One of my Christmas Presents :)

Unlit



















Lit! (It looks even better in person)

Thanks Dave and Cherith!

Turkey Bread

So, this year for Thanksgiving I decided to try my hand at a childhood favorite - Turtle Bread, but with a twist. Making it into a turkey! So far it looks and smells great, taste will be determined tomorrow.

My New Place

So, after a long few months I have finally put pictures on my picasa site of my apartment. I am really enjoying living here. It is great to have a place to have friends over and be hospitable :) The toughest part is having to cook for myself, but I still eat good food there is no doubt about that.

AFTER

BEFORE

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Moving out and up!

So, a few weeks ago I talked with MariJane, the woman in whose home I am staying and we mutually agreed that it was time for me to move out on my own and become independent. So, for the past few weeks I have been looking through the newspaper, online, and talking to some people about possible places to rent out. I came across a good looking ad in the newspaper, so I called, but they had already leased that duplex half, but they had an apartment in a four-plex that had just become available if I was interested. So, last Thursday (almost a week ago) I went over before work to take a look. It looks great!!! It has everything I wanted and is very close to my church and work, which makes it very appealing. I went home that night and prayed about it and talked to my parents, and decided I wanted it. So, that weekend I called the landlady that I had met with and told her that I would like to rent the apartment.
All of that is to say that Friday I am signing a lease on a two bedroom apartment in a four-plex and moving in on Saturday with the help of some of my friends from church!

Yay for growing up :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Korean Delicacies

So this past Monday I went over to a woman from my church's house. She is from Korea, and decided she wanted to teach me how to make some food. So, she taught me how to make crab meat cheese, pork dumplings, and sushi. It was so much fun, and so delicious! I think I will have to try my hand at it again. YUM!

Brrrr!

Today it snowed in Midland for the first time, at least that was undeniably snow. After church there were tiny little flakes, and just a little while ago we had our first big fluffy flakes. So pretty, but so cold.

My First Trip to an Apple Orchard

So, Sunday afternoon Nas and the girls took me on my virgin apple orchard experience. We had a great time, pretending to be little children again. Nas' mom and one of her friends met us there, and stayed for a while. We rode the little lawn mower pulled train, went through an alphabet maze, picked some apples, and of course ate apple goodies including an apple cider slush and donut. Yumm! It was one of the last days to be outside and not cold I think, so I loved it. The only thing missing was a corn maze, I guess I will just have to go again.
It was great to be able to spend good quality time with three ladies who are like family to me.

So, Catch-up after 2 and a half months -SORRY!

Well, Lets see what I've done. I'll just tell you a little snippet of each major thing, and hope I don't miss anything.

July 18-20 I went camping with my dad's side of the family. It was fun to see cousins I haven't seen for a while, and have so many of them together for Saturday dinner. I also slept in a tent Sat night with Dave and Cherith, so that was fun. I hadn't tented it in quite awhile.

July 23-28 The whole immediate fam got together in Houston. I hadn't seen Emily since March, so it was great to see her. It was really just amazing to have all 5 of us plus Cherith together for the first time since my high school graduation. I miss my family when there is that long a space in between whole family visits. We had a great time together, went to see alligators at Brazos Bend State Park and some garden/zoo thing downtown, that I can't remember the name of.

Aug. 7 I spent part of the day with Emily in Grand Rapids as she was there for a friend's wedding, and also got to meet her boyfriend Ryder for the first and only time.
Aug. 8 On the way home from GR I stopped at Cran-Hill Ranch to see many of my friends from WI who were there to help at a youth group's retreat.

Aug. 10-16 Mission Trip to NYC! My cousin Kendra went with me to NYC on my church's mission trip. We went with the Center for Student Missions. It was a great time of experiencing different cultures, lifestyles, and missions organizations. I think my favorite part was getting to know the people in our group better, some for the first time, and really getting to know my cousin on a whole different level. It was a great time of experiencing God.

Aug 19 I started working full time at Sleepy Hollow Bookshop in Midland. I work 38-40 hours a week selling books more or less.

Aug 30-Sept 1 I spent Labor Day Weekend up at Vanderwende's condo with a bunch of old people, but had a good time relaxing, enjoying the outdoors especially the water!

Sept 16 The one year anniversary of going to DTS.

Sept 16 The first night of the young singles Bible study - Emerge- that I started. It has been going wonderfully. There are about 7 of us with potential for more. We all are really bonding and have a hard time ending. Everyone really desires more of God and want a genuine community of love and honesty. It has been a great blessing already.

I think that is all that I have done. And now, Happy October!

Week on the lake

So, on the way home from Wisconsin / visiting Grafs I stopped for a week or so at VanderWende's condo on Lake Charlevoix. It was a great weekend of being on the water, relaxing and hanging out. I got to surf behind the boat again, and play a lot with V's new, six week old grandson who was there for the week with his parents. It was great! Also got to sail a few times, so much fun. Now I am back in Midland for a while, enjoying seeing friends again.

Visiting the Grafs

On the way home I swung over to visit the Grafs from my DTS. They live in Apple Valley, MN which is near St. Paul. It was so great to see them it had been about 6 months since I had last seen them. I was able to see the house they live in now and the house they are moving to in a couple of weeks. I also went to church with them Saturday night and then Sunday to the church that they are doing childrens ministry at. On Sunday at church I was also able to send about an hour reconnecting with Levi and Kelly from my DTS too. Then Sunday afternoon we all went to the zoo, saw the animals, and flowers. Then Monday Carissa (12) and I went to the Mall of America. Then Tuesday morning I headed almost home. I drove about 11 hours and made it all the way to VanderWende's condo on Lake Charlevoix to spend the fourth of July weekend.

Graduation

On Friday we Graduated! We had a nice fancy dinner, then each of us talked a little bit about what we learned or how we changed. And then they gave us our certificates and prayed for us and we were free! It was a bittersweet night. It was good to be done and good to be heading home. But, it was really hard to say goodbye to all the people here, especially the students. We became really close and will really miss each other. I love you guys!!

Wed - Lake Day

So on Wed we got to have a fun day. We borrowed a ski boat from a nearby bible camp and played on the beach, in the boat, and had a picnic. We had a great time skiing and tubing. And ended up a nice, happy tomato red.

Tues. Pie Night

So, on Tuesday the 24th the SBF class had a pie night. All of the staff and all the students got one pie each. We all stood in a line and in order we each said who we were going to pie and why. Many of the students chose Tom, our director of the school, so instead of following the trend, I decided to pie Zach. He was in charge of giving us quizzes and leading discussions of one of the books we had to read, Church History in Plain Language. It was early in the morning when we had to do that and we all really didn't like it. So, he got pied for it. Then after all the pies were thrown we took all the random leftover chunks and smeared it on each other.

Fredrick, may you rest in peace

So, on Friday our cook Luke was out in the yard, and one way or another, I'm not really sure, he found a baby duck with no mom. So, he decided to take it in. It was probably less than a day old, and would otherwise be some animal's dinner. Well, he was going away for the weekend, so he asked us girls to take care of him. We loved it. He was such a cute, tiny duck. We took such good care of him, loving him, getting him a good home and everything. Then Saturday afternoon disaster struck. Poor little Freddy slowly died. Then on Sunday morning we had a funeral service for Sir Fredrick. We attempted a Viking funeral, thinking that would be romantic and poetic for young Freddy, but it didn't work as planned. So, in the end he just reconvened with nature just as he began. May you rest in peace Fredrick, you were well loved.

Body in a Bag??

What?!?!?! That's right, last Saturday us girls put our bodies in a bag. A ziploc bag to be exact. I had purchased a giant ziploc bag to put a blanket in, and decided it would be fun to see how much of my body I could fit in. Mel and Bethany soon joined the fun. It was great fun. And further evidence of how too much studying can effect your mind :)

Baptism into the Body

So on Thursday Kurt, one of the other students, and one of the staff's kids were baptized. We went to one of the lakes nearby for the baptism. It was so cool to see them take a stand for Christ. Kurt had gone through a lot before becoming a Christian, and it is so great to see how far he had come in such a relatively short time. God is amazing and this occasion was a great reminder of His blessings and the body of Christ around us.

(photos included)

Spring has sprug . . . Finally!

A couple of days ago a transformation occurred. It seemed like overnight the trees became green. It was beautiful. There are so many trees around us that everywhere you look is covered in green. And, flowers are blooming. I love it, so beautiful.

Happy Memorial Day!

We had the day off of school today!! It is/was so great to have a break. It was much needed. Last week we had a week of church history with a great teacher, Suzanne. She really made it interesting and helped us put ourselves in there spot and realize to a certain extent how and why things happened as they did.

Today our SBF (school of biblical foundations) director Tom and his wife Lisa invited almost all of the base over to their house for a cook-out. It was fun. Good food.

Well, I hope all of you have a wonderful Memorial Day!