A life of th-treth.

Thtreth (or "stress" as others have heard it said). Finances. Emotions. Family relations. I didn't have these in ND, and it all takes so much work... I'm surprisingly approaching them head on, although my natural tendency would be to simply run away from these fears, emotions, and problems...BLAH. BOPPITY BOOPY. 

Christmas was fun, I got my ancient Greek new testament! WOOT! I think I might just sit on the plane with it open and pretend I'm awesome (but who needs to pretend???). My Pennsylvania cousins came up for Christmas and we had a few days of straight "activities". Yesterday Lars Arneson, my two cousins and I hiked to the saddle on skyline. As always, I got carried away and took off, and surprisingly Lars was able to hold back and wait for my cousins. I had mix feelings of conviction, irritation, and pure joy. I forgot my coat and was in my underarmor and a t-shirt... but the the weather was great! And the snow was soft and dry, completely dust-off-able. Anywho, I don't have many pictures of my own, but I have lots of this Christmas break on my facebook. However, I believe it would be wrong of me not to post a picture of my little sista on Christmas morning.

TOODLES!

Home again home again jiggity jig.

I'm back in my home of Alaska!!! It's absolutely beautiful outside, fresh snow has been falling (and staying on the trees! It's so pretty!), and the -10 degree weather has felt like a bombing 30 above (compared to Grand Forks with that terrible wind chill factor). Driving home from Anchorage, the moon was gleaming on the mountains and ocean, and I wanted to cry. I never took for granted Alaska, but being gone from it only increased my appreciation. 

What I also forgot was that being home does NOT mean vacation. I was put to work shoveling the next morning and have been awakened by my mother excited to share her week's plans with me while I was still in bed trying to "sleep in". The noise level is frighteningly loud, the sound of the kids' (nieces, nephew, and sisters) feet pounding all over the house and the barking of Jersey has made for sore ear drums. 

I've been able to catch up with a few friends since being here. I realize that although I have been gone, people haven't been putting their lives on hold for me (shocking, eh?). It's interesting seeing the developments occurring, relationships creating, and life progressing. 

My second night home, my niece Mereiedi spent the night with Damaris, and we as a family played the ninja game in the living room. Here are a few pics, and also, a picture of our "dog" (I still don't believe it's a dog. If it were on the road, I'd hit it).

IT'S NOT A DOG.

  

That's all that's happening in Slow-dotna, Alaska. gahhhhhhhhhh I can't stop staring out the window!

HASTA LA BYEBYE

-Donica

(Young adults scavenger hunt tonight [December 22], 6:30pm, Soldotna Bible Chapel.)

I love yoga!!!

I just have to say. I love teaching yoga. I love taking yoga classes. I had some friends come take my class on Monday night and it was HILARIOUS watching everyone try to get in crow plank. It's really an easy pose so I was a little embarrassed I wasn't explaining it well enough for them to understand... anywho, here is my yoga library of some of my favorite arm balances! They're sweet. I like to use these to my advantage, if I feel that conversation is going bad with someone, I just whip myself into side crow or peacock pose and continue conversation. That'll show 'em. 

Good ol' crow pose. Slowly lift one toe off at a time until you feel balanced in your hands. Spread your fingers! Come out backwards if you feel like you're falling

Side crow trying to get into a cool grasshopper pose but couldn't. For side crow bend your knees for balance. 

I cannot believe I got a picture of this. I can barely do it. PEACOCK POSE.

Try these out! They're soooo fun and really easy (besides peacock, that hurts my wrists....) it's just hard understanding how to get into them. 

NAMASTE!

-Donica

P.S., I'M ALMOST HOME!!!!!! YAY! I had finals drama but everything has worked out fantastically and the end of the semester is here. PRAISE THE LORD!

P.S.S. check out these guys! They do slackline yoga on campus! They're called yogaslackers and are also a part of the Northern Heights Rock Gym here, which I want to start climbing at and taking yoga at. So cool!

http://yogaslackers.com/vinyasa-yoga.html

Updating this blog like no one's BIDNESS

Tonight was our H2O Christmas party.  Instead of it being your normal red, green, and white Christmas, Alyssa had the fantastic idea of making it colorful. Colorful streamers, snowflakes, table clothes, and even outfits. We had some intense girl time decorating (decorating does NOT come natural to me...) three hours before the actual event. And then we had some more intense girl time doing dishes afterwards. It's not 1am and I just arrived home and am taking the time to blog (okay, so I can't fall asleep. Blogging isn't THAT important to me...) 

I just wanna point out that I was the only one who won all events.  If any Cottonwood-ers ever check my blog, just know that I'm saying that out of a humble heart... I also wanna point out the the word "wanna" is no longer incorrect with my spell check. It has officially become a word. ALSO, my white elephant gift tonight was interesting... I forgot we needed a gift and my ride was almost to my apartment, so I threw an "I believe" pencil, package of sticky notes, autographed picture of myself, and a workout band in a box. Unwrapped. I called it the "Everything you need to be awesome kit". I also wrote on the outside of the box "Pick me if you're desperate." It got stolen THREE TIMES. Three times was the limit. Who knew.

On another note, my ride to campus had to teach at 6:30 this morning and I was NOT about to wake up to go to campus at 6:30 so I asked my roomie if I could hitch with her... but she decided to not go to class so IIIII didn't go to class.  I want a car! Since the head gaskets went out, I had to sell my car for parts. I received mere pennies out of the deal. Sadness. Well, I guess I really didn't have anything to blog about aside from whatever it is I just said, so, I will leave you to look at a few of the pictures of tonight. 

HASTA LA BYEBYE,

Donica 

Alyssa's hand painted ornaments!

Alyssa's colored cookies!

Apparently this is a snowflake...

This was our winning tower. I think we're all engineers in the making.

When you're wearing a grinch outfit, it's only APPROPRIATE to sneak around everywhere, even if merely attracts attention to you. 

Need to start taking pictures...

I realized I've been pretty slack on using my sweet camera. I'll try to fit in time this week to take pictures of the cool frosted trees! 

So, Sunday afternoon I walked to Caribou Coffee to get some homework done... and as soon as I arrived and ordered a coffee, one of my favorite yoga instructors at the wellness center said she wasn't sure if she was going to make to her afternoon yoga class and wanted to know if I could teach it. I looked at the clock. I had a good half hour to walk back home, whip up a yoga playlist and come up with a class. I decided that I know enough to not worry about it and I'll just come up with it as I go. She made it back in time but still wanted me to teach so she could take a class and to give me the opportunity to try out a Sunday afternoon class. It was packed! I was expecting a decent sized amount (maybe 30), but when more and more came in I was slightly nervous. I looked out at everyone and realized that they would be listening to and doing everything I said. POWER. I think the worst part was the group of guys in the back. But that also turned out to be the best part. They were tumbling and stumbling, panting and sweating, it was sweet. And this wasn't the normal week yoga crowd (which is made up of mostly college students), this was the businessmen and women with a few scattered students crowd. Intimidating. WELL... my yoga playlist did not in fact synch to my ipod so I had to put on this terrible mix I had. It wasn't too distracting until Luciano Pavorrati's blaring opera voice came on.  Ugh. Anywho, after an hour, I ended the class. I wasn't sure how it went, but I knew that it was pretty organized and that I knew what I was doing so I felt like it wasn't TERRIBLE, but wasn't sure what others thought. The guys came up to me afterwards and said "That was the most intense class I've ever had. WE ARE SO COMING BACK." SUPER. I was pumped.

On another note, I've made a pretty suh-WEET friend who let me borrow one of his guitars (and who is my carpool now). I'm psyched. I think my roommates have bought earplugs. I'm plucking away at the guitar like no ones BID-NESS. Okay. I know there's a million things I could always come up with to say but I realize I can't say them all.... therefore, I will let you go. Enjoy these few photos.

Toodles,

Donica 

P.S., FINALS ARE INSANE.

P.S.S., I think I broke my hand climbing yesterday. The middle/inner part is swollen and bruised and I can't squeeze my hand.... ehhh....

I don't know... this seems like too much pressure to blow out all the candles...

Christmas Time!

Sarah suffocating Amy. This picture was demanded by Amy. 

Tis the season!

Could not for the life of me find a good setting for my camera. I wish I had time to figure it all out!

So my head gaskets have busted in my car, meaning, I have no car. ούν (thusly/so) I decided to give myself a night to mope around and relax. This didn't work out so well. After eating to my heart's content (what can I say... I'm female) I turned on a movie I have been supposed and meaning to watch: Alexander. I don't think I've ever had such physical pain watching any movie. I couldn't finish it. Besides the endless supply of historical inaccuracies, I was so distracted by the mix of Scottish and Russian accents! Really?! So I stopped the movie and just sat in my living room looking through my books to see if there were any I hadn't read yet. Then my roommate and her best friend Amy walked in with Christmas decorations. They decorated the tree, hung up our stockings, all the while Kaitlyn and I sat back and directed the placing of ornaments. It's only 10pm but I feel like I've successfully completed a night of relaxing. I have tons (how I'm surviving, I don't know...) going on, and even more going on in my mind. It was nice to escape for thirty minutes or so. Unfortunately I'm gonna have to pay for it at the gym tomorrow...

Hope all is well, 

χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη πληθυνθείη ἐν ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ κυρίουἡμῶν.

-Donica

P.S., if you haven't noticed. The pictures are arranged like a Christmas tree. 

P.S.S. if you didn't already figure this out, the photos were arranged like that on accident.