This is ladies night.

Friday was ladies night.  What a night it was! Lots of fun, laughter, food, and getting to know some of the ladies of August Gate a little bit better.  Nights like Friday tend to bring out my extroverted-ness and I have to remind myself to shut up and listen.

A couple of my new friends really stand out as good listeners - Kim, who I love so much but I did not snap a single picture of all night, and Celeste, who makes me feel warm.  Does that sound creepy?  Sorry, Celeste.  You just do.  Can I have a hug?

Then there's Juliette, who I could talk to for hours. We have very similar tastes in just about everything, I think!  She and I connected quickly and now we've bonded over our love for Twilight. Judge away.  We don't care.  Juliette is a beautiful soul with a great laugh.

This is Emily and Amy.

Emily is my favorite story-teller. She always has something great to share and it seems like she's lived a lot of life.  She makes everyone laugh and feel happy.  I just like being around her.  When you're with her you feel the love of Jesus pouring through her.

Amy is so smart and cute.  Just look at that baby belly!  I love her style, her sweetness, her energy, and her dogs.  Watson loves her dogs, too.  There's a lot I want to learn from her.  She and her husband, Jacob, made us feel really welcome.

Jenille is so funny and queen of the random one-liners.   She also has great stories and makes the most random jokes I've ever heard.  I think what makes her so funny is that she delivers them with a straight face like Tina Fey.  Just get her some thick-rimmed glasses and call Lorne Michaels.

We ate a lot of really great food and had a great time.  It was really nice to just throw on some sweat pants and have some laughs.

Of course, there were a lot of other girls there who I love, but did not get great pictures of due to my lack of camera skills in low-lighting. So, here's my shout-out to Kim, Heather, Kat, Jamie, and Brei! Thanks for a great night!

School days. School daze.

For once, the start of the semester does not make me feel so bad.  I'm not in a daze.  I'm actually quite excited for the upcoming semester, though I'm told it's the "make-you-or-break-you" semester of my program.  I've got a little confidence, not in myself, but in Jesus who is big enough to get me through this. 

Can I tell you how nice it is to walk across campus with Kyle? It's really great. Such an improvement from the loneliness of summer.

I still cannot believe that we're here together.  It seemed like such an impossible thing that we would even get into schools in the same city, let alone the same school!  To boot, our buildings are right next to each other.  Have I told you that before?  I can't remember.  Yeah.  It's awesome.

The SLU campus is beautiful.  I'd grown used to the drab architecture and dull landscape of SIUC.

Sure, the hills and trees are nice down there, but there's a serious lack of style and color.  SLU is quite the opposite.  I mainly attribute the differences to the fact that Southern is a poor state school, and SLU is an affluent private school.  They can't help it, really.

The landscaping here is immaculate.  There are grounds employees everywhere.  They keep the weeds pulled, the sidewalks clean, the hedges trimmed.

There are flowers everywhere.

There are statues, fountains, streams, coy ponds, and clock towers.  It's a place you want to be.

This lovely change in scenery has done a great deal to lift my spirits lately. More than I could have imagined.



Now there are some drawbacks to being a private school girl.  The tuition, for one, would make you cough your morning coffee through your nose.  I won't go into the others here. 

One more really great thing about SLU is that students just seems happy here.  Kyle is nothing but impressed with the law school and the instructors (despite the fact that the backpack he now has to carry is bigger than him).

In general, you don't here people complaining about the university as a whole.  You rarely hear someone badmouth instructors.  You don't hear students making fun of the school or the programs. 

I am totally impressed with the instructors in my department.  They're all doing interesting research.  They're constantly traveling around the country, around the world, making presentations on important topics.  Just in the few months I've been here, I've had teachers travel to Washington D.C., San Diego, Holland, Greece, and Australia.

In short, we love being Billikens!

Takeover

There's this dog.  He's sort of taken over our lives.  Don't let that sad face fool you.  He can be a little monster.



Oh, but he's a little monster we can't stop kissing and squeezing and snuggling.



He can't stop chewing and pooping and peeing.  All over.  All the time. 

Nah, not all the time.  He's actually really good...



...when he's sleeping.

Yin and Yang

He's the Yang to my Yin. 

He's wine and I'm beer.

He's tea and I'm coffee.

He's "realistic" and I'm "optimistic."

He's salad and I'm fried chicken.

He's the details and I'm the big picture.

He's poetic and I'm artistic.

He's dark chocolate and I'm milk chocolate.

He's slow to speak and I'm hard of hearing.

He's rubber and I'm glue.

He's a trolley and I'm a rollercoaster.

You get it. We're different.  Somehow it works, and I love him.

Nothing like randomly bawling at 1:07pm.

Please don't watch this unless you're prepared to sob. Seriously.


Danny & Annie from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

via Abraham Piper