Dawn's Blog

Well, I'm back in China. I woke up this morning to the first snow I've seen here, which is exciting. However, I also woke up feeling like poop. At least I have time now to write a long-overdue blog post. So despite the fact that 90% of the people reading this blog were actually there when these things happened, I'd like to document the highlights of my time at home, in no particular order. 

• Slumber party with Ashley and Laura in Indy, including a skype date with Ashleigh.
• Playing Princess Memory, Hoppin' Bunnies, Hide-and-seek, Melvin, and Frog Hop with Taylor.
• Eating hamburgers, sloppy joes, pizza, cheesecake, french fries, tacos, and chicken patty sandwiches. 
• Making snowflakes and going to Jamba Juice and Lowes with Danni. 
• Driving through a blizzard in the middle of the night with my Dad.
• Playing Ping Pong and spoons with some amazing people from Bear Lake Camp.
• Celebrating Singles Awareness Day with Ben and Hank by having dinner at the oldest bar in Indiana, followed by a never-ending game of Lord of the Rings Risk. 
• Possibly breaking my record for most Euchre games played in three weeks. 
• Running with my siblings!
• Running with Joel and Laura in Indy. 
• Making pizza and candies with Taylor. 
• Experiencing all the excitement of Indiana weather: Blizzards, sub-zero temperatures, a winter heat-wave, freezing rain, and even a little hail. 
• Making awesome cut-out cookies with Mom and Kevin.
• Painting my Grandma & Grandpa's bathroom. 
• Hanging out with my cousins, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. 
• Imparting my immense knowledge of China to the Wyneken 7th grade class and the Root Merry Makers 4-H club.
• And many many other things, too numerous to mention. 

If you like these pictures, check out all of my pictures here.

Yup, that's right. I'm leaving tomorrow, and I should be in China by Thursday. My last few days at home have been great, and I'm really wishing I had a bit more time to spend with my family and friends here. Highlights of my time at home include:

• Several hours of six-handed Euchre
• Touring Sechler's Pickle Plant with with my parents (complete with pickled peppers, pickle products, and pickle paraphernalia)
• Hanging out with my cousins
• Last-minute luggage shopping
• Volleyball/swimming/eating pandas with the Decatur crew
• Eating imaginary food made by Taylor (my 3-year-old niece)

Anyway, I will miss you all very much. For reals. Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of me and helped me get ready for my next adventure. Just to name a few . . . Mom and Dad, Julie & family, Kevin (you're going to get me a really nice birthday gift), Ashley, Laura, Ashleigh, Hank, Andrew, all my Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, the ACTS! small group (you guys are awesome) , the youth group at DFUMC (thanks for the cake!), all of my Americorps friends, and a whole bunch of other people who are too numerous to mention.  Its good to know that I have so many people supporting me.

I took a week off of service and went home. I went to Taylor's third birthday party, and it was really good to see a lot of my family there.  I even got to spend a whole day with Taylor and my mom. Taylor made these cupcakes, and she was very excited about them.

I also visited Bear Lake Camp which was a very good thing.
I went running a couple times with the one and only Brittany Cook.
I got to see several of my friends at home. We went to Mexican restaurants and played Euchre (we like to have cultural experiences).  I don't think I need to write a whole lot about my time at home because most of the people reading this were there when it happened.

Alayna (my college roommate) got married. Mozy (my other college roommate) and I took a road trip to Iowa for the joyous occasion. It was a ten hour trip, but it was definitely worth it. Highlights included making hundreds of chocolate-covered strawberries, dancing for several hours, and seeing Alayna and Mozy again. 


This is the Mississippi River ->











Alayna got married!






Due to a crazy coincidence ( or not?) our friends Anthony and Emily Parrott live very close to where the wedding was, so we visited them and decided on a whim to go to South Dakota (why not?) since it was only an hour and a half away. They also took us on a night bike ride around the town of Okoboji, which was quite magical.

Here's me at the Sioux Falls falls. I was practicing my peace sign picture taking so I can fit in in China.

On our way back, Mozy and I took the route through Minnesota and Wisconsin to get back to Chicago, from whence I then flew to Atlanta.

All in all, a very successful week. Saw family, saw friends, visited four new states.

To see more pictures of my adventures, go here. 

It's my mom's birthday today!   You should probably tell her Happy Birthday if you get the chance.

As most of you know, I'm spending the week in DC with Ashleigh and Arick.So here's a little update on cool things (or not so cool things) that I've done and seen the past few days.

Flight
My flight left Atlanta at 5:45 a.m. on Sunday morning. So rather than sleep for a few hours and get up super early (not to mention making someone else do this to drive me there) I just went to the airport Saturday night and spent the night there. Not a bad experience. I was definitely not the only person doing this, and it was kinda cool to be part of a temporary community of people trying to sleep in chairs or find a good spot on a carpeted area. I've decided that sleeping on the floor every now and then is good for a person, helps you be thankful for what you have. Anyway, I got a bit of sleep, got on my plane ok, yadda yadda, ended up in DC, and there was much rejoicing.

Sunday
Sunday we went to Easter church (where there was also much rejoicing), and came back and made Easter dinner for the three of us. It was awesome. We had ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, rolls, pasta salad, and peach cobbler. We all chatted with our families a bit and then all fell asleep for several hours. This was also awesome. Apparently I hadn't gotten that much sleep at the airport.

Monday
Arick had to work (who does that?) so Ashleigh and I took the Metro into the heart of DC and walked around all day. We went to Ford's Theatre (no spellcheck, I meant to spell it the British way) and the Petersen house, the White House, the Decatur House, the WWII memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. Huh, a lot of houses. And we didn't get to meet any of the people that lived in them. We did, however, see some protesters outside the White House, which I thought was pretty cool. I'm not even sure what all of them were protesting, and it may not have been the most effective method, but its good to see people standing up for what they think is right and doing more then just complaining about what they think is wrong in the world.

Tuesday
Yesterday. Ashleigh had class (who does that?) most of the day so I went on what I called a "running tour" of DC. I ran from the apartment over to the Mall, where I checked out the Korean and Vietnam memorials, then went down to the Capitol building and got in line for a tour. I made friends with the retired couple standing in line with me who turned out to be from Philadelphia. They thought what I was doing with Americorps was pretty cool and told me I should get more involved in politics. Maybe I will. After the Capitol, I went to the Supreme Court, which I think is one of the coolest places to visit in DC because you actually get to go into the courtroom, hear a lecture by a cool old lady, and the wait isn't very long. Anyway, I also stopped at the Library of Congress and the Botanic Gardens and then realized that I only had about 30 minutes to make it back to the apartment before Ashleigh got back. She had given me the keys because I thought I would get back before her. I was pretty exhausted already from running in the morning and walking around in the heat all day, but I walk/jogged the 3 miles back and made it just in time to meet Ashleigh at the door.

Ok, that's about all I have to share right now. That was really long, I hope I didn't lose too many people in there. I know when I start reading someone's long blog I like to skim over things. So its OK if you do that to mine. I'll just put something in bold at the bottom to regain your attention, something you might see in a postcard.


TRIP IS GOOD. ASHLEIGH AND ARICK ARE AWESOME. I'VE SEEN LOTS OF COOL SITES. MET SOME COOL PEOPLE. HOPE YOU ARE DOING WELL.

Dawn

This past weekend my family (all 7 of them) came down to Georgia to visit and run a half marathon with me. I won't go into too much detail because about 50% of the people that read this blog were there. It was a pretty fantastic weekend overall, not very relaxing, but a lot of fun. The race was at Berry College in Rome, Georgia, which is about 1.5 hours from where I live.  Turns out that not only does Berry have the largest campus in the world, it's also one of the most beautiful. We decided to send Taylor there. Dad was most excited about the thousands of deer they had running wild all over the campus. Anyway, the four of us "kids" ran the race Saturday morning while Mom and Dad watched Taylor. We all did really well, Kevin finished in the top 10 and Julie, Keith and I all had PRs. We were pretty worn out, but we did some sightseeing/driving around in the afternoon (when in Rome . . .). Sunday we went to church, then on a tour of Inner Harbour and my campsite, and then went to a nearby State Park and did some hiking.The whole thing went by way too fast, and I was pretty sad when they all left to go home.

I forgot to put it on my last list of highlights, but one of the coolest things I've done in the past few weeks was spending the day with Taylor. For anyone who doesn't know, Taylor is my niece. She 2 years and 3 months old. I love her a lot. I had no idea I could get so attached to someone who still struggles with making full sentences. She is the cutest little girl that has ever existed. I know there are a lot of parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles reading this who probably think their children and grandchildren are the cutest kids, but I am sorry to tell you that you are wrong.

I'm going to take this opportunity to shamelessly brag about Taylor. Her parents are both super smart, very athletic, and just overall awesome people (and good-looking, I might add). So naturally, Taylor is a cute little genius who will probably be the next Mia Hamm. Or astrophysicist. She loves to "play soccer outside" with "Aunt Dawnie", as she calls me. "Soccer" really means bouncing a rubber basketball back and forth, but I'm sure the skills will carry over. And did I mention that I taught her to catch? I also tried to teach her to juggle, but her parents were less than thrilled about her throwing objects over her head.

Probably her favorite thing to do is "read a book". She'll find anyone who's willing (although she prefers her Aunt Dawnie, of course) and bring them over to sit on the couch and read some of her many books with her. And when Taylor reads books, she is not satisfied with just reading a single book one time through. Oh no. She will read as many books as she can as many times as she can until you cut her off. I was hoping to teach Taylor how to read before I left for Georgia, and I think I've succeeded. Well, maybe not, but she does know all the words to most of her books, so she can fake it really well. Which is also a good life skill.