here is my long awaited update....I'm HOME!! it's great...average of about 105 and extremely sunny every day.  YAY!!!  Now I know why it gets so depressing in Chicago, even when it's "sunny" there it doesn't compare to  even our cloudiest days here.  I love the desert.  I got back from the Grand Canyon a couple of days ago.  My best friend, Bobby, and I took a final early and hiked the Grand Canyon with my family.  That was awesome.  We had a whole day on the bottom and did a mini-hike and had a half day with God.  It is amazing to spend time with God when you're surrounded by His beautiful creation.  I could have spent several more weeks on the bottom away from the distractions of everyday life. 

It was really fun having Bobby and my family around.  I love it when my favorite people from two different "worlds" are all with me at once.  Bobby left yesterday so now I need to get hardcore about my support raising and thank-you-noting for the support I have. 

The next week and a half at home are going to fly by sooo fast.  I'm really excited about this summer but right now it feels like this ominous cloud coming down on me...I wanna live my vacation life at home forever!

lol...aren't you all AWED by the spiritual nature of my reading material??

YES! I did my first long and stressful Teaching the Bible Practicum presentation yesterday!  I feel sooo much better with that over and not a whole lot left to do before I go home.  So I was thinking the today that this year of school really is good.  It is definitely very different from last year when I pretty much saw this place as heaven on earth with no flaws and entirely perfect people.  Things have changed.  New sister floor, new guys on my floor, new classes, new relationships for all my friends, and many new challenges...but along with these come a new PCM that's amazing, some awesome new friends, new and more fun classes and new things taught to me from God that are very exciting.  So I'm content and as I register for next year I can't wait to see what kind of crazy things will happen then!

I'm ridiculously new to this whole "Xanga" thing so pardon me is this isn't the right way to do it...My whole life is somewhat overwhelming at the moment!  All of my classes are amazingly thought provoking and sometimes i want to just crash on my bed and ponder for a few hours by the time i'm done with all of them.  I've got Intro to Philosophy, intro to music, interpersonal ministry skills (my first counseling class, YAY!), Christianity and Western Culture, violence and grace in the novel, and teaching the Bible practicum.  yep, that's 18 credits worth. poor me.    it's actually really cool and i'd much rather be too challenged than not challenged.  my friends here are the best thing ever though with this big of a course-load and the frigidity of this city (currently 16 degrees, YUCK!), i sometimes long for the slow paced nature and daily 80 degrees of HOME!   oh and one last thing...yes i'm listening to the phantom of the opera borrowed from Lonsway and I LOVE IT!