Quick Update

Hi all-
I hope you are all doing well. Me- I have had a pretty cool week here in Austin. I got an A- on my first ever Hebrew Exgetical paper (YAY!) and I got back the results on my first Ordination exam, Bible Content- which I passed, four more to go! I have also been working on a project that is moving forward better/quicker than I imagined and I got a care package from my brother and sister-in-law (which is ALWAYS appreciated, hint, hint).
So all in all, a good week...

However- There is one thing that is not good. Anyone out there an O Neg Blood type that is willing to give up a kidney? One of my classmates/friends here is on the waiting list for a kidney, her's is only functioning at 15% right now and if it falls below 10% they take her off the list- so, like I said, any of you able to give one of yours up to help out a friend???

Yeah- that's about all for me- it has stopped raining and the sun is shining, so I am going to go out and enjoy this beautiful spring day.

Take care-
C

Another Awesome Adventure (Part 2)

basically, here is a comparrsion of the same place two weeks ago and today (note, its about 7:45pm in the picture from today, so the lighting is bad, and its raining, but I think you will be able to tell the difference: (The second picture is today. 3/26/07)

PERDERNALES FALLS 3/9/07













Hard to believe the difference a day of rain can make, but that water was raging today...

Another Awesome Adventure (Part One)

Hi all-

So... My friend Melissa and I decided to get out of town today and see the hill country and go explore this park called Enchanted Rock after we got out of class today.

Despite the fact that it was raining and the weather reports said it was going to storm all day...

Nevertheless, we (and her new dog, Ruby) took off to see what we could see.

And Oh My- it was so worth the two hour drive in the rain. The place is AWESOME. And because the weather was not great, we were like the only people there, so we got to climb around on rocks that are literally a billion years old all by our lonesomes. Pictures are below. In our adventure today we also stopped by LBJ's musuem (to use their facilities primarily), stopped by this old ornate Catholic church in Fredericksburg (and learned some info about all the symbolism in their artwork of Mary), had dinner at a cafe in Johnson City, and then, since we have this state park pass, stopped at Perdanales Fall on the way home, to see how high the river really does get after rain I will post an imediate second blog to show that it really is true that the river does in fact rise and flood with tremendous power. Ohh, we also saw a couple of rainbows, a ton of wildflowers, three different types of deer, a camel, sheep, goats, all sorts of cattle including this one bohemiath spotted grey longhorn, which I did not get a picture of since I was driving. All in all, a great afternoon adventure, highly recommend it to you all...

Anyways- here are the first set of pics...

There are some pretty cool things here in Texas, yall should come and see for yourself!

Peace-C

its good to call NC home...

Hi all-

So, my Hurricanes thumped up on the visiting Sharks this evening, Barton College won the Division II NCAA championship and UNC beat USC yesterday... there is some good stuff coming out of North Carolina. I was out with a friend at a store earlier this week when none other than the James Taylor classic "Carolina On My Mind" played on the radio. It was a sweet moment...

Well, in other news, my Kick Ball Team, "Old School" (as in kickin' it old school) is kicking some serious butt. We won our game last night against the team "Blue Balls." They sort of played dirty and one guy slide tackled me as I was catching a ball (true I was near the base he was running at, but uhm, not on the side that should have been in his way). I am a little sore from that one... He later plowed over another teamate of mine (another woman) and one older fellow- who was very hard core into the game- almost militant like- pegged the same teamate of mine in the stomach to get her out- poor Emily- she took a beating. But, nevertheless, we remain undefeated and in good conduct. So I guess, alls well that ends well...

That's it really, I just wanted to give some love to my home state, North Carolina, and of course, to the Hurricanes... and the TarHeels... and Barton College?

Grace and peace to you all.

Carrie

The end is near...

Not "the end" but the end of spring break is fast approaching, my what a fast week it has been. Special shout out to Goat and Scott and the Martins- thanks for taking some time out to see me while you all were visiting TX. It was sure great to see you all.

Tomorrow I resume being a student and while, if I am to be honest, I am not all that excited about returning to the classroom- it is still great to be here and learning, and persuing that degree that will help me persue my calling.

It has been beautiful here. The O'Neils and I went to McKinley Falls and walked on the moon. Atleast- the rock formation we walked on is sort of what we envision that the surface of the moon might be like... pictures below- you decide. And I got to see Duke race and Elizabeth, but not Elizabeth rowing, apparently all her races were at some unheard of time... 8am and 9am... really- who does that?

Oh- and if I can help save you $7.50 (or whatever you pay to see movies) then please don't bother with Premonition- it's not so good. Maybe a rental- but even then, you wouldn't be missing much- its too clutered... (if you do see it, you will know what I mean). Go see 300- unless you don't like stylized action war movies, then uhm, Wild Hogs? I didn't see that one, but it cleaned up at the Box office prior to 300's release...

So, tomorrow- school starts back and it will be officially two months to the day I fly back to the beautiful state of North Carolina, home of the 2006 Stanley Cup Champs, and hopefully the 07 NCAA champs- (which would make my bracket win) and hopefully atleast play-off contenders in the aforementioned beloved Canes...

Take care all- and check out how very far along my dear sweet Margot is...

ok so blogger is being a pain about my photo lay-out- this is not how I wanted it to look- oh well-

the first pic is one of Duke Varsity's crew teams- the second is a natural rock shelf that people used to live under, the third is the "moon rock" and the fourth is the happy couple

numbers...

some interesting (I suppose that word is debatable) numbers to share:
300- that's the coolest movie I have seen in 2007-
1800- the number of ab muscles displayed o' so proudly in the above mentioned movie
1300- the number of bands that have descended upon Austin for the South by South West Festival
3- how many times I have gone down town to witness some of the SXSW hoopla
1- the number of world premires I saw (and voted on)- the documentary "Hard Road Home"
countless- the number of interesting people I have seen admist all the SXSW hoopla
26- the number of laps (which equals 1 mile) that I swam at the Deep Eddy on Wednesday...

I could go on, but I am boring myself and I was the one who experienced it...
Mary Martin is in town to watch Duke women race in the Longhorn Invitational regatta (of which her daughter is participating- hopefully they will fare better than the pitiful performance the Duke men's bball showed tonight) which is exciting for me as we got to hang out today, have lunch and go see the Capital building. AND tomorrow Margot and Scott will be coming up to Austin to spend the day... I am very pumped about this...
My buddy Nikki had her baby today- so Yay for that too.

All in all Spring Break has been a pretty chill week and I am sad to see it winding down. Hope all of you reading this have had some opportunity recently to get outside and have some fun.

Take care- and more soon.
C

Great day to be alive... or a 3 ibuprofen sort of day

Hi all-

All right, so this whole posting audio files on the blog isn't going to work- so if you want to give my sermon from yesterday (for preaching class) a listen, then drop me a line (via comment box or e-mail) and I will either send it to you electronically or on a CD.


Today finnished up classes for a week, which is very exciting. My friend Melissa and I celebrated the day by takng a mini trip out west to Pedernales Falls State Park where we saw the "falls" and went mountain biking. Ok- so the falls weren't massive, especially since there hasn't been much rain as of late, but it was still a beautiful park in a brush country sort of way. I was very pleased that neither of us crashed or fell no matter how hard those slippery loose gravel rocks tried to make that happen.

After our afternoon adventures, we joined up with our kickball team and kicked some serious kickball butt. Old School (my team) is now 2-0 for the season. The team is comprised primarily of seminary students and spouses and we are playing in an adult social club league in Austin.

The team then had a celebratory dinner at Maria's Taco Express...

Kick ball and bicylcing- how very 10 years old type of day, I know... but it sure was fun. Tomorrow I am off to explore the SXSW festival and going to see the documentary "Hard Road Home" and whatever else I can weasel my broke self into.


Anyways- here's a couple of pics from today's adventures... until next time...


C

trying something out...

So I preached today in class... just seeing if this will play the clip. It didn't- but I will figure out a way yet!

Spring Break starts tomorrow!!!

tri-ing to be good

Hello all-
This weekend I finally took the plunge (litterally) into the Deep Eddy- twice! Yep, you know what's cooler than a day off from work/school? Me- in the water that sits at 69 degrees. But that's all right- I swam a mile this afternoon and it sure was nice to do- (after the initial first lap cold water shock)...
In other news, one more week of classes before the blessed Spring Break, of which some of that time will be used to check out the South by Southwest Music and Movie festival that will happen to be happening here. There are some pretty cool things about living in Austin...
But before I can start breaking- I have yet another test and a sermon to prepare/present and I really do need to get cracking on my exogetical paper for OT that's due after the break...
And finally, I have bought my plane ticket home- I will be in NC for two weeks at the tail end of May and the beginning of June- so YAY- now if my Hurricanes can just lock it up and play some chapionship hockey like they are capable of, then maybe I will get to see them play again in person...
So that's it for today- take care all!