11 Days in 11 Photos

1. When Kathleen visited in October she hid sticky notes throughout our room, and apparently on our calendar too :) What a nice surprise to find notes from a dear friend when we flipped our calendar to December :)

2. Before finals week began, our RA, Virginia, thought up an excellent idea. The idea: blow balloons up for every exam you have and pop it when you are finished with it! YAY! Here's Damarise's and my door covered in our exam balloons.

3. On December 10th I turned 19 :) In celebration Damarise, Bethany, Janessa, and I went to Rock City to see the Christmas lights. They were beautiful and we had fun hanging out together.

4. Some of my sweet friends who have encouraged me, laughed with me, prayed for and with me, and just been a joy to be around. I love them!

5. One of our hallmates, Hope, was in the Nutcracker ballet, so of course our hall had to go and see her amazing talent displayed in the Nutcracker. It was great and Hope is one superb ballerina!

6. ♫ "On the first day of finals (my true love gave to me)"♫ ;) On the very first day of finals I went to check my mail, and what did I find but an envelope filled with birthday cards from my siblings :) It definitely made the first day of finals much better, and made me laugh on the way down to my first exam.

7. On the first day of finals we got about an inch of snow. On the last day of finals (for me at least) we got an inch of ice. It was SO much fun! At about 10pm some friends and I went "ice skating" through parking lots. It was great!

8. Home again, home again, jiggidy jig. I arrived home Thursday, after flying from Georgia all by myself (Woo hoo! :) The Christmas tree was all set up looking gorgeous, so Sarah, Andrew and I took some pictures in the ornaments :)

9. Anna, Dad, and I celebrated our birthdays together.

10. O Christmas Tree, o Christmas tree...

11. Last but definitely not least, the Morrisons, some great friends from Mozambique, came by yesterday morning for a quick visit. It was great to see them again!

And there you have it. 11 days covered in 11 pictures. :)

Sunurday?

I saw this comic strip and definitely agreed with it. As my old suitemate said, "It should be called Sunurday." Sounds good :)

'Twas the Week before Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving is coming up in six days. I'm looking forward to being away for a few days, relaxing with the family, and seeing extended family who I haven't seen in about five years (which tends to happen when you've lived across the world for a few years ;) ). It'll be a good time to rest and to specifically set aside a day to give thanks to God.

I decided that in this week before Thanksgiving, I'll try, and hopefully will, post once a day about something I am thankful for. It may be something from that day, or just something that popped into my mind.

Today, I am thankful for:

• The hat and scarf set that my amazing suitemate from last year, Kathleen, crocheted for me. It has been keeping me toasty warm on this slightly cold day.
  
  
• Tissues, hot tea, and cough drops. Yep, I've caught the cold yet again. I'm thankful for an endless supply of hot water, for tea bags of many flavours, and for soft tissues for my chapped nose.
  
  
• Chapel today. It was wonderful and refreshing. Dr. Eric Mason shared from 2 Peter 1:1-9. He was a great speaker and really preached the Word to us.
  
  
• The weekend. I'm thankful for time to rest and hopefully get rid of this cold. I'm also thankful for time to work on projects that are due when I get back from Thanksgiving Break.
  
  
• Janessa Chupp. God has blessed me with such an amazing friend! I love her. We always seem to be going through the same trials or joys, or thinking the same about a lot of stuff going on. I'm thankful for her godly perspective on a lot of life. She not only is encouraging, but also points out things in my life that should change. She listens to me, laughs with me, and challenges me in my walk with the Lord. She has been a huge blessing and I am SO thankful for her friendship.
  
  
• Fingers :) Yes. I'm thankful for fingers! I'm thankful that I have the ability to type out this blog post, write with a pencil, and hold many things. Thank you God for fingers!

Well, that is all for now....

What are you thankful for today?

Suitemates Reunited

Last weekend a very special friend came back into town. Saturday morning I heard a knock on my door and who came bounding in the room but my wonderful old suitemate, Kathleen! Oh! It was absolutely wonderful to see her again. I have missed her so much! Her crazy stories, her encouraging words, her laugh, her willingness to help me out with my homework, and just her lively, energetic and God-fearing personality.

We hung out most of the weekend and caught up on life. It was grand!

Saturday night some of old Imani and new Imani went out to eat together :) So fun!

Old Suitemates reunited! YES YES YES! :D

Aww :D So fun!

Yay! I love them all!

Canasta was our suitemate game last year, so we had to play a few rounds while we were all back together :)

Kathleen left on Tuesday :( But not before spreading love and joy around. She shared homemade pumpkin muffins (yumm!), talked and laughed with us, and sewed up my very (and I mean veryyy) torn backpack for me :) Thank you Kathleen for visiting and for just being an amazing friend! I miss you!

Studying over with + Midterms Finished = FALL BREAK!

Last week was a study and test taking week. I don't think I've ever felt so busy before! I was either studying, writing papers or doing homework all week. *Phew!* So, when the weekend rolled around I was SO ready for it! But, it wasn't just the weekend, it was also Fall Break!! YAY!

Kathleen, sweet suitemate that she is, invited Damarise and I to come home with her for Fall break! :D So, Friday afternoon her dad came and picked us up to bring us home to North Carolina :) Awww.... and we've been having fun just hanging out together and doing nothing :)

Today we went around a historic town and park :D Fun fun!

We started off by having a picnic by the lake :)

And then we went up and visited an old church.

With old hymnals.

Old benches..

Old windows..

And new friends :D

Next was a barn :)

With pigs *oink oink*

And a farmhouse :D

And then... my favourite.. a choo choo train!!! :D

Damarise and Kathleen drove it... AH!

Damarise almost got run over!

Awww... I love my older sister!

And Kathleen got her foot run over :(

Ahhh!!! Let me help you!

Haha! Jumping onto the train before it left without me! :D

Holding on for dear life.

Haha... Damarise and I :P

Kathleen and I were hiding out :)

And then we got to stand in the middle of the road! :D

After our adventures at the park we drove off to the historic town.

This town was SO pretty! :D

Especially in the fall.. pumpkins,

and leaves! Fall is in the air! And it is SO beautiful!

Damarise tried on some ol' hats :)

Yah! That was a HUGE gun!

Oooo gotta go gotta go gotta go right now!

Candy cane stick??

Pumpkins!!! :D

Ooo la la! We found the Single Brothers' house! :D

All the fall leaves were just gorgeous!

Everyone is so patriotic :)

Welp, we have two days left of fall break, and then it's back to the books :) But, this is what we've been up to so far :) I love fall break! :D