Playing Dress Up

This week has held quite alot of fun and entertainment. Let me share it with you. It is Spirit Week at MACU because it is the beginning of our basketball season. To commemorate this auspicious occasion we designate specific costume themes for each day of the week. Monday was Useless Super Hero Day, Tuesday was Multiplicity Day, and today was Inanimate Object Day. Monday I dressed up as Knitting Woman which I must admit was pretty lame, but I still had fun walking around with a big skein of yarn and a half finished scarf.  Tuesday, the object of the day was to get as big a group as you could to dress the same.  Some of the girls and I dressed in tie-dye shirts, jeans, belts, side ponytails with tie-dye ribbons and bright blue eyeshadow.  It was quite silly and nice.  Today I was lame and wore a shirt with a tree upon it.

What I am especially excited for is tomorrow: Pirates vs. Princesses Day! Of course, I shall be a princess. I have an old prom dress that is perfect and I am ecstatic to be able to wear it.  Friday is MACU Day which we dress in school colors for. It will also be good fun.

Last evening for devos we had a MACU Top Model contest. I dressed up as Hobo Hannah and had a good ol time strutting my stuff.  All of the ladies who participated were hilarious! 

A:LSO! Tomorrow night is our costume party and a group of us are going as Bat-man characters. Can I declare how much fun I am having with all this crazy dressing up going on? I feel like I'm 10 again. And I'm totally down with it.  Well, anyways, I get to be Poison Ivy and Nicole is gonna do me up right. So maybe I'll put up some awesomesauce pictures.  Stay tuned!

Da weekend!

This weekend....I went to a farm!! Jessie, Emily, Heidi and I drove down to Murfreesboro Friday night and had dinner and made s'mores and sat by the bonfire. There was much laughter and hilarity and funny voices. We rode on a golf cart down trails in the dark. We slept late and caught toast on fire and had amazing cinnamon sugar toast and bacon. We went on another golf cart ride in the light (Jessie was scared of the bears in the dark). The golf cart almost died which would have been an interesting challenge to get it back to the farm. W weren't too far away. We made another fire and had tons of sugary goodness! Jessie and I got in a bubble bath in our bathing suits. All in all, the weekend was relaxing and nice. I love my friends.

On the downside, this weekend lacks communication with Rich. But it is ok. It will be a good thing.

This weekend also includes a great deal of singing. I sang at church this morning for the kickoff to our homecoming. I am singing tonight with my gals. A little nervous. But not too much! I am thankful for voices. I like the songmaking. :)

Breaking Fast

This morning I was blessed to spend time with my friend Alyssa! We have been friends since high school and she  has spent time in Texas, but has come home from time to time. Now I believe she is home for good and I am filled with joy by this! Earlier this week we scheduled breakfast together and I've been looking forward to it. Last night I saw her unexpectedly when I got my hair cut. She was hanging out at Starbucks, because that is what she does. It was such a nice surprise! And my friend Dorothy came by which was just even more awesome!

So this morning I get to her house and she's getting ready for the day and we decide to make orange chocolate chip muffins. As we inventoried the ingredients needed we realized that we had to go to the store. So we bopped on over to walmart so she could also acquire blank cds to make me some awesome mixes! She does that quite often, her music is rockin! As we drive to wally world I get to play on her ipod and we discuss music we have recently been into.  Then we arrive at Wal-Mart.  So we frolic through walmart and catch up on life and laugh together. Whilst on the way through the electronic section I receive a call from the police in North Carolina asking me for a statement. They are still working on the stuff at school. So that made things a little awkward and down because I had to catch Alyssa up on happenings.

Afterwards, we peace out and start making muffins and then decide to make some spiced cider. It was delicious! I've never played around with that before and it was pretty awesome that it turned out so well.  Spiced cider is one of my favorite drinks. And all you have to do is add nutmeg, cloves!, allspice, and cinnamon. You can apparently add ginger too. But it is surprisingly simple! Cloves are SO amazing! Nom.

As we are drinking our cider and waiting for the muffins, Alyssa sets up a cd for me and decides to make us omelettes with stir fry veggies in the middle. Everything was lovely. And it started raining which just made things better. We also serenaded her dog, Sparky, as Alyssa played guitar and we sang. So good!

So to wrap this blog up, I love spending time with my friends. I love enjoying music with them. I love learning about their lives and things that I have missed out on. I love being able to tell them about my life, although I am working on being more quiet and learning to observe more. I love experimenting with food with friends and laughing over silly things.

I do dislike following people awkwardly around their house because I don't know what to do with myself. And wheat/white flour together is an interesting mix for muffins. But still tasty.

I am looking forward to the challenge of being quiet and investing more in others. I'll probably forget this resolution often though.

Farewell!

Old Friends. Good Talks.

Tonight a friend, Chris, came down to be there for the students of the college. We took some time to catch up on life from the past few weeks. We've both gone through some craziness. It was quite cold outside. At least for me.  I am a wimp though.  He let me put his shoes on my bare feet. That was pretty chivalrous of him.

So we just sat and talked about experiences we have recently had. He often opens my eyes to a new facet of life that I don't live in constant awareness of.  It is challenging and yet he is always encouraging. Tonight he challenged me to be strong for the people here in whatever way I can. I am going to work on that and try to not focus on myself for once. He also gives me encouraging Scriptures. I appreciate the reminders.

Tomorrow I am going to try to be aware of people's needs and how I can invest in them in a casual way rather than getting in their face with trying to help.
I also get another chance to encourage people and be a leader. Being a leader is pretty scary business for me. I'll be praying about my heart and words. God keeps putting me in strange positions. But I think He knows what He is doing. I just need to trust and rely on Him and not myself.
I have to make a short speech at a memorial service. Aside from my ineptness and wariness about this task, I am excited for what God can say through me to encourage others.

How do we truly take the focus off of ourselves and put it onto God and the people His heart longs for?

Fire and Music

Today is calm. Much calmer than yesterday and Sunday. I went out with Corey and Nicole and Elizabeth and Matt for Chinese food of which I overindulged. Ew. Nicole, Corey and I watched 10 Things I Hate About You. Love that movie.

I then went and did Hebrew with Craig. So confusing. Right before we went to devos we realized that we had WAY more work to do than we originally thought. That was a sad moment filled with anguished cries and hand gestures. I really am learning that I work best with other people. I function so much better when I have others to bounce ideas off of and talk things out with. Hebrew is quite challenging this year. But that can wait for another day.

Devos tonight were held outside with a small fire, lots of pizza, marshmallows, soda, and hot chocolate. There was music and talking about how good God is being through all of this craziness. We heard some pretty awesome things about how God is providing for us through others. There are so many people praying for the school, all of its inhabitants, and all the people involved in this and it is so encouraging and uplifting. It makes me really evaluate how I am dealing with all of this and if I am relying on God and praying for others through this.
There was joy and love and laughter and fellowship and spinning under the stars. Lovely

Days of Crazy

I have again neglected the updates on my life. There has been a lot going down recently. I'm not quite sure how I would like to approach things and relate them to you all. Do I begin with the bad news and end on a good note? Do I start with the good and then leave you all with darkened, troubled minds? How about I end with hope?

Friday I had a chance to go Salsa dancing with my best friends, Emily and Jessie. We went to the Mambo Room in Norfolk and had a mini lesson before the dance social that lasted until midnight! I did not turn into a pumpkin. This activity was cheap and SO MUCH FUN! I wore heels, which was pretty painful. I learned a few basic steps, I'm not the most rhythmic person, but I managed. The nice thing about dancing is that the man leads. All the girl really has to do if she is not a trained professional is follow the man. I can do that alright. So I danced with a few pretty spiffy dancers and it was quite enjoyable. This establishment is pretty nice. It's not like a club and I really appreciated the atmosphere because people there just wanted to dance.

What was not as fun abut the evening was that Rich could not be there. I look forward to when he can join the dance!

Onto more craziness. Yesterday someone I knew was shot and killed at school. Another person I know is implicated in the shooting. I am not sure how to process this. I am not drowning in grief. I am simply shocked and sad and awkward and unsure. There was a chapel service today that did a great job of communicating that above all we are here to love and so we must love on both of the families and on each other.

While I am sad for the victim's family and that he is gone from us, most of me reaches out to the other student.  I can't imagine his state of mind right now. All I can do is pray comfort and peace for him. I have no clue what the facts about this situation are, but I know that my God still loves this man and that he is still welcome to forgiveness. So I ache for his heart and mind.

Out of all this I leave you with the thoughts that God cares for the filthiest of sinners. God restores us to Him. And I have a hope of seeing my brother who died in heaven. That hope is what Christ gives us. And it is pretty stinking great.