Homemade Hot Chocolate

I've always been very picky with hot chocolate. That prepackaged stuff just doesn't ever make the cut! Grandma Zieman always makes this REALLY good homemade hot chocolate and it is so good that nothing else can ever match the tastiness of her recipe.

Well, I brought that recipe with me to College Station this year, and let me just say, my house is ADDICTED! This recipe makes a lot; I only have a mixing bowl big enough for half of the recipe. Well, between me and my roommates we have gone through the recipe THREE times! I always have at least a cup a day: generally I have a huge mug in the morning as I'm getting ready and then a cup as I'm getting ready for bed. Maddie and Rach but love it, and have even begun to put the mix in their coffee in the morning.

There's just something about homemade hot chocolate. Maybe I love it so much because it reminds me of Christmas with my entire family. Maybe it's because it just makes you feel all warm and good inside. Maybe just because it is hot and tasty. I don't know what it is, but I'm addicted!

It's Fall Y'all!

I needed a creative outlet today, so my blog got a makeover! It's FALL Y'ALL!

An Evening with one of my Best (and Longest) Friends

It’s no secret that Kevin and I are great friends. I have known him my entire life, and we have always been close. We pick on each other constantly and are so comfortable around one another that we frequently are called “brother and sister” or “the old married couple”. We laugh it off all the time, we don’t care what everybody says, we just enjoy each other’s company.

We frequently are able to go out to dinner together on Sunday nights. Tonight he came and picked me up (although he was at the wrong building in my complex so it took us a while to find each other). Neither one of us cared where we went for dinner, so we did the usual “let’s just pick a direction and drive until we see something”. I spotted Chipotle, and that’s where we ended up.

Since I found the restaurant, it was his turn to pray. We always trade off who picks and who prays, it’s been our thing ever since high school.

After talking about everything under the sun and enjoying tacos & burritos, we headed to Sonic and continued conversing. There isn’t anything that I can’t talk about with Kevin. I think tonight we discussed family, camp, ultimate frisbee, engineering, education, water polo, projects, papers, weekends, roommates, relationships, friends, summer, the fact that we are making adult decisions that effect our entire lives… Literally, we can talk about anything and we can talk for hours without a problem.

This semester hasn’t been an easy one. But it’s friendships like this that have prospered and flourished this semester that are constant and beautiful reminders of the goodness of our Father.

One of the Days I'll Remember

Individual days in college run together. Studying, classes, practices... Everything blurs together.

Today will be a day that will stand out about junior year.

The day my best friends and I spelled out "HOWDY" at the football game. The day we got to take best friend pictures and giggled more than imaginable. The day we tried so hard to stay in a line so that our HOWDY was spelled correctly...

Today was one of the days I'll remember.

"Studying" Together...

For the first time ever Myriam, Katie, Jen and I all decided to attempt studying together... Although Jen got a few 3-page long/problem math problems done, Katie got some criminology studying completed, Myriam made a dent in anatomy, and I finished my rough draft for one of my research papers, ultimately this was the outcome of our study session...

There's a reason why we are best friends!!

Hot Chocolate Delivery Truck

Last week I pulled out Grandma Zieman's recipe and decided to make homemade hot chocolate for my roommates. Generally, Maddie and Rachel are both VERY weary of anything I make, but they both loved the hot chocolate! We devoured the entire recipe in less than a week...

I knew part of my to-do list today consisted of creating another batch of homemade hot chocolate mix. I then got the crazy idea to make enough so that every girl on the water polo team could have a small bag with everything they need to make their own hot chocolate, complete with marshmallows and all! Just add boiling water.

After making 20 mini bags of hot chocolate mix, I decided to make 4 big mugs full of hot chocolate (purposely too hot to drink at the moment) and loaded up into my car. I grabbed a spray can of cool whip and a bunch of marshmallows and hit the road. The first stop was Myriam's, where I creepily waited outside her building until somebody came out so I could get inside. I ran up to her dorm, walked right in, and delivered her her homemade hot chocolate. She FLIPPED out! After dumping in some marshmallows and adding some whipped cream, she was all set.

I then dashed over to Katie and Sarah's and delivered them some hot chocolate as well. Their faces were precious as they enjoyed a momentary study break. Then over to Jen's where I delivered the last bit of hot chocolate to a very thankful friend.

Y'all. The faces as I showed up on their doorstep unexpected were priceless. I loved getting to surprise and love my friends in this way, and it filled me up with joy getting to serve them like this. All I can say is that this will definitely continue to happen! So much fun getting to surprise others in this little but meaningful way!

Game Day with the Cho-Fam

Although we lost against Auburn, I LOVED spending the day with some dear members of the Cho-Yeh family!

"Hello, My Name Is"

Howdy, my name is Kylie, I'm a junior Elementary Ed major from Cypress, TX but more importantly I'm the loudest and proudest member of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2015!

That's probably by far the most used introduction here at A&M, but how else have I introduced myself over the last several years?

My name is Kylie, and I'm the President of the Texas A&M Women's Water Polo Team.

My name is Kylie, and I'm Wendy & Kevin's daughter.

My name is Kylie, I'm Kole's big sister.

My name is Kylie, and I'm on the summer leadership team at Cho-Yeh.

My name is Kylie, I'm Rachel and Maddie's roommate.

How else do we introduce ourselves? Generally introductions include something about who we are, what we are involved in, or to whom we are related.

One of my favorite songs right now is "Hello, My Name Is" by Matthew West. Check out the chorus "Hello, my name is child of the one true King
I’ve been saved, I’ve been changed, I have been set free
"Amazing Grace" is the song I sing
Hello, my name is child of the one true King"

Being a child of God is more important than any other way we introduce ourselves. Yes, my family, my job, my responsibilities and my relationships are a huge part of who I am. But they do not define me. My Father defines me, and I'm so thankful to be a child of the one true King.

It's Good To Be Home -- Camp Home.

Well, after 5 tests, 2 projects, 2 papers and a presentation, I SURVIVED last week! I loaded my car very quickly on Friday and headed to Cypress to enjoy a super lazy Friday afternoon/evening. We had a little scare with KJ and she ended up being taken to the "Animal Hospital", but after being loaded up with meds, she is all good!

Saturday was probably one of my favorite days of the entire semester.

I left Cypress EARLY Saturday morning, and pulled into Whistle Stop in Livingston around 8:20 to meet Laura for breakfast. We talked and laughed and enjoyed catching up. So good!

Then I headed to camp to work retreats for the day! I got to take my favorite trail out to the lease, and spent a bit setting up for a messy game with Cullen (ran paintball last summer as a part of Activities Team). At one point Nate, my boss from last summer, drove up in a golf cart and gave me the biggest hug. It was SO good seeing both of them!

After the messy game that we led, Cullen and I had about an hour to kill, so met up with Marcus and Barbie (both on leadership last summer with me) and watched TV until lunch.

After lunch I worked kayaks and lifeguarded at the lake for the afternoon with Cullen, Jacob, Michael, Caleb, and Jess (all of who were a part of leadership last summer). I have never had so much fun lifeguarding!

Then the rain came, and at that point I truly felt at home. Rain and camp are two of my favorite things, so when they happen at the same time -- OH MAN! LOVE!

At that point I was done for the day, and the rest of them had more things to do, so I said my goodbyes and headed over to Nate's house because Allyssa was in town! I spent about an hour over there talking with them and playing with his new puppy. I loved getting to catch up with both of them!

All in all, such a WONDERFUL Saturday -- it was so good to be back at camp!

I spent all of Sunday working on a research paper and being lazy at home, and then drove back to Bryan this morning! Such a good and restful weekend -- now on to the next 5 weeks where I have something EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND... Here we go!

Step by Step

As I sit here in the library, giving myself a teensy study break from the amount of schoolwork that seems to be swallowing me up whole, I sit here in awe of my God.

SO often I get frustrated when I can't see where God is taking me. When He only shows me a little piece of the puzzle. When He whispers, "Ky, run for president in this organization", "Ky, take this leadership role", "Ky, turn down this opportunity", "Ky, let others help you", "Ky, go back to A&M this fall".

The whispers are not what I want. I want to know WHERE I am going. WHAT I am going to be doing. WHO I am going to be serving. I want to know the destination.

But life isn't a destination. It's a journey.

And frankly, I'm glad He speaks in quiet whispers and only shows me a step at a time.

5 years ago I was a sophomore in high school. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I did NOT want anything to do with the education world. I had grown up in that world and wanted something knew.

If God would have showed me where I would be today 5 years ago, I would've said HECK NO and ran in the opposite direction.

But step by step, the Father led me here pursuing a degree in education. He gave me good experiences with teachers, and reminded me of my passion for children. He let me be in an organization where I got to be in a kindergarten classroom 3 days a week. He sent me to Honduras and let me fall in love with His children. He placed a passion for orphanges on my heart. And slowly but surely He led me to where I am now.

I have no idea where I'm going to be in 5 years. NO idea. And honestly, if God were to show me, I'd probably be too terrified to follow Him. Therefore, I'll follow His lead, I'll take baby steps, I'll listen to His whispers.

We know His plan is good, so why do we insist on knowing where His plan is taking us? Trust in the plan, trust in the Father who is good. Follow His steps.

Let's Divy This Up.

So, I have decided that if everybody in my family were to study for and take one of my tests this week, then it would be reasonable for everybody! Let's divy this up.

Who wants:

• Health Test on Monday
• Economics Midterm on Tuesday
• Reading Midterm on Thursday
• Special Education Midterm on Friday
• ESL/Bilingual Education on Friday

Just let me know which test you're going to take, and I'll let you know what to be studying! Don't worry, I'll be working on the 2 projects, 2 papers, and the presentation that I also have this week!

Thankful for My Exhaustion

It's no secret that this week is exhausting.

Monday: left the apartment at 8:30 AM, got home at 12:30 AM (yes, 30 minutes PAST midnight), and finally finished what needed to be done and crawled into bed around 3.

Today: alarm went off at 6, was in the shower by 6:15, and left around 7 AM. Got home at 11 PM, to start working on an abstract for a paper that is due tomorrow. When I left school, I didn't even know the topic of my paper... Yep.

So needless to say, I'm exhausted. But when I begin to analyze WHY I am tired, the goodness of our Father blows my mind.

Cho-Yeh is on campus, so I get to spend all my "free time" during the day recruiting for next summers staff. It's tiring because that is a good chunk of time that I normally would spend working on homework or relaxing in between class, but I LOVE getting to hang out with camp people and be able to help get people excited about applying to Cho-Yeh.

Water Polo. Between practices, planning an out-of-state tournament, and a mountain of paperwork that seems to be unending, polo keeps me going. But I'm blown away that the Father would entrust a team of such sweet girls to me for the next year!

School. It's a drag, and it demands late nights and long hours. But I am blessed to attend a top-notch University. I'm blessed to be able to have the mental ability to learn, the emotional ability to handle the craziness of school (well, handle to the best of my ability), the social ability to make friends, and the spiritual ability to chase my Savior in the midst of it all. School is definitely a blessing, and although most days I don't seem to count it as one, it is.

I'm exhausted because the Father has blessed me so abundantly. How can I be anything but thankful for that exhaustion?