10 Books

Just posted this on Facebook, and decided to post it here too since it will be easier to come back and find this way! :)

"Make a list of 10 books (in no particular order) that have affected you in some way. Good or bad, thought provoking or just straight up adorable.
Then tag a few book loving friends as a subtle hint that you would enjoy seeing a similar list from them."

So.....Mrs. S tagged me for this a few days ago, and I'm going to do it before I forget! :)  Please note that they are in no particular order (as instructed above), and that for the purpose of this list I've chosen to leave the Bible off. Obviously it belongs here - but 10 is too small of a number as it is!

1. Expecting to See Jesus by Anne Graham Lotz ~~~ Last summer I had the opportunity to hear her speak in public, and we also received copies of this book by her! Then I landed at home in Dallas for the fall, and there "just happened" to be a Bible Study group going through the video series by the same name. God definitely used that in my life, and also the book as I read through it this year.

2. Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis ~~~ I read this mostly over Christmas Break of 2011/12. It made me want to quit school and go help people....somewhere, anywhere! Little did I know then how God would work things and take me to Uganda in 2014....something which only came about because I stayed in school and persevered.

3. Love: The Greatest Thing in the World by Lewis A. Drummond ~~~ A small book that packs a powerful punch, it's an extended devotional on 1 Corinthians 13 that also manages to address spiritual gifts and a myriad of other topics. I "just happened" to find it in N. Ireland, and it helped flesh out lessons God had already begun bringing into my life recently! I've been meaning to blog about it ever since and just haven't yet!

4. The Second American Revolution by John Whitehead ~~~ Reading this book during the spring of my high school senior year is what made me decide to pursue political journalism, which is part of what took me to John Brown University. And if I hadn't gone there, I would definitely not be the same person I am today.

5. Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer ~~~ I read this one about the same time as Kisses from Katie, as I was trying to decide whether to take an internship opportunity in D.C. I did, and God used that time to shift my focus from political journalism to writing for non-profit organizations.

6. Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard ~~~ Such a beautiful story - I love it every time I read it! Filled with good reminders.

7. Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss ~~~ I haven't read this one in a long time....and making this list makes me want to add it to the pile of books going to Uganda! When I read this in high school, I always wondered how she could be so foolish, so back and forth. I was in denial--since then I have learned that I do the same thing, over and over and over.

8. Surprised by Joy & The Chronicles of Narnia ~~~ I remember listening to my parents read Narnia to me, and watching those old BBC movies as a young kid...but then I took a hiatus from them until 2004, when I dove back in headlong and discovered the amazing, beautiful world Lewis created. I can't even tell you how many times I've reread them since! So far I haven't re-read Surprised by Joy....but I really should. The joy Lewis talks about there is what Narnia so often gives me!

9. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Don Miller ~~~ Another one I want to reread! One of the earliest things I remember (read this fall of junior year) that got me interested in the concept of STORY and led to me writing a 35+ page Capstone about it my last semester of college.

10. Joy for the World by Greg Forster ~~~ I must admit, I still have not finished reading this, and it has been in my reading stack all summer! I must finish it before I leave. Anyway, it is a very interesting and thought-provoking critique of modern American Christianity. The subtitle helps explain it: How Christianity Lost Its Cultural Influence and Can Begin Rebuilding It.

Honorable Mentions: Packing Light by Allison Vesterfelt and A Lifetime of Wisdom by Joni Eareckson Tada ~~~ {my perfectionism constrains me to mention that I listened to both of these rather than actually reading them}. Both memoir-style, so very well written and also thought-provoking! Each one was read by the author, and hearing her voice tell her own story added to the power of the words.

Ireland Update 7

This was all nearly a month ago now….but I’m finally sitting down to write about our last week in N. Ireland. I had written about the first two days in the plane coming back, but I lost my tablet that had that on it. So that’s part of what’s been holding me back – I hate writing things a second time. :P

If you want to see pictures from our time in Ireland, almost 500 of my 1,300 pictures are posted on Facebook! Mostly with detailed captions J

Day 21 - Tuesday, June 18

Tuesday was our big sightseeing day. We started off by visiting Carrick-a-Rede, a rope bridge that used to be used by fishermen to get from the mainland to an island. The bridge has planking that is less than two feet wide, with a rope mesh extending maybe another foot or so to either side. The sides of the bridge are intersecting ropes that come up about four feet to the rope handrails. The bridge is over a chasm which is almost 100 feet deep and 65 feet wide. So crossing it was a bit of a stretch for height-sensitive me. But it was totally worth it!

We hung out for quite a while on the island reached by crossing the bridge. Tons of gulls and guillemots were flying around the cliffs of the island, probably trying to get situated for nesting season. Their calls were so loud that I was looking around for a big group of seals! I actually lay down on the grassy top of the island and just watched the birds for a while, so that was fun. Most of us ate our sack lunches as a picnic on the island as well.

Next, we stopped at a coastal town (don’t remember which one…) to do some shopping. Several of us went to a used book store and found some neat old hymnals. I also got an old copy of C.S.Lewis’ book “That Hideous Strength” and a devotional on 1 Corinthians 13 that looked interesting. Just started reading the latter this morning and am SO glad I got it! I also liked walking around looking at the architecture of the town. At a bakery, I tried a “fifteen tray bake” and liked it! They’re evidently a traditional Irish treat, kind of similar to what many people call magic cookie bars in the States, but with marshmallows and cherries instead of chocolate and nuts.

Later in the afternoon we went to Giant’s Causeway. It’s this amazing geographical formation on the coast, probably formed by volcanic activity as Ireland separated from Scotland. Basically, it is a VAST structure of thousands of usually hexagonal columns of varying height that fit together like a giant puzzle. You’ll have to look at my pictures or Google it to see what I mean because it’s hard to explain. Anyway, the structure runs from the base of a mountain out into the ocean as a peninsula – and it’s great fun to scramble around on and explore!

After we looked around there for a while, we hiked up the shepherd’s trail to the top of the mountain overlooking the causeway. Part of the trail used switchbacks, but the last part was a steep 162 stairs! We were glad to reach the top. Once we had enjoyed the view, we followed the trail along the ridge back to the visitor center. Everything was so green and pretty, and out on the Giant’s Causeway I loved watching the waves crash onto the pillars of stone J

That evening we were on our own for dinner in one of the coastal towns, so a couple of the other girls and I ended up at a hamburger place actually. The inside was decorated in a ‘50s American style, with a poster cut out of Elvis and such. We were fairly amused J We had the best sweet potato fries I had ever tasted though!

After dinner, we reunited with a couple of the other team members and waited at the meeting place for the rest of the team, including the drivers. They were late and it was chilly…so we ended up crowding seven of us onto one park bench. Folks driving by us were staring and waving…and we ended up watching and laughing at some pigeons that looked like they were wrestling up on a balcony ledge. Once we got back to our youth hostel, one of the gals and I took a walk on the beach watching the sunset. It was a good chance to talk J

Day 22 - Wednesday, June 19

That morning I hustled down the beach for about 30 minutes so I could get back to the place where we had been Monday evening. I climbed up onto one of the island-ish rocks and just enjoyed sitting there with the wind blowing around me and the birds circling and calling. And the sound of the waves crashing. It was wonderful – good time for reflection too.

After breakfast, we got all of our stuff packed and loaded up. We still did some sightseeing around the area before heading out though. First stop was Dunluce Castle, now an old ruins that may date back to the 1300s and was occupied until one day in 1639 the kitchen fell into the sea! According to Ireland’s National Trust website, these ruins may have served as C.S. Lewis’ inspiration for Cair Paravel!  We had fun going a little ways into a cave/tunnel right under the cliffs the castle ruins are on. We didn’t go into the castle itself, because we would have had to pay. But we had fun climbing on the rocks around it!

Our next stop was at the small town of Ballintoy. Looked into a pretty church there, then went down, down the hillside to the coast where we scrambled around on more rocky outcroppings. Then back to the van for sack lunches and time to bid farewell to the beautiful Irish North Coast. After driving a couple hours, we stopped at Glenariff Forest Park to go hiking, but sadly the main attraction—a hike to a beautiful waterfall—was closed because of winter storm damage. We still hiked around though.

We had planned to go to a lighthouse near Belfast, but traffic delayed us too much. So we ended up eating at a tiny restaurant in Belfast that had an interesting mixed menu of pizza/Italian and Chinese/Asian food. It was delicious though! And then it was back to the home sweet home of our cottages…at least for a couple more days.

Day 23 - Thursday, June 20

The next day we literally had nothing planned. I’m pretty sure that’s the only day that happened on the whole trip! It was wonderful. We just hung out, played games, relaxed, etc.

That evening after dinner I went out to the observation deck on my own. I had a lot to think about. The trip was fast coming to an end, and with it my time at JBU was truly concluding. I’d known for a long time that I would cry about graduating and having to say goodbye to that place and everything it had meant to me for four years at some point. I expected it to happen in May, but it didn’t. It happened that night in Ireland instead. God was really gracious through that, reminding me of some important things. Later, one of the gals and I took a walk up Joe’s mountain and just talked about stuff – so that was good and helped me process things some more.

Day 24 - Friday, June 21

Spent a good part of the day in Belfast. A couple of us went to the Titanic museum together. The ship was built in Belfast, and the museum is located near the area where the gigantic ship was created and first put off into the ocean. It has an interestingly broad range of topics, clear from the early industrial history of Belfast all the way through the science of deep sea exploration. So it has relatively little on the crash of the Titanic, and more on the ship’s complete story from beginning to end. Quite interesting!

Once we got back into the Belfast city center, we grabbed some lunch and ate on the lawn of the city hall. Then we went together to go shopping at Primark, Ireland’s version of a department store similar to Macy’s. I wasn’t in a shopping mood though, and felt very out of place in the crowded store. So I meandered my way back to a coffee shop. Watched some street performers on the way, and just spent some time writing the previous Ireland Update and a few post cards.

When it came time to meet up with the rest of the team to ride the city bus back to Lakeside Manor, where we had parked our van, I was in full-fledged shut down mode. I’m still not sure completely why. In a way I guess it was culture shock. I just felt very very out of my element. After being in small towns for three weeks and almost exclusively with our small team, to suddenly be in the big city surrounded by hundreds of people really put me on edge for some reason. It’s not like I don’t know how to function in cities….spent my whole life until college in Dallas, and lived in D.C. for two months last summer without ever having that feeling. But that’s what happened. I just had to crawl in my shell for a while. Once we had ridden the bus out of the city center into the more residential area, I started doing fine again. It was pretty odd.

Day 25 - Saturday, June 22

Another very chill day – lots of playing table games and such. That evening, the owners of the cottages where we stayed hosted a BBQ for a ton of their friends. They invited our team too, so we went over for a while. Got to talk to an Irish gal and hear about what God is doing in her life – it was really good! It rained some during the evening, and we saw a *gorgeous* double rainbow that went all the way across. It was so very pretty!

Later, all of the main people we had worked with in Killyleagh – Wally, Heather, Samantha, Sam and Craig – came over for one last time. We just had a great time hanging out, including a dance party for most people. But then we had to say goodbye to our Killyleagh teammates L

Day 26 - Sunday, June 23

Went back into Belfast for a day of seeing C.S. Lewis related sites. We started by attending a service at St. Mark’s Church, which has a number of Lewis connections:

• ·         Jack’s grandfather was the pastor of the church during Jack’s childhood
• ·         Jack’s parents were married in the church
• ·         The baptismal font where Warren and Jack were both baptized as babies is in the back
• ·         The pulpit is the same one which Jack would have watched his grandfather preach in
• ·         On the door of the parsonage is a doorknob with a lion’s head
• ·         One of the stained glass windows was given to the church by Warren and Jack later in life in memory of their parents

It was SUCH a beautiful church – just loved it! After the service, a guy who goes there gave us the C.S. Lewis tour of the church, during which he explained all of the above. He also pointed out various things about the symbolism of the church. I enjoyed it all J

We also stopped by the house where Jack and Warren lived as children – Little Lea. We couldn’t go in, because it is now privately owned…but it was still neat to see. Our last Lewis stop was at the statue of The Searcher, commissioned in honor of the 100^th anniversary of Lewis’ birth. It shows a man looking into a wardrobe, and on the back of the wardrobe there is a copy of a letter Lewis wrote to a young lady asking about the Christian symbolism in the Chronicles of Narnia.

After that, we went to St. George’s Market in Belfast, which is basically a large building with a whole collection of vendor booths – everything from food to vintage stuff to handmade items. It was fun wandering around it J

That evening was our last one together as a whole team. So the leaders took the time to get each of us a coke bottle with a Gaelic name on it and make up a definition for the names that had something to do with what each one of us had contributed to the team. It was a time of lots of laughter, but also of encouragement. Sam came back for one last time, and a few of us ended up staying up until 4 a.m. because going to bed meant saying goodbye to Sam. We watched the sky turn light, since the sun comes up super early there.

Day 27 - Monday, June 24

The next day we spent the morning cleaning the cottages and packing up all of the JBU equipment that gets stored at Lakeside Manor during the year. It went by super fast, so that was nice. I also got my own stuff packed up. Before lunch we took one last hike up Joe’s Mountain to bid it farewell.

After lunch we went to Castleward, the former manor home of a rich family. They turned it over to the National Trust fund when they were too in debt to pay their taxes, or something like that. Now it’s basically a museum. It has lots of interesting architecture and artifacts. After getting a really great tour of the house, we walked around on the property for a while, and found some really fat pigs in the farm near the lough.

That evening we went back to Strangford for a final team dinner at a nice restaurant, the Cuan. After we finished, we went to Asda to buy any foodstuff we wanted to take home. Then it was time for our team to say goodbye to three of our members, who had to go to Belfast because they were on different flights out of Ireland.

Day 28 - Tuesday, June 25

We got up early that morning to finish up last minute things at the cottages and depart for Belfast. It was a long day of traveling. We flew from Belfast to Newark to Houston to XNA, the regional airport in northwest Arkansas. In Newark things got really stressful and crazy. Long story short, our layover was too short for everything we had to do, and half of our team didn’t make it onto the flight to Houston. I did, but in the process I accidentally left my backpack behind, and it’s still lost. We were worried that the other half of the team wasn’t going to make it to Houston in time to catch the flight to XNA – but amazingly they made it just in time. We were all so relieved when we saw them get on our little three-seat-across plane to go up to XNA. Then once we landed in XNA it was really time to say goodbye.

The End.

My parents had come up to Siloam Springs to pick me up. We stayed in our tent that night at the Arkansas welcome center, though I didn’t sleep very well. Lots on my mind, plus jetlag. The next day the three of us spent the day at Natural Falls State Park. That was fun. I got to show them a few of the places where I enjoyed spending time during my day-long excursions out there on my own. Then we drove back down to Dallas, back home. But as much as that will always be home, I have a lot of places now that feel like home. And I miss the places and the people that make each so special. But that’s what life is….moving on, saying goodbye, but holding tight to the memories and the lessons.

Speaking of lessons….if you want to read about what I learned over in Ireland, in a spiritual/reflective sense, check it out here. Thank you to each and every person who partnered with me in this trip through prayer and through financial giving! I couldn’t have done it without you.

Time Machine!!

Hope you all are ready for a marathon, because that’s what I’m going to try to do – to get you all caught up on the last month and a half! So hang on to your seats…here we go! [The brackets are comments made from outside the time machine, knowing what I know now :D]

Thursday, September 17
Worked on revising my essay for English Comp. which was due the next day. Also made a “map” of the block I had described for the assignment. Stayed up a little past midnight.

Friday, September 18
Turned in the “Map of a Block” essay…did our first day of in class reporting for News Writing, had a “library day” for OTS, and left for Breakaway at about 6.
This is Sarah – she and I are in a couple classes together and we sat together on the bus ride.
Breakaway is the yearly student retreat. We went to Camp War Eagle, about two hours away I think…east and north of here. We had a main speaker (one of the Student Ministries workers I think…not a student anymore) who talked about osmosis – being filled with Christ and then going and spreading Christ’s love to our culture. We also had smaller groups that we met in to discuss what we were hearing. My group was mostly girls who are now in my Passion group (the small campus Bible study groups). I had a runny nose all evening/night…not exactly fun (the second half of my cold had definitely caught up with me).

Saturday, September 19
Spent the whole day at Breakaway. Sadly, it was kind of cold and rainy. L Another girl and I were going on a walk in the morning and we saw these two deer!!! They weren’t very scared of us at all and we just got to watch them for several minutes before they left – it was fun!
We had another big session in the morning and also met with our “breakout groups,” a group of two or three small groups led by a faculty member from JBU. Then all afternoon was free time. Camp War Eagle is amazing…it has a rock climbing wall, miniature golf, shooting ranges, archery, a skate park, etc. etc. etc. etc….. It wasn’t all open while we were there, but I was definitely impressed! Like I said, it was rainy all day. If it hadn’t been raining and if I hadn’t been feeling lousy, I would have gone on the Blob.
That’s the Blob. :D
Instead, I took a nap, did a little homework, played some sand volleyball, and also played some a couple card games.
We had more sessions after dinner, then left Camp War Eagle at about 10:00 pm and I got to bed about midnight. I was definitely very tired.
Here’s a picture of my small group. All but one girl is in my Passion group.

Sunday, September 20
I spent the morning babysitting at a church. If I hadn’t been gone all day Saturday I would definitely have contacted the lady and told her I couldn’t go…I still had somewhat of a runny nose and a horrible headache. Another girl and I were taking care of seven 4 and 5 year olds if I remember correctly. They were pretty good and a couple of them were down right sweet. It was nice to be around little kids again, but it would have been even better if I had been feeling 100%!
I think I took a nap after I got back to my room. Don’t remember what happened the rest of the day. Oh wait…I had to work my four hour shift in the caf because I had been gone on Saturday.

Monday, September 21
Nothing special comes to mind…and my journal entry doesn’t help any.

Tuesday, September 22
I think this was the day when the chapel speaker was a former professor from JBU. He was basically telling his life story. He and his college sweet heart got married, but then she got Multiple Sclerosis. For a while, he, as he put it, “deserted” her at an emotional level. God worked in his heart though, and he is now very devoted to her. His wife is now confined to a reclined wheel chair, and he still takes care of her every day. I think she’s had MS for almost 30 years. It was really neat to hear his story.
Spent two hours reading newspapers in preparation for a news quiz we might have had the next day. Also spent two hours watching Battle Over Citizen Kane which I had to do for Mass Media…so I didn’t get as much other homework done as I would have liked. In English Comp. class that day we were talking about evil…it was quite an interesting discussion…all about predestination vs. free will etc.

Wednesday, September 23
Went running that morning – two miles in 20:43. I sent in an application for an outside scholarship [which I didn’t end up getting…], but didn’t get a whole lot of homework done. Worked that evening and had my first Passion meeting. The first couple weeks we took turns telling our testimonies so we could get to know each other better.

Thursday, September 24
Ran again that morning…and got a much better time! Two miles in 19:53, then another mile on the treadmill in 9:40. Got back my essay from Comp. class, and I got an A :D

Friday, September 25
MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!
Went running again that morning – I forget how far or what time. I had gotten several cards in the mail, so I decided to put them all on my door. I really should have gotten a picture, but I didn’t. L Oh well. Had my first college test – for Mass Media [I ended up with an A+ thanks to a few bonus points]. Dad and Mom and Nathan got here about half an hour before I had to go work in the caf…so we went out to grab a bite to eat at Arby’s, then they took me back to campus and went to set up camp while I worked. After work they came back to get me and they all got to see my room (since it was open dorm hours!). I don’t think we had a campfire that night…but I can’t remember for sure.
We camped at Natural Falls State Park in OK, the same park where we honors students had our cook out Labor Day weekend.

Saturday, September 26
A TERRIFIC RELAXING day!!!!!!!! Went for a walk with Dad after I got up, then went for a run with Nathan…4th day in a row of running…I hadn’t done that in a long time! We definitely had a cross-country style run…ran down a really steep hill and then Nathan expected me to run back up it!!!!!!! NO WAY. I walked up. At the end we tried to cross a creek across the trail and I got one shoe full of water……it was still fun and definitely worth it. We went about a mile and a half or so.
After breakfast I took my family down to see the water falls…they admitted later that when they got there Friday night and set up camp they were wondering why in the world I had wanted to go to that state park….and they’re right. There isn’t much at all to the park that’s easily visible. It’s once you hike down the trail a little bit and see the falls that you recognize the park’s beauty.

(by the way, that’s one of Nathan’s pictures…he got lots of really good ones!!!)

We went on several long walks that day in the park. I think we hiked every trail they have :D After lunch I opened my presents. Here’s what Nathan gave me:
That’s a picture of my budgie Bluebonnet. It’s already been kissed several several times :D
In the afternoon we went back to campus. Mom took a nap, Dad used my laptop, and Nathan tried to fix my bike…..the pedal had broken and we were trying to get it off in order to replace it. We couldn’t get it to budge though. [a couple weeks later one of the guys here was able to get the old pedal off easily using a better kind of tool, so I finally got my bike back].
We went to Braum’s and got some really yummy ice cream. That night we had a camp fire, cooked hot dogs and smores and enjoyed the stars and being out camping. It was GREAT!

Sunday, September 27
We all went to a church here in town together. For my Honors Orientation class, I had a group project coming up where we were supposed to learn about an assigned neighborhood. The church was in my neighborhood. Sarah (in the picture above from the bus ride) is in my small group for Honors Orientation, so she went with us. After church we went out for lunch at a restaurant in town. I had to work at 4, so I said farewell to my family. I was SO glad they had come :D (a picture of us all at the falls)
Work was pretty fun. For the first time I did a 4 hour shift without having to vacuum the whole place! I scanned people’s cards as they came in during dinner. After The Gathering (Sunday night student-led chapel) we had a little surprise birthday party for Brooke (the Resident Director of my dorm). A couple of the guy RA’s blindfolded her and made her get in a box which they then carried up the stairs….so here’s Brooke explaining it all to one of my hall mates and her sister.
And here’s me with my RA Steffi.

Monday, September 28
Didn’t get a whole lot done….was feeling a little overwhelmed with stuff that I needed to do.

Tuesday, September 29
Had a much better day – “Did pretty well on homework today and feel pretty happy about what I did” (quote from journal). Got to watch Up on the Quad that night – it was really really fun to see that!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, September 30
Got some laundry done that morning, ran about 1.75 miles (around the cemetery a couple times) and read some of Jack’s Life (a biography of C.S. Lewis) for Gateway while I waited. I love it when I “have” to read easy fun books for classes!!!! :D I was able to get quite a bit of homework done that day, so that was nice.

Thursday, October 1
Had a pretty busy day and didn’t get as much homework done as I probably would have liked. After chapel I was able to borrow a friend’s car so I could go to the local animal shelter. Our mid-term assignment for News Writing (due 10/26) was to write a feature story about a certain place, and my place was the animal shelter. So I spent about an hour there trying to get an idea for a story. I came up with two or three really good ideas that I was looking forward to writing about. [The people I needed to talk to for those ideas ended up being unwilling to talk to me…]
Took a nap before English Comp, and afterwards my group for Honors Orientation went to our neighborhood to walk around, talk to people, and learn about the area. We had three people in our group, Sarah, Taylor, and me. It went ok. I would have liked to talk to more people, but we talked to everyone we saw (only two people). It felt awkward enough to walk up to people and start asking questions…it would have been worse to knock on someone’s door. We ate dinner at a little Mexican fast food restaurant in the area.
That night I worked for quite a while on my essay that was due the next Monday in Mass Media. That’s also when I got my bike fixed.

Friday, October 2
That was a VERY long day…..I had classes from 10:00 am–5:00 pm with only one hour of break. That was because we had a special homecoming chapel, then I had a “Friday session” to go to for Gateway, then my four regular classes. I went running before all that and finally got back up to 3 miles (in 30:45!). I hadn’t been able to get myself to go three miles since I had gotten sick a couple weeks before.
That night I worked and then I packed for our English Comp. weekend field trip.

Saturday, October 3
I had to get up at 7 in order to get ready to leave for our field trip at 8. My teacher was half an hour late…but so was one of the students. The rest of us were waiting in the cold for half an hour, so we weren’t overly thrilled about that and the early hour. Once Dr. Himes got there all seven of us plus our luggage piled into the mini-van. That class only has seven students in it, but one of the girls couldn’t come.
After a three-four hour drive (during which we all slept quite a bit and I got some studying done) we got to Morrilton, AR, the first stop on our trip. We looked around at the train station turned museum there, as well as got a little tour of the town, visited a really really old cemetery and looked at the local library. The library had a pet hamster who rolls around in his ball all day – I found that hilarious! Then we went to Hattieville, where Dr. Hime’s mother was born and raised. His cousin now lives in his grandma’s old house. Here is a picture of Dr. Himes:
And here’s a picture of the class and Dr. Himes and Mrs. Beeson. She was the school teacher when Dr. Hime’s mom was in school.
We visited the local gas station/store, saw a little demonstration of how to grind corn, then went to the old (three room) school house. We ate dinner there around a campfire with most of the local folks, then Dr. Hime’s uncle and some other men played some bluegrass for us – it was lots of fun!
After everyone else left we sat around the campfire for a while. Then Dr. Hime’s cousin showed up to take us to a “haunted bridge.” It wasn’t really all that scary… We slept at the school house that night.

Sunday, October 4
We went to the local church that morning for Sunday school, then headed back to Siloam Springs. I slept part of the way but was also able to get some more studying done. Got back to campus at about 2:30. English Comp. is definitely my smallest class, and it was fun to have a weekend to get to know the other students better. One of the girls, Emily (wearing the turquoise shirt and standing on the left in the picture) live on the same floor I do and we often work together at the caf. She’s one of my best friends here :D Finished my Mass Media paper for the next day, then did my four hour shift at the caf.

Monday, October 5
Went running that morning – was able to go three miles again and had a really fast finish. I might have lost track and gone 3.1 miles…my time would seem to indicate that (I think it was about 31:30 or something). I went another .5 on the treadmill just to prove to myself that I could. Didn’t get much homework don until after I finished my classes for the day. I went to Emily’s room to do some homework because I couldn’t seem to concentrate in my room. It seems kind of crazy, but I often get more done when I’m in someone else’s room or even outside.

Tuesday, October 6
Wasn’t such a good homework day because four hours of my time (other than class) had to go toward other stuff…a two hour documentary that I had to watch outside of class for Mass Media, my first CEF Good News Club, and a meeting with my HO group about our presentation. It was all good stuff and mostly fun. I was so happy to spend an hour with some preschoolers during the GNC :D And the HO group meeting was a great time of exchanging ideas. I think my group had terrific dynamics.

Wednesday, October 7
Another girl (Aubrey) and I went running that morning. We were planning to run the course for the 5k that was on the 10th, but the girl who knew the route wasn’t feeling well. So Aubrey and I just went for a run around town. We ended up going 3.7 miles in about 42 minutes, definitely my longest run ever, in distance or time!
That afternoon I had my mid-term for Gateway. [Didn’t end up doing so well at that (as in I got a B on the test…). It was kind of a hard test though…it was multiple choice with “choose the best answer” which is really annoying.]

Thursday, October 8
My HO group went back to our neighborhood again that day. We were hoping to volunteer at a ministry called “Hunger and Thirst” that feeds homeless people, but they didn’t end up needing any help that day. After we got back to campus, Sarah and I spent an hour or so working on the powerpoint for our presentation the next day.

Friday, October 9
I had my Old Testament Survey test that day. [I got an A on it.] My HO group also did our presentation. I think it went well. We were the first group to go, so we didn’t really know what we were doing for sure…but I like how it turned out. Talked with a friend from back home for almost an hour that night…until nearly midnight. It was a lot of fun :D

Saturday, October 10
I RAN MY FIRST 5K THAT DAY!!!!!!!!! It was a fundraiser for the “Titus Task,” a local ministry to financially help people adopting children.
I went with three other JBU girls (Aubrey, Cassie, and Emily). We ran it “together,” but we weren’t always with each other…actually the only one I saw during the race was Aubrey. She caught up with me at about the 1.75 mile mark and was past me half a mile later. We got a picture of the four of us together, but it wasn’t on my camera and Facebook is being weird so I don’t know if I’ll be able to put it on here or not… It was pretty cold that morning – about 40 degrees or so and all cloudy. So we were happy when we finally started running (they had a bunch of kids/walkers do a one mile fun run first).
I ended up getting a flat 31 minutes, which I was pretty happy with. I had been hoping to get it under 30 minutes, but after having a couple down weeks I was content with 31. From about 2.25-2.75 miles was definitely the hardest part. Right at the end though there were a couple of spectators from JBU who knew who I was so they were hollering at me “come on Esther, you can do it!” which was great :D
Afterwards we four girls went to a rummage sale that was supporting the same cause. When we got there they were doing “everything you can fit in a bag for $5” so I bought several shirts and some other things too. We ate lunch together, I took a shower and a nap I think, then I had to work at the caf. The sun came out beautifully that afternoon and it was much warmer.
That night my knee swelled up pretty bad and was like a bad bruise…Thankfully it’s better now. I’m still not convinced it was because of the running, even though there’s a pretty high likelihood of that.

Sunday, October 11
Went to Fellowship Bible Church that morning with Aubrey and Cassie. I think I have decided that’s where I’m going to attend. The preacher is definitely more topical than I’m used to (all the churches I’ve visited here are like that…), but there’s a Sunday school class afterwards that’s really solid and that I really like.
Had to write a paper on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that was due for Gateway the next day. I had been hoping to write it on Saturday, but I was too tired.

Monday, October 12
Had a not so good day homework wise……….partly because I “lost” three hours in addition to my regular classes…two to watch another two hour documentary for Mass Media (it was our fifth one of the semester…all outside of class and all requiring a one page reaction paper) and one for “Women of Walker,” the monthly girl’s meeting for our dorm. That night Mrs. Smalley from the Center for Relationship Enrichment here on campus talked about relationships between girls. It was really good, but I wished I could be two places at once! (doing homework AND listening to her)

Tuesday, October 13
Did a little better with homework that day… I was definitely looking forward to Fall Break by then! Other than that I don’t know.

Wednesday, October 14
Didn’t get much done…after class Emily and I were studying together for our English Comp. mid-term the next day. One of the other students in the class would walk by and see us and join us uninvited…I wouldn’t have minded, but it caused a distraction that we (or at least I) could have done without. Ate dinner, worked in the caf, etc.

Thursday, October 15
The English Comp. mid-term went kind of okay. My teacher started off by telling us that we had as much time as he needed…so I was taking my time! We had to fix all the problems we could find in 10 sentences, do some matching of definitions and examples, then write a couple short essays. So I’m done with all the grammar stuff and about half done with the first essay, and he tries to tell us that we have 10 minutes left…….well, that really got me going faster. Thankfully he gave us a little more time than that since he had told us we could take as long as we needed. But my second essay definitely suffered from that, because he was still breathing down my neck ‘I need to go, come on Esther, I’m sorry, I’ve got to go, finish up’…. [I got an A on the test, so I really really don’t have anything to complain about…it’s just that my perfectionism qualities were very very rankled].
That evening I interviewed one of my News Writing classmates for her make-believe obituary that we had to do for class. She survived being hit by a car when she was 15, so she just used that as her cause for death. It was really neat getting to know her better…by interviewing her for her obit… That night I had to write an essay for the next morning for OT Survey about Saul, David, and Solomon and the cultural changes during their reigns…it was interesting, but kind of difficult.

Friday, October 16
I don’t remember when I packed…it was probably that morning though. Anyways, all day I was looking forward to heading home after classes!!!!!!!!! I had found another girl going to Dallas from JBU, so I rode with her. We got a later start than we had intended, about 4:30. Met up with Dad and Mom in Allen because the girl I was riding with was headed to The Colony.
We got home about 9:30 and I so could not wait to see Bluebonnet again! Nathan went in to try to wake him up before I came in, but it wasn’t working too well and I couldn’t wait any longer. My little budgie definitely perked up in a hurry when I came in the room though! It had been eight weeks since I had seen him, and he was SO thrilled. So was I.

Saturday, October 17
We spent most of the morning looking at pictures from some of Nathan’s summer activities that we had never been able to see and mine from JBU. Got my mid-term grades for my class and were happy to see that they were all A’s except for one B (the Gateway because of that test). I was happy to be home, being with my family and my bird all day. I even got to go to Ministry Group that night!

Sunday, October 18
I was so happy to go back to my home church and see everyone there…and to work in the library again! It was funny…when I went in Mr. Maness had his back towards the door, so when he turned around I said good morning and he said good morning and then he realized who I was …it was funny. :D
We looked at more pictures after lunch, then Nathan and I went running together! It was my first run since the 5k, because I had wanted to let my knee settle back down. We went two miles in a not very fast time…I think it may have been 19:30 or something along those lines.

Monday, October 19
That day was my ‘see all my friends that I can!’ day. I started off by having breakfast with Mrs. S – I really miss being in her classes and being her TA L Mom and I did some shopping and I was able to get a couple new tops that I really like! I dropped Nathan off for classes, then went to see a friend who had recently gotten her own horse. Then I went to see one of my best friends, Mollie. Her birthday had been on Thursday, but she didn’t know I was coming home – I wanted to surprise her!! And I did :D We had a lot of fun talking. Stopped by another friend’s house for a couple minutes, then had to go get Nathan from classes. That evening after supper I walked over to see a family I babysat for pretty consistently for the past year. One of the boys is 2 and the other one just started school. They were both really excited to see me and I was happy to see them too!
Dad and Mom and I watched a couple I Love Lucy episodes and an episode of Emergency! for another Mass Media assignment. That was one of the more fun ones though! I was going to work on my paper that was due on Friday for English Comp. that night, but the Word document didn’t ever open up…and then my computer wouldn’t go into hibernation….little did I know what was coming next…….

Tuesday, October 20
I was bound and determined to get some homework done that day. So I started up my computer soon after Nathan left for his Richland class. But it wouldn’t boot up. It just got stuck on one of the start up screens. I was on pins and needles trying to do other homework stuff until Nathan got back….only to find out that he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it!
[To make a long long story very short, my computer had a virus. Don’t know how, but it did. Before we found that out, we thought I’d have to completely reinstall Windows, so Nathan kept my hard drive in Dallas to back up all my files first. That’s when he found the virus. After he deleted it, he mailed the hard drive to me. I had taken the rest of my laptop back JBU, so once I got the hard drive on Thursday the 29th I was able to just plug in the hard drive and it worked perfectly!!! No reinstall needed!!!!!!]
The other girl from JBU and I left the Dallas area at about 5 pm and got back to campus at 10:30 or so.

Wednesday, October 21
So I found myself entirely without a computer and needing to have a rough draft of a 4-5 page paper to take to class the next day…understandably I wasn’t too happy about that. Thankfully they have plenty of computer labs here! There’s one in my dorm on my floor, one in the Walker Student Center (which my dorm is actually connected to!), and one in the library. I basically lived in one of those three whenever I wasn’t in class that day. I stayed up until 12:45 trying to write the paper and still didn’t have it done. I was VERY down in the dumps.
Thursday, October 22
That morning before chapel I spent another couple hours on my paper and finally finished the rough draft. I sent that one off to Mom to see what she thought of it because I felt half asleep when I wrote most of it and didn’t trust myself on it very much…
Sometime Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday I also had to write the obit for News Writing. Don’t remember when I did that.

Friday, October 23
Don’t really know what all happened that day…other than the fact that I was only in my room for tiny bits of time in between things because I was living in the computer labs. Spent a good chunk of time revising my paper. Dr. Himes expects us to do lots and lots of revision, so I was really glad I had emailed my paper to Mom…because the girl in the Writing Center Thursday night didn’t give me much help at all with anything that needed revision. Thanks to Mom and Nathan, every single page of the rough draft was pretty heavily marked up :D (and Dr. Himes has us turn in a copy of our marked up rough draft so he can see it!) [I will hopefully get this one back on Tuesday!]

Saturday, October 24
Since no one that I wanted to interview from the animal shelter would talk to me, I ended up spending a couple hours at the shelter just hearing about interesting stories from the last couple years that I would somehow have to turn into a feature story….
Talked with Nathan for a long time that evening…poor guy…my phone battery died on us while we were talking for the second time in two days. At least both times I was able to give him a little bit of warning!

Sunday, October 25
Went back to Fellowship that morning…ended up having to walk there and was 10 minutes late. I had a list that said a shuttle would come to campus, but it never showed up as far as I know. So I had to walk the mile or so to get there instead. But it was worth it!
Spent the evening writing a paper on The Horse and His Boy for Gateway, in a computer lab of course! The worst thing was that the computer lab in my dorm is FREEZING (it’s 10 degrees colder in there than in my room!) and I don’t think the regular computer labs were open… So I gave up for the night because I was too tired.
Oh yeah…I also had to spend two and a half hours in the cold lab before dinner writing my feature story about the animal shelter for News Writing. I was decently pleased with how it came out…I don’t know yet what Prof. Warner will think of it though! [I will get it back tomorrow!!!!]

Monday, October 26
Finished up the paper for Gateway that morning, turned it in at Gateway and turned my feature story in. Spent quite a bit of time in the library doing some reading for a couple of my classes.
I found out that I haven’t been working enough work study hours. I was on the schedule for eight hours a week, but we usually finish 15-30 minutes before I get all my time. So in order to get all the hours I can this semester, I will have to actually work 10 hours a week. So I picked up a shift Monday night to add to my Wednesday and Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. That day was my first time to work Monday night, and I was in the dish room for almost three hours. Definitely not what anyone would call fun. Got some more homework done after that, then headed to bed at the early hour of 10!

Tuesday, October 27
Spent nine hours in bed, but got up tired and was tired all day long. Part of the problem is that my back was really really bothering (I think partly from working in the dish room) me and so I didn’t sleep very soundly. I took my laundry all the way over to the Honors Center (about half a mile from my dorm – but it’s free there!!), only to discover that the washer was out of order. I ran anyways…went about a mile. Ended up getting most of my homework done for the day!

Wednesday, October 28
Spent another nine hours in bed, with the exact same result. My back was still complaining. So I was tired, my back hurt, I was fighting a headache all day, it was a bad day in at least one other way, and to top it all off Mom had lost her phone so I couldn’t call her…..suffice it to say there was a whole bunch of “stuff” going on and I felt the most homesick I have felt since being here. Thankfully the sun was shining though and there was no rain in the sky!!!!!! I sat outside and just enjoyed it for an hour or so. I had taken studies with me, but I felt more like I just needed some quiet time. It did me good.

Thursday, October 29
Only got seven hours of sleep that night, but woke up feeling so much more refreshed!!!!!!!!! I had seen the day before that the washer at the Honors Center was working again, so I took all my stuff back over there and got it going. Went for a run while it was going – about a mile and a half in 16 or 17 something. And I found a $20 bill in a rain puddle!!!!! Running pays! :D
Had a much much better day than the day before, even though it was overcast and a little rainy – at least it was warmer than it had been recently!! And then to make a good day even better, my hard drive arrived in the mail and my computer worked perfectly!!!!!!

Friday, October 30
Didn’t get much homework done that day…I had my second test in Mass Media. After my classes I went to the “Medieval Faire” that one of Dr. Hime’s other classes was putting on because I could get some extra credit for English Comp! I worked that night, then did some pleasure reading before heading to bed.

Saturday, October 31
I “slept in” until 8:30 (all my college peers think I am absolutely nuts to think that being up until 1 is staying up really late and that staying in bed until 8:30 is sleeping in…….) I went running that morning…ended up with two 1.5 mile runs, one on the little track (a 15:23) and one on a treadmill (a 15:45). It felt pretty good! Breakfast, showered, did some homework, and ate lunch.
Then Kaley (my roommate), Grace (her friend who lives in the next suite) and I went bowling. We had tickets for a free game that expired that day, so we figured we’d better go use them! I didn’t do very well…but I hadn’t been bowling for ten years or so, and only two or three times before that! After we got back I did some homework out on the Quad because the weather was gorgeous. Worked in the caf that evening…and got an “extra” hour of sleep because of the time change.

Sunday November 1
Today I went to Fellowship with Kaley and Grace. That’s where they’ve decided to go too, but they don’t stay for Sunday school…at least not right now. So I think I will ride with them to church and then walk back after Sunday school…that’s what I did today. The weather is still beautiful. We’ve had so much rain here this fall, but now the last few days have been clear blue skies without a single cloud and nice warm temperatures. After I got back from church I made myself a picnic lunch out of some leftovers I had brought back from working in the caf, then headed outside to enjoy the sunshine!!!! I was out there for four hours doing homework, and I concentrated a whole lot better than I usually do in my room! Ate dinner, then started working on this long awaited for update. Went to The Gathering (the speaker was ok…but he had a couple annoying habits and I didn’t agree with everything he said…and I caught myself not paying attention a couple times), then came back and am just now finishing this up! So I had a good day today :D

The first half of this week........

[I started this Wednesday evening in the computer lab but am finishing it up this morning]
Sunday, August 30
Sunday morning I did go to Siloam Springs Bible Church...it actually made me the most homesick I have been since getting here. I and a couple other guys rode in the van that they had come to JBU to pick up students, but I sat by myself in the service. Seeing all the little kids made me want to give them a big hug...which would make more sense if I had little siblings, but I don't.
I liked the service all right...I really can't say that I liked the preacher though, which is a pretty big part of why I would go to church. Basically, he was even more topical and less expository than the one at Fellowship from last week. There just really isn't any place quite like CBC...that's for sure!
Afterward they had a potluck lunch. I was feeling kind of lonely (even though several people in the church were trying to make me feel included) but then I saw a girl who goes to JBU who I kind of know because she is also from the Dallas area. So I sat at a table with about eight other JBU freshman. Looking back on it, I wish I had sat with some other people from the church...but at that moment I wanted the comfort of something that was at least a little bit familiar....... As a side note, it is amazing how many students here have international experience! At our table of eight, two were MKs! (not including me)
I don't remember right now what I did Sunday afternoon...I am in the computer lab because my laptop wasn't connecting to the internet right...I'll have to come back and fill this in later.
[Fill in time! Sunday afternoon I spent a WHILE writing one of the three 1000 word essays for a scholarship I am going to be entering. Then I was just in my room wondering what to do next and feeling a little bummed out. Then our suite mates came over and asked Kaley and I if we wanted to play WallyBall. I was like YES!!!! So we went and played for two hours or so :D. I wasn't very good, but it sure was fun!
Then I went to dinner and ended up sitting with three other girls I kind of know, and after we finished eating we just sat there and talked for an hour and a half!!! :D Then I went and saw their rooms, they came and saw mine, and I was feeling in a much better mood!
At 9 we had The Gathering (the on campus, student led Sunday night service). I really enjoyed the speaker. (They always have a student speaker at the Gathering) He talked about Lazarus and how Jesus didn't fulfill Martha and Mary's expectations....He loved Lazarus, but He was acting in a way which brought glory to God, the application being that we shouldn't expect God to do things just how we think He should do them, but that we should know that He has it all planned out.
Afterward we had what they call CAUSE and Effect. JBU has lots of different ministries for students to participate in, which are called CAUSE ministries (don't ask me what it stands for...I don't remember!) Anyways, at C&E each ministry has a table and people who are interested come and sign up. I think I put my name down for four or five...but that doesn't mean I am going to be doing them all this semester...I know I'm not, but this way I will be put on their email lists to get more information. So this week I am attending meetings for some of the ones I signed up for.]

Monday, August 31
Monday = start of classes again! I went running Monday morning, and was VERY happy with myself for adding an extra lap (a tenth of a mile) and only adding one second of time to my run last Friday! Classes went pretty well. OTS was about historical context. The professor talked about various aspects in which we should note differences between our own times and the times of the Bible. We had our first quiz in the Gateway class, and I got four out of five questions right (and the one I missed I was strongly debating with myself...but obviously not well enough).
I'm going to have to finish this later...I have a meeting at nine and I can't really remember what happened when! So long for now!
[Thursday morning continuation]
On Monday I mostly had classes and did homework...I wrote the three paragraph "writing sample" for my English class...it was supposed to be on a good book that we had read, so I did it about Lewis' That Hideous Strength. I also wrote a "Letter to the Editor" about the health care reform government option for my first News Writing 1 assignment. I will be very interested to see what my professor says about that......... My MMC professor said yesterday that she will never grade us based on our opinion, but my journalism professor hasn't said that....
For dinner, almost all the freshman on my hall and our RA (Resident Assistant) Steffi went to the cafeteria and ate together. That was fun. After doing some reading for English, I went and played WallyBall again! And I did better that time! :D

Tuesday, September 1
Well, I found out Tuesday morning that I hadn't done all my reading for English...the professor had just put the first page number on the syllabus, but he wanted us to read the whole sections! So.....I had some catch up work to do Tuesday, which got me behind and I didn't finish my homework for the day until 10:45 that night :(
Chapel that morning was really good. Rod Reed, the college chaplain, talked about John 17, and how the focus of the passage is not really on Jesus sending us out or loving us. Rather, it is about how the Father loves Jesus, and how He is really just passing that love on to us. Mr. Reed said it should be like a pivot relationship...we should receive love from God, then turn and pass it on to others. We have to receive it before we can pass it on.
During lunch I sat with three girls from my MMC/NW1 classes. Afterward is when I had to spend the extra time I hadn't planned on for English. I really like the book we are using for English. It is called "Ideas in Conflict: Writing about the Great Issues of Civilization." Basically, the editors have chosen several really important issues (Faith & Inquiry; Male & Female; Divine Goodness & the Problem of Evil, etc.) and provided pertinent passages from famous/influential philosophers on several sides of each issue. In a sense, it's almost like a World View book :D So at least it's very interesting reading...not boring at all! I don't agree with the editors though.........(they have an essay to start off each section and to introduce each passage).
Once I finished that I started reading the next chapter for my MMC class. I was too tired though, so I set my phone alarm and just put my head down on my desk and rested for a little while.....my first college "nap" ;-) Oh, by the way, I won second place in the Freshman Summer Reading Program Essay Contest here at JBU!!! Which means I got a $50 gift card to the bookstore! YAY!!! :D I also did make it onto the Worship Ministries Ensemble, so that's exciting too!
English class went pretty well...we were talking about how to analyze reading and also how to develop crediblity as an author. After class I finished up all my reading for Wednesday.

Wednesday, September 2
When I got up Wednesday morning and went to the reading room, I was surprised at how dark it was....all the other mornings at around 7 the sun has already cleared the horizon and it is pretty light! Then I figured out it was because it was really overcast...not long after that it started raining. So it was cold, wet, and cloudy all morning. I was glad to be running on the inside track that morning! My farthest distance yet - 2.7 miles, and I actually came in under my goal of ten minute-miles! So I was very happy with my run once again :D
Had a peach smoothie from the little restaurant on campus that was delicious! I actually wore pants and a sweatshirt because it was cold outside...
Classes went okay. I find OTS fascinating...my professor is definitely an interesting guy. His style is funny...I'm tempted to take an audio recording of him sometime because of how he talks...and it's not funny in a bad way at all. I enjoy it a lot. It's just unique!
Brooke, the RD (Resident Director) for Walker had asked if we could have lunch together...so we did. It was fun talking with her. We sat over by the windows and as we were finishing a beautiful Gold Finch flew over and landed in the tree outside the window :D They are all still in their summer plummage, so they're just gorgeous!
Next I had my Gateway class...we had our second quiz (this one was about Mere Christianity Book 1) and I got them all right! We also signed up for the group projects...each group is going to present one of the seven chronicles to the rest of the class. I signed up for Prince Caspian because Voyage of the Dawn Treader was already full. :( I think it will be very interesting...we'll see how it goes. My group's presentation is due Novemeber 4th. BTW...my professor is doing them in the "wrong" order....grr...
Last class of the day was News Writing...he had us do a news quiz and I did not do well on it....it's my own fault because I tried waiting until the last minute to read the papers in the library and I ran out of time. I had tried several times on Tuesday, but they were all checked out every time I tried...then I finally got them Thursday morning, but I had to go to class before I finished them all. (We have to read the front page of three different papers: the AR state paper, the county paper, and the Siloam Springs paper...we may either have a quiz on Wednesday [in which case we have to read Sunday-Tuesday] or we may have one Friday [in which case we read Wednesday and Thursday]). So next time I will NOT try to read the papers all at once!
Yesterday evening I did the readings for today's English class...I also posted for my HO class about the article we had read. By 8:30 I was really tired...I had a meeting at 9 to go to for one of the CAUSE meetings, but after that I basically headed straight to bed. Got to bed by about 10 and woke up at seven, still tired :(
Now I need to get started on my homework for tomorrow...I'm glad we have Monday off...it will be nice to have a tiny break.

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!

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!