will moving ever stop!
ok so it's already been a crazy, fun-filled summer.
I went on the mexico mission trip and it was just awesome! we helped build a church in the middle of a very poor neighborhood. It was really wonderful to see how on fire the members of the church were for God and how they rejoiced in the opportunity to do His work. It was also a blessing to be there with the youth group from my church. Their spiritual strength and love for the Lord was refreshing and encouraging since youth today are faced with so many challenges in their walk with God.
After returning from Mexico, I moved all of my boxes from my apartment in central Austin to a new apartment closer to my church in North Austin. It didn't take that long, only 3 trips in my little car. Then it was time to drive up to Dallas to help my mom pack up her house for her move to Illinois. I packed up my room and tried to get rid of more stuff, but my mom had already pack up some stuff for me and we didn't have time to go through it so I'll just have to rent a truck to drive it all from Dallas to Austin and then go through it there when I finally get to unpack on the 22nd of August!!!! So, on the 23rd of July, my mom, sister, my mom's boyfriend and I drove up to Illinois. It was an uneventful drive except for seeing a drunk woman hitch-hiking on the side of the highway in a one-piece bathing suit! and the huge tire tread that came flying at our windshield out of no where! But all this happened around St. Louis so I've just decided that I shall in the future avoid having to drive there.
So we reached our desitination, my aunt's house,where my mom will be living. We unpacked my mother's stuff and re-organized my sister's things so that we could drive another six hours from my aunt's house to Bloomington, IN where my sister just started college. My mother and I helped my sister move into her (very nice, spacious) dorm and after spending a couple days there drove back to my aunt's house where the next day I was driven to the airport to fly to Boise, Idaho.
I had a lay-over in Atlanta but it worked out nicely since nothing ever leaves O'Hare on time my lay-over was only one hour instead of two! I arrived safely and was met by my best friend Jen! Who I tried my best to help over the next week as she was getting married on Saturday. WE had a couple minor crises the week prior to the wedding but I kept telling her that pre-wedding problems would prevent during-wedding surprises. And I was right, everything went very well. After the 10:30am wedding we took pictures for two hours and then had a luncheon at a nearby church, after which i returned to Jen's grandmother's farm and helped an assembly line of six women make 170 sandwiches, two cheese and cracker trays, fruit and cookie trays,and a vegetable tray in two hours, with just enough time to spare to get back into my maid-of-honor dress (which was hand-made by Jen's mom) for the evening reception where I stood in line next to Jen for two hours shaking the guests' hands and telling them i was Jen's best friend, not her sister. That night, with Jen and her new husband otherwise occupied, I went with her cousins and swam a little bit. Actually, I was too exhausted to swim, so I just kinda floated. Then, around midnight I had a craving for ice cream so the two girls i was floating with and i popped over to walmart to get some Ben and Jerry's (the Oatmeal cookie kind is the best!) which we ate under a blanket in the living room of Jen's cousin's house while the boys who were there ate ice cream cones and cheap popsicles completely unaware that the most delectable ice cream was being consumed in the next room! We three girls shared many hushed laughs under the blanket as we enjoyed our ice cream until we were discovered. But it was time to go home anyways because there was church the next morning.
HOwever, even getting to sleep at one was not enough, as we were all falling asleep in our seats during class. Then we had a huge, delicious lunch at one of Jen's Aunt's houses followed by the newly weds coming to Jen's grandmother's to open presents and then head off on their honeymoon. I left the next morning at 8am and spent all day in airports and on planes due to two lay overs and one delay and didn't meet my grandmother at the airport until 10pm! You wouldn't think it would be that difficult to just get on and off planes, but it can be very tiring!!!
I've had several friends get married this summer, but this one was a little different. I guess it was because I was the maid of honor, and I got the inside look on all the preparation required for a REAL wedding. But Jen and I are such good friends that we're practically sisters. I'm so happy for her.
So, Tuesday I went with my grandmother into Chicago where we saw the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit at the Chicago Art Insitute. It was fabulous! I thoroughly enjoyed it and the delicious lunch we shared in the Insititute's courtyard cafe. By five, I was exhausted. I met up with my mother and my aunt in the Marshall Fields in the mall where the exhange of my person had been arranged and we then proceeded to Dairy Queen. It was this fatal step that was my undoing.
I got a small mint oreo blizzard. Delicious! Almost as good as Blue Bell's Good Heavens (Which if you haven't tried you should!) But alas, the insane amount of sugar was just what my little body needed to keep me awake until 1am regardless of my prior fatigue. So i slept until 1 in the afternoon today, watched two movies, took a bubble bath and have now spent the last two hours cleaning my e-mail box, checking my accounts, and recounting for all you lovely people out there my last week or so. This length entry is mainly due to the fact that I will probably not have the opportunity to update again for a couple of weeks because tomorrow I'm again making the drive from my aunt's to Bloomington so that my sister and I can make another trip from Bloomington to my grandmother's on Friday evening in order to celebrate her 85th birthday on Saturday. Sunday I will be flying back to Dallas and spending the week with my Dad before I load all of my stuff from my mom's back into a truck and move back to Austin, how I"m not really sure yet but this I do know....I'm hungry.
I went on the mexico mission trip and it was just awesome! we helped build a church in the middle of a very poor neighborhood. It was really wonderful to see how on fire the members of the church were for God and how they rejoiced in the opportunity to do His work. It was also a blessing to be there with the youth group from my church. Their spiritual strength and love for the Lord was refreshing and encouraging since youth today are faced with so many challenges in their walk with God.
After returning from Mexico, I moved all of my boxes from my apartment in central Austin to a new apartment closer to my church in North Austin. It didn't take that long, only 3 trips in my little car. Then it was time to drive up to Dallas to help my mom pack up her house for her move to Illinois. I packed up my room and tried to get rid of more stuff, but my mom had already pack up some stuff for me and we didn't have time to go through it so I'll just have to rent a truck to drive it all from Dallas to Austin and then go through it there when I finally get to unpack on the 22nd of August!!!! So, on the 23rd of July, my mom, sister, my mom's boyfriend and I drove up to Illinois. It was an uneventful drive except for seeing a drunk woman hitch-hiking on the side of the highway in a one-piece bathing suit! and the huge tire tread that came flying at our windshield out of no where! But all this happened around St. Louis so I've just decided that I shall in the future avoid having to drive there.
So we reached our desitination, my aunt's house,where my mom will be living. We unpacked my mother's stuff and re-organized my sister's things so that we could drive another six hours from my aunt's house to Bloomington, IN where my sister just started college. My mother and I helped my sister move into her (very nice, spacious) dorm and after spending a couple days there drove back to my aunt's house where the next day I was driven to the airport to fly to Boise, Idaho.
I had a lay-over in Atlanta but it worked out nicely since nothing ever leaves O'Hare on time my lay-over was only one hour instead of two! I arrived safely and was met by my best friend Jen! Who I tried my best to help over the next week as she was getting married on Saturday. WE had a couple minor crises the week prior to the wedding but I kept telling her that pre-wedding problems would prevent during-wedding surprises. And I was right, everything went very well. After the 10:30am wedding we took pictures for two hours and then had a luncheon at a nearby church, after which i returned to Jen's grandmother's farm and helped an assembly line of six women make 170 sandwiches, two cheese and cracker trays, fruit and cookie trays,and a vegetable tray in two hours, with just enough time to spare to get back into my maid-of-honor dress (which was hand-made by Jen's mom) for the evening reception where I stood in line next to Jen for two hours shaking the guests' hands and telling them i was Jen's best friend, not her sister. That night, with Jen and her new husband otherwise occupied, I went with her cousins and swam a little bit. Actually, I was too exhausted to swim, so I just kinda floated. Then, around midnight I had a craving for ice cream so the two girls i was floating with and i popped over to walmart to get some Ben and Jerry's (the Oatmeal cookie kind is the best!) which we ate under a blanket in the living room of Jen's cousin's house while the boys who were there ate ice cream cones and cheap popsicles completely unaware that the most delectable ice cream was being consumed in the next room! We three girls shared many hushed laughs under the blanket as we enjoyed our ice cream until we were discovered. But it was time to go home anyways because there was church the next morning.
HOwever, even getting to sleep at one was not enough, as we were all falling asleep in our seats during class. Then we had a huge, delicious lunch at one of Jen's Aunt's houses followed by the newly weds coming to Jen's grandmother's to open presents and then head off on their honeymoon. I left the next morning at 8am and spent all day in airports and on planes due to two lay overs and one delay and didn't meet my grandmother at the airport until 10pm! You wouldn't think it would be that difficult to just get on and off planes, but it can be very tiring!!!
I've had several friends get married this summer, but this one was a little different. I guess it was because I was the maid of honor, and I got the inside look on all the preparation required for a REAL wedding. But Jen and I are such good friends that we're practically sisters. I'm so happy for her.
So, Tuesday I went with my grandmother into Chicago where we saw the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit at the Chicago Art Insitute. It was fabulous! I thoroughly enjoyed it and the delicious lunch we shared in the Insititute's courtyard cafe. By five, I was exhausted. I met up with my mother and my aunt in the Marshall Fields in the mall where the exhange of my person had been arranged and we then proceeded to Dairy Queen. It was this fatal step that was my undoing.
I got a small mint oreo blizzard. Delicious! Almost as good as Blue Bell's Good Heavens (Which if you haven't tried you should!) But alas, the insane amount of sugar was just what my little body needed to keep me awake until 1am regardless of my prior fatigue. So i slept until 1 in the afternoon today, watched two movies, took a bubble bath and have now spent the last two hours cleaning my e-mail box, checking my accounts, and recounting for all you lovely people out there my last week or so. This length entry is mainly due to the fact that I will probably not have the opportunity to update again for a couple of weeks because tomorrow I'm again making the drive from my aunt's to Bloomington so that my sister and I can make another trip from Bloomington to my grandmother's on Friday evening in order to celebrate her 85th birthday on Saturday. Sunday I will be flying back to Dallas and spending the week with my Dad before I load all of my stuff from my mom's back into a truck and move back to Austin, how I"m not really sure yet but this I do know....I'm hungry.