Our Crazy Weather and My Fun Day

We've had crazy weather this winter...both in Dallas and here in NWA. I haven't been in Dallas for the crazy weather, so I'll mostly talk about the NWA part :) The crazy weather has been in the form of snow - and TONS OF SNOW!

It snowed a bit on the weekend my parents brought me back to school - Jan. 9. But it wasn't much. It did stick around for several days though.

Our second snow storm came on Jan. 20th. It started early in the morning, if I remember right. I walked to my 9:00a.m. class through the falling snow and enjoyed taking some pictures of it :)

I would guess it snowed 2-4 inches....so not too much. Most of the snow disappeared in about a week, except for places where there had been a big pile of it.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous the weekend of the 29th, with highs in the 60's! I went for a walk to downtown and took pictures - I may have even been in a t-shirt.

It changed pretty quick after that though. On Feb. 1, it started snowing at about 1a.m. and continued to snow for well over 12 hours. It was basically a blizzard that morning - that's what a weather website was calling it! Campus closed down at 10:30a.m. and all classes for the rest of the day were cancelled. My prof. had cancelled my 9:00 class even before campus closed. I heard that only six classes were held that day.

Since that was a Tuesday, we were supposed to put the newspaper together in the evening. Because classes were cancelled, we decided to do it in the afternoon instead - so I had to walk the quarter mile or so to the honors house where the Threefold office is.

The snow was still falling at that point. After I finished laying out my pages for the paper, I went to dinner in the cafeteria. While I was there, one of the other students got the email saying classes were cancelled for the next day as well. It was so funny how cheering broke out in the cafeteria, kind of in waves as more students figured out what was going on.

So the next day my friend Brooke and I decided to get outside and take snow pictures! It was about 10*, but we didn't let that stop us :D We had a blast for nearly an hour and a half.

Most of the trees were really pretty because they were covered in icicles that were glistening in the sun :) I would guess there was about 6" of snow from that storm.

Our adventures included following deer tracks through the woods to an area I had heard looked like Narnia,

walking across the soccer field to get back to my dorm,

me being "forced" to eat snow after I shocked Brooke by saying I couldn't remember eating snow before (I liked it - I just look funny because I was laughing so hard at Brooke's shocked-ness),

and taking pictures of each other.

On Friday the 4th we got a little more snow - but not for too long. It just made everything pretty again :)

While Brooke and I were out and about, I had further shocked Brooke by admitting I had never been sledding before. I mean, come on - I'm from Dallas - when does Dallas ever get enough snow to go sledding? (Well, last year and this year it has...but I haven't been there either time!) So the next day (Sat. 5th) we got together to go sledding. But first we had to get the six inches of snow off of her car.......that took a while...and then we had to get her car out of the parking spot. And once we finally did get out, we weren't sure where we would find sleds. So we went to a hardware store and got "drip pans" instead - they look like giant cookie sheets. We think they're meant to be used under running generators, but not sure. Anyhow, we went with two of Brooke's other friends over to the honors hill which is THE sledding hill of Siloam and had a lot of fun sledding :)

(This is us trying to go down with three people on the cookie sheet - it didn't work. Two people worked great though :D)

And I loved it! :) After we finished sledding, we made snow cream (like ice cream - but made of snow and condensed milk - YUM!) and enjoyed it together :)

The snow from that storm is still around, although it had been cleared off most of the roads and gotten very trampled down everywhere else and was actually getting a little dangerous, what from the melting and refreezing it's done. But the weather wasn't done with Arkansas yet!

Tuesday night (8th) another snow storm was forecasted to hit our area. After I finished my part of laying out the paper in the Threefold office (at about 1:30 in the morning), I walked back over to my dorm. The snow had been falling for 30-45 minutes at that point, and was just a light dusting on the ground. I loved it because it was dark outside, so the snow falling through the light beams from the street lights was really pretty, and I could listen to the snow falling, and I felt like Lucy discovering Narnia :)

I went to bed in pretty short order, and woke up at 6:30. I got an automated call that classes were cancelled for the day because of the snow - which made me so happy because I had been feeling very overwhelmed about that day's homework. So I went back to sleep until 9. When I got up and looked outside, I could hardly believe my eyes. It had snowed so much that I could hardly see the cars in the parking lot - there were just lots of car-shaped white humps with antennas sticking out of them! It continued snowing until about 2 that afternoon - a total of TWO FEET!

That afternoon (yesterday) I trekked across the Quad (breaking my own path through the snow that was up to my knees!) to work on my homework assignment for the next day - it was fun, but it sure was cold toooo!!! When I was at dinner, I once again witnessed students' jubilation at learning classes were cancelled for our fourth snow day of the semester. That freed me up from worrying about homework that would have been due today, so I went to a movie night in a friend's room. I also hung out with some of the girls on my hall and talked with Nathan on the phone for an hour :D

So that brings me up to today - and was it ever a fun day!

I woke up at about nine, spent some time talking to Mom on the phone and doing other stuff until 10 when the Health Center opened for the day. Went down there and rode the bike machine for an hour (went 10 miles) and did some weights stuff. While I rode the bike I was reading John Perkins' autobiography for one of my classes.

After that I ate lunch with several friends of mine, and they invited me to play Wallyball with them. So we played that for an hour and a half or so, and I was actually doing all right at it! When I had tried it before (back in my freshman fall) I had done poorly...but this time I was actually a tiny bit co-ordinated!

After we finished playing, we decided to go sledding. But this time, we went to the big tall hill near the 100 stairs. We'd heard about a slope there that somebody found.

(I "stole" this picture from one of my hall mates of when they went down the big hill yesterday. We didn't have this sled today)

By the time we got to it, though, there wasn't much snow on parts of it because so many people had gone down it. So we promptly put more snow on it! As we were putting snow on it, the twins and I ended up sliding down it (without any type of sled under us!). I actually got stuck partway down on a vine type thing that was attached to something at the top and the bottom...but I was able to get myself loose.

After everyone in our group had gone down the hill, we had to hike up the 100 stairs which was a tad dangerous because they were covered in snow! But lots of other people had been going up/down them, and there was a handrail to hang on to, so it was fine :) The next time I went down, I tried to use my "sled" - but it decided it didn't want to go down the hill. My body, however, decided to keep going without the sled! That time hurt a lot more - and I got a bruise from it - but it was still fun :D The crazy thing about this slope is that as you're going down you're kicking up a lot of snow that flies up in your face - and then at the bottom there's this mound of snow from everyone sledding down - so it's quite the ride :) The third (and last) time I went down I used a friend's inner tube - and that was definitely the best :D

Lynnette and I then decided to walk the Dogwood Trail all around the campus - it was her idea and a bit crazy, but we had a ton of fun. It took us about an hour to go the 1.8 miles, following deer trails or human trails...but we were still walking in snow that was at least to half way up our legs. We made the mistake of going the uphill direction though :/

We wrote our names with our fingers in the snow. Lots of other people had been doing it too. At one point we saw four or five dear crossing the trail - we felt so sorry for them being out in this cold and having to walk through the deep snow!! There were also lots of cute little birdies out singing :) Of course I felt even more sorry for them than for the deer!

When we got about halfway around the trail, we stopped and lay down in the snow for a while - it was kind of cold but it actually felt nice too! It was so quiet and peaceful and the moon was up (it was only about 4:30p.m. at that point) - it was just wonderful...I could have almost fallen asleep :D

We came back around to the parking lot area for the library, and there was a big mound of snow around a lamp post - so I suggested that we climb up it - and we did, crazy as it was for us to do that :D It was pretty difficult to climb because of sinking into the snow anytime we tried to step up. But we did it in the end!

Of course, once we quit walking in the snow and were walking on the cleared sidewalk is when I started to realize just how COLD my ankles and feet were. I was very glad to get back to my room and take off my snow-packed boots and socks and take a nice warm shower! But the hot water made my feet hurt so bad because they were so cold--they're all right now though :)

Since then I've just been blogging and doing some homework reading and enjoying the last of my snow day...tomorrow I have a test in my one class, but then it will be the weekend all over again! While I'm enjoying the time off, I'm also ready for all the snow to just go away. This weekend it's supposed to get up to 50 degrees, and by next Thursday the high is supposed to be 70, so I'm really looking forward to that! And then my parents come for Family Weekend!!!!!!!!!!! :D

I've had such a wonderful day - thanks to all my friends who made it possible! :D

Spring Semester 2011 run down

My poor poor blog! I didn't realize I hadn't written for you in so long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was always intending to - just never did it. But here we go again!

I survived the Fall Semester of my Sophomore year, barely...felt really overwhelmed at the beginning and so dropped a class, then later wished I hadn't because I was ending up wasting too much time. The whole semester I was NOT in school mood and basically didn't care about most of my homework...which is very unlike me and kind of scared me. Somehow (I literally don't know how) I managed to pull out of the semester with really good grades....there were three classes I had been pretty worried about, but I did much better than I expected.

Christmas break was absolutely wonderful. Nathan was home for three weeks and it was so nice to all be together again :) We watched movies together, finished reading Return of the King together, and we had some new experiences together: namely decorating gingerbread houses and painting clown faces for New Year's Eve :D :D I was also able to nanny during the break and do some other work, so that was good. And of course it was wonderful to be with Bluebonnet again :D

Anyway, I entitled this Spring Semester run down, so I guess I better get to that part! I'm taking 18 hours this semester, being news editor for the campus newspaper, doing work study in the library, and whatever else I find to keep myself busy.

Mondays and Wednesdays I have Western Civilization II (also meets Fridays) and Honors Biology.

I'm absolutely loving Western Civ! Each class period we write reading reflections based on questions provided by the teacher. She doesn't grade them for every class, but we never know when she'll decide to pick them up. I think that's what makes me enjoy the class so much - because I process the readings better by writing about them.

I like Honors Biology too, but the teacher and I certainly don't see eye-to-eye about certain issues.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busy days. I have Graphic Design, chapel, Introduction to Photography, and Editorial/Interpretative Writing.

We just finished our first project in Graphic Design, and I'm pleased with how mine turned out. I was expecting it to be about learning the software programs like Computer Graphics was last semester...but it's not - it's about design concepts instead. But that's okay...it will probably still do me good (it's required for my major).

I've really been appreciating chapel this semester. The last several months have been a low point in my spiritual life, but God is working in me and reminding me of things that I had forgotten. To read more about that part of my life, you can go to my spiritual blog here.

Introduction to Photography is good, but it's a lot of work too - lots of pictures to take. When the weather's nice, it's fun work though :) During Thanksgiving break I ordered a digital SLR camera since I knew I would need it for the class. (For those of you interested I got a Nikon d3000 with an 18-55 mm lens). I like my new camera a lot :D :D :D

Ed/Interp is also a lot of work...every Thursday we have to turn in a 500 word editorial about some timely topic...so it takes lots of reading of news websites to stay up on the news! I am enjoying it though.

All those classes are each three hour classes. In addition to those, I have three one-hour classes...

Tuesday nights I work as the news editor for the Threefold Advocate, laying out the stories on the news pages. During the week I am also working on reporting and writing one or two stories. And I now serve on the editorial board. So far we've finished three issues of the paper - it's taken me 8, 5, and 6 hours respectively to lay out my pages...I probably spend 2-3 hours reporting and writing each week, plus about 3 hours in staff meetings. So working for the paper definitely keeps me busy! And I am currently only getting one hour of practicum credit for doing that (though I may go up to two hours). I like working for the paper though - even if it does take a lot of time.

Wednesday afternoons I have Student Leadership, which is required before applying to any leadership positions on campus. I'm mainly taking it because I'm applying to be an RA next school year...but if I don't get the RA position I'll apply to be a Passion group (small Bible study) leader instead. I'm really thankful for this class - I enjoy it and I'm in a great small group. Last Monday evening we did our service project that's required for the class. We had a little food drive in the community for a food pantry/thrift store that helps people who need assistance. In just an hour and a half of going door-to-door (in the cold) we were able to collect almost 200 pound of food and lots of clothing.

Thursday evenings I am currently in a one hour "colloquium" class for honors...but I think I'm going to drop it. I wasn't planning on editing for the paper when I signed up for classes, and that takes a lot of time. I'm starting to feel very overwhelmed again. If I drop it I'll still have 18 hours because I'll change my practicum to two hours.

Work study is going fine...this is my second semester in the library. I work two hours on Sunday, Monday and Thursday evenings and Friday afternoons. I close on all those days except for Sunday. The nice thing about working at the library is that I can study quite a bit of the time. As the semester progresses, however, more and more students use the library which means there are progressively more books to shelve! I enjoy it okay, but I'm looking forward to being a TA next semester :D One of my professors has already asked me to do that after his TA graduates this spring.

I also do a little bit with a couple of the CAUSE ministries on campus. Because my schedule is afternoon and evening heavy this semester, I wasn't able to help out with either CEF or mentoring with Right Lead like I have in previous semesters. So far this semester I've knitted some things for the ministry that donates items to a children's shelter. I've also helped once with the community service group, raking leaves for a elderly lady.

I'm really enjoying my friends this semester. I have one of the best roommates ever, and I have three friends that I regularly get together with, as well as several others that I like to hang out with. I'm thankful God has blessed me with good friends :)

Lastly, I've been trying to exercise regularly. I'm doing all right at that---last semester I somehow pulled a muscle in my leg or something, and it bothered me basically from late September until Christmas break. Because of that I had to slack off quite a bit on my running and such. Now I'm finally working back up to running again - but I still have to be careful and pay attention to how my leg is feeling. Anyhow, I typically try to run on the track/machine or bike on a machine 3-4 times a week and do core workouts/weight lifting on alternating days. I did a lot of exercising today, and it felt great! :D

Well, that's about all I have to say about my life this semester in a nut shell.....I'm going to do some homework and then do a post about the crazy weather we've been having here!