our countdown is over!

and we're home! Just for a couple days but we're soakin' it up. This was the countdown on our bathroom wall, all this week and last, in our dorm. I'd wake up every morning, go to the bathroom and cross off the previous day... It's so good to be home. Like the talking heads say, which Kyrie has turned on everytime she's walked in the dorm for the past week, "Home is where i want to be." Go listen to it. It's called "This must be the place." It's dang fun!

This was on the 12 hour car ride home when we got real hungry... we were trying to bite into this bread that was a little old and we actually managed to get a couple bites out of it.

Papa's Letters.

that's my little brother, Pax, on the stamp!

"There's no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day."
(the return address says.)



"Next after theology, I give music the highest place and the greatest honor." -Martin Luther



we each get a 2$ bill in every envelope...EVERY one! I'm known around this place for paying for stuff with 2$ bills. It's sort of funny.

We got this the other day inside an envelope... :)


arn't these amazing!? These are the kinds of envelopes we frequently get from our daddy...we get the coolest mail at this school. I so look forward to 11:30am everyday, to walk to my mailbox and see what new, creative envelope is waiting for me today from my papa. Thank you Papa, for bringing such warmth to your daughter's days.

i forgot that i knew

i remembered hearing it but i totally forgot until i looked at brae's recent flickr photos: tamera is pregnant! and she's the cutest pregant wifey i ever saw. well, no. ashley wingo and her are tied.

look at tamera and her belly more at brae's flickr photos-->

I think we're twins here. :)

this was about a month ago when we took a road trip down to Louisville, KY for a friend of mine's wedding that I roomed with on the Mercyship. She's from Holland but met a guy from KY on the ship and got married!


our good friend, Matt. He took us to Wal-Mart that day - our favorite place!




Kyrie and I traveled an hour a couple weeks ago to go shopping at this place. All baggage goes here that's unclaimed at airports and they sell it to us!! Isn't that crazy?! We bought a ton but it feels a little weird and sad wearing other people's cool clothes that they've lost. Oh well, we're puttin' it to good use for them... :)




so I got two rolls developed by WOLF camera and got them on CD too so I could share them with you. Film makes me so happy, so happy with everyone and makes the world so dang beautiful. I'm never going back to digital! I'm stickin' with film, I am. It's one of the most beautiful things about life...driving down the mountain, with M. Ward in the CD player, on my way to the camera store to pick up my photos to flip through, touch, put in albums and send off to people so they can have a copy too. I love my camera.


posted by Sienna.

pump it up

car maintenance can be so much fun! woo hoo!

this was sunday after church. after we had a very yummy lunch at Mud Pies with Kiko, Vince and two friends of theirs for Kiko's birthday. I'm in love with Mud Pies. I had a grilled veggie sandwich with avacados in it. pure goodness!

out of everything we did that day, pumping gas was probably the least exciting but the only thing we documented. funny how that works. i love it.

my snarky.

This is me, everyday, trying to train my rat for an hour, watching it in the "skinner box" and waiting for it to press the bar so I can push a botton and give it a pellet of food.



watching intently...



I have a rat. My whole Pyschology class does actually. We've had it for about a month and a half now and we've had to work with it for about an hour each day training it to do a number of things. It's really frusterating too but this week, on Wednesday night, I had a break through and I called my mom right away, freaking out with excitment. We have to train our rats that pressing a bar will give them food. When they press the bar, we push a button that releases a pellet of food and then they eat..but the only way they eat is if they press the bar. Eventually we have to get our rat to press the bar 50 times for a single pellet of food. It takes forever to get the rat to understand that a bar press will get them food but once she figures it out they start pressing the bar wildly. It's so great... My rat is finally pressing the bar, then eating the pellet, then pressing then eating, pressing, eating, pressing, eating.. then pressing 10 times, then eating one pellet and over again until I train it up to 50 bar presses. Then we have to teach it something else... I named my rat Snarky though and this is the funny thing: my mom had this same project many years ago when she went to this college and she even had the same teacher I have, Dr. Rulon. I'm being taught by the same man who taught my mom General Psychology! So on Wednesday, when my rat was finally getting it, there was no better person to call then my mother. She knew what it was like to underestimate the rat and experience compleate surprise and excitment when it started pressing the bar. :)

I filmed me coaching my rat and pressing the bar... I'll see if I can upload it to UTube and post it :)

our castle.

...back in the day.

my daddy came to visit !!

..for the whole weekend. it was a beautiful weekend! i feel quite refreshed and motivated now. spent the days off campus, out of my room and away from the hustle and bustle of campus life. went to target for conditioner, skirt hangers, a new toothbrush, and other such necessities, got a banana coconut frap from starbucks, dropped film off, ate almonds in papa's alumni room, watched ellen degeneres, folded laundry and talked with sienna, brae, lowen and papa, went to New City after which we ate lunch at lowen's place: spaghetti (sauce made by liz anne) and bread and salad. yum! (followed by nap!! woohoo!)

anyway, i got so wrapped up in being with papa that i totally forgot to take pictures. only took this one today as we were leaving lowen's place--he and brae for maryland and sienna and i for covenant.

so here's the proof, guys.

my eyes (and heart and soul) love autumn's trees

these are the trees that line the road that lead to my school. they fascinate me. i actually find it hard to have a conversation when going through this long, winding tunnel of vibrant oranges, deep reds, screaming yellows and fresh greens. the light, the shapes, the colors, the combinations--they are stunning and my eyes soak in the glory all the way to the top of the mountain. these photos do not even begin to capture it.

dressing up is fun!

this is halloween night. we all got dressed up in our costume, met in the hall at 6:00 and went to dinner. i was a librarian\school teacher..either one was fine and i got called both. Took a copy of "little women" and "clock without hands" with me to help the costume along. my costume was really last minute..asked melody what i should be and she said "school teacher!"--so i hurried back to my room and gathered all my schoolteacher-y and librarian-y things together. (Sienna was a photographer...she took the pictures :)

ps. high-waisted skirts are not the life for me!! i like breathing and eating.

she's a cutie... that's for sure.