A Fantastic Fall Weekend: (Sunday)

       Mike and my freshman friend Alex showed up at my apartment at 9:15 so we could carpool to church.  I was planning on leaving at 9:30 so I figured they'd have 15 minutes to get here if they woke up late etc, but they both ended up showing up right on time.  I showed them both my room, and parts of the apartment then we drove to the church.  We got there pretty early so we were actually one of the first people, the worship band was even still practicing.  We got first pick at the breakfast table though.  Milly was the first one to come up and meet Alex and Mike.  Shortly after meeting Mike, Milly prayed over him.  Sometimes when she prays miraculous things happen right away, this wasn't the case however for Mike.  But we have faith God was listening and will answer our prayers.  Kelsey and Courtney showed up then Jen and Josh.  I guess everyone was super surprised and excited to see a big group of new college kids at the church.  A lot of people came up to us after church to meet them.  Courtney got prayed over, and sat on the other side of church from us.  The whole message about how after we come to Christ we are generally nicer people because of God, and people are able to sense that about us.

         After church we all met up at Applebees.  A total of nine of us.  Trae is doing a "Daniel Fast" so he can't eat a lot of things.  He can eat any fruits and vegetables, but no animal products.  Kind of like a vegan diet.  It's 40 days, and the last week he needs to fast completely except for water and juices.  I guess Applebees doesn't have fruit bowls on their menu.  At Applebees since there was nine of us I was the one in between the two groups of 4, so I could be apart of both conversations.  One time I said yes to the other side of the tables questions, and Courtney on the other side of me thought I had been answering her question. ha ha.  Our waiter was kind of rude/sassy though, and seemed to segregate our table.  I guess Trae's side was cooler then Courtneys.  Apparently there's a restaurant in Milwaukee who purposely hires people to be rude to the customers, and people go there for the experience.  Sadly Kelsey took the picture so you can't see her!

   After Applebees we went over to Courtney's house.  Trae and Alyssa went home.  Trae takes Sundays seriously because their his day off, so he considers them his day of rest. We joked about how he could get a half hour start and hide in the maze and lay down somewhere, when you heard him snoring it would be a clue. "I hear a clue!"  At Courtney's house were two white eskimo dogs.  I literally could put together a zoo of just the animals I witnessed this weekend.  They were super adorable dogs.  We then headed over to a pumpkin farm in Racine!

    We waited for Courtney's friend Leah when we got there.  We checked out the animals and the store, then went on an adventure through the corn maze.  Before we went in, we had to watch an instructional video about the rules of the "Maize Maze", and repeat after the man on the screen including: "I will not smoke in the maze!" Along the way we took two Snapchat videos to send to Trae.  One of me acting like we had been in the Maze for three days, and one of everyone singing and marching through the maze.  I wish I could of seen his reaction.  At one point Kelsey and Courtney ran off in a different direction, but it turned out it was a loop, so we both got to the same place.  We successfully got out of the Maze after an hour.  (I walked too much this weekend I think.)

     Courtney bought everyone pumpkins afterwards.  They were pretty cheap actually.  We then went back to Courtney's house where we made and decorated caramel apples, and played Old Maid.  Courtney invited her new friend Zach over, which happened to be the Zach I met from Living Light through Trae two weeks ago.  There was no new people for me to meet today.  We played Old Maid, and Pass the Ace, then took advantage of the beautiful weather outside.  Courtney lives right next to a park, so we played Frisbee, tag, and volleyball in the park.  The mosquitoes began to attack us after a couple hours so we had to go back inside where we talked for a bit then had to go home.

    We didn't get back to campus until about 8ish.  Our fun-filled day ended with the lunar eclipse and blood moon! :) God is such an artist!

A Fantastic Fall Weekend (Saturday)

     This week just seemed to be kicking my butt.  It was all worth it though, since this weekend turned out to be so much fun/fruitful.  Weekends like these, make me remember how blessed I truly am!

    On Saturday Jeremy and I went to Tyler's house to hang out for a little bit before going to MSOE to meet up with Lizzy, Anna, and their friends.  Tyler's house contained three cats and three dogs.  One dog they were babysitting which was a Pitbull mix, the other two were yellow labs.  For cats their was a giant fat, black kitty. (I had to pick him up, because of missing Fluffer.), and a multicolored kitten named Chewbacca,  I was covered in hair by the time we left, and had chosen to wear black pants that day. :P.

   After lint-rolling my pants, we drove to MSOE.  It had been my first time driving in downtown Milwaukee, so I didn't really know what to expect.  I have been driving for 3 years now, and have driven through the craziness that is Racine, so I figured I'd do fine.  I did pretty well, although it wasn't really a busy traffic time of day.

    We got to MSOE 15 minutes before the rest, so Tyler and Jeremy passed time by playing a word game.  The word game involved trying to guess the same word.  They started out by saying a random word, then had to think of something that related to both the words they said.  That way they could more easily guess the same word.  They were still doing the game, after we met up with the rest.
 Lizzy, and Anna had invited their friends Josh, Cassie, and Hannah.  I had met Hannah a couple times before.
     We started the afternoon off walking to an art museum right across the street from MSOE.  A lot of the paintings had super obvious names including: "Five guys by a Fire." Tyler commented about how there was art surrounding us, and Jeremy commented that Tyler was actually the art.  At one point Jeremy's blood sugar was low, so I went with him to get his backpack from the front desk.  He went back to go get, and the secretary kind of just stared confused as he did an insulin shot.  She figured out what he was doing, and was super worried he would pass out in the museum, and how terrifying it would be. Hannah, and Anna were taking an art class at UWWC so they knew what was considered wrong with every painting, and the cool aspects of each one.  We went to the museum gift shop when we were about to leave, and I got a questioning look from one of the employees who worked there after she saw me smelling a book.  Jeremy said the smell reminded him of something.  There ended up being a picture of me representing me when I do my homework.

    Josh goes to MSOE, so after we were done at the museum he took us on a little tour of one of the buildings.  This required many stairs.  I guess the number of the classrooms aren't orderly at all so its basically like a maze.  Jeremy decided while touring the building it would be a good time to play "The Science Museum" song on his iPod.  (We were in one of the science buildings).

    

     By the time we got out of the MSOE building Lizzy, and I were super hungry.  We walked to a Panera Bread down the street for lunch.  They had Clam Chowder soup :3!  

     We walked back to the MSOE parking lot and drove to a movie theatre to see "Hotel Transylvania 2."  I honestly thought it would be a really bad movie. (I hadn't saw the 1st one, so I didn't know what to expect.  We got to the movie theatre a little early, so we walked to a walk up custard place down the street.  We all ate our icecream, then stopped at Walgreens on the way back for a bathroom break.  We got back to the theatre just in time.  The movie was honestly so cute and hilarious.  The funniest part probably was when they made a diabetes joke, and our group all looked at Jeremy and laughed.  The other people in the theatre seemed really confused.  

  

          After the movie was over Anna and Lizzy needed to get back home because their mom was sick.  After saying goodbye Tyler, Jeremy, and I finished off the night by visiting Jeremy's dads house so I could pick out one of his old Imacs for my brothers birthday. It was super strange when we got to Jeremy's house.  His dad must have hired a babysitter for Josh, because she looked scared when she saw Jeremy, Tyler, and I.  Jeremy assured her this was his dad's house, and she let us in.  Apparently that happens a lot.   Jeremy told us a lot of information on apple things, and about the computers themselves.  

        

             It was pretty foggy after we left Jeremys.  When we got back to campus, I made Jeremy wait in the living room as I quickly cleaned my room, and made space for the computer.  If I'd known it'd take less then 3 minutes to clean my room, I probably would of done it a lot sooner then I did.  Jeremy showed me how to use the computers, and all the different programs.  I played a couple games before unsuccessfully trying to fall asleep.  

I'm Growing and Things are Changing

     Last Sunday evening I was able to put the two church teachings I had been too together, as I really thought about the messages God sent me a revelation.  One of the things talked about at the first church teaching was about how sometimes the people you enjoy hanging out with the most are the ones who keep you from growing.  When I thought about it more I knew I had that problem.  That there was a person in my life like that, that had kept me from growing in faith.  It was time to move on, I had spent too much time trying to show them how to grow, but it just wasn't in my hands.  I needed to surround myself with people that were mature in their faiths, and would encourage me even more in my walk with God. It wouldn't be easy and I felt that it was crazy at first, but then at church they also said that sometimes the things God tells you to do, are not the right things.  The hardest part about dealing with a person who is immature is that they are deceived into thinking they are already mature.  This is because Satan is the master of deception, and controls the feelings and culture of the world.  I focused too much on my own feelings, giving Satan the power to hurt me, I love the person I am writing about to death, and would never want to hurt them, because they have made me so happy, so I'm not going to just cut off our friendship.  We'll still be friends, but I'll be growing now. When they start to put God first, and mature in faith, we can grow together again.  God had also put on my mind that it was time for me to get more involved in church, and form relationships with the people of the church.  It's been almost one week since that revelation and I've already gotten so much more involved with Living Light, and have met so many people as well.  I just want to get to know everyone there, and all their stories, and be encouraged even more.  One of my friends from church I feel like I could talk to them for hours on end just discussing things or telling each other stories, and feel so encouraged/inspired afterwards.  It's so amazing to be able to have such inspirational people like that in my life, that through talking to them I can see God and his love and everything shining through, through them.  That's the people I want to surround myself with, people that are super spiritual like that.  I know now it was the right decision to follow God's word for me.

Sometimes Chaos is Beautiful

    I saw "War Room" with some of my friends on Thursday night.  After the movie we went and got ice cream at Culvers.  It started down-pouring really hard after we had gotten to Culvers.  After an hour of being there, there was a flash flood warning.  The rain just wouldn't stop, and it had started to lightning since then.  I had one of the others drive back to campus, not really wanting to be the one to do it.

    On Sunday at church a lady brought up a word of how Chaos is sometimes Beautiful, and it just reminded me of this situation.  If it hadn't been raining, it wouldn't be as memorable or as much of an adventure as it turned out to be.  The rain made us have to stay at Culvers longer and talk, and instead of thinking the rain as negative we saw it as a beautiful thing.

An Injury Away From Home

      A little bit after I posted my blogpost yesterday about maturity and growth, I experienced growth.  Not in a super cool way where I decided to take a leap of faith, but by cutting an apple.  I didn't know exactly how to cut an apple, but apples and peanut butter sounded like a really good idea.  I got about half the apple cut into pieces, when I cut into my thumb.  My roommates were in the living room of our apartment which is right next to the kitchen, and didn't even know this was going on, and still probably don't know it happened.  There was blood on my apple and all over my finger, and hands.  I ran to the bathroom, soaking it with as much water as possible.  Too much blood had been covering my finger, so I couldn't look to see how deep the cut actually was.  I then ran back to my room, and put on a bandaid.  The blood just soaked through the bandaid, so I knew I needed to just keep pressure on it for awhile.  The bleeding wouldn't stop, and it had been a half hour so I contacted my aunt and other friends for advice.  The time it happened was 11:30 at night, and calling my mom at that time would of probably really freaked her out.  I ended up just putting Neosporin on it and putting another bandaid on it before bed.  I woke up, and it was miraculously healed.  It looked more like a papercut, then a gash.  I was super freaked out though, being away from home at the time, unsure of what to do next, or if I needed stitches.  I had to grow up in that moment, and take care of myself and it was scary.  Your not always going to get it right the first time, like cutting an apple you might bleed the first time, but you'll learn from it, and be able to do it in the future.

Pictures of the Incident

            Before 

                                         













                                                                         
                                                                           After

Growth and Maturity

     What does it mean to grow or be mature?  The passage of time does not equal maturity.  As we grow up we think that we mature simultaneously, but that isn't true.  We need to change our perspective on that.  It takes a different way of living for us to grow up.  Just because days go by doesn't mean that there is any growth.  The opposite of laziness is patience.  Patience isn't sitting around waiting for a change to happen, it's about ceasing the moment so we can do the things that God has intended for us to do.  We need to take the action to actually grow up, and then God's grace will give us the growth and maturity we need.  Things won't happen in a certain year or date.  If you're struggling in a friendship, times not going to heal the problem, it's going to start to be healed the moment you grow up.  We're not waiting to grow up, God is waiting for the growth in us.  It's never too late to grow up, Moses made the change to grow up at the age of forty, likewise it's never too early to grow up either.  The disciples had to grow up, and make the change super early in their lives in order to do the things Jesus wanted them to do.

     Signs of Maturity: Taking responsibility for things/getting engaged in an issue, a new identity, engagement with others, pain, eternal perspective.

Responsibility:  If you want something changed you no longer complain about it, you engage in the issue to help change the situation.

Identity Changes:  The way we view ourselves is the way we live, and we need to give things up in order to experience growth.  God's given us everything we need, so we should no longer view ourselves as too weak. or too shy, because none of that is true in our identity with God.  We can't think of just ourselves alone, but with God we have no excuses.  It doesn't matter what other people say we are because we aren't that it only matters who we say we are. Who do you say you are?  You are what God has called you to be.

Engagement with People:  Life is not about us pursuing our pleasures throughout lives, or doing things to keep us happy, it's about laying your life down for other people.  Sometimes people we like keep us the same, and don't allow growth in us.  We need to find the people who will push us to grow in our faith, not the people who only tell us what we want to hear.  Sometimes we need to find the people important in our faith before we figure out our purpose in life.  Immaturity is relying on other people to do things for you.

Pain:  Pain is important to growth.  With pain we need to embrace the pain of the present, and think about the future glory in heaven.  We can't experience growth without any pain.  You can only put off pain or pleasure in your life.  If you push off pain in your life it's coming in your future.  The one you choose to put off is usually greater in the future.  Where are you avoiding pain in your life?  (Just know by doing this you are putting off growing.)  Change is always hard but we must endure it anyways.

Eternal Perspective:  We need to think of what's best for us in the long run. No more "Yolo" but instead "What can I do today, because tomorrow is coming?"

  Make it your decision, that this year is going to be yours.  Don't keep pushing it off, and saying I'll be more ready in the future, because you won't.  You need to start now! Growing up doesn't mean doing it right the first time, its about the lessons taught.  It's about getting it wrong so you can do better next time.

The First Week (Day 3)

     I started out my morning by setting up the table for the Cru surveys.  It was way to early for me to be social and yell about winning $100 so I just sat and people watched until Robert showed up.  Robert instantly got four people to do the survey.  I had English class at 11 so I left Rob to do the surveys.

    My English professor is the same one I had at the beginning of the year last year.  I had signed up to be in his class this year, but he had been switched out of teaching that class.  About a week ago he added me on Facebook and told me when his section of English was, and I decided to switch into his class.  His classes are always interesting, and he cares a lot about his students.  He was definitely fit to teach a college class.  Quote from class: "How long is a super-model's skirt?"  "Long enough to cover stuff, but short enough to keep things interesting, that's how I want your essays to be."  He must of said 50 random/funny things like that throughout the whole class.  I'm definitely glad I switched back into his class.

   He let us out early and I went back to the survey tables.  At that time there was a stack of like 30 completed surveys, Robert had gotten a lot of people since I had been away for an hour.  I stayed and watched for a bit and talked to Jeremy, then got lunch quick and headed to Algebra.

   After Algebra I took a short nap in my apartment, then drove to Walmart to pick up things I could make.  Like the typical: Pizza Rolls, Macoroni and Cheese, Lemonade, Rice, and stuff to make Pickle rollls.  I also got some other school supplies I needed.

   I came back to my apartment and had the annual "I don't know if I want to be here 1st week of school thought"  the ones that scare you about the year but fade away once clubs start up again.  I know they're temporary but it was still hard.
 
    I met my roommates on the other side of the apartment, I hadn't really officially met them before that time.  Then I met up with Jeremy that evening, where we had a long talk about things.  We went outside to find out that "The Beat" was throwing a music event on campus.  People on campus were playing sets along with random Minute to Win It games.  We stayed and watched for a bit, then Jeremy got cold so we went inside to see if anyone was in The Den.  There wasn't so we walked through the halls.

     We stopped at the App Factory where we saw Kyle.  He keeps a stash of Nerf Guns in the App  Factory, and shot me. The nerf gun bullet hit my cheek, and stuck there.  I threw the bullet on the ground and fake stormed out.  Jeremy then went back to his dorm.

   I worked on my math homework for a little bit, and then heard various quotes from "Mean Girls" coming from the living room area.  I went to join my new roommates and watched it with them.  After that was over we watched YouTube videos about a guy and his Corgi as it grew up.  I found it interesting how I could watch the same dog being absolutely adorable for so long.  (I guess that's the same reason I can go dog-watching for extended periods of times at dog parks :P)

The First Week of School (Day 2)

    My first class started at 9 this morning and ran until 10:40.  My first class of Mondays and Wednesday is Spanish.  For Spanish class we have a smaller room this year, and our laptops are needed for class.  With a small classroom the desks are also small, so I'm a little unsure about it all.  We went over the syllabus the first hour of class, and figured out the online book and wrote a paragraph about ourselves.
     After Spanish was over, my next class didn't start until 1.  I stayed in the school though because Cru was holding a thing on the bridge.  If you filled out a survey, you could win a chance to get a $100 Amazon gift card.  Jeremy and I promoted the survey with a little help from Rob.  We got at least 50 surveys by the time I had to be at class.  Its crazy how a lot of people pass up the chance to win free money.  While doing the survey I realized how many new faces there actually are on campus.  (I do have this thing though where I don't remember faces very well.) so maybe they're not new faces after all.  I expected to recognize a ton of people.  One girl was excited to know that we had a Cru on campus.  Jeremy said that when some of the people saw what the survey was for, they just crumpled it up.
    At 1 I had Algebra class.  This math class gives you a little more slack on things.  You need to get a 70% in the class and a 75% or above on all your tests, and an 80% average on homework to pass the class.  The class I was in last semester you needed an 80% on all your quizzes, a B in the class, and an 85% or above on the Final Exam.  This class will be harder, so we will see how it goes.  My professor is booked with classes this semester so it will be hard to get help from him, like I did a few times last semester.  We didn't get any homework in class today, we just went over the Syllabus the whole hour.  The hours would pass super slowly today because of all the boredness that ensued.
     I had Intro to Asia right after Algebra, and I was super tired because I didn't have a chance to go to my dorm and relax.  How people ever do jobs and college I will never understand.  We went over yet again another Syllabus but the professor let us go early.  Thank goodness because that class is literally an hour and 20 minutes.
      I went to the bookstore afterwards and picked up my books then I headed back to my room where I took a nap.  I then went on got dinner by myself.  My friend Laurette is not enrolled in classes this semester so its been weird.  I would usually have dinner with her or hang out in the den with her, but now she will only visit campus sometimes.  The next time she'll be here is next Tuesday, which isn't too long but kind of long when you used to see her everyday on campus.  Aly and Ashley now live off campus which makes it a little harder too.  I guess I'll have to make more friends this year.  I was hoping I was done with the whole process of making friends on campus, but I guess its not over yet :P.  I know it will get easier when there's actual activities on campus but right now there's not much going on.  It's hard to know when to trust people here, so I can't just go out and make friends.  A lot of people I befriended in the beginning of the year last year ended up betraying my trust.
   Sometimes I think about if I lived off campus.  How I wouldn't feel guilty about not being out of my room all the time.  I could also get decent hours of sleep then, and probably be not as bored, when I have a night where nothing is going on like this one.

The First Week of School (Day 1)

   I'd thought I'd do a post about my first week of college as a sophomore so you guys can check in on how I am doing.

   Going back to a campus where you know people there is so refreshing.  I don't have to be terrified by all the people here, of the unknown.  The freshman are the ones who look odd to me, I'm not the confused one anymore.
    This year I decided I wanted to live in the apartment.  The only flaw is living with 6 other girls.  That part scared me, and still does scare me.  The apartment is big though with three girls on my side and 4 on the other.  With a bathroom on each side.  I was originally suppose to live with my friend Ashley, but life went unplanned and she has to live with her grandma and take care of her.  I'm stuck in an apartment with total strangers.  It's a bit stressful, but so far the girl that shares my room with me seems nice.
    I got to campus at around noon with my parents and we had lunch after everything had been moved to my room.  I unpacked everything and got situated in.  Move in day ended up being 90 degrees.  It was crazy!  Once I got everything organized, my friend Jeremy met me in the lobby of his dorm building with his friend Kyle.  Kyle drove us to the police station so they could both pick up their parking passes.  (My parents had taken me there after lunch).  Kyle then drove us to the Student Center so he could show his friend around campus.  We ended up seeing Nicole in the parking lot and I ran after her.  At first I was afraid I was running after a complete stranger but it was her.  We went up to the Suites to see her boyfriends room.  When we got up to the 4th floor, I saw someone who had left campus but I guess he was back for the new year.  I really wished he would have stayed off campus because I really can't stand him.  After our adventures to the suites, I hung out with Jeremy in his dorm for a little bit and  met his once invisible roommate.
    I then went back to my dorm for a short nap, and then went to a Cru planning meeting at 8 which lasted until 10.  I left for 20 minutes to go to the mandatory apartment meeting.  It basically said don't do drugs, don't light candles, and don't be loud during quiet time.  After the Cru planning meeting Jeremy. and I went to the den where we saw Kyle again.  We ate a snack at the den and talked and Chris (Cru staff) joined us.  Then I came back to my room to type this.  :D