Hiatus

This is a necessary, but sad, post for me to write. Due to my life being so busy right now (as you can tell, considering the fact that I haven't posted anything since October!), I am going to have to put this blog on hiatus. I simply don't have time for blogging right now, as much as I enjoy it. Working lots of overtime (which will hopefully end soon!) takes up most of my time, and the time that I do have is being taken up with so many other things that are more important than blogging, like spending time with my family, doing stuff at church, etc. As of right now, I do plan to eventually continue blogging once I get more time. I will let you know if that changes. For now, goodbye blog readers :(

June/July Update

I'm so sorry that it has been so long since I've updated!!! I've been kept very busy recently. I can't remember if I mentioned it at all on here, but I have been taking a Nurse's Assistant class for the past three weeks, and it's kept me crazy busy!!! They are finally over now, so hopefully I'll have a bit more time to update!

Disclaimer: I am updating this while I am sick, so if the thoughts seem more random or scatterbrained than usual, that's why!! :)

June was a pretty boring month here...not much went on, which was kind of nice as it allowed us to recover from the wedding and everything. The only major thing that I can think of that happened in June is that I started babysitting for a family with four kids. I found out about the job through a mutual friend. The kids were great, and sooo adorable!!! The oldest, Clarissa, or Claire, as everyone called her, was 8, Peyton was 4, and Titus and Timothy were 1. Yes, it was quite a handful!!! Thankfully the kids were pretty well behaved, so it wasn't as hard as it could have been.

July started out rather boring as well, but got very busy as it went on!! The first week in July was my last week babysitting due to various circumstances, which turned out to be a blessing because it allowed me to participate in things that I otherwise would not have been able to do.

The second full week in July we had Bible School at our church. That was a crazy busy week!!! I was in charge of registration, and I also helped Mom, who was in charge of refreshments. Thursday night was definitely my busiest night, as I went from helping with registration to setting up for refreshments, to teaching the missionary story to the kids, then back to setting up for refreshments, then upstairs to teach the misssionary story to the teens, back downstairs just in time to do refreshments for the kids, then rushed to set up refreshments for the teens, then tearing down and setting back up for registration! I was so glad when that night was over! We had a very good turnout of kids each night, which was a huge answer to prayer, especially considering that it was the first time that the church had done VBS. We were able to see four kids get saved as a result of it, which was amazing!

The week after VBS, I started my STNA class (State Tested Nursing Assistant). It went very well, and I learned a lot, but I was very worn out by the time it was over. The last two weeks of class were crazy. We had Monday and Tuesday off the second to last week, then started back on Wednesday and continued every day until the following Wednesday! On that Saturday and Sunday we did clinicals at a nursing home, which was definitely an interesting experience. I still have to take my state test, which is sceduled for the 25th of August, and after that I will be completely done!

That's it for June & July. Hopefully now that the class is done with I'll be able to be better about updating this blog. I'm going to try to see if I can't come up with some sort of schedule for posting so that I don't go so long without updating!! I'm off to take some medicine and a nap now to see if I can't get over this bug that I have.

The Wedding

Holly & Andrew got married on May 15. The wedding was beautiful, even though a lot of stuff went wrong. Setting up for the wedding was blast as well, considering who was all in the wedding party!! The bridesmaids were myself, Jenn Stitt, and Mandy Northcutt, and Grace Thompson was the maid of honor. The groomsmen were Ben Linville, Caleb Getty, and Daniel Brubaker, and Nathaniel Minion (Andrew's brother) was the best man. In addition to that, Christy Godfrey and Nicole Risinger (along with the rest of the Risinger clan) were there to help in various ways with the wedding.

Jenn, Holly, & Nicole with their coffee

Nate and Caleb being, well, Nate and Caleb!

Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Minion

Graduation

On May 8, I graduated from Ambassador Baptist College with an Associate's degree in Church Secretarial Studies. Below is a picture of me with the three other girls who also graduated with a Secretarial degree. Because we all had the same classes, we got to be pretty good friends.



Here is a pic of me with all my "siblings," Kristen &Amanda Stoliker (my "little sisters") Caleb Getty(my "big brother"), and Aaron Barrick (my "little brother")



Caleb also was graduating. Dad Stoliker, who was graduating as well, managed to sneak into the background of this pic.

Oh my!!

I am sooo far behind on blogging!! :( I feel bad! I have to do an update post (I'm striving to do at least one update post a month...we'll see...), my annual Fourth of July post, and at least two other posts that i have planned. So here we go...a marathon blogging session starts tomorrow

Answer to Prayer

I just had a huge answer to prayer! I have been praying and looking for a job for over a month now with no luck at all. Tonight, when Mom was looking at one of her facebook friend's friend list, she saw that one of those friends had posted as her status that she was looking for a babysitting for her four children. I sent this lady a message on Facebook, and we messaged back and forth for a little bit, and she added me as a friend and looked at our mutual friends. She then offered me the job!!! It is only two days a week, and I'll only be making $45 a week, but it is better than nothing. I start Tuesday.

Please pray that I will be able to find other work as well. While this job is definitely a huge answer to prayer and will be a big help, I still need another job. I know that since the Lord provided this job, He will also provide another job for me.

Thank you all for praying, and please continue to pray!

Update Once Again

Yes, it really is me, and I really am updating once again!! I'm on a roll here!! lol :D

It's been very busy here ever since Spring Break. Right after Spring Break was Spring Bible Conference. It was super busy, but it was totally worth it! All the messages were fabulous. There were way too many good messages to pick a favorite.

This past Saturday was Medieval Mayhem at college. This is a competition between all four leagues (Patriots, which is my league, Conquerors, Knights & Maidens, and Watchmen). We play various games such as Jump the Creek, American Eagle, relays, etc. It was a lot of fun, although by the end of the day I was completely and totally exhausted. Thankfully, my asthma pretty much stayed under control and I was able to participate in most of the games.

After Medieval Mayhem, Christy and Nate asked me to take pictures for them, so we went over to the caboose in Lattimore and I had a blast taking pictures for them. They are so cute together!!! I love photography, and it's always fun to take pictures of couples.

Sunday kicked off the Spring Revival at Emmanuel Baptist Church, my local church when I'm down here at school in NC. Evangelist Paul Crow is preaching, and all the messages have been wonderful!! I think each message has spoken to my heart. Although it's going to be super busy, it's going to be a great week. I'm helping in the Welcome Center every night except Thursday, and I'm in the nursery that night. Add to that schoolwork, and classes, as well as trying to recover from Saturday still, and it equals exhaustion, but I don't mind.

As of right now it is 23 days until graduation!! I cannot wait!! Although in some ways (okay, okay, a lot of ways) I'm going to miss being down here, at the same time I am very ready to be done with school.

Coming up right on the heels of graduation is Holly & Andrew's wedding. I'm so excited!! It's going to be a crazy week at our house, though. Nicole gets in on Sunday (She's riding back from NC with Holly). Andrew's family, as well as Christy & Caleb are getting in on Wednesday afternoon, and Jenn is coming in sometime that day as well. On Thursday, we decorate the church, and that evening Mandy will get in. Friday the Risingers get in, and, of course, the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner are that night. Saturday is the wedding, of course, so that will be a crazy day. after the wedding we're having a bunch of people over to our house for a cookout. The next morning everyone who has not yet left is leaving, and Holly and Andrew will be flying out for their honeymoon. That night, the mixed quartet from Ambassador will be at my home church (New Lexington Bible Church) and Laura and Christina who are traveling with the quartet, are staying at our house that night. John and Esther Uit de Flesch, who are also traveling with the quartet may also be staying at our house, depending on if anyone else in our church volunteers to keep them. Then, Laura and Christina will be back at our house on Wednesday and Thursday nights while they're at other churches in the area.

On top of that, one of our dogs is going to have puppies any day now, so we will have our hands full keeping track and taking care of the puppies.

It's going to be a busy few weeks, but hopefully after all that is over I'll have a chance to rest and catch up on my sleep.

As far as a job, I'm leaving that in the Lord's hands. I have submitted my resume to my dad's work, and it will be submitted to another place sometime next week by a friend who knows of a job opening. Once I graduate and the wedding is done with, I will start sending it out to more places, but right now I'm just too busy to start looking for jobs.

When I go home, I will be teaching the children's Sunday School class at my church for the summer, as well as teaching a teen girl's class one Wednesday a month. I will also be doing some secretarial work for the church to help my pastor out. He has needed a secretary for awhile, but because we're such a small church, we do not have the money to pay one. This is the thing that I' looking forward to the most, as I would love to work as a church secretary.

Well, that's about all for now. I will try to update again before the wedding sometime, but don't get your hopes up! I have a lot of projects to finish up before finals, and after finals is graduation, then the wedding, so I don't know if i will have time to update at all.

A much-needed update-part 2

Well, here's part two of my update...and yes, i have gotten more sleep since I wrote my last post, so don't worry, I'm not going to go crazy and start talking to my blog again!! :)

I already told you about my classes and the main events that have gone on this semester, but, of course, there's more to college life than just classes and events. There are struggles & trials, as well as blessings and answers to prayer. And sometimes, as I've realized this semester, the trials and blessings are the exact same thing.

This semester has been a rough semester in many ways. Emotionally, physically, and academically, there has seemed to be one trial after another. This semester has been my worst semester yet, but through everything, I've learned to depend on God for everything, even things that seem to be small and insignificant.

I can honestly say that God has become my very Best Friend this semester. When I was going through things that seemed as if they would never end, and when I was exhausted physically, mentally, or emotionally I knew that I could go to God and He would get me through. There were times this semester where I honestly felt like giving up. At the beginning of the semester, when I was going through a particularly difficult trial, I would cry myself to sleep every night because of everything that was going on. It was during that time when I realized that I needed to give it all over to God. Once I finally gave everything over to Him, everything got easier to bear because I wasn't bearing it alone. I had God beside me to carry me when I felt as if I couldn't go on.

Well, I guess this post really isn't an update on my life exactly, at least not liek I meant it to be, but this is something I've been thinking about for awhile, and just thought I'd share it on here.

A much-needed update-part 1

My poor little blog!! You've been so neglected recently!! I'm going to blame it all on Baptist History, which isn't a valid excuse considering I didn't update all that frequently when I didn't have Baptist History, but hey, it's an excuse! :)

(Tip: When you start talking to your blog, you know it's time for you to go to bed!!!)

Well, this post is titled update, so I should probably write an update!! Brilliant, aren't I?! lol

Hmm...let's see here, where shall I start? Well, I guess I'll start at the beginning of the semester, seeing as I haven't really done a major update since Christmas Break. I'll try to skip over the things that I've updated on in the small little updates I've done here and there this semester.

When I first got back to college we had opening Revival, like we always do at the beginning of each semester. This semester Dr. Comfort and Dr. Bill Hall preached. The messages were all really, really good, and I enjoyed all of them, but there wasn't any that really stuck out to me.

This semester, I have a pretty light load, but it's still difficult and stressful, mainly because of one class, Baptist History, which I told you about in Update. It's going a little better now, but I'm still struggling with it some.

Besides that class, I have Spreadsheets, Systematic Theology 2, Pauline Epistles, Office Practices, Procedures, & Equipment, and Database. I'm also taking piano lessons again this semester. Tuesdays are definitely my easiest days as I only have two classes, and I don't have a seven o'clock class, so I get to sleep in!!! Yay!!!

After Opening Revival, there wasn't really anything major until Valentine's Banquet. In case you're wondering, no, I did not go with anyone, unless you count sitting with Andrew and hanging out with him as going with someone, which I do not!!! I had fun, anyways. :)

After Valentine's Banquet, the next major thing was Family Fun Night. It took us till about 1am to finish setting up most of the big stuff, and then we were back at it again the next day after brunch. We finally finished setting everything up right before dinner, which is a good thing, considering it opened up right after dinner!!

Family Fun Night was really our last major event before break, well, besides midterms, that is. Thankfully, I only had two midterms this semester, so that was a nice break from past semesters where I'd had one in every class.

After break, there will only be about 6 more weeks left until I graduate!!!! I am super excited, although at the same time I'm a little sacred, because I have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing after I graduate. As of right now, the plan is for me to come home and look for a job, that is, after all the hustle and bustle of Holly's wedding is over!!

Ok, I'm going to close for now and finish updating later because it is way past my bedtime!!! I'll try to write part 2 tomorrow.

Update

Well, it's been awhile since I've updated, but I do have a good reason. I've been busy with school work and church stuff, so I haven't had time to get on here in awhile. Besides that, my life has been pretty boring lately.
January 18, I started the second semester of my sophomore year at Ambassador Baptist College. It started out very busy, with opening revival the first week, and classes as usual.

In contrast to last semester, I am struggling with my classes this semester. Most of them are easy, but I have Baptist History with Dr. Dalton (the hardest teacher at Ambassador), and it's been really difficult for me. I've failed my first two tests, which has really hurt my overall grade. We just started the second book, America in Crimson Red, which is easier and more interesting than the other book, Struggle for Liberty, which was written by Dr. Dalton. Please pray that I do better on the rest of the tests and quizzes in this class, as it is required for me to graduate this spring.

Graduation is less than three months away!!!! I can't believe it's coming up so fast!! I can't wait for it to get here! I have absolutely no idea what I will be doing after graduation, except, of course, for being in Holly's wedding, but it will be nice to be done with school, especially after this semester, which is proving to be a rough semester.

Well, that's about all that's been going on in my life lately. I'll try to update more frequently, but I'm not making any promises!!! :)

An Update

This past week was Missions Conference at Ambassador. It was a great week!

The speakers, Dr. John Halsey and Dr. Ron White, were both really good. All of the messages this week were really good. I can't really pick a favorite.

On Monday, Ron White spoke about being surrendered to Missions. This really convicted me because I had not been surrendered to Missions. I had always looked at it as something that other people are called to. I kept making excuses like, "I don't think I could stand being that far away from my family," "I don't think I could survive if I ad to go someplace without electricity and running water," and other such ridiculous excuses. On Monday I surrendered to being willing to go to the Mission field. I don't know if God is or will call em to missions, but if He does decide to call me,I am willing to go.

Another Update :)

Okay, so I really should be doing schoolwork, but I haven't updated my blog for awhile,s o i thought I'd do a quick little update.
I am finally over the bug that I had; I still have a little bit of a cough left, but other than that I am feeling much better.
Classes are going great right now. Midterms start on Tuesday, and, surprisingly enough, I'm really not worried about them. I'm sure that will change once it comes time to take my first midterm on Wednesday! :D
After midterms is Fall Break, which I'm super excited about!!! I'm going home for it, and bringing Andrew with me so he can visit Holly. ;) Needless to say, they're both quite excited about that! ON my first full day home, Mom and I are going shopping at the Ohio Thrift stores in Columbus for their monthly half-price day, which is the last Wednesday of every month. I'm hoping to get some fall and winter clothes for school. I was looking on my closet the other day, and most of my clothes are for spring and summer, so that will be a very helpful trip.
I'm not sure what else we'll be doing over fall break. I know that we're going out to eat one night at Clark's, a family-owned restaurant about two minutes from my house, which, unfortunately is closing soon due to the economy and lack of business. This will be my last opportunity to eat there as they are closing right after Thanksgiving. I was sad to hear that, because Clark's has been there forever, and it's kind of a landmark in a way. They have delicious food for very good prices and I always enjoy going there.
After Fall Break, I'll be back down here with only a little over four weeks until Thanksgiving. I'm very much looking forward to Thanksgiving this year, for a couple fo different reasons. The first one, and my main one, is that Holly's coming down for Thanksgiving week!!! She'll arrive on Tuesday before dinner, go to Emmanuel with Andrew and I that night for our praise service, and be here through at least Friday night, if not Saturday morning. I'm very much looking forward to having her down here as I have really missed her. My second reason for looking forward to Thanksgiving is because I will be going to the Stoliker home, affectionately referred to as the nut house because of all of us crazy college students that they adopted, for Thanksgiving dinner. Chad West, Amy Marshall, Lisa Penachio, and Caleb Getty, their other college student adoptees, will be over there as well, which guarantees that it will be crazy and tons of fun!
Well, that's about all I have time to write for now. I'll try to get a post written sometime this week and post it on here on Wednesday night when i come for visitation.
Goodbye until then!!

Update

Right now I am sitting in my hiding place at Emmanuel (I won't reveal where it is because then it wouldn't be a good hiding place anymore) and am quite sleepy, so I thought I'd do a little updating on here to keep myself awake.

There's not a whole lot going on right now. This next week is going to be quite busy as we start Missions' Conference at Emmanuel on Wednesday. On top of that, I have a test in almost every class this week. Sign Language on Tuesday, Systematic Theology and Major Prophets on Friday, and Hebrews and General Epistles either Wednesday or Friday. I'm going to be quite busy this next week!

This past week I've been quite sick. I'm not exactly sure what I have, but I think it's some type of flu bug. I've had a fever on and off since Tuesday, as well as body aches, a headache, chills, and a horrible cough. i have not been sleeping well at all because my stupid cough keep waking me up!! If I'm not better by tomorrow I am planning on going to the doctor and hopefully I can get something to get over this! I had to stay in from classes for three days straight, and I do not wnat to miss anymore classes!

Well, that's pretty much it. I'm going to go see if I can't find someplace to take a nap. I will try to update again next week, but it depends on how much schoolwork i have to do.

A Little Update

Well, it's been awhile since I posted, so I'll give y'all a little update of what's going on in my life.

On August 20, I returned to Ambassador Baptist College for my Sophomore year of school. I was excited to get back and see all of my friends again as well as being back at Emmanuel Baptist Church with my church family.

I have two roommates this year, one of whom was my roommate last year (Christy Godfrey). The other is a freshman from Brazil, Jennifer Duarte. Jennifer is an absolute sweetheart! I could not have asked for a better roommate!

The Monday after everyone returned was Skate Night for the college. A local skating rink was rented out and all of the students divided up amongst various cars and the school vans to get there. I had an absolute blast! It had been awhile since i last skated. I think the last time I had skated was skate night my freshman year. Despite that, I did pretty well. I didn't fall at all, which made me quite happy.

Throughout the rest of the week we had various other events such as the annual cookout and the get-acquainted day. On Thursday, classes started. Because I only have two classes on Tuesdays & Thursdays, it was a pretty easy day for me. Friday was a little heavier of a day for me; I had three classes. I know, I know, I have it so tough this year!! :D On Mondays and Wednesday I have four classes (one of my classes, the 7am one, only meets on Mondays and Wednesdays, which is why I have one less class on Fridays).

Saturday was league draft. Because I am the secretary/vice-president for the Patriot League, I was kept quite busy from Friday afternoon into Saturday evening, especially since for most of the time I was the only one working on our room and our booth in the gym. I was exhausted by the time League Draft started on Saturday night. To make matters worse, I had a horrible asthma attack during one of the games, and they ended up having to call the squad. Not a great way to start the semester!!

On Monday, Opening Revival started a school. Dr. Glenn Jaspers spoke in the morning chapel services, and Evangelist Dwight Smith spoke in the evening services and during Wednesday chapel. All of Brother Smith's messages spoke to my heart, but I think my favorite was the message that he preached on Thursday night, entitled "Power Outage." He spoke about how we have to surrender everything to God, and how he can't give us anything until we first empty our arms. This message really spoke to my heart because there was something, or rather someone, in my life that I was refusing to give to God; I wanted to keep it for myself. That night I surrendered it to the Lord. I can't say that it's been easy since then, that I haven't been tempted to take it back form God, but it has been easier than it was. I still am struggling with this, so your prayers in that area would be appreciated.

As much as I love opening revival, I am glad it is over. It was a very tiring and hard week for me physically but especially emotionally. These next few weeks are going to be rough, but I know that the Lord will help me through them. I am learning already this semester that I am not going to make it through unless I give everything to Him.

I am looking forward to seeing what God has in store for me this year! Some specific prayer requests that I have are: finances (I need a job), good grades, and that I can be a blessing both at church and on campus.

I will try to update again before too long!

Update/Future Plans

I'm horrible at updating this thing! I really need to get into the habit of updating more. Hmm...let's see, interesting things going on right now:

I'm leaving to go to camp at the Bill Rice Ranch tomorrow. It's going to not only be my first year there, but also my first time in 7 years not being at Wildwood. I am looking forward to going to the Ranch, though. I will be there for two weeks, as I am doing their S.T.S. program (Summer Training for Teens). the first weeks I will be in training to be a counselor. I'll be taking counseling classes, sign language classes, and bible classes. The classes are mainly in the morning, so except for attending teen chapel services, my afternoons will be free to spend as I'd like. The second week I will be a junior counselor. This is the part that I'm most looking forward to, as I have always wanted to be a counselor. Those days will be pretty busy as I also have to work in their cowboy town. On the Saturday between the two weeks, I'll be able to go into town or stay at the ranch and do as I please. I probably won't decide until that day which I'm going to do.

When I get back from the Ranch, I'll work for six days, and then I'll be having surgery to get my wisdom teeth removed. I'm not at all looking forward to that. They're impacted, so rather than simply pulling them out, they have to cut them out. Ouch! I'll be off work for four days to recover from that.

I will be leaving for college on August 15. I can't wait! As excited as I am, I'm also a bit nervous, but my excitement very much outweighs my nervousness. We'll get to the college on Thursday afternoon, and we don't start classes until a week from then. In between will be registration, orientation, get to know you activities, and other things. I think the thing that I'm looking forward to the least when I leave for college is having to say goodbye to everyone. I will definitely miss everyone greatly, but I doubt I'll get homesick. I'll still be able to call and talk to them, so it's not like I'm going to be completely cut off from everybody.

I will have to choose a church once I get down there, so please pray for me as I make that decision. Mom and Dad are taking me to one of the churches in King's Mountain that first Sunday morning that I'm down there, then  I'm going with Holly to Emmanuel that night. I think I'm going to visit Maranatha either that Wednesday or the next Sunday. After that, I want to visit Tri-City and Victory.

Well, that's pretty much everything interesting that is going on right now or that is coming up soon. I plan to update once I get back from camp and write about what I did and how it went.

Update

Well, it's been a little while since I've posted. Here's a little update.
July-We put our house up for sale around the end of July (I think.) We had it on the market for about 10 days before we got a contract on it. They have to sell their house first, but if they don't sell it then his dad is going to buy it and rent it out. That way they'll still be able to buy our house. The contract on our house comes up the end of November, so it looks like we'll be moving around the end of January, beginning of February.

August-Holly went back to Ambassador Baptist college for her sophmore year. One of her roomates is Jane Prain, a friend from camp.
I graduated from high school! I homeschooled through the summer so that I would be able to start working fukk time sooner to save up more money for college, and also so I would be done before we started preparing to move.

September-Chase turned five! I can't believe it. I rememeber sitting on the couch feeding him his bottle like it was yesterday. He's so big now!
Chase and Cole went to preschool and daycare, respectively. Chase absolutely loves it, no surprise there, and Cole absolutely hates it, no surprise there either. Poor Cole just sits there and cries when his mom leaves. I feel so sorry for the poor little guy. :(

October-We went down to North Carolina for vacation and to house hunt. The vacation was wonderful, and we were succesful in our house hunt. We found a house in Boiling Springs, a quiet little community. It's not in the area we were planning on moving to, but we all love the location.

Well, there's a little update in a nutshell. Can't promise when I'll get back on here to update this again now that I'm working full time, but I'll try my best!