New Covies

Tonight my youth pastor and his wife had a hang out at their house for the high school youth from church (plus some of us college kids). It was so much fun. It was so nice to spend time hanging out with people I know and love, and some that I'd never met before. We played some games, Dustin and I duked it out on Wii boxing (we tied), and we all just hung out and talked. They are all such wonderful people. I love New Cov, and the youth group, and the friendships that I've made because of it. It's one of the things I miss most while I'm at college. Anywho, it was a great time, and it was nice to get hugs from my friends, they make me feel loved.

A Night With the Boys...

...well, sorta. It was a night with the boys for a while, and then more people showed up. Last night I got to hang out with Dustin, Kyle, and Tim. We had a lot of fun. We played Rock Band, and it's pretty sweet, not gonna lie. If you haven't played it before, it's like extreme karaoke. You can have up to four people play, each person either being the drummer, bassist, guitar player, or the vocalist. We all had a good laugh at/with each other. Later some people who worked TEC when I went through came over, so it was nice to see them. We watched Kill Bill. I'm not a big fan of blood and all that, but the movie was really good. Anywho, it was nice to spend time with all of them. It's good to be home.

A Weekend at home

Saturday was Christmas at the Strandlund's. Every year, my mom's two sisters and their families and our family all go to her parents' house to celebrate Christmas. We always have a good time. It's nice because that is the only time each year that we all get to see each other. One of my cousins graduated from college on Friday, and then another cousin graduates college in May. It's weird to think that I am only two years behind them...

Sunday was a wonderful. I got to be back at New Cov for church and our pastor was not on sabbatical this Sunday, so I got to hear him preach. I got to see some more friends that I hadn't seen yet (including one I hadn't seen since August!), so that was incredible. I also got to hear the youth band play! Kyle got it back up and running, so that was great to be a part of. I really miss it. After church we went to lunch together, well, most of us...and after that I hung out with Emily at Wal-Mart while she waited for her pictures. We ran in to some of our friends while we were there, so we got to spend some more time with them. That night I watched a movie with my brother, so it was fun to hang out with him.

Kayne came over today! It was only for about 30 minutes, but it was nice to see him. His mom came also, as well as his dad, so I got to meet him for the first time. The three of them are doing well, so that was great to hear. Kayne is something else.

Tonight we had our Christmas Eve service at church. I was glad that we were in town for it this year; we were in Omaha last year. Kyle played in the band during worship, and he and our worship leader did a guitar duet, and it rocked. Let me tell you, this boy is incredibly talented. It is amazing, and he taught himself. I am so proud of Kyle. He's probably sick of hearing that from me, but I really am. He is just a wonderful person. I'm so proud of him and what he's done musically, and who he is as a young man. I love my friends.

Kyle, Emily, and me last summer

Well, Merry Christmas Eve! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with your family, friends, or whoever you celebrate with.

Emily Cohn!!!!!

Today was just a wonderful day. First, I had lunch with my good friend Jared, then I got to hang out with my brother as we finished up some Christmas shopping, and lastly I went to a movie with some of my friends, one of which was Emily!!!!! I haven't seen her since June 9th! She moved to Florida, I went to school in Illinois, and now we are back home at the same time!!! I missed her so much! I also got to see Dustin and Kyle, who are two absolutely wonderful people!! It was so nice to be able to catch up with Jared, Emily, Dustin, and Kyle today. They are such amazing friends, and I love them all so much!

Oh, and about the movie...we saw National Treasure 2. It was okay, I liked it better than the first one, but I also didn't like the first one. It definitely wasn't as cheesy, so that was nice. I don't know. My opinion doesn't really help because I wasn't a fan to begin with. Anywho, that's that. Off to bed.

A Christmas Carol

Tonight my mom and I went and saw Southwest High School's production of "A Christmas Carol," and it was amazing!!! It was so nice to be back at Southwest, especially in the theatre. It was so fun to watch my friends in the show! My buddy, Bryson, was Scrooge (I totally called that casting months before it actually happened), and he is incredibly talented. He was amazing! I'm so proud of him. I talked to him after the show, and I got big Bryson hugs, I needed big Bryson hugs. I also got to see some of my friends from high school, so that was really nice. It was especially nice to see Heidi!!! I miss her so much, she is so wonderful! It was nice to catch up with her. I basically just loved tonight. It was awesome to see the show, see it with my mom, and talk to and hug some of my friends. It's so nice to be home.

Heidi and Me in Wizard of Oz

Bryson and me in Westside Story

I'll be home for Christmas

In fact, I already am! Yesterday I finally got to come back home! Finals are over, the girls are back home with their families, and now I can be with mine. It's a nice feeling to be back. Seeing my dad at the airport was amazing, and then seeing my mom and brother at the restaurant last night was amazing as well. I love my family, and I can't wait to spend the next two weeks with them. That's really all I have to say. If I kept writing I'd just keep coming up with more ways to say "I love my family," and I think you understand that already. Anyway...hooray for wonderful friends who provide rides to airports, and for airplanes; together they got me back! I'm so happy!!!

Parties in auditoriums and boxes

Last night we had our Black and White party. Two sets of brother/sister floors got together and had a sort of end of the semester bash. It was so much fun! There were about 30 people, so that was a success. Everyone seemed to have a great time, so that totally made it worth it (it would have been even if 5 people showed up, and one person had a great time). Anyway...

Today is my 20th birthday! My mom sent me a birthday party in a box, and it was awesome! She always comes up with the most creative things, and they are always wonderful. Betsye got a small group of friends together and today we spent some time having the party. It was so nice. We all had a great time. It was really hard being away from my family, but it was nice to have my friends around to celebrate with me (and not laugh at me for crying).

Here are some pictures from both events (all pictures are on Picasa):

(Big Mama and Big Papa) and (Storm, me, Betsye, and Grant)

(Me and my girls) and (Me and Betsye)

I sang every verse of "The First Noel" known to man...

I swear, that has to be one of the longest songs ever. We sang it in chapel today, and it felt like it was never going to end. I wish I would have counted how many verses we sang, but I can tell you that it was ridiculous. I felt bad because I was laughing, but I really couldn't help it...

I forgot to mention that Sunday night was the Christmas party for my floor! We went to our floor parents' house and made cookies and did our final gift exchange for Secret Santa! It was a lot of fun. And, our floor parents made us cookie dough so we got to make authentic, homemade cookies! I figured I would have had to buy cookie dough, but instead we got to actually roll out dough, use cool cookie cutters, and then decorate with homemade frosting! My girls are quite the cookie-makers. Here are a couple pictures, and there are more on Picasa from both the all Burritt party, and our own party.

"Twas the Night Before Christmas..."

Tonight we had the opportunity to gather in Ladue Auditorium and listen to the President of the college read The Night Before Christmas and the gospel of Luke's account of the Christmas story, and it was nothing short of amazing. When I got the e-mail about it, I was incredibly excited. It was a bring your own mug event and they had hot chocolate and coffee for us to drink as we listened. I had just finished my incredibly long and time consuming psychology paper, so it was sort of a reward for finally getting done. We all sat on the floor as President Mannoia read the stories to us by the light of a single lamp. It was beautiful. I'm not exactly sure why it happened, but it made me cry when he read the stories to us. I've been incredibly emotional for the past while, and having President Mannoia read to us filled me with so much peace and comfort. It was really nice. I don't really know him that well, but I really admire President Mannoia. He's gone through a lot this last year after losing his wife to breast cancer this summer, and he has handled it with so much grace and has wholeheartedly continued to love and support the students, faculty, and staff of the college. Needless to say, I really needed tonight. I think we should have storytime with President Mannoia more often.

Happy Things

So, I realized that my last couple of posts only highlight the stress that is plaguing me, but there are things that are happening that are fun and happy! Like, yesterday Betsye, Storm, Grant, and I went to Wal-Mart to shop for the Black and White party we are having for our floors next week, and Betsye and I ran away from the guys for a little bit. They were following us, not very closely, and we just took off! They kept calling us, and we kept not answering, and when I finally answered a call, I acted like we had innocently been shopping the whole time and they were the ones that disappeared. The best part was...they bought it! Good times.

And, on Thursday night we had our annual all Burritt Christmas party. We invite all of our girls, and then tell them that at the conclusion of the party there is a mandatory all hall meeting, but in all actuality, we bring them all together so that we can deliver presents that their parents have secretly sent them! It is really exciting. I love the event, but I realized that I don't like it at the same time. Some parents don't send presents, so the RCs dig through a pile of gifts to find something to give their girls that didn't get anything sent to them. I felt like crap doing it. I felt absolutely terrible for those girls who didn't receive a present from their family. While getting a gift and note from your RC could be special, it certainly pales in comparison from getting a gift from your mom and dad. Nonetheless, my girls enjoyed themselves and we had a lot of fun! My fellow RCs and I and our CRE all got ridiculous Christmas sweaters for the party, it was pretty sweet, not gonna lie.

Psych papers make me get up early on Saturday mornings (I've been up since 9)

This week was decent; could've been better, could've been worse. I want, actually need, to go home, and I don't think I'm patient enough to wait until the 19th!!! I'm going to spend the day writing a paper for Psychology. I'm not really motivated, and the paper is kind of a joke (not like funny ha ha), but alas, I must do it anyway. And today was supposed to be Michael Buble study in the hall day...but...currently I am by myself (which is not how this was supposed to work).

Last night my friend Steph Plant did a Christmas music concert, and it was amazing! She has an incredible voice, and I love Christmas music, so it was a winning combination.

I'm sleep deprived, hungry, and I'm avoiding my paper, so...I should probably stop avoiding and start writing or I'm going to be stuck here longer than I wanted to be.

Do you ever have something you want to say, but know for some reason or another you just can't? Well, my something would have gone right here, so instead of actually saying it, I'll stop typing and do my paper instead. Have a nice day.

Warning: venting session

The past few days have been okay (meaning that they've had good moments). Friday night I went ice skating with some friends and I have some lovely bruises on my knees to prove it. Saturday night we had Girls' night out, + Storm, and went to see Enchanted (I highly recommend it, it was flippin' hilarious). Today I went to hear the Messiah. It was weird not singing this year, and being there really made me miss choir, but it was nice. And then tonight I had my breaking point. Wanna know what it was? I told a girl that I would drive her to the airport or the train station, on my birthday. It wasn't the two fire alarms this week that were complete annoyances (Greenville actually had 4 total, 2 in Burritt, 2 in Joy. I'm pretty sure the fire department hates us...), it wasn't dealing with attention seekers, it wasn't spending two days writing a worthless paper, it was me volunteering to drive someone on my birthday that broke me. It was just the last straw I guess. It was about time for me to break though (and by break, I mean cry, just to clarify...). I knew it was going to happen, I've had the thought of finals swimming in my brain, I'm trying to write a paper that I'm clueless about, I'm away from home, I have zero motivation, I'm dealing with being let down by someone I care about and finding out that really I was just letting myself be taken advantage of, I'm stressed and insecure, blah blah blah...anyway, this blog was really just me venting (I changed the title from breaking point to what it currently is so that if people didn't want to put up with me, they could just ignore this). So, thanks for reading the vent. Off to do research for this mystery paper. Wish me luck...Happy December!