More recap from my life.

Well, since I had to leave in such a hurry yesterday, I figured I could continue my recap today =)
Sometime after I got home from Germany and before I left for my cruise, I went on a trip to Ormond Beach with about half of my church. lol

Milanie and I had a competition to see who could fit more gummi life savers on her pinkie finger...both of our pinkies ended up purple. haha

Attempting to play Take Two using Cheez-its with letters on them. Except Caleb was eating more than he was playing...cheater.

Dakota and I riding a ginormous turtle...like in "Finding Nemo" hahahaha

...Our feet were dirty...?

We carved our names on a table in the pizza place where we had dinner. Classic ;)

I know none of these were pictures actually taken ON the beach, but I had more important things to do than take pictures the whole time ;)

The next major event that happened was my sister, Sara's, bridal shower. We had it at my other sister, Jessica's, house. The morning of the shower, October 15th, my grandmother, Joyce Acree Landers, passed away. It was a bittersweet experience, because she had been sick for awhile. I know that she's gone home to be with the Lord and that I will see her again one day. =)

Future brothers-in-law helping with the decorating. Precious moment #1

Precious moment #2: Aunt Sara and her niece, Bella, getting ready for the shower.

The amazing cake for the happy couple.

Precious moment #3: My little Who-like nephew, Liam.

Sara with her FAVORITE niece and nephew :)

And here's the happy couple now!

The contestants in the toilet-paper wedding gown competition. Guess who won?!

The attendees of the shower taking the "Paul & Sara" quiz I cooked up about...well, Paul and Sara =) The winners - Ruth and Leticia (Paul's younger sisters) tied at 14/20 questions!

Time to open presents! While they opened presents, we played Bridal Bingo. Marianne won!

Aww, their first "fight" as a couple...?

Then they made up :)

L to R: Leticia, Ruth, Paul, Sara, and Mrs. Ramnarine, Paul's mother.

L to R: Mom, Sara, Bella, Jessica, and me!

After the shower, family started arriving to attend Grandma's funeral. It was a beautiful day of celebration, but also a solemn day of remembrance. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. Her testimony of raising seven godly children and the contributions she made to her church were beautiful to witness.

Not much else happened between the funeral and Sara's bachelorette party other than me starting Liberty online (sooo much work) and beginning a tutoring job with the Polk County School Board. Obviously, I can't show you ALL the pictures from the Bachelorette party/surprise lingerie shower. But here are the ones I can show you:

Marianne and the chocolate fountain. Mmmm!

The caterer, Jessica ;)

Sara's face when she opened the first gift and realized what kind of party this REALLY was!

...And when she opened mine and Jessica's gift. Classic =)

Playing Boxers or Briefs. It's a Parker Bros. game, so it's not as racy as it sounds! lol

The bride and bridesmaids (minus Danielle and Leticia, plus Kassi)

The next weekend, 11-12-11, the big day had finally arrived. My sister's wedding!

Waiting for the photographer...

Me, Jessica, Sara, Bella, and Mom =)

Mother and Daughter =)

Ruth, Sara, and Leticia - sisters-in-law <3

Jessica and Matt with their little flower girl!

Amy, Alona, Christina, and Hannah - the musicians for the wedding.

My sister and her family <3

Reppin' FBC!

Sisters =)

Unity candle. During the lighting of it, Hannah and I sang "How Deep the Father's Love for us" while Alona played the piano and Amy played the cello.

Bride and flower girl.

Bride and nephew, Liam.

The ONLY picture I was able to get of the couple!

So there you have. My life, in a nutshell, since I got home from Germany. Hope these pictures make you happy! Have a wonderful day, and there's more to come soon!

Long time coming...

Well, as someone pointed out to me, it's been a great while since I've posted in my blog. Fail. Meanwhile, I have so much to post about!

First of all, after I returned from Germany, I went on a 4-day long cruise with my aunt and uncle to the Bahamas. Take a gander at some pictures from said excursion:

My Uncle Gil and Aunt Louise who funded the trip :)

A picture of the ship I was on. (It's not a boat, because it has life boats on it. That's what my uncle told me.)

We were allowed to order as many desserts as we wanted on the trip - all included! Woot!

They let me drive the ship one night. I hit an iceberg. And, well, you know the rest.

Getting fancy shmancy drinks in the Starlight Lounge.

The beautiful sunset :) Taken from my seat at the dinner table.

Our excursion to Coco Cay. What a fun day - except for when it rained and I missed beach volleyball :/

Me and Uncle Gil at dinner on the Captain's Formal night.

A picture of the 2 pools and 2 jacuzzis on board the ship at night.

The BEAUTIFUL water in Nassau :)

A view of the balconies and the stage inside the ship.

Sometimes the cleaning crew would leave towel animals in our room! This one is a bat :)

Me and Aunt Louise :)

Well, those are just some of the pictures (I took a lot!) We had a lot of fun on the cruise, but I was glad when it was over :)

After I got back from the cruise, I tried looking for a job. Then my birthday came around! On my actual birthDAY, I went with Mom, Sara, Jessica, Bella, and Liam to Red Lobster and partook of their all-you-can-eat shrimp deal. Soooo good! Pictures:

Jessica and Liam being silly!

Bella with her Aunt Chrissy :)

Jessica, Liam, and Mom :)

Sara, Bella, and me!

The next night, I had a girl's night out for my birthday. lol So technically, I ended up having two birthday celebrations! Woohoo! Amy, Hannah, Dakota, and I all went to Carrabbas for an AMAZING dinner! Then we went back to Hannah's house (when Kelly came over) to eat Amy's AWESOME original cherry cheesecake with brownie crust. It.was.phenomenal. More pictures:

Before we left for dinner.

In the parking lot after dinner :)

Best friends <3

Kelly. HAHAHAHAHA! Love that girl :)

Amy's cheesecake! (Before the cherry topping was added)

So that was what happened at the end of September and beginning of October. I also went to Ormond beach in there somewhere. More about that later. Also, I will post more about my sister's wedding later :) As for right now, I have to go to church!

Back to School (Yay?)

I mean, I'm glad to be going back to school again. I'm just not excited about taking out more student loans and having to write papers again - blech.

For those of you who are wondering, I am about to start my Masters program through Liberty University Online. It should take me about 3 - 3 1/2 years to complete. My degree is in Professional Counseling. I just finished registering for classes and filling out my FAFSA online.

The person I talked to on the phone told me to check back in next Wednesday to see if the FAFSA has gone through. Problem is, I will be on a cruise ship in the Bahamas next Wednesday. This cruise could not have come at a more inopportune time, because I also had a possible job interview that was going to be scheduled for next Tuesday, but again, I will not be here. Argh! Obviously, I will enjoy myself on the cruise (all life obligations aside, I CAN'T WAIT!!!!), but I wish it was possible to put life on hold for fun things like cruises. :)

So, as you can see, I currently have a lot going on, even though I'm not really doing anything during the day - contradiction? You be the judge.

Through all of this craziness, I keep reminding myself that God has got me, and He's in control. No matter how disjointed the pieces of my world may seem right now (and believe you me, I wish I could get a sandblaster in here and smooth these pieces down), to God the pieces are falling into place just as He ordained them to. I only pray that I would seek to do His will rather than pursue my own folly. I pray that the decisions I make are His best for me. After that, the only thing to do is sit back and enjoy this roller coaster ride of life He has me going on.

More later!

PS: Get Your Career Tushie (over here)!

PSS: You're busy. I'm busy. But that's no excuse for the lack of Skyping as of late ;)

Fellow ck-er: Why is life so hard?! I miss you :)

Unpacking Memories

I just finished the last of my unpacking from my trip. It feels good to be back in my room (and for my room to finally be clean again!), but at the same time, I am sad that my time in Germany is over. It seems like a hazy dream already, and I've only been back for a little over a week. I found a shirt that smells a lot like the detergent Alwina used for laundry while I was there, and it took me back. I almost started crying. These are the things I miss the most:

1. Eating meals with the family
2. Going for walks with Alwina
3. Holding and kissing Levin
4. Riding bikes with Wilhelm around SchiederSee
5. Praying while standing up
6. Hearing everyone around me speak in German
7. Hearing Elias ask, "Heh?" when he didn't understand
8. Hearing Lionel say, "Christina, see! This...and this!"
9. Hearing Levin say, "Oh no!"
10. Making faces at Levin at the table
11. Singing songs in German

And there are many more. But I shan't continue to bore you with details. There are some things that I missed about America that I'm glad to have back in my life. Things like:

1. A cell-phone. Definitely.
2. My own car! To go where I please, when I please.
3. My family (my mom, sister Sara, sister Jessica, bro-in-law Matt, niece Bella, and nephew Liam)
4. My friends (most specifically my best friend. You know who you are!)
5. My church (I do not know where I would be without my church. I praise God for my local body of believers.)
6. My dog, Ceecee.
7. TV!!!! :)
8. Prayers in English, hymns in English, PASTOR OSBORNE'S SERMONS in ENGLISH!!!!

And those cover the main things I missed. I love being able to text or call someone to talk or hang out. I love being able to drive over to Matt and Jessica's house and hang out with them and the kids all night. I love being able to watch RomComs with Hannah and bemoan our unmarried statuses. I love it all. So it makes sense that I'm not an emotional wreck about being gone from Germany. But I do miss it. It is a part of my life that I will never forget. And I do hope I can go back. Maybe one day :)

PS: Gratitude counts totally :)

PSS: How is it that we Skype less now than when I was in Germany?! This needs to be remedied.

Fellow ck-er: One other thing I miss about Germany - seeing you there! I hope you're doing well :)

I'm home!!!!

So yesterday was one of the longest days of my life.

I woke up at 3:30 am to get ready to go to the airport in Hannover. I was already tired. Good start, right? ;) We (Alwina, Wilhelm, and I) left the house a little after 4 am, and arrived at the airport at about 5:30. I checked my bag (only 21.3 kg, thank you very much) and ate a little breakfast. At 6:00 am, I went through security, which is always a fun adventure. Got patted down to check if I was carrying my glock. Which, of course, I left at home. haha The flight boarded on time and took off on time - yesss. Got into Brussels at 8:15 am. Rushed around to change my euros into USD and get my boarding pass in time to board the plane. Except...the plane, which was supposed to take off at 10 am, did not take off until 4 pm. That's right. It was delayed for SIX WHOLE hours!!!!! Argh! Long story short, my bag got lost (as in, never left Europe) and I had to rebook my flight from Newark to Tampa (which was supposed to get in to Tampa at 5:30 pm, but ended up getting in at 11 pm). When I got off the plane, I was exhausted. But it was good to see Hannah, Amy, Dakota, and my mom who had waited for me at the airport for 6 hours!!!! They had made a sign to welcome me, Hannah had made snickerdoodles, and Dakota had made her 7-layer dip and brought chips. Soooo good :)
We got back to Hannah's house and dropped off the girls. I saw Hannah's new apartment (so cute!) and Mom and I drove home. It's so good to be home. Let me tell you!

I went to sleep at 1:30 am, and got up this morning at 7:30 am with no alarm. Ugh. So mom and I had breakfast together (American pancakes and scrambled eggs....soooo lecker!) Then I reactivated my phone, and now I'm updating you on my life whilst Skyping this raven beauty and her gorgeous mother :)

More later from the American girl back in her native land (finally!) <3

PS: Got your cookies. Tastyyyy!

PSS: Get on Skype, foo! :)

Fellow ck-er: Why aren't you in the US yet? Seriously!!!