I Stand Corrected

In reference to my blog from a few days ago entitled "Sleep is a Funny Thing"...

I stand corrected.

7 hours of sleep is great for one or two days. This has been my amount of sleep this week...

Sunday: 2 AM- 9 AM
Monday: 1 AM-8:30
Tuesday: 2 AM-6:45 AM (ouch)
Wednesday: 1 AM- 8:30

7 hours of sleep works wonders until you have a night when you don't get much sleep, aka Tuesday night when I was up studying until 1:45 in the morning and then was woken up at 6:45. Then I had no extra sleep from prior in the week to use as a "reserve" almost to catch up on. Luckily on that one day I ended up getting 3 naps in. But geeze, I was done for that day without those naps!

So, I stand corrected. 7 hours is great, but 8 is okay too. Essentially, as long as I don't get in bed before midnight, then I'm okay. Last week I was getting in the upwards of 9 hours of sleep a night, plus I wasn't doing anything except sitting and studying/ watching Army Wives for hours on end trying to finish the 4th season DVDs. This week I have been at the library, the Rec, Breakaway, Kyle Field Worship... it's been a busier week!

But all in all, I'm still a girl that needs sleep to function.

More Effective

When I was younger, I was never into cleaning. Dusting/vacuuming/cleaning the bathroom -- it just wasn't my thing. When I got into my high school I atleast began to keep my room some what picked up. Once I got to college, I definitely became a lot more organized and dilligent about keeping stuff clean.

Nothing has ever served as more motivation to clean than my biology lab did today.

Last week we were given an augur tray to take home. Once home we were to swab anything that chose, rub the q-tip in the tray, seal the tray, and then bring back to class the next week.

I chose to swab my door handle, and oh my... that thing ended up disgusting. The tray was meant to culture whatever was put inside of it, and I was expecting some type of bacteria. But bacterias, yeasts, and molds? And one of the bacteria was known to cause diseases? Oh gross. Other people swabbed phones, money, toilet seats, keyboards - the list of cultures we had grown in the last week was extensive. And to believe we are constantly interacting with all of those cultures? Gross.

Needless to say, I got back home and thoroughly scrubbed most surfaces in my room. The doorknobs, locks, light switches, handles, rails, desks, fridge, microwave, desks, etc has all been disinfected with anti-bacterial stuff. My room smells lemony fresh!

So, if you ever need a way to effectively motivate somebody to clean, just take a week to show them what cultures and diseases are already present - they will be quick to want to get RID of them!

Honduras on My Mind!

So yesterday marked exactly 4 months until we are back in Honduras! I got WAY excited yesterday, and then kinda anxious as I was realizing everything that had to be done, such as fundraising, gathering prayer support, setting up profit shares, filling out lots of paper work, filing with the Honduran embassy... yeah, there's a lot that needs to happen! But that's okay, because it will all get done :)

But, just a reminder that I have a separate Honduras blog that I update, just because I LOVE having it all in one spot and being strictly related to Honduras. Here is the link just in case you are wanting to know. Those blog posts will become more frequent as the ball gets rolling!

http://heartforhonduras2012.blogspot.com/

Yes, I know the year is wrong since I'm going in 2013, but I honestly had no idea that this would become an annual thing when I started up that blog! Sorry bout it :)

Not a Traditional Classroom

Over the past year I have grown to have two new, yet incredible passions: adoption, and disadvantaged children. At camp this summer I loved being able to work with the kids who hadn't had their fair shot at life, who had been given the bad end of the stick, who didn't have it easy. Some of my favorite kids, and although they were also some of the most challenging, were the ones who came from rough backgrounds - specifically the kids who were in foster care, just because their stories broke my heart into so many pieces.

I've known forever that I wanted to work with kids. Originally, I was going to do youth ministry. Then the idea of education came around, and that was the train I jumped on. And I've loved it. But, I cannot picture myself teaching in a typical, traditional classroom. That isn't where my passion is. Yes, there are several underprivileged kids in those situations, I know that. What has been on my heart recently has been teaching in an orphanage. Although not many orphanages exist anymore, there are several that are Christian based and have schools as a part of their program. It would be as far from a "traditional" classroom as imaginable. The idea scares the poop out of me, but is exciting at the same time.

I don't know if this is what I am called to do, but it has been layed on my heart the past few weeks. Another possible idea (just because I know some of y'all will have a minor heart attack when you read this), was to go teach overseas. All you need is a high school diploma, and many "schools" will hire you. No, I didn't honestly consider this as a possibility, but it did momentarily cross my mind! So when you think I'm crazy for wanting to take the not-so-traveled route in education, just remember -- I've had crazier thoughts!

Polo Season is Almost Here!!!

Tonight we had our informational for the A&M Women's Water Polo Team! We had somewhere between 15-20 new girls attend the informational which is AWESOME! Granted, I know that they won't all play or decide to continue into the competition season, but still... new interest is great! Just talking about everything made me so excited for practices to start NEXT week! It's crazy! I can't wait for practices to start back up so that I can use those as a "study break"... We explained it to the new girls tonight - practice is a lot of work, but it's always fun because we make it fun and we just have a good time. Seriously, we laugh the entire time, and it isn't a rare occasion for one of us to laugh so hard that we swallow a lot of pool water.... resulting in more laughter of course!

I am so ready for this new season :) Let's goooooooo!

Sleep is a Funny Thing...

Sleep is a funny thing sometimes.

Not enough sleep, and we all know what happens. We get cranky. We can't pay attention. We are fidgety and easily upset. Our patience level hits all-time record lows. It's not a good situation.

Too much sleep on the other hand, seems like an okay thing. Wrong. Too much sleep on a night before class means I'm yawning through lectures, I can't focus on what I'm reading, I never fully wake up and so I'm exhausted throughout the day.

I never had this problem growing up because I was always up by 5 for practice, so even if I went to bed around 10, I was still getting 7 hours of sleep. Now, I often don't get up till 9 or so, sometimes even 10 or 10:30, depending on my class schedule. Therefore, if I go to bed at midnight and sleep till 9, that is NINE hours of sleep. Way too much! I guarantee (unless I'm extremely sleep deprived already), if I get 9 hours of sleep before going to class, I will not be awake enough to grasp any of the content. It doesn't seem like it, but it is a real problem.

That explains why I was done studying by 10:00 tonight, and yet it's 12:30 and I'm still up. I won't get up until 8:30 at the earliest tomorrow, therefore I'm making myself stay up till 1 or so that way I don't get much more than 7 hours of sleep. Last night I went to bed at 2 and got up at 9 and have been feeling SO good today! I got A LOT accomplished as far as classes go, but I also got to Skype with Emily, catch up with Jennifer at the library, and enjoy a phone date with Carley. And I spent time for me, watching TV and working on Project Life. Ultimately, I was still uber productive, and also got to spend time doing things that I love. 7 hours of sleep = a pretty dang good day!

Lesson learned: although too little sleep is a bad thing, too much sleep isn't good either!! :)

One Word to Describe This Upcoming Semester?

If I had to choose one word to predict how this upcoming semester is going to be, the word would most definitely be BUSY!

These are the classes I am taking

Reading 351: A Monday/Wednesday class, with an online Friday component. The class itself could potentially be interesting, but the professor is about as interesting as the Charlie Brown teacher... Yeah.

Reading 361: A 3-hour Tuesday block class. I think it's going to be really interesting though, despite the insanely long time sitting in that class!

Communications 203: A Monday/Wednesday/Wednesday class. Yes, I go there TWICE on Wednesday's. I don't think it should be too bad though, just a lot of reading right now and a lot of speeches later on!

Calculus 131: A Monday/Wednesday/Friday horrible, miserable, terrible course. If somebody could explain to me why on Earth an elementary teacher needs to know calculus, maybe then I would care a bit more. But until then, I will probably despise this class. Plus, my professor who has an incredibly thick Korean accent says that he "won't speak English, only math"... uh, what does that even mean?

Biology 113: A Tuesday/Thursday class. Although science isn't my thing, so far this hasn't been too bad. The professor even gave us Dove Chocolate last week to bribe us to do an inclass experiment!

Biology 123: A 3 hour Thursday lab. Once again, 3 hours is a long time to be sitting in class, especially considering it's a "lunch lab" - aka from 11:15-2:00. Outside of being STARVING by the time we finally get out, it isn't too bad.

So yes, I'm in a LOT of classes. And even though technically it is no more than the last two semesters as far as hours and credits goes, none of these classes will end up being blow-offs, which is I think why it feels like so much. Once polo, and Youth Impact (if I commit to doing it) get added into my schedule, I know that my sleeping time is going to go significantly down (ugh!), and my chaos level will increase dramatically. Whooooo!

On another note, my roommate, Rachel, is absolutely PHENOMENAL. She deserves her very own blog post... maybe that will be a study break for tomorrow night!