Don't Compare to Movies

I watched A Walk To Remember for the first time last night. Funny how after seeing that movie and getting all sappy about guys and relationships, a friend of mine texted me "Never compare your love story to those in movies because those were written by scriptwriters & yours is written by GOD ."

So true :) Waiting on God to bring the right guy into my life, and knowing that His timing is perfect!!

Checking Off That To-Do List!

Read English short story to write paper over -- CHECK!
Write said English paper -- CHECK!
Submit said English paper to Writing Center to be edited -- CHECK!
1 Section of Online Math Homework -- CHECK!
Chemistry Online Homework -- CHECK!
Chemistry Lab Project -- CHECK!
1 Weeks worth of Science lesson plans -- CHECK!
Read 22 page short story for English quiz -- CHECK!
Read 14 page article for Multicultural Education -- CHECK!
Math Take-Home Quiz -- CHECK!

GEEEESH I have been productive today! All I have left for this week is one more short story, a "week in review" tutorial for math, and 2 more sections of math homework! CHA-CHING!! I guess this means whenever my Project Life pictures from Walmart ever decide to get here, I will be able to devote that afternoon to working on Project Life and not feel guilty :)

One phone call

The past 24 hours have been insanely emotional and crazy. I've been disappointed, angry, frustrated, upset, nervous, anxious, worried, etc, etc, etc. You get the drift.

BUT!! One phone call has completely changed that! I am going to be officially living with the wonderful Erin Begle in the fall!

Erin is also a Cho-Yeh'er, and is going to be a freshman in the fall studying Elementary Ed. We used to be campers together, then last summer we were both on staff (we are both working at camp this summer too).

It is kinda crazy how this all worked out. Earlier in the week before any of this housing drama happened, Erin and I had already planned to have a skype/phone date at some point this weekend. She called me this afternoon, and before I could even ask her if she was going to A&M for sure, or if she had a roommate, she asked me "What if we roomed together?!?!". Well, that got the ball rolling and now it is essentially almost a done deal!

Tonight Erin will be accepting her spot for the Fall of 2012 at Texas A&M and is filling out her housing application. I was kinda antsy because most applications for the dorm style that we want are submitted by January because they fill up fast. But that won't be an issue either. Erin has Crohn's Disease in which case by law she is given accommodations. The only accommodation that she is asking for is a private bathroom. Essentially, we are guaranteed to be in the style of dorm that we want! CHA-CHING!

Erin is a wonderful friend, a sweet girl, a strong Christian, a fun personality, and somebody that I am SO excited to be rooming with in the fall! :)

Funny how one phone call can change it all!

"It will be okay"

Warning: this blog post is going to be filled with a lot of emotion.

My experience at A&M has been a roller coaster so far. On some days I LOVE Aggieland, on other days, I absolutely hate it. One thing that I regret about A&M is that when I came here, I was comfortable with the group of friends that I already had. I have an amazing family of camp friends that I had prior to moving to A&M, and so I never had any really need to make a bunch of “new” friends. I have never been the kind of girl that needed a huge group of friends, I had my close few, and that was okay.

When a camp friend and I decided to room together our sophomore year, I was STOKED. I was super excited to be living with somebody I knew and was good friends with, and most of all who was a camp friend. There is a special bond between camp friends, and I wanted most of all to have that bond with my roommate. So many things were up and down when it came to A&M between classes and Genny and polo and Kevin and other friends that the one steady thing that I was always looking forward to was rooming with Libby. Even on the days when I hated A&M, the thought of living with a camp friend would always make me excited.

Tonight, that all changed. After having dinner and going to the Aggie baseball game with Libby, she broke it to me that she had an offer to live with some of her other friends next year and that although she didn’t want to leave me in a bad position, since she was already slated to graduate early, it would be better for her to live with these other girls. I completely understood and wasn’t mad at her.

When I left her dorm to head back to mine, I LOST it. I immediately called Carley and bawled to her. All of my other friends already signed leases or weren’t living on campus. Roommate decisions are decided months in advance, and so since October when Libby and I decided to live together I had not been worrying about who I was going to live with. Now, I’m stuck.

No, I’m not mad at Libby and I do completely understand where she is coming from. It just hurts that now I’m stuck without a roommate. I really don’t know what I’m going to do.

What I WANT to do is just to go home. I want to go and wrap myself in my daddy’s arms and complain to my mom. I want to pick on my brother and be some place that feels familiar. Because right now, A&M feels as far away from home as it gets. But I can’t even go to Houston because my parents are watching our families friends’ 2 kids and my room has been taken over for one of them to sleep in. Today is one of those days where I really hate A&M and don’t want anything to do with it. I really just want to be home.

As Carley said, “things will be okay”. And yes, they will be, because things always turn out okay. I just feel like I have been in that limbo for a long time. When I didn’t love A&M, I knew that it would be okay. When I wasn’t thrilled with polo, I knew it would turn out okay. When I was uber frustrated with classes and prof’s, I knew it would be okay. When I felt lonely, I knew it would be okay. It ALWAYS turns out okay, I just want it to be okay now

My New Addiction: PROJECT LIFE!

I have fallen back in love with a form of scrapbooking -- YES! It is called Project Life and essentially it is a cheaper, easier, less-stressful, less of a time commitment and just as awesome as scrapbooking!

Each day I am taking a picture that represents that day. It could be something special to that day, for example last weekend's pictures are from Arizona's polo tournament, or it could be something mundane like today's where Genny got a lovely picture of me grossing out while picking HER hair off my chair. Then, I journal a little (literally, 3 sentences MAX) about that picture. On each layout (2 pages/week) there is a place for each picture and journaling card -- no necessary arranging required to get a layout that works! As soon as I get my pictures back from Walmart I will be uploading pictures of each week's layout, but that won't happen until late next week.

But just so you get an idea, here is a picture of my opening page, which essentially came already done for me with the Project Life Kit!



This makes me so excited that I have a new way to document my everyday life! I am also excited that this will be something that I will be able to show my children and grandchildren one day! I remember I used to LOVE sitting at my Gramma Suddendorf's house and looking through all of her albums of Christmas cards and pictures. I am excited that one day my own grandchildren will be able to flip through these albums and see just how I lived my life when I was there age! LOVE this project!!

Arizona and Such

It was such a fun weekend in Arizona!! We played pretty well, and I was stoked that I got to be a starter in all 4 games. We ended up going 1-3, and got 6th in the tournament. Considering we were playing against scholarship teams, we did pretty well! And the fact that Texas got last made us even happier :)

I loved just getting to hang out with those girls and form bonds with them. I finally let myself be me as opposed to being intimidated by the upper class-men, and I'm so glad I did. It was a wonderful weekend!

I got up way early this morning to drive back to College Station before going to class. Today has been a stressful day just because I have been exhausted. Classes went well, but then I had no energy to do anything, and was not in the mood to listen to a griping roommate. Hmph. My phone has decided that it doesn't like me and doesn't want to work about 1/2 the time which is really frustrating. I don't understand my math or my chemistry homework that is due this week. I really just want a hug.

It seems crazy to me that just 12 hours ago I was at home, because it seems like forever ago! I am hoping that I'll be able to figure out, or atleast get a start on this homework, and then get some good sleep tonight so tomorrow will be better!!

ARIZONA!

I'm heading to Arizona for the weekend! There are 13 of us that made A&M's travel team for polo, and we are heading to Arizona tonight in order to compete this weekend!

Should be SO much fun!!

Dance With God

"Dance with God and He will let the right man cut in"

This has been a huge quote in my life, and it recently became even more of something I look to since starting college. When you hit college, being in a relationship becomes so much more of a deal than it was in high school. Everytime you visit extended family or friends you haven't seen in a while, they ask if you are dating. Most people do find their "true loves" in college, and so logically that is a topic that always pops up.

I have not dated anybody. Ever. (I don't count 7th grade...) And the amazing thing is, I'm perfectly okay with that! Some of my good friends are in serious relationships that very well could end in marriage and I'm so excited for them. Heck, Laura is engaged and is getting married in July! As exciting as it is to see all of this occurring in my friends' lives, I'm okay that it isn't happening in my life right now.

If God wants a guy in my life, I know He will place him in my life, but right now that isn't the case. So until that does become the case (or better yet -- IF that becomes the case), I will dance with God and be satisfied in His love for me knowing that is all I will ever need!!

Hallmark Holidays

I absolutely detest "Hallmark Holidays" such as Valentines Day. To me, it is a pointless holiday that depletes the pockets of every lover on the planet, and dumps money into Hallmark.

I left my dorm at 7:30 to a hallway littered with bears that wouldn't fit in anybody's room, plenty of balloons, and lots of chocolates and bouquets of flowers. Seriously, these dorms aren't big enough for all of that stuff! Then tonight everybody is all dressed up and going out to fancy dinners (somebody I know went and bought a "Valentine's Dress"... there's such a thing?) that no college kid can actually afford.

I would MUCH rather have a guy that will show me love each and every day in little ways, rather than one day out of the year in a massive way.

On the other hand, the supply of chocolate that I have gotten from my family this week has been super delicious :)

Hard Days

I think some days are just meant to be hard.

I woke up to a cold and rainy Monday here in College Station. My classes were super dry and boring, and I had a lot to do with absolutely no motivation to do any of it. As soon as I got back from class my best friend called me with devastating news, and my heart broke into pieces for her and the battle she is about to face head on. I was down in the dumps for the rest of the day, and went to polo with the hopes of today becoming better. Nope. I got out of practice only to find out that one of my really good friends back at home was in a major dilemma, and I couldn't think of the words to say in order to help her out. I sat on the phone and just listened to her cry for a while.

I got back to my dorm and was texting my dad when I found out that my Uncle Bob had passed away. I LOST it. I have been dreading the end of February leading up to March 4th as that marks the year of the hardest week of my life. It was just one helpless situation after another, and I couldn't take it anymore!

Luckily, right as I was sniffling up the last tears, Laura called me and I vented to her for a little while and ultimately felt much better. Still sad and upset, but okay. Thank God for great friends and a wonderful God who is always there to listen to help combat the hard days!

Midnight Premiere!!!

Be impressed -- I survived my first midnight premiere!

I was picked up at 11:20 and we got to the theater at 11:40. Luckily, we already had our tickets! But.... the only spot where 4 seats were next to each other was in THE first row... WHOOP!

The movie itself was pretty good, although the ending wasn't my favorite at all. It was so much fun though to do something that is SO out of the ordinary to me, but so typical for every other college kid. It was awesome to just hang out with some camp friends and be silly and embrace the college life!

I was dropped back off by 2:45 this morning, and was OUT by 3. I got to sleep in till 10:20, and so still got more sleep than I would on a normal night!

Overall-- GREAT FUN!

I'm in class now (totally paying attention, huh?) and then I need to go pack. I'm running through Sonic to pick up drinks, picking up 4 sorority girls from camp, and then heading to Livingston for Midwinter Madness this weekend! WHOOP! Excited to be back at camp!!! :)

Apple Juice is the New Coffee!!

Typical college kids drink excessive amounts of coffee to stay up late and get stuff done.

Well I'm not a huge coffee person, and I don't like any of the coffee they have on campus, so last night I had to get resourceful. It was 10 PM, I had already spent 6 hours between studying for chemistry, tutoring somebody else in chem, and sitting in a chem help session. I had a lot of math that I still needed to somehow get engrained in my head, and I was dwindling fast.

This is where my BRILLIANT idea came into place!

Maybe if I would eat breakfast I could trick my mind into thinking it was morning! So I got a huge glass of apple juice, a bag of muffins and a banana and began to eat breakfast at 10:45 last night. The apple juice really hit the spot, and I ended up drinking the entire 1/2 gallon jug... whoops!

But it worked! 2 AM, I was fully understanding math, and was still wide awake! I ended up watching an episode of Dance Moms (if you need a dumb, no-thinking required, jaw-dropping show, this is it!) and at 3 I finally crawled into bed.

I woke up at 7 this morning wide awake! I had a quiz in English at 8 that morning, then a really boring english lecture on short stories. I went and took my chemistry test which was simple, and then took my math test which was also easy! SUH-WEET!

I grabbed lunch and then put my laundry in the wash. I have a lab from 2:20-5:10, then polo from 6:15-8:15. I need to come back and clean up my room and pack for Midwinter tonight, and then I'm going to a midnight premiere of The Vow with some Cho-Yeh girls.

WHOO!! Apple Juice is the new coffee! Talk about the epitome of productiveness!

This is Why I DESPISE Math.

I have never liked math. The only 2 years I even tolerated it was 7th and 10th grade when I had 2 of my all time favorite teachers. But other than that... NOPE!!

After today I am pretty sure I can add plenty more reasons to why I hate math!

While in class, the prof spent the first 20 minutes attempting to explain how to do this one type of problem, and ended up saying "why don't y'all just google it, because I don't know how to explain it". Then, I ask her where she got her numbers that she was using (because they were NO where to be found in the problem. And nobody else knew what was going on either, they just wouldn't confront her about it!) and this was her answer *with AS much sass as humanely possible* "I used the calculator". Umm.. EXCUSE ME? No duh you used a calculator. Very politely I rephrased "How did you get those answers?", only to get the reply "Well. First I turned the calculator on..." I was ENRAGED. I don't think I even heard the rest of her response I was so enraged. The rest of math went downhill from there.

So today I'm working on online math homework. First of all, that is the worst because you can't write on it and it takes so much longer to copy it down and plug in answers etc. Plus even though 1%, .01, 1/100, are all the same answers, it will only take 1 of those as correct. So frustrating. ANYWAYS, I can't figure this stuff out. Finally I ask one of my friends who is a math major who also tutors for the university to help me, and she can't figure it out. She doesn't even think there is an answer...

PERFECT. How the heck am I supposed to do this then? So I go to this thing called "Week in Review" where another professor reteaches what we learned this week.. Oh, hey, guess what, there were FORMULAS to solve these problems that my prof just never happened to mention? Nowhere in my notes, nowhere in online lectures, nowhere in her sample problems... Seriously? GRR!

Back to the library for another hour and I was able to work through almost all of the rest of my hw problems. There is one I can't get, but I wasn't going to stress myself anymore about that one. I'll work on it tomorow hopefully!

I left my room at 7 this morning, and didn't get back until 11 tonight. I spent over 8 HOURS working on math. Not exactly my idea of a fun day, but I think I get the math concepts for the most part! Now time for BED!

Sweet Gum Love

So, it is no rare fact that I am a kid at heart, especially when it comes to Disney. So today I was going through my itunes making a playlist of all of my Disney music that would be good to put on my camp ipod. I also went and just made a playlist of good music that elementary girls would enjoy to have dance parties with...

I have NO shame in having 85 songs and over 5 HOURS of music in this playlist comprised of only the best of Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift & Martina McBride!

Sweet Gum Love :) Excited to get to play all of this music for my kiddos this weekend at Midwinter Madness! eeeek!

Only Monday? Really?

What a Monday! Sheeesh I was not counting on being so productive today.

I woke up at 8:30 to a text from my mom with the simple words "call me". I FREAKED. Not "call me when you have a second", or "call me when you wake up".. No. Just CALL ME. Panic set in and as soon as I woke myself up enough to hit send on the phone I was talking with her.

Well... it was not an emergency. I overanalyze things to begin with, not to mention when I am just waking up. By this point it is 8:40, my alarm wasn't going off till 9:30, and I didn't have class till 10:20. I was too awake to go back to bed, so unfortunately I was up and going! I actually did my hair (that never happens) and ate breakfast in my room as opposed to stuffing my face as I walk to class.

I was in class until 12:20 (yes, only 2 classes on Mondays and Wednesday's, and only 1 on Fridays are VERY nice!) at which point I walked to the bookstore to pick up a textbook that just finally came in. I went and grabbed lunch at this delicious hamburger place on campus, and although it took 20 minutes to get my lunch, it was well worth it! By this point it's 1:30 and I head to the library where I have a study room reserved from 2-5. Nobody is in the room before me, so I begin plowing through homework. I read a short story for English, I got through the entire month of February's online chemistry homework (WHOOP!) and reviewed a chapter for my chem lecture tomorrow. By 4:20 I was exhausted, and so went up to Media & Reserves to check out 2 CD's that I know my campers will love this weekend to have dance parties too. I went back to my room (first time back since 9:45 this morning!) and snuggled in my chair to watch last night's episode of The Voice and give my brain a much deserved break.

I went to polo and laughed more than one person probably should during practice... whoops. I wasn't the only one though, so it was all good!! Now I'm back and going to do a bit of math (maybe) and enjoy a lazy night! Back at it early tomorrow morning!!

What I Love About Being Home

There are several things that I love about a weekend at home...

I love getting to see my family and be silly and goofy.

I love sleeping in my own bed, and not having loud neighbors wake me up at all hours of the night!

I love that I get to eat real food -- whether that be Cane's Chicken Fingers, Snowflake's Kolaches, a peanut butter sandwich, Cafe Adobe's fajitas, or sausage and homemade mac'n'cheese -- all foods I don't get in college station!

I love that after eating all that real food, I get claim to all the leftovers! My fridge and pantry is now loaded with chocolate chip muffins, chocolate chip cookies, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Cheesecake Factory's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake, fajitas (well...they're gone now...) , and mac'n'cheese. YUM!

I love being able to watch re-runs of NCIS with my dad and brother.

I love getting to play with my puppy and take naps with her.

I love just talking with my mother. We didn't do that much when I was in high school, but now we both can just sit down and talk, and it's wonderful!

I love taking showers with hot water that doesn't turn cold randomly.

I love being able to throw a shirt in the washer, and not have to be antsy about when it will be done b/c I know nobody will be waiting on me to switch laundry.

I love having an ample supply of snacks always ready, and having multiple drink options.

I love how there is always a stack of mail waiting for me on my bed when I get home.

I love being able to play my music out loud instead of having to wear headphones.

I love parking 20 seconds from my house as opposed to 5 minutes from my dorm.

There are so many wonderful things about being home (just as there are about being here), and I always enjoy *almost* every second of being home!

Project Life: January

Warning: This blog posting may be considered a photo overload. Sorry bout it!

This year I have decided to participate in a challenge called Project Life. It is a way of documenting the year in an easy and simplistic but still special way. Each day you take one picture and journal a bit about it. Then it all gets compiled into an album!

Here is how I would describe January in 31 pictures!

Exploding Head

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I literally feel like my head is going to explode in a matter of minutes. I am past the point of being tired. I am overly stressed. I cannot deal with helping anybody else having drama in my life. No, but really. My head is going to explode.

On the positive side, I just applied for housing next year with Libby! Whoo!!

Bible study tonight and then I'm going to bed early before my head explodes!!!