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!