Kendra's Graduation

Well it looks like quite a few of my friends are growing up. Ellie's engaged and moving, Michelle is moving to U of I, and Kendra graduated from nursing school Friday!!! She's going to be working in the Emergency Room at St. Francis. So thrilled for her! She's going to be an awesome nurse.

So yes, I'm kind of feeling left behind... I'm glad I still have some friends around here living the college life, even though I never get to see them! (JENNA!....)

Anyways, Friday night I got to go to her pinning. It wasn't the most exciting ceremony.. but the fact that she was graduating from a very stressful 2 years of nursing school was AWESOME! :)

I even bought her roses!

Nurse Lori pinning her daughter

The whole class on the stage

The Leman family

Afterwards Clayton, Kendra and I went to Panera for dinner. Then I went and hung out at their house and spent the night. Neither one of us really had tons of homework to do which is kind of a rare occasion.

As for me... yes, I have completed my semester and I am so relieved! I am now a Sophomore in college! Weird..

I get a whole entire break of 36 hours, and then I get to be right back in the classroom for my minimester. I wanted to get a lot accomplished, but I was just kind of lazy instead and just enjoyed myself. :) I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.

I got to go and see/hang out with Ellie which was fun, since she has pretty much dropped off the face of the earth. :) It's totally true, but I don't really mind... she's gotta be the cutest engaged person I have ever seen. :) Just as long as she doesn't drop for too long. :)

I started this post earlier, but I'm just getting around to it. So I should be going to bed. I get to sit through a 8:30-1:15 lecture tomorrow.

Hoping it's fun though... it's a music class, so it should be.

Mothers Day

This post is a bit late, but our family had a wonderful Mothers Day. I hope my mom is able to say that too. :)

Sunday afternoon we drove up to Kenyon's for dinner with Heidi & Luke, Uncle John & Aunt Jeanne and Kristy. We always went to Kenyon's for Mother's Day with Grandma Pfaffmann. It's not the fanciest place, but it's just kind of tradition. :)

It was fun when we ran into half of the Pfaffmann (or I guess Fehr) family there too, and they sat right by us.

Not the greatest picture, but here's all of us at Kenyon's. Lester (sitting on my lap) wanted to come be in the picture too.

We came back to our house for a walk and dessert. It was such a beautiful evening.

I hope all the mom's out there had an enjoyable day and were spoiled!! Thanks to each one for all you do!

Poor Mom, her birthday and Mother's day are just about a month apart. Sometimes it's hard to do 2 special things so close together. :)

But I hope you still had a good day, Mom! LOVE YOU! Thanks for putting up with me! :)

Unmotivated

Yep. That's how I've been feeling lately.

School is finally beginning to wind down. Only finals left... and I am feeling SO unmotivated to do anything.

1 more paper + 5 finals =DONE.

But then I only have two days of nothing, and then I begin my mini-mester.

Then 3 days later, it's my baptism weekend.

And the whole thing of it is? I keep telling people that it's going to be SO stressful... blah, blah blah...

... but I'm not stressed at all. In fact, I'm just feeling like, oh well, it will be busy, but I'll be fine.

Am I complaining about this? Not really... I'm glad I'm feeling relaxed about it. BUT, I hope my finals aren't bad scores because of this unmotivated, who cares attitude. :)

So June 2nd is my last day of school, and then I have the entire summer off! So exciting!

Summer will fly by I know. But yay for Ellie's wedding and wedding plans. :)

My family is going on a family vacation to Glacier in Montana with Phil & Jessica's family. I've always wanted to go there, and I'm really looking forward to it. Surprisingly enough, we aren't even going to Wisconsin for the first year in like 8 years!

In August I was supposed to go to Mexico for VBS, but now that Ellie's wedding is then, I'm not sure when or if I will go. . . but I hope it will still work out.

I was hoping talking about all of these summer plans would motivate me to go study. They haven't really, but I'm going to go do it anyways.

Oh, and I am so GLAD to see that Spring is finally here!! Wow, it's been a long winter. Hope you are all enjoying the weather!

Change

"Well...."

...that's all Ellie said to us and we began to freak out. Then she showed us a text saying it was from.. Troy Steffen.

One of my best friends, Ellie is engaged. Unbelievable.

Yes, I was very sad for the first couple of days. Not only is she getting married, but she's also moving a couple hours away. This is a change that kind of took me off guard!

But after meeting him and seeing them together, they are SO cute and sweet. The sadness of it all is slowly disappearing because how can it not when Ellie is just full of smiles and giggles? It's so great to see her so happy. :)

God has totally blessed both of them big time.

You know, I always tease my friends about getting married but I think I need to stop it. :) I don't think about it really happening like this soon!! AHH!

I feel like I'm copying off of Michelle's blog, but I totally feel the same way. I just hope that we don't grow far apart.... how sad if in 20 years we barely say hi to each other.

All I know is that I will probably drive them crazy by going to visit them every other weekend. ;)

Saturday we got to go meet him, and then after he left that afternoon, Ellie and I went out for dinner(where we saw Seth & Adam :). Then we hung out with Kendra & Michelle that evening (and Seth & Adam). Just like old times. :)

If we add another to the group, we won't be able to play dutch blitz anymore since there will be an uneven number. :)

When we were telling Ellie goodbye, Kendra goes, *sigh* "Cherish Every Moment!" :) Yep, that's what we will have to do in the next few months.

Yay for getting to be in a wedding that will be gorgeous and with gorgeous people.

Mom's Birthday & Mystery Trip

As I was scrolling through my blog today, I realized that it looks kind of blah with just all of my typing, and it is time to post pictures.


Last Sunday(before Easter) we celebrated Mom's birthday. Heidi and I made dinner for her, but I'm not sure how good it was... at least the stuff that I made. I thought I was a good cook, but according to my family, I'm not sure. I think they were partly teasing me, but I don't know... they were probably serious. :)
One of the things I made was rice. I hate rice and I never eat it. So why would I ever make it? Well Heidi made me make it, and yes, it might have been a bit watery, but it worked... I guess :)

Anyways, it was a beautiful day out, so it was nice to just hang around the house with the fam. Especially Bridget. :)

These aren't the greatest pictures, but hey, they're pictures, right?

Little Miss Bridget seriously loves the piano. :)

Bridget was so helpful with the bow... I think she continued to chew on it long after unwrapping.

Uncle Luke & Bridget-- she ADORES him. She just laughs and giggles at this silly dude.



Ok, now I'm totally switching topics here. A few weeks ago our young group took a "Mystery Trip" and we had no idea where we were going. We got on a bus and we began to drive. We figured out it was somewhere in Iowa... and sure enough, we went to Bloomfield!

I was excited when I found out we were going there, because I already knew a couple people from there!

We got to the church in Bloomfield at around 2:00, and then we went and toured some Amish places because 1/4 of their population is Amish.

We came back to church and had a dinner, which was fun because they did some things kind of different, and then we had a singing.

Kendra L. and I got to stay with Kendra Wuthrich... which was super fun. We went into town and went power walking with Meredith and the girls staying with her.

Then we helped Kendra with her cat chores, and stayed up way too late talking.

All of us girls, + the little boy of the people Meredith lives with.

Sunday morning... with the 2 Kendra's. LOVE these girls!

Sunday church was really good. We sang at a home afterwards, ate dinner, and then headed back. It was a wonderful weekend... I want to go back again soon because I love the girls out there! Oh, and just the church in general. :)

Good Friday

I know, you probably know all of this, but I just wanted to share what I've been thinking.


Today is Good Friday. Although I have grown up learning the story of what happened on this day, it never really meant anything to me like it does now.


Even though I have always known and believed in God, and what Christ did for me, I never truly appreciated what event took place on Good Friday until I came to Christ and was forgiven for my sins. I realize that I DO NOT DESERVE THIS!

It just still amazes me when I think about what Christ has done for all of us sinners. Why did He do that for all of us? Because He loves us with a love that we cannot comprehend or grasp.

Something has really stuck out to me lately, that I've really never realized what happened:

Matthew 27:46 says,
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?


Christ was forsaken by His father, in the midst of his suffering, because of us. Because Christ forgave us, and took all of OUR sin on Himself, was the whole reason God forsook Christ for those few moments.

THAT is just one of the few things that shows and proves Christ's love to us.

Thanking and Praising Christ for shedding His blood for us! I've never enjoyed the Easter season so much in my life!



Out onto Calv'ry's hill,
where Jesus died I'll go,
to hear the words He speaks,
to see him in His woe.

How great the pains,
O Lord, Afflict Thee on this day;
"My God, my God," He calls,
"Forsake Me not, I pray."

No vengeance fills His heart;
for them I hear Him plead;
"They know not what they do;
forgive them for this deed."

Now Mary weeps for Him;
In love He soothes her lot;
"See, mother thine own son!
Thou friend, forsake her not!"

The thief in penitence
is pardoned ere he dies:
"Today shalt thou yet be,
with Me in Paradise."

"I thirst," He cries in pain,
fot here is no distress,
which Christ, the Friend of Man,
endured not at His death.

He bows His head and cries,
"'Tis finished, all is done,
O God, receive my soul."
Life's victory is won!

~The Seven Words of Jesus On the Cross

Seriously Government?

So. I've been putting off doing my taxes for way too long.

Actually, I kind of forgot about them until last week.

But I decided I was going to do them myself... because after all, I AM an accounting student! And I took a tax class last semester, so I though I should use what I learned.

This week was crazy with school so I told myself I'd do it after Thursday's classes.

Well, turns out that mine are kind of complicated because I have to file Self-Employment for teaching, babysitting, and cleaning.

So I ended up sending them down to the CPA my parents use, instead of wasting my time and still probably have it totally wrong. And guess what... (even though my forms aren't done yet)... I have to pay A LOT, more like A TON in taxes.

Wow. Seriously Government?

My mom says I have no right to say anything because I'm not even registered to vote .
You'd think they'd be kind of nice to a college student though.

The point of all this is, I hate being an adult.... WHY DO I HAVE TO GROW UP ANYWAYS?

An evening happening

I only have two evenings at home a week, and I love those nights. This is just a random (but I found it funnier than it probably was) happening in the Pfaffmann household last night...

I was filling out my scholarship application form.
I told Dad I needed his AGI for the year.

My mom pipes in and says, "What's your AGI?"

Me: "Seriously? You don't know what AGI* stands for?"

Mom: "Nope, but I know what my AGE is."

Me: (totally serious) "What, Adjusted Gross Earnings?"

Mom then dies in laughter and says, "hahaha, you actually fell for that!"

Good joke Mom....
Why am I so dumb sometimes?

**....and for those who don't know, your AGI is Adjusted Gross Income. :)

Ok, so maybe you just had to be there. :)