So, remember this adorable top that I blogged about in July? Well, this last week I received an unexpected package in the mail from my beautiful Aunt Jeanine, who I had the pleasure of seeing a couple weeks ago when I was home, and in this package was THIS shirt plus a very sweet handwritten letter! I believe in one of my very early blog posts I said that I think a letter is one of the most special gifts a person can receive, especially ones that are unanticipated. It made my entire week! It is not often that little packages of love (nor any mail, for that matter) arrive in my mailbox, so this was quite exciting. (And it happened to arrive on the day I had both a Physics test and a history midterm. Talk about perfect timing.)

Currently I am sitting in my wing, enjoying freshly baked pumpkin seeds, and getting ready for yet another week. (Ooo! A week that is also my birthday week!) It has been pouring all weekend. Which has been beautiful. This rainy weekend equaled:

tomato soup
cookie baking
first eggnog purchase of the season
listening to records and dancing
running to wal-mart in the Hustler with friends to buy a pumpkin (that is yet to be painted)
seeing my best fran and getting to catch up over apple crisp and hot cocoa at BJs
going to Amy's house for a girl's night (blueberry pancakes and hot apple cider for dinner!)
wearing my beautiful Rodarte raincoat for the first time
Metro this morning (have I gone into detail yet about how much of a blessing that has been? I love my church)
and oodles more of lovey things

I've entered into such a beautiful season of life. There really is a time for everything, and even though sometimes that season at first seems foggy...boy, when the fog lifts to reveal the glorious sunshine and clear skies, it has the power to knock you over. Jesus is so real, He is so real that it never ceases to make me smile. Going to Metro these last couple months has been more than I could have ever hoped for. Jesus continues to meet with me every single time I walk through those doors, and just in this last month I've really been able to get plugged in. It is an answer to prayer all the way from summer. I've made some beautiful new friends, been on a few adventures, and shared too many laughs to count. It is simply wonderful. Aah! I can't express this joy.

I hope everyone has an uplifting week in the Lord---May we participate with Him in removing our grave clothes, entrusting our hearts within the endless quarters of His own, and understanding that His love for us is too great to even grasp. What hope, what promises.

Happy rain-tea-reading-cozy-pumpkin-OCTOBER-fall weather!

PS. I am now learning three piano pieces. That is three times more than last semester. Twitter moment: #ireallyloveplayingpianosomuch

:)

I have been wanting to blog for so long that it pains me to think how long I have had to wait. Due to extenuating circumstances, cough, an overload of homework and zero time to sit at an actual computer and do things like write and upload pictures, blogging has been put on the back-burner. What a shame--or as we use to dramatically say in high school Spanish class--que laaaaastimaaaa.

This last weekend was my beautiful, wonderful, amazing friend Gennean's 21st birthday party. (She is pictured along with Jenn, another lovely friend of mine). We had a little surprise get-together for her beforehand, and then a large group of us went to the most ideal and dreamlike house I have ever been to for the actual party. Literally, this house was perfect. Wrap around porch, country view, hammock, chickens running free, a pond, a wood-burning furnace, oak paneling for the walls....everything perfect and homey you could imagine--it was there. Gennean is one of my very best friends, and I am so grateful I was there to celebrate another year with her.

As for me, life has taken a busy turn. Busy. I am in a desk from either 8a.m. or 9a.m. to 3p.m. or 4p.m. every day. I have this small (huge?) desire for more hours in a day, but regardless of how much I have to do, the Lord has been faithful in allowing me to get all my tasks done. Of course, this is not to say they haven't been completed without a few less hours of sleep and a missed class or two--but alas, they have been finished! Thank God.

Mid-term break is at present, coming at the perfect time, and I have been able to visit my extended family and grandparents, because Grandpa had quadruple-heart-bypass surgery Tuesday morning. He is 84-years-old and the toughest man I have ever met. And Grandma is the most womanly, Godly woman I have ever met. I hope I can be half the woman she is when I am her age. My goodness, talk about a power couple ;) I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to visit him in the hospital and see some aunts as well. On Sunday night I get to attend Hanner's brother's wedding reception, which Jeremy and Jessie will be home for, so I am greatly looking forward to that. Until then, I am trying to stay motivated in homework and piano practice...(the distraction of endless baking supplies and my large, beautiful bed to sleep and read in all day are almost too much to bear!) But somehow I am managing.

I feel as though I could write a lot more about life...a lot...but I will spare you until next time. Happy fall, happy pumpkin-spice lattes, and happy Friday! Let us reflect our blessings back to the One who has provided them.