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."

Snowballs and Kumquats

So, lots of exciting things have happened since you've heard from us last. Well, maybe exciting isn't the right word, but we haven't been completely bored anyway. We had a snow day last week and it was lovely. Well, we got Thursday afternoon and Friday morning off, so I guess that adds up to a full day. We had a gigantic snowball fight in our backyard and all ended up soaked.

Jo, Stacie, Holly and I all had fun standing around in the kitchen and laughing one night. It was late; we were being silly and enjoying kumquats. If you've never had a kumquat, you should try one. They look like miniature oranges, but the rind is sweet and the inside is extremely sour.

This evening Jo decided to learn how to French braid. Stacie taught her and I was the guinea pig that she practiced on. On a somewhat related note, Jo absolutely hates to have her hair touched. So don't touch it if you want to survive.

Now we're watching the Olympics again. We turned it on earlier but decided that watching people ski for 30 km is not quite as exciting as it sounds. Nevertheless, we sat and watched the hour and fifteen minute race.

JoAnna just got a text message and her text alert sounds like the little TV Land bell sound. I think of TV Land and M*A*S*H every time she gets a text. And now she keeps showing me pictures of dead albatrosses. Very morbid and sad.

Two College Students Share Life of Wisdom, Wit, and Wonders through Blog

Here's a thought. With all the negative media out there - the U.S. missionaries charged with trafficking children out of Haiti, the Colorado missionary charged with sexually abusing 18 Haitian schoolboys, the mother who overdosed her 4-year-old daughter, Facebook's site re-design (we all knew that one was coming, though) - Rebekah and I found it prudent to get something positive out there before we all become depressed zombies with no hope for humanity. Why don't we share the truth that there are still good things to think about in the midst of all this calamity?

So, I propose that we have a feature in every major news media outlet about us. Yes, Rebekah and I deserve to be at the forefront of the news. We are the poster children of goodness. Absolute goodness. And we're interesting to boot.

But seriously though. I'm tired of all the horrible stories being featured in the news... yet, it seems that whenever something good is in the spotlight, such as a New York taxi driver who returned $21,000 to one of his passengers, it must be pulled up through the miry depths of violence, hatred, debt, and disease. (Here is where I found that story. A single page dedicated to "happy, positive news.") However, I must admit, nothing gets my attention quite like that very same violence, hatred, debt, and disease of which I speak with such aversion. There seems to exist this tension among what we find interesting, what gets our attention, what holds our attention, what entertains us the most, and what makes us feel pity for others - which helps us be confident that there is someone "worse" than us.

Of course, this is not the case across the board. I just wanted to share my two cents about why we may be so attracted to negative news. And this actually was an update on an insignificant, two-minute conversation that Rebekah and I had about this topic. Mostly it was about how I wanted us to be in the spotlight because we are the epitome of good news. Oh wait. That's Jesus...

P.S. Rebekah just thought this was soooo funny. I guess there's not much else to get excited about in the middle of a freezing cold nowhere...

LOST!!!

I'm sitting here watching Lost with JoAnna. We've been waiting for this day for ages and I'm so glad that it's finally here. We're already very confused. And I might have to hurt someone if we don't get some answers this season. I'm a little ashamed, because I just hung up on a friend so that I wouldn't miss Lost.

It's been an awfully long time since either of us has posted, but I decided to take a little time to jot something down. Unfortunately the excitingness of our lives has seriously declined. Though I have had some fun playing with the toy horses that Jo gave me for Christmas.

School is back in session and Jo and I actually have a class together. We wake up early, walk to school and grab a cup of coffee before class. It's not quite so fun when it's as cold as it was today.

For some reason we still have Christmas decorations up. Our house is full of Christmas cheer with stocking on the wall, lights around the windows and bows stuck to the wall.

Yet another lovely quote:

"Why would I ever suck a cow?"

Gobble Gobble

So, in between the last post and this one, I tried TWICE to do a mobile blog post... obviously neither of those panned out. Ah well. Maybe someday I will figure it out.

Tonight I had my first of four Thanksgivings this year. At work we had a potluck and it was yummy. I gave thanks for being able to eat a free meal that wasn't McDonald's food. Thursday I have a potluck for the Student Social Work Association, and Friday we're getting our Oxford group together to celebrate (2nd Annual Oxford Thanksgiving). And, of course, there's the real Thanksgiving holiday, which I am privileged to be spending with Rebekah's family. :)

I went to the British Shoppe yesterday! It was incredible... real imported goods from the U.K. I called Rebekah and left a message, because I was staring at IRN-BRU, Ribena, Digestives, Hob Nobs, Walkers crisps, and real Cadbury candy. I just wanted to make her jealous. Too bad I have no idea if it had its intended effect. I've only seen her for about 2 minutes since then!

Sadly, Rebekah has about 4 huge assignments/projects due this week, all of which are a sizable portion of the final grade in each class. I can't imagine what that must feel like, but I know I'd be stressing too.

After much debate in the household, we decided that we would decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving, since we only have two weeks in Abilene after it. What do we have to show for it? Absolutely nothing. haha. We're so awesome. I love us.

Favorite semi-recent quote:

"I don't actually want to be a boy."

- Rebekah

We're Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

I’m proud to announce that JoAnna and I now have a very special friend: Havar. That’s right, we made it too the zoo today! It’s about time, since we’ve been planning this trip since February or so. Anna, JoAnna and I finally went to the Abilene Zoo to meet the white tiger. Unfortunately, Havar quickly noticed that we hadn’t made t-shirts of him and was very disappointed with us. In fact, he mostly just stared us down or pointedly ignored us.


Yep, folks. There he is.

The giraffes and bears were fun and we fed them some yummy crackers. We know they were yummy because we tested them out just to make sure. The poor female lion was spurned by her man, so that was kind of sad. Oh yeah, and I won a stare-down with a cobra, so you better watch out.

See, we really did test out the crackers.

After tons of fun at the zoo, we had lunch at Sharky’s. Tragically, I threw half of my burrito away. This was going to be my dinner, and Jo happened to think it was absolutely hilarious. She really does just like to laugh at me.

Our activities this week included visualization exercises. They are a lot of fun and very relaxing. JoAnna visualized the person she will end up with: a medium-armed dark-haired gentleman with brown shoes. It worked too, cause within minutes he showed up. Unfortunately she didn’t get his name, so if you fit that description, please come forward and identify yourself.

We’ve both taken up watching Flashforward, and we try to watch it together when possible. However, last week we had to watch it separately, but were both overjoyed when “Charlie” showed up at the end of the episode (well, that’s not his name in this show, but I don’t think that’s really important).

I had a crazy dream the other night and wrote down some key words, so that I would remember it. Now all I have is some strange words that don’t make much sense: museum, trumpet, tornado, walking, cheese sticks. Now I really want to know what that dream was about!

I'll leave you with a lovely quote from JoAnna:

"You look cuddly. I just want to lay down on you."