New Year

As you saw in my last post, I'm back in the Midwest chilling with the grandparents. Totes awesome. I hope your Christmas and New Year's celebrations were all fabulous and wonderful. Mine were.

And now, on to business.
You might remember my blogging goals for 2012 and I think that overall I accomplished these goals! Woot! Pat on the back for Bek! So now I want to make some new ones for 2013, and I want to advance, not retreat. So here they are, and these are not just blogging goals. There are also some life updates thrown in here for good measure. So here goes.

Blogging Goals

1. Blog at least twice a week. One will be funny {I'm trying to institute Funny Friday, but I'm not promising that a) funny things only happen on Friday or b) that I can remember funny things until Friday. So we'll go for one funny a week.} and one will have more depth. 
2. I'd like to spend some time writing down different experiences, different stories that have happened and that I will want to remember sometime. These might be humorous, but they won't count as the funny post. There are just some cool, random, odd, etc. things that have happened & I want to document them. Nothing big or serious that I can think of right now, but I want to give y'all a head's up. So there. Keep your head up. 
3. Do you have any ideas? I'm willing to try new ideas, so if you got em, share em! Have questions for me? I'll answer them as best I can. 

Life...Updates:

• Two of my favorite people ever are joining me in a Made to Crave journey. Made to Crave is a book by Lysa TerKeurst {check out her blog here} about craving God more than we crave food. AJ read this book first, then I read it, and now AJ's sis Tisa is in on it. The three of us are holding each other accountable to a new way of eating and to our personal exercise plans. It's pretty awesome. So far, so good! I'll probably be posting updates about this, so you guys can hold me accountable too! Keep it positive; we're here for encouragement. 
• Fun goal for this year? Go on a trip with my friend Dahlia! We've been planning a trip to Prince Edward Island for almost two years, and we're hoping that this summer is the time to go. Any suggestions for our trip? Have you been there? Is there some thing or place that we MUST see? Let us know, pretty please! 

Well, I think that's all. Stay tuned for updated & revised comments on Les Miserables since my friend L and I saw it for her birthday. 

Peace out, readers. 

Happy Thanksgiving Back! Or, a crazy crafty week

Anyone catch that line from “You’ve Got Mail”? Anyone? AJ, I know you did. That’s why we’re bosom friends and why I’m going to see you in 8 days! :)
Anywho, it is officially the start of the holiday season! Ok, technically yesterday was the start since it was the first holiday of the season, so let me rephrase. It’s officially Christmastime!!!!!! Holla!
I don’t know about you, but even before this week I’ve been shopping a bit with my shopoholic grandmother, and I’ve actually purchased or made quite a few gifts already this year. So many that I needed to make a list so that I didn’t miss anyone or double up unintentionally.
Does anyone else have that one friend that you never know what to get them, but you know you should get them something because they need to know you love and appreciate them even if you disagree on the fundamentals of life?? Well, I have that friend, and I decided that I would make her something funny…something unusual…something that is slightly awkward but I think her sense of humor is just right for it. I made her a beard. Yes.  A beard. I crocheted it; I did not grow one myself and then give it to her. Yuck times two {one for me growing a beard and one for me giving her that beard}. So I crocheted it, and found that it is like the easiest pattern EVER, and that’s saying a lot because I only pretend to know how to follow patterns, but this one I actually did follow. Phew!
the moral of the story is, since I liked making one beard so much, I wanted to make more. But for whom??? I can’t walk around wearing a crocheted beard-I have a normal-person job. {I should have discovered this pattern while I was in school, like I dyed my hair pink while in school.} But then I thought, boys!!! My friend has a few sons who are not old enough to grow beards; how cute and fun would that be to make beards for her sons! Score!
Ladies and gentlemen, I crocheted 6 beards in less than a week. Bam. That’s a) how easy the pattern is and b) how obsessed I was this week.
Two items of business follow: one the link to the pattern: right here!!! two: a picture. well, as soon as my friend(s) try on their beards and let me take a picture, you’ll see that picture. So gimme a couple weeks. :)

Well, now I only have 2 more gifts that I want to make; however, the vast majority of my yarn is at home-home, so I will have to whip some things out when I get there… speaking of which, THE HOBBIT will be in theaters in 4 weeks. Actually, 3 weeks, 6 days, and just enough hours to get to the midnight showing :D In case you’ve been living under a stupid rock {Harvard Sailing Team reference-for you, stalker sis}, you.tube the trailer and start living your life! Augh!!
Well, it’s lunchtime the day after Thanksgiving- cold turkey, here I come!
PS- I’m grateful for YOU, readers! I know you’re reading this because a) you like me or b) you’re incredibly bored, but either way, I’m happy you’re here!

Valentines

Do I have the best dad in the world? Yes, yes I do. Do I have the best mom in the world? Of course I do!
Do you want to know what they sent me for Valentine’s Day? Of course you do!



Don’t they look delish!?!?!? Of course! Told you I have the best parents ever.
And while I’m posting pictures, here are some from a couple weekends ago… Lizzy and I baked our hearts out!

hot fudge sauce…

…into toffee crunch ice cream which is already inside chocolate ice cream…

Sadly, Lizzy has the pictures of the finished product because my camera batteries pooped out. Sad day. But anywho, it is an Italian dessert and it was YUMMY!

Some Contemplations

Lately I've been wondering if I’m missing something. Is college all about classes and work and getting to meals before they close and turning in assignments so your teachers know that you learned something? Is there anything beyond the hustle and bustle, the stress and the lack of sleep?

I hope that relationships, true friendships, come out of enduring these seemingly-endless times together. Back home, I realized during my 5th quarter why my parents still send Christmas cards to the people they “went to college with.” It’s because there is a relationship forged in college that isn't really found anywhere else. I know that “the real world” is full of pressures, and I definitely am not undermining those stressors. But in college, you’re really learning what it means to be an adult, and for some of us {hello, firstborns!} it’s also learning with your parents how to be treated as an adult while still respecting and obeying “house rules.”

Personally, my parents have done and are doing an AMAZING job in encouraging me to grow up and to press into God, while still making sure I've thought of all possible outcomes and/or consequences of my decisions. I love you, Mom and Dad!

This hasn't gone where I thought it would go… I was going to share how grateful I am for the friends I've made here, and how I wish all friendships were still intact. But gratefulness for my parents is even better, because even though friends stay for a very long time, my parents have loved me even longer. God, thank You for my amazing parents. Thanks that I get to give my heart to them on this lovely, chilly Valentine’s Day.

What’s New?

God is so good! No, that’s not really new… He’s always been good, but this week it seems that He is showing His goodness to me more than ever. Now, I’m not saying that this was the best week ever, because it wasn’t. Kinda far from it, actually. But I realized that it was God using circumstances to show me His goodness, and helping me choose Him over other things (like stress, sleep, friends, homework, etc.).

This weekend I have not that many assignments, but lots of things to do. I have a test on Monday over 5 HUGE chapters (thank God for the study guide that narrows it down!), and I have a 12-15 page paper about monasteries in the Middle Ages, due Tuesday. Yeah.

I’m so grateful for the ability to exercise and read simultaneously. It really helps me get my nervous energy out while not wasting time by not studying. I love the elliptical machine! Textbook, water bottle, and elliptical- perfect!

Also, well done Pixar on the movie Up!, and specifically to the soundtrack team! It made reading those chapters a bit more fun!

Can I just say that I love popcorn… it’s the best. I know it’s going to kill me one day, but I don’t have it as often as I used to, and is there anything out there that won’t kill me? :)

I’m sooooooo excited for Thanksgiving!!!!! My roomie and I are going to spend it with one of my newly-adopted families, and then she’s going to see a movie and come back to the dorms, and I’ll spend the rest of the weekend with the fam… I’m especially excited because AJ asked me if I wanted to help her decorate the house for Christmas!

Woot! BEST part of the year! My roomie and I have already been listening to Christmas music AND we put up Christmas lights in our room… they are SO cool! Too bad we can’t have candles in the dorms; otherwise, we would totally have Christmas-scented candles in the room to make it smell yummy!

I go home in 24 days. I’m so excited! My dad called me yesterday to tell me that he and my sis put the bunk-beds together so I have a place to sleep when I come home! Woot! My sis even washed the sheets for me! I can hardly wait to sleep on them! And my MC class is having a Christmas party the weekend after I get home, so I get to see almost everyone! I just counted… there will only be 6 people that won’t be there… that means 75% of the class be there! Whoa!

Well, I should go write that paper and enjoy my popcorn… hey, one more post until 100! :D

Holy Canoli, Batman!

So I was reading my friends’ blogs, and I realized that it has been almost a MONTH since I’ve updated you! This should not happen! So let me tell you some fun and not-so-fun highlights from the past month…

My friend joined the Marine Corps (SO proud!) and I was kinda bummed because when I left home, his “D-Day” (D meaning departure) was in February, so I was going to be able to see him and say goodbye to him over Christmas Break. Well, the D-Day changed. To like the middle of October. As in, October when I’m still at school. As in, won’t see him at Christmas. As in, BUMMER!!!!! I was still really excited for him, because I know this is where God is calling him and he was uber excited to go, but I was still a little sad.

Then, the day he left, I checked my email and there was something from him! Happiness! I read it, and was kinda tearing up because I knew that as I read, he was getting on a plane, and then I read something that made me jump for joy- his secondary training is only 2.5 hours from my school!!!!! Ahhhh!!!! I would get to see my friend here!!!! I am so excited! I don’t know when he comes, but I’m definitely taking a road-trip to see him, or vice versa.

My mom won’t be able to come out to spend Thanksgiving with me, which is a bummer. However, my roomie and I are going to spend Break with a family that I ADORE, and I’m really excited that (a) I’ll be with a family (instead of just staying in the dorm), and (b) my room-mate and I will be able to spend some good quality time together. Only another couple weeks till Break!

Speaking of Break, I have to write a 12-15 page paper on monasteries in the Middle Ages… BEFORE Thanksgiving!!!! Augh! I’m meeting with the teacher tomorrow to go over the outline, so I feel a little bit better about that. But last night I realized that to some extent, it doesn't matter what grade I get on this paper, or even in this class. For one thing, this class is NOT a part of my major AT ALL. The other thing, no one will care or even remember my GPA in a couple years, or even months after I graduate! While I know that I will still work diligently on this paper, and I will strive for excellence, it’s really freeing to not have such an immense pressure hanging over me. I know that I put too much pressure and too many expectations on myself, so this revelation was really quite liberating. The only bad part? I still have to write this paper!

I love Pandora!!! I think my favorite station is Michael Buble… omg, I love that style! If I lived in the 1950’s, I’m pretty sure I would have a crush on Frank Sinatra!

I registered for classes yesterday. I was planning on taking an overload, but then stuff went wrong with the system, and I’m on the waiting list for one of the classes, and when I went to my boss, who is in charge of stuff like that, she made a phone call and then told me to email these two people about getting credit for ASL. The class that I was on the wait list for would fulfill my International Perspective, and I’m hoping ASL will fulfill that and then I won’t have to overload! I just sent the email this morning, and I believe that God is going to give me favor and I’m going to get credit. Amen, Lord, amen!

I love college! It’s stressful and busy and challenging, and I love it! Sometimes I hate it, but most of the time I love it! And it’s really funny- sometimes I can’t believe that I’m going to be DONE with COLLEGE in another year and a half…whoa! I’ll think of my elementary school years, or even of two years ago, and realize that back then, when I thought of “now,” it never looked like this! I love that God is so cool and mind-blowing!

I GO HOME IN 34 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope that this update satisfies for a little while… please pray for me when you think of me, and I hope to see you when I’m home for Christmas!