anticipation

girls at new year's

new year's

tim getting his desk as a present from brianne, laura, and i

above: my dad playing rock band with the kids below: my cousin jessica with the elves

i was looking so forward to this break...my first break from life, not from classes. it wasn't 4 weeks long, but a mere week. it was perfect. i knew i needed it and i was looking forward to it in incredible ways. i got to:

-spend 6hrs and 40min driving to indy (yay ice storms)

-drive back to decatur less than 24hrs later

-spend christmas eve at my uncles' house and see my cousin jessica dress up as santa

-wake up christmas morning to mimosas and spend the day watching "white christmas" 3 times with an 85yr old woman who is probably living her last christmas but will have no recollection of it because of her alzheimers.

-a random short term reunion with matt and sarah-time i now realize that we wouldn't have had for just the 3 of us if we hadn't squeezed it in. we played games with cathy and watched white christmas (again!?) and saw a spectacular light show. we even used the ready-made mixer! neither sarah nor i cried-which matt was quick to point out. it was good to be reunited and pray together.

-have a much more low key christmas than years past-the presents are less and despite the tears and accidental words, it was worth it.

-spend christmas at my dad's house with no presents at all...just a day filled of wii and rock band and good food-it was non-stop fun.

-dad's side of the family christmas-seeing my family, although they are each struggling through different things, yet got to be sarcasticaly blunt with each of them (and then try to tame my tongue for later!)

-spend a night catching up with sarah before we were both consumed by reunions and more family business

-kidnap brianne from the airport : )...we tried to take her to coldstone, but apparently, it's not open at 10am.

-random reunion at taco bell...yay for spilling an entire cup of water in sarah's purse...and i was only trying to pray!...but ended up causing a major scene at taco bell-one of the other customers told me i was having WAY too much fun. woops.

-lakeview reunion...complete with the mustard yellow dress, wrapping tim's posessions (and his entire desk), many many hugs, broken couches, great white elephant gifts, the couch game, more than an entire octave of "i will call upon the Lord," falling asleep in a love nest watching elf, GREAT photo documentation of everything, and goodbyes that were too hard to think about or say

-a return to lutherhaven which entailed preparation for the greatest new year's i could have asked for, my first official visitor (my twin!), and a youth group that came in on charter buses and had giant inflatible balls to walk around inside of, 4-square courts, and the ability to remember my name and randomly greet me in passing : )

-the best new year's ever...stuffed shells, funfetti cake, franc and corban, euchre, apples to apples, stupid shows on tv, a full love couch, welch's grape juice in plastic champagne flutes, and more love from friends than the tan cabin had ever seen.

-the hardest goodbye i think i'll ever make. 3 of the best friends i could ask for. they are in the top 5 of my lifetime. and they are all gone now. the anticipation almost killed me, and now the goodbye has done the same. as they left, i was gently reminded amidst my tears (i'll be honest-i cried) that each of them has a calling from God in their lives that they cannont fulfill if i don't let them go. i know God's got a firm grip on them and on our friendships and that they won't go anywhere that my prayers cannot follow.

so until i get to see them again, the anticipation will start to grow all over again.