Kristin’s Blog

Well, I know everyone's busy reading Trevor's blog cause he's the coolest.

So here's a short update.

Wednesday was a snow day. I love snow days. I woke up at 6:00 and waited twenty-three painstakingly long minutes to find that classes were indeed canceled. I grabbed my Educational Psychology book and read in bed until I fell back asleep and spent the rest of the wonderful day with my roommates talking, sipping coffee, walking to lunch, taking naps, doing homework, etc.

I love that God gives us little blessings when we desperately need them.

So what else is going on...hmm...I am hanging out with Dr. Bancroft again tomorrow with some dear English Major friends. Saturday, I plan on going to part of the men's volleyball game, and then having our little "reading circle." Sunday morning I am going to go to church in Philly with my friend, Rachel, and then will probably come home for some Superbowl action.

Life is good.

Posted by Kristin at 12:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A dear friend of mine bought me some really good tea for Christmas. It's by a brand called Yogi Tea and I am going back and forth between drinking the "bedtime" tea and the "calm" tea before I go to bed. I need to unwind after a long day.

My roommate and I sipped tea together last night and discussed the frustrations in our life. She needed to be inspired. I needed clarity. We each had a different kind of tea, and on each of the tea bags is a little "proverb" or saying...I guess it's supposed to be enlightening. It was dreadfully ironic, though, because hers said "Let things come to you" and mine said "Love is where compassion prevails and kindness rules." Pretty much it was exactly what we needed to hear.

I don't really believe in fortune cookies or things like that, and everyone can identify with either of those statements in any of a variety of stages in life. But we both smiled and liked to think of it is a little, indirect reminder from God that he is in control.

So today was long and stressful and exhausted and I didn't start off my morning with my Daddy as I should have. And I came to settle down before delving into Linguistics homework and I looked at my teabag and it said "listen and you will develop intuition."

I think too many times I talk to God, I talk about God, I talk to my friends, I talk to myself. I talk, talk, talk, and talk about how I don't know what to do and how overwhelmed I am and talk about how happy I am and consequently how disappointed I can become. I talk, talk, talk...

Sometimes I think God just taps me on the head and says, "Dear child, listen."

I had a good conversation tonight with a good friend. He was telling me about how he was blessed with a period of time over break where he could really trust in God's promises...and know who he was. That coincides with exactly what I was learning about in my General Epistles class with Dr. Master: we disobey and we fear and experience a lack of faith when we forget God for who he is, what he has done, and what he has promised to do.

I think it's time to listen.

Posted by Kristin at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What a tremendous break.

From spending time with family and friends to a Pennsylvania winter wonderland, from a blessed Christmas to a celebrated New Year.

Break ended for me with a two week J-Term class in General Epistles. Let me tell you, that was no easy feat. It was well worth it, don't get me wrong. But I often drove home feeling as though my brain was about to explode. It's true. Dr. Master filled my head with thoughts, the books themselves filled me with hope, but it was a lot for a short two week period of time. Four exams and a huge paper within six days of each other...it's almost unheard of.

But we talked a lot about Grace. I think so often we breeze through those ideas as Christians, assuming we know exactly what it means, but really really begun to delve into the intricacies and weightiness and beauty of it all. A stained glass window is a lot more than just "colorful."

Well, the highlight of my time was definitely the people. Meghan, my dear friend, stayed with me those two weeks of J-Term. We love each other. It's quite easy to love Meghan on account of the fact that she is one of the sweetest, most intriguing people I have ever met. We had many good conversations over break. She kept me calm and content.

Another fun night was when a few of my guy friends came over to hang out with my family. They really wanted to pick up my little sister, Katelyn, from her high school to surprise her. We are all good friends, and they love her a lot and she loves them! So while I was taking the first of my many J-Term exams, my friends were picking up my sister from school. On the way home, Meghan chuckled to herself and said, "I wonder how many girls can say that four of her college guy friends picked up their 15 year old sister with no motives other than just to hang out with her." I laughed and agreed. We played a ton of games and had fun as we usually do.

So I am truly blessed. And on the drive back to school, I couldn't help but smile the entire time. I was so excited to come back to school, to be with my dear friends, and to begin a new challenging semester. I have a very good feeling about this semester; I expect that it will hold lots of surprises and joys. PBU really is my home-away-from-home.

Here are some pictures from break! Yeah...

Christmas Eve family shot!

The "manly" pose.

My best friends for life.

Richter shot!

Kate and I.

<3

New Year's with friends...

The whole crew...looks like a family portrait. :-)

We're free to "let loose" over break...

Sometimes we lose our minds??

Here's to 2009...sweet...

Posted by Kristin at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every January 1st, I spend some time reading old journal entires and reflecting on the significant events of the year. 2008 was, without a doubt, one of the most difficult years I ever had to endure. I, in fact, labled it the year of "shattered expectations." Everything I expected along the way was a glass vase that shattered into a billion pieces on the floor. Ambiguous relationships resulted in a heart that continually broken, an accident obliterated my heelbone and the rest of my life, mostly pulling me out of the summer of my dreams, my uncle passed away with a fury of emotion I never expected out of myself, everything that I planned ended up morphing into a strange, unusual relative of the plans I had before.

So when I sat and reflected this year, I read on the year I experienced about 4 years go, the other year that caused me a lot of turmoil. I throught of all the "plans" I had made up until that point. And as I was sitting there, I realized that if things had gone that way...I never would have loved PBU, I never would have the friendships I have now, I never would have worked at Camp, etc, etc, etc. Because even though everything I hoped out of 2008 didn't come abotu the way I wanted them to, God used all those situations to remind me of how much I need to trust Him. Because oddly enough, this year, while one of the most dreadful, was also one of the most beautiful. I loved every little memory that intertwined the difficult moments: the trips to Chick-Fil-A with friends, the visits in the hospital, the campus-wide camp out, chorale tour, Oklahoma!, making new friends, being with my roommates, trips together, and all of the other wonderful experiences along the way.

I spent a lot of my break missing my friends from PBU, this semester more than ever. As break is nearing a close and a new year is lying in front of me, wild with possibilities, I think I am ready to embark on this new leg of the journey. I can't believe every semester slips away faster and faster...my friend Kevin will be done after taking a J-Term class. Everything is changing and adulthood is pending, you know? But I am so, so excited for it. I want to soak up every moment and try not to rush through things.

So, anyway, here's to 2009. May it hold as many suprises as the year prior (but I wouldn't mind if they were just a little less painful :-) ).

Posted by Kristin at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)