Easter Weekend

YOU GUYS. I won a dance competition at a packed-out bowling alley on Friday night. My proof and my prize: A free basket of french fries at the snack bar. Yes. Cosmic bowling AND dancing? Put me in the game, coach!

This weekend consisted of:

-Said bowling above.
-Ultimate Frisbee ... not just one but TWO days in a row!
-Ham; lots of it.
-Sweet potatoes and salad. Also, loads.
-Constant sun.
-Walks and talks.
-Dresses. One of my dresses actually ripped while I was playing ultimate. Like.. really bad. The seams that connect the top and the bottom were torn upon hitting the ground after diving for the frisbee (and yes, I caught it ... just for the record).
-Homemade cinnamon rolls from my momma's kitchen.
-Seeing family visit from out of the country; they brought us fresh Saudi coffee beans. :)
-Jesus. He is risen!

Highs and Lows

Highs

-Loose-leaf tea.
-Two-hour bike rides surrounded by butterflies and sunshine.
-Thai-iced tea, thrifting, and frisbee.
-Homemade cashew milk.
-FREE new suitcase found in the u-district (Seattle) in a dumpster. 
-Husband teaching me about Jesus.
-Second-day curls.
-Spending time with friends before they leave for Ethiopia next week!
-6:00am greetings from the birds.
-Running in before Trader Joe's calls it a day, and then making it out right on time.
-Surprise bowling with two younger sisters.
-Learning to make curry.
-Reconnecting with old friends.
 

Lows 

-Not being able to join friends on the Seattle streets this evening.  
-I accidentally ran over a gardener snake today. My bike tire couldn't avoid it!
-Getting stung by bees; due to the will power of two stubborn horses. 
-There's talk of new horses coming to stay on the farm (permanently). We have no more stalls! Twelve horses is quite enough already. Count it all joy, Katie ... count it all joy. I am trying. 

Advisor meeting

When it comes to advising for classes, I dread it. Partially because my advisor never shows up / partially because I'm always late for class sign-ups. Whatevs. I'm taking a T.S. Eliot class next semester - knowing that makes today a lot better.

Have you ever had any bad experiences with school advisors?

I took a math class once that wasn't even necessary for my degree (because an advisor told me to). I can't stand math.

That was easy.

Lesson learned. Don't use leggings as tights. Wash the tights, wear the tights.

Tucking leggings around ankles, feet, and toes = awk.

It was a dress day, but I also wanted to wear this shirt.

On goes the dress, on goes the tee. Staples' 'That Was Easy' button is pressed. Done.

Our love story (cue the music)

Whether or not you're interested in how my husband and I met, I thought I'd let you know that I finally put the story up. If you have a copious amount of time (because it's a lot longer than I expected), feel free to check it out by clicking here or by clicking those shabby buttons under the header up there (bear with me, I'll figure it out one of these days). My HTML techy-esque side has not kicked in yet, obviously.

But hey, enjoy it. Maybe it'll break up the mundane of a Monday?

Screen door reflections

It semi-mimics film. I would like to try this on other people sometime.

Pain and God; how they connect

I was burdened by the concept of loss last night; people killing people.

I asked the holy spirit to teach me how to pray.

"Dear.. God.. " With an overwhelmed heart, I cried tremendously until 2:00am.

Sometimes words fail, and tears are the only expression left. 

The Lord reveals his heart briefly so that we can have a type of compassion that spurs us to pray more, seek his face more, wrestle with questions, and allow ourselves to be touched by him. When this happens, our bodies respond in a way that we don't always understand. The presence of God is something so unexplainable, but I want more of it. Every day, I want it more.

My husband reminded me that one day, God "will settle the disputes between people. People will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore" -Isaiah 2:4. I look forward to that day.

Highs and Lows

Highs

- Street ministry tonight. Yes. I love these people and can't wait.

-Friday, obvs.

-God's sense of humor; it snowed on the first day of spring.

-Finishing the OBE; the exam I was stressing mad over. It turns out, everything I read wasn't relevant to any of the questions the profs prepared. One book, however, I read at midnight before the test, and I was able to base a paper off that. We'll see if I passed. You can never go wrong with C.S. Lewis papers. My other paper though, ikes.
-Fresh flowers and open windows.
-Honeycombs.
-32 ounce containers of Hummus. Yum, yum.

Lows

-I cut a bald spot on Zach's head. A little too much of a haircut on his crown...

-This week has been absolute chaos with school. I do love it, and am so grateful for the opportunity, but this week has been so difficult with balancing excessive reading, writing, cooking, cleaning, and finding time to talk with my love.

-Getting frustrated at little things; it's been so petty.

A plea for sanity on the most basic level

My tea tastes like coffee and my oranges taste like apples. Something's off kilter. And it's not just that creepy eye down there. Poe must have had a serious effect on me. That, or small shadows were cast frightfully.

Remember this post when I said I had twenty days to read 10,000 pages?

So... I got to 3,093. The exam is tomorrow at 2:00 and I am slightly mega stressed outta my mind-balls. I went there. I hesitated to say it, but I went there. I'm creating wombos (word combos) that don't even sound like they're aloud to enter public domain.

Anyway. Pray for me, please? I have at least 600 more pages to go this evening. Uffda.

Just so ya know...

  For those of you wondering, not wondering, and to all the bystanders who happen to be reading this without a clue of what the heck I am talking about, lemmie tell YOU. It is 100% possible to wear a skirt and ride a bicycle! Thick leggings do wonders! Keeping warm AND nobody gets flashed? Sign me up, coach!

Portland Trip

The rest of spring break was spent in Portland.
We took a road trip to visit our best friend friend, Nina (in the middle).

We: drove for miles and miles, sang to quality music, laughed, ate 'sixty-five cent buffalo-wings', drank tea, wore thrifted-things, talked about life, became lackadaisical under the sun, and admired the Columbia river with a keenness that seems to be reserved only towards creation. It was 32.5 hours well spent, though not entirely long enough. I am grateful.

Great week spent with my love

What a successful spring break! Sunday through Wednesday were spent with my husband on the ocean, near the Strait of Juan de Fuca; in a cabin on the water. 

We: drank coffee and played bananagrams (top photo), skipped rocks on the water, visited a shop practically designed to tickle English majors with excitement (Zach wasn't too thrilled), watched four eagles tear a halibut apart (10 feet away), ate Thai food on a pier, spent time with Poe, missed the ferry by one single minute, and adventured till our feet were ready to go home.

Snapback and sweater.

I accidentally shrunk one of Husband's wool sweater's.

And I also wore one of his snapbacks. It was just sitting on the floor, so why not?

And I decided it was a glasses sort of day. Sometimes I just want to look like I know what I'm talking about. People with glasses always seem to they know what they are talking about.

Day 2 away at the ocean..

Greetings from Port Townsend! My love and I are off to sip coffee in a cafe on the water. Happy Tuesday!

And so spring break begins..

Starting the week off right. Poe and I will be spending quite a bit of time together over the next few days. Thanks to my sister, Genesis, for giving me this copy!

If you have not yet read, The Tell-Tale Heart, read it now. Then come back and we can talk about how brilliant this man’s brain is. Until then, cheerio!

Highs and Lows {a tad late}

Here are this last week's ups and downs:

Highs

-Spring Break. Hellooo Portland, prepare to meet your biggest fan.

-Impromptu coffee and boutique outings.
-That photo you keep looking up at (..or am I the only one?). Sifting through last year's stash, and that gem showed up. Picking only one photo to post wasn't easy. It was either this one of Hubs and I, or the photo of last halloween where he dressed as a Norwegian and I dressed as a.. a... I don't really know what or who I was dressed as. All I know is that I had a comfy sweater with pockets large enough to cram a substantial sum of sweet treats into. We obviously put a lot of thought into it.   

-Bike rides under a sky that isn't crying.

-Father-in-law arrived safe back from Haiti, in one piece.

-Family.

-A few Friday's ago (March 1st), a friend from Seattle was freed from bondage and drug addiction. God is so good, you guys! It was amazing to watch as joy came over him and he began to smile uncontrollably. His response to this "hug" from God: "There's just so much love and stuff, I want to feel like that all the time!" God is so good! He brings hope to the hopeless and freedom to those in chains. 

Lows

-10,000 page minimum to read by the 21st is not going well.

-It took an hour to bring out the horses Friday morning. Much too long for those long face foals.

-Going out to the Seattle streets on the 8th didn't happen. I was crushed.

Enjoy your Sunday! Feel free to post your highs and lows in the comments! 

This is home

Welcome to our home! Here are some snippets of our little space:

 

 

 

Come back within the next several weeks as I post up the kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom! For now, you see the living room.

Friday Highs and Lows

Highs

-I'm currently writing a social commentary on Costco; in which I relate the warehouse to being like a United Nations meeting where everyone from every nation has gathered together to prepare for an apocalypse, but yet no one talks to each other. Curious. 

-A clean house. Every.Single.Day. It's a record.

-Our friends Michelle and Nathaniel, or, Michaniel, as we call them, visited last night before they head out to Ethiopia at the end of this month! Pray for them, God's going to do something incredible.

-It's been chilly and rainy around here, but today the rain held back and the temperature rose. This change meant that I was able to ride my bike to school without getting soaked or splashed by cars. What's better? Each person I rode past (other bike-riders, walkers, joggers) all smiled and warmly bid their greetings. Today was a good day.   

-Warm scarves.

-God is moving in Seattle! Please pray for us as we go out again tonight.

-We have another hand on the farm! She's from Sweden and is in Washington for four months with her husband. She wanted to volunteer, so she's taking over barn duty on Wednesday's, which is a huge help! 

-I met up with my cousin this last week to talk about her wedding. So far, I have three weddings booked for this summer! If you would like to see my work, click here.

-Going to coffee with one of my aunt's. Always quality conversation!

Lows

-Realizing that I have a huge English exam in 20 days. It determines whether or not I graduate, basically. I have a kajillion and one pages to read (a.k.a. over 10,000). When I saw the reading list, all I could think of were the negative aspects. Side effects include, but are not limited to: nausea, the fear of failing, stroke, depleted highlighter ink, 4:00am-6:00am sleep schedule, sleep dept, and an inherent lack of motivation to do anything. BUT, I will read what I can. If I pass, praise thee Lord. If not, then I have one more chance to take it. Also, praise the Lord! 

You have highs and lows this week? Chu can share, I will listen.