so busy!

A 10-15 minute informative speech on faith. Given Wednesday.
An 8-10 page paper on Discipleship. Due Tuesday.
A 3-5 page book review for Hermeneutics. Due Thursday.
A 15+ page research paper on ministering to Muslims. Due Friday.
Spring Formal, Saturday.
Bloomsday, next Sunday.
A 5 page Philosophy of Ministry paper. Due next Monday evening.

So basically, I'm busy. Like, no-sleep-for-the-next-week kind of busy. Eek. I'm really excited about researching for my paper (just not writing 15 pages...) and really looking forward to everything else non-school related on that list.

BUT, I finish the 29th of May and that's only about a month away. Pretty exciting stuff. The semester moved rather quickly!

While shopping for shoes for the formal, Erica, Jaimie and I found these gems... lovely, right?

glorious sunshine

How to enjoy the weather when it's super warm!

#1: When it's 75-80 degrees outside, grab a blanket (and a book because you DO have homework) and a friend or two and head out to some comfy grass

#2: Make the most of your time by trying to whistle through a grass blade to get the bees to go away. At least it's worth a shot.


#3: Remember that you have frozen berries and peaches. Blend them with some orange juice, milk and sugar to make smoothies. Pour into margarita glasses and enjoy back out in the sunshine!


#4: Enjoy the results of your love for sunshine: Show off the freckles and the tan and smile for the camera even if your sunburn hurts :)
#5: If nothing else, make dinner and eat it outside. There's nothing like grass in your Ramen :)

illustrated by lindsay, erica and nick.

My second family :)

I have three of the best roommates EVER. Seriously, I love them so much and I feel so blessed to be living with them. I thought last semester was amazing with Molly, Amanda and Maddie, and it was. But this semester I have been so encouraged, and have realized how utterly privileged I am to live with Molly, Amanda and Erica. They're all different which makes life exciting. I love the different perspectives and insights they provide, and the unique take each one has on life and on God. I have fun with all of them, inside jokes with each one, and am just really, really glad that I live with them!

These lovely ladies won't be my roommates next semester as I've decided to go Chicago for the rest of my education. I'd gotten so used to the idea of Spokane and really enjoy being here in the apartment that it was a difficult decision for me to make. Ultimately though, I feel that God wants me to take another leap and go to Chicago. Two of these girls helped me realize that Chicago is the direction God seems to be taking my life, again out of my comfort zone and into something new. That's another reason why I love them so much: even though they'd like me to stay here, they're willing to pray about it and share with me what they think I need to hear. I'm going to miss them and I hope I'll get a chance to make it out to visit them sometime.

Molly and I painting Crossover's youth house

Amanda and I on my birthday

Erica and I on Easter Sunday

Easter away from home

The first Easter away from home was very very different yet still great.

We went to a friend's house for a Good Friday get together, read the Passion story, sang some hymns, did communion, prayed.
Made food for our Easter lunch on Saturday.
We dyed Easter eggs on Saturday night.
these are the name eggs:
The egg dying process, Amanda's hand still in motion:
Our Easter eggs:
Sunday was, sadly, rainy, cold and windy.
We planned to go to Mission Park for a cookout though so we braved the foul weather.
Everyone gathered around the grill from hunger and to avoid frostbite.
We had hamburgers and bratwursts, Erica's pasta salad and Molly's Jello pretzel salad at the park. Then we came back to our (warm!) apartment for Erica's ice cream cake and my pie.
The strawberry pie I made myself. I was SO proud.

Bonding Time

Turns out that if we get bored during commercial breaks, we make our own entertainment.
I'm not really sure why, but while we were in the boy's apartment watching The Office, Danica taped my leg to Erica's. Molly's leg soon became taped to Erica's other leg, my arm was taped to Danica's, and Molly and Danica taped their arms together too (making a circle).
We were thrilled when we made it down the stairs in one piece.


Roommates! Two of my current ones and my roommate for next semester (in Chicago), Danica!

hello, sunshine!

Yesterday was beautiful. Seventy degrees, sunny, grass turning green.
We enjoyed it by taking a walk and then having a picnic in the sunshine.

It was certainly the type of day you must take full advantage of... the kind of day where you forget about snow five days earlier and school the next day, and whatever that was you were worried about.

I love days like yesterday. They're so good for clearing your mind and thanking God for the beauty He's put all around.

And speaking of clarity, I've come to realize things about my perception of things in the past week.

I was holding back on doing certain things because I'm really comfortable where I am. I love a good challenge but sitting back and not having to worry about logistics sits just fine with me too. I realized that I was making a certain decision because it was the comfortable, convenient thing for me to do and because at this moment, it's being blessed by God. I thank God for using my roommates to share their thoughts with me and point out certain things that I was not considering. He used them to open my eyes to what I was not seeing.

Now that the decision is made, I feel so at peace about it. I realize that I wasn't at peace with what I'd been planning on doing... it was sort of a dark cloud in my mind. Now I'm so joyful. There's sunshine outside right now, warming everything that's been frozen for months and I feel that I can fully enjoy it now that the weight of that decision has been made and that I know what God wants me to do.

So today, I'm thanking my wonderful Savior for sunshine!

a picnic lunch in the grass!

Spring Break: Canada!

On Friday, the five of us in Church Planting class without prior Spring Break plans decided to join together and go to Canada. We left Monday morning. Stayed in Armstrong, BC with our professor's sister-in-law. It was fun. We did a LOT of driving, saw many mountains,

The group: Joe, Natalie, Me, Alex and Kris. On the way to BC.
We went to some hot springs on Tuesday. When we got there we realized that it was too expensive so we just sunbathed on the porch. No one cared that we were there but some tourists thought it was funny and took pictures. We ended up a little burnt.
Mountains!
More pictures can be seen by clicking this link: Canada Pictures. Mostly scenery pictures and they're worth seeing. It was gorgeous and mostly sunny. Which is amusing because today there are three inches of snow in Spokane.