Not Alone Series: Selfies

Linking up with the magnificent Jen from Jumping in Puddles and Morgan from Follow and Believe - welcome back to the Not Alone Series!

Do you support the selfie trend? Do you think it promotes self-absorption, vanity, and narcissism? Is there a way to incorporate selfies into the Church's teachings of modesty, authentic beauty, humility? {Thanks to Hannah for this week's prompt!}

The short answer? No, I don't "support" selfies, as in I don't take them. I don't usually share pictures of just myself, or if I do, it's usually over text to a couple friends for a specific reason {new haircut, debating an outfit, etc.}. Pictures of just me by me seems a bit too focused on me.

However, I am a fan of the "group selfie" because I think when years have gone by, we will want to remember not the outfit we wore but the people we were with at a specific time. I want to get better at taking pictures with my friends, because I want to remember the fun times we are having together. This is one of my favorite pictures of my besties, and this is another great one. They are "selfies" in that we took these pictures of ourselves, but our selves aren't the focus; we are the focus, and that's the focus I love.

Doctor Who {Fangirl Post}

Wow. Sorry for dropping off the planet there for a while. Life just got crazy, ya know? So here is the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Celebrations' Post. Let the fangirling commence.

Sunday night: Samara and I joined Ashley and Kayla. Here are the four of us in our costumes...Here is our little shrine...here is the super yummy food Ash and Kay made. Such fun.

On Monday night, Samara and I went to the theater to watch the 50th Anniversary in costume with hundreds of other fans. I dressed up as Rose Tyler from "The Idiot's Lantern" {Season 2, Episode 7} - here is my inspiration...

via

...and here is the finished product! It was actually fun to have dinner at Johnny Rocket's and sit in the 50's theme :)

Samara dressed up as the 11th Doctor; here we are together geeking out before the show.

And then a friend of Samara's met us after the show...people, he has Ten's suit!!!! 

And we made friends with a little boy dressed as Ten and his mom dressed as Amy. Here is Rose with her two Tens.

All in all, it was wonderful. I love costumes and Doctor Who and cute kids, and this evening had all three! The opening sequence for the theater version was quite awesome: it featured various characters telling movie-goers to not disturb others and talking about how painful it is for the popcorn to be eaten and warning us about the hazards of 3-D glasses. Twas wonderful.

I'm really glad I watched the 50th the way that I did: solo {Saturday}, with a few friends at home {Sunday}, and then in the theaters {Monday}. I loved not missing things because the crowd responded over some lines; I loved watching it with just friends to really freak out and not worry about disturbing others; I loved watching it live with literally millions of other fans all over the world. It's Doctor Who - what's not to love?!

Alright, end fangirling...for now ;)

Travel Journal: Saturday

Welcome back to the Travel Journal! Days are skipped and mixed up, vacations taken randomly, and this blogger sighs and rolls her eyes and attempts to remember what happened 3 weeks ago.

Thankfully, Saturday was kind of a lazy day. We had bicycles...and a headache. There may have been some jet lag going on {4 hour time difference- who are we kidding!? Of course there was jet lag!} and also I suspect some allergies/sinus pressure. TMI? Sorry. The point is, we kept it low-key until the afternoon.

After a lunch of granola bars and canned fruit {breakfast  lunch of champions, right?}, we hopped on our fun bicycles and headed to Charlottetown. What an adventure! Biking is fun because, ya know, neither Dahlia nor I have biked since we were wee lasses... otherwise known as teenagers.*ahem*

What's really fun is re-learning to bike while looking at a map. Or rather, re-learning how to stand still on the ground with a bike underneath you while looking at a map and trying not to look like a goober. Mission sorta accomplished.

Anyway, Downtown Charlottetown is quite lovely! There's a mall, a couple used-book stores, the waterfront, and oodles of yummy restaurants and cafes. Oh, and there's a basilica! A real live basilica, just like we were in Europe!



Isn't that incredible!?

Anyway, we decided to try an Italian restaurant for dinner. Best. Idea. Ever.



We didn't get a picture of the appetizer-bread because...we ate it too fast. It was The Best Focaccia Bread Ever. I think it was two inches thick, maybe three. See the black plate in the background? Oil and balsamic vinegar, baby. Heck to the yeah.

Now that you're all drooling, here's a funny story. We split a pizza and had leftovers, and just as we were heading home, a huge black cloud rolled in. Oh no, we thought, we'll be biking home in the rain. In order to avoid a soggy box of soggy pizza, I asked the nice waitress if she had a plastic bag we could put it in. Here's our conversation:

Bek: Excuse me, do you have a bag we can put this {box of pizza} in?

Waitress: Sure, here ya go.

Bek: Thanks so much. We're biking home, so...

Waitress: Oh, God-looove-ya! Have a bag!

Just got a Canadian blessing. Victory.

Thankfully, it didn't rain, so we did not have a soggy box of soggy pizza. We were very glad of this, and so celebrated by watching The Patriot. Because that's a typical Canadian movie?? Idk. Moving on.

Well, that was Saturday! Tune in tomorrow to hear about Sunday's great adventures, which include losing a church, a picnic, and more Cows ice cream! :)

More Tales from Nicaragua

Happy Thursday!

I have no transition here... basically, here are some more adventures from Nicaragua.

People have asked me what was my favorite part of the trip, and no contest, it was doing VBS and then playing with the kids. 

Here are some pictures from our VBS time:

The first two pictures are the kids leading the songs. We had papers with both words and pictures, hoping this would help them learn the songs.

From left: Carlos, Maria, Jose Lois, Fabian

From left: Alexandra, Larry, me, Calloway, Elena, Nadaling, Fabian

On the last day, we had a party. Paula brought face paint materials, and after every kid had one painting, several came back for seconds...or thirds. Here is Stella and me each painting an arm for Carlos.

We had crafts each day, usually involving coloring. Here are a couple of the kids with their artwork.

This is Noel. Check out those dimples!!!

This is Jose Lois, one of the sweetest boys there.

And here's some of the gang working on their pictures.

Here is Mauricio with his finished art. The story was of Jesus multiplying the fish and loaves.

Now that everyone is on cuteness overload... :)

One of my favorite things was playing cards with the kids after VBS was officially over. There were a lot of kids who would jump rope with me for about an hour after VBS ended, and then there were two kids who usually stayed until after our lunch and would play cards until their moms were ready to leave. {There were a handful of ladies who came every day and cooked lunch for us- such a blessing! And the food was delicious, every single day.} 

Playing with these kids was the highlight of my trip. It was amazing how quickly the group grew. I originally taught Go Fish to two kids; the next day, there were 5, and the day after, half of VBS was asking to play! I was so grateful that Stella had brought two decks of cards so everyone could play, and I was so impressed with how well the kids all played together.

Here's what blew my socks off: I was feeling guilty or weird about playing cards with the kids in the shade for most of the day while my team was outside in the sun sweating it out and moving boulders. I mentioned this to Stella, who mentioned it to Bill and Gina {my Kentucky parents and Nicaraguan missionaries}, and they both told me that I needed to keep doing what I was doing and that building relationships was more important than building the houses. They told me that being with the children was obviously a strength of mine, so use it! That really blessed me, and it freed me to be able to wholly give myself to the kids, because I wasn't distracted by thinking I should be outside laboring. God is so cool like that!

I count this trip as one of the best things that I've ever been a part of. Can't wait to go back!

Home again, home again

Wow. What a trip. What adventures, what family bonding, what shopping expeditions, what sights, what monuments, what sore feet, what stuffed suitcases, what long plane rides, and what jet lag. All so wonderful.
I don’t remember if I gave y’all the itinerary before, so let me show you some pictures in some semblance of order. I’ll probably have to go into much more detail {with more pictures} in a later post, but for now, we’ll do an overview.

Sister Nayn and I flew to Amsterdam, then to Berlin on Monday-Tuesday. Amsterdam is where I first got out my camera, so ta-da!

Here we are on the plane, about to land in Berlin!

Prepare for landing!

We landed about 10:30am Berlin-time on Tuesday. We. were. wiped. But after only a short nap and a shower, our lovely hostess J was taking us out to see some of Berlin’s sights. We spent the week exploring this lovely, huge city. I’ll do a Berlin post soon!

On Saturday, we flew to Barcelona to meet the family. Unfortunately, my camera battery pooped out on me halfway through the week, and the charger did not fit into the converter J’s family had. So I had to wait until Sunday morning to charge up the battery; hence, the next picture I have is of Sunday’s sunset at sea.


We had a day at sea, during which we slept in {lovely time change-grr!} and relaxed in our swimsuits. The next day we were in Napoli, and my family took a two-hour tour of Pompeii. Behold.



Then we went back to Napoli to a) try an authentic Margarita pizza and b) shop.


Our next stop was Rome. Sadly, there was a problem with our driver {as in, he never showed} and we ended up joining the masses on a bus tour. But we had good attitudes and were glad to be going somehow.

Here we are waiting for our driver.


Almost to Rome!


My favorite part of Rome

The next day we were in Florence, and I confess: I did not bring my camera to Florence because I knew that a sister and I would be shopping for the majority of our visit, and that even when we were in the museum to see David, we couldn't take pictures. But to recompense, I will take pictures of my purchases from Florence :)

After Italy, we went to Cannes, France. My family decided to head a little bit away to Saint Paul de Vence, a medieval village on the top of a cliff. It was a really cute, artsy little town, and we got a lot of shopping done, much to my dad’s chagrin. But he really has no choice, with 5 women in the fam.


Isn’t it quant?

After Saint Paul and Cannes, we went to Marseilles. My sister and I were really hoping to purchase a chess piece. Not a set, but just a piece. From The Count of Monte Cristo. Yeah, we didn't find any chess kings for sale. But my other sister bought a ton of clothes! Didn't take my camera that day either, because who needs a camera to go shopping? Not this chick.

That was our last stop with the cruise; the next day we were back in Barcelona. And then we toured Barcelona! It was really fun; the two main highlights for me was the Church of the Holy Family that has been being built for 140 years! The following pictures just don’t do it justice.

This is one façade of the church.


Coming around to the other side.


The side depicting the Nativity-note the Christmas tree above and the manger scene below.


La Sagrada Familia- the Holy Family

After this extensive tour, we checked into our hotel, took showers, and attempted to get to sleep sharing a bed. As in, the 4 of us “children” were sharing a bed. Yup. Guess how much sleep we all got.

But it didn't matter, because the next day we got on an airplane to Malaga {southern Spain} and we arrived at our condo and got into our swimsuits and relaxed by the pool. All week. Well, we went to Gibraltar one day, but other than that, I took no pictures. We were at the beach, the pool, or inside choosing from the 10 English channels on the t.v. It was delightful, and I am so glad to have ended with the relaxing week.

It was a marvelous vacation, and I’m so, so grateful. My parents and sisters and I worked hard to be able to do this together, and I’m so glad we did. We had our window of opportunity and we took it. Yesterday, the day we woke up in our own beds, one sister started college. This Saturday is the baby sister’s orientation into the Master’s Commission AND the second sister’s move-in day at her new college, two-and-a-half hours north of home. I’m so glad all I have to do is move across the hall. :)

It’s good to be home!

Fail Blog

I know, I know. Fail. Oh well. I figure, this is what, the third time in this whole year? Sometimes a girl just has to live her life without technology, ok?
Speaking of which, I just went a week without a phone. Gasp. Lurch. Faint. Yup. My little phon-o kicked the bucket, so I had to send for a new one. Hopefully this will be the one that lasts. Third time’s the charm, right?
So I got a camera for graduation, right? Wanna see some of the b-e-a-utiful pictures that it takes!? Of course you do!
Feast your eyes…





Aren’t these fab??? I totes feel like a tourist, much to the embarrassment of my sisters, walking around our home city with a camera around my neck. But hey, this is a gorgeous camera and it takes gorgeous pictures and we live in a gorgeous city- what’s not to like?
So there you have it!

It’s Tuesday….

…and I have nothing to report.
Oh wait, yes I do.

I ordered my camera! It should be here tomorrow, or at the latest, by the end of this week. Yipee! I’m so excited!

Expect a TON more pictures on here. I was thinking tonight as I looked at the beautiful sunset, soon I will be taking pictures with my fabulous new camera. And that made me happy.

Speaking of pictures, I guess I will show you the mug craft that I did. Note something first: I am not usually crafty, and my handwriting generally sucks. But nonetheless, here is the mug I made for my sis {go class of 2012!}.



It says “carpe momenta” around the top, and then “class of 2012” on the sides. I even wrote “' ‘12” on the handle. It came out of the oven looking really good! Sadly though, it went through the dishwasher and only the black ink is visible now. Sad day. But anyhow. My other craft will be done soon, and I will put a picture {or ten- new camera, remember!?} up as soon as it is. I love it already. Seriously, it just needs one more coat of modge-podge (omg, where have you been my whole life!? JUST found out about this stuff!) and then it’s done. But I have to get it back from my friend’s house…. we were crafting at her house.

Alright. Peace out.

a title wouldn’t really be appropriate, because that implies that this post is only going to have one topic, and sorry honey, it ain’t happenin’ today

 Did you guys like meeting Dahlia!?!?!?! I sure did… of course, we met like 4 years ago…via email/her sister, and then we met in person like 2 months later, and yeah maybe it was slightly awkward, but everything that happens during an orientation is awkward, right? Anywho. Hope you all liked my dear friend, and if your heart desires to do something similar, leave a comment and we’ll make something happen!

Here in the lovely southern part of the country, we are experiencing nice weather. We actually were blessed with this gift right after Spring Break, and the sunshine is quite nice. The only down side: allergies. Any one else out there suffering? I feel ya. This is actually my first time ever having allergies, and it’s killing me, and Mom, I now totally understand why you don’t like flowers in the house. Jeepers creepers. Prayers {and rain!} appreciated.

This past month, I think I've been pretty crafty. For example, a friend and I got together and tore up, twisted, squished, and then rolled and glued some old magazines! We made beads, which ended up being re-purposed into artwork for my wall.

Another example: Sunday night, my dorm had a program called “T-shirt Up-cycle” where basically we cut up and made other things out of t-shirts, or we simply cut up and dressed up a t-shirt in such a way that it doesn't feel like a t-shirt anymore. I made a headband. Pretty awesome.

The point here is that I would love to take some pictures and show you all my craftiness {because I know there are some of you back home who are reading this in disbelief} but alas, my camera broke! *tears stream down face, completely from sadness and not from allergies at all* And no, I’m not just saying that. It’s legit. And sad. But anyway. You’ll just have to come visit me and see, or ask me to text you a picture. That’s right. You have to want it.

moving on.

Soooooo graduation is like in a month…. AUGH!!!!!!!!!! What is standing between me and that diploma {are they even called diplomas in college??} ? Well, let me tell you:

• that special project in Crafts class---omg the things we did in class yesterday- you can actually tell what it is! Well, you can’t, cuz you can’t see it and you don’t know what it is, but you get the idea.
• one final research paper. The research is mostly done; the outline is done; that thing is going down on Friday! 
• one interview with “an older adult” for my PE class. This will hopefully be easy and fun!
• management project. this one is going to be a lot of work, but it’s group work, and it’s actually applicable to work in the real world, so that’s cool. Plus we’ll be done with it in like 3 weeks… oh wait, that’s when classes are over. Shoot. 
• one final test, for the capstone course. I’m done with that thing the day before my family gets here- can you say reward!?!?!? Super excited about that
• two quizzes and a debate for my political communication class! one quiz is tomorrow, and the other is…some time. haha. the research paper is my final for this class, so yeah. it should be fun. I just have to do it. riiiiight.

There you have it. Bek’s list. git r dun!

A couple weeks ago, I got an email about joining an honor’s society. The initiation banquet is tonight, so that’s exciting. I don’t know anyone who’s going {yet}, but I've been told to sit with one of my instructors, so that’s my plan. This instructor is also my adviser, and this semester is the first time she hasn't taught one of my classes, so it will be good to catch up with her and visit for a bit.

Alright. I’m getting the roomie addicted to BBC’s Sherlock, so we’re off to watch another episode :) Samara, this is what exponential growth looks like, haha! In case you didn't know, my bestie is the one who introduced me to Sherlock, and we hit it off quite well. Or, as Sherlock himself puts it {when describing the great villain Moriarty}, “I pointed a gun at him, he tried to blow me up. I thought we had something special.”
on that note, I bid you adieu

New Goals

Alright, readers, I must apologize. You have been sorely neglected this month (and this semester) and I’m sorry. So my goals for 2012 are as follows:

1. Blog at least once a week. I owe you that much, and it’s not like I can’t get off some social media site for 20 minutes and keep you posted.
2. Blog with pictures once a month. Come on. I follow all these amazing blogs who post multiple pictures per post, and I can at least do that once a month. I believe in myself! :)

That’s it! I know that 2 is a bit pathetic, and I know that I am a bit early, but hey, at least I’m blogging. Hope you had a merry Christmas!

Photo Journal of Bek’s Boring Life in College

Ha! I promised I would, and look! I did! :)

My slippers! First thing I see every morning :)


I took a shower this morning- aren't you proud!? Here is my towel & my cover-up


Picked out my clothes for the day…


My deodorant choices!!!!! Woot! I love deodorant!
P.S. This blog is not promoting, advertising, or supporting these brands in any way, shape, or form. The choices of these companies do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of this blogger. But I do totally support the wearing of deodorant! :)


Spent time with Jesus- this is the equipment ;)

Close up of my gorgeous journal!


Met with my professor before class- we discussed our plans for the week


Walking through campus

On my way to lunch… isn't this a beautiful campus???


Headed to my dorm to get more books- this is the jack-o-lantern on the porch


Checked my CPO box… nothing :( hint hint :)


Here is my sack lunch- wrap, chips, fruit and veggies, and granola bar- yummo!

This is when things get crazy- if I had really been on my game, I would have stopped to take pictures of all my class rooms, or of the textbooks, but from 1pm until 6pm I’m literally running from class to class. So, sorry, readers. As a consolation note, the classes are boring! :)

This is dinner at 6- see lunch for more details. Yep, I have the same lunch and dinner every Monday and Wednesday, and boy am I grateful for food on the go!


There, I took a picture of one book. This is for Industrial/Organizational Psychology… oh yeah


And lastly, to end on an up note, these are the meds I take so I can breathe! Haha, I know, boring. Perhaps I’ll do a photo journal on a weekend, because they are much more exciting.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this, readers! What do your days look like?