Oregon

Friends.  Food.  Fellowship.  Fun.
I think that pretty much sums up my weekend on the west coast! 
But in more descriptive terms, here ya go:
(Warning: You may be clueless unless you were there!)

Not attending a jean skirt convention...
Driving a moped over the curb...
Getting caught in the sprocket of a surrey...
Wearing a balloon skirt...
Battling the windy beach...
Not having (or having) a killer sweet camera...
Getting stuck with an X on the bottom of your plate...
Saying "Happy Birthday" to a compliment...
Being "quarantined to the back seat with the luggage...(That was me!)
Having a want-to-be- weanie roast...
Freeze-drying marshmellows...
Having wonderful convos about our spiritual lives...
And just being together!

So many memories were made. 
Ones that only a select few of us would understand, but memories none-the-less.
It was a wonderful refresher.  Spiritually, mentally, and I guess physically as well! ;) (Those Surreys sure were beasts!  Or maybe it was the passengers...)

I'll let the pictures tell the story...they might be easier to understand :)

Hanging out at our cottage Friday night...

Bubble skirts!

My Hostess - Jenna, thanks so much for the amazing weekend!

The clan!

The Surrey...aka beast

X's 3...

Beautiful Coast...

Monday before heading home...

 Thanks again all you Oregonian's for hosting a blessed weekend.  Maybe I'll come back this summer.... :)

single life

Oh the joys and blessings of a single life. 
I have NO complaints. 
Oh the freedom it gives me.
Oh the precious memories I've made.
Packing my bags last minute and traveling for the weekend.
Meeting up with friends from all over the U.S.
Making new friends from all over the U.S.
Random last minute plans with my lovely friends from home.
Scrapping the homework and having fun instead.
Staying out late. 
Spending money for the fun of it.
Going on walks...sometimes in circles in my basement.
Having precious conversations that bring us closer to Christ.
Bonding with one another, and helping each other on this path to Heaven.
Not a care in the world...Ok so maybe that's somewhat of an exaggeration!
Sigh.  I'm soo thankful this is where God has placed me.
Right. Now.


Back a few weekends ago, K, T, Anna, and I traveled to KS to surprise Jodi for her birthday...after much planning, failed plans, and new planning, we dressed up like hooligans and surprised Jodi by jumping on her bed Saturday morning before she woke up.  Loved the reaction! ;)



Dressing up like Goons to surprise the birthday girl!

The birthday Girl w/ T and I...after she survived the surprise attack in bed!

The kind cows who let us milk them...lots of fun, right T?!

The whole crew...after 2 other lovely ladies surprised us all!

The group.  Made for many wonderful memories!  So Precious!

 We were spoiled enough to be able to spend the weekend the next weekend with the KS girls out our way.  Friday K and I took them to B-town, ice skating, and then out to eat.  And you know how K and I's adventures go in B-town...no explanations needed!

Eating at Meat Heads after ice skating :)

Giving the KS girls the experience of a Yogurt bar - TASTY!

Surprising a special friend at work...and Yes, of course she was working! ;)

Then on to OH the same weekend for invite-a-friend...Had the pleasure of traveling with my cousin Kurt...many adventures followed us that weekend as well...cherries and blueberries can give one quite the scare!  Thankfully the owner was a nice man ;) Oh yeah...and learning to drive stick - that was an experience!

Wonderful weekend renewing friendships and creating a few more.  Thanks Leah for the pleasure of allowing me to stay with you! :)

Last weekend my whole family traveled to Cincinnati, OH.  We stayed at a hotel in Indi Thursday night and then went to the Creation Museum on Friday.  Then on to a house for the next 2 nights. 

Creation Museum w/ the Gang

Petting Zoo...this was quite the Camel!

Birthday Girls...They're getting SOOO BIG!!!

Mom got them matching outfits...ADORABLE!

The house had an indoor pool w/ diving board & a hot tub...too bad the pool heater was broken...it was a TAD chilly!

No words needed!

Kitchen

Living room...Sunday Morning

The House

Now another week of school ahead of me and then I'm flying out to OR for Invite-a-friend for the weekend.  :) Maybe one of these days I'll decide to stay home...maybe...

Wishing you many blessings in this Easter Weekend!

sad face.

*UPDATE 3/8/13* - phone is back in commission.  Rice worked it's wonders...I'm sure it was most likely due to the song I sang to it! ;) lol

:(
I had a tradgic day today.
It all started with my decision to wear an outfit without pockets - mistake #1.
Everything was going along just fine until about 3:30 during my lab class.
Nature was calling, so I decided I needed to use the restroom - that was mistake #2.
Mistake #3 was that I decided to take my phone with me while going to the bathroom (I can't remember my reasoning behind needing my phone in the bathroom, but nonetheless, it came with me). 

So, so far I have no pockets, in the bathroom, with my phone. 
Any guesses where this is going?

Mistake #4 - As I was turning to unlock the stall door, I raised my arm (which was holding my phone in it's armpit since I didn't have any pockets to put it in).
And as I'm sure you are picturing...my phone slipped out from its holding place and flew gracefully through the air with a CUR-PLUNK right into the bowl of the toilet (thankfully it was after it flushed!).

Needless to say my phone is now sleeping in a bed of rice where I will probably keep it for the next few days...

So...in case you are wondering.  I'm not ignoring your texts, your phone calls, or anything else I could ingore from my phone...I just plain ain't recieving them. 

In other words - if for some reason you just HAVE to get a hold of me...I guess you'll have to resort to the old fasion route of sending a snail mail, calling the home phone, or emailing me. :)

*Sigh* This is gonna be a painful test as to how well I can manage with out the one thing goes with me everywhere, *literally*. ;)

Friends ∙ Food ∙ Fun ∙ Take 2

We were just discussing the other night about how our friendship basically revolves around food.  It sounds kind of sad, but it's sorta true.  Everytime we get together, it has something to do with food.  Catering.  Eating out.  And of course, if it doesn't have to do with food to begin with, it always ends with food... But who's complaining?!

Twas a wonderful night once again.  Consisting of friends, food, and fun. 
K, T, and I met C after work in Gibson.  Our taste buds were calling for something a little unique and we were quite eager to try out the Bayern Stube Authentic German restaurant which we'd only heard rave reviews about.  K had the delightful idea of ordering dessert first, since our stomachs are usually detestably full after the main course.  This way we were able to pleasantly enjoy the delisious desserts.  I think our waitress, along with all the other tables around us, thought we were quite the odd ducks by the end of the evening...but then again, it wouldn't be a "normal" night with the 'core four' without a few odd looks cast our way! 

white cake with some cheescake-y filling - 2nd place :)

Creme Brulee - DELICIOUS! My all time fav.

Chocolate Turtle cheesecake - or very close

Lemon glazed cake with berry filling inside

Schweinebraten with Spatzle and red cabbage.

Bismark Schnitzel w/ spatzle and sauerkraut

My entree - Rabbit leg w/ red cabbage, potatoes & pear w/ berry sauce - delish!  Tasted a lot like chicken...

Tiff got a sampler...

After dessert, before tasting the entrees :)

All of the food was delicious (minus the red cabbage & sauerkraut...they weren't my fav...) and I would highly recommend it to anyone who's up for a little something different.  It definitely lived up to its name!

Thanks ladies for the wonderful evening.  Which restaurant are we gonna try out next?

weekend wonderfulness

Even though school sometimes has my stomach tied up in knots, and my hair falling out in clumps due to so-much-studying-in-so-little-time, I still seem to have the time *make the time to enjoy the blessedness of friendships and travel within our church family. And as backwards as it may sound, even though it creates less time for my studies and sometimes more stress on my part, it tends to loosen those stomach knots, and lessen the hair loss in my life...or at least I like to think it does!

This past weekend (as in like LAST wknd)...well actually, just to clarify, my weekends typically start thursday evening once I walk out the doors from clinical...so of course my "weekend wonderfulness" started then. It all began with a late night *Valentine's date* run to B-town with two of my favorite valentines - K & T - to hit up the Yogurt bar plus a run a few errands, including black high-heels, brown flats, and wal-mart, and of course a last minute decision to stop at Fusion Brew 10 minutes before closing time... (This is typically how our nights together go - very spontaneous) And we usually end up somehow getting semi-lost, going down a one-way the wrong way,  giggling until there's no more giggles left, and always *always* staying out WAY later than anticipated... We are very good at filling a few short hours with mountains of memories...choking on bobas, embarrassing T in Wal-mart (won't go into details - some things aren't blog-rated), awkwardly seeing past HS classmates, having special heart-to-heart's, and yet, somehow still accomplishing everything we needed to accomplish!

 Friday consisted of completing my online homework as quickly as possible to make my noon deadline, clinical post-paperwork write ups (both very typical for my friday's), and a wonderful evening of food, friends, and fellowship at a sister's BOND supper. 

Saturday, I traveled with 3 wonderful ladies out to Latty, OH for a cousin's/friend's wedding.  Such a refreshing time. Catching up with cousin's from out east...friends from out east...friends from the midwest...friends from back home...and being reminded of Christ's perfect example. God is good. 

Blessings in this weekend!

DIY Christmas gifts

Seems like another lifetime ago that I was frantically scrambling to finish the long list of pinterest inspired DIY gifts I decided to make for Christmas.  I had a blast stressing myself out (in a good way) trying to finish the majority of them during finals week and the week before Christmas.  Everything turned out great and amazingly I stayed inspired until I was finished! (I usually get brainy ideas like this but I don't always follow through with them...so this is kind of shocking!)

Just thought I would share them with you since Christmas is (long) over :)

**Complete credit goes to the creative people I find through *pinterest* ;)

12 days of Christmas Gifts -
I've always wanted to send someone 12 days of Christmas gifts and this year, since I was overly ambitous and decided to send them to a few different friends. FYI - There are more than 12 ideas b/c I didn't send all of the same gifts to each person.

I sent 1 set the 12 days before Christmas, and other 2 sets the 12 days after Christmas - I works either way.  I just didn't have time to finish all of them before Christmas! 

I also sent all of the gifts at once. I just put tags on each gift that I found here, with the number of the day to open it on.

 1. Jar of Reese's M&Ms that says "I Love You to Pieces"
2. Paper clip book marks
3. Dry erase picture frame to write notes on.
4. Flower hair clip
5. Clothes pin message...
6. Bible verse cards

 Cute "gift carrier." Tutorial found Here.

 Another "gift carrier" with a bag of hershey's hugs & kisses.  Tutorial found Here.

 Snow man kisses and large decorative clothespin. Tutorials found Here and Here.

 1. Pringles jar, cleaned, decorated, and filled with cookies.
2. little hershey's chocolate bars wrapped with paper, and packaged. Tutorial found here.
3. M&Ms sewed up inside paper.

The final products, wrapped and ready to be sent!

Bubble Burlap Wreath
I got this idea from a tutorial found Here. With a few modifications...

 1. Supplies needed
     a. 10 or 12 in foam ring (I used a 12in)
     b. lots of pins w/ heads
     c. burlap 1 1/2 - 1 1/4 yds burlap
     d. old sheet (Optional)
     c. scissors
2. tear ~3in strip from old sheet
3. hot glue one end to ring and wrap around the rest, ending by hot glueing the other end. (Doesn't have to look great...it will get covered up.)
4. Begin cutting burlap in 4x4 pieces (or close to that. Mine were definitely not all the exact same sizes)

Ignore 5. & 6...just realized that was from something else I made from burlap! ;)
7. Refer to the turtorial for a better description of how to pin the "bubbles"
8. The covered wreath!

 I decided to add some spice to the wreath by putting some flowers on it.
1. I used 3 different colors of yellow felt.  Cut into a circle (size depends on how big you want your flower to be.)
2. Cut circle in spiral shape.
3. Roll up felt from the outside - in. place a dot of hot glue where the #3 is. The tighter you roll the felt, the tighter the flower will be.
4. Ta-da! Finished product.

 And Ta-Da! The Complete project! I just attached some ribbon to hang it by...the ribbon can be easily changed to a different color for different occasions. :)

I realized that even if I was in a complete rush and I had the basement in utter caos, making crafts is actually moderately relaxing and stress-relieving! :)

change

Sometimes life takes unexpected turns. 
It can be for the good or for the bad.
Often it's painful. stressful. scary.
Sometimes it leads to rejoicing. happiness. contentment.
It all depends on how we look at it.
But in almost every circumstance, it teaches us to trust.
You see, as humans, we like to plan, prepare, and organize our lives according to our own desires and dreams.
And yes, I agree.  Life can go according to our plans.
But at some point we will be hit with an unexpected turn.
And then is when we really realize that no matter how much we plan.
Or how much we prepare.
Or how organized we are.
WE ARE NOT IN CONTROL.
And that is where trust comes in.
Because no matter what happens, we know that GOD's plan is the real plan that we want to be a part of.

My life took somewhat of an unexpected turn this week. 
You see.  I had this plan.  And it was going according to how I had it all planned. 
But then, it changed. 
And now I'm painfully learning to trust in the God who I know has a plan that exceeds any that I could ever dream up.

His name was Franklin.  He was a sweet, old man who I had the pleasure of being a caregiver for over the last 9 or so months of his life.  He passed away this past Sunday, and will be missed by many.  I am thankful for the time I had to get to know him and his family.  They were a blessing in my life. 

It was a job I loved very much, mostly because of the people, but also because of the Convenience. It kind of spoiled me, you could say.  It was the "perfect" job for me as a college student. 

You see, this is where trust comes in now.  I don't really have a steady job anymore, which means no steady income.  But I've come to be thankful for the time I had, and trust that God has something more for me in the future. 

God bless Franklin and his family.