Birthday Week/ Spring Break

It's been a jam-packed week! Interesting story though to start it off. I had planned on driving home finally in the envoy and bringing a ton of stuff home with me that I didn't need in my house anymore....apparently God had other plans. The envoy had been doing really weird things for the past couple of months, like NOT STARTING....so it had been in the shop for a long time and finally after two months of taking the car in, getting it back again, and then having to get it towed back to the dealer again, it finally started working consistently. However, when I was on the freeway that leads you outside of Spokane, there's this big hill that you've gotta go up. Apparently being in Spokane, there aren't a whole lot of big enough hills around that the car had to go up in my daily routine, so it wasn't used to this. All details aside, my car could not make it up that hill. :( So I had to turn back and I ended up having to schedule a flight to get home that was leaving an hour and a half from that point, so I was kinda in a rush! I had to repack all my stuff and find a ride to the airport. But oh well...plans are plans and they don't always follow through. So that was the beginning of my spring break, but I was glad to be home. :)

That weekend was really nice and relaxing. My eye had been twitching from stress and a little bit of sleep-deprivation from the previous week of tests so it was nice to get to catch up on that. Haha! Sunday it was good to see my friends at church! Man, time flys... I feel sad that I've been away for four years and haven't really been able to be involved much in anyone's lives from home...it's hard to come back and know how much you've missed. But nevertheless, it was great to see everyones faces. :) After church Angela had her bridal shower which was totally fun and cute. Rebecca and Julia hosted it and they did a great job. The group had a lot of fun with the games that we played and it was really good to get to sit with Erin and Angela and catch up a little bit with their lives. Everybody moves through life sometimes so quickly, I guess I do too, but it's just weird because every time I come back home it feels this way and like I've missed out on all of these important events or decisions in their lives...:( I just have to kind of keep reminding myself I guess that God had me at Whitworth for a reason, and I know I learned a lot. :) At some point that weekend, I can't remember which day, but Angela invited me to a birthday celelbration for Danny at his (soon to be "their")house which was really good. Ange made some delicious pizza and I was surrounded by good food and good people so I was excited. :) Then after that Ange spent the night at my house. We ended up watching IronMan--great movie, so we didn't get to chat as much but it was still great to have her company.

Monday was fun, it was my first time ever going to BSF! The group of girls that I was with and kind of "shadowed" for their group time was a lot of fun! I'm so used to thinking of BSF people as all old and outdated...Some of the people there have known me since I was still a kid! But coming there and seeing that there were actually people my age attending and that were definitely not old, relieved those fears of mine. I had a really good time and I'm excited to join up with that next year!

Tuesday was a lot of fun too! That was my birthday! I can't believe I'm 22 already!?! I know 22 is really not that old, but its just weird because since I've been in school up till now so I feel like I haven't really been able to make too many "grown-up" decisions yet. I hope that when those times come though I will make wise decisions, but until then I'm just trying to not take life for granted and to enjoy the people around me. The beginning of this day my mom, me, and my Grandma Gresset went to a restaurant in downtown Seattle called "Julio's" and had breakfast which was delicious! I was glad to get to spend some time with Grandma, I gotta learn to treasure those moments with her. She's definitely got some stuff that I can learn from. After that she joined us for most of the day actually while my mom and I shopped. I got so many wonderful things that I didn't deserve that day.

Wednesday was great too! I spent the day with my life-time best friend Sarah Beilke. I love how honest she is with me. It's refreshing. :) She never sugar-coats things and I love how when she gives you a compliment, she really means it, and I so appreciate that about her. I can say things that are specific to all of my friends about the characteristics that I love about them, but since I spent the day with Sarah, I was just reminded of all of these things. She's also the first person my age that I really knew to get married, so it's been so impressive to see how hard she works and how caring she is in her relationships.

....I have so much to learn about life.....

Thursday was a lot of fun as well! :) haha, I know I keep saying this about every day, but its true! I got to sleep in till like nine....ahhh! Then I just kinda meandered around the house, went shopping for my brother -in-law's birthday presents as well as my sister Lisa's. I'm excited to give them their presents! Then Peter called to play soccer with a whole bunch of wonderful people. :) It was a lot of fun although I was EXTREMELY nervous at first. I was just glad that I made myself useful at least once in the game. One of the girls on the other team scored within the first couple of seconds of the game so I told her she had a great shot. We got to talking and apparently that was her last game cuz she was gonna have surgery the next week. :( That stinks! She was glad to have scored something at her last game though. I was happy for her but at the same time I had to defend her from shooting any more goals in, and she was pretty good so I hope I did a decent-enough job. I also met another girl on the other team who had really cute short hair so I complimented her on it haha! I'm so excited to go to beauty school! Woo woo!!!! :) But anyway, back to soccer. All in all, it was so much fun and I hope I get to play again some time this summer or something. Maybe I'll improve a little. :) It was also really nice to get to hang out with my friend Peter, he's a great guy and it's always good to chat and catch up with him. He's always knowledgeable of or at the epi-center of all the "fun-activities" around here haha so I'm very appreciative of his inviting personality and letting me come along. It was great to see everybody that I hadn't seen for a while! I gave Angela a BIG hug, (I simply love that girl), saw Becca, gave her a big hug, saw Becky, gave her a big hug, saw Nicki, gave her a big hug! I saw a few guys from home at the game and if it were socially appropriate I probably would've given them a big hug too, but I figured a smile or a handshake would do the trick. I was just excited to be around familiar people, as well as new ones. :) People are great.

So today I woke up at ten which was lovely! :) We are going to have a family meal and celebrate the birthdays of Joe, myself, Rob, and Lisa! I'm so excited to see everyone! I am thankful for family. I'm even more excited to hear what's going on in everybody's lives and for our conversation! Woo woo! :) After the party I plan to do homework for the first time this week, or at least see what I can do so that it's not too shocking when I get back. Hopefully I can get something done. Then tomorrow is Saturday and I'm not quite sure what exactly I'm doing but I think I might spend the evening with Ange or something...not sure yet about details, but we'll see. :) I'm excited. It's been a great week and I'm thankful for everything in it.

PS-a shout-out prayer request for Kyle who's grandfather is struggling to survive would be greatly appreciated as well as for my brother Rob who is looking for God's will about staying at the specific church that he is at right now, thanks!

Until later, folks!