I've had some really sweet times these last few weeks and have gotten to capture some fun pictures as well...
Capturing Kodak Moments...
I am loving getting to learn about my new camera. I haven't had a whole lot of time to research the camera but am having a good time experimenting with it and capturing some pretty nature pictures...and fun fall pictures as well.
Friday Fun Days...
My schedule this year is pretty sweet. NKU is so much different from UK (in a lot of ways) in that I am only on campus about 10 hours a week and for only 4 in person classes a week. Meaning, I have two days a week where I am FREE...which is awesome. At the beginning of the semester, Darin and I were reading and relaxing at a coffee shop and were convicted of how important practicing the Sabbath is. After that day, we made it a point to practice our Sabbath on Friday, since Sunday is a work day for him. Each Friday we have one-on-one time and find fun and relaxing places to hang out and read, talk, adventure, etc. I LOVE our Friday Fun Days. They have quickly become my favorite day of the week as I treasure that intentional time with my love and really enjoy finding new places to explore with him. My very favorite dates so far have been...Over the Rhine and Devou Park, Fountain Square and Sawyer Point Park, fun (and yummy) restaurants, relaxing parks, and my latest favorite date day...super lazy days on the couch watching Parenthood. Seriously, this is my latest obsession.
A couple weeks ago, after feeling especially spoiled by my sweet love, I decided it was time to spoil him too. I was so excited to plan our Friday Fun Day...and a little nervous since the bar was set awfully high. Well, I tried to do my love proud and do lots and lots of research on the best place to eat and the most fun thing to do. I had been wanting to go to the zoo with Darin ever since I took Maren and Warner back in the summer and then once I got my camera I had even more incentive so decided that the zoo would be our final destination. After doing lots of research, I came across a restaurant called Zoup! which was SO yummy. The restaurant was Panera-esque but the food (gourmet soup and wraps/salads) was way more unique and yummy. AND an added bonus was that Darin had never even heard of the place...big bonus for me, as he has done a lot of research for restaurants and is over in that area quite a bit. He rated it to be an A+ so that was a success! After that, I punched in the address for the zoo and we headed that way. Throughout the day he had been guessing where he thought we were going (which I always hate because I feel defeated if he guesses correctly. Ha!) and he had flippantly said the zoo but I quickly wrote that option off. Until we got close and zoo signs were plastered all over the place. Oops. Needless to say, I told him/he figured it out before we got there. And we had the best time! He had only been to the Cincinnati Zoo for the Festival of Lights so it was fun to adventure around the different exhibits and discover new things together. We even got to feed the giraffes...I know, I know, that's for the kids buuuut we couldn't resist. The weather was perfect and the company was even better...oh and Darin was amazing too. Ha! Kidding. I'd say it was a wonderfully successful day date and I think it's safe to say that I earned his trust to plan another day sometime soon.
Mom and Dad Go On Vacation...
Well, as the title suggests, mom and dad went on vacation, which left me and our 2 nutty dogs home alone. Eep! I know it is completely ridiculous, but I was sincerely afraid of being home alone at night. I love being home alone during the day (most of the time, Ha!) but realllllly did not like being home alone at night. The week was pretty traumatic. Dramatic but true. The first night was the most traumatic of all...and the shortest night of all as I got maybe 3 hours of sleep. Geesh. Let me just set up this scene...severe storm and tons of rain (strike 1), 1 dog being afraid of lightning the other being afraid of thunder (strike 2), Emilee being afraid of infamous and fantasized "bad guys" that would inevitably break into the house (strike 3), oh and did I mention that the night before we had watched Olympus Has Fallen (which was the worst movie I have ever seen) and Elizabeth Smart's story (umm, yeah the story of how she was abducted from her bedroom)...I'd say that was 3 strikes in and of itself. Geesh. So all of that combined with the fact that these two goofball dogs of ours are both completely worthless when it comes to being guard dogs and very much high maintenance and it was just a recipe for disaster. So I think I fell asleep around 3 or so that night only to be woken up at 5 by Marlough shaking my entire bed. So naturally I had to get out of bed and go downstairs (which was terrifying), let him outside (even more terrifying), and feed him/give him his medicine. Of course my fear was at an all time peak as I was zombie-walking through the house at 5:00 in the morning...and then...I saw the biggest spider ever (only a liiiiitle dramatic...it WAS the biggest spider I have seen the house before) crawling along the kitchen floor. I can't make these things up, people. I freaked out but refrained from screaming because, who was going to come save me anyway? Uhh, nobody. So then I try to figure out how in the world I am going to work up the courage to kill said spider (because I can't let it go because then it would inevitably wind up in my room...ugh, I'm cringing as I type this) so I grabbed a shoe, put it on, took a deep breath, and stomped the heck out of that spider (FYI- I literally just had to wipe off my palms because my hands are sweating just thinking about that experience). Gosh, it was awful. Obviously I was quite worked up by the time I made it back up to bed and didn't fall asleep until 6 and woke up at 7:30. Needless to say, it was rough. The rest of the week was still pretty traumatic but had some high points...one being Rachel coming to visit for a day/night. That was definitely the best night I slept. Ha! It was SO good to see Rach and have some one-on-one time with her. Made my heart super happy for sure!
Moral of this story...I have an over-active imagination and should never be left home alone.
Niederman Farm...
For the past 10+ years we have visited the Niederman Farm during the fall to walk through their (amazing) corn maze. We met the Niederman's back during the Lakota days and have kept in touch ever since and have made their corn maze a Hancock Family tradition. The corn maze was awesome (but not nearly as magical as it was when I was a little girl) but being reunited with our sweet friends was even better. They are as good as it gets and it was so good to catch up with them! The homemade donuts were a yummy treat as well...Ha! Definitely more sweet memories made and another year of corn mazing is officially in the books.
School...
Strangely enough, I am sort of kind of liking school. Whaaaat? Crazy, huh? I guess I should clarify and say that I am tolerating the school part but LOVING my time at Collins (the elementary school where I'm doing my field experience). Seriously, I cannot even say how much I love my time there. I am working with sweet baby first graders and they have officially captured my heart. I can't walk through the room without getting little squeezes and love from my sweet babies. I am learning so much from my time there and get such joy from watching them learn and live. These kiddos are definitely a handful but they crack me up. I'm not sure why I haven't been doing this all semester, but I started writing down some of the hilarious things they say...because as you know, kids say the darndest things.
-First of all, watching them during PE is hands down one of the most precious and hilarious things of all time. They are so uncoordinated and clumsy and it just makes my heart happy. So far this year they have learned how to hula-hoop (which was a serious challenge), run/walk with a speedometer, practice making animal sounds and movements, etc. I get the biggest kick out of these kids!
-Being called Miss Emilee makes my heart happy.
-I love that these babies can't tie their shoes/button their pants, etc. I love being needed by these little ones.
-Hearing first graders read aloud is just really stinking cute. I love the words they make up.
-While reviewing different animals, a picture of a centipede (yucky) was shown. One little girl shot her hand up, anxious to inform the class what this creature was. When her guess of "a worm" was denied, she stated quite disappointed, "Aw man, that's my favorite animal." I seriously had to stop myself from giggling. Poor girl needs to be taken to the zoo. Ha!
-During writing time, I helped one of my favorites (can I say that?) his assignment, which was to identify words around the room that ended with a double consonant (ll, ss, etc.) As we walked around the room, he would point to a word and read it correctly and then say (every single time), because the word + both sounds of the consonant (example: Glass= Gla-s-s) would be silly. He then proceeded to giggle every time. Be still my heart. This doesn't do it justice, but it was precious.
-During writing time, one little boy was asked to do a free write. His free write stated, "My cat pees on my bed. I smell my bed." Umm...alright then.
That's all that happened this week, but I am definitely going to start writing these perfectly quotable moments down because they make me giggle and hopefully they'll make you giggle as well.
Small Group...
When I came home from UK, I realized I was in serious need of some community. After struggling for a while as to what to do, I asked several of my sweetest friends to start a small group with me. With crazy schedules and crazy life, several of the girls had to decline, but by the end, there were four of us and that is just fine with me! Every other Wednesday we meet up and talk about life over some dinner. We are keeping it pretty casual at this point so that we can get to know each other better, but it has been so refreshing to have such a sweet group of girls to do life with and laugh and be super silly with. Definitely love these amazing ladies.
Pumpkin Carving...
Well this pretty much speaks for itself. We did some good old fashioned pumpkin carving...and it just wasn't as magical as it used to be. Still fun but a lot more goopy gooey work than I remember. Ha! I am quite a traditionalist (sometimes to a fault) so much so, that I used to carve/decorate my pumpkin by myself when Rachel decided it was no longer fun, simply because we used to do it each year and I felt the need to carry on the tradition. Well, that tradition quickly died as I realized that carving pumpkins just isn't as much fun by yourself. Ha! Fast-forward 7 or so years and I hadn't carved a pumpkin since. Until this year. Oh yeah! One Sunday I was feeling especially festive and decided that Darin and I needed to carve pumpkins. It was an adventure and was a fun process, but just seemed to be more work in a cold and dimly lit garage than it was worth. Ha! Not to mention, I got overly ambition and decided to spell "LOVE" because I'm cheesy like that. Besides my V failing and being dangerously close to my "o" heart and my E being excessively lopsided, I'd say it gets an A for effort. I'll rack the whole experience up as another fun and festive memory and be happy about that.
Woodhill...
Again, this title pretty much explains itself, BUT it was a definite highlight of the past few weeks and definitely worth mentioning. Last week I had my "Fall Break," which was less than exciting since no one else in my family had Fall Break...lame. Buuuut, since I didn't have class Monday night or the following Tuesday morning, Darin and I took a trip down to Lexington (my first time back since I moved out...definitely pretty emotional) and got to grab dinner at our favorite restaurant Saul Good with two of my favorite people. Ooooh it did my heart so good to see Lydia and Katelynn. After dinner we got to go to Woodhill and visit with our sweet friends there. Again, that did my heart good. It was SO wonderful to catch up with our friends there and show them that even though I've moved I still love them an awful lot. Love those people. Love that ministry.
Happy Anniversary Union!
First Church Union Campus celebrated it's 1st Anniversary last weekend with a big party after church. We had pizza, a jump house, a balloon guy, a DJ, Kona Ice, and lots of friends to celebrate with. It was so fun to be able to see the congregation in a different setting and see the silly and playful side of some people. My heart swells with pride as I watch Darin (and the rest of the crazy amazing Union Team) lead and love these people so well. I am so excited to see how the Lord uses this campus and these amazing people to reach our community and love people to Jesus. It's going to be an exciting journey!
Coming home was the best thing for me. I get teary eyed typing that because that statement comes with a lot of layers. I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed my decision to come home and am overjoyed by the ways He has always revealed some of the reasons why He led me back home. With that joy also comes some sadness though, as I certainly still miss my UK peeps. Somedays that missing is more painful than others. Sometimes my heart aches as I miss my sweet friends that I left behind in Lexington. But despite that aching, I have never regretted my decision to come home. Praise the Lord for that! One of my biggest fears of coming home was that I would regret my decision and spend another year being discontent. So being able to say that confidently is a big deal. I miss the CSF community, Southland, Woodhill, and more than anything, I miss my sweet friends. BUT, I am loving life back home. I cannot even express how thankful I am for the healing that has happened since being home and the precious and invaluable memories I have made here. I am so glad I didn't fully know how amazing doing life with Darin is or I wouldn't have been able to make it through last year. It is SO amazing to actually do life with Darin. To do every day, boring and mundane, normal life with him. It's so awesome! I love the new rhythm we have and I love how much I get to see him, learn from him, learn about him, and spend time with him. I cannot get enough of him. I love any and all time with him and am so thankful for quiet, silly, and memorable moments with him. I also love having time with my parents. I fully recognize that this is a really special and fleeting time and am so thankful to have this quality time with them. They love me so well and I am so thankful. I love getting to see some of my favorite little people grow up, I love being a part of the Union Campus, I love getting dinner/lunch with some of my very favorite people, I love being in ONE place. There is so much good that has come out of my move back home and I am overwhelmed with gratitude for how faithful the Lord is.
Fall Festival...
We started the Halloween festivities early at First Church this year and had a great time at the Fall Festival. Man, there are some seriously cute and creative kids out there. Darin and I were the "greeters" for the night, so we got to see all the precious kiddos and costumes...best job, I'd say! We decided to be festive (yet simple) as well and got Minnie and Mickey hats. First couple "costume." Ha! We had fun visiting with everyone and had fun being a part of the festivities. I sure do love my Mickey and am humbled every day to be his Minnie.
