Philippians 4:6

miss me? i feel like it's been awhile.

i finally finished up with the stress of finals and came home to gain some peace of mind again (cause thats what home does for me.. well, home and bubble baths). You'd think that being home and all, I'd update all the time. Because see, what usually happens when i come home for a sufficient break (i.e. Christmas or Summer) is i crash, go into a 16orsohour coma, and awake refreshed and caught up on sleep. I would then normally delve into a full season of Survivor that i have to catch up on and be a couch potato for another howevermanyhours a full season of a show lasts. This break, though, i came back and had excitement waiting for me the second i got here. Kristin came in town for the CVP staff Christmas party, we were able to stop by the Rocha's Christmas party and see them and their precious little baby (!), the Geyers, Todd, Sarah Guin, etc., be there long enough to get exposed slash addicted to The Pioneer Woman, meet up with camp folk, and have a weekend of nothing but socializing and having long, overdue camp family reunions. i loved that the afterparties were always at my house and that enough girls felt like my house was "home" to them this summer that they opted to stay here all weekend long. I loved chatting and catching up with them... so refreshing.

so yes, i started off super busy, but ever since they left it's been pretty "breakish" with occasional "i'm going to meet up with soinso, be back later"s. and dont worry, i was able to have my downtime, catch up on sleep, and waste no time to get to this season of Survivor. my parents taped it every week so it was all ready to go... it was a great season and i enjoyed being able to watch the finale with my parents. call me a dork, but that's my show. it's ok, i own it.

Home simply wouldn't be home without its slow pace "down time" to just soak in the fact that I have zero school committments and I'm free. So really, there's no excuse to why I haven't been more updative lately. In all honesty, a huge reason I haven't blogged from home is probably rooting from the same reason that you wont expect to find an annual Cleland Christmas letter in your mailbox this year. We usually update on how happy and healthy we all are and about the newest happenings in each of our lives. And, not that we aren't happy and healthy, but my dad's isn't healthy. He's been sick for quite awhile now (since August.. yuck! imagine how sick of being sick you would be... my daddy does a great job of being strong and keeping his head held high though!) ...but i even skipped over blogging about Thanksgiving in hopes that I wouldn't have to blog about family, because i can't mention family without mentioning my dad's need for prayer. I guess I didn't want to blog about my dad in good hopes that maybe tomorrow he'd be all better and won't be in need of such prayer anymore. To put it bluntly, I was hoping my prayers alone would do the trick. But, he's still under the weather... So, in using my blogging "platform": to whomever's eyes this may fall on, join with me in praying for that the Lord's plan is to heal my daddy very very soon!

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. - Philippians 4:6

Other than that, though, the Clelands ARE happy and healthy and are looking forward to spending the celebration of Jesus' birth together this Christmas. Here's to a restful/busy/happy/hopeful/bubblebathfilled Christmas break! love yall :)