twenty-one

God is so good - the weather has been absolutely beautiful for the past few days! On Monday I got to go to the park, hammock, and read Anne of the Island, which is the third book in the Anne of Green Gables series. I reread them every fall, and it has taken me longer this year because I have not had as much free time. I love it, though - the books just make me feel good. AND I read a really good quote that I want to write about sometime:

"All life lessons are not learned at college,"

she thought. "Life teaches them everywhere."

It's just a beautiful thought that is begging to be expanded on.

The past few days have just been really fun in general. The sophomore girls in my community group came over Monday night and we carved pumpkins! Here is a picture of my pumpkin. His name was Mustache Manny, and he was carved to the boyfriend of Snaggletooth Sandy that two of my girls carved, haha. I bet you've never seen a pumpkin with a MUSTACHE, because I sure hadn't until I created one. I am so thankful for the girls in my community group! They are so eager to build relationships with each other and to grow in their walks with God. They also surprised me by baking me a birthday cake and giving me a beautiful journal and a gift card to Barnes and Noble. What sweet girls!

So, yes, I am now officially 21. It was a wonderful birthday (yesterday the 20th) - I felt so loved by my friends. And I was given four cakes. FOUR. Sunday night I was given a peanut butter cake and a funfetti (mixed with a little strawberry) cake for the group of people that came over to hang out. Then, the next night, we finished off those cakes with my community group but they also gave me a cake - this three layer death by chocolate goodness cake. There is still half of that monstrous thing in my kitchen. Lastly, at our leadership hour for Cru last night I was given another chocolate cake which I sadly gave away. There is no possible way that all of that can be eaten by me and my roommates. Today one of my friends gave me homemade sugar cookies and I thanked her that it wasn't a cake as well.

Barnes and Noble is one of my favorite places, and that is where I am headed next. I am going to spend that giftcard! Not sure on what yet - I know I want a Moleskine journal or something for my New Testament Greek class. We finally finished our grammar book and have started translating parts of the Bible! This week we are doing Matthew 5, and I want to record everything in a nice journal since we don't have to turn it in. I am LOVING every minute of it! And going to do my best to make the most of it, because next semester I will be reading Homer and am far less interested in that...