"Home" (Naperville) is where my heart is
Let me just start off by saying I love being at "home". This is truly where my heart is these days. Being away from school has been awesome... it was definitely time for a break. At least a break from class. I'm kinda missin my friends, but I think we all know why. So, it's Saturday night and for the first time all break I'm relaxing. I've had a blast hanging out with old friends, that's for sure! But it's nice to just chill. My friend, Laura and I were talking about how its so weird that at this time next year our group of friends is going to be not only spread across the country, but across the world. We were looking through old pictures of us in middle/high school and at church and its so wild how much we've grown and changed, not just physically of course. We're so old these days. Most of my friends are married, engaged, or in a seriously relationship thinking about marriage and it's nuts and a huge leap from where we were when we first met. I love coming back here though because walking into friend's houses is like walking into my own home. It's a huge comfort to know that these places where I spent most of my childhood are still going to be here even when I'm gone (as in not in the area anymore).We were bummed when we were talking about how things used to be and all that, but it's also super exciting and amazing because despite all the changes that we've all gone through we're still friends. We're always going to be friends on some level, especially if we can go 3 years without seeing each other (Rob) and still be cool. This is yet another reason why Christ is amazing and so faithful. He provides for us and then it's in our hands, but as long as He's in our lives, we're good. Make sense? It does to me, so I'm moving on. :o)Tomorrow I have to make the dreaded drive back to the WU and try to finish up this semester strong. I'm meeting an old high school/IWU friend for coffee before heading back, so maybe that'll give me enough of a boost to get back to school. I'm so not wanting to deal with these next 2 or 3 weeks. Not just the school work, but figuring out friendships and what not. I'm sure it'll be good though... God's got my back. One a different note I'm totally psyched about decorating my apartment tomorrow night! It's gonna be so fun! Actually I have to wrap this up because I'm helping Liz and Terry set up their tree as soon as Kayla goes to sleep. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!
Yay for break!
So, this past weekend was crazy good times! My brother and dad were in IL for Kayla's b-day and this weekend was the party. It's always a good time when my dad's side gets together. It was just great to have everyone there together... minus my mommy... darn her job. It's been hectic since last time I wrote. I had two 10 page research papers due this week so that's been keeping me busy. I finished one last week, but the one that was due today I didn't even get printed until about 3 minutes before class. But they're done and I finally feel like I can breathe a little bit. I'm about to head home for break in a few minutes... as soon as my laundry is done and I don't plan on thinking about homework or school for the next 5 days! This break is totally needed right now!I can't wait to just spend time with my family and friends who I never get to see anymore. Wanna hear something kinda pathetic though? I miss my friends from here already. But I'm sure we'll get through these 5 days just fine without one another. So, what else did I do this past week other than homework? Not too much really. I spent a lot of time hanging with Trent, I spent a lot of time playing guitar. It was a pretty good week. I still have a ton of stuff weighing on me, but I've found a way to ignore it for now. I just want to be happy and have fun, so that's what I'm gonna do!I hope you all have a great break and I'm sure I'll update in a few days when I'm bored.
Oh how I love flying kites and playing some guitar!
It seems like it's been forever since I wrote on here last. A lot has happened in the past week. Friday night a friend came up and stayed with me, which was fun! Saturday I had new foster parent training at the internship, then Saturday night I hung out with Ash for a while, then Trent. Sunday Steph came and stayed at our place which is always a good time. We just kinda hung around the apartment because we're all poor. Trent came over for a while. Nothing too exciting. Yesterday I spent most of the day working on one of my research papers and got a good portion of it done before Trent and Drew came over last night. I do have to say that I'm having a blah week. Don't get me wrong I've had lots of fun with all of these people, but it's been hard to be focused because of stuff weighing on my mind. I'm having a rough time with some stuff right now, but I'm trying to just look to God. Doesn't it drive you nuts when you just want to be alone, but everyone else thinks that they have to "fix" you? Sometimes I don't want to be fixed, you know? I want to be able to take something to God and trust that He will be with me without others. It's good to do that. Maybe I just wear my heart on my sleeve too much... something that perhaps I should be working on.Anyway, on the upside I've been playing guitar a ton more which is always great. I go through droughts, but when they end all I want to do is play and write. It's great. I've been trying to teach Trent guitar and usually when I teach someone I end up not wanting to play because I get sick of it, but this time is different. I'm actually having fun and enjoying myself. Funny story time... last week it was super windy and what is more fun on a windy day than flying a kite?? Nothing! So I decided that I had to find a kite. We went to Walmart and the people practically laughed at me because they are out of season. But was I going to give up that easy? Nope! I bought the stuff I thought I needed to build a kite. It couldn't be that hard right? So with my dowel rods, string, tape, and a garbage bag Trent, me, and ashley built a kite. Trent and I secured the bag on with tape and off we went to Matter Park to try and get it to fly. Needless to say it never got more than 3 feet off the ground... UNTIL this crazy guy started running towards us saying that he could help because he is a kite designer. A kite designer? What the heck?! So this guy helped us tie our string differently and added some weight to the tail and the kite actually flew! For about 5 seconds. (hey it was better than the first couple of tries!) All in all it was a very funny time. And Ashley thought it was going to be dumb. Being spontaneous is fun and I highly recommend it to all!I've decided that I need to be having fun and doing random things like that now. In five months I'm going to be out of school (hopefully) and into the real world where I'm going to have to be serious for the rest of my life. So why not fly a kite? Why not go to Walmart and goof around and buy a Christmas CD in November? Why not be weird and goofy?? So anyways... another thing really quickly. Be supportive of your friends. Even if they talk about the same thing all the freaking time. You never know how deeply something could be affecting them and by blowing it off you could potentially be hurting them worse. Being a good friend sometimes means hearing the same junk over and over. Sometimes it just means that you offer an ear even when they don't really want to talk about it. That's it from me. I gotta cut out early... I got some stuff I gotta do. (this is a quote from School of Rock, if you didn't know... you should!)
Drama, drama, drama
I need to start off by saying happy birthday to my niece Kayla! She is 1 year old today!!! To think that it's been a year since she was born is nuts. She's an amazing addition to our family and I love her with everything I've got.In other news... my little brother, Vincent is in Naperville right now as we speak (as I type, as you read) and all I want to do is leave school and go see him. Knowing that he is a mere 4 hour drive away kills me because I don't get to spend that much time with him. I can't do this though because the rest of my week involves 2 major tests and two 10 page research papers... none of which I've started to do anything for. You might be asking yourself how I've gotten so far behind. Well the answer is simple: I hate school with a passion. I'm having much more fun hanging out with friends and spending time with people I won't see after Christmas than I would be if I was doing work. Now you're probably thinking that I just have one more semester after this one and you are correct, but all I can see right now is the day ahead of me. Graduation is 5 months away, but I think I've given up. I'm not an intellectual type who loves school. I love being social and having fun when everyone else is having fun. The things in my life that are going to matter are going to be the intereactions I had with others.Don't get me wrong... I'm not dumb and I realize that by being at school I'm glorifying God in my work, but just give me this on right now. Most of you who read this are done with school or about to be done so you all know what it feels like to just want to quit... just want to be done. That's where I'm at. Maybe tomorrow it'll change, though probably not. I have a way of being dramatic, especially when I'm tired after spending 6 hours in a HOT tv studio all the while knowing that I could be hanging out with one of my favorite people right now. Anyway... life goes on. Those that are the praying type could pray for my focus so that maybe tomorrow I'll wake up, study and take one of my tests and knock out 8 or 9 pages of one of my papers. I sure hope a lot of you are the praying type!
Do you have an alter?
I know that I've always been a little obsessed with Third Day, but this new album is absolutely incredible. The lyrics... the music... Mac Powell's voice... all of it is amazing. I definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone. Music is a huge part of my life and I rarely fall in love with an entire album because I'm pretty criticle, but I sat down and listened to it in it's entirety and was blown away. Please don't take my word for it though. Go out and get a copy.Anyway, enough of that. For those of you who are faithful blog readers you probably noticed that I deleted my last entry. If you read it, I'm sorry for you... if not, great. I read over it and decided it was too personal and I need to do a better job of watching what I write. But I do have some good news, I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to geico. Ok, maybe not, but I did pass my CLEP test by a lot which means that next semester I only have to take 7 hours of class to graduate. Amazing! I can't wait for this semester to be over so I can relax. There's only like five more weeks of class before finals... including Thanksgiving week! Whoa... it's definitely time to get serious about school work, don't you think?I have more exciting news... my daddy and little brother, Vincent are coming out this way in about a week for my niece's first birthday! I'm super excited to see them. It'll be a good refresher to get me through the end of this semester. By the way, for those of you graduating in December... you suck and I'm totally jealous. Don't leave me here! So anyway, my best friend since I was 9 is moving across the country tomorrow and I'm totally bummed about that because I won't get to see her. But I'm also excited for her... she's ambitious and I'm sure she'll do great things out there. On a different note I heard a sermon this past weekend and it stuck with me. It was about having your own alter to God. Is there a place, a quiet place where you know you can always go to talk to God? Not your bed, not even your church or prayer chapel, but just a place where you can meet with God with no distractions? The pastor told a story of a friend of his who was at a different church for a week as a guest pastor. In preparing for his sermon he went to use the regular pastor's office in hopes of using his books and and other resources. When he got to the office he didn't find the books that are common to most pastor's offices... he found nothing. Well, he began to wonder how a pastor could write a successful, meaningful sermon without any resources. So he went and opened up the closest and not only were all of the books he was expecting to find there, but he found a little alter. There in the carpet were two well-worn spots where the pastor had obviously spent hours before the Lord. This brought him to his knees because he realized that he had been putting to much emphasis on other resources and not enough on God, the ultimate resource. So, do you have an alter? A little place where you can meet with God without the distractions of this world? I think it's a great idea. It forces you to go seek God instead of just being lazy and expecting God to come to you. Good stuff. That's it from me, kids. Have a great day!
