Sayonara Undergrad! Hello real world?!

 So... it's been a while. A semester has passed. College is over. I'm graduating Wednesday. WHAT?! So weird. But I guess I'm not really done. At least that's what I keep trying to remind myself. I still have to take french this summer. And I have a whole year of grad school and student teaching. So, really I'm not fully in the real world yet. Thank goodness! Not ready for that one yet.

All that being said, might as well play catch up? Last semester of undergrad has been the best yet. Wanna know why? This is why:

• MY SISTER HAD A BABY GIRL! The sweetest angel on the planet. World, meet baby Kyndall. 

 

This little angel was born February 3. She's the best. I like to show anyone and everyone her pictures. So if you're lucky you'll get to see them... twice. Maybe even three times.

• Spent a week in the sun with 12 of the coolest people on the planet. Spring break we packed up our bags and headed to Pensacola for a week full of corn hole, skim boarding, and dancing to the Destiny's Child Pandora station (if you've never listened to it...do it. right now. you're welcome). 

•  I ran a my first half marathon! 13.1 miles. My roomies/friends are even cooler and ran the whole marathon! 26.2 miles. Well done friends. It was hard. But SO fun. Again? Maybe. We'll see. But our friends were the best part. They were so great and encouraging... couldn't have done it without seeing their beautiful faces!

•  Our YL team is HUGE right now! 18 leaders! Central is as big as it has ever been with four of the coolest new leaders ever. Maddie, Jessica, Matt, and Zach. They are crazy and fun and full of energy. I cannot wait to see what God has in store for these new bobs at Central. All I know is it is going to be great.

• Spring Fling! Got to dance the night away in a barn with these beautiful people.

 

•  Cinco de Mayo! This holiday is great because you can eat chips and salsa AND you can say arbeeeebbaaaa and ole all. day. long.

Well... I think that sums up the semester pretty well. I know I make this goal everytime I blog, but my hope is to blog more now that summer time is finally HERE!

Fa la la la la.

Christmas break is HERE!! Finally! I stayed up all night Sunday (7:30 am Sunday to 11 pm Monday to be exact... thank you Jesus for the energy you gave me that day!) trying to finish assignments for my last classes on Monday and was ready to welcome Christmas break with open arms.

I still have two "finals." One- a 5 minute french skit that we spent FOUR HOURS recording. 5 minutes... 4 hours. What? The other- super easyyyyy. So basically... I'm done done done. HELLO CHRISTMAS BREAK! Whoooo baby baby.

Christmas break has started off with a bang. Tuesday we had our Christmas Young Life Party. I'm still convinced I have the best looking Young Life team. Really. Look at these faces.

 

Told ya. Go bobcats. 

 

They're kinda sassy too.

random thoughts...

1. Monday nights are the long. Real long. Approximately 3 hours long. 3 long hours of night class. But, it's all worth it when 7:45 rolls around. I'm thankful that Monday nights now consist of carpooling with Chelcie to class, making a fast food run after class (meals under 3 dollars? Yes pleaseee! best decision we've ever made), and then usually over to crossroads! This Monday was a real treat... Chick-fi-la fed us for free! Thanks Chick-fi-la. Thursday mornings are also equally as great thanks to Box Top Thursday and free breakfast!

2. As of yesterday I am going to see Needtobreathe and Ben Rector in Chattanooga. The resulted in lots screaming in the living room with my roommates. I've been trying SO hard to get tickets! I've called the venue 5 times checking for tickets and been looking everyday online for resale tickets. Ahhhh I can't wait!

3. It's finally here. My favorite time of year. FALL. I love every single thing about this season. Leaves changing. Cooler weather. Pumpkins. Pumpkin flavored everything. The return of Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Football. Bonfires. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Really anything and everything related to fall... I love. I'm happy. This season is great. And it's only the beginning!

4. Speaking of fall... Chelcie and I just made these delicious pumpkin cookies. YUM. Delicious. Thanks Pinterest.

5. Windy Gap is this weekend. I'm excited. I'm excited for the kids that are going. I'm excited to see what God has in store for them. I'm excited to watch Him work. I'm excited to spend a weekend at one of my favorite places. I'm excited to be with my teammates and being able to be with our friends from Central together for a whole weekend.

6. Our flag football season ended Monday. Bummer. But I still think we were the best team in the league. I'm not real sure what our team name was? Oh well, go team. Good season. Soccer starts next Wednesday!

7. Remember when I said I was gonna get better at blogging?? Twice in four days!

8. I haven't stopped listening to the new Steve Moakler CD since I got it. It's SO good. So good. If you don't have it... get it. Now. Go. You can thank me later.

Dear blog, I haven't forgotten about you.

I know it's been a long time... A few months really. But I haven't forgotten about you blog! I'm gonna work on blogging more often. (maybe disregard my previous efforts)

But in our time apart, I've...
...moved into a new house! Now, I live with Lindsey, Jamie, Chelcie, and Sarah Hope. They are great. and funny. and awesome. I love it.

This is where Jamie and I like to study sometimes. Multi-purpose room? I think so.

...I've started my senior year of college. WHAT?! How in the world did senior year come so fast? I feel like I just moved into the dorms. But nope... that was 3 years ago. Almost time for the real world. Weird, weird, weird.
...I've been student teaching at Newhopewell Elementary for the past few weeks. Go Owls. I LOVE these kids. I get to spend time with about 15-20 kids from 1st-5th grade. They are SO funny. I love them a little bit more everyday. Sadly, only three more trips to this school! I'm gonna miss these kids so much. BUT, then I get to spend 5 weeks at Central! YAHOO.

...I've been working. Not as much as I was this summer. Just a couple times a week. But something I love about my job- I'm reminded everyday of how funny and quirky people can be. I kind of love it.
...Jesus has reminded me how big his love is over and over again. He's shown me his love is bigger than my selfishness, bigger than my fears, bigger than my need to be constantly in control. He's also shown me how easily I forget he's capable of the impossible and has continued to surprise / remind me of this. And for that I have been so thankful.
...I've been hanging out with these girls. Central High School's finest. They are JUNIORS. I can't believe it. They're funny. They're beautiful. They're full of energy. They make me laugh. They're just all around awesome.

...I found out I'm gonna be an aunt! Well, I'm already an aunt. What I really mean is my sister's having another baby! Little Kyndall will be here in February and I can't wait!!

Well... that's all I've got for now. Missed you blog. Glad we could catch up! Promise I'll be back soon...really!

bring on the sunshine.

It's finally here! Summer. I've been waiting for you. Thanks to the education program, apparently I don't have finals during finals week, so I'm done a week early. And it is SO great. I can't tell you how good it feels to be done. All that's left is a conference with my Reading Ed teacher... we'll see how that one goes. But for now, I'm embracing summer and all it has to offer me. So far (the past 3 days) have been great. And the future looks even better.

Summer so far...

Ice Cream Olympics. Fact- top 5 favorite days of the year. Unfortunately, I had my last class of the semester during it. Butttt I got to show up to see the mess afterwards. It was top notch. Thankfully, I have some great high school friends willing to hug me while they were covered in ice cream, making me feel like I'd been there the whole time.

 

Proud of these girls. True ice cream Olympians right there.

 

All stars. Lookin so good after ice cream wars.

End of the year leadership. Central YL might be the best looking team in Knoxville. It might be a proven fact. Or maybe I'm biased. But I'm leaning towards proven fact. I mean look at these faces.

 

Did I mention we got new leaders? Well, we did. About a month ago. We got SIX. Unbelievable. Lindsey, Abbie, Chelsea, Cayce, Chase, and Conner. They are crazy. And awesome. And funny. And some of my favorite people.

 Here they are running in a flying V around the Fountain City duck pond. Told you they were awesome.

You might not be able to tell what's happening here, but they are chasing and trying to catch ducks. Incredible.

This is a really random post. But it makes me happy. You know what else makes me reallyyyyyyy happy? Christine came to town this weekend. It was SO good to hang out with her. Missed her. Plus Olivia was there. and her precious 8 year old friends. We played the "Favorites" game for hours. Followed by truth or dare... you've never truly played truth or dare til you've played with 8 year olds.

One last thing that makes me happy- Matt comes back from Rome this week. WHOOO!

Finally. Summer 2011 Goal: Blog more. Maybe. We'll see. I have high hopes and see great potential in the thought. 

Stone Age Sassies.

I got to spend a whole week with these girls at Camp Koinonia. We like to call ourselves the Stone Age Sassies. (Camp Theme = time travel) These girls taught me so much, made me laugh so hard, and showed me so much Jesus in the way they loved. And these girls are so brave and adventurous-  we went horseback riding, canoeing, made arts and crafts, shot rifles and bow & arrows, and danced & sang any chance we got. I really don't even know what to say about this week except that it was so wonderful. And I wish SO much that you could spend the time with these girls that I got to spend because each one of them is SO stinkin awesome.

Meet some of my friends...

This is my friend Cassie! I got to hang out with her all week. She's awesome and can ride a horse like nobody's business.

Amber might be the most loving person I've ever met. And she gives great hugs.

 

The talent was probably my favorite moment at camp. Every cabin group got up in front of the camp and sang and danced to their favorite songs and yelled cabin cheers at the end. You can probably imagine there were lots of Beiber fans- at least half the performances were to "Baby"

 

Love birds: Kara and Shawn Mullins. My favorite couple.

 

Though Amber and Eric are pretty up there too...Eric can be a little flirt, Amber had to remind him of the one girlfriend rule a couple of times.

The boys LOVED dancing with Cassie...and Cassie LOVED dancing with them

Oh man I miss these kids. Camp Koinonia you were so good.