Well, the day has finally arrived…I hit the 250 hour mark on getting my internship hours done!!! Actually, I have 256 hours completed, so that means I am OVER halfway there! Another 244 hours & I’ll be graduating! We’re expecting an August graduation for anyone who’d like to come celebrate with us!!
(judging by the exclamation points and the capital letters, it seems as though I’m pretty excited about this. See how perceptive I’m already becoming!) 
Ben left tonight for a men’s retreat with our church, The Grove. So that means I get a weekend all to myself. I’ve been feeling a bit dry on my “introverted” recharge time by myself lately, so I’m really looking forward to this. In the plans: watching movies, wearing my pjs during the middle of the day, homework, keeping the fire going in the wood stove. (the high will be in the 20s tomorrow!)
I feel really busy these days…and for the better part of the last year actually. Really busy. I feel like I’m hardly ever at home. I’m always at work, or leaving work to go do counseling stuff. That doesn’t leave much time to spend with Ben though! I decided to write out what a “normal” day looks like for me….maybe you’ll find it interesting. Maybe it will give you a better idea of what life looks like for Beth. I don’t know why I felt the need to include the things I ate, but maybe it’ll make it more interesting that way…
Here’s the play-by-play of Monday:
7:00 am: roll out of my nice warm, cozy bed.
7:30-8:00: get ready.eat breakfast.look through my planner at the week ahead.
8:23: walk down the hill to work.
8:30-11:55: answer unending phone calls about summer camp, retreats, transferring calls to another staff member, taking payments.retreive faxes from the fax machine & deliver them to various people.realize quickly that not much on my “list” of things to do will be getting done today.
11:55: someone brought in some leftover doughnuts from their breakfast. Since there was a cake doughnut with chocolate icing & nuts on top, I had to eat it. (those are my favorite).
12:05: walk back up to the house for lunch
12:10-12:30: fix leftover PF Chang’s for lunch. Sit down and relax and read through the latest issue of Relevant magazine while picking through my leftovers. (PF Chang’s doesn’t reheat very well)
12:30-1:10: read a few chapters in my novel. (the best assignment for class I’ve had yet: pick any novel you want, read it, and give the class a 10 min. report over it.)
1:10: grab a piece of peppermint bark before walking back down to the office for work.
2:00-3:45: attend weekly Guest Services Meeting. (we talk about the retreat groups that were just here, and the ones for the weekend coming up & discuss new ideas for ways to serve our guests better)
4:00: leave for counseling sessions
6:35: leave counseling sessions to grab a bite to eat (Arby’s) before class
7:15-9:45: Group Theory class (this was fun…we had good discussions and interesing realizations.)
10:00-11:30: go over what we’ll talk about in Community Group this semester with Cass & Brandi.we always end up staying longer that we intend to.
For me, the best place to watch a sunset or a sunrise is from the saddle of a bike. There is an stretch or road around here that i bike on often, it gives an amazing view of the sunset, and there is something about being on a bike that makes it that much better….
Well, after a whirlwind trip covering about 2500 miles & visiting both sides of our families, we are back home. And after much celebrating to ring out ’07 & ring in ’08 we are recovering from a nasty bug of some sort…here are some pictures from our celebrations…
breakfast of champions…
we did a lot of driving…
apparently everything’s bigger in texas…
we found daniel in albuquerque…go figure…
santa also made an appearance…
we played games with the Wests…
beth got to make deviled eggs….(her favorite!)
after albuquerque, we stopped in oklahoma city to visit beth’s aunts, uncles & cousins for dinner, spent one night at our house, then drove to st. louis the next day. we spent a few days with beth’s family and got to have lunch w/ her friend julie in washington.
Then when we got home, we attended the annual ugly sweater party. Ben tied for 1st place, but lost the tie-breaker (wii boxing). Laura came to visit for a few days, we burned our Christmas trees, had a Progressive Dinner, and then ended Laura’s visit with all of us getting sick. We’re on the mend now though, and looking forward to a low-key weekend!
our sweaters…
marla & laura…
burning the christmas trees…
