So Far So Good

I've had an awesome semester so far! It's been packed full with classes (I'm taking 18 credits) and work, but I've also managed to have some fun! The classes I'm taking are, Biology II, Advanced Composition, Speech, The Education of an Exceptional Child, Teaching Science, Bible Study Methods, and Christian Womanhood. I'm back to work at LEE's and Paraklese and working around 25ish hours a week (much better than last year and 40+ hours a week).

I decided to post some pictures that I've taken so far this semester. As you'll see it's been a blast!

*****One of my roommates and I have birthdays just 3 days apart, so we went out to Cheddars to celebrate! This was the awesome cake we split!!!*****

*****Kaye Lani, my roommate Casey, and Me*****

One night a whole bunch of us crashed in the coffee shop and played Catch Phrase. The following are the result of that goofy time:

*****Ian (need I say more?)*****

*****Anthony*****

*****Silas, Me, and Kaasi*****

*****Hunter*****

*****Kaasi and Casey*****

*****"Oh come on guys! You know what it is!!"*****

*****"Aaahhhh if only I could describe it right!"*****

*****Setting the timer*****

*****Theresa, Anthony, Hunter*****

*****By the look on Kaasi's face I'm failing at describing the word!*****

*****One of my roommate's soon to be fiancee, Jon*****

This past Friday a whole bunch of us went to the park and the guys played football and the girls played frisbee and watched:

*****!!Football!!*****

*****Me and Amanda*****

*****Me and Jess*****

*****Scarlet, Amanda, and Me*****

*****Amanda and I have a tradition of taking pictures of our feet...mine have the blue nail polish, her's are polka dots*****

*****My roommate Heather and her almost fiancee Jon*****

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!

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!!! :):):)

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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!!!

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!

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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!!*****

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. :)

Roommateless

Nothing terribly exciting happened yesterday except that my roommate left for several days! She along with her best friend are attending a conference in Wisconsin. They will be getting back on Thursday. I really like having my room to my self. It's soooo nice. :)
I got back my grades on the 2 tests that I took Friday. I got a 55 on the World History test! The highest grade was a 58! It was BAD! The English test grade was an 80, which is really good for English for me. :)
Weird little side note. I think this is just a girl thing cuz girls are always worried about being fat and stuff like that. Last night I noticed that one of the girls here had a really pretty ring on. I asked her if I could try it on. She let me, and I was surprised to find that it was too big (this girl is pretty small) I asked her what size ring she wore, she's a 7. I was surprised, I wear a size 6 1/2. Guess I have long fingers (Mom always called them piano fingers) but not big fingers. :) Works for me.