One Week

Well just for the record since the top two hot topics this summer were Jillian Michaels and being engaged, I just thought I should clear up that I am not engaged and have not done Jillian Michaels for about 2 weeks. And Congratulations to all who are engaged! So now that I have that settled, can i just say, Where did the summer go? It seems just like yesterday I arrived in Oregon and looked forward to the next 4 months. This is however not the case anymore, my brother and I leave for Oklahoma in less than 4 days and in exactly one week from today my two roommates and I will be unpacking and putting together our apartment! I couldn't be more excited! And no matter what it takes, I will keep my room clean and uncluttered (You can quote me on this Kirby and Kayla). And I love buying kitchen stuff, it's so fun, today a bought a mini rice cooker. And then I sat here and thought to myself, how many 20 year olds use a rice cooker? So I am hoping that I will put it to use this year. But if it sits on our apartment shelves, then I will have it for when I am 35 and have 3 children and a dog. I will put that rice cooker to use. Anyways, I can't wait to be back with everyone, I have enjoyed being my family and friends here, but I cannot wait for nursing school and to see how God works in everyone the next year.

One another note, the garden is growing like crazy, here is a picture:
There are about 7-10 mini pumpkins, cucumbers and beans. And by next week the tomatoes should be ready to pick for my mom to make some salsa! Yum! So right now it looks like a giant piles of weeds but it is so wonderful to be able to grow things from seed and watch them grow! Well, I am off to get some sleep.

Sincerely,
Andrea

Have a wonderful day tomorrow!

The Garden of Weeden

Memorial Day weekend was full of yard work and cooking for the Beekman Household. We had a barbecue on monday so my mom spent all day cooking for everyone, while my dad was out working in the yard, of course. He fixed up my garden and I was able to plant all the starts I wanted. This year, I am planting corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, brocolli and bell peppers. It's going to be wonderful as long as the sun decides to shine in Oregon for more then 2 hours a day. My garden is always very relaxing to me though so it will give me something to tend to throughout the summer. It's still so crazy to me how something can go from a little baby seed to a huge plant that you can eat stuff off from, it's a very complex process in my mind. So here's what it looks like so far:



So, this is one of my many summer projects so far!

Deuces.

Sincerely,
Andrea

Dessert or Disaster... Dessert!

Well, life is back in Oregon for the summer. I am taking a summer class starting at the end of june but until then I have found things to do around the house. Today it was baking! I love to bake, it is just so fun to make something and then have everybody in my family eat them and critique them. It's great and brings a smile to my face. So today the recipe was a lemon cake, with buttercream frosting with fresh strawberries on the top and in between the layers. It turned out pretty tasty, well my family had no complaints anyways.















Also, these little guys are growing!

I love flowers, so I am growing a few of my own. We will see how these decide to grow with this bipolar weather we have been having in Oregon.

Well, I'm off to clean the kitchen now. Have a wonderful day!

Andrea

2:17:28

13.1 miles, yes please! Yesterday was a great day. Kirby, Deborah and I all finished 13.1 miles in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. There were about 21,000 people in total of all the races ran that day. We started off at about 6:30, it was crazy with all those people at the starting line. We ended up having to crawl through these fence/gate things in order to get in line. The gun went off and we were off to the races! I was a little nervous about that race, but by the time the gun went off it was more just excitement about running my first half marathon, what an adrenaline rush, seriously. We chatted and chatted through all neighborhoods and streets. Sometimes there were bands playing and sometimes people cheering on the sides of the streets waiting for their Aunt Rhonda or whoever to run by them, it was great. We got to the last corner to turn to finish and I'm pretty sure we were all smiles from that point on. All the thousands of people cheering as we crossed the finish line, it was such an amazing accomplishment for all of us! I don't think I can think about the race without smiling, well today I'm a bit sore, but tomorrow, it'll be better. I am hoping that I can run another one sometime this summer with my sister (she doesn't know that) or with mom or brother. Anyways, Hope you had a wonderful day!

-Andrea

In less than a week I will be in home sweet home, Oregon! Can't wait until after finals when I have time to soak up that last few days in Oklahoma!

Don't worry, I still love Boyz II Men

I never thought it would happen, but it did. I look back at where I was a year ago at this time. So ready to be home in Oregon with all my family. Yes, I would still love to be with my family in Oregon, but I never would have thought I would debate staying in the heat of Oklahoma for a summer. It must be a God thing. I debated transferring at this time last year, but I knew it just wouldn't have felt right so I stuck it out. This year has been completely opposite of last year.
For starters, I don't have a broken foot and am running my first half-marathon next sunday with Kirby, Deborah, Teaven and Sarah. It has the potential to be a little rough, due to the fact that we haven't ran in the last week but we'll stick it out. Oh yeah, and I've realized that in order to get to know people it takes a little bit of work. And it also has the potential to be really awkward but that eventually goes away, hopefully haha. I truly just can't get over how great of an impact the people here have had on my life in these past 8 months. It never hit me until I realized my sister is graduating in two weeks, it's crazy. I wish I could slow time, but I can't wait to continue growing and see what's in store for the rest of my years at OC.
With that I leave you with this:


I just love this picture.

P.S. 12 days until we hit the road!

Singing in the Spring!

Oh it's that time of year... Spring Sing! I love it, its that time of year where you sacrifice your time, efforts and your body for this great time of year. This year we are the Gamma Rho Flight Attendants, we have teal outfits with Gold trim with white gloves and to top if off, a teal hat.

On another note, this weekend was great. On Saturday morning, Kirby and I went and participated in Down/Refuge ministry with Memorial Road. We ended up painting the inside of the Refuge center, a yellow color. I found myself standing on the inside of a window sill trying to tape the inside of the window. A word of advice for you all, if you're claustrophobic, don't stand in a window sill. It's an all-around bad idea, you feel like you're going to fall out the other side and when you have to jump out of the window sill, people laugh at you.

Then, saturday night was the first night of Bull Craft (A group that does crafts) and we made banana bread and animals out of pipe cleaners. You may not think it sounds cool, but trust me, it is sweet. I made a elephant and the giraffe is still in progress.

Well, better go practicing my choreography. Have a great day!

Andrea

P.S. Mi madre viene a Oklahoma, hoy!

2nd times a Charm!

Last week, Oklahoma was dominated by an ice/snow storm. It was great! 2 days off from school and here are just a few pictures to show you the fun:


Kayla and Teaven had a little snow fight, clearly Teaven won.





My sister and I made a cake! And my friends and I enjoyed it. Oh yeah, and since it was a snow day, yes I did eat a piece of cake, so I had to restart the count but it was worth it.

The Closing Ceremonies

Hard to resist right?

This month has just been full of New Year's Resolutions, I mean, who says they have to made on January 1st, right? My newest one was confirmed last night and some of my friends and I had the closing ceremonies for us eating desserts until May 1st, so I ate a Snickers bar for all of us. Let's be real here though, we've already been trying to make exceptions to the rule so we'll see how this plays out, but we've made it through day 1 so far, so only 96 days left. Oh mylanta, that's a long time to resist sweet chocolately goodness, I mean who knows what could happen in the next 3 months, but let's be optimistic here. Just an example of a dilemma I could possibly have:



My mouth is watering already, this is going to be a long three months.

And this one I just thought was an amazing cake:



After this, hope you have a great day.

P.S. Eat a cookie for me, thanks.