A Month of Thanksgiving: Days 19, 20, & 21

Again, I'm falling behind, so without further ado – days 19, 20, and 21.

I am thankful for rest. It has been a busy few days, but sometimes being busy with things other than school feels relieving.

I'm thankful for the break and the chance to get away from home. I'm thankful that for the first time in my life, I actually miss home. Usually, I'd miss certain things or people from places I'd lived, but never specifically the place. For some reason, I feel a little homesick for Chattanooga, and I like it. It makes Chattanooga feel more like home than any place ever has before. I miss the people, things, and place, and it makes me so much more thankful for Chattanooga.

I'm thankful for seeing most of Dad's side of the family today! I love family and reunions. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving day and I cannot wait! Food and family! So much to be thankful for! 

Summer Days

Summer days- adventures, time spent with friends, road trips, trying new things, laughing, bonding, wonderful. 

Last weekend we went on a summer adventure with Micah to celebrate his birthday (about a month after his birthday...). We went to Atlanta and saw some fun sights, but mostly had a great time hanging out together! 

We went to Ikea and sat on a couch in one of the sample rooms while reading a book out loud to each other. 

We walked everywhere and when we didn't walk we took the Marta (subway). We only got lost a few times, but getting lost is always one of the best parts of an adventure!

We laid down on the grass and watched the sun set over the Atlanta skyline. ... And we made goofy faces at the camera. 

This weekend we hung out downtown with Faith. We went to an antique store to see what we could find. We found some crazy things. 

Damarise was too excited about this!

Probably the best wreath ever. 

I got to try new things – like a bacon yogurt sample from Greenlife and a bacon donut at a donut shop. Yum!

Then we met up with some of our house mates over the summer and hung out with them while walking around Chattanooga. They are wonderful. 

Summer is off to a great start. I'm reminded of how blessed I am to have a job, have amazing friends, live in a beautiful place, and be loved by God. Summer 2012 will be great! 

"It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood!"

The birds are singing, my windows are open, the sun is shining. And oh! what a beautiful day it is in the neighbourhood!

I. love. springtime.

The trees budding, daffodils bursting into bloom, and the perfect warm weather with a slight breeze. Ah, what a perfect season to come after winter.

This weekend brought in the first day of Spring and we spent every moment we could outdoors enjoying the Spring weather. (And yes, the first line of Mr. Roger's famous song may have possible been sung by me every time I stepped outside ;).)

We started off the weekend by eating outside at a BBQ restaurant.

We also went to a nearby park...

And "played" football. I realized, again, that I cannot throw a football for the life of me. A little boy joined us and could throw the football a lot better than me. Hm. I'm pretty sure he laughed at me every time I threw it.

The river was still a bit chilly...

But the city was beautiful. "A beautiful day in the neighbourhood" may be an understatement, because downtown Chattanooga was overly beautiful!

Sunday afternoon we had a wonderful time of worship and fellowship at church. After church, we got to Skype with our family. (A smiley face doesn't do justice to how we really looked... picture me and Damarise with the most ridiculous cheesy grins on our faces... we were pretty excited!) With the time change and Damarise and I in class or at work all day, the only time we get a chance to talk with the family is on the weekend. It was wonderful to catch up on their lives and hear about what is going on with them in Africa.

After skyping, we went to Cloudland Canyon to study outdoors in the, once again, beautiful weather.

Damarise and I found a katydid shell :)

The weather was great and the company was just as great.

The weekend ended, and Covenant College beckoned us back for another week of classes, papers, work, tests, and life.

But, it was a perfect weekend full of beautiful days in the neighbourhood.

Familiar Faces

One of the coolest things about being a missionary kid is living all over the world and being blessed with amazing friends from every place. What is even neater is when you get the chance to reunite with old friends from one of those many places.

That neat opportunity happened this week. The Woodrow family (minus one) came for a visit. It was wonderful to catch up with them again – talking, laughing, and goofing off just like old times.

Sunday afternoon Damarise and I hung out with the three younger Woodrows. We showed them around the beautiful city we live in, took crazy pictures, laughed, talked, and had a grand ol' time.

We also ran into a man on the walking bridge who was giving free hugs. (Don't worry, we made sure he wasn't some creepy guy before Gracie and I gave him a hug. ;) )

We posed by random statues...

Took the traditional feet picture....

Found cool sights...

And had an amazing time reconnecting!

I thank God for the friends He has so abundantly blessed me with throughout the years. And I thank Him for the opportunity to reconnect with those wonderful friends. It doesn't happen to often, but when it does, it is an absolute blessing.

Bethany's 20th Birthday

Friday afternoon, Bethany drove Damarise, Janessa and me down to Chattanooga to celebrate her 20th birthday. We went to Cece's (an amazing frozen yogurt shop) and wandered around the art district of Chattanooga.

We found cute doors.

Mimicked statues.

And had a great time being together.

I am so thankful for Bethany and her friendship. She is an encouragement to everyone she meets. She has a smile on her face always. Her love for the Lord is evident in her life and she shares that with everyone. She's a huge blessing to me and I love having her on my hall, having her in my education classes, and getting to have her as a friend!

Happy 20th Birthday, Bethany!

Home again?

Sunday morning Damarise and I woke to my alarm loudly ringing. 5:11am is just too early. But our flight was leaving at 7:ooam and time was of the essence. We got dressed, said our goodbyes, and unloaded at the airport. Our flight ended up leaving at 7:30am due to snow falling and our plane needing to be de-iced. But, after 5 hours, 2 planes, and some turbulence, we made it safely to Chattanooga.

We were "home". Only this time it didn't really feel like home. Even though when we head "home" for break and end up at our Grandma's house because that's where the family is living, and even though we switch beds, bedrooms, and even houses multiple times throughout the break, that's home because that is where the family is. Home really isn't a place, it's really more the people.

I'm so thankful for my family. I'm thankful for the time we spent together over the Christmas break (seeing as that may not happen again for a few years). I'm thankful that God has given me so many places to call home. And I'm thankful that one day we will all be together in our true Home worshipping and praising God together, forever.

Playing Catch Up

Oh time! It goes so quickly. I didn't realize it had been nine days since I last wrote. Sorry, to those of you who read this. So much has been happening that I simply have not had the time to sit down and write. So, before this blog post fills up with apology, I'm going to tell you all what has been going on in my life the past nine days.

First of all, I got a cold. Ugh. At least here in America getting a cold makes sense (which in my mind justifies getting a cold). In Mozambique, when we would get a cold it seemed rather oxymoronic. Cold... hot place. Hmmm. So, although I definitely felt under the weather, it wasn't an awful under the weather feeling. :) Thanks to Mom's over abundant supply of tea and vitamins the cold only lasted a week. Ah! It's made me more thankful for a full night's sleep where I can breathe without trouble.

One great thing about a cold, (yes a cold is not the end of the world), is that you still feel okay to go out and do stuff. So, early in the week plans were made to hang out on Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoon came in fogginess. Most people on this mountain are not huge fans of fog, this could be because we had ten straight days of fog last year, or the fact that, at least last year, we saw fog more than we saw the sun. In any case, many people are not fog fans. Me, on the other hand, I really like fog. It is so strange, and cool, and amazing all at the same time. It feels cozy, relaxing, and serene but that's just my view. All that to say, that Sunday afternoon came with its share of fog. But when Damarise, Micah, Janessa, Josiah, and I piled into Micah's car and left the mountain we left the fog behind.

We drove down to Chattanooga, settled down in a frozen yogurt shop, and just hung out and talked. It was a nice and relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Mmmm, yummy yogurt! If any of you ever come to visit, we will have to go to this place!

Happy friends!

Yes! There were many laughs :)

Overlooking Chattanooga.

Ah, the wonderful walking bridge.

Wednesday, Covenant College had Day of Prayer. Every Day of Prayer there is a sunrise service at Rock City. It is a wonderful time of worship and prayer. At least 200 students showed up. We all sang together while watching the sun peek up over the rolling hills of Chattanooga. Then we split up into groups and prayed together. Oh! What a refreshing way to start the day.

Oh! What a beautiful sunrise! How AWESOME God is!

At 11:30, our hall, Imani, went with out brother hall, Ithaca, to Cloudland Canyon. We all brought picnic lunches, sat on rocks overlooking the canyon, ate together, laughed together, prayed together, sang praise to God together, and just had a wonderful time with each other worshipping God. :)

Imani and Ithaca! (not all of them :( )

When we got back to campus, I went to go check my mail. And, happiness, I had mail! :) Mail is a special treat, so this made my day even better :) Thank you, Kathleen!

A letter from Kathleen! :D

Ok, I think I am all caught up on the highlights of the past nine days. I'm going to go ahead and apologize in advance for probably not writing in the next week. This week will be busy, but in that business a lot of fun things. In the next six days, I have 3 tests, 1 previewer staying with Damarise and me, 1 friend from AR staying with Damarise and me, many pages of reading, and a few short papers to write in between there. :) It'll be busy, but good. :)

So, until this busy banana finds a pause in the hecticness of life to sit down and blog again, so long :)

Random Moments are SO much fun!

#1: When we got back from Fall Break and even during Fall Break we all came down with a cold. Ugh. We sounded miserable, and felt miserable too. :P So we got a picture to capture those fun memories of being Sniffle, Cough and Sneeze :)

**one of the cool things about having a cold (yes.. there was actually something neat in all of this :) ) was that we had a cold while it COLD outside!! :D That hasn't happened in about 3 years, so it was really cool. :D

Having a cold has made me SUPER thankful for nice hot tea :D Ah!

#2: Janessa and I were lifting weights one night, and I was holding the weight over Janessa's foot. Janessa was like,"Hannah! Don't drop that on my toes or you'll break them!" Break them? Hmmm.. maybe. Well, because I was unsure about that, Janessa decided to prove her point by dropping the weight on a pencil. Um, I guess she was right. The poor helpless pencil was crushed!

#3: Friday night the Great Hall served us banana splits!! :D I haven't had a banana split in.. oh wow... a long long LONG time. Mmmm.. it was so good! :D Thanks Great Hall!

#4: Fall is here! And I absolutely loove this season! :D Damarise, Janessa, Bethany and I went on a walk to see all the loverly fall colours! :D

#5: This is Andreas! :D My home sweet home!

#6: Anddd Andreas has some LOOOONG staircases! After our walk enjoying the fall colours we went to find the basement of Andreas... we found it :)

#7: Andreas got together Saturday morning in Chattanooga to help serve the city. Imani (my hall) got to help out at a community kitchen. We all had loads of fun organizing stuff, cleaning, and decorating a gingerbread guy :P

Some of the organizing that took place with some but not all of the organizers :)

Almost all of Imani who went to help out :)

#8: Saturday afternoon, Damarise, Janessa and I decided to go watch the soccer game. It was SOO cold so we didn't stay too long, but when we left the Scotts were winning :D Yeah!

#9: I know, I know, I've already said this once, but it is SO worth saying again... I LOVE fall!!

#10: Yep, this is definitely a random moment... this is to show what floor we live on.. the 4th! :D YEAH!

#11: I'm starting to look into my classes for next semester. I met with my AMAZING advisor on Friday to talk about the classes. She gave me a list of all the ones I should take. I am SO thankful for her (and the list she made) without that I'd be totally lost as to what classes I should take next :)

#12: Yes, yes, another random thing, but totally cool! My laptop has a card reader :D And it has been SO fun to stick in my memory card and import my pictures like that instead of having to find the camera cord and go through that whole hassle. Yah, I love my computer! :)

Now that I've showed random pictures of random moments of my week, how about a cool story to close with? Ok, the verse in Isaiah.

Isaiah 40:31-"But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

I've always read that and found it so encouraging and neat. But the illustration about eagles wings and soaring on them... that always was confusing for me. Well, the other day in Old Testament class (one of my favourites! The teacher is SO great :D) Dr. Ward asked us if we knew how baby eagles learned to fly. None of us knew how, so he began to describe the process to us. Before the babies are born the mom makes the nest as comfortable as she can. She finds cushiony supplies to line the next with and warm things to keep her babies warm. When the eaglets hatch the mom is constantly supplying them with food. But, when the mom decides her babies need to learn to fly she will strip the nest of everything comfortable, only feed them what they need and then push the babies out of the nest. WHAT?! I couldn't believe that! But then Dr. Ward continued. The mom pushes the baby out of the nest and because the nest is up very high the bird is plummeting towards sure and certain death when all of a sudden the momma bird is underneath the baby. The mom catches the baby on its wings and brings the baby back up to the nest to do the same thing over and over again. Wow! After Dr. Ward finished that story the verse in Isaiah just became a whole lot more cooler :) When we place our hope in the Lord we will soar on wings like eagles. Christ will always be there, just like the mom eagle :) Wow! What a great and glorious God we serve! :D