Dear Blog,
I am sorry I have left you so lonely. I know you've missed me. But I love you, I hope you always know this.
Signed,
Laura

Word of the day: Pumkin Muffies. Also known as a food I would like to eat all the time.

Yesterday, my kindergartners gave me two Christmas rice krispie treats because it was Gardner's birthday (yeah, that's a real kid's name). Then my Teaching Exceptional Children prof gave me a bag of candy. Then Lisa and Alyssa and I had a pumpkin muffie party, and had at least ten of the little suckers each. I am convinced that everyone everywhere just really wants me to get fat.

The ladies in my Sunday School class are ridiculously precious. The one sitting next to me (I believe her name was Jane) just whispered back and forth with me about things she had written in her book, which she shared with me. And another one of the ladies was joking about her 80th birthday coming back. Last time I was there, she said (as she slumped down in her chair and got-wide eyed), "Oh my gosh. I'm going to be eighty in two weeks!" Umm, yeah. I want them to adopt me so I can go to their precious houses and bake cookies with them.

I got to be a mermaid on Saturday! My aunt and two little cousins, Jenny and Rachel, came to Chatty for a visit and we went to the aquarium. I've been like four times in the last year, but going with them was my favorite. They were excited about so many things, and I got to make them laugh. And, during the last part--the sea cave--we pretended we were mermaids. YES. And, right before that, while Rachel and I waited for her mom and Jenny to go to the bathroom, we went into the jellyfish room and pretended to be jellyfish. Awkwardly enough, however, all the turtles seemed to be getting frisky with one another....

So, I've really been getting into Psalm 34 lately. I tried to memorize it over the summer, but kids are very distracting, so I'm trying again now. It's reminding me of the importance of PERSISTENCE in prayer, and learning to lean on God--He's got it. He's big enough, he knows what He's doing. And I need to chill out, because in the long run, His will will be accomplished. And that's really cool. So far, I'm on verse 9.

Here I am inserting Molly, cuz she just asked if I was blogging about her. I AM NOW! You are sucking a lollipop and listening to piano music and putting up pictures on facebook. You're a dork!

Sunday was gorgeous, so I just had to go to the woods. And it was ooooober pretty! I think half of the students in Founders thought so too, because the woods were way too crowded. I ended up going off the trail just so I could feel alone. I took my Bible, journal, and internship application. Oh yeah, and my camera. I was super stoked about taking pictures. I think I'm turning into my dad.

I really, really want to be a missionary. I mean, my desire just gets bigger and bigger. I'm super stoked about this internship, and I really hope that's God's will for me this summer. I don't really know how teaching would fit into a future career in missions, though. I don't want to teach as a missionary kids school, because I feel like it's too exclusive. But I don't want to teach English at a university either. Soooo....we'll see. I got a couple years. And maybe a husband to figure that out with later. Maybe. We'll see. But not for now. I like being single too much :)

I slept a lot today. And that made me so happy.

So...Greasy is a creeper. I was sitting with my friends today in lunch, and he went all the way around the front of our booth and sat at an empty table right next to us so that he was directly in my line of vision and could hear everything we were saying. It was only SLIGHTLY obvious he wanted my attention. But I'm getting really good at not letting it bother me so much...and, I'm not the one failing my classes >:)

My grandmother sent me a shirt and popcorn today. The shirt is interesting, but I will for sure be using the popcooorn!

Our hall had a Star Wars party on Sunday night. A lot of nerds live on my hall. And I love it.

Actually, I just have a lot of really good friends here. And I love my school. Except for the ridiculous amount of homework all the time.

Grace is coming on Friday!

Song of the day: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 10 in G major (The Cock Crow) by Beethoven. In other words, the song that Molly has playing on Pandora right now.