Top 5 Reasons to Work with Kids:

5) You don't have to know the molecular structure of ATP, all you have to know is what happened to the dinosaurs.
4) Goldfish and juice boxes are gourmet items
3) The sillier you act, the better!
2) Where else can you sit down and color for a couple of hours and have it be perfectly okay?

and the #1 reason!
It's the best form of birth control there is!!!!!

Of small towns and fresh mountain beauty

Just returned from one of the most perfect weekends ever! I'm kind of sad to be back and going to classes again. Went to BV (where the boyfriend lives) from friday night- early this morning. It's a small mountain town 2 hours away from me. Now that you know that....
Friday night, we went to the high school football game. My cousin plays for the team and it was soo fun! We whooped them by almost 50 points. Good times.
Saturday he had to work so I hung out with him- you know, distracting him. I did some dishes too, so I was at least a little useful! That night we went to Salida (about 40 minutes away), it's slightly bigger than BV but not by much. We found a cute little family friendly place to have dinner. Amazing food! After that we went to a movie. See, we checked online and we there were 3 theaters between the 2 towns, and among all 3 theaters, we had a choice of a grand total of 3 movies. 2 of them were playing 1 movie and the other was playing 2 movies! (1 was a repeat in case you did the math). We chose the theather with 2 movies and walked there after dinner. When we got in, the guy selling tickets (and food, and drinks, and running the movie) was about our age and very friendly- he told us that we had to get 5 people in to watch the movie before he could sell us tickets. Sound a little strange to anyone else?! Well there was a perfectly good reason- about 5 minutes before the movie was supposed to start, there were only 3 of us there to watch it! He decided to wait 5 more minutes and just in time, another guy came. Unfortunetly that only made 4, so we told him he was only #4 and we needed 5. Being the knight in shining armor that he was, he said that he would buy 2 tickets. So, in we went! Odd experience, but fun none the less.
Sunday we went to a little church and then drove to Cottonwood Lake to look at the fall colors and take some pictures (see above picture). We got some really great pictures and I can't wait to share them!! As we were driving up the mountain all I could think was how incredible of an artist God is. Bright yellow's, vibrant reds, deep oranges... the hillsides were the normal green with patches of yellow (from a distance) sooo gorgeous! It's such an experience to be amidst one of His most beautiful works of art.
It was wonderful to be in such a peaceful place. There's hardly any traffic there (except tourists going to see trees!) and everyone waves to you. There isn't a grocery store near (you have to drive like 12 miles to get to the little city market) so you learn to get groceries while you're in town and then once you're home, you eat what's there. It was so nice not to always be thinking of what you wanted to go grab from the store. You obviously have to drive to get to a restarant too, and it was great to cook together for every meal of the weekend except for one. I really enjoyed being cell phone free (they don't work there) and not spending the weekend with anyone else but him. Someday I may live there! (That is if I can live without Target, Chipotle, and Starbucks!)

Psalms 108:4 - For thy steadfast love is great above the heavens, thy faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Infamous Orange

Who needs cells anyways?

I dont have anything interesting, funny or even insightful to say, unfortunetly. I'm kinda bored, but enjoying the boredom that's only mine for less than hour before I have to resume the day.
My only news is that I didn't do so well on my cell bio quiz. Who cares why we breathe oxygen anyways? Oh wait.....

Just Like Heaven

We went to see Just Like Heaven last night. It was very un-real but isn't that what we like most about movies? Who wants to see a movie about real life because frankly real life isn't very fun sometimes. Anyways, the movie was soo good. One of those that makes you laugh like crazy and cry a couple of times, too. Plus I really like Reese Witherspoon, and she was beautiful. It's not all about the bed like this picture suggests, with the exception of a couple mild scenes, it's not about that at all. I really enjoyed it and highly reccomend it!

Landlords are of the devil

Bah! I'm so glad there's a place that's completely outside of my circle of people that I can freely complain to.
My landlord just called me and for 20 minutes went on and on, with broken promises and lectures on things I have no concern with. Sooo annoying! Several months ago she promised us a new dryer (ours is broke), a new dishwasher (ours is yearning for the junkyard), and a new fridge. We got a second freezer, so we really don't need the fridge anymore. As I said, the promise came several months ago. We still haven't heard word on any of those, so we wrote her a nice, professional letter asking her about them. She called me today (why me?!?! out of any of the 3 of us!!) and told me that she doesn't really want to buy a new dryer and probably won't fix this one either and we don't need a new fridge and she has the dishwasher ready to go just hasn't done anything about it yet. Our dryer can barely even be called a dry-er anymore, and it's just in-humane to say you're not going to do anything about it! And then after that crap, she proceeded to lecture me on things I have zero dealings with. Like: her problems with her daughter, a situation that's between my roommate and her, and her personal financial situation. I DON'T CARE!!! Call her daughter, my roommate, and an accountant and whine to them but please oh please do not waste my work time lecturing me on such things!!!!! And actually let me add that I don't wish that on her daughter, so don't call her after all. BAH!

So, after all that, it might be just a little okay if I was getting a new dryer out of it, but OH NO, I probably won't!!!!!! Agghhhhh

Italian dreams

A good friend of mine just moved to Italy for whatever amount of time she wants. She just e-mailed us this morning and I am truly jealous. It's always been my dream to go to Italy, and now she lives there! She's living in a cute little slow-paced villiage eating pasta all the time. Oh the jealousy!

orange t-shirts

So, the other day, Tony and I were driving to my parents house in his car. I got bored and he always has a good assortment of things in his back seat so I went in search of something fun. I found an orange t-shirt and decided it would look better on my head then in his back seat, so I made a little bonnet out of it, mostly just to make him laugh (it worked). A few minutes later I decided to help him not be left out anymore and proceeded to find yet another orange shirt in his back seat so I put it on his head for him. Apparently he wasn't feeling left out but somewhere in between him telling me that I'm a weirdo and taking it off, I got a great picture. As soon as I get it computer-ized I'll share. The odd part about the story is that I only got 1 weird look in the whole hour drive, and it was when we were almost there. I guess that means people in between the 2 towns are used to such things.

I'm amazed by you.

Just had an amazing weekend. I'm pretty much on cloud 9 right now. How is it that my heart can be so happy and full of love for one person? I never knew this feeling existed in this capacity, and certainly not for me. God is incredible, isn't He? He created this feeling and He put it in me... just blows me away.

Good news in the midst of trial

I just got some incredible news....
A few months ago, my brother's best friend (who's only 17) was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma (= a type of cancer), in the form of a huge mass leaning against his windpipe. They did surgery but when they got there they saw where it was and wouldn't touch it. So, for the past few months he's been on chemo. He lost like 30 pounds and it drained all his energy. I've been busy this summer and didn't go home much so I didn't really see him in that condition. Well, I just heard that the mass is completely gone and all that's left is scar tissue. They'll get rid of that with radiation. Sooo, no more chemo and no more cancer!!!!!! God is so amazing!!!

I went home this past weekend and he was there, doing work at our house! Helping my dad and brother in the yard. He got really tired but still had his same huge smile on his face. He's such an incredible kid and God is so amazing- just a few months later everything is all gone.

So, I just wanted to share my news and say PRAISE GOD!!!!!

Hindsight

These are some of the lyrics to Hindsight by John Rueben. It pertains so much to us that are kind of wondering what we're doing and why we're in the place we're at. It's kind of long but read what you can before your mind wanders

Chorus
Hindsight is a beautiful thing when you can look back and see what patience and time can bring
Is it a must that I’m here, is it a must that I stay in order to look forward - must I look away
We’re moving towards a new day unsure of what tomorrow will bring our way
I’m not even quite sure of what this day holds, I say we travel the unknown and watch it unfold
Hold today close while still reaching for tomorrow through the test of time
I’ve seen joy overcome sorrow so with every trial I endure
With hopes to mature into what I was created for more than life itself
I want life itself to press past the present until forever is felt and take hold of the hidden mystery
Wide-eyed and open I now see differently, if it’s so to be then give me the strength to be content And find peace in knowing one day it will all make sense
Learning to accept the unexpected because the unknown wasn’t here for me to correct it
So I let it go and stopped trying to control the impossible
Simply put tossed in the shuffle at a young age just like everyone else
So I don’t feel sorry for you or for myself
Love is bigger than that and I’m not below or above the way it moves
Even though the things it does to my train of thought can bring about doubt and uncertainty
Patience tends to not agree with my psyche – that’s more than likely just some pride in me
Fighting expectations of where I think my life should be selfishly
I forget so quickly let me never forget Lord break me in humility
Some sort of amazing grace on me as I look back upon my life and where you’ve taken me
Hear the call – peace fall from trial to triumph
I want your hand in it all
Allow me to know where to stand in it all life giver

"If it's so to be than give me the strength to be content, and find peace in knowing some day it will all make sense."

They don't make em like that anymore

I met the most delightful woman the other day...

She walked in with this ginormous smile on her face speaking of things that contained "glorious" and "beautiful". I wasn't really sure what she was reffering to though....
My mom told me she's about 90 years old and taking college classes (isn't that incredible??)
She taking cooking and baking classes and recently started her own catering business.
Her grey hair was very cutely pulled into a bun on the top of her head and the whole room was full of bright-ness and bubbly-ness from the moment she walked in. She was just amazing and I really wish I could've spent hours talking to her and finding out her story.

Pie and Fries

I'm really sad that I haven't had any comments lately :(

I really have nothing to say, which is odd considering how many things have happened lately. I guess that's the cause- I'm too overwhelmed with happenings that I don't have room for something to say. Did that make sense? I didn't think so.

The wedding was absolutely amazing, everything they hoped for. I'm glad so many of their friends came (especially since I got to meet you guys! hehe) it was so perfect.

I really miss pie and fries... the past year or 2, whenever one of my friends had something to celebrate, we'd go to Village Inn at midnight and eat pie and french fries. It was so good and some of the best nights I've ever had. I sincerely miss it! None of those friends are around anymore.... so, anyone up for a pie and fry night? (I promise it's a better combo than it sounds)