Finally Fall

It finally feels like fall around here. November has been such a warm month for us and even though the leaves have still been falling (I think it is just because they are tired of hanging on, not because of cool weather) it has not felt very fall-ish until today. Last night it cooled off and although it is still not cold it is nice a crisp today with the sun shining. I love it! As one of my friends will probably tell me tonight in class, today is one of my kind of days, cool and sunny!

An interesting fact that I must share and then get back to studying. For weather website I use I have Abilene as my homepage but on the side I have a few favorites that I can see their weather as well. These favorites include Conroe, Fort Worth and Oklahoma City- these are probably the 3 cities I visit the most.

I also have on there Concepcion, Chile. For a while now I have been waiting for it to be warmer there than it is here and today it finally happened. If you notice, they are in the Southern Hemisphere and so it is spring time there, heading summer. I know that Conce will never get as warm as Abilene (or as cold) but I need it to warm up some so I have been paying attention and was excited to see that we have switched. It is still a small difference, right now here it is 53 and there it is 59 (it was 61 earlier), but it is still a difference. That makes me happy. :)

College Station Part 2

So I don't have a lot of time to blog because really I should be writing on my research paper. But, I just had to post these pictures from our team's second weekend in College Station with the A&M Church.

Mer and Ellen getting some sun

They were so good to us while we were there. They treated us with Aggie football tickets and T-shirts, I could not go to a game without a shirt. We had a blast at the game watching all the crazy people, trying to understand the traditions, baking in the sun and whooping! The Aggies won the game which was very exciting and like the band nerd that I will always be, I enjoyed the marching band as well.

Aggie band

We spent the evening with the Davidsons, Traci and her mom having yummy food, great conversation and a special time of worship on their back porch. They have a great porch.

Whoop!

Sunday was another great day. I made it late to class and that was nice to meet some other people. My parents came for service and that was real fun for them to be there, see everything and meet some of the people supporting us.

During service the brought the past two teams up on video on the big screen, one team being in Thailand (at midnight) and the other team in Peru. It was fun to see them, see how they are doing and hear how the support we are to receive blessed them during their time of training. I think it was good for the church too, to remember why they are doing this and what it is leading to. These teams are both on the field now and doing great.

I snuck a picture during church of the teams on the screen

After church we had another wonderful meal with a family from church and then headed back to Abilene. It was another super fast weekend but I was super blessed. I cannot wait to continue the relationship with this church that has such a heart for missions and is not afraid to try new things. Thank you church and thank you Traci and family for the nice bed to sleep in!

Conce Team Video

This is the video my good friend Donald made for our team for specifically for the A&M Church but also to be used for the fund raising search and just for general information for anyone interested. My team is so great. I just love the ending. Thanks Donald!

PS- I'm quite proud I even got this online. :)

College Station Part 1

Our team spent our first weekend in College Station this past weekend. If you don't know, we are Team 3 for their church and we are very excited to be a part of what they are doing in missions. They are going to support our team for the year of 2010. We will not be in Chile until 2011 but they are going to support us during our training to give us time to fund raise, train, continue to deepen team relationships and visit family. It will be a much easier year to do all that and not have to have a job on top of it. You can see our info page on their website.

We arrived Saturday afternoon after a nice drive together and a delicious lunch at Storms in Hamilton, TX. It was a beautiful day and we had a relaxing afternoon with the girls driving around the town a bit and having coffee at a local coffee shop. I had my first experience driving with a GPS thingy. When they create one that talks back when I ask questions then I will buy one.

Silly girls all wore the same thing- they said it was not planned

That evening we had a yummy dinner with Kelly and amazing ice cream back at his house with is wife Sara. Who can resist Blue Bell's new flavor! I just love it so much. Kelly and Sara were great hosts and we loved talking with them. They have so much wisdom concerning and missions from personal experience and from their son being on the field now. Our team felt blessed by the time we got to spend with them. It was also an exciting evening because A&M beat Tech in Lubbock that night. I am not a huge fan but being in that town it is hard not to be excited.

Sunday morning we were asked to teach class. They split the 7 of us up between 2 adult classes. We were able to share more about our team with church members and I think it went really well despite my fear of public speaking. It has been a while since I have been involved in all the craziness that happens on a Sunday morning in a large church. It was a lot of fun and we got to meet a lot of great people who were very encouraging.

Sad I did not match the other girls

During church service they had Reid get up and talk about us a bit and then showed our video made by Donald. I will have to put that video on here sometime. Donald did a great job but there is just something uncomfortable about seeing your face on 2 huge screens. I don't know how movie people stand it. Then they had us on stage and the elders prayed over us.

Group pic with Kelly and Sara

After church we were treated to a BBQ fund raising lunch with the BBQ smoked by the preacher himself. I got to talk to even more people and I loved it. I love meeting new people and hearing about their lives and sharing with them about my team and I.

The weekend was such a blessing to our team and we are excited to go back next weekend for Missions Sunday. We get to hang out with AFC and go to a football game with t-shirts and everything. I have wanted to go to an A&M football game for a long time, so I am pumped!

Thanks for a great weekend A&M!!

Ride in the Rain

I had a nice bike ride through the rain today. It was not exactly on purpose but it was kind of enjoyable in an unexpected way. I was not aware how hard it was raining when I went out and by the time I got home I was dripping wet. It was a good test for my rain jacket though because everything under it was quite dry.

As I headed home I could not help but laugh at how soaked I was and how ridiculous I probably looked. Typically I would have avoided puddles but I just plowed through them and kept on laughing. Typically I would have hated getting my clothes soaked and having to change but I just embraced it and laughed.

My pants were so wet when I got home that they were having a hard time staying up. Dripping, I ran through the house and got all dried off. There is not much that feels better than getting warm and dry after being cold and wet. Mmmmm!

The one annoying part of the experience was the drivers. I don't know if they were not aware or did not care, both of which are not good options. I was waiting in the pouring rain to cross the street at a crosswalk and probably 10 cars drove by spraying me without letting me cross. Know who stopped for me? A police car. Come on people! I know being a biker is different than being a walker but I was on the side walk crossing to another side walk in the pouring rain.

But its ok. I forgive them because I got to go for a bike ride in the rain and they were stuck dry in their cars not having near as much fun as I was.

School Spirit

It is homecoming around here at ACU and I am reminded that I have very little school spirit. I have had a good education and made some good friends but have no real allegiance to the school. Yet, this morning I found myself at the homecoming parade. Who doesn't like a "good" (or quirky) parade right?

Anxiously waiting for the parade to start

This was my first year to go and I had some good laughs. I mainly went to support some friends that were in it or who had helped with it but I kind of enjoyed it. It was a beautiful morning and I got to sit around with some friends and laugh at people and it was ok. Some floats had funny costumes, some had good dancing, some were unclear what they were, some were a bit racist, and some were uncomfortable just to be there. Oh ACU, you make me proud!

Penny and Lyuda representing China and Ukraine

The "highlight" of the parade was the free candy and a free highlighter that has 5 different colors on it. Some cute old people were throwing them from their float to advertise the local assisted living. The phrase on it says "The highlight of your retirement!" HA! So clever! :) I am excited to read and highlight this week.

Official parade watchers

Despite the parade's quirkyness I had a lovely morning with my friends. Who wants a normal parade with Shiners and twirlers anyways!

Getting Better

If you have been a reader for a while you might remember a post called Not a Fix-it kinda girl . I tried and failed at fixing a few things around the house and had a pretty good laugh while doing it. I also learned some valuable lessons.

Well tonight I tried my hand at plumbing once again (I know, I'm living the high life, plumbing on a Friday night. It's ok to admit it. You wish you were me.)and this time I was successful! Hooray! Our bathroom sink was just not draining and I could not take it any longer. I am too cheap to buy drain-o and too proud to call the landlord so I attempted to clean out the u-shaped pipe. It was quite full and gross.

I tried the water (with a cup under the open pipe, thank you very much) and it was still not draining. Boo. So I got my trusty pliers and started messing around with the drain thingy up top. I got it all cleaned up (as best as you can in an old house lived in by who knows how many people- I try to not think about things like that) and was able to see some progress in how quickly the water went down.

The sink may not be 100% but at least it is draining much better. All in a hard days work. :)

You have to be an amazing person to be a plumber. I think I will stick to baking and reading.