The semester is winding down. I can't believe it. Life goes by so fast sometimes. At this rate I will be 50 years old before I can blink. God has given me so many blessing this year. And, it was through coming to Southeastern that a lot of those blessings came my way! I am really thankful for the friends i have made up here, the classes I have taken and the things I have learned. I am even thankful for my job at Chick Fil A because God has blessed me with an amazing boss and co-workers who have been so understanding and kind towards me these past couple months!

luckily, I was able to fly home to Chattanooga for Thanksgiving! I hadn't been home since August! It was amazing to see my family! I really love this time of year: Thanksgiving and Christmas. I really just have such a wonderful family. And, sometimes I forget how true that is when I am away from them for so long.

Me and Jonathan took some engagement pictures. My aunt Grace took them. THey are really cute! I will include them in this post so you can see some of them (for the few who haven't seen them already).

Right now I am studying Hebrews in my personal time. It is really amazing going through a book of the Bible at a time. I have read the entire bible through a couple of times. It is amazing how much you can learn from one book. I feel like it's wisdom never runs out and there is always something new and insightful that you've missed all those years you have been reading it. I am amazed by that. And, I really like diving into books so I know more specifically what the books are about, where the author is coming from. There is just something to say about spending months studying one book. I feel like you get so much more out of it that way. And, the theme of the book sticks with you so much more.

Greek has also been an amazing thing this year for me. Learning the original language is pretty exciting. I know there is so much more to be learned from it!

On a different note...just for fun I wanted to put some of my favorite Christmas things:

Top 3/ favorite religious Christmas songs:

1. O Holy Night
2. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
3. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Top 3/ Favorite non-religious Christmas songs:

1. It's the most wonderful time of the year
2. Have yourself a merry little Christmas
3. All I want for Christmas is You-Mariah Carey

The Christmas cd definitely worth checking out this year:

Glory in the Highest: A christmas record by: Shane and Shane

Top 3 /Favorite Christmas Traditions:

1. Decorating the Christmas tree.
2. Christmas Eve when my family gathers around the piano and sings Christmas songs and then reads the Christmas story.
3. Decorating ginger bread houses.

Christmas is wonderful! ha! We got a HUGE 12 foot Christmas tree at Chick Fil A tonight. It smelled amazing and it looked amazing. I wanted so badly for my task for the evening to be decorating it! HA! It didn't happen.

I am one week away from finals in seminary! I have a big paper to write before then! I am almost there!

I will include the picture I mentioned earlier. Although, I am sad I don't have any of our Thanksgiving as a family. My camera is broken so I haven't been able to get any pictures lately...it's really sad :(

I love fall...

The holidays make people do some pretty ridiculous things. I guess everyone gets in the spirit and joy of Christmas. Apparently, this has started to happen right after Halloween. It's like a huge city like Atlanta. Soon the suburbs of that city end up reaching an hour out from all directions until that city is massive in size. I guess Christmas will soon spread out to several months before it takes place.

christmas is one of my favorite times of year. Ok, I think it is my absolute favorite. Just something about it makes me really happy inside. I have held off listening to Christmas music, except when my room mates are blaring it from their rooms or from the living room. But, me and my room mates finally gave in to putting up a tree just two nights ago. We were planning for a thanksgiving dinner (that happened tonight). And we were at Wal-Mart and started looking at all the trees there. My room mate gave in and bought one. She also ended up buying decorations. So we stayed up till three in the morning listening to Christmas music and decorating it. It's nice to have a little bit of Christmas in our living room.

Tonight we had a Thanksgiving dinner between me and all of my friends. Ginny bought the turkey and we attempted to cook it ourselves. It was the first time I had prepared a turkey. It was funny. Ginny also made three apple pies, corn, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. My other friends brought rolls, dressing, macaroni, green bean casserole and jello. So, we really did have a feast. A lot of people came and it was really fun to hang out and eat together. And, as cheesy as it may be I am incredibly thankful for how much God has blessed me. I have amazing friends here. And I have a really good life.

I am really glad I get a week off of work for Thanksgiving break! I haven't been home since August.

I finally got past the craziness of the middle of the semester and this week has been really relaxing and good for me! I have had more time with friends. Funny story: Why is it that when you go into a Mexican Restaurant they assume you can speak spanish? This has happened to me countless times. I am blonde, green eyed and completely white. But they always seem to talk to me in spanish. I always do a double take and am like,"Did they just talk to me in english? I didn't understand a word of it!" Does this happen to anyone else? I think it's time I learn spanish.

That story spawned out of the fact that I went to a Mexican Restaurant with a friend the other night and then out to starbucks.

Last night Ginny introduced me to a christmas tradition her family does: cracking nuts. It's the first time I actually used a nut cracker. Every year at christmas I look at the things and I am like: What is the point? But I finally used one. I have decided nuts are equally as addicting as chips are. haha.

Today me and my friends Ginny and Christina took pictures on campus. Ginny found this one really pretty red tree left over from fall that she wanted to take pictures in front of. Here are some of them:

This is my life...

Man, I am pretty much a failure at updating. My life has been absolutely crazy these past couple of weeks. I have had to teach a class, take multiple tests and write three research papers. Not to mention I have been working 20 or more hours per week. These past couple of months has been testing my ability to balance my life. I used to be pretty good at it! Lately I am just failing in this area. SAD! So, if I haven't called you like I should or haven't shown you the care that I should I apologize. Notice I am writing this at like one in the morning. If only my friends and family back home stayed up that late. haha.

God has shown me his plan in my life with seminary. I am learning so much from all the professors/classes/chapels. Greek has stretched me an incredible amount. It is so tough. But, I am really loving it at the same time!

I just signed up for my classes next semester. I am learning that they don't offer a lot of the courses for my program in the spring semester, which is pretty sad. Here is my schedule:

Greek 2 with Dr. Black (I am really excited about this. Dr. Black is world renowned for his Greek abilities and I hear he is awesome)
Women and Evangelism
Moral Foundations of Marriage and Family

I am finding a lot of the core classes I already took in college and could probably clep out of. I am not really wanting to repeat any of them!

Chik Fil A is going well. I mean, yet again, I don't love it. I don't hate it. It's a job. I am thankful God has provided.

We get a lot of interesting customers. It's a really big thing in the area to fabricate money and bring it in. So, we get people bringing in fake 100 dollar bills a lot. It's annoying. Not only that, but you will get people in the drive through trying to just drive off without paying. Some people eat their entire entree and then claim it was "cold" or "pink" just to get free food because Chik Fil A is so nice. It gets frustrating dealing with people all the time. But, that is life.

I do have some funny stories though:

1. I was working the drive through and a customer came driving through asking if we had hush puppies. haha. When I said no they drove off.

2. A man came in and asked for a happy meal. He wasn't kidding. I was like,"You mean a kids meal, right?" He goes,"No, a happy meal" haha. I guesss that's what I get for correcting a customer.

3. A customer came in and wanted a cheeseburger

These stories are not even a joke. And these people weren't kidding either. haha. It definitely is funny.

My life has been so busy these past couple weeks I have found myself exercising at ten PM and cleaning my house and midnight. It's an awful schedule. haha. I hear it doesn't get any better from here either.

I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving break when I can go home and see my family for the first time since August. It's been too long. I am ready for home.

I know, my life is not very thrilling. I will write something later if something interesting happens.

Flooding...

I feel like the whole world is being overtaken by water. I was already aware that the Earth is like 70% water and 20% land. But, it seems like that gap is closing in even more lately with all the rain. I had no idea the flooding in Atlanta was so severe. I just looked up pictures of it yesterday on the internet. Six Flags was under water and some peoples homes were completely gone. It was a really weird thing to see.

Last night my bathroom/room was flooded. The apartment above us was doing their laundry and the washing machine overflowed. It ended up coming through the ceiling into my room and bathroom. I had buckets everywhere. THe maintenance guys came by today and said that my ceiling might crack. If that happens they have to replace part of it. At least our floors don't have to be replaced. The girls above us have to have all of their wood floors redone.

Another instance of flooding (a lot more severe than the flooding in my apartment) is going on in the Philippines right now. A Typhoon hit there about two days ago in Manila. For those of you who aren't aware of the makeup of the islands of the Philippines here is a little geography lesson for you: over 7,000 islands make up what we call the Philippines. The three main islands, however are: Luzon (the northern most island), Visayas (the middle island where Manila is located) and Mindanao (the southern most island which is where I spent my summer in Davao). The first Typhoon, Ketsana, hit Manila on the island of Visayas. Over 200 people are counted as dead and many more have lost their homes. A second typhoon, Parma, said to hit the upper most island of Luzon in a couple days is supposed to be even stronger than the one that just hit. I know the Philippines is used to typhoons. A couple hit while I was serving there last summer. However, these typhoons are causing much more destruction. As some of you know, I left part of my heart in the Philippines. I want nothing more than to be there for the people and to help them out. It breaks my heart because the people there have almost nothing. Their houses are shacks and they are not made to withstand such storms. I know that a lot of people are probably homeless now and have lost everything that they have. A storm like this, I feel, is much more devastating to these people than it would be to us in America. So, my heart goes out to them. All my precious little kids are fine in Mindanao. But, I am sad for the other parts of the Philippines that haven't been as fortunate and are losing lives, houses, and everything that they own. Please pray for them.

If you want to follow up on current events around the world (since America is pretty ethnocentric on its news reporting) you can check out : www.news.bbc.co.uk

It's sad that the rest of the world is so aware of what is going on in America but we have no clue what is going on around the world. We mostly only care about ourselves. That was something I learned when I was in the PHilippines. They knew the history of America and they even knew our current president. But, I couldn't have told you who their past or present leader was!

A major earthquake also just hit Indonesia, killing 1,000 (+) people. Samoa just had a Tsunami hit.

Just some major events around the world to be aware of and to be in prayer over!

On a different note...

1. My job is going well. I have been working a lot. I have realize standing on my feet for 8 hours straight is not comfortable. Most days I have come home with my entire body aching. Also, working at Chik Fil A has made me exhausted all the time. IT has kept me pretty tired.

2. Greek is getting more and more challenging for me. I got a "B" on my first test. And, I have gotten 100 on all of my quizzes. But, it is just starting to get over my head. Pray that I can still understand it after studying it and giving it my all.

3. School is challenging but good. I am learning how to balance my life with the work load and the work schedule at Chik Fil A. It's been a difficult adjustment and I have had to cut things from my daily routine. Thing I love! Oh well.

4. God is teaching me a lot!

Standing on the beach, or safe on the mountain top?

On December 26, 2004 a Tsunami of 9.3 magnitude rocked the countries of Thailand and Indonesia. These countries had cities and people that were left changed forever because of it. How easy it is to not be changed by such an event when you live so far away from it. How easy it is to forget it happened. How easy it is to be in America, safe and unharmed, and not want to do anything to help out.

At the Chik Fil A opening the other day we were having a conversation with a lady whose son worked in Thailand when the Tsunami hit. Neither her or her son are christians, so she didn't intend for the story to have a spiritual parallel. But, it was one of those stories where you could see a beautiful illustration coming to life. She said her son had been sent with his family to Thailand to be a medical doctor. He had just finished training two weeks before the Tsunami hit. In this training they covered what happens when a Tsunami is getting ready to hit. Her son was going about his normal business on December 26, when someone stopped by his house and said,"Come look at the water. It is all dried up. The water from the ocean is gone." He knew immediately (because of his training) that a Tsunami was about to hit. So he grabbed his son and headed to higher ground immediately. Because of his training he knew exactly what to do and he was saved because of it. However, there were countless people who were just walking along the beach, excited that the water was gone so they could pick up a bunch of amazing sea shells. They didn't know that they should run. They had no clue that they were in grave danger. What was about to kill them, they saw as something exciting. Those people died on the beach where they were picking up sea shells. If only someone had educated those people on what it is like when a Tsunami hits. If only the government had taken necessary precautions, those people might still be here today.

I know that's a depressing thought. But, our lives parallel this in so many ways. Because we know the Gospel and we know Christ, we are on higher ground, safe from the destruction of the waves that will come crashing back in (we are safe from hell and eternal separation from Christ). Unlike us Christians, there are so many people on the beach of life oblivious to their own destruction. They are side tracked by the hundreds of beautiful sea shells they are picking up, unaware that a huge wave is about to come back in and take their life. If someone would just come along and tell them what they need to know, their life could be saved!

It might be a cheesy example to you. But, the point is that there are so many people out there waiting to hear about Jesus Christ and no one is educating them. No one is telling them what they need to know! If someone would go! If someone would take the Gospel to them they could be saved from destruction!!!

God has called us to go! Too bad Americans (myself included far too many times) are way more worried about being cool than ever being a witness for Christ.

Verse 1:
He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

Pre-Chorus:
And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Chorus 1:
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

Verse 2:
We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
Chorus 2:
He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

Verse 3:
Well, I thought about You the day Stephen died,
And You met me between my breaking.
I know that I still love You, God, despite the agony.
...They want to tell me You're cruel,
But if Stephen could sing, he'd say it's not true, cause...

Chorus 3:
Cause He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

Chik Fil A is good to me!

What do you get when you combine 100 people + 36 hours of free food/games + sleeping in a tent in a restaurant parking lot? You get a Chik Fil A restaurant opening!

This past week I experienced something I never had before. When I moved into the apartments up here my two room mates kept talking about Chik Fil A openings. Natalie had been to one and she had a lot of fun. Ginny had never been and really wanted to go! I had never heard of it before. But apparently it is a pretty big deal.

Who knew, but apparently Chik Fil A has a big celebration every time they open a new restaurant. You can look on Chik Fil A's website and read more about it. But the gist of it is that they allow people to line up at their restaurant @ 6:00 AM, twenty-four hours before the grand opening of the store. They will then give each person there a raffle ticket. They draw for 100 people. The 100 people who get picked are allowed to camp out in the parking lot of the Chik Fil A for 24 hours until the stores grand opening. The 100 people picked get free food for those 24 hours. They also have games that are played to keep people entertained. We had a DJ come out and there was a dance party. There were also tons of other games.

Also, when the store opens at 6:00 AM the following morning, if you were hadn't dropped out or gotten disqualified you won 52 tickets for free combo meals at Chik Fil A.

There were a couple rules. The 100 who were picked HAD to stay in the chik fil a parking lot for those 24 hours. The premises were roped off and no one was allowed to leave. You were only allowed inside for short bathroom breaks. And, they had a couple of rules: no cussing, no smoking, no drinking, no crude humor, no voilence. If you didn't obey the rules you were disqualified and sent home.

It was really funny. It was like survivor meets Chik Fil A. It cracked me up. I had never heard of it before so I found it really amusing.

Of course, me, Ginny, Danae and Christina were there together and we decided to go the night before. We ended up getting there around midnight. Which was about 40 hours before the store even opened. There were policeman patroling the area so it was safe. However, I didn't get any sleep because we were in the car. The next day we all stood in line and luckily, all four of us got picked from the raffle. So we set up a tent in the Chik Fil A parking lot. ha. It was insane. There were 100 tents in the parking lot. It was such a weird environment. I met a lot of fun people though and it was just good to hang out and do something random. I had never done something like that before and I will probably never do it again. But it was a good experience and I got 52 free Chik Fil A meals out of it.

Chik Fil A has been pretty good to me lately. I won a free prize basket from them, then they hired me as an employee, and then I got 52 tickets. haha.

I did start work there on Friday. It is an easy job. It doesn't take much brain power. However, it is pretty exhausting. I am on my feet the whole time and I am constantly going back and forth and giving people their food. It's not going to be my favorite job but it will be good. I work with a lot of awesome people. And I am even more impressed with Chik FIl A now that I am an employee. Let me just tell all of you: Chik Fil A HAS to be the cleanest fast food chain that exists. And I even go in the kitchen. If I can say that AFTER having watched people prepare the food that means something! HA!

Anyways, classes are still going well. Just trying to learn Greek and understand it. I am enjoying school still. My friends are still awesome! Jonathan moved up here about a week and a half ago! So life is good!

Fall is in the air..

The past week was really good! Just like every week since I've been here. I am sure things will start picking up and getting a little bit more overwhelming. But, that hasn't happened quite yet.

Greek is pretty overwhelming. There is SO MUCH to memorize. It can be kind of confusing sometimes. But, I am getting it and it is really exciting to already be able to read greek phrases and things! I can't wait until I am reading and understanding greek even more than I am right now! I am ready to be able to do that! I have done well on both of my quizzes so far. We have two lessons per week and a quiz every thursday.

Baptist History is really good too! I have never known much about Baptist history and I haven't even learned a lot about what Baptist's believe. I think I was more a baptist because my parents were and it was in line with what I thought was right according to the little I knew about Baptist doctrine. But being in the class has opened my eyes more to what Baptist's believe and why we believe it! And, it is nice to be able to figure out where I stand on issues and to be a baptist for a deeper reason. I want my faith to be my own in every aspect. I never thought this class would be so interesting! But, it is by far my favorite class to sit in and listen to the professor.

Women's Counseling is something I wanted to take because my desire is to work with women and children overseas. And since that is my goal, I know it would be helpful to go through women's issues and figure out how to help someone through all sorts of problems. Southeastern is solely Biblical Counseling. Which means they don't bring in psychology at all. They only use the Bible to help people through their issues. It's been a good class as well and I believe it will be helpful in the future! My heart is to help women and children!

I have enjoyed the seminary schedule more than the college schedule. I only have classes three days a week. So I have enough free time to do my homework and have fun hanging out with my friends. It definitely makes me feel less stressed to not have class five days a week! My friends and I spend a lot of time playing cards. haha. It's a free way to have fun.

I got to hang out with Cameron last weekend! It's really nice to be close to her!

I am still looking for a church to attend. I have visited two different churches and am not a big fan of either one. But, I hear there is a really good one in Wake Forest we haven't been to yet.

I have a job interview tomorrow afternoon so pray I get the job! I need a job for sure!

Unlike at Toccoa, I actually really like chapel here! They get really amazing people to sing and speak. WE took up an offering for christmas in August. For those of you who don't know, the IMB has had to completely cut out the 2+2 program they had going. That is where seminary students can do two years in seminary and then finish up their degree overseas getting experience. Once they come back the IMB counts them as ready to go on the mission field full time. They are MAJORLY cutting back on the amount of journeyman they are allowing and they are even pulling missionaries off of the field. The number of missionaries they are allowing career status right now has gone way down. They were 60 million lower than normal for the Christmas offering they take up.

Anyways, all this to say they have arranged for Christmas in August to be taken to help out with the budget being so low. Our seminary participated in that and we raised over 60,000 dollars to help out! I thought that was really awesome!

And, considering I am wanting to go overseas with the IMB I have been sad about what is happening with them. But I know God has called me overseas and he will take care of it.

I have heard two really good quotes lately and wanted to share them.

"you are more evil than you ever feared, you are more loved than you ever hoped"

"The Gospel will only become good news to them AFTER it has actually become good news to us."

I am thankful my friends have a camera since mine is broken right now. Here are some pictures Ashleigh took of me and my friends:

The Seven

Today was the first day of class.

This is my schedule:

TWR: Baptist History @ 11:30-12:20
TW: Greek 1 @ 12:30-1:50
T: Counseling Women @ 3:30-6:30

I have never not had classes on Mondays/Fridays before. So, it's really nice to have those extra days of relaxation. Soon they will be used for studying and reading. haha. But, still, I think it's nice to only have three days of classes.

I have been applying to several jobs. I applied at YMCA, a nanny organization, Chik-Fil-A and the library.

I got a call back from Chik-Fil-A today for an interview and they are calling me back for a second interview. So, I made it past the first round. They have been the only people even remotely interested in calling me back. So that has been nice. It isn't my ideal job. But it's a job nonetheless. And that is what I needed! So, it will all workout! I have my foot in the door at the nanny company so they said they would contact me if something else came along.

I have had some pretty embarassing experience in the past couple days:

On Wednesday I went to work out for the first time since I moved here at the (horrible) weight room on campus. I got there and was working out really hard on the eliptical. I realized I didn't feel well, so after fifteen minutes of pushing myself I decided to switch over to the bike. I got off of the eliptical just in time to have to run to the bathroom and puke in front of three older ladies. They were freaking out wanting to call an ambulance and stuff. I got an email later in the day from the employment office asking if I was ok. Come to find out, one of the ladies that helped me in the bathroom worked in the employment office. Talk about being embarassed!!! What a horrilbe first gym experience!!! HA!

Today I went to my first class and sat through it. At the end I headed to my next class. When I got there I took a seat right up in the front row in dead center of the professor. I had already had conversations with those around me. When class finally started the professor said his name and the name of the course and I realized I was in the wrong classroom. When I walked out I realized I wasn't in the wrong classroom, but I just didn't have class today! HAHA! It was a good surprise, but a little embarrassing. Oh well. It was bound to happen, right?

Tonight was Sarah Beth's birthday party. So Ashleigh cooked poppyseed chicken, fried okra, corn and green beans. We opened presents and had dessert too. Then we played the card game NERTZ for like two hours. It is so addicting and fun! I should teach it to all you guys at some point! We all love it! I am really enjoying it here! God has given me such good friends! I already have a core group of friends that I feel like I have such a strong connection with! I don't know if I have ever had so many mature/amazing/christian friends that are headed down the same path I am in life! It's so much fun! There are seven of us that all hang out together and so Ashleigh name us "the seven". haha. So original. But, we are always hanging out together. I have most of my classes with some of them! Except Greek because I was the only one brave enough to take it (hope I don't regret that choice). haha.

I really like my professors too so far-they seem really awesome! I can't wait to learn!

Tomorrow Cameron is coming to see me...which I am looking forward to! And then Saturday me and the Seven are going to see PostGrad!

Pray that I get a job, please! I will keep you updated!

North Carolina

Hey everyone! I thought it was time for me to update you on how my move to North Carolina went and how my life is going up here so far!

My camera broke, so unfortunately I won't have any pictures to upload. I haven't even taken any pictures yet, which is really sad! I guess I need to invest in a new camera...only I don't have the money for one! HA! SAD!

I moved up here on Friday. It took a long 7 hours to get here. That isn't counting the stops for gas, the restroom or eating. So, it really took about 8 1/2 hours. It was a LONG trip. Even longer than I expected it to be. I had a lot of stuff too. It took a while to get settled. I am always overwhelmed when I have TONS of boxes to unpack.

But, I got it all unpacked and put away. My apartment is SO NICE! I have a dishwasher, refrigerator, washer/dryer, etc...We even have cable/DVR and wireless. We have wood floors and a cute little yard in the back. I have a room with my own bathroom. It's so nice! I am getting really spoiled! I really wish I could post some pictures of it for you!

I got to go shopping with my mom that night at super target (yes, there is one right up the road. I keep telling everyone because I am just THAT excited about it). My mom reminded me to look at the price of things and to bargain shop! That was nice! And, who knew, but you can save SO MUCH money by just buying the target brand and the target brand tastes amazing so far (in my opinion). It's good to learn how to have a budget and not blow money on dumb things. I think that will come especially handy when I get married next year. I am glad I am learning it now. And it's kind of fun now to see what kind of deals I can get! HA!

Saturday I drove to Jonathan's family reunion in spartanburg, SC. So I ended up driving a LONG way there and back. It was good to see his extended family though! I was exhausted by the time I got back to the apartment. I finally got to meet Ginny and Natalie (my house mates) in person. That was GREAT! God has blessed me so much in every way so far! These girls are amazing! They love the Lord with all their heart and we all get along great. They are way more outgoing and bubbly than I am. So that has been awesome. They've helped me meet new friends. We have become pretty close with three girls in the apartment across the street: Ashley, Sarah Beth and Denae. The crazy thing is I went to middle school with Sarah Beth! It was so random to see her again!

I have been really busy getting everything settled and hanging out with the girls.

We went to church at Richland Creek Community Church on Sunday. It is a southern baptist church, in case everyone was going to ask that. I wasn't too impressed. But, we will see. I think me and Natalie are going to try out a church in Raleigh this weekend that has an amazing ministry with the lost in downtown! I want to get involved in a church and in doing ministry! So, that church seems exciting to me!

Today we had "marticulation" (orientation) for seven hours. It was horrible. I hate it when people spend hours telling me information I could just read on my own! But, I got to meet some new people. Natalie was really sweet and gave us all coupons. So, we went to Chik-Fil-A and all got value meals for FREE!

I think I am really going to love it here! God has already given me an amazing community of friends. We have done so many things together already! It's a lot of fun hanging out with them!

I really like the area! It is really pretty and has everything you could really need.

Dan Aiken spoke this morning and he seems AWESOME! As do the professors here. Everything seems really solid. Dan is SUPER blunt. But, I love that about him! He is so straight up about the christian life! And I appreciate that so much!

I sign up for classes tomorrow and I have started looking for a job! Pray that God will provide a job for me! That is really the only missing piece to the puzzle up here!

A lot has happened since I last updated everything. I guess I figure most people who read this blog are involved in my life right now. So, they already know what is going on.

My life has been incredibly insane lately.

I can't help but wish I were in the Philippines again this summer. I have really missed the children and the country. I have missed everything about it. And I know it will always have a place in my heart.

Since I last wrote I have gotten engaged. Which is really insane. If you want to know the story just check it out on my facebook page. So now I am rushing to plan certain things for my wedding before I go off to seminary (8 hours away from my mom) for the semester. It's exciting!

Last week I got to go on vacation with my family. I always look forward to that time of the summer and I find it incredibly sad when it is over. I love the beach SO MUCH! We spent a lot of time on the beach and playing tennis. It was fun!

I leave for seminary on August 14. I have already spoken to the two girls I will live with and it seems like God has already been so gracious in blessing me with them! We seem like we have similar passions and interests. Also, they have everything we could possibly need (even a washer and dryer). Which is a big deal because I have practically nothing. It really seems like my entire life is changing right now. My life will never be the same again, really! It's an interesting transition for sure!

I will get more detailed on my life when I am away from everyone and people actually don't know what is going on in my life. haha.

Here are some pictures from the past couple weeks:

Scuba Diving....

It's been over a year since I left for the Philippines, in fact, a year ago I was halfway through my time there!

I miss it a lot! Thinking back on all the things God taught me and all the cute kids doesn't help!

I so badly want to go back there and see those children again!

I had some of my most awkward moments of my life in the Philippines! HAHA! In fact, I had more awkward moments there than I ever have in my life! I would relive some of the hilarity but I am afraid everyone else wouldn't get why it was so funny! HAHA!

Anyways, Sarah Myers emailed me these scuba diving pictures from last summer. I forgot she had them. I thought they were funny. There is one picture that shows me holding some sea creature that looks like a spider and I was like,"I can't believe I did that!"

In the PHilippines Scuba diving costs about 20 bucks. You don't have to have a license or training or anything. We got a 10 minute speech on what to do and were set loose! HAHA! IT was a lot of fun!

So...here are some pictures!

A Wedding....

This weekend was a good break from the everyday chores I have! I am enjoying relaxing at home but sometimes I get bored because practically everyday is the same for me. I guess that's really how life is though, right?

Summer has been good for me so far. I have enjoyed getting to actually read something of my choosing. I have enjoyed exercising whenever right after I wake up instead of in the middle of my day!

Friday I headed down to Winder, GA for my friend, Heather Price's wedding. She was my room mate this past semester is colllege while meredith was in Russia. I love her a lot! Friday was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. She asked me to sing in the wedding so I went to all the festivities. It was only my second wedding to sing in. ANd to be honest, I don't feel like I have a good enough voice to sing on someone's wedding day. Heather asked me to sing "How Sweet It Is" by James Taylor. haha. It was a growing experience.

The rehearsal dinner was at her house. It was a lot of fun to see some friends from Toccoa and to hang out with them. I don't get to do that often and I really miss some of them! The bachelorette party was that night and we were really just out to embarass Heather. We made her dress in a really hideous outfit and do a bunch of crazy things for prizes. It was a cute idea and nothing about it was inappropriate or gross (no worries). It was really funny! Here is an example of something we did. We went to Mellow Mushroom for dessert that night. Our waiters name was Ross and so everytime he came to the table we made Heather yell out his name "Hey Ross" in a really excited voice. We basically just wanted to make her look like an idiot. haha. We also painted our toe nails and did girly things. ha!

The next morning was the wedding and it was at Staghorn Plantation in Nicholson, GA. It was SO BEAUTIFUL! The wedding was at 11 and I had to be there around 9:30 for a sound check. It was BURNING up outside. I definitely got sweaty. It was just too bad I couldn't wear my huge Willy Wonka sunglasses while I sang. The wedding was one of the most beautiful I have ever been to! Heather was gorgeous and the location was gorgeous. She actually rode up in a horse drawn carriage. IT was really neat!

The reception had dancing and stuff which reminded me of just how white I really am!

Afterwards mine and Jonathan's friends-Ben and Ashley came with us to play disc golf. I am horrible at it. But, it was fun to hang out together.

That night Me and Jonathan went on a double date with Sara and Andrew to the Gwinnett Braves. The seats were all sold out so we ended up sitting in the grass near the outfield. It was fun though! I was in the sun all day long so I was completely burnt when the day was over.

Sunday Jonathan took me to Stone Mountain and we watched the Laser Light show! IT was fun! I hadn't been in a long time! I really like watching it!

It was a really good weekend! Now I am back to cleaning. I am in desperate need of rest though! I am exhausted. And my allergies have been really bad lately. I have had a headache and itchy and watery eyes! My throat has been hurting for over a week! It hasn't been fun!

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

The Zoo

I have gotten settled in at home now. My days are very different from when I was at school. I been busy working for my mom cleaning the house and doing laundry, dishes and things. It's nice to be able to be at home. Since it is my last summer at home I want to enjoy it.

It's been good being home. I have gotten to see some friends I hadn't seen in a while! That is always nice!

This past weekend I got to go visit Jonathan. It was fun! We went up to his grandparents house on Sunday and had a cookout with all of his relatives. I met all of his mom's side of the family. It was good to get to know some of the people he's related to! They have some of the cutest kids on that side of the family.

On Monday we went to Zoo Atlanta. I have never been! It was a lot of fun! They have some of the cutest animals there! I was sad that they didn't have more bears. I think those are my favorite. I really wanted to see a Polar Bear and Koala Bear but they didn't have them! They did have some pandas though! They were really cute! I enjoyed looking at all the cute little animals!

It was a good weekend with Jonathan. Now I am back home until my friend's wedding on June 13th. I am singing in it.

Here are some pictures from the weekend: