Summer has Officially Started!

Summer has officially started!!  I came back to the OBX on May 13th from UNCG and I then had to leave again on May 17th for my Teaching Fellows trip across NC called "Discovery".  Discovery was fun but very long, lots of hours logged on a charter bus, and not alot of sleep.  It was neat to see different counties in NC, visit schools and businesses, and meet other Teaching Fellows from different campuses.  I start work tom., 12-8, (yay!) in Duck at the Culinary Duck and then will hopefully get some hours in at Capt'n Franks in the future. I really love to work because I am able to earn much needed money but at the same time I do NOT like driving in the traffic and dealing the the tourons...I mean tourists. I'm pretty sure I can say that  after next summer I will definitely be ready to live in Greensboro on a year round basis. :)  

Happy Memorial Day to everyone, and thank you to all of you out there who have served and are currently serving our country!  And here are some Discovery pics to close out the night:

The amazing subgroup B of Bus # 5

Me and Ashley....goofy face :)

We are a beautiful table of UNCG Teaching Fellows.

Bus 5, Get it Right!!

Wrapping it up

Today was the last day of classes of my freshman year of college!  Crazyyyy :)  I have two exams-one on the 8th and another on the 13th and then I will be headed home to the OBX for the summer.  I may be going home this weekend but that's still up in the air.

Today was a very long day though-I had an oral exam in Spanish (tough but ok), a meeting with Dr. Miller from the School of Ed. to discuss study abroad (went well, very nice guy), and a Geography exam at 6 (been dreading it since last week, thought there was no way I could cram all the info on agriculture, manufacturing, and the economy into my little brain, BUT my amazing roomie Sadie prayed with me and the exam was the easiest one yet!).

We have had alot of fun in the past week or so; the weather has been pretty amazing up until maybe the last 3 or 4 days (?); we were able to go to a place called Piney Lake (it's like 10 min. from campus and free to UNCG students) last weekend which was so much fun.  We kayaked, laid out, and played volleyball all afternoon. But I'm pretty sure I was in the library till 2 every night last week except for Thurs.  One of those nights we took a midnight run to Steak n Shake-so much fun, def. doing it again.  Sadie and I got a storage unit in Greensboro so we took a ton of stuff there on Saturday-we felt pretty accomplished.  

Summer is gonna be crazy with work, weddings, and Megan's graduation.  Can't wait :)

Good thing this is college!

It's a good thing this is college because my mind changes ALOT.  My study abroad plans have changed AGAIN from Spain back to Australia.  After looking through my degree evaluation,  It's going to be very hard for me to go to Spain and only take Spanish classes because I will not be taking any education classes and I have no classes toward a religious studies concentration; it will be hard to convince the Teaching Fellows commission to go because I will not be taking any classes toward my teaching license/major, and I will be behind even if I take 19 hours a semester.  SO, that said, there is a four week trip to Spain that UNCG does in the summer that I may apply for next year because I still feel like I should pursue Spanish but I don't necessarily have to obtain a degree or minor to say that I know spanish.  My top two Australia choices remain at James Cook and Edith Cowan and I will be pursuing a concentration in geography (only 4 classes away from it) and a minor in religious studies (only 4 classes away).  All of my application stuff is do by September 15th so I'm in the process of collecting possible classes to take as well as looking for recommendations.  

Only 7 days of classes left before exams!  But that means little time to get alot of work accomplished and study.  The weather is making it easier though-70's and 80's and sunny.  

Here's a good Bible verse for you, we talked about it heavily on Wed. night at church and it has really transformed my mind:  "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship."  Romans 12:1

A Breather...Finally!

Finally, A breather!  With only 13 actual days of classes left, and exams coming up, school has been crazy.  I still cannot believe this semester (as well as freshman year) has flown by so fast.  I have already registered for classes for fall semester and am taking 19 credit hours so I will be quite busy.  The rundown currently is: Teaching Fellows class, Spanish 301, Teacher Education 250, Soc 335 Marriage and Family, ELC 381 The Institution of Education,  Rel. 225 Islam, and HSS 222 The Reel World: Contemporary History on Screen.  I think I have ended up changing my concentration and my minor around at least 3 or 4 times so as it stands now I remain an Elementary Ed. Major with a concentration in Religious Studies and a minor in Spanish.  I originally vowed to never take another spanish class BUT I think God has other plans (he always does :)  I will be studying abroad next spring and my original plan was to go to Australia but I think God may be calling me to go to Spain so that I can become pretty conversationally fluent in spanish; I know the vocab, grammar, rules, and I'm not too bad at writing it, but I cannot speak it well because I have never been put in a situation where it is the language I have to use so if I go somewhere like Spain, no one speaks English so I will be forced to use Spanish.  I also said I never wanted to go anywhere in Europe and the whole prospect of going somewhere with no english freaks me out a little, but if this is what God wants then so be it.  I just wish that he would put someone in front of me with a big sign that says Spain on it just so I would be sure, but I guess that's where faith comes in.      

As far as plans for the summer are concerned, I will be on the OBX for the entire summer as Lauren Lee is getting married in June, and Cathy is getting married in July; I will most likely be working at the same two places as last year-Capt'n Franks, and The Culinary Duck, so another year of tourists.  I will be home on May 13th for several days before leaving again to do a bus trip across North Carolina with all NC Teaching Fellows May 17th-22nd.  

What Easter is all About

Phil Wickham - True Love (The Wall)

He hears my voice when I call

Summer is coming so fast! although I'm not sure the weather is in agreement...it was almost 80 degrees on Sunday and today is may not make it to 50.  I cannot wait to be back home for the summer so I can soak up some rays :)  This week is busy with 3 exams and a paper due, but that brings me ever closer to finishing up classes for the semester, and I get to go home this weekend to see the fam. for Easter which I'm excited about.  

I feel like there are alot of things swirling around in my brain right now: school, finding a car, school next year, study abroad, teaching, where God wants me, how will God use me?, am I afraid for him to use me?, what is my spiritual gift (or gifts)?, what's my prayer language? (had a long convo. in the hall last night till 2AM with Sadie and an amazing friend Kristina, about stuff like prayer language, spiritual gifts, visions, angels, and demons.)  Some of this stuff is very new to me, and quite honestly, kinda scary.  Just not sure about some things right now, but it's ok.  

I wanted to share a song with u: it's called Psalam 91 by SonicFlood and it's one of my favorite songs right now, hope you like it. 

Psalm 91, when you click this link it will say there's an error but if you click on the "about" link in blue and then type in Psalm 91 it will come up and you can play it.

Still Alive :)

Hey! I'm still alive out here :) Life has just been crazy since I got back from Spring Break so I haven't been blogging in a little bit.  We only have about 26 days of actual classes left which is freaking me out quite honestly, since I have alot of work due, but I'm at peace knowing God's got it under control!

I have really just been amazed at what God has been doing in my life and in the lives of those around me; I really don't even know where to start.  One amazing picture of God's power happened last Wed. night:  I got rid of my pink eye before I returned from break but it came back again in my right eye on Monday.  I went to church Wed. night, still having issues with my eye, and Travis and Tiffany two people on the college leadership team have been praying over people that need physical healing and they asked if there was anyone that needed prayer for healing; I went to them and explained my eye situation.  They prayed over me and I went back to the dorm that night and noticed right away that the redness in my right eye was gone;  the next morning when I woke up (I didn't put in antibiotic drops that night)  there was absolutely no junk coming from my eye and or anything-God is the amazing healer :)

I will share more stories when I get a chance and try to get back to a regular blogging schedule.