I Need Winter Break To Come Faster

Haha so it's midnight and I'm completely exhausted but of course I can't sleep...so here I am.

First of all I would like to tell you how AMAZING the Shane and Shane Christmas concert was here on Wednesday! My committee brought them in, but I didn't get to hang out with any of them really because I was working the will call tickets....oh well. I did get pictures with all of them and they signed a poster for me. I still got to watch a great concert of them and Bethany Dillon and Phil Wickham. They all did an amazing job.

Today (well, Sat) I spent the day in Springfield starting early to perform in the orchestra for First Baptist Church's Christmas musical. We had a 4 hour rehearsal that lasted until 2:30 and our performance started at 7:00 so I just hung out in the town instead of making the 30 min drive back to BOMO and then going back to Springfield again. I was going to meet my friend at the mall to do some Christmas shopping but decided not to after I saw the CRAZY crowd of people there. People were parking in other lots not for the mall thats how busy it was! Ugh...anyway I got a little bit of studying done at Kaldi's for my Biology final...but not enough.

I cannot wait for this next week to be finished! I just want these finals to be over with. I will miss it here I'm sure, but I'm so ready for a break and to go home. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing all my family and friends....I miss them a lot!!! My friend wrote me today and said I needed to get back so we can play video games and watch Lost...I'm stoked because I'm became addicted to Lost this semester. I watched the first 3 seasons already, and started the 4th which I need to finish before the new season starts in January! Ahhh! Wow, I'm super tired.

Oh- I made turtles tonight! They're made with melted chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter, and peanuts. I haven't eaten one yet because a) I snacked on the melted stuff in the bowl and b) they are still drying. Haha so yeah guess I'll have to wait a while. Anyway, I should probably sleep now because I have church in the morning followed by studying and then another performance in Springfield.

Goodnight!

Advent Conspiracy

So I wrote about 2 speakers that came to my school not too long ago. Their names are Shane Claiborne and Mike Yankosky. I'm still working on reading Claiborne's book and it continues to inspire me and the way I live out my faith. Well Christmas was brought up by both speakers in the same way. I have wrote about this as well, but I'll just restate that I have definitely been convicted this season. How did we let ourselves get lost in the cultural view of Christmas with consummerism. CHRIST should really be the reason for the season. I mean yes, Christians do want to show that they celebrate this time of the year because our Savior was born, but it really doesn't show in my opinion most of the time. I'm speaking to myself when I talk about it like this, but if we all just took a step back to observe the way we live at Christmas...I think a lot of us would really be ashamed.

Today, Christmas has become this holiday where people think for themselves and what they want to get or what kind of sales they can find. The Bible doesn't even say anything about giving gifts for Christmas! This kind of reminds me of those birds in Finding Nemo that only know how to say "mine, mine, mine" over and over again. We are falling deeper into consummerism everytday. There are so many suffering without food, clean clothes, shelter, proper health care. I'm not saying that gift giving and the fun stuff should be eliminated completely...I just want Jesus to be seen. Shane told us about a new movement called the "Advent Conspiracy" while he was here. A church that started it decided to fill the floors of their church with manure on their Christmas Day service to let them see what Christmas was probably like when Jesus was born in that manger with barn animals....so all the members (most of whom dress nicely on this day) sat in poop during the service. I can only imagine what that was like and I bet none of them will ever forget that Christmas. Here is a video from them that I believe really gives the message of what I've been saying. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU&eurl=http://www.adventconspiracy.org/&feature=player_embedded Check it out!

God Bless!

This Week Is FULL!!

Wow so it's Tuesday and I'm already worn out from the week! I have already taken a Biology lab final and College Algebra exam, but still have 2 more tests this week and finals next week! So I'm definitely ready to be done and go home for my 6 week break! I cannot wait..

I am really excited about tomorrow night though...I will get to take a break to help out with our Shane and Shane Christmas tour concert! Bethany Dillon and Phil Wickham will also be performing! I'm so excited to be on the committee that brings them in because I get to help them unload when they arrive at 11:00 tomorrow morning and I'll be working they're merchandise and selling tickets before the show. It is going to be awesome!!!

I love Christmas time so much, but it's going by so fast and I don't have a lot of time to do the traditional stuff that's so fun to do this time of year. I did receive a box with PENGUINS on it full of candy and some other penguin stuff from my family. It was cute.I have to admit that I wish I could be home more so we could bake our goodies and do all of our activities we do every year. Oh well, I'll be back the 19th around 2:00!!!

Break is Over, Now on to Studying

So I'm back to school after our week-long Thanksgiving Break. It was a lot of fun! I got to spend time with all my favorite people! Our T-Day celebration was great! My turkey turned out great this year! It was 24 pounds and it fell off the bone it was so juicy! All of the food we made was amazing! I ate way too much of everything!

I am so blessed to have family and friends to spend time with. I made a lot of new memories while I was back in STL and wish that my time with them wouldn't end. I got to catch up with friends that I hadn't seen in a while and actually relax for some time! I even got to go ice skating with some friends. Haha it was only my second time to ever ice skate and I didn't do too bad.

Well now I have 3 more weeks of the semester left. I cannot believe it's already been this long that I've been in college! I have quite a few tests before finals so I am going to be pretty busy with that. But I also get to celebrate the holidays a lot around