It's Like Coming Home

It really is sweet to be home! To be completely and totally honest with you, when I got to Colorado, I prayed that God would make it not so hard to leave when I had to. People had warned me that going out there and then coming back might just make it harder but I am so glad to be home! Multiple things contributed to this, but it's a just a reminder to me that even though I don't always understand exactly what He is doing, God has my life worked out already and I just have to go with it and make the best of it, I can't control it anyways!

Along these lines, tonight on my way into Walmart, a lady and her son were selling a puppy. If you know anything about me, you know that I stopped and that I probably held that puppy for a long time! It wasn't even that little and cute, but they were nice and I wasn't in a hurry so I stopped to talk. It turns out they are new to my church, DeSoto Hills! The little boy goes to DeSoto Central and is in the band and after being around that so much, I could answer alot of questions about high school band for them and college, etc. Anyways, the moral of the story is that that lady was diagnosed with a medical condition a few years back and it has severely affected her everyday life, but she was so happy and you could see the love she had for her son in her eyes. The thing that struck me the most, is that she never stopped talking about the power of prayer. Her first reaction when something went wrong, was not to freak out and ask why, but to pray. Sometimes, it's just so hard to remember how blessed we are and that God works things out how they need to be worked out if we give Him the power, as He always has our best interest in mind.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

 Romans 8:28

Now that that is said, let me tell you about our road trip home!
I can pretty much sum it up in a few words:
delirium, fog, games, tolls, darkness and random music.
Long story short, it was great. We left Colorado Springs about 2:30pm. I got to the gate at USAFA to get Cody after his final and since 2 roads were open, I took the one with the nicer looking guard, or rental cop, as Cody would say. The man asked me to unlock my car so he could open the back and check stuff, I warned him that I was moving and stuff might fall out everywhere. He gave me a weird look and stared in the back of my car for a few seconds with the funniest look on his face and the proceeded to barely open the back and shut it really quickly. Luckily, nothing crashed to the ground! When I say I filled every square inch of my car except a few inches towards the top, I mean it! Cody came out and stood at my back door for a long time before I realized that one of my rules was don't open a door without permission, so I rolled my window down and told him that that door was clear but not to even touch the others (at least he listened)!

Here's my Rudolph-mobile!


The first 2 hours we were talking about finals and school and laughing really hard at everything, just because we were both in a better mood than we had been in awhile, being done with school and headed home! The thing that made us laugh the most was when we realized that we had 30 minutes of sunlight left for 14 hours....that's a long time to be driving in the dark! One of my favorite conversations that we had was about Lewis and Clark and the pioneers and those poor horses that pulled them all the way out west...talk about troopers, it gets cold out there! The toll plazas were unfortunate but luckily, I put my piggy bank where we could get to it. Kansas smelled really bad, but 18 wheelers were practically the only cars on the road so that was really nice. We didn't have to stop at all or slow down even really for traffic or a wreck, etc. The first plan was for each person to do 3, 3 hour shifts alternating and the other one to sleep during that time. After faking sleep for about 20 minutes, it just wasn't happening for me so we played stupid games to pass the time. Cody's game was naming fast food restaurants...that took about an hour, then we played "If I went to the moon, I would take.." and each time we added something on according to the alphabet and had to memorize everything from the beginning. Later we named TV shows, I'm gonna go ahead and not suggest that game. It lasts for-freaking-ever, obviously. We named some oldies though, like Candid Camera and Boy Meets World and Zoom. My game was you have to say a word then the other person says a word that starts with the letter that word ends with....since Cody can't spell I thought I would have an advantage but he was pretty sharp at 3am....I can probably attribute that to USAFA, he used words from chemistry to trick me.....really, chemistry? Everyone knows that's my best subject...nottttt haha! Cody tried to sleep on and off too and it just did not work out. We finally both slept a little after 4:30am and then stayed up all day on Wednesday at home...I felt like a zombie! I got the best sleep ever that night though, I can promise you that! I kept waiting on the sun to rise around 6 or so but it was cloudy and we got home safe and sound about 7:30am!

I feel like alot more happened, but we were just so tired and happy, almost anything was funny. It was alot of fun too! We had some really great conversations. If you ever need to travel a long distance, I'm going to suggest you do it overnight if you can stay awake, it was so much better without traffic and everything! Life will definitely be different, but I am up for something new and excited to be back in the south to spend more time with my family and be busy doing what I do.

I hope you've enjoyed my stories and pictures, and you haven't been too terribly bored!

Thanks for reading :)

FAREWELL Colorado!

All experience is an arch, to build upon.

-Henry Adams

Well, here’s to my last blog post in Colorado!!

I’ll catch you up first...

Two weekends ago Cody took to me Biaggi’s…a nicer Italian restaurant. When the server explained the olive oil concoction and the different breads and all of that, it sounded like he was speaking Italian it was so foreign…Cody knew better than to look at me because I was laughing pretty noticeably already, it was bad. We went out on a limb though, and tried weird stuff and it turned out to be better than we expected!  We left for Winter Park Saturday morning! The weather was pretty rough but we made it 2 hours later than it should have taken us and after a few stops! The entire weekend was so so so cold! It took me hours to get warm after skiing all day. We stayed at a hotel since we wanted to go Sunday too, as a final skiing weekend for me since finals were coming up! On the way back, the temperature gauge in my car got down to 1 degree…I was watching it so closely just to see if cars from the south could even read zero or negative temps but it’s still a mystery! We found a country Christmas music station on my Sirius radio…that was the first tie in my life that I have listened to Christmas music while it was snowing…it was pretty cool though, not gonna lie! By the end of that weekend we had heard each song at least 15 times. There are only so many Christmas songs and so many artists to go around. We came across these ram looking creatures...they had curly horns but my driver didn't exactly slow down for me to get a good picure... :( haha. 

During the week, my mom sent my card that brightened my day. It was a paper doll with some nails and instructions to stab the doll…that may or may not have resembled one of my roommates. That may or may not be a noose around her neck resembling a necklace. Hahaha, it was deserved though, I promise. One morning it was negative 5 so I tried to catch the bus when I could, everyone knows I freeze when it’s anything below 60 degrees so if I would have been stuck out there long, there’s no telling what would have happened!  But, I think I’ve changed a little bit…especially when I get excited about the highs being in the 30s, oh boy!

This past weekend, Cody, Blake and I were going to eat at CiCi’s for their 1.99 buffet…..so, we showed up about 6pm and the line was wrapped around outside with the temperature in the teens. Our next best option was Taco Bell! We went to a few Pawn Shops and went to visit Blake’s girlfriend’s grandparents while she is away at basic training for the Navy! They were from Alabama and Auburn fans so Cody and I had fun with that. Saturday night, Cody helped me pack up and get everything ready to go. Giving him all of his stuff back that he had in my car or apartment kinda felt like we were breaking up, haha :/ We went to a free light show at a church and they had live nativity scenes with the lights and all, so that was neat! We went to Crave Burger before he went back to USAFA to study…..soooo delicious! They have the strangest, best burgers. For instance….a jalapeno popper burger, one with 2 grilled cheeses as buns, one with bbq added on top, one with glazed donuts as buns…not kidding.

I saw someone eating it! I finally got everything in my car last night….I feel like I’m  going home with double the amount of things that I came with. I gave Cody 2 rules for tomorrow…#1, don’t open a door unless you ask first and #2, pack light, haha. I’m already dreading going through the gate at USAFA tomorrow because they always open my trunk…I won’t be surprised if they don’t even let me on base with all that stuff!  

The only time I needed my fish to die, they live. So, I decided that I would let them go in a pond and they could live a happy, normal fish life. Well, the pond was frozen over and I decided that even if I made a little hole to let them go, it would be instant freezing death so we’re about to see how tough they really are….they’re in a water bottle and will be joining us in our trek home tomorrow!

I finished my finals this morning and Cody finishes this afternoon. I got some reindeer ears for my car and a red nose on the front, so me, Cody and the Rudolph-mobile will be headed home in t minus 2 hours-ish! I ordered 65 degree weather for when I get home from my father and he told me that he must have misspelled it or something when he put it in, because it’s supposed to be 64. Either way, that sounds lovely to me.

Laying on my bed looking out my window at 2am last night, I started to think of things I’m going to miss about my temporary home. Like walking out of my door to a random surprise of snow or watching the beautiful sun set over Pikes’ Peak. I’ll miss last minute trips to USAFA to see Cody on a random day of the week and having fun with the people at the gate, making up a new place that I was going to on base everytime just because visitors aren’t allowed where I picked Cody up. I’ll miss convincing myself that I would do the incline the next day by myself and then waking up and realizing how cold it is outside and backing out. I’ll miss flyovers all the time, living by 3 Air Force bases, and the sense of pride at USAFA football games. I’ll miss having three huge Goodwills within 10 minutes to dig through random junk and going to CiCi’s with Cody almost once a week to get my favorite apple pizza.  I’ll miss the random green light about half way up the mountains that nobody knows what is and the huge star made out of lights up in Monument. And I'll miss this water bottle that I am choosing to leave behind. If you have been around me at all since I got here, you've most likely either seen this water bottle or been with me when I was freaking out about losing it or begging Cody to hold it and promise he wouldn't throw it away...I just really really liked it, haha. I won’t miss freezing to death and the medians though.

Cody has gotten me very excited for Christmas, and I am excited to be coming home but I can’t believe the semester is already over. I’ve stocked up on diet coke, energy drinks, gummy bears, peppermints and chocolate for the long haul! I’m hoping Oklahoma and Kansas wont be so bad this time since it’ll be dark and I won’t have to see them, haha! After nearly 14 hours of darkness, the sun shall rise in Arkansas and we’ll be so close! I’ll have to let you know how the roadtrip goes but until then, FAREWELL COLORADO!

BRING IT.