............

less than one week till I leave...wow! so much to be done!

whirlwind

phew...i feel as if i have been around the world and back...oh wait that's not happened yet :)
as most of you know I will be leaving in a couple of weeks for India for the entire summer. This month of may, or mayhem as I like to say has been crazy.
-I got home, was super excited for Joy Prom! As usual I did Registration and of course danced!It was so much fun and so many guests (531 to be exact) showed up-talk about a lot of people! LaBranda was there for the evening as well and it was super duper to see her.
-The following week I went to the beach with my newest roommate Rebecca for some fun and sunshine. Her grandparents have a condo there and it was so nice to relax and do nothing. We got into a little wreck on friday that kind of killed the fun but in the end we were both ok and still had a blast. :)
-This week has been filled with sleep, family, and making the never ending packing list. Who knew of all the things you need to go halfway around the world. Including toilet paper. Oh boy, we have to pack our own toilet paper. There is an Indian custom of wiping with the left hand and we are not allowed to take up that custom so we have to pack our own because buying it there is super expensive. I e-mailed my team leader to ask her how much to bring and she replied "A LOT...as much as you can fit!". That should be fun.
well i'm off to see some friends but more shall come...

picture fun

I had a little photoshop fun with pictures this evening. Here they are:

laura and myself at a lovely panera lunch

swinging...what joy it brings me

i was wearing this skirt and felt the urge to twirl and watch it rise....it was fun

i have fallen in love with eating with chopsticks

this was one of my favorite days this year....reading and relaxing on fall retreat

i love these girls!

i love sunny days and water

sunshine

Lots of sunshine lately (except today) has caused me to me outdoors a lot! Last Friday I locked myself in the library for the day to do work. Megan and I decided to have a small adventure so we hopped in her car and drove to Valley Crucis, home of the original Mast General Store. We grabbed some root beers and sat outside on the back porch that has rocking chairs and a my favorite a porch swing. And just our luck, there was a local bluegrass group playing. It was wonderful. Sunshine. Root Beer. And good ol' mountain music.

Then on Sunday I arranged for my Monday Night Bible Study to go to Grandfather since it's Dollar Days in April. App Students and Local Residents get in for just $1. It ended up being just me and the boys which was really hilarious. But I was a trooper and did all the adventurous things anyways. We parked, hiked up about a half a mile, walked across the bridge and then went to go see the animals! The weather was gorgeous!

me with the gorgeous background!

the boys

incredible!

I could have sat there all day long!

a bear!

hello Mr. Eagle

the boys said that they would have to keep an eye on me since I supposedly fall under the children category

tyler and brodie before we crossed the bridge...notice that everyone and their brother was there that day

drew on the bridge. this is the part where drew goes "oh man I forgot that i'm afraid of heights"

view of the bridge from the other side

yeah i love where I go to school. sorry but Raleigh could come nowhere near this

Love it!

lately

lately:
- i had a firthday. a fake birthday. since mine is in the summer and oh yeah there's this thing called leaving for another country on that day. it was a great firthday. i got fun cards, ate chinese, enjoyed an ode from the girls and even ate coconut cupcakes
- i have been stressing because of school ending. i have also realized that i am a chronic procrastinator. i should work on that. maybe tomorrow
- got to hang out with old Belize friends last weekend. we ate fat daddy's (oh the memories) and played games. it was spectacular.
- played with LaBranda for about all of Easter. it was wonderful.
- went to the airport to greet the incoming Belize team. as i was there i realized that in less than two months i will be there leaving. wow.
-listening to my new Bethany Dillon CD - i absolutely love it. i highly reccomend it. so sincere and honest and inspiring.
-realzing that i am a morning person. yep, i am announcing it. i told this to my roommate and she goes "uh i already knew that. you wake up talking". for any of you who know my mother you will understand the importance behind that
-coloring in my new coloring book. yes i know it fits fell with my major. actually, coloring books are developmentally inappropriate for young children because it stiffles their creativity and is too standardized. open-ended art is much better. wow - way too many child dev courses. anyways i got a coloring book for my firthday and decided to put it in my backpack. it makes for great in between class fun. and people give you funny looks. oh well.
-dyed Easter eggs with my suiteys in the bathroom. they acidentally spilled pink dye and we had a rush to clean it all up. angel's towel is now tye-dyed. sort of on purpose and sort of not. but the eggs turned out great.
-loving life with my twos. one of the little girls yesterday was being completely silly yet adorable. though they all seem to have a problem getting over that pinching, hitting, kitting, biting problem.
- got shots. OWW! ok well the actual shots didn't hurt so much but now my shoulder's are completely sore. i got hep a/b and tetnaus and still have yet to get typhoid and polio. i am going to wait and let the arms recover first. the same little girl yesterday at work was talking to me about shots because she recently got her three year old shots. i asked if she cried and she said no and then asked me and i said no. then she goes "yeah cause big girls don't cry. they're brave"
-suprised a friend at midnight for her birthday with a card, balloons, and those fun little poppers and an off key rendition of Happy Birthday. her roommate was asleep. she might not like us so much right now.
and now i must be off...more of that exciting life...haha...my weekend has begun and i can't wait!

i love D.C.!

Last week I went to D.C. with all of the sophomore Teaching Fellows! It was so much fun! I love D.C. and want to live there. Ok not for long but I do love it!

the Cannon House Office Building where we met our tour person and also where we saw war protestors dressed all in pink

the Capitol Building

me and the Supreme Court Building

me and the Captitol Building

the old Supreme Court room in the Capitol

the dome ceiling in the Capitol

fresco art in the dome

fish in the Baltimore aquarium

a puffin!!!

my roomie Ashley on the phone

Ashley downtown

at Starbucks

the White House!!!!

us four girls ate at the Cheesecake Factory in Baltimore...the boys didn't want to eat there but they had no problem scarfing down our leftovers!

sting ray!

anemone!

a picture of a scary fish

the Lincoln Memorial!!!

an engraving of India at the Korean War Memorial

excited about India!!

the booth where Lincoln was shot at Ford's theatre

a coconut popsicle!!!! yum!

me and Tay on the bus on the way to a school

roomie love!

Lincoln Memorial

Favorite Secret

There is a website that I found through a friend called Post Secret. People mail in all kinds of secrets and then the best ones are chosen to be put on the website every Sunday night. Most of them are depressing but every now and then there are some ones that make me smile or laugh.

This one made me laugh. Sadly I am not addicted to Diet Coke these days for financial and convenience reasons. I may have one out to eat or rarely in the Cafeteria but since it's not caffeine free it's just not the same. I know. I am weird. I love Caffeine Free Diet Coke. Too bad they won't have that in India.........

Exciting Updates

I have some exciting news..... I AM GOING TO INDIA THIS SUMMER!
I just found out this afternoon and am super stoked! Check out the Trip Information to find out some more.
Please be praying as this is the beginning of a long journey. But I am SO EXCITED!

I should have worn ski goggles

I should have worn ski goggles to class today. After a drought of snow, it CAME DOWN today. I had heard rumors of flurries today but didn't think much of it. So I did my usual go to class - wore my pink pea coat cause it was like 50 degrees this morning. On the way to Geology I noticed a couple flakes but they were small. Geology is in a class that has no windows. When we all came out of class into the stairwell we looked outside and were shocked - it was completely white EVERYWHERE! And it was coming down! Pouring down snow! Needless to say I was VERY unprepared - I froze walking to class and had to look down the whole down as the snow was coming at me in little bullets.
Ashley and I went out and played for a little bit tonight. Super fun! We discovered that if we went in the courtyard we could find people's rooms that we know and throw snowballs at them. It was hilarious! Then we made snow angels and had a bit of a snowball fight. It is thick snow and is still coming down. I love snow! Maybe I"ll get to play in it more tomorrow with the kids at work!

Merry Christmas!

Aaah Christmas Eve. This day is one of my favorite days of the year. I think I even prefer it over Christmas day. I love Christmastime, even though it seems that as I get older it is easier to get caught up in other things. Last week I was babysitting an adorable 2 year old. As I was getting him dressed for the day I asked him what was happening next week (this is a Christian family, keep in mind). His face lit up and he threw his hands in the air and exclaimed "it's Jesus's Birthday!". What a sweet reminder that was to me that the real joy for the season is Christ. Caught in the eyes of a precious little one was the true meaning of Christmas.

Who Are These People?

So there they are, my celeberity look alikes. I haven't heard of most of them. Shows how culturally inept I am. Oh well it was kind of fun to do.

Pictoral Posting

Roommates at our Mocktail party!

Family at Thanksgiving plus Keith's friend Ian

Amy & LB at Game night

Shem & a banana at Game night

we love the game of Life!

they gave away Appalachian cokes at Homecoming!

my friend Jerry went to Ireland over thanksgiving. I told him to take a picture with a sheep. Being the jokey that he is he took a picture of a sheep and said that it was me.

some of the girls at Metamorphosis...our church's youth retreat

enjoying some beautiful weather at meta!

Natalie, Me and LB at Providence's College Fall Retreat