PROGRESS

This afternoon my parents and I went to mom's doctor for her one week check up. The doctor was very happy with how the wound has been healing -- in fact it is about two-thirds of the way healed! Praise the Lord! I have been the primary "wound packer" (for lack of a better term) and Dr. Simon jokingly told me that once all of this ordeal is over I should take my state boards (the test that nurses take after completing nursing school). I laughed, but uh, yeah, the answer is NO! God called me to work with teens, NOT to be a nurse! :) The point remains, Mom is doing much better!

The other exciting news of the day is that dad took his level two testing for his job. And once again he passed the first time! (He has now passed both levels the first time and was told before the first one that a very low percentage pass the first time on either one of them.) The Lord has blessed him for all the hard work and studying he has been doing.

God truly protects those He loves. Dad's test was in Ft. Wayne, which is about a 45 minute drive from home. He had to at the testing center at 7:30 this morning. About 7:50 I was reading my Bible when my cell phone beeped telling me I had a text message. I grabbed my phone and saw it was an alert from a radio station, it said that a part of US 30 (the road dad would have taken) was closed due to an accident! I jumped out of bed, and ran to ask Mom if dad was ok. It turns out that he had driven through there only a few minutes before the accident -- in fact he was less than 20 miles down the road when the radio station began to cover the accident. Wow. God is good!

In other news of the day, since mom's doctor was in Goshen, of course we had to stop at the Dunkin Donuts there! Mmm....I love that place! :) And even more exciting, DAD GOT A FACEBOOK ACCOUNT! Wow...shocking, huh? :)

National Whipped Cream Day!

Let's take a break in regular programming for some very important, life altering news! Today is

NATIONAL WHIPPED CREAM DAY!

This news is extremely important to anyone. Because it is only with whipped cream that so many desserts are made complete. How could you eat a banana cream pie, or a ice cream sundae, a cappuccino, or a hot slice of apple cobbler without a nice touch of whipped cream? It would be impossible! I therefore decree that all people, both young and old, should go to the store and buy themselves a can of whipped cream and eat it...right out of the can!

Whatever in general!

My brain has been kinda blending everything together the last several days, so I'm gonna try to remember everything, but no promises!!
Yesterday I actually got out in the sun a little bit! It was sooo nice and really the first time that I had been outside all summer! I've been so busy that some things just don't work out the way that I want them to! It's kinda funny cuz here it is already nearly the end of June and I'm still REALLY white!! LOL! I also got to mow a little bit of the lawn that Samuel didn't get to on Monday. :) That was the first time I've mowed all year too!
I had a 6:30 demo in South Bend (the one that was supposed to be shown on Friday) and Damon went with me. During our drive he told me that he and Chris had decided that Damon would do some major in depth training with me over the next 2 months until I go to college, and then they would let me lose in the Louisville area, pretty much on my own. They would still keep tabs on me, and they would ship me Rainbows whenever I needed them! How cool is that?!
Today was a little on the wacky side! I had to be in Fort Wayne, which is about 45 minutes east of me to go to the dentist! My appointment was at 9:00 so I left about 7:45 and stopped at the Dunkin Donuts in Columbia City! Gotta love the iced lattes....sigh... Dentists are just royal pains, so no comments on that! I put a some gas in the van cuz I was almost out and then drove home. I got home about 11 and at 12 I met Wes at Courthouse Coffee about the PowerPoint. I got another latte, this one blended, so it was more like a slushy, and worked for about 2 hours for him. At 2 I was supposed to go with Damon on one of his shows in Middlebury, which is about an hour from Warsaw. We left about 2:30 (the show wasn't until 3:30). It took us a little bit to find the house cuz the road that it was on was SCREWY! We were going to show it to an Amish family, which I know sounds really funky, but they actually show to a lot of Amish people, AND they buy! Totally whacked! So, we get to this house and get all the stuff out and walk up to the door and the guy comes to the door and said that they called and cancelled it earlier this week! AAAAAHHHHHH!!!! The office didn't know anything about it! GRRR! Sooo, there were a couple of things that needed delivered and stuff up in that area, so we did all of those things. We were supposed to go on one of my shows in Milford at 7:30 together. The original plans were to do the show in Middlebury and then go to Milford which is about 20 minutes from Warsaw, and right on the way home from Middlebury. We still had plenty of time, but it was pointless to go all the way back to Warsaw, so we stopped at Burger King, and YAY they had free WiFi!! :) I think I killed about an hours worth of time on the internet, which made me happy!! LOL! We were on our way to our show when we decided to call the office, just to make sure that it had been confirmed. Long story short, we didn't do that show either! UGH! We went back to the office and Shayna, who is the marketing director, had the 2 of us sit down and try to set shows....we ended up managing to get her side tracked, so that we could get out of that!! LOL! Tomorrow night we are having a "phone-set party" everyone is getting together and making phone calls and setting up shows! There will be food and the theme is the 60's and 70's! We have to dress up like something from that time period....it was WAY before I was born, so I ain't got the foggiest what to wear! I was hoping to get a poodle skirt and go with the late 50's early 60's thing, but that didn't happen, so I think I might wear a denim skirt, flip flops, a bandana, and a tie-dye t-shirt (if I can find one)!

What a craaaazy week!!!

This has been one of the most INSANE weeks of my life!! I'm not even sure where to start, so I guess I'll start at the beginning:
Monday: I had to work in the morning with Wes on the PowerPoint. At times it seems like he wants miracles worked, but I love him to death, and have a hard time telling him that it won't work. I guess I will just have to try to work miracles...lol! In the afternoon I had more advanced training with Rainbow. I had a chiropractor appointment and then a dumb half hour session that is held every Monday night at the chiro's for new patients called "How to stay young for the first 100 years" it was interesting and BORING!

Tuesday: I had a demo at a chiropractors home at 11:00 on Tuesday. I was a little unsure of myself, so I had asked for somebody to go with me on the show. Rob, who is actually the guy who hired me, was assigned to go with me. What was going to happen was he was going to do the show and I was supposed to take notes and pay close attention...pretty much first hand training. We met at the office at 10:30 and got everything together before heading out about quarter til 11. We get to their house and he comes out looking very disheveled. Apparently the doc had no idea about the appointment and his wife was still in bed cuz she wasn't feeling well! Company policy is that both the husband and wife have to be present in order for us to show the machine. UGH! Soooo....we went back to the office. I had some errands to run and then there was more advanced training at 1:00. That went well then I had to work for Wes later in the day.

Wednesday: My demo from Tuesday got rescheduled for Wednesday at 11:00. So once again Rob and I hit the road on our way to the show. This time however the results were quite different. :) Both doc and Mrs. were awake and ready to let us show them the Rainbow. Rob did a great demonstration and had both of them convinced that they needed/wanted a system. However, doc had to open his office at 12:30 so he had to leave, thus we did not get a sale!! :( T'was sad....if there had been 1/2 hour more for us to demo we could have sold them one soooo easily! :( Oh well I guess... There is always training for the Rainbow at 1 that is optional to attend, so I went to that and then had a chiro appointment, and then worked for Wes. Then the day began to get REALLY exciting, let me explain:
My best friend's mom had died the beginning of December. They are missionaries to Italy and she had been buried over there. Faith had just begun her second year of college at Northland Baptist Bible College in WI when Mrs. Pieri was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She got so sick that Faith went home to be with her. Within about three months Mrs. Pieri went home to be with Jesus. Faith did not go back to school, but instead stayed home and helped her family through the hard time. Joseph, who is the Pieri's son (they have 2 children) graduated from high school this year. So the Pieri's came back this summer so Faith and Joseph could both go to Northland, and they had a memorial service on Friday.
So.... we were planning on leaving Thursday morning to drive to Antigo, WI which is where the memorial service was to be held. Well, mom came up with the idea of leaving late Wednesday night so that we could get through Chicago at a decent hour. All well and good, but I still had a LOT of work that I needed to do for Wes, and I had not even begun to pack, on top of that I was exhausted. I finally completely lost it, and just cried for a LOOOOOOONG time!! I was totally overwhelmed! Mom came into my room and held me and let me cry for a while, then she ended up doing most of my packing, cuz I couldn't even think about packing at the time! LOL! We left around 9:00 for Zion, IL which is where the hotel that mom booked for us for the night was. I convinced dad to let me drive through Chicago which was FUN!! We hit some construction, and traffic, but it really wasn't that bad! :) The hotel was really nice and since we didn't have to drive the whole way on Thursday we got to sleep in a little bit! :)
Thursday: We drove through Milwaukee and right outside of it is Menonomee Falls, which is where Falls Baptist Church is, and part of the church is Baptist College of Ministry where several kids from our church have gone to school. Right now two guys from my church are on their singing tour group this summer. They happened to actually be around the entire week, so we got to swing by and see them. :) It was nice. None of us had ever been there before, so we got a tour of the church and classrooms. We also stopped at the Wings as Eagles airplane hangar in Oshkosh, WI. Dad and Mom are going to be putting in an alarm system in August while Samuel is up there for flight camp, so dad needed to check a few things out. I think around 4:00 on Thursday we pulled into Antigo, WI which is where we spent the rest of our time. Probably around 6 or 7 the Pieri's came over and spent the entire evening with us! It was really nice to see them again (the last time we saw them was when they brought Faith to the U.S. for college 2 years ago), but it was hard without Mrs. Pieri.

Friday: The memorial service wasn't until 2:00 so we were able to sleep in, which was WONDERFUL!! Around 10:30 we left so the cleaning people could clean our room. My family ran some errands, but I stayed at the hotel working on the work for Wes. It was nice to get some things accomplished. :) Originally the plans were that we wouldn't see the Pieri's until the service, but plans changed and we ended up meeting them and some of the other family at a restaurant for lunch. It was really nice. The memorial service went really well. There were so many people who were able to give testimony to her VERY close walk with God. There was a lot of praise and glory given to God, and all in all it went really well. Friday evening Bro. Pieri's brother from Michigan stayed in the same hotel that we were in, so the Pieri's came over again and stayed until around 10:00. That was our good-byes to them...it was sad. :( However, they are supposed to be coming to IN sometime in July, so we will get to see them again!! :) :) :) YAY!Saturday: We got up earlier than the 2 days before, but it still wasn't too bad. We were packed and on the road about 8:30. No excitement on the trip home. We got back safe and sound about 6ish.

**********

*****Falls Baptist Church*****

*****Mom at Wings as Eagles*****

*****This was on the floor*****

*****Sorry this is up side down, but its cool*****

*****I'll admit it was tempting*****

*****Me and my bro******

*****Faith and Joseph Pieri*****

*****Bro. Pieri*****

*****Joseph at the funeral dinner*****

*****I was sitting on Angela's lap cuz she decided to sit in my chair!! :-*****

*****Me and Faith...best friends*****

*****Angela and Sasha, they are sisters who were adopted from the Ukraine*****

*****Chicago=traffic*****

*****This cop kinda startled me cuz I thought he was a taxi and then all of a sudden I saw THE cop!!*****

*****This truck had a really funny license plate considering one of my nicknames!!LOL!!*****

*****U.S. Cellular Field, formerly Wrigley Field, where the White Sox play...GOOOO SOX!!!*****

Running Around

Yesterday morning I decided to surprise Daddy with breakfast. :) I got up at 5:30 and cooked up a breakfast that I had pre-planned the night before. I fried a potato, and once it was done I sprinkled shredded cheese on it, scrambled eggs with cheese and diced ham, and made him toast. To drink he requested vanilla chai. After his food was all done I went back to bed, LOL! I was planning on sleeping for a little while, like maybe until 8 or 8:30, 9 at the latest. I woke up at 10:45!!! WOW!! Mom said that she had thought about waking me up, but decided to let me sleep. It was nice!
I went to Columbia City, which is a town about 15 or 20 miles from Warsaw, to search for a job. I picked up four applications, 2 from motels, and 2 from other stores. Columbia City just recently opened a Dunkin Donuts and right now their large coffee is 99 cents!! I got one of my favorite mixes: french vanilla and hazelnut! YUM!
I had a 1:30 interview with Diamond Air, a company that sells air purification systems. I was hired!! YAY!! A job! Training starts on Monday and runs through Thursday. I will be selling air purification systems. I will be making "house calls" by appointment only, so it is pretty much up to my schedule, so if I can find another job I can work two jobs! That would be WONDERFUL and a MAJOR BLESSING!! If I do well with selling the air purification systems, I should be able to make some pretty decent money with that job alone! PTL!! There is also the possibility of transferring to Louisville next school year!
Following the interview I had a chiropractor appointment. Dr. Sarah was showing me my x-rays when all of a sudden I got started seeing black spots, got really shaky, and REALLY hot (I am normally freezing)! I told Dr. Sarah that I was about to black out, so she immediately had me sit down and called to one of the girls to get some apple juice for me....however, for once they were out of juice!!! One of the office girls had Pepsi in her car, so she got me a can....I drank that, and started "reviving!!" LOL! My blood sugar had completely bottomed out. Yippee!!
So, back to my x-rays....my neck did not properly heal from when I had whip lash almost a year in a half ago, so its a MESS!! Not only do I have whip last, but also stage 1 arthritis in my neck! UGH! I also have arthritis in my hips and other joints, which I already knew! Dr. Sarah said that for an 18 year old I'm a mess, such comfort!! LOL! She is pretty sure that they will be able to correct the problems and have me doing pretty well before I go to college in August. :)
Last night I decided to make buck-eyes which are peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate! They are really good, but very time consuming! It was fun....I haven't made them in ages and since we are having a church carry-in dinner on Sunday I thought they would be something different to bring. :)
Today I did NOT get up at 5:30, nor did I sleep until 10:45! I actually woke up around 6:30, but didn't get out of bed until 8! I LOVE having the ability to sleep in! I'm NOT a morning person AT ALL!!
I went to Columbia City to drop off the applications, went to quite a few other companies, only finding one that said that they were possibly hiring. :( I went to Dunkin Donuts again, this time I just went with a plain coffee.
This afternoon I went to the GI specialist for results on my tests. Pretty much nothing turned up. So he thinks that I have a MAJOR vitamin D deficiency, as well as possibly irritable bowl. So I'm supposed to go take vitamin D and see him in a month. WOO HOO!! WHATEVER!!
Mom and I went to the Dunkin Donuts up there in Goshen cuz the small lattes are still 99 cents. I got my usual with whipped cream (of course)! It was good.
On our way home we stopped at Wal-Mart and got some groceries and vitamin D! LOL!
I'm really not feeling too well tonight, so I stayed home while my family went to church. :( Hopefully I start feeling better soon......

What I've Been Up To....

I'm SOOOOO sorry that I haven't posted in SOOOO long! I guess I have had a MAJOR case of "done-with-college-don't-feel-like-doing-a-thing" blues! All that I have felt like doing is sleeping, taking it easy, vegging out, etc...
So, to pick up from where I left off...
Last Sunday morning I went to church with a former manager and friend of mine, Nan. Her church had just recently built a new building, and she wanted me to see it. It was a good experience and I was glad that I went.
I didn't go to church Sunday night cuz I was NOT feeling well at all! :(
Monday Mom and I ran a bunch of errands, including doing some job hunting...to no avail. NO BODY is hiring at all! Please continue to pray that I will find a job. In the afternoon went up to Goshen to the GI doctor and he did a very thorough exam and scheduled me for some testing on Friday. While we were up there we also went to Sam's Club and DUNKIN DONUTS (my favorite!! :})!!!!! I like DD MUCH better than Star Bucks, or any other coffee shop. I guess I started to get into them at college cuz they are MUCH cheaper than any other coffee shop. Surprisingly, I don't like to get donuts, just coffee, my favorite being an iced latte (as Bro. Mike knows VERY well!! LOL! (fond memories....)).
I honestly don't remember what I did on Tuesday (my brain has completely blanked it out!), which probably means I rested a lot! It was Mom's 40th birthday! Last week I had ordered her a cake from Betty's Cakes, which is a little bakery here in Warsaw that makes the most AMAZING cakes in the whole world, their frosting is TO DIE FOR!! YUM! I ordered a strawberry cake wth chocolate frosting! It was rather good!! :) :)
On Wednesday I had an hour in a half interview with a photographer. I took some pictures for him and we discussed different photographic styles, etc. The job is a definite MAYBE!! Oh joy...that's what they all say.
Daddy came home from Minnesota on Thursday! It was SOOOOOOOO nice to see him! :) I also went to my church for the first time, it was nice to see everyone again.
Friday.....mom and I went garage saling and then to the hospital for blood work and an almost two hour test... Boy was that BORING!! However, I did get a WONDERFUL iced latte afterwards, so that did help.
Saturday morning we went to Flint Michigan to visit my great grandma. We kinda decided to do it last minute, but it was nice to go see her. I hadn't seen Mormor (as Samuel and I call her) since August when we went up and saw her on our way to New York. She will be 91 in July and still lives by herself, and drives!! WOW! Sunday afternoon I drove her car, and it was REALLY nice! It's a '98 Chevy Lumina with only 42,000 miles on it! Grandpa and Grandma bought it brand new, and since Grandpa died in 2000, Grandma hasn't driven it much further than the grocery store! I told her that when she finally decides to sell it that I would be VERY interested in it! She laughed and told me that my dad had already told her that he was interested in it when the time came for her to sell....guess dad n' I will have to fight it out!! LOL!
We drove home on Memorial Day. That was quite the trip! It started out fine, but when we stopped for gas and food just inside the Indiana boarder the van was accidentally locked with the keys inside! LOL! Thus we spent about half an hour attempting to break into our own vehicle!! It was rather exciting and somewhat frustrating, but as my uncle said, who knows what God was sparing us from with that delay, we may never know this side of Heaven what may have happened had we not been stopped!
Mom and Dad decided once again VERY last minute to get a hotel for just the 2 of them for last night! It was a birthday present for mom since dad missed her birthday. So Samuel and I had the run of the house last night! It was nice! We watched movies and I baked some peanut butter and chocolate bars!
Today I went to a new chiropractor. My family started going to them while I was away at college, so this was my chance to get in with them. I really like the Masterson's and think that their treatment should help my neck issues!! YAY!
My entire family had doctor appointments in Goshen today. Just routine physicals and check-ups. I had to have a physical for Shawnee for next school year. It went well, all that we're waiting on is the TB test to come back...it should be fine though.
Tonight I finished cleaning my room! I've been working on it since I've been back home. I did a MAJOR spring cleaning! I threw away SOOOOO much junk, and sent several boxes for our garage sale, whenever that is going to be....It's so nice to have a neat and clean room! :)
I will try to be more faithful with blogging. Now that I'm hopefully over the lazy hump (don't count on it though).

Home Sweet Home

The graduation ceremony went well on Friday night. :) I think there were 15 graduates, but don't hold me to that! I know it was the largest graduating class so far. I managed to make it through the ceremony fine until at the very end they had the graduates and their parents go up to the altar and pray while the ladies singing group sang "His Will" that's when I broke down and cried. I had so many friends, including my roommate graduate, and it was a bittersweet time for me.
After the ceremony we stood around and talked for a while, saying "good-bye." Then we loaded up my stuff and left International Bible College for good (or at least for good for me, and for me as a student). It was kinda hard knowing that I will never see quite a few of these people ever again.
On our way to the Phillips' we stopped at Friendly's and ate ice cream. :) That was good cuz they actually have ice cream that I am allowed to eat!! :)
After eating we then went to the Phillips' and unloaded what I would need for the night then stood around and talked for a long time. Morgan stayed over as well, so the two of us stayed up late and talked, enjoying our last few hours together.
Bro. Phillips had to go to work early, so we didn't see him at all on Saturday. Mrs. Phillips and Charlie and Nichole went soul winning, so I saw them for a little while before they left for church. Around 9:30 or so Bro. Mike came over with Seth and the four of us ran some errands, and then went to the Marina in Bay Shore (I think) and walked around the water for a while. It was fun, and kinda sad too cuz I knew that I was gonna miss them all SOOOO much!
We got back a little before 1:30 and Mrs. Phillips and the kiddos got back home soon after. We talked a lot and just spent time together as a "family."
We left around 3:00 for the airport. We got there and I got checked in, amazingly, neither one of my bags was over the 50 lb. limit! That's incredible! :) LOL! After making sure that I was all set to go, we sat down and had some more "family" time. It was really sweet, and sad, and well, I guess I miss them a LOT!
For some reason the fire alarm went off! I have no idea what the problem was because they never evacuated, but it kept going off and they had to keep silencing it for over an hour! It was still going off when I boarded my plane!
Finally the time came to say "good-bye." I cried, not as much as I thought I would, which is a good thing! It was really hard. I hope I get to go back sometime and see them again....or better yet, they can all come to Indiana (hint, hint!! :))

*****My New York Family*****

*****Left to Right: Nichole, Mrs. Phillips, Charlie, Seth, Morgan, Me, and Bro. Mike*****

I made it through security with no problems, which is a very good thing. I went to my gate, only to find that they had already started boarding!! LOL!! Thankfully I was still able to get on the plane, even though I should have boarded a LOT earlier than I actually did!! :) The plane was starting to get pretty full when I got on. I like to sit by the window near the back of the plane on the left side, I don't know why, but that is just my thing I guess. Well, there were NO window seats left when I got on, so I decided to sit in an isle seat on the same side. There was a guy sitting by the window, but nobody in between. So I sat down and then they announced that the plane would be full so every seat was going to be taken. :( The guy (I found out later his name is Neil) and I looked at each other and just rolled our eyes. We tried the "put a book in the seat, hope that nobody is going to sit there" thing, but it didn't work. I ended up moving to the middle cuz the other man that sat with us was really tall, and since I'm short, it was easier for me to sit in the middle.
Neil and I started talking. We talked the entire flight! It was cool cuz we started talking about God and the Bible. He is NOT a Christian. I had put my Bible in my computer bag which was up above the seats. :( Bad idea. He told me that he had read parts of the Bible, and so we started discussing the different writing styles, which brought me to my favorite book, Isaiah, which has two different styles of writing. He asked me to get my Bible out, which I was MORE than happy to do, and so we went through Isaiah 53 verse by verse! How cool is that??!! We then went on and talked about a BUNCH of different topics and doctrines in the Bible! It was amazing!! He gave me his email address, so hopefully we will be able to continue our discussion. I emailed him this evening. Pray for him, he is one of the types of people who is very smart, and good and very blind to his need of a Saviour.
I got off the plane with no problems, and it was sooo nice to see Mom and Samuel. Dad is in Minnesota right now for a friends wedding and some training for work, so I won't get to see him until Thursday! :(
We got out of Chicago without any problems, the traffic was clear which was nice. :) We stopped in Valpo so Mom and Samuel could get something to eat, I wasn't hungry, but I did want coffee, and Dunkin Donuts in particular. Well, unfortunately there was no Dunkin to be found. :( I had to go to Star Bucks instead. I prefer Dunkin cuz its a LOT cheaper, and more coffee for the price. I think I like the flavor of their coffee better as well. Anyways, I got an iced latte at SBs. :)
I came out of the Star Bucks to see someone talking to Mom and Samuel. I recognized her, but I couldn't remember who she was! LOL! It was my dad's cousin, Ruth, who lives in Valpo. I hadn't seen her since my graduation! We chatted for a while, then I got in the drivers seat and off we went! :)
We got home around 11:00 last night! :) HOME!!! YAY!!!
I opened my suite case and low and behold on the top of one of them there was a little note that informed me that the suite case had been randomly inspected! I could tell....it was a mess!! LOL!! It didn't bother me....I just thought it was funny!
This morning I went to church with one of my former managers. I had never been to her church, and they just built a new building, and she had been wanting me to go with her, so I went with her.
My former piano teacher really wanted to see me as well, so we went to her house for dinner. She made a Mexican dish, which I couldn't eat, but Mom had made homemade chicken noodle soup, which was something that I had been craving for a VERY long time, so we all had some of that, and then everyone else also had some of the Mexican food.
I came home and went to bed and slept this afternoon. Mom and Samuel went to church tonight, but I wasn't feeling well, so I stayed home.
I am VERY glad to FINALLY be home! It's SOOOO nice!

More Heat!! UGH!

For some reason this morning I was REALLY dragging. It took me forever to get anything done. It was rather frustrating. :(
Classes went well. Nothing exciting happened in Christian Home. It was a good thing that I had a free period after that cuz I had to finish up some things that didn't get done earlier.
Chapel was VERY good. Bro. Randall preached, he sermons are always good, but this one was especially fitting in light of Johne dying and the fact that Bro. Randall was very close to him cuz he was on music groups for several years. Bro. Randall preached from Psalm 90, "So teach us to number our days..." It wasn't a message about dying young, but rather about making sure that we use the days that we are given to serve God. At the beginning of that Psalm it talks about living threescore and ten years, and possibly fourscore years, Bro. Randall added it up and 70 years comes to 25,500 days. That is all the days that we have to live, it's not very many. His point was what are we doing with those few days that we have been given? It was a very sobering message, and I don't think there was a dry eye in the auditorium.
My Christian Womanhood class was outside today! It was wonderful cuz everything was rather warm again today. :( Once again, it was a major ADD class, but hey, we weren't dying from the heat!
Nothing new in Intro to Missions. Just the same old, same old. I didn't play any games, but I was IMing and working on other things.
Work was HOT again! Goodness! The auditorium was 86 degrees, and the administration
building was 89 degrees! It was another "hair up" day! Mark it down in history, THREE days in a row I have put my hair up in some way!! LOL!

**********

I thought I was gonna get in SOOOOOO much trouble this afternoon while I was at work. I was vacuuming in the auditorium and I had taken my shoes off, cuz I couldn't stand the heat. Dr. Grimbilas (the Dean of Students) walked through as I was vacuuming and saw me bare foot! When I saw him my heart sank, cuz I thought he was gonna chew me out for breaking dress code. :( Instead he looked at me and said, "That's the way to do it, bare feet and your hair up. Stay as cool as you possibly can!" I was relieved to say the least, and I felt more freedom to be bare foot later on cuz he said it was ok, and if anybody were to write me up, all I have to do is go to him and he will take care of it!! YAY!! :)
After work I took some pictures, which will be on A Bug's Eye View soon, probably later tonight.
My roommate, God bless her, works in a coffee shop, and I asked her to bring me a lite iced vanilla latte (lite meaning skim milk and Splenda. She did, and it sure hit the spot! I REALLY needed it after working today. Not only was it nice and cool, but it also helped to wake me up! :)

*****My Latte*****

*****The cup totally cracked me up! Eco-Friendly! Isn't it wonderful!*****

*****HAHA plastic made from plants!!*****

Easter Sunday and Easter Monday

I had a really good Easter Sunday. I didn't ride on the bus because the choir did a special concert Sunday morning and so everybody was required to be there, and we had an early choir practice at 8:15 that was also required. We sang 3 songs, "Up From the Grave," "It is Finished," and "Alive!" I liked all of them, but Alive! was my favorite. There were a lot of kids that rode the bus yesterday! I was really surprised! It was REALLY good. I don't think I mentioned this before, but on Friday the church had a teen activity and one of the guys on my bus route got saved!! That was sooooo cool!!
I was able to have Easter dinner with the Phillips' and the McMahon's. It was a lot of fun and good food!! :-P
Mrs. Phillips, Bro. Mike, and I had to be back at church by 5 for choir practice. I checked my phone and found out that a friend of mine had died about 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon!! He had been diagnosed with colon cancer 2 weeks ago, and apparently it was worse than I had thought. Please pray for the DeKruyter family as they are dealing with this sudden loss of a brother and uncle. I called him Uncle Dave, or Duncle Ave, and I know that I will miss him and his sweet spirit and the hours of music that we used to play together when he lived closer to us. His funeral will be Saturday in Illinois, where he lived. My family will be going. I think mom is going to be doing the music for the funeral cuz Uncle Dave was the pianist for his church. I know he has left a HUGE gap in his family, church, and friends lives. We will miss him! But he got to go home on Sunday, as he so wished to do, and not just any Sunday, but Easter Sunday.
It's a good thing that Mrs. Phillips was in the jeep with me cuz she gave me a hug, and I needed it REALLY REALLY bad!!
After that everything is pretty much a fog. I know I was at choir practice and church and I worked, but I don't remember any particular details.
After work I came back to my room to study for a World History test. That was fun....NOT! I was up pretty late. UGH!
Today dawned WAY to bright and early, well it wasn't exactly bright, just early, 5 am! YUCK again. I hate late nights and early mornings, they happen all the time. I guess that is just part of college life, but I still don't like it at all!
I think the World History test went ok. I had to use the process of elimination quite a bit. Oh well, at least Mrs. Donaghue brought chocolate to class with her, so that did help. :) Other than that classes went fine.
I got to sleep for almost 30 minutes between classes and work which was LOVELY!! Between the nap and a big mug of coffee I was able to make it through work just fine. :) There was no Christian school today because it is Easter Monday, I just think that they didn't want to have class, cuz the college still had classes. Since there was no mess to clean up in the school I was able to finish work early! I even did some extra things that I don't normally do and still was done 25 minutes early!! :) :) That made me VERY happy!
I just have some minor studying to do tonight and then I am going to work on the World History lesson that I am teaching on Friday....I think that will be fun! :)

Day Off!

Yesterday was my day off! I did actually end up working for an hour in the afternoon, but it was up to me when I wanted to work, so I took my time getting there!
Around 9:00 yesterday morning I went to the Barnes' house. Mrs. Barnes fixed breakfast for all of the girls who are stuck on campus during spring break! She made omelets and Miss Walker made chocolate chip pancakes! It was really good and a LOT of fun! Too much food though.
After that I decided to walk down to "The Village." It is in Stony Brook and is very similar to the Village at Winona for those of you who have been to my house. Its a quaint little shopping center with all sorts of touristy shops. I went cuz I was hoping to find a birthday present for my aunt, but I didn't find anything. :( My roommate works at a coffee shop there, so I stopped by to say "hey"and to get a vanilla latte. It was good.
I took my camera along because I wanted to get pictures of the bay and also of the duck pond.

*****Duck Pond*****

However as I was getting ready to take pictures I noticed that I had left my camera card in my card reader! :( How sad! So I got a few pictures on my phone, but they were not as good as if they had been on my camera. :`(( It really was too bad because it was a BEAUTIFUL day.
After I came back from my walk I decided to eat something take a nap and then work.
Shampooing.....again. This time I had to do the downstairs of the girls dorm which is mainly the laundry room and a lounge area. Once again the shampooer tripped a breaker! It's a good thing Bro. Mushtaq had given me his key on Wednesday cuz he was gone yesterday. So back into the pool area I went. I decided that instead of flipping off all the breakers and turning them all back on again I would try to not have to turn off the power to the entire girls dorm. So I started with just a few and would run back and forth checking to see if I had turned off the right breakers. I ended up turning them all off cuz it was in the last set of breakers that I found the right one for those outlets!! Good grief!

*****The pool room*****

After work I came back to my grandparents and worked on schoolwork. I got quite a bit done two of my projects, which is a good thing. :)
At 5:00 I went with one of the staff ladies to CVS. I was in a desperate situation, I had used up all of my contact solution Tuesday night. I thought that I had another bottle in my room, but after searching high and low I found that I was completely out! Thankfully Mrs. Leeds needed to go to CVS anyways, so I was able to go along with her.
My roommate came over at 6:30 and we watched "Charades" and "The Trouble with Harry." "Charades" was hilarious and very suspenseful. "The Trouble with Harry" was hilarious and completely dumb and pointless. It had a LOT of great one-liners in it!

Recording

Friday was one of the most interesting days of my life! I don't ever remember having a day quite like it before! WOW!!
My day started, well I guess dark and early, 3:50 am. I got up and did a condensed version of my morning routine, and was outside waiting for the van by 4:50. Everybody got into the vans and cars with no problem, and we were pulling out of the driveway by 5:10.
Our caravan of 2 15 passenger vans and 3 cars hit the highway with no problem. I was in a van that was driven by my roommate, the other van was driven by one of the college guys, two of the cars were driven by college guys, and Brother Randall was in the other car. We even managed to make it a good ways down the road without anything going wrong. I'm not quite sure where, but around the time we were really starting to get into the city we turned onto another highway and the other van didn't turn with us. AAAAAHHHHHH!!!! It was very interesting. Bro. Randall was frantically trying to get a hold of the van and to figure out how to tell them to meet up with us. Meanwhile, our shortened caravan was continuing on to the Brooklyn Bridge. During a series of twists and turns to get onto the the bridge we lost one of the cars. Thankfully the guy who was driving it knows his way around the city, so there was no worries about him. Our INCREDIBLY shortened caravan continued on the B.B. and then straight through the heart of Manhattan and out the other end through the Holland Tunnel. Somewhere soon after the tunnel the van caught up with us.
Now we were in New Jersey, and it was time for a Dunkin Donuts stop. :) woo hoo!! The college bought donuts for all of us, but if we wanted a drink we had to buy our own. Of course I wanted a drink, so I got a coolatte, that along with a Boston Creme donut made a LOVELY breakfast. :)
We got to Marty's (our engineer) around 9:15. The car that we had lost in Manhattan had already arrived. Amazingly everybody got there, and all in one piece!
The plans were for the choir to record 4 songs. The sopranos and tenors got to record first, it was umm, well, fun I guess. The sopranos were in one room, and the tenors were in a room adjacent to us. Everybody had their own set of headphones through which we heard the music that we sang to, a metronome, what the tenors were singing, and also a microphone that Bro. Randall and Marty talked to us through. After ironing out some wrinkles we were finally able to start recording.
Our first song was "Marching to Zion." It took us an hour in a half to record it! By the time we were done I was exhausted. Thankfully we got a short break while the altos and bases were recording.
While they were recording I took a short walk over a small creek and through some woods to a river. I don't know what the name of it is, but it was very pretty and I was able to take pictures.
All too soon the altos and tenors were done. They had not only recorded "Marching to Zion" but also "Benediction." We were able to record "Benediction" and then it was time for a lunch break. :) We ate pizza. It was good! :)
After an hour break we recorded "O Worship the King" and "God So Loved the World." By this time I think it was after four o'clock. I was really tired. The altos and bases recorded the last two songs and then my roommate had to record for the solo part that she had in "O Worship the King." We left PA a little after 6.
Going back to NY there were only 2 vans cuz the college students that drove their cars were going straight from the recording to home for spring break and Bro. Randall stayed in PA overnight so he could work at the studio on Saturday.
We ate a supper of sandwiches, chips, cookies, and pears in the van.
Our van was supposed to stop just outside of Queens to meet one of the girls' moms so that she could go home for break. Let's just say that it was quite the experience. What should have taken about 5 or 10 minutes took almost an extra 2 hours! It was crazy. Without going into it, let's just say that it got a little scary. During this time, somebody remembered that it was Friday the 13th. That explained a LOT!
We finally got back to campus about 12:15! I ran into my room and grabbed a few things that I would need and then my roommate drove me down to my grandparents house, where I am house/dog sitting for spring break cuz my grandparents are on vacation.
It was about 12:30, and by this time I was wide awake with a major case of insomnia! It was crazy. I thought about trying to sleep, but I knew there was no use. I was supposed to bake a dessert for my Sunday School class, so I decided to bake it right then. I also did quite a few extra things. I finally was able to fall asleep around 3!
Thankfully I didn't have to get up until 8:30 Saturday morning. :)

I hope classes went well yesterday. I had 2 quizzes and a test yesterday. With the revival meetings and work I really haven't had much time to study. I'm not very confident in my grades. :(
Thankfully I didn't have to work yesterday! It made me so happy. I had my first voice lesson. :) I have wanted to take lessons since I was in high school, and now FINALLY my dream is coming true! YAY!!
I got a box in the mail yesterday from mom! It was the first box that I've gotten all semester. :) Actually, it is the only "real" mail that I've gotten so far this semester. I haven't gotten any letters or anything like that. :( ...sigh...
I was able to run a few errands and get some groceries. I got FRUIT!! YUM! I haven't had a Star Bucks in weeks, I think the last time was right before I left for Christmas break. The grocery store that I went to has a Star Bucks in it! It was so good, but I had a major sugar low during church last night...not a good thing.
Last night was the final night of revival meetings. Pastor Joe Vassack was our speaker, he pastors a church in Connecticut. The title of his sermon was "Before the Lord." A point that really stuck out to me is that I can be right in the middle of God's work, but yet leave God out of it. It was a really sobering thought.