Have a blessed day....

Thanksgiving shouldn't be the only day that we sit down with our loved ones and revel in our company and blessings. And for most it isn't, thankfully.

I am writing this today to let everybody that has ever been and continues to be a part of my life, know how much I am blessed by God because of you.

Being away from home for the first time on a holiday, is most definately very difficult. Instead of watching the Muppet Christmas Show with my family, having an afternoon treat of doughnuts with my relatives and a scrumptious dinner followed by card games and yummy homemmade deserts, I am sharing dinner with the Smiths (who I stayed with over fall break) and eating the most delicious of foods (Donna's a superb cook). They have been so hospitable to me, and taken me in as their own. However, I'm like a stranger on the outside looking in. I don't know the family stories they speak of, the interweavings of their interactions.

I miss my family, I miss our own stories. I have cried many tears these last three months...some would think because I am homesick...and that is where the source stems, but the roots of my tears have come from overwhelming moments of love for my family and friends, and all the ways in which God has blessed me in my life.

I am truly grateful...and I will make my way home. Until then, you are all in my heart and I am with you in spirit.

Always and forever, Alexis.

The Edge of Winter...

I believe that this morning we have reached the edge of winter, and soon we will fall of the edge and find ourself in a full fledged flurry of snowflakes.

This morning, I woke up to the first real snow that stuck to the ground. Before I got out of bed I thought about making my way to the den and sitting by the crackling fire by my mother's side while she reads a mystery novel. From there I thought about sitting on our lovely, comfortable, gold couches (My mom told me that we have them no longer, my parents gave them to my sister and Luke...and now we have stiff cold white leather couches, blah. Anyhow...) and looking out the dining room window to see my father dispersing hay among our hourses. During this train of thought my mother is in the kitchen baking, the smells of delicious homecooked food waft through my senses. And I begin the morning in a way filled with contentment with the comforts of my family and home.
But in reality I stretched in my twin bed covered in a blanket of farm animals made by my Grandma, and then I proceded to crawl out of bed and stand up on the floor (that is much in need of a good vaccuum) of my college dorm and make my way to the cold floor of a stalled bathroom shared by four girls... If only we were able to stay in the daze of our daydreams, sigh.

Thankfully.... I am ready for the arrival of winter. I was going to wait till I came at home at Christmas for the purchase of a winter coat (with the wonderful help of my parents) but Jeni and I went on a necessity shopping spree late last night after rearranging our room and we happened to find a few things that weren't on our lists in TjMaxx. (My purchases included the perfect winter coat, warm, fuzzy, colors that blend well together, a striking pattern, and thumb holes that make me feel special, and all for a wonderfully low price that even I couldn't resist. Also....you will see in the picture on my feet are some extra special funky cute boots, that will aide me well in slushy weather such as we are experiencing....and the colors match my coat also....yea, my lil splurge!)


Funny story though, I was so excited about my wonderful goodies that I walked out of the store with one of my bags. I had to laugh and share the story with my mother...because indeed we are alike and I am her daughter. The guy that helped me at the cash register followed Jeni and I out of the store calling, "You forgot your boots"...although at first we thought some random guy was saying, "I like your boots" (Jeni was wearing her cow rain boots at the time which she gets complimented on often) and so we didn't turn around immediately.
In case you didn't get enough detail of my new winter wear, I'm including some closeup shots.


Other things that happened this week (it was really quiet on campus) was Jeni and I rearranging our room. We just kind of had a nice little time to ourselves to catch up on our lives in various aspects. Here's what our new set up looks like.

So Jeni's been in a random funk this week....she had Lindsay and I cut her hair (just for fun, she was tired of her dry ends)...I was too scared to do anything but give her bangs and in the proccess I cut myself (I thought of my mom cutting my daddy's hair, once again we are related, hee hee.)

and after church today we had our weekly ritual coffee date at the Common Cup. She ordered Baza Nova Oolong tea, which is hot p.s....Jeni doesn't like hot drinks. I ordered a gingerbread latte to try and switch it up from my usual Chai Latte. Needless to say, Jeni's been in a 'try new things' funk this week, maybe it's partly due to her being on antibiotics for the case of bronchitis that she's been fighting this last week.

Other news this weekend, I was able to, after various long conversations with Dell Technical support (try communicating with someone from India, the accent hinders the help), get my computer working again after it had been brutally injured by a virus attack about a week and half ago. To get it working again, I had to wipe it completely clean back to it's original settings. I was able to save all my documents and the picutres that I've taken since being here at college, but the rest of my pictures are lost to me until I go home at Christmas and retrieve them from my parent's computer. Bad news bears....but it was a necessary sacrifice for the benefit of my homework and communication experience here at college.

Well as much as I love typing all these lil tid bits to you, I must flee to my homework, or rather head drudgingly in that direction...I'm afraid even though I have a huge homework load to take care of today, I still have the nerve to procrastinate. I blame it on the weather, bah!

Have a wonderfuly wintry day. Hugs and kisses!

The days in which I thank God for blessing me so greatly...

Sometimes along the road of growing up, I took my parents for granted. Being away from them has made me realize, or rather remember how much how they loved me, molding me into the person I am today. They not only gave me life, but brought me up in my saving faith. I am amazed at how they have done it. I am ever grateful for the unconditional support, guidance, and love that they have nurtured with me over the years. And I am so deeply blessed to be the daughter of two such marvelous people.



My sister is in every sense of the word GORGEOUS and I just want everybody to know that.... she stuns me. Luke is truly blessed to be loved by such a woman. She will listen with apt attention, she has advice even if you don't necessarily believe you want or need it, she's creative to the point of making Halloween costumes out of Walmart grocery bags. She's timeless. And I am so deeply blessed to have her as my sister.

Jenny. Kade. Porter. Austin. You have taught me so much about what it means to be a friend and to love someone through thick or thin. I am indebted to all the life lessons that you have taught me, both of serious and silly nature. Despite whatever differences we may share, I am able to be completely me, when I am with you. We have time, we have have memories, we have forged bonds that will not be broken. We will be friends through the end, no matter where each of our paths take us.

To all my other friends back home, you know who you are. I am rich with memories of both happy and sad times that I have shared with you. To call you my friend is an honor that I cherish. I think often of all of you, waiting for the moment when I shall see you all again. And I am so deeply blessed to have such friends as you in my life.

(I would love to spend more time telling each and everyone of you how much I love and miss you and how you've impacted my life, but there's too much to say in too little time...but know that I'm thinking of all of you...)

Everyone back home... I have loved you then, I love you now, and I will always love you in the future. God has blessed me so deeply through the past 18 years of my life by putting wonderful people such as yourselves in my life and I thank him continually.

.....Two and a half months into the college life and many of you are still patiently waiting to match faces to names that I mention in my dailiy life....well here it goes...

(Note that I came to college thinking that I wouldn't connect easily with anyone here on the basis of keeping myself from getting hurt...it's getting harder and harder to fight my nature of attaching to people and coming to love and care about them...)

Above in these two pictures are Jeni (my roommate who I would describe in five words as: Extreme, Dedicated, Determined, Motivated, & Outgoing...she's helped me in developing more of the latter four in myself) and Lindsay my suitemate. Lindsay has graciously taken me home with her a few times, where her family has welcomed me with open arms. She thinks I'm crazy, as do many here (tee hee but I don't mind). In the above picture on the left...we were taking part in a campus event for Breast Cancer Awareness.......(yes I did dye my hair pink again, the bottom layer...but it didn't really work out so I'm already back to blonde, yea!) And on the picture on the right it was Halloween... our campus' dorms hosted trick-or-treating for children from local churches and we were helping out pass candy. (I was in jeans and a t-shirt for that, but Jeni insisted on me dressing up in some way for a picture...thanks to my masquerade mask from senior prom with Kade, I tried to pull off a silvery fairy pixiesh theme..)
In this picture there is Chloe (my other suitemate) Matt (He livies in Miriam dorm and plays baseball here. This kid never stops having crazy good times.) Chloe and Lindsay are two girls that love to have fun. Since being here, they are continually attempting to get my to experience new things such as learning to dance and going to the club, going to parties (which are fun my opinion, but only if you're sober and laughing at all the stupid things people who are not do), and also trying to swallow a spoonfull of cinnamon.... (It doesn't go over so well, it's so dry it explodes it's spicy dust in your lungs and you can't swallow, and vomiting might ensue) These two are in basketball season right now, so currently I don't see them much except to say hi and goodbye. (Sports take away a lot of your free time to just chill and hang out with people) Anyhow, Lindsay and Chloe keep me on my toes and keep me laughing. Peachy suitemates they are.

Kevin is another guy in Miriam dorm who plays baseball here at college. He thinks he's gangster...is always singing a rap or country song, and refuses to dance (claims he's bad at it, but I highly doubt he's worse than me). He's in two of my classes and we pass notes like little kids in elementary school, but it's bunches of fun. He quotes from time to time a saying that just kicks my giggles, "If you ain't weird, you ain't right".




Sean... is a tall gangly kid who plays (well until he got injured early in the season and had to red shirt until next year) a fabulous goalie for the soccer team here. Also from Miriam, he is quite the character and whenever I'm around him, the witty insults never stop flying from his mouth. He hangs out with Lindsay and Chloe a lot, therefore I also see him quite often. He's an art major here and he was the first one to add a drawing to my wall. (In the picture he is drawing me an ostrich on our bathroom wall with dry erase markers, yea!) Needless to say, Sean is a lot of fun to be around.

On the right is Zach...he is a hilarious kid, when you're around him, you never stop laughing... and he never stops laughing at me. I think he makes fun of me more than anyone here, but all in good jest. As are most of the boys that I associate with here Zach is an athelete living in Miriam dorm. He plays basketball.

Rocko, Oh Rocko. He's a big teddy bear basketball player from Miriam dorm. He's fun to tease and mess around with, but sometimes he doesn't know when to stop. He's cool though, I don't take any guff from him so we get along just fine.

Erica here to the left has a room all to herself in our dorm because she's special like that. She plays both basketball and softball here. She loves to sport athletic shorts, a t-shirt, and a sweatband on her head. She's pretty rad and easy to be around.

I don't have pictures of all of the people that have since become part of my daily life but I will tell you a lil bit about them anyway. There's Megan and Rachel who are both freshman soccer players that live in my dorm. Rachel is a fun loving girl, always looking for a good time. She has three hearts: her body's heart, her birthmark in the shape of a heart, and a tattoo of a heart on her wrist. Megan is a silly girl that is always making me laugh. She likes to talk with the accent and quote from the movie Borat. She is dating Justin who is a red headed soccer player from Miriam dorm who in the first two weeks managed to slice his head open right above his eye and come down with a staff infection, staying in the hospital for over a week. I call him, "My lil ray of sunshine". There's also his roommate Yonathon (I call him Yoni) (He's originally from Ethiopia) who is constantly giving me a hard time, but don't worry I dish it right back at him. Yoni likes to sleep a lot. Other boys from Miriam are Andy (a baseball player) who loves music artists such as Led Zeppelin and Eric Claption. The boys in his dorm call him wolfman - he is a tad bit hairy. Overall he's very laid back, and has a 'just go with the flow' kind of attitude. Then there is Morgan who comes all the way from Texas. He plays basketball here but has recently out of commission with a fractured foot or ankle, I'm not sure which. (He's a tall cutie pie who gives great hugs and is always ready with a funny face to make you smile) And also there is St. Kitts (His real name is Matthew) from Canada. He's a baseball player. We have Living With The Arts together, and we spend the time teasing each other and drawing pictures, when we're not paying avid attention to the professors that is. :)
This is Adam (Most people call him Stein - it's part of his lengthy last name) and he's studying pre-seminary here. He is truly a great example and witness of faith and I admire and respect him very much. (Plus he has the most gorgeous brunette head of hair I've ever seen, Icompliment him on it continuously). Adam has a very dry sense of humor and he never laughs at me when I'm trying to be funny...but when I'm not, he never stops laughing. He's got a good chuckle on him.

Next to him is Andrea who lives in Sarah dorm with me. She is such a beautiful girl inside and out. We get along really well, and if it were not for our busy conflicting schedules, I would hang out with her more than I do. Most of the time we sit together at chapel during the week though. We both have been struggling with homesickness but thankfully are becoming somewhat of a support system for each other.

Hmm...how to explain dear ole Mike. He is the roommate of Ben who's the RA of Miriam dorm. I hang out with those two a lot. To say it lightly, Mike is a huge movie fanatic...but because of it we never run out of movies to watch and he has one for almost every mood. He's got such a good heart and is always willing to help a friend in need. He's pretty much adorable.

Last but definately not least is Ben. The transition from being surrounded by all my loved ones to being completely on my own has not been very easy. But it would have been, with out a doubt, much more difficult if Ben hadn't stepped in and become such a swell friend. Out of anyone here, I am most comfortable with him and also his sister Emily, who's a senior here. He's an extremely motivated, dedicated, and disciplined individual in all aspects of his life. (Oh and did I mention he's super-uber healthy, but in a good way me thinks.) Ben even enjoys (or at least he puts on a good show of) listening to my rambling stories, which includes telling him every lil detail about the letters I get from back home. (Which includes, a.k. my mother's miscellaneous packages and the pictures and stories I recieve from my three favorite girls: Mary, Francie, and Elizabee) He and I also continuosly banter back and forth with each other in a sarcastic but pleasant matter. We also try to find unusual words and share them through notes that have to be decoded by finding the definition of the often strange words. Ben describes me as hobbledehoy....yea, go look that one up, it pretty much defines a lot of my moments.

This week we got the chance to go thrift store shopping, in which he had a lot more luck than me including various random colorful t-shirts such as one that says something about Elvis & 10th Anniversary. We plan on going to another/different store this week.

I'm not sure if I've previously mentioned but I go to church every week with Ben, his sister Emily, and her roommate, also called Emily (who is my official 'play in the leaves' friend).

So let's see....how to wrap this this blog of fun up... I've met many new and exciting people here at college. Ben is probably the only person I would consider a real 'friend' but that's because I compare everyone here to my friends back home, and their level of friendship holds up a pretty high standard to reach :) And as I stated before, I'm trying not to get attached to quickly to to many people. But at the same time I'm still enjoying getting to know and hanging out with lots of different groups of people here. Because everyone has something to offer.

Other than that, I don't have much to comment on besides that everything's pretty peachy right now, except for all the homework I have....blughahdoihefgskndoifnsdg....that's what I have to say to that!

One more month, and I will fly like a lil bird on my newly found wings all the way back home to Idaho! I'm simply ecstatic about it!