Christmas in The Ville

So, as promised to someone (Whitney), here are some pictures of my apartment decked out for the holidays.

My tree and presents.

My tree and the balcony outside with the lights on!

My nativity scene on one of my coffee tables.

Stockings hung from the counter with care... and my collection of Christmas cards.

Even my table got a make-over with a pretty red tablecloth and green napkins!

I leave for Lexington tomorrow after church. I can't wait to see my family for Christmas! I hope everyone else has a Merry Christmas!

Oh - and if anyone has plans for New Years and wants to invite me, I have no plans. For some reason, the person who usually hosts the New Years Eve parties I've attended the past 3 years doesn't live in the state of KY anymore... thanks a lot!

Five More Days

Only 5 more teaching days this semester!!! It's so crazy that it's almost Christmas break and I've been a teacher for 5 months! Some of the kids I have are so great! I don't talk about them as much as I should. I am really going to miss seeing them and hearing about their lives over the break and when they leave my class. But I'm also looking forward to meeting new students and building new relationships.

Tonight I'm going shopping. I get to buy stuff for one of the students at my school whose family is not really able to do much for Christmas. So as a school, we raised money to help about 7 of these students have a better Christmas. I'm also going shopping for Christmas presents for my friends and family.

Short little post, but I wanted to update.

A sad but blessed day

I was so pumped to go to BG OH this weekend for MK's recital. I got up this morning and left by about 9:15. Well, it's almost 3 and I'm back in Louisville. Today has been a little crazy. I drive I-71 to I-75 in order to get to BG. Well, there was some snow on the sides of the road about halfway to 75. I also started seeing salt trucks on the other side of the highway. There was hardly any accumulation on the grass or anything, so I thought I'd be fine. However, as I'm almost to 75 the craziness starts.

I-71 ends at I-75 so I was nearing the bridge that passes over 75 and I see this big puff of snow. I thought to myself, someone must have gone off the road a bit and hit some snow (because I couldn't really see what happened). Well, someone did go off the road, but it was because there was an accident. It happened just about 30-45 seconds before I got there. Turns out the bridge was icy and slick, which I found out as I was slowing down so I wouldn't join those already in the accident. I'm fishtailed and swerved a little as I went past, luckily I didn't hit anything and I got onto I-75 unharmed, but with my heart racing.

This isn't the end though. After I collected myself I called mom to ask her opinion of the weather and whether I should just turn around and go home. As we were talking and she was trying to find weather and road conditions, I could see the roads and weather were getting worse as I headed further north. Everyone was driving slow, especially down the hills toward the river. Snow was coming down and I was still pretty freaked about almost getting in an accident. Well, in the end, Mom suggested I turn around and drive home. So I called MK and asked her about the weather in BG and she said it was snowing harder every hour. Even as I was driving through Cinci the roads were getting more covered and more slick. So at exit 6 I turned around to drive home.

Let me preface this next part by saying, I don't think I've ever seen so many accidents in one day as I saw today. I-71 was littered with accidents on both sides. I was driving 50mph the entire way home, if not slower. I hit some traffic as I got closer to Louisville, sometimes caused by accidents, sometimes just caused by slow moving vehicles. I probably saw at least 5 accidents total by the time I got to I-265 (Gene Snyder) in Louisville. Then I probably saw 5 more accidents just in the 17 miles I was on the Gene Snyder. Some looked pretty bad too.

I really hope that everyone in these accidents are okay. I did see 2 or 3 ambulances responding to the accidents. I just keep thanking God for protecting me today. He really is Emmanuel, God With Us. I am very blessed to be safe home right now. Here is a picture of one of the accidents I went past today on the Gene Snyder. I was only about 4-5 miles from my exit when I passed this one. The other picture is of the snow left on my car when I got home. This is just from driving. I really didn't stop anywhere long enough to accumulate snow.


Well I think I'm going to go finish my book. I've been reading the Stephanie Meyer Twilight series. Let me tell you, they are addicting. I'm almost done with the 4th book. They read very quickly too. I read Twilight in one day! After I'm done, maybe I'll wrap some Christmas presents.

Merry Christmas!