happy days

Today is just a wonderful day and I am feeling really happy. Not the psycho-laughing-hyper type of happy...just the quiet contentment that life is good. I am learning to be happy despite my circumstances, and although some days I still fail at it, it is getting easier, or I am just getting better at how I deal with things.

Today I am happy even though:

-it's only Wednesday 

-today is the third day in a row of the cold, gray, wet, miserable, stay-in-your-bed kind of weather that Ohio enjoys to give us

-the graded paper I will be getting back in the mail today or tomorrow is probably not very good

-I still have a lot of homework to do, and not really sure where or how to start

I am also very happy because I got a letter and gift from Kaitie in the mail today, and I got the sweetest e-mail ever from my manager back home, Nancy. Both brought the biggest smile to my face and remind me of how much I am loved :) God always gives us reasons to smile, sometimes we just have to search a little more for it!

   

Visiting NY

Last week over fall break, Madison and I were reunited with McKinley! We stayed with her over our break and it was so wonderful seeing her again! It had been almost half a year since we had last seen her but it felt like we had never been apart :)

We were pretty lazy and it was nice to have a break and sleep a lot. We went hiking a lot; upstate New York is gorgeous, especially in the fall! And we got to eat good food! Haha, that's always important ;)

We went to Cornell University in Ithaca on Friday because McKinley's dad works there. It is a huge campus! Then we walked around in Ithaca for awhile and nearly died. No one we tell seems to be concerned. Some people just don't understand...probably because we are completely fine and we most likely wouldn't have literally died. But we could have ended up in the hospital! We were staring at a pretty waterfall:

 

when small pebbles started falling around us from the cliff/wall thing we were standing next to. We look up:

and even bigger rocks start falling!:

 So we sprinted away and fortunately none of us ended up with concussions :) Madison did get cut on her leg though:

So other than that eventful experience, we just relaxed a lot :) We had a lot of fun! 

 

Kaitie and Lindsay visited me!

True story: I have the best friends in the entire world. Kaitie and Lindsay drove 14 hours just to visit me in Ohio! They surprised me Thursday afternoon and then stayed until today at 4:30.

Yesterday they came to chapel with me and I only had one class so I was free for the rest of the day. Since there isn't a lot to do in Ohio, we went to the Indian Mounds for a walk. At the beginning of our walk, we met two adorable dogs:

They followed us around for two hours and we played with them and took pictures with them :) I just miss dogs so when I see them, I have to love on them!

 This, my friends, is happiness :) 

(and yes I was talking to him in my 'doggie voice')

 SO MUCH CUTENESS

 I just really love dogs

 family portrait!

We put them in Kaitie's car and brought them home because she didn't want to leave them there :)

We also went to The Greene last night and shopped, went to a movie, and got Coldstone ice cream!

Today we did pretty much nothing. I did introduce Lindsay, Kaitie, and Madison to Chick-Fil-A though because we don't have it in Minnesota. They loved it of course!

It was SO great having them here! It was nice just to relax and hang out and also show them where I live for most of the year :) love them lots!

leaves in books

Do you ever have those days where you just want to be a kid again? When all you had to worry about is coloring inside of the lines with your Crayola crayons or how much sugar you mix with your kool-aid packet? I have these days.

Fall brings back great memories of my childhood. Jumping in leaf piles, drinking hot apple cider, and especially going on nature walks and finding the most beautiful leaves to save.

My campus is beautiful:

 (photo credit to Sarah)

 And all I want to do is collect pretty leaves and stick them in all of my textbooks :) that would be a good use of the hundreds of dollars I spent on them, right?

 

Clouds of Color!

Today my best friends and I got very colorful! We did the Color Run in Cincinnati. I have been wanting to do the it since I heard about it a year ago. It's a 5K race and at every K mark there is a station with people throwing color at you (the substance is like flour). Then at the end there's a giant party (there were over 10,000 people running this race) and we all throw color and you literally can't see anything but this massive cloud of color! I am so glad we all got to do it together...it was so fun!

 finally doing it!

 before...

 the beginning

 running buddy!

all of us who ran :)

the final product!!

color party!

aaaaaand this is my serious face ha

 jump!

SO MUCH FUN! <3 my girls

we went sailing!

We went sailing again this year :)

 not quite a pyramid...

sailing buddies!

Sarah is a fab photographer :)

Blackburn's sailboat!

we all fit on the slide haha

I love her :)

 Sarah!! <3

 adorable :)

my lovely roommate :)

did I mention I love my friends?

swinging is fantastic too!

It was a perfect day to escape college and relax!