Saturday, February 26, 2011

1 more week

I don't have long, because next week is midterms which means exams and projects galore!  They are slowly coming along though.  I find myself exhausted, and very unmotivated.  I began the week with a cold, but praise the Lord, it is just about 100% gone by now.  I am also praising the Lord for the beautiful weather and sunshine today.  It lifted my spirits tremendously.

The biggest happening in my life this week was working the WVCSA tournaments that are hosted here at school.  I worked the concession stand with a friend, and I did enjoy it.  Our menu included pizza, chick-fil-a sandwhiches, fries, nachos, cheese, chili, candy, drinks!  We kept quite busy, trying to keep up with the orders, but I think we made out well.  I smelled quite atrociously of fried food, and was quite thankful for a hot shower at the end of the day.

This morning I went to a meeting at church introducing a new curriculum we are going to start next week.  I am excited about the new curriculum and how it comes directly from the Bible teaching God as the main character.  I am proud to be a part of this church, and the life they have in Christ.  I don't know how to describe my church family here, but they have a vibrancy about their faith that is contagious to those around.  They are not judging on anyone, and everyone who sets foot in there is shared the Word of God, and is accepted and loved with the love of Christ.  I already find myself getting sad at the thought of graduating in the respect of quite possibly leaving :(.

Well, I best get back to school work, and work, but I wanted to give a quick update.  In one week I will be home, Lord willing, and in two weeks, I will be with Daniel and his parents, Lord willing!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Live Eagle Cam

You have got to check this out!  Daniel sent me this link (that he had gotten from his mom) of this eagle's nest.  It is a live webcam.  They have three eggs, that should hatch sometime after the first of March.  It is very fascinating!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

another week

Another week has come and gone.  I find myself counting down the days until spring break! 13 days is the count, just in case you are interested!  13 is less than 14, which means less than 2 weeks- hip hip hooray!  The week went very though and I am so thankful for the gorgeous weather we had.

Wednesday night was no exception to every other week.  There is this cute little guy (same little boy mentioned in this post) who comes each week, and this week he had a foam cut out of a tiger.  He went to hand it to me, and I acted scared out of my mind (pretty much to the extent that my mom would have spanked me if I had been that dramatic about something so small).  He of course giggled to no end, and then tried to soothe me by saying "it's okay Miss Rebekah, he is just pretend".  I immediately stopped my drama and asked how he knew it was pretend.  He quickly replied "because is frozen like this *poses in a similar way as the tiger* and Jesus made him that way".  Trying to maintain my composure at this time, I ask him if he is pretend or real.  He assures me that he is real, and so I ask "how do you know you are real?"  He looked at the ground, and then back up at me, "because I have real legs, and a real face!!!"  And I could no longer hold my composure.  I lost it, as I got down on eye level with him, and just laughed.  I love these kids so much, and without meaning to, they put a smile on my face each week!

The Lord graciously blessed up with gorgeous weather this week.  I was so ready to wear open toed shoes, and they got a lot of use.  I was able to comfortably walk to and from class with no jacket on either.  My room also appreciated the spring breeze blowing my white sheer curtains.  I am thankful for the breath of fresh air the Lord blessed us through the weather!

Anyways, I am going to stop boring you with my long winded-ness and close this blog off.  Thanks to those who faithfully pray for me.  I recognize that it is your prayers that carry me through each day.  I pray each of you have a lovely week- and feel free to drop me a note with ways I may specifically be praying for you!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Bridesmaid

Hannah entered ABC with me as a transfer student.  She has been a friend since just about the beginning, and I have appreciated her friendship.  On New Year's Day, she got engaged.  I got a call from her at about 12:28am.  I was concerned something bad had happened because of the hour, but instead it was her and her fiancĂ© calling me to announce their engagement.  I might have woken the neighbors through my screech of excitement.  Sadly, she did not come back to ABC this semester, but instead pursued her studies elsewhere.  I have missed her tremendously, but was delighted when I heard she was coming in this weekend.  I saw her from my window as she got here, and she came to my room, we hugged, and she gave me an envelope.  I opened the envelope as she called her mom to let her know she had arrived safely.  I was looking "wow, this is super cute" when I read the note on the card "My special day just wouldn't be complete without you there, so...will you be my bridesmaid?!?"  I had to hold my excitement as she wrapped up her phone call.  But I am so honored and excited to be able to be one of her bridesmaids.

I wanted to post pictures though so you all could see her creativity in asking her bridesmaids to be her bridesmaids!  The last picture has the names of all of her other bridesmaids too.



Thursday, February 17, 2011

"A people will rarely rise above the level of its leaders" John MacArthur

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day!

This morning, I woke up to this beautiful display of cupcakes

It was such a pleasant display to wake up to. The specific cupcake I chose, I enjoyed after lunch and it was delicious!

I so look forward to the days when I have the means to do special little things like this. Thanks Allison!

Also today, I got a package from my parents! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Missing my sister a lot lately, which is kind of weird if you know the relationship we had as young children, but I am so thankful to the Lord for strengthening us. I love her so much and am proud of the young lady she is. She is so beautiful, but not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. I am proud to be her sister, and am so excited to see how the Lord is going to use her gifts and talents for the furtherance of His kingdom. Sarah Joy, I love you and miss you.

Friday, February 11, 2011

the happenings of this week...

I would say that overall, this has been a good week. I got a lot accomplished, the kiddos at church were well behaved, I have laughed, slept, and had some good time with the Lord! This afternoon and evening, the biggest thing that has been on my mind is how much I miss my sister. Related to that topic, I signed up for my school to observe at over break, and it is only a couple of miles from my sister's high school, so I am hoping to be able to drive her to school and pick her up, and add some special sister time in there too.

As I mentioned above, the kiddos at church did so well on Wednesday. Taco Bell was on the menu, and the children were just much more calm and listened so well. I am so proud of them. I taught about Joseph and so we did a craft of making his coat colorful with various items: felt, ribbon, pipe cleaners, etc. I was a little nervous about giving them so many options, and the glue. Anyone who knows 4-5 year olds know they are at the stage of becoming independent so they want to do the glue. Instead of just saying "no, I will do it" I try to watch them and encourage them so they can do it by themselves, but they can do it responsibly. Another thing I love is the respect those children give me--I am an adult to them, and they look up to me. I love being able to teach them more then just stories, but stories from the Bible, and teaching them life lessons. I just love all those kiddos so much and am so thankful for the opportunity God has given me at this dear church.
This week I have been working super super hard on drinking more water, and good granny. Do you know how hard it is to drink the amount of water you are supposed to? Well let me tell you, it is very hard! My faithful pink nalgene has come in big handy as I try to keep track. I challenge you, try it!

I am super excited as well, because I get to go home in 21 days for spring break and to do my week of public school observations. If it is like last spring break at a Christian school, it is an absolute blast, but it is extremely exhausting. I love being being a teacher, and in the classroom. Praying that the classroom I am placed in works out well and I learn lots of positive 'stuff' over break. Also, in 29 days, I get to see Daniel. I decided to fly down to VA to see him at the end of my break, and the beginning of his break. I am looking forward to that time with him and his parents!

Last weekend, the weather was beautiful, I had my window open, with the crisp spring breeze blowing in, but Tuesday night, I walked to dinner, and this is what I found...
I will give it credit that it is beautiful, but after having the taste of spring, I am more then ready for spring to come and stay.

Anyways, I hope you all have a lovely weekend. I am looking forward to a productive day tomorrow working on an art lesson plan, and a few other projects. Remember that our sole purpose in life is to bring glory to the Lord! Feel free to send me a note-I would be more then happy to reply.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

random thoughts

I feel my mind is full of random thoughts. Thoughts I think "I should put this on my facebook status" and then realize "oh wait, I like the one I have". So sit back, relax, and enjoy some of the random thoughts from a college student.

-I saw the moon two nights in a row!
-Earth science exam: weirdly enough, studying is kind of enjoyable, but not looking forward to the exam at all.
-snow? I thought we had moved on.
-I love the children of WV but this generation is going to be stupid after the number of snow days they have.
-Any ideas on a public school near home I should do my spring break observations at?
-Will I ever get all of my observations done?
-It is awesome to watch God's hand at work!
-The snow outside is beautiful.
-Today was like the fifth time in like two weeks when I have either drooled or missed my mouth when taking a drink. That's disgusting--what is wrong with me?
-I sold my more expensive book on amazon today.
-What craft should I do for the kids tomorrow for Genesis 37?
a) Joseph's coat: marker on coffee filter, then sprayed
b) Joseph's coat: colorful craft supplies to glue on his coat
c) Joseph's coat: construction paper mosaic
d) Sheaves (from Joseph's dream): glue grain and rice on the colored picture
-I love hot apple cider.
-I really miss my sister and sharing a room with her.
-I would really like to cook something creative, and be able to have people over and practice hospitality.
-I love index cards, highlighters, and whiteboards.
-Is there such a thing as having too many stickies on one's desk?
-I wish I were home with my crafty supplies, so I could make valentine's day cards.
-I am looking forward to a productive weekend.
-I could really go for some of Ruthie's pepperoni rolls right about now. Us college students are so blessed to have her in our life!
-I love reading other people's blogs, it is a bit of an addiction of mine.

I honestly think I should do a blog like this more often. It may be a bore fest for you, but it was very relaxing for me to get all of this just out there!

Have a great day!

Jehovah Jireh

I would just like to humbly say how grateful I am for the way the Lord has been providing this semester, in so many ways! I am overwhelmed.

Friday, February 4, 2011

a slow week ending with el ed adventures!

I am not going to lie, this week has gone by very slowly. I got ahead on homework last weekend, which left me feeling a bit bored this week (weird I know). I keep telling myself to enjoy it, because in the blink of an eye I will be craving 'boredom'. It was a slower week compared to this coming week, but I used that to try and work on next week's stuff, so I was not overwhelmed with it all next week. Tonight is open dorms (what they say is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with strict guidelines) which will probably find me in another girl's room celebrating a mutual friend's birthday and playing games. Tomorrow I am hoping to catch up on some very very needed sleep, and get a bit of homework done. I work tomorrow afternoon for Alpine's winter camp. I am not sure how much time I will for homework, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing, is it?

Wednesday night, my church started a new thing... catered fellowship dinner. Wednesday nights are hard for most families to get home from work to feed their children to get everyone to church. The leadership has also been feeling like our church has been lacking fellowship, so they decided, in trying to resolve both issues, to have dinner provided at church on Wednesday nights. This week, it came from the Steak Escape! You order what you want (from a small menu) on Sunday, and (at least this past week) your order form is stapled to a bag with your dinner. This past week it seemed to be a huge success. It was fun watching everyone fellowship with each other and laugh! I love the fact that I am a part of this body of believers--I love them so much! I love the fact that I feel like I belong, and I am one of them. I love that I am looked at as an adult. It was so amazing...I was walking over to the food table to get one of the little girls I was sitting next to some napkins, and one of my girls from 2s-5s (new as of about 6 weeks ago) said to her parents "that's my teacher!!!" as she gave me a bear hug saying, "Hi Miss Rebekah". I love being a teacher, I love being loved by those dear children, and I love the energy they create in me. Teaching and children though are not always a bed of roses.

Sometimes instead of creating energy, they zap it right out of me. The fellowship dinner was a huge success, but I think it had some connections to my 2s-5s behavior, haha. They were WILD! It was good though, because I was able to discuss it with my helper (went to school for el ed and used to teach) some tricks to hopefully better their behavior when acting the way they were on Wednesday. They are still doing SO well with their Scripture memory and make me so proud of them.

******

WARNING: I had a great adventure today, but be forewarned...I included several details.

Today, I had an exciting (and scary at times) adventure with two other el ed students for one of our art observations. Our driver had received directions from our prof, printed from mapquest. The directions were so weird. They took us on little (what I call) 'bubbles' off the main route, only to bring us back on the same exact road we were just on. We laughed pretty hard about those, especially since we missed our turn for one of those 'bubbles'. We tried hard to follow our directions to a "T", only to find ourselves on a sketchy road with 'residential' on one side, and a huge hill on the other, with a long stair case going up it. We could see a sign, but could only make out something something something Home of the something Hawks (I still don't know what sign says). We giggled a little bit, because the directions hadn't really taken us anywhere. We looked up on the hill and saw what looked like a gymnasium, so we took a few roads that would logically lead us to this building.

On our way up the hill we saw buses, which to us, was a very good sign. We then saw a playground, another good sign. The bad sign though, there was only the one gym looking building, a log cabin, one car, and no signs besides what looked like the back entrance that said something about head start. We decided that wasn't the place so drove back down the hill, saw a woman in her yard with several dogs, and asked where the particular elementary school was. Her answer didn't make much sense, so we decided to head up to what we originally thought was the school, and see if we could ask someone there. (Mind you, we left about 10-15 minutes earlier then we needed to, and we are in the same town the school is in.)

We drive in to this odd looking 'school' that we figure is a preschool, only to find like 4 cars total in the parking lot. It was weird, but we needed directions. Our driver got out of the car and went to the main entrance only to find lights off, cameras, and everything locked. She walked around the building to a back door. While she was in the parking lot of this preschool, this scary looking dog was following her. My friend and I are in the car, halfway laughing, and halfway worried for the safety of our friend walking around this odd building, with what looks to be a stray dog following her. She had better luck at the back door, when a woman awkwardly opened the door and gave her directions.

Remember that log cabin I told you about?!?! Sketchiest log cabin I have ever seen. It was really big, and the 'windows' were all boarded up. It was not cute at all like you think of when you think of log cabins. Next to the log cabin were broken playground parts. All in all, I don't know what happens there, but I wouldn't be surprised if nothing good happens. It was a very scary situation for the three of us ladies, a sketchy part of town, and we were glad to lock the doors, and get back on the road.

We went down the road a few miles, after passing several trailer parks, abandoned homes, and even a "for sale" school building (we had wondered if the school we were going to had actually been sold, and we had been led to a 'dead end'). It is not the safest feeling place I have ever been, but we were already late, and we were determined to find this school! Praise the Lord, we saw a big building in the distance, and the closer we got, we could see the letters to the school name we were supposed to be at. What a relief it was! We pulled in to the parking lot only to find they have absolutely no pattern to parking, giggled a little more as we quickly headed to the front door to find our art classroom. To make matters all the more exciting....

The secretary let us in and we introduced ourselves. "We are ABC students here to observe the art class" She looked at us, and replied "I don't think you are at the right place, we don't have an art class" You have got to be kidding me. I am positive we are at the right school, but what is going on? She gave the name of the school, to which we verified, we were at the right place. We ended up giving her the name of the teacher we were to be observing, and she said "oh yeah, she works here! Let me page her". She sent a sweet student down to show us the way to the classroom (side note: public schools are set up SO weird. they are literally a maze).

The positive part to the story is that we made it to the classroom only ten minutes late, and the lesson was very enjoyable. The teacher did a great job, had awesome control of her classroom, and was very positive. I later learned she is an ABC grad!

We got back out in the car, and each gave a sigh of relief! Getting back should be easy, right? Ha! Not quite! We made it most of the way fine, except we missed one of our roads, and instead were led on to the highway leading us away from where we were needing to go. I was able to recognize where we were and get us back on a straight shot back to school (college). But God still had more in store for us...only one lane open! We got stuck in a bunch of traffic just about the entire way back to school, but we were all happy to see the "Appalachian Bible College" sign. Our trip that was only supposed to take 1-1.25 hours took us 2.25 hours! It was a fun adventure, and I am thankful we were all able to laugh about the situation and make the best of it. Check back in with me next week to see if I am able to make it back there!