sorry for the delay.

i've been busy with finals. this is going to be a very short and belated post. i have decided to put it in bullet format, with facts about life and random things that have been happening since my last post. these are in no order of importance.

- i am halfway through finals week. i'm done thursday morning.
- Christmas is in 9 days.
- our dorm Christmas party is tonight
- the guys from our brother society came caroling at our dorm last night. (will try to get a video up soon)
- we're going to have enough money for me to come back to school next semester.
- i might be working at Northland instead of BRR.
- i hate e-bay.
- selling back books is a tough business
- i always knew firefox was better than internet explorer
- so far, i've only studied for three of my finals.
- sugar cookies are a blessing.
- i love getting Christmas cards in the mail. or just mail in general, really..
- our dorm society won Society of the Semester today. here's a link to what we've been doing this semester.


Thought for the day:

If chocolate could sing, it would sound like Josh Groban.

all things work together for good.

haven't blogged in a few days, but i've had quite a busy weekend. thursday was the freshman class Christmas party, and let me tell you, that was some funny stuff. i'll have to figure out how to post a video on here from karaoke. haha. then i went home friday to the madrigal dinner in dekalb. katie was a knight, and she did really well, along with the other choirs. we brought along one of my dad's friends and he was extremely impressed that the kids that were singing were high schoolers. it's always very exciting to see the high school groups perform. then saturday we had a Christmas Tea for our GALS ministry at church, and i got about a million cookies and fudge and other things to bring back to my dorm. and i won some homemade hot chocolate! yummy! :]


okay, now it's time for the big news of the weekend..





ready for it?




dun dun dun... drumroll.....








I'm going to Bill Rice Ranch this summer to work as a counselor!! God is truly amazing. all of the things i've been praying for have been answered this week. this is the power of prayer, people. if you don't believe it, believe it. PRAYER WORKS. and i am SO excited. i'm definitely ready to use my summer to help kids grow in their Christian walk. i'm so excited to see what God is going to do to bring glory to Himself through this. please pray for me as i prepare to work in this ministry over the summer. i know that seems like it's still a long way away, but it's only about 5.5 months away from now.

well my computer's dying and i should probably be studying for finals, or doing something somewhat homework related, so that's all for today.


Verse of the day:

But my God shall supply all all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

Today is my little brother Ricky's birthday. He is 9 years old! Wow! our family adopted him when he was 4, and it doesn't seem like he's been with us for 5 years already. i am very glad that he got to come and live with us instead of being in the situation he was in before. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RICKY! on another good note, i found out today that Maranatha isn't going to require the full transcript from Kish in order for me to register for my anatomy class. this is such a blessing! i have to be registered by the 8th, and the full transcript could have taken a month to get here. but tomorrow i'm going to get the letter printed off and taken up to the registrar's office and i'll finally be all registered! woohoo! once again, God is good. i know that if i am supposed to be here, that everything will work out. i'm also glad that grandma sandy's test came back okay. no pinched nerves, but she can't have surgery.. so maybe not the result she was hoping for, but maybe she can be on a different type of medicine or therapy or something to help her back feel better.

yesterday one of my roommates told me that i drink too much coffee. and i love coffee.. but i don't think i drink excessive amounts of it. usually one or two cups in the morning with breakfast, and occasionally a cup at night if i'm staying up later working on homework or something, or if i'm feeling cold and need a warm up :] so she challenged me to not drink coffee for a whole week. this is day 2, and so far i'm doing okay. i was pretty groggy this morning, and had a bit of a crash this afternoon once my classes were over, but i'm surviving.

not a lot to do tonight.. just some homework and going to the wednesday night service at Calvary Baptist Church here in Watertown. our clarinet choir is doing a special tonight, so i'm a little bit nervous about that, but i'm sure we will do fine. :]

i hope everyone has a blessed week.

There is One Great Love

So i was just sitting here doing my math homework, listening to some music by the David Crowder Band, and this one song really struck me. It's an old hymn that I've heard a ton of times, but they redid it and added a chorus to it, and I really like it a lot. I wish I knew how to post it on here, because I would. But I will just post the lyrics.

O, for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise
The glories of my God and King
The triumphs of His grace

My gracious Master and my God
Assist me to proclaim
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name

So come on and sing out
Let our anthem grow loud
There is one great love Jesus

Jesus, the name that charms our fears
That bids our sorrows cease
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears
‘Tis life and health and peace

He breaks the power of cancelled sin
He sets the prisoners free
His blood can make the foulest clean
His blood availed for me

He speaks and listening to His voice
New life the dead receive
The mournful broken hearts rejoice
The humble poor believe

Glory to God and praise and love
Be ever, ever giv’n
By saints below and saints above
The church in earth and Heav’n

There are so few words
That never grow old
There are so few words
That never grow old
Jesus

There is One great love. Jesus.


I bolded the lyrics that really stuck out to me. I know this is one of those posts that's more personal and nobody likes reading things like this, but I just had to write it down. God's love for us is so amazing, and sometimes I get too busy and distracted by school and homework and everything to sit down and really think about how amazing my God is. He takes all of our fears away. He breaks the bondage that sin has over us and He sets us free. He makes the mournful heart to rejoice. The blood of Christ covers even the most horrible sin, and no matter how many times we fall, He's right there waiting for us to come running back to Him. And then on top of all of that, He forgives that sin and casts it "as far as the east is from the west." (Psalm 103:12). That is just so awesome to me.

Amazing grace, amazing love.

a short one. maybe..

i found out a few things today that eased my mind a bit. not that i should have been worried about them before, because i know that God has everything under control, but my human nature has been getting the best of me lately.

thing #1- Bill Rice Ranch doesn't let people know decisions for summer camp work until after Christmas break. and i have been worrying about that lately, since i haven't heard anything. but i was talking to a girl who worked there last year, and told her i haven't heard anything yet, and she told me that i won't find out until after Christmas.

thing #2- i got another class into my schedule in place of the one that i couldn't take because of pre-requisites. it's a public speaking class, which i wasn't planning on taking until the summer because it would be shorter, but there was one spot left, so i figured that i'm the one who was supposed to fill it. now if i can just get my anatomy class transferred from kish, i'll be all set. and there are still a few spots left in the lab that's later in the day, so hopefully i don't have to take the early lab and have 1st hour every day.



:]

back in H20Town

yes, that's right. i'm back at school. this is the first of three more weeks left of this semester. well technically, it's only two weeks and then a couple days of finals. and i am very ready for this semester to be over.

i was thinking about what to write in this blog on the way back to school today, and i had a bunch of things thought out in my head, and now i can't remember any of them.

thanksgiving was good. we got to see all of our missouri family, which was nice because we don't get to see them very often. the only bad thing was that my mom got sick the evening of thanksgiving. and it was funny because my grandma kept saying "it wasn't because of my cooking". haha. but it was just a typical thanksgiving. tons of food, watching football, knitting, and a lady with a mullet. (sorry, i didn't get a picture. but she was there, i promise.)

and on the way home i got to talk to my friend alissa from high school. i haven't gotten the chance to talk to her since i left for school, and i talked to her most of the way back to school tonight. we are planning to meet up on sunday afternoon for lunch, so hopefully that gets to happen, because i miss her.

it snowed again today, and i was very happy. we went outside after we got our Christmas tree up and took some pictures out in the snow, and they turned out really well. i was sad because emily wasn't there, but i'm sure we will take some more later. i'll have to post some tomorrow.

NO BAND IN THE MORNING!! woohoo! that means instead of having class at 7:14, i don't have a class until 9:20. yaaaaayyyyy!!!!!!!!!

but now, sadly, it is almost 11:30, and therefore time for me to go to bed. i'll post some pictures and write more about break tomorrow.

i hope everyone that happens to stumble upon this post has an excellent week.

Thought for the evening/week/until i get another one:
"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant. If we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." -Anne Bradstreet

i forgot something. :]

just wanted to say thanks to all of you ladies that my grandma recruited from her blog to come over and read mine. your comments were very encouraging. feel free to read or comment whenever. i don't usually have anything too terribly exciting to say, but i love talking to people!!

now i'm off to the basketball game!! woohoo!

:]

Snow!!!!

I'm so excited! it finally snowed today in Watertown. everyone here has been talking about how it's snowed in their hometowns. even one of my roommates, Jessica, from NC said that they have had snow down there a couple times. I love the winter. I think snow is beautiful, especially when it's falling. We got about 2 inches overnight, and i wasn't expecting it, so that was a real blessing when I got up this morning. it's kind of funny how the little things in life make us happy.

As for my schedule next semester, i'm going to talk to my advisor about it again tomorrow, and she said that it should be able to be worked out for the most part. so i think i'll be able to stay here. that's another huge load off my shoulders.

tomorrow i'm leaving for thanksgiving break. i'm going to missouri with my family, and i'm very excited. most of the time when i've been home on the weekends, we haven't all been together because of people working or with friends or whatever. but we're all going to be together this week and i'm very happy about that. i just hope i can find someone that has an extra suitcase here, because i let my parents take mine at the beginning of the year. if not, it looks like i'll be making a wal-mart run!! :]

well, my tummy's telling me it's time to make the trek to the dining hall and get something to eat. there's a girl's and a guy's basketball game tonight, so since i have time to do all my homework over break, i'll be going there after dinner. Go Crusaders!!!

frustrated.

so i just found out that most of the classes i was planning on taking next semester have prerequisites, and i only have 3 classes that i can take as of this moment. i thought i had everything worked out, and i was going to take some classes early and everything was going to be good. but now i can't. so i might be going back to community college like dad said in the first place. and this is very frustrating.

i read Psalm 5 in my devos this morning, and in verse 8 it says "Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face." this was sort of a slap in the face from God, saying that i'm trusting too much in my own ways and i need to trust Him because He has a perfect plan for my life.

maybe i'm supposed to go back to community college to be a witness there. who knows. i guess only time will tell for me, but i know that God has my future in His hands.



I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed, what God has planned.
I only know at His right hand
Stands one who is my Savior.

first post!

yay! so this is my first post on this blog. how exciting is that? yes, very. i know. anywho, nobody is probably ever going to read this except for me, so i'm going to put whatever i want on it. the last blog i had lasted about 2 months, so we'll see how this one does. now that i'm in college, i should have more to blog about, so that might make it better. i definitely won't use correct capitalization, and i might not always make sense, but that's okay. my english teacher isn't going to read this (but if he did, he would probably have a heart attack!!)

it's really cold here at Maranatha today. the wind in Wisconsin seems a lot colder than anywhere else i've been. we just got done making tags for the presents people are going to buy for the Calvary bus kids that aren't getting a whole lot for Christmas this year. i think it's so cool that we get to do the society that's community outreach, because that's right up my alley. i love serving people and helping out in any way that i can.

i get to go home tomorrow, and there are only four more days until thanksgiving break! and 34 days until Christmas!!

i'll figure out how to use this blog more tomorrow.