Week 20

Autumn Addition! It's like a special addition but better!

1) Carving pumpkins...especially pumpkins with a certain resemblance to other things I love

2) Missouri State Campus with red, yellow, and orange everywhere

3) Happy Hobbit Music 

(Celtic music always reminds me of fall cause my family and I go to Irish festivals during the fall)

4) Pumpkin patches with friends

5) Long walks in the park with other friends 

(and of course playing on random giant wheelchairs)

Enjoy Autumn!

Beth

So I have this friend...

...and she has this thing called a birthday today. Did you think I would let this day pass my dear Beth?

And so, in honer of this day...one of my lists! 

Things I love about Beth:

- your big huge heart for kids (especially the kids of Balance, I will giggle about Sydney anytime)

- your determination in your major, you inspire me with your professional but fun attitude

- you love of music that I love

- GLEEK!

- your ever changing wardrobe 

- the fact that we can talk for hours about Meyers Briggs and Disney Princesses

- the fact that you always lend a listening ear

- your second half (yes, I include Travis as a part of you) and watching you both together and how you love each other so uniquely and wonderfully

- the love that you shower on everyone around you

You are such a sweet person to have in my life (possibly the sweetest). I'm so happy you're in it, hopefully for a very long time to come. 

Memory 17

It's nice to be getting back into the routine of blogging. Just thought I'd let you know. 

So, I had this friend...Matt. And we walk to class together every Tuesday and Thursday. And lately we've taken to doing something that I find quite refreshing.

Leaf jumping. 

We had these huge trees in my backyard when I was little and I would make gigantic piles with friends. As you can see, I kept leaf jumping well into high school and now college. It's my second favorite fall activity (10 points if you can guess my first).

Matt...I will always get to the crunchy ones before you. 

What's your favorite fall activity? Childlike or otherwise. 

Chilly

I had to put on a scarf and fingerless gloves today...

There is something about this having-to-hold-a-coffee-cup-between-your-hands-to-keep-warm kinda weather that puts me in a perfectly content mood. 

Fall is here, Christmas (and a new sister) is around the corner, and freedom from pop quizzes and mood defying grades is in sight. 

borrowed from here

There is no telling how long this will last...

...please don't think me rash friends, cause I really have been toying with the idea for awhile.

Neverland has always been a place for dreaming and planning and lots of imagination exercise, but never a place for poetry.

But I find that the more I write, the more I want to share, especially when I write about Africa. 

There's no telling how long it will last, for if (fingers crossed) I get published, the poems will start disappearing and I'll move on to more professional ventures.

But for now...I submit for the blogger world's enjoyment...

Haus Geborgenheit

I learned this German saying a few years ago, "house of refuge, house of strength, house of safety."

The little plaque I have that has these words written on it is usually the first piece of decoration up when I move. 

When my life is accelerating and I think about where I'll be in a year it's hard to find stability. I'll have moved three times at least by this time next year. 

So I find my small space of rest in this crazy time...

...my grandma's old chair and the hippie's chair on our balcony.

There is something about the outdoors and old familiar things I love.

And speaking of old an familiar...

 (I've had this stuck in my head since the boy snail sang it to me on the phone the other night)

As Time Goes By - Frank Sinatra

Excuses

When I've been gone for over a week I always like to make excuses for why, like...

...midterms came up! I was so busy!

...or...

...I was traveling and running around like a chicken with my head cut off to see the boy snail! I'm so sorry lovlies!

...or...

...My brother is getting married in the middle east and I'm finally getting a sister!

...or...

...I'm graduating!

But those are simply excuses. And so all I can do is hold onto my books and papers, thrust my face forward into the wind, and get ready for the craziest three months of my life. 

Months filled with Thanksgivings and new jobs, DIY Christmas presents and poetry readings, traveling to the middle east and finals, moving across country and graduating, Christmas time and wedding receptions. 

And of course a boy snail.

So I'm not going to promise this will be the end of my long silence. Rather, I promise to not completely abandon this section of my heart forever.