Blessing in the busy-ness

Wow. I have so much to blog about and hardly have the time to do it justice! These past couple of weeks have been SUPER busy! With rush week for Alpha Delta Chi, classes starting to pick up the pace and get serious, completing my first half marathon, whale watching, and the list goes on! I apologize, but it may take a couple of posts to get through all of the crazy goodness :)
I suppose I will start from the beginning: rush week(s) (since it was over 2 weeks...) this semester was an amazing time! Every event was filled with joy, laughter, and true fellowship of sisters in Christ. God blessed us immensely!! The first 2 events were a game/dessert/info night! We played catchphrase and "fish bowl" (which apparently could also be referred to as "salad bowl") and had a wide array of delicious desserts - including decorating cupcakes and sugar cookies :) On Thursday we had craft night at our apartment and decorated picture frames! Such a fun time surrounded by such wonderful young women!

Our first event: game/dessert/info night!! 

 The whole group! (minus me :) )

 Craft night!:

 

 

The end results! They came out so beautiful!! (the work-in-progress on the top left is my creation :)

That Saturday, we went whale watching for my friend Bri's birthday! Let me tell you, I had not been whale watching since elementary school - maybe 4th grade? - so I was STOKED! It was also exciting because even though I've lived in Long Beach for the last 3 years, I feel like there are a lot of things that I haven't done around here and in the city! So I was excited to head over to the pike and head out on one of their whale-watching tours! It was an absolutely gorgeous day (we are so spoiled to have lots of those!) and saw sea lions, white-sided dolphins (which are apparently pretty rare), and watched 2 blue whales!!

 Sometimes, you just have to go for the infamous titanic pose.

Sorry I'm so squinty! It was really sunny, we were on a moving boat, it was unavoidable... :)

 The moon came out early!

It was a great day! Happy birthday Bri! And thanks for taking us on an epic adventure to celebrate! 

The next day, I participated in the Surf City Marathon/Half Marathon in Huntington Beach!  It was my first half marathon and boy was I nervous! I had been thinking about doing a half for some time before I signed up and prompted by friends who were participating, I signed up 3 months prior - just enough time to train for it! For those three months, I trained 6 days a week - give or take a day or two here and there - running and cross-training. I knew I was prepared but it was my first one, so it was still kind of nerve-racking (sp?)! I was SO supported! My parents came up for the day, and my roommate, Bethany, and friends Jess, Sarah, and Faron all came out to be there for me! I felt so loved! My goal was to finish in under 3 hours, and I did! My time was 2:45:02 :) It was such a great experience! Difficult, for sure, but I feel very accomplished and like to run a little bit more than I did before - and that is a huge improvement on the subject!

On the way to Huntington! It's probably about 6am... 

Sarah's totally ready to run the race! ;)

Talking with my dad as we walked up to the start.

Heading over to get my results.

Stretch it out! 

And that's only a tiiiiny bit of what's been going on lately!! Get ready for a new post really soon! probably tomorrow... YAY!

love,
emily

PS sorry for the picture overload... there were just too many good shots!!
PPS all of the pics from the marathon are thanks to my good friend Jess! Thanks girl!!