Greatness!!

So on Monday when this week started I proclaimed that it was going to be a good week, and it surely has been a great week!! I got an email about a job and filling out a pre-assessment. That pre-assessment was kind of hard, my english/grammar skills could use some sharpening. Then on Friday they called me to come in for an interview! Woo hoo!! Hopefully it works out since I am flying all the way to Texas for it about two weeks before I am moving back for good.

Saturday was Marisa's baptism and I am one of her three godmothers and it was such an honor to be a part of her big day. I will surely miss the whole Gill family when I move back to Texas. But I vowed to visit very often. I think Marjorie made me a godmother so that I would be forced to come back to New York to visit!! :) And her mom made some to die for chicken and dumplings tonight for dinner. Yum-oh!! They are for sure making my decision to move back to Texas hard. As school gets closer to being done I get sadder about leaving them. They have made my life a million and one times better, and I know that God put them in my lives for a reason!!

Speaking of God. I didn't get to go to church today because I had to work on a group project and on my way driving to school I passed a woman who was walking. Something in my heart told me to pick her up, but I just kept driving. So I make it to the end of the street and I turn around because I knew that I needed to turn around and get her. So it's raining pretty steadily at this point and I turn around to go and ask her where she needs a ride to. She needed a ride to the Indian temple and she said it was just around the corner. Unfortunately, we were never able to find the temple, but she had been walking for over 2 hours and I was able to give her a ride and just listen to her spill her heart. Everyone has a story to tell and sometimes they just need someone to listen. Thankfully by picking her up I wasn't robbed or harmed. :) She has been through a lot and I will add her to my prayer box.

Playing in the baptismal sink

Trying hard to get back in the sink

Marisa and her three godmothers and brother

Marisa in her baptism outfit with no bow in her hair since she refused

The front of the necklace I got her .. (turtles are her favorite)

The back of the necklace with one of my favorite verses Jeremiah 29:11

The cake for the brunch after

Because numbers have meant a lot to me recently

This post is in honor of all the numbers that have meant a lot to me recently ..

100 - the number of pages my project that is due on Monday is supposed to have, hence the reason I am still awake

98 - the amount of dollars it cost me to mail home 4 boxes8 - the number of pages I have left in this project

29 - the number of days until I move back to Texas

29:11 - the numbers of the verse from Jeremiah that I had inscripted on Marisa's baptism gift

27 - the number of days until graduation

19 - the number of days until Carly and I get to see Oprah

15 - the number of days until my last graduate school class is done

7 - the number of days until Marisa's baptism

6 - the number of days until my poster presentation

5 - the number of days I get to spend in NYC with Carly

2 - the number of days left until the project is over

So, my lack of blogging is due to my overwhelmingly busy schedule. I have been finishing up my internship with WIC, where we finally chose a new logo for NYS WIC. So exciting and so fun. Since this has been my project for the past two semesters I had to present to the director of WIC, to the director of the bureau for food (it's really some other name), the public affairs group, and the central office staff.

Before the semester can be finished I have to:

Give a poster presentation on my internship experience

Present our grant proposal to the class

Take my Family and Community Health final

Turn in my individual 100 page paper

Finish and turn in our group 100 page paper

Give presentation as group over paper

Undergraduate graduation pictures from 2 years ago

Even if I walk through a very dark valley

I should be working on my project (100 pages) that is due next Monday, but I am still processing what the Pastor preached about today and I am so very thankful that I got to sit there and hear that sermon this morning.

I have had Psalms 23 memorized since I was a child. My mom used to make us open our Bible to Psalm 23 when we had bad dreams and put it under our pillow and go to back to sleep. Until today I had never really thought about what the verse was saying.

"Even if I walk through a very dark valley, I will not be afraid, because you are with me."

Many times I don't praise God as often because I am in a valley or I complain because I am in that valley, but being in a valley is more reason for us to praise God. The verse says that we walk through the valley and not that we will stay in the valley. And the great thing about walking in the valley is that we are not alone.

I would have to consider most of my time in New York as a valley for me. This valley may have lasted for two years, but I can see the end. New York was much more bearable once I found a church, and kept praising. As I finish my time up here in New York I am not fearful of what is to come or of any more valleys I may go through because I know that You are with me.

Only 35 days until I am back in Texas, sooo close.

These pictures are from a wedding we went to last week. And yes I have a fake smile in both of them.

Some things are getting marked off my list!!

So, I decided today would be a good day to re-evaluate my 101 in 1001 list after I had a conversation with someone at work today. So here are some of the things that I will be able to mark off soon ..

Go to the Oprah show - My friend Carly and I are going to her Live Your Best Life Weekend in NYC

Live in Texas again - This will be happening next month (and I am sooo excited)

Visit at least 10 of the 50 states - 2 weeks ago I went to Vermont and it was beautiful!!

Graduate with a Master's Degree - Graduation is next month!! Woo Hoo!!

Go to top of Statue of Liberty - I am hoping to do this when I go to NYC in May

Watch Erin graduate from nursing school at Tech - I will also be doing this in May

Go back to Lubbock and visit the Hughes and the Jacksons - I will be able to do this in May

Go to a friends wedding - thanks to Amanda this will be happening soon

Be in a wedding - again thanks to Amanda for making me a part of her special day :)

Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge - Hopefully in May

Pack up apartment in New York - I have started already!!

Some of the things I am working on ..

Go without ice cream for a year - I have made it over 3 months now!!

Love unconditionally - It's a learning process

Maple Weekend

These pictures aren't in any particular order because I am too lazy to fix it, but I had a wonderful time last weekend seeing how maple syrup was made. I went to Kents Sugar House and learned all about it. It was about a 40 minute drive outside of Albany and a pretty drive up. I was about 30 minues away from Vermont and went ahead and crossed over so that I could add that to my 101 in 1001 list.

The different amounts of maple syrup you could but. Some people even buy the largest which is a gallon.

This is what the sugar house looked like.

These are the holes they drilled in the tree to take the sap out.

They place these things in the tree and the sap drips out into buckets. It takes like 48 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup. They even let me taste it and it tasted like water. He said that only 2% was sugar.

The man was bottling the syrup while I was there.

He let me see the different grades of maple syrup. All of the different colors taste different.

Here is the syrup coming out of the machine that develops it.

This is the actual machine.

Here is a picture of part of the tree where several sap holes had been made.

The bucket again.

And the sign on the building. Apparently, Maple Weekend is a big deal up north and I was very glad to be given the opportunity to participate!!