News :)

Dear all,
I wanted you all to know that Robbie and I are no longer together.
Yes, I am okay with it and I am very much at peace about it.
It was a very calm, peaceful, and in some ways a sweet ending.
God is really working it all out for the good of everyone involved. :)

So yes, I love you all and can't wait to be seeing you soon!!

Love,
Kera

Faith We Would Not Fade Away by Honest Abe

I'm starting my own tradition: every post will be titled with some type of song lyric. Yay!

Sooooooo I suck. I haven't been on here in FOREVER. Things with school got wayyyyy out of control, I've just had craploads of work to do recently. So to update everyone on my life...

This semester has been fairly decent. Lots of things happened on campus, and it's really made me think about a lot of things. We were at a remembrance ceremony this afternoon for a first year girl who was killed in a car accident on her way home for Thanksgiving. It was heartbreaking to hear about. It just made me think about how short life is and how I really need to live my life the way I want to.

I received some...interesting news this weekend about a certain person. I'm sure most of you know who it (he) is. Surprisingly, I'm not really that torn up about it. At least, that's what I keep telling myself. But I got some sound advice from Eat, Pray, Love: "Send him light and love every time you think of him, and then drop it." Good words to live by.

I realized I'm in love with a language. Spanish. I freaking love it. Yet I'm saddened because next semester will be the last semester I'll have room in my schedule to take it. *tear*

For the past several months I have been utterly OBSESSED with Salman Rushdie. I'm in the middle of reading The Ground Beneath Her Feet and I'm telling you, I'm in love with this guy's writing. Ask Gabby. I've scared her a few times, actually, reading that book, by randomly sobbing or laughing out loud. But you guys know how emotional I get over literature. But anyways...READ IT. SERIOUSLYI'MNOTEVENKIDDINGYOUALLHAVETOREADITSOICANTALKABOUTITTOSOMEONEELSEAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Now that the spaz attack is over...I have a song I'd like to dedicate to all of us:
"We Are Okay" by Joshua Radin

Love love love always and forever,
Honest Abe xoxo

Winter Wonderland! by Gabs

So, I started to write a comment on Kera's post, but when I got to the third sentence of my second paragraph, I decided to just write my own post. Woohoo! First order of business: SLEDDING! I am so excited! I can't actually remember the last time that I went sledding. I actually think it might have been before Alex was born, and he will be 5 in a month. Crazy, right? He is getting so big and cute and just awesome! He has this new Spongebob hat that he wore every day this weekend. It was adorable. And he told me that I was his favorite person. Which is funny, because last weekend he told me he loved bacon more than everyone except Andrea. Haha. Okay, that's my tangent about Alex. =]
Second order of business: I AM LOVING THE SNOW! It is making campus look so pretty. Although it is less fun to walk through, even if the quad we live on this year is better salted and shoveled than the walkway in front of my dorm last year. At least for now, I'm trying not to get my hopes up. It was kind of sad at first with just the flurries, because all the snow melted away... Thursday night? Although Wednesday I did get to witness a girl totally wipe out on the ice in the middle of her drunken rendition of "Let It Snow". It was kind of hilarious. Although the effect was sort of lessened when we got back to our dorm and the full ramifications of "Wasted Wednesday" came upon us. Drunk people are so gross- Amber witnessed a girl spitting in the stairwell at one point. Ick! And don't even get me started on the mysterious substance my hand encountered on the stair rail the second week of the semester. I freaked out. Ha!
Anyway, I am not excited about finals, but I am pushing through. Yes! Mostly because I am really excited about next semester and I just want to get to it already. Even if it is going to be SUPER hard- I am going to be in 2 English classes, one of which is a really broad survey course (18th & 19th C British Lit) and another more specific class (Nature and Lit). Plus I'm taking an intro Women's Studies course, so there's 3 classes with a TON of reading. Then I'm going to be in a language class- German 2. That shouldn't be as hard. I just know that I am going to have a ton of papers to write, and lots of reading to do. I mean, we have to read 2 novels in one of my classes, and then a very large chunk of Gulliver's Travels, and then still a whole bunch of other stuff. And there are 4 required books in my Women's Studies class, 3 of which aren't the textbook, just novel-length books. So... woohoo! At least I like reading, and books. I am an English major after all. I guess this is what I get. We'll see how many sleepless nights I end up with....
Oh! So a health update. I don't know if I've told you guys, but I was diagnosed with a heart condition in March/April called POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). Basically my heart races when it's not supposed to (I woke up almost every morning with a pulse of 120-not good!) Anyways, I've been on a beta blocker since then to regulate my heart rate. Well recently I've been having issues again- irregular heart rate, etc when it shouldn't be. Even after no caffeine for 3 days and switching up another med I'm on, it's still doing these funky things. So I have to go on a heart monitor for 2 weeks sometime this month- whenever the insurance decides to stop being stupid and just put the darn thing through. My mom got really mad at them- she asked the woman "What if she has a heart attack before the request gets processed? What then?" Needless to say, the woman did not have a response to that question. So, yeah. I'll try to keep you guys updated with that whole thing. Wish me luck!
I can't wait to see you guys!
Love, Gabby

Eggs and the F-Bomb - Kera

I thought since I have some spare time for once in three weeks, I am going to post here :)

As you all know the "f-bomb" has detonated....FLURRIES! I have to say it so beautiful outside especially when it is nice and fluffy and it catches in your hair and tickles your nose. It makes you feel slightly dreamy inside. Maybe it is just me? haha.

Lately I've been really evaluating my educational process....I think what I am going to do is space out my classes more and spend more years total in school. Taking 17-20 credit hours every semester is not a plan for success for me...I have 15 right now and two of my classes are killing me. It took me a while to accept this idea that was presenting itself. I am Class of 2010! Hurrah! But I've come to realize that sure I may say I am that, but if I don't learn what I am supposed to learn cramming it all like I've had to, I won't graduate then anyways. So what seems like a better plan? Exactly. ha. Now you know what is going on on that front.

I just did a "controversial chemistry paper" on birth control. I found it so facinating to read more in depth on the female body. You guys might think I am totally whacko sure, but I really have come to just admire what God has created. Sure, having a period can be annoying / gross at times, but after studying more on how many changes are occuring just so one little egg can dilly dally its way to potentially being fertilized is rather sweet if you think about it. And I wanted to share a little story that made me appreciate a little more "Aunt Flo". A woman in my Bible study told us probably 6 months ago now a little testimony of sorts. She and her husband have two children already and decided that was perfect for them so she had a procedure done that thinned the lining of her uterus so eggs could no longer implant. Yet, she started to have a maternal urge to have another child, but she kept ignoring it. All these women were having babies and she just brushed it off as being that "oh the baby is so cute I want one" syndrome. However, one day the Lord told her that she was going to have another baby. She laughed and was like "God, you know the surgery I had, how is that possible?" However in the course of the last few months she's found she is wanting a "miracle baby". Ironically, a lot of the devotionals that we in the Bible study read have ended up dealing with this awesome man of God saying "if you want a baby, start preparing" etc. Well the other day (and sorry if ahead of time this is gross for you guys), she said that she was on her period and she felt a gush of blood. What most women would typically feel is panic or digust, but instead her heart leapt for joy because that has not happened in the years since she had her surgery! That means her uteral lining is developing on its own! So to the point of the story is that.....I've just been awestruck by these little things I can take for granted or just find as "normal bodily functions" are really a blessing disguise. I had a little moment today where I just thought (of course I am going to say this in a sillier way than it was presented in my mind), "one day...that little egg that usually goes bye-bye will instead meet the sperm of its dreams and develop into a baby, my baby!" Isn't it really just kind of amazing? Anyways, I'll get off that subject for those of you who might be feeling a little queasy, but I hope it insome ways blessed you as it did me (as odd as it may be).

Annnnnd I'd like to say that we MUST go sledding this winter. I haven't been sledding in two, possibly three years and I am dying to go. So, you + me + snow + sled = adventure of a lifetime! Do any of you have sleds? I have a long yellow one that we could use.

I hope you're all doing swell and are chugging through the last parts of the semester (or quarter) and with finals! I know you will all do awesome!

P.S. The peppermint hershey kisses are amazing...I think I've fallen in love again :) Just when I thought hugs were enough....not anymore. ;)