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!