It's Polo Time Again

WHOOP! It's that time of year again -- water polo season is about to begin! Well, for this semester anyways. And I am so excited!

There are some frustrations tied to this weekend in regards to certain teammates and commitment issues, but overall I can't wait to be back in the water playing!

I am ready for this week to be over so much! First of all, I am in need of a nap on Friday afternoon. Then some of my freshmen are coming over for a movie night Friday night. Saturday and Sunday we get to play all day. And my family will be here! And they will finally get to meet my precious and wonderful roommate! It's going to be all around wonderful and I can't wait!! It's polo time again!!

Relationships

There are some things I would rather just not blog about. Things like this. Things that I wish didn't happen, that didn't need to be blogged about.

But in the effort of making this blog an accurate representation of my life, I will include it.

A huge part of college is about relationships, and a lot of emphasis is placed on relationships involving guys. I have never been one to be eager about jumping into relationships, never been the girl that had to be in a relationship to be happy. I'm SO far from that. But that does not mean that I don't wonder what it would be like to have a boyfriend, that I don't dream about that, that I don't want that one day in the future.

So when the guy that you have liked for a long time goes on a date with another girl, it sucks. And when you spend the afternoon hanging out with a group and they are both there flirting with each other, it's rough.

There is no nice way to put it, it's hard and it's not fun.

But there is a silver lining. As wonderful as he is, he just may not be the right one for me, which means that if it is in God's perfect plan for me to one day find a guy to spend the rest of my life with, then he is better than the guy I've been liking. I can't complain with that, I can't be unhappy with that. And if it isn't in the plan for me to end up spending forever with a guy, then I am meant for something else that is more perfect.

My point is: for every wonderful guy that isn't the one I'm meant to date, that means there is somebody more wonderful out there if that is what God's perfect plan holds for me. I trust in God's perfect plan, and that is enough for me!

Pumpkin Patch Party!

I have wanted to go to a Pumpkin Patch for a while now, and this afternoon Rachel and I finally made that happen. We battled the suddenly freezing weather, the brisk winds, and the drizzly rain to venture out to the College Station Pumpkin Patch! Luckily, the rain lightened up just in time for us to pick out some pumpkins! The plan was to carve/paint them tonight, but plans changed and we both invited some friends over for a spontaneous movie night and watched Mean Girls and reminisced about camp memories for a few hours! SO MUCH FUN! Here are pictures from the Pumpkin Patch with Rachel, and then one of some camp friends and I during our chill night -- love these girls so much!

We So Alike...

Why yes, we went out in public tonight both wearing long sleeve maroon t-shirts, baggy oversized gray sweatpants, and socks & chacos! We so cool!

Roommate. Friend. Blessed.

It's in God's Hands Now: Cho-Yeh Summer 2013

Well, I've submitted my application for working at Cho-Yeh next summer, and it's in God's hands! Answering the questions provided an excellent time to reflect on what God did in my life this summer at the place I love the most. Between building new friendships, getting out of my comfort zone, and growing spiritually closer to Him, it was an incredible summer! Next summer is in His hands now!

Realizations of Today

I realized several things today, all of which are exciting!

-Because I had three tests within 24 hours of each other, I have no more tests for over three weeks!
-For the first time since I moved in for the semester, I have a working AC unit in my dorm!
-I get to go see Kasey in less than 3 weeks!
-Emily will be visiting me in less than 4 weeks!
-I know all 5 verses to "Rise and Shine"... I didn't even realize there were that many verses!
-I had a peanut butter sandwich (well, cracker sandwich) for the first time since coming home from camp! That's a huge deal!
-It's 11:18 and I'm done with everything for tomorrow and am going to bed before midnight on a school night! (Yes, that is in fact possible!)

Cystic Fibrosis

I feel like I grew up with more of a realization of sicknesses that could be potentially fatal, and that definitely began when I was really young and best friends with Warren.

Now, another one of my friends has a disease that could take a turn for a worse at any moment, unfortunately, today it has.

Sarah is a friend of mine from camp, who has CF. She never lets it stop her. She attends a college out of state in Oklahoma. She spent the summer working at camp. She has received an internship with Disney's Wide World of Sports for the spring. She is such a fighter.

Unfortunately today she woke up not feeling very well. She went to the doctor to find out that the percent of her lungs that are working have dropped nearly 30%. I am really close with her younger sister Emily who told me today about what is going on. Sarah has been restricted from doing anything for the next week in the hopes that her lungs will begin to work better again.

I ask you now to join me in praying for Sarah, and all of those that have CF. Sarah is a fighter, and such a firm believer in Our Father, and I know that she will appreciate all of the prayers.

Safety

I think the feeling of safety is something that we all take for granted. That is, until it is taken away from you.

Today was supposed to be a fairly simple Friday. Sleep in, take a calculus test, and then drive back to Cypress and be home by 2.

Well, that's not exactly how today went.

I finally finished studying for calculus around 2:30 this morning, but was up at the crack of dawn. I didn't sleep well, and when my phone started buzzing I knew it either had to be about Great Grandma or Kole's drivers license. Both good updates! Grandma was doing well and Kole got his license!

I took a shower and decided to review a bit more calculus before my test at 11:30. We were able to start our test a couple minutes early and I was feeling confident and on a roll when an announcement came over the PA system at 11:40 with this message: "Code Maroon. Bomb threat for campus in general. Evacuate immediately. Do not use vehicles". We all dropped our pencils, grabbed our stuff, and proceeded to ignore the TA who was trying to tell us to finish our test. I got outside the building, and immediately called one of my friends who lives off campus asking if I could bail over to her house. So I hopped on my bike and rode a good 2 miles almost to Jen's house. My roommate ended up coming over aswell, and another girl on the polo team and her brother. By noon we were all at her house, and lounged out watching Lifetime shows for hours on end.

Updates continued to roll in about every half hour, but nothing of importance except constant reminders to stay away from campus. It was at this point, when I was stuck without any of my belongings, with a dying cell phone, and no vehicle when it hit me. For a while today, there was a threat to my University, my home for the academic year. For a while, we weren't safe.

Safety is something we all take for granted, and something we don't really think about. When we heard about all the other bomb threats over the past month to college campuses, we knew that it could happen to us. Each semester I've been at A&M, there has been atleast one serious Code Maroon (emergency text from A&M to its entire student body) sent out -- this is the second one this semester. The bomb threat wasn't necessarily shocking exactly, but when I finally got far enough away from campus, I realized how much my adrenaline was pumping and how subconciously scared I was.

Around 4:00 we were notified that some buildings on campus had been cleared and reopened. I was able to bike back to campus and grab my stuff, jump in the car, and head towards home. Campus still wasn't a place I wanted to be, and I was only there for probably under 5 minutes. By 6:30 I was home in Houston, nearly 5 hours after when I was planning on being home.

Today was pretty far from what I was planning on it being when I woke up. I was definitely reminded of how blessed I am to feel safe where I am nearly all the time, and how blessed we were that this was just a threat.

Safety is not something to be taken lightly, because at any second one person can take that away from you!

Thankful for a Busy Night

When things go wrong, my automatic emotional defense mechanism is to make myself super busy.

Kole having some bumps along the road was only a start to the whirlwind that was today.

The worst part was finding out my great grandmother has fallen and broken her hip. Luckily, I think it was a blessing that I was able to sit with my mom when we were finding this out since she and Kole were in College Station trying to get his license. Mom and I instantly had the same response... is great grandma strong enough for surgery?

I instinctively flashed back to when Gramma Max was in the hospital. We didn't think it was anything major at the time. I was still living at home, and my parents tried to protect Kole and I by not telling us all the information. I am still freaking out wondering what is really going on, and so scared that if something does happen that I won't find out until it is too late. My stomach is still flipping in nervousness, and I know that I won't find out if the surgery went okay until my parents wake up in the morning, assuming that they tell me exactly what is going on.

I'm so thankful that I have been busy tonight. I texted Jen and Katie before practice telling them what's going on, and them, along with the rest of the team that was at practice did an excellent job of distracting me from thinking about Great Grandma, and provided some much needed laughs.

When I first found out about Great Grandma I texted 3 of my best friends from camp asking for prayers. Laura called me after practice to make sure that my emotions were in check, because she knows I tend to freak out and work myself up very easily where my family is concerned. After talking to Laura and allowing her to talk about her kids at work and all of the crazy things they do, I went back to my dorm and have  begun to immerse myself in studying for calculus. This will keep me occupied until midnight easily, at which point I am hoping to have atleast semi-mastered the concepts I need to know before my test tomorrow, and then will hopefully be able to go to sleep. I only have my calculus test in the morning, and then will be able to drive home for the weekend.

Ultimately, I'm so thankful for a busy night and for my friends keeping me in check and stopping my mind from wandering to worst possible cases.

Through Chicken Fingers, Mac and Cheese, and a Brownie, the Lord Teaches Me

Last night it was around 8, I was frustrated with my project group, and I was starving. The pizza, pasta, and sub lines were closed and I didn't feel like walking somewhere else to get food. And I definitely wasn't going to eat a salad from the commons, so I went into the convenience store and bought a frozen dinner to heat up.

I got back home and Rachel texted me "I'm sick of group projects. Treating myself to Grub Burger, join me?" She didn't have to ask twice. I through my frozen meal in the fridge and headed out to enjoy burger and fries with my roommate.

After class today, and more frustrations with my project group (but luckily that's over with), I remembered I had that frozen meal in my fridge. So I headed back to home, and proceeded to heat it up. The directions seemed way too complicated for a frozen dinner that was now already half thawed out since it was in my fridge as opposed to a freezer. The directions said to only remove half the film covering from the chicken fingers and brownie, but leave on the macaroni. You were to take out every 30 seconds to stir, and progressively finish removing the film paper over 2 minutes of cooking. Then you were to take out and let sit for 2 minutes, then re-microwave for 45 seconds.

For a frozen dinner? You've got to be kidding me. I ripped off all the film paper, through it in the microwave for 2 1/2 minutes, and called it good.

My chicken fingers had the consistency of rubber, and tasted very similar to what I would assume rubber tasted like.

My macaroni and cheese had interestingly separated from itself, to have liquidy noodles and cheese in solid form.

My brownie looked more like hot chocolate than a brownie.

This is what happens when I decide not to follow the rules, and to think that I know better than the original maker of the frozen dinner. It turns out looking, and tasting, rather undelightful and disgusting.

The same thing happens in life. Too often I think that I know the best way to do something. That I know better than the original maker of this Universe -- our Father. When that happens my life gets off course, messed up a bit, out of order, and in chaos. Luckily (unlike the maker of my frozen dinner), when I get off track in life, I turn to the Maker and He pulls me back in, refreshes me, and sets me back out in the world, given another chance at life.

We mess up daily, but God is always there to pull us back, wipe us off, and remind us that we are His.

Fun at the Lake

I love my polo team!  Yesterday about 15 of us headed off to a lakehouse about 45 minutes from College Station for the weekend. We spent the afternoon swimming and kayaking and enjoying hanging out by the water. Then, a group played Catch Phrase, while Jen, Katie, and I made spaghetti dinner for everybody. After eating and chatting, we all sat down to play a very intense game of Cranium. We finished just in time to watch the A&M/Louisiana Tech game that started at 8:20 and didn't finish until 12:45 this morning! We all quickly fell asleep, and enjoyed sleeping in this morning. We then went and hung out on the dock while everybody woke up and got ready, then Jana and I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. We cleaned up the lakehouse and made sure everything was ready to go, then headed back to College Station around lunch.

As a team we are a very interesting bunch. I think we have somebody from nearly every major from engineering, to math, to agriculture, to communication, to allied health, to kinesiology, to education, to biomedical sciences, and everything in between! We are all very different, but all so similar. We all love to have fun. We laugh too much (and too loud). We have no sense of personal space with each other. We like to mess with one another. We are silly and goofy, and we love to eat. We are all different, all crazy, and all a team.

I loved this weekend at the lake, and I love my team!!

On our way to the lake!

Katie and Jen

 

 Such a precious friend in my life!

 WHOO! Cold hose showers because we are too lazy to wait in line for the regular shower.

Being silly while watching the Aggies BTHO LA Tech

 Watching the football game -- WHOOP!

The lake was so pretty this morning!

Plotting Revenge

So, over the last 16 years, Kole has played numerous pranks/tricks etc on me, and I have also turned the other cheek and been the other person -- I've never been one to retaliate.

That time is over.

For Kole's 16th Birthday I am going to be getting all of the revenge that I never got over the last few years! He has my car for the week in order to take his driving test on Thursday, since I have THE best car in the family and is the easiest to drive/park. Therefore, I have been left with the crapmobile.

So, I have until Friday at 2:45 or so to come up with THE best revenge possible. Marooning out his precious truck, A&M style! Yes, his beloved truck will be decked out with as much Aggie gear as possible by the time we switch vehicles Friday after school.

This is what I have in mind so far

• "Saw em off" window decal
• Maroon ribbon around the car
• A&M wrapping paper taped to the inside of the windows
• "Gig'em" plastered across the front window in window paint
• Maroon spray painted packing peanuts filling the cab of his truck (not sure about this one yet)
• A&M pictures taped under the sun-visors (this one he won't find for a while :D)
• Maroon yarn surrounding his steering wheel

You get the idea! But I need y'alls help... PLEASE let me know of any ideas y'all have this week on how else I can get my payback in one huge way possible

Just a Glipse of Tonight

I was hyper tonight and past the point of delirious at practice. One of my friends had borrowed my lab goggles last week, and had brought them back to practice tonight, at which point I got creative...

Lab goggles... swim goggles... they work the same way, right?

Such a fun night at the pool! LOVE my teammates, and the fact that I can be goofy around them :)

Tonight's Breakaway

Breakaway is a huge worship event that is held on campus every Tuesday night. Thousands of A&M students gather together to worship our God and hear a message. It is always such a time of refreshment and refocusing on what is truly important in life.

Tonight's message was so good. Not that the other ones aren't, but this one was just what I needed to hear. This semester we are going through 1 John, and tonight sermon was out of 2:28-3:10. This was the gist.

There is no reason to get discouraged when we are struggling against sin and fighting against it. The struggle proves that you are alive in Christ. It's those that are spiritually dead and don't have Christ who do not have a fight against isn and temptation. Our battle against sin is a great assurance that we are His. Only forgiven sins can be fought, so all the battles we have with sin are already forgiven, that's why we fight against them!

It is such a wonderful reminder and a new breath of perspective that I loved tonight!

"my planner isn't big enough!"

You learn something new everyday, correct? Well, today I learned that my planner does not have enough room for all the things that it needs to have written down for this week!

Between assignments due this week, quizzes out the wahzoo, a major test week coming up next week, this upcoming weekend's polo retreat, water polo practices, and the rare meetings with friends - there is WAY too much going on this week!

At the top of my planner this week, in big bold letters, it says "And God will be praised". That's my goal. Through the studying, the planning, the practicing, and the just "doing" of everyday life, my goal is that My God will be praised!... even when there is so much going on that my planner can't hold it all - just more ways to bring God the glory each and every day!

Why I Don't Dance

After polo tonight, Katie and Jen were begging me to go dancing with them tonight at Harry's (which is half country, half rap music) I had a quiz that I needed to do online, and some reviewing to do before class tomorrow, so told them that I couldn't go. I came back home and grabbed dinner and within an hour my quiz was done and I was ready to put on my PJs and crawl into bed with a movie when Jen texted me, asking me once again to PLEASE go dancing with them. Realizing that they would ask every Thursday until I finally went, I agreed to go for a little bit.

I quickly rerealized why I don't dance!

1. Dancing to rap music is disgusting.

2. You can't dance to country music by yourself.

3. When I get asked to dance, it's by some geeky guy who is wearing a fishing hat and who talks about his biomedical science classes the entire time. Not one song, but TWO. Oh man. And we didn't even 2-step, we shuffled the entire time. Not even a shuffle. More of a side step. And at the end, he concluded with "well, I can obviously tell you don't dance. But thanks for trying!". Rude.

4. The entire place was smoky. Disgusting.

I love my friends, and love spending time with them, but dance halls are NOT my scene!

Project Life Inspires Creativity

I know, I haven't updated about Project Life in a long while -- but I'm still doing it, and still LOVING it! There are some weeks where I have gotten a bit creative with my spreads, for example, my A&M themed spread where all my pictures are black and white with maroon Aggie backgrounds.

This week, I got creative again. One of my favorite things to do in-between classes (or in boring classes...) is to look at designer spreads from their Project Life albums to provide inspiration. Most of the well known names in scrapbooking are turning to digital scrapbooking through photoshop and programs of the like. So, this week, I have decided to do my own kind of version of digital Photo Life. I am adding journaling to the pictures on the computer, and so each picture looks a bit more polished. Then, where the normal 3x4 vertical journaling cards go along the middle of the spread, I am adding a variety of PhotoBooth pictures that Rachel and I took earlier this week of us being our goofy selves. This layout will definitely have more pictures, and more little details than my normal layouts, and I'm excited for that! On Friday night I'm planning on playing catch-up with my album. I've done very well with keeping my journaling up-to-date, but haven't printed out pictures since before classes started. So on Friday I'm going to send all my pictures to Walmart and pick them up, then update my album. I'm excited to see what this week's layout will look like, and the possibility of moving to semi-digital layouts next year!

I am obsessed with Project Life-- if you see me you should ask to look at it! It's a REALLY neat way of creating memories to remember for years to come out of the everyday and ordinary parts of your life, as well as the extravagant and exciting parts!

Random Fact for the day: Cubed Cheese, Grapes, and Crackers make for a delicious late-night snack!