Positive's List

Last semester in Anatomy and Physiology with Dr. Boomsma, our group of friends would make a "Positive's List" every Friday. We would simply write good things that had happened during the week that we are praising the Lord for! However, this semester, we don't have lecture of Fridays (due to Dr. Boomsma's research). So today I decided to take initiative and start a Postitive's List on a Wednesday! So between Kathy, Hannah, Lisa, Andrea, and I, here is our praises for this week so far
+ It's Leap Day!
+Finished with the Micro exam
+T- 2 weeks until I see Ben!
+Dressed for Success
+We don't have the ebola virus, raibes, or influenza
+It's sixty degrees in February!
+No Micro test until after spring break
+Chapel this morning was fantastic and just what I needed to hear (second that)
+I like my hair today...for once
+Our cancer cells are growing like weeds and are countable (for our genetics project)
+2 days until Molly vists, and 1 month till Gungor!
+I get paid today
+No class on Friday
+The micro test was in English...I think
+The adjunct is not teaching this lecture

And I have another positive to add on now that I'm out of lab....

I checked my mailbox, and not only was there a paycheck, but a package slip! I was not expecting a package at all, so this was a HUGE positive! It was chocolate Easter eggs and shampoo/conditioner from my mom! Thanks Mama Kristi! I shared the chocolate with my friends right away, but Sprads will have to wait til Easter to eat it. She gave up chocolate for Lent. You go girl!

Another positive is that I can go to bed at a decent time, and recover from my ten, yes ten, hours of Micro studying last night. PTL! Also, One Tree Hill and Modern Family are on tonight. I hope they are really good, because New Girl was not on last night. Sad face. I look forward to going on a walk with Allison, Sarah, and Lisa because of the beautiful weather!

All around good day. Peace and Blessings, everyone! 

Highs and No Lows

Happy Monday everyone! Although blogging is probably the last thing I should be doing right now, I wanted to share how wonderful my busy day was.
Started off by awaking to Allison's alarm... which went off while she was in the shower. That was a super confusing moment, but at least I was awake! I was able to get a little homework finished right away in the morning.
For my classes. Well, today we learned about HIV/AIDS in micro class. I mean, most people know a good amount about this disease, but I still learned some really interesting things! Like how it gets into our human cells and reproduces. And how there are four different ways that our human cells kill the virus, which actually leads to the virus spreading more ferociously. In choir, we were finally able to sing straight through three of our songs, instead of only working on sections. That felt so good! We sing in a church in Lansing on Sunday, so we are pulling everything together for that. Anatomy... was a struggle to stay awake in to be honest. I love that class, it's just super long. But I learned how amazing small details of our respiratory system are! Like surfactant, a body fluid which prevents our alveoli from collapsing in on each other. Neat stuff! I also got my test back, and am content with my grade. Especially after I realized that the Scantron counted one of my correct answers as wrong!  2 more points back!
After that, I went into work. Discussed music with Kirstie for a while. I had introduced her to Over the Rhine last week, and now she is hooked. I accomplished a lot, and then headed off to a very short Student Association meeting with my task force.
Tonight was the first time this semester that I was able to go to Pass It On. As part of the Service Committee, I take a group every other Monday night (more often if students express the desire) to the Pass It On thrift store. Tonight was crazy busy, but I loved it. I took three girls, and they all worked so hard and were so pleasant to get to know! Only one of the regular volunteers was there tonight, and she had me help run the show since I knew my way around. It was pretty fun!
After parking the giant van (I still refuse to back that thing into its parking space), I quick went to the gym for Zumba. Well, in my rush of packing gym clothes earlier that day, I had forgotten about gym shoes. So I had to dance in my socks (I still rocked it though!), and walk all the way back across campus in athletic shorts and my fancy boots. Keeping it classy.
One of the best highs was Bible study with Lette's floor. She and her floor are so nice for inviting me in! We went over Philippians 4, which is one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. I will insert a passage here. Read it carefully. It's so amazing! Paul gives so much guidance and reassurance for life.

Final Exhortations

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Thanks for Their Gifts

¹⁰ I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹ I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. ¹² I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

So rich! After Bible study, Danielle and Sarah came over for a "less than one dollar gift exchange." We thought of this last night, so we had a day to come up with something that costs us less than a dollar. I made a country CD, since we all enjoy country music and I have a bunch of blank CD's just laying around. It went to Danielle, and she gave me a lil pig! But wait! This lil pig could open up, and it had inside of it a quarter, a Now and Then candy, and a picture of Zooey Deschanel. Love her. Makes me super excited to watch New Girl tomorrow!

Well, those were all my highs. Low... now I have to finish doing some homework. Ah well. I'm a student, and it's what I'm here to do! Goodnight everyone!

IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY.

It's my best friend's birthday... tomorrow. To be technical. But I want to make sure I get this done, so I'm blogging this all now.
Marisa, here's to you! We met the day before pre-school, when her mom brought her over to see if I was in the morning or afternoon sessions. Sadly, we were not able to go to school together until high school. Yet, we met almost every day after school to play! We drew chalk towns, raced bikes down the drive way, set up farms with Patrick, and so much more. As the years progressed, we grew closer together....Through candy-grams, car rides to school, singing "I Believe in a Thing Called Love," watching OTH, hanging out at my house on Sunday nights, working at the shop sophomore year, tanning at the pond, cheering at basketball games, and sometimes even crashing each other's family events. Now I just get to see her during the summer and random weekends when I come home, but it's like we were never apart. So here's to you Marz!

Have a great day, and I'll see ya when the chips fly high!



do Aweosme things with Quality people and you will have Fun!

I'm sorry I haven't posted very much this week. Let's do a quick run-through of events.
Monday: Homework and Zumba
Tuesday: Dinner with my philosophy class from last semester. What a blessing! There were eight of us in this class, taught by Dr. Reppmann. He helped us learn so much by letting us explore on our own and together as classmates. We had a lot of good discussions, some good laughs, and some great Dutch snacks at our final exam! So we met up at the BBC for supper. They all laughed at me as I pulled my own coffee creamer out of my purse. I decided that I'm OK with coffee, but I can't stand the BBC's coffee. It's just too bitter for me, no matter how much creamer I put in. Guess I'll have to stick to hot chocolate and steamers. We did joys and struggles, and I realized how many blessings I have had in my life this semester! It was difficult to decide on a blessing, and also difficult to think of a struggle! God has truly provided for me, sustained me, and blessed me here at TCC! We all agreed that God has truly put us in the right disciplines, from seeing the joy on each other's faces as we shared our favorite classes this semester. I said mine was Microbiology, of course. I watched New Girl with the girls upstairs, and we had a lot of laughs! Then Sarah and Allison and I ran down to Kara's room for a hall council meeting. We brainstormed a few fun events for the rest of the semeser, mostly after spring break.
Wednesday- Woke up with a bad cold this morning, as did Allison. Sad face. But I was able to enjoy my classes. In choir, we sang a song that I did in Western Chambers. It had a solo that I knew, so I sang it out (even with my raspy voice)! Brittany and Cassie said I rocked it, but I wasn't able to overpower the rest of the choir, so not everyone heard me. Which is just fine by me! We learned about the veins of the body in anatomy lab, and I spent a lot of time in the cadaver. I also signed up for Boomsma's interim for disecting the next cadaver. That won't be until next January, but I'm looking forward to it! I took time out of my day to go to yoga, which was a blessing. Some people are really leary of yoga, because it had very mystical beginnings. But Dr. Colosimo uses yoga as more of a de-stressor, a meditation time to reflex on blessings and to release the tensions of the day, and building a community with each other. It's not all that weird inner-god stuff at all. Ate at the cafe for the third night in a row, but this time with the girls who had gone to yoga with me. Lots of fun! I also had a Student Association meeting this night. It was short and sweet, much to my liking! This way I was able to complete my micro assignment.
Thursday- Classes were great, especially with the surprise of not having our quiz in pre-calc! Mr. Hoving is super nice, and just wants to make sure we learn the material instead of trying to trick us on tests and quizzes. I was looking forward to Outcry all day, and it was a wonderful experience! We had a whole row of friends: my room, the girls upstairs, and the Tib 11 boys. The focus was on Christ taking on our sins. Throughout the songs, we were able to write our sins and shortcoming on slips of paper and nail them to the cross which is normally on stage for Outcry. Then Fitter and Andrew raised it up during the last songs, and we were able to see our sins nailed to the cross. It was a pretty strong symbol, especially the act of nailing our own sins onto the cross. I studied all night for my anatomy test on Friday, but I didn't even get into that strange of a mood! Usually, I go into panic mode, and Allison needs to keep me in check. She probably got sick of hearing me repeat all the enzymes of the digestive system, but I think it was worth all the studying!
Friday- What a day! I realy enjoyed my Micro lecture. Viruses have such neat life cycles! I won't bore you with the details, but it's pretty much similar to throwing about 700 Legos into a dryer for an hour, and having them come out as built houses and planes and such. That's about how viruses form in our cells. Pretty neat! Chapel was great, too. Now that we are in Lent, there is a lot of reflection time during our chapels, which I am enjoying. Usually after choir, I need to go straight to choir, but we didn't have choir today! So I had lunch with the girls and Mark D., then took my anatomy exam. I think I did well! Then I went into work for the afternoon. We had decided earlier in the week that we were going to clean out Kirstie's desk, because it was so disorganized! I wish I had a before and after picture, because we did work! It looks soooo good! Steve, the new admissions counselor, kept saying how awful it was that Kirstie was making me clean her desk, but it was actually my idea, and I love cleaning! So it's all good! I had to finish out the day with data entry, but I felt very accomplished when I left work. When we got to the caf for supper, there was all this fishing stuff all over the place! We could try casting into buckets to enter our name into a raffle. Justine won it, and the prize was the first season of The Deadliest Catch on DVD! So funny! I realized at the end of our meal that I still had my nametag on from work. How embarrassing. Such is my life.
Friday night- Girls night! Sarah had found this adorabel old-fashioned ice cream parlor in Tinley, so we went with Danielle and Bex. However, it was closed when we got there! How disappointing! After looking into a few other places, we finally decided to go to At The Office for dessert. We shared some delicious brownie sundaes, YUM!

Sarah and Danielle, the upstairs girls, with their sundae!

 We had a bunch of Sweedish Fish in our purses from the caf earlier that night, so we decided to give them to the guys at the table next to us. Maybe not the best idea in hindsight. After talking a while, they realized we went to TCC. They were kinda rude about it and asked questions like, "Aren't you supposed to be in bed by now? Are you breaking curfew?" So we just stopped the conversation and walked away. However, one of the caught us at the door and asked if we'd like to stay to get a few drinks. I told them we weren't of age, so we wouldn't be joining them tonight. He said, "Well..neither are we.. but you know, we still could." Eh, no. So us girls just went to Target to get some nail polish, and did our nails while watching Sydney White. I decided if Terrance (my favorite nerd in that movie) was real, I'd totally go on a date with him! Sarah, add him to the crush list! Since my whole room was gone for the night, we pulled a spare mattress into Sarah and Danielle's room so we could have a sleepover! We had some good pillow talk, and then hit the hay so we could get up in the A.M. for breakfast
Today!- Sarah's brother took us out for breakfast at Lume's. I love that place! That's where I was when Mom surprised me on my birthday! (One of my favorite memories from last semester, for sure). Sometimes I get homesick when I see everyone with their families, but I am also grateful when my friend's families include me in their activities! Now, we are just working on homework and updating our blogs in the BBC. In half an hour, we will start listening to the Dordt game. Go Ben! Looking forward to a dinner date with Sarah and Danielle tonight, possibly to Applebee's!
Over all, this week has been another blessing! Great friends, learning about God's creation, wonderful weather (never dreary!), and good times at work.

23 Years!

Happy anniversary to my mom and dad!! Twenty-three years ago today, they were married in my Mom's church and began their live together. I have been blessed to have such loving parents, and to be able to see what a healthy marriage looks like. They are a HUGE blessing in my life, and I wish them so much happiness today and this weekend!

Also, Happy Birthday to my cousin Graham! He's growing up fast! 

No Such Thing as Dreary Weather

This winter, Chicago has been experiencing the strangest blessing of weather. We have only had snow on a few days, and most of it melts within a day or two. This past week, Allison and I were able to go for walks in just sweatpants and long-sleeve fleeces. What a blessing!
However, today was a struggle for me. Whenever I would ask someone how they were doing, they would complain about the weather. It had snowed during the night, and the day remained cloudy. Why do people complain about snow and clouds? Think about all the different kinds of clouds there are, and all the different shapes of snowflakes. It's amazing! Every day, no matter what the weather, is a blessing from God. A day is never "dreary," it's just beautiful in a different way. (In case you haven't noticed by now, I'm Lil Miss Optimist over here). But seriously, why should we ever complain about a day in God's beautiful creation?
As if God wanted to really stamp this idea into my mind, Dr. Colosimo showed us a video in my honors seminar today. This is by Brother David Steindl-Rast, an author who we have been reading in class lately. Although Chicago doesn't look like the pictures in this video, Trinity's campus is still beautiful.
A Good Day

I hope everyone enjoys this day that God has given to us, rain or snow, clouds or sunshine, warm or cold, busy or slow. Every day is a blessing from our Creator, Sustainer, and Provider!

Skype Sunday

Sundays are always blessings. Although this Sunday was nothing out of the ordinary, it was a blessing nonetheless. I went to church with Allison and Cassie. We are doing a series on real-life idols. I have really enjoyed it so far. After the service, the church had their monthly student lunch. The third Sunday of each month, our church hosts a lunch for all the college students in the area. It is such a blessing to have a homecooked meal! We sat with Anna and Mark, and Alyssa and Jake. Quality couples. The afternoon was pretty relaxing, and I was able to get a good amount of homework finished. In fact, I accomplished enough so that I was able to Skype with Ben! Now, I'm usually really bad with computers, but I was finally able to work out my sound problems so we could talk. Allison and Sprads joined me, and we had a good time. For supper, we went out with Abby and her mom and sister, who are visiting for the weekend. Of course, we had to get pizza for Abby! So we headed to Baracco's. So good! And an everyday occurance, Allison and I went for a walk and discussed everything under the sun. What's important, we discussed spring break! We are still working out the details, but it should prove to be a good time. Overall, a calm and wonderful day.

It was good to see you too!