The week at a glance

This week has gone by so fast and I just realized today that I haven’t posted much of anything.

Since Friday night everything kind of seems like a blur… On Saturday David and I went over to some of our good friends’ house and hung out with their adorable little boy.

He is so cute and so fun. We had lunch together and then my sister and brother came over to pick David and I up (now that Jen doesn’t have a car, the three of us are sharing one for the time being). Josh was

running around and Caedmon would just stare at him and then crack up laughing. It was awesome. Here is another pic :)

On Saturday night I cooked a good dinner and ate with my siblings and hubby, and then we all played some games and watched a movie.

On Sunday morning Josh helped make pancakes!

And then he ate three of them… before we all headed to church.

Sunday afternoon was spend with our family and then our life group. Then UK won a great basketball game and advanced to the final four. Go Cats!

Since the week has started I have been doing a lot of math and David has been doing a lot of law. Both of us have been having some trouble sleeping, but physically we have completely recovered from the wreck. A few of my professors gave me extensions on some of my homework assignments since my weekend turned out to be a bit more crazy than I expected. Overall it has been a fine week… but I am looking forward to the weekend!

Also, as usual, I have been amused by my pets this week.

Here is Rooney! Just look at that face.

We actually do have a cat, even though I don’t talk about her much. She is pretty adorable, but is sometimes mean.

Although most of the time Jasmine hates Rooney, sometimes she tolerates him :)

And that was my week… pretty standard and thus a little boring. But sometimes that is the life of two grad students. We like it though.

This weekend will be full of fun, so I will try to post some more exciting things soon!

All my fountains - Chris Tomlin

All my fountains - Chris Tomlin

This is all I really have to say today…

Click on the link above, then click on the play button toward the top of the page.

YUM!! This looks delicious and I want to make it.

simplerecipes:

Chicken & Farfalle Salad with Walnut Pesto

2 cups uncooked farfalle
2 cups cubed cooked skinless boneless chicken breast
1 cup quartered grape or cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons chopped pitted kalamata olives
walnut pesto:
1 cup basil leaves
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves
3 tablespoons coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
1 1/2 tablespoon extra virgin oilve oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove
curly leafed lettuce leaves

To prepare salad, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, rinse with water. Combine pasta, chicken, tomatoes, and olives in a large bowl. To prepare walnut pesto, combine basil and next 6 ingredients (through garlic) in food processor; pulse 6 times or until finely minced. Add pesto to pasta mixture, tossing gently to coat. Place a lettuce leaf on each of 4 plates; top each serving with salad mixture.

via Got No Milk

xkcd:Fairy Tales

xkcd:Fairy Tales

This made me laugh today when the world just seemed a little heavier.

Sorry… it is pretty dorky.

An evening of gratitude

What. a. day.

My Friday started out just like any other… I got up, studied for 2 hours, went to class for 3 hours and then worked on homework for another 2. At 4:15 David picked me up from campus and we drove over to my sister’s house where we all got into her car for a quick trip up to Northern Kentucky for the the evening. Today is David’s mom’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Janet!) and while David and I had dinner with her and his siblings, Jen was going to see my parents and pick Josh up to bring him back down to Lexington with us.

It seemed like the perfect plan… but none of it turned out as we expected. No more than 2 minutes after getting onto the expressway to go up to NKY a huge red semi came over into our lane, hitting us on the left side of the tiny Honda Civic toward the back. The weight and speed of the semi’s contact caused us to spin around to face oncoming traffic and skid over two lanes until the right side of the car smashed into the cement median.

We are all ok. Only by the grace and protection of God. Needless to say, all three of us were scared and in shock. David stayed calm and called the police and within a few minutes there were 3 firetrucks and 5 police cars surrounding us. A few of the police officers tried to ask us about the details of the semi before driving off to try to find him (since after he hit us, he didn’t bother to pull over). The rest of the EMTs and officers helped us to calm down, checked to see if we were ok and began to write up a report. Everyone told us how lucky we were to walk away from the accident with only headaches and scratches. No doubt, we will be sore tomorrow, but all of us feel nothing but gratitude.

Jen’s car is most likely totaled, and we will find out for sure soon. Her front bumper was close to dragging the ground and the left back door had red paint all over it from where the semi hit. The right side of the back of the car was almost non-existent after the accident and 3 out of 4 of the tires were blown.

As soon as we told me parents about the accident, they picked up and drove down to Lexington. They are so wonderful. They came to our apartment with some pizza in hand and made us all feel safe again. After chatting and watching some basketball, they took us to Orange Leaf, because frozen yogurt makes almost anything better. I am breathing a little deeper now, although every now and then I get flashes back to the split-second experience of spinning in the car or hitting the median, or worse flashes of what could have happened.

But what could have happened didn’t happen. The Lord was watching over us in such a real way in this moment… and I am so grateful. I know it may sound dramatic, but for me tonight was pretty traumatic, and it really just made me happy to be alive. It is so easy to get bogged down in the day to day; the homework, the chores, the responsibilities of life. But after tonight, I am reminded of what a blessing my life is. Although tonight’s experience was difficult and I have a sore back and a bump on my head, it made me really feel God’s presence in and his protection over my life. How amazing…

So today, or tonight, I just want to encourage you to be joyful that you are alive :)

Spring has sprung!

(Picture from Google, not me).

These past few days here in Kentucky have been beautiful. It always amazes me when spring arrives… how beautiful it is, how fast everything seems to come to life again, and how all the animals and people around me come out of hibernation. In so many ways, I feel like a different person when the sun comes out and the flowers begin to bloom! As much as I don’t enjoy winter I don’t know that I would ever like to move anywhere where trees don’t go bare or where snow doesn’t fall. It is because of the cold, the small amount of daily sunlight and the lifelessness of nature that makes spring such a beautiful thing.

Here are some nice words about spring, because others say it so much better than me.

From wherever spring arrives to heal the ground…

~The David Crowder Band

It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want-oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!

~Mark Twain

THE YEAR’S AT THE SPRING

Robert Browning

The year’s at the spring,

And the day’s at the morn;

Morning’s at seven;

The hill-side’s dew pearled;

The lark’s on the wing;

The snail’s on the thorn;

God’s in his Heaven

All’s right in the world!

Happy Spring!

A few of my favorite things…

Spring Break!

Finally a post about our wonderful Spring Break trip to Arizona. Although it is so good to be home, we had a great week visiting Meg, Nate and their baby boy Alister. We got there late Friday night, and on Saturday we didn’t do very much… hung around the house, ran a few errands and held the baby a lot.

On Sunday we went to church with the Roland family and it was awesome. It is a great feeling to know that your best friends have an amazing church community while they are far away. After church we went to lunch at b-dubs to watch the UK game, then we decided it was definitely time to enjoy the beautiful Arizona weather and scenery. So we went hiking on the Dells, which are just big rocks that are perfect for bouldering. Here are some pics of our hiking trip!

Even though we were in the desert there was lots of green, and even a man-made lake!

After hiking, we were all hungry so we went home and made some chili dip and brownies and watched Taken, which was an intense, but a good movie.

The next morning the guys got up early and climbed Granite Mountain, the biggest mountain in Prescott Valley. Meg and I did some outlet shopping which was so fun! I got a few new sweaters and she found some adorable tanks. We love bargain shopping. We took the baby with us and he was so good as we shopped. Meg and Nate are so blessed to have such a precious and easy baby. Here are some sweet pictures of him.

Monday was quite a tiring day for all of us, so on Tuesday we crashed.

We did nothing… for real. We played Cranium, watched a lot of the Big Bang Theory and made some yummy chili for dinner. I took some pictures of the boy :)

On Wednesday Meagan and I got up and went to women’s bible study at her church, which was awesome. For our last night in Arizona, Nate and Meg took us to Jerome, a cute old mining town on the side of a mountain. The drive was beautiful and it was so fun to walk around the little shops there.

Here are some views from Jerome and the drive up.

After walking around for a while we went to the Haunted Hamburger for dinner… so yummy! Then we went back home and had a cranium tie-breaker game. Unfortunately Meg and I lost… but it was still fun! Thursday morning we said our goodbyes and went to the airport to catch our flight home.

Also, a few other random things I did in Arizona was find some great music by Justin Unger and JJ Heller. Also, David and I got addicted to a great show, Chuck! On the last day I helped Meg start a blog… you should check it out here.

Now we are back in Lexington, cleaning up, unpacking and being lazy. I miss our friends so much! And that little guy Alister too… but the good news is we will see them again soon.

Thank the Lord for wonderful friends!

A little vacation

The reason for the lack of posting this weekend and this coming week will not be due to an insane amount of homework and tests. Because this week is… spring break. David and I are currently in Prescott, Arizona with some of our close friends who are from NKY but live out here. We are visiting with them and their 4 week old, beautiful baby boy. I have been trying to take lots of pictures (I am really, really bad about never taking pictures), and when I get home I will post the majority of them so that you can see what a wonderful time we have been having!

So far the trip has been wonderful. To be able to actually afford the trip we flew standby which was a little stressful, but we got on the plane without any problem at all. It is truly beautiful out here… 70 and sunny every day thus far, and although it is definitely a desert, our friends live in a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. It is so beautiful to look out and see the sky stretch on for a long time until it is blocked by a  tall mountain that stands high in the distance. It is also pretty green here. The rocks and sand are brown and red, but there is a good amount of grass, trees and bushes all around, which of course reminds me of my Kentucky home :)

Even if we didn’t have gorgeous weather in a beautiful place, this trip would still be great. It is always so wonderful to catch up with friends and although Meg and I have stayed in close contact over this past year and a half that she has been out here, it is still different to have a best friend whose house you have never been over to, whose dog you have never met, or who you can’t share a smoothie with on any given Saturday. It is just so neat to actually be here and finally be a part of the world that she has talked to me about for the past 18 months. Plus… it has been amazing to meet her little boy! He is so precious and so sweet. He will be a month tomorrow, so he is still very young, but I have enjoyed holding him as he sleeps, changing a few of his diapers, helping to get him dressed and bathed, and most of all watch my friend be a great mom.

Even with this tiny baby boy we have done some awesome stuff out here, which I will share with you (hopefully) in picture form when I get back home. 

Keep us in your prayers as we fly back home on Thursday or Friday. And check back soon to find out the rest about our vacation.

xkcd: Advertising

xkcd: Advertising

One of the ups of my day today was this xkcd comic. Just click on the title to go to it. If you are a nerd, like me, you will probably love it. Or, if you think advertising is ridiculous, you will like it to :)

The Ups and Downs

Yesterday and today thus far I have spent every waking minute (besides 5 hours which were spent eating, teaching or taking my dog out) doing math. It is weeks like these that I feel lame. But right now I am taking a 20 minute break as my wonderful husband cooks us some spaghetti (yes, at 4:13 in the afternoon, we are both hungry already!)

I really do enjoy school, and more importantly I know this is where God wants me to be right now. Believe me, I have prayed about it a lot. Prayers that mostly go, “Are you sure?”, “What am I doing here?”, and “Who am I influencing here?”. But over and over again I have seen that yes, I do belong here at UK still, working on math, teaching silly business students, being a diligent student, and loving the people around me in any way that I can.

I also believe that God is teaching me a lot through graduate school. Undergrad was pretty easy for me in general… I have always been good at school without having to work too hard for it. In undergrad I was ahead of most of the other math majors, and I was blessed with neat opportunities, like living in Chile, doing research at Cornell, and serving at CSF. Graduate school is a different story entirely. I am the only person in my class who went to UK for undergrad… and the rest of the students (generally) went to better schools and are SUPER smart. Also, very few of them are married or have a group of friends established here in Lexington, so I feel like a lot of them devote a larger amount of their time to school. This is a very different place to be in than I have been used to.

Also, grad school takes a TON of time! I feel like I don’t have time for much else outside of being a wife and being a math phd student. This makes it hard for me to remind myself that as much as I should be focusing my efforts on graduate school, it in no way defines my worth or purpose. And there is the lesson I am being taught currently.

This week has been a week of ups and downs. On Monday I received my highest grade in grad school on an exam thus far. A 98! That is almost unheard of. I was very surprised, but felt really good about it. I took it as confirmation that I am in the right place, doing the right thing. But today, I received the lowest grade on an exam in grad school thus far. It was really , really low. I mean, it was around average when compared to everyone else, but still to see that low number on the page was really hard. Also, that class that I got the 98 in I really dislike. It isn’t very interesting or inspiring. But the exam that I got back today is in Discrete, my favorite class by far, the subject that I am doing research in this summer, and the branch of math that my favorite professor does research in. What a bummer!

I went and talked to that favorite professor (who is the one who teaches Discrete this semester) about my grade. He was encouraging in some ways, and challenging in others. He reminded me that I am not as mathematically mature as the others around me because I got a late start in math, but also that I can see the “big picture” in math really well, while others usually don’t care to look for it.

I left today feeling a little blah… and as I was riding home with David was in a pensive mood. Then I remembered the wise words of a friend that were spoken to me about 2 weeks ago, “It’s not about what you do, it’s about who you are”. And I realized for the 5 trillionth time that I can’t look to grades to tell me if I am in the right place… and I can’t find my purpose in life by doing what I am good at. I just have to focus on being the woman that God wants me to be, everyday.

So this is me… being honest. And also joyful. What a blessing it is to be in grad school, and have a wonderful husband and an incredible family. And what a blessing it is to know that ultimately, it doesn’t matter what I score on my discrete midterm. And what a blessing it is that Spring Break is 2 days away and I get to go to Arizona to see one of my best friends and her new baby boy!

Until after midterms…