my room: before and after

before

after!

                                                                        before

                                                                     after

                                 close up on the bed-spread pattern: by American Heritage

                                                                      I think my new journal is so cute!
      

so pretty

Check out some items on the right that I have found that I think are so cute :)

I Need a Camera! And I Need Help! :)

Being the absent minded, creative, free-thinking person that I am, I often lose stuff.  I hate this aspect of my personality, but I guess if I'm the type to think outside of the box, then if the box represents my life, I often forget what is actually in the box.  Does that make any sense?  Probably not.  Oh well.

But that being said, I lost something very dear to me, and very expensive (at least to me).  My camera.  I lost it in the Tatra Mountains of Slovakia in a coffee shop.  I know it sounds exotic, but it still doesn't make losing my camera any better.  Thankfully, it was toward the tail end of my time in Slovakia this summer, so I didn't miss too much documentation.  The sad thing is, I missed documenting this past semester because I didn't have the funds to buy a new one.  I really regret that.  Pictures mean so much to me, and they capture memories so concisely and vividly.

So, being that I am going to be a semester in Colorado, and being that I have some extra money on my hands at the moment, I am looking to buy a new camera!!!  I will do everything in my willpower to hold on to this precious gem and not let it out of my sight (or put it in a floppy bag that it can fall out of, which is what happened before).  So here is my inquiry:  Have any of you bought a camera recently that is in the 150-250 dollar price range that you have been exceedingly happy with that you would love to recommend?  I am thinking about a Canon Power Shot, but I'm not quite sold yet.

And here is another question for all of you creative types out there (maybe you are also left-handed like me):  however nebulous this question might be, do you have any tried and true strategies for hanging on to valuables so they DO NOT get lost?  I won't go through the laundry list, but I have lost quite a number of things dear to me in my life, and I am tired of it!!!  I have gotten much better, but I know I have a long way to go.  Just thought I would throw it out there and see what answers I might get back.  Thank you so much!  I would appreciate your advice!

 

I'm Going to Colorado!

It has been a long time - too long - since I wrote on my blog.  But since my last post, some big changes are coming up, so I thought this  would be a good time to pick up blogging again.

The biggest change that's coming up is that I will be moving to Colorado Springs, Colorado, for a semester to take classes at the Focus on the Family Institute and to do an internship there.  The semester starts on January 20th, and ends on April 29th.  So I will be there for a good four months - I'm so excited!

The Focus on the Family Institute is for mainly college Juniors and Seniors who are interested in Christian leadership positions and ministry for their future.  The classes I will be taking there revolve around family studies (duh!) and Christian Worldview.  I'm not exactly sure what my internship will be quite yet - but that will be assigned to me soon.  There will be about 80-90 other students there with me.  We'll all be taking the same classes and living in apartment complexes.  So exciting!  I will live in an apartment with three other girls.  Our apartment has it's own kitchen, living room, and dining area.  This may sound silly - but I'm SO excited about that!  I guess after having lived in a dorm and eating cafeteria food for so long, I'm excited at the opportunity to cook my own meals and live a more "normal" life in an apartment, rather than just a dorm room.

I'm also really excited about the people I will meet there.  They pray really hard about who they will accept into this program, and only accept people they feel like the Lord is leading them to accept.  It will be great to meet peers that are interested in similar things as I am, and also build new friendships.  

I'm saving up for a new camera right now, so hopefully by the time I get there, I will be able to post some pics of my apartment, the Institute, and my adventures along the way!

Most Inspiring YouTube video EVER!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

Above is a link to watch an incredable video from "Britain's Got Talent." This video represents so much more to me than a man finally being able to live his dream - it represents a man taking advantage of "a God given opportunity" to do what "he was born to do." What a gracious God we have that would see fit to give us as humans the opportunity to have such gifts!! It makes me cry everytime. May we all have such a moment in our lives.

Credit Crisis

The following website helped me understand the oft-mentioned "credit crisis" - if you are not a fan of all the financial jargon, this will help - and it comes from a Christian perspective

www.realtruth.org/credit_crisis

I hope this helps!

Homecoming Banquet!

Hey ya'll! I write this to you in a very tired state. I was up really late last night writing a book review for Old Testament Theology on Stephen Dempster's Dominion and Dynasty. The book's thesis is that we need to be reading the Old Testament as a whole and finding unity in the text. We too long have focused on the minute details of the Old Testament and have missed the main concepts. Dempster argues that the two themes he sees emerging through all of the Old Testament are Dominion (Land) and Dynasty (Genealogies). These twin themes weave their way into the text and give all the small details in the narrative unity. But I won't bore you with the details :) I really recommend this book if you are seeking to understand the Old Testament better. Because I love all of you and I know most of you (if not all of you!) want to understand God's Word more - this is my message to you (from my meager two years of being a Bible major!): Don't ignore the Old Testament!!! It may seem really confusing at times, but there is SO much richness there that you cannot afford to miss. It really unlocks the New Testament when you understand the Old. Alright - I'll get off my high horse now :) But seriously, if you are at a loss as to where to start, let me know, and I'll give you some suggestions. This has seriously changed my life and I think the church needs to fall in love with the scriptures as a whole again.

Ok - to what this post was ORIGINALLY supposed to be about - Homecoming banquet! So my tiny school has a lot of banquets every year, and the first one is Homecoming. At Bryan, it is traditional for the guys to come up with a creative way to ask the girls to the banquet, so it is fun to hear all the stories. I went in a group with my friend Ryan. Him and his friend Nate asked me and a friend, Diane, by giving us scrammbeled notes in our mailboxes that we had to decifer. We finally figured out where to meet them and when. When we got to the spot, they walked out of the chapel and asked us :) Sweet!

The banquet was really neat. It was an under the sea theme, complete with goldfish centerpieces. I won the gold fish at my table. Sadly, Campy (named after my friend Hannah Camp) and Stevie (named after my dad!) are now in Fishy heaven :( I tried folks - I really tried. Anyway - after the good meal and entertainment, our dates took us to Wal-Mart (Dayton is a SMALL town - we do what we can!) and we did a scavenger hunt for ingredients for a desert we were going to make. After this we went to a prof's house, made our desert and watched a movie. Fun times! Although I'm not a big fan of all the hype and drama that goes into banquets at Bryan (sometimes it seems a little High School), I am trying to appreciate them and enjoy then while I can, since this is such a short season of my life.

I snapped pictures all night - here are some of my faves!