Autumn in Williamsburg!

It smells like fall. Emilie and I ate dinner on the front step yesterday night and it was beautiful. Williamsburg in the fall is a really picturesque place! So, to complete the “autumn” picture, I cooked apples and lit a pumpkin candle while Andrew and I studied last night. It was wonderful! It's one of those weeks where I really want to go to Colonial Williamsburg and walk around!

If only I liked pumpkin spice lattes...

…recipe for apples, you wonder? (Cut apple, put brown sugar and cinnamon all over them, microwave for 2 minutes. Pretty extravagant!)

From Concerts to Competition

This week’s highlights included the Needtobreathe concert at the Norva in Norfolk and the Chapel’s Wiffle Ball World Series.

The Norva was a cool place. It’s really too bad the only pictures I have from the event were taken in the car or are blurry because we were walking. And Needtobreathe turned out to be great! I had only heard a few of their songs, but the concert was awesome. Parachute opened for them and they were great too. And, as most great nights do, the whole evening ended with Waffle House. We went to the concert with friends from Williamsburg—it was great to spend more time with them!

The next day we all woke up and went to the Wiffle Ball World Series! Just a disclaimer: this is not actually a world-wide event. I was actually asked that last week. It’s for my church. Every small group picks a team name and makes outfits, then competes in a wiffle ball tournament.

My girls decided to be the “Freshmen Fairies” but made a play on words and half of the girls were “fairies” and half were “ferries.” The fairies wore wings and the ferries wore cardboard boats and sailor hats. Our shirts said the definitions of both words and it was a really cute idea. Turns out, some people haven’t merged the vowel in the words “fairy” and “ferry,” so the two words are different to them! So crazy! Linguistics humor will never get old… Andrew’s team was the ‘Burg Tropics again this year. I think this picture pretty much sums up our enthusiasm for youth ministry.  Disclaimer: taken at the end of the day. 

Top 5 for the Week!

This week, I have decided to do a “top 5” things about the past few weeks. I’m not even sure if they’re the “best” five things, but they happened and they were pretty great.

1.     Small group: Tonight was the first official small group of the year! It was great to reconnect with a lot of my small group girls—who are now in high school! I lead a bible study at my church in Williamsburg and I love getting to know the girls and learning about their lives. There is another girl from William and Mary leading with me this year— her name is Amanda and she is great! I am excited to lead with her. Yesterday we made costumes for next week’s wiffle ball tournament! 

2.     William and Mary: School is fully underway. I got accepted to the School of Education so I will be double majoring in Linguistics and Elementary Education. All of my ed school classes will start in the spring…I will even get an assignment and go to an elementary school. I am so excited! I also got my independent study approved, so I will be researching technology and speech therapy this semester. Should be very interesting—I’ve found a ton of information already and I’ve only been working on this for a week!

3.     Running: I started training for the Richmond Half Marathon, which is November 10^th! I am excited. And—a lot of my friends are doing the race this year!

4.     Food: I cooked for the week tonight. I’m pretty pumped…there’s spicy chicken, Greek pasta, and Italian chicken for the week. I usually do my cooking on Sundays and then eat from Tupperware during the week. People ask me if it gets old eating “leftovers” all the time, but they don’t feel like leftovers if I make all the food at the same time and just pack it up! I also made chile rellenos and fiesta chicken for date night—it was quite delicious.

5.     House: I am loving living in Williamsburg this fall! I’m still getting into the swing of school and work, but I have really enjoyed living with my roommates and spending time at home this semester. We had the great bonding experience of killing a cockroach in our shower tonight…GROSS. ((also, Mom, Dad and John came down for one of John's showcases last weekend--it was a great excuse for them to come to my house!))

I am planning on doing a more specific blog post later this week. This ended up being slightly more scattered than anticipated...........

Back to School!

The past week has been a blur! I started the week by driving home from Charleston with Andrew and now I’m in Williamsburg starting off the semester. Despite the craziness of the first week of school, I have felt an overwhelming peace about this semester. I am hoping that this sticks for the next four months or so! This is not to say that I am totally stress-free, but I have felt much more comfortable with the start of this year.

I think this is coming from being in the Word, listening to good music, and spending time with my friends. In March, Andrew suggested that we do the “One Year Bible” plan together. Reading His Word daily has really helped me to focus my thoughts throughout the day. Also, I’ve been listening to “Perfect Peace” by Laura Story (kind of on repeat haha). It’s a beautiful song and it helps me out whenever I’m worried or anxious. Check it out! I am also really thankful for the friends God has given me this semester. It has been awesome to spend time with my roommates and the people I have come to know over my past two years in Williamsburg. I’m very excited for the year!