Christmas in Boston!

Family in Boston!

Walking in the blizzard!

Ice skating at the frog pond!

Grace

Amazing Grace: My Chains are Gone


Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace

My chains are gone, I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God who called me here below
Will be forever mine, will be forever mine
You are forever mine

Sustainafriends

I love my sustainafriends!

Show-me sustainability conference committee!

Sustain Mizzou Great Outdoors camp out!

 

EcoAward!

Tiger Tailgate Recycling!

AASHE Conference in Denver!

SkyMall

The best part about flying is... SKYMALL!!!

Check out these gems:

Star Wars toaster!!!

DISCO SHOWER!!!

Tell me these don't look like sperm shoes.

Test Neck

Not funny.  I hate test neck.  Every time i take a test, by the end of the hour or hour and a half, my neck is so stiff!  Today, with 5 minutes to go on my prices test, i turned my head to stretch out my neck and a sharp surge of pain shot up through my neck.  It still hurts.  I think i may look into an post-test masseuse for the rest of the semester...

French Finance

This morning I was studying for my 11am test and was soooo tired, even though I went to bed before midnight!  I studied up until I left for my 9:30am finance class.  I flew on my bike to class, got to the classroom, and read the sign on the door reminding me that class was in a computer lab in a different building today.  Dang-it.

I got to the computer lab and slipped into an open seat at the back of the lab next to a guy from France who's in my class.  Whenever I meet other people from either France, Germany, or Ecuador (the countries that our foreign exchange students are from), I really want to hang out with them, so I was inwardly happy that I'd get to talk to my french classmate :)

He helped me get up the correct excel doc, since I was 5 minutes late, and then the journey began to try to keep up with our teacher and his rocket speed at "teaching" us how to calculate the finances for a project analysis.  I helped my classmate with several formulas, but somehow we got off and weren't getting the same answers as our teacher.  Eventually it became ridiculous: the speed my teacher was "teaching," the miniscule size of the font on the projector from the back of the room, and the fact that neither of us were grasping the big picture of the project analysis.  I couldn't help but laugh; that kind of laugh that says "this is ridiculous and there's not much I can do about it cause I have to peace out in 2 minutes to get to my test on time."

My classmate asked our teacher at the end of class about one of the rows on the excel sheet and he asked him if he had a class right after this so he could give him some one-on-one.  Because he's French.  Haha.  Oh, goodness.  I needed the help, too, but tests were calling.  Maybe I'll get to meet up with frenchie again so he can set my excel sheet straight.

Roast for lunch!

Umbrellas

Haha! It started raining when I went to bed last night and rained until I got out of class this afternoon at 2:40pm. I love it when I get to listen to the rain though my wide open window all night and the thunder wakes me up through is crashes and shakes of the house :) This morning I was walking to class with my galoshes, rain jacket, and broken umbrella and I looked around at all of the little people walking around with different colors, sizes, and qualities of umbrellas and started laughing. Haha umbrellas are so weird. It made me wonder who on earth thought it'd be a good idea to put a bowl-shaped sewn piece of cloth on the end of a stick. Here's some funny history and info about the umbrella, or "brolly" as they say in NZed, from my good friend Kip from Wikipedia:

An umbrella or parasol (also called a brolly, rainshade, sunshade, gamp or bumbershoot) is a canopy designed to protect against rain or sunlight. The term parasol usually refers to an item designed to protect from the sun; umbrella refers to a device more suited to protect from rain. Often the difference is the material; some parasols are not waterproof. Parasols are often meant to be fixed to one point and often used with patio tables or other outdoor furniture. Umbrellas are almost exclusively hand-held portable devices; however, parasols can also be hand-held. Umbrellas can be held as fashion accessories.

The word umbrella comes from the Latin word umbra, meaning shade or shadow (the Latin word, in turn, derives from theAncient Greek ómbros [όμβρος].) Brolly is a slang word for umbrella, used often in Britain, New Zealand, Australia, andSouth Africa; Bumbershoot is a fanciful Americanism from the late 19th century.[2]

In written records, the oldest reference to a collapsible umbrella dates to the year 21 A.D., when Wang Mang (r. 9–23) had one designed for a ceremonial four-wheeled carriage.[11] The 2nd century commentator Fu Qian added that this collapsible umbrella of Wang Mang's carriage had bendable joints which enabled them to be extended or retracted.[12] A 1st century collapsible umbrella has since been recovered from the tomb of Wang Guang at the Korean site of the Lelang Commandery, illustrated in a work by Harada and Komai.[13] However, the Chinese collapsible umbrella is perhaps a concept that is yet centuries older than Qin's tomb. Zhou Dynasty bronze castings of complex bronze socketed hinges with locking slides and bolts—which could have been used for parasols and umbrellas— were found in an archeological site of Luoyang, dated to the 6th century BCE.[13]

Umbrellas continue to be actively developed. In the U.S., so many umbrella-related patents are being filed that the U.S. Patent Office employs four full-time examiners to assess them. As of 2008, the office registered three thousand active patents on umbrella-related inventions.[18] Nonetheless, Totes, the largest American umbrella producer, has stopped accepting unsolicited proposals. Its director of umbrella development was reported as saying that while umbrellas are so ordinary that everyone thinks about them, "it’s difficult to come up with an umbrella idea that hasn’t already been done."[18]

Lela

I live with Lela.  I didn't know her before we became housemates- she knew one of our other roommates, and thus we both got the extreme blessing of knowing one another.  I was trying to think of what I've been laughing about lately and didn't have to think long to think of Lela :)  Lela makes me laugh.  She is naturally, outrageously, comfortably hilarious. This is Lela.

Fantasy Football

I joined a fantasy football league to get in touch with the sports fanatic inside of me.  She's been hiding my whole life.  And I'm not sure if she even exists.  We had the draft today and it lasted an hour and fifteen minutes.  So far this new hobby has proven to be a very good use of my time :)  BRING IT!

Aspen

Dad and I were working on my new set of yellow kitchen chairs the other night and I started telling him about how I tried to climb the tree in our front yard that day but couldn't.
"You weren't trying to climb my aspen, were you?!"
"Yeah, I think so, but it was too hard, Dad"
"You were trying to climb the aspen?"
"Yeah!  Wait.  Bahahahaha!  Dang-it, Dad!  No, I was trying to climb the Christmas tree in the front!"
"Haha."

1. The "Christmas tree" is a giant double trunk tree that's taller than our 3 story house and that has it's low limbs cut off because, according to Dad, they die from lack of sunlight so he has to cut them off, impairing my ability to climb it.

2. The "aspen" is a sapling on the other side of the yard that Dad's trying to grow.  It's about a foot and a half tall and has chicken wire around it so no one accidentally runs it over when they mow.

the MAD house

so i lived with my cousin and his family this summer and i got to laugh my heart away every day!  his wife, Shelisa, inspired me to love reading again, hence the new book background, taught me many lessons of life, and blessed me with hanging out with their kids, Maya, Ava and Dawson.

Shelisa posted this picture the other day and i can't help but laugh out loud every time i see it :)  this is Dawson the lamp:

bahahahahahahahaahahaha!!!!!

i love him.

thanks, Welde's!

Back to laughing

Fake laughing with ann and mag last winter.

DFA Fieldtrip!

DFA intern field trip!

Monett, MO cheese processing plant:

DFA interns walking into a dairy farm:

Cows!!!

Fecuador!

26 June 2010

#14: LOGAN COMES HOME FROM ECUADOR!!!

Welcome sign made by me: complete with arch, bluebird, fiddle, airplane, and upside down exclamation mark!

Frosties from Wendy's on the drive home-> and Logan's happy Ecuador shirt.

Sibling powers- UNITE!

Honorary Welde

24 June 2010

#14: I move in with the Welde's!!!

Thursday morning, I finished loading up all of my belongings into Ruby and wheeled my bike and a few bags down to the front desk to check out and say goodbye to my Candlewood Suite friends. The manager proclaimed when I gave them my card: "You're leaving us?!" I told them that I had a wonderful time and I'll definitely recommend it to everyone far and wide :)

Then, at work, the interns all went to the DFA Board Meeting. We introduced us to all of the 49 board members and then sat in the back for the rest of the day, listening to business.

After work, I grabbed my bag of leftover hotel life food from the work refrigerator, hopped into Ruby, and chugged down to Overland Park to my new home!

John, Shelisa, Maya, Ava, and Dawson all welcomed me and I joined them for dinner. Afterward, the kids led me upstairs to see my new room! Dawson pointed up above the window and said "I colored the blue balloons!" and then Ava said "and I drew the flowers!" And Maya "drew the letters AND colored them in!" It was the best. Ever. And there was chocolate on my pillow, which I didn't even get at hotel home!

Then the kids and John helped me unload Ruby and kept asking me if I knew their names :) I played around with them in Ava and Maya's room and we spelled and read and wrestled and tickled and threw parachute men down the balcony!

When I finally got to bed, I turned the lights off, and thanks to Shelisa's stunning paint job, I fell asleep under the stars and comets on the ceiling :)

Fact: Welde life is better than hotel life.

FIRE!

23 June 2010

#13: Fire evacuation at the hotel!

On my last night of hotel life, while packing up and putting Ponyo into the DVD player, I realized that the annoying beeping noise that I was hearing wasn't the DVD preview-- it was the fire alarm! I stuck my head out my door and the hallway was extremely hot and all of my neighbors that I hadn't seen the past 3 weeks had their heads sticking out their doors wondering if we should really evacuate.

Eventually everyone started making their way down the stairs- I went back in my room and grabbed my purse and headed down the stairwell to see that the rest of the Candlewood residents were hanging out outside as well! I walked over to the main entrance and watched the groups and individual people as we were all forced to wait outside- most people brought out their cell phones to busy themselves, others were talking about how someone had burnt a bag of popcorn, and others just left in their cars.

Turns out that someone did burn their popcorn, but the fire trucks came, and 3 firemen walked into the hotel with their tanks on their backs and their helmets on to make sure the coast was clear. Never a dull moment at the Candlewood Suites! ha!

Furr

21 June 2010

#12: Blitzen Trapper Concert!

Caitlin, the intern I work next to, and I went a saw Blitzen Trapper at the Record Bar in Westport! The concert started at 9:30pm, so around the time that I would usually get ready for bed, I was leaving my hotel home to pick up Caitlin in Parkville. I drove her in Ruby, aka the Muffler Express, and we went into the city! It was a great concert- pure talent- and a neat venue. You should check out their other songs if you've only heard Furr, or if you've never heard of them at all! The lead singer has a crazy low and strong voice. The opener was the Moon Doggies from Seattle and they weren't too bad, either!

I got home and in bed by 2am, watched a little Cheers, and sacked out to get to work at 8 am!

Saying goodbye to hotel life

21 July 2010

#11: Mentally preparing myself to leave my home sweet hotel

Hotels make life very easy for you: