Finale

YAY!!! I have finished my freshman year of college! I can't believe that I am actually done, that I actually did it, and I'm no longer a freshman! It's crazy! OK, I'm excited! :)
Finals went well. I got an 83% on my English Grammar final, not sure yet what my overall grade on that class is, I think it will probably be a solid C, which is a VERY low grade for me, but for English it is a really nice grade!
English Composition final grade was an 87% with a 91% average grade! That's the highest grade I've ever gotten in an English class! PTL! I still have no idea what my Intro to Missions final grade was, or what the average grade of that class is, but I'm really not worried about it because it was an easy class and there really was no problem with it at all! In Christian Home I got a 100% on the final, no shock there, I would have a 100% average in that class except that I got like a 98% on one test! :( Very sad! I should still get a VERY high grade because my paper, book report, and notes all received 100%s.
I got a 95% on my Christian Womanhood final, with an average grade of 98%! :) I really enjoyed that class and learned a LOT! I know I will use the information that I learned in that class over and over and over again.
Those were all of my finals through Tuesday. Wednesday were my two hardest finals, and I stayed up until 1:30 Wednesday morning studying for them, and then got back up at 4:30! World History came first at 7:30. There were only four of us in that class, and two of them were Seniors, and both managed to get at least a B average in the class so they didn't have to take the final, lucky people. I think we all had at least a B average, which is good, but it is still a HARD class! I got a 95% on the final! How in the world that happened, I have NO idea!
My next final, and final final started at 8:55, it was in the class that I struggled with the most, New Testament Survey. All semester I have had a really hard time with the class, it was a LOT harder than Old Testament Survey was last semester. My study sheet for the final was seven pages long! I spent SO much time studying for it, and I know I bombed it BIG time! There were 100 questions on the exam, and I left 21 blank! I had a B average in the class, now I have NO idea what my average is, I only can hope that I will have at least a C so that it will transfer to Shawnee next school year! It was crazy! Nobody did well on that final, so I'm hoping that maybe there will be a grade curve!
Through all the finals I know God has been there helping me! All of the grades that I got (especially the good grades) are all because of HIM! If it weren't for Him, I know that I would have "epic failed!" PTL!
We had our final chapel yesterday, Grandpa preached. He gave his farewell address, since he will be moving on this summer.
After that we were free FOREVER, or at least for the summer, no more classes!!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
I did quite a bit of packing in the afternoon, had a voice lesson (my last one (sob)), and then left with the McMahon's for a softball game! It was a lot of fun, even though it was rather cold (because it was on the south shore, right by the ocean, so the breeze coming off the ocean was rather chilly!!) After the game we drove out to Fire Island. It was dark by then, but it was still nice, and at least I can say that I was out there! :)
At the dorm prayer meeting last night several people shared blessings from the year. It went pretty long, but it was worth it!
I was in bed before 11:00, and didn't wake up until after 7:00!! HOW WONDERFUL! I love it! I'm still in bed, I just don't feel like getting up! I have this lovely case of laziness right now! :) It's nice! :)

Catch Up!

I am so sorry for my delay in posting! I've been Sooooo busy lately! FINALS are upon us and it seems like there is no time to do anything but study! I'm all studied out right now, I can't even think about studying right now without my brain going crazy! UGH!
I did find out that I got a 83% on my English Grammar final, which is a grade that I would be very disappointed in if it were any other class, but I am VERY pleased with for E.G. :)
I only had one final today, and that was in Intro to Missions. It was EASY! In fact, afterwards, one of the guys told me that it was the easiest final he has ever taken!!!
Chapel was interesting today. I played "Be Thou My Vision" on my cello, it went well, PTL! Dr. Morgan preached, but before he did that he made a VERY important announcement, that I had been hoping would be made a LONG time ago, but for whatever reasons it had been delayed for quite a while. He announced that my grandpa as well as Bro. Randall (the music director) would be leaving at the end of the school year. I had known about both of them leaving for a VERY long time, before the end of last semester! It is SUCH a relief that it is now out, because it was getting VERY hard NOT to say anything! Just for the record: I am NOT leaving because grandpa is leaving! I had already decided to leave, and knew what college I would be transferring to before I knew that they were leaving.

FINALS TOMORROW!!!!

The dreaded days are upon us: FINALS!
Finals start tomorrow. I have two: English Composition at 7:30, and English Grammar at 8:55. PLEASE pray that they go well. I've been so sick that I really haven't had time to do much studying. I'm not too worried about English Comp, or rather I should say, I simply don't really care how that goes, but I REALLY want to get a good grade on English Grammar.
Also, please continue to pray for my health. I'm not getting any better, if anything I'm getting worse. Hopefully I will get a prescription tomorrow that my doctor at home is supposed to call in for me. I am also supposed to go on a clear liquid diet, SOOO much fun. Thankfully I was able to run to the store tonight and get some Vitamin Water, Power Aid, and Sprite, those things AND GOD will have to keep me going through exams.
My original plans were to fly to Minnesota on Tuesday (May 19) because my family was going to be vacationing there. Due to me being sick vacation plans have been cancelled, and I am flying home as soon as Wednesday (May 13) but hopefully not until Saturday (May 16). Please pray that the right decision is made there and that I get in with my doctor ASAP.

Sick!

I have been absolutely LOVING the last several days! Because I have been sick I have not gone to Brooklyn for ECBF. I have been staying in the dorms all by my lonesome, but let me tell you, it has been WONDERFUL! I LOVE silence and alone time, and I've sure gotten quite a bit of it lately! SOOO wonderful! Yesterday I woke up around 6:30 cuz there was a LOT of noise, but I didn't get up until after 8:00! I know, call me lazy if you want, but that is a VERY rare treat for me, I think the last time I did that was on Christmas break.
So, I did a whole bunch of laying around and relaxing. Believe me, I still don't feel good at all! It really stinks.
I got some homework done, and did some reading and instant messaged several people. One of whom is a friend of mine who I have mentioned before, his name is Ray and he is in the Army in Iraq. Please pray for his salvation!
I also filled out some more job applications and followed up on some other applications that I had already filled out. Please pray for my job situation for the summer, cuz it's not coming along very well. Basically, nobody is hiring pretty much because of the economy.
I went to bed pretty early and that was my day for the most part.
This morning was a repeat of yesterday, only I slept until after 7:00 and woke up cuz of noise, and then fell back asleep after everyone was gone, and didn't get up until after 8:00. SOOO nice! I got some more HW done, and did more reading, etc. I took an hour in a half nap, it was WONDERFUL! I'm such a lazy bum, but who cares? I don't!
I read "Tortured for His Faith" by Harlan Popov over the last several days. It is really good, and very eye opening. I finished that yesterday and today I started reading "God isn't in a Hurry" by Warren Wiersbe. It is very convicting, cuz I like things to happen NOW! I don't like to have patience.
P.S. Please pray for finals....they start on Friday.... :(

Clay Balls

A man was exploring caves by the Seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.

He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock . Inside was a beautiful, precious stone! Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.

Then it struck him. He had been on the beach along time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!

It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.

We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person. There is a treasure in each and every one of us.

If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.

May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in

friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them. I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I have with you. Thank you for looking beyond my clay vessel.

UGH!

UGH! I have been SICK and still am sick!! :( I've been sick since Thursday, or maybe before, I don't really remember exactly when I got sick, but it started getting really bad Saturday afternoon to evening, and has only gotten worse. It's bad enough that I went to the doctor today, and for those of you who know me, I HATE doctors, so if I went to one it means I'm sick!!!
I didn't ride on my bus route yesterday. I really wanted to go, but was too sick to think about riding on a bouncing bus for several hours. I did go to choir practice and sang in the choir. Yesterday was the 33rd anniversary Sunday of International Baptist Church, which is the church that the college I'm going to is affiliated with. Dr. Tom Wallace was here preaching all day, and I was volunteered for the job of running his book table in the morning, which was fun. :) He preached a really good message from Matthew 6:33, and I wish I could remember what all of his points were, but I had forgotten to take my notebook with me, so I was not able to write the notes. :(
Sunday school good from the few things I remember, by the time it started my brain was beginning to fog over....I was really feeling BAD!
After church I waited until my parents were out of church and then called Mom crying VERY hard! I was in a LOT of pain! I told her what was going on, and she told me to talk to Mrs. Donaghue who is the dorm supervisor. I found her, and the first thing out of her mouth was, "HANNAH!! What is wrong??!!" Apparently I looked HORRIBLE! I told her what my symptoms were and she said that it sounded like a possible UTI. So she said to go to bed and stay there. Which I did. However, I was only able to sleep for a little bit over an hour, and then I was wide awake.
I didn't go to choir, but I did slide in to church a few minutes after it started and left during the invitation.
I climbed in bed, and didn't get out again until 5:30 this morning, yes, I actually slept in for once! :-P The only reason I went to classes today was because this was the last day of class for the Monday, Wednesday, Friday classes before finals, and there was NO way that I was going to trust anyone else to write down the reviews for me. No offense, but when it is something as important as finals.....well, they are a lil important....lol
Mrs. Phillips, God bless her, took me to a convenience clinic this afternoon after classes. The doctor doesn't know what is wrong with me! :( He put me on a couple of over- the- counter meds and told me to follow up with my GI doctor when I get home. UGH! I HATE DOCTORS! Please pray that God will help me through this, as I know he will, but I need to learn to depend on Him more.
Today is the start of the East Coast Baptist Fellowship, hosted by the church, only it is at the Brooklyn location. The college is required to attend and they are busing all the college students back and forth. There is only one service tonight, and then there are morning and evening sessions both tomorrow and Wednesday. Because of my sickness, I did not go tonight, nor will I go tomorrow. I plan on sleeping in tomorrow, everybody is leaving at 7:30, so I probably won't get up until everyone is gone, and then I will just take it easy! :)

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!!!