What an incredibly hectic and exciting 2 months it has been! I am so excited to share some of the awesome fundraising moments, travels, and adventures the last couple of months have brought. Are y'all ready?? Here.. We.. GO
11) December 10th I traveled home to Syracuse, NY for the first time in a year! Phew–it seemed like forever, but I had an awesome time ridding myself of my usual busy work schedule for an even more hectic schedule of spending time catching up with family and friends.
10) While I was at home I had the pleasure of meeting up with 3 of my beautiful World Race sisters! Haleigh, Brittany (LaTray), and Markelle.
9) Haleigh and I thought it'd be a great idea to do a little fundraiser while I was home so we planned an incredibly disgusting tofu eating contest at the end of her church's youth group service one night. We competed against one of the girls in the group, Toni, who is an absolute CHAMP at eating both a lot of food and disgusting food. While Haleigh and I vomited from the first bite of tofu to the last, Toni finished her 16 oz block of tofu in championship fashion. Needless to say, we lost… But we did walk away with a few bucks for our WR accounts along with video footage, epic photos, and too many laughs.
8) For Hanukkah this year I decided to take both of my parents out on separate dates. I only make it home about once a year and I was really looking forward to spending time with each of them. I took my dad out to dinner for two of our favorite treats (chicken wings and burgers!) and to watch the Syracuse basketball game..a favorite past time of ours. My mom, I took to the new Wonder Works exhibit at Destiny USA…anyone else been there yet?? It was so cool!!!!! ….Until mom threw up… (Sorry mom, I had to tell it..it was SO FUNNY!!!!!) laughing right now just thinking about it.. We started off on the ropes course, which we both clearly dominated with our swift foot work. Then we went into the general admission area where you can play games and ride rollercoaster simulator machines. Well, we may have ridden one too many in a row, because on our last ride of the night Nettles screamed for the ride to stop, fumbled to get everything unbuckled as quickly as possible, and booked it to the nearest trash can just in time to relieve herself. We took that as our sign to call it quits for the night. But I'm sure that's one Hanukkah gift she will never forget 🙂
7) NYC!!!! I always love my yearly trip down to the city to visit with my sister, who lives in Queens, and my Goeler aunts, uncles, and cousins from Connecticut. Pizza, Broadway, the Met…Totally worth being freezing for a day.
6) Since I'm only in the NE once a year I have to take advantage of visiting everyone I know in the area while I'm there. This, of course, meant taking a visit to Ewing, New Jersey to see my best friend from college, Kari, and her beautiful family that consists of her husband, Will, baby #1, Riley (she's a year and a half and loves flashing her pearly whites at the command of "cheeeeeese"), and baby #2, Emmy (who, along with being very excited to follow in the ginger haired steps of her momma, also loves to smile and laugh at everything).
5) Although I had to spend Christmas in the airport flying back to Baton Rouge, I did get to spend Christmas Eve with my life long friend and sister Sarah! Always a blast getting to spend time with her and her family!
4) When I returned to Baton Rouge I also returned to an unpleasant pile of BILLS to pay… somewhere slipped in between all of those bills was a huge blessing; a $400 donation to the WR from a former teammate and a sweet sister…THANK YOU for your desire to support me and join me in spreading hope to the rest of the world.
3) This year I spent NYE in Hotlanta (although it was really more like freezing and rainy Coldlanta while I was there..) The night was spent exploring the city and watching an 800 lb GIANT peach drop from the sky.
2) PASSION CONFERENCE!!!! Need I say more? Didn't think so.
1) January 14 marked the beginning of my last semester in grad school!!! Woop! Very thankful for the education I've been able to obtain in my lifetime and even more thankful to be done with the classroom side of learning in a few months.
Thanks to all for being a part of this crazy life of mine! You're each such a blessing to me.
One Love,
Kate
