Christmas Break

Well, I'm home! I'm EXHAUSTED and still will be hanging out at Tricia and Alex's for New Year's tonight. We'll have a great time and I will get some sleep tomorrow. I had a great trip, although I am really glad to be home. Sometimes traveling makes me more stressed than if I would just stay home and relax- however, the fun always outweighs the stress so it's all good.

Here are some pictures from the last two weeks- it's been a good break.

I got the Dark Knight for Christmas- probably my favorite present! Surprising, I know, because I was scared to death of the movie- but it's not so bad when I'm not sitting in a scary dark theater!

My nursing buddy Tatyana got married the day before I left for STL. This is Natalia, me, and Bela at the wedding. It was a lot of fun, and it's always awesome to see a good friend get married.

Me and Bela. She was kind enough to take me to the airport at 4:30 in the morning when I flew up to St. Louis. She's an awesome friend and I don't know many who would do that for me.

Me and Melissa. This picture was taken and it was seriously six degrees outside. I don't think I have ever felt temperatures that cold in my life. I always had to catch my breath when I stepped out and it took awhile to get accustomed to it. I am sad that it warmed up a lot and the weather was too similar to FL weather most of the time I was there.

This picture says it- I drank a lot of coffee while I was there, and read a lot of Twilight. This was taken when Hannah, Melissa, Kat, and I all went to Starbucks before we picked up Allison.

Good family times at Jan and Dave's.

Me and Grandpa, the greatest person I have ever known.

The last night I was there. We enjoyed a bottle of wine together and just had good sister time. We stayed up and watched the Dark Knight, with a very EARLY morning the next day.

I have been enjoying my time here so much, although admittedly much (but not most) of it has been spent reading the Twilight books. Last night we ate dinner at Dave and Jan's. They won't be here for Christmas Eve or Christmas day, especially sad meaning that no Whaleys will be present, something that has never happened before. They are an extension of our family and will be missed.

The weather here yesterday was disgusting. I honestly had no idea it could rain in freezing temperatures, but lo and behold yesterday we got freezing rain! I had a haircut scheduled over in St. Louis with Melissa's stylist, and wasn't about to miss it so I had my dad drive the treacherous roads for me. Hannah was in the backseat constantly telling us to turn around for the first half of the ride. But I got my haircut, and I love it! It's pretty much as short as I had it two summers ago, only a much better style than it was then. She did a dry cut, something I have never had done before but it's much better for curly hair, because she cut each curl individually. I'll take a picture of it tomorrow after I fix it myself and perhaps post it along with other family pics.

Needless to say, I have to admit that I didn't know cold could get quite so disgusting. Thank goodness I have boots because outside is as wet and slushy and disgusting as I've ever seen. Don't worry, this won't deter me from eventually moving to a place with four seasons. I still enjoy the cold my friends.

I finished the third Twilight book last night and started the fourth. And even more, I wonder, why are parents letting their girls read this crap?! It is not appropriate for 12 and 13 year olds, and yet that is the majority of the girls reading it. Edward Cullen is not real, and these books put guys up on a pedestal with expectations that can't be met- guys can't be perfect for us. Granted, they actually promote abstinence until marriage, but not without a lot of sensuality along the way, and self control definitely is not part of the equation. It just bothers me that young girls are reading that stuff. It bothers me that I'm reading that stuff, that I'm hopelessly addicted like everyone else. It's a bit different than the Harry Potter craze, I'll say. I'd let young kids reading HP before I'd let them touch Twilight. The two don't really even compare, which I find annoying because people told me that if I loved Harry Potter I'd love Twilight. And including the fantasy, it's true. I do love fantasy stories. But there's a lot of stuff in Twilight that's different than HP.

Another stupid tangent I didn't mean to go off on. Well, I should be going. We're going over to Stephen and Susie's today to see the St. Louis family, and will be back tonight for the Christmas Eve service and party. Happy Christmas Eve!

COLD

Well, I'm in Illinois now. I flew into St. Louis yesterday at 10:40 am, and hung out with Melissa most of the day. She brought me over here and my family arrived around 8:45 last night. I'm still so tired after waking up super early yesterday, but I'm going to enjoy today.

Get this- the temperature is in the single digits! Six degrees! It didn't get above 12 yesterday. Imagine going from 78 degree temperatures every day this past week, and walking outside in St. Louis to about 8 degrees. I literally had to catch my breath when it hit me. We had to go to Target and get me a hat and gloves and I borrowed Melissa's scarf. We don't keep those things handy in Florida. Today I'm going to get boots because, as stupid as this is, I don't really own any good shoes. All I ever wear at home is flip flops, and if it's cold I generally throw on jeans and a hoodie with tennis shoes.

I'm so glad to be here with family. On Wednesday we are heading over to my dad's brother's in St. Louis to have good family time with them. We don't usually see his family as much so that should be fun, and I think Christi and Doug might be there too and I haven't seen them in a couple of years.

Something really sad last night though. When Melissa was driving me over to Grandma and Grandpa's, we drove past the road where we used to turn to go to Aunt Georgia's (the one where we saw our first nun!) and for a split second I got excited thinking about going over and seeing Aunt Georgia and Uncle Dick. It was really weird, because it was only a second and then I remembered, and I was really sad. I knew it wasn't really reality to me yet. I know I'm going to miss Aunt Georgia this year. It may sound odd, but I haven't really had a chance to "miss" her because I only see her at Christmas and occasionally in the summer. If that makes any sense... I have missed her because I know she is gone, but nothing in Florida has changed.

Well, I should be going now. Hannah and I are going to go to Target (if she ever wakes up!) and look at boots. Tomorrow I'm getting my hair cut with Melissa's stylist, and I'm excited about that. Merry Christmas if I don't get back on here before then!

This has been such a relaxing break. Unfortunately I have been extremely lazy, but it feels so good after the semester I had. I got my final grades, and even after looking at them I still can't believe that I passed. Talk about a miracle. I think that was the first time in my life I have ever really thought I was going to fail a class. It has been a horrible two months, and I'm glad it's over!

I leave for St. Louis on Sunday. I'm looking forward to it. I love flying during the Holidays. The hustle and bustle of people, excited to be seeing their family. Last year Allison and I flew up together, and we ended up talking to this guy (or rather he ended up talking to us) and he was on leave from the military and going to see his mom in St. Louis, but he talked our ear off. I think we just looked at each other the whole time laughing, because he reminded me of a hyper puppy or something. I think we heard from him about a hundred times that it was 35 degrees in St. Louis, and he also welcomed us to hell several times. I don't think he was a fan of the midwest. When we were sitting in the terminal waiting to board our plane in Jax, a really cute guy was there, and I bet Allison ten bucks that I would end up next to him on the plane. When we got on the plane, this other guy was next to Allison, and he offered to trade with me and sat in my spot so that Allison and I could sit together. Then who comes walking down the aisle to sit next to that guy, but the cute guy. I'd have won that bet! :) Good times, and I'm pretty sure the only person who just enjoyed that story was Allison.

Tatyana is getting married on Saturday. I'm so happy for her. It will be a Russian wedding, so it should be interesting. I'm pretty sure that me and my nursing friends will be the only Americans there. I have heard that they are very long. My friend Natalia told me that real Russian weddings last two days. Yikes, I'm glad this one won't be like that. I don't think I would ever want to go to a two-day wedding.

Oh, and I finally saw Twilight last week! Such a good movie, I would definitely recommend it. The acting is not superb, but the story is and Rob Pattinson most definitely is so go see it. But read the book first.

Thanksgiving Pics

Thanksgiving day- the "kid" table

Me and Hannah

A quite unflattering picture of us on Black Friday at 4 o'clock in the morning. I was going on 1.5 hours of sleep!

Another End

Well, it's over. I got through it, and passed by the grace of God alone. I haven't gotten my final grades yet but I calculated it and I made it. I can't believe it- I prepared myself for failure since October and when I saw the score on my final I cried. I never expected that I would pass! It may not seem like such a big deal but if you don't pass any class/clinical, you don't get to continue with your class. Sadly we lost three people, which makes me really upset because that could easily, easily be me.

I haven't really done much of anything since the break started. I went shopping on Saturday, and hung out at Tricia and Alex's the past two nights. I get to go back to Monday night BSF tonight and I'm so excited!!! And the next three weeks will be full of resting, seeing family, eating, hopefully playing in the snow (I HOPE!) and just fellowshipping.

I leave Sunday for St. Louis. I'm hoping for some snow while I'm there. It is 72 degrees right now here, and while I can't complain since we have had our fair share of cold weather this fall (more than I ever can remember this time of year), I do wish it felt more like Christmastime. If I have never mentioned it before I'll mention it now: I love cold weather. I would take a 20 degree day over 90 degrees with 80% humidity any day (and believe me, that is our weather nine months out of the year). No joke, that kind of weather is miserable! At least you still have good hair when it's cold. Humidity kills the curls, folks. I'm pretty sure Callie will have some words for me on this one... :)

All righty, time for a cheesy paragraph to talk about my feelings. Thank you to any of you who have been there for me this semester- supported me, encouraged me, prayed for me, or just given me a hug when I need it. You don't know how much that has meant to me and sometimes it would give me what I needed to get through that day. You know who you are, because it is most of you who read this. :) Anyway, I'm looking forward to the break and I hope I will be able to update more often now.

Praise God for getting me through!!

School

This week has gone by slower than most, and each day runs together. Every day I woke up, studied, ate lunch, studied at Panera, came home to study, and went to bed. I did better on my checkpoint today than I have the entire semester, and I'm starting to hope.

Tonight is the Christmas dessert at church. I'm looking forward to it- a break from all the crap in life. At least a couple of hours to not think about stress. I wish finals didn't have to be so stressful- but I think I make them that way. I just can't wait to be able to relax and not think.

Not much news really, so I'll leave it at that. In one week I will be done.