Nativity story told by children

I understand this may not be 100% accurate, but if you don't take your doctrine from it, it's pretty cute.

Christmas break thus far

Christmas break has been going fairly well.  I am beginning to "catch up" on sleep, making me realize all the more how very overtired I am.  Trying to mend my body by getting some good sleep.  I have also enjoyed much relaxation and time with those I care about.

Exams are done and behind me, for which I am so thankful.  I finished my last exam a little early, and so I had time to clean up my room a little bit.  Daniel picked me up and we headed to his grandparents' home in VA.  I enjoyed the weekend there with him, his parents, and grandparents.  We did some Christmas baking, visiting, relaxing, and visiting of some of his friends.  What a good time I had.

I had two uneventful flights home on Monday, and landed in Rutland at about 7:45 pm.  Tim, Beth, and Annette are currently living with us while they get their new home here.  So my parents once again have an almost full nest (Scott being 20 minutes away).  Annette just turned 1 year, and she has been so much fun to play with.  Along with playing with her, I have enjoyed baking up the wazoo (a phrase I learned from Mrs. Childs).  Here is a pictoral review of some of my past few days. (please pardon the red eye...I have recently had my computer worked on, and cannot figure out how to fix the red eye right now)

Chocolate peppermint cookies

Almond sugar cookies--nothing smells more like the holiday then almond. 

Orange chicken...it looks terrible, but I was fairly pleased with how it tasted. 

 Christmas gifts for the neighbors.  Mom made the cinnamon rolls.

Our fat Christmas tree (sorry for it being blurry) 

One of my favorites...peppermint bark. 

The start to homemade cranberry sauce.

Blueberry streusel pie.

I think it goes without saying, I love baking and cooking.  Tonight, we have the Christmas Eve service at church.  Tomorrow we will celebrate with my Grandma Hewitt for breakfast, then go to church, and celebrate with Grandpa and Grandma Meigs throughout the afternoon and evening.  I trust you will have a very Merry Christmas with your family and friends!

Merry Christmas!

exam week

Exam time has arrived.  My exam schedule is as follows....

Wednesday:
8 am Foundations of Music Theory Exam


Thursday:
8 am Doctrine 2 Comprehensive Exam
10 am History and Philosophy of Education Comprehensive Exam

I have enjoyed four Christmas parties within the span of three days.  Each has been so fun with its different group of people, and its unique style.  All observations for this semester are done!  I do still have to start and finish packing, and start and finish cleaning before I can leave.  I may end up having to do it all after my last exam and leave later, but hopefully I can get it done sooner.  This semester is almost done, and it will be missed.  Though this semester has been my most exhausting semester, I have loved it!  I have loved the classes, the schedule, the profs, etc.  It will be bittersweet at its completion.

Well, I am going to finish preparing for my music exam...A/C/E, B/D/F, C/E/G, D/F/A....

the semester is wrapping up

The semester is coming to a rapid close.  I am long gone a week from now.  I will have classes on Monday and Tuesday, one exam on Wednesday, and two exams on Thursday.  After my last exam on Thursday, Daniel will pick me up and I will spend a few days with him and his family in Virginia before I fly home on Monday.  The end is in sight!

On Thursday we had study day, which is one of my favorite days of the academic year.  Our loving staff served us breakfast in bed (a continental 'brown' bag breakfast outside our door).  I allowed myself to sleep in until 9am, and then enjoyed my breakfast and got right to work.  My day's accomplishments were great...finished my Public School Policies and Procedures take-home final exam, got my room reorganized, got my room cleaned, laundry put away, got my dishes done, my case study started, and attempted to balance my checkbook.  We had a fresh snow Wednesday night, making being inside (looking at snow outside), Christmas music playing, and a balsam candle melting, the perfect day!

Yesterday was back to classes.  And then last night was our Christmas banquet.  In my three years, this was my first year going.  I had no date planned, but instead was trying to find things from girls around to make it so I could even go.  I got the dress from one friend, and sweater from another.  It was beginning to look like for sure I would be able to go.  I went to ask my friend to borrow her curling iron to learn she wasn't in her room but instead had gone to her house (5 minutes away) to get a dress.  I texted her and quickly learned she was going to banquet tonight (different from when I had talked to her that morning).  I quickly asked who her date was, to which she replied "you!"  Sweet- I thought.  We didn't think much of it, but had fun getting ready together.  When we got to banquet everyone kept complimenting on how well we matched.  Haha, we had been planning that for so long.  We had a fun time together and the others at our table (which my battery died before I could get pictures of them).  Here are some pictures from the evening.

After the banquet we went over to her parents house, enjoyed tea (for the first time in my life I did indeed enjoy tea), visited, and then played an exciting game of Phase 10.  We were there until about 11:30 when her dad drove us back to campus.  It was a fun night.

PS:  Here is the only picture I took over Thanksgiving break....Starbucks pumpkin scones

PPS:  This is what my current life consists on...lists, upon lists, upon lists...and cocoa/coffee.

Gift-a-Verse from John Andersen on Vimeo.

another random post

Too many random thoughts floating around in my head...let me enlighten you:

• You know you are a busy college student when you have to do laundry because you have no clean clothes left, when you LOVE to do laundry.
• After an electrical burn and tripping a breaker...Christmas decorations helped me reaffirm that I am not called to be an electrician.
• I am sad my observations at Bradley are done.
• Not looking forward to this Bethel exam tomorrow on the History of Education....lots of names.
• I so badly want to either bake something, or do something crafty--neither of which can be done the week before finals.
• Praising the Lord that what I thought would be terrible this semester, has actually turned out to be such a blessing.
• The pictures that happen behind my eyelids are much more enjoyable then the words on a note-card about history and philosophy.
• I love lists, and live by them!
• Aah, I love el ed, even if it is an insane amount of work.  It is totally worth being in the center of God's will.
• I wish it were easier to study while listening to Christmas music, I hate turning it off.
• I hate late lights...I don't want to stay up until morning time...I never know which is more important....sleep? studying?  I am going for a combination tonight.

Goodnight, all!  I hope you enjoy your sleep.

Christmas Decorations 2011

Okay, here it is...Christmas Decorations 2011.  Each year, our school does this big decorating contest.  Each "wing" decorates their wing with a theme.  My freshman year, we decorated our wing after Robert Frost's poem, Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.  My sophomore year we did the Revenge of the Elves.  This year's decorations were TOTALLY different for me because of many reasons.  For starters, being an RA, ultimately it was my responsibility.  If something went wrong, it came back on me.  It was my responsibility to make sure it was done.  This added a wide variety of challenges.  Secondly it was different in that I am in Hoops Hall instead of Des Plaines Hall.  Des Plaines is older and the walls are cinder blocks, so we could do anything to it, including hot glue.  Hoops is only 3 years old, and has painted Sheetrock walls.  The only thing we can use on them is sticky tack.

What was your theme this year, you may be wondering.  It was a Hot Chocolate Christmas, titled, "Super Sweet Christmas...hot chocolate style".  I must give credit to my mom though, because it was initially her idea.  When I first learned I was going to be an RA this year, that was one of the first things that popped into my head "oh no, I am responsible for decorations"  Talking to mom about it she was like "what about....".  I presented the idea to the girls and we ran with it.  Enough blabbing on my part though...here are the pictures.

 May I make the note that this is only half our hallway we were responsible for decorating.

 Emily helped out a lot.  Here she is making a marshmallow nativity.

 Bethani also helped a bunch, she is the artist of the fire place.

Courtney had lots going on this week, but she still pitched in a lot to help out. I believe she is beginning to make a mug in this picture.

The beginning of Valerie's masterpiece. 

Our sad snowman...it did not take spray paint well. 

Kaitlyn wrapping her door. 

Kari and I got hyper as we had been decorating for a very long time.  I walk away for a little bit and find her sitting in the box giggling, "I feel like a kid, look it's a doggy hole!"

Progress being made on Val's Texas sized Hershey bar (she free-handed this).

And for the finished product....

 It probably took Val around eight hours to do this.  I think we are going to keep it on our Texas wall.

 This was my execution!

 Our fireplace with pictures on the "mantle"

 If you can't tell, this is a chocolate fountain.  The sign tries to explain it, "please keep your fingers out of the chocolate fountain. Thank you"

The trivia game that Courtney made.  There were questions on the paper about chocolate.  There were Hershey bars throughout the wing that clues were printed on the back.  The winners are entered in a drawing for a prize.

Emily's nativity scene. 

 

 Cheryl and Leslee's Chocolate Cafe.  These were the only plants we could find in the building.  No one really knows what they are supposed to be.

The finished snowman. 

 Our cozy "home", complete with a mantle of pictures, stockings, a fire, Christmas tree (decorated with marshmallow garland and cocoa bags), a comfy chair, a red pair of slippers, and candy bars under the tree.

It is a lot of work, but the results are fun.  Sadly, I did not get pictures of the other wings.  Some of their themes were:

Christmas over the Border

Christmas in Space

Christmas on the Frontier

A Hollywood Christmas

Christmas throughout the World

Pirate Christmas

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my wing!  I hope you have a cozy and sweet Christmas!