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:)

Such a Great Day!

Today was Monday of the fourth week of school. T'was a lovely Monday I must say. Allow me to describe it to you:)
I had three prospective students staying with me last night for Spring Preview Day so I woke up to three beautiful faces on my floor this morning. I absolutely LOVE hosting sleepovers as a job! I then went to chapel where the famous DBC (aka Dr. Barry Corey) spoke. He talked about running the race of life.  He then invited a Biolan athlete from the track team who has won lots of medals in various running events and asked her about how to mentally prepare for a race. He then challenged her to a race to the caf and back(just a reminder..this is all going on DURING chapel!!) It was so cool. DBC has run 2 marathons. He lost to her and it was practically a little jog around the park for her and she wasn't even breathing heavy when she was done and DBC was joking about ending early so that he could breathe! He did such a good job!! His wife and three kids were there this morning as well and I was sitting within five feet of them! I sit in the same spot every morning that I go to chapel and they were sitting pretty close. (I'm sure since DBC and I are BFF's now he told them to sit there so they could sit by me:) So chapel was great!! And the message was wonderful.
After chapel DBC was making a little video to send to a school in Missouri. We went out on the track and were in the shining sun showing off warm Southern California. After we did an opening thing saying hello to Evangel University, 3 other students and I went out by the fountain to "say goodbye" to him as he was bundled up for the snow in Missouri. We were dressed in summer clothes. Although it was 50 degrees it looked warm! hehe I got to give him a high five in the video and we did a few takes so I got about 4 high fives from him! When we were done he said thank you and shook my hand. He acted like he somewhat recognized me from our meeting last semester! And because it was Spring Preview Day there was cardboard cutout of DBC and I took a picture with it. Someday I will have a picture with him for real and it will be my profile picture on facebook! I am going to set a goal every semester for some kind of encounter with him and so far I have successfully completed 2 goals. (PS--DBC shirts went on sale today...guess who's getting one?!?!)
I then went to my room to study for a test I had at 1:30(and I totally rocked it!) and had a lovely conversation with Stephanie Sharp on the phone. Had my Monday lunch date with Hannah Quinn, Ashley Morgan, and Jessica Caird. Then went to my two afternoon classes. After I got out of class I went to the library to get some homework done and was fairly productive!
I had a wonderful dinner date with Kalli Kilmer tonight:)
Lastly I hit the gym and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I really loved my day and everything that happened to me today. I am beyond blessed and so undeserving of the love that has been lavished on me by our Heavenly Father.

Bucket List

Over Interterm Hannah and I made a bucket list for this semester. We have it up on our wall by the door so when we are bored or have spare time we can check something off our list! FYI--I rarely have time that I just sit and wonder what in the world I am going to do with myself. I've had tons of homework, work, and things going on all the time. Although life is busy I wouldn't trade it for the world. I'm very happy where I am right now and feel so blessed.

Here's our list:
1. Go to a concert
2. Make T-shirts
3. Do a scavenger hunt
4. Make dinner in the Alpha kitchen
5. Make a sandcastle at the beach (which requires a beach trip!!)
6. Make something new and different at the Caf
7. Eat something totally new
8. Create an activity to play on campus at night
9. Relax on the Sundeck
10. Go to a frozen yogurt place and try every flavor
11. Go to the zoo and take a picture with a lion, tiger, and bear
12. Have a paint balloon war
13. Create a photoshoot
14. Go swing dancing
15. Dress up fancy and go to Denny's
16. Make a music video and/or a workout video
17. Play at the park across the street
18. Take our mattresses down off our beds, put them together and have a sleepover
19. Go camping with friends somewhere!
20. Have a Gilmore Girls day with junk food, pizza, pop tarts, and take out Chinese food
21. Go Cosmic bowling
22. Play hide-and-seek in a grocery store
23. Learn how to do something new
24. Have a game night(we already did this one!)
25. Play in the mud after it rains(maybe this weekend!!)
26. Sit in a new place in Chapel(we always sit in the same spot)

Birthday!

My dear roommates are so sweet and planned a surprise for my birthday for when we returned to school with all our friends! Yesterday when I was gone for church Hannah and Ciara decorated my bed and had an evening of activities planned. We played games with our friends and went to dinner with a huge group of 15 people! Then we went to BJ's for pazookies:) SOOOO YUMMY! We ordered lots of pazookies and had fun pretending we were actually paying attention to the Super Bowl game. And we ended the night at Singspo which I missed so much and it was soooo amazing!
It was a wonderful day filled with the people I love:) I am so blessed and thankful that God has blessed me with such a loving, caring group of friends! If I had to use only one words to describe how I felt(other than MAGICAL beacause we all know that's my favorite way yo describe things..) I'd have to say I was full of pure JOY.

Here are some pictures from yesterday:

My bed. Thanks Hannah and Ciara:)

Erin, Lenny, and Ruth

The big pazookie that we ate.

We had 4 mini pazookies as well.

We devoured all the food on our table!

The whole group! So much fun! Love these girls! Yay for SOUL sistas:)

Spring Semester

I am really excited about this semester! I had a great first week and I can't wait to see what God has in store for the next few months. I'm taking 18 units and suuuuuper excited about all my classes! I love, love, love all my professors! Although I will have a lot of work, I know I'm going to learn a lot and it will be worth it.
These are my classes:
English~I have the same professor as last semester. She's super sweet and I love her motherly approach to the class.
Old Testament~This class is going to be a lot work but I am really excited to learn about the Old Testament this semester and I have a great professor.
Biblical Interpretation and Spiritual Formation~I LOVE the professor I have for this class. I am really excited about what I will be learning in this class.
Intro to Public Communications~I will have to give three speeches in this class and have a really cool and funny professor. The worst part is it's an 8am class with a 15 minutes walk. But I'm excited because I love public speaking!
Intro to Teaching~I'm taking this class to determine if the teaching major is for me. I am excited about doing observation hours and such for this class. The professor knew all our names by the time we walked out of the first class and read a book(like we were little kids!) It was so cute! :) I can't wait to see how the Lord speaks to me through this class.
Intro to Public Relations~I'm so glad I'm taking this class! I have an awesome professor who loves his job and is very educated about PR. I'm going to learn a lot in this class!

I have had a wonderful week and am loving being here back at Biola! I have tons of work and reading to do this weekend and will be reading the rest of today. I had a meeting this afternoon about all the events we will be working for Event Society and we have 22 events between now and the end of May! It is going to be a crazy, busy semester but I know God has a lot in store and I'm excited to see what He's going to do in me, my roommates, on my floor, in my classes, through chapel, and in general at Biola with all students. It's going to be an amazing semester and I feel so blessed to be here at Biola:)

With an excited and prayerful heart,
Amanda

Soaking Up the Son in the Sun

Today the sun was so warm. There was a bit of a chill in the air but when I was walking to class and wasn't walking a building that cast a shadow over my path, I could feel the warmth of the sun on my skin. When I could feel it I just wanted to stop and soak it up, but was on my way to class and didn't have time to stop. Luckily I had some time to sit by the fountain and journal and feel the sun for a good 20 minutes this afternoon. I had my journal with me and opened it and this is what I wrote:

"God, thank you for this beautiful day and the sunshine. The sunshine is a beautiful example of your love for us. It never stops burning, warms our hearts, and brightens our day. As sure as I am that the sun will rise each morning, I know that Your love will never end. God thank you for the gift of the sun and the Son."