Thanksgiving Is Over...But Here Comes Christmas!

So, this past week, I was at home! At my new home! I was really glad to be there because I really miss my family! It was nice to see them and spend some quality time with them.

I really like our new house. I think it is tied for my favorite that we have ever lived in.

I went home on Tuesday (a day early) and helped put some boxes and things away. My mom and sister had gotten pretty far in organizing the stuff. So, there wasn't too much left to accomplish. I spent Wednesday sleeping in and helping my mom cook. My grandparents, aunt and brother all got into town on Wednesday night.

On thursday morning I went with Grace, Sara and Andrew downtown and ran the 5K Turkey Trot race. I ran it in 28 minutes and I was a little sick. So, I am thinking if I had been feeling really good I would have run it in better time than that! It was pretty good I guess considering I used to run like a 14 minutes mile in highschool. lol. I was really out of shape then!!

That day my family just hung out around the house and ate WAY TOO MUCH food. We just enjoyed each other's company. Me and Grace made some christmas presents for some of my friends.

On Friday the girls of the family woke up early to go shopping. We got some good deals on things and I finished up my christmas shopping! It was nice! That night my Grandaddy took us all to Steak N Shake to eat dinner. Then we went to see the movie: Mr.Magorium's Wonder Emporium. lol.

Saturday was our christmas decorating day. We went and picked out our christmas tree. Because of the rain shortage this year there weren't as many to choose from. So, we settled on one that was short but really full. Molly named him "Chubbers". lol. We went to eat dinner at Cracker Barrel and then we went back home and spent the night decorating the tree and the house for Christmas!!

It was really nice to be at home. I had a great Thanksgiving. Here are some pictures from the week!

Well, here they all are. I can't really organize them the way I want to. But, I guess you can guess what is happening in them. Molly named our turkey Tom. haha. We fried him in a deep frier. And it was GOOD! Excuse the hideous face I am making in the picture to the right. lol. That really isn't what I look like when I eat a turkey leg. Promise!

I Like Blue Men....

So, this past week was super slow. This week I only have two days of school. I am headed home tomorrow and I am really excited about it! I am ready to see my family!

I am leaving tomorrow around 3:00 pm. That is in less than 24 hours! lol.

This weekend was kind of crazy. Me, Meredith and Stephanie headed down to Athens to the UGA library to do some research. We have to travel an hour away simply because our library here doesn't quite cut it!

We drove down there. And there was a Georgia vs. Kentucky game that was going on. So, we couldn't find a good place to park. We ended up parking all the way up at the University chruch and walking down to the campus. We really didn't know where we were going. So, we had to stop people. After 20 minutes we finally foudn the library and upon going in found out we had an hour before the library closed. So, we rushed trying to get articles and books and then we made the crazy trek back up to the car. The game happened to be getting out at the same time as we left the library. So, we were in the middle of this mob of people in red and black. Half of them were drunk or smelled like beer. Finally we made it to the car and tried to get out of athens. Only, the whole city was set up with orange cones making it impossible to turn left ANYWHERE in the city. So, we ended up getting lost and going really far out of our way to get to Commerce. We got lost again in the city of Commerce and finally found Chik-Fil-A. We had gotten free coupons to eat there because Truett Cathy came and spoke in our chapel on Friday morning. It was pretty good. Just a crazy trip.

Yesterday was my last day at the PAC church. They had a combination service with the Cambodian church. So, everything in the service had to be translated into cambodian. It was fun. A little girl from last week came up and asked if I was teaching them again. when I said no she was like,"Oh Man"! I love kids. It was so cute. She didn't realize that I did a horrible job teaChing them I guess. lol. She had cut her own bangs the week before so her mom had to fix them and they were SUPER short. It reminded me of when I was little. haha.

Yesterday afternoon I gave Jonathan his early christmas present. I sort of had to considering the concert was this early. So, I made a christmas cd and made him listen to it all day. We watched Elf and A Charley Brown Christmas. Then we went to eat at Kani House (Japanese Steak House). It was pretty good. After that I blind folded him so he wouldn't know where we were going and I took him to The Blue Man Group concert. It was really awesome! I loved it! They had this little Korean guy open up for them. I can't even explain what he did. But, it was pretty awesome!

My classes for today are almost over. THANK GOODNESS! I can hardly stand it! I just really want to go home!!! lol

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!

That's What Happens When...

Everything seems to be going extra slow today. And, you know those days when you are in a bad mood and so everything gets on your nerves? That's pretty much me. For today anyways. I am getting annoyed with people simply for looking at me. haha. It happens sometimes to the best of us.

I am ready for Thanksgiving Break.

The weather is really throwing me off. One day it was 75 outside and the very next it dropped down to a high of 51. My body can't handle that! But, I am glad it is finally getting cold outside. It feels more like Christmas time that way!

I am ready to see my family again!

God has been teaching me a lot lately. I think what He has been teaching me overall though is to make sure I am serving God! There are plenty of people who call themselves christians who are following "God". They think He is the true God but in all actuality He is just another god they have made up in their heads. I don't want to make God out to be what I want Him to be. I want to serve Christ for who He really is, instead of who I have made Him out to be. You can only know who Christ really is through studying His word, spending time with Him and obeying His commands.

God has also taught me that plenty of people justify what htey do in this day and age. Plenty of people are screwing up their lives, making bad choices and claim God has led them to do these actions. I never want to be making horrible mistakes and claim I am doing them in the name of Jesus.

We are pretty illiterate christians these days. We don't know what the bible says. So, we make it up as we go along. We justify ourselves. We tell ourselves we are in the will of God when really we are going against Christ in pretty obvious ways. We also tell ourselves Christ is one thing when He is actually not like that at all.

Is this making sense?

I just don't want to do these things. I think God is challenging me constantly to go deeper and know the true Him.

The world is screwed up nowadays. Christians are half of the problem.

We have been reading Dante's Inferno in World Literature class. And it has been a good picture for me of what we are like without Christ. We have lost all intellectual truth. Without Christ we live to please ourselves. We live to gratify our desires in anyway possible. God is about denying ourselves and our desires. It is uncomfortable following Christ. You have to give up things you want to hold on to. And the story has been good for showing me that if you live your whole life just gratifying yourself you are going to look back and realize it was all worthless. You will spend eternity wishing you had done things differently. It is pointless to live to please ourselves. We have to stop telling ourselves it is!

Anyways...a small glimpse of what I have been learning. I am off to class!

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

I have had sort of an annoying week in some ways. I had some money stolen from me! Pray I somehow figure out how to get it back??? Or rather, that someone will just feel convicted for taking money from someone elses wallet. SAD!

This weekend will be good! I am going to be bored tomorrow though. I will be in a library all day long!

"One Day You'll See Her And You'll Know What I Mean, Take Her Or Leave Her She Will Still Be The Same"

I am so ready for the Christmas holiday it is going to kill me. I am really sick of going through the same routine every week at school. Thank goodness I only have about four weeks left. Otherwise I might go even more crazy than I already am! I think that is what happens when you have like 17 hours a semester and all of your classes are on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. I am close to burnout. I have remained fairly unstressed by it all though, which is really unlike me!!!

I went Christmas shopping the other day! The mall is already all decorated for Christmas. And I walked into Bath and Body Works. They had these candles burning that made the whole shop smell like a christmas tree. I LOVE IT!!! They also decorated the campus with Christmas lights and the Quad with christmas trees! I even broke out my ginger bread lamp today and we plugged it in. IT IS ADORABLE!!! I LOVE IT!!! Meredith broke down and started listening to Christmas music. And, I am afraid I might have to as well, now!

I got my MLAT scores today. Turns out I am above average. And thankfully, am capable learning another language. I can pick out phonetic sounds realy well (thanks Hooked On PHonics! Lol). The hardest part for me will be learning another script!!!

I have a week soon where my ethnography box, two papers, and a test are all happening in the span of five days. I already started working on the two papers and this saturday me, Stephanie and Heidi are taking off to UGA to spend a day at the library working on our boxes!!! I am glad to get it all out of the way before that week gets here. If I wait I am afriad I will not get any sleep. And that is the week before the Christmas banquet.

I am excited about the Christmas Banquet. They are having it in Gainesville this year. There is a jazz theme. I LOVE JAZZ!!! And, this year I am going with: Ashley Spaulding, Ben Landes, Emily Lockwood, Ryan Currie, Heather Price and Jim Hatcher. I am excited about hanging out with all of them! it will be good. Oh, and my date is Jonathan, of course! Lol. I didn't list him in that list. So, I might want to mention that he will be my date :) I am borrowing a dress. I am over buying new dresses all the time. I made my parents buy so many in highschool!

This week is pretty laid back for me! I am glad about that. I am excited about next week. I only have two days of school. I will be leaving to go home on Tuesday night and I won't be back till the sunday of that week. I almost get a whole week at home with my family! And everyone is coming in for Thanksgiving! It will be great to see everyone!

Tiny Little Feet Are So Cute!!!

I HAVE A BRAND NEW BABY COUSIN!!! His Name is Cooper Lee Hubbard. He was born a couple days ago! Too bad he is all the way in Mississippi so I don't get to see him for a while!

I love these cute pictures they sent me. Especially the one of his cute little feet. I love how babies are so tiny!!!



This weekend I have to catch up on a lot of work. I am going to be writing some papers and things. Tomorrow night I am going to a concert (Jonathan, Chris and Daniel are in a band and they have a gig in town). Meredith's sister is coming into town with MEredith's nephew Luke. He is so cute. So, I am excited to get to see him. Tomorrow night we are going to Los Primos. And then on Saturday I guess we will do whatever.



I have three papers due and my Ethnography box. Over the next few weeks I am going to be HORRIBLY busy!!! I have a lot to get done.



I took the MLAT today. THat is the test you take to see how well you can learn another language. Next Tuesday I will find out whether I am smart enough to be bilingual. Kind of sad if I find out I can't.



I am learning Hmong right now! It is a tonal language. It has 7 tones. I have to recite it for class in a couple weeks. Here is the phrase I must learn: "Hey. How are you? I am learning to speak Hmong. It is my second day in the country. This is all I can say. See you later. Good bye." The Hmongs all gathered around last night beggin me to speak it for them! ANd, I have to say, I was really embarassed. I feel I am butchering their language. It is bad enough saying the phrase in front of one Hmong, but in front of a whole congregation is tough. However, they ended up telling me that I am one of the best white Hmong speakers they have heard. So, I guess it will be alright. haha. Maybe they are just being nice. THey keep playing pranks on me. Last night they were all telling me, " You are saying it wrong" They would tell me all these words I should say instead and they were making me say all of this ridiculous stuff in Hmong. So, I hope I don't get confused when I have my recitation. I have come to find out though through the Hmongs that I was raised sort of like the Hmongs. They have all he same ideas and morals my family raised me with. Interesting!



God has been teaching me so much lately. I am really thankful for that. I feel like finally I have a realistic view of myself. For the first time in a while. It's like a light went on in the attic. I am so glad!



ANyways...that's all I have for now!

The Only Good Thing About Being Sick Is That You Can't Taste College Food!

You know one of the worst feelings? When your throat is hurting and is sore and you have to spend the whole night breathing through your mouth and making it more sore simply because you can't breath out of your nose.

I woke up at five this morning and couldn't breathe out of my nose. Both sides were so completely unusable for breathing. Because of this, I was having to breathe through my mouth, which was making my throat hurt even worse. I went to bed last night being ablet o breathe. So, I am not sure what happened. But, I went into the bathroom and luckily I had some medicine I could take. So, I was able to get back to sleep for two more hours. However, I am not feeling so well today. Mondays are my busiest days. So, I guess I will just have to get over how I feel and go throughout the day anyways.

I have to say though. Aramark is a lot more tolerable when you can't taste it AT ALL!

THis week is going to be pretty busy. I have a fundraiser tomorrow night, I have lots of homework. I also have a group meeting tomorrow night. And, I am sick of group projects. We are going to be acting out a skit. So, tomorrow we have to get together and assign the parts. Right now all we have is the fact that Michael Airgood is going to be dressed up like a hammer.

OH BROTHER.


Anyways...there isn't much going on in my life. I went home this weekend. Which was really good for me! I miss home! Luckily next semester I only have 13.5 hours and will get to go home a lot more perhaps? My brother came into town. ANd so did my sister. So, we were all there. That is pretty rare, too. It was fun!

We went and saw the Bee Movie. I laughed a LOT! I thought it was really funny and cute! I recommend it!