This past week I had the privilege to take care of this sweet girl.

She's a cutie. <3

I missed these little boys a lot while I was in Ecuador.

These boys are so cute!

Day 352

My last day in Colorado Springs I got to hang out with these cool people :) 

Doesn't the above one look like an ad? I love Caiden with his jacket unzipped and no shirt. I should probably just crop David out of the picture. 

Well folks, from what it looks like I won't be getting much off of my broken computer. The hard drive is ruined :( This is why you all should buy an external hard drive to back up your photos! That's definitely on my to do list as soon (or even before) I return to the U.S.

I'm SOOO bummed about my photos. They told my dad that they were able to get a little bit off of my hard drive, but not much. They are going to keep trying through Monday. Then they will be putting a new hardrive into my computer. Do you want to hear the good news though? It should be free. I still have a warranty on my Macbook that I got a year and a half ago, and they say that I can use the warranty here! I will just have to pay for them to get what they can off of the hard drive. Other than that, I won't have to pay anything for it to be fixed. Sadly, they won't be done with my computer for another 12-14 days. In 14 days I go to the beach, and I wasn't planning on taking my computer to the beach... It makes me wish that I had just left my computer in Colorado... Since I won't be using it here.

I miss lightroom! I'm back to using iphoto on my sister's computer and it's SO hard to use compared to lightroom, 

Day 350

(f/1.8; 1/100s; ISO 1600; 50 mm lens) 

This little cutie is all dressed up to go to a Christmas party.

Day 336

This kiddo found some coins in my room, and he started lining them up. It kept him busy AND quiet for at least 5 minutes :) 

(f/5.0; 1/40s; ISO 3200; 43 mm) 

Day 328

Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!

We had some really delicious food. This would include three turkeys (1 smoked, and 2 fried). Both kinds were delicious in their own way.

Day 327

These boys love to come into my room and ask to play in the window well. I let them, because it keeps them busy :)

(f/3.5; 1/320s; ISO 1600; 18 mm)

Day 318

We love our apple products :)

(f/3.5; 1/100s; ISO 3200; 18mm ) 

Day 317

This little guy loved playing with his cousin this past weekend.

(f/3.5; 1/100s; ISO 1600; 50 mm) 

Look at those blue eyes!

Day 316

A little cutie playing with her toys.

(f/3.5; 1/125s; ISO 1600; 50mm) 

Day 311

This is day 311, right?!!!?? I think I'm finally caught up! I haven't been completely caught up in weeks! Hopefully I can stay this way :)

I love these two :)

(f/5.6; 1/25s; ISO 800; 55 mm) 

Woah, look how insanely slow my shutter speed is.

Day 310

Boys are so sweet. :)

(f/4.0; 1/125; ISO 6400; 28 mm) 

Day 252&253

We got our floors done in the basement... at least in the kitchen/dining room area.

Before:

The people who rented the basement this summer... well their dog... must have thrown up the last night that they were in the basement and he tried to lick it up... which then led to this hole in the carpet. So this was one reason we go different flooring put in. 

After:

Nice, huh? It will be so nice to cook in there and not worry about spilling on the carpet. And guess what? that's not wood... it's actually more of a rubber linoleum type stuff that looks like wood. Pretty snazzy, eh?

Also, it makes the basement look a lot more like a separate apartment... especially since the floor helps define where the rooms starts and end.

Day 246

Today I had a productive day at home. I finally organized my closet of a room. And I'm serious when I say closet.

Before:

After:

Yes, I am messy sometimes.
It's nice to have it clean, and I'm glad I took the time to find a spot for everything.

Day 241

we're moved into the basement now, so this doesn't really affect us, but our kitchen counters were redone today upstairs. This is how it looks now. 

You can compare it to the picture below:

I personally thought the pink counter tops were great... but apparently no one else did ;) just kidding. 

I'm thinking our house is looking super new now. Too bad we don't get to use the new counters.

Day 144

(f/4.0; 1/80s; ISO 1600) 

The kids were super excited to see Poncho when we arrived home around 9:30 p.m. Poncho was equally excited to see them. It was great.

Not a great picture, but I didn't look at my settings at all when I took it.

Day 139

Meet my fish.
He's pretty easy to take care of.
Which is good.
Although, somedays I'm surprised that he is still alive.

(f/4.5; 1/20s; ISO 800)

Day 129

Tonight I babysat a little boy. During this time I gave him a bath. Lucky for me, my phone slipped out of my pocket into said bath. I no longer have a working phone. It's kind of a bummer. It hasn't bugged me too much though. The only things I really want it for is so that I can use it as an alarm, and so that the people I work for/ babysit for can contact me. So, if you really wanted to contact me... you can't. I know that makes you sad now doesn't it? Ha. Just Kidding. You'll be fine. 

Moving along, my friend gave me this candle as a housewarming present, and I love it! It smells super delicious too! 

(f: 5.0; 1/80; ISO 800)

Day 17 - before and after

It's been a struggle coming home. The darkness. The quiet. I'm struggling with being alone, and with the feeling that I am not doing anything with my life here. I feel like I could be doing so much more somewhere else. 

I know that right now God has me here for a reason. So to fight the feeling of loneliness I dive into the Word. It's one of the few things that has given me comfort these past couple of days. 

I decided to take this picture to represent the way that I feel. Normally I keep my room decently clean... but these last couple of days it has been destroyed with my lack of motivation. 

For lack of better words, this picture describes how unorganized I feel on the inside. 

It also doesn't help that I have a ton of mail to go through. I also have two suitcases and a backpack to unpack!

(f: 3.5; 1/13s; ISO 800; 18mm)

(f:4.5; 1/20s; ISO:800)

 I keep reminding myself that this is my temporary home, and soon I will be where I've always wanted to be: Heaven :)

I did finally make myself clean up today. I feel a tad bit more organized. 

Also, this wasn't supposed to be a moody post at all. I never expected that coming back would be such a difficult transition, but it has been.

It will help to start work and school again, and just have a life.

Any prayers for my transition would be awesome :)

I can already tell this next semester is going to be full of growth.

Adios a Mi Pais.

Yesterday was a long, tiring day. It's amazing how traveling can be so tiring even though you just sit all day...

Lunch in Miami. It was good, and decently priced. 

The sun was very hot! 

I liked the colors in this picture. 

I was so thankful to find a nice lounge in the Dallas airport. There were even cots around that I lay down on for awhile. 

My flight from Dallas to Colorado Springs went right towards the sunset. It was gorgeous. 

I thought it was so neat, because you can see the lights under the clouds from the city, but over the clouds there was a gorgeous sunset. 

 I wish I could still be in Ecuador. Last night it was hard to go to bed all alone, and getting up was even worse.

For now God has me here, and my family in Ecuador. So even though it's hard to miss them, I try to make the best of it. Most seniors do not have this opportunity.

I am also so thankful for my pseudo family that I have here.

My friend, David, picked my up from the airport last night and then we went over to his sister's house and I got to see two of my favorite boys, and surprisingly, they were excited to see me! They kept running around calling my name, "Stina".