I'm Back!!

Soccer State Championship

I promise we have the same parents. When I look at this picture I wonder how it is that my brother and sister can look so much alike and then there's me. I was first. Someone should look like me, but no. Some people say that they can see the resemblence, but I think they are just trying to make me feel like I fit in. Anyway, this picture was taken on Friday after Mars Hill's big win to put them into the championship game. Matt scored two goals for the 2-1 win. The championship game was today. Mars Hill lost but we are still proud of our team that is second in the state!
When I watch my brother play soccer I cannot believe how fast he is. I'm not just saying that because I'm his sister. He is fast! I am very proud of him and I am excited about spending this summer at home with my family. This is the last summer that I will ever get to live with them! (Unless of course I never get married and become a cat lady and move back into the basement.)

The D.C. Trip Summary

"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just. That His justice cannot sleep forever."
-Thomas Jefferson

My trip to Washington D.C. was wonderful! William and I flew up on Saturday to visit Brad and came back on Tuesday evening. During our stay we got to visit the west wing of the White House twice, watch the president depart from the lawn, see the memorials, tour the capital, and visit museums. I really enjoyed getting to spend time at our country's capital and I realized that there is a lot of history that I simply cannot remember. I could spend atleast a week in one museum alone because there is so much to see. It is also amazing how many people my age are working at there for the government. Everyone that we met was so nice and they all seemed to have such interesting jobs, some of which were secret and they couldn't tell us what exactly they were doing. I think it would be a lot of fun to work there and live there for a short while, but my home is definitely in the south. I love it here. Infact, if I was in any way a poet I would write a poem about how much I love the south and the different things that I love about it. But I'm not so I won't.

Old School (nothing profound)

I came home to Florence late last night and I got to spend the day here before leaving for D.C. tomorrow. Today was uneventful but it was really nice to be home. I kind of feel like I'm on vacation and I keep thinking that I need something to study. It's all very strange and my head feels empty when I don't have hundreds of pages of material that I'm supposed to be cramming into my brain.

Tonight there was a traditional Mars Hill spaghetti supper to celebrate the soccer teams going to the state play offs. The spaghetti supper is a tradition that goes back as long as I can remember and because my brother is on the soccer team and my dad is the coach, my whole family went tonight, "Championship Casserole" in tow. Tonight was the first time in a while that I have been back to my high school and been in the cafeteria. I pointed out my old lunch table to my brother and remembered all of the lunches I shared there with my best girlfriends. Now that I think back on it, I don't remember many specific conversations but I do remember how much I enjoyed spending that part of each day talking with my friends. It's odd that we were all brought so much closer that year just by sharing a lunch table. To this day those girls are still some of my closest friends.

After the dinner I wandered out of the cafeteria and into the high school building. It was so nostalgic being there. I could vividly remember walking the halls and the sidewalks just like it was yesterday. These past five years have passed so quickly.

Tomorrow I'm meeting William in Athens and we are flying out of Nashville. We will meet Brad at Union Station tomorrow afternoon! I am so excited! Sunday we get to take a tour of the west wing and on Monday we get to watch the president depart from the White House lawn. Brad's got the hook up.

I'll be back on Tuesday for a few more days of hanging out at home. Summer is so wonderful!!!

Let Summer Begin!

I am now officially finished with my p2 year and the summer has begun! I have spent my first official day of summer laying out, reading, and visiting the doctor's office. I am hoping that this doctor's visit (my third visit in four weeks) will put an end to my being sick. However, after a strep test and a blood test for mono, it looks like the doctor still doesn't know for sure what is wrong with me. Hopefully my new meds will knock out whatever it is.
Now, on to my summer plans....
As mentioned in a previous entry, I will be venturing to Washington D.C., Nashville, St. Thomas Island, and Florida in the month of May. With June comes a couple of weddings and the beginning of my free time at home. That's right, no job. No job for Katie this summer. Lucky me! Here are a few things I plan on getting into in June and July:
1. Reading. I love to read and I have a lot of books waiting on me to make time for them.
2. Cooking. I'm all about finding delicious new recipes but I never have time to cook them. Now I do!!
3. Printing pictures. I have hundreds of picutres on my computer from Italy and what not that desperately need a place in a photo album. This summer is the perfect time to get that organized.
4. Learn a new language. What? A girl can dream can't she? I need to learn Spanish, but I think I want to learn Italian instead.
5. Exercise. I love it.
6. Catching up with old friends and taking a few road trips here and there. I'm sure I'll venture to Birmingham now and again.
7. THE TENNESSEE RIVER. It's calling my name.

My Running Ritual

Somehow, and I don't know when it happened, I turned into a thinker. I have always been a daydreamer, but now I have become a full fledged, deep thought, thinker. I guess it was a slow process that I didn't really notice, but I realized it today when I was laying in a lawn chair in my back yard. I have this ritual that I perform every time I go running; when I return from my run I walk around to cool off, take off my socks and shoes, stretch a little, and then I lay flat on my back in the driveway, listen to praise and worship music, and think. Today there was an extra car in my driveway so I moved the laying on my back part of my ritual to the lawn chair in my backyard. It was here that I realized how odd it is that I do this after every run. Not only do I do this after running, I do it on nights when the weather is nice and the stars are out, or when I'm laying outside in this sun, or almost anytime I am alone in nature. I find that it is innevitable for me to not think about God when I am in nature. I often think of how neat it would be if I could write these thoughts down and then other people could read them and think on them too. I could never do this because one, I'm not much of a writer and two, I find it difficult to put some of my thoughts into words. Then I think about how much I would like to have someone to share my thoughts with so they could tell me their opinion on them, or perhaps just agree with me. I believe that one day God will provide that person for me. I believe God will send me a person who will like to listen to the things that God is teaching me every day and who will challenge me in my ways of thinking. But until that day, my thoughts will be between God and me and maybe a random person here and there who might care to strike up a conversation with me about this or that. It is for this reason that I have come to appreciate conversation so much. Not because I want to tell people my thoughts, but I love to hear the thoughts of others and I especially love to hear what God is doing in the lives of those around me. One can learn so much from just listening to the thoughts and experiences of others.