Gavin's birthday!

Oh man! I'm falling behind on this blog...AGAIN! I can't believe I'm trying to keep two blogs going a once. This can't go on much longer!

Here are a few pics from my nephew Gavin's 4th birthday party!

Needing a bit of Mommy's help to blow out the candles on the Transformers cake!

Little party animal wearing his balloons on his head!  :)

My nieces Kathy & Angela smiling pretty for the camera!

The birthday boy opening his gifts.

Lily was coloring in her new coloring book for a bit.  What a cutie! 

Lily & Aunt Susie smiling away! 

I love my girls!

I enjoy being an aunt!  I love my nephews, but I especially love my nieces!  They are precious to me!  Here are some self portraits we took at the last family get together!

Sarah (age 9)

Daisy (age 12)

Angela (age 21)

Lily (age 5)

Betsy (age 11)

Megan (age 24)

Family get together for Johnny's birthday!

The family got together at Mom's for a bbq to celebrate my brother Johnny's birthday on the 29th.

Johnny and his birthday cake!

Lily was enjoying her hot dog!  :)

Here's Gavin showing me his crazy face!  :)

Angela and Gavin seem a tad grouchy!  (or maybe they're just SILLY!)

 

A good photo of my brother Jack. 

A final photo

Rachel, Chad, me, Launa, and Jake

The Student Life end of the year meal was at El Camino (the best Mexican place in Goshen) and the Res Life team took the opportunity to take one last photo together.  :)

Another fabulous trip to Chicago!!!!

My Bonnie and I decided that we needed to make another trip to Chicago together before I leave for Lithuania.  We decided to get it in before her kids got out of school, so we went on May 25th.  We hit our favorite spots...the Bean, Buccas, and Trader Joe's.  We also walked down by the river and explored some other side streets in the downtown area.  It was a wonderful day full of laughter and fun!  :)

Me & Bonnie at the Bean

Me at the Bean!

My FAVORITE dish at Buca's - bruschetta!  Yummmm

Bonnie & me by the river

Res Life Farewell party

On Monday the 24th, the Res Life team gathered at Bill (our VP)'s house for a time of dinner and fellowship and saying good-bye. Bill makes AMAZING ribs which I rave about every time he makes them for us. He knew that my final request would be for ribs. He made a wonderful meal - bacon wrapped shrimp for an appetizer, followed by a meal of both ribs and chicken on the grill with some delicious salads (made by Launa), and for dessert we had homemade ice cream with strawberries and chocolate sauce! It was a fantastic meal! Mmmm....my mouth still has happy memories over a week later! :)

After dinner, there was a time of speeches and presents for Rachel and I who are both leaving GC this year. This was a heartfelt and meaningful end to my time with Residence Life at GC. Launa shared her thoughts on my tenure at GC and then I shared some of what my time here has produced in and meant to me. I ALMOST made it through my little speech without tears, but ended up crying a bit at the very end. They all chuckled at my emotion, which they've come to expect from me over the years. :)

Here are some photos from the evening...

Shawn & Rachel with the lovely candle holder and candle that she received as a farewell gift from Res Life.

Me opening my necklace with Shirley in the background and Launa's profile in the foreground.

I received 2 gifts from Res Life. One was this photo of the Res Life team (That's our Christmas card photo from this year.) in a frame where everyone signed the matte around the photo. Very precious! It will find a place in my new office at LCC for sure!

The other gift was this lovely necklace. The pendant opens up and has the Irish Blessing written on the pages inside...

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

The last supper...

My last night as an RD at Goshen I invited the former RAs that still live in the Goshen area to come for a final "RA dinner" at Susie's. It was fun to have people from 4 different staffs able to attend. We had some RA favorites for dinner - Texas 2 step chicken was the main dish, Gooey Butter Cake was dessert, and no meal at Susie's is complete without a big bowl of applesauce! :)

Around the table...Haly(06-07), Kassidy(05-06), Jeff(05-06), Grace(07-08), Ben(07-08), and Jenna(08-09).

Farewell surprise!

The 18th was my final RA dinner and meeting. We had finished both and were sitting around the table chatting about the year we had just completed when all of the sudden my apartment door flew open! In popped the RAs for next year with an ice cream cake that they had made me for a farewell surprise! We had already eaten dessert, but found room for round 2. :)

The RAs for 2010-2011 with me...Emma, Hannah, Tavo, me, Lynelle, Maria, and Matt!

This is the ice cream cake they made me. The cookies made an "S", can you see it? The only bummer was that the cake was chocolate/mint and those of you who know me well know that I HATE things that are mint flavored! Luckily the top layer of ice cream was just chocolate, so I ate at least one layer of it! :)

It was a lovely gesture and was very much appreciated! I think this group of students is going to be an awesome staff! I can't wait to hear all the good things they accomplish! :)

Life Group says good-bye!

"Life Group" is a group of women that attended LifeSpring with me this year and we met weekly throughout the year for a little Bible study. I think we'd all agree that the best part of our meetings was the time we spent sharing prayer requests and praying for one another. For our last meeting of the year we went to Dutch Maid Bakery in Goshen to enjoy some of their tasty treats and conversation/prayer time. It was a special time for us to be together before we parted ways - them for the summer and me for much longer. I've so enjoyed these young women and have appreciated the wisdom and compassion that they've brought into my life. I will miss them a great deal as I leave GC and LifeSpring.

Emma, Breanna, Emily, and Alicia

Emma, Breanna, me, & Alicia

Being a bit goofy as we end our time together! :)

Second trip to Brunk's Cabin

May 8th I took my second trip to Brunk's Cabin this year. As you may recall, I went to Brunk's back in March for a birthday weekend away with the Risser twins. Well, this time I took a group of students - next year's RAs. I had planned this trip back in March (BEFORE the whole job in Lithuania came up), so I decided to honor the commitment. I had planned on doing a ton of planning for next year, but since I won't be here I decided to use the time to help this group of RAs bond with each other and to share some of my hopes for them. We had a really fun and relaxing time. We ate dinner, did some talking about next year and how that will be different, and then we spent the rest of the evening playing games and talking. In the morning we got up and made breakfast together before cleaning up and heading back to Goshen.

We didn't have any roasting sticks, so we use miscellaneous kitchen utensils - Hannah has a ladle and Maria has a meat fork.

I took two decks of Dutch Blitz cards and we had a fabulous game of Blitz - flying cards and name calling included! :)

And of course we had snacks! :)

Bowling...round 2...same places, different faces!

On Thursday night I went bowling with my staff. We went to the same bowling alley that I went to last weekend with my brothers. This was dollar night, so we got to rent shoes and play a game for $2.00 - not a bad deal for these frugal college students! :)

Here are some fun photos...

Sarah & Lynelle

Maria and me

Ashley & Lynelle

Here's the May term team.
Ashley, Lynelle, Sarah, Matt, Maria, and Nate

Final score sheet...I was Jowanna...and you should notice that I won!!!! WooHoo! :)

Wednesday, May 5th was Cinco de Mayo! I have hosted a Cinco de Mayo party for the past 5-6 years. This year we had additional funding and cooperation from the folks in our Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning (CITL), so we did it bigger and better than ever! We had food from local Mexican restaurants, broke a pinata, played Mexican BINGO, learned about the DREAM act, had a power point highlighting the history of Cinco de Mayo, and it was all accompanied by festive Mexican music!

Here are some photos...

RA setting up the dessert trays...Matt, Ashley, and Maria (sneaking a bite!)

Nate & Matt with the purple pinata!

Sarah, me, and Maria with the purple pinata!

After the pinata broke we used his head as a mask! :)
Maria (in the mask) & Jenny from Colorado!

Bowling

Last Saturday afternoon my brothers and their kids came up to Goshen and we all went bowling. It was cosmic bowling, so there were black lights and funky music. It was a great time! Here are a few photos...

My nieces - Betsy (11) and Daisy (12)

me & Jake...he never acts "normal" for a photo!

Daisy...she is totally related to me!!! :)

First game...I came in 3rd

Second game...tied for last - but bowled over 100!

Grad 2010

Oh, Graduation! I can hardly believe it's that time of year again. Graduation was on Sunday afternoon. It was a wet and chilly day, but there was much joy and warmth amidst the celebration! I had many great former RAs graduate this year and thus had a full evening of party hopping - it was a blast!

Here are photos of me with some of my favorite people...

me & Rachel
one of my favorite mentees/former RAs/friends!

me & Taylor
a former RA who is going to do creative and cool things in the world of media!

Kat & me
a beautiful young woman full of potential who was an RA in Kratz and attended LifeSpring with us. I will miss her!

me & Ben
a former M2 RA and someone who is easy to like and will be missed!

me & Grant
He's not a former RA, but he went to LifeSpring while at GC and has become very dear to my heart.