shopping, eatting, and puppy loving

i love the city during the holidays. after thanksgiving, there's something about the holidays that makes it so magical. I love the feel of walking down the street with shopping bags with crowds of people along side of me. I love drinking White Hot chocolate in the city with lights with a friend while it is snowing. I love the coziness of the apartment when its cold outside, and i'm in my pjs and drinking apple cider. Not to mention, Christmas shopping! whoo! LOVE shopping for christmas presents. (and a couple fun items formyself;) found so wickedly awesome VS Pink signiture sweats. Its blue with UNIV of PINK written on the side. i love them!i'll have to post a pic of my new favorite pj bottoms.) 

oh yes, and of course WII playing...i obviously lost in this pic;)

my fabulous roommate and i. i love my sister and the fun times we have.

Oh and this is Moose, my newest puppy friend

I haven't taken very many pictures lately. i probably should. there is so much exciting stuff going on this time of year... 

I love my man-second engagement photo shoot

I went on a walk tonite with my favorite boy ever, and it was just really enriching. Reminded me over again why i love him so much. we just talked on a walk on a cold evening after midnight, and it was just so encouraging and simple, but made me love him even more. here are a few pics from our second engagement photo shoot. i'm not putting up too many, but those Save the Dates are going to go out sometime near Christmas!:)

Outpranked...

10pm-12am...completely oblivious to anything thats going on.

1st voicemail: " hey Kristina, its rappin chad. saw that you needed help and i'll eat your food. i can also help with your wedding next year if you want. call me back. thanks."

1st text message: I would love to get some of that cookin. let me know when would be a good time to come over. Thanks! (unknown number.)

2nd. text message: hello kristine. I would be willing to be your guinea pig for your cooking experiment. i'm Kenneth. (also an unknown caller.)

ok, so after these first three weird messages, i was so completely confused. at 12:34 am, i got home from a nine hour shift at work, and was taking my shoes and jacket off when my phone rang. it was a colorado number, one that i didn't recognize. i picked up my phone, took a deep breath and answered it. 

K: Hello?

A: HEY KRISTINE!!! ITZ AUSTIN!!!

K: Who's Austin?

A: From Dryer!!! We're in a class together!

K: we are? ok...

A: I just wanted to call you. I'll help eat your food!!! 

K: WHAT?! what is going ON!?

A:We want some of your southern cookin! (guys in the background agreeing...) we're just responding to your poster!

K: WHAT?! what poster?!

A: The one thatz EVERYWHERE on campus...about you cooking for us 

K: I have no idea what your talking about...what poster? whatz it say?

A: *reads the poster* so....you're not cooking for us?

K: no! totally not real...

A: Awww...we thought it was. we were so excited about a homecooked meal!

K: itz a prank...where did you find the poster?

A: EVERYWHERE. In our dorms, sweeting doors, hallways, stairwells, elevators. They're everywhere!

Oh. My. Word. 

so the past few days i've been getting text messages, voicemails, and phonecalls, not to mention guys who stop me everywhere in hopes that i'll cook for them. 

It was a good prank...but you can be sure there'll be retaliation for it...

*hint hint* (Dani)

a tiny hint of what clark wants for Christmas;) hope you enjoy dani and andy!

Ring bearer update!!!:)

      


I have an official ring bearer everyone:) This is the Clarkster. I asked him a couple weeks ago if he would be my ring bearer. this is how the conversation went:

K: Hey Clark, i have a really important question for you.

C: ok, what is it?

K: Would you be the very important most special boy at my wedding?

C: YE-es! 

K: Would you help me get married?

C: uh -huh, what do i do?

K: Well, you'll bring me and ryan our rings.

C: but you ALREADY have rings!

K: different rings.

C: Wheres it at?

K: near the beach!

C: You're TAKING ME TO THE BEACH?! 

K: yes! 

C: O-kay!:)

Ok, so it was much cuter than the conversation you just read. Add in his giggle, cute smile, and his lit up eyes, and it would totally melt you. Clark and his family are very special in my life. Clark is just one of the four in his amazing family. this family started off as a random babysitting job that i had gotten from another family i was babysitting for, but Clark's family totally became more than just another sitting job. I LOVE their family, and Clark is gonna be the representative of his entire family, because they are all so very dear to me. Clark will be 4 and a half when i get married, and i can just picture him in a little tux walking down the aisle. sooo cute. this little guy and i have had so many fun memories together. going to the playground, the Children's museum, having him visit me at school, biking and playing outside, and our many "adventures" of camping (in the living room), fishing (in the den), going to Chuckee Cheeses and the doctor's office (his room), and playing hockey or with a remote control car (in the hallway.) The rest of his family are just as amazing, esp with Dani, his mom, who has become a dear friend that i love to talk to. I think what stood out to me at the beginning, when i started sitting for them, was that they were believers, and that showed in everything they did. through a random babysitting job, they became some of the very most important special people in my life, and that'll be represented by Clark being my ringbearer.

dreary day

     itz pretty rare for me to get really  down and discouraged. i'm not really the type to dwell on the unpleasant things or the hard things in life. i usually just get through it as it comes and usually choose not to dwell on those things, because honestly, there are so many more things in life to smile about than to get depressed about. Even if things are burdening me, therez usally always something or someone that gets me to smile. and i like that. I like that God made me that way, because i can easily bounce back and not dwell on the things that go wrong. He made me with a joyous heart and a light heart that is simple, and a way of looking at life in the light of His glory.

    today though...is a day out of the ordinary. for some reason, i couldn't just bounce back and smile. for some reason, one thing after another kept coming up, and my heart just hurts. i'm so burdened right now with desires for unreachable things, the hurt of words, and the feeling of failure. right now, i just want my daddy. i want my daddy to hold me, stroke me hair, and just listen to me cry. i just want to be held by my daddy.

    This is the kind of day that daddy isn't here though. i'm a grown woman, living independently in a big city of chicago, where i'm one of millions. Daddy is hundreds of miles away, and i can't get to him to cry or be held. 

     I'm still blessed though. I'm blessed that God is able to fulfill my need of wanting to be wrapped in love. I can cry to Him, and know of His love. He's never hundreds of miles away, He's always right here right now where i can reach out to Him. 

Gameroomness

This is the crazy crew from last year...

My Sundays usually goes like this:

7:00 am - wake up, do my quiet time, and drink my coffee

8:00am - get ready for church

8:40ish - if i'm ready by this time, i pull out the wii and do some fighting action on super mario galaxy

9:05 - wait for ryan downstairs in the lobby and then walk to the bus to go to church

10:00 - church starts. lately, church has been absolutely amazing. we just got a new pastor and he really really really knows how to challenge and encourage the church. he's right on with his preaching.

11:30 - have lunch out in Oak Park or make our way back downtown to have lunch at my apartment with ilene.

12 - 2:50 pm - hang out at the apartment. play wii, eat food. talk. take a nap. the three of us usually end up playing Wii or reading.

3:00 - go to work.  stay at work til midnight.

*sigh.* i thought the whole sunday afternoon working thing would be great to do homework.  i don't ever get anything done though! i always want to play a board game, ping pong, foosball, pool, cards...anything. i love when friends visit, and we usually end up talking for a couple hours. each. the random visits of friends i don't see often are great too. I've had some really uplifting conversation with Daryl and Tyrone lately. Last night, Daryl let me practice on him with my ping pong skills, or lack of. i told a friend from home that i could whoop him at pingpong, and now i'm just sharpening my "skills" so i can actually put my money where my mouth is. hehe.

anywayz, back to the topic. The game room is such a  great place to work at, i must say. I really really enjoy everyone i work with, and we find alot of time to do some hanging out while one of us is working. we have such a crazy crew in the gameroom, you can always find something fun to do. Next week, josh, melody and i are gonna go out to the burbs to visit Mike, he's a youth pastor now! we're gonna visit him and then check out his youth group. we're pretty excited. We all got to know each other from work, and now we kinda just like hanging out. we've gone on some fun rollerblading trips in the city.

anyways, all this to say, the game room is an awesome placeto work out, simply because of the people. and we get to play games while working:) socializing while work? heck yes, the best job on campus. 

First pic: left to right: melody, mike, josh, and i.

Second pic: rollerblading trip down to the beach...ended up playing in the water, rather than skating...oh so fun. can't wait for the next outing with these guys.

        

Living with the big sister

Lots of people ask us how ilene and i can actually live together. I guess since we're sisters, people expect us to kill each other. itz actually been so very much fun. i love having my last year unmarried to live with my sister.

Ilene and i grew up not only as sisters, but as best friends. I'm pretty thankful for that. (and that Ashley's just as close to us too.) Growing up, i had always thought that God had given people brothers and sisters to have as best friends. That was the whole point of having siblings, i thought.:)

I mean, when i was a kid, i did have those times when i wanted more than anything to annoy the heck out of ilene. I was her little sister, and that was my privilege. so i did. i came up with annoying songs to sing to her, i played tricks on her, i embarrassed her in front of the boys she liked. but, she still Loved me!:) good thing too;). don't be misled, i still like to do those same things to her, but i do show some grace as well;).

Usually in the morning, i can get ready pretty quick. An hour at most. But when Ilene and I are getting ready together, we pretty much get delayed no matter what. Its like a guarantee that she and i are gonna be late, cuz we kinda end up laughing at everything, or we're dancing and singing to music, or we're getting ready but talking in the meantime. itz been so much fun.

p.s. she spoils me too;) 

warm weekend

it has been such a nice weekend. it wasn't cold!!! and to start off the weekend, ilene and i got to see an old friend, Ilene's high school best friend's mom. she took us out to eat and we caught up from the past EIGHT years:). I think the last time i saw the Lovins family i was a 13 year old girl, one that was all about screaming and jumping and freaking out with Dayna and Ilene about boybands, specifically Nsync and plus ONE. lol, alot has changed since then, but it was so so so nice to see Ms. Lovins and catch up with her.

another great part of the weekend was my dear friend stephanie's birthday! well...her bday celebration actually started wedsnday, when we went to see Wicked...duuuuuuuude....i've seen wicked four times, but we were in the FIRST ROW this time...we could see everything, including Elphaba spitting every two seconds whenever she spoke. that was pretty cool. Rachel came with us to try and help us win the tickets (they were in a raffle drawing,) and all three of us got picked out of the hat!! we were sad when rachel couldn't join us, but we got a chance to celebrate with her later.

The next morning, Thursday, bright and early, 7 am to be exact, Steph had a lovely wake up call. pretty much the only way you should be woken up on your birthday: By friends who tackle you and throw blankets over your head and sing happy birthday! all of us gathered in her room and dragged her out of bed. 

we took her out for a yummy breakfast at the original pancake house. 

dressed the only way you should ever be dressed the morning of your birthday walking in the streets of chicago.

lol...we also told her it was 5 am...

herez rachel fully enjoying her strawberry waffle.

lots more happened on her birthday, like getting a puppy, a ring, and a boyfriend that surprised her from VA, but thatz her story to tell...ask her about it or check facebook for pics.

Friday i went out with ilene and Ms. lovins in the above photo. after that, i dogsat! for Baby Marry!!! (steph's puppy). Rachel (Marry's Grammie) and I (Marry's aunnie), watched her all afternoon while steph and paul went to class and out to lunch...perfect little puppy was so sweet and too cute. i fell in love, and immediately after watching the puppy at night, i gave Ryan the puppy dog eyes and told him how much I absolutely NEEDED a puppy of my own. 

cuz, well, look how absolutely happy i look with one in my arms!

but, oh well, probably won't happen because the apartment we want to live in next year doesn't allow dogs. *sigh* oh well...

anywayz, on to brighter and happier things: that night for halloween we did our usual Chipotle burrito run and dressed up as a burrito with blankets for free burritos. well...so we don't completely look like a burrito, but we got a free burrito anywayz. (pic taken by Whitney Cornett). 

we took our burritos to go, and got ourselves seats at the North South game, the annual football game between Dryer and Culbertson. it was fun, but i left to cuddle with a puppy that had one night left in chicago.

(pic taken by whitney as well).

saturday, i woke up at 9, played the Wii with ilene in my pjs, went shopping at the water tower, worked on my paper a bit, then went over to Matthew's house to babysit. 

Sunday, i went to church and really really enjoyed the series in Colossians that Pastor Todd is preaching to us and Ryan and i picked up some operation Christmas child boxes. Those are so fun to put together. We make a date out of it and go shopping at target to fill those boxes up. then we usually write a letter, place a picture of us in the box, and then send it off!:)

after church, i went over to the Clarkster's house...i'll have to post a little bit about that after i see him the next time, because i don't have pics to post with it...but i asked him a very important question about August 8, 2009, and a very important job of being the most special and important little boy...more about that when i have pics...just a reminder of who clarkster is...this is one of my all time fave videos of him...its from this past spring.

anyways...that was my weekennd ya'll. God blessed Chicago with wonderful wonderful weather this weekend too, and it was so enjoyable being outside without a heavy jacket. The whole weekend kinda just makes me smile when i think about it. it'll be good to have the thoughts of this wonderful weekend in my head, while i sit in the library trying to write my Apologetics project presentation. I'll be in Wheaton college all day tomorrow studying at the library, while ryan's in class. we're going to make a day out of it. studying over there (they have an extensive huge library), and then having a nice evening outside the city. should be fun, i'm kinda excited about it:).