*catches breath*

Hello All! (Basically just Anna and my Mom. Haha).

I'm at work, and for once I don't need to be working on homework! I only have a couple assignments left. I turned in a big psychology project today (20 pages total! It's probably one of the longest projects/papers I've ever done.) All I have left is my capstone Christian Ministry paper for Evangelism and Discipleship. I'm going to start working on it tonight and work on it a little bit at a time and hopefully have it knocked out by the weekend. Then I'm DONE with school. The last day of official classes is on Friday, and then a week of finals. I'm pretty sure I won't have to take any finals, so that means i'm pretty much done after Friday. That is such a relief! Then I can start getting excited about Australia. My plans for next week include packing and doing a thorough deep clean of the apartment. My family is coming in that week, and I've been so busy I haven't been able to clean as much as is probably necessary. It was all I could do to make sure I was keeping things tidied up. So I'm going to go all out and spend a day cleaning. Wipe down the fans, blinds, dust everything, move furniture and vacuum, and start organizing some of my school crap. Regardless of where we end up, I'm going to have to move fairly soon, so the more I can organize and clean now the less I'll have to to later (hopefully).

Today in Chapel I won the "Outstanding Student" of the Bible department, along with my good friend Katie. It was kind of a fun time to be recognized. Someone other than myself realized how hard I've been working these last couple of years! I had a lot of friends who also won Awards. Laura was recognized as Student Teacher of the Year for her certification level, Abe was recognized as outstanding student of the Engineering department, Kelley was recognized as outstanding Senior Woman award... And most of my friends were put in Who's Who Among American Colleges. So it was pretty cool that so many of us were good students. I knew we were all smarty pants! Haha.

I am getting excited for my family to come in. I am hoping my family will at least be able to meet Anna's family, even if it's just for a few minutes. I mean, our moms are facebook friends so they should meet in real life, don't you think? I'm thinking that Brad and I should go back up to the farm sometime. It was a lot of fun last time we were up there for Anna and Jeremy's wedding. It's pleasant up there.

In other news, Brad is going to be Best Man in our friend's (Jon Martin and Jessie Swingle) wedding. They haven't set a date yet, but i'm guessing sometime next spring. I'm also guessing they'll get married in Virginia Beach, so depending on where life puts us, we know we'll be going up there sometime in the spring! Haha. I'm pretty excited for them. They've been dating for a long time (their freshman year), so it's going to be so fun to watch them get married. :)

Anyway, I should get back to work.

I'm UPDATING

I thought I would post a quick update before I go to class. I probably should be working on other things but the truth is I'm tired and don't want to. I've been really busy lately trying to get projects, assignments, and tests done. I've also been putting a lot of time in for the play. The show opens on Thursday night. I'm performing the Friday and Sunday shows, and I'm extremely excited about it. It's going to be awesome, even if some people in administration are not being cooperative. Apparently some of them think the play is too "controversial" and aren't too excited about us actually doing it. Granted, the show has a lot of hefty themes in it, but it isn't a bad show. If they're willing to let YAC play "The Bourne Ultimatum" to the student body, there is no reason we can't do this show. And Security is being totally ridiculous about some stuff. Overall, though, the show is still going to be awesome and people should come see it! It's going to be outside, so i'm interested to see how that turns out. I'm sure it's going to be fine, but it's still a little more nerve wracking than if it had been on a real stage.

Graduation is in 26 days. That's so exciting in a lot of different ways, but it's also incredibly scary. Do you know how much I need to get done between now and then?! I think once the play is over I'm going to be so much more calm about things. I feel like I'm in survival mode when it comes to school work. It's kind of sad though, I mean the play is ending this week then school ends not too much longer. I've really enjoyed my time here at LeTU and it seems really surreal that it's already time to graduate. Where on earth did all the time go?!

I haven't heard anything about that Nannying job I looked into. I think I'm going to give it a couple of days and then email her to see what she's doing with that. I really need to figure out what I should be looking for and doing for after I graduate. I'm really hoping for some sort of Nannying job that's flexible so I can do grad school and work at the same time. I guess we'll see what happens!

I had better get to class. :)

Work work work...

You guessed it! I'm at work again. It's been a pretty easy couple of weeks, as far as school is concerned. I've been keeping pretty busy though. I need to get started on several projects I've been putting off for a while now. I need to read two books for my internship and write a paper, I need to finish the book for the Australia trip and present on it, and I have a couple projects to start on for other classes. I guess it's just that time of the year when stuff is coming due. If I were going to be responsible I would start on that stuff soon, but sometimes I just can't bring myself to do it. This weekend I think I'm going to start on my Doctrines paper that's coming up and maybe the paper for my internship. I figure if I can get all this stuff started I'll thank myself later when the end of the semester hits I won't freak out as much. Maybe.
     I'm going to have quite the end of the semester. The play is in April, so that's going to be super busy. I know it will be fun and will be worth it, but it's a bit intimidating to think about the amount of time I'm going to have to invest in it. But I guess that's what I signed up for! We're officially going to do four shows, which makes me happy. That means I get to do two of them. It's going to be outside, so I don't think we're going to be able to film it. You guys up North are just going to have to come down in April and see it. ;) :P I'm just kidding.
    Tonight is youth group. I have no idea what Jerod is going to talk about, but I'm sure it will be good. I've really enjoyed being able to get to know the kids better this year. I think they're finally warming up to me, haha. Anyway, I should get back to work.

Work and Youth Group

I am sitting here at work. I was pretty bored so I decided to make a blog post! My boredom is your gain!

This past weekend Brad and I were at a Disciple Now weekend with our youth group. They divided us up into small groups (high school boys, middle school boys, high school girls, middle school girls) and those groups stayed at different host homes. We had big sessions were there was a band and a speak and such, and then small group sessions in our host homes. I taught our high school girls; Brad helped teach the high school boys. It was a really fun time. The theme was "live love"; so we talked about how as Christians we are called to lives that imitate Jesus' love for others. Things we talked about were loving others, loving God, obeying God, and a few other aspects of "living love". I thought it was pretty good. Sometimes I'm afraid the girls didn't get much out of it, but at least they were there. I was lucky because I had my own room and my own bed, so I slept fairly decently over the weekend. Some other leaders weren't so fortunate, haha. Most of the girls slept in the living room, so they were up for a while. Overall, I  think the weekend was a good weekend even if it didn't go perfectly.

The month of February has been very busy. I'm looking forward to it slowing down a little! Every weekend Brad and I have had something going on. This weekend I am hosting a recipe exchange and movie night. We're going to watch Julie and Julia, so it's a cooking themed evening! I'm looking forward to it; it will be nice to hang out with girls! We're all so busy that we hardly have time to hang out anymore. It's kind of sad, but I suppose that's how life goes sometimes.

Brad and I have been watching the Olympics almost every evening. Unfortunately they never play the events I want to see when I am able to watch them! Figure skating is my favorite, but I've only caught a couple routines here and here of Ice Dancing. I'm hoping to watch some of the women's figure skating and maybe the pairs skating (did I miss that already?). They also never play any of the hockey. It's sad... I like hockey. :( They did play the last two minutes of the USA vs. Canada game. They must play all the hockey on a station that we don't get here.

I went to our church's young adult small group this week. Brad has been going, but this was the first week I had enough time to be able to go. It was really good. They're looking at the life of Peter and his faith walk. Last night we looked at the episode in Matthew where Peter is walking on water out to Jesus. It was a pretty good study. I'm looking forward to going back. Speaking of churches, I found out about a church that will be looking for a new youth pastor in July. I'm not sure if I will apply for it because I really like the church we're at. I don't really feel like we're supposed to leave yet. I guess I just need to pray about it and see what I'm supposed to do. I'm really starting to flounder a little about jobs. Everyone is sending out resumes and such, and I have no idea when I should start doing that. All the jobs I can think of are hiring immediately, so I can't really apply right now. I won't be available to work until at least the third week of August. I'm trying not to worry about the job situation because I know that something will work out. It always does.

:)

Snow, Apple Pie, and Valentine's Day

Since I last updated this, there have been some eventful happenings! Last friday we had a snow day. We got something like 4-6 inches of snow. And it stayed on the ground! We didn't get the whole day off, but they delayed school until Chapel (so no morning class for me!). Then one of my professors cancelled his afternoon class because too many of our commuters weren't able to make it in. In a class of 15 missing six people is bad! Here's some of the pictures of the snow:

 

 

this was from Thursday. Not much snow; a light dusting, really.

 

  

This is Friday morning. It was incredibly pretty. Students were our playing in the snow all morning. Lots and lots of snowmen being built! I didn't play in the snow because I wasn't feeling well, but it was kind of fun to see all the snow creations people made around campus. Some people even made three large "snow boulders" and put them accross the road to make a road block. It was really funny. I enjoyed my day off by babysitting Sam and doing homework. The babysitting was pretty fun, the homework was not. 

For Valentine's day, Brad and I had a pretty low-key day. Brad baked me an apple pie (my favorite dessert!) and made me dinner. He didn't tell me what dinner was, but it ended up being Tortilla Soup (another one of my favorites!). It was very good. He even put rose petals on the table and put out some candles. It was really cute, and the food was yummy. Then we watched the movie "The Proposal". I recommend that movie, it's pretty funny, for a chick flick. I also got a fair amount of chocolate. Yum!

This weekend is a D-now weekend for our youth group. That means on Friday and Saturday night i'll be staying with the girls from my small group. I'm sure there will be little sleep involved, but that's the fun part of d-now, right? All youth group trips come with little to no sleep. I just hope there won't be too many shenanigans! I'm also singing in the worship band on Sunday morning. I've never sang before at this church, so I hope it ends up being good. I would be very sad if everyone thought I sucked, haha.

Time to work on some homework!

Bowling, Homework, and Superbowl.

Last night Brad and I went out for a little date. We went to a place called Moe's for dinner. They make burritos. Well, they make tacos, quesadillas, salads... a whole array of southwestern stuff. It was pretty good. Kind of expensive, but good. Then we went bowling. It was a lot of fun, even though I think my best game was a 90.

Today was a pretty good Saturday. I got to sleep in, which was nice. The rest of the day was spent working out, doing homework, cleaning, and going grocery shopping. Well, Brad did most of the cleaning. I did the homework. But I got most of it done. All I have left for tomorrow is to put the finishing touches on the take home Greek Exam.

We went grocery shopping today. It was crazy there! I guess everyone (like us) was buying goodies for the Super Bowl. We're having Jeremy and Anna come over tomorrow. We're having some snackages: chips and salsa, cheese ball and crackers, and cake balls. I'm going to make cake balls for a girls night, but I had never made them, so I practiced for tomorrow. They turned out pretty well. Cake balls are just crumbled up cake mixed with frosting. Then you make them into a ball and dip them into chocolate. I love them. Brad wasn't a fan, but he doesn't really like chocolate covered stuff. More for me and Anna, I guess. The did kind of crumble in the chocolate, so I think next time I'm going to freeze them before I put them in the chocolate. They are yummy though!

At Church tomorrow i'm in a skit. I'm portraying Jesus questioning a Luke Warm Christian. I end up throwing the person out of Court. It'll be pretty powerful.They might tape it. If they do i'll ask for the file to send up to MI. It's been a lot of fun getting back into dramatic stuff. I'm in the play for school, and our church is hoping to start up a drama ministry. I'll probably get involved in that as much as possible. People seem to be really responsive to the skits. I guess it just helps the message sink in a little deeper.

I'm up to eight memorized verses. I'm falling behind on my goal... but sometimes you have to revamp your goals, right? So I'm only doing one verse a week. It's do able. OH! My schedule worked out to where I think I can make it to Bible Study now! I'm excited about it. The book we're going through seems like it's a really good book. We're going through "Respectable Sins". It's about all the "little" sins we like to let slide by without even thinking of them as sin. It looks like it's going to be a challenging book.

Well I need to go vaccum up Brad's hair. I just gave him a hair cut a little bit ago, and now it's time to clean up the mess!

-Liz

For Anna

Today has been an ok day. Brad had to go into work this morning, so when he got up at eight I surprised him by making him breakfast while he was in the shower. I made him bacon, eggs, a huge pancake, and cut up an orange. It was pretty good, if I do say so myself. After he left I worked on some homework and did the laundry until Brad came home at 12. Since we had eaten a pretty big breakfast, neither of us were hungry for lunch so we went to Solheim and worked out. When we got back and showered we ate pizza (the pizza dough in the bread maker is pretty good). Lunch was really late today, so that means neither of us are hungry for dinner yet! But that's ok, we have left over pizza and snacks for when we do get hungry.

This semester is shaping up to be a very busy semester. My school work isn't too bad, it's just my other commitments. They all happen in the evening... so my evenings are jammed. I made the decision today to not go to Bible study. I am very sad to have to make that decision, so I've been thinking of ways all day to avoid it. I think I might talk to Carl and see if it would be possible to only work two shifts a week. If not, my compromise is to work from 4:30-5:30 on Tuesday and Thursday, which would only leave me a half an hour short of the required hours. I'm hoping, though, that he'll just let me drop a shift. We'll see though, he gave me grace last semester. I've also been thinking about quitting my job just because I'm really busy. But I think our finances say that I need the job.

I did get a part in the play that the school is doing. I am sharing the role of Susan with a friend of mine (Kelsey) so we get to split the performance time. I'm kind of excited about being in a play again; it's going to be so much fun! The only unfortunate thing is that rehearsals are at 9pm. So that means I'm going to have to give up going to bed early and getting up early. That's ok though, I'll be able to manage. Instead of getting up at six i'll get up at 7:30. I think I can take that. Haha.

I haven't got much other exciting news to relay. My life is getting back into the swing of things, so that means routines, routines, routines!