bloody, buggar, blasted, beasty balls :)

HAHA so the title for this blog comes from my roommate Lauren. We were watching Starter for 10 an English comedy of sorts and Lauren and I were loving the English accents and vocab. That was then that we decided that we will "speak British" at our house. There's more to how "bloody, buggar, blasted, beasty balls" came out of Laurens mouth but I can't remember.

Last week and weekend were crazy. On Thursday an RA Roberto and I took 6 residents to see the Christmas Cantata at the church I have been attending. Chaleece was in the show and Tina met me there. It was a really nice show. Full of cheesy dialogue and songs about Jesus. There were also dancers which is what Chaleece was doing. It was a nice evening. My favorite part was Robertos wife came and brought their 6 week old son with her. So Tina and I spent the show playing pass the baby and fawning over Levi. After the show Chaleece, Tina and I went to Chilis for some dinner and I got home about 11:30 and passed out.

Friday was a bad day at work. I have some issues with how things are being handled and people are being treated. But as my parents pointed out that is just life in the workplace. People want stuff done and they will use their power to get it done. SO lets just say i was counting down the minutes to go home. I actually went straight to get Tina because I said I would give her a ride to her staff Christmas party at Michaels and plus I wanted to go. I was there about 20 minutes and started feeling bad so i went home. Rebecca came home a volunteered to go get Tina so I didn't have to drive back out to Michaels. Friday night James and Jon came up from Tampa for the weekend. The two of them along with Neal, Peter, Amanda, and Lauren went and saw Chaleece in the cantata. Afterwards they came over and played some games.

Saturday I got up around 10am and hung out. Then all the boys came over and Lauren, me, and them went to get lunch at a Chinese buffet. Then they all went to see a movie and I went to another Mary Kay party at Tina's. Afterwards at home Lauren and the boys came back and we sat around staring at each other for a good 2 hours. Jon was getting bored and antsy so we gave him a list of stuff that needed to be fixed around the house and off he went (boys are handy sometimes) Chaleece came over and declared that she wanted to build a gingerbread house. Then boys were hungry so they left to get house supplies, food, and beer. Lauren and I stayed behind and started making Christmas cookies. So that night my house was filled with the delicious smell of cooking sugar cookies, the sounds of laughter and Christmas music, and just a great feeling you get when you hang out with people you love and you forget about the stresses of life. Lauren and I kicked everyone out around 1am after a game of Mafia and a 30 minute discussion about the probability of someone getting the Mafia card two games in a row. (i chose to ignore all of them and clean the kitchen. math makes my head hurt :) )

Sunday I slept in till 12 and it was wonderful. After getting dressed in my awesome Christmas tackiness. Lauren and I got ready for the party. I made punch that had raspberry sherbet, tropical fruit punch, and champagne in it. ( which was DELICIOUS) Lauren made frosting for the cookies and we set up the cookie bar. We turned all the Christmas lights on and the music and waited for everyone to show up. It was a great day. We did the advent calendar for the day and then talked about our spiritual gifts. People brought food with them so we ate and were just plain merry. Then we handed out all the secret santa gifts and opened one at a time. I had Emi and I burnt him a CD of all my favorite worship songs and a book of prayers. Jon had me and he wrote me a poem and got me a $10 gift card to Chilis. Everyone stayed until about 8 then Michael came back to pick up Rebecca to go watch a meteor shower and he helped us clean everything up washed dishes and everything. (he slightly renewed my hope in the male species)

So yeah it was a crazy busy and fun weekend. I will make another post about this week because this one is long enough.

Love and miss you all
<3

I COME HOME TOMORROW!!!

Christmas Time Is Here

So Friday was as Tina puts it "round one of Christmas parties." Friday night Elaine (the director of CVIF) had a cocktail party at her house. We were all excited thinking about dressing up in our cocktail dresses, heels, and layers of extra make-up. We actually spent two weeks asking what are you wearing and activity looking. My mother even shipped a pair of shoes to me. So the night came we were all ready to go and looking mighty fine I may add. We get there and we were ENTIRLY overdressed. HAHA While people looked nice it was nice jeans and top look. There were even a few in jeans and a sweatshirt. So it was a bot awkward walking in and looking like Christmas barbie dolls. But I calmed my anxiety by thinking "I spend all week waking up and throwing on the first thing I see, I like to dress up once and a while and look really good." :)



So we sat around (there was no way we were going to stand for a few hours in heels) Ate some really good food and merrily drank. Elaine had invited the CVIF board members so everyone had to be on their best behavior. Admittedly I was a bit nervous that I would do or say something stupid, but everyone was really nice and it was a really good time. At about 8pm everyone started trickling out. Lauren and Rebecca wanted to go but I wasn't ready. Tina and Amanda wanted to stay, so they agreed to drive me home. After everyone but Elaine's friends had left we played Catch Phrase, I think is the name of it. It was so much fun. Good times. So then Tina and Amanda drove me home and I walked in to all the lights off. All the Christmas lights on and Rebecca, Lauren, Chaleece, and Neal watching Serendipity. It was a bit funny.

Saturday I worked for a few hours and then went to a Mary Kay party that one of my coworkers was hosting. It was really nice. But man are those Mary Kay women tricky. I somehow got conned into hosting my own party and paying way to much money for a tube of lip gloss. I left there dazed and confuse saying "Wait what just happened." Actually everyone got conned into a party. So for the next 3 Saturdays I have an invitation to a party. JEEZ!

Sunday was a lazy days. I started working on my Christmas presents. I underestimated my ability, patience and motivation to actually make them. So it took me a few days to get them done. But last night I got them all finished wrapped and I only have 3 more gifts to finish. But my room looks like Santa's Shop with all the colorful packages everywhere. Not to mention scraps of paper, newspaper, plates with paint, and random craft thing strewn ALL over the place.

This week has been pretty boring. Same old thing at work. I'm excited for this weekend though. Saturday I have another Mary Kay party and Sunday is Orlando groups monthly community meeting. Rebecca, Lauren and i are going all out since its December. We are having a tacky sweater theme, exchanging secret Santa presents, we are going to have a cookie bar, and some yummy spiked punch. Our house looks great with all the decorations. Once again my mother proved to be the coolest mom ever and sent me a big box of all my Christmas decorations. Yay for round 2 of parties.

Love and miss you all

<3

14 days until I come home

Thankfulness and a Rap

So this is my what I'm thankful for post. I know I'm a week late but aren't you supposed to be aware and speak what your thankful for all the time?
I am thankful for my family. For parents who have and do wholly support and stand behind me and the decisions I make in my life (even if they have to grin and bear it sometimes). They sacrifice so much so that I get not only what I need but what I want as well. They are willing to do just about anything to ensure that I am happy, healthy, and content and I am thankful for that. For my little sister who asks for nothing but my love and an open ear once and awhile.
I am thankful for my friends, both in IN and FL. They love me even when I'm neurotic and crazy. They encourage me when I want to give up, and they make laugh so hard I tears start streaming down my face and can't breathe. I am so thankful for the blessing of them in my life.
I am thankful for the opportunity to work with Pathways to Care and to serve the homeless. I am thankful for the chance to grow and learn about myself and the possibilities I can achieve.
So those are just a few small things I am thankful for.

Wednesday night at my house is roommate night. The three of us are always running in three different directions and we take Wednesday night to reconnect and just hang out together. Well last night we decorated the house together. It was so much fun. We were laughing, messing with each other (Lauren hates Christmas hehe) I love Christmas and decorating and all that jazz so I was hyper and just generally freaking out last night.
Lauren and Rebecca were getting a bit fed up with me when I kept telling them where to put things and going behind them and fixing it. It was then that I realized I was acting exactly like my mother at Christmas when it comes to decorating the house, and I told them as such. I said "You think I'm bad come to my house when we are decorating for Christmas." But you know what it needs to look nice and if you are good at decorating then there's nothing wrong with sharing that skill (right mom?)
After we got done decorating with the stuff we have at the moment. The three of us were sitting on the couch and Lauren was telling us about this song she heard over and over at Busch Gardens and the only line she remembered was "Our love is like a holiday." From there it launched into the three of us spending 30minutes writing a rap about Christmas, the three of us, and other ridiculous things. Then we mad ea video of us saying it. The best part of the whole thing is that I thought I hit stop and apparently I didn't, so Lauren goes "it's still going," and my response is to yell. HAHAHA We kept replaying the last few seconds over and over and just laughing hysterically. You can find the video on my facebook profile, but I'll post the lyrics on here.

At the 3208 our love is like a holiday
We do Advent at night
And we work all day

We'll have mistletoe so CV's can kiss
Oh did we mention Lauren hates Christmas

We love to laugh
And Jesus is our thing
We strung Christmas lights
And we like to sing

At the Christmas party there'll be a cookie bar
Oh did we mention Sarah hit a car

When Santa comes there will be no fear'
Cause the stupid alarm is what we'll hear

No popcorn on strings so we don't get ants
Oh did we mention Rebecca don't wear pants

We've got eight months until we leave
For now we just be livin' in community


Oh and something that we are doing that I absolutely love is every night the three of us are lighting the advent candles and saying the readings and prayers. I haven't done this since I was in elementary school. It's so nice.

Love and miss you all

19 days until I come home for Christmas :D