Favourite Things (Thankful: Day 28)

Today I am thankful for:

• Christmas music being played all day at work.
• A test and a paper back with grades that I am happy with.
• Dewey paper is being handed in tomorrow!
• Getting to hang out and eat dinner down the mountain with all the Woodrow family!!
• Having the first snow of the season falling right now! 

It's been a good day!

Snapshots of the Weekend

This weekend Damarise and I flew back to Missouri to say goodbye to our family before they head to Zambia. Micah got to join us on our trip (so that'd we have a guy driving back with us) We had a blast with him and our family!

(Also, this is a post for pictures... another post will be coming soon :) )

We got to the airport a little early, so we had some fun exploring the airport.

We got to Missouri at 9pm. We had a delicious dinner and then went to bed. The next morning we went outside to enjoy the beautiful snow that Missouri had.

Even though half of us look miserable, it was a ton of fun!

We had snowball fights...

Hung out in forts...

Looked cool...

Went sledding/snowboarding...

And had a wonderful, cold time!

We also celebrated Damarise's 21st birthday :)

And Sarah drew Damarise this amazing panda! Yes, again, I've got to say that Sarah is an amazing artist! I am just astounded by her drawings!

Grandma also treated us to a birthday meal for Damarise. :)

Sunday we took family pictures... well... after the boys goofed off with the camera.

Trying to touch their tongue to their nose...

Smile! :)

I love my family!

I don't even know what was going on.

This was our shocked expression.

The "look-at-Andrew-normal" expression.

Pants! Our family's sign.

Thinking.

They are the best!

"Attack the camera man!"

The homeschool family.

Homeschool choir ;)

Siblings!

Andrew traded places with Micah.

The weekend ended way to soon, and Monday morning we were on our way out.

This picture basically captures all the fun we had.

Mom and Dad left the mini-van to us, so Damarise and I now have transportation, which we are SO thankful for.

Goodbye until 2013.

On our way back to Covenant, we stopped to see the St. Louis Arch.

We had a wonderful trip back, and God gave us great weather for the trip!

I'm SO thankful for the weekend we got to spend with our family and Micah. God showed me once again what an amazing family I have and how blessed I am. I'm thankful for Micah too and his willingness to travel there and back with Damarise and me. I'm thankful for the church and the love they showed us and our family. And I'm thankful that one day our whole family will be reunited :)

A Blessing of a Week

The snow days are coming to an end and school will for sure begin on Monday. It's been a bizarre start to the semester, having everyone back on campus for a week with no classes or work, but it has been a blessing of a week. Honestly, I would love it if every semester started like this.

We have had a week full of making friendships stronger. Normally when we come back to school, classes are the easiest to get used to. It's the friendships that require the time to dive back into and sometimes that can take anywhere from a day to weeks, depending on how often I'm around that person. But this week was spent getting to know my hallmates better, spending time with friends who I don't see often, and building upon good friendships.

I wish I could capture every moment of this week for you, but that would be a very long blog post (and I don't have that great of memory). But some of the highlights of this past week would include:

•Being picked up from the airport by Bethany's smiling face. •Wondering if snow would actually be coming. •Waking up Monday to 8" of fresh snowy powder! •Helping Janessa rearrange her room. •Watching out the windows as two more inches of snow and ice fell. •Hanging out with Janessa, Bethany, Virginia, and Emily. •Going on a hike through a snowy forest with Katie, Damarise, Bethany, and Janessa (It felt like being in Narnia!). •Doing a puzzle with Micah, Davey, Janessa, and Damarise. •Watching a TV show with Virginia, Damarise, Janessa, and Emily. •Enjoying Virginia's snowcream! •Knitting. •Talking with Janessa. •Hearing that classes would be canceled all week. •The All-Hall meeting and praying together. •Getting most of my textbooks from the mailroom! •Another puzzle with Micah, Davey, Janessa, and Damarise. •A hike down to the bluff with Micah, Davey, Katie, Damarise, and Janessa. •Zumba. •A round of Canasta. •Madgab! •Excited about getting homework via email. •Having everyone safely back on the hall. •Couch and Cake Catchphrase game. •An RUF worship time. •Cece's and Chattanooga to celebrate Bethany's 20th with Janessa and Damarise. •Snow falling on my face (Thanks to Janessa). •Seeing a man with a leaf blower blowing his snow. •Getting dollar coins. •Laughing with Janessa about old blogposts. •Playing Spades and Estimation with Caleb. •Watching Courtney and Will rearrange his room. •Playing scrabble with Micah. •Laughing with the family over Skype. •Celebrating Bethany's birthday.

And that's not even all of it. I'm so thankful to God for this wonderful way to start a new semester. I'm thankful for the good friends He has blessed me with and for the ways He has allowed friendships to flourish this past week. I'm thankful that He is so faithful.

Snow Day[s]

Georgia was calling for snow, and lots of it. By 11pm Sunday night the first flakes were beginning to fall. And when we awoke Monday morning there were eight beautiful inches of white fluffy snow on the ground. As the day went on more snow, ice, and sleet fell, coating Lookout Mountain in a bubble of whiteness. The first day of school was canceled. Then the second day of school was canceled. And now, the third and fourth days of school have been canceled. School will, Lord willing, start up on Monday.

We have definitely been taking advantage of the snow days though. It's been a good time to bond with friends without the stress of classes. We've played games, done puzzles, watched movies, talked, and gone on hikes through snow covered forests that look like Narnia.

Today the mail room was open for a few hours, so I grabbed my textbooks for this semester and may start reading them. We shall see. For now, I'm just enjoying this winter wonderland.

Christmastime is Here

Since Christmas was almost upon us we mixed up some gingerbread dough, rolled it out and created gingerbread men. It's been a Christmas tradition since before I can remember and every year people (mostly Sarah) get more and more creative with their cookie designs.

Here's a shot of Andrew intensely rolling out his dough.

Damarise did a great job decorating her cookies. I think this heart of hers was one of my favourite cookies.

Christmas Eve came with a little bit of whiteness. Andrew ran out to enjoy it.

We celebrated Christmas as a family on Christmas Eve. Sarah got me one of my favourite Dr. Seuss books for Christmas and it came with a stuffed Dr. Seuss character. I love it!

Ian and Andrew got matching muscle shirts.

Christmas Day came and all of Dad's side of the family came to Grandma's to celebrate. Sarah and I were excited (regardless of Sarah's face).

Anna and I got to pass out all the Christmas gifts to everyone. We were just a wee bit excited about our job.

Dad, Mom and Dad's younger sister, Aunt Janiece. :)

Grandma and two of her grandsons.

Monday morning we woke to a white covered ground. It was lovely!

My Aunt Cynthia tried to teach us how to knit. One of my "dreams" has been to knit when I'm an elderly lady. And as I began to learn how to knit that dream sort of diminished. Knitting is a lot harder than it looks. But, my old RA, Stacey, visited last night and showed me a different way to knit that is a lot easier, so maybe knitting will become my new hobby... who knows.

Dad's siblings and mom.

They're such a great bunch!

Dad has three sisters and there are three girls in our family, so we got a sister(Aunts) with sisters (Nieces) picture.

The two brothers with the two brothers.

There were a ton of cameras snapping pictures. It was like standing in front of paparazzi.

All the cousins with our amazing Grandma.

On Wednesday we got to go up to the farm. It was a drizzly, foggy day, but we had a good time together as a family despite the weather.

There we have it. An update of what has been happening over Christmas break. Hopefully this will not be the last. Because there is more fun to come.