Week 11

Day 1 ~ Office selfie.

Hi.

Day 2 ~ Registered for fall classes - graduation date is set for May 2016. Woot-woot.

The end is nigh!

Day 3 ~ Got a new pair of shoes in the mail (the pink ones).  It felt like a crime to hide them in the closet, so I decided to set out my pretties so I don't have to rummage in the dark for shoes each morning.

Mmmm...shoes

Day 4 ~ I've been struggling with my Spiritual Disciplines of late.  I am having to admit that my academic and personal walk has been badly skewed this semester.  Fortunately, Abby has agreed to help keep me accountable.  Marking it down (and knowing I have to show someone else) will hopefully highlight the areas I need to work on. 

Priority check

Day 5 ~ Friday night was potentially a bad one.  In the middle of watching a movie studying, my computer went bananas - and not in a good way.  I tinkered around a bit (while praying I wasn't deleting the motherboard) and I got it to chill out.  Works fine now.  Thank you for that miracle, Lord.

Oh, the horror

Day 6 ~ Abby, Sucey, and I watched Cinderella!  Great cinematography and costumes.

Abby, Kristin, Sucey

Day 7 ~ Volleyball time at Washington Hall.

Todd, Annette, Stephen, David, Sucey,
Jimmy, Kristin, Davide, Estephanie, Abi

I rejoice in God's provision of a full life, pray I keep my focus on real priorities, and am thankful for Abby's grace in not shooting me when I was unable to complete our Whole30 challenge. ✝

Week 10

Day 1 ~ It was all about the studying, tonight.  Nearly did myself some brain damage.

Brain melt

Day 2 ~ It snowed (and iced) 3.5 inches on Monday night.  Getting to the office was hampered by the fact that someone parked their car perpendicular to the driveway, effectively blocking the rest of us from exiting the apartment complex.  Who does that?  Fortunately, a few other people were trying to leave and they had a truck with a chain.  We just hauled the SUV out of our way. 

Seriously, who does that?

Team work

Day 3 ~ As part of the Whole30, I am trying to cook a variety of foods so I don't lose my mind.  Cooking and Kristin are not friends.  I had my first ironic Pintrest "Nailed it!" experience: guacamole deviled eggs.  The first picture is what it is supposed to look like.  The second picture is my baby-poo-brown result.  And they tasted like chili.  That's not a euphemism - the recipe called for a crazy amount of chili powder and cumin.  Nasty.  They were unsalvageable.

Guacamole Deviled Eggs via Pintrest

Nailed it!

Day 4 ~ Second attempt at cooking:  French cut green beans, chopped cashews, grilled chicken, and a packet of seasoning.  It was spectacularly tasteless.  Look at all the freakin' seasoning on that puppy - how can it taste like nothing?!  I actually all of ate this because throwing away food hurts my soul.

Bland

Day 5 ~ Cheri treated the office to lunch, today!  It was a beautifully sunny, despite snow still being on the ground.

Kristin, Regina, Abby, Leigh, Julia, Cheri

Day 6 ~ My mother and I are planning a road trip through the western US.  We're calling it, "Lucinda & Kristin's Wild West Adventure 2015."  T-shirts will be made.  Today, I sat down and finally hammered out all the details and booked the flights, rental car, and hotels.  My mom tasked me with creating an itinerary of all my favorite sites and National Parks I traveled to with Contiki and Trek America.  Fortunately, they are all in a nice looping drive from Las Vegas, so it will be easy to fly in and out.

Road trip!

Day 7 ~ After being forced to leap a pile of textbooks to get to my bed for the past few weeks, I decided it was time to clean my apartment.  This photo is typical of my messy state: relative cleanliness, but small piles of things in various locations.  The plies just grow and grow until I put everything back in its place...and start all over, again.

Hurtles

I rejoice in God's ability to reel me back in when I start to wander away, pray I will keep my heart and mind open as I seek a mentor from my church, and am thankful for the fact that I can buy most foods in a store instead of having to cook them myself. ✝

Week 9

Day 1 ~ Like I mentioned last week, during the month of March, Abby, Sucey, and I are going to do the Whole30 healthy eating thing.  As preparation, I bought all my favorite Easter candy to snack on this week since I will miss it next month. I can feel you judging me. 

Best candy holiday, ever!

Day 2 ~ A view of the snow/ice storm that SHUT DOWN Dallas.  It closed DTS for three days.  I was quite smug in my I'm-from-Iowa-this-is-nothing attitude. 

Snowpocalypses 2015

Day 3 ~ So, apparently these soft, southern automobiles couldn't handle the cold, either.  Abby's car wouldn't start, so we Googled, "how to jump start a car."  Nailed it!  It was actually, kinda fun doing something "grown-up."

Blue Belle, Kristin, and the deceased

Blue Belle, Abby, and the deceased

Day 4 ~ Not all of my prep for the Whole30 consisted of sugar-loading, I marinaded 14 pounds of chicken in a variety of approved spices and sauces.  My raspberry vinaigrette marinade turned out just plain funky looking.  Haven't tasted it yet, but I don't think you can go wrong with purple chicken.

Mmmm...purple

Day 5 ~ Sucey, Abby, and I had a wonderful Friday evening eating take-out, watching a movie, and playing cards.  En route to the Thai-nese take-out place, we came across this random, patriotic snowman on the hood of someone's car. #randomroadtripstuff

Sucey, Abby, Kristin and Bob the snowman

Day 6 ~ Saturday night consisted of Amazing Race watching and Hand & Foot with Abby and her brother and sister-in-law (Luke and Abby) at Swiss Tower on campus.

Abby, Abby, and Kristin

Day 7 ~ Due to a crazy week of cancelled work and my general laziness, I had to break my self-imposed no-study Sabbath rule. (In truth, I had about four no-study Sabbath days this week.)  A big paper crept up on me and I had to get a running start before the Tuesday due date.

The Osmosis Study Method

I rejoice in God ensuring the safety of everyone I care about during the bad weather in Dallas, pray I make good use of the next few weeks of spring break for studying, and am thankful for sweet friends who love cards as much as I do. ✝