Blustery Days

I think the most exciting thing that has happened lately has been the powerful wind (I said "exciting", not "good"). This is the kind of wind that makes your hair smell bad, keeps you from riding your bike up hills, lifts up various articles of clothing even while they're still on your body, and just all around blows. It's awful and definitely the worst thing about living in Abilene.

In other outdoor news, Rebekah has been enjoying her horse class very much. She learns about the animals she loves and then she gets to ride Hissy every Monday (I wouldn't want a horse with that name either). This past week she was overjoyed to be riding through the nearby wilderness, with tumbleweeds rolling by and everything. The works. I can just imagine little Rebekah, wearing her boots, up on a huge horse in the middle of nowhere. Aww how cute. I guess the guards in the bordering jail watchtowers thought so too, because they certainly didn't shoot her.

Something Rebekah has been doing - and what I wish I could make myself do - is making time for pleasure reading. A couple weeks ago she read this book about the moon turning blood-red, and basically it was supposed to seem like the world was ending, but it wasn't really anything that exciting. Anyway, the book she's reading now seems a lot better, even though it's probably 4 times the size of that moon one. It's about a builder of a cathedral and this one really dedicated monk.

On Tuesday night, I came home just in time to see Rebekah getting into her car. "What are you doing?" I asked her. "Going to watch Lost!" was her response. Confused, I approached and questioned and found out that our cable/remote control is messing up (yet again - welcome to our living room) and the channel wouldn't change from The CW (of all the channels to be stuck on it had to be that one...). So she was going to her parents' house a few streets down. I hop in the car because I came home in a rush specifically so I could catch all of Lost, and we head over. Thankfully, we were welcomed even though I wasn't expected (I always worry when I am an unexpected guest because I feel like I'm imposing). Her mom even made popcorn! All I have to say is that I love her family and am so blessed to know them!

This next week is spring break. This is a much needed pause in schoolwork and even a break from Abilene itself, for both of us. I am going up to St. Paul, Minnesota with a group of students from ACU to work with international refugees. Rebekah is going up to various places in Colorado with a few friends to visit one of their homes. Hopefully we will come back with exciting stories to tell!

Awesome Quote of the Week:

"My mind is like popcorn."

- Rebekah

Olympic Fun

So for the past two weeks in our house, the Olympics have been on almost constantly. I think the games are a ton of fun, and we all enjoy watching them. The closing ceremonies, however, were a bit odd. What with giant inflatable moose and beavers, huge lumberjack cutouts and Michael Bublé dressed as a Canadian Mountie, I found it all slightly strange.

Canada passed the torch on to Russia and they had a little entertainment preview for the next winter games. I learned that the Russian national anthem is perhaps the longest anthem in the entire world. Seriously, it goes on forever. And apparently 2014 will include ballerinas on snowboards. These ceremonies are getting so elaborate that I'm beginning to think the Olympic torch will be lit in orbit next time. It is Russia after all.

So yeah, strange closing ceremonies.

But I thought I'd share a quick video link from the Olympics that I found highly amusing. I'm just sharing the joy of Olympic thank you notes.

We also had yet another snow day. Hooray for destroying the yard in snowball fights and building huge snow forts!

And a quick quote from JoAnna:

"I hope we're friends forever."