Birthday Celebration

Ladies and gents, this has been one of the best birthdays ever in my life.
It began with a happy birthday text from my sister on the west coast. Being in different time zones, she was awake when it turned midnight my time!

On Thursdays my class doesn't start until 9:25 so I slept in a little. I already had my outfit planned (duh) out which was a sequin-y shirt my mom bought me. It's a party shirt. My roommates decorated our room with balloons, a birthday banner [a tradition from home that Erin didn't even know about! It made me teary-eyed!], a note in expo marker on the mirror, and a stickie note in the bathroom! So sweet. I love those ladies.

I almost fell asleep in class. Oops. It was a "use this time to work on blahblahblah" and my brain could only focus for so long.

After class I chatted with my grandparents. They are so great. I love them.
Then I spent the next two and a half hours in the student center. I called my parents and heard about the goings on at home. I got myself a salted carmel latte with soy and 2 shots. Delish. I read through birthday texts which make my heart happy, I worked through a little bit of research for a presentation, jammed out with my nice headphones, and opened birthday cards from my Aunt Julie & Uncle Steve and cousins, a card from Uncle Dean, and a card from my friend Krista. Thanks for those! I don't have a photo of all the cards but they were beautiful. Thanks! Because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, sometimes the birthday mail gets messed up so Kayla and Ben's is en route. No worries, I love a good post b-day celebration.

From the roomie!

I had class at 1:40 and it went just fine. I got to chat with a few girls I'm just getting to know. I like them a lot. After class, I ran errands with Kelly. I like to run errands with a friend because you can make it an adventure. We went to the gas station, my bank to deposit checks, Walgreens, and then to Kelly's bank. When we left the bank, we saw two little dogs! One was bigger than the other but they looked rough and tumble. They were definitely looking out for each other. Too cute. Although they looked cold and hungry, we couldn't get close enough to them to see their tags.

When I was back in my room, I called my grandparents again to let them know their check was in the bank safe and sound. <-- see what I did there?
I was about to plop down with a little homework when my dad called. I had talked to them earlier but hey, I had talked to my grandparents twice so maybe this is the birthday of 2x the phone calls. I'm rambling on about my tire pressure and whatnot and dad asks what I'm doing for dinner. I explained that I was going to McDonalds with Jessica after her night class, so at like 9:30 and was kind of going to fake it until then. My dad sayd "Why don't you come down to the lobby and we can have dinner?"
WOAH. WHAT?? I ran down the stairs and out of the door to see my dad!!!

He drove 4 hours to come and have birthday dinner with me. I couldn't believe it. That guy is the BEST. I had run out without a coat or my ID so I had to go back upstairs and gather my stuff.

My mom called and I got to tell her how happy I was that Dad was at school. Yay! I'm bummed Mom is still feeling so crappy and the solution is to wait it out. Lame.  Dad and I got to sit in the student center and chat for a little over an hour before we went to dinner with Kelly. We headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings. I love going there with my dad and watching a game. The Blackhawks were playing later so no game for us at BWW. Dinner was so tasty. What a fun treat!

Pretty quickly after dinner was finished, Dad had to head home. We dropped Kelly off and Dad gave me the bag I had ordered online that was shipped to the house instead of school. Oops. I love this bag. It's so pretty and the perfect size. Plus, I found it for $78 including shipping and the bag is originally $135. Booyah.

It's so beautiful!

Then I cried when my dad left. And I cried again when I told my roommate about how he came all the way here just to have dinner with me. And I'm crying while I'm writing this.
I got the most beautiful sparkly wallet from my parents. It's just... here I'll just show you.

I got to talk to my Uncle Dean and hear him sing the birthday song and chat about the day. Then Julie and the boys on speaker phone. Their happy birthday song was complete with "cha cha cha!" which I had totally forgotten about. For real. That's what happens when you have cousins who are 7 and 12.
Ben and Kayla also sang to me on the voicemail. I love that tradition in our family. Lots of family members singing to me on the phone :)
After all that excitement the birthday fun STILL wasn't over. Our suite went to McConn and Kay bought me a thin mint frappe which may be my new favorite treat. It is so darn tasty. When Jess' night class was finished, we drove around and got McDonalds sweet tea.

Goof. 

Jess wrote me a sweet card and drew this! 

For real, I lived it up in the "eat, drink and be merry" in an absolutely alcohol free kind of way. It was a decadent day and I clearly have a refined palette-  latte, hot wings, frappe, fries and sweet tea.

Jess made me a really cool birthday card with a great note inside and we just chilled and talked and laughed. Then we froze our butts off in her cold car on the way back to campus.

Here's what's so wonderful about birthdays: friends and family reach out to you and love you in all kinds of ways. It should be a day where you just feel the love. If you want to go by the 5 love languages, then let's do it.

1- words of affirmation. Birthday cards or letters or notes or whatever. Check
2- quality time. having dinner or fries or a late night hang out or whatever. Check
3- gifts. need I say more? Check
4- acts of service. putting up banners or blowing up balloons or whatever. Check
5- physical touch. I pretty much tackled my dad when I saw him. Check

The first day of 20 was so great. I'm definitely feeling the love from my family and from my friends and from people I didn't know I was Facebook friends with anymore.

I was sad about being away from home on this birthday but I think this may have been the best birthday ever.
And this is me today- pig tails and oversized sweatshirt and fluffy boots because look at how pretty it is outside!

If I Could Turn Back Time

Thanks to Cher, you probably sang the title of this post in your head. I know I did. 
Sometimes when I import photos on my computer, I get lazy and say to myself "You will definitely organize these later. No sweat!" but then that folder of photos stacks up until it's so overwhelming I want to label it 'Random' and call it a day. 

Not today. Today I have some downtime between classes. After my 9:25, I have a good block of time until my 1:40. Normally, I go to the student center but today it is SO cold that I figured I would stay in the building. I finished all 140+ online flashcards for another class (a monumental task that's due on the 28th- booyah implied) and then I moved on to organizing my photos. I found a few gems from winter break that I forgot to share. I know it was three weeks ago. I also know this is a new semester that's focused on organization. Maybe this will teach me a lesson to not drag my heels on things like this. So here it is, the rest of my winter break:

Before

After!

Sometimes I miss the long hair, but it will come back. Then I might decide to chop it again! While I was getting my hair cut, I received an invitation to join my friend Hannah and part of her family to go see Potted Potter downtown Chicago. They had a groupon. 

It was fun but I certainly wouldn't call it my favorite theatrical experience. The Harris Theatre for Music and Dance was really interesting. I've never been there before! I like discovering more about the city.

We ate at the Grande Lux Cafe and waited WAY too long for our food. It was delicious but I was also a little delirious. I've only been there once before and we didn't have an issue with the service so maybe it was a fluke. 

For Christmas, I received these perfect Steve Madden black suede heels. I swooned.

Look at this photo of my dog in our living room. Look at it. 

I went to Arrowhead for New Years but I didn't really take any photos. 

Then I got sick. Boo. But mom bought me the biggest and best smoothie I've ever consumed. Yay! 

Dad and I finished the puzzle! It was definitely high on the list of the most difficult ones we have ever completed and usually we have Kayla's help on part of it. Here is the finished product:

Then we tried to start this one, but my break was over. Oops, sorry for leaving you with the bulk of the work, Dad. 

So that's it for real. That's all I have to say about winter break.

Into the Ordinary

Life has been nothing out of the ordinary this week. I have a pretty good handle on my schedule now, and that's really nice. It's so stressful to be walking to class and have a "Oh crap, where am I going right now?" Last semester, every single one of my classes was on the third floor of the same building so I had a really long time to remember where I was supposed to be going.
This week, the CD I ordered came in the mail. It's beautiful.

I'm unwilling to reveal how many times I have listened to "The Ballad of Love and Hate" for fear of revealing any information that might be used against me in the future. I didn't used to be one of those 'listen to that song a zillion times on repeat" people, but now I am. So there.

The Blackhawks played this week and Kicked Butt!! It was good to see them back on the ice. For real. I missed you all. 

My mom is sick with mystery illness and it sounds really gnarly. Yuck. Hope you feel better, Mom! 

Classes are good, weather is cold, brain is somewhat calm, and I'm not complaining. I hope your week is beginning in a beautiful way.

Week 1

Well friends, I have survived the first week of classes by the grace of God.
I am trying to make more time for devotions this semester because I can see the positive change in days when I do versus days when I don't. In lots of little, quiet ways, God has been near to me like a Dad and a Friend this week. I never thought I would experience what people were talking about when they said that. I am blessed.

Last semester, I gave a rundown on my classes and my professors. I had a scheduling conflict that resulted in a stressed phone call to my mom, lots of planning and freaking out about the future, and eventually a meeting with my advisor. I am on track to graduate in four years. I am blessed.

I was planning to do a very critical (see: judgmental) rundown of all my courses and my profs just like last semester, but God is bringing out my tender heart right now. Here is a quick overview:
Last semester, I had Minority Group Relations with Dr. Hawkins. He is an honors prof and that's a general education course that covers 2 requirements at 1 time. Holla. At the end of the semester, Dr. Hawkins asked me to consider joining the honors college and sent me the link to apply and talked to an honors kid to seek me out haha. Bottom line, you need a 3.6 to be in the smarty college and I have a 3.42. Oh well, I said. Dr. Hawkins then asked me if I would consider joining his honors research seminar in which we would be studying the role of the American church in suppressing the Civil Rights Movement. Woah. Sounds interesting right? I agreed and planned it into my schedule so I would be taking 16 credit hours.

There's a process for applying to be in an honors class if you're not an honors kid. When I went to the registrar's office with my advisor's signature on the matter, the super kind woman at the desk informed me that HNR325 is in fact a 3 credit hour class, so my work load would be 18 hours. She encouraged me to wait, meet with my advisor, talk to my parents, and see what could be eliminated from this semester so that I can take advantage of this opportunity. I did just that.

Bottom line, it made sense to drop New Testament. It is a gen ed and not a prerequisite for anything else, so it was the logical choice. I'm glad I can take New Testament at a later time and really devote the time and energy I want to devote to reading the whole thing. My prof was so kind and understanding about the situation. I hope when I take the course again I can take it with her.

So now, my schedule looks like this:
General Psychology 2 with Dr. Robinette. She is a hoot. This class is 8:55 and my first thing on M,W,F. I'm so glad I can laugh with her jokes and I'm not a grump. One of the ways God has been working on my heart is to lighten up where it counts. She brought tofu today for us to touch and wiggle because it's close to the consistency of your brain. Eww!
Religion, Race, and Resistance with Dr. Hawkins. I have already learned so much in just three days of class. Things that occurred in this country and the way people were treated that we never mentioned in previous history courses. We are looking critically at how every thing in history leads to the next thing. That sounds silly. I guess you just have to be there. Did you ever read the American Girl books? Each historical character girl came with 6 books and the first book about Addy was about her life as a slave and her mom running away from the plantation. Before the running away, Addy is day dreaming while she is picking worms (?) from the tobacco leaves. She gets distracted and misses a few, and the overseer makes her eat them. I was 10ish years old, and I remember sobbing and not being able to pick the book up for months. God has blessed me with a tender heart and the ability to weep with those who weep. And I'm an excellent hugger. That's a pretty good combo for comforting those who are sad, but it's tougher when the person is a fictional character. Anyway, Dr. Hawkins warned us that the upcoming reading would be more the social side than the political side of the issue so it was intense. I was genuinely grateful for the heads up- I won't be reading that one too far away from the tissues!

I am also taking Research Methods with Dr. Steenbergh which has been philosophical these last few days. Interesting. I'm taking developmental psychology with Mrs. Conrad and today we talked all about the baby's development in the womb. Finally, I'm taking theory/practice of group counseling with Dr. Daugherty. He is also my advisor! For the course we will be participating in a group counseling session and then reporting on our own progress. I'm trying to have an open mind about it.

So that's this semester. I'm excited.
Happy Friday, friends!

Gilmore Girls

Thanks to Lorelai Gilmore for describing exactly how I feel now.
I'm really glad I didn't get sick during finals (or at all this semester?) but I have one more day to kick this thing before I go back for second semester. I would really like to not be Sneezy McGee when meeting all my new profs.