Well, I've been home for about 4 days now, and I'm just about ready to head back. But, it's fun being back. I think I've gained weight, though, since I've eaten out a lot. I now realize how much we go out to eat and stuff. Crazy! It has been nice, not having a schedule and trying to squeeze tons of stuff in. My prayer and care team had a party for me last night, so that was fun, and I got to see lots of people from church. I also got to show them pictures of the Rez and it was neat for them to see where I've been and what they've been praying for.
I'm in town until the 2nd, which will be good. I'll have more time to see people and do lunches and dinners. I'll also be here for New Year's, so that will be fun. I think I'm going to be with Jr. High leaders, and that's always fun! We play cards and other games, so much fun!
It has been kind of hard, though, coming back and trying to fit in and get back into the swing of things. It's different, here. I'm used to the country and having space and a slow paced life. But here, it's fast and things are so close together and people have gone on with their lives, while I've been off, living my own life and doing ministry, and then I come back, and try to catch up with people. It's kind of hard and stressful on me. But, it's okay. I knew that going into this. It's one of those things we talked about at MTI, so I knew about it and was ready for it, for the most part. And, it's weird, because I'm different. I'm not the same Katie Parker that left here. I think differently, I look at life differently and I live differently. It's sort of hard to explain, but anyone who has lived in another place completely different from their hometown should understand.
Well, I have 4 more days here, in good ole Indiana! I'm looking forward to the time I have left. Even though I'm ready to head back, I'm going to try to stay focused on things going on here and live life in the moment.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a great New Year!!

Almost Christmas!

Well, it's Tuesday, and I'm here at school. I like Tuesdays, but I get bored easily. A group from the University of Colorado comes in and teaches, so it's nice to have a break, but oh well. I'm excited because they decided to cancel school on Friday! Woo-hoo! I didn't really want to come on Friday, because it would have been useless, and yeah. It will give me more time to get things ready for my dinner on Friday with the kids. I'm getting really excited about it! I've been wrapping gifts and stuffing stockings and getting recipes ready. It should be a lot of fun! I've planned for a few games, so hopefully they'll like those and have fun! I know that some of the kids are getting really excited, and they love walking into my house and looking at the gifts, especially to see how many they have. Fun times!! I'll have to take pictures and put some up here so you can see what my kids look like and see how much fun we'll have on Friday.
So, I'm flying home in 5 days. Good times! I'm excited to see everyone and I'm really excited to eat at Los Bravos, YUMMY!!! It will also be fun to share pictures and stories about things going on out here.
So, just two more days of school. This semester has flown by! It's amazing how quickly this time has gone by. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel out here, I wanted to come out and I knew that God had plans, but I just wasn't sure how slow or fast the time was going to go by. I'm glad that God has blessed this time and place. It's been really exciting! See everyone soon!!

Almost Christmas

It's Friday!! I love the weekends, and I'm so excited - and today, is a half day! So much fun! Well, this week has been sort of worthless at school. First of all, it's almost Christmas. Secondly, this week is LNI, which is the Lakota Nation Invitattional. It's held up in Rapid City and people come from all over - South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Montana and Wyoming. It's a huge event, and the main thing is the basketball tournament. It's even bigger than the state tournament. There's also a pow wow, hand games and an art show for the kids. I'm not sure if I'm going to make it, but I might try to go tonight. It just all depends.
Next Friday is when I'm having the Christmas dinner for my kids. I'm really excited! There's 12 that are invited, and hopefully all of them will be able to make it. I have most of the gifts, and I just need to finalize what I'm going to do for dinner. It's going to be a full house, and we'll be really cramped, but I think it will be a lot of fun for me and the kids! Whenever they come over and see all of the gifts and the stockings, they get really excited and start counting their gifts. It's fun to see them get excited about it!
Next week at school will be so hard to keep the kids' attention. There's hardly any kids here this week, and they won't want to come back, and they especially won't want to do work. I think I'm going to have them watch Elf on the last 3 days. I'd much rather show a movie than try to fight them all week, I don't really want to be stressed all week. I'm excited about Christmas. It should be fun to fly home and see everyone. It will be fun to see people and to hang out with them. I'm excited but I don't really want to get stressed about seeing everyone and not having time to relax. It will be lots of fun.
So, as I'm typing this out, I'm in class. My kids are taking a quiz, and every now and then I have tolook up at them and eye them. It's so funny because they are like "how do you type and not look at the keyboard?" It's funny how I can impress them with just this simple little thing. Oh funny.
Alright, well that's all for now. I'm going to try to post more often, but things just get crazy every now and then. Hope you are having a good day while reading this!