It ended well :-)

These past few weeks have totally rotted. I mean to the point that i wanted to crawl into bed and never come out. Between the school losing my time card, resulting in a serious lack of monetary funds, my grandmother's health deteriorating, being sick myself, and all those little things that happen to go wrong when you're having that type of few weeks, i didn't think i would ever see the light. There were a few highlights during those dark days. I got a supplementary grant for school and God worked a little in the life of a friend of mine. God gave me those "pity bursts" between the clouds. I am so glad He did. Through the whole thing, i kept thinking, either God is about to do something amazing, and Satan is trying to get me to quit just before it, or God is keeping me from something that wouldn't be good for me. There's a verse that says "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Well, i wasn't really weeping, but Thursday was definitely my morning. I went to my mailbox, and there was my check...that made me pretty happy now that i can buy little things that i need. Then I decided to check my mail again because im obsessed with mail like that, and there was an award letter for a scholarship i had all but given up on. I went back to my room rejoicing and decided i was going to get my spring break arrangements ready. God gave me a one way plane ticket home for 45 dollars and allowed me to have a ride back to school with my youth group. God is so amazing :-D

Strolling down memory lane...

After my stint in solitary confinement yesterday, i am thankful to be back among the living (even if i don't feel completely alive yet). I have become a very social being, and being back among people has been thoroughly enjoyable. Anyway, enough of my expressing my thankfulness about being back among the civilized populous, the real reason i decided to blog today was to express my thankfulness for my friend Lauren...shes amazing!!! Here we are all at different colleges and she sends me something that reminds me of the good old days when we were all together and sitting at the table at our favorite mcalisters surfing the web and just being friends. Of course, mcalisters holds many memories of emotional breakdowns, joyful celebrations, almost missing curfews, and errr...sickness. I honestly can summarize most of my Crown days with the word mcalisters (affectionately called Cali's), and today Lauren brought back all those memories by sending an amazing valentines package with a shirt from our beloved cali's. Thanks Lauren! I love it!

My stay at hotel sickly

I'm lying here in the Student Health center, which may just be the most boring building on campus trying to recooperate because once again my immune system isn't behaving itself and doing its job. Yep, I'm sick...again...this is the second "cold" or whatever this semester. So anyway i though i would enlighten you all as to what the Student Health center is like. I'm lying here on my bed in what is obviously the "girl's side" of the health center. I am covered in a pink blanket in a room with pink curtains and pink flowers on the dresser. Before the sudafed started wearing off it reminded me of how my grandma's house smelled, but that started wearing off about an hour ago, and i can't smell anything now, but i don't feel super congested so im being me and refraining from taking anymore medicine if at all possible. They've tried to make it look as roomy as possible with a desk and a dresser, and once again i think my grandma had these in her old house, but it makes my slightly concerned for those who have to stay here longer than a day (which is all i'm staying...i will be back in my own room tonight). The only reason i think im still here is my temperature is a little abnormally low. Rather than the normal healthy 98.6, mine started out as a 95.1 this morning and it's now up to 96.4. Hopefully soon, i'll get to go back and sleep in my own bed with all my blankets and sip hot tea or cocoa or something...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it stop

I'm definitely ready for the snow to stop falling here in Wisconsin. The internet tells me we got about 16 inches yesterday, but i'm thinking it was more along the lines of 87 inches. It snowed all day. They cancelled classes which is completely unheard of here. So, being the industrial person that i am (why are u laughing??), i went to work. It amazes me that when an entire town is completely shutdown, people still bring their kids to daycare. I tried hard not to think about all my friends back at the dorm relaxing and playing computer games...After working for several hours, (daycare is the most amazing job because you can watch a movie with the kids and you get paid for it), i returned to the dorm to learn, not only had classes been cancelled but the on-campus church service was cancelled. That meant we had a dorm meeting. That meant i wanted nothing more than to sleep. After feeling terrible all week, i was starting to feel some semblance of health return, so when rachel mentioned going to play in the snow, i was all for it. We went out and enjoyed about an hour of snowy fun of jumping in snow drifts and snowball fights. Then this morning i had to get up, and i realized that semblance of health had completely disappeared and i felt like...errr...well i felt like i had gotten hit by a semi in the face.

On a completely unrelated note, i almost got mugged on saturday. See we are strongly advised against walking downtown after dark...advised by way of possible demerits, but on Saturday night four of us decided to grab some ice cream downtown. Knowing the rule about walking downtown, we all jumped in katie's car and drove to the ice cream place. We enjoyed our ice cream, and decided we had better start heading out (they were locking up the place). Once we got outside, Rachel and i saw the pole, that our good friend Alex had run his car into about 2 and a half weeks ago, was right next door. So we walked to the pole, had a good laugh, and turned to walk back when Korinne suggested we just walk a little further to the bridge. No one really seemed to have a problem with the idea, except for rachel and i, and that was only because we were cold. On the way to the bridge, we experienced several honks and whistles from the cars driving by, and we started getting a little creeped out. Then we saw three guys walking up the street. I begged out loud for them to be guys we knew, but they weren't and they started yelling at us from across the street. As they yelled, we began to walk faster, but not fast enough, and suddenly we heard one of them run across the street straight at us. He was doing it to freak us out, and he definitely accomplished that...so yeah, lesson learned...i'm not every walking downtown again...Below are pics from the night of our "near-mugging" :-D

Yeah there's a giant chicken

It's a ride

Have you ever been on a roller coaster? Some go so fast that you don't have time to analyze each individual part. You just know that the hills, dips, loops, and corkscrews make the ride what it is. Sometimes, you're on top of the world and sometimes your heart sinks into the pit of your stomach, but once you get on you're powerless to stop them from coming. That pretty much describes my semester so far. Its had its ups and downs, but overall i think i'll come out of it enjoying the ride.

Last weekend, aaron, alex, rachel, and i headed for Winnebago, IL. A weekend away, an escape from the routine and hecticness (ok so thats prolly not a word) of my everyday schedule sounded absolutely amazing, and it was. We went to a hockey game, the first hockey game i have ever been to in my life. Good thing i sat next to aaron who helped me out by explaining things i didn't understand. After the game, we headed back to Kevin and Heather's house (ppl who go to our church). We stayed up talking pretty late, until the guys had to leave to get some sleep. We had so much fun!

Time in my life has been pretty scarce. I'm still working every weekday at the daycare and i got an email about possibly having another job, which would only be a few hours a week, but would be amazing. Classes are....well they are definitely classes and i've been busy.

On another note...please pray for mark and his family. His little niece, Rylee, passed away this past Wednesday. She was 6 months old.

Here are some pics from my weekend away:Here's the whole group...kevin, alex, rachel, me and aaron And aaron and i Rachel and i were...errr...nevermind Alex and rachel Alex,rachel, and i Road Trip!! Alex playing polly pocket with Logan Here's all of us playing... Rachel and i...one of many pics :-p

Back in the midst of it...

I thought about how when i got home i would update, but then there was the famine of no internet that i experienced, and then i thought sometime when i got back i would update, but then we started classes about 15hrs after i got back. Then, i was thinking that i could update on a sunday when i'm at a house with internet access, but once again, i encountered a problem, none of the houses we went to had internet, so here i am finally updating in the twenty minutes i have before i run off to do something else. The semester is going well, i got a job at daycare last week, so ive been working, going to class, and trying to socialize like mad. I have no time in my life for anything, well except for the things already listed. Even for church, i've been trying to do homework on the way, or eating, if its a wednesday. Sorry that i couldn't update longer...im adding pictures of my church group :-)

The End of the Beginning

The curtain has almost closed on this semester. It's hard to believe that three months ago, i arrived on this campus knowing virtually no one and not knowing anything about the school. Finals are upon me, and the urge to go home is strong. I have really learned a lot this semester. Besides lessons in various classes i feel that i have really grown this semester. A guy i go to church with and i were talking about our decisions to transfer here. It's both of our first semesters, and we agreed that we couldn't have made a better choice. I'm so glad that i made the switch and if i had it to do over i would make the same decision in a heartbeat.

Here are some pics we took on extension yesterday...pretty much i go to an awesome church with awesome people....So here we are...in the back are ryan, alex (we don't know about his facial expression, which is why we had to take another), and aaron. In the front, betsy, me, lori, and rachel (who came for the first time this week but fit in perfectly).

O there you go alex, now thats a face we can use...

When we stopped at Red Robin, Ryan had to get a pic like Kramer :-)