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

Donating Blood

I think one of the wonderful opportunities college students have is to donate blood. Each year at my school we have 3-4 blood drives. We usually will have 1-2 in the Fall and 2-3 in the Spring. I think blood donation is such a great way to give to our community. They are in need of so much blood everywhere these days because many blood banks are drying up. So yesterday I donated blood through the Community Blood Center. This is obviously not a super fun thing to go through, but I think it is necessary. I have plenty of good blood that I might as well share with people who are in desparate need for blood. I am glad that as a college student I have this opportunity to save someone's life in a very tangible way.

My Adorable Niece Lilli!

So I have decided to post some pictures of my niece Lilli. She is now almost 15 months old and is the cutest thing. She is running around and talking up a storm. She is absolutely adorable. Enjoy!


Lilli and her favorite doggie


Lilli exploring her new house


Lilli in her new home, Seattle


Lilli playing with Granddaddy's BIrthday card with a doggie on it


Lilli showing off to her family


Lilli just being adorable


Trying to get tired Lilli to look at the camera for one last picture

First Ever Speeding Ticket!

Well, last night I was driving home from the BSU and I accidently got a speeding ticket. The speed limit was 25 and I was going 37. It was because I wasn't paying attention to what was going on around me. As I was driving I saw the cop sitting on a side street ahead and slowed down, but he had already clocked me by that time. He pulled out behind me and once I turned on the street to go to my house, he pulled me over. I know that for most people this is really not that big of a deal, but for me it kind of is because nothing like this has ever happened before. I am definitely embarrassed and mad at myself that I did this. Oh well, I guess things like this happen to a lot of people. I have definitely learned my lesson and will be much more careful about my speed the next time I drive. One life lesson learned.

Weekends

Unlike usual, i have had social things to do on a lot of the weekends this semester. This has been so exciting to me, especially since I don't usually have anything to do and I sit at my house all weekend and just watch TV. Two weekends ago, I went on a float trip with the BSU. We floated down the Niangua River which is near Lebannon, MO. It was a whole lot of fun, even though the water itself was freezing. I got to meet a lot of new people and remember a lot of great things from this summer at camp.

Last weekend, I went to a conference called Getaway, again with the BSU! It was a lot of fun as well and I learned a whole lot. I was also definitely challenged that I need to be spreading the great news of the gospel to the lost and dying world around me which is my campus. I learned several staggering facts:One is that college students are the second most unreached people group in the United States when it comes to knowing about Christ. The second is that about 70% of the teenagers that were very involved in their church youth group in High School (just like I was) will drop out of church and/or any religious affiliation within one year of going to college. Wow! This is so sad. God definitely put it on my heart to reach out to my college campus.

This weekend I am going home to see my family. My brother, sister-in-law, and niece are coming into town from Seattle for a wedding. I am so excited to see them and my niece. Even though they have only been gone about a month and a half, I'm sure she has changed so much. I will try to put up some pictures of her later from over the weekend.

My next big weekend adventure will be the weekend of October 31st - November 2nd. I will be going down to the retreat Center that is hooked up with the camp I work at in the summer for a singles retreat with my home church. I wouldn't usually do something like this because there is going to be some much driving involved and it is kind of expensive, but it is the perfect excuse for me to go back down to camp and I am still quite emotionally attached to this place. I am so excited about this. It will be a great opportunity to meet some new people, just hang out, and relive some of my great memories from camp!

Even though this schedule is kind of crazy, I am so excited that I have things to do on the weekends instead of staying home and not doing anything exciting.