reisen.

"Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him."

Psalm 34: 8

{thesimplyluxuriouslife}

Reisen.

This German word can be translated to mean "journey" or "arise". I love how these two words are placed together! Traveling is such an important part of my journey, but I realize that it is not a part of everyone's plan. There is something strange that allows for me to feel at home even when surrounded by the most unfamiliar things--I seriously get chills just thinking about being able to have new experiences {hm, not what my parents would have predicted when I was a child}. I have come to find myself through traveling, and I think a huge part of that is by knowing that I can take refuge in God rather than what or who I am surrounded by. 

Praise God for all he has created! Take refuge in Him--and go out and see what he has to offer!

So, here's to two-thousand-twelve

 and all the new experiences you will have! 

October--November--DECEMBER!

OCTOBER.

October was a pretty crazy 'school' month, so not much else happened besides reading, writing, and planning therapy! We did find some time to carve pumpkins, just to stay festive!

NOVEMBER.

The family slipped away for 4 days to enjoy a peaceful Thanksgiving at the cabin in Ruidoso.

We {obviously} stayed in our pj's for 3 days straight, and I read my first 'fun' book {thehungergames} in a very long time. I am obsessed and currently half way through the second book. SO GOOD.

DECEMBER.

I was lucky enough to go skiing in Breckenridge with some of the greatest people ever.



 

We got to be fans at the Dew Tour and watch some pretty awesome snowboarding 'slopestyle'!

I am a huge snowboarding fan {even though I ski} and this was absolutely a dream come true. for real.

It was a great eight months, and I was blessed by so many people and experiences.

I could not be more thankful for where God has me right now!

Happy New Year!



...still catchin' up

AUGUST.

Safari. Enough said.

Sadly, this ended my 3 month stay, and I headed back to Texas.

There really are no words for growth that came from this summer.

God is good all the time.

One week later, I retraced my steps to DFW to fly to Denver {my second favorite place in America} for a fellow pi phi/heidelberg friend's wedding! So much fun. 

Two days after the wedding, one of my best friends, Courtney, flew back to Denver after spending 8 months on a cruise ship as a dancer in the fun broadway-type shows! Adrienne and I met her at the airport with her family (who are practically our family as well). We then spent the entire week catching up, eating a lot, watching friends, and spending time in our favorite place, Grand Lake, CO! 

What a blessing it was to get to spend my first couple of weeks of culture shock with two of my greatest friends. 

SEPTEMBER.

My birthday month! 24...yikes.

We celebrated at Perinis.

yum.

To finish out the month, Court made a spur of the moment trip to TEXAS to stay with me for a week!

I suggest a surprise visit from a best friend to any and all grad school students...this was probably the highlight of my semester.



8 months later...

After my unintentional 8 month sabbatical...I'm back on the blog!

To fill you in on what has been going on since May {yikes}, I will attempt to do a 'picture-per-month' explanation. Here's the deal: some months deserve a little more than just one picture, so I appologize in advance. Lets just say that my Africa months will be more exciting than my grad school months.

So, last time I posted I was about to venture out to Africa!

{Jackie, Daley, and me on safari.}

So to start off, we have MAY.

This picture was taken after 24 hours of traveling, but who wouldn't be wide awake when being reunited with Abilene friends? Probably one of the most surreal moments of the trip. Who would have thought?

JUNE.

This is the where we brought back headlamps. These are by far the most essential items to have {and obviously, the most fashionable}. I may or may not still keep mine by my bed...

Throughout the summer we skipped back and forth between being Camp Bluesky counselors and working in urban and rural ministries.

I'll go ahead a deem this month--'camp' month. These were my 'Meru' girls from week 4...we had TOO much fun, even though I was shorter than almost all of them. Love those girls.

JULY.

This picture was taken at the Uzimatele slums where we put on a VBS for the pre-school there. We had lots of fun singing, using props (obviously), hearing Corbin tell/act out bible stories (via translator), and creating art projects. These kids couldn't speak English, but we found that holding them, spinning them around, and playing jump rope was as good a form of communication as any!

{view from my window...also, where my house dad milks the cow every morning at 4:30.}

Moving on--for one week, we seperated into groups of two and lived with a family in their hut in Western Kenya. This was by far one of the most impacting weeks. We ate with the families, slept on their bed, used the 'cho' aka the outdoor bathroom, planted trees and played with kids during the day, and lastly, preached at church on Sunday! I have never seen such hospitality in my life (besides my mother who has been known to invite strangers in line at Betty Roses to our thanksgiving...).

To celebrate the 4th of July, we went rafting on the Nile in Uganda. There really are no words other than I was scared out of my mind before doing this and my friend Jackie had to sing kesha to calm me down/pump me up. 

It ended up being great, only a few injuries, and lots of great stories!

August through December: coming soon!

WILW

So, I've seen my friend katie do this, and I figure it's a great way to remind myself of what I'm loving today.

I'm loving that I leave for Africa in 11 days! I've already bought my 2 months worth of toiletries...which may take up half of my 50 lb limit.

And I'm loving that I get to take these babies with me to hopefully seem something a little more exciting than the turkeys that walk up to our yard...

I'm loving that I am getting to use my OCD packing skills in a whole new way. Moving out of a house AND packing for over 2 months at the same time. My life has revolved around one word recently: Lists.

I'm loving that I got to observe at a nursing home this week. I got some great experience in therapy for swallowing (one of my interests). Also, I finished my 25 hours of recquired observations. I love that.

(don't judge me for putting this picture on here.)

I'm loving that I get to leave the world of materialism for a few months. And not be tempted to buy things such as this.

rhinestone headband.

(Who doesn't need reality check about what really matters every once in a while?)

I'm making an exception. One think I am not loving is that my friends are all graduating this weekend and leaving me in Abilene to rot in grad school by myself. OK, that's a little dramatic. It kind of stinks though having to leave people 2 years in a row now. I'm still not over being seperated from my besties from Pepperdine. This will just add to the pile!

I'll miss yall girls.

and I'm loving that I still miss yall. Because that means yall are great. one time. enough said.

Well, I hope you all are loving your Wednesdays. I just freaked out a little because I thought it was Thursday, and I was writing a WILW post. But it's not. Close call. At therapy this morning the sweet lady with aphasia thought it was 2011. 'Poor thing,' I thought, 'It's 2012, she's so confused.' Well, apparently I may be the one needing therapy.

Happy Wednesday, May 12, 2011.

oh the places you'll go...

Well people, I'm officially old. Why? Because I graduated a year ago yesterday.

May 1, 2010. A day to go down in history when all 3 of my family members were in CA at the same time, all of my best friends' families got to be together (a first!), and the day I became emotionally unstable for a solid few months (don't judge).

{me walking into our graduation and happening to walk my family. random? yes.}

So what does this mean?

#1. I have to take off my pi phi sticker on my car. Yes, it's still on there because I can't let go. But I am. Tomorrow...

{pi phis at family beach dinner after grad}

As sad as I was to go {maybe the biggest understatement of the century}, I have definitely seen how life is not actually over at graduation. A wise professor my friends and I had our last semester gave us this picture:

{this is real stuff. don't give up hope you little graduates!}

So what happened after graduation?

I fell in love with these two little ones. Best summer job I've ever had. I can't imagine not having met the Peterson family!

{McKinley, your bangs and David's bangs are doing an oddly similar thing..hm...just sayin haha}

I made some incredible friends! {and got to be a part of lots of engagements.

Went to Harry Potter World with my mom and McKinley! Best idea ever.

Experienced a snow storm the century. In Abilene, TX. Snow days are one thing that Pepperdine never gave me!

{other highlights include: getting to be with close friends from highschool, experiencing guitars and cadillacs...and promising myself I would never go back, and the royal wedding. duh. I'm still recovering from that late night...like I said, I'm old.}

It really has been a great year of learning how to stay connected with my best friends who are literally all over the world, learn that God is faithful in His plans, and learning to live in Abilene again!

I mean, who would have thought that a year ago I'd be going to Africa {in 3 weeks!}?

It really is exciting to think that we don't know what will happen in the next year.

But for real, how awesome is it to be able to be confident in the unknown?

We are truly blessed.

Can't wait to see what the next year will bring! {other than late nights and stress of grad school...hah}

springtime.

I love springtime. I love springtime. I love springtime.

Yet, I can't help but smile and love days like today where I wear comfy pants, a grey sweatshirt, and a hat.

There's just something about this rainy, dreary, WONDERFUL weather that makes me want to curl up, watch harry potter, and not go to work. So, seeing as I still live the flexible life of a college student, I will probably do just that.

But even though I love this weather...

I am so excited for all things springy.

this dress from anthro shouts classic, subtle spring. i love it. and if i wasn't going to be in africa all summer, i would probably dream about wearing it to one of the 7 weddings happening within the next 4 months.

I love this Lilly watch. And my sister has it. She should probably share the wealth...

Another thing I love about spring is Easter. duh. Who doesn't love Easter?

{funny story tangent}

Yesterday at Refugee soccer, I was leading my little small group of about 4, 7 year old girls. We were talking about what Easter is really about, and I decided to start off the discussion with the question...

have you ever known anyone who died...and then came back to life?

I was expecting them to say no, obviously, and then continue to talk about Jesus and how great our God is that he could perform such miracles.

Well, one little girl responded with "yes". Very nonchalantly. "My grandmother died once, and five days later she came back to life." What? I responded with "Really? Oh wow, okayyy? That is interesting." I will never know if this really happened. Maybe the medicine men in Africa are way more powerful than I give them credit for!

Anyways, that gave me a good laugh.

Either way, Easter is coming. Put on your Easter Bonnet. Time to sing my favorite church songs. Because up from the grave He arose (He arose)!