There's So Much To Be Thankful For

Family and Friends -

On this blessed Thanksgiving day I thank God for each of you and all that each of you has given to me. I thank Him for my family, friends, food, and fun. I am grateful for the wonderful life I have and all of the love He has shown me.

I have been home for the whole week, which has been great. I got home around 3:30pm last Friday afternoon. Friday evening we, as a family, went to see the new movie, Lincoln. It was long, but pretty good.

I finally got to sleep in on Saturday. I haven't slept in for a very long time! I helped put the Christmas lights on the house and we did a little garage clean up. I had a lazy afternoon and then Saturday evening we went to go see Anything Goes, the theater production at White Bear Lake High School. It was really good!

On Sunday I helped out at the Pancake Breakfast with the scouts. It was nice to see lots of friends and people from church. Sunday afternoon was really nice...napping on the couch with the dog and watching football. Sunday night I enjoyed watching the AMA awards.

This week has been fairly relaxing too. Monday I got my haircut and went to the scout meeting. Tuesday and Wednesday I worked on Christmas presents and have been catching up on a few things; running errands and getting so much needed shopping done.

Today I will spend the day with family, eating food and doing....nothing :)  Again, I am very thankful for everything in my life and know that that includes all of you!

Sincerely, Kyle

Coming Up....Thanksgiving!

Family and Friends -     * If you understand the title of this post know that I will be home soon :) *

     The past week has been a blur and the time remaining before Thanksgiving break is growing shorter. Last weekend I got the chance to go home, as many of you know. I had a great time surprising some and seeing everyone. The show at Ashland Productions was AMAZING and the relaxing time at home was unprecedented. Last Sunday I left right after church and drove back to Michigan. Changing the clocks twice in one day (Daylight Savings and a time zone change) was certainly weird.

The doings of the past week went something like this....

Monday and Tuesday was, as you are all aware, the epitome of the election season. On Tuesday evening I stayed up to hear the results of all of the elections. The results include a new mayor of Lake Elmo, new city council members, and the re-election of the President. Also on Tuesday, I met with my Academic Advisor to help figure out my schedule for Spring 2013. Wednesday was an intense studying evening, seeing as I had a Forest Ecology Lab Practicum and a Statistics exam on Thursday. I also had a World Cultures exam Friday morning. I think they all went well, and we will see when the grades come in! Also in and amongst the crazy schedule of exams I registered for classes for the spring. I will be taking.....Institutions, Biometrics and Data Analysis, Intro to GIS, US Environmental History, Intro to Legal Careers, and Bowling! It should be a fun semester, with 16.5 credits. Friday was fairly relaxing. I had my World Cultures exam in the morning and I had a Forest Ecology Group Lab Report to finish by 5pm, but overall Friday was a nice break from the chaos (Fridays are normally a nice break for me :) 

Friday evening we went to the womens' volleyball game. The athletics dept. held a contest to see which residence hall house could get the highest percentage of their hall to the game. The winning hall got a private party in the balcony of the gym and free food for Saturday's game. Long story short, TreeHouse won! We had the highest attendance percentage on Friday so we had lunch and watched the game on Saturday from the balcony. Pretty cool and good food :) See pics! Saturday night we held a program over in Hillside Place (on campus apartments). There are nice fireplaces, a nice kitchen area, a pool table, a foosball table, and a ping pong table. We hung out and played games and ate s'mores made in the oven (it was raining so we couldn't use the outdoor fireplace). Again, see pics! This morning I went to church and this afternoon will include homework and laundry, the Sunday usual's. 

This coming week includes a Soil Science Quiz and a report due and a Forest Ecology Exam. It also includes hosting two Husky Hosts on Thursday night into Friday morning. I will have two guests staying with me to get the feeling of residence hall living and to connect with current students. I'm looking forward to it! Then.....drum roll please.....I'm coming HOME!! I will be home Friday evening...yep, this Friday! I will driving home on Friday, along with two other friends. I can't wait to be home (again!) and get an entire week for Thanksgiving Break. 

In this time of thanks know that I am thankful for each of you who care about me and all of you who enjoy reading and listening to me share my life!

Where Does Time Go?!?!

Hello Family and Friends -

The longest drought between blogs is over! As seen, I only blogged once in October, meaning it was a VERY busy month. I will attempt to give you the "catch-up" without overloading you :)

So.....way back on October 14th I wrote my last blog. Since then here are a few highlights!

On Monday (15th) I had a Statistics Exam. On that Tuesday I gave a presentation in Compositions class. I had lots of work to do that week, but it was all in preparation for Uncle Dan and Aunt Nicole coming! They came up on Thursday night and stayed through Friday afternoon. I enjoyed spending time with them :) We toured campus, went to brunch at "The Library" restaurant and then went and explored Hungarian Falls. On that Friday the Huskies played hockey against the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. Huskies won 8-3! After the hockey game some friends and I went to carve pumpkins in McNair Hall. That Saturday we had an Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Retreat. We went to brunch at Suomi's Restaurant and had really good food! Saturday I spent writing a compositions paper. Saturday evening there was another hockey game and we lost 3-2. Sunday was the my friend Hannah's birthday (TreeHouse RA). Her parents came up and a few of us went to Kaleva Cafe for brunch to celebrate. On Tuesday night I attended the Broomball Meeting, in preparation for broomball this winter!

The next week was fairly steady. The regular amount of homework and a lot of odds-n-ends. That Tuesday was an "all staff" meeting, meaning that all RA's and PA's across campus come together for a large meeting. USG has been keeping me busy with lots of funding requests and other meetings. Lots of things are in discussion including tobacco-free campus and flat rate tuition. That Wednesday we had our weekly Wobble Wednesday and Thursday was movie night and we watched Sweeney Todd. Thursday for Forest Ecology Lab we went to a preserve to look at invasive species and got to see some deer pretty close up. Friday was fairly relaxing, especially that evening. Some friends and I went shopping for a few things we needed for Saturday and "lived it up" by going to Goodwill, Walmart, DollarTree, and Culvers, just to name a few places! It was a great, fun evening with fun people :) Saturday (27th) was Make a Difference Day. The University coordinated groups to go out and do service in the Houghton community. As a group, TreeHouse went to this woman's house and did a variety of things, including raking leaves, taking apart her garden fence, draining the garden hoses, and helping her move her chicken fence. We all had a fun time and pics are coming soon! It started to snow as we were finishing helping her out! The snow was SO pretty! That afternoon and evening were dedicated to Safehouse, which is the University's Halloween event. Each house (hallway) decorates either as a scary or fun house and then the community walks through. Think of it like a haunted house. We were a scary house and blacked out the hallway, got out our strobe light, and put on make up, fake blood, and scary costumes. We had an excellent hallway...it was pretty scary! We all had a great time decorating and setting up, as it was snowing outside and we were playing Christmas music, even though we were decorating for Halloween :) I have a wonderful all and Saturday's events (Make a Difference Day and Safehouse) definitely showed that : ) I am really proud of my hall!! Sunday was the time to do homework and relax. Sunday night we registered the broomball teams, which is the next big step towards broomball! Also, the snow didn't stick, but it continues to fall.

This past week has been full too. This past week was the 9th week of the 14 week semester, so half way is long past. Quizzes are abound and papers are in full force. Besides the 18 credits and the PA job I, of course, like to be even more busy. I have recently been working to help better define the role of the Program Assistant and have been meeting with a variety of people to help figure it out. My final paper for compositions was due on Thursday and I gave a presentation on my topic, which was "Critiquing the Public Space of Roadways." On Thursday night we watched Slumdog Millionaire for movie might and have yummy brownies. Also on Thursday night Dad drove up to get me to bring me HOME for the weekend!!!! That's right! My wonderful father drove all night to come and get me. We had breakfast and left Friday morning for MN! I am now relaxing at home for the weekend, away from the craziness of Houghton, school work, the PA job, and, well, certain people :) We got home yesterday afternoon and I went and surprised Grandma W.! Last night I went to see "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" at Ashland Productions. Mom is the Assistant Director and runs lights and Angela is in the show. It was an excellent production and everyone involved should be proud :) Today I got to sleep in (for the first time, really, since May). I had a wonderful brunch with Mary and visited with Grandma and Grandpa W. Now, for the first time in a half a month, I have time to write this blog and work on photos. Tonight I am seeing the show again, then church tomorrow morning, and then back on the road to MI.

Thank you all for being patient with me as I got behind on my blogging. I will try not to let that happen again :) Life is busy, busy, busy and sometimes it is tough to find time to write about how busy it is! It is really nice to be home this weekend and relax. I cannot express how nice it is to get away from the hectic life of school.

I know that there is a lot I didn't write about in this blog, as I tried to keep it "short," but know that my life is busy but extremely fun, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I have wonderful friends and family to spend my time with and wouldn't trade it for anything. Photos from the past couple weeks will be up soon, so look in the near future! Have a wonderful weekend and recognize the power of relaxation!

Love and Peace, Kyle