Springtime Crazies

Hi Friends,

Well Spring Break has come and gone, and the semester is beginning its blitz toward the end. It seems impossible to me that May is halfway over, but I need to stop being surprised at how quickly the weeks tick by. That's been one of the biggest lessons of my life: make the most of time, because it's short! And that especially applies to time with my girls. I'm trying so hard to be intentional, to be loving, and to be interruptable. Because each of these women is worth my time, and my chapter in their lives is closing quickly. Anyway, I'm rambling. Let's get to the highlights of the month, shall we?


RA Easter Dinner
This Easter, I wasn't travelling, so Katie and I decided to host an Easter lunch for the other RAs who were in the area. I cooked my first Easter ham (using this recipe from Pioneer Woman. Whoever writes that blog is awesome--her recipes never let me down!
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/03/
glazed-easter-ham/#recipe-form-263850.).
 It was delicious, and so were all the other sides and desserts that the other RAs brought and contributed. We even had an Easter Egg hunt! It was a lot of fun, and I felt like a real adult...hosting a holiday lunch for my lady friends. :)

Visit from an Alum!
A couple weeks ago, one of my Palmies who graduated last year came and surprised the girls by visiting the dorm for a few days. It was hilarious to see the girls' reactions, and really sweet to see how much Anna's visit meant to them. I loved having her back here for a few days, getting to hear about what's been going on in her life since June, and getting excited with her about what she'll be doing next.

We started work on our Top Secret Senior Tributes projects.
Every year, the juniors organize a special tribute day for the seniors. It generally involves a special dinner, notes of appreciation, videos, pictures, etc. What SPECIFICALLY will this year's tribute involve? I can't tell you. It's a secret. But I can tell you that it'll be great. I confess that I have mixed feelings about beginning to work on the tributes. It brings the reality of the end of the year much more to the front burner, and that means saying goodbye to seven of my favorite people. (I won't lie: I'm going to be an emotional mess at graduation. Again. Sigh.) But at the same time, I'm very proud of my juniors for the work and thought they're putting into Senior Tribute Day. And I know it'll make our seniors feel special, loved, and affirmed. And that's great, because they deserve it.

Junior Senior Banquet and Underclassmen Adventures

Six of my beautiful seniors

Every spring, BFA holds a banquet for the juniors and seniors. It's a time to celebrate the senior class, eat delicious food, perform musical numbers for their classmates, etc. It also seems to be held on a Friday night every year. Which has always seemed a little strange to me--because that means all the juniors and seniors have less than two hours to get themselves dolled up after school. I know what you're thinking. "Two hours? What are they doing, sewing their own dresses?" But when you take into account the fact that we have 14 juniors and seniors, all of whom need people to curl their hair and do their makeup and fix their dresses and find matching earrings...all at the same time...well. You can imagine that it takes a bit of coordination and planning. But we had four awesome women from the school come and volunteer their time (and hair and makeup skills), and the girls were strategic enough and helped each other...and we totally got them to the banquet on time. Boom. I was really proud of them.

Six of our lovely juniors!

Anyway, while the upperclassmen are dining and celebrating at Junior Senior Banquet, we try to do something to make our freshmen and sophomores feel special and not left out of the fun. So rather than just taking them to dinner, Katie and I took them to play LASER TAG! We loaded up our seven underclassmen and headed to a local German laser tag arena. If you haven't played laser tag...you should. It's so fun. (Basic summary: You put on a vest with glowing sensors and take a blaster gun and run around, hide behind barrels and barriers, and try to hit as many other people as possible with your (completely harmless) laser.) Some of the girls had never played and they LOVED IT. We played with a group of German twenty-somethings, which was awkward at times, but mostly hilarious, as we were shouting warnings to each other in different languages...and having no idea what our teammates were saying. The girls had a lot of fun, and I loved getting to spend time with just that group of seven. I'm sure I've said this before...but I love getting to laugh and talk with and get to know the girls in smaller groups.


There's more that has happened this month, but I won't drown you in the details.
Instead, I'll just ask for your continued prayers this month as the year wraps up.

Aren't my seniors cool?

1. There are so many events and parties and traditions that it gets difficult to continue to really see my girls and invest in each of them individually. Please pray that God will enable me to do that.
2. Also, it can be easy for me to forget to take time to let God fill me each day...and these are the days when I need him, his strength, and his patience the most desperately. So pray that I will be disciplined to spend time with Him. 
3. I think the next update I write will be after graduation. Which is crazy. So please pray that my seniors finish well...that my dorm parents finish well...and that Palmgarten Dorm can finish this school year well. 

I am so grateful FOR all of you, and so thankful TO all of you for your prayers, your support, and your letters. (I am appallingly bad at replying to emails. So this is a blanket "I'm so sorry!" for not responding to all of your letters individually. I love the encouragement, updates, and prayers that they bring.)

Anyway, thanks for reading and for praying!
Love to all of you from Germany,

Amanda