We love fall :)

and pumpkins and pumpkin patches.

and the Avengers and Harry Potter.

*Happy Halloween, friends!*

For the Kids, part two

Guys.

GUYS.

Remember a little while ago when I posted about the fundraiser I'm participating in? No?

Well. It's a twelve-hour, dancing-or-standing-or-zumbaing-or-shuffling-but-not-sitting-marathon that raises money for Children's Miracle Network.

I got involved this year as an adviser and have been blown away by the amazing students working to give children and families the emotional and financial support they need. I started raising money so that the kids who receive help from the Children's Miracle Network get a chance to grow up and be college kids and turn into inspiring, passionate adults like the ones who have impressed me so much working for KU Dance Marathon.

Know what else blew me away??

Your amazing support. When I registered, I set a goal of $175, thinking it would be difficult. Because life is tough and the economy isn't great and it's hard to send money to a charity when you're wondering how you're going to get gas for your car (I know that's not just me).

But you guys. You guys got me to my goal a full two and a half weeks early.

It has been so humbling. It has been so incredible. Seeing the people I love give to this cause reminded me why I love them and why they're so awesome and reminded me why I'm so lucky to have you in my lives. (Cheesy? Yes. True? Absolutely.)

Earlier this week, I raised my goal to $225. Again, I realize this might not happen. But I didn't want to stop there. If we can find another $5 for the kids and their families, that will be a success. If you're able, please consider donating here.

Thank you to all who donated. I'm so, so fortunate to know you all.

For the Kids,

Slow. It. Down.

Graduation is fast approaching... except not really.

Do you guys ever get trapped in the planning-for-the-future-and-forgetting-the-now wormhole?

For a while, I've thought I kindof sortof knew what life would look like come May and the end of my student career at KU. Not the exact job, or the exact home, but a state, a region, a fuzzy poloroid of what my life would look like. Due to a series of events, though, my potential future has suddenly shifted ever-so-slightly and now I want to spend Every. Waking. Second. planning for a future that isn't set in stone yet.

(Besides, when is anything ever set in stone?)

But there's so much good in store before then. I need to sloooow dooooown. I need to be here, now. I need to stop bugging Pat about what's going to happen, stop looking at jobs I can't apply for yet and stop looking at puppies I can't adopt yet.

There are still days-weeks-months-half a year before graduation. And there will be so many great things in those times. Promise.

Like crunchy leaves blowing across the sidewalk.

Like my favorite student coming by my cube just to say hey.

Like the first basketball game of the season tonight.

Like hot chocolate and warm blankets.

Like Thanksgiving home with my family and a fire in the fireplace.

Gotta keep my head in the game or all these beautiful, joyful, wonderful moments are going to blow by me and I won't even have noticed.

Do you guys ever get stuck thinking about the future? Any sure-fire tricks to slow your brain down?

Book review: A Stolen Life

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

Description from Goodreads (below) can be found here along with other reviews.

In the summer of 1991 I was a normal kid. I did normal things. I had friends and a mother who loved me. I was just like you. Until the day my life was stolen.
For eighteen years I was a prisoner. I was an object for someone to use and abuse.

For eighteen years I was not allowed to speak my own name. I became a mother and was forced to be a sister. For eighteen years I survived an impossible situation.

On August 26, 2009, I took my name back. My name is Jaycee Lee Dugard. I don’t think of myself as a victim. I survived.

A Stolen Life is my story—in my own words, in my own way, exactly as I remember it.

You have to know what you're getting into before you pick up this book. Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped when she was 11 years old and then was kept in captivity for eighteen years, where she was repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped, where she gave birth, where she had to give up everything from the life she'd known. And she doesn't hold back details. So know that, going in.

That being said, this book was so interesting. I was amazed at how often it was the boredom and loneliness that troubled her -- I mean, obviously the sexual assaults bothered her. But she speaks of the boredom and loneliness probably even more.

Her account also demonstrates the intense psychological effect her kidnapper had on her. When she was older, she and her children often went on "outings" -- to the beach, to stores, thrift shopping. And as a reader you're screaming in your head, "Just tell the cashier who you are!" But still, because she has explained her experience so well, you understand how and why she didn't. It's a look into the experience I didn't expect.

Like many tragic stories, Jaycee's thankfully ends on a hopeful note. And that's the best thing of all, really.

Have any of you read A Stolen Life? I'm not really sure why I did, to be honest. But it was interesting.

Anna's first Late Night

Hello friends!

A couple weekends ago my little sister came up to visit me and Pat!

We (after much turmoil) got in to see Late Night in the Phog, a big Kansas Basketball tradition.

Then, in the morning, we went to a breakfast tailgate and then to the football game!
KU played amazingly through the first quarter...

...and then played like KU the rest of the game. :)

Then that night, we played cards with Pat's dad and friends, who were also in town for Late Night.

I think it's fair to say Anna is as much of a Jayhawk as one can be before actually attending KU.

Rock Chalk!