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.

Joplin Experience Plus

Wanted to get another update posted here! This one’s mostly about my trip to Joplin J

Orientation—the week that I posted my previous update—went fine. It was great to get a bird’s eye view of the whole SP operation, even though I already knew some of the information from reading most of the articles that have gone up on the website over the past couple of months. We got to hear more about some of the “background” things of SP, such as donor ministries, and we got to tour the campus which was fun.

Thursday the 18th I skipped out on the last few orientation sessions because I had to drive to the airport to head out to Joplin! Lots of firsts on the trip – first time to rent a car (ended up with three rentals by the end of the trip!), first time to drive a long distance by myself (total of nine hours in big chunks), first time to stay in a hotel by myself (which was fine).

Ahead of time I was pretty nervous about the trip, and especially about interviewing people I had never met before. But everything went beautifully and looking back it seems silly to have been so worried. So I grew in self-confidence a good bit from it. J I’m actually going on another similar trip next week, and I’m really not worried about it. Though this time it’s in New York…so hopefully the driving there isn’t too ridiculous…..

Anyway, Friday in Joplin turned out to be a long day for me. I went to the base church at 7:00 a.m. to meet the SP staff managing the project and to have breakfast with that last week’s crew of volunteers. Got oriented to things, then headed out to the home that they would be dedicating that afternoon to watch and interview the volunteers putting the finishing touches on it. Went to the homes of another lady and a family who had each received their houses this year to interview them, then back to the last house for the dedication ceremony.

It was pretty hot outside (almost my first taste of a “real” summer this year because of being in N.Ireland and Boone, both of which are much cooler than Dallas!!), so the 50+ people who turned out all crowded into the house. Which made it pretty hot in there too, but it was a miracle that the electricity was on at all, and everyone was excited to be there and to celebrate with the family. J It was like witnessing a family reunion – and most of these people weren’t related to one another by blood. But they obviously had a special community of relationships.

I ended up interviewing another homeowner there, plus the lady who received the last house. By then, it was time to go back to one of the houses I had visited earlier in the day for a farewell cookout that the family hosted in honor of the SP staff and volunteers. While there, I interviewed a fifth homeowner. I also got to continue witnessing the incredible love and care for one another that was so very evident among all of the people involved. There were a lot of tears too, as the Joplin homeowners bid farewell to the SP staff members who had been living and working there for months.

It was 8:00 p.m. by the time I got in my car and headed back to my hotel room. I felt so very blessed to have had the opportunity to kind of be a part of that weekend of celebration. It was a joy to hear and see what God had done in the lives of both the volunteers and the homeowners. And yet there was a heaviness there too—because all of the stories I heard involved so much loss, although every one of the people I talked to focused much more on being thankful for what God had brought out of the situation. But for me there was also a weight of responsibility. They had trusted me, a stranger, with their stories. And my job was to go back and write articles to share that with the supporters of SP. It was just a lot for one day…but in an amazing, good way.

The next day the Joplin staff had to pack up their office of two years and get everything loaded up and ready to move on to the next place. I helped out a bit, and enjoyed getting to learn more about the people behind the rebuild effort. That afternoon, I interviewed a final homeowner couple. In two days, I had completed 12 interviews, most of which were 45-60 minutes, and taken many many pages of notes (yes, I’m old fashioned that way…..).

Every one of the stories I had the honor of hearing that weekend was amazing and special in its own unique way. And in the days since then, I have had the privilege of attempting to retell those stories. So far, I’ve written five or six articles based on Joplin. None of them have been posted yet because of scheduling issues, but hopefully they will eventually be used somehow. One of those was a first-person blog post for the SP blog that goes more in-depth about what I learned from the people of Joplin…so once some of those stories get posted I will probably post links here.

I had a couple of adventures aside from the work aspects of the trip. One was locking my keys into my rental car. Yep, I managed to do that. Thankfully it was at the cookout and there were plenty of “Good Samaritans” there to help me! The hero ended up being the eight-year-old son of the homeowners. He had a metal bar that we were finally able to poke down through the window (which were thankfully cracked open!) to pry the door handle open.

The other was getting to spend Saturday evening with a couple friends from JBU! Joplin is close enough that one of the professors from our mission trip team was willing to come up to see me! We met up at a movie theater to watch Monsters University, and one of the other students who had also been on the trip showed up with her to surprise me. It was so very great to see them and to have a chance to wind down with them after the weekend. We enjoyed dinner together as well, and it was just a wonderful opportunity to catch up.

Sunday I retraced my steps from Thursday and ended up safely back in Boone! It was a really fantastic trip, even though it was a bit hard to come back and be “stuck” at my desk. In the week and a half since then, I’ve managed to keep busy at work…most of the time. I’ve worked on a few other things in addition to writing up the Joplin articles.

Then on the 26th, one of my best friends from college happened to be in the area on vacation with her family! So we got to spend the evening together, which was really special. I got to meet her dad and sister and see her mom, who I had met in May when I bid farewell to my friend. We had a great time catching up about our summers, and even though it was relatively short I was so thankful for the opportunity J

So yep, that’s pretty much been my life since my last post! Well, add in several trips hiking up the mountain I’m living on, which has been fantastic. :D I think I’ve been up there five or six different times, all to different little places, and all wonderful times to get away for some exploring and/or reflection. I’ve got some more adventures coming up! My parents are going to be here this weekend to see me, and then next week, as I said, I’ll be headed to New York! So I know these last 3.5 weeks of my internship will probably fly by pretty quick! And then? Who knows…. ;-)

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.

Random thoughts, little update

I know, I do a bad job of keeping this updated...........This is partly because I more frequently use Facebook as a place to keep track of what's going on with my life. When I do have time to just write what I want to, I more frequently write about spiritual (more important) matters, and those posts go on my spiritual blog. I recently (well, in late November) did a seven-part series on there about what God taught me throughout 2011 - best year of my life in many ways :)

But, here's a not-so-spiritually-focused reflection on how my life is going...so it's on this blog ;-) (I know, I'm way too organized for my own good sometimes..........)

Random Thoughts (in no particular order)

1. My boys are still funny~~~I worked over Christmas break nannying. It's interesting to see how the boys are changing some as they grow up more.

• Brian is super good at Legos! He's determined and patient (most of the time) to complete his sets. Legos are nearly the only thing that would keep his attention for longer than about 15 minutes...... The other thing that does a decent job of keeping his interest is playing football in the front yard. We had fun doing that every day of the last week. The first day he saw me with my new hair cut (my hair's now a little shorter than shoulder-length) he said, "Is it just me, or did you get a hair cut??" Such a funny way of asking it :D
• Christopher is still cute :) The first day I was doing the "this little piggy" on his toes as I had done other times, and he remarked "Esther, you do funny things to me." Another day we were playing outside, and he picked up a stick. "This stick's going to watch us," he announced, and proceeded to place it carefully where we wouldn't step on it. Some other time during lunch he proceeded to make up a little song (some background is that they got cookie cutters in the shape of Star Wars "Tie fighters" to cut sandwich shapes): "Tie fighter, Tie fighter.....I eat my samwich {he still mispronounces it...} in a tree house because it has a table"...No idea where the last part came from :D He's also decided that playing restaurant is great fun. We did it for a couple hours each day the last week :)
• Both of them were sad I had to come back to college. I was telling Brian when I'd have to go back to school, and he asked when I'd be back. I told him I'd probably come see him during Spring Break, which is in March. "But that's a long time from now!" he moaned. Yes, I know bud. I'll miss you too.

2. Family is special~~~Not only was I able to spend time with my immediate family (Dad, Mom, Nathan), but we also made a trip up to NE for cousin Brad's wedding and saw most of Mom's immediate family. But we came home one short, since Nathan flew back to USAFA from Oklahoma City. And he most likely won't be coming back to Dallas until Thanksgiving. Which is sad :(

3. I love my friends~~~even if Nathan says it's silly that I say that to my girl friends.

• Mrs. S is my everything lady - she was my co-op teacher in high school, she's let me work for her for a super long time, we can sit and talk , I get to make cards with her - Teacher, Boss, Friend. I'm super grateful for her :)
• Courtney - even though I only get to see her when I'm in Dallas on breaks, it's always a joy to spend a couple of hours just talking together (usually at Starbucks :D). I'm also glad that we chat online once in a while.
• Sarah - she's an absolutely amazing friend :D This semester she's studying abroad, so I miss her A LOT. But the other day I got a sweet letter from her that made my week :) So thankful for her :)
• Jessica - my sweet roommate who willing puts up with me day-in and day-out :) We can laugh with each other, making fun of ourselves and what happens to us - or we can talk about serious things. I'm going to miss her when she graduates!
• Lynnette - she's one of those people who I know I can talk to about anything (as are most of my friends on this list....). We've had several adventures together - like walking all the way around the Dogwood Trail in a foot and a half of snow or going on a horseback ride out at New Life Ranch.
• Hannah and Laura - who formed the most terrific Honors Orientation mentor group ever! I'm thankful for and love both of them individually, but when you get the three of us together, you had better watch out! It was so a God-thing that they were "my" girls - I soon recognized that we would be good friends beyond the class :)
• Sojourn girls! - I love my hall!!!!! I've been in the same dorm room for three years now, and even though the hall does change some from semester to semester, it's a great place to live :D

4. Time is a weird thing~~~This is something I've really noticed in college. It works something like this: the days go fast, the weeks go slow (it takes forever to get to the weekend), the months run away, and the years simply fly. I'm 21 now. And yes, that's a rather scary thought. To celebrate that milestone, I {ok, you can quit holding your breath! I didn't do anything crazy!} wrote my first Christmas letter :)

5. God's got me~~~Over break I really wrestled with the question of whether or not to enroll in the IPJ program after I was accepted (If you don't know what this program is, ask and I'll be happy to explain - I just don't feel like typing it out right now). Part of me feels as though it's almost selfish to go and do something like that when there are other people who will be using their summers to serve overseas. But I have come to peace that this is what God wants me to do at this time - and yes, I am excited :D As Lynnette said, often times when we come to a cross-roads a lot of the growth process is choosing which path to go down - and the choice prepares us for travelling down the path. I still have a lot to learn, but I feel as though I'm listening a lot better now than I have in my life before. And I have faith and believe that God will continue working in and through me :)

6. New Year, new me~~~right? So also in honor of my first year as a 21-year-old, I made my first New Year's resolutions:

• Workout six days/week, for at least 30 minutes. So far so good on this one. Having swimming class twice a week and being expected to swim two hours outside of that certainly helps! (And no, I can't swim. That's why I'm in the class!) After last semester of barely working out at all, I can't run nearly as far/fast as I would like. But it's amazing how much variety I've had so far - I could do core, PT, bike, run, play intramural basketball (yes, I'm horrible), swim, etc. etc.
• Read for 30 minutes five days/week (outside of homework). Last year I was completely addicted to a TV show. I've had at least eight books sitting on my shelf for that same year that I've been wanting to read. I go to my church library and there are so many books I'd love to read! So I've quit my TV show cold turkey (no, it wasn't a fun decision) and made a point of reading. Some of the great books I've read so far?
  --Crazy Love
  --Discerning the Voice of God
  --Kisses from Katie
  All great books I highly recommend! :D I can tell this one's going to be a little tough as the semester gets busier. But I hope to keep it up!
• Write for 30 minutes five days/week (outside of school papers etc.). Even though I've done pretty well on this one, there are still more times than I can keep up with when something will get me thinking and reflecting. I feel as though I learn more from what happens to me when I write about it. Blogging, journaling, they both count - and I like them both :D

7. Yes, I'm busy~~~I'm taking 18 hours of classes (two of which require major chunks of time outside of class), writing and working as a page editor for the campus newspaper, serving as the CEF GNC ministry leader, working 10 hours/week as a TA for workstudy, and trying to keep my New Year's resolutions AND my sanity. Yep, I think I over-committed myself. As I've done before. Yep, you'd think I'd learn....but noooooo :P It's hard for me to admit this as a perfectionistic over-achiever who likes {or maybe did like} to be a perfect student.....but I'm beginning to realize that maybe busywork assignments aren't the very most important thing in the equation of my life. No, don't worry. I have plenty of the busybee honors student in me still to not fail my classes (I think). And I am still struggling some with how to balance doing well at my occupation right now (I am primarily a student after all!) AND investing in people which has so much more eternal significance. It's not easy, especially since I often tend to over-think things....

So...that's all I can think of right now....and I need to head for bed soon. So thanks for reading, and if you think of me I'd appreciate your prayers that I would 1. Keep my perspective on God, 2. Focus on listening for His call, and 3. Learn how to properly balance how I spend my time.

Honest Reflections on Hollywood

I'm in Hollywood, CA for the weekend, attending a college journalism conference with eight other Threefold Advocate staff members. After spending about 24 hours here so far (we got in late last night and leave Sunday afternoon), I'm experiencing a serious conflict/wide range of emotions. This is going to be an honest look at those, and an attempt to process what I'm feeling. I'll probably end up waxing poetic or lecturing. So please be patient and bear with me! (But before I really get started, allow me to add the disclaimer that I wasn't all that hyped about coming to Hollywood to begin with. I'm not into movies/pop culture/etc. etc.)

It all starts this afternoon when our group of students walked down the street to get some lunch. Our hotel (Renaissance Hollywood) is in the middle of Hollywood, in the middle of all that is shown to be glittery and glamorous. As we strolled down the sidewalk, taking pictures of famed buildings, I saw other tourists like our group. But I also saw something I wasn't expecting to see in Hollywood: homeless people. People waiting at a bus stop who appeared to not have seen a bed or a bath in days, weeks, months. And they were ignored. By the cars rushing by on the road. By the people around me. By me.

Traversing the popular Walk of Fame a while later, I was struck by many things. First of all was the idea that the stars embedded in the sidewalk were to honor the people whose names they bear. Each star now costs $30,000. And yet thousands, millions of people walk on those stars and on those names. They can't avoid it, they don't mean any disrespect by it....but these stars which are supposed to honors a person's level of fame are trampled on day-in and day-out. This made me think about the fleetingness of "fame," "popularity," and life in general.

On Hollywood Blvd, where most of the Walk is, we were surrounded by tourists who were taking in the sights and snapping photos of their favorite stars, just like my group was doing. But once again, there were people I was surprised to see: people digging through trash cans. A homeless man carrying all his belongings and walking with a scroungy dog on a leash. It reminded me of China. It reminded me of the "bad areas" of Dallas. But I wasn't in a third world country. I wasn't in what I would have thought of as a bad part of town. Come on, this is Hollywood! The home of movie stars and the hub of the entertainment industry. And yet I hear sirens of fire trucks and ambulances more frequently here (4-5 times today) than I ever have living down the street from a fire station. And yet there are people living on the streets who have nothing. Nothing.

Surrounded by this clash between my expectations of the glamor of Hollywood and its real life grittiness, I watched as tourists ignored the existence of the destitute people. I thought of the celebrities, living in their mansions not too far away. They had contributed to making this place what it is, and yet they apparently did nothing to help the people who call their Walk of Fame home. I was confronted by the difference between the star-studded Hollywood I had imagined and the sense of apprehension I experienced walking the streets. What if one of the homeless people tried to rob me?

What was I supposed to do about all this? We are trained to ignore homeless people. They could be dangerous and if you help them you are probably just enabling them to continue in their bad habits. What am I to do? When I go out tomorrow, I will be faced by the same dilemma and by the same people. Will I make the decision to go along with the cultural norm and choose to not see these fellow human beings? Will I instead take the challenge of interacting with them, sharing truth with them, and yes - loving them as Jesus would? I know what my inclination will be. I can only pray that God will grant me safety and wisdom to do as He would have me to do.

So those are my thoughts and feelings about Hollywood. Overall, I am not impressed. From my short experience of it, I am struck not by the grandeur of it, but by the hypocrisy of the people in it. I am not liking Hollywood (the city/atmosphere - I'm glad to be at the conference & visiting Gma Artie & Auntie Lynne!). I am eager to get back to Arkansas where I'm not faced with more than I can handle. I'm ready to go back to where I'm comfortable--to not have to see what I have seen tonight.

But can I really go back the same? This day in Hollywood has impacted me more deeply than I am able to properly communicate in this note. I don't know where it will take me. But I know I'll remember this night for a long time to come. And not because of how much fun I had in Hollywood, but rather because of what I saw by looking at my surroundings, not through a celebrity or tourists sunglasses, but with the eyes that see those whom society has made invisible to keep itself comfortable.

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!

Rafting Down the Illinois River

On Saturday (the 11th) the Honors Scholars Program here at JBU took all the new freshmen and the Honors Orientation mentors rafting on the Illinois River! I’m typing this up today (9/12) so I won’t forget anything, but there are a few other things I want to post about on my blog before this actually goes up.

Anyway, we all (I think about 85 of us!) met at the Honors House at 9:00. Yep, it was a bit early for college kids on a Saturday. Then we all piled into a long caravan of a couple JBU vans and lots of personal vehicles. Thankfully it wasn’t a long drive. It took a while for everyone to get into the river. The rafts had six people each, and most rafts had one mentor and all the freshmen in that mentor’s group. I have four girls in my group, and then we had another girl from a group who had too many people to fit in a raft.

Here’s a picture of me and the girls I’m mentoring!

We weren’t doing anything near white water rafting. Just down river of the drop off point there was one little part that had a bit of rapids. I was sitting on the front seat and promptly tumbled off the seat into the girls behind me when we went over that bit, hehehe…. Not long after that we got stuck on some driftwood stuff, so I decided to hop out and pull the raft off. I managed to do that, but then of course the raft got away from me a bit and so I had to catch up to it and then try to climb in – and I made a grand fool of myself :D But I had fun doing that! J

We went around a bend in the river, and enjoyed some nice scenery – high buttes overlooking the river and things like that. It was nice and peaceful, and we enjoyed floating down river with the current. (We did have 4 paddles, but sometimes we didn’t row and just floated.) A couple times we made ourselves go round and round and round in circles – and that was really fun :D

All the rafts (I think there were at least 14 rafts, plus several 2-person canoes) were really spread out, so we weren’t really near any other people for most of the trip. After about an hour (maybe?), we got to the place where we were all pulling off to have lunch. Our raft was in the second half of the pack, so by the time we got there the boys from the rafts ahead of us had gotten the “bright” idea of stopping the rafts and pulling or making everyone jump into the water. Not that I minded getting wet – but I’m independent enough I didn’t like being forced to, so I tried to “defend myself” a bit :D

Anyway, we enjoyed our lunch. There were lots of butterflies landing on people, a cute little tiny turtle (only a little more than an inch in diameter!) and a not so cute baby snake…the snake was probably about a foot long, and it kind of slithered over one girl’s leg, then went around and tried to hide in a life jacket that was lying on the shore, and then swam off right in the middle of us all. Yep, a lot of us were a little freaked out about it!

After lunch all the rafts and canoes headed on down river again. Some of the other people decided to just swim/float down river rather than riding in the rafts. Our raft was doing just fine, but then a couple of the floating guys decided to come “attack” us. We tried to paddle really fast and get away…..but it didn’t work. Two of the girls went rather willingly into the river, but the other four of us held our ground. J We lost one of our paddles though :/ So there were only four of us in the raft, and we only had three paddles. And we were rather disoriented. There was the really low hanging tree, and we tried to stay away from it….but no, we went under it. We all ducked and screamed a bit, but we made it under :D A couple of the girls said that was their favorite part of the ride….. J Well, we went a little further and then I grabbed onto a tree trunk so that the other two girls could catch up to us and get back in the raft. A little further downstream there was a bank about 10 feet high, maybe? And the water below it was about six feet deep. So five or so students were taking turns scrambling up the bank and jumping into the river. Yep, it made me pretty nervous, and I certainly didn’t do it! But no one got hurt.

We were the last raft, and there were a couple canoes near us. So the four or so people who had been floating/swimming decided to join us on our raft – at least it wasn’t for very long! We went a little further downstream and then we could see the place where we would get out of the river. There was a boat jam there of people trying to get out, so we hung back and floated around really lazily for a little while – the more adventurous ones went and climbed on a big tree that was sitting partly in the water. Lauren, one of my girls, did a neat flip to get out of it :D Eventually, the people downstream hollered at us that it was time to go, so we went the rest of the way down, and got out of the water.

And thus ended our epic boating trip. It was a great idea for a bonding time between mentors and students, and I had a blast. J Of course, today my shoulder and hip are really sore, but it was totally worth it!

The last couple weeks of summer....

After our quick trip to Colorado for Nathan's Acceptance (into USAFA) Day parade (see these two posts on his blog to read about that) on August 2nd-4th, I nannied Christopher for one day and then they went on a family vacation. During the week they were gone (Aug. 9th-13), I was able to spend time with friends and put in 2-3 full days of work for Mrs. Stewart (my high school teacher - I'm her assistant when I'm in town), so that was really nice. I was also supposed to work on packing during that week. I think I did a bit, but not much. Oh, and before our Colorado trip I had taken Christopher back to the pool for a birthday party. That time I had my swimming suit on, so I was more willing to get wet - and so he did better than the first time I took him!

Anyway, the last week before coming back to JBU (Aug. 16-20) I nannied in the mornings, and one afternoon I think. I finally had both boys again, which made me happy :) I hadn't seen much of Brian for about five weeks, and I was missing him! (Mom kind of made fun of me for that - but I really do love those little guys!) During that week, we went back to the Museum of Nature and Science, and we also went to the Zoo again. On the other days, we would often go to the park and to Barnes & Noble. If I remember right, Brian asked me one time why I had to go back to college and why I couldn't keep coming over to spend time with him...but I promised him I would come see him when I'm in town :) Hopefully Christopher will remember who I am - I'm relatively sure he will.

On Saturday, August 21st, Dad and Mom and I packed up the van with all my *stuff* for college and headed out for a couple days of camping. We stayed at Devils Den State Park. The first night it was *really* hot and muggy, but the next morning we were able to get out early and do some hiking. We went on several *long* hikes, and in the afternoon we enjoyed some air conditioning at a place that had a beautiful over look and *lots* of hummingbird feeders! What's more, the owner of the gift shop had recently gotten a beautiful cockatoo, and I got to hold him! :D

Then on Monday the 23rd we came over to JBU and Dad and Mom helped me get moved into my room - the same room I had last year! My wonderful room mate Jessica arrived a little later in the afternoon, and we spent the next couple days arranging/unpacking.

And thus ended my wonderful summer at home - It's so odd living two different lives in a sense. I slip so easily from one to another now! I really haven't been homesick a bit...although I do miss Dad and Mom and Nathan and Bluebonnet. But at the same time I'm so glad to be back at JBU - it really is a second home.

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