Around the World in 24 hours...?

Today was a very international, cross-cultural day for me. This morning my mom and I hit up a bunch of garage sales. While we were doing this I was wondering "do other countries/cultures have garage sales?" I kind of don't think that they do...especially to the extend that we in America do...we have more STUFF than other people. I found a pump for my exercise ball. I borrowed one this year from a girl on first floor...but she is graduating and when I deflated my exercise ball I thought about how I wasn't sure if it would ever get fully inflated again. Indeed it will with my $1 purchase.

We also found tons of awesome outfits for baby Austin. Garage sales are so perfect for babies clothes because at the 3-6 month stage they go through clothes so quickly that they may only wear an outfit once and it doesn't fit anymore. So a lot of the things we bought were like new!

Even though Austin may be moving to St. Louis he will be a Chicago sports fan.

This is one of my personal favorites. I just love picturing his chubby little belly in it! hahaha so fun! After all the garage sales we had a quick lunch and headed to Aurora to meet up with some ladies from Church. We were going to go visit with refugee ladies and invite them to come to a Bible Study every Friday in May. We drove to their apartments and broke up in groups from there to go to the doors of people that might be interested. We tried to express all the basics of when where and what despite the language barriers. The people we met were very sweet and we were invited into many of their homes where they insisted that we sat down. I just hope that they felt loved and cared about by us and that through our love they could feel Gods love for them. We met a lot of people from Burma and a few from The Congo. I honestly felt like I had flown around the world.

After that we came home and slept and had dinner. After dinner we enjoyed a special treat that our friends from Kenya sent us. They are cookies that we enjoyed while we were there. While reading the box I realized they were actually made in the UK. So those cookies went from the UK to Kenya to IL. Pretty exciting. We ended the evening watching the Royal Wedding that we recorded on DVR.

 Its a beautiful world we live in.

Final Exam Camp

I got back to IWU yesterday evening. Today I already had one final and have one more to go. Tomorrow I have a presentation, and a final then I go home. There isn't much in my room...so it feels like I'm camping. My mom also dropped me off and will pick me up. Instead of playing games and swimming we take tests, study, and give presentations. That's why I have decided to call these awkward two days Final Exam Camp.

I am excited for camp to be over...so I can go home!

Short Sentances That Don't/Might Not Go Together

Christ is risen!
Survivor Easter Egg hunts are awesome.
We laughed so hard it hurt.
Bring Home Hot Pickles=great game of balderdash.
OT flash cards all over the living room.
Studying+family time/friends=?
Nothing is unpacked.
Not excited about the drive time in the next few days but excited to share it!
What if my eye is never the same?
Bruised my leg running into the deck.
Raptor runs.
I love my deck.
Blueberry coffee cake was saved.
The Ray's are family.
Summer is so close.
My heart is heavy.
I miss being tan.
My head hurts.
Malawi will be here before I know it.
My emotions are like a roller coaster.
Senior events feel like just yesterday.
Time is weird.
I love my yellow high heels.
I'm gonna go eat some blueberry coffee cake.


These choppy sentences that don't flow and seem to be all over the place is a great example of how my mind is working recently. However...God is amazing, sovereign, wonderful, compassionate, gracious, and soooo loving! Praise the Lord, O my soul.

Renewed.
Restored.
Redeemed.

I love my school

Today was my last day of my short-term missions night class. I almost cried. Not because it was the last class but because we were giving presentations and in one group a girl played Be Thou My Vision on her guitar and sang. All of the sudden the whole class was singing along with her. I had a huge lump in my throat because I love how totally normal that is here! It's awesome that I can even take a class on missions at my school let alone break out into hymns in class.

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul's Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

Tonight was also our last unit bible study. Again, something totally awesome about my school, my dorm, and the ladies that live in my unit! Today we also got the T-shirts for our Malawi trip! People love them! Here are two of my sweet supportive unit mates showing them off!

North Hall Eastside Pass down

Last night was the North Hall Eastside pass down. It is an event where the current RA's pass down their units to the future RA's along with silly and sometimes sentimental things that have been passed down through the few years that North Hall has existed. Emily got to pass down East 1 East to me! She wrote me a sweet letter in which she wrote my name and her name in puffy paint= dedication. From the first year I got a strip of metal which was part of the building when it was being built. I hope they didn't really need it haha. On the metal pole there is a fleece blindfold that was used for the first initiation. From the second year I got a paper mache (sp?) balloon. It was suppose to be the hall decorations that year but they stuck too far out from the wall. Emily passed down to me her bro/sis dinner sign. I let her borrow a dollar not knowing why and she had the sign laminated and then gave me back a dollar haha. She gave me bamboo too!!! I also got a photo album with each dance move that makes up the East 1 East dance, then Emily and two E1E alum all did the dance. It was special. haha.

It was awesome hearing the letters that each RA wrote to the future RA. They were filled with great advice. Kayla, my RA, who is leaving North Hall next year for the first time in 3 years made us all cry, but it was good. I feel honored to be a part of this community... family.

"It's like a horse heading for the barn"

I was talking to my mom today about how I felt home sick and she said its like what your dad always says "It's like a horse heading for the barn..horses that know they are going home, can't stop for anything, they are focused on getting there." I had no idea my dad always said that hahah but I love it! Its sooo true! There has been a lot of sad/challenging events in the past 24 hours and I am so ready to go home. I have only 5 days of class left and 3 days of finals. It's getting to the point where its hard to focus on school work anymore and its going significantly harder in the past 24 hours.

Here I am heading to the barn.

Here I am in the barn (home).

Its been great playing in the pastures of college but its time to go back to the barn for a while.

B12

Depending on who you are you may or may not know that I get vitamin b12 injections. I am considered vitamin b12 deficient so I get shots once a month. I use to have to go to the doctor or here at school to the health center. It wasn't terrible since it was only once a month but it wasn't ideal especially since it was a $20 fee every time I got a shot here at school. Over Spring Break when I was home, I got a shot and the nurse said "you know you can give these to your self right?". NOOOOOO!!! I had always wished I could give them to myself. I had no problem with needles and I kept getting more and more frustrated with our health center at school each time I had to get a shot. So I was thrilled with this news. My wise Mom also thought it would be totally fine since our school is full of nursing majors! My future roommate Emily is going to be a 3rd year nursing student next year and I figured it would be great experience for her and I would feel better about it if I had someone who knew more about what they were doing. So I talked to Emily about it and she was game.

So I got all the things ready: rubbing alcohol, two needles (one to draw the meds, and one to inject), and cotton balls. Emily brought her power point notes. haha that made me laugh. It was such a great learning experience. We made sure to close the door so that people didn't get confused. Emily also called Lauren another RA nursing student up to my room to supervise and talk thinks through.

Here is Emily with the medicine all drawn up! It's pink so thats fun.

We put the shot in my thigh. I usually get them in my arm but the doc. said that I doesn't really matter where I have them done.



Here we are! Future roommates after our first successful B12 home injection! Thanks Emily!

EIU

This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity of visiting Eastern Illinois University. This will be my brother Grants last semester at EIU. This year he has been living with 7 guys in a house. I realized I had never really visited Grant at college. I had visited Alex at EIU but it was Grants turn! I wanted to see Eastern again and meet his roommates who play a huge role in his life etc. It also worked out since my friend Bailey who I have known forever goes to EIU and my friend Matt goes to school not too far away so I could see all of those important people in my life in one weekend! I was really excited to have the experience of being a college aged student on a secular campus since all I'd known this year has been IWU.

I was a little concerned because none of these 3 people really knew each other well....if at all. The common denominator was me! For some reason I've always been the person that tries to mix friends and friend groups haha I guess its just my thing. Anyways, I left school friday early afternoon and drove to EIU. It was a fun drive because it was a stretch of 70 that I dont think i've ever seen before. I got to Grants and he showed me around his house and then his school. Everything seemed so big! Later in the afternoon Matt joined us and that evening Matt and I went to go meet up with Bailey and her friends. It was fun to meet Baileys friends and make sure they were good ones. ;) 

The rest of the weekend was spent watching movies, playing ligretto, eating, running, talking, studding a little, etc. Sunday morning we all went to the Christian Campus House church service. I have such respect for Christians who live out their faith on secular campuses. It is so difficult and I have so much admiration for those who truly do.

Grant and I in front of his house with a pink door.

Matt and I again outside the house with the pink door.

I am so glad that the visit worked out!

No/So Worship Night

Its rare. But when it happens its awesome. I think this past Wednesday was the second No/So (north hall/ south hall) worship night. This event is definitely one of my favorite things so far at IWU. This time we got together and gathered around a fire ring between the two halls and sang worship songs. There is something about worshiping our God under the sky that He created that is powerful. I fell like our voices literally touched the sky. Last week was a crazy week academically (the rest pretty much are) but still people took time out of their lives to join together and worship. Not because we had to, not because we had nothing else to do but because we wanted to. I think it says a lot about the spiritual atmosphere. :)

World Changers Day

Here at IWU the day of the World Changers Convocation is like a Holiday. Some classes were canceled, some were let out early. It's kind of a big deal. Instead of having two chapel times there is only one. This year the inductee was S. Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-a. In the weeks prior to his arrival conversations about how awesome it would be to have a Chick-fil-a on campus were everywhere. Seeing as how Chick-fil-a is a Christian organization we just thought it would be a perfect match.

The morning of the World Changers convocation I was on facebook and saw an article a friend posted on another friends wall. It was an article from our school news paper that said IWU is getting a Chick-fil-a! I didn't believe it at first. However, I was pretty sure that it wasn't yet commonly known around campus. We get to 10 o clock chapel and the place is buzzing. It's exciting when the whole student body is in the chapel at once. Wonderful things were said about Truett Cathy and he spoke for a while. I was awkwardly almost brought to tears a few times. I have no idea why. President Smith had the honors of announcing that just that week it had become official that IWU was getting a chick-fil-a in wildcat!!! The place went crazy!!! I am excited for the time in the future when I will be able to say "I remember the day we all found out we were getting a Chick-fil-a." haha we got coupons too for free chicken sandwiches. Luckily I was sitting with my friend who is a vegetarian so I got hers too!

I was at Eastern Illinois University last weekend and I saw a picture of Truett Cathy at their Chick-fil-a... I feel like I know him hahaha I feel like he is my Grandpa or something hahaha super weird I know.