Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Obsession: Tumblr

So I have this other blog where I post about all my obsessions. You should check it out and look at it frequently as posts get there more often than here. I will still continue to post here about Biola happenings but the other blog is quick tidbits of my obsessions as the days go by:)

a-clarke.tumblr.com

PB & J's

Oh. My. Lanta. I am falling in love with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches more and more every minute of every day!!! Usually on Mondays and Wednesdays I don't have time to eat dinner because I get out of class at 5:45 and then have class again at 6 until 9. So I make myself a little sandwich to go and eat it while I run to class or study for the upcoming quiz. Well lately the caf has been having GRAPE jelly..only the best kind!..and I am just REALLLLLLLLLY enjoying my pb&j's..on toasted bread of course because gluten-free bread cannot be eaten straight out of the bag..it's just kinda gross. WELLLLLLLLL tonight I tried a new thing! I put my pb&j in the panini maker and BAAAAAAAAM a beautiful, even deeper, love and appreciation was created for that warm, yummy delight that brings such joy to my stomach and for that wonderful panini maker! Man that thing works wonders:)

Friday, September 9, 2011

Ipod Revived!

My ipod has been raised from the dead! After putting it through the washing machine I put it in a bag of rice as soon as I could. I pulled it out a day later and the computer recognized it but the screen wouldn't work..which would have made the entire thing not work because the whole thing is touch screen. I thought I would put it back in the rice until the end of the week when I had more time to deal with it and I just pulled it out and it worked!!!  I am very excited:)

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Bio Test

I am not a fan of Bio..lab or lecture. The lab is just long and confusing on Wednesday nights and hard to get through..not to mention we have a test every week! She claims it is a quiz but it has 30 questions..it's a test. If you have to study longer than an hour, it is a test. The labs are kinda weird looking at plants and slides..so much fun! NOT. The only thing I really like about is it is mostly Elementary Ed people and we all dislike it together. Despite my lack of affection towards the subject, I am trying to have an open mind and look at it as a privilege to study about how cool God's Creation is:)
I had my first bio lecture test this morning. Let me tell you about my lecture class. First of all, my teacher is a STUD. She drives two hours to teach at Biola and is a black belt! She's so cool. She is super knowledgable about biology too. She teaches other science classes. She's really smart. A lot of people(and a good amount of my friends!) are in that class. We have it Tuesdays and Thursday at 8:30am. She moves through the material really fast and it is kind of hard to keep up. We covered 5 chapters in 4 class periods. I was super worried about our test this morning because there was so much material! We had to know all the parts of the cell and their functions, all about meiosis and mitosis, atoms, covalent bonds, etc etc. I did the study guide on Monday afternoon but didn't really start studying until late last night. I stayed up until 3:30am and then got up at 7:00 to keep studying. I was over in Hope studying with Rebecca and when it got too late I decided to just spend the night in her room and go to class in the morning. When I got up this morning I went to Commons to keep studying. I was exhausted and planned on going to bed after the test.
So the clock had struck 8:30...8:35...8:44...still no professor. She finally walked in at 8:45, we took the test and viola! we were done. The test was super easy and I feel like I did really well on it:) I planned on finishing and going back to bed but I am no longer tired and kind of hyper because I feel so good about my test! My 12:00 class is cancelled so I am going to spend the morning working on Senator stuff and catching up on things I haven't had time to do yet.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Laundry

This afternoon I did laundry when I got home from Big Bear. It was raining this morning when we left the mountains so I was wearing a sweatshirts and jeans. When I got back to school it was really hot and I had to go to the bathroom really bad so I took my sweatshirt off real quick, threw it in a pile of laundry and ran to the bathroom. After sorting all my laundry from last week and the weekend, i put my first load in. When it was done I went to switch it and the first thing I pull out is my IPOD! Little did I know my ipod was still in the pocket of my sweatshirt from the car ride back! I haven't even had my new ipod a month yet. I stopped everything I was doing and walking to the grocery store to buy a bag of rice. Hopefully putting it in a bag of rice will fix it..if not I may cry. When I got back I went to finish my second load and pull my darks out of the dryer and some of my clothes had shrunk! I thought to myself "This is not happening!" Next, I put my second load in the dryer and go back to get my load out later and my entire load is wet because the dryer door had opened! Gosh really! So I had to pay for an extra load in the dryer. Today was just not my day for laundry.

AS Retreat

I spent this last weekend in the mountains at Big Bear Lake with AS. I LOVE THE PEOPLE IN AS!! They are so fun to be around and such wonderful people! Our entire staff stayed at a cabin for 3 nights to finish our training and to bond before the year really gets underway. The house we were staying at was right on the lake and had a private dock. It was beautiful! Seeing the boats and the water made me miss home, my family, and going to Lake Havasu as kid! There were 36 of us total and we had so much fun! We made meals together, finger painted, and went hiking! I think the hiking was my favorite part. This hike was different than any hike I've ever been on because we were climbing all over rocks to get to the top. There was trail that we took but we eventually got to a point where the only way to  keep going was to climbing up the HUGE rocks. It was sooooo cool! When we did reach the top we could see the entire lake and it was so beautiful:) I really enjoyed the hike! Some people went swimming in the lake..I did not but I did enjoy looking at the water. The mountains were so pretty this weekend! We got back this morning and I've been doing homework all afternoon. It's been a quiet, peaceful day:)

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Classes

This semester I have GREAT classes! I love all my professors, my classes(except for Biology Lecture and Lab bleh!), and the people in them! They are wonderful! As of right now I feel like I'll be able to handle it all with work and friends on top of homework and studying. I love my Acts professor, she is precious:) My New Testament professor is witty and funny! My PE professor is BEYOND AMAZING!!! My math teacher is wonderful:) And I love my Comm professor so much I didn't want to drop the class. Sorry it's only a short report but I am off to my Senate meeting! My plan is to blog about and post pictures of my new room soon:)
Loves to you!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Magical Biola :)


I stinkin love Biola. One of the coolest things to me is the community. One of the most amazing things to see is people praying together. I have heard stories of friend who are injured and random students they don’t even know will walk up to them and ask to pray for their hurt foot, leg, knee, etc. Today I saw two guys praying with a student who had a knee brace on. It appeared that they didn’t know her but wanted to pray for her healing. It was a really cool thing to see. Another thing I love to see/hear on campus is students talking about God and how He is working in their lives. I’d be willing to say 9 out of 10 conversations you overhear are about God and what He is doing in the lives of our student body. Such a great thing! Man I love Biola and all it is. 
There is just something magical about this place.

Yellow Brick Road

As I was sitting on my couch just now an image popped into my head. I pictured Dorthy (from the Wizard of Oz) looking for something. She is sent down the yellow brick road in search of what her heart wants most. Along the way she meets many people who impact her life, some positively and some negatively. She comes across some obstacles and people who are working against her and trying to distract her and keep her from reaching where she is headed. Once Dorthy overcomes the hardships and has her new trusty friends with her, she reaches the Emerald City. The Emerald City is even prettier than she imagined. When she meets the Wizard, he grants her wish and fulfills the desires of her heart, to be home.
Aren't we all a little like Dorthy? Aren't we all traveling down a road in search of our heart's desire? And at the end of the road is a beautiful place that exceeds all our expectations? And the Wizard like God? He's the person we are in search of on our entire journey looking for Him to fulfill the desires of our hearts, longing to meet Him face to face. The Emerald City is like heaven, a beautiful and magical land where peace, joy, love, and happiness dwell. We are on a road, on our way to the City and along the way we meet people who take the journey with us, who need us to help them get there and we need them. Sometimes there are forces working against us but we overcome those obstacles and are able to get where were are going. In the end we come face to face with the One who is capable of far more than we can ever imagine.
Not sure if this all makes sense, but when it popped into my head this afternoon, it was a pretty cool things to picture:)

Lifestyle Choice

In our lives, we can make a lot of choices. Good choices, not so good choices. wise choices, not the wisest of choices. One day last year, I remember a speaker coming to Chapel who said that we have a choice. Being a Christian is a choice. But it’s not a choice to dress one way or another, it’s not a choice to do something or not to do something, it’s more than a choice to go to church on Sundays and pray before meals, it’s a LIFESTYLE CHOICE. I don’t remember who the the speaker was, when they came, or what they spoke on, but the one thing that stuck out to me was that they said being Christian is a lifestyle choice. Last night on my run I was thinking. I actually thought about a lot of things. But one thing I thought of and that I really want to constantly remind myself of is that’s I’m not Christian. I am a follow of Christ. There are so many denominations and different beliefs and rituals that I feel like people care more about how they do things or what other people think about their religion than they care about their own relationship with Son of God. I admit, sometimes I am guilty of this! But when people ask me if I’m Christian, I want to respond, I’m a follow of Christ. Some people go through a season in their life where they can’t go to church because they don’t have the means to do so. Does that mean they aren’t Christians? Are they bad Christians? No. As long as they continue to pursue a personal relationship with God and are living the way He has called us to live, they are still followers of Christ. Not one of us is better than the next man because we go to church, or we volunteer at VBS, or we read our Bibles everyday or we are a good pray-er..we are all sinners. We all need the blood of Jesus and God is the only one who can pass judgement on anyone. Who are we to think that we have any authority to do that? Sometimes we get caught up in the world and how it tells us we should go about life. Funny thing..we are not from this world! We do not belong here! Why should we live according to it’s rules? We were meant rest on the shores of Eternity with our Heavenly Father. While we are here living on this Earth, we need to keep our eyes fixed on the One who gives us life and is preparing a path for us. Now that I’ve rambled on and on about a bunch of stuff, the bottom line is, this life we lead is lifestyle choice. What kind of choice are you going to make?

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Sushi!

This week for lunch on Thursday, Victoria took us to sushi! Normally it'd be something I wouldn't try but I LOVED IT!! This summer I tried a lot of new foods and I can't honestly say I don't like it unless I try it so I did and I actually liked it! It will only be a special occasion kind of thing for me probably but it was a cool new experience with my fellow interns:) A lot of people are surprised I liked it/tried it but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

New Printer

So my printer broke and when mom and dad came to visit me today they got me a new printer. It was the same one as before so I'm still able to use the ink I had from the last one. It was really nice to see them this weekend because lots of memories of move in have been flooding my mind from last year. It was really nice to just see my parents in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of Opening Weekend. I love them:) Thanks for my new printer  mom and dad!

Moving In

I FINALLY finished unpacking on Thursday!! I had boxes every where for the first few days I was here and it drove me nuts. It took me forever for some reason. I really like my room this year! I have a delightful couch and little coffee table and my roommate Holly is bringing curtains when she moves in tomorrow!! I've had my own room for a week but I can't wait for her to get here tomorrow!!!
Yesterday I helped students move in for two hours and I just LOOOOOOVED seeing people moving in for the first time! It warmed my heart:) It's kind of weird how much you can tell about a person by the way they packed or the things they packed or how much they brought! Everyone is starting to to settle in and parents said goodbye tonight. I went around meeting some girls on my floor and I LOVE THEM ALLLLLLL! It's going to be a great year:)

Palm Springs

On Tuesday and Wednesday for work, we went to Palm Springs to work at the Faculty Conference. It was so much fun! We helped put together conference packets for 300 people and registration for all the full time professors and their families! I really enjoyed seeing my teachers with their kids and spouses. It was a unique opportunity that not every student gets. While in Palm Springs, we had some adventures of our own when we weren't working. That included getting locked out of our room!!! I accidentally demagnetized the room key with my name tag. Late at night(well not too late..like 10ish) we were all in our PJs and had gone down to Victoria's room. When we get back we realized that we had a problem. We went to the front desk and the guy demanded our ID. Obviously we didn't have it because it was locked in our room. They called Victoria and they wouldn't let her vouch for us. It was so ridiculous and he finally le t us verify the address on the reservation but he was kind of jerky to us. He told us to put the key in wrong. It was a hilarious experience and we took pictures once we got back in the room. Man I just love my job and the girls I work with!!!! God is so good:)

New Job

I. STINKIN. LOVE. MY. JOB. I started my new internship on Monday at 10am. We started by doing a little bit of prep work for the Faculty Conference then went into a little of training for the year. We learned about different paperwork and account codes and such. Victoria took us to lunch at Islands on Monday. Much to our surprise, lunch was free! The restaurant was giving everyone free food! We were so shocked!! I got delicious veggie tacos:) 4:30pm came very quickly and the day was over! I was very nervous but it went so well and I loved it! It was fun wearing my new work clothes too:) It's going to be such a great year!!! I work with such wonderful people and love what I do! Plus I got a super cool, very official looking nametag to wear to events:)

Macbook Pro

So I have recently made a GREAT purchase! I got a Macbook Pro at the end of the summer before I left for school. I. ABSOLUTELY. LOVE. IT. Gosh it is so fun and wonderful and fast and great! I thought I would have trouble switching from my PC but it has been such a wonderful transition:) I had a beloved Toshiba for three and half years and it was GREAT. I wanted to upgrade to a Mac because they are really fun and a lot of people at school and work have them and it would just make things easier for that. Dad was not too hot on the idea of a Mac but he still admits it's pretty cool;) I just love that! I still have my Toshiba because I'm not completely ready to let it go. It was so good to me the last few years and was with me for my first year of Biola! It will take some time to part with it. But for now I am absolutely LOOOOOOVING my Macbook Pro. I have an adorable vinyl decal, shell, and case for it!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Student Development Intern

This past year I have really enjoyed working with the Event Society. I have learned a lot from working with UCM (University Communications and Marketing). Next year I will be a paid intern with UCM/Event Society and work under Student Development. I am really excited! I get an office and official nametag:) Dorky to be excited about those things but I cannot wait!! I get to plan Awareness Weeks on campus for students as well as help at other university events. When deciding whether or not to pursue the position, I did a lot of internal battling. But I decided to talk to my boss about it and pursue it. Even though I'm not a marketing major, I would still get to do the kind of things I love to do (event planning, organizing, meeting people, etc) while pursuing my career in Elementary Education!!! I'm really excited! This afternoon I went in for a meeting with Victoria (my boss). As I was walking to Metzger, I got really nervous and worried that she would say she didn't want to hire me. Then I saw a butterfly flutter by. Butterflies are not something you see very often but they are simply beautiful when you do. Every time I see a butterfly, I know it is a little reminder of God's beauty, grace, and sovereignty. I instantly had peace. The butterfly flew past me and towards Metzger ahead of me. I knew that was God going ahead of me into that meeting. It was so amazing! Next semester is going to be challenging but God never gives us more than we can handle. I'm really excited about this new position and being a Senator with AS. I'm also hoping to do Eagle Host on the side as well because I still love hosting students!

Now I'm listening to my Disney pandora station (it is delightful!) wishing I was at Disneyland watching a parade. Or I could go for a beach trip right now too:) Just 3 more nights, 2 graduation ceremonies, and 1 homework assignment stand between and summer vacation! [oh and a whole lotta packing :/ ]

2.5

Last semester when I was running on the track (before I discovered the glory of the gym!), I set a goal of being able to run two and half miles before the end of the semester. While that didn't happen in the fall, it DID happen last night! So I met my goal by the end of year! I successfully ran 2.5 miles without stopping in 30 minutes. I know that this is very slow for many running guru's but I have now overcome my fear of running! I got comfortable in the gym hitting the elliptical for 30-45 minutes and became scared of running. Sadly, last night the gym was closed by the time I was ready go so I resorted to the track. I prayed the whole time and God gave me the stamina to be able to run 2.5 miles! It was so great. I was running with a smile on my face and praying the whole time:)

I was one happy chicka!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Roommate Goodbye:(

Last night was Ciara's last night here:( She is leaving to fly home to Oregon in an hour. We had a little roommate date last night and hung out just the three of us. We took pictures, made videos, jumped on our beds (that we moved to the floor) and had a sleepover. It was great fun! This year has been so great in room 235 and we're sad it's over but we plan on getting together next year:) Once a roommate, always a roommate!! Here are some pictures from our adventures last night:)
Roomie Love <3

Our usual pose by the door

 I love this one!

I like this one too minus my oh so attractive retainers ;P 

 Jumping on our beds!

Our little sleepover:)

The Gilmore Girls

On our floor lots of people are obsessed with what we like to call Gilmies. There are at least 4 people who own all 7 seasons on DVD, my roommate included. Last semester Hannah and Kelsey got me hooked. I started season 1 one day, loved it and slowly tried to make my way through the season. There are 22 episodes a season totaling to about 18 hours for one season. So you do the math...7 seasons, 18 hours each, that equals about 126 hours! EEEEEK! But I did it over the course of the entire year and watched 5 of the 7 seasons on Christmas and Spring Break. My friend Lenny watched all 7 seasons THIS SEMESTER!!! Crazy! Last night Lenny, Kelsey and I went to Kelsey's {NEW APARTMENT!!!} and watched the end of the Girls. I'm sad. I'm really going to miss them:( I know dad, you think I'm ridiculous..I loved them! My favorite experience watching Gilmore Girls was one day last semester, Kelsey and I were sitting on her couch in her room, listening to the pouring rain, sipping chai (my first time! Loved it!!) and cuddling under a warm blanket and the power went out! My second favorite experience while watching Gilmies was sitting in the laundry room one night with Lenny watching two GREAT episodes. I think season 4 and season 7 were my favorite. A lot of people did not like season 7. I could have used a little more closure but I thought it was a pretty decent ending. I really, really like the Gilmore Girls and find myself making a reference to them often..Sorry! I definitely had my favorite "Gilmies" moments:
1. When Rory is mad at Jess and they through deviled eggs from Chris's girlfriend's baby shower at his car in the town square and then pretend they are all sneaky and bad and make their own screeching noises as they speed off
2. When Rory, Lorelai, Emily, and Richard are leaving on their road trip to Yale, and Emily tells Lorelai that she can't drink coffee in her car so she sticks her head out the window like a dog so she can drink it
3. Rory and Lorelai have to attend 4 Thanksgiving dinners. Rory asks her mom how they are going to eat four whole Thanksgiving dinners and Lorelai answers, "We've been training for this our whole life!" Later when they go shopping for food to take to dinner Rory asks what's on the list? Tums? Lorelai answers, "Eh, no, those are amateur pills". They eat so stinking much and are the tiniest girls!
4. When Lorelai's car breaks down she said she will ride her bike to work. There is a funny scene when she is riding her bike down the street and there is a basket on the front and it has flowers on it and she is wearing this ridiculous shirt with huge puffy sleeves. It just cracks me up! Maddy didn't like this scene.
5. [important information::: Christopher and Lorelai are done, Luke and Lorelai kind of have their flirty thing going on again] One night the whole town goes to Karaoke night and Rory wants Lorelai to go up and sing. After a few drinks she agrees to do it and goes up to sing "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston (I think) and Luke walks in and it turns in to a serenading thing and they make eye contact and the moment is just perfect! I loved this one!!
6. At the very, very end of season 7, aka the very end of Gilmore Girls, Rory is offered a job and has to leave 3 days after graduating from Yale. The town was going to have a party for Rory the following weekend but now there wasn't time. So overnight, Luke holds a secret town meeting and plans the entire party in Town Square as a surprise for Rory and Lorelai. When they discover that rain was coming, Luke collected all the tarps in town and stayed up all night sewing them together to make a tent so they could have the party. The party has everyone from town that has watched her grow up and I love the magical moment they all have before Rory leaves!!
AHHHHH man I love the Girls. It was good to spend this year with them:) Thank you Kelsey and Maddy for watching them with me!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

An Eventful Day/Night!

I LOVE SCRAPBOOKING! Yesterday Katelyn, Ari, and I put together 2 scrapbooks for our RA's in less than 24 hours!! My room looked like a bomb went off in it for a little bit but I seriously enjoyed every minute of it. All week I had been looking forward to Thursday night because I was going to be pulling a scrapbooking all nighter! I ended up going to bed at 4am. It was a lot of fun to collect letters and pictures from everyone on our floor and surprise Brittany and Kelsey with the books. Last night we had our final floor event:( We had a bonfire on McNally and made s'mores, did a little worship, laughed, and cried. It was seriously such a great night and I didn't want that moment to end with us all there together. Even though when I was planning this little event Brittany and Kelsey told me this night was not about them, it was most definitely our way of simply thanking them for such a great year:)
My Friday didn't end there. Kate has been itching to go "chalking" around campus so we though that we should go around campus and encourage students with uplifting messages on the ground. Katie, Hannah, Kate and I went out and did a little art:) We were a little worried about Campus Safety catching us and telling us we couldn't do it but they didn't!..well kinda. We made a new friend with one of the officers David(DON'T WORRY MOM AND DAD WE DID NOT GET BUSTED OR ANYTHING!) and he really liked what we were doing. He just said we needed to keep our art confined to the area by the dorms, not all over campus. We can do that! When we got bored of chalking (around 1am), we decided we definitely needed some In-n-Out..so we went and got burgers! After our little adventure to In-n-Out, we came back with the intention of going to bed. Wellllll, Ari had just come home and she wanted to make more s'mores in the kitchen. So we did! Katelyn, Ari, and I spent time laughing and cooking in the kitchen. When we had eaten all the leftover marshmallows and chocolate, Ari was craving graham crackers and peanut butter. Lucky for her I had those things in my room! Much to our surprise, they tasted like Nutter Butters! Then we found brown sugar in the kitchen and you add a little bit of that and MMMMMM...homemade Nutter Butters. After eating everything we had...we went back to our floor and were laying out in the hall talking and Katelyn got cold. So she got a blanket. Then we wanted a pillow..so we got pillows..and we all ended snuggling in the hallway. Just a side note..it is about 4am at this point. So once we get all situated and warm and are still half-talking..Katelyn is just about OUT!..Ari and I fall asleep and we end up sleeping in the hallway! That was definitely NOT our intention! But an adventure nonetheless:) It was not very comfortable but we were all so exhausted we didn't really want to move. Around 7am Katelyn went into bed. Ari and I both woke up around 7:30 and decided we should go to bed..but I didn't really want to climb up my bed so I slept on Ari's couch. We woke up around 11:30 and ran to lunch. 'Twas a grand adventure! What I thought would simply be a nice night of reminiscing about the year and living together on SOUL with sisters turned into a memorable night of laughing/crying, shenanigans, and staying up waaaaaay too late! Man I love college! Especially finals week:)

Thursday, May 19, 2011

DONE this week!

So I am done with my work for this week! In about an hour I will be meeting Jamie Parke to catch up a little, go to Costco and get pictures and hopefully free samples! She loves free food. I just finished my first final. It was not hard at all. Thank goodness! All I have left is 1 English paper, 2 finals, a take home test, and project for my teaching class. Not toooooooo much but enough to make me not want to do any of it. I should start packing. I got more boxes today. Mom sent them back with Tyler when he went home this morning. What a lovely surprise! It doesn't take much to make me happy:)

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Motivation?

Tonight I have to write a paper and study for a final. I am really not focused AT ALL. There is ZERO motivation to do my work. My roommates and neighbors are making me work. I have the "quiet crown" on and unless your dying, bleeding, or on fire, you may not talk to me(shout out to Mrs. Clarke!).  It's not long until it will be midnight and I barely am getting started. I am about half done with my paper and need to study a little bit more and then I'll be on my way to bed! I don't have to get up until about 10am but I still am exhausted! Two more classes left in the semester and then two finals next week and I'll be done with my first year of college! So crazy to think about. It has been an amazing, great, growing, challenging, wonderful, and magical year of blessings:) Praise God for Biola and praise God for all He has blessed me with this year! I am so grateful for the experiences I've had over the last year!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Gilmies, Study Guides, and Happiness

This weekend I watched 5 episodes of Gilmore Girls while I did homework. Today, so far, I have watched 3 episodes while I've been working on study guides for my finals. I am almost done with season 7 and only have 8 episodes left until I am complete done with the Girls! Bittersweet feeling:) Life is good. I'm feeling little to no stress. I have been doing all my homework in a timely manner, feel on top of finals and assignments, enjoying time with friends, avoiding packing, and finding time for the gym everyday. Dad don't be mad at me for watching so many episodes of Gilmore Girls. I promise I'm being productive while I watch ;)

Monday, May 16, 2011

Reward

Because it was a long, tedious, (although very enjoyable) semester and year, I thought I would make a small purchase for myself as a reward for finishing strong. I think it is something I am going to do each year. Just something small, $15 or less.
This is my most recent online purchase. I really like shopping online and getting a little pink slip in my mailbox to pick up my treasure makes me happy! This is a Vera Bradley ID holder and it replaces my Biola one. Although my Biola one was nice and perfect for this year, because it fit so much, I put lots of important things in it. If I ever lost it, I'd be in big trouble. So I bought this one for 3 reasons.
1. It was smaller and only fit the essentials.
2. It was more sophisticated than the Biola one.
3. It was adorable!


My obsession of the week: Vera Bradley products. I want a new Vera Bradley backpack that is absolutely adorable but I will have to save up my money this summer if I want to buy it.
This is the backpack I really want. I know it doesn't match my ID thing but it's still cute:)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Nothing

I don't really have anything new to post about lately. Sorry I have not been updating regularly. The only things really going on around here is LOTS of working out at the gym, eating healthy, there are lots of birthdays on our floor and we are all studying a lot. We only have one week of classes left and then finals and there are just lots of things to get done! I have printed many, MANY assignments that are 15-25 pages and I just feel like I am killing the earth:( I wouldn't say I'm an environmental activist but I do respect our planet and try to turn lights off when I leave the bathroom, recycle cans, use reusable water bottles, and save paper(and my ink!!). With the end of the year so close people are starting to pack their room up:( I have boxes in my room..they are empty. I'm not ready to pack. It's going to be really sad when we all go home and won't be living here on SOUL together anymore:( Finals shouldn't be too hard though and pay day is this week! WOOT WOOT!! The year should end on a good note! We have our final floor event this Friday and it will be a wonderful, delight, magical, emotional time of reminiscing about this past year:)

Monday, May 9, 2011

Flower Power

I have a new obsession. Yesterday I went home and surprised mom for Mother's Day. She was exhausted from working the carnival at school on Saturday and took a nap. (probably the best way to reward her for Mother's Day!) Emily and I discovered this thing called HEADBANDS with FLOWERS. I playfully put one on my head when I got home and it set us off in a craft frenzy! Emily and I went to Target, Walmart, and Joann's to get headbands and fake flowers. Then we went home and glued them all together. While I was getting the glue gun, I left my [new and oh so wonderful!] camera sitting on the table and Emily took 35 pictures of herself! She sure does love the camera and attention! And I love her! She's so cute:) and delightful:) We ended up making 10 headbands! It's kind of a new look for me, a tad bold for my personal fashion style, but fun nonetheless! Here are some pictures from our adventures yesterday:)


Sisters!


I left her alone with the camera..big mistake


Gotta love that face:)




These are some of the ones we made!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Coming Back

It is good to be back! This week has been fairly light with homework and work:) It has been really nice to be able to relax a bit. I have had time to go to the gym everyday this week and watch Gilmore Girls. Everyone enjoyed break so much, it is kind of hard to get back into the swing of things and down to work before finals. Last night we tie-dyed shirts. And I got a new camera! Things are good here at Biola. 3 more weeks! Then my first year of college is complete!

Monday, May 2, 2011

PACKED? Really??

So I came to Library after class today and much to my surprise it is P-A-C-K-E-D!! I mean every seat, desk, computer, and secret spot is taken! I would think that most students are still trying to get back into the swing of things, denying there is work to be done, avoiding it at all costs, and the library would be fairly empty. Nope! I guess it is full of students who did not do any work over break. (That's not me...I did LOTS of work over break. I just needed books from the library so I have to work on a short paper tonight) I will have to find a new secret spot. I think many students have caught on to it. :( it makes me sad but I must find somewhere new as finals approach and everyone and their mom will be in the libes to study and finish up work. I might have to resort to sitting on the floor in a secret corner and sacrifice a chair or desk all together..

-over and out-

Beauty of God's Creation

Today is an absolutely GORGEOUS day!!! The sun is shining, flowers are blooming and the birds are singing. I so wish I had time to sit by the fountain today but I don't:( This semester I have had many opportunities to appreciate the beauty of God's creation:  I got to play in the mud:) Our floor went on a hike. (One of my new favorite things to do!) The weather has been AMAZING here. Each night I try to look at the moon and see the few stars that are visible from our very well lit campus. I've spent some time at the beach. And after camping last week I have an even greater appreciation for nature! God is such an artist. I love being able to wake up each morning and see God's masterpiece. It is such a breathtaking sight when we take the time to stop and realize what we are surrounded by. I am very excited to get to work at camp this summer and spend lots of time in nature, embracing all it has to offer us. When we were camping last week, I went for a little walk on the beach and sat on the rocks while the waves were crashing and the sun was setting. Talk about breathtaking! The God who created the crashing waves and the ocean breeze, also knows everything about me, where I am and where I'm going and loves me. When we realize this, how can we not stand in awe of our God and praise Him and give thanks despite our current circumstances? I hope you have time to appreciate the beautiful creation that you are surrounded by today:)

Camping

I LOVE CAMPING!!!! Over spring break, a group of 10 of went to Carlsbad beach and camped for two nights. The girls slept in a tent, and the boys slept in the trailer. (Something wrong with that picture? I think so!) The girls decided we wanted the full camp experience so we chose to sleep on the ground. We got to go to the beach for 3 days and it was so so sooooo nice! We played in the water, layed in the sun, played volleyball, frisbee, and smashball(my personal favorite game!) We also played this game called BANG! for hours. It was so much fun! And we ate good food thanks to my neighbor Torrey:) Of course there was time around the fire and hanging out. We didn't really have to shower for 3 days and it was glorious! However the girls did quick make-shift showers in the faucet by our site:) It was so great to spend time with friends and relax at the beach:) I just really love camping! :D On Thursday when we left, we went to the beach by Ari's house. Katelyn and I also spent the night at Ari's and watched 3 movies,ate ice cream, and kind of slept ;P It was so fun to just hang out and relax with Katelyn and Ari. Man I love those girls!! I had such a nice spring break and I really, really enjoyed it! So great:) I also enjoyed my time at home helping mom in her class and spending time with my family:) It was nice but now that we're back at school it is really hard to get motivated to do work:( We only have three more weeks and then finals week and my first year of college is done! Crazy to think about that! This morning I woke up on time, refreshed and ready to go. I was a tad surprised! But I am looking forward to this last month:) Have a wonderfully, sunshiny day!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Spring Break

I am now home for SPRING BREAK!!! So excited:) I plan on watching season 6 of Gilmore Girls, LOTS of homework, seeing my family, and going camping with friends from school for a few days! I'm loving being home:) It's so nice to be around my family! Today I am visiting Ms. Choi...the most amazing teacher and woman! And I am going to the Jelly Bean Jamboree in room 3 this afternoon!
The weirdest things about being home:
1) not seeing Katelyn Jane Ward everyday, all day:(
2) the water pressure in the shower at home feels like a mere trickle compared to the showers at school!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Gilmore Girls Night!

So tonight we had a floor Gilmore Girls night! It was so great! We had about 20 girls from our floor all gather in the lobby as a mini floor event before we all leave for break. We had oreos, peanut butter, pop tarts, marshmallows, pudding, watermelon, and strawberries. So yummy! It was so fun to get the girls together, to feast together, and to watch The Girls. We watched two episodes and now I have officially finished season 5! My goal is to get season 6 done over break and then after finals, Maddy and I are going to do a marathon for season 7!! Then I'll be done. I decided that when I'm a teacher I will need to buy all 7 seasons and have them in my classroom for when I grade papers. When I'm at school late working (just like mom!), the Girls can keep me company! :)

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Tangled

So this afternoon when I was done with class, I watched the movie Tangled. It is a modern day Disney twist on the story of Rapunzel. It is a really cute movie! Of course it was magical:) I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not a big movie person so it was weird to sit down and watch it but it was really relaxing and much needed after a crazy last few days! As I was watching it, I couldn't help but notice the parallels between parts of the movie and the Christian faith. Here's a little plot summary for you:
A king and a queen have a baby, and an old lady steals the baby so she can stay young forever. The baby has magic hair(the baby is Rapunzel). The old lady raises the little girl and keeps her locked away in a tower so no one tries to steal her for her hair because it is so valuable. Each year on her birthday, the girl noticed floating lights in the sky and felt they were for her. Her parents would release floating lanterns in hopes that she would see them. She longed to go see them someday. On her 18th birthday she asks to leave the tower but the lady forbids her. When a guy running away from the kingdom stumbles upon her tower, he says he will take her to see the lights. She sneaks out to see them. After fighting off the bad guys and the good overcomes the evil, the girl is reunited with her parents, the king and queen. She realizes she is the lost princess everyone looks for each year. That's basically the plot line..
This is the scene that stood out to me the most:
It is SUUUUUPER magical. It kind of reminds me of watching fireworks on Main Street at Disneyland:)

This reminds me of the moment when we realize how great our God is. That moment when you are completely in awe of the wonder and the beauty of the Lord. The point when Rapunzel and Flynn release their lanterns into the air to me symbolizes the act of faith of releasing our lives into God's Hands, knowing He has it all under control :) The words to the song say "And at last I see the light and it's like the fog has lifted and at last I see the light and it's like the sky is new". These words are like the thoughts that go through your mind when everything becomes clearer because you have seen the Light. Everything is new and exciting and clear and much better because you have Jesus. Also when Rapunzel tries to give Flynn back the crown, he doesn't want it because he realizes what is important now, and it's not material things.

DONE

So I finally finished 1 and 2 Kings at 5am this morning! Man it was HAAAAAARD to get through. I slept for 3 hours and oddly I am functioning VERY well. 3 hours of sleep is a good amount for me. I have found over the course of this semester that when I get about 3 hours of sleep I am good to go! If I have 5-6 hours, I am so tired throughout the day and need a nap and am falling asleep in class. So I have come the conclusion that I need 3 or 9 hours of sleep to properly function in a day. Weird? Yes. Good to know? Oh yes.
And I will be going on Facebook soon..later today! I told myself I wasn't going to go on this week until all my work is done and I'm done this week!! I'm going home tomorrow night:) Tonight I have AS commissioning and we are having a Gilmore Girls night! Yay!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

A Nice Surprise

So I got my cookie! Katelyn and much to my surprise Hannah brought it to me with a CHAI LATTE! Praise God for good friends:) So happy and satisfied now! Time to bust out KINGS. here we go.

COOKIE

So I've been sitting in the library since 2:30 this afternoon. It is now 6:00pm. I AM FREEZING!!! I just finished 1 Kings. I have to do 2 Kings now. 25 chapters. So close to being done. Yet it feels so very far away! I'm not going to eat dinner tonight..well not a decent dinner. Katelyn is suppose to be bringing me a cookie from Eagle's soon. Right now all I can think about is that cookie. That soft, round, chocolaty cookie. Oh it's so close. I can't wait to taste it. I think I'm going to leave the library in 2 hours. If I work NON-STOP(no brain breaks) I could probably knock out a good chuck of the work I have left. But I have just about ZERO motivation:/ I should get to bed at a somewhat decent hour tonight. After 12 but before 5 I'd say! Someone suggested try working in the laundry room because it's quiet and there are little to no distractions! I think I'm going to try that tonight. I've used just about 60% of my pandora hours this month already. It's only April 19th! It's sad that 40 hours of free music simply is not enough. I only listen to it when I do homework..so I guess it's a good way to measure how much homework I do! [in 2 1/2 weeks..26 hours of homework so far]

Monday, April 18, 2011

A Record!

Folks I must post this breaking news..I finished half of 1 Kings in about an hour! Maybe I won't be staying up all night tonight and tomorrow like I thought. This is definitely a record.

Monday Monday

Today was weird! Well not all of today but the weather was CRAZY! Yesterday and Saturday it was HOTTTTTT. Today, overcast and in the 60s? Oh California. I'm kind of a fan of 68-72 degree weather so I was okay with it, it is just so weird to me! Gotta love it I guess!
Today I had observations. They were good. I still can't decide what I think about 2nd graders. I think they are a tad too independent for me. I still love the babies:)
I got back from observations and ate mom's mac-n-cheese that she brought me last night:) it was yummy!! When I was getting ready for class, there was a fire drill in Alpha. Just my luck! So I quickly gathered my stuff for class and left the building. Why am I so lucky that I am there for every stinkin' fire drill??!
I had two classes this afternoon and took a nap before dinner:) 'twas lovely! Now I am in the library. Surprise surprise. When I first got here after dinner tonight I went to the bathroom. On my way back to my work station I took the long way and explored a little bit. I found all these really quiet tables in the corner. I may go hide there someday. I really want to play hide and seek in the library. I think it would be really fun! But not entirely sure it's appropriate. Tonight I am working on 1 Kings. Tomorrow is 2 Kings. They are due Wednesday. I have a little quiz Thursday. THEN SWEET FREEDOM! So happy to be going home!...to do more homework. As in a paper for pretty much EVERY class. gah. But it's okay! I get to sit on a couch. The couch in my family room to be exact. So excited! I plan on watch season 6 of Gilmore Girls while I'm home too. And I'm going camping with my neighbors Katelyn, Torrey, and Ari for a few days! So excited!
PS happy anniversary to my parents:) Love you!! mom said they went on a hot date to Chipotle. So proud of dad for splurging tonight! (I hope he got her guac or chips..or both! hehe)

Sunday, April 17, 2011

A Lovely Sunday

Today was such a lovely day! It started with teaching Sunday School this morning:) We made crosses with tissue to make them look like stained glass, did the jelly bean prayer, and found and read about resurrection eggs. Then when we went into the church service, the kids choir sang and a bunch of my students were singing and leading worship. It was so magical! I was seriously crying! So so sooo precious! I loved seeing little kids singing their hearts out about Jesus and how great He is. Warms my heart!! Then this afternoon I got almost all of my homework done and watched 2 episodes of Gilmore Girls! I was able to sit by the fountain and get some reading for English done. After dinner Katelyn and I went for a little bike ride around the Biola Apartments. Such a nice, cool, evening! I loved it! Tonight mom (and I think maybe dad??) are coming to Singspo. And my favorite band is playing!!! To end this lovely day, Kelsey and I are going to go to Eagle's to get cookies or something:)
Only 4 days, 3 observations, 2 books of Kings, and 1 quiz stands between me and spring break!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Weekend Happenings

After pulling my all nighter Tuesday night, I was EXHAUSTED on Wednesday. But it was still a good day. Kelsey and I went to Target to get stuff for a Gilmore Girls night next week and stopped for frozen yogurt on the way back! So good! Then Thursday, to celebrate Hannah's dad getting a job, we went to Golden Spoon! It was so much fun to get off for a little roommate date:)
There has been a lot going on around campus this weekend! Yesterday I worked the Imagination Summit which was a technology conference about how to use it to share the Gospel. It was a really fun event to work and we got free Chick-fil-a for lunch! Then I had to work for Eagle Host as a greeter in my dorm. This weekend we are having our final Biola Bound (weekend long event for out-of-state students to check out Biola) and a new thing called Step It Up weekend for already accepted students. We hosted two students last night. Besides all the events going on around campus, things were pretty quiet. A group of us went to Common's and got smoothies because their espresso machine is broken so they can't make any hot drinks:( but it was still fun..even though it took 25 minutes to get my drink because they ran out of ice! Then we watched videos on youtube and played music and even a little soccer in the hallway!
Today Maddy(Lenny), Ruth, and I went to the beach with some of their friends. It was so nice! Such a beautiful day! We only went for a few hours but it was still great to get off campus, be with friends, go to the beach, and soak up some sun! I really, really, really enjoyed it! Hoping for a few more trips before the end of the semester!! Tonight I am staying in my room and working on homework!
Tomorrow mom and some people from church are coming for Singspo!! My favorite band is playing:) I'm really excited!
Spring break and Easter are in one week!!!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

All Nighter!

Well folks, I can call myself a legitimate college student now. I have successfully pulled an all nighter! And I'm feeling pretty good:) I finished my assignment at 7:20am. I'm very giggly today. Hannah is very entertained by me. Katelyn stayed up with me last night. She was working on a 15-page paper. I look pretty put together for not going to bed. I'm wearing real clothes..as in not sweats and t-shirt.(mom you should be proud:) )My goal is to get to bed EARLY tonight..we'll see if that really happens or not. I'm going to enjoy the day and I'm very excited to get lunch with Holly and dinner with Brittany! It shall be a glorious:)

Monday, April 11, 2011

In the Libes(aka Library)

First of all...three posts in one day! You would think I just have alllllll the time in the world right?! YA  RIGHT! I have so so soooooo much to be doing. So I will keep this one short:)
Here at Biola we like to abbreviate everything. Caf is the most obvious one. Here is a little list of the abbreves we use..
Caf=cafeteria
chaps=chapel
libes=library
commies=Commons=Common Grounds Coffee Shop
Eags=Eagles=Eagles Nest
abbreves=abbreviations
obvi=obvious/obviously
totes=totally
supes=super
sesh=session
t-swizzle=Taylor Swift
I can't think of any other ones at the moment. I will be sure to share with you as they come up. [I must insert a shout-out to Maddy aka Lenny for some of these words!]
I'm in the libes right now..it closes in 2 and a half hours. That's not very long! I already spent almost three hours in here this afternoon. Ugh I have so much homework! I just have to learn to be super disciplined with myself and use my time wisely. Clearly three blog posts in one day is not using my time wisely....uhhhh oops! Ok one final thing..I wanted to show you what I made on photoshop(keep in mind I am DEATHLY afraid of photoshop)..while I was in the library..being so WISE with my time..

Cool verse huh? and beautiful picture:)

Housing

Today we selected our rooms for next year! The whole process of finding a roommate, getting a lottery time to choose a room and actually getting a room was so nerve racking! But it is all settled now! Thank goodness. A few weeks ago my friend Holly and I decided to live together. I am super, super, super excited! Holly and I met through Event Society this year. She is such a sweet girl and just switched her major to Elementary Ed! I am very much looking forward to living with her:) 
Room selection opened this morning at 8:15am. There were 12 sets of roommate who were wanting to live on our floor next year. When the lottery opened up, there were only 4 doubles available. Talk about STRESS!!! My lottery time had said 9:30pm so I still had over 12 hours until I was going to be allowed to choose a room. I was freaking out. Thank goodness I went into housing this morning before chapel. Turns out all Senators were suppose to have lottery times of 9:30AM and there was a typo on mine. So the lady fixed it and I got second choice of which room I wanted! I was so glad that I got on my floor again:) It's going to be so great! I can't wait! 

Oh Hi Ojai :)

This weekend we went on our floor retreat to Ojai! It was so great! Such a beautiful little town:) Ari and I drove up after I took my CBEST on Saturday. It was a lovely drive. It was great to see the green rolling hills and white clouds against the blue sky. When we arrived we went to the park to meet everyone else who was already there. We were staying at Bri's aunt's house. So beautiful! Such a nice home:) We went to dinner at a little mom and pop kind of restaurant. It was Bri's favorite place to eat growing up. DELISH! Then we went up a hill that overlooked the entire city to play games and watch the sun set. It was so beautiful. God is such an artist! When we got cold because the sun had gone down, we went to get frozen yogurt and rent the movie Easy A. We got this movie because it was filmed in Ojai. So that was cool to see the places we had been driving! Before we watched the movie we went in the spa and it was so nice to relax, hang out, and talk with girls I love so much! After we watched the movie (which Ari thought was quite hilarious! I thought it was funny too but was more entertained by Ari's giggle:P), we pretty much went to bed. It was after 12 and I had had a loooong day. Bri's aunt had a HUGE, and I mean HUGE dog! Although he wasn't allowed in the family room where were going to be sleeping, I was still starting to feel my allergies kick in so I got to sleep in the guest bedroom. Brittany slept in the bedroom with me so I wasn't alone. We woke up absolutely FREEZING for a mysterious reason. lol. When we had all gotten up and eaten breakfast we walked up the street to a park for morning devotions. We all took 30 minutes, went off by ourselves, and spent time reading scripture and meditating on it and praying. It was so nice to sit in the sun, hear the birds, feel the wind, and spend time with the Lord:) We went back to the house, made lunch, watched Gilmore Girls, cleaned up, and went to downtown Ventura to walk around and shop. Bri and Ari had a hayday at the Thrift Stores! By that time we had planned to go down to the beach but it was too late because we had to get back to school before major traffic hit. I had a lovely drive home with Kelsey G and her roommate Kelsey A:) We got back with 5 minutes to spare before the caf closed. Kelsey G and I ran and made it just in time! It was such a nice weekend:) Ojai is such a cute little town!! And I love my floor so any excuse to hang out with them makes me happy:)

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Crazy Week(s)!!

This past week was a tad busy for me! I thought it would be somewhat light with homework and such but it was quite opposite! I did homework every waking moment on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and still do not feel caught up or ahead. On Wednesday I had a prospective student, Shayla from Alaska, spending the night with me. I LOVE hosting students!! It is so much fun to show people around campus, get to know them, and have them spend the night! I seriously love my job! It was such a joy to have her here:) Earlier that day, Event Society helped Alumni Relations hide 4,000 Easter Eggs all over campus. When students were released from chapel the surprise Easter Egg Hunt was announced. It was fun! That night we had to work the concert/raffle event. Shayla helped make cotton candy! She was pro!! Thursday I had to work a symposium with Event Society and there was storm when we were standing in the parking lot working. We're talking full on storm! So crazy! Umbrellas turned inside out Mary Poppins style and everything! We got WET!! But it was really funny! lol. On Friday Grandma Sue and Grandma Lee came to visit for Grandparent's Day. It was so nice to have them here:) It was a great day! Grandma Sue took me home to get my car for the weekend. Maddy and I drove back and it was really nice to drive my Honda again:) Then last night we had to work another event called Soph-Ball put on by Academic Advising for sophomores. It was a kickball game with the students' favorite faculty members. It was fun to watch but FREEZING! This morning I took my CBEST. It was super easy:) I will be leaving soon to go to Ojai for my floor retreat! We will be back tomorrow. Next week I have a test, two papers, and a lesson plan due...and I'm doing no homework this weekend! AHHHH it's okay, two weeks until spring break! We choose housing on Monday! Hoping to get my room back..if not at least my floor. There are 12 pairs of roommates who want to live on our floor. Choosing opens at 8:15am on Monday and I'm not allowed to choose until 9:30pm. A little bummed about that but it will be okay! Right now I just need to survive the next two weeks!!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

So Full of Delight!

Tonight mom brought dinner for me and my friends! She made taquitos, guac, rice, banana split brownies, and chocolate dipped strawberries! She even brought a table cloth and daisies for the table. 'Twas delightful! The caf has totally been slackin' lately so it was GREAT to eat "real"/homemade food, especially my moms!! Oh my sooooo good! It was seriously so so so great to see her and Emily and to eat her food. Mom also helped me write a lesson plan for my teaching class. I really miss them and can't wait to be home for Easter in less than 3 weeks!! Today was a delightful day full of sunshine, 2nd graders, and pranks. Hannah and I are in a prank war..but called truce. Hopefully this will stay. She tried short sheeting my bed today but I caught it this afternoon when I noticed my bed wasn't made right. She was kind of bummed about it. We are both busy with homework and I don't really want to be nervous to go to my own room so we ended it. I am now in the library and will be here until midnight:/ I'm hosting a prospective student tomorrow so I'm really excited about that! And I have TWO classes cancelled. How delightful!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

A Weekend Away

This weekend I was in Lake Arrowhead for our Event Society retreat! It was soooo nice and such a beautiful getaway:) We left Friday afternoon, and after sitting in TONS of traffic on the 91 fwy, we arrived at the Betzer Cabin on John Muir Street that sits right on the lake! The house was fairly big and perfect for the 14 of us that were there. There were 10 students, our boss and her husband, and her parents. We had tons of snacks, ate too much food, hung out and talked, and watched movies. We were able to go out and sit on the dock and look at the water..if we were up to sitting in the cold. Last weekend, Lake Arrowhead got 3 feet of snow and this weekend it was in the 60s and 70s the whole time! Perfect, crisp, yet lovely mountain weather! On Friday night we had a mini educational seminar on how to get a job and how to establish yourself in a new position and had a pizza party. On Saturday we went to brunch down in the village and walked around and shopped a bit. 'Twas lovely:) We went back to the cabin and layed around all afternoon doing homework, sleeping, relaxing, and doing whatever we wanted! It was seriously so great! A much needed getaway! Although the ten of us were in the same room, we did manage to get homework done all in the same room, some even when we were watching movies! Victoria (our boss), had her mom come along to lead a seminar on etiquette and hospitality and how to host a dinner party, how to act as a guest in someones home, and how to set a table with lots of fancy dishes! So fun! Victoria and her mom then made us DELICIOUS dinner:) We watched another movie, did more homework, and layed around laughing! It was so much fun. I love the people in the Event Society but the only time we get to see each other is at events when we are busy and have things to do so this was such a great time to hang out with people I love but don't see too often! This morning we got up, packed our stuff, and had a morning devotion before leaving. I had such a great weekend and thoroughly enjoyed my time in the mountains taking in the beauty of God's creation! :)

Friday, April 1, 2011

April Fool's!

I love pranks. Today is April Fool's Day, the day when all pranks are legal, and I got nothin!! It's okay. I must tell you about the genius prank my roommate Hannah pulled on me.. Well I am *mildly* obsessed with our president Dr. Barry Corey aka DBC. Yesterday I got a letter in my mailbox "from DBC". It said I'm glad you are running for an AS Senator position and I look forward to working with you and getting to know all the leaders on campus for next year. It seemed like a legit letter. "He" signed it and everything. I was super stoked and telling some friends about it last night in the hallway and another girl said no way I got a letter from DBC too. Earlier in the semester she saw him and his family at Starbucks so she bought him a cookie and he made a little shout out in chapel the next day. Well her letter said thank you and I'm giving you free cookies on campus for the rest of the semester. It seemed pretty legit as well. When we were looking at each other's letters we notice the signatures were different. Hers looked a lot more real than mine did. So then my lovely roommate said he didn't really write that, people forge signatures all the time, it was probably his secretary or something.She said here let me show you, I have to sign people's names for work all the time. She wanted to write on my letter or on my envelope, I said NO WAY JOSE! So she went and got a piece of paper and signed his name and it was EXACTLY the same! She showed me and said April Fool's! I said no way..okay that was a good one! I definitely give her props for what she did. It was very well thought out and lots of people were in on it. However,  I feel bad for her because I think she forgot how much I LOVE PRANKS! And I can be a good sport about it and take a good joke..I hope she can handle the heat this upcoming month. Because this has now been turned into April Fool's Month for Hannah! I will retaliate. I like to remind her that she should hate the game, not the player, because she started it! And this is not the first time she has done something to me. She is very worried about me taking her towel in the shower;) We shall see! I have enlisted my best comrades!!

A Sunshiny Day:)

Today was so nice! I woke up at 10am which is always the best! I ate a bowl of cereal and showered before class at 12. Because it was so nice outside, I got to wear a tank top and shorts! So great! On my way to class I saw lots of people wearing summery dresses and flip flops. 'Twas a lovely sight to see! I also saw students playing frisbee on Metzger Lawn and enjoying the sunshine. After class I saw two friends playing racquetball barefoot in the sun. The vibe on campus was so great today! After enjoying a nice lunch in the sun, I went to read by the fountain. Oh so great! I had another class at 3 and a midterm. All the students in my class were commenting on how wonderful it was outside so our professor let us take our midterm IN THE SUN! Greatest way to take a test ever!! We also did a group project so we spent the majority of the class outside enjoying the weather. It was seriously so great! Today was soooo beautiful! I loved it! God's creation is so beautiful:)

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

It's That Time Again!

Tonight..(this morning?) I am spending my time with the Judges. The book of Judges is a fairly interesting book. Not too long, only 21 short chapters! Just thought I'd post real quick..since I was awake anyway. I have two blankets, a pillow, a snack, and my water out in the hall with me. My goal bed time is between 4am and 5am. I might not even go into bed, just sleep in the hallway especially since I have set up camp out here and I don't have to wast time transporting my stuff back into my room in the middle of the night. We shall see if that happens! At least I am working on Old Testament homework and get to spend the entire night reading the Bible, not some boring history book or something. Mom and dad came to visit tonight. 'Twas lovely! It was so nice to see them for a little bit. They had a date night at Northwood's Inn so they stopped by since they were right around the corner from school:) Mom brought be yummy HOMEMADE peanut butter cookies!! Well, I must get back to the Judges now, they are calling my name.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Blog Hopping

One thing I often find myself doing lately is "blog hopping". I follow about 25 blogs and when I go to what is called my "dashboard" the latest post by all of them shows up. So I click on what looks interesting and then I think oh look they follow a blog called ---(fill in the blank)--- that looks cute! So I proceed to click the link to that blog. Then I find myself clicking a link from that blog to another blog and sure enough, I catch myself an hour later with 6 tabs open in my internet browser. Uhhh..I need to try to control this what could possibly turn into a very bad habit!

Caf Creations

So we are starting to get a bit creative in the caf!! My current fave (besides my new found love for tea!) is making panini's! Mmmmm! This is what I like to put in mine: First I start with a tortilla and put chipotle spread on it, I also like to put a little bit of salsa and sour cream..but not too much! Can you tell this is kind of a Mexican style wrap? Next you put onions from the sandwich bar. You then proceed to the salad bar to get a little bit of spinach, chicken if they have it, diced tomatoes, cabbage if they have it, LOTS of black beans and top it off with cheese! Fold it like a burrito and take it to the panini maker!! It must be left in the panini maker long enough for the cheese to melt and little brown lines to get on the tortilla. It's so good!
If they are serving chicken sandwiches or beef and potatoes or something somewhere in the caf we will make a salad and get the meat to cut up and put on it to change up the salad a little bit.
And on the sweeter side: This one tastes like a 50/50 bar from the ice cream man! We got vanilla ice cream and put orange juice on it. Yummmm! Another creative thing to do with the ice cream is make a root beer float! Just to mix it up a bit!
We always try to be creative and mix things up every once in a while in the caf. It's more fun that way!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

A Night Out on the Town

Yesterday Hannah and I were itching to go off campus so her sister Jessica drove up and took us to Chick-fil-a for dinner then we went to LA. We went to a little ice cream shop called Diddy Riese's! It was $1.50 for an ice cream sandwich!! You got to pick what kind of (fresh!) cookies you wanted and the flavor of ice cream you wanted. We all got chocolate chip cookies with mint ice cream:) SOOO GOOD! (mom you would love this place!) It was a lot of fun! Then we went to the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica and did a little bit of window shopping and walked around. It was really fun! Hannah and I decided that we need to get a life and get out a little more;)
Today is our RA Brittany's birthday. Last night her friends took her out to celebrate at midnight and we were enlisted to decorate her room while she was gone. We called it OPERATION: BIRTHDAY BOMB. Hannah and I put streamers EVERYWHERE, and I mean everywhere! We had balloons and wrote on her window too. We wrote her a little note to read as she walked down the hall. Hannah and I would like to say it was one of our best jobs:) It was a lot of fun too! There were streamers seriously everywhere coming from every direction. You pretty much had to crawl to get anywhere. She was so surprised and really enjoyed it! This morning when we woke up the entire mirror in the bathroom was decorated too! Man we love this girl!!! Today we are going to the beach to play games and hang out. It will be a bit chilly but it's totally worth it! :)
Oh and I've been trying to get homework done. With so much excitement in the air it's kinda hard but I'm slowly getting through it. Right now I'm making flashcards for the midterm I have this week:)

Saturday, March 26, 2011

MOCK ROCK

GREATEST. BIOLA. EVENT. EVER. No joke, this is the greatest thing! Mock Rock is kind of like a talent show with very elaborate dance routines with groups of up to 60 students. Groups start practicing two months in advance and rehearsals usually are in the middle of the night. When the event gets close performers are up all hours of the night preparing. These 10 minute routines are amazing to watch! A series of songs is remixed and students make their own props and costumes. Every act has a central theme that they choose music clips to go along with. One of the coolest things is most of the students are not dancers but look soooooo good when they perform! I was very impressed! The top 3 winners were my personal fave:) We got in line at about 4pm and doors opened at 8. The gym was jam-packed and the energy was high. It was such a cool atmosphere to be in! Seriously this is probably my favorite event and most likely always will be. Next year I plan to be in one. When we got back last night we did a mini-ballet lesson in the hall because we saw girls doing turns in some of the numbers. It was so nice to do a little bit of dancing! And we had a mini-dance party in my room(after quiet hours!!!--that's the best time to have them!) So basically, Mock Rock was the coolest thing and is one the most anticipated events of the year. I loved it so much! Hannah said I would and that it was going to probably be my favorite thing..she was right! Next year I really, really hope to dance in one!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Tea Time

Today I discovered something wonderful in the caf. Because I have been going to bed late this week and suffering from sleep deprivation, I woke up with a very sore throat. I took Vitamin C, a multi-vitamin, drank orange juice, and attempted to take some Emergen-C but almost gagged because it was so nasty. When I got lunch with my dear friend Reylena, I thought...hmmm should I get some tea? That might make me feel better. Rey loves tea and drinks it often in the caf. We proceeded to get tea together. Being completely uncultured about real tea and how to drink it, make it, and everything else that comes with it, Rey showed me everything I need to know. She said it's healthy for you and very nice to sip after a meal before you leave the caf or on a cold day waiting for the rain to die down so you can go back to your room. Reylena thought I would like Cozy Chamomile. Oh I liked it! We sat at a little table and sipped our tea while discussing tea. hehe. We called it Tea Time. I counted it as my "personal time" today even though it was spent with another person. I'm glad I got to spend it with Miss Reylena:) So my new obsession will be tea. I want a hot pot thing so I can heat water in my room and sip tea! I want to try all the flavors available. So far I have tried Earl Grey (not really a fan), Apple Cinnamon (kinda gross), and Cozy Chamomile (my current fave!). I have three more flavors to try. Oh and I like Chai tea because of Kelsey G:)

I have observations tomorrow! I will be going all day:) I'm excited!! And Mock Rock is tomorrow night! I'm can't wait!! It's pretty much the biggest event at Biola. Oh how I love this school!

2am Once Again!

Well here I am, again, sitting in the hallway at 2am. Today it's with Matthew. Matthew 16:13-20 to be exact. I am writing an Interpretation Meditation Paper for my Biblical Interpretation class. As much as I love the class, the papers kill me sometimes! So far I have 4 sentences. I must have two pages. My goal tonight is 3 or 3:30 again but we'll see if that happens. I don't have to be up super early in the morning like I did on Wednesday. So that is nice! I blog as a little brain break:) But now I feel hunger coming upon me...but I already brushed my teeth. Good thing I'm too lazy to do that again so I'm not going to eat. The last two days have been super busy for me schedule wise so I have not had time for the gym. My Thursday is a tad crazy as well and Friday is booked. So hopefully I will be able to find time next week for the gym:)

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Sleep?

Surprisingly when I have little to no sleep, I feel more awake in class. This is very strange to me. If I go to bed around 1:30 or 2 and have 5-6 hours of sleep I can barely keep my eyes open. But last night I finished Joshua at 4am:) I had class at 8am this morning so I jumped out of bed at 7:30 and got ready in 15 minutes flat. (I even made me bed!)  I love that college teaches you how to get ready fast:) After English I went back and took a short 40 minute nap before the rest of my classes for the day. Hoping to get more sleep tonight and hopefully sleeping in tomorrow! If not, well I can sleep when I retire.

Me and Joshua at 2am

Tomorrow I have my project on the book of Joshua due. It's a good book but I've just been so busy I feel like I haven't really had the time to spend on that I should/want to. I'm currently sitting in the hallway freezing my booty off trying to finish. I'm not the only one still up. There is another girl sitting at the end of the hall working too and I'm sure sure students all over campus are racing to finish. Oh joy! My goal is to be in bed by 3 or 3:30. Hoping that happens! Dad says I've been slacking on the blog posts lately..as in there hasn't been a new one everyday for a few days now. Geeeeez dad! I have an education I'm trying to earn here! I had a pretty good day. The food was so fantastic in the caf today. Just great food at lunch and dinner:) I had observations in Mrs. Wheatley's class and got to read and help kids for an hour and a half. What a great way to start my day! I went to the grocery store and grapes were on $0.99 a pound! (soooo great!) And much to my surprise, my friends Meaghan, Tabby, and Kaylie came to visit me at school today! So great to see them this afternoon:) How fantastic! Well I must finish up my worksheet on Joshua and get to bed soon because I have class in less than 6 hours! Yay!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Encouragement

Here are some encouraging words:

Habakkuk 1:5
For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.

I love this verse! My friend Hannah Quinn shared it with be about a month ago and I have had it on my desktop ever since. God has ordained everything in our lives and it is far better than anything we could ever dream up or imagine. I can't wait to see how the future unfolds! I'm so glad God loves us enough to give us the rising sun each morning and the calm white moon at night. He also cares about what is important to us and has something wonderful in store for our futures! Sometimes we don't need to be asking God what is His will for our lives and where will be end up as a career or job or where to live but simply ask Him what is the next step we need to take so we can continue to allow Him to move us toward where ever He is taking us. But, God doesn't call us to be comfortable, He calls us to be faithful. Sometimes waiting and listening can be the hardest part but He is faithful and will not leave us. He never said it would be easy, but He promises it will worth it.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Rain Rain Rain

Although the sunshine has been so lovely lately, the rain is a nice, refreshing way to mix things up. It's kinda funny because today when I was praying before lunch I meant to thank God for the rain but accidentally said sunshine because I've been praying about it for so long now! Oh it's been nice but will be here for good before we know it so I'm going to appreciate the falling rain while it's here. This weather makes me want a fire place reallllllly bad! I have not resorted to the virtual fireplace on youtube yet but may later today. All I want to do is snuggle on the couch under a blanket and watch Gilmore Girls and sip chai lattes with Kelsey. But for now I am in sweats on my bed working on homework. I guess it's not that bad and I am comfortable. I am working on homework in my room all day until dinner time. I have been listening to my Pandora (custom online radio stations) so much this month that I'm going to reach my 40 hour limit today. I mostly only listen to it when I work on homework. Does that mean I've done 40 hours of homework this month? I have four papers due this week. I'm off to keep writing!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Nasty Ice Cream

All of Alpha was so kindly woken up to a fire alarm at 9am this morning. It was a good thing it went off or I would not have gotten up at a decent hour. After almost an hour, the building was cleared and we were allowed back into our rooms. After wasting too much time, I went to brunch with friends. I went back to my room and killed more time and finally got the energy to take a shower. After my shower I was a bit more productive. I did my devotion, cleaned and vacuumed my room, did a homework assignment, and got ready. Most of us are feeling very lazy today and the weather is not helping because it is gloomy and all we want to do is lay around all day. Lenny and I decided maybe we should to go the library to get work done..so that's where we currently are. We thought maybe we should get ice cream from the vending machines in the library. So we did. I tried to get five different things and they were all out. So I ended up getting this NASTY strawberry fruit bar thing that had frostbite all over it. Lenny made me eat it. It was really hard to eat..she got a soggy drumstick. Oh man that was a mistake. The machine was really weird. It had this vacuum thing that would suck up the one you chose and then drop the ice cream through the door for you to get it. It was very odd. Because that was basically a failed attempt at a decent snack, Maddy bought something else, but first had to get change for her $5..in all quarters! haha Then we got Cheez-its and Famous Amos cookies:) can't go wrong there! Now we are both blogging and not doing our homework in the basement of the library. We will soon be getting dinner and watching a movie or Gilmore Girls I'm sure instead of doing homework. Oh joy!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Summer Camp!

This morning I woke up to no alarm and it was lovely:) I ran a few errands and came back and ate a nice lunch in the sun with girls from my floor. After lunch, we went to check out mail. I have been waiting to hear from LRCC about being a camp counselor this summer and today the letter came! So excited!!! I can't wait to serve the Lord in this unique way this summer:) Praise God for this opportunity! After getting my letter, Ruth from my floor cut my hair. It has been a great day so far. Lots of people are going home for the weekend, my roommate Hannah included, but I will be staying on campus, relaxing, soaking up the sun(and SON!), and working on my homework:) I'm very excited about it! The weather is gorgeous today!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Set Us ABLAZE

Set Us ABLAZE is the theme for Missions Conference this year. Isaiah 64:1-2 is the theme verse. For three days, classes are suspended and we get to attend main sessions, mini-seminars, meet with mission organizations, and get a taste of what different people groups all over the world are dealing with and why they need our prayer. Each student is required to attain 8 conference credits over the course of the three days and that comes from attending sessions and other parts of the conference that are offered to students. Here are some things we get to do:
Devotions: Devotions are in the mornings before the days' activities begin in our dorm lobbies led by some of the RA's.
Main Sessions: these consist of worship led by The City Harmonic (a band from Canada) and speakers. Kevin Humble(missionary in Indonesia), JFK Mansah(from Ghana), and Mike Parker(from New Zealand). The gym is PACKED for these but the energy and feeling the power of the Holy Spirit is an indescribable feeling.
Seminars: one hour long, in a classroom with a speaker from a mission organization. Super packed as well with students sitting everywhere possible and standing outside the door to hear.
Marketplace: Biola is sending out mission teams this summer all over the world and they are trying to raise money. They get to use this as a fundraiser and it's really cool to learn about what they will be doing.
MO tent: There are 100 Mission Organizations here to tell students about what they do and how they can get involved.
Global Awareness: The entire McNally Campus(junior high looking classrooms on the other end of campus) is turned into a place where students can learn about different people groups that need our prayers. You get to travel from classroom to classroom watching students put on skits that show the traumatic realities of so many people around the world today.  We learned about the homeless community, the genocide in Darfur, trafficking in China of North Koreans immigrants, poverty in Paraguay, Muslim oppression, Russian youth living in alley ways, Chinese Christians who meet in secret and are persecuted for their faith, Colombian politicians who are being taken over by communist radicals, and the people in America who deal with abortion. This was a very eye opening experience and very cool to see students so passionate about raising awareness for these people groups.
There is also a 24-hour prayer room open for students.
I have really enjoyed the conference and love the feeling on campus right now. God is working through the student body and has set us ABLAZE and is stirring up the desire to take action to help others. Not everyone is called to short-term or long-term mission trip teams, but there is so much hurting that we can help relieve right in our own community.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Uh Oh!!!

So mom told me about an adorable blog called The First Grade Parade. Tonight I went on and checked it out and seriously just spent 30 mins jumping from teacher blog to teacher blog and now follow about 6 of them. These teachers first of all have the CUTEST blogs ever!! And second of all, the cutest ideas and classrooms ever!! Oh how I can't wait to be a teacher:) When I'm a teacher, I will have to have a blog with pictures of the cute ideas I get from my mom, and other teachers. I can't wait!!!
It's 12:40am and I still have to write a paper. It's only two pages though, so it's not too bad! All the work for it is mostly done, I just have to actually write it out now. I have to be up in about 6 hours for observations! Oh how I love going to observations:) Spending time with kids and getting ideas in Mrs. Wheatley's first grade class bring such joy to my heart!
Notice how I'm blogging more? Hmmm am I avoiding working by being on Blogger now instead of Facebook? UH OH!! hehe I have a list of things I need to blog about! Dad and Grandma must be happy because they are more updated on what I'm doing lately. They are my top, unofficial followers:)

P.S. I am turning in my application for the School of Education today:) Super excited!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Lent, Rest, Pi :)

Often times as Lent approaches, people think about what they will "give up".  Last week when I was talking with someone, she gave me insight to a unique perspective she heard a professor speak on. For Lent, we should not necessarily give something up but make a sacrifice. This, for most people, comes as giving something up. The typical thing to give up is something like sweets or swearing or more recently, social networking. I like the idea of Lent and the spiritual challenge it presents to us. This year I am giving up Facebook. Since Wednesday I have had SO MUCH TIME IN MY LIFE! Well, not exactly, but definitely more than I had before. I am more productive when I sit down to do my homework:) And although I am giving up Facebook, I am also taking on something. Taking more time for myself in my day, quiet time to rest and be alone in silence, is a sacrifice for me. I love to be with people and constantly surrounded by activity. However, I am personally suffering from not taking time to rest in my life. I go to sleep too late and always put others' needs above my own. I'm worried this is making me sound selfish because I'm wanting to take more time for myself but I am still spend the majority of my time with others. My challenge for Lent is to take 30 mins a day to be alone or a quick power nap, or something that allows my body to rest for a bit. I love to be running all the time but I am going to overwork myself and exhaust myself. This is a sacrifice for me, taking time away from being with and pouring into others. And, I am loving not being on Facebook!
The Lord has spoken to me about rest a number of times since last Tuesday when I spoke to Shari about taking on this challenge of resting everyday. It has been incredible to see the ways God has spoken to me about REST.

PS--it's Pi Day! (3.14) We are making Grasshopper Pie tonight as a celebration! hehe yummy Oreo crust, mint chocolate chip ice cream, whip cream, and chocolate syrup, can't go wrong in an all girls dorm!!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Oh Numbers..

It's 10:30 on  Saturday night and I'm trying my very best to get my homework done. This upcoming week we only have two days of school and then we have Missions Conference. It's a three day event that every student is required to attend 8 hours of sessions for. It's kind of like the Torrey Conference we had last semester. So I don't have too much work due this week but I am really struggling to focus right now! I have to get through the book of Numbers by Monday. I have to read, summarize, find major themes, the main message and 3-6 applications from the book. It's only 40 chapters so it's not as long as Genesis but still long enough to make me not want to do it. I'm kind of avoiding it so that's why I decided to post this blog. I'm current;y on chapter 7. My goal is to get to chapter 15 (maybe 10 depending on how long it takes me) and then I can have some delicious popcorn. Ciara has BOMB popcorn. If you ever want to know the best kind, it's POP-SECRET. Sooooo good! Perfectly salted and just the right amount of butter. However, I'm kind of tired because today my floor went on a 3 mile hike! It was so cool. I will post pictures and details soon. Hiking is being added to my list of hobbies:) Plus we are losing an hour of sleep tonight. I'm not a fan of the losing an hour in the spring schedule but gaining an hour in the fall isn't too bad. So I'm trying very hard to get a good amount of Numbers read and summarized so I'm not hating myself tomorrow. I'm going to have that yummy popcorn soon! And I'm listening to the greatest Pandora station:) It is a bunch of film scores. Film scores are the BEST study music!!

PS-Monday is Pi Day! (3.14) so hopefully we are going to make frozen grasshopper pie! the stuff with Oreo crust and mint ice cream:) MUST GET THROUGH NUMBERS FIRST THOUGH!!

Monday, March 7, 2011

What We've Been Up To

I cannot believe it is the sixth week of the semester already! It's so cliche to say this but it has flown by! I'm still loving every minute of it! I'd like like to catch you up on some of the social activities, as well as academic activities I have been involved with so far.
Getting free t-shirts is one of the greatest things for a college student. Well getting free anything really, but free t-shirts will put a smile on anyones face. If you are ever having an event, have free t-shirts and people will be there no matter what your event is about. So far I have gotten 5 free shirts! Wahoooo! I love shirts to wear to bed and to workout in:)
At the beginning of the semester we had our Flannels and Flapjacks Alpha All Hall. So fun! We all wore flannel shirts and drew lumberjack mustaches on our faces. Right as the evening's festivities were ready to begin, the fire alarm went off and the entire building was evacuated! I thought it was hilarious. lol. After the building was cleared, we ate pancakes and Meesh, who lives on our floor, won the game "Fluffy Flapjack" (aka Chubby Bunny pancake edition). She is such a stud! And much to my surprise, during the event when I was out in the lobby, my room got T.P.ed! Thank you Ruth and Chani! We had been back less than a week and we were already engaged in war once again! (I will tell you about my other pranks later..)
For Valentine's Day we used our cupcake maker to make 6 dozen cupcakes! And two other girls from our floor had made cupcakes. We had so many cupcakes we couldn't get rid of them all! And the school ordered 2,000 pink cupcakes for the student body! So I have decided Valentine's Day is really Cupcake Day/Week:) I really like cupcakes! Making them for other people especially makes me happy:)
A few weeks ago Maddy and I took Meesh's(Maddy's roommate Melissa but we all call her Meesh) Glee posters. Maddy thinks they are ridiculous and we tease her about them so we decided to hide them in my room. For awhile she didn't know who it was and we left her a ransom note but she just got mad and threatened us. hehe. Sadly she found them in my room so I thought I'd leave her a little surprise in her room. When I took a trip to Walmart, I bought 550 pink Q-tips. I thought I'd be oh so kind and leave them in her stuff. I mean ALLLLLL her stuff. Her drawers, fridge, bed, violin case, closet, shoes, jean's pockets, EVERYWHERE! She laughed and collected them all and gave them back to me. Silly Meesh, I will just attack again! mwahahaha! She is such  a good sport:)
Last Wednesday there was a freshman event where we got FREE SHIRTS! Man they are just the best! I only went for the shirt:P
Last Thursday a big group of us went to Chipotle to get BOGO(buy one, get one FREE!) burritos! It was so much fun. We each got a partner and split the coupon so we got 50% off Chipotle! 'Twas great! We shared a nice meal in the hallway when we got back:)
Last Friday, Biola had it's FIRST EVER Women's Lacrosse game! It was so fun to be apart of the historical event and watch my friends on the team play. They did so good! This is the team's first season and they are working so hard and doing a great job!
Over the past weekend, I had TONS of homework. I spent about 6 hours in the library. Oh joy! Saturday night we went to Taco Bell for $0.88 Crunch Wrap Supremes!!! 9 girls from our floor went and got them then stopped at CVS for ice cream, Oreos, and Peanut Butter M&Ms. Are a bunch of girls or what?! We came back and shared our second meal of the week in the hallway while we ate our Crunch Wraps then watched a movie in the lobby and ate ice cream and Oreos! SOOO GOOD! Our spontaneous girl's night was so fun! Needless to say, after the way we ate this past weekend, we are hitting the gym hardcore this week and eating A LOT better.

And another bit of exciting news!! Last Friday I went in for my first day of observations at La Pluma El. for my teaching class. I have to complete 12.5 hours in a first grade classroom. I LOVED IT! I want to be a teacher so bad and can't wait until I get to be one! And today, I went and got the paper signed to officially change my major to Elementary Education! Can't wait!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Madeline Joy Rhodes aka Lenny

I have this beautiful friend named Maddy. She lives down the hall from me. I see her everyday and she always brightens up my day. She is so full of sunshine all the time. She is very encouraging, uplifting, loving, caring, understanding, and such a good listening. She offers such great advice too! Maddy really likes words. She is a Torrey (honors program) student and reads all the time. She wants to be an English teacher. Maddy likes to make up words and someday hopes to publish a "fictionary" filled with the words she makes up. She is a very knowledgeable person. She calls me Georgie and I call her Lenny. We wanted to give her the nickname Linny, short for Madeline, and then she said it reminded her of Lenny from the book Of Mice and Men. So Lenny kind of just stuck and she started calling me George because George and Lenny are good friends in the book/movie.  We like to go workout together. We pray together. We eat together sometimes. We have the same meal plan. And we're both learning military time! We even leave ransom notes for her roommate together. We have secret agent names and everything! Maddy is a PK. I like PK's:) Someday we decided we want to open a gym for senior citizens called George and Lenny's and we are going to have big yoga balls with handles so people can jump around on them without falling off(kind of like those little toys for toddlers..but bigger for adults). It will be great fun. Lenny and I go on many adventures in our life together. It is great fun! We always laugh together:) I am so blessed to have her as friend. She means so much to me. She is such a strong woman in the Lord and I'm grateful for her friendship:)