Another hair cut!

On monday I was up in Traverse for another hair cut. They aren't the cutest pictures, but you get the idea. Its a cute short bob.... I contemplated getting a short pixie cut, but decided to hold off on that a little while longer.

Ending this chapter

My, I can hardly believe that I've pretty much completed the "school phase" of my life. Although, I'm pretty sure I'm not done with my education- I love learning, and can actually say a PhD might be in my future... But I want to work for a little while. It might be fun to try out my degree :)

This last year of my education have been especially meaningful to me. I could have never guessed how much I would learn and grow professionally and personally while in grad school. I also realized how much more learning I have to do, but I'm extremely excited about that being apart of my next "phase" in life.

Thank you so much to all of you who supported me with many prayers, words of encouragement, and positive examples of happiness. I feel so blessed to have wonderful friends and family that love and support me.

Commencement is on the 18th so I will be sure to post plenty of pictures!!

New Hair

I've chopped it off again!!! I have been thinking about it for a long time. Every time I see someone with short hair I miss mine, and decided that it was time. I figured that as I start to look for jobs it will help people take me a little more seriously too. I'm sure though that now when I see people with long hair I will miss mine... I think it will take a little getting used to. It's still a little shocking every time I walk past a mirror.

the never ending to do list

So, I got up extra early this morning to knock off a few things from my todo list, but obviously I'm a little distracted. School has literally been kicking my but this semester. It feels as though, since the start of school, my life no longer belongs to me, I am a slave to the endless amounts of reading aaaaand paper writing. I guess this is how Gradschool should feel, but I didn't feel like this last semester so this was not how I anticipated the start of school. Not to mention that this is my last semester and the idea of that is a whole other box of anxiety provoking thoughts. But I really do think that the only thing getting me through this hellish amount of school work is that at Thanksgiving I'm headed to Utah to for TEN days! Yes, TEN DAYS!!!!

I'm just a little excited!! I found a ticket fro $280 from Detroit to Salt Lake City (I think it was mean to be, for me to find such a good deal!!). I take off Nov 20 and return Nov 30. The way my schedule is for school this semester, I will only be missing 1 class, so I decided that it would be worth it. I don't EVER miss class so this one time in my whole Gradschool career, I think I'll be okay. I am excited as ever see the family I have been missing so much. Plus, I will get to help with the Thanksgiving preparations, and if any of you have talked to me recently you know what a cooking machine I've become!!

Ugh back to the paper writing... Just though I'd share the exciting news!!

5K

Before the race...

After the race... on our way to breakfast :)

I ran my second official race today!! It was a crisp 45 degrees at The Big House in Ann Arbor, and the sun was shinning!! There were 20,000 people either running or walking today. I'm not sure what my official time is, but i think it was just about 3o minutes. I think I want my next race to be a little bit more competitive though. And I even felt a little bit inspired to start training for a marathon.... possibly in the next few years :) I wish I would have gotten more pictures because it was such a gorgeous day, but I didn't want to hold my camera while I was running.

Running

Nothing like a nice morning run to start my day. Apart of me felt like I was back in Costa Rica, and I missed it. As I headed out of my house (well, Kirby's house), part of me hopped to find the crooked, broken road, the smell of the earth, and the view of the mountains, and lush greenery of San Jose. But I was greeted with a new sense of connectedness to Ann Arbor. Main Street and Campus were quiet, still, and dark. It smelled like fall, and the air was crisp and cool. It was the kind of run that made me fall in love with Ann Arbor all over again. I am going to miss Ann Arbor when this semester comes to an end... but hopefully it will be a bitter sweet end with me moving on to bigger and better!

Aaaaand, I'm running another 5k this coming sunday morning. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm running with Kirby and Liz (from my program). I would like to start doing more races... next time I will do a 10k. My personal goal is to be running a consistent 10 miles as my long run, by Christmas. Right now my long run is 8 miles.... but I've only kept that consistent for 2 weeks. Hopefully I can keep that up.

The new place

Family Dinner

Homework party... this is how we spend

most of our time together.

Our Bathroom. I did the paintings on the right to match our shower

curtain that you cant see because the lighting is terrible.

Our Living Room- angle 1

Living Room- angle 2

I didn't think I would ever get the chance to live with Lara again, but it has been such a blessing. We don't get to spend a ton of time together because of our crazy schedules, but I look forward to the nights when we are home together. It was a fun project to decorate for this place, I know I'm not going to be here very long, but it makes it so much nicer to spend time at home when I like how everything is decorated.

Another fun thing about living with Lara and Sarah is practicing my cooking skills. I try to cook dinner for us at least one night a week. I have really loved this because of my recent decision to cut meat out of my diet. Last week was meatless meatballs- that were AWESOME!!! Better than the meatballs I have made with meat... Tonight I think I'm going to try and experiment with something new :)