graduation...

i'm pretty sure my sisters were thinking of yelling some of these at my graduation...

and now for some pictures!

  

walking out of central lutheran in minneapolis

 

me and my roomie katie 

 

me and harvey

me and my parents kendall and diane 

 

sisters - kayla, krissa, kendra, me, kiana

me with jan and gary coleman 

it is signed... 

the fancy hood i will never wear again 

me and erin 

me and jacob 

me and lindsay 

me and josh

believe it or not, there were other pics taken but right now i either don't have them or they didn't turn out...

picture upload extravangaza

i finally broke down and bought a micro-sd card adapter so that i could upload photos...so enjoy!

first round: pics from this post plus a couple days later when i went to see the snow sculptures (also associated with winter carnival)
snowshoeing:

  

winter carnival (day 1 - ice with j and m)

  

 

winter carnival (day 2 - snow with k and j)

  

   

  

the bubble popped

winter fun

being whimsical and spontaneous brings me great joy

i love the days when i am able to wake up one morning with no plans only to find something fun to do either that day or the next.

and the last couple days have been a prime example of such spontaneity

thursday at lunch i was sitting and eating when friends when the decision was made to go snowshoeing the next afternoon.

which 5 of us did. and it was fantastical and fun.

this was a first for me as i never put on snowshoes in my life. we walked around the trails for a couple hours, over the rivers (literally over small streams and a lake) and through the woods (literally). we went off-roading for the additional challenge to walk up and down hills through thorny bramble and over logs. we even took turns side-stepping our way out on fallen trees over the frozen streams.

potential for falling and hurting myself: yup.
exhilarating: yup.
succumbing to peer pressure because i never, ever thought i would do such an activity: yup.

friday evening, i checked my facebook to find a message from a couple friends with an invitation to go the the winter carnival.

for those of you who don't know, the end of january/beginning of february is a celebration of the winter season here in st paul. this celebration includes a ice sculpture contest, chairs made of ice (i sat in one and have a picture to prove it), snowplow competition (college students program little bots to run using gps navigation) and several other events.

one highlight is the fact that wells fargo hosts an open air ice skating rink during this carnival where you could rent the skates there (free for those of us who have wells fargo accounts). so we (m, j and i) decided to try it out. and i must confess that i'm horrible at skating. i'm pretty sure this was my second attempt ever and it was not pretty. but it was fun. and i'm glad to be able to say that i skated in public. i just hope there were no cameras rolling...

potential for falling and hurting myself: yup.

exhilarating: yup.

succumbing to peer pressure because i never, ever thought i would do such an activity: yup.

after the winter carnival we went out to eat at a burger bar and then found our way to bread and chocolate, where i bought a delicious fudge-oatmeal bar.

i have no idea what winter festivities i should plan for the coming days/weeks

thanksgiving

it's amazing how some of our holidays are meant to be spent with family.

well, most of them, really.

i didn't go back to sd for thanksgiving. second year in a row. 

but at least this year i was able to be with my sister. i went to omaha and spent the day with kayla. we were invited over to jess' mom's place for the big meal. delicious roast beef. among other good foods like corn and apple pie. 

i still kinda missed thanksgiving with turkey. since this is the first thanksgiving i went without turkey. and i like turkey. so maybe i'll have to make some turkey when i go back to st paul. so i can eat leftover turkey for the next week or so...

i would also like to point out that i managed to write "turkey" in six sentences in a row

More Pictures!!!!!!!

Here is a sampling of pictures that i (finally) took off my camera. Some are more recent than others...

Krissa's move-in helpers, aka the Vassar's Women Rugby team. 

Note: the men didn't help haul anything...

Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis

Night of the Birthday Bash...traveled with the best sign and friends ever!

Winter Storm - Nov 13, 2010

Beautiful SD sunset

Three teepees built by the kids of Luther Seminary students

veterans and soldiers

happy day to remember, acknowledge and thank the many veterans who risk their lives to defend what the great nation stands for (aka freedom and liberty and rights)!

i will never be a veteran since i will never be a soldier (me and the armed forces' training don't mix well)

but i do appreciate what many men and women sacrifice(d) in order to fight for our country

i especially appreciate those friends and family who have the distinguished title of veteran - especially those who fought in the conflict zones of iraq, kuwait, afghanistan

here is a sampling (and i apologize to any names i neglect but will add if notified i forgot someone) of those who have donned a uniform:
kendall
trevor
chris
bob
carl
scott
eric
jeff
don
craig
audrey
brett
cody
bryan
brett w
corey
sally

halloween weekend

so i'm pretty much lovin life right now. ok, not just pretty much. i am lovin life. i'm having a great time and have been back to a bubbly, smiley, happy personality.


here's the rundown of this past weekend, which was highly enjoyable. 


friday afternoon (after class, of course) i relaxed. if i remember correctly, i either napped or watched movies or bones episodes. or any combination. then i went to watch the first harry potter movie being shown at seminary in one of the high tech classrooms. then walked over to my former abode, bockman hall, to enjoy rock band. it was weird to be back in the dorm after being gone for a year and a half. to be walking around halls that are familiar and yet being unable to walk in the stairwells cause i'd be locked out. things have changed. but j made delicious food and d had a new keyboard for rockband, so it was a good time. and i left sometime around midnight because i was tired. it was getting to be a long day. that or i'm getting old.


saturday. slept in til 9:30. which may seem late to some but i had been hoping for 10-11 am to be my wake-up hour. watched more tv and movies (common theme in my current life, in case you haven't noticed). realized just after the rally to restore sanity ended that it was on. so i missed it. sad day... but i went over to the other dorm, stub, for pizzas and fun times with friends. we had a game of hangman going on. halloween themes, which included pop culture (witches, vampires, songs). then a bit o bananagrams. and i was surprised that i managed to win a couple rounds. also watched others make and decorate sugar cookies. felt old once again because i was tired by 8:30. but managed to stay up til 10:30.


sunday. woke up at 7:30 to get ready for church since i was told to meet at 8:45. turned out that jess (who i had to drive and pick up) and i were ready before the three boys. and had to wait around about an hour since the one who wasn't ready by 8:50 wasn't ready because the meeting time was supposed to be 9:45. which is a big difference. then went to church to celebrate reformation day. and will probably not go to that church, which is for all intents and purposes catholic with a little bit of martin luther tossed in. including the incense and kneeling while behind the altar for holy communion. ate at panera (delish). went to kohl's a bought a twins shirt. spent the afternoon watching bones. oh, how i love that tv show. so fascinating. also lxd (league of extraordinary dancers) which was both fascinating and disturbing. few words and a lot of amazing dancing. extraordinary dancing. also watched new in town, which is really cute. don't always like renee zellweger, but i love harry connick jr. and the fact that it was in minnesota complete with the awesome accent that exists in pockets of the state. 


in the midst of all my tv watching and food making in the evening, there were also trick-or-treaters. so i passed out chocolate. cause chocolate should be passed out on halloween. actually i chose my candy based on one criteria: would i eat the leftovers? 


and i said yes to chocolate. because no halloween is complete without chocolate. 


nor was halloween complete without seeing little kids dressed up. and there were some cute outfits. even some older kids dressed up. some didn't, but they had fun going around and collecting candy. so i gave them some.


but i'm okay with the fact that hallowwen is over. cause it also means that october is over. which means that november has started. 


i love november. best. month. ever.

Post 115

it's sunday evening. and i'm completely relaxed. loving my weekend. having fun with friends.

here's the rundown of the past few days:

friday - worked on and completed an 8-pg paper reflecting upon the church organization in a small, rural congregation. internship panel (see previous posting) where i was cleared to move on to my faculty interview as the next step in my process towards ordination. faculty approval means that i'm smart enough and able to understand theology well enough to be a pastor. made some beef stroganoff even though i added a bit too much sour cream. watched tv shows and movies via netflix. and netflix is totally addicting and awesome!

saturday - slept in. somewhat. i woke up at 9:30 (a whole half hour after i usually get up), did some laundry, cleaned the bathroom (technically i got the shower/tub, toilet and sink while my roomie katie scrubbed the floor), picked up and rearranged our living room. the two of us moved out a lot of the junk and katie vacuumed. now we have too much space and don't know what to do with it...except play with the wii. which i did with friends. made homemade mac n cheese (thanks to my sis kayla for the uber-simple recipe). jess whipped up monster cookies. watched "cloudy with a chance of meatballs" via netflix with friends. awesome movie for those who haven't seen it.

sunday - up early as i got ready for church. jess had spent the night so we could get up early and go to church at mt olive, which is a high liturgy lutheran church. complete with processional and recessional where people bow as the cross passes them. full liturgy and i loved it! turns out that i really do like traditional service. later, as i was chatting with katie, i began to realize that my issue with bethel's traditional service last year was that it was not really traditional. i guess i associate traditional with being able to do it well with pastors who are extremely formal and in church buildings that are old or stone. bethel's building was simply too new and contemporary for me to worship with high liturgy. after worship, jess and i went shopping. kohl's, k&g (i think that's what it was called...), staples, and lunds & byerly's. got so wrapped up in the time that i completely forgot about a mandatory apartment meeting. whoops. then finished the day watching percy jackson and eragon (such good movies, especially since i really am a kid at heart who loves fantasy, adventure and good defeating evil) among other entertaining activities since i don't have class tomorrow. this means that my second set of 6 week classes doesn't start quite yet.

on other side notes and reflections from my life, i have a few random activities up my sleeve.

1. cooking various recipes. i like to bake
2. cleaning and organizing my bedroom. i've been avoiding it, which is not good...
3. working on slimming down (exciting fact is that i fit into clothes that i haven't worn in over a year!) and keeping healthy. i even joined the healthy leaders thing for luther in an attempt to work on my well-being
4. planning a trip out east for a cousin's wedding. cause i have made it to all but one of his sibling's weddings, and that was because of events out of my control since i was but a wee lil child when he got married. i would love to be there since i love family get-togethers. and i've never been to virginia beach. plus i really love seeing men in uniform, which i would expect to see (and enjoy) often since the wedding is going to be at a navy base...
5. volunteered to be an assistant wedding planner. again. it seems like i'm on deck with providing ideas and opinions, whether or not i should or the others are even listening...i just like to toss out ideas and plan. i can go overboard at times, so i'm going to do my best to be supportive and creative.
6. wii. love it! i've purchased a couple new games recently, which means that i now have various games where i can throw darts, play beer pong (technically it's ping cup...), toss a lasso, and race a cow. of course, these are in addition to the other sports, games and fit activities i already owned.

reunions

today i was fortunate to meet up with an old friend from high school. jenette and i could not remember if we had seen each other after i left to go to germany shortly before our senior year of high school. which was 8 years ago. cause we were both pretty sure that we haven't actually connected since then.

which makes me feel really old.

it was enjoyable to see her and meet her precocious little girl. who is adorable.

but it was kinda awkward to try to catch up on all that has happened in the past 8 years. cause what do you say?

here's basically my story:
"oh, yeah, my year in germany was fun. but we don't have too much time to talk about all that i did or saw or learned. and then i spent four years at college. and then i went off to seminary. and i was on internship working full time at a church. and now i have a year left before i'm finally done with school. pretty boring life, really. except for all the cool places i've traveled to, of course."

so much gets left out. because i could spent hours upon hours talking about the people i've encountered. or describe some of the beauty that i've seen in my travels across the world. or about some of the things i've experienced as i've grown older and prepare for ministry.

but 8 years is simply too overwhelming a time to really cover in about an hour

so we just basically enjoyed being able to see each other. and were happy to see an old, dear friend.

which makes me wonder what class reunions will be like...

we chatted briefly about some of her highlights of her life as well, but the toddler likes to be the center of attention, which means that whenever we started to get into deeper conversation, she wanted to shift the conversation back to her.

otherwise, my day was not so exciting. i spent the day trying to relax before heading up to mitchell to see grandma in icu. who has stabilized for the time being but is still not in the clear.

the pics from the north...aka canada

so i know that i did not post many (or any) pics from my last few days up in bemidji.

i went to winnipeg with my roommie from freshman year at augustana college. we headed north and crossed at baudette, drove through ontario around the lake of the woods before heading west to manitoba and winnipeg. very scenic indeed.

once in winnipeg, we had a great experience of showing up at the hostel we wanted only to find out that they were overbooked. but the owner was really nice and even gave us 30 bucks (yup, canadians refer to their dollars as bucks just like in the usa) for our hassle before directing us to the other hostel in town.

so we arrived there, got two beds in a dorm room (oh, how i love bunk beds). no one else showed up to fill the other 4 beds, so we basically had a private room.

we walked outside a bit before ducking into a store called warehouse one (or something like that), where i found a pair of sunglasses on clearance for 2.50. which in us dollars would be roughly 2.40. good deal. and super cute.

since it was downpouring out, we ventured up into the skywalk. i guess winnipeg, with its cold winters, decided to build a skywalk that connects several buildings, two of which are malls. so we had fun shopping around and buying souvenirs.

we also made it to forks market, a really cute mall that sits along the muddy Red River (the same river that likes to flood fargo/morehead and grand forks).

we went back to the hostel, where i did some work. no rest for those who were not really on vacation. mariko went out and meandered (even got a bit lost) through downtown.

the next morning, we rose and went to find a statue of winnie the pooh. since winnie was named after winnipeg...but no real luck. the sculptor had some cool statues in the sculpture garden.

then we trekked it back taking the short route