A lot like Christmas

Hello!  Yes, it has been awhile since I wrote last, but I've been a little distracted with finals and the beginning of Christmas break.  The highlights of the last two weeks have been making sugar cookies with my wonderful roommates, an ornament gift exchange, seeing my family, a beautiful necklace from my grandparents (thank you!!), watching Mansfield Park (a wonderfully girly and romantic chick flick) with Caitlin, and squeezing in time with friends.  My family and I are leaving for Hawaii tomorrow, which I'm so excited for.  The only draw back is that I have so little time with all my great friends here at home.  Thankfully, I haven't had much to do this week besides see these friends, so all is well :)  

Pictures!

Here are some pictures of Thanksgiving.  Nothing like some quality dog time, beautiful leaves, and baking with my sister :)

School is starting to finally slow down, which is soooo nice.  I just turned in my final research paper this morning and I only have two finals next Thursday (which leaves me plenty of time to study, right??).  Hopefully this will help me get into the holiday spirit!

Thanksgiving

It was so nice to be home for Thanksgiving! I went from this....

to this....

I can always tell that school is getting stressful by the state of my desk.  As the first picture shows, it was definitely time for a break.  It was so nice to relax with family and friends for a few days and get my cold weather fix.  Tomorrow I will try and post some pictures I took of home, the leaves were so pretty! 

Picnik

I just discovered a new photo website called picnik.com.  I am so addicted!  You can go on and edit you pictures, as well as do fun things like collages.  Here are some of my favorites.

Pier Day

Today we all got out of the apartment and went to Pier Day at Avila Beach.  Thank you Stephanie!  We, along with dozens of children 7 and under, pet starfish, snails, and a very slimy sea cucumber.  Considering it was in the 90s, we also walked on the beach before grabbing lunch and heading home.  Much better than a day in the apartment!

I've Returned!

Wow.  It has been way too long since I put up an entry.  To summarize the last two weeks, it has been great socially and stressful academically (which probably have a connection).  This weekend is looking like a continuation of that trend.  Last night some friends and I went out to dinner and then to the midnight showing of the new James Bond movie, which was fun.  Well, the movie was average, but the outing was fun.  Besides a gingerbread house-making party tomorrow night, it looks like I the rest of the weekend will be filled with my attempts at writing a rough draft of my research paper.  Sounds like fun!!

Silver Linings

So, as I said in my last entry, I tried to look for the silver linings in my week days.  And I found them!  This reminds me that if we just look for the good things God gives us we will find them.  So, here are a few of the silver linings of my week.

1. Warm pumpkin bread (thank you Trader Joe's!) at my 6 am meeting.

2. A shopping spree with Laura at 1:00 on a Wednesday.

3. Psalm 27:14

4. Friendly workers at the apple store.

5. Kids in halloween costumes at Farmer's market.

6. A hot pink thermos of hot chocolate in a morning lecture.

It's funny how many great details there are in your week once you pay attention :)

Psalm 98: 7-8

"Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.  Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy"

This was the view we came back to after grocery shopping.  Such a extraordinary end to an ordinary day.!

I noticed that I write a lot about my weekends and hardly anything about my weeks.  But the weekends are so much fun!

In short, this last week was extremely stressful with two midterms and two bibliographies due.  Fortunately, it looks like this week will be much more low key.

This last weekend (back to my usual...) was a lot of fun.  On Friday night we had a few friends over for games and a movie, which was great.  Then on Saturday my parents came down for Caitlin and my choir concert.   It was so good to see them!  In addition, they stocked us up with so much canned foods it looks like we are preparing for Y2K, and left a huge peach cobbler which my bible study appreciated tonight.

My goal this week is to enjoy the week days enough to want to write a blog about them.  We'll see how it goes!

Psalm 23

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

He makes me lie down in green pastures, 

he leads me beside quiet waters, 

he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths

for his name's sake.

Even though I walk 

through the darkest valley, 

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Surely your goodness and love will follow me 

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

I am so thankful that my God takes care of me!

Fall Fun

This weekend I started to really get in the fall spirit.  On Saturday I went to a pumpkin patch with a few friends, which was so much fun.  We got some wonderful apple cider, adorable mini pumpkins, and even explored the hay maze (who knew I was claustrophobic??).  Out of consideration of our guy friends, we cut the outing short and headed back to our apartment for homemade pizza, courtesy of Trader Joe's, and a game night.  So fun!

Last night was the long anticipated soccer game between UCSB and Cal Poly.  By long anticipated I mean by just about everyone on campus but me.  Although I have been here for over a year, I have only gone to one sports game, and I couldn't tell you if we won or lost.  Last night though, I and thousands of other people went to go watch what was supposed to be an epic game.  Sadly, we ended up losing in sudden death, making my sacrifice of two hours not quite worth it.  The one thing I learned:  Never wear new tennis shoes to a soccer game.  You never sit down!!

After a fun weekend of Pismo, bbqs, and procrastination, I holed up in my room today with the hope that I would finally get some work done.  It was the perfect day to do it.  After church (which was great, Colossians 1:15-20) all four of us bundled up in robes and sweats, drank hot chocolate, and alternated between spurts of homework and facebook breaks.  Although the work itself wasn't fun, it was the perfect, cozy end to a great weekend.

Finishing Touches

 Thanks to amazon.com and the toolbox my dad forced us to keep (thank you Dad!) we were able to touch up our apartment this week and make it look a little more homey.  We found out that it takes more people to hang up a poster than you might think.  But now that we have those hung up, along with a few rugs and pictures, I finally feel like we are done setting up!

Encouragment

As the first week of classes, this week has been crazy.  I think I finally have my schedule memorized and my waitlisted classes sorted out, which is a relief.  The highlight of the last few days has been seeing friendly faces around campus that I haven't seen all summer.  I love that Cal Poly is small enough that it is difficult to walk somewhere without seeing someone you know on the way.  

Getting back to school is also encouraging me spiritually.  It was difficult not having much fellowship during the summer.  In SLO I am blessed with such a great community that supports me and holds me accountable. Yesterday morning I had a college group meeting for church at 6:00.  For those of you who don't know, this is practically the middle of the night for me.  Thanks to great company and great coffee cake though, the meeting was actually a lot of fun and very encouraging.

Along with Psalm 51:10, another verse I've been looking at for the past few days is Romans 8:28, which has been great for this week.

Beginnings

Life in our little apartment has gotten off to a great start. I'm living with my sister and two friends, which has been really fun so far. Last night we made chocolate chip pancakes for dinner, which I think explains what our dinners are going to look like for the year, and we haven't stopped watching Friends since we got here. We are all obsessed with the show and together have all ten seasons; a dangerous combination.

I tried to start today with this Psalm 51:4 in mind.  So encouraging! "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."

Above is a picture of my wonderful roommates!