Hello 26!

This past Monday was my 26th birthday and it was the first time I've ever celebrated my birthday living on my own. 

For several days leading up to it, I started celebrating in little ways here and there. After all, what's a birthday if you can't celebrate all week, right?! :) It helps build lots of anticipation for the big day. My students decided to help out with the week-long celebration. One day, a student brought me a yellow doughnut! My favorite color is yellow! I was so excited to eat a it!!!

On Friday, the weekend before my birthday, my students threw me a surprise party. They made giant posters and brought food. 

They bought me not one, but four special helium birthday balloons! I've never had balloons like that for a birthday before. One student remarked, "Poor Miss Dorsch didn't have a childhood."

They made me wear this pin all day! 

I felt so loved and so special. I love my kiddos. 

The week before, the organizer of this party had sent around little notes that looked like this:

One of my students kept it in his wallet, which I was so thankful for. What a sweet memory!

By the way, none of them dressed up. We did take a bunch of photos, though. 

Another one of my birthday week traditions is picking out a box (or two) of cereal. I typically never buy cereal except for this week. I love it too much to keep it around. 

I entered the aisle and behold:

How in the world was I supposed to make a decision? I have so many favorites! Next time, I will walk down the aisle blindfolded and randomly point at a box. Trying to be clever, I decided I would choose the cereal that had the coolest prize inside. (I know, very mature.) Can you believe it?! There were no cool prizes to be had! Plan B--quickly grab a box or two and walk away as fast as possible without looking back. I tried...but before I reached the end of the aisle, with my choices already in hand, I saw this:

Are you kidding me? Below my beloved (and Uncle Gordon's beloved) Raisin Bran were cereal boxes with superheros on them!!! Whaaaat?!?!?!?! Now I was really in a predicament. I love my superheros. How cool to have a box of cereal with their face on it! Let's be honest, though, the only time it is exciting to eat cornflakes is when you live in Africa and you've been eating the French brand for the past 3 years. I slowly walked away and went home with Cinnamon Life (because it reminded me so much of my mom) and Frosted Mini-wheats. Did I leave thinking I had made the best choice--no. I don't think anyone walking away from a cereal aisle can have that level of confidence. But I did leave knowing that my choice would be just as enjoyed as almost any other. 

Sunday, after running 13.1 miles with Sherlynn, we went out to eat at Olive Garden with Erika to celebrate my birthday. Look how big the plates are!

 We convinced our waiter to bring out a free dessert.

I also got to enjoy some quality time at Panera--one of my most favorite places. They give you a free birthday treat if you have their card, and I got my favorite blueberry scone. yummh! 

On the eve of my birthday, French Club had its end of the year party. The students turned it into a birthday party by bringing cake and presents.

My French 4 students all pitched in and bought me the coolest lamp EVER!!!

They thought it looked cooler without the lampshade. Hmmm.....

On my actual birthday, students did not have school (though some of them sent me birthday emails), but teachers had meetings. I was blessed to be able to talk to each one of my family members--which is saying something when that means communicating between 3 different continents. 

In the evening, I was invited over to the Dogotch house for a birthday dinner. When I walked in, all the kids jumped out and shouted Joyeux Anniversaire! They made signs, cards, and put up pictures and everything. I couldn't believe it!!! 

After a scrumptious dinner, there was even birthday cake with candles and ice-cream!

 Thanks, Kandi, for loving me and spoiling me and helping me feel so appreciated and special.

To finish off the night, I went to see the new Avengers movie!!!

It was a wonderful evening and a wonderful birthday week. God is so good to me. Even with no family in town, I was not forgotten. He has blessed me with so many dear friends, caring students, and with the technology to be able to communicate with loved ones far away.

25 Bucket List #13-25.1 : Half-Madness

Well folks, it happened. Sherlynn and I completed 25 (technically 25.1) items on our bucket list in our my 25th year! The list was completed the day before I turned 26. 

On May 3, we ran 13.1 miles together--the furthest we had ever run side-by-side. 

We counted every mile.

It was early morning on race-day. 

We wanted to get a picture with the river in the background. Please ignore our half-asleep faces. 

Sherlynn bought us matching headbands and we both happened to choose gray t-shirts to run in. Our pacer in the race called us "the gray girls." 

(I didn't realize until later that I ran in this exact same shirt during my last half-marathon. Oops!) 

It was a long arduous race. To pass the time we shared memory verses, commented on the scenery, made jokes about meaningless things, ate snacks in the form of Gu and milky-gummy things that Sherlynn brought, and yet, after all that, there was still so much farther to run! The route was a great one and we got to see parts of Wichita that we did not even know existed. Sherlynn was the photographer during the race.

The sky was beautiful! 

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there are so many great spiritual lessons to be learned from running. Sherlynn and I were both tremendously blessed by the experience. Despite the blessings from the pain, we were both equally thrilled to cross the finish line.

We drove off with our tinfoil very thankful to our Heavenly Father for keeping us until the end and teaching us to trust in His strength for every literal step of the way. 

P.S. Thank-you Stephanie and Angela for being the best cheerleaders EVER!

25 Bucket List #12: a Flint Hills picnic

After our lunch and sight-seeing adventure in Strong City, Sherlynn and I headed out into the wild wild west--the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. It was overcast, damp, windy, and chilly, but a beautiful hike nonetheless.

Poor Sherlynn was made to stop every couple of feet--whenever I stumbled (not literally) upon a new pretty rock. I started carrying them in my pockets and aquired quite the collection.

Sherlynn told me her niece, who is just over a year, also likes to pick up rocks.

"But Sherlynn, they're oh-so-pretty! Look how different and colorful they are!"

When it took us several minutes to walk a couple feet, I decided, for the sake of time, I had better not look at the ground anymore. Besides, we had to be on the lookout for wild buffalo! (Are there tame ones?) 

I decided that since we were traipsing across the prairie, we should pretend we were Indian Native American squaws and adopt names. 

(Now, as a disclaimer, let it be said, we were not intending to be racist at all. We were just having fun...you know...like little girls do when they are too young to know any better.)

Sherlynn called herself Girl-Who-Runs-Like-Duck. We had a very difficult time coming up with a name for me. Now that I've had time to think, I should have been named Little Sparrow or something like that. Well, anyway, one thing was certain: my husband was the Chief and his name was Flying Eagle.

Suddenly, we saw this on the horizon.

 I yelled, "White Man!" 

Sorry, I couldn't help it.

Throughout our wanderings, I continued to be enthralled by rocks...

 (Don't they look like a broken heart?) 

...while Sherlynn enjoyed the wildflowers.

We both immensely loved the vastness and beauty of God's creation.

Anything look unusual in this picture?

We were looking for the old schoolhouse and finally found it...although Sherlynn needs to practice pointing a bit better.

To get there, we had to cross the creek. 

It reminded me of the Little House on the Prairie book On the Banks of Plum Creek. Can't you just picture Laura and Mary running home from school across the prairie? Sherlynn, who would be Mary, for she is good and sweet and kind and has blonde hair, would continue on home to bake and cook and take care of Carrie. I, on the other hand, who would be Laura, would sit and dangle my feet in the creek avoiding all work and responsibility. 

Sherlynn boldly pioneered her way across the crick. 

 With one final mighty leap, she was safe and sound on the other side.

Next was my turn. 

It all happened so fast there was no time for pictures. 

I thought I had stepped on the exact same rock Sherlynn had, but mine sank into the muck and mire. With a frantic yelp and clumsy leap, I too made it to the other side but not quite as safely or as soundly. The casualty: one wet sock and shoe.

This minor setback did not deter us and we pressed on to the school house. 

 Doesn't this picture (above) look like it belongs in Wuthering Heights? Where is Heathcliff? 

The swings were a bit broken, but Sherlynn, always the innovative one, found other ways to use them.

We decided the prairie schoolhouse would be the perfect place to have our flint hills picnic. 

And by picnic I mean...

Not nearly as good as the homemade stuff, but it was a treat regardless.

We had some fresh drinking water from the schoolhouse well.

What a lovely afternoon enjoying and exploring our Father's world! 

If you ever have a chance to go visit the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, you totally should. There are always new trails to explore.

Oh, by the way, I emptied my pockets of the rocks before I headed home. It wasn't fair to them to make them leave their home. Although, the next day, when I was wearing my jacket at school, I found a stray! :)

25 Bucket List #11: New Restaurant, New Town

After much time apart, Sherlynn and I decided to plan a little get-together. After all, my 26th birthday is quickly approaching and we had only completed 10 out of the 25 bucket list items that must be completed during my 25th year. Uh-oh...

We decided to meet "half-way" in a small town we had driven through many times, but never actually stopped to explore: Strong City. 

Sherlynn had heard Ad Astra was a great restaurant, so we decided to check it out one Sunday after church.

The food was...ummh...interesting. The menu was quite unique. Sherlynn ordered some exotic form of pizza while I opted for a giant-sized sandwich.

Seriously, how was this supposed to fit in my mouth?

I have never seen such a large toothpick before in my life. 

It was literally twice the size of my mouth.

We did enjoy some delicious hummus and pita bread. Sooooo good!

After our lunch, we decided to do a little Strong City sight-seeing. 

The town is famous for its old railroad station. What a coincidence that a train should come through right then!!!

Sherlynn tried her hand at conducting. 

We nearly derailed, but I jumped out and pushed the engine back on the tracks. 

(Sorry, Sherlynn, I had to embellish the story a little bit!) 

Inside the train engine, we continued to explore...

...and Sherlynn did some hardcore parkour!!!

(Forgive me, Sherlynn, for posting this picture.)

We decided to pretend what it would be like to run after a train and barely manage to jump on--you know--just like in the movies.

Here is Sherlynn's attempt:

And here is mine:

Just kidding! 

It looked a little more like this:

I was yelling to my imaginary friend, "Grab my hand!" although as you can see, my foot was already firmly planted on the first step!

We laughed a lot.

And we found a sign that made us feel right at home!

Good times, in little ol' Strong City.

Stay tuned...coming up next is a walk through the Kansas prairie with two squaw Indians!