This afternoon!

Well, I did go out to work on my bike, and I am SO SO SO glad I did! (You'll see why in a minute!)

I got my odometer installed without too much trouble...evidently I lost a little nut that was supposed to go with the screw to keep the bracket in place on the handlebars though...thankfully I had ONE extra cable tie that I could use instead. Then I started working on the brakes. I think I said this already, but when I rode my bike this morning the brakes were having NO impact AT ALL. So I was trying to figure out how to tighten the brakes...I eventually figured out how to do it, but the process was really really involved.

I was just getting started when I heard a thump. I looked over beside me, and there was a little hummingbird lying on the ground. The poor baby had hit a window. I don't know if he hit the first story window, but he might have hit the second or third story one! Right after he hit the window, he was lying on the sidewalk with both wings spread straight out. I had to pick him up (VERY gently!) and put him in my hand....but he still had his wings all spread out.

In a copule minutes, he kind of sat up in my hand...he wasn't lying down any more. I tried to find a flower to give him some nectar, but he wasn't interested. He shot his little tounge in and out a couple times though. A little while after I took a picture of him with my cell phone, I moved him to my leg and he squeaked at me (I did it so that I could try to hold the flower better).

Then he perked up some more, and started getting nervous whenever I moved. Eventually, he flew to a bush. I was just about to get another picture of him sitting in the bush, but somebody walked by and he flew up into a magnolia tree. I checked on him again a couple more times, and the last time I went over there, he had flown away. I was standing there looking around when a hummingbird flew by me. I don't know if it was the same one or not, but I like to imagine that it was!

So I finally finished up with my bike, then went on a little ride, then had to re-do my brakes because I hadn't tightened the screw enough and so they had started to slip back. I've got them really really tight now though, so hopefully it won't be a problem anymore. And if it is, I know how to fix it! I talked to Nathan on the phone for a while....then I ate dinner. Came back to my room and worked on a few things, then my room mate and a friend of her's and I went to the JBU swim party. It didn't start until 9:00, and went until 11. We did NOT stay the whole time...the water was way too cold and there weren't really very many people there. So we came back and took hot showers and now I am headed for bed!

Tomorrow morning I am going to go to Siloam Springs Bible Church...that's where the friend who suggested I look into JBU attended while she lived here. Goodnight!!

First few days of classes!!!

Well, I have completed my first "week" of college classes (minus two days)! So far so good :D

Wednesday - First day of class
In themorning I started off by filling out an application for a scholarship that is due on September 12th....I also have to write three essays that are each more than a 1,000 words!!!
The first class I had was Mass Media and Culture (abbreviation = Media/MMC)- I definitely like the professor, and the textbook is pretty interesting. It takes me the longest to read though, because I have been taking notes on it. So far it has introduced various aspects of how we communicate with other people and then the different functions of media in our lives. Interesting stuff! That class is probably my biggest...I think it has about 4o students. A couple of the guys I already know from Dallas, a couple girls were in my O group, and several people are in my major.
Wednesday noon was my first honors class, Old Testament Survey (abbreviation = OTS)- the professor, Dr. Blankenship, is a very very fascinating man. He attended seminary in Boston, which has a system so that if you are enrolled in one seminary in the area you can register for classes for any of the 9 seminaries there. As a result, he has spent time living in monasteries, under Catholic teachers, under rabbis, etc. etc. He has also studied at least half a dozen Biblical languages. On Wednesday he talked about literary context, especially how the Bible uses certain patterns that the original audience would have immediately recognized. For example, what story do you think of if I tell you that a man travels a great distance, stops to rest at a well, meets a woman, makes a good impression, meets other people, and the list goes on? There are actually four such stories in the Bible (Abraham's servant meeting Rebekah, Jacob meeting Rachel, Moses meeting the priest's daughters, and Jesus with the Samaritan woman) and additional ones in other Hebrew literature. Dr. Blankenship's point is that a Jewish reader of John's gospel would see that John was using that pattern, and that the differences between it and the other stories would strongly emphasize what John was trying to say. This class has 20-30 people.
Wednesday afternoon I had my first Gateway class (abbreviation = Gateway/Narnia)...the syllabus gives a better description of what the Gateway class is - it is meant to help students understand how education at a Christian university is different by encouraging us to view all of our subjects through a Biblical worldview (and yes, they used that word! :D) I really like my professor for this class too, as well as the subject matter!!! (Narnia!) We will be divided into seven groups, and each group will make a presentation about one of the Chronicles...so that will be very fun! I think there are about 20 people in this class too.
My last class of the day was News Writing 1 (abbreviation = NW1). Professor Warner talked about the journalism program at JBU, how hard and difficult it will be, and where some of his former students have ended up (literally around the world!!!). He also assigned us a couple little projects to turn in on Friday.
After getting out of class, I went with a couple other girls to Wal-Mart and finally picked up a few things I had been needing. We also stopped by a Dayspring outlet store where I bought a really pretty journal! We had dinner, then the freshman all had our Workstudy meeting. I am going to be working in the cafeteria. The chef said that he would be starting us all out doing cleaning after the cafeteria closes in the evenings (I'll probably be working from 6:30-8:30 four days a week), but that if we do well at that he may be able to move some of us to other jobs. So hopefully I will be able to get a weekend shift and then only have to work a couple nights a week...we'll see.
We also had a meeting with all the residents of Walker (the dorm I live in), going over various rules/safety issues/activity opportunities/etc. I stayed up until nearly midnight putting my various class assignment schedules into my calendar/planner.

Thursday - Second day of class
Since I had stayed up so late, I got a really really slow start the next morning. As in, I probably stayed in bed until 7:45!!!! ;-) I wasn't feeling 100% either (no, I'm not sick), so that didn't help matters any. I did get some of my reading done before chapel at 10:30. President Pollard spoke and welcomed the students back to JBU. After chapel I decided to go ahead and eat lunch so that I would have a bigger chunk of time for studying. I finished the reading for Media and OTS and started NW1 before my 2:45 class. As I walked to class it kind of sprinkled, but while we were in class it POURED and THUNDERED - it was quite interesting! :D Thankfully it stopped by the time we were done with class.
The only class I have on Tuesday/Thursday is Honors English Composition (abbreviation = English/Comp). I think it will be very interesting and good for me, but I think it will also be a stretching experience. We will be doing about 18 pages of essays for that throughout the semester, in addition to smaller in-class assignments. This class only has eight students in it!!!
Once class was over, I headed back to my room and finished up all my reading for the next day. That evening I also auditioned for the Music Ministries Ensemble here on campus (MME/Music). The lady in charge said she would email me...I haven't heard back yet, so we'll just have to wait and see! Got to bed in a much better time that night, partly because I was really tired!

Friday - Third day of class
Getting up on time went much better yesterday morning. I went running for the second time here and decided to go for a personal distance record. I had gone 2.25 miles without stopping a couple times, but I wanted to get up to 2.5. I would have thought that I couldn't stand going 25 times around the little tenth mile inside track here, but it actually wasn't too bad! I was pretty happy with my time too - 26:13. I need to keep working on getting my distance up, because I hope to run a 5k (3 miles) here in Siloam in October.
I took too long taking my shower, so I was afraid I was going to miss breakfast...thankfully I got in before they shut the doors, because I didn't end up getting any lunch! I went back to my room and got a little bit of stuff done, then stopped by the cafeteria on my way to class to talk to the chef about my work schedule. He said to come back in on Monday, but at least I got the non-skid shoes I have to have ordered.
Had my Media and OTS classes that morning. There isn't a whole lot to say about them because we are still kind of dealing with introductory issues...
All of my honors classes are at what is called the Honor's house, which is a little ways off campus. On Fridays I have my OTS class there at 12 and then my Honors Orienation at 2. So I have decided that I am just going to stay at there in between so that I get a more solid study time rather than walking all the way back to my room, having a few minutes there, then walking all the way back again. That's why I didn't get lunch yesterday...but from now on I will be able to pick up a sack lunch at the cafeteria before my first class. Yesterday I did have some trail mix that I ate though, so it wasn't too bad not having lunch. I started the Media reading for Monday during my break, and made pretty good progress.
I started my last new class - Honor's Orientation (H.O.). I am very happy because one of the girls I kind of know from the Dallas area is also in the class with me! And I share other classes with most of the other people in the class. This class also has less than 10 people in it. Yesterday we were talking about not conforming to the world. The director of Honors Scholars Program (HSP), Brad Gambill, is our teacher. He had us watch an old music video and read a poem and discuss each of them. I didn't like either very much at all >:P It was kind of interesting to discuss them though.
I was almost late to NW1, but thankfully Professor Warner hadn't closed the door yet. If he had, I probably would have been in trouble. I will just have to make sure that I leave the honor's house promptly after we finish class! We talked about who a journalist is and what kind of qualities they have, and he assigned us to write a "Letter to the Editor" about the government option for the health care plan. I haven't started writing it yet, but I think it will be interesting to write......
Once I got back to my room I finished the Media chapter, read a chapter of the brand new book "Why College Matters to God" (written by a JBU professor!) for Gateway, and skimmed through the three NW1 chapters Professor Warner had assigned (seventy pages of reading.....he told us to just skim them at this point). This evening we had a Welcome Back BBQ for all students, so that was yummy, especially since I was really hungry!
I spent a copule hours working on one of the 1,000 word essays for the scholarship, and didn't end up getting to bed until midnight again. It was easier to get up this morning than Thursday morning though, for some reason.

Saturday - the "boring" day.
This morning I got up about 7 and took my laundry over to the honor's house so I could wash and dry it for free. I definitely learned NEVER to take the whole bottle of detergent with me though - it's way way too heavy! I also discovered that my brakes have basically no effect...so I'm going to go work on that in a couple minutes here. I am also going to buy a basket to make it a little eaiser to transport my laundry and other things. So I spent two and a half hours over at the honors house doing my laundry. Of course, I had taken some schoolwork with me to work on. During that time I read the article from H.O. that I have to write about before Wednesday, and I also worked on a two paragraph assignment for Media on Monday. I didn't have breakfast until 11:3o, so I'm not having lunch - I grabbed an apple instead that I will probably have later. Since then I have planned out my homework schedule for next week (it looks completely do-able, almost easier than WorldViews!) and started thinking about what I am going to write for the three paragraph essay due for Comp on Tuesday.
Oh, I found out at H.O. on Friday that the Honors students have a camp-out next Friday/Saturday, so that should be a lot of fun! We are going to Natural Falls State Park in Oklahoma.
So now I'm going to go out and install my odometer on my new bike, and try to fix the brakes...we'll see how that goes!

Pictures!!!!!

Well, I have about half an hour until my first class (Mass Media/Mass Culture - it's for my journalism major), so I figured I would post some more pictures!

This is my half of the dorm room - for those of you who don't know, I am in a suite in the dorms attached to the Student Center in the middle of campus. That means that my room mate (Kaley!) and I share one room and have a bathroom in common with the two girls next door. The bathroom has 2 sinks, a shower stall, and a separate little room with the toilet. It is a very nice set-up and is working great so far!

My desk area all set up with all my textbooks on the shelf above! (This was taken at night with the windows closed, but my desk actually gets pretty good daylight when the windows are open. It faces the outside wall so I can sit at my desk and look out the window. My "view" is mostly of the next dorm though....)

My view out the window, and my pretty window decorations!!!! (You can see the edge of the window on the right of this picture...my desk is just to the right of that)

My dresser and decorations book shelf - I should probably take another one of this in the day time so that you can see it better. Lots of birdie stuff :D

Behind my dresser - some more storage space and my way up to bed (thankfully I haven't fallen yet...so I don't think I will! :D)

Me after BIG Games before washing the paint off :D

Orientation Days 2, 3, and 4

[This was written last night, but the internet on my laptop was not cooperating....my first class is in about 45 minutes!]
So…Orientation is over, and classes start tomorrow! That means now is my last chance to catch you all up on the events of the last three days :D.

SUNDAY – Orientation Day 2
We started off with each O group going to a church together. Daniel, one of our O group leaders, took us to his church – Fellowship Bible Church of Siloam Springs. I enjoyed it, although it is a lot smaller than CBC and the style is somewhat different. If I had no choice at all, I wouldn’t really have a problem going to that church. We’ll see where I end up though. I know there are at least two other churches I want to try out, and I may go to a bunch just to experience other ways of “doing church.” I’d like to get plugged in before too long though. Anyways, the sermon seemed a little forced…I’m not entirely sure why. His main point was good though. He was preaching on 1 Samuel 14 about Jonathan going up to fight the Philistines with his armor bearer. He talked about how we should be willing to take chances (within God’s known and revealed will) even when we’re not sure of the outcome. After the service, we all stayed for Sunday school which was also very good. It was on James 2:14 and I really liked the teacher. He talked about how works are not necessary to our salvation, but they are necessary in order to have fruitful lives and to receive eternal reward.
In the afternoon all the freshman were required to voluntarily take a survey for UCLA to do some research….as in, the schedule said it was mandatory and then when we got there we found out we didn’t have to….don’t know why.
We had some free time after that, and I think that is when I wrote my essay for the freshman contest. It was based on the book we did for the summer reading program (The Chosen). I will probably post my essay after the contest is over. I like how it turned out….I *amazingly* came in well under the 900 word limit on my first time to write it!!! (I hardly ever do that, as Mrs. S could testify….I get VERY long winded!) [this post is also a very good example of that...hahaha] It came pretty easily, and I know it is because the Lord was giving me wisdom on how to say what I felt in my heart. I found some really good quotes to use too!
That evening we went down the hill, across the soccer fields, and over the bridge to have a BBQ outside of President Pollard’s house (we would not all fit in his house, even though it looks quite big from the outside).
Once we got back we all headed to the cathedral for the video introductions of the different dorm RD’s and RA’s. My favorite one was the girl’s dorm Mayfield…they had a video using most of the songs from Sound of Music, but rewritten with different words. The RD and her RAs then danced to the songs…it was really funny! Then everyone split up and had dorm meetings with their own RD and RAs.

MONDAY – Orientation Day 3
Monday morning we had the Day of Caring. That is where the various O groups go out into the community and do various kinds of community service. Our group (with about 7 other groups) had the job of shoveling mulch at school playgrounds. The school we were sent to had about 10 different play areas, each with a BIG pile of mulch that had to be spread out and leveled. It was hard work, but also a lot of fun. However, the really annoying part was that the first area (probably about 15 feet by 20-30 feet???) only had a mulch pile on one side. We had to shovel the mulch into an unused plastic garbage can we borrowed and drag it across the playground in order to get the mulch spread out. Then, when we went to the other play areas, they all had TOO MUCH mulch, as in, we would get the playground all nicely covered and still have BIG mounds of mulch. Also, we didn’t have enough shovels/rakes/scrapers/etc, so a lot of us ended up using our hands and feet to spread the mulch. I really wish I had brought my work gloves from home, but I didn’t…so I got a blister, and of course it popped in the last 10 minutes of work we did :( I really did enjoy it, even though it perhaps could have been a little better organized. As we were leaving, the kids were coming out for recess. One little girl asked us “Are you JBUers?” I thought that was pretty cute ;-) I really put in about 2 hours of work…after that there were too many people concentrated in too small of an area and so I didn’t feel like I helped much (for the last 45 minutes or so). I came back to my room and took a shower, but my feet are STILL stained from the mulch, even though I have specifically scrubbed them with soap twice! [This morning I woke up really sore…my upper arms and one spot on my back are really feeling it…but it’s not as bad as I thought it might be. Also, I later found out that one of my professor’s twin girls go to the school that we worked on, so that is neat :D]
After lunch, we had several informative sessions to choose from. I attended one about studying abroad, one about living in the dorms, and another one about growing spiritually by getting involved in the small group Bible studies or the various mission opportunities. I’ve already signed up for a Passion group (what they call the Bible studies here), but I don’t know yet which one I’ll get assigned to.
That afternoon we all had to take a relationship/spiritual assessment. Lots of people said some of the questions were really awkward….and they did ask things about relationships with the other sex, drinking, smoking, gambling, etc. but I didn’t really find those a problem for me…. ;-) The more difficult ones were about what my friends think of me….I know what people often say about me, but I also know it’s not always the whole picture…..so I had to decide what to answer more on those. Both this assessment and the survey from the other day were SAT style fill in the bubble tests…bad memories. :P
Next we had a rally promoting JBU sports. They taught us some of the chants and the JBU fight song. After that was the scavenger hunt. Most of my O group didn’t want to do it, so those of us who did joined up with another team. We tried really hard, running ALL over campus…and we probably got second place out of the 33 O groups (but I don’t think all 33 participated)…but we didn’t win :(
At dinner time they had what they called the Homeland Rally. Everyone dressed up representing their home country/state. I went all out, as much as I could anyways. Thankfully, I had decided to take my Texas capitol shirt (I was wishing I had one like Nathan’s though!!!!!), and I put a bumper sticker that said “Native Texan” on it that my mom had gotten me on the back. I wore jeans, brown hiking boots (since I didn’t have any cowboy boots L), braided my hair in two braids, and wore my HSAA bandanna around my neck! One of the other guys from Texas had actually brought some home made chili that was really good! It was a lot of fun.
For desert, we all went to the homes of the faculty that are over our majors. Communications division folks went to Professor Gould’s house. She is the mother of the two girls I mentioned earlier. Professor Warner (the journalism professor) and a couple other faculty members were there too. I was REALLY excited to see that she had a cockatiel!!!!!!!!! She was really really sweet and even let me rub her head! (I could hardly believe that!) I promise I did interact more with the people than the bird though :D
Later that evening was the Karaoke. I didn’t sing anything, but I did watch some….some of it was good, and some of it I didn’t like…but that’s kind of part of the game!

TUESDAY – Orientation Day 4
This morning I went to the Walton Health Center and ran on the inside track. I knew as soon as I got in there that it wasn’t a quarter mile track, and when I ran 4 one minute laps in a row without too much trouble I figured it wasn’t a 200 meter track either. I guessed that it was a tenth mile track, and the guy outside verified that. So I’m not sure that I will be running there too often….that would probably get too annoying. I ran a mile there this morning though, in 11:09. It will be kind of interesting trying to figure out pacing for that….have to multiply by 60, divide by ten, then divide by 60….we’ll see.
After breakfast one of the Biblical professors gave us a session on what the professors probably expect of us. It was mostly common sense stuff like come to class, be on time, do your work well, and so on, but it was a good reminder too.
Next we got together with our Gateway class for next semester (I don’t know if I already explained this before here, but the Gateway class is a required class for all freshman, kind of a Christian philosophy/college introduction class. JBU offers lots of different flavors, from Celtic Christianity to Crime Fiction to Pop Culture. I chose NARNIA!). Today, though, we were purely discussing The Chosen. We started off by writing a 20 minute essay evaluating The Chosen from a Christian world view (that’s the words they used!!! I was quite happy to hear that term again!! :D) I had heard that that’s what the essay had been about before, so I had kind of subconsciously been thinking about it I guess…because I knew right away that I would write about the flawed view of God and the flawed view of man represented in the book. Mrs. S, here is a shout out to you: If I had been told to write an essay in class in 20 minutes about three years ago, I would have FREAKED OUT! Because of your class, I found it thoroughly enjoyable. THANK YOU!!!!!! :D
Next we had a chapel service to conclude Orientation, and then we were FREE FOR THE REST OF THE AFTERNOON!!!!!!!! I desperately needed some free time before classes started to get some stuff done, so I was VERY glad to have it! During lunch, the honors students had an information session with some of the current honors upper classmen.
This afternoon, I received a surprise package from home via a family from church who were bringing their son here. I got some kettle corn and the bicycle pump that Dad and Mom had accidentally taken home, as well as a couple other things. I also found all my classrooms. Now I just can’t wait to actually get into it!!!
After dinner, I played Ultimate Frisbee with a bunch of other students out on the Quad (the big grassy area in the middle of campus). I wasn’t very good at it, although I did make a couple interceptions and once made a score by catching a short toss from another player on my team. It was a lot of fun though! I quit about an hour ago. It was getting kind of dark, and then the sprinklers came on right where we were playing. I decided that was a good enough excuse! Slippery wet grass + darkness + running back and forth a lot = a bad combination in my opinion!
Now I’m going to head for bed….this has been much too long….sorry about that, but kudos to any troopers who made it through the whole thing!!! At least now I feel all caught up :D

BIG stuff from last night

So to finish up about yesterday, we ended the day with BIG Gathering, BIG Games and BIG Coffeehouse. The gathering was mostly a comical video parodying a freshman's first day :D It was funny....then they showed some pictures from last year's BIG games to get us pumped up. All the freshman (300-400) had been divided up into "O Groups" (I found out today that the O group assignments were based on our Gateway class...i.e. we will have a class this semester with the same people we have been getting to know the past couple of days.) Each O Group has 10-12 freshman plus two returning student leaders, with a total of 33 O groups. For BIG games, 5-6 O groups joined up to form a team (Red, Blue, Green, Purple, Orange, Yellow). So each team had 50-60 people.
I was on the Yellow team (and so was my room mate Kaley!) The games started at 9. First of all, we had to come up with a team name and a cheer. I liked ours, but it wasn't as creative as some of the other groups. We called ourselves "Yello Sno" or something like that. We were ALL gathered at the top of the 100 stairs (there really are 100 and they really are steep!!!), and once they were ready for us we trooped down the stairs, yelling our chants as we went. Then we got ourselves painted up with our respective colors. The first opportunity to win points was the performance of our team chant/yell. Next, we were all ordered to take off our shoes and each team put their shoes in a pile. The leaders came and mixed them up, and we all had to sit around in a circle. Once they said go, we all rushed over (all 50-60 of us!), tried to grab our shoes from the pile, and put them on as fast as we could. I think we won that one :D
I think I'm forgetting one...but the next one I remember is that we had 6 teams of 2 girls and 2 boys each. The boys had to drag the girls on a tarp about 15 yards, around a cone and back again, and the girls had to be eating a twinky and drinking a small bottle of coke. I had the job of eating a twinky....it wasn't too hard, but I should have gotten the package opened sooner!
I just remembered which one I forgot! Thirdly (after shoes/before tarp) each team had to get in a long line standing up with their legs spread apart. We rolled a watermelon through the line and then followed the watermelon, reforming the line at the end. Once everyone had gone through, we had to smash the watermelon and eat it as fast as we could. I didn't eat very much of it, but it was pretty amazing how fast it disappeared.
After the twinkys and coke, one of the team members had to eat a whole can of spam, spin around with his head on a bat 10 times, and then write our team name on the grass with shaving cream. I would NOT have liked doing that one :P Our guy did really well at it though! Sixth (I think) was the barber shop. Three of our team members became "hair stylists" (using shaving cream!!!!!!!), three more were customers, three were chairs (kneeling - the customers did actually sit on them!), and six more were shoe shiners/manicurists or something. We also had a "tourguide" for when the judges came, and a barbershop quartet, that actually sang quiet nicely!! The rest of us were walls/windows/barber poles. I think we may have won that one too, but I can't quite remember.
After that, we had to create a "sculpture" by toilet papering some of our team members. We decided to do the Mall in Washington D.C. We had 9 girls lie down on the ground and get covered in TP to form the reflecting pool, a two person stack for the Washington monument, and a six person chair and a back wall and front pillars (and Lincoln himself!) for the Lincoln Memorial. I'm pretty sure we won that one too.
Lastly, we were supposed to get all the TP out of our square (lines marked on the ground) into one of the other team's squares in five minutes. Well, everyone decided to bring their garbage to our square. We had it all cleaned up, and then the full assault started....then we mostly got it cleaned up again, and our group leaders were saying we had to sit down because the five minutes were up. Well, the team next door threw a TON of TP into our square right after we had to sit down....that was really annoying. Our team ended up with second place though, so that was really fun!!!!! We then had to hike back up the 100 stairs and go get cleaned up. I just took a shower, and was a little late for the BIG coffeehouse at 11. I had some hot chocolate and headed up to my room pretty soon after that.

I am at JBU!

Well, as you can tell by the lack of postings, the last week was very busy! On Sunday afternoon we had my farewell party - I was very happy to see quite a few of my friends before I headed off. The librarians from church (Mr. and Mrs. Maness) gave me a send off charge, and then I tested everyone on how well they knew me with a Facebook style "How well do you know me?" quiz. It was fun :D And Mrs. Maness won!!!! She got all 15 questions right!


Monday through Wednesday I really had to get down to the business of packing. It went pretty quick once I actually put my mind to it. Thursday was all doing laundry and packing my clothes....then yesterday my family and I left Dallas at about 8:30. I can hardly believe that was really just yesterday!!!!!!!!


We got in to Siloam Springs at about 2 or so, gave Nathan a tour of the campus (because he had never been here before even though it was my 5th time to come!), then went to Wal-Mart to buy my new bike (which Nathan VERY kindly rode the 2.8 miles back to JBU!!!). We went out to a Chinese buffett for dinner, and by then it was 5:30 (when arrival time started). The folks here at JBU unloaded ALL my stuff for us - they did that for ALL the new students...they're the best!


All the stuff I brought actually ended up fitting in the closet! I could hardly believe it!

I decided that I wanted my bed lofted, so with some umph (especially from Dad and Nathan!) we moved my desk and dresser to one side of the bed and then put my bed on top! It is a little bit of a climb to get up there, but it DEFINITELY makes our room seem a lot roomier!!!!!!! Which is a TERRIFIC thing. We got Kaley's furniture arranged too, then Dad and Mom and Nathan headed out....I actually didn't cry. I thought I would, but I didn't. I cried when we left the house that morning though.
I got my clothing put away, then headed to the Walker Student Center for game night - I played Apples to Apples with a varying group of other folks. Came back up to my room and did some more unpacking....Kaley and I headed to bed about 11:30.
This morning I woke up at 6:15.....I stayed in bed for a while, but didn't go back to sleep....... After breakfast I came back to my room and worked on preparing to write the essay on The Chosen (the freshman summer reading book) for the essay contest....it's due on Wednesday and I still haven't actually started writing it. I basically know what I want to say though.
Check-in to orientation was at 11, then after lunch was the welcome in the chapel by President Pollard. He reminded us that even though we may be confused right now (because of all the various changes happening), we are a beloved child of the living God :D
We then connected with our "O groups" (Orientation groups) and played a few get to know each other games...I have 12 people in my O group. After that I came back up to my room and got a LOT of unpacking and settling in done - it felt REALLY GOOD!!!! At 4:45 they had a Prayer and Farewell time in the chapel...I kind of wish my family had stayed for that, but I'm kind of glad they didn't...if they had, I know I would have cried :( Next we had dinner, then I came back here and FINISHED UNPACKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am officially ALL settled in!!!! All my suitcases, packing containers, etc are all up and away in the closet! So I am very very happy :D
Now we are going to the "BIG Gathering," and then we get to play the "BIG games," then at ELEVEN we are going to do the "BIG Coffeehouse"....we'll see if I can stay awake that long!
I'd better run....please comment if you read this and like it!!!!!!!! :D
P.S. on my way back from supper I was THRILLED to see a beautiful, adorable GOLDFINCH!!!! He was really cute :D
Also, I've met lots of neat people so far - now hopefully I can remember at least half their names!!!!

Really Good Day!

Today was a great day! I had the house all to myself until about 8 this evening...so I decided to work on cleaning for my farewell party on Sunday. I vacuumed all the carpeted rooms and dusted our two living areas and babysat* for a couple hours and worked on a couple other projects for the party and cleaned my bathroom really well...and I was hardly online at all! I can waste a lot of time online.... :( It almost doesn't sound like I did very much....... Part of the time while I was dusting I was on the phone with Nathan because he was telling Dad and Mom (and me via phone!) about his time at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Now he is back home for good, which is really exciting!!!!!! However....I leave a week from today....... :(
Tomorrow is going to be really fun...I'm going to a card making class to get creative, having lunch with a friend, then helping with more party stuff! So right now I should probably get to bed............. :D
*about babysitting - you've got to love it when the minute you walk in the door the little two year old is yelling your name and begging to go outside.....that little guy is adorable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Busy, Busy, BUSY day!

So - today started for me at 4:00 :D I set my alarm so that I could hopefully watch part of the meteorite shower. Dad and I went over to Richland's campus for 20 minutes or so...I did see one meteorite, but was otherwise disappointed. We also saw Venus and Jupiter though! Once I got home, I went back to bed for a couple hours.
Got up, then went running! I decided to take it easy today - just go for a slow jog for 20 minutes and not really try to go any certain distance or certain pace. My time actually ended up being 21:55, my distance was 2 miles, and I was doing approximately 2:40 quarters. Came home, ate breakfast, showered, then left ASAP.
I went to clean for some friends of mine. Spent almost two hours there and was able to accomplish a good bit! I've been cleaning for them for two years...and now I only have one time left before I leave for college! :( After I finished there, I ran to Kohl's for a minute to see if they had any hand towels that match the bath towels I received as a graduation gift...thankfully, they did, AND I had a gift card for Kohl's - YAY!
Next I had one more violin lesson before going off to college. We replaced the strings on my violin, and my teacher helped me to know how to do the last couple kinds of shifting slides...it sounds like it would be really complicated, but thankfully it wasn't too bad. Now I can potentially play thinks like part of the Water Music, Pachelbell's Canon, etc! It's very exciting :D
I had to run to the bank after my lesson to deposit some checks...then came home for about 20 minutes to eat lunch before leaving for Bible Study! This was the last one for the summer, so we had a picnic for the participants plus their families in the evening. It was a lot of fun!!!
Since I got home (about 9) I've been online...mostly catching up on the news about the Voyage of the Dawn Treader movie. They have started filming, and the movie will hit theaters on December 10, 2010...over a year from now!
Now I need to go to bed....tomorrow my parents are going to go get Nathan from Houston, and I am going to stay home and hopefully get a lot of cleaning etc. done!

CRAZY day - (Wednesday)

Well, Nathan has been home the last couple days! But he leaves again tomorrow :( (That's why I haven't posted much - trying to spend as much time with him as I can before he takes off....)
So - now about the crazy day! Wednesday morning I went running at Richland's path...it is a .75 mile loop. I put in my greatest distance so far - 2.5 miles! I didn't do it all at once though...I did 1.5 miles in 15:06, walked some, got a drink and stretched, then one mile in 10:12 or something like that. I came home, ate breakfast, took a shower, etc...then I went to babysit!
The way I came in contact with the family I babysat for was funny....the wife of the "pastor" (we don't call him that at our church) at my church suggested me to her daughter (last summer I think...), then her daughter suggested me to her church in March or so (and I've done quite a bit of babysitting for them). A couple weeks ago, one of the coordinators at the church asked if I would come to her house to babysit for a birthday party, so I did. One of the families there was the pastor and his wife from that church....so Tuesday night, my dad called me to say that someone he didn't know was asking me to babysit...and it took me a few minutes to figure out who it was :D
Anyways, they have five children....(girl - 8, girl - 6, boy - 5, boy - 2, girl - 10 months)...so I was pretty busy for the three hours I was there. It was very fun though. They are sweet kids for the most part. The boys loved it when I gave them horsey back rides...kind of wore me out! I really enjoy babysitting, for many reasons! :D I love being with the kids, it gives me a small taste of motherhood, and I earn money doing it!
Once I got home, I took a short nap then worked on random things, watched news, and ate dinner. (There was some thunderstorm activity - that will figure in later!) We (Dad, Mom, and I) then headed out to go to our U.S. representative's town hall meeting. It started at 7, and we got there a few minutes afterwards...as we got closer, we realized that people were having to park a ways away and walk in...Dad was nice enough to drop us off by the door so we wouldn't have to take the chance of getting rained on. As Mom and I were walking in the door, two police officers were walking out...I heard them tell all the people still coming that they wouldn't be allowed inside the building - there were too many people! So I called Dad and told him that we got in but he wouldn't be able to....he decided to go home and just come pick us up later. Well, we made our way to the room where the meeting was, only to find that it was so full of people that people were crowded outside the doors! We couldn't see and could barely hear. The representative was told to ask everyone to move quietly away from the doors because of the possible fire exit hazard, etc. We were thinking we would just leave, but as we were headed out we heard that there was a speaker in the hall, so we sat in the hall and listened. It was still really hard to hear because (ahem) some people (ahem, like the mayor!!!!!!!) were just standing in the hall chit chatting..... We left before he actually finished because we didn't want to get stuck in a big traffic jam.
That was about 8:30. Nathan's flight from Washington, D.C. was supposed to land at 9:20, so we headed for the airport. The sky was very interesting....there was a big dark cloud over about 90% of the sky. As we got closer to the airport, I noticed these very bright lights...too bright to be stars or warning lights on towers. Eventually, we figured out they were airplanes, lined up and just waiting to land at DFW...there were at least 11 planes that we could see flying around under the big cloud. Remember those thunderstorms??? DFW had to stop landing planes for a little while because of that, so they had gotten backed up....soon after that we got an automated call saying that Nathan's plane would land at 10. We headed to a mall to kill some time. While we were there, we got a phone call saying he would land at 10:30, and then another call to say his flight had to divert to Austin (getting to low on fuel) and that he would land in DFW at 11:30. The mall closed officially at 9:30 (we were still inside after that), then we just stayed out in the car a little while (I tried to sleep...) We arrived at the airport at about 11, then sat at the baggage claim area. THEN NATHAN CAME!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! Two and a half weeks and an overseas trip - it was GOOD to see him again!!! Poor guy was exhausted though - it was 5:30 am Thursday (London time), and he had gotten up Wednesday morning in London and not really slept since then. Then, to top it all off, his luggage didn't come up the belt....we had to stand in line to talk to the baggage guy, he told us to wait 10 minutes, then we had to stand in line AGAIN, then we had to fill out all this information for a claim etc. etc.... It was nearly 12:30 by the time we left the airport...and I didn't get to bed until 1:30 a.m....it's really no wonder I slept in until 10 the next morning (usually, I can NOT sleep past 8 or so)......
So that was all about our crazy day! Nathan's luggage was found and delievered to our door the next evening.

Meeting Kaley!

Today I got the opportunity to meet my room mate!
Here is a picture of us together at the restaurant:















We aren't exactly the same, of course, but we do have several similarities...

• She has one younger brother and no other siblings
• Purple is one of her favorite colors (that's definitely a good thing, because I have many purple things!)
• We both prefer to go to bed and get up early
• etc!

So....just two and a half more weeks (18 days) and we will start getting to know each other much better...because we'll be living in the same room!

Games and Babysitting....

Well, we played Quiddler and then two games of Yahtzee....Quiddler is a fun game in which letters with cards on them are used to make words (with additional rules, of course...) I got a few good words, but lost :( Our first game of Yahtzee, Mom got a Yahtzee on her very first turn...I went right after her and also got a Yahtzee!!! Then later, we each got a second Yahtzee :D. I won that game because I got my upper bonus...the second game wasn't nearly as exciting.......
Babysitting tonight was pretty fun. I and another lady I have worked with before were at a house babysitting during a birthday party (the adults went out to dinner). So we had seven kids under the age of seven...one of them was only 10 months old, then there was a couple two year olds, a four year old...and I'm not sure of the ages of the other three....... I let them have lots of fun with me :D That's one of the things I like about babysitting...it's a chance to let one's youngness out to enjoy itself ;-) The kiddos think it's great to be chased, tickled, etc. I do also expect them to behave though....had to put one little guy in time out a couple times....... But it went pretty well. I don't think I'm going to have a sandbox for my children when I have a family. Too messy...sand gets EVERYWHERE, especially all over the kids. It makes me want to take a hose and spray them down before I let them go back in the house :D

TOMORROW!!!

Tomorrow I will get to meet my room mate for next semester!!! I am very excited about this!!!!!! I had received a letter from JBU in late June I think that gave me her name and contact info (her name is Kaley and she lives in Texarkana). I sent her an email almost immediately, but she was on a cruise at that point. Once she got back she gave me a call, but that's when I was on my trip. Anyways, Saturday evening she told me that they would be coming to Dallas tomorrow and suggested that we have lunch together....so I can't wait!
I've done pretty well at staying focused and getting things done the last couple of days. Yesterday FaceBook gave me the go around with trying to upload pictures though........it was very very annoying. Then when I finally got the pictures on the site, they were all scrambled up...so I had to go through and manually put them back in order...it took a lot longer than I wish it had.
Mr. Dean's sermon this morning was very good. He is doing a two part series on Titus...I may put the notes up on my spiritual blog...we'll see...
Now we're going to play a game!!! It is an old old Sunday tradition in my family :D (as long as I can remember). Then this evening I head out for a babysitting job.....hopefully it will go well...I think there are going to be 7-10 kids! Thankfully I will have another adult there though.