It's been so long...

Wow.. To be honest, I seriously have NO idea where to begin. There has been SO much going on in my life that I haven't shared...

Here it is NOVEMBER already. I kind of feel like life is going by faster now that I'm not in school. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Work has been going well. I've gone through a little bit of a slump with work recently, but I think I'm coming out of it. There was a while there that I was SUPER un-motivated to work. Not that I don't love an adore the children, I just wasn't in the mood to work. I like to think of my self as a patient person and for a while there I felt like I was being very impatient with the kids, and just doing whatever was easiest for ME to get through the day... I know and recognize that that's not fair to Riley and Spencer. Although I don't feel at any point that I was hindering their capability to learn, I just feel like I wasn't encouraging it... for example, I'd NOT want to get out all the paint and messy stuff, because I didn't want to deal with keeping them clean and cleaning up the mess afterwards. Let me just say, it really does take more energy to constantly say NO to the kids, rather then let them do their own thing. :)

Outside of work, all I really do is hang out with Storm. I really enjoy his company and truly appreciate all he does for me. Also, I do have to say I greatly enjoy my roommates as well. The past year, I lived with a bunch of girls... None of which I was particularly close to. This year has been soo amazing to live with wonderful, encouraging FRIENDS.

Being that it is NOVEMBER already, Thanksgiving is coming up... I always LOVE Thanksgiving, but being so far away from home, I feel like homeless child on holidays. Not that I HAVE to do anything special, it's just nice to have someone to spend the holidays with. This year I'm going home with Storm to spend Thanksgiving (and Christmas, for that matter) with his family.

I'm really looking forward to January... Storm and I are going to go to Idaho to visit my parents!! By that time, it'll have been a year and half since I've seen them last. I miss them sooo incredibly much. I'm SO excited for Storm to finally meet them too..

Lastly, I MISS JENNI! You know the saying "distance makes the heart grow fonder?" I COMPLETELY agree! I feel like it's been FOREVER since we've seen the Stringhams, and we're hoping to meet up with Jenni and Liam sometime in the NEAR future. Luckily, Jenni and I have been able to talk a lot recently. It makes me happy.

I'M MAKING IT A GOAL TO BE BETTER ABOUT BLOGGING... :)
I'm hoping I'll be able to stick to that goal.

blog fail

here it is...almost 2 months since i've been back from Cameroon and i only have 2 words today...

blog fail.

while i was in Cameroon, i had every intention of updating my blog to keep my friends up-dated on my trip... BUT that apparently didn't happen. The main reason being that the internet in Yaounde was SOOOOOOOO ridiculously slow. when we'd go to the internet cafe', we'd buy either one or two hour time slots, and sometimes it'd take almost the entire 2 hours to get through e-mail and facebook, let alone a blog. You'd sit there for 15 minutes just waiting for a page to load. needless to say, using the internet in Cameroon was a great time to practice patience...

I am back though. I'll possibly fill you in on tidbits of my journey here and there... but mostly i'm back to start this as a blog on life. not just africa. :)

AFRICA! READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!

Hey everyone!

Summer Project has officially begun. After so many years of being around other projects or around people who have been on summer project, it's nice to finally have my OWN summer project, my own project friends, and my own stories. I can tell already that this summer is going to amazing.

We all made it into Chicago yesterday, mid morning-ish. Although we were all exhausted, we had some briefing and training in preparation for out trip. We've also had some down time to relax and bond with our team. I feel like we've already become good friends and that makes me really excited about this summer.

As of right now, we're having a short break before lunch... we're gonna eat and then head to the airport in about an hour. Although our flight doesn't leave until 5pm-ish, we're giving ourselves 4 hours to get to the airport and get our rather large group (18 people total) through customs.

Today we fly 8 hours to Paris, with only a short 2 hour lay over. Then we board another plane and fly another 8 hours to Cameroon. We'll arrive in Younde' late tomorrow night (Monday, June 1st)

Just wanted to give you all an update on where we're at. Hope everything is going well for all of you as well.

is this going to be forever?

so i went to the dentist this morning.... For those of you who didn't hear, a random chunk of one of my molars came out on Monday night while eating some garlic bread at the Canterburry House. anyway... i went to the dentist this morning, and luckily i only needed to get it filled and not get a cap on my tooth. For some reason they were having trouble doing it.. they couldn't get the little brace thing around the tooth, they kept dropping things into my mouth.... i had to like use my tongue to close off my throat at one point so that i wouldn't choke on a big metal ring they dropped. needless to say, i'm a very patient person and have a high pain tolerance, so i was ok. (they didn't numb one part of my mouth, so they warned me it might hurt a little). Anyway, it ended up that it took over an hour for them to finish!!! it was fine because i didn't have anywhere to be afterwars, but my jaw started to hurt...like, my jaw just didn't want to keep my mouth open any longer, it was weird. i seriously thought to myself "is going to be forever?" (quote from David After Dentist video)

anyway... moving on to bigger and more important things!! SUPPORT IS CONTINUING TO COME IN FOR SUMMER PROJECT! God's provision is absolutely amazing! i only need another $675.... that's NOTHING compared to needing to raise $5600. After recently recieving the packing list for Cameroon, it all feels more real. I'll be heading to Africa one month from TOMORROW! craaaazy. :-D

2 posts in one day! Crazy, I know!

I just felt the need to express how wonderful my day was...

today i got to spend lots of quality time with my dear friend Jenni, and it made me super happy. Jenni and her husband are moving away next month, so i'm trying to get in as much Jenni time as possible. Jenni and i briefly stopped by the UCC garage sale, went to Christian Books and Gifts (i bought a new bible, yey!), went out to lunch, watched a movie, and went grocery shopping.

Then, Storm and I went and got some Quizno's and brought it back to Jenni and Liam's to eat it... we all sat around and relaxed/talked.... we then proceeded to the K-State Student Union to meet up with Bency, Phil and Megan to see the Matt Wertz concert. It was quite good, i must say.

This post doesn't have any specific point or deep meaning to it other than the fact that i REALLY enjoy/appreciate good friends, and today was a day that reminded me of that.
God Bless!

ahoy!

here's my first blog.... it's going to quick....if i knew how to rhyme....it would be really slick.


hope you all are having a wonderful day!

p.s. jenni helped me set up this blog so i can... 1. update people on my life and 2. keep ya'll posted on what's going on while i'm in Africa! woot woot.