I'm an Aunt Again!!!!

Well, very early this morning at 12:45 I became an Aunt again!!!! My new niece's name is Olivia Edith White, which is extra special because my Grandmother's name was Edith. She was 5lbs. 10oz. and 19.5in. long. Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!
Olivia
Lilli meeting her new sister for the 1st time

Lilli holding her new sister

Back at School

I am now back at school. I got back around 1:30 this afternoon. Since being back, I have been really busy getting ready for classes to start tomorrow. I am excited about this semester, but I think it is going to be quite challenging. The classes for this semester are Anatomy & Physiology II with a lab, American Literature, Global Agriculture, Nutrition, and a Supplemental Instruction Lab (which is like a big study group) for Anatomy & Physiology. Tuesdays and Thursdays are definitely going to be my busy days this semester, which is a lot different than normal. I am a little concerned about this because classes are a lot longer on Tuesdays & Thursdays. It is usually the opposite of this set up so it will be interesting to see how things go. I will try to do a better job keeping you updated on how things are going this semester!

Another big thing that happened today was I got a pet betta fish. I named him Squirt. He is beautiful with red and blue coloring. Here are a few pictures.

Visit with Eubanks and End of Christmas Break

For the last week, I have been visiting some very good friends of mine. I have had so much fun. They have four kids that are a lot of fun and absolutely adorable. Two of the kids are twins who are only about 2 1/2 months old. They are so cute! Their two older siblings are a lot of fun to play with. After this week, I now understand more of what it is like to be a parent of four young children. I fed and held the twins, played with the older two, helped around the house, made dinner one night, and had a blast doing all of this, even though it was a lot of work. I have been friends with this family since I was in High School and I am so glad I got to see them. This was also a big trip for me because it was the first long road trip that I have taken by myself. It went well and I didn't get lost, which is great for me. Here are some pictures! Enjoy!










This trip to visit these friends was unfortunately the last big event before I go back to school. Classes start on Tuesday, so I will return to school on either Sunday or Monday. I can't believe how fast this break has gone by. It seems like I just came home for Christmas Break and now it is over with. I have had a great break doing so many things like spending time with family and friends, shopping, sleeping, watching movies, and just being lazy. I am ready and somewhat excited about going back to school, but I am definitely not looking forward to going back to studying and doing homework. I am fairly concerned about how hard some of my classes may be this semester, so hopefully they aren't too hard. I will keep you updated.

Christmas Break

Well, I got home from school this past Friday. I am so glad to be home and done with school for the semester. One of the things that I love to do at Christmas time is decorating a gingerbread house. This year I also decided to decorate a gingerbread Christmas Tree. These were both pre-made kits that I bought. I love doing this every year. Enjoy the pictures!









Also last night we recieved our first real snow of the season. Here are a few pictures! Enjoy!

Our front yard.




My car with snow all over it.


A beautiful Holly bush with snow on it.

Thanksgiving and Thankfulness

Well, I know this is kind of late, but I wanted to post something about Thanksgiving. I returned to school from Thanksgiving Break yesterday. I had a great break. We were off for an entire week because the school decided to combine our fall break and Thanksgiving Break. I enjoyed having this much time off, but now that I am back at school I only have two weeks left before I go home for Christmas Break. I didn't really do much really. The main things I did were hang out with family and Christmas shopping. Overall, break was very relaxing and I enjoyed it.

Since we are still in a season of giving thanks, I thought I would mention that I have so much to be thankful for. I am thankful for my family, my friends, my professors, my house and roommates, the BSU, the two churches that I am apart of and their leaders, and the ways that I have seen God at work in my life over the last year. These are just to mention a few, but I think one of the things that has really hit me this year is my parents. I am so thankful for my parents. They sacrifice so much for me and help me out in so many ways. They have been so faithful to me and each other. They are such a good example of great parents to me and all my siblings. They have worked hard to raise all of us in a good home and have been so loving. I am so thankful for my parents and everything they have done for me.

A Scary Situation

Yesterday I passed out for the first time in the middle of lab class for Anatomy & Physiology. I know this is not necessarily a big deal for everyone, but for me it was because I had never passed out before. It was very scary and embarrassing all at the same time. We were doing several different breathing procedures to look at how our heart rate and breathing rate were affected by doing different things because we are studying the respiratory system and how it works. I was specifically doing the Valsalva's maneuver when I passed out. This is a maneuver where you try to forcibly exhale with a closed airway. They were trying to demonstrate how your heart rate changes when you do things like this. I still don't know exactly what happened, but apparently I put my head into a bucket of water that was out for a different part of the lab and then fell to the floor and took the bucket with me. This obviously got water everywhere. I woke up fairly soon after I hit the floor, but it took me a little while to figure out where I was and what had happened. The teachers then came over to help me out. One of the graduate assistants teaching my class went and got Dr. Lankford, who is my professor for the lecture part of the class. He was very nice and took me to the hospital. He also waited there until I knew I could get a ride home with one of my housemates. All of this was a very weird and scary experience. It was weird because I rode in the car with one of my professors and it was scary because I passed out for the first time. I keep having flashbacks of when I woke up and didn't know where I was or what was going on. Anyway, just an interesting experience I had in my lab class yesterday. I am back to normal now and they found out that there was nothing wrong with me. I apparently just passed out because of the exercise we were doing in class. I am very thankful that nothing is wrong with me.

Singles Fall Retreat

So last weekend I had the great opportunity of going on a singles retreat with Twin Oaks and several other presbyterian churches. It was a wonderful weekend. First of all, we went to Trout Lodge and Camp Lakewood, which obviously made it extra special because I worked there this past summer. I got to see a whole lot of people that I miss from this summer and got to remember the great things about camp. Second of all, it was absolutely awesome to get together with fellow Christians and worship God. I loved being able to fellowship with some people that I haven't seen for a long time and learn from great teaching. The people I was with were very nice and I enjoyed getting to meet so many new people. One of the last things I enjoyed was getting to see God's beautiful creation. The tree were so beautiful with all their different colors and the lake was so peaceful and quiet. Overall, I had a wonderful weekend, God taught me a whole lot and I was refreshed with fellow believers. Here are just a few pictures:


Beautiful trees on the way to the chapel

The chapel

The path from Trout Lodge to Camp Lakewood with the tennis courts in the background

The bench near the Waterwheel Country Store that I would always call my parents from during the summer, because that is the only place I could get good reception.

Trout Lodge's pontoon boat at their waterfront