Sometimes You Just Need A Little Home

 When I wrote my last post, which was over a month ago, I was just trying to stay afloat, and now here I am, back at home on fall break--my first term finals behind me. One of my professors said at the beginning of the year that he "will not let us drown, but [he] will let us flounder." He was right. There were times when I didn't think I would make it through to the end and I couldn't see how I would ever get all of City of God read, but by God's grace, I did. And as I said, I am HOME! Only for a week, but home with my family nonetheless. Caity, three friends, and I left Moscow at 2:30am for the airport on Saturday morning, stopping to get doughnuts on the way. When I got into ABQ, after trying to locate my luggage, we went to eat at Rudy's (our favorite bbq place). I did eventually get my luggage back on Sunday. It was a blessing to fellowship with everyone from my home church. I've missed them all a lot. We also had a dance on Sunday which was a great way to get caught up with friends who I hadn't seen since I left. I am beginning to get caught up on sleep and get my fill (it's that's even possible) of cooking. I am so exceedingly blessed to have such a great family. I love being with them and they truly love having me around. I am so thankful that I was able to come home. I miss them a lot when I'm gone.
I'll be going back to Moscow on Saturday to start the second term of school. I am really excited. I am really loving all my classes. Latin is probably my favorite which is ironic because it was the one class I considered not taking at all. I am so glad I changed my mind. It's wonderful. It is probably also the most challenging, but I love it. This term in Lordship (my theology class) we'll be reading the entire Old Testament (or so I've been told by upperclassmen) along with a handful of other books, and studying the covenants, baptism, and the sacriments. I am really excited about that! It's something I've wanted to study and understand better for a long time. I really love school and the community. I have made some good friends and I love seeing Curtis and Caity all the time. I see them almost everyday. We have absolutely wonderful professors and a lot of really great students in our class. This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am so grateful for it. God has blessed me tremendously. As always, I hope to post some while I'm at school, but we'll see. =D

 Caity gave me a bag of my favorite sour gummy worms to get me through finals week however, they didn't last the whole week. :-p

Sometimes studying for finals calls for a late night run to Wendy's for fries and a frosty.

 It's beautiful and BLANK! No classes, no assignments, nothing for a whole week!

 4:00am Doughnut stop on the way home.

Headed home. On cloud nine. =) 

Greeted by sweet notes from my mom and brothers on my mirror. 

Just a little taste of fall.

This year our apple trees actually produced fruit so we've been inundated by apples, but that also means we have an excuse to make apple pie, applesauce, and everything else apple, so there's no complaints at this house. 

June Birthdays

 June 11th was Russell's Golden Birthday. I can't believe he has now celebrated 6 birthdays with us now! He has grown so much in the last 5 years!!! I pray the Lord blesses him with many more wonderful birthdays and that He draws Russell closer to Him each passing year. 

His request for his birthday breakfast was to make an apple strudel with his sisters. 

His birthday cake of choice was of course chocolate with chopped up candy bar and chocolate frosting. 

 And Caity made an amazing cherry gelato with sweet cherries from our tree. 

My birthday followed on the 13th. We carried on the tradition of fajitas and cheesecake for dinner. This year my grandma was able to join us. 

 Caity made the cheesecake and an amazing cherry sauce (yes we have an abundance of sweet cherries). =D

Of Friends, Summer, and Bowling

Found this sign at a park....ummm ok?

My family teases me about my style =)

Of Blossoming Trees and Falling Snow

The weather was beautiful all of last week; in the 70's most days with beautiful sunshine and hardly any wind. Our fruit trees have begun to blossom and the grass is greening up and growing. 

Just in time for snow today and a possible freeze tonight. 

Heads Up

In the future, you'll probably be seeing a lot more pictures on my blog. 

I bought a new camera this week and since I got it, I've been having great fun playing around with all the different capabilities and settings. One of the fun things is different photo-altering effects. The boys really like this "sketch" effect. 

 With this camera, I can get close up shots where only the subject is focused and the background is blurry. What a novel concept.

 I think these last three are my favorites so far