Merry Christmas

We are having a really good Christmas here in Moorhead, Minnesota. It's strangely warm... around 30 degrees and no snow. Everyone's in good health. We have a lot of love and a lot to be thankful for this Christmas.

This morning we spent like half an hour taking the craziest pictures we could come up with... I think my family is now more into taking photos than opening presents. lol The actual goal was to get one for the yet-to-go-out Christmas card. Anyway, enjoy... and Merry Christmas.

Sad to be leaving

Well now that it's 9:58pm on the night before I fly out of Minnesota, I'm sad to be leaving. I'm really sad. It sucks saying goodbye. Just typing this makes tears start to come to my eyes. I know my Mom will cry tomorrow, just for a second, but she'll cry. And I'll know that it's okay that I'm leaving, but it still sucks living far from my family. And yet it really makes no sense at all for me to be here. I guess I could have bigger problems... I mean I love my family, we're constantly connected by phone, I see them a few times a year, and I have great opportunities that cause me to live a couple plane rides away. I am doing fine. It's just that people are the most important. And... well... I don't know if any of you have experienced this... I know Amanda has... but when you come home and you can visit friends or family, though you really want to visit your friends, there is something sacred about your family. Friends, as they say, honestly do come and go. They let you down. Well family can let you down too, but they don't disappear. Each time I've come back to Minnesota, I've spent less time with my friends and more with my family.

The people you love - be it blood-related family or church family or just true friends or whatever - people are pretty much everything.

Home sweet home

I'm at home in Minnesota, and so happy. :) And btw, is my family cute or what? Last night we went to waiter races in downtown Fargo. I'll post pictures of that craziness later on... 13 more minutes of work till my parking runs out.

I will return

A lot has been happening lately... hence the lag in blogging. Soon we will reach the fullness of time and I can bring you up to speed. :)

One thing I can tell you is that I'm not going to Africa after all... at least not next month. That's good and bad. Really it's just the way it is! Ah well. I do need and want to buy a ticket to go home to Minnesota for a couple weeks. I miss my family so very much.

Recovered ipod and my Dad my soulmate

Can I get a shout-out for the Raleigh PO-lice! Yeeeeeeeeeeahhh Detective F!! He found my ipoddddddddddddddddddddddddd!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

I love you St. Jude, my friends, Detective F, and of course J to the C.

No but really.. it's amazing I think. All I can think is that if I lived most anywhere else in the world, they wouldn't even take my report seriously, let alone investigate it and RECOVER my stolen item!

There's still some story left to explain... the detective was on his way to bring it to me about half an hour ago, when some car hit him from behind so he's tied up downtown with a fender bender type thingy. But I'll get it tomorrow. Anyway he went to this guy's apartment. We think it may have actually been his roommate borrowing his gym ID. Whatevah. I just can't believe it.

I have had an amazingly good news day. I GOT THIS AMAZING PROJECT to work on. Maybe the best thing was talking to my Dad afterwards. I can't remember what he said but something about being proud of me.... all I can remember is he said something that conveyed he knows I've been pushing through a lot of feelings lately to even get to this point. I feel overwhelmed, inadequate, restless, confused... feel like quitting. I just want to quit everything, what's up with that? I am a mess of emotions lately and I can't even quite figure out why. But my Dad understands me. He's pretty much my soulmate in this world. My Dad-soulmate. :) I can't imagine life without him. Gosh. I didn't start this paragraph to be about my Dad but you know, that's sort of what means the most. Not that I hit another little career milestone (which I most definitely did today), but that someone that I love saw me hit it and knows how it feels for me. Now I feel like crying. Excellent. Isn't stream of consciousness writing great...