Update

Sorry I'm slacking on my posts lately :)

Here's a rundown of what's been happening in my little world the last week or so:

Last weekend Alyssa and I embarked on a trip to Oil City, PA with my mentor and our director to visit a couple of sisters who do their ministry work in that neck of the woods. To say the very least, it was a great time. It was nice to visit and to see where these two sisters worked, and getting away for a night was really nice. Good food, lots of beautiful weather, tons of fun conversation and laughs, it was a great way to spend a couple of days. Not to mention road tripping with my mentor and our director might be one of my top 3 favorite experiences this year if only for the abundance of ridiculousness :)

In other news: Alyssa and I have an official date for our departure from the Mount: July 29th. We're talking 6 weeks here people. 6.weeks. Can we talk about how fast this has gone? Actually, let's not talk about it. I feel like the winter just didn't exist. August through November went at a decent pace. But I swear Advent hit and it was like *voom* oh hey, it's June.

We're leaving almost a full month earlier than initially expected seeing as we moved in on August 20th. There's a few reasons for the change in date, and I'm OK with it since that's a little more time to get settled and start making some money. Regardless if we left in July or August, I'd always be wanting more time, so ultimately 3 weeks isn't a huge deal when I look at the big picture.

The good news is that we're staying in Erie. I'm not sure how I'd be handling it if I was going back to Syracuse or Buffalo, but I know it wouldn't be this well. I can't imagine moving super far away from this place and these women, not right now. Knowing I'll live decently close by is making this a smidge easier. But only a smidge.

Wait for it in a few weeks when it really hits me. This news is only a week old, I think my brain is still in denial at how soon that really is.

In more other news: I'm not going to graduate school this coming fall. Most everyone who reads this probably reads Alyssa's blog too which means you probably saw her post on this topic recently. I'm not going to dedicate a whole post to this topic, mostly because I've explained all my reasons to the people who really need to hear it, it doesn't need to go on here. But to explain it as simply as possible, my reasons for not going come down to two things: 1- I can't afford it right now, and 2- Edinboro just wasn't the right program for me, at least not right now.

I think I rushed into choosing Edinboro because I was in the mindset that if I wanted to stay in Erie I'd have to go to a school really close by. I was wrong, obviously, that's not the only way for me to stay. And reality hit that if I want to have a roof over my head and food on the table, I need to work more than 25 hours a week which wouldn't really be possible with class, homework and an internship. So, my decision was made after much discussion and prayer, and I feel much better with the added stress of school and those added finances taken off my shoulders.

This week at the Mount we've been on retreat and it's been wonderful. I'll post all about it on Sunday, I think I've maxed out this one for now :)