Life in the Fast Lane

Ok, I know that if I put every little detail about my week down in writing it will take a LOOOOONG time! So, I will just briefly sum up each day.
Thursday I worked for Wes in the morning and in the evening I attempted to sell a vacuum! It came SOOOOO close! Seriously, I'm still trying to figure out why in the world I didn't sell one! At the end of our shows we almost always do a "phone closing" where we call some of our bosses and they will talk to us and sometimes the customer, and they can a lot of times convince the customer to buy. Ben and Krista were already really close, then I called Matt, who is the manager of the store in Valpo. He talked to Ben, and got him even more interested. After the phone call Ben all of a sudden decided he didn't want to do it! UGH!! Soooo, no sale. It's too bad cuz that would have been my first sale on my own. It was so close that Matt called me while I was on my way home asking if had done all of the paper work! Neither one of us are sure what happened! :(
Friday got really exciting! All day it had been stormy and yucky! We were, at the least, under a severe thunderstorm watch all day, and a couple of times it elevated to warnings, and tornado watches. Nothing new for Northern Indiana, it happens all the time. I was supposed to go to South Bend in the evening to do a show. Where I was going in S. Bend was about an hour away. I really didn't want to drive up there all by myself in the wacky weather. So, I talked to the people at Rainbow and they said that Damon could go with me. I was very relieved. We were supposed to meet at the office at 5 and then proceed to S. Bend. As I was leaving home dad called and said that there was a tornado in Mentone, which is about 6 or 7 miles from us! Oh well, I had a show to go on. So, I got to the office and the tornado sirens were going off when I got out of my vehicle. Creepy. Soon after we left the office I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the storm that had gone over us, it was BLACK! We didn't sell a vacuum, nor did we even show it, which is a really long story.
I went to the jail Bible study Saturday morning, but had to leave early cuz I had a show in Logansport, which is about 1 1/5 hours south of us. Damon went on this one with me as well. We did sell a vacuum which was WONDERFUL!! PTL!! Then Damon, bless his heart, drove a few miles further south and went to Kokomo and stopped at Dunkin Donuts for me!! YAY!! I got a large iced latte, with whipped cream, of course, and totally enjoyed it! ...sigh... We got back about 5:30 and I went to the Hampton Inn in Warsaw where Wes was showing the PowerPoint to a group of his friends so that they could critique it! UGH! It would have been one thing if these were all people who understood what you can and can't do in graphic design, but most of them weren't! There were only 2 people there, mom, and a recording engineer, who understood. I only got in on the last half of the presentation, which was actually a good thing, cuz if I had been there the whole time I would have been crying! By Saturday I had only gotten about 14 hours of sleep the entire week, cuz I was trying to get this project completed for Wes, and then to have people who had NO idea what they were talking about critique it, well, lets just say I was slightly frazzled!
I went into the jail on Sunday morning. It was really good. Unfortunately one guy, Michael, who is actually one of my former bus kids and neighbors was in the solitary confinement cuz he had been wrestling! I told him I was gonna smack him for doing that, but I couldn't cuz he was locked into his cell. Pray for him, he has a lot of potential. We had several people over for Sunday dinner since it was Father's Day. That was fun.
I took yesterday off. I did NOTHING when it comes to work. YAY! At 6:3o there was an open house for Rainbow, so I did go to that, but there was really no work involved there!
Today it is nice and hot and sunny!! I was outside for a loooong time, just enjoying the sun! :) I also did a little bit of mowing, which was fun cuz I haven't mowed at all this year!!

HAPPY MAY!!

HAPPY MAY EVERYBODY!!

Ok.....so I haven't posted for several days, I'm sorry, but I've been CRAZY busy, even busier than normal!!!!
On Monday it was announced that we would be having a white glove on Friday!!!! How crazy is that?! For those of you who might not know what a purpose of torturing college students! We have to clean EVERYTHING from floor to ceiling! Pulling out the furniture and cleaning behind them, dusting, vacuuming, cleaning drawers, shelves, closets, windows, and whatever else that could possibly be dirty. It's CRAZY!! We had one last semester, and my roommate and I did the cleaning together. Well, this time around I was off both Wednesday and Thursday, and my roomy worked, so I did most of the cleaning, which I didn't mind, but it was a LOT of work! Low and behold, Friday morning during chapel the rooms were gone over with a white glove and we PASSED!!! :):):)

************

Thankfully I didn't have any tests or quizzes on Friday, or I think I would have fallen to pieces, I was sooooo exhausted and stressed out!
Work was an absolute mess! I started at 1:00 instead of 1:30 because I was supposed to go to my grandparents for supper at 5:45, then there was a student recital that I wanted to go to at 7:30. I was really rushed cuz I had a WHOLE bunch to do to get everything ready for the recital. Anything and everything that could go wrong, did, or at least so it seemed. One of the bathrooms was incredibly dirty, It took extra scrubbing and was completely NASTY!! (I just looooove cleaning guys bathrooms (not))!!! UGH!! Later a bag of garbage split open all over the gym/auditorium floor, where the recital was going to be! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! What a mess! I very nearly cried! After I got that cleaned up everything started going better. I had to vacuum the auditorium and everything around it, which went well. My final task was dusting, and making sure that all finger prints were off the baby grand piano. By this time the piano had been moved to the middle of the stage and Bro. Randall and Karen, who was the pianist, and the "main attraction" of the recital were try out the sound. Just so everybody is aware, if you stick your head inside a baby grand and then the pianist hits a really loud chord, it is REALLY loud!! :-P Tucker (some of you know him) was sitting on the edge of the platform watching all of us, and he about died laughing, especially when I said "OUCH!!! that was really loud!" He said something really funny, and I remember the gist of it, but I can't remember exactly what he said, I will ask him what it was later, and then tell all of you.
After work I ran to my room, took a shower, blew my hair dry, ironed my clothes, and put on a coat of nail polish, and was at my grandparents house at 5:45!! Talk about fast!
Supper was good, we had some sort of pizza casserole, corn, bread, and applesauce, followed by lemon mariange pie (pardon my spelling, but I have NO idea how to spell that, and neither do the spell checker, or my roommate!! LOL!).
I left their house around 6:50, ran to the dorms, curled my hair, got dressed and was ready to go by a little before 7:30! I forgot to mention that I went with one of the other freshman girls, Nichole, (we had decided to go together when it was announced one day in chapel that the recital would be a good date thing cuz you wouldn't have to get a date permission slip for it, so we decided to go "on a date" together! LOL)! We decided to go the whole nine yards and REALLY dress up! By this time I was sooooooo stressed and exhausted, and instead of being sleepy, I was REALLY wound up!! Watch out world when that happens! I had Nichole laughing hysterically by the things I was doing. I would do anything and everything, which is a sure sign that I'm worn out and need sleep! We were sitting in the back of the auditorium, only a couple of people were behind us, and I had this sudden urge to put my feet up on the back of the chairs in front of us, so I told Nichole, she said, "I dare you!" So guess what I did, well you don't really have to guess, I looked all around, made sure no one was watching and I put my feet up on the chair! I only left them there for a few minutes, but still, it was funny!
Everyone who played or sang did a really good job.

*****The recital started with Bro. Randall and Karen Longhoffer playing a two piano duet of "When Morning Gilds the Sky," arranged by Faye Lopez. The final piece of the night was also a two piano duet by the two of them of "Finally Home," also arranged by Faye Lopez *****

*****Karen also played, "Fugue" (in E minor) by Bach, "Intermezzo" (in A major) by Brahms, "Impromptu" (in E flat major) by Schubert, "Clair de Lune" by Debussy, an arrangement by Faye Lopez of "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah"*****

*****Alyssa Bailey sang "Grace" which was written by Carolyn Hamlin and arranged by Faye Lopez*****

*****MY ROOMMATE, Rebekah Randall, sang "Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter of Zion," from the Messiah, which was written by Handel*****

Ricky Georges also sang, but I forgot to get a picture of him!! :( He sang "Every Valley" also from the Messiah

*****Areille Joungblood played "Moonlight Sonata" (presto agitato) by Beethoven*****

*****Heidi Longhoffer played "I Will Praise Him" arranged by Shelly Hamilton*****

It went really well, and every one did a good job! :)

*****Me and Nichole****

*****ME!!! :)*****

When I got back to my room, I realized that my phone was almost dead. Because of white glove, I had packed all of my chargers for everything in one of my backpacks that I stuck in my closet. I found all of my other chargers, except for my cell phone charger! I still don't know where it is! I cannot find it ANYWHERE! Last night was horrible, I was searching through EVERYTHING looking for it, and by this time my phone was beeping at me, telling me that my battery was dead. This was VERY bad because I needed my phone for my alarm clock. Finally I decided to go to bed.
I didn't really sleep well, and I think it was because I was trying to figure out where in the world my charger was.
This morning I once again searched through everything looking for the charger, but alas, it was not to be found. Oh well.
Some strange things happened between me and my roommate this morning. The first thing that happened was we said the exact same thing, at the exact same time, then later she started to say something and I finished her sentence for her, following that she came in to our room from breakfast and brought with her my sack lunch and said, "Here 's your sack lunch" in a funny accent that she sometimes puts on, I was doing something on my computer and wasn't really thinking about that at all, and I answered her with the same accent, which I have never used before in my life!! LOL!!! I told her that we had been roommates for WAY too long, to which she heartily agreed. It's really scary!
Bus calling went well. It was kinda drizzling, but it wasn't as bad as some days have been.
I was able to go to the Verizon store and get a phone charger. Somehow I was able to get a discount on it, so I ended up paying just under $25 including tax instead of $30 plus tax, a nice $6 or $7 discount. PTL!
My roommates bridal shower was this afternoon. It was really nice. We played a game where everyone was given an index card and instructed to write a question that Rebekah might ask soon before or after her wedding. After a few minutes of thinking and writing we gave them back to Kristen (Rebekah's best friend, and the girl who was the hostess of the party), she then mixed them up and gave them back to everybody upside down, and we were told to write the answer to our question on the back of the card. Pretty much the question and the answer were mixed up big time. Kristen then read the questions and Rebekah read the answers, it was SOOOOOO funny!!
Ok....to end my post on a weird note, Rebekah and I were just instant messaging, and we typed the same thing to each other at the same time!! YIKES!! Four times in ONE day!! Get me outta here!!!

HEAT!!

Since I have started the new blog with the main purpose of posting pictures, I will not be putting as many on this blog, but I will most definitely be posting some on here as well.
Sunday went well. Bus attendance was down, which was sad. There were only 30 some kids instead of the 50 some that usually ride. :( I'm guessing the reason for that is probably due to the weather. It was GORGEOUS!! At least the first part of the day was gorgeous, it got REALLY hot by mid-afternoon.

*****This was taken around 11:30 Sunday afternoon!*****

Bus drop offs were miserably HOT! The bus was rather warm to say the least, even with all the windows open. It did finally start to cool off once all the kids were off and we were on our way home.
There was a bit of excitement after bus route. Bro. Mike drives a limo for his boss as a second job. He was supposed to go to the city Sunday night to pick his boss up, so he brought the limo with him to church that way he could leave directly from there for NYC. He offered to take several of us for a spin!! It was SOOOO sweet! :) It was WONDERFUL! On top of everything else, it was air conditioned, something that we were all desperately needing! (By this time the temp had reached 90!) It was a blast!! :)

*****Looking from the front*****

*****Looking from the back*****

*****Total Sweetness!*****

*****Bro. Mushtaq, our maintenance man, posing with the car :)*****

So, that was the excitement of the day. :) I got all of my homework done for Monday, and then took a brief nap before it was time for choir practice. When I got into the auditorium it was HOT!! The thermostat showed 87 degrees!! Apparently the air conditioning is broken, so UGH!! Bro. Randall decided to move choir practice downstairs to the music room, which was cooler, but after putting so many people inside it got rather warm.
Church was pretty hot as well. It got really hot in the choir loft. I was glad that I didn't have to stay on the platform like the assistant pastors had to do.
After church I worked like normal. I vacuumed for over an hour, and with the temperature being soooo warm, I was rather hot and sticky by the time I was done working. I went through 3 bottles of water in 2 hours! I actually put my hair up, so you know it was hot if I did that since I NEVER pull it back in any way, shape, or form!
I was sooooo glad to come back to my room and take a cool shower before check in at 10:00.
The research paper for English Composition was due today. Mine was written on Joan of Arc.
World History was a BLAST!! We convinced Mrs. Donaghue to have class outside, because the class rooms were sooooo hot! :) There are four of us in that class, and all of us had a major case of ADD during class! I don't think we got a thing out of the class, but we all had a blast being dumb! :D It was fun!
Nothing else exciting happened in any of my classes.
I took some pictures today, but I think I will post them on my other blog.
Work was REALLY hot again! I put my hair up yet again! AMAZING!! Two days in a row!

*****This was the temperature in the auditorium this afternoon, it got even hotter later!! The class rooms were even warmer than the auditorium!*****

I came across this poem today and thought is was really good and really sobering!

His Plan for Me

When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ
And He shows me His plan for me,
The plan of my life as it might have been
Had He had His way, and I see

How I blocked Him here, and checked Him there,
And I would not yield my will --
Will there be grief in my Saviour's eyes,
Grief though He loves me still?

He would have me rich, but I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While memory runs like a hunted thing
Down the paths I cannot retrace.

Then my desolate heart will well-nigh break
With the tears that I cannot shed;
I shall cover my face with my empty hands,
I shall bow my uncrowned head. . .

Lord, of the years that are left to me,
I give them to Thy hand;
Take me and break me, mould me to
The pattern Thou hast planned.

~Martha Snell Nicholson

100th post!

This post is the 100th post that I've ever written!! I can't believe that I've written so much or that it has been so long since I started this blog!
I got 9 1/2 hours of sleep last night! It was kinda by accident that I got that much though. I went to sleep around 10:30 and was planning on getting up at 7:30 like I usually do on Saturdays. Well, I heard my first two alarms go off at 7:20 and 7:25, but apparently I slept through my 7:30 alarm! OOPS!! I didn't wake up until 8.
Bus route was interesting. It was raining and whenever that happens we usually drive the route. Well, I was dying to be outside, so I asked Margaret if she minded walking the route. She said that was fine with her, we both wanted the exercise. So we were dropped off at one end of the route. It was pouring rain! Neither one of us is sure if it was such a great idea that we wanted to walk. We both got thoroughly drenched and looked like drowned rats! LOL! It was nice to walk though. :) We both froze! When we got back to the dorms I took a REALLY hot shower!
This afternoon daddy called me and said that he found a possible car for me. :) It is a 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass, with only 45,000 miles on it! He said that it looks like it has hardly been driven at all! The only problem is that they want $2,700 for it! There is no way that I can afford that. However the guy is interested in an alarm system, so he might be willing to do a little bit of trading for the car. I'm praying that if this is what God wants that it will work out.
I have lots of homework to do. Both of my English classes have quite a bit due for Monday. There is homework for World History, plus a test, plus I am teaching in it on Friday, so I'm working on my lesson for that. I also have chapter themes due for New Testament Survey, so I have plenty to do today. I can't wait until school is done. Only a few more weeks! YAY!! :)
As you can see, I already changed my background. I liked the flip flops, but it was a little too busy for me, and after only a few days, I couldn't take it anymore!!! I decided to go with something MUCH simpler!! I think it is much easier on the eyes, or at least my eyes!! LOL

Sooooo busy!

I feel so bad that I haven't been updating very often. Time seems to fly right now, and its not slowing down, only speeding up faster and faster!!
So I guess I'll start with Thursday. Classes went well, nothing unusual or exciting happened. Since I don't have to work on Thursday's and Charlie has chapel and choir practice, Mrs. Phillips and I always take a walk. It was kinda gloomy outside, so we decided to stay nearby. It was, as it always is, so much fun to spend time with her. She is such a HUGE blessing to me.
After school she took me to Target so that I could get a bridal shower present for a bridal shower that was on Saturday. I ended up just getting a gift card cuz I couldn't get the registry to work, it was being a pain!
Thursday night I played for Communion at the church here. It went well, praise the Lord. I did have a bit of a problem with people making faces at me while I was sitting up there in between playing. LOL! I finally gave up trying to keep a straight face, it just didn't happen. :)
Friday I had tests in English Comp, World History, and English Grammar!! It was crazy! After classes I worked and after work I came back to my room and worked a little bit on my project for Intro to Missions, and after that I pretty much vegged out. :)
Bus visiting went well on Saturday. It was really windy and a little bit on the chilly side because of that. I love the feel of wind so I didn't mind it at all, but I don't think many of the others were too happy about it.
Saturday afternoon there was a surprise bridal shower for one of the ladies here on staff who is getting married in August. It was a lot of fun, and a nice break from the routine.
I got a lot of work done on my project for Intro to Missions on Saturday, and only had a little bit that had to be finished by the time I stopped working on it. :)
I had a good time on the bus on Sunday. There is a little girl named Cindy who is 5 and an absolute doll and she absolutely adores me! :) I love her to death! She always sits by me and yesterday was no exception. She is sooooo sweet!

*****Cindy*****

Sunday afternoon I finished my project!! YAY!! That was such a relief! It was a LOT of work and many, many hours worth of time spent researching and planning.
I talked to dad on the phone for a while about something very important. It was nice to do that, and get some things settled.
Normally choir practice is at 4:30 on Sunday afternoons. Well, because of the special concert we are doing for Easter it was changed to 4:00. I didn't know that until 4:05!! OOPS!!! I made it to choir by 4:15, that was the fastest that I've gotten ready in a LOOOOONNNGGGG time!
Church went well, nothing too exciting happened. After church I worked like normal. I came back to the dorms and started writing a paper that was due today. I was up until 1:00 writing it! It was crazy!
Needless to say, because of my late night last night, I'm really tired today! To add to that, it rained all day, so that didn't help my sleepiness at all! UGH!! I did find out that I got an 88% on my English Comp test, which for that class is a good grade. I think the highest grade was a 91%! The World History test grade was a 94%, I had the second highest grade on that, and the English Grammar test was an 80%, which was the highest grade received. So overall I didn't do too terribly bad. :)
After classes I came back to my room and decided to sleep! I was planning on getting up at 1, but I didn't hear my alarm go off, so I didn't get up until 2!!! I was supposed to be at work at 1:30! Yet another time for me to get ready REALLY fast!!
I am planning on getting all of the work that I need to get done for today done ASAP and am hoping to be in bed before 11 tonight.....

The rest of my week

Ok, where do I start? I guess with Thursday! Classes went well. Nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Thursday afternoon I went on an hour walk with Mrs. Phillips. It was really nice, as always, to spend time with her. I'm SOOOO glad that God put her in my life. He definitely knew I would need a Godly, older woman's influence this semester. She is SUCH a blessing to me! I love her!
Thursday night we had church. In choir we sang a really pretty arrangement of "I'll Fly Away." I've never heard that song sung in that manner, it was really light and fluffy, BEAUTIFUL! Pastor Dan Helvey from North Carolina spoke, (he also spoke in chapel). He preached a really good sermon.
Friday was an interesting day. The first two class periods were normal, then we had chapel at 9:20, instead of lasting the normal 50 minutes it lasted over 2 hours!! It went from 9:20 until 11:30!!! Pastor Cazis preached a long message, and then he opened it up for us to ask questions about some things that are going to be changing. It was crazy! The last two class periods lasted 15 minutes each! It was different.
I worked from 1:30 until 5:30. When I got back to my room I decided to take a half hour nap. I didn't hear my alarm go off! I slept until 8:00!!! OOPS! I did really need the sleep. I finished writing a paper that was due Monday and some other homework. I was asleep by 11:30 and didn't get up until 7:30! I got over 10 hours of sleep in a 24 hour time period! CRAZY!! I can't tell you when the last time was that I did that! I didn't even do that over spring break!
Today I went out and did bus visitation. It got really interesting when we had finished our route, and our ride never showed up. We were standing on a corner of a road for over 30 minutes! The town that my bus route is in is Brentwood, and lets just say that it isn't exactly the best town on Long Island! There were 4 girls, and I think we were probably the only white girls in a half mile radius! LOL! At one point while we were waiting, this SUV with 2 young black guys in it pulled up to the stop sign, rolled down their window, and yelled, "You ladies are looking LOVELY today!" The 4 of us just looked at each other, and really weren't sure what to say. Thankfully the guys kept on going. The funny thing is, the other 3 girls are from the South, and I'm from the Midwest, none of us even come close to looking like NY street girls! LOL!!