24

Earlier this month I celebrated my 24th birthday. Although it was the first birthday in my life that I had to go to school, it was one of the best birthdays because I was surrounded by so many dear friends. 

In class we celebrated with a cake and I was serenaded with Stevie Wonder's Happy Birthday. Then most of the class went to Memphis Pizza Cafe for lunch and a smaller group went bowling. To top off an awesome day Sarah, Kristin, and I went to the Redbirds game!

The next day, my dear friend Callie came into town [I'm a bad friend and didn't get a picture of the two of us!] and we went out to my parents house for a birthday cookout with friends from all different parts of my life - Middle School, High School, College, Neighborhood Church, and my mom and sister Martha.

It was a great night of fellowship. I found that many of my friends did not know what it means to Call the Hogs, so after Happy Birthday was sung, we showed everyone that glorious tradition! Woo Pig Sooie!

Who is going to go to college?

This week we are observing and helping with Summer School at KIPP DIAMOND Academy, which is a charter school here in Memphis. They have many routines and procedures that are very effective in discipline and learning. We are very fortunate to see how they set up the school year and culture with three weeks of summer school before the traditional school year. 


On Monday morning the administration was talking about goals and expectations while all the new students were sitting in rows on the floor of the cafeteria [they have to earn desks] and the principal asked, "Who is going to college?" and a boy who I had talked with earlier that morning raised both his hands as high up in the air as he could. I fought back tears as I saw how much he wants a better life. 


This verse has been on my heart this week as well:
When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy. Proverbs 11:10
Memphis is already changing because of the educational reforms and the entire city will benefit and rejoice when EVERY student has access to a GREAT education.

Life is Full

The last 5+ weeks have flown by since I moved and started MTR. Life is oh-so-busy, but definitely a ton of fun and very fulfilling. I love living in Midtown and love our apartment [with the exception of the occasional cockroach - I have killed 5 so far].

Lots of the furniture I had in Fayetteville, and of course the cross collection is always a topic of conversation. My bedroom was not picture-ready this day, so I owe you a picture of it. Sarah loves to have people over as much as I do, so we have friends over often. 

This post is going WAY back to the first week of MTR. We had a Midtown Scavenger Hunt. We didn't win, but we sure did have a blast. We decoded clues that led us to Piggly Wiggly [the first self-service grocery store], the ABC/24 station, the school board, Young Avenue Deli, and the Main Library. We also got 5 additional points for each person in the picture not in MTR.

MTR Residents are on the same page so much that we dress alike without any planning:

We were very excited to have finished two of our courses and successfully made it through our first Saturday class. There are many more of those to come!

Ashley became a Master back in May. She got hooded with her Masters of Occupational Therapy. We are so proud!

Meredith and I experienced our first Flash Mob in person a few weeks ago. She called me about 33 minutes before it started and I rushed from Cordova to pick her up and make it downtown in time to catch most of the performance. 

Since we had class, we were not able to make it to Bonnaroo the second weekend in June, so a few of my classmates implemented Lonnaroo out on the lawn here at our apartment complex. The dress code was "sexy casual" and there was a tattoo design specifically for the event. Nadia walked the dog on her ankle and Martha and Danielle were my guests.

Aunt Kay, Uncle Bob, Sarah, and Andrew came though town a few weeks ago as they moved back to Colorado and we hit up Central BBQ per Uncle Bob's request. Sarah and Andrew drew some awesome pictures that we have displayed on our refrigerator when they stopped by to see our apartment.

Last Friday was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a, so 22 of us dressed up as cows to get a free lunch. We even coined a cheer, "We love cows yes we do! We love cows Moo, Moo, Moo!"

Nadia even showed us what Mad Cow Disease is like. [center picture]

Saturday night all of MTR went to the Redbirds game. I had such great conversation and company that I barely watched the game! 

It was fun to be all together on such a beautiful night! We brought 7 or 8 blankets, but by the end of the night, we were all sitting close to each other on 3 of them.

Roommate Date

This seems like it was so long ago! Part of orientation for MTR is a required Roommate date so we decided to go here:

And it was such a great idea that Mike and Stu joined us. We waded down the Mississippi and went walking in [on] Memphis:

And I made sure Mike didn't cross over into Arkansas.

And then we had some roommate time on the pedal boat. Sarah rocks. Enough said.

I'm loving MTR more and more everyday!