go home for the big occasion we celebrated here in Raleigh Sara and Chase style.

We began the afternoon at the DMV office where chase renewed his license and got his "under 21's" off. He is officially official now :) Then we went to Dick's Sporting goods because mom had send him some moolah to spend there. He ended up getting this awesome north face sweatshirt (Ill have to take a picture later and show it off). We ate dinner at Ruby Tuesdays (cause that is how we roll) and then went back to campus to take some pictures and open gifts. I got him a cool neoprene laptop cover. He liked it and thank goodness it fit his laptop because I had no idea what size it was. The greatest surprise though were the cupcakes. I made Chase carry around this cooler all afternoon but he was not allowed to open it. When it was finally time he was so excited to sink his teeth into the yumminess. I also thoroughly enjoyed them as well.

Anyways that was his birthday and I am so happy for him. I cant believe we are growing up. It is all happening WAY TOO FAST!!! Slow down a little bit life would ya? Thanks that would be much appreciated.

That is all for today. I have a couple more blog ideas in mind that are very important and I want to share with you but will have to wait for a later time. So keep a lookout for them in the very near future. Praying that all is well with your souls and of course that your journey is blessed!!!!

waterpark fun...

This past weekend my sister invited my mom, dad, chase, and I to come with her and the kids to Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, NC. I had been once before and knew just how much fun it was so I jumped at the chance to go again. From the time we arrived late Friday night, to the time we left Sunday morning we played hard nonstop. I absolutely love my niece and nephew and getting to spend that rare quality bonding time with them is something I always look forward to. I unfortunately did not get to take any pictures of the trip. The water park itself is wet from one end to the other so I was NOT going to take my camera in there. But if you have never been to Great Wolf Lodge you really need to consider going. Most of the water park is geared to smaller children and pre-teens, however there are about 4 water slides that are especially for older kids and adults. We tried them all and believe me when I say one or two of them really had my heart pumping.

I also wanted to update everybody on my Bible reading. That is the entire reason for starting this blog and I have not given an update in a while. Since the beginning of school about 3 weeks ago I have finished the books of Luke, 1st Chronicles, Amos, and Ecclesiastes. It has been kind of slow going while I'm getting settled into the new school schedule, but now I am back in the swing of things and loving my time with the Lord every morning.

Other than that not much is going on in the life of Sara. School is school and homework is homework. Labor day weekend is coming up and a good dose of relaxation will be on the way. Who knows what kind of adventures I will get myself into!! I hope that everybody is doing well and I always pray that your journey is blessed!!