spring is coming

2010 rewind: my year in pictures



January - with Stephanie on a Sunday morning



February - all the New Life students that attended PCTC 2010

March - some New Life students at their very best

April - Sean and I took the plunge into a Panamanian river

May - with Shannon and Karsten, sporting our favorite shades

June - beach day at CIY

July - after a long day's work in Ecuador

August - sailing away at Conneaut Lake

September - my 17th birthday

October - our annual apple-picking excursion!

 




















November - with my cousins at Thanksgiving

 


























December - family Christmas photo. (Ok, actually, I lied. This was taken on New Year's Day, but that's close enough to December.)

     






















































































This was a good year.

Of course 2010 wasn't perfect; no year ever is. There were moments of misunderstandings, moments of stress, moments of tearful goodbyes.  But God was watching over me the whole time. It was still a year of new friends, new travels, new accomplishments, new lessons learned. I'd do it all over again if I had to.

I'm looking forward to see what God has planned for 2011.

christmastime is here

This is SO EXCITING! I'm such a little kid when it comes to Christmastime. I hope that never really changes.

The annual Barrack (Burke/Andrews/Vogel) tradition took place yesterday. We like to jump right into Christmastime. It was only the day after Thanksgiving, after all.  Still filled to the brim with turkey and stuffing and sweet potato goodness, we braved the gail winds of late November to scout out the ideal Christmas trees for each family.

The pickings were -- pardon my cliché -- rather slim.  They all seemed either too tiny or too titanic, too petite or too plump. To our dismay, most of the evergreens seemed to be balding like a middle-aged man. I almost felt bad for the poor things. 

My family was picky till the end; Pop-pop would have been proud.  Why spend $35 on an ugly tree, anyway? We needed to find a decent one. A perfect one, actually.

And we did.

It is a midget of a Douglas fir, but not to a fault; I think its stoutness is almost endearing. I suppose my parents' unadmitted love for obese evergreens is rubbing off on me.

thankful

Most of what had me stressed yesterday is now taken care of. It's a new day.

THANKSGIVING IS COMING :)

This means lots of family and sweet potatoes and stuffing.

♥

love.

Most sane people in the United States are thinking about the mid-term elections right now.

That is important. Don't get me wrong.

To be honest, though, I'm thinking about Ecuador right now. I miss all of their faces; their voices; their hugs.  I miss waking up to the South American sunrise, and realizing right away that I'm going to spend another day working, eating, living alongside those people. I know I sound pathetically discontented and ungrateful. I don't mean it that way.  I'm thankful for the moments I have right now, at home in my beautiful Virginia. I love my friends and family right here. Life is good.

It's just that I miss the friends I had to leave behind there. They, in those brief two weeks, became my family too.

punkin

the good ole days ♥

atmosphere

I've come to appreciate rain lately.  I used to hate rain; I still do sometimes. Working in a coffee shop on a rainy day is actually verging on paradise for me now. There is something subtly comforting about being inside a cutesy cafe on an overcast afternoon, making machiattos with the sound of a steadily musical rainfall just outside the window. I hope it rains tomorrow.

Sorry my posts are so brief and sporadic. My life is crazy.

I actually ought to be editing and rewriting an essay due tomorrow, so.... ciao!