Spring Break!!

Well, Spring Break is finally here!! Actually, it's almost gone. It is Friday night and we leave on Sunday morning. This whole break has flown by!!

Spring Break started on Friday after chapel. I went over to my best friend, Laura Dillon's house for the beginning of break. On Friday night, after getting to her house, we went hiking on a nearby mountain. It had snowed the day before, so there was snow on the mountains. Unfortunately, we never got high enough on the mountain to see the ground totally covered in snow. WE did however, se patches of snow on the ground.

Saturday, Laura and I slept in until around 11:30am. After we got up, we worked on schoolwork some and started watching The Sound of Music.

On Sunday, we went to Immanuel Baptist Church, the church that Laura's dad pastors. After the evening service, the Dillons took me out to eat at Dairy Queen.

On Monday morning, Laura and I left her house around 11am and began the six hour drive to my house. We arrived at my house just in time for a delicious supper which Holly had made. I took her down to meet Chase and Cole after supper, then I took her to the library, which turned out to be a very profitable trip. She found several books for her research paper, which she's doing on Parkinson's Disease, and I found a few on the Columbine High School Massacre, which is the topic that I chose for my research paper.

On Tuesday, I took Laura over over to The Dawes Arboretum, an arboretum about ten minutes away from my house. I showed her around the arboretum for a few hours.

The next day, Wednesday, Mom, Holly, Laura, and I went to Dawes. While Mom and Holly walked, Laura and I went around Dawes, taking pictures. That evening, Laura got to visit my church, New Lexington Bible Church.

Thursday morning, Laura woke up with the stomach flu and spent most of the day in bed. As much as I regret that she was sick, it gave me some time to spend with my parents, which was something that i hadn't had a chance to do before that.

Today (Friday), we went in to Columbus and did some thrift store shopping. We found tons of good deals and I came back with plenty of new clothes for college.

Tomorrow Holly and I will be going into town to get our taxes done by Nicole, Chase & Cole's aunt (Maranda's sister). After that, she, Laura, and I will be going to Walmart to do some last minute shopping before we go back to school.

On Sunday morning, we will be leaving here around 8am, and, Lord willing, arrive in Lattimore around 4pm or so. We will get unpacked and settled in, then leave around 5:20 or so to go to church at Emmanuel. Andrew (Holly's boyfriend) will be coming with us.

As much as I love college, I am not ready to go back yet. This semester has been very busy and stressful for me as I am taking 21 credit hours, working 17 1/2 hours a week, and trying to fit in four hours of piano a week. I know, I'm crazy!! I regret taking so many credit hours, but there's no way I'd drop a class now, not so close to the end of the semester.

Well, I guess that's about it for this post. I will hopefully be posting more again soon.

My boys

I babysat my boys Friday night for the first time in about three months. Okay, okay, so there not really my boys, there my next door neighbor's, but I've known them since they were born and helped mom babysit them since the oldest was ten weeks, so it practically seems like they are. It brought back so many memories of babysitting them when they were little.

Chase, the oldest, is now six. He's in kindergarten and rides the bus to and from school everyday.

Cole, the youngest, is now three. He'll turn four in April. He's very independent and talks up a storm. He still has those big blue eyes and that adorable blonde hair. He is still going to preschool someplace in Pataskala.

We watched the movie Cars and then Chase played Tonka Search and Rescue 2 on the computer. Their parents came home as soon as we finished playing the game, so that was the end of our night.

Home Sweet Home

Well, I'm finally home for Christmas break. I've made it through my first semester of college!! There were a few times when I wondered whether or not i really would make it.

I love college life. I can't believe how fast this semester went! It seems like just yesterday I was arriving on campus, scared to death about starting my first year of college, and now I'm back home.

This semester has been very rough. Just a few weeks into the school year, the college experienced it's most serious car accident involving students. A church van carrying 13 students was on it's way back to school from visitation when it rolled over. It's only by God's grace that no one was killed or seriously injured as only three of the passengers were wearing seatbelt. Praise God for his protection!

On top of that, I've experienced some very serious asthma attacks this semester, a couple of them the worst I'd had up to that point. They had to call the squad for one of them. The paramedics came and gave me oxygen as well as administered a nebulizer treatment before it subsided. Needless to say, it was quite scary. A week or so after that one, I had another. Thankfully, we were able to get it under control without having to call the squad. I've had a few minor ones since then, but nothing real major.

I've had my share of sickness this semester. First, I got bronchitis. I had that for about two months. I got over it, then a week or so later, I got the stomach flu. Not fun! :( A few weeks after that, I got laryngitis, and just when I was starting to get over that I got a horrible cold. I'm still fighting that a little bit, but I'm almost over it.

The beginning of October, I got in a car accident on my way to work. Thankfully it was minor and my friends and I, as well as the people that I hit, were okay, but it took a few weeks to get the car repaired.

This seems to have been the year for car accidents. On top of the van accident at the beginning of the year and my car accident, there have been several other accidents as well, thankfully all minor ones. The school lost both of it's vans that the ensemble travels in due to car accidents, and a few students have wrecked their cars as well.

Enough about the bad stuuf. Let's move on to happier things. I'm in the Marjorie B. Jordan dorm this year, which, in my opinion, is the best girls' dorm on campus. I have one roommate, Christy Godfrey, who is engaged to be married. She can be crazy at times, but she's a lot of fun.

I have four best friends, two girls and two guys. The girls are Laura Dillon and Lindsey Castano, and the guys are Nathan Houck and Caleb Getty. Nathan and Lindsey are dating, as are Getty and Laura. I do feel a little left out at times, but most of the time I really don't mind being the only single person in our group. Pretty much whenever you see one of us, you'll se at least one of the others.

I enjoyed all of my classes this semester. I'm not sure I can really pick a favorite, but if I had to, it'd probably be Life of Christ. I've learned so much from this class. I thought that I knew pretty much everything about the life of Christ, but boy, was I wrong! There was a lot that I didn't know.

I think my faorite part of the semester was singing in the school's annual Messiah concerts. They were held on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. The best part of that weekend was Friday morning right before chapel, when my parents walked into the R. A. Torrey auditorium. I had no idea that they were coming, so, needles to say, I was pleasantly surprised!

The Saturday and Sunday before I left to come home, my church in North Carolina, Emmanuel Baptist Church, had their cantata, "When Jesus Came." It was so good!!

As wonderful as this semester has been, and as much as I love college, I'm so glad that Christmas break is here. It will give me a chance to rest up before starting next semester. I'm very anxious to see what God has in store for me!

4th of July

Happy 4th of July, everyone! Okay, okay, I know that it's now the fifth of July, but I was too busy packing to post anything. 

A few days ago, someone that I used to work with came in to Taco Bell. He is now in the military, along with his brother, who I also used to work with. They're both a year older than me (they're twins). He's expecting to have to go over to Iraq sometime soon, and his brother has already been. This really got me thinking about our men and women in the armed forces. If it weren't for people like them, we wouldn't be celebrating the 4th of July. We wouldn't have the freedoms that we have today. I thought of all those serving over in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially. They face danger each and every day because they love our country. 

This got me to thinking about all those who protest the war. How sad it must make all those fighting to know that they don't have the support of our country behind them. I know that people don't want the soldiers to be hurt or killed, and that;s why they want to bring them home, but wouldn't it be much better to support them and what they're doing over there? It seems to me that as much as a soldier would love to come home, he'd rather have people supporting the war. What ever happened to the patriotism that this country had during World War 2? People would have rubber drives, and metal drives, and buy war bonds, and do anything that they could to support the war and help make it safer for our soldiers. How do people support the soldiers nowadays? They protest the war. I don't know about you, but I sure don't consider that patriotism. Maybe if this country actually supported the war, our troops would be able to come home sooner.

Please don't think that I'm sitting here writing this as someone unaffected  by the war, and with no one in the military. That's not true. As well as the two friends that I mentioned, I have several cousins in the military, and I have one more leaving for boot camp this fall. There is a possibility that one of them could get sent over to Iraq and Afghanistan. So please, when you hear on the news about the war, think of all the soldiers fighting for what they believe in.

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.

Days I'll Never Forget

Well, talking about the VT tragedy in my last post got me to thinking about other days that I'll never forget. Here's a list:

September 11, 2001-Terrorist attack in NY, DC, PA

April 16, 2007-Virginia Tech tragedy

December 11, 2007-I got into a car accident

May 15, 2006-I turned sweet sixteen

May 16, 2007-I got my driver's license

December 14, 2003-Saddam Hussein was captured

April 20, 1999-Columbine Shooting

February 1, 2003-Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster

As of right now, those are pretty much the main dates. Maybe later I'll go into where I was and what I was doing at those times.

Update

Well, it's been quite a while since I've posted on here. Not much has changed really. I will be leaving this fall to attend Ambassador Baptist College in Lattimore, North Carolina. It's coming up so fast. I can't wait!

I was looking back at some of my posts, and I saw the one about the Virginia Tech tragedy. On Wednesday, it will have been one whole year. It's hard to believe. I remember getting on the internet, looking at the news headlines, and seeing: Breaking News:Shooting at Virginia Tech. I ran into the family room and turned on the tv. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. That's a day I'll never forget.