here we are!

And here we are!

Hundreds of early mornings, hundreds of shirts and skirts and pants ironed, a ridiculous amount of hours grading (the down side to a large first year class), hours and hours and hours in chapel and in class and in conversations and planning and praying and decision making and vision-casting and meetings and helping and serving and learning and growing and....

It was today, our last day of the 2015-2016 school year.

I have a  love-hate relationship with today.  I love celebrating with our students, I love a change of pace and ministry focus for a bit, I love being able to be involved in different things than we are the rest of the year, I love (and need) a bit of rest that comes with the less urgent, full pace.

But I HATE the end of this big hug fest, hate the quiet and much-more empty campus, hate not being involved in the student's daily lives, hate not seeing them everyday.  

LOVE that they are out there, ministering in their homes and churches and communities, DOING what they've been studying.  

But hate that they are not also somehow here, at the same time.

The big end of the year soccer game got rained out, but the "see who can drink the most Cokes competition was as joyful as ever...though quite pathetic.  

Maurice came in 3rd place with ONE (tying every other person in the cafeteria including Lily) and Wileme finally won after downing only TWO.

That is an all time new low, with Jonas downing SIX last year, and Borgella, the reigning champion of 2012, chugging 9 (which I'm pretty sure wasn't a great idea.)

No matter how they did, I have NEVER heard or seen our incredibly even-keeled and undramatic Dean of Student Life laugh so hard or for so long before...so I was happy.  

Thankful, regardless!

This girl's new thing is what the girls call "Smooshy Face" and for the past week she's been scrunching it at us every time you take away something she wants, or she wants more food, or if it makes you laugh.  Which it does.

These cutie-patooties are not done with school for another several weeks, so they are sticking it out with their beloved new Aunt Sharon jackets...which they are obsessed with because of the thumb hole :)  I'm sure there is some trendy name for that, but the girls just call it the "thumbs up hole."

Next week is a BIG week in itself, preparing final grades, fourth year banquet, Alumni Day and graduation, but for the weekend, we're going to rest in where we're at....A faithful God and a GOOD year behind us.