Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Fall Break

Right now, I'm blogging from my kitchen at home.

My weekend was pretty packed. I babysat for Quinn Thursday night. She is precious and has grown up so much!

On Friday I took a six hour drive southeast towards Saint Louis.

I picked Steph up at SLU, and we went straight to Six Flags. We had so much fun wandering around the dark park, getting lost, and avoiding the people dressed in scary costumes that follow you around. High of the night? Getting put in the same ferris wheel cart as a couple on a romantic date. #awkward

Saturday we went shopping and got lost downtown. We drove through an occupy wall street protest, past the arch, and into an area with basically no buildings. Luckily, google maps got us back to campus safely.

Sunday I drove home to Kansas to finish my midterm for my aggression class. I was impressed with how productive I was able to be at home. Carly and I joked the rest of the day about being primed for aggression. We like to make psych major jokes.



I love being home. Last night, I baked for my family and got to decorate cupcakes. Three of my favorite things.


Speaking of family, did you know I'm a grandma? Well, a DG one anyways. Dana's new little is Hannah. She's great and is so excited to be apart of our family. Big/little reveal was SO fun. I loved watching how excited everyone was when they found out who their big is!




I'm glad to get to be home for the next few days. It's good to get away from the stress of college life and refocus.

Monday, October 17, 2011

100 Things I Love

This is my 100th post. This calls for a list of 100 Things I Love, in no particular order.

  1. Highs and lows at panhel exec meetings
  2. Cooking dinner for myself
  3. Cooking dinner for other people
  4. Planning parties
  5. Gathering people together to play games
  6. Making friendship bracelets
  7. Sassy, but serious, DG Bible studies
  8. Rainstorms at CT that force you to stay in your cabin, which ends up with all of the campers so much closer than they were before the storm started
  9. Sleeping out on the suspension bridge
  10. Fall boots
  11. Getting a latte from Starbucks
  12. Choreography on the spot in show choir clinic
  13. Performing at closing campfire
  14. Senior of the Event at chapter - hearing the funny stories about the seniors as small children
  15. Personal values clarification exercises and devotions
  16. Heart to hearts on the back porches of LV cabins
  17. FROYO
  18. Mint chocolate chip ice cream
  19. Facebook Chat
  20. Talking to the StIL staff
  21. Giving the torchbearers their medallions at closing campfire
  22. Finding a new craft to try out
  23. Scrapbooking old pictures
  24. Moments of peace and clarity that come while journaling
  25. The smell of baked goods in the oven
  26. Sleepovers
  27. Candlelight Mass
  28. Singing in church
  29. Brainstorming ideas for a costume
  30. Dresses
  31. Business Casual
  32. Hashtags in real life
  33. Waking up early and going to a coffee shop
  34. Sitting in the Olmsted coffee shop and hanging out with everyone who passes by
  35. Skyping with friends who are far away
  36. Telling epic stories with Sowens to our campers
  37. Playing ice breakers
  38. Talking to my mom on the phone (basically everyday)
  39. Singing entire musical soundtracks, really really loud, in my car
  40. Hand written letters from campers
  41. TOMS shoes
  42. Hugging friends
  43. The feeling of accomplishment after completing a long assignment
  44. Blogging
  45. Shopping with my sister
  46. Trips to the Smokies with our "third family"
  47. Adoration
  48. Feeling close and connected to a community
  49. The Sisters of Life
  50. Night Prayer
  51. Diet Dr. Pepper with Cherry
  52. #flybetaphi
  53. Hanging quotes on my wall
  54. Picture frames
  55. Espinanca from Cactus Grill
  56. Laughing with friends
  57. Christmas morning
  58. Curling my hair
  59. Finding out you have something in common with someone new
  60. Discipleship with Dana
  61. My DG family
  62. Life Nights
  63. Drake Late Night Lock-Ins
  64. Swing Dancing
  65. Decorating cup cakes
  66. To Do Lists
  67. Crossing off things on my to do list
  68. Post-It Notes
  69. Color Coding my planner
  70. Singing in the shower
  71. Late night shenanigans with my roommates
  72. Spontaneous froyo with Sarah Mooney
  73. Singing "Welcome to the Family"
  74. Walking around cities
  75. The moment when you know your campers understand the lesson you are trying to teach them
  76. Flash Mobs
  77. The excitement I feel when I land in the Indianapolis Airport
  78. The color of the trees in the fall
  79. Playing board games
  80. Taylor Swift songs
  81. Jumping pictures
  82. CT staff sweatshirts
  83. Crew neck sweatshirts
  84. Leggings
  85. Taking walks and having real conversation
  86. Midnight Hole
  87. Wedding photography
  88. Talking in accents
  89. Passing friends from the other village on Lake Hill
  90. 2nd period coord time
  91. Reunions
  92. Planning out my day
  93. Broadway posters
  94. Sitting around or by a fire and talking
  95. Starting fires
  96. Achieving goals
  97. Reading for fun
  98. When you know someone is really listening
  99. Memories/Nostalgia 
  100. Making a decision to do something positive and actually following through with it

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Things I Don't Do.

Last night, I led DG Bible Study.

We read "Things I Don't Do" from Shanua Niequist's Bittersweet. We talked about "DO EVERYTHING BETTER" and which one of those words is the crux for us. For the pharmacy girls it was "better," for some it was "everything," but right now for me, the painful, harsh, killer word in my life is "do."

Shanua writes eloquently about why "do" is harsh and aggressive and damaging to the soul, but right now "do" is killing me because I feel like all I ever have time for is "do." Whether it's school, work, or meetings, I have been running from place to place and "doing" life away. I do not leave time to simply be. And it's taken me until this week to realize how damaging that's been to the core of who I am. I haven't left time to be a friend or even be with God. And I do not want this to become a habit. So it's time to reframe the way I'm living my life and the way I'm thinking.

Yesterday, my friend Sarah wrote "you can do something to make love win today." That's where I want to live my life.

So, in honor of "Things I Don't Do," here are my two lists. I'm still working on some of these, but I know in order to get to the heart of who I want to be, I need to be honest with myself and with life.

Things I Do:
To me, these are the things that outline who I want to be. They are either abstract guidelines that outline my way of living, or specific practices on how I live my life.

Things I Don't Do:
These are the things that go against the things on my "Things I Do" list. These are the things I am willing to give up in order to pursue excellence in my life.


End of Bible Study challenge: Pick one item, from either list, to work on this week. I picked list 1, item 1.

Friday, October 7, 2011

This Week I...

1. Spoke at the Board of Trustees Meeting
2. Went to the ISU game
3. Taught some new members about Greek Life
4. Spoke up for something I believe in
5. Had dinner with some good friends
6. Got sick
7. Said goodbye to a friend and a mentor
8. Coached Pi Kappa Phi
9. Shared a part of my heart with my discipler
10. Saw an old friend.