where has the summer gone?!

So I'm not dead and I have not vanished, I have just been MIA for a few weeks. Yesterday was my last day of summer class and Lord-willing my very last day at IUPUI ever! Summer school was pretty intense with taking 5 different classes. I've been in school since May 9, and now I have a two week break before Milligan classes start. But here's a little update of what has been going on.

Yes, Cindy got married: finally. Here's a picture of us girls with the photographer George Abiad. (www.georgeabiad.com---amazing photographer)




Church camp filled three of my weeks this summer: children's camp, teen camp and teen work study camp. These are my seven 13 and 14 year old girls that were in my bunk. We had lots of fun as you can see: a rambunctious (?) bunch!









After camp, I found some time to relax: Beth, Sam, Stephen and I all went bowling and showed off our mad skills. Bethie--you gotta watch out for her, she's pretty sneaky. We had lots of fun!








My one weekend between summer semesters, we went to the lake with the Hickeys. At first they only had 2 tubes, but then they graciously realized the need for another one. So they bought the new orange one, made for two people. Of course the newlyweds staked claims on that one. If you'll notice, there is one tube getting ready for take off, with the driver holding on for dear life. That panic-stricken drive is none other than yours truly. The tube had a mind of it's own and had a very high center of gravity making it tip and topple at the slightest bump or curve. Apparently I was the only one brave and strong enough to take on the task of giving it an attitude adjustment...as you can see I was struggling just a bit.




I went to have lunch with Amanda and Caden Alexander one afternoon. Caden and I were chilling and I took some pictures of him. I told him to smile..and this is what he did. It's kind of a half-smile "you're-really-scaring-me" kind of face.










He was worn out after his photo-shoot. But the funny thing is, he actually is just blinking, but it appears as though he's sleeping. Too cute!


















I love the mother of our church: Ilarose. She has such a sweet smile and loving heart!!







A-gal and B-rad are two of my friends from IUPUI. We had a class together last summer and made Starbucks a reoccuring event during the summer. This summer, Andy and I were together in a class and Brad opted out of it. But we still made a rendezvous and enjoyed a nice cup of joe.












Mehgan and Kevin, recently married, are two friends I went to middle/high school with. We took this picture at a mutual friend's wedding. Yes, we realize that it looks like a prom picture..haha!









I don't know who this studley looking young man is...I saw him stranded in a subway station, looking lost and confused, needing a woman to help him find his way. I heard the voice of the Lord and with my servant's heart, graciously came along side of him to help. He's pretty entertaining and shares some of the same interests, so after a couple days, I decided I'd keep him for awhile. After all, he does look better with me by his side :)





Publish Post

A chance to breathe...

Please forgive me for the lack of blogging. As I stated in my previous post, my life has been anything but slow the last month and half. I thought coming home from Milligan would be a breather..HAH, someone should have warned me. This post will let you in on the world of Miriam and what has been going on since I returend to the good ole Hoosier state.
One of the first priorities was to hang out with this gal..Mehg, my BFF from high school. Mehg's getting married this weekend and I'm the maid of honor. So before she goes from Ms. to Mrs, we had a date night: out to eat in Indy and then to a movie. It was great to be with her and reminisce
about people and memories and talk about the future as well. (Wow, sounds kind of mushy: but I mean we are the ones who said we'd marry each other if God says it isn't wrong..but He doesn't.)
That same week, Beth and I took Stephen lunch at Warren. Okay, may I tell you that Warren Central is like a college campus. Stephen's graduating class is approx. the same as the number of undergrads at Milligan, +/- 50. Naturally with as many students as it has..something like 3,000, there are quite a few police officers patrolling the grounds at all times. Two different times I was stopped in the hallway by two different cops, questioning me as to why I was wearing a visitor's pass. My response, "I'm visiting." Duh? They both gave me strange looks when I gave them the what I thought was an obvious answer. One said, "Oh, you've graduated? You're done? Congratulations!" and the other one proceeded to ask me a series of questions. "How long have you been done?" "How old are you?" "Where do you go to school?" "You don't look old enough to be out of high school." Each time I gave a response that assured him of my age, he looked at me like I was trying to pull on over on him. He asked Beth who was standing next to me how old she was..just once..and he believed her, but kept..almost interrogating me. I couldn't believe it! I asked him if he wanted me to go get my ID but he said, "No, just don't let the cop stop you on the way out." Ohh the nerve! To think I'm a senior in college and they didn't believe I had even graduated from HIGH school!? Come on, y'all..seriously? Do I look that young???!
The family took a trip to Michigan for Mother's Day, to join the two Michiganite sisters. While there, Beth and I and a few of Cindy's friends took her out to eat for her first of two bachelorette parties. We went to "The Bob", a 3 or 4 story restaurant with a club on the bottom floor and dining on the second floor. Because part of the restaurant is a bar, they check IDs at the door. Neither Beth nor I are 21 yet, so the bouncer at the door wanted to make sure everyone in the restaurant knew. He held our IDs while we ate just to make sure we wouldn't try anything. Then, he banded each wrist very securely, might I add, with the paper bracelets
you get when you go to the fair. And then, with permanent marker, wrote a big M (for Minor, for those of you who didnt' catch it) on each hand. I felt like a prisoner! All I wanted to do was eat some good food and enjoy a bachelorette party! Beth got the same royal treatment. These are some of Beth's girls who came to church with us. Kelsey and Lauren have really been a blessing for Beth during her first year at college. They are such sweeties and have quickly become a part of the Solomon gaggle of girls!




One weekend in May, we had a chance to go to the races at Mt. Lawn Speedway. This is a tradition my dad likes to keep alive because he went when he was a boy. Our family tries to go a couple times a summer and this was the first trip. But as you can see by the picture, it was uncharacteristically deafening. One would think the noise from the cars was what made our eardrums throb, but instead it was the PA system that apparently Mt. Lawn has been able to afford to upgrade. We were all wearing earplugs.

Grandad and his brother came with us to the races. We had a blast! Grandad especially enjoys it because he used to bring Daddy when he was little. There's just something about the dust in our eyes and the burning rubber up our nose that keeps us coming back for more! The four hours spent at the race track that night were ones of great fun and laughs!






As I was driving home from church a couple weeks ago, Beth and I were enjoying the scenery of downtown Mayberry, when we approached an intersection. The direction we were going did not have a stop sign, however the intersecting road did. The driver of the big Chevy truck approaching the intersection did one of these: slow to a yield, not a stop, look both directions, double check one way but not the other way, fail to see driver coming from the "other" way, continue through the intersection, "is that a horn?" "what's that black thing I'm getting ready to run over?" and BAM! End result: no one was hurt, except for the Stallion, who is now totaled.
He will continue to be driven, but he has a limp. We're working on getting him healed but it will be a long process.

If you didn't know or haven't heard: we have one of the BEST churches around, filled with the Holy Ghost and amazingly fun people. This guy right here is one of them. He's central to our church, leading us into the presence of the Lord each week. Here Jonathan is trying his best for the Zoolander's Magnum look. I think he's almost captured it. He struck several poses and this is one of the better ones. (My apologies for the blurred pixelation.)








Not only do we have a great praise and worship leader, but we have a dynamic group of young adults. A couple weeks ago a group of us decided we needed a time of fellowship after evening service. What better way to fellowship then over hot wings and a coke? Exactly. That's what we thought. We headed to B-dubs in Anderson to enjoy ourselves. When it was time to pray for the food...all twelve of us stood up and held hands around the table and prayed. We got quite a few strange looks, but who cares? God was glorified. I love this picture of Ashley because it truly captures Paul's reminder to be ready in season
and out of season. I didn't give these guys any
warning about taking the picture, I just took it, but Ash was ready.

This is the drummer man, teaching me how to "throw up the deuces" whoever thought of that? Anyway...this picture was taken after his contest with Keith concerning who could snort the most pepper/salt combo. Why? Because boys will be boys. His facial expression is probably a result of the sniffing accompanined with much burning, I'm sure. After we all had our fill, we headed on out to the parking lot. But since we were having such fun, we asked a bystander to take a snap-
shot and capture the memory for us. As you can
see, everyone was doing something random. My favorite though is Keith and Beth. While in B-dubs, Keith was "reading" his discipleship book because he had his meeting with his discipler the next morning. He was trying to catch up. However, his discipler happened to be sitting at the end of the table. :) Here you can see him taking every moment to try and read about how to live for Jesus. Beth is kind enough to help him find where he left off by pointing to the right spot. Ashley is praising Jesus like she always is. Cindy appears to have just sucked on a lemon. Matt seems to have a few marshmallows in his mouth. Josh and Dustin look confused. Bekah has somehow startled me with her crazy smile. Danny and Katie...they're thinking about the wedding... :)
Speaking of weddings, my sister just had one! But that will be saved for the next post. This one is already long enough. The night of Cindy's wedding, I went to my aunt's house to see cousins who had come in from out of town. Two of the littler ones were getting ready to leave, but mom was having trouble getting them out to the car. I yelled, "Last one to the car is a rotten egg!" And out the door the ran. I ran after them and scooped the 4 year old up in my arms to try to catch big sister a few paces ahead. While holding the 4-year old in superman position on my side, and running at the same time, my flip flop caught on uneven pavement. Seeing that recovery was not an option, I next thought about how to sacrifice myself and save the child from hitting the cement. Down on one knee I went and having my arms full of a 50 pound child the next thing to stop my fall was my face. And so down I went, trying to make an indent in the concrete with my face. As I sat up, my first thought was to make sure the child was okay. She had hit the back of her head on the ground, but I didn't hear any screaming or crying, she was fine. Next, I realized I couldn't feel my face except for an intense cool throbbing. I looked at the mom and in a panicked sort of way asked about my face. She told me there was a little bit of blood, but nothing too big. I walked into the house, past my uncle who asked which child had beat me up. After I got cleaned up, I had a nice raspberry on my knee and a slit above my lip. My nose and chin got a couple scratches, I bit my top & bottom lip simultaneously during the fall, yet I still had all my teeth. It's weird that none of my extremeties on my face were injured. Instead, the inner most part was slit in two different spots, down the middle. This picture shows my pathetic bandage. A week and half later, I am still recovering, but it has healed fairly quickly. With Mehg's wedding coming up, I'm hoping to be completely healed.

The end of May brings graduation. This past weekend, we went to an open house of our "summer buddy" Kyle. He's been really busy with a new job and a girlfriend that we haven't seen much of him lately. But he's a vital part of the "summer group" and we've missed him. Josh, Bekah, Stephen and I were able to go and celebrate being done with high school forever. After the first couple minutes, it was like we had never been apart and the guys were all cracking jokes on each other and having fun. It was good to be together again! We made Kyle promise to hang out with us and encouraged him that the
summer group just isn't the same without him. I
think we have him convinced :)

This missy here is one of the most beautiful gals ever. I've been able to hang out with Bekah a lot in the past couple weeks and she truly is a woman of righteousness. I'm learning lots from her and love to be around her all the time...except when she's playing Risk. I wouldn't advise playing that game with her; things can get pretty intense, just ask the fiancee Josh. :)

So alas, this has been my crazy summer thus far. Next week is finals for my first summer session of college classes. It is also the beginning of church camp. I'm helping out in the kitchen for children's camp and will be a counselor for teen camp and teen work study camp. Also in two weeks, my second session of summer school starts and will be going to indy 3 days a week until August. This summer is flying by but I'm growing in the Lord and am learning to trust him more and more each day. Thank you for taking the time to read this!! Be blessed!

i really still am alive, don't you worry. i'm in summer school right now, going to indy 4 days a week and have a couple hours of homework every night--something i'm not used to. and with cindy's wedding last weekend i've been extremely busy. however, i hope to put up some pictures and stories soon of my summer thus far. i have quite the plethura of things going on. so keep checking guys!!

the great outdoors!

This weekend was an AWESOME weekend. Saturday morning started off on a great note: we didn't get up until 1130am...amen! We were cordially invited to go to the lake for the day on Saturday to enjoy some fun in the sun! We met up with the guys who had spent the previous night in the forest. The temperature was an amazing 75 degrees, but the water...whoooo buddy, that thing was cold! There was a rope swing that swung out over the water. One brave soul, a freshman go-getter decided to brave the icicles and went for a
swing! It only took one time for him
and us to realize, it wasn't a day for
swimming. So instead we laid in the sun and skipped rocks...or in CW's (pictured right) case, see how close to the shore he had to throw the biggest rock, in order for it to splash those of us who were still sitting on dry land.

An hour or two after meeting up with the guys, we relocated to the beach/grilling area where the rest of the group met up with us. Some threw around the football while others tried ever so hard to keep the frisbee from flying into the water. After everyone had arrived, the grill man Curtis, decided it was time to
fire up the coals. He got the first round started with some hotdogs. Thirty minutes later, we were ready for the real deal: the hamburgers. The guys bought eight lbs of hamburger and probably twenty hotdogs. We tore through them all! I mean we are growing college students! This is the group to the left that we went with. Brett and I are the only juniors of the bunch, the majority are sophomores and a couple freshmen, oh and one senior :) God has really blessed me with a great group of friends here. Half of these guys here are Bible majors wanting to do something big for God
when they're done with school.
Sunday afternoon brought the long awaited fishing trip with Tyler (left) and Travis (right). These two boys were in calculus class with me last semester and everyday they would share their fishing stories. Abby and I asked them to take us fishing and they extended the offer anytime. Yesterday, we finally were able to get together and go. Abby unfortunately had to stay and set up for Vespers (student led church service) so she couldn't go. Tyler took us to a place up the road...where the uppity people like to hang out: the Country Club. This club just so happened to have a golf course on it.
Near the edge of the golf course was this nice little pond. PERFECT! The plan: hurry up and bait the line as quickly as possible in order to catch one or two fish before being escorted out of the country club :). So we rush down to the pond, Travis baited my hook very quickly for me and within two minutes: SHAZAM! check out that bass....ohhh yeah! Five minutes later I caught a good sized blue gill. It just so happened the pond stood between a tee-off and a putting green. So every so often we had to move out of the way of the golfers, who each spoke with us as they passed by on their way to the putting green. They all wanted to know the same thing...did we catch anything? No one seemed to really mind that we were fishing. I mean it's not like there was a "no fishing" sign...:) We eventually ran out of worms for bait, and Ty and Travis were able to catch baby blue gill without any bait. Little did the babies know..they soon would be bait for the big billy bass. The guys both caught a big bass using the baby blue gill. I unfortunately didn't have the same luck. I let my baby go before he gave his last breath. After fishing, we went to the last Vespers of the school year. We reviewed our theme: AKOLUTOS = unhindered. We sang worship songs under the stars and had an awesome time praising the Creator. Afterwards, the night was made complete with a little s'more action. It was a GREAT weekend! An awesome way to end the school year!

Terrific Thursday

(disclaimer: some of the following content may be inappropriate and unsuitable for those who have weak stomach systems. please take caution)


One of the joys of going to a small private college is: they can cancel a whole day of classes for no reason other than to give students a break! Pretty cool, eh? Once a year: Wonderful Wednesday strikes! It always happens after spring break, but not necessarily on a Wednesday. Only a select group of students know (those who plan the event) and none of the faculty know when it will happen, until the day of. Sometimes it will start in the evening and go throughout the next day, which is what happened this year. As I was laying down to take an afternoon nap on Wednesday, a student with a megaphone came running through campus "Welcome to wonderful Wednesday!!" And so it began. Wednesday night started off the big shabang with discounted bowling. The suitemates and roommate and I all went out and bowled out hearts out. Well, some of us did. I realize that you can't really see the scores, but I'll break it down for you... Miriam: 10th frame: X X X = turkey = 151 pts total! Shoooot yeah! I rocked the house!

Terrific Thursday was filled with lots of outdoors fun, one of those being the slip n slide. Now let me inform you that the weather was a hot 62 degrees with a 25 mph wind: not really my choice of water sports weather. Brett and I opted to watch from the side lines as students, numb to the water and wind, slid down the tarps aiming to take out the 7 construction cones waiting for the human bowling ball at the bottom.





The obstacle course proved to be an entertaining event. Each team consisted of four people who each had a certain assignment. The winning team was the team who completed all tasks in the shortest amount of time. The first person had to stick their face in this...You see, this nasty muck of stuff in the pool is: baked beans, sweet pickles and southern style green beans. Bulk cans of each were dumped in together, mixed up and contained two fun size muskateer bars. Person #1 had to dig through here with their face only and find the wrapped muskateer bar. Next,


person #2 raced across the creek to be wrapped in a roll of toilet paper by person #3. This is more difficult than one might imagine because person #2 is soaked from the creek. Once the toilet paper is gone, person #3 smears peanut butter on their face. Person #4 must throw and successfully stick 3 marshmallows on the #3's face. Once this is completed, person #3 blows up a balloon and pops it. Person #4 (as seen left) jumps onto the blow-up dolphin or crab, races it across the creek. Up on the bank, is a hula hoop. Person #4 must hula for 5 seconds. After the 5 seconds are up, #4 retrieves the floaty, jumps
jumps back in the creek, rides it back across and
runs up into the gazebo, where time is stopped. Two teams compete against each other. Again, Brett and I opted to view rather than participate.

AND NOW!! what everyone's been waiting for!!! THE ANNUAL MILK CHUGGING CONTEST!! of course everyone knows it's physically impossible to chug a gallon of milk in an hour without throwing up. the technical rule for determining the winner of this game is whoever can drink a gallon of milk in an hour without throwing up..within that same hour. but as i came to find out, the REAL contest, is to see who can 1) make the best puking sounds 2) shoot it out the nose the best 3) spew the farthest....get ready for this.

to the left we see CT. right here, he's about 45 minutes into the contest: about 1/2 gallon chugged and no stomach reflex..yet. by the look on his face we can see the milk churning! he decided to take the slower route and see how
much he could get down without throwing up. ten minutes
left in the hour and the crowd begins cheering. CT feels the pressure and begins his chugging as the crowd chants, "Chug! Chug! Chug!" he realizes his doom is about to beset him as he rises to his royal throne (the folding chair). being a senior, and having competed in this heroic contest in the years before, CT understands the REAL competition. he takes his place and continues the chug. only a few seconds later, the vitamin D whole milk refuses to stay put any longer. the first displacement is, yes...curdled.. you see, CT held down quite a bit of milk for a good 50 minutes before ever letting anything out. So the first bit had set in the stomach acid for quite some time.

CT downed all of the milk from the gallon (only to bring it back up) and is still going through recovery today. as i spoke with him on his follow-up, he hasn't eaten anything since yesterday and still feels woozy. he doesn't want to see milk again for a long while, but feels it's all worth it in the end.

meet casey: casey started the competition with a bang. he chugged his gallon of whole milk within the first 20 minutes. he set the standard for the REAL contest. as i first approached casey, he was quietly listening to a friend's ipod, apparently waiting in the calm before the storm. the calm didn't last long: and out came casey's fire hydrant spray of milk. Casey definitely won the prize for farthest distance and fastest chug. this guy...he was impressive.




yes, this is truly what college is all about. bringing your self-esteem to a new level, defending your dignity and honor in the name of milk chugging. long live wonderful wednesday!!!

(brett and i had our own chugging contest: free soda!)

i realize it's been a quick minute since i've posted, so i thought i'd take this time to give an update:

SCHOOL: becoming evermore challenging everyday with my math classes; finals start in two weeks and i'll be done the first week of may, only to start summer school here at home the next week. even though tensions are building with the onset of the final stretch of school, the roomie and i are still getting along marvelous, praise God! Brett is such a fun girl and God has really knitted our hearts together. basically, we're long lost sisters/bffs.
WORK: i'm working at a restaurant similar to applebees as a server. i'll usually work 3-4 nights a week, but each shift can be from 7-9 hours. on a daily basis, i'm learning patience and the holy spirit is constantly reminding me that i am a witness in this extremely dark place i call work.
GOD: wow, in the last couple days God has taught me that my will isn't always His will (who would have guessed?) and with that revelation has come a hard lesson. i have to be willing to give things up in order to be in His will. being a child of God isn't something that is easy, but it's a privilege; and if i'm really committed to be who God has called me to be, i have to surrender specific things in my life. this is proving more difficult than i thought, so please be in prayer for me. but above all, God is stinkin' awesome! (right, pastor terry?!)

ME or God?

HERE AND NOW: Impatience, selfishness, arrogance, confusion, annoyance, frustration...





THE BIG PICTURE: God has a plan that stretches far past the rest of my life...

"I am the first and I am the last. My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together." --Is 48:12-13



"..I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please." --Is 46:10b



"Aim at and strive for FIRST the kingdom of God and HIS way of doing and being right and THEN and only THEN will these things be given unto you." --Matt. 6:33 (paraphrased)

The joke...

This morning began like the average college student's morning does. After turning off my second alarm, I roll out of bed (which, if you recall i'm on the top bunk and that's a lot trickier than it sounds), hopped onto the floor with ten minutes to spare before I must leave for class. Feeling no urge to get particularly dolled up and girl-ified today, I threw on some sweats and tennies. Abby and I always walk together to class in the morning and she is usually the one who gets up to my room first because I'm running late. Well not this morning! I was ready to go before she was able to walk up the stairs and knock on my door. Grabbing my water and granola bar, I reached for the umbrella and opened the door. To my surprise and great startlement, this is what I found:

Yes that's right, I had been "cinder-blocked" into my room. Creative eh? When I opened the door, I literally jumped because all I saw was this big shadowy dark thing in front of me. See the crack between the door and the cinder blocks? At first, I thought I could squeeze between them and make it out, but then I snapped back to reality and remembered that I didn't weigh 95 pounds, nor was I made of elastic. Obviously, pushing them out of the way was not the safest or least-damaging way to go about things. I shut my door, walked through the bathroom and out my suitemates' door. I'd deal with it later.

Seeing this done before, I knew who the culprits were, well at least I had a group of suspects. I saw my RA today on the way to class and asked if she knew anything about it. Leah replied, "No......YESS!!"-with a big grin. I just shook my head and she said she and the girls would clean it up later today. While relaxing on my couch after lunch this afternoon, I heard banging and noise outside my door. I called out, "I hear you!!!" For the second time today, a surprise met me as I opened the door to find the two housekeeping ladies and an older maintenance man taking down the cinder blocks. Now you must understand, within each column of blocks, is a four or five inch PVC pipe which prevents anyone from simply pushing the blocks out. So each block must be lifted up and off the pipe. This weekend is "open house" for prospective students and housekeeping was trying to clear out the hallways. I quickly ran out the other door and helped them take it down. Being trapped in your own bedroom was funny, until the poor housekeeping people had to clean i up.

time to breathe...

Amidst my nightly five hour study sessions, I was contemplating the great, life-altering, climatic question every academically-minded and socially exposed college student asks themselves.."what am i doing for spring break!?"

First of all, these things must be planned in advance! Plane tickets become more costly as the date arrives; passports need time to clear and to fly to the other side of the world and back into your hand; parents need time to adjust to their "babies" going off for a week without parental supervision...all these things are essential to planning ahead. The next topic of discussion is "WHERE" am i going? Depending on what part of the country you live in, the beach may sound appealing. Or if you live on the beach, go inward to the mountains. What about the tropics? I've heard Cozumel and Aruba are nice vacationing spots! (wait, cozumel was hit by a hurricane and aruba swallowed a young girl..so maybe another destination..) According to popular statistics, most college students head for the beach for many reasons. I'd like to think it's just for the tan and waves, but for some reason there seems to be a more populous supply of substances at the beach rather than in the mountains or the plains. (please note, this statistic is purely observational) So WHERE do i want to go? And the last question, sometimes the most important is "WHO am i going with?" Brett and I were invited to go with a group of 10 people to florida, not having to pay lodging costs because of peoples' families. what? one of the biggest costs of spring break vanishing!? heck yeah!!--but then, we thought a little more about it, before making such a rash decision. you see, there was an even amount of girls vs guys going on this trip, which most would think turns out nicely, right? except for the fact that these guys like to have their "alone-manly-bonding" time and the girls, they like their girl time, but "can't we do everything together, guys??" brett and i foresaw (?) a few bumps in the road as you could imagine, and decided we needed to search for something different. brett opted to go on a short term missions trip with the school to louisiana and i decided flying to california for a week would be and excellent idea. family + sun - tennessee = AMAZING! and so that's what i did:


Charis and I started our sisterly-bonding by getting pedicures! For you gentlemen that means: sitting in a massage chair, putting your feet in a bubble bath, getting your toe nails painted and your feet massaged. Ahhh, relax!








Charis and Phil were the only ones in CA who knew I was coming out. My friends Holly and Mary knew nothing of my visit. Sunday morning at church, Ms. Mary walked into church and walked right past our pew. Not until the middle of the service did she turn around and with a look of surprise and glee and mouth, "What are YOU doing here?!!?!!" She came back to give me a hug and lots of poking, speaking things like, "why didn't you tell me? how long are you here for? you little tricker!"


Holly, unfortunately was out of town when I flew in. She returned on Monday night and Steven and I drove to the airport to pick her up. She didn't know that either of us were coming to get her, until she spoke with her mom on the phone after landing and her mom told her about steven. But she still had no idea I was there. Steven and I had discussed a few options of revealing my presence: 1) hide behind the passenger seat and when she got in the car, grab her from behind. 2) stand at the end of the departure/arrival lanes, and act like a hitchhiker until steven and holly drove by and then have steven pick me up. holly would've freaked. 3) walk past holly in the airport and nonchalantly say, "hey holly." and keep walking. The first one we chucked out; the second would've gotten me in trouble with airport security and so we chose the third one. but what we didn't realize is that there aren't very many people in the airport at 11pm. so we decided i would hide behind a kiosk and then when holly and steven walked past, i would follow them and quietly say, "holly..holly" until she turned around. I stationed myself at the kiosk and waited....three or four minutes later i see steven coming around the corner on the phone.."she's at the other entrance" he whispers as he walks by. seven minutes later steven comes running from the direction he just went and says, "she's actually at this gate over here!!!! i'll bring her by!" finally a few more minutes later, i hear steven's voice and holly's too. they walk past me and i proceed to follow behind. i have my camera ready and i start off whispering. my voice grows louder as i realize she can't hear me...until finally, "Holly!!" with a quick turn of her body she looks at me...stops for a moment and tries to put everything together: why would miriam be in california? then much screaming and hugs and kisses ensued. :)


Holly and I kept our annual tradition alive and went grocery shopping at 11pm at night. there weren't very many people in the store and so we were employing the role of "casual shoppers: let's stop and look at everything." i was kind of tired and so i stopped to sit on some cans of campbells soup while talking on the phone.












Holly and I were cuddling in the chair together and snapping photos. This is one of the better ones believe it or not.






Oh yes, the weather here!...with the exception of yesterday, it has been mostly sunny, highs in the mid 60s. tomorrow we're going to the beach and saturday it's supposed to be 71. ahhh yes! i'm finding lots of time to relax and breathe and continuing to learn about God's grace and goodness. And I'm also remembering how much fun my brother and oldest sister are. I'll post some pictures of them later! Love you all!

::checking in:: life had been insanely busy for me. thus, the absence of blog posts. however, i am finally on spring break and will have time to post a few things that are happening, so keep checking back!

My Valentine

Valentine's Day: a.k.a. Singles Only Day! These girls, Chelsea and Amanda, are two of about twelve ladies who made t-shirts to wear on V-Day. I thought the shirts were cute and the girls all bonded together.

I, however, had a Valentine. My date's name was Abby. I've composed this little poem for her:

A is for Absolutely Amazing
B is for Boldly Beautiful
I is for Insanely Intelligent
G is for Gorgeous Good looks
I is for Irreplaceable
A is for Always Awesome
L is for Loudly Living for the Lord






We got all dolled up and went to Ruby Tuesdays. We matched, by coincidence and decided not to change because it looked cute. Abby was very excited about her pink pumps (those are shoes for you gentlemen who don't know) and so she had to wear them for Valentine's Day..of course!








Abby and I invited another single to join us for the evening. He decided to show up fashionably late, but Abby and I waited...and guys think that GIRLS take a long time! PSH! We decided to still allow him to sit with us, since he fits into the category of Singles Only. Brett didn't come because she has a beau back home. But we weren't that mean as to not let her come when she couldn't be with him for the special day. So we invited her, but told her she couldn't talk about him or to him the whole night. She opted to spend the evening with one of our suitemates who is single and they had a girls night.




I asked Abby to be my Valentine...and she said YES!!! It truly was one of the best Valentine's Days that I have ever had!!