getting in touch with my inner betty crocker.

Dinner party! I'm quite proud. It was kind of impromptu. We invited them three hours prior to when they came over, I added tons of milk and corn starch to my clam chowder, and started cleaning. Katie woke up from her nap to find three extra guys in our house. She stumbled into the living room, saying, "Woah! Our house is clean!" I coughed. "I mean... It's like this all the time!"

Left to right: Ryan, Orville (Jordan), Katie, Emily, Rob, Sylvia, and part of Kelly's hair.

I pulled this out of the oven, where it was raising, and was so excited about how beautiful it was that I paraded it around Berea for awhile...

Rob: "So, what kind of wine goes with clam chowder, red or white?"

Me: "Red."

Rob: "I'm on it."

Rob and Ryan showed up at our door with sparkling grape juice. ;o)

We tried to tell Katie to take it easy, but...








Below: THE FINISHED PRODUCT!!

Yesterday (three days after the bread bowls) I decided to make cornbread muffins...

I must just be a natural, because they were delicious, ON THE FIRST TRY.

Hahahaha.

the fall retreat

It was about an hour and a half drive north of Spokane. It was a pretty drive. On the bus, I talked to this guy who was raised as a missionary's kid in Brazil. It was really cool to listen to his view of the culture compared to what I learned in school. He even knew quite a bit of Portuguese.

A band called Canvas came and played for our worship. They were GREAT. I twas hard to come back the next day on Sunday and sit through a regular service. The speaker at this place was AWESOME, as was the worship.

I thought this was a cool picture.

There was a slide there. I didn't even do it until Friday, which is sad, because it was SO much fun.


 It was good to just have fun after getting my mind completely boggled by the speaker.

All of the ladies of Berea got comments all day about being the "Berea Cult," because of our matching tie-dye shirts. "Don't drink the Kool-Aid!" Hahaha.

Two of the ladies that are head of my friend pack here at Moody. Left is Sylvia, right is Kelly.

Hehehehe AWH.

beautiful manito park

Pretty much the best picture of me ever. I think this should have been a senior picture. Katie took it! It was in the Rose Gardens.

This is currently my desktop. Katie takes wonderful pictures. It's of the Japanese Gardens.

From left to right: Sylvia, Kelly the birthday girl, and Emily.

This photoshoot was in honor of Kelly's birthday, by the way.

I'm sitting quite awkwardly.

But it was a cute picture of everyone else. So, being the good friend I am, I decided to post it anyway.

The whole rose garden was filled with beautiful, beautiful flowers!





Below: the English Gardens.

The following day, we came back and sprawled our blankets out in the middle of the garden, by the fountain in the middle, and did homework. It was amazing.

Speaking of the fountain...

The signs never said we couldn't get in it!

There's Katie being beautiful.

The light was PERFECT for pictures like this.

That's Kelly.




She's adorable.

Emily was just coming out of a spin, if I recall correctly.

This is Sylvia.

Did you know that if you steal a coin from the fountain of love, you will forever have stolen that person's love!

This was my artistic touch.


I think it turned out beautifully!!

sarah, rock climber chick: level 0

This is the climbing gym downtown that Michelle took us to.

I went with Michelle, Katie, and my R.A., Bianca.

I'd been rock climbing before, at the rec center and on 'real' rock, outside. But I'd never been to a gym like this before!

Even the atmosphere was intense!

Check out them legs!! (I got 'em from my Mama).


I did pretty good. We just bouldered, which apparently is a lot harder than top roping anyway.


Wish I had a picture of the AWESOME blisters I have on my hands now. I actually ripped my biggest one on this climb right here - it was nearing the end of the night. I literally felt the skin rip off of my right hand.

Bianca and I are going to be Hot Climber Chicks by the end of this year.

As you can see, we are studying the art of rock climbing very intently.

the local wildlife.

I would like to introduce you to the 2217B beta fish, the newest additions to our family.

The one on the left is yet to be named, but we've decided he's our nerdy Asian. Personality traits yet to be discovered.

The one on the right, however, his name is Cash, short for Cashmere. He's a hippie... well, he's the older sibling that nobody really talks about.

From the kitchen: "Saraahhhhh! We need your NOSE!"

Uhhhh, okay.

So yes.

That is my nose.

That's the butterfly that landed on Sylvia's butt.




And stayed there.




For quite awhile.

This particular creature we found in Couer D'Alene, in the middle of the sidewalk.

I have to say, I've never seen mice as adorable as these ones. They were just different than the ones we normally find at home, in the irrigation pipe.

And finally, this is the cat that we found wandering into our house this past evening. He was lonely, we think. Either that or he had his eye on our new resident beta fishes.

Because he kept meowing at our front door after we kicked him outside.

And then he went around and somehow managed to get over the wall to our back porch, at which point he sat meowing at our back sliding doors. And staring at us ruefully.

Katie picked him up and put him back out front, and he yowled in the courtyard for the rest of the night.

You know what they say.

If you give a cat a cookie...

"cliff diving" at couer d'alene

More like watching Katie and Sylvia and the Addison House Moody boys cliff dive at Couer D'Alene.

A few of us are sitting and watching the brave souls. I hear this particular jump was about twenty-five feet? Maybe twenty.

They may have been exaggerating? I would, if I had actually done it.

"Yeah, I jumped off a fifty-foot cliff today. You know, the usual."

Some actual cliff diving going on here. I got to see this jump (executed by my friend Forrest) from above instead of from this angle...

I wish I would have snapped a picture soon enough! (I was holding Katie's Nikon). It was awesome.

This one I actually took. I'm rather proud of it.

Katie's in front, and the white mass behind her is our friend Rob. He's pretty hilarious.

This picture was beautiful! Taken by the talented Katie, of course!


The gorgeous Couer D'Alene lake.

There's a path that goes all the way around the lake. It's a really pretty hike. We hiked to several different areas that people jump off at.

We also hiked around just to take pictures and such.

We ran into another giant Moody group! Like-minded, we are.

There was a cool peninsula-like landform that extended into the lake, followed by a few small islands.

We waded out to one of them, because it had a tower with a hawk's nest on it! And the hawk was actually there.

Oh, that's Rob in the water. He slipped. Twice.

This is quite a good picture, if I do say so myself. My hair was awesome that day.

I wanted to just hold my skirt up so that it wouldn't get wet, but I thought that would be scandalous, or would at least have the appearance of being so - I was wearing my swimsuit underneath, but that's not what it would have looked like!

And no scandals for Sarah! Because she's a Moody student now.

Katie and I. The little island you just saw would be in front of us, and there's the peninsula behind us.

The Couer D'Alene boardwalk was one of the destinations we can visit for credit for our Introduction to Ministry class. (For an activity called 'Building Community'). We thought we'd hit it up while we were there.

That's Katie's angry face. We can always count on Katie to make me and Sylvia look real pretty... ;o)

Left to right: Sylvia, Katie, me, Alexandra, May.

Three out of the four Addison House boys, riding the bronze moose...

...the bronze moose that I later kissed.

The Student Life Guide says we should limit public displays of affection to holding hands and hugging, but it was just a peck! I promise.