It's A Jungle Out There.

So last week was my friend Alisha’s birthday.

There’s not a whole lot to tell about this event, but I wanted to show you the cake that Karlee and I made for her. It’s probably one of the coolest cakes you may ever see in your life and we might be famous one day because I just know that there’s a bakery out there somewhere that wants us to work for them.

In celebration of Alisha’s big 20, we had a little get together. I think there were 20 or so people who came, which is kind of neat because it correlates to her age. Alisha is on the woman’s soccer team; so you would assume that the majority of the girls who came would be soccer girls. That assumption would be correct. The only people that came who were not on the soccer team were my friend Saryl and I, and we came together. The majority of the soccer girls are new, so it was somewhat awkward, but as the night went on we met the girls and they were a lot of fun. I learned one very important thing that night; don’t play volleyball with soccer players. Just because soccer players are good at kicking a ball around on the field doesn’t necessarily mean that they are good at hitting a ball with their hands. It was still fun though.

After all but 3 of us had left, we decided to jump in the hot tub. Jacki’s aunt has a house in Boring, OR, where we had our little birthday bash. She has one of the most amazing houses I’ve seen. The entire back wall of the house is full of windows that overlook the acre upon acre of backyard, which overlooks the PERFECT view of Mt. Hood. I can’t even begin to tell you how peaceful it was. On the back porch is the hot tub we jumped in. If it had been in the daylight, we would have sat in view of Mt. Hood. However, it was night so there wasn’t a Mt. Hood, but there sure was a blanket of stars overhead.



This is Saryl. She may not play soccer, but her tongue sure can touch her nose.


Alisha, the birthday girl, and Jacki, who's aunt's house we had the shindig.


AND the cake. The incredible warrior is named, Bruno.

Look who's back...

Well, whata ya know... Lucky Cascade, April’s back.
Once again it’s time for another wonderful year here in Portland and I am honored to share a glimpse of my sophomore year with you.

Summer was much better than expected, but boy am I glad it’s over! I’ve been waiting 4 long, grueling months to come back to this place.
Life is good. I’m rooming with 2 of my best friends, and as soon as Danelle comes back from her study abroad she will join us in our suite. God has truly blessed my roommates and me this year. I’m not near as busy as I was last year, I have a class schedule everyone is envious of, our neighbors are amazing, we have a kitchen, and we have a porch! It’s only the 3rd week of school and I already love every minute of it.

With a long summer in Texas, I had some serious thinking time. It was there that I had this epiphany.

-If God’s blessing me with a chance to finally escape from Texas and come to this beautiful city of Portland, I better take advantage of everything it has to offer.
I realized that I was so busy last year with school and cross-country that I barely had time to do anything. Now, I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy last year, because I did. I just want to enjoy this year a little more. There are so many things I want to do this year, so many adventures calling my name. I don’t want to make the same mistakes as last year and miss all the exciting things Oregon and the people around me have to offer. My personal goal this year is to take the time to embrace each moment that I have here and to embrace those whom I spend it with. Life is too short to be stressed about the silly things that you more than likely won’t remember 10, or even 2 years from now.

With this said, I invite you to share in this time with me and embrace the beauty of life (While you also consider going to Cascade next year, so that you too can have many adventures).