Michigan Trip

My friend LeAnne, who I haven't seen since 8th grade, is visiting friends in Michigan this week and I was given the opportunity to go see her. I left Sunday afternoon and stopped in Angola, IN and went to Faith Baptist Church for the Sunday night service. I went to school last year with 2 kids from that church. Unfortunately Matt was sick, but Brandi was there and we sat next to each other and then went out for ice cream afterwards!! :) YUM! I continued on to Michigan and got to the Campbell's home around 10:00. Mr. Campbell had gone to pick LeAnne up from the airport, and they weren't home yet, so Mrs. C and I were able chat a little bit! :) Around 10:30 LeAnne and Mr. C got home and we began catching up on our lives. Finally about 12:30 we went to bed!! On Monday I woke up kinda early, about 8, I know, it really wasn't that early, but for vacation, it's early! I got up and read my devotions and did my regular morning stuff and then went downstairs and ate breakfast. After breakfast Mr. C went somewhere, I don't know where, and the 3 girls watch "A Hazard of Hearts," lets just say that it was an incredibly dumb movie, along the lines of Jane Austen! UGH! I'm not a Jane Austen lover, quite the opposite actually. While we were watching the movie a chipmunk came up to the sliding door and started to beg for Mrs. C to give him food! It was sooooo cute! Mrs. C was supposed to have a therapy session at 2:00 but for some reason her therapist called and rescheduled it for Tuesday. So, instead of therapy she decided to take LeAnne and I shopping...UGH! I HATE shopping! Anyways, she took us to Kohl's and made us shop for clothes for school. We spent 2 hours finding clothes, trying on clothes, and by the time we were done I was wiped out! We got back around 7 or 7:30 and threw our supper in the oven. Then I grabbed a book and read for about an hour until it was time to eat. Over supper we talked and goofed off. Mr. C was once again gone, he was playing golf with some buddies of his....I personally think he was just escaping from all the females that had invaded his home! :) Around 9:30 Mr. C came home, he did win the game of golf!! I guess that's good...I've never really been into golf! We watched a movie about Jacob and Joseph, which I found rather humorous because of the way that the story was protraide. It was kinda corny. I guess I fell asleep during the movie and slept for like 45 minutes....that's what shopping does to me! :) We went to bed about 12:30 and I didn't wake up until 10! It was WONDERFUL! Mrs. C had her therapy at 1:00, so Mr. C took her to that. While they were gone LeAnne and I went to Wal-Mart cuz I needed to get allergy medicine cuz my allergies started acting up, BIG time! Then we came home and went outside and took a gazillion pictures of the BEAUTIFUL flower gardens that the Campbell's have. I took almost 250 pictures before my camera card was full...I could have taken a million more! I was hoping to leave at 5. We were supposed to eat at 4, but umm, that didn't happen! We didn't eat until 5 and I didn't get outta there until almost 6! lol! We had a good meal, and then it was times for good-byes...that's always a sad thing! I finally got on the road...YAY! I stopped about 30 miles down the highway at a Dunkin Donuts and got a latte! :) That was GOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!! I went through a little bit of bad weather, but for the most part the weather wasn't too bad! :) I got home about 9:30! YAY! Overall it was a good trip and I enjoyed having a few days off to do absolutely NOTHING!! :)

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

****Flowers*****

*****LeAnne*****

*****Mr. and Mrs. C, LeAnne, and Me*****

*****Me and LeAnne*****

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......

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!!!

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.....

Just another day!

Yesterday was interesting to say the least. Classes were crazy. I had a test in World History and a quiz in New Testament Survey. Because of things I had been dealing with I hadn't been able to study as much as was needed, and even when I did study nothing would stick in my brain! UGH! I don't really even want to think about it!
After classes I talked one of the people that I was having some issues with. Some things were cleared up and taken care of! PTL!
I had voice lessons at 2:10. They went well considering that I had a really sore throat and my head and throat were full of all sorts of junk! UGH!! Bro. Randall told me that I "frown ferociously." LOL! So I've gotta work on smiling when I sing. :)
After lessons Mrs. Phillips took me to the drug store so I could get some cough drops. They are helping, along with the Vitamin C and Oregano. Bro. Randall told me that this could be allergies, I guess there is really high pollen around here right now. YAY!! :(
I was able to get a HUGE project completed last night. The nice thing is that I was done with it around 11:30, so I was asleep by 11:45. The project is for Christian Womanhood. It's really hard to explain, so I'm not even going to try, but I did learn a lot from it, and enjoyed it, even though it was VERY time consuming. I put at least 20 hours into it, probably more!

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.