A Black & White Christmas

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12/23 {I Must Be Crazy . . . }

. . . because it is MINUS THIRTY-TWO outside. Grrrr. However, Dressember is still going strong!

 

Heading off to church and nothing says Sunday morning more than a clean cut dress and a set of pearls.  Then later today, BROTHER AND SISTER COME INTO TOWN! This girl is excited :) I'm also going to try to purchase my Les Miserables tickets today {yes, we are that family}.

 
Earrings: Rikki's // Pearls: Forgot // Necklace: Rikki's
Sweater: Forgot // Dress: Winners // Tights: Joe Fresh

 

Two days! Are you excited???

Happy Sunday!

 

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Happy Milestone Birthday

We celebrated Dad's birthday on Monday, November 12th. I won't tell you exactly how old he is but {a} it's a milestone birthday and {b} he is 27 years older than me.

Our dinner conversation centred on the changes that had taken place in the last few decades and how different his life growing up was from Brother's and mine. Made for some interesting discussion.

Anyways, happy birthday, Dad! Here's to many more years.

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Thanksgiving Recap

I had an amazing weekend! I think every weekend should be a long weekend, because then I would relax and hang out on Saturday and Sunday, while still completing all my homework on Monday. Love it! Here are some snapshots of what I was up to this Thanksgiving.

Started the weekend by watching this with a friend.

I'd recommend it for the music, not the storyline.

Thanksgiving Dinner #1

Sunday afternoon football :)

Thanksgiving Dinner #2

All in all, a successful and enjoyable weekend!

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She's Going To The Amazon

My sister, Crystal.

She's going with YWAM Montana on the Titus Project to Columbia. 

She's leaving in 8 days.

Wow.

She'll never know how proud I am of her.

She'll never know how so very alive and accepted she makes me feel.

She'll never know the impact.

Last night, she posted a video of her cover of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables on guitar.
She posted it, because it's our thing.

I love her.

 

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Dear World . . .

Here are my thoughts on this end-of-summer-Saturday-morning . . .

• I miss posting on my blog everyday. Yes, yes I do. I thought I would be relieved and thankful for the break, but really it just makes me feel like I am forgetting to do something. I'm not sure what the remedy to the situation is.
• I have been spending a lot of time thinking about the past. Maybe it's because of our whole family being together again for the past two weeks. Or maybe it's because I saw Mr. R.'s memorial video. Either way, many memories have resurfaced over the past couple of days.
• People ask me if I'm excited to go back to school, and I don't know how to reply. It's not that I'm not excited, but I wouldn't say I'm excited . . . Help?
• Everyone needs to listen to Come to Me by The Loft Sessions. We did it at The Experience last night. When I listen to it, I think of the words "violent love". Does that make sense? I know it's an oxymoron, but no other word describes the passion with which the song is sung.
• I feel like this year is a game-changer. And I'm not even sure what that means.
• The house is very quiet now. I enjoy the quiet, and I enjoy the full house. So which do I prefer? I have no sweet clue.
• Have you watched The Hunger Games yet? Because I did. And convinced Dad to watch as well. Still slightly obsessed with the movie. Once my DVD copy comes in the mail from Amazon I'll be watching it again. How many days until Catching Fire?
• So in the past few months of swimming lessons, I have {a} been kicked in the eye, {b} gotten serenaded by a 3 year old singing Big Green Tractor, {c} been bitten in the shoulder, {d} been asked where my bed is by a 3 year old {she thought I slept at the pool}, and {d} received four hand-drawn pictures. Verdict: A successful summer of teaching :)

Full House

Disclaimer: The title makes me want to break out into "Our house/In the middle of the street". Or maybe that's just the Olympics Closing Ceremonies talking.

Here is what's been happening around our place lately, and it all started when Bella & Sister came to town.

Sister & Me, moments after she got in!

Reunited!

The "sisters" shopping trip in which Bella meets Barney . . .

"No, Crystal, act candid . . ."

YOLO

Pockets . . . uh.

Sister's says, "Fly".

This happens a lot.

Lot of "Blue Like Jazz" reading has been going around.

BBQs and game nights.

It's been amazing having Bella & Sister here :)

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