Well I am finally an official COLLEGE GRADUATE! Kinda scary. Chicago semester finished off amazingly. Things slowed down with school at the end and I was able to really enjoy the city. I was glad to be done with the work, but sad to leave my students and the city. I definitely miss my kiddos!
My amazing dad road tripped out to come and get me. He's the best. We went from Chicago to NYC. One big city to the next. I was in the city for 5 days with my parents. Hanging out, experiencing the city and helping my mom out at work (she's a nanny).
After a few days in the big city, I went to Virginia for a reunion with some of my summer staffers from this past summer. We managed to get 7 out of the 11 of us there, which I thought was a pretty good turn out. We rented a little cottage in the middle of nowhere, hung out, played games, cooked food, went for a walk by the river, attempted to pet cows, and built the most amazing fort ever! It was a complete blast! I love all of them so much!
After the reunion I was off to Richmond. I hung out with my brother, Katie and the boys for the week leading up to Christmas. It was awesome. I was able to help Katie out with the boys, which meant I got to spend time with them, which is the best thing ever! I seriously love my nephews so much. Like words do not explain it. Every time I see them, I love them more. I can't even imagine what it is going to be like when I have my own kids. They are the cutest kids in the entire world. Being an aunt is so much fun!
We had Christmas with the whole gang in Richmond and that was great as always. The day after Christmas our family was off to the Outer Banks for our now annual week at the beach. We ended up driving through the terrible snow storm that came through. Well...actually, to be honest, it wasn't all that bad of a snow storm. But...since the entire state of Virginia does not own a single plow, we drove on the worst roads I've ever been on. Our 3 hour drive took 6. Boo :(
I spent like 4 days at the beach with my family just hanging out. It was great and relaxing. We went outlet shopping and I got some serious deals, which is always a plus. Wednesday evening I also ended up having two visitors! My best friend Nick came to visit. I hadn't seen him since last Thanksgiving! It was so great to see him and catch up. Lisa also came Wednesday night so we could leave early this morning. We all got to hang out, play pool, card games, bananagrams and just catch up. It was such a blast!
The first half of my month of adventures is over, and I'm moving on to the next page...which I'm super excited about! OUR EPIC ROAD TRIP! More to come...
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Chicago
Okay, so I've been absolutely horrible at blogging this semester. And so many fun things have happened. My Grand Rapids visit seems like forever ago.
Chicago has been amazing! Such an awesome experience, and I'm so glad I'm here. I wouldn't change any of it. The Lord has taught me so much, I've built relationships during my time here with both old and new friends, I've had tons of new experiences, most amazing, some I could have gone without :), I've lived in a big city, love public transportation and have really experienced Chicago. I love it!
The past 4 weeks have been amazing. Like, possibly life changing. I don't know, thats a pretty bold statement, but they've been incredible! Too much fun for someone to handle. I've had really high highs and really low lows. But all of it is awesome. The lows have been the Lord breaking me, which makes me more and more desperate for him, which turns into high highs. Amazing.
Here's a quote from my fabulous sister, so true and so real:
"Whenever God is about to bring you to a higher platform of spiritual life, you always first get thrown down. He makes you hungry before He feeds you; He strips you before He clothes you; He makes nothing of you before He makes something of you."
I've experienced this in the last month, but it's really been absolutely incredible!
I wasn't going to catch up right now, but I guess I will. Knowing me, I probably won't come back to it. Basically, I had four awesome weekends all in a row. It was so much fun! (granted, it was during the four weeks that I was teaching my unit to my students, so it did get stressful at times and I worked really hard all week long, but it was so worth it!)
It started with an awesome visit by Elizabeth and Abby! I love love love those girls so much! They came for the weekend and we had a blast! We did lots of fun touristy things and also just spent time together catching up. It was fantastic!
The next weekend I flew to Virginia. I got to see my brother and sister in law and my two absolutely adorable nephews! I then went to Harrisonburg and was planning on seeing one of my summer staff girls from this summer. Turns out, I got to see FOUR of them!!! Three of them came and surprised me! It was the BEST surprise EVER!
It's the only time I've been surprised by people and it was SO much fun! They came from across Virginia, Tennessee AND ARIZONA! Oh my goodness I love those girls so so much! It was awesome. We hung out and caught up, went out for dinner, bought bulk candy, I got to see Chocklett, which was awesome, and the next day we went up on a mountain and took pictures. It was so fantastic!
AND THEN...I went to the wedding, which was the point of my visit. One of my best friends from Summer Staff, Amy, got married! (To Nathan, who we met that month, who she went out on her first date with, when she came to my house for Thanksgiving. I love it!) The wedding was absolutely beautiful! I got to see some old friends, and Amy was the most gorgeous bride ever!
Which, granted, wasn't too hard because she's drop dead gorgeous all the time. The ceremony was the best one I think I've been to. Pete did such an amazing job honoring Amy and Nathan. He captured their personalities and the ways they love each other and others love being around them. It was beautiful.
The next weekend...I can't even explain. It was quite possibly the best weekend of my life. It was SO much fun! One of my dear dear friends Mike came to visit. I know Mike through young life. He was one of my summer staffers two years ago and we've just been in touch since then. He's one of my favorite people in the world. He came with his friend Matt who I hadn't met but had heard a lot about. Matt is fantastic. We instantly became friends. Mike's been sharing the gospel with Matt recently and there have been some amazing stories. God is at work and I LOVE seeing it! We had some great conversations and the whole weekend was such a blessing. We went to the skydeck, got Chicago deep dish pizza, saw the festival of lights, went to Blue Man Group and had WAY too much fun. Both of them are such dear friends. I could go on and on about the weekend. Just ask about it if you want to hear more.
Favorite Picture of the Weekend!
And then the next weekend was THANKSGIVING! I flew back to Virginia and got to spend time with my family. I got to see my sister, who I haven't seen since Christmas. It was FABULOUS to catch up with her! We were up until the wee hours of the morning chatting. So good. Plus, I got to see lots of family, eat delicious food and make gingerbread houses!
Overall, life has been awesome. Hard at times, but great none the less. Hard because everyone lives so far away :( The Lord has been teaching me and blessing me like crazy. I only have one week left in Chicago, and then I'm off for lots more adventures! I'll share about that later :)
Chicago has been amazing! Such an awesome experience, and I'm so glad I'm here. I wouldn't change any of it. The Lord has taught me so much, I've built relationships during my time here with both old and new friends, I've had tons of new experiences, most amazing, some I could have gone without :), I've lived in a big city, love public transportation and have really experienced Chicago. I love it!
The past 4 weeks have been amazing. Like, possibly life changing. I don't know, thats a pretty bold statement, but they've been incredible! Too much fun for someone to handle. I've had really high highs and really low lows. But all of it is awesome. The lows have been the Lord breaking me, which makes me more and more desperate for him, which turns into high highs. Amazing.
Here's a quote from my fabulous sister, so true and so real:
"Whenever God is about to bring you to a higher platform of spiritual life, you always first get thrown down. He makes you hungry before He feeds you; He strips you before He clothes you; He makes nothing of you before He makes something of you."
I've experienced this in the last month, but it's really been absolutely incredible!
I wasn't going to catch up right now, but I guess I will. Knowing me, I probably won't come back to it. Basically, I had four awesome weekends all in a row. It was so much fun! (granted, it was during the four weeks that I was teaching my unit to my students, so it did get stressful at times and I worked really hard all week long, but it was so worth it!)
It started with an awesome visit by Elizabeth and Abby! I love love love those girls so much! They came for the weekend and we had a blast! We did lots of fun touristy things and also just spent time together catching up. It was fantastic!
The next weekend I flew to Virginia. I got to see my brother and sister in law and my two absolutely adorable nephews! I then went to Harrisonburg and was planning on seeing one of my summer staff girls from this summer. Turns out, I got to see FOUR of them!!! Three of them came and surprised me! It was the BEST surprise EVER!
It's the only time I've been surprised by people and it was SO much fun! They came from across Virginia, Tennessee AND ARIZONA! Oh my goodness I love those girls so so much! It was awesome. We hung out and caught up, went out for dinner, bought bulk candy, I got to see Chocklett, which was awesome, and the next day we went up on a mountain and took pictures. It was so fantastic!
AND THEN...I went to the wedding, which was the point of my visit. One of my best friends from Summer Staff, Amy, got married! (To Nathan, who we met that month, who she went out on her first date with, when she came to my house for Thanksgiving. I love it!) The wedding was absolutely beautiful! I got to see some old friends, and Amy was the most gorgeous bride ever!
Which, granted, wasn't too hard because she's drop dead gorgeous all the time. The ceremony was the best one I think I've been to. Pete did such an amazing job honoring Amy and Nathan. He captured their personalities and the ways they love each other and others love being around them. It was beautiful.
The next weekend...I can't even explain. It was quite possibly the best weekend of my life. It was SO much fun! One of my dear dear friends Mike came to visit. I know Mike through young life. He was one of my summer staffers two years ago and we've just been in touch since then. He's one of my favorite people in the world. He came with his friend Matt who I hadn't met but had heard a lot about. Matt is fantastic. We instantly became friends. Mike's been sharing the gospel with Matt recently and there have been some amazing stories. God is at work and I LOVE seeing it! We had some great conversations and the whole weekend was such a blessing. We went to the skydeck, got Chicago deep dish pizza, saw the festival of lights, went to Blue Man Group and had WAY too much fun. Both of them are such dear friends. I could go on and on about the weekend. Just ask about it if you want to hear more.
Favorite Picture of the Weekend!
And then the next weekend was THANKSGIVING! I flew back to Virginia and got to spend time with my family. I got to see my sister, who I haven't seen since Christmas. It was FABULOUS to catch up with her! We were up until the wee hours of the morning chatting. So good. Plus, I got to see lots of family, eat delicious food and make gingerbread houses!
Overall, life has been awesome. Hard at times, but great none the less. Hard because everyone lives so far away :( The Lord has been teaching me and blessing me like crazy. I only have one week left in Chicago, and then I'm off for lots more adventures! I'll share about that later :)
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