Semester Blues

So this semester has been one of the hardest for me yet... not hard as in the work is hard, this is actually one of my easiest semesters in a while as far as the workload goes, but it's just that I've finished all my Youth and Psyc classes, so this semester is just the last classes that I need to finish in December. I'm taking Bible 350 which is good and I'm learning a lot of practical and helpful ways to study the Bible but a lot of it I've already learned. I like the homework. You can't really complain about homework when the homework is studying the Bible, ya know. Other than that, I'm taking two Literature classes, a computer class, and a church min. class. I enjoy the church min. class a lot, but the other ones I just want to get through and move on to my Masters classes. Even though this semester is kind of boring compared to normal, it's flying by, so I really can't complain.

Scaremare is coming up in October. I'm working all 3 Fridays and Saturdays. I'm pretty pumped to work at it again this year. It's such a rush! Last year I worked in the preaching tents which was intense, definitely out of my comfort zone, but I learned SO much! This year I'm actually in a room which I'm sure will be sweet! I need some excitement right now and what better way to get excitement than to scare a few thousand people out of their minds for a few weekends!

Uh oh, I just realized that I just finished off the sweet tea and don't have another gallon ready yet. This is not a good thing in our house! Better go make some more or else tomorrow could be a really long day! Bye for now.

Everyday Irony

It's not even 11:30 am yet and irony has already taken place. Last night I had a dream that I don't really remember but my friends house was in it, and I woke up thinking about my friend and realized I haven't talked to her for a while so I made a mental note to myself that I should send her a quick message on facebook sometime this morning. Before I got the chance, I logged on to facebook and she had sent me a message. It was crazy!

Then, just a few minutes ago, I was getting ready to read for my Literature class and I was recalling a conversation that I had with a friend over the weekend about how being off campus is weird at first but then you find it nice because it is quiet and you are able to get a lot more work done. So I kind of agreed with our conversation in my mind again and was thinking how nice and quiet it was and how it was raining outside and was a good day to get some hardcore Literature reading done. So right when I sat down to read I heard something, and yes, it was my neighbors above me, playing Christmas music loudly. Now, I understand how Christmas music is good music for the most part, but not anytime before Thanksgiving should it be played! Not only could I hear the music, but I could hear someone singing along to it too...just perfect for reading already boring Literature that takes all my concentration in order to understand and remember what I'm reading for the test. Thankfully since starting this post the music and the singing along has stopped. I think that this is going to be an interesting day.

Time to Fly

I feel like I have been surrounded by books and my laptop for far too long. I'm in the mood to do something different; something crazy. I'm getting bored of the same routines and school work. I love school, but I've finished all my Youth and Psyc classes, so now it's hard to get excited about a 200 level Literature or Computer class in the same way that I am passioned for a Youth class. I think I want to go skydiving or something. I've always wanted to do that. I wish it weren't so dang expensive. I need some type of adrenaline rush that blows my mind. I think its always good to get a good mind blowing every now and then, in one way or another.

I'm looking forward to next semester - starting my counseling degree. I've heard that the LU counseling program is pretty intense. I hope it is. I still haven't decided what degree to do. I've narrowed it down to 2. Still gotta go talk to Dr. Barker. He's an awesome professor, and just a real personable guy. I love it when professors genuinely care about their students and want to get to know them. That's one of the first things I noticed when I came to Liberty. Sadly, because the almighty dollar is once again a greater motivator then excellence, classes are getting grouped together in larger classrooms causing it to be impossible to get the interaction and personality of a small class where friends and relationships are made between students and professor and among the students with each other. Ironically, money doesn't always pay.

Well...I just got my new books for this semester. Time to start classes. I have an assignment to complete today, so I'm glad my books finally got here.

Sad

Summer is over. Sad. It went by too fast! Classes start tomorrow, but my summer class also ends tomorrow... big break huh? I still haven't found a job other than my work study job at Jubilee downtown. I have all morning open and need to find a job to get some more money for bills and stuff. I got hired for a job with the Youth Office, which would have been awesome, but I can't have two student jobs in different departments, so I couldn't do it. Now I'm just praying that something else will come up. I know that God has a perfect job for me... all in His timing!

We've been going to this new church that we just found out about, Blue Ridge and we really really like it! We wish we would have found out about it over a year ago! The past few weeks we've gone was a series through Galatians and it was put in a way that I've never heard it before. It was really good and I got a lot out of it! Like I said, we're sad that we are just now learning about this great church. No church is perfect, but from what we've seen so far, it appears to have a really good balance which is something that we are looking for in a church.

The best thing about this summer was me not having to get off work at 6 when Rob gets off at 4:30. I felt like we spent so much more time together because we had an extra hour and a half at night to be together. Since the public schools don't start until next week, this will be our last week of early nights. Getting home around 6:30 each night, then making dinner, then by the time we've worked on homework, it's time to get back to bed again, and the whole night just passes by so fast. I'm hoping to be more disciplined this year since I don't have such a heavy load like last year (esp. last semester) and can get most of my work done during the daytimes when I'm not working. Then we'll have more time to be together. I like that plan!

God is awesome. I was looking for a Bible passage that I could study that I could really apply to my life right now, and last night I kinda just stumbled onto the book of Titus ("stumbled" meaning led by the Spirit). It's 3 chapters that are perfect for some things that are going on in my life, and I'm excited to see what God has to teach me as I take this book slowly and go through it deeply.

Ok, well I have some things to get done before bed. Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day. Bye for now.

Bekah

Summer is ending...already.

This summer has gone by SO fast! I can't believe that it is already the first of August. Time has flown by. I feel like I just finished my spring classes, and now I'm getting ready to start my fall classes. This is my last semester of undergrad! It's so different than highschool. I was sad to finish highschool because I knew leaving my friends would be hard when I came to college. Now, my friends have mostly all graduated and left me, and now I can't wait to finish my undergrad and move on. Some friends are still here, but most of my youth min. friends are done and gone. I am pretty excited for my friends who will be here this fall to get back from home. It's always kind of lonely here in the summer, but at the same time, really nice because its not a battle to find a parking spot on campus and not as crazy there.





I still don't know what masters degree I'm going to do. I need to meet with Dr. Barker this next week if he's in. I want to do the best thing. It's tempting to do the shorter one and then just go on to the doctorate program, but I want to get the degree that's going to be the most beneficial to what God has called me to do. This is the battle that has been in my mind for a long time. What to do?





I had a dream last night that Rob and I had a baby boy, and then somehow I named it without Rob being there, but then forgot what I named it. It was something with Matthew as the middle name, which is my brothers name. I couldn't find the birth certificate and so whenever people would ask me his name I had to tell them that I forgot it. haha. And then Rob and I were living in Warroad (haha. definitely not reality) and we decided to move, and had to tell everyone goodbye and it was sad. Then me and my mom were in Australia looking for a moving truck. haha. I always have crazy dreams.

I took Rob to a WWE Raw wrestling match for his birthday, it was crazy. We really had a lot of fun!!




<--- Here we are in our wrestling shirts. They have different people on them, but it's the closest we've ever been to wearing matching shirts. I hate when couples think it's cute to wear matching shirts, cuz its not, unless its for a reason, then that's different. But this was a big step for us. haha. JK.

I'm glad that it's Friday. Next week I have to find a job and duplicate my huge youth project to give Doc Brown a copy for him to use as an example in his next classes. I miss youth classes already. People always think that the youth degree is easy, but it's not. One of the projects I wrote is 350 pages long and another is about 200-250 pages long. I don't know of any other majors who have projects that are this long or to this intensity. The difference is that in a youth major, we spend so much time and discussion talking and planning how to deal with changing the lives of teenagers. It's something that if you are called to do it, it is exciting to learn and talk about... it's not just another class that you have to go to. Projects aren't just for a passing grade, but for use in the future in helping a teenager develop a mature relationship with God. A book isn't read just for an assignment, but for knowledge in something that we will have to face later on. I have to admit, I can't wait to finish school and get into what I've been training for for years.

Ok, well, I have sociology to read for. By the way, I love the TV show Monk. Whoever thought up all this stuff is either OCD and comes up with these insane things from experience or else is a creative genius! Gotta love it. Bye for now.

ONE YEAR! YAY!

So now we've been married for over a year. It has gone by SO fast! It's kind of been just a whirlwind year. I really like school (one of the few) and I want to get my Masters while we are here and getting school paid for but at the same time I'm getting anxious to find a church and get our full time ministry started and get settled. Its getting kind of annoying to juggle work, school and ministry schedules. Right now it's not too bad because it's summer and I'm not working right now, which is a much needed break. However, it is already the end of June and I know that August 18 (first day of fall classes) is going to come fast. I'm happy that this fall semester 4 out of my 5 classes are DLP so that I can work more. DLP classes are so much easier to manage even though they claim to be more intense since they are only 8 weeks long. I don't think they are at all. There are way less assignments. Thats why I'm taking my left-over classes DLP (meaning the classes I should have taken way before now and now don't want to take on campus with freshman who are dumb.) haha. I'm taking 2 englishes, a computer class, and a Bible class DLP, then a womens ministry (instead of pastoral leadership for youth majors who are girls) on campus because its only offered on campus with Dr. Towns' wife. All in all, it should be a pretty breeze-by semester other than Bible 350. Summer classes definitely helped with that! I'm still not sure what to get my Masters in. I have to go talk to Dr. Barker soon. He's an amazing prof!

I filled out my graduation application last week which was pretty exciting. It's crazy to think that I'm so close to finishing my undergrad. I remember being so nervous to come to Liberty on my own and now I'm almost finished. I've made so many great friends. I met my husband. I've learned so much. I've grown so much closer to God. So many great things have come from here. I'm not that anxious to leave Lynchburg... I like it here alot. I'm just ready to settle down somewhere. I can't wait to get a house and be able to paint it and decorate it how we want without having to worry about landlords and all that fun stuff. I want to get a puppy, or at least a fish. I want to have more than just a small apartment. I know its all part of "starting out" but I'm ready to be started and on our way. I'm looking forward to having kids too, but definitely not too anxious for them anytime soon.... maybe 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 years down the road. Just kidding. Not that far... but not this soon either. I don't really know what I'd do with a baby right now... I guess just watch it sleep.

Well, my amazing husband just told me that we now have plans tonight and I have to leave in 15 minutes and I'm not exactly ready to go right now, so I'm going to go get ready to leave.

PS. I think it's funny sometimes when people over spiritualize things to the point where you and everyone else have absolutely no idea how they connected the points and related them together to make something spiritual out of it. Sometimes it's just better to KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid. (My mom would always say that... well not always, but she's where I heard it from.)

Well, I'm pretty much just sitting here waiting for Rob to finish his homework so that we can go to bed. I tried getting a lot of work done today... I got lots of laundry done, speaking of, I need to put the last load in the dryer before going to bed, can't forget. I tried to get homework done, but I was just not registering what I was reading. So.... forget it. I'll finish tomorrow. Next week I am not watching any TV, because I have a ton of work to get done. I have to start and finish my Romans paper, then start my Sociology class. There is a lot of reading in that class, but I'm really excited because it looks really interesting. It's Sociology Issues, so it's about a lot of stuff that I will be, or already have been dealing with while working with youth. Yay! Rob is done! I'll write more later! I'm going to bed!! My eyes burn.