support system

Growing up is tough stuff, let me tell you.  These past few weeks have been pretty downers for me.  What with the tragic shooting at our school, this past weekend's symposium on human trafficking, and then other hot-topic issues I've been wrestling with.  

I don't know why it feels like it has all hit me at once these past few weeks, but I sure have felt like I've been carrying some pretty heavy bricks around trying to sort through my thoughts and opinions and beliefs.  

I'm the type of person who learns from not just reading other people's opinions and stances, but then also being able to question other's opinions (even if I agree with them) and hear their justifications and reasonings behind their stance.  These past issues I've been wrestling with have been pretty big.  And there is no way I could have sorted through them without my parents or friends.

I trust my parents and their opinions.  And while sometimes when I sort through my own reasonings for my opinions I end up with the same views as them, I think it's important to be able to understand why I believe what I believe for myself, and not because my parents taught me it was the "right" thing to believe in.  Both my parents have been so patient with me as I continue to ask them the "hard" questions and as I question the way society is going.  

And then if talking with my parents wasn't enough, I have been so incredibly blessed with friends up here at school who are just as patient and wise.  I have one friend who took my call really late one night while she was out with friends.  It meant so so so much to me that she listened to where I was and gave me advice despite her being busy at that moment.  Seriously, she rocks.  And then other friends who have allowed me to question them and be vulnerable with my raw thoughts and questions.  Seriously. My support system here at school outshines any expectations I could have imagined I would have in college. And as if those friends on campus weren't enough, my friends studying abroad have been there for me, too, around the clock (literally).  God knew I needed these people in my life and He put them there so perfectly. 

This may sound like such a cheese-fest, but I am seriously so blessed and thankful for the people I have in my life right now.  I'm still wrestling with some things, but having my family/friends by my side as I do so has made such a huge impact on this tough journey of mine.  They have reminded me to turn to God with all these thoughts, as He is the only one with the answers.  And though He may not give me those answers, He, too, is a soundboard to bounce questions and confusions at.  And isn't that something incredible? 

you should know this about me...

...I really love family pictures.  Like, really, really love them. And every year on Thanksgiving break we take the family picture. You know, the one that is put in the Christmas card that goes out to all our friends and all our family.  

And because these family photos are my absolute favorite, it is usually myself yelling and pushing and hooting and hollering and stomping her foot and dragging every one out the door to take this photo (usually pretty last minute; we are a family of six, after all).  The sibs hate me on this particular day because their feelings for the family picture are the COMPLETE opposite of mine.  

But despite the arguing over the color scheme we should wear or the location we should take the photos at or the timing (RIGHT before the sun sets is THE time to take it. and people, there's only a SMALL window of when this is so hurry up and do your hair in the car and quit moping and just SMILE!), we always seem to get good photos.  

Below are some of the winners for this year (cue Kelsey patting herself on the back and smiling proudly). 

^^are you SO getting a Sound of Music vibe in this picture?! I love it! 

My confession: you now know one of my odd "favorite things" and the craziness it brings out of me.  and now, cue the Christmas music!!!! 

my crazies

I'm often reminded of the crazy family I was born into.  And this weekend on fall break was no failure to remind me of such reasons why. 

First reminder from this weekend: Coop, Em, and I were hard core jamming in the car after church on Sunday with the windows rolled down (in the rain) as we choreographed our own little dance to each tune that came on.  The cars around us were totally jealous.  

Second reminder from this weekend: After church and this jam session, we were shopping at Sam's Club (Sample Sunday is a tradition not taken lightly in this family) and all of a sudden we stopped our shopping/sampling to do trust falls with one another.  We learned we are quite the trusting family (it only took six or twenty-five times for me to finally trust Cooper).  

And third reminder from this weekend: During the same Sam's Club excursions Emily and I took a break from trusting and shopping and sampling to listen to some Beat's headphones.  We were listening to the same song and hard core rockin' out to Clarity.  I mean dancing and fist pumping and twirling and jumping up and down.  We were completely in our own little world until we looked around and saw two different families starring and laughing at us.  Again, they were totally jealous. 

My confession: My fam jam is just absolutely the greatest out there.  I am continually reminded of how blessed I am to be a part of this family.  Thank you, God, for giving me these five to call my very own.  

I came across this photo earlier today.  And my oh my.

Are my parents not just the most adorable out there?

I am so thankful that they are still so in love with each other.

They are such a great example for us four kids. This 

post is oozing with love, can you feel it? 

the most rewarding week of my life

 Here at my school we have this incredible first-year student orientation program.  It begins on Sunday and has activities planned up until the first day of class the following Monday.  I went through it last year as a freshman and had a pretty decent experience-nothing that left a mark on my first year here.  I don't know what convinced me to apply to be a Team Leader (TL) for this year's program, but I applied, got the interview, and was selected to be a TL.  

Throughout this journey of being trained and then actually being a TL to 14 students last week, I have met so many new friends, learned so many new things about myself, and experienced a week that will have a hard time being topped.  

We started training in the March/April time period of last spring and I was in a group with five other TLs (we are the ones in the light blue shirts in the photos). My Super (who is awesome! He is the one who trained us. They are in the yellow shirts!) had a buddy (she is also awesome!) who also had six TLs she was training and we spent a lot of time together (they are the ones in the pink shirts).  I never knew 14 people who all came from such different backgrounds could come together so quickly and form a bond so tightly.  I love all 13 of those people with my entire heart.  They went through this last week with me when we were running on less than five hours of sleep each night.  I know that I can trust any of them with anything and that I can count on them to be there for me at any time.  

We all shared together in the nervousness of being in charge of [around] 14 students per each of us.  We didn't know what to expect of the incoming students or how the week would play out.  But we were there for each other (most of the time as comic relief, other times for support) and I loved seeing us all pull together.  Those nerves, however, seem almost silly now.  My 14 students have touched my life in ways I didn't think possible.  I had no idea how rewarding this past week would be.  

all my students! 

It has been such a neat experience watching them grow more comfortable here in just a matter of a week.  From last Sunday, when they would barely talk, to last night's "reunion" dinner when I couldn't get them to stop talking.  It puts such a smile on my face watching them hang out after this welcome week program--without being forced to. (: I can remember one moment in particular that has really touched me.  I believe it was on Wednesday and I had left them outside on their dorm's front lawn to go to the bathroom.  When I had come back out of the building, they were playing the human knot game without me having to suggest it.  We also had to make a beacon to carry around all week so that we were easily identified in large crowds (there were 5,400 of them, so yes, the beacons came in handy when we were all together).  My favorite animal being the chicken, I of course, had a chicken that my dad and I made together out of a bunch of junk pieces we found lying around.  My students named him Bruce and loved carrying him from place to place (and thank goodness as Bruce was no light chicken).  Anytime Bruce had a piece fall off of him I thought my students were going to cry! It might have been silly, but it still touched my chicken-lovin' heart.  

I would also like to take this small space of this post to write out how much I absolutely loved everyone' s enthusiasm this week.  My favorite part of the enthusiasm would have to be either all the cheering for different hall teams randomly throughout the week or else the dancing! Oh my gosh the dancing! I especially loved the common bond dance.  You guys, I love this program. 

There are still so many parts of this week I haven't been able to process because they caught me so off guard and touched me more than I ever could have imagined.  I love this program so much.  I love that there were almost a thousand of us TLs who love our school so much that we came back to school a week and a half early to help spread school pride to incoming students.  I love the idea that our school has a program for incoming students to dip their feet into what it means to be a Boiler and to get better acquainted with the campus before they are thrown into the school year.  I love the idea of FreeZone and getting to know people before judging them.  I love the relationships I have made and my school pride which has grown even larger.  

my beautiful TL (and Tim&Anna) family 

our awkward family photo. yes, we know we rocked it. These are all the lovely TLs I mentioned above. 

My confession: In high school I felt like I had my "home" in newspaper and Riley Dance Marathon.  Last year I felt like I was still searching for my "home" here on campus.  Well, I am so ecstatically pleased to say, I think I have found my "home".

Mister Benson

Please give a warm welcome to Mister Benson! We got him this past Tuesday and he is THE cutest little chunk ever.  God really answered our prayers and met needs that we didn't even know we had. 

Did you catch in this post how I kept saying "she" when referring to our future pup? We were so intent on getting another girl dog.  In all the pet sites we put in that we were looking for a female and at the humane society we really only concentrated on the female dogs.  We even had one of my mom's friend's nieces (did ya follow that?) looking for female puppies.  And we knew we wanted a dog that wouldn't shed. We even thought we knew what breed we wanted: a german-lab mix. Or a lab-something mix. We saw and met so many sweet dogs that all would have most likely been fine with our family.  But none of them felt like "her."  

This past Monday night my mom's friend's niece texted my mom and asked if we had found a dog over the weekend.  My mom replied that we hadn't, but were open to perhaps looking at different breeds of dogs or even dogs that shed.  The lady responded that she had just gotten off the phone with a rescue organization that had two five week old golden retriever puppies.  The only thing was, they were both male.  My mom asked her to send us a picture of the two and we about melted.  They were SO stinkin' cute.  My gosh, you guys!  We knew that this was what we were supposed to; it just felt right.  After sitting on the edge of our seats waiting to hear if they were still available (there were three other interest families) we found out we could have one!!  

Tuesday afternoon the lady brought them both over and we chose Mister Benson (choosing his name is AN ENTIRE other post.  Getting six people to agree on ONE name for the little chunk was such a tiring feat!).  He has been such a good puppy and we could not love him anymore.  God has been so faithful to us in our search for a puppy and he has given us the right dog for us.  We know that we aren't replacing Sadie (we never, ever could), but that we are opening up our hearts to love another dog.  I can't wait to see how our little chunk grows and we have all loved getting to know his sweet personality (except for at 5am.  At 5am his personality is a little much for us...err, Mom. She's the one who has been taking the 5am shift.).  

(I think we also all forgot how much work a puppy is! We can't leave anything on the ground because he loves to chew on everything.  Not to mention chew on us.  But he is oh so cute, it sort of makes up for it.)

And now for proof of his adorableness: 

My confession: We are so in love with Benson; a puppy only God could have gifted us with!

If you wouldn't mind praying

for our cat, Zoe.  She isn't taking the 

additional member of the family too well. 

Thanks, friends!

explorin'

While Em is taking on the great country of Sweden for the next two weeks (yeah, I know. Life's not fair, right?), we decided to take on downtown Indy for an evening.  It was completely last minute and made for quite a delightful evening.  After a little episode of Where Can We Find the Nearest Restroom, I HAVE to Pee Now, Yes, Let's Pee in the Fire Station, we rented two paddle boats and set sail.  Mom and Dad had their own, and Coop, Baby and I all shared the other.  We then finished off the evening by eating dinner downtown.  I can't wait to do some more exploring with Em and the whole gang once she returns! 

My confession: I love when we get opportunities to explore more about this great city! 

And oh yeah! I got

contacts.  So that's new

and exciting stuff!

tradition

Every year for Memorial Day we celebrate by going hiking.  It's always so much fun and although we didn't know if we would have time to, we made the decision to just go for it.  As per usual, it was so much fun.  It has rained here all weekend, so the trails were pretty muddy and slippery, but it was fun, regardless.  Hiking is one of my favorite out door activities, and I especially love it when we all go out together.  There are always many laughs had when us six go on an adventure. 

Thank you to all the veterans and those fighting to protect this beautiful country.  Dad served in the navy right after high school, so Memorial Day is always special to us.  We love this holiday and always love to celebrate those who have helped protect the land of the red, white, and blue.  I think I go for all of us when I say there should be more than one holiday recognizing our soldiers. 

My confession: I may look like a city girl through and through, but I love spending time out in nature.  And hiking is one of my favorite ways to do that.  Happy Memorial Day.