Now, that's a party!

Sycamore House

The Sycamore House had a party fundraiser in the Uppercroft of the church on Friday! We hosted an event called Party Gras and all the proceeds from this event went to the Sycamore House budget- this money is used to travel with, buy new materials, and prepares. This event was much like Mardi Gras because we had lots of beads and streamers, live music, Cajun food, and fun decorations! I spent my Friday morning creating different cards to put on the raffle table; I used lots of feathers, markers, and then put it all together. I was a little nervous about the attendance of this event because right before the event was Choral Evensong and those who attended Evensong were encouraged to come to Parti Gras and the attendance for Evensong was very small. But, I was definitely proven wrong! This fundraiser raised over $1,000 for the Sycamore House. The live music was really good, there were a few older couples that went and danced to songs and were adorable. This is one of the first times I had Cajun food, my stomach doesn't handle spices well, so I've always been nervous to eat it. I tried "alligator bites" but was disappointed to find out it was catfish, I ate jambalaya, king cake, and corn bread. We had the restaurant Crawdaddies cater and it was a hit! The raffle prizes were a range of different things from a Posh Spa Basket, Yellow Bird Cafe' gift card, Little Amps gift card, to St. Stephen's Cathedral framed drawing- there was everything in between. This event was fun to dress up for, I was able to wear my sparkle purple sequence shirt and it was totally appropriate and I wore my new Toms!

Valentine's day package

Earlier this week, I received a wonderful Valentine's day package from my mom that had two new pairs of Toms, my favorite oatmeal, chocolate, and face wash. I was very excited to receive this package! On Valentine's day, I didn't do anything that exciting. I went to a class at Susquehanna Art Museum and learned how to book bind. We did not get completely finished with the project, but it is very interesting. I didn't realize how long and time intensive it is to create a book and bind it together. I can't imagine what it was like in the old days and making leather bound books by hand. This book binding class is happening for the next 3 Saturdays and its fun to work on! Tina is the Art Education Director at the museum and she tells me all about the fun and different activities that go on at the museum!
Work this week went really well, I have been busy working on service trips! As mentioned before, I am taking  a group of students to Georgia. I am working on making different routes we can take (all service trips will be driving to their locations). The drive from Carlisle. PA to Americus, GA is about 13 hours and students can only drive 10 hours in one day, so I am working on booking hotels and finding the best possible routes. I am doing this for Georgia and South Carolina. Service trips are happening from March 7- March 15th, it is coming very quickly! The office is working hard to make these trips the most successful as they can be.
This upcoming week is a rather exciting one- I will be having a visitor come! My former IMPACT Graduate Adviser is coming to Pennsylvania going to spend Saturday with me! I am very excited for this because she is my first visitor that I have had since coming to PA! I am trying to figure out all the different things we can do in one day- maybe go to Dickinson, see the market, Midtown Scholar, that sort of thing! We will see!
Also, this week I have a graduate assistantship interview with Residential Life at Minnesota State and I have my Counseling and Student Personnel- College Student Affairs interview on Friday, February 27th. All of this is really coming together, I am trying to be as positive as possible for the interviews, I am not very nervous about them, but I want to prepare myself for best (and worse) case scenario!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Katie