::a simple girl::

where has the summer gone?!

2007-08-07T13:35:00.001-04:00

So I'm not dead and I have not vanished, I have just been MIA for a few weeks. Yesterday was my last day of summer class and Lord-willing my very last day at IUPUI ever! Summer school was pretty intense with taking 5 different classes. I've been in school since May 9, and now I have a two week break before Milligan classes start. But here's a little update of what has been going on.

Yes, Cindy got married: finally. Here's a picture of us girls with the photographer George Abiad. (www.georgeabiad.com---amazing photographer)

Church camp filled three of my weeks this summer: children's camp, teen camp and teen work study camp. These are my seven 13 and 14 year old girls that were in my bunk. We had lots of fun as you can see: a rambunctious (?) bunch!

After camp, I found some time to relax: Beth, Sam, Stephen and I all went bowling and showed off our mad skills. Bethie--you gotta watch out for her, she's pretty sneaky. We had lots of fun!

My one weekend between summer semesters, we went to the lake with the Hickeys. At first they only had 2 tubes, but then they graciously realized the need for another one. So they bought the new orange one, made for two people. Of course the newlyweds staked claims on that one. If you'll notice, there is one tube getting ready for take off, with the driver holding on for dear life. That panic-stricken drive is none other than yours truly. The tube had a mind of it's own and had a very high center of gravity making it tip and topple at the slightest bump or curve. Apparently I was the only one brave and strong enough to take on the task of giving it an attitude adjustment...as you can see I was struggling just a bit.

I went to have lunch with Amanda and Caden Alexander one afternoon. Caden and I were chilling and I took some pictures of him. I told him to smile..and this is what he did. It's kind of a half-smile "you're-really-scaring-me" kind of face.

He was worn out after his photo-shoot. But the funny thing is, he actually is just blinking, but it appears as though he's sleeping. Too cute!

I love the mother of our church: Ilarose. She has such a sweet smile and loving heart!!

A-gal and B-rad are two of my friends from IUPUI. We had a class together last summer and made Starbucks a reoccuring event during the summer. This summer, Andy and I were together in a class and Brad opted out of it. But we still made a rendezvous and enjoyed a nice cup of joe.

Mehgan and Kevin, recently married, are two friends I went to middle/high school with. We took this picture at a mutual friend's wedding. Yes, we realize that it looks like a prom picture..haha!

I don't know who this studley looking young man is...I saw him stranded in a subway station, looking lost and confused, needing a woman to help him find his way. I heard the voice of the Lord and with my servant's heart, graciously came along side of him to help. He's pretty entertaining and shares some of the same interests, so after a couple days, I decided I'd keep him for awhile. After all, he does look better with me by his side :)

Publish Post

A chance to breathe...

2007-06-12T00:12:00.000-04:00

Please forgive me for the lack of blogging. As I stated in my previous post, my life has been anything but slow the last month and half. I thought coming home from Milligan would be a breather..HAH, someone should have warned me. This post will let you in on the world of Miriam and what has been going on since I returend to the good ole Hoosier state.
One of the first priorities was to hang out with this gal..Mehg, my BFF from high school. Mehg's getting married this weekend and I'm the maid of honor. So before she goes from Ms. to Mrs, we had a date night: out to eat in Indy and then to a movie. It was great to be with her and reminisce
about people and memories and talk about the future as well. (Wow, sounds kind of mushy: but I mean we are the ones who said we'd marry each other if God says it isn't wrong..but He doesn't.)
That same week, Beth and I took Stephen lunch at Warren. Okay, may I tell you that Warren Central is like a college campus. Stephen's graduating class is approx. the same as the number of undergrads at Milligan, +/- 50. Naturally with as many students as it has..something like 3,000, there are quite a few police officers patrolling the grounds at all times. Two different times I was stopped in the hallway by two different cops, questioning me as to why I was wearing a visitor's pass. My response, "I'm visiting." Duh? They both gave me strange looks when I gave them the what I thought was an obvious answer. One said, "Oh, you've graduated? You're done? Congratulations!" and the other one proceeded to ask me a series of questions. "How long have you been done?" "How old are you?" "Where do you go to school?" "You don't look old enough to be out of high school." Each time I gave a response that assured him of my age, he looked at me like I was trying to pull on over on him. He asked Beth who was standing next to me how old she was..just once..and he believed her, but kept..almost interrogating me. I couldn't believe it! I asked him if he wanted me to go get my ID but he said, "No, just don't let the cop stop you on the way out." Ohh the nerve! To think I'm a senior in college and they didn't believe I had even graduated from HIGH school!? Come on, y'all..seriously? Do I look that young???!
The family took a trip to Michigan for Mother's Day, to join the two Michiganite sisters. While there, Beth and I and a few of Cindy's friends took her out to eat for her first of two bachelorette parties. We went to "The Bob", a 3 or 4 story restaurant with a club on the bottom floor and dining on the second floor. Because part of the restaurant is a bar, they check IDs at the door. Neither Beth nor I are 21 yet, so the bouncer at the door wanted to make sure everyone in the restaurant knew. He held our IDs while we ate just to make sure we wouldn't try anything. Then, he banded each wrist very securely, might I add, with the paper bracelets
you get when you go to the fair. And then, with permanent marker, wrote a big M (for Minor, for those of you who didnt' catch it) on each hand. I felt like a prisoner! All I wanted to do was eat some good food and enjoy a bachelorette party! Beth got the same royal treatment. These are some of Beth's girls who came to church with us. Kelsey and Lauren have really been a blessing for Beth during her first year at college. They are such sweeties and have quickly become a part of the Solomon gaggle of girls!

One weekend in May, we had a chance to go to the races at Mt. Lawn Speedway. This is a tradition my dad likes to keep alive because he went when he was a boy. Our family tries to go a couple times a summer and this was the first trip. But as you can see by the picture, it was uncharacteristically deafening. One would think the noise from the cars was what made our eardrums throb, but instead it was the PA system that apparently Mt. Lawn has been able to afford to upgrade. We were all wearing earplugs.

Grandad and his brother came with us to the races. We had a blast! Grandad especially enjoys it because he used to bring Daddy when he was little. There's just something about the dust in our eyes and the burning rubber up our nose that keeps us coming back for more! The four hours spent at the race track that night were ones of great fun and laughs!

As I was driving home from church a couple weeks ago, Beth and I were enjoying the scenery of downtown Mayberry, when we approached an intersection. The direction we were going did not have a stop sign, however the intersecting road did. The driver of the big Chevy truck approaching the intersection did one of these: slow to a yield, not a stop, look both directions, double check one way but not the other way, fail to see driver coming from the "other" way, continue through the intersection, "is that a horn?" "what's that black thing I'm getting ready to run over?" and BAM! End result: no one was hurt, except for the Stallion, who is now totaled.
He will continue to be driven, but he has a limp. We're working on getting him healed but it will be a long process.

If you didn't know or haven't heard: we have one of the BEST churches around, filled with the Holy Ghost and amazingly fun people. This guy right here is one of them. He's central to our church, leading us into the presence of the Lord each week. Here Jonathan is trying his best for the Zoolander's Magnum look. I think he's almost captured it. He struck several poses and this is one of the better ones. (My apologies for the blurred pixelation.)

Not only do we have a great praise and worship leader, but we have a dynamic group of young adults. A couple weeks ago a group of us decided we needed a time of fellowship after evening service. What better way to fellowship then over hot wings and a coke? Exactly. That's what we thought. We headed to B-dubs in Anderson to enjoy ourselves. When it was time to pray for the food...all twelve of us stood up and held hands around the table and prayed. We got quite a few strange looks, but who cares? God was glorified. I love this picture of Ashley because it truly captures Paul's reminder to be ready in season
and out of season. I didn't give these guys any
warning about taking the picture, I just took it, but Ash was ready.

This is the drummer man, teaching me how to "throw up the deuces" whoever thought of that? Anyway...this picture was taken after his contest with Keith concerning who could snort the most pepper/salt combo. Why? Because boys will be boys. His facial expression is probably a result of the sniffing accompanined with much burning, I'm sure. After we all had our fill, we headed on out to the parking lot. But since we were having such fun, we asked a bystander to take a snap-
shot and capture the memory for us. As you can
see, everyone was doing something random. My favorite though is Keith and Beth. While in B-dubs, Keith was "reading" his discipleship book because he had his meeting with his discipler the next morning. He was trying to catch up. However, his discipler happened to be sitting at the end of the table. :) Here you can see him taking every moment to try and read about how to live for Jesus. Beth is kind enough to help him find where he left off by pointing to the right spot. Ashley is praising Jesus like she always is. Cindy appears to have just sucked on a lemon. Matt seems to have a few marshmallows in his mouth. Josh and Dustin look confused. Bekah has somehow startled me with her crazy smile. Danny and Katie...they're thinking about the wedding... :)
Speaking of weddings, my sister just had one! But that will be saved for the next post. This one is already long enough. The night of Cindy's wedding, I went to my aunt's house to see cousins who had come in from out of town. Two of the littler ones were getting ready to leave, but mom was having trouble getting them out to the car. I yelled, "Last one to the car is a rotten egg!" And out the door the ran. I ran after them and scooped the 4 year old up in my arms to try to catch big sister a few paces ahead. While holding the 4-year old in superman position on my side, and running at the same time, my flip flop caught on uneven pavement. Seeing that recovery was not an option, I next thought about how to sacrifice myself and save the child from hitting the cement. Down on one knee I went and having my arms full of a 50 pound child the next thing to stop my fall was my face. And so down I went, trying to make an indent in the concrete with my face. As I sat up, my first thought was to make sure the child was okay. She had hit the back of her head on the ground, but I didn't hear any screaming or crying, she was fine. Next, I realized I couldn't feel my face except for an intense cool throbbing. I looked at the mom and in a panicked sort of way asked about my face. She told me there was a little bit of blood, but nothing too big. I walked into the house, past my uncle who asked which child had beat me up. After I got cleaned up, I had a nice raspberry on my knee and a slit above my lip. My nose and chin got a couple scratches, I bit my top & bottom lip simultaneously during the fall, yet I still had all my teeth. It's weird that none of my extremeties on my face were injured. Instead, the inner most part was slit in two different spots, down the middle. This picture shows my pathetic bandage. A week and half later, I am still recovering, but it has healed fairly quickly. With Mehg's wedding coming up, I'm hoping to be completely healed.

The end of May brings graduation. This past weekend, we went to an open house of our "summer buddy" Kyle. He's been really busy with a new job and a girlfriend that we haven't seen much of him lately. But he's a vital part of the "summer group" and we've missed him. Josh, Bekah, Stephen and I were able to go and celebrate being done with high school forever. After the first couple minutes, it was like we had never been apart and the guys were all cracking jokes on each other and having fun. It was good to be together again! We made Kyle promise to hang out with us and encouraged him that the
summer group just isn't the same without him. I
think we have him convinced :)

This missy here is one of the most beautiful gals ever. I've been able to hang out with Bekah a lot in the past couple weeks and she truly is a woman of righteousness. I'm learning lots from her and love to be around her all the time...except when she's playing Risk. I wouldn't advise playing that game with her; things can get pretty intense, just ask the fiancee Josh. :)

So alas, this has been my crazy summer thus far. Next week is finals for my first summer session of college classes. It is also the beginning of church camp. I'm helping out in the kitchen for children's camp and will be a counselor for teen camp and teen work study camp. Also in two weeks, my second session of summer school starts and will be going to indy 3 days a week until August. This summer is flying by but I'm growing in the Lord and am learning to trust him more and more each day. Thank you for taking the time to read this!! Be blessed!

2007-06-06T22:56:00.001-04:00

i really still am alive, don't you worry. i'm in summer school right now, going to indy 4 days a week and have a couple hours of homework every night--something i'm not used to. and with cindy's wedding last weekend i've been extremely busy. however, i hope to put up some pictures and stories soon of my summer thus far. i have quite the plethura of things going on. so keep checking guys!!

the great outdoors!

2007-04-23T23:46:00.000-04:00

This weekend was an AWESOME weekend. Saturday morning started off on a great note: we didn't get up until 1130am...amen! We were cordially invited to go to the lake for the day on Saturday to enjoy some fun in the sun! We met up with the guys who had spent the previous night in the forest. The temperature was an amazing 75 degrees, but the water...whoooo buddy, that thing was cold! There was a rope swing that swung out over the water. One brave soul, a freshman go-getter decided to brave the icicles and went for a
swing! It only took one time for him
and us to realize, it wasn't a day for
swimming. So instead we laid in the sun and skipped rocks...or in CW's (pictured right) case, see how close to the shore he had to throw the biggest rock, in order for it to splash those of us who were still sitting on dry land.

An hour or two after meeting up with the guys, we relocated to the beach/grilling area where the rest of the group met up with us. Some threw around the football while others tried ever so hard to keep the frisbee from flying into the water. After everyone had arrived, the grill man Curtis, decided it was time to
fire up the coals. He got the first round started with some hotdogs. Thirty minutes later, we were ready for the real deal: the hamburgers. The guys bought eight lbs of hamburger and probably twenty hotdogs. We tore through them all! I mean we are growing college students! This is the group to the left that we went with. Brett and I are the only juniors of the bunch, the majority are sophomores and a couple freshmen, oh and one senior :) God has really blessed me with a great group of friends here. Half of these guys here are Bible majors wanting to do something big for God
when they're done with school.
Sunday afternoon brought the long awaited fishing trip with Tyler (left) and Travis (right). These two boys were in calculus class with me last semester and everyday they would share their fishing stories. Abby and I asked them to take us fishing and they extended the offer anytime. Yesterday, we finally were able to get together and go. Abby unfortunately had to stay and set up for Vespers (student led church service) so she couldn't go. Tyler took us to a place up the road...where the uppity people like to hang out: the Country Club. This club just so happened to have a golf course on it.
Near the edge of the golf course was this nice little pond. PERFECT! The plan: hurry up and bait the line as quickly as possible in order to catch one or two fish before being escorted out of the country club :). So we rush down to the pond, Travis baited my hook very quickly for me and within two minutes: SHAZAM! check out that bass....ohhh yeah! Five minutes later I caught a good sized blue gill. It just so happened the pond stood between a tee-off and a putting green. So every so often we had to move out of the way of the golfers, who each spoke with us as they passed by on their way to the putting green. They all wanted to know the same thing...did we catch anything? No one seemed to really mind that we were fishing. I mean it's not like there was a "no fishing" sign...:) We eventually ran out of worms for bait, and Ty and Travis were able to catch baby blue gill without any bait. Little did the babies know..they soon would be bait for the big billy bass. The guys both caught a big bass using the baby blue gill. I unfortunately didn't have the same luck. I let my baby go before he gave his last breath. After fishing, we went to the last Vespers of the school year. We reviewed our theme: AKOLUTOS = unhindered. We sang worship songs under the stars and had an awesome time praising the Creator. Afterwards, the night was made complete with a little s'more action. It was a GREAT weekend! An awesome way to end the school year!

Terrific Thursday

2007-04-13T13:26:00.000-04:00

(disclaimer: some of the following content may be inappropriate and unsuitable for those who have weak stomach systems. please take caution)

One of the joys of going to a small private college is: they can cancel a whole day of classes for no reason other than to give students a break! Pretty cool, eh? Once a year: Wonderful Wednesday strikes! It always happens after spring break, but not necessarily on a Wednesday. Only a select group of students know (those who plan the event) and none of the faculty know when it will happen, until the day of. Sometimes it will start in the evening and go throughout the next day, which is what happened this year. As I was laying down to take an afternoon nap on Wednesday, a student with a megaphone came running through campus "Welcome to wonderful Wednesday!!" And so it began. Wednesday night started off the big shabang with discounted bowling. The suitemates and roommate and I all went out and bowled out hearts out. Well, some of us did. I realize that you can't really see the scores, but I'll break it down for you... Miriam: 10th frame: X X X = turkey = 151 pts total! Shoooot yeah! I rocked the house!

Terrific Thursday was filled with lots of outdoors fun, one of those being the slip n slide. Now let me inform you that the weather was a hot 62 degrees with a 25 mph wind: not really my choice of water sports weather. Brett and I opted to watch from the side lines as students, numb to the water and wind, slid down the tarps aiming to take out the 7 construction cones waiting for the human bowling ball at the bottom.

The obstacle course proved to be an entertaining event. Each team consisted of four people who each had a certain assignment. The winning team was the team who completed all tasks in the shortest amount of time. The first person had to stick their face in this...You see, this nasty muck of stuff in the pool is: baked beans, sweet pickles and southern style green beans. Bulk cans of each were dumped in together, mixed up and contained two fun size muskateer bars. Person #1 had to dig through here with their face only and find the wrapped muskateer bar. Next,

person #2 raced across the creek to be wrapped in a roll of toilet paper by person #3. This is more difficult than one might imagine because person #2 is soaked from the creek. Once the toilet paper is gone, person #3 smears peanut butter on their face. Person #4 must throw and successfully stick 3 marshmallows on the #3's face. Once this is completed, person #3 blows up a balloon and pops it. Person #4 (as seen left) jumps onto the blow-up dolphin or crab, races it across the creek. Up on the bank, is a hula hoop. Person #4 must hula for 5 seconds. After the 5 seconds are up, #4 retrieves the floaty, jumps
jumps back in the creek, rides it back across and
runs up into the gazebo, where time is stopped. Two teams compete against each other. Again, Brett and I opted to view rather than participate.

AND NOW!! what everyone's been waiting for!!! THE ANNUAL MILK CHUGGING CONTEST!! of course everyone knows it's physically impossible to chug a gallon of milk in an hour without throwing up. the technical rule for determining the winner of this game is whoever can drink a gallon of milk in an hour without throwing up..within that same hour. but as i came to find out, the REAL contest, is to see who can 1) make the best puking sounds 2) shoot it out the nose the best 3) spew the farthest....get ready for this.

to the left we see CT. right here, he's about 45 minutes into the contest: about 1/2 gallon chugged and no stomach reflex..yet. by the look on his face we can see the milk churning! he decided to take the slower route and see how
much he could get down without throwing up. ten minutes
left in the hour and the crowd begins cheering. CT feels the pressure and begins his chugging as the crowd chants, "Chug! Chug! Chug!" he realizes his doom is about to beset him as he rises to his royal throne (the folding chair). being a senior, and having competed in this heroic contest in the years before, CT understands the REAL competition. he takes his place and continues the chug. only a few seconds later, the vitamin D whole milk refuses to stay put any longer. the first displacement is, yes...curdled.. you see, CT held down quite a bit of milk for a good 50 minutes before ever letting anything out. So the first bit had set in the stomach acid for quite some time.

CT downed all of the milk from the gallon (only to bring it back up) and is still going through recovery today. as i spoke with him on his follow-up, he hasn't eaten anything since yesterday and still feels woozy. he doesn't want to see milk again for a long while, but feels it's all worth it in the end.

meet casey: casey started the competition with a bang. he chugged his gallon of whole milk within the first 20 minutes. he set the standard for the REAL contest. as i first approached casey, he was quietly listening to a friend's ipod, apparently waiting in the calm before the storm. the calm didn't last long: and out came casey's fire hydrant spray of milk. Casey definitely won the prize for farthest distance and fastest chug. this guy...he was impressive.

yes, this is truly what college is all about. bringing your self-esteem to a new level, defending your dignity and honor in the name of milk chugging. long live wonderful wednesday!!!

(brett and i had our own chugging contest: free soda!)

2007-04-08T12:27:00.000-04:00

i realize it's been a quick minute since i've posted, so i thought i'd take this time to give an update:

SCHOOL: becoming evermore challenging everyday with my math classes; finals start in two weeks and i'll be done the first week of may, only to start summer school here at home the next week. even though tensions are building with the onset of the final stretch of school, the roomie and i are still getting along marvelous, praise God! Brett is such a fun girl and God has really knitted our hearts together. basically, we're long lost sisters/bffs.
WORK: i'm working at a restaurant similar to applebees as a server. i'll usually work 3-4 nights a week, but each shift can be from 7-9 hours. on a daily basis, i'm learning patience and the holy spirit is constantly reminding me that i am a witness in this extremely dark place i call work.
GOD: wow, in the last couple days God has taught me that my will isn't always His will (who would have guessed?) and with that revelation has come a hard lesson. i have to be willing to give things up in order to be in His will. being a child of God isn't something that is easy, but it's a privilege; and if i'm really committed to be who God has called me to be, i have to surrender specific things in my life. this is proving more difficult than i thought, so please be in prayer for me. but above all, God is stinkin' awesome! (right, pastor terry?!)

ME or God?

2007-03-22T10:33:00.000-04:00

HERE AND NOW: Impatience, selfishness, arrogance, confusion, annoyance, frustration...

THE BIG PICTURE: God has a plan that stretches far past the rest of my life...

"I am the first and I am the last. My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together." --Is 48:12-13

"..I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please." --Is 46:10b

"Aim at and strive for FIRST the kingdom of God and HIS way of doing and being right and THEN and only THEN will these things be given unto you." --Matt. 6:33 (paraphrased)

The joke...

2007-03-16T16:17:00.000-04:00

This morning began like the average college student's morning does. After turning off my second alarm, I roll out of bed (which, if you recall i'm on the top bunk and that's a lot trickier than it sounds), hopped onto the floor with ten minutes to spare before I must leave for class. Feeling no urge to get particularly dolled up and girl-ified today, I threw on some sweats and tennies. Abby and I always walk together to class in the morning and she is usually the one who gets up to my room first because I'm running late. Well not this morning! I was ready to go before she was able to walk up the stairs and knock on my door. Grabbing my water and granola bar, I reached for the umbrella and opened the door. To my surprise and great startlement, this is what I found:

Yes that's right, I had been "cinder-blocked" into my room. Creative eh? When I opened the door, I literally jumped because all I saw was this big shadowy dark thing in front of me. See the crack between the door and the cinder blocks? At first, I thought I could squeeze between them and make it out, but then I snapped back to reality and remembered that I didn't weigh 95 pounds, nor was I made of elastic. Obviously, pushing them out of the way was not the safest or least-damaging way to go about things. I shut my door, walked through the bathroom and out my suitemates' door. I'd deal with it later.

Seeing this done before, I knew who the culprits were, well at least I had a group of suspects. I saw my RA today on the way to class and asked if she knew anything about it. Leah replied, "No......YESS!!"-with a big grin. I just shook my head and she said she and the girls would clean it up later today. While relaxing on my couch after lunch this afternoon, I heard banging and noise outside my door. I called out, "I hear you!!!" For the second time today, a surprise met me as I opened the door to find the two housekeeping ladies and an older maintenance man taking down the cinder blocks. Now you must understand, within each column of blocks, is a four or five inch PVC pipe which prevents anyone from simply pushing the blocks out. So each block must be lifted up and off the pipe. This weekend is "open house" for prospective students and housekeeping was trying to clear out the hallways. I quickly ran out the other door and helped them take it down. Being trapped in your own bedroom was funny, until the poor housekeeping people had to clean i up.

time to breathe...

2007-03-08T15:33:00.000-05:00

Amidst my nightly five hour study sessions, I was contemplating the great, life-altering, climatic question every academically-minded and socially exposed college student asks themselves.."what am i doing for spring break!?"

First of all, these things must be planned in advance! Plane tickets become more costly as the date arrives; passports need time to clear and to fly to the other side of the world and back into your hand; parents need time to adjust to their "babies" going off for a week without parental supervision...all these things are essential to planning ahead. The next topic of discussion is "WHERE" am i going? Depending on what part of the country you live in, the beach may sound appealing. Or if you live on the beach, go inward to the mountains. What about the tropics? I've heard Cozumel and Aruba are nice vacationing spots! (wait, cozumel was hit by a hurricane and aruba swallowed a young girl..so maybe another destination..) According to popular statistics, most college students head for the beach for many reasons. I'd like to think it's just for the tan and waves, but for some reason there seems to be a more populous supply of substances at the beach rather than in the mountains or the plains. (please note, this statistic is purely observational) So WHERE do i want to go? And the last question, sometimes the most important is "WHO am i going with?" Brett and I were invited to go with a group of 10 people to florida, not having to pay lodging costs because of peoples' families. what? one of the biggest costs of spring break vanishing!? heck yeah!!--but then, we thought a little more about it, before making such a rash decision. you see, there was an even amount of girls vs guys going on this trip, which most would think turns out nicely, right? except for the fact that these guys like to have their "alone-manly-bonding" time and the girls, they like their girl time, but "can't we do everything together, guys??" brett and i foresaw (?) a few bumps in the road as you could imagine, and decided we needed to search for something different. brett opted to go on a short term missions trip with the school to louisiana and i decided flying to california for a week would be and excellent idea. family + sun - tennessee = AMAZING! and so that's what i did:

Charis and I started our sisterly-bonding by getting pedicures! For you gentlemen that means: sitting in a massage chair, putting your feet in a bubble bath, getting your toe nails painted and your feet massaged. Ahhh, relax!

Charis and Phil were the only ones in CA who knew I was coming out. My friends Holly and Mary knew nothing of my visit. Sunday morning at church, Ms. Mary walked into church and walked right past our pew. Not until the middle of the service did she turn around and with a look of surprise and glee and mouth, "What are YOU doing here?!!?!!" She came back to give me a hug and lots of poking, speaking things like, "why didn't you tell me? how long are you here for? you little tricker!"

Holly, unfortunately was out of town when I flew in. She returned on Monday night and Steven and I drove to the airport to pick her up. She didn't know that either of us were coming to get her, until she spoke with her mom on the phone after landing and her mom told her about steven. But she still had no idea I was there. Steven and I had discussed a few options of revealing my presence: 1) hide behind the passenger seat and when she got in the car, grab her from behind. 2) stand at the end of the departure/arrival lanes, and act like a hitchhiker until steven and holly drove by and then have steven pick me up. holly would've freaked. 3) walk past holly in the airport and nonchalantly say, "hey holly." and keep walking. The first one we chucked out; the second would've gotten me in trouble with airport security and so we chose the third one. but what we didn't realize is that there aren't very many people in the airport at 11pm. so we decided i would hide behind a kiosk and then when holly and steven walked past, i would follow them and quietly say, "holly..holly" until she turned around. I stationed myself at the kiosk and waited....three or four minutes later i see steven coming around the corner on the phone.."she's at the other entrance" he whispers as he walks by. seven minutes later steven comes running from the direction he just went and says, "she's actually at this gate over here!!!! i'll bring her by!" finally a few more minutes later, i hear steven's voice and holly's too. they walk past me and i proceed to follow behind. i have my camera ready and i start off whispering. my voice grows louder as i realize she can't hear me...until finally, "Holly!!" with a quick turn of her body she looks at me...stops for a moment and tries to put everything together: why would miriam be in california? then much screaming and hugs and kisses ensued. :)

Holly and I kept our annual tradition alive and went grocery shopping at 11pm at night. there weren't very many people in the store and so we were employing the role of "casual shoppers: let's stop and look at everything." i was kind of tired and so i stopped to sit on some cans of campbells soup while talking on the phone.

Holly and I were cuddling in the chair together and snapping photos. This is one of the better ones believe it or not.

Oh yes, the weather here!...with the exception of yesterday, it has been mostly sunny, highs in the mid 60s. tomorrow we're going to the beach and saturday it's supposed to be 71. ahhh yes! i'm finding lots of time to relax and breathe and continuing to learn about God's grace and goodness. And I'm also remembering how much fun my brother and oldest sister are. I'll post some pictures of them later! Love you all!

2007-03-05T03:38:00.000-05:00

::checking in:: life had been insanely busy for me. thus, the absence of blog posts. however, i am finally on spring break and will have time to post a few things that are happening, so keep checking back!

My Valentine

2007-02-17T00:10:00.000-05:00

Valentine's Day: a.k.a. Singles Only Day! These girls, Chelsea and Amanda, are two of about twelve ladies who made t-shirts to wear on V-Day. I thought the shirts were cute and the girls all bonded together.

I, however, had a Valentine. My date's name was Abby. I've composed this little poem for her:

A is for Absolutely Amazing
B is for Boldly Beautiful
I is for Insanely Intelligent
G is for Gorgeous Good looks
I is for Irreplaceable
A is for Always Awesome
L is for Loudly Living for the Lord

We got all dolled up and went to Ruby Tuesdays. We matched, by coincidence and decided not to change because it looked cute. Abby was very excited about her pink pumps (those are shoes for you gentlemen who don't know) and so she had to wear them for Valentine's Day..of course!

Abby and I invited another single to join us for the evening. He decided to show up fashionably late, but Abby and I waited...and guys think that GIRLS take a long time! PSH! We decided to still allow him to sit with us, since he fits into the category of Singles Only. Brett didn't come because she has a beau back home. But we weren't that mean as to not let her come when she couldn't be with him for the special day. So we invited her, but told her she couldn't talk about him or to him the whole night. She opted to spend the evening with one of our suitemates who is single and they had a girls night.

I asked Abby to be my Valentine...and she said YES!!! It truly was one of the best Valentine's Days that I have ever had!!

It's cold outside...

2007-02-13T00:15:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, I enjoyed a quick trip home to see my family and friends. Wednesday night, I entered the Hoosier state and was greeted by 7 or 8 inches of snow on the ground! OHH YEAH! I was ready for a snowball fight. As I pulled into the driveway at home, and stepped out I thought I'd notify the parentals of my arrival with the presence of a snowball on the window. I bend down and scoop my first handful of snow and try to make it into a ball. I proceed to the porch steps, take my aim and fire!!..except the firing part didn't go so well. As I released the "snowball" it separated into a gazillion snow crystals and gracefully fell to the ground. Much to my disappointment, this snow wasn't the packing kind, but at least it was snow! I made my way over to the Oakes' house to drop off a paper. I was informed that I might suffer consequences of making a trek into the snow at such a late hour: I took my chances and bundled up in my snow gear, prepared for what might come my way. As I step out of the car and look around---I see nothing in the black night; but I HEAR...the sound of squeaking footsteps in the snow. I couldn't figure out where they were coming from! Quickly, I searched the yard and the outline of the house! Nothing!?! The footsteps now getting louder, my heart began thumping and it's getting closer! Unsure of the next few moments, I put myself in fetal position (except still standing) and shut my eyes as tight as I could. I call out, "Please, no!!!" As I feel the arms tighten around my waist and force me backwards, I begin fighting back and yelling, "NO! NO!" The grip began to loosen and I hear him say, "What are you wearing!?" I inform my captor that I came prepared, dressed in my snow gear. "Oh...well okay then..." And then it started again. I found myself being pushed farther into the snow, while trying to resist and fight back. As I continued pleading and begging for mercy, I convince my captor that making snow angels is a much better choice, then wrestling me to the ground in the snow. So that's what we did...we made snow angels :)

I also went up to Michigan to see two of my lovely sisters. We had a lot of bonding time and lots of laughter! I miss them so much!

The car ride to and from Michigan proved to be a long one, yet never a dull moment with Josh and Stephen in the car. From the ridiculous essays to Josh's new-found love for riding horses, the 8 hour drive to and from Michigan holds quite a few memories.

This is a rare moment so you all should cherish this. This is Josh's late night entertainment....take it at your own interpretation.

We were trying to get ready to watch the movie, but there was quite a bit of giggling. As you can see, Stephen is fed up with the laughter and ready to take the picture, while us girls (Kelsey, a friend of Beth's in the middle) were all about the giggles!

A few minutes after Josh proposed...we went to Steak N Shake to celebrate! Okay, really, we were just super hungry and it was one of the only places still open. Bekah was really giddy and Josh was making his 12th phone call about the engagement.

This is some of the scenery I drove through on my way home. It's usually lots of mini waterfalls coming out of the rocks, but due to the cold weather it turned to ice and made this pretty sight.

This is Abby. While I didn't see her over the weekend, I feel it important to mention her since I haven't before. She is a girl I've met down here at school; however she is from Indianapolis as well. Also a junior she is majoring in math with me. We've become good friends and it's because of her that I can make it through Calculus 2 and Math Logic. Please keep Abby in your prayers: she's had her 8th ear surgery (over her 21 years of life) to have tubes placed in. This surgery didn't go as well as the others have: the doctor cracked her left eardrum and her right eardrum is completely split down the middle. Before the surgery she only had 50% hearing out of her right...which has now gone down to about 10%. Abs is one of the sweetest girls I know. I'm really excited to see what God has for us as friends and I love her so much! It helps to have someone from "home" here with me. We cheered for the Colts together during the whole season. We do our math homework together and are stressed together over the problems that take 1 hour to complete. We go out together on Valentine's Day because we are both single and we have each other :) This is Abby...I love her.

part II

2007-01-29T23:36:00.000-05:00

PREFACE: my deepest and sincerest apologies to those of you who felt "left out" of last blog post. please note that it was unintentional. honestly, i have saved the best for last :) however, i realized in my search for photographs, i have done poorly in capturing some of the faces of my dearly loved ones on my camera. therefore, if your picture is not shown, i hope i can be forgiven that i do not have one; hopefully i will be able to fix that soon on my next visit home. i must say this though: i had no camera from september until christmas, so the many times that i did come home...i was camera-less. but enough excuses though, you don't want to hear them. so without further ado..

these are more of the people that i care about from back home; i miss them so much!! all their pretty faces and smiles. i hope to see you soon!

the reason i smile... ;)

seriously...how adorable are these gals?

wow i miss those brothers!

b-e-a-utiful amy c.

she's smiling now, but wait until you see that she's got a loner!

ashley s...who by the way has the softest cheeks in the world!!

anyone recognize the strange arm holding the whip cream right behind them...?

sweet girls!! amazingly gorgeous like mother like daughter.

the people from my home...

2007-01-23T09:42:00.000-05:00

the last couple weeks, i have really been missing my family and close friends from the last 20 years of my life who aren't with me down here in tn. i'm not gonna lie: it has been super hard moving down here far away from anyone i know. but i have been able to keep myself busy and don't have too much ''down time'' to miss my people...but i do: I MISS YOU ALL!!

this is the BEST daddy in the whole UNIVERSE!

the most amazing woman in my life!

we are the fearsome foursome..watch out.

this guy: maxes out the "cool" level.

brother #2: oh my.

a stud + a best friend

this guy = one of kind.

who doesn't love this girl!? doing what she loves: photography.

my awesome adopted brother

wonderful surrogate parents!

the ONE and ONLY!

i love this guy! he always makes me laugh!!

best dinosaur face?

what's it worth?

2007-01-13T02:25:00.000-05:00

::something i wrote while at passion conference::

How amazing is it, that so many people, different races, different places, different experiences, yet with the same heart and same passion for the one things that pulls us all to the same place, worshipping, honoring and adoring: God.

GOD...so righteous, holy and lovely--no man can comprehend! Why did he choose me? I.have.been.called. Called with and for a specific, divine purpose; a journey made special for me. A life called to serve only one God. Called to a life of righteousness, of purity, of courage, of persecution, of faith and of great reward. Will I accept? Will I crucify my flesh to take on a life purposed for me? How much am I willing to give up? What will I have to sacrifice? But why is this even a question when He gave up his everything for me? Yet, am I really willing? How much do I really love Him? True, honest and passionate, unselfish and committed love? Is it real in my life? Do I want it to be real?

Before the monotony...

2007-01-10T11:34:00.000-05:00

While most students were enjoying their last few days of Christmas break in their familial homes, Brett and I were left alone with maybe 10 other girls to roam the halls here in Hart Hall. It was nice for the first couple days, to sleep in past the noon hour without shrieks or loud thumping down the hallway. But after waking up, our bodies finally filled with rest, we decided to get busy having fun before it was time to return to the monotonous days of lectures, the hard stares at the whiteboard trying to read what the prof is writing but can't because the marks from the previous class haven't been fully erased, the agonizing hike up the hill to get to lunch and the dorm, the pouring over books (wait, I did that?? --scratch that---), the uneasiness in our stomachs after dining at the cafeteria and eating leftovers from 3 days ago, as well as the 3am bedtime.....before returning to all that, Brett and I decided to seize the days! Here's what happened:

the epitome of Tennessee

Brett and I went on a picnic on Friday because it was so warm. Notice we're in t-shirts and I'm wearing shorts. It was 70 degrees outside!!

Four days later...it was snowing: 23 degrees.

Brett and I played Scrabble with the suitemates. If you've played Scrabble before, you know there's only ONE "Z" and ONE "X" and ONE "Q"....? Yeah, well I drew them ALL! And had them at the same time. So the game got kind of tricky. Brett and I were playing with two English intellects, so we decided to be on the same team and share letters and help each other out. It was TEAMWORK!! What's wrong with that? Well, the other girls didn't understand that, so they threw the game! And we won!! We then went on to build a tower out of the Scrabble tiles and holders!

We have some spare time to rearrange our room. This is the before shot...But before we could get to the "after" finished product, we dropped the bed frame a couple times, I ran over Brett's toes twice, I dropped the metal bed spring from six feet up, among a few other things.

This is close to the finished product. Brett is moving the cables and wires around the bed. As you can see from this picture, the person on the top loft does not have an easy way up. That person is me. While I am quite agile, I like to think as agile as a gazelle, lifting my leg six feet up and hoisting myself using pure strength is near impossible without having the loft topple over on me. So Brett and I have figured out one way: while she's awake, she raises her knees up and I step on her knees and up into my bed. However, when she's asleep, I can't wake her up everytime...so I've learned to straddle her bed, step on the windowsill and up onto the loft. The first night after I was finally settled in, I turned to face the open room and was met with a whirling gust of wind. This wind was coming from the air vent which was directly across from me. It's not always the warmest air, and it was hard for me to sleep while feeling like I was in a tornado. Brett rigged our vent with some cardboard and duct tape to force the air to blow down into the room. I sleep much better now.

This is just one of the amazingly gorgeous sunsets we've been experiencing down here. Check out the awesome clouds! And yes the open spots in the clouds with the sun were REALLY that bright!

Life-altering...

2007-01-06T22:58:00.000-05:00

Passion Conference 2007:

**23,000 college students from
**20 different countries
**In one city: Atlanta, GA
**Avg sleep per night: 4.5 hours
**Avg standing-in-line-for-food: 45 min.
**Avg standing-in-line-for-good-seats: 1hr 30m
**Avg decibels for praise & worship: CFC x 25
and that's pretty loud!
**Avg walking distance per day: 2.5 miles
**Time spent with God: 24/7

I went with a group of 40 students from a church here in Johnson City. The church paid for our hotel and it had been rumored we were staying at the Hilton. Well, it wasn't a rumor. Our caravan: a mini-bus, van w/ U-haul, suburban and sedan, arrived in downtown Atlanta at 430pm. The first session of the conference didn't start until 7 that evening, so we figured we had a couple hours to chill in the rooms. As we fight our way into the crowded lobby, filled with 200+ other confused college students, we are told our rooms won't be ready for another couple hours. So what are 40 people with 2 bags of luggage each supposed to do when their rooms aren't ready? Do what 10 other groups of 30+ did....pile luggage against the wall in the lobby and wait. Brett and I were tired so we made space against the wall and attempted to sleep--which is hard to do with the roar of students milling about.

It came time for us to leave to go to the session, and as we were leaving they told us our rooms were available, but it was too late, we had to hurry to the service. Our luggage must wait. (Sidenote: once we finally got our room keys and headed up to the rooms...it was quite an adventure. The hotel had 27 floors...we were on the 17th. There were 8 elevators, but amazingly it was about a 20 minute wait to even get on the elevator. Not to mention, stopping at every floor because someone on each floor had to get on or off the elevator. Or if we were going to the conference in the morning, people were trying to get on, on each floor--and I wish I could've taken a picture of the peoples' faces when the doors open and they see that not even a hamster could fit on the elevator. Finally, after waiting for 15 minutes, and after seeing the elevator doors open 7 different times, each with a slam of rejection...one opts for the stairs...yes 17 flights of stairs. That equals 299 steps, but not like I was counting.) So back to the story...we were onto the session. No one knows for sure which direction to head, we only know to follow the mass of people. We walk 7 blocks to get to our main session. Because there are so many students, an overflow "room" (more like warehouse) was needed. Everyone was assigned to one of 4 groups, and these groups switched out between the huge arena and the overflow. It was our group's turn to be in the overflow. I was kind of disappointed, because who wants to be in the overflow on the first night, watching the session via satellite on the big screen? Away from the many thousands of students all gathered in the arena?? We hurry in and find some seats in the back balcony. I see the stage and realize we're going to have a live band and then the preaching will probably be via satellite. The musicians take the stage and who is it? None other than Chris Tomlin...the one person I really wanted to lead our worship! It was amazing!! Then Louie Giglio came onto our stage and welcomed us as well as the people over in the Philips Arena across the street. The two venues were able to say "hi" to each other. Our overflow venue contained about 6,000 and the other 17,000 were in the arena.

After the main session, all 23,000 of us split into 20 community groups, divided by wristband color (separate from the other wristband telling which venue to be in). Within each community group, there was a leader and then a small praise and worship band, basically a "mini-session." Within the community group containing 800-1000 students, we were divided again into family groups of 8 people each. This is my family group...from Mississippi, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky...all over. Throughout the week, our community groups would meet before the morning session and after the night session to discuss things over and have an intimate group setting to be able to talk about whatever was on our heart. Each family group had a leader and I was nominated to that position. My job was to "facilitate" discussions. I didn't realize how hard this would be. But for eight people to talk to each other on a deeper level than initial conversation was somewhat difficult. Some people don't like to open up to seven complete strangers, yet others pour their heart out. Finally by the second to last meeting, we were able to find a balance, but it wasn't easy.

After the morning sessions, the conference provided box lunches for us....yeah that's right 46,000+ box lunches over the course of two days...that's insane. There was only one restaurant in Atlanta that took up the task: Lenny's. The lunch included: a sub sandwich, bag of chips, apple or orange, bottle of water and a cookie. Not bad for a box lunch! I don't know how many hands it took to make 46,000 box lunches, but may the Lord bless them. For dinner however, it was every man for himself...as you can see ..this was the food court attached to the arena. This was near dinner time...about 530pm. And it is PACKED out. If you wanted food and didn't want to stand in line for more than 30 minutes...you better be eating at 4pm. It looks as if all these people are standing around or walking to their destination...false; they're actually all standing in line for dinner. But the lines were so long they began to intertwine so you always had to ask, "Is this the line for Chick-Fil-A?" or "Are you standing in line for Arby's?" After standing in the masses to get food, one did not even consider trying to find a table to sit at---instead, head for the doors and find a clear spot outside on the sidewalk.

In this picture, people are leaving from their community groups to go to the main session. Yes, it's true..the escalators were ONE-person escalators, which caused for quite the traffic jam sometimes. I remember watching from above once, as people were standing in line for the escalator to the next level---but more people continued to come up the escalator from the previous floor, causing a sort of domino effect...it was hilarious. People kept stepping off the escalator but with nowhere to go because there was a line in front of them..so they kept smashing into the person in front of them! By the last day, there was finally some clarity: when you get on the escalator, you WALK up or down it to make things move more smoothly.

David Crowder was definitely the crowd favorite: him and all his craziness. The arena was a madhouse. Everyone was on their feet the whole time, praising and worshipping with David Crowder. I will admit, after he was finished, my eardrums were not the same.

Part of the Passion Conference was a mission called "Do Something Now Campaign" geared solely towards serving the poor, seeking the lost, and helping the needy. (Get ready for these statistics I'm going to give you..) The goal at the beginning of the conference was to raise $500,000 for all these different causes. Now, I don't know what kind of college students YOU know...but most of the ones I know...are poor. The word FREE is the most frequently used word in their vocabulary. But Louie Giglio addressed that issue and said "You can still do it!!" Half a million?? Pocket change. There were several different ways to get involved...I will list the Goal and then what was actually Achieved:

**Chinese Bibles sent to specific Chinese people who had requested them, along with a commitment to pray for the person for one year:
Goal: 5,000 Bibles sent
Achieved: 6,500 Bibles sent + 1 yr. prayer commitments

**Build wells in Africa $10/person:
G: 11 wells at $3,000 each
A: 38 wells for $3,000 each and 1 well in Sudan for $12,000

**Bricks to help build Freedom Student Center in Iraq
G: 500 bricks --- $500 at $10/brick
A: 2,400 bricks = $24,o00

**Money for the Freedom Student Center
G: $50,000
A: $65,000

**Students to honestly pray about going to Iraq for one year to work among the Kurds at the Freedom Center
G: 30 students
A: 150 students

**Surgeries paid for, for children in Central and South America
G: 50 surgeries
A: 100 surgeries w/ a matching donor, so really: 200 surgeries

**Money to send African college students to college for 4 years. $200/month for 4 years
G: 20
A: 14, but with more pledges on the way

**Money to translate the whole New Testament for the Dehlah people group in Indonesia at $20/verse. Once you paid your $20, you could go and highlight the verse on the big board for which you paid for.
G: The whole NT for the Dehlah people
A: The whole NT for the Dehlah people, the whole NT for the Recuh people and enough to pay for over half of the NT for a third people group; ($150,000 to translate the NT)

Uh yeah---pretty impressive for college students, eh? Brett and I committed to sending a Chinese Bible, praying for our persons for a year, as well as giving money for the wells in Africa. Along with giving for the well, they asked us to commit to drinking only water for 2 weeks, to help us remember what we did and to pray for the Africa people.
In all, the group of 23,000 college students raised over $700,000!!!!!!!!!! God can do amazing things!!! Wow.

The last night we had a candlelight service out on the lawn. The "lawn" was no bigger than 2 acres...and we all squeezed on there. It was kind of tricky with everyone holding a candle--you had to be careful not to get too close to the person in front of you. They moved the stage outside as well as one of the big screens and we had a worship service out there...it was awesome! Before the service started, as we filed in from our community groups, they asked that we not say a word--remain completely silent until we heard the singing start from the stage. I don't think you can comprehend 23,000 "kids" in complete silence for 30 minutes...unless you experience it. COMPLETE silence, no talking, nothing. It was a-mazing!

God really spoke to my heart in two ways: one of the speakers talked about really and truly loving God. He asked us, "are you in TRULY in love with God?" Of course my immediate response was, "well yeah...I love God." But then, I really thought about it...and what does it mean to really love God? To be in love with Him? I had to repent because my heart was not where it should have been. Also, I think God has really put a burden for missions on my heart...so I need to keep praying about that. It's not something I'm used to--it's something new for me, but I like it :)

And so, if you've just spent the last 20 minutes reading this post, YOU are awesome...because it's pretty dang long. But basically: Passion Conference was awesome and God rocks my face off!!!

Christmas Vacation!!

2006-12-30T02:05:00.000-05:00

Charis and Beth were trying to get at Phil's
curly hair.

Stephen, unaware of Beth's vampirish ways.

Josh, at 4am, ready to take on the nosey neighbors.

The newly engaged...practicing their stunt for the wedding
reception.

My beautiful Mommy!!

How cute is she? The California freckles :)

What??

Lunch with a best friend.

My awesome brothers!!

Like father, like son.

Not so wise anymore...

2006-12-21T15:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning was somewhat a traumatic morning for me. I waited until the last possible moment, until I could put it off no further. I held out longer than each sister, but alas, the time had come. I visited the maxillofacial surgeon, Dr. Mohler (appropriate dental name, huh?) He is a very nice older man and made me feel at ease--well as much ease as one can feel before going under the drill. I felt like I was being strapped down: they put these clamp things on my arms, I assume to keep an eye on my pulse, and then the little finger-clamp thing for my pulse as well. I had a blood pressure wrap on my right arm and then the IV went in my left arm. Before the IV, came the nitrous gas. I've encountered the gas before when getting a cavity filled, so I knew what was coming. "Breathe through your nose." Okay..so I begin. Really though, it didn't have quite the "floating--whoa" feeling that everyone talks about. However, while breathing I remember Phil's story of his hysterical laughing while breathing this stuff. I started to giggle, but knew if I started, I wouldn't be able to stop, so I quickly brushed that thought out of my head and waited for the said crazy state of mind. The nurse came back in and said, "Breathe deeper, Miriam!! Deep breaths!" OHHH! so that was why I couldn't feel any effects. As I began to breathe deeper, Dr. Mohler comes in to put my IV in. The nurse prepares me, "This might hurt a little." Dr Mohler informed her that I've given blood a few times so I knew all about it. The last thing I remember hearing is, "This will put you to sleep in a few minutes." And BAM! WHAM!! One hour and four less wisdom teeth later, I hear, "Miriam, open your eyes.." I slowly opened them, because it felt like I had 2 tons of steel resting on each eyelid...I peeked them open but decided it was much better to keep them closed. The nurse returned with the wheelchair and reminded me to open my eyes again, and told me that I needed to wake up. UGH! All I wanted to do was sleep, didn't she know that!? But like an obedient patient, I got into the wheelchair. I don't remember being pushed down the hallway, in the elevator, or getting into the car. But there I was and Mom was putting a blanket on me, brushing away my tears and handing me Kleenexes. I came home and chilled the rest of the day, slurping down some chicken broth and applesauce. My first experience with Vicodin...wasn't really one to talk about; Nothing unusual really happened except I was really nauseous and at one point Phil looked like he had black make-up around his eyes. Yesterday (Day 1) was one of pain and sleep. Today (Day 2) I'm feeling much better--but much more swollen, kind of like a chipmunk collecting acorns for the winter. Hopefully the swelling will go down and I'll be able to go back to some state of normalcy this Christmas.

Merry Christmas, guys! Don't forget to thank the Father for his gracious and merciful gift: His Son. XOXO!

Who Says Women Can't!?

2006-12-10T23:56:00.000-05:00

My dad Kurt-O was blessed with four daughters to love and raise. This in itself shows God's humor. Because you see, my father grew up building cars, constructing engines, etc. I mean how could he not? His dad was the one who built a homemade helicopter and his grandpa built one of the first lawnmowers in Indiana! He had in his genes to be an automotive man. My dad was the coolest kid on the block. When he was five, his bicycle was the only one with a steering wheel instead of handlebars! Beat that, Joe Smith! He helped his dad build motorcycle engines as was his profession. My dad drove a motorcycle as his ride on the first day he got his license. (Ask him about being pulled over by an officer for not looking old enough to have a license..on his first day!) He has owned a plethura of cars of the years: Fiat, a couple Jaguars, a Scirocco (only 600 ever made). We girls always ask in disbelief, "Why did you sell the Jags!!!?" He answers as only the best dad in the whole world could answer, "Well, I had to choose between a family or cars. I chose a family." So with starting this new family, I'm sure my dad had visions of having a couple sons, at least one to pass on the family name and the car knowledge....but instead God chuckled and said, "Girl." "Girl." "Girl." and "Girl." Now if you ask him, he says he wouldn't have it any other way---yet I can't help but notice how happy he was to talk to Phil about his Jeep when he was having problems; or better yet, how excited he got when Scott told him he owned Slot Cars. It was like watching a kid open their favorite toy at Christmas. His eyes lit up and he began talking faster with a higher pitch in his voice. :) Slowly, my dad is gaining the sons he never had. But let's back up and talk about what a man is supposed to do when he has so much car knowledge to impart, but no son to impart it to. He does the next logical thing: pass it to the daughters!! Brilliant! While we were growing up, Dad was always sure to name every car in every movie made prior to 1975: brand, model, year, special accessories, etc. I mean, this guy knows his stuff! Dad and I used to play the headlight game---name the oncoming car by the headlights--I got pretty good at it. Every year he and my grandpa go to a car show in Auburn, IN and Cindy has gone with them the past couple years. His love of motorcycles has been passed down: Cindy has her motorcycle license and I'm hoping to get my permit this coming summer. He's taught each of us , the obvious: how to check the oil, two or three of us how to change the oil, how to change tires on our cars. So you see, my dad has done a nice job of infiltrating us to some degree. There are two of us daughters who have really taken an interest in cars: Cindy and I. The other two--well they care, but there are more important things than gaskets, cylinders and pistons. So now the object of my narrative:

Down here in Tennessee, I drive quite often. Indeed, I drive my car almost everyday. I'm about to make my 400+ mile journey home to IN, but my oil needed to be changed first. I'm always a promotor of "If you can do it yourself, do it." Right? Right.. first step: go buy a filter, 4 qts of oil, oil wrench (because I couldn't find one to borrow). 2nd step: find an oil pan to borrow (got it!). 3rd step: find a place to change the oil. See that step was a little trickier than the rest. I don't have jack stands or blocks--and couldn't find those anywhere around here. My genius friend CT decided to make use of the small ditch bordering the outside of the parking lot. I pulled my car up to the ditch, balancing one side on the pinnacle of the cement ditch and the other side in the grass. This worked out very nicely. So there I am in the middle of campus crawled underneath my car, unscrewing the oil bolt. I'm not gonna lie, a few males walked by and stopped and stared...in awe. Out comes the oil---down with the filter---in with new--dump in 4 quarts and buddy we're back in business. Approximate time: 20 minutes; which might I add was pretty good for me being my first time by myself and only watching my dad once. As I arose from underneath the car, I hear a male voice saying, "I'm impressed." So Dad---Thanks for teaching me how to prove to those unbelieving males out there: who says women can't!?

Dead Week.

2006-12-05T20:59:00.000-05:00

So this week is known as "Dead week" on campuses across the nation; for good reason too. You see, now is the time when college students have realized in less than a week and a half, there will be no more school. No more school = freedom to sleep in without the downfall of missing a class or a meal; freedom to stay up late just for the heck of it rather than trying to finish a paper due in less than 6 hours; freedom from the ugly grasp that a bathroom has on a college student due to it's tag team partner: the cafeteria; freedom from the monotonous professors that unconsciously use hypnotic devices while lecturing. There are many advantages that come from the end of a semester. But alas, in the back of the mind there is this thought: I still have FINALS week! And before FINALS week...I must face Dead Week! And so now...dead week is upon us. This is the week students remember all of the projects, posters, papers and portfolios assigned at the beginning of the semester are now due in less than 2 days = "ohhh snap." Or for some, it's the time to take the "pre-final" tests that profs intentionally or unintentionally (you decide) assign for this week.

So please, if you remember: pray for those of us who are in this unfortunate, draining week. Also, for those of us who, procrastination is second nature and lose many hours of sleep trying to catch up and complete all assignments, and then try to function with 4 hours of sleep. (Not me, of course, but others....)

Never before..

2006-11-26T03:13:00.000-05:00

The date of my last haircut was sometime in the winter of 2004. That's a pretty long time to let a person's hair grow. At first, I was just growing mine out to grow it out, but then I realized I could donate it to Locks Of Love for kids with leukemia and cancer who have lost their hair. It's a pretty cool thing. The minimum of hair they accept it 10 inches. Folks, that's a LOT of hair. Here is my before and after shot:

2006-11-12T01:00:00.000-05:00

I really miss all my church family!!!! I love you guys!

Happenings in East TN

2006-11-08T14:39:00.001-05:00

Everything is still going smoothly down here--well, depending on your definition of "smoothly." I mean we can say that the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics is still holding true: Entropy increases...constantly. But enough of that. Here's what's been happening: I resigned from my position at one of the big electronic powerhouses: Best Buy. There were a few complications and it became too demanding for me, working 20+ hours and taking 18 credits at school. My two weeks will be ending right before Thanksgiving break...convenient, huh? :) Up next, there's been a lot of bonding with my group of friends. God's been awesome in letting me get to know these people! The girls on the left and I went to a local highschool football team...we missed highschool football and freezing and screaming. It was their homecoming and some of the kids from one of my field classes asked me to come. Shooo!! Why not!?
Every year, at Milligan's homecoming there is the extremely competitive football game. Milligan Alumni vs. Milligan students. Alumni ALWAYS win...but there was something new in the air this year. Perhaps it was the bitter cold or the stellar game plan or the amazing fans who braved the frostbite to cheer their team on. Whatever it was, the underdogs came through and in the last minute scored the winning touch down. In the first time of Milligan history---the stream-line students take the V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!
Michael is the owner of that incredibly awesome backwards somersault in the air. We were at the soccer conference championship game (i'll talk about that in a sec) and the fans were getting pumped up. Michael is known for his acrobatics off of tall objects....in this case, a tall man's shoulders were the jumping base. It was pretty sweet. The conference game: WE WON--again, another first in Milligan school history. This weekend is Regionals and the student body is pretty pumped about that! The men's soccer team has never gone this far...so: GO Buffs!
The last happening is that our heat was broken for a few days. We spoke to the maintenance and they promised to come fix it. I came home from class one day...and found this. I thought it funny and took a picture, without Mr Fix-it's permission...he didn't even know I took it.

Some more crazy costumes...

2006-11-02T20:29:00.000-05:00

The Beautiful Brides Spidy-Spiderman Yee-haw Cowboy

Daring Dash Cow + Farmer Evil Witches

Peter Pan clan:

Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Adult Peter Pan, Wendy

Crunk Your Trunk

2006-11-02T19:44:00.000-05:00

Tuesday was a memorable day here at Milligan College. It was the first annual "Crunk your Trunk". A few weeks before the event, students on campus begin planning and designing their tru
nks for this great occasion. They say it's for the kids, but the students deep down are in it for the $50 gift card to the restaurant of their choice. On the day of, students are anxiously and quickly "crunking" their trunks. The automobiles are parked in the designated parking lot and everyone sets up. At 6pm, the children are allowed to begin their festivity of trick or treating. Most of these children, are sons and daughters of faculty and staff, here at Milligan. (ABOVE: The Black Pearl and its
mates---notice the plank!)
Others are children from the neighboring areas. It is pretty cool because it lets kids trick-or-treat in a safe environment. Not only are the college students competeing for "Best Trunk" but the kids have theirown competition of "Best Costume" "Most Originality" or
even "Scariest Costume."
I was able to capture the winners
of each of these categories on camera. To the right, you can see Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean:
"Best Costume". Next, was "Most Originality" and the winner is: Slice of Pizza. The remaining costume is "Scariest Costume"---this kid was dressed well and did a good job of being scary. I was kind of worried when I was taking the picture. His parents really knew what they were doing...Dracula.
All of the kids were dressed so well!! The students were dressed up as well, ready to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters! Unfortunately, Brett and I did not participate because 1. we didn't have time and 2. we are poor college students. But we did go and take pictures and look at the cute little kids!

For His love endures forever...

2006-10-24T16:36:00.000-04:00

I have a couple updates with how things are going down here. I'm still struggling with a few things regarding my job at Best Buy. But I'm listening to hear what the Lord has for me to do in that situation. About the purse situation: one of the cell phones (not mine, the other girl's) was found the next day, smashed in three pieces on the side of the road. A graciuos citizen picked up the pieces, put the phone together and contacted the owner; so my friend now has her phone back. As for all the other items: still missing. However, an investigation has been underway to identify and find the suspect. Today, I met with the investigator to try and pick the guy out of a line-up. I was pretty nervous about it. I narrowed it down to 2 out of the 6, and chose the one I thought it was. The investigator immediately corrected me, pointing to the other of the 2 of whom I had narrowed it down. I looked at the investigator, surprised and said, "So you know who did it?" He told me Yes in fact they know who it was, they have his name and know where his parents live. As it turns out, the other guy that was there Saturday night: Person B, admitted to knowing Person A and gave his name: Person A was Person C's ex-boyfriend. I asked if it was bad that I couldn't identify the guy, and he said it wasn't that big of a deal, because I didn't have a face-to-face conversation with him, like one of the adult chaperones had. And that adult chaperone did indeed identify the correct guy, so everything turned out okay. Now, it's just a waiting period until they can find the guy. So: we wait.

In the meantime, I've been checking out the a-mazing trees down here!! This past weekend a friend and I went to the top of one of the mountains here, and watched the sun set. It was BEAUTIFUL! And everything was sooo quiet and still up there. It was a really cool time that reminded me how BIG our God is. These two pictures are products from our journey up the mountain. Enjoy them! Think Brown County + autumn x 10 = East Tennessee in October (hey, what can I say? I'm a math major :)

My Life? or His?

2006-10-15T15:19:00.000-04:00

"Majesty, Majesty
Your grace has found me just as I am
Empty-handed, but alive in Your hand."

Last night was Milligan fall formal...YAY! Brett and I + 2 other girls got all dressed up and made our way over to one of the most expensive hotels in the area. So there we all are, amidst 75 or so other shnazzy students, dancing our little heart away. The Macarena starts playing--obviously this requires a couple pictures. I walk back to the back of the ballroom --which also happens to be the entrance to the room--to retrieve my camera from my purse. As I approach the table and scan for my purse, two girls quickly come to me, "Are you looking for something that was on this table?!" I told them yes, that my purse was there. "Well someone just took something off this table and ran outside."

Three young adults had been walking in and out of the room, clearly not dressed for a dance and were definitely not Milligan students. The chaperones/doorkeepers asked them for I.D. and they left...but not until one of them had time to take a "party favor" with him as he walked out the door. One of the chaperones (also a Milligan professor) saw the guy pick something up and walk out. She followed him, said something to him and then he bolted in a running frenzy out the door. Five minutes later, I came to the scene. The ONE hotel employee on duty that night was already on the case, trying to figure things out. Person A is the one who actually took my purse. Persons B & C were boyfriend/girlfriend and B actually works at the hotel but was off-duty. They all three conveniently disappeared to nowhere.

I called the police to come to the scene. When he arrived, I started doing my reporting of what was all in my purse: debit cards, 2 cell phones, 2 sets of keys, digital camera; some mascara, hand sanitizer, batteries, extra-strength tylenol, baby pinecones I had picked up the other day because they were really cute, among other things. Before the policeman arrived, I had already called the banks to lock my cards. However, the guy decided to go the gas station first. As I was talking to the policeman in the lobby, four bright white strobe lights begin flashing throughout the hotel: fire alarm. The front desk has no control and are rushing around dealing with burglary, newly arrived guests, and now a fire. The professors from the dance start ushering people out into the lobby and towards the door. Meanwhile, the fire engine rolls up and 4 or 5 firemen in full garb walk into the lobby. Simultaneously, the lone desk clerk realizes that "fire" is actually the smoke from the smoke machines out on the dance floor. At this time, my policeman looks at me and says, "I feel like I'm on the Titantic." It was a crazy scene!! After the uproar died down, Persons B & C returned to the hotel to talk to the police, claiming not have any connection whatsoever with Person A. But one of the doorkeepers saw all three Persons A, B, and C together talking amongst each other.

So anyway, my things are gone, no damage too serious...I'm missing my camera and phone big time, but things could have been a lot worse. The next few days will be filled with police reports, talking to banks, new phone, and sorting through chaos. If you think about it, pray for me: there's a lot of frustration, confusion and on top of this: some problems at work. But this has become my prayer:

"My whole life
I place in Your hands
God of mercy
Humbled I bow down
In Your presence at Your throne

In my life,
Be lifted high
In our word
Be lifted high
In our love
Be lifted high."

Amen.

Hot springs, Norma and Asheville.

2006-10-06T23:59:00.000-04:00

This weekend is fall break. Since I am blessed enough to have a job, I am required to work this weekend; because of that, I was not able to come home and see my family like the rest of the 98.6% of Milligan students. So Brett, Leah and I all decided to take a road-trip to Asheville, NC. This is about an hour route--if you're going straight there on the interstate. However, down here in the hills of Tennessee, it's better to drive through the countryside and take in nature and all of God's beautiful creation. We loaded the car with the essentials and started our journey and picked up Leah on the way out. We headed to Hot Springs, North Carolina, hoping to find none other than: natural hot springs. However, when we got there--we found that "hot springs" was actually a yard with 4 hot tubs sectioned off for "relaxation with nature." Nothing natural about it. It was complete with chlorine and everything....how disappointed we were to find out their "natural springs" were anything BUT natural.
Our route there took us through some back hills. Imagine the stereotypical Tennessee hills and the yards you find there....that's what we saw. There were many abandoned cars. At one point we began counting them. There was a little Ford escort crashed into a dirt enbankment; a jeep thing from 1948, stashed on the side of the road, sprouting shrubbery; many random trucks...you know, those kinds of things. Also, almost every barn (except the one pictured left) had tobacco hanging from within it to dry it out. I don't think I realized how much tobacco is down here, but apparently there's quite a bit. It seems to be the cool thing for men to chew ther tabacky. Most of them have a "fat lip", signaling the juicy, brown flaky stuff in their mouth--kind of gross if you ask me--.
While driving through the hills, we passed a field and noticed an elderly lady bending over and stuffing hay into a garbage bag. We all saw her and kind of had the same thought. We debated for a few minutes before turning around and driving back past her house and pulling into her driveway. She looked up and noticed us, but returned back to her work. As we walked up to her we said "hello" and introduced ourselves. We asked her if we could help her rake the rest of the hay and put it into the bags for her. She was a little reluctant at first or maybe she just wasn't quite clear as to why
3 young girls were on her property? She let us take over for her and went to "the building" --aka: the shed---to retrieve more trash bags. Leah raked a couple more piles for her and Brett and I began filling the three trashbags. She introduced herself as Norma and she told us she was 88 years old. Norma was in really good health for being 88 years young! For heaven's sake she was outside raking hay and bending over putting it into trashbags. It was cool to get to talk to her for a little bit. We stayed with her for about a half an hour. She talked about her family and how some landmarks around the area were named after her grandfather. Brett asked her if she could take some photos of her for her photography class. Norma said it would be alright but only after she took her shower cap off. Haha! We told her we liked it on and she should keep it on. She had been wearing it because she has just washed her hair and wanted to keep the gnats out of it. (By the way: I've never seen such a perpetual attack of gnats before! It was pretty nasty! ;)

We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Asheville last night. Today we walked around down
town Asheville and found a cute little cafe to dine for lunch. We then headed back to school. It was a good and relaxing time for us all, even though it wasn't long enough and we each wish that we could've been with our families. The trees are changing and fall is coming upon us. I miss you all and love you so much!!!

twirps

2006-09-30T23:09:00.000-04:00

Last week was an important week here at Milligan College. The events throughout the week, combine to make: T.W.I.R.P. WEEK. That is----The Woman Is Required to Pay. Each day of the week is designated with a certain theme. But in preparation for this event, the junior class put on a Bachelor Auction, auctioning off 15 of Milligan's finest. The boys take their turn, parading across the stage in all different get-ups: richard simmons, men in black, and tom sawyer. The auctioneer then describes each bachelor, offering things such as "midnight walks on the beach" or "yoga and pilates" or "fixin the truck" or even as special as "goods under the hood." (obviously meaning: the 16-pak abdominal region) Girls will raise their hands for the bid, some bachelors going for $5 or up to $55---the Australian boy: it was his accent. The idea is to help raise money for student-wide activities and also helping girls find dates for TWIRP week. Brett and I bid and bought the two windsuit boys: Ben and Robert. They're sophomores and seem to be a ton of fun. They claim their outfits were compliments of the local thrift store, but I have my doubts. We bought them as 2 for 1 deal for $15. Pretty good, eh? Mr. Man-in-Black is freshman president Matt. He likes to skateboard throughout the big hills of campus. And Tom Sawyer: that's CT..he likes to think he's from the country and tries to act like it by chewing on that tall grass stuff while walking to class, but really...he's not. Good effort though. Brett and I still have to take our boys out. I worked the majority of TWIRP week, so we couldn't do it then. But the plans are still on and they still want a free meal. Here was the schedule for TWIRP week:

Monday: the Corn Maize--about 30 minutes off campus
Tuesday: AppleFest on campus--baked apples--on the bonfire
Wednesday: 80's skate night at the local roller-arena
Thursday: Rock-star bowling
Friday: Midnight Movie

I was only able to participate in Monday and Tuesday. Monday night, I "twirped" CT, even though I didn't buy him at the auction (I have privileges :) We played a softball game that night, so we were running late for the Corn Maize. So Leah and her twirp: Curtis (aka: CT2) went with CT and I to Chick-Fil-A. After eating our chicken sandwiches and waffle fries, we settled in for a couple games of Candy Land. And might I add,
I won the first game, but we had to play again so CT could have a chance to win..and he did. After Candy Land, we headed over to the bowling alley. Before we started, CT wanted to prove his manliness by forming some sort of bet: Girls vs. Guys....whoever wins: total scores combined after all games, has to buy the winning team Chick-Fil-A the next week. We all agreed: LET THE GAMES BEGIN! Leah tried to warn me about her "unfortunate" bowling skills. I was a little nervous at first, because I wanted a free meal, not to mention bragging rights. Leah and I bowl a decent first game, beating the guys by 23 points. "No biggie, we'll come back," they said. Second game, I lost my touch...I couldn't get a spare or a strike! It was as if the pins were begging for me to SPLIT them EVERYtime, because that's pretty much what I did. Leah, however, remained a firm constant and defeated her self-labeled title of "bad." The boys quietly took their turns---CT2: strike--strike--spare--9 pins--strike..and so it went. CT was not doing so bad himself. I began to get a little uneasy and I noticed CT has a smirk on his face: no good. On the 10th frame, CT starts counting up the scores in his head. Softly he said to me, "If you guys get 7 more points...you win." Leah--up last, no pressure--bowls a spare. HECK YES! WE DID IT! The GIRLS beat the GUYS by SIX points! OH it was glorious! Leah and I even got the scores printed so we could relish and indulge in our victory. Needless to say, the ride home there was barely a peep from the two gentlemen in the backseat..mwahhaha. Since then, they have recovered nicely, minus the 2-foot globe of ego that had surrounded them prior to bowling. Since I have to work every Monday night and Mondays are "Bring-your-church-bulletin-to- Chick-Fil-A-and-get-a -free-sandwich-night", CT has promised me ice cream from Coldstone Creamery instead. I think it's a fair adjustment.

Tuesday night: AppleFest, I spontaneously asked Scotty-G to be my TWIRP date. He was much obliged and so I "took him" to the bonfire. There were quite a few people there: an unexpected 150-200 students; quite a big turnout for Milligan student body. Everyone was crowded around the fire because it was a little chilly. A bluegrass banjo band was brought in to play and entertain. They were pretty good.
Scott and I decided to bake an apple and share it.
Precious, huh? We went and picked out the perfect apple, previously cored, and put our chosen condiments into it: butter and brown sugar. (I have no idea why this is underlined!?!) Then the apple is wrapped in foil and put onto a hot-dog roaster and roasted over the fire. Or like most people did: just throw it into the fire pit in hopes that it won't be too mushy to pull back out after it's cooked. We waited a few minutes and then Scott so manly, braved the darting flames to retrieve our baked apple. We opened it up and the smell was awesome; like warm apple pie! The skin was a bit burned so we neglected that part, but the rest was YUMMY! As the night's end was drawing nigh, Scott joined the bluegrass band and chimed in with his harmonic tenor voice (like I said in a previous post: the best voice on campus).

My TWIRP dates were pretty much awesome and we all had lots of fun! I can't wait to do it again next year! I like the idea of TWIRP too, because it's true that the guy pays the majority of the time and it's nice for the guys to be able to hang out and have fun without having to pay for once. I mean, really it's only one week out of 52.

Refreshing.

2006-09-26T22:37:00.000-04:00

These pictures are from this past weekend: my
church retreat in Brown County, Indiana. Basically, it can be summed up to the fact that this weekend made it on my top 10 list of awesome things this year. I brought two of my girlfriends from school Leah (blonde) and Brett (brunette) and Stephen (brunette) and Kyle (blonde) also came. The first night, we drove from TN and got to IN around 830, and it was pouring down rain. Mom and Dad decided it would be best to go back to our house for the night, so we did...but not without surprising Kyle and Stephen first. They didn't know I was coming until they walked into Wendy's and saw me sitting at the table! Stephen, taken aback, exclaimed, "MIRM!!!" and Kyle just smiled at me. It was good to see "my boys" again, including Josh. We had a big slumber party at our house friday night: 11 people = crazy fun! Saturday we set up camp after the rain ceased and had a church service followed by an awesome testimony time. God's so good! I was really excited to see all my church family! I miss you guys soo much!! I almost started crying during a couple hugs---lis and pbr. And of course, seeing my family as well. I have the best family ever!! I love them all and my sisters are still--yes still sisters: attempted wedgies, silly sisterly sarcasm, you know those things. So it was a great weekend, not long enough though. I miss you all and love you even more! (FYI: If y'all get bored up there: I LOVE care packages or cards or anything via snail-mail! ) Hugs and kisses!

I love these guys!

2006-09-26T21:25:00.000-04:00

Church on Fire!

2006-09-19T08:45:00.001-04:00

This is a church on fire,
We have a Holy Spirit flame.
We have a burning desire
to lift up Jesus' name!

Let every tongue and every heart
Light the way
Defeat the dark
Let a flame of love burn higher

This is a church...
This is a church on fire.

This song was written awhile back but it was in my head today. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from all the blog readings and communication I have up there, it seems like this is true of our church right now. Perhaps I'm speaking in faith, but aren't we R.U.N. Revival right now? Even though I'm not there, God is still moving in me and changing me. I've found a church down here called Calvary Church and I really enjoy it. The worship is SO awesome and the pastor gets fired up just like PBR (ok, maybe not to the same extent, but it's there). I've found a girl down the hall who is Spirit-filled and we've already prayed together. I think we might start meeting in the morning (I'll be crucifying the flesh this way...making myself get up before 8am! ahh!) to pray in the Holy Ghost and seek God. Pretty cool. I miss you guys so much and I love you even more! Be blessed today!

Logarithims, Rice Krispies, and Male-Bonding

2006-09-16T02:54:00.000-04:00

One thing I can say is that the weather down here has been pretty amazing. I would dare say ::perfect::. The average temperature is about 76 and there's always a breeze with partly cloudy to clear skies. Yesss, i love autumn! I remember being in middle school and high school and asking the teachers all the time if we could go outside for class. The obvious answer to a 9th grader would be "Yeah, sure!" But I was rejected and told time and time again, "No, because we won't get anything done." SO WHAT!?? Anyway, relentless and ready to give the "outside class" idea another stab, i worked up the courage to ask my math prof. We had been in the 55 minute class for only about 15 minutes. He had done a few problems on the board and then paused for us to soak it in, for him to ponder and collect his thoughts too perhaps. I shot my hand up..."Dr. Glover? Since it's so awesomely gorgeous and nice outside, can we go outside for class?" Giggles and snickers were heard throughout the classroom as Dr. Glover looked at me, then checked his watch and looked back at the class. "Well okay, i don't see why not?" And so we gathered our bags and out the door we went into the beautiful sunshine. Dr. Glover ran to his office to retrieve something and the class settled onto a big circle of cement. Glover came over to us with a pink bucket in his hand. He dove back into the lesson with sidewalk chalk in hand. (Why a math professor has a bucket of sidewalk chalk in his office, i have no idea? Perhaps for times such as this).

This next picture displays the artistic talent of the Hart dorm. The cafeteria staff put on a contest for each dorm to sculpt a buffalo (school mascot) out of rice krispie treats. Each team (consisting of 3-4 people from that dorm) was given a big mound of rice krispie treat, candy for accessories, gloves and 3 minutes for sculpting. This one was the winner: from Hart hall. We all get fresh baked cookies! Mmmm!

Scott (the tall one) and Christian are two really awesome guys that I've met down here. (Chill out girls: they're only friends). Scott's a sophomore and it's been rumored he has the best singing voice on campus, and I would have to agree. He also has a really dry sense of humor and it's hilarious. Christian (or better known as C.T.) could go by the alias of "Mr. Milligan." He's a senior at Milligan and everyone knows who he is. He's vice president of SGA and a leader for Vespers (our student-led worship service on sunday nights). C.T. is all about having fun and sometimes too much fun (perhaps lighting speed bumps on fire and then "lowering" them by applying a pick-axe is a little much; or how about changing the dynamics of the school's pool with red kool-aid?)

Anyway, these are just a few happenings around campus presently. I went on a rescue mission tonight and was successful. I'll have to write about that and my new job later. It's currently 313am and my body is shutting down. Goodnight!!

2006-09-09T13:09:00.000-04:00

I woke up at 1030 this morning to the bouncing of someone on my bed. Brett and I have bunkbeds, I'm on the top. Brett got up and left earlier this morning to go to a community event. I decided to use Saturday morning for God created them for: SLEEP. My sleeping habits recently have not been adequate enough (i.e.: going to bed at 330am, getting up at 715am) My body doesn't like it too much, so I'm getting myself into a routine. So this morning when I opened my eyes, I found a young lady on my bed crawling towards me. Her name is Jax. Jax (or Jackie; girl in pic w/ me w/ pink shirt) was the one that first "brought us in" to the Milligan COOL KIDS. :) She's an awesome woman of God and I'm really blessed to have a friend in her. We sat on my bed and had some girl talk (of course) and then she convinced me to go to brunch. It was pretty tasty: biscuits & gravy, hashbrowns, etc.
Today is my FIRST day that I've woken up and been able to just relax. There will be some activities later tonight such as an Organic Fest in Asheville, NC (apparently, all the hippies go there?) and then maybe some star-gazing tonight on top of Roan Mtn; maybe I'll get some homework done in there somewhere...hehe. Brett and I are supposed to go couch-hunting sometime this weekend. We've rearranged our room, making a space for a couch/sofa because there's nowhere for our guests to sit when they come to visit us. I mean, we don't want to be known as anti-social because we don't care enough to let our visitors have a seat.
There's not too much happening right now, but I realized I haven't posted in awhile. So it's a small update.

(Pictures:) #1. Jax and I. #2. Isaac and I on the late night trip up the mtn to the Firetower--I'll write about that later. #3. Milligan soccer boy: Justin. he's pretty tall. #4. We did a photo scavenger hunt for Bible study and we had to pose with mannequins.

GO BUFFS!

2006-08-31T15:55:00.000-04:00

Tuesday night was the first home guy's soccer game. There was a contest to see who had the most spirit...anyone who knows me...OBVIOUSLY i was out to win this one. So together, my RA Leah (the one in all black) and my roomie Brett, went all out: we painted the soccer socks on our legs--which turned out to really look like socks! (notice the shoelaces on my kleats hehe!) we used poster paint for our socks and faces---because leah began putting the orange FACE paint on her face--only to realize it wasn't coming off of her hands even with soap. so we decided it was better to use the washable poster paint on our faces...well except leah-it was too late and she'd already decided to put the face paint on her arms too! but don't worry, it all came off, with a little elbow grease that is. anyway, our only other competition was 4 girls who bought retro outfits from goodwill and dyed them orange. *yay, rah* their only "weapon" was they made a hat and a few headbands out of an old soccer ball. apparently that counts for originality. (psh! THEY didn't have PAINT!) so the judges (the student government committee, who we happened to be tight with :) voted and we definitely WON!! apparently it was a tough decision---but the S-P-I-R-I-T girls came through! AND the boys won their game (i think it's partially due to the magnificient sign i made w/ all the guys' names on it.) GO Milligan Buffalos! wooo!

Yee HAH!

2006-08-27T19:49:00.000-04:00

What an awesome weekend! Yesterday, a group of about 15 of us went to Watauga Lake. One of the girls' parents own a boat and we went tubing! (Wow, my muscles ached when I woke up this morning). We laid around the lake for awhile and then came back to campus. A senior on campus was having a BBQ ::invite only:: (of course Brett and I were invited...we're known by many on campus as "The Transfers") We ate some burgers and then headed on into town to the fair. Brett, a friend: Christian, and I all went to the demolition derby. Heck yes. The picture of the man in the cowboy hat was one of the best representations of what I'm in the midst of down here: the hat, the mullet, cigarette hanging loosely from the mouth, the extra cigarette behind the ear; The only thing missing was a beer..but I don't think those were allowed at the fair. It was pretty awesome watching the derby. I must admit, it's something I had never done before but thoroughly enjoyed it!!! The three of us picked out our "winner" before the each heat began. It was soo crazy! One guy's whole rear axel came off his car!! And he kept going!?! Then of course we had to take a ride on the ferris wheel. It was a great weekend! But alas, I must bring myself back to the reality that class starts again tomorrow...so I'm off to study..or not. :)

Calculus, A Nametag and A1 sauce

2006-08-25T16:46:00.000-04:00

HOORAY! The first week of class is OVER! It wasn't a bad week though. I'm gonna love it down here. I have 3 education classes, a family sociology class, "fitness for life"--how to stay healthy and keep off the freshman 15 i guess--, Old testament survey, and CALCULUS! I have a wide variety of professors: one eccentric lady, a funny Bible prof, and a mellowed out math prof : he called us his "little calc babies." Hah! So overall, classes went smoothly and I have an overwhelming sense of peace about this semester. God's grace is awesome! And He's definitely been blessing me.

This is a picture of my roommmate Brett and I. She's also a junior from Missouri. We get along really well! She's a photography/sociology major (I've talked about you a few times, Ash!) and is going to grad school for occupational therapy. We were sitting at our desks last night, side by side, each doing our homework. I look over at Brett who is pouring over her gigantic photography/art history book and taking detailed notes over her reading. I look back at my desk and look at my markers, scissors and construction paper I'm using to create my "nametag" for my education class. I'm preparing to teach upper elementary and then eventually junior high math. But for now I'm learning how to cut and color as Brett is learning about film quality, color contrast and camera angles. HAH! It was a pretty funny sight.

The cafeteria food here is above average. Last night was STEAK night! MMmmm! Okay so it wasn't any Texas Roadhouse, but it was pretty good. We stood in line and told them what spices we wanted on our steak, how we wanted it cooked and if we wanted onions, mushrooms or green peppers on it. Then they'd throw it on something that looked like one or two steps above the George Foreman grill. However we ran into a problem when I noticed there was no A1 sauce in the cafeteria. You can't eat steak without A1!!!! And then...I remembered! Mom bought me a little bottle of A1 before I left for college "in case I needed it." But when she told me about it, I was thinking "uh, when will I use steak sauce on campus?" MOMS ALWAYS KNOW BEST!! I was so excited to run back up to my room, grab my A1 and run back down to the cafeteria. Some people asked, "Didn't you feel weird/embarrassed walking into the cafeteria with a bottle of A1 in your hand?" My answer: "HECK no!! I held it out in front of me and let my whole table use it!" So Mom...thank you so much! My night would've been incomplete had it not been for your wisdom and instincts.

These are a just a few things happening down here. I'm sure I'll have more stories later!!

Pictures from CFC

2006-08-24T15:20:00.000-04:00

Christ Fellowship Church

2006-08-23T14:45:00.000-04:00

One of the biggest things about moving down here was temporarily vacating my membership at Christ Fellowship Church. This is a huge change in my life seeing as I was practically born into this church. Pastor Bill and Brenda even visited me in the hospital! I've been looking online for some non-denominational churches down here in TN and asking around for a spirit-filled church. While Dad and I were down here for our visit back in April, we were driving on the interstate and we passed a church (well we passed many churches, but this one in particular.) We couldn't believe our eyes! The sign said "Christ Fellowship Church." !!! Was it possible there was another CFC in this world? So last Sunday when the fam was still here, we went over there and checked it out. The welcoming reception was awesome! Right away, while still in the parking lot, a gentleman approached our car w/ an umbrella (it was raining) and asked us if we wanted help in. As soon as we got in the door, Mom mentioned to someone that I was beginning schooling at Milligan and right away this lady took my arm and led me around, introducing me to like 6 or 7 people who had some connection to Milligan. They also had coffee in the foyer...but nothing compared to our magnificent CAFE! The praise and worship is similar to our church: well maybe I should say the "style" is similar to our church with guitar, drums, piano, etc. AND! Jonathan...they use colored lights as well!! Pretty cool. We only sang like 3 songs though and the congregation wasn't that lively during worship.--two big differences at our church. I miss having like 7, 8, 9...songs and miss the environment of everyone raising their hands and praising (and jumping too!) When it was time for the sermon, the "Denny" of the church brought out the table (the pulpit) with the pastor's laptop on it and a stool. I leaned over and whispered to Dad, "That's what PBR needs...his laptop on the pulpit w/ him! ;) " The message was really good: he talked about obedience. Overall, it was a good experience. It's not exactly what I'm looking for..I need MORE. My roommate is also looking for a non-denominational church, so next week we're going to go visit one we both found in our search. I know there's no way I'll be able to find anything like my home CFC, like the people there, the worship atmosphere or the leadership, but I'm going to try to find something close! I love you all!

College: Take 2

2006-08-21T00:24:00.000-04:00

How y'all doin up there? Yes, the accent is thick down here...so thick that I find myself getting caught up in it on accident. So just a forewarning: when I come back to visit, there might be a little south in my dialect, hopefully not too much. So the first couple pictures are of the drive down. We split the drive up into two days because we got a late start on our departure day. I particularly like the truck and trailer combination. It's a definite sign of Kentucky/Tennessee area. :) My college is located in the heart of the Appalachian Mtns. In fact, the Appalachian Trail is basically in our backyard...pretty cool huh? My roommate Brett is great. We get along tremendously! God has truly blessed me with a totally awesome girl. We're both excited to see what the Lord has for us. School starts on Wednesday, but until then we have beaucoup things to do: orientation, registration, team activities..you know all that fun stuff. I'll try to post tomorrow about church today: many things to say about that; plus a little more about what i'm experiencing down here: people-wise as well as other things! Thank you for all your prayers, I'm doing really well. The adjustment seems really smooth for right now anyway! I love you all!! Goodnight!

Put your hands up!

2006-08-15T18:19:00.000-04:00

I went to Cedar Point yesterday with some buddies. This is just a glimpse of what the day was like. It rained off and on, but overall it was an awesome day. The day began a little depressing when we stood in line for the biggest rollercoaster for 30-45 minutes, only to have it shut down due to a stalling on the track. Then we headed over to the Dragster..an INSANE ride that shoots you 120mph straight up--i mean VERTICAL and then you fall back down that vertical drop. We stood there for 10 minutes or so and then realized the line wasn't moving, because that ride had been stopped as well due to "mechanical reasons" (real comforting, huh?) Pushing aside our frustration, we walked across the midway to the classic Magnum XL200. We waited maybe 10 minutes for the ride that was the world's biggest, tallest and fastest rollercoaster...in 1989. We were in the park for 11 hours, 10 of those we were standing in line. To drive 4 hours to another state, stand in line for 10 hours to experience dramatic drops, ridiculously rickety rails, crazy curves, twisting turns, soaring speeds and exhilarating excitement for 30 minutes (being generous) altogether and then to drive 4 hours home utterly exhausted, your body screaming "OUCH!", your brain turned to mush from all the headbanging, every vertebrae needing to be realigned, your eyes staying open only by sheer will-power not to fall asleep at the wheel...seems ABSURD to me, yet i've done this TWICE in the last week and i'm sure i'll do it at least once again next summer. Why? Because of the extreme adrenaline rush and the time well spent with good friends!

Bon anniversaire

2006-08-11T22:12:00.000-04:00

A ma puce Holly: bon anniversaire a toi. je t'aime beaucoup!!!!

Happy 19th Birthday Holly Marie!! you're such a sweetheart and i'm soo glad that i met you!!! lovies!

Temporary Relief

2006-08-07T12:23:00.000-04:00

So, summer classes are done as of today. I was bordering on the B/C line in my trig class, but God is awesome and I pulled out with a B, and did alright in my other 2 classes. I have a break until my moving date: August 18: 11 days. It's quickly approaching by the way. School at Milligan starts on August 23, so only a couple weeks without school. But for the next couple days, it's time to clean and pack and try to get some relaxing in there somewhere. I'm going to enjoy some thrilling hills, rickety tracks, loud screams, the crazy stomach feeling, the hot sun, and a long day at cedar point...uh twice that is :)
Just some thoughts on move: I'm leaving everything I've EVER known in my life: church, family, home, friends, to take on a whole new environment. My flesh says "no, don't do it" but i know that my spirit-man says, "this is what God wants for you." It's been a struggle to accept the fact that I-Miriam am going. This whole summer it's been "yeah this girl miriam, is going to tennessee..that's pretty cool, she'll have a blast!" ---as the move gets closer it's sinking in that it's ME that's leaving...not some girl. BUT alas, God is good and His plan is perfect. He has opened all the doors for it to be a smooth transition, so now I just trust and relax in Him. Obedience is better than sacrifice: so here I go!!!!!

HOLD ON!

2006-07-26T14:39:00.000-04:00

i know i know, i've been bad about not posting. but stay tuned...i have some free time in the next couple days and will be updating: pictures and all!

2006-07-14T14:08:00.000-04:00

There are so many things I could blog about, so many things that have been happening in my life, many changes that are taking place, opportunities to freak out, opportunities to strengthen my faith, people to encourage and build relationships with, environments that cause frustration, just to name a few. I've noticed my stress level limit has enlarged and with that, I need to keep a tighter reign on my tongue, like Pastor has been talking about.

I'm getting ready to move to Tennessee, for those of you who don't know: I'm going to a Christian school down there, where I know no one. "Well then why are you going!?" I feel like God had me at IUPUI for a purpose and a season. I think I have fulfilled my purpose and I feel the season has ended. The move will be a trying one, I guess you could say; so care packages and phone calls would be awesome from those of you who feel the desire. The Lord has blessed me with a really cool advisor at school, whom I met while visiting the college, but had no idea he would be my advisor. I'm taking a full load of 17-20 credits, while working about 20 hours a week. Speaking of classes, my summer history and math class are going well right now. I'm enjoying my math class (I know, you all think I'm crazy) and history class is made tolerable thanks to two "yahoos" that sit next to me.

God has been doing a lot of changing in me recently. A while back, I received two different prophecies at two different times that I had an intercessory gift...I put that on the shelf for awhile, waiting confirmation. One night at church camp as I was praying for a girl, the Lord told me to get by myself and pray. So I did and I began crying...why? I only knew it was God. During this time, He reminded me about those 2 prophecies that I had forgotten about. "Well, maybe it's time?" The next night I asked the speaker to pray for me, for confirmation and manifestation of the intercessory gift, if that's really what God had for me. Let me tell you, it was. :) I definitely felt the presence of the Holy Spirit and had a burning sensation rising up inside me. It was awe-some!! So that was a huge change in my life.

The picture is of Becca, Stephen and Kyle: a few totally hecka' (CA!) cool people. beth and i have had the chance to get to know these people pretty well. And we've been having an awesome summer!! So this is a summary of what's been going on...thank you for staying tuned. Be blessed.

2006-07-09T02:52:00.000-04:00

It's crazy that I'm just now finding time to write about my second California trip that was a month ago. Life has been a whirlwind. I know Charis already wrote about the differences between California and Indiana (she beat me to the punch) but I want to share with you some of the things I observed while being there. I'll try not to repeat any of Charis' statements.

1. The majority (98.9%) of Californians do NOT know how to drive. (Excluding those of you who I rode with..you did pretty well.)

2. Hondas and BMWs rule the West Coast.

3. One can be sure to find a Starbucks on every corner.

4. Techno music is still the only way for some people.

5. I have lived under a rock when it comes to movies and music.

6. "Mormonism is Christianity, but it's cooler because we're the only ones who actually have a living prophet on earth." (uh...?)

7. "California cares" should be the slogan/motto. Pedestrians ALWAYS have the right of way, no matter what and it's against the law NOT to recycle. "Conserve, people!"

8. Driving a BMW 325 is just as riveting as it sounds. But riding with an experienced driver down the "OMGosh Hill" in the 325 is an adrenaline rush. It's also invigorating to ride thru downtown San Fran and peel out, impressing the homeless men.

9. Strange people exist everywhere...just ask the crazy half-naked boy at Union Square.

10. Drug deals are not as concealed as they should be and happen right before your eyes. (It's true, I witnessed this.)

11. The weather is tempermental changing 30+ degrees throughout the day.

12. Bank accounts are quickly and easily drained while enjoying a vacation in CA.

13. "In-N-Out" is the shiz-nit!! Even at 1230AM!

California #2:

2006-07-09T02:16:00.000-04:00

Here are some photos, Top-Bottom:

~Anna, Abby and I: cute as can be.
~Holly, me, Ben: all laughing as usual
~downtown San Francisco
~playing in the FREEZING pacific
~two weird people
~the sun was too bright
~excited to be in CA with lawrence and holly!

And here goes..

2006-06-26T00:06:00.000-04:00

I've returned from California, a tired and tanned girl. I only got 4 hours of sleep before boarding my plane saturday morning. My last night there was awesome: enjoying the company of almost everyone "new" that I met out there. We watched a movie and ate some pizza and then everybody left...except for me and two others. The three of us continued our final bonding time until 4am. Even though I was tired, it was well worth it. I miss all of them so much!! I know I know, all of you here in Indiana have 1 of 2 thoughts going through your head right now. 1) Good..move out there we don't want you here. or 2) noooo!! they can't have you! People please..there's no need to get all riled up; I must be fair to both sides, so I've decided that I'm not moving to CA or staying in IN. I'll be in TN in another month or so. But let's not talk about that now. Summer classes begin tomorrow morning *cue depressing and dramatic music* at 8am and i begin my day with none other than trigonometry, followed by western civilization history. wow, what was i THINKING!? it's too late to turn back. Furthermore, church camp starts on Tuesday of which I am a counselor, the music workshop director, as well as the volleyball coordinator. I'll be missing a full morning of camp in order to maintain my mathematical studies, driving from the boondocks to indianapolis for 2 hours and then to return back at camp. Camp is over on Friday and Saturday I return to the barrel of crack. I'm feeling exhausted already. For the next week or so, I'll be MIA, but not really missing i guess, since i just told you all where i'd be.

Anyway, I have more things to say about California...some observations and experiences I had that I want to share with you, but they'll have to wait. My bed is calling out to me...and I cannot deny it. Goodnight all.

YAY!

2006-06-22T22:09:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures of my some of my favorite people. And YES..that's Kelly Antista!!! She came up for a night to spend some quality time with an old friend!!! (i'm trying to point out a very unique object to phil...and ben just thinks we're ridiculous).

News from the West Coast

2006-06-15T16:23:00.000-04:00

I'm no longer MIA. I'm actually in Petaluma, California, creating memories with a few very special people. I will return in another week or so, when I feel like it. :) I have had little to no internet access so that is why I haven't been commenting very much or posting at all. My plan to come out here was a surprise to two of the girls out here and it worked very well, thanks to the master keeper of the secret VIC-tor. They were taken aback and pleasantly (at least i think so) surprised to see me return after such a short leave. Anyway, we're having lots of fun, here are some of the happenings:

1. I broke my pinky toe playing tennis. Charis and I dove towards a ball together, to try and keep it away from Phil. Phil escaped unharmed and Charis and I ended up in a heap on the tennis court, my toe found mangled at the very bottom.
2. I've figured out my way around the town and am able to drop P&C off at work and have the car all day.
3. I've been told that beans and Cheerios are a sufficient breakfast/lunch because that's all that's in the pantry.
4. I got a chance to practice my uncycling skills WITH a teacher present, however there were quite a few distractions like a "drawling of a woof in the libary" that took away from the cycling lesson.
5. I've experienced an In-N-Out burger at 1245 in the morning. However, I would say they're better when you have an appetite and aren't so tired.
6. We hope to go to Alcatraz later next week and take a tour.
7. We will be going to a Cake concert in San Fran next weekend. I'm pretty excited about that.
8. And last, it's not always as sunny as people think it is in "sunny CA"

I love you all and I'll post again later!!

A Gaggle of Girls

2006-06-09T13:37:00.000-04:00

This is what 2 families, each having 4 girls looks like. The Shryocks are a crazy bunch of people just like the Solomons. (Well, maybe we can exclude Kurt and Tom...they're pretty normal..or is it ABnormal?) Our families have grown up together, sharing many memories and fun times! I love these girls so much...and now we're all so OLD! One is married, 1 is graduated from college, 4 are IN college and 2 are finishing highschool. I love these girls alot! KISSES!! mwah!

2006-06-07T01:19:00.000-04:00

This sign was on a paper towel dispenser in a bathroom in the CA airport. Obviously, the west coast is more environmentally concerned than the Midwest. I was discussing this unusual sign with a friend and he said, "when i see those signs, i pump out even more paper towel." it's true, that's what the initial reaction is. i too am guilty of using excessive paper towel just to satisfy my greedy, wet hands.

So I've been puking up my guts and sweating profusely while simultaneously feeling like someone hit my back with a sack of potatoes. Somehow I developed influenza and have felt under the weather for the last two days. I couldn't even keep a sip of water down for more than 15 minutes! Thankfully, today though I was able to consume 7 Saltines and half a can of Sprite. Hopefully tomorrow we can move on to the next level: chicken noodle soup. So long!

À mes amis...

2006-05-29T18:48:00.000-04:00

C'est mes amis français. Quelquefois, je veux pleurer parce qu'ils vivent dans le france et je vive en indiana. Je les manque beaucoup. Voici quelques photos. Je vous aime beaucoup!!!!!! Bizous!
(For those of you aren't french-speaking people: the basic translation is this: "these are my french friends, i miss them and love them alot!)

Achievement

2006-05-26T00:07:00.000-04:00

A wise person once told me these 3 mindsets are the key to being a great unicyclist. But I think they can also pertain to every goal we want to accomplish. We could even add "Diligence" or "Discipline"...what else? Give me your thoughts. (And just an update...tonight I completed 5 full wheel rotations--i'm moving up!)

Attempting the impossible...

2006-05-23T22:18:00.000-04:00

I've been inspired to learn how to ride a (or is it "an"?) unicycle. During my trip to California, I was introduced to this sport, if you will, and I was immediately intrigued. Few of you know that my mother used to ride a unicycle back in the day. Yes, my mommy, the one who grew up running with the lions, climbing acacia trees, speaking a tribal language, herding the zebras, she can ride a unicycle and walk on stilts as well. A few years ago she bought a unicycle to get back into the hang of it. Cindy also bought one because if Mom could do it, surely she could. The "unicycle craze" lasted for a good 6 months and then fizzled out. But last week the craze was ignited once more as I saw an amazing guy riding a 6-foot unicycle and watched Phil learning how to ride the standard size. Tonight, I whipped out "the tire", put some air in that baby, and took her for a test ride, err...attempted to anyway. I used the neighbor's wooden fence as a railing. Not realizing I would be relying so heavily on a wooden fence, I didn't think about the potential splinters that my hand would incur. Along with a couple splinters, there are some black and blue bruises on my shins from knocking into the pedals. I was told that unicycling is a real work-out..hah! Come on, you're just pedaling A wheel. Folks, let me testify that this is no walk in the park. I was sweating after 15 minutes (gross i know, but such is life). I didn't get very far, but it was my first day of practice. It can only get better. Stay tuned for more on this topic...

Ahh yes.

2006-05-19T02:54:00.000-04:00

Here are a couple pictures from Cindy's graduation.
We've had quite the family bonding experience, Grandad included.
(aren't my momma's glasses cute?! hers are real, mine are an accessory) I love my family!

San Francisco

2006-05-17T21:21:00.000-04:00

So San Francisco was a BLAST!! I had so much fun!!! I've posted quite a few pictures, but I couldn't leave them out. I'm sad to be back home away from my new friends, but I did miss my family :) So look and comment!

Awesome people (and places)!

2006-05-17T20:50:00.000-04:00

John Miller...the oldest of the 10 miller kids. He's a stud.

Holly is one crazy girl. This face---it's pretty normal for her :)

Benjamin and I.

"HUH!?" These are Phil's safety goggles for work.

Heck yes. This place is AWESOME!! you can buy a hamburger that is 10x better than wendys/mcd's for $1.95!!! Yeah, i know that's pretty sweet!

2006-05-17T20:32:00.000-04:00

Ben and Phil made me try calamari. It was like eating a giant, gushy spider. It tasted just like my face says it's going to taste. Yuck.

Phil was pretending to be 7 years old again.

Mary Frances is THE BOMB!!!! She's so cute.
Okay, so if you've never tasted Orangina---you DON'T know what you're missing!! It's like carbonated orange juice..oh my gosh..sooo delightful! It's a European drink and I thought it was only found over there, but THEN I stumbled upon it in Cali. MMM!

We think gas price of $2.89/gal is bad?? This is the norm in San Fran: $3.27/gal for 87......this was on the low end. I saw a few others that were $3.55/gal for 93.

Bonding

2006-05-17T20:27:00.000-04:00

mirm's california 034
Originally uploaded by rimo523.

It was snuggle time after the movie, but by the look on his face, I'm not sure Ben enjoyed it as much as the rest of us.

CHICAS!

2006-05-17T20:22:00.000-04:00

Originally uploaded by rimo523.

at the beach...we kept getting harassed by flies!

3 of 10 Miller kids

2006-05-17T20:19:00.000-04:00

mirm's california 104
Originally uploaded by rimo523.

Ben was trying to ride his BMX bike but was attacked by Anna and Abby . They love him!

Goofballs

2006-05-17T20:14:00.000-04:00

mirm's california 017
Originally uploaded by rimo523.

need i say more?

Girls

2006-05-17T20:07:00.000-04:00

mirm's california 117
Originally uploaded by rimo523.

Holly--Charis--Anna being silly!

SUNNY CAL-I-FORN-I-A

2006-05-11T23:14:00.000-04:00

And I'm off to see the kids!! I'll be in CA with
them for a few days and then we're all coming
back to MI to see the other sister graduate from
COLLEGE! yay cindy! I'm so ready for a break
from this place. Along with seeing my brother and sister, I'll get to meet my new friends that I
have been talking to on the internet for the past
month or two: maryfrances, holly and ben! i'm
so stoked!!! so i apologize CFCers there will be another MC for mother's day announcements.
I'm trying to train her (and her helper) but it's a
slow process :) Help them out if you can! I love you all and I'll see in next week. Oh and if you see a really tan girl come into church next sunday, it's probably me (hehe) I'M OUT!

I'm bushed...

2006-05-05T16:43:00.000-04:00

And yes, I am a junior in college now!! All done with classes until ..well until further notice. Amen and amen!!!

Chicken wings

2006-05-01T14:35:00.000-04:00

I'm finally feeling de-stressed. I have one more day of finals left: biology & french and then i'm done with school!! OUAI JE FINI! Then, I'll be flying out West to see my sissy and bro. Time is becoming more available and prevalent in my life: this, is a good thing. Now I'll have time to clean my room (i know mom, it's atrocious) and scrapbook. (lis? jess? wanna have a party?) God has been so good to me and has made this semester fly by. Guys, i'm going to be a freakin JUNIOR! IN COLLEGE! i remember in high school, that seemed pretty old. Anyway, I dont have too much to say, except that I'm finally able to chill out. Thank you, Jesus!

Johnson City, Tennessee

2006-04-26T00:08:00.000-04:00

I realize that many people don't want to accept the possibility of me transferring to another state for college, but folks the reality is: it just might happen. Dad and I took a roadtrip to Milligan College yesterday and today. It's absolutely beautiful down there. Down where? Johnson City, in eastern Tennessee. It is about 20 minutes from Virginia and N. Carolina. (Yes Lisa and Ang, it's only about 80 miles from Gatlinburg :) It's about a 7 hour drive, so it's kind of far. I wouldn't be coming home every weekend to be the Announcement Girl, so I'll be taking applications to fulfill that position during the upcoming months. I really liked Milligan. I've definitely missed the Christian environment lacking at IUPUI. There is also a good education program there. The atmosphere at Milligan was awesome: so much student involvement--again, something that is not true of Ewey-Pewey. I have a couple ideas for school spirit already--I know, I'm weird. Without a doubt, one of the things I will miss the most is my church. Milligan is based out of the Christian Church, which is actually what my dad's side of the family was/is involved in. But it's not even close to Christ Fellowship! :) I didn't realize how blessed I am to have such an awesome and powerful pastor who preaches with such uh..pizazzz!..it's hard to come by a Christian church pastor that will take more than 2 steps away from the pulpit :) Anyway, please be in prayer for me as I make this difficult decision. Love you guys!

about me part II

2006-04-22T03:49:00.000-04:00

i feel like i have more to share...

i played volleyball for 4 years in middle school and high school.

my favorite sport to watch on t.v. is football--i go crazy!

i have been to 38/50 united states.

i prefer to drive a manual car rather than an automatic.

i hate when my room is a mess, but i dont do anything to fix it but look at it and hope it goes away!

in high school, i was student council president.

my favorite book of the Bible is Romans.

i dont show or tell many people the way i'm really feeling.

i cry when i get stressed.

i'm getting my motorcycle's license this summer.

my hair never does what i want it to.

i love anything coffee.

i am the most like my grandma solomon. i have her to thank for my nice skin color and mom says i have her legs (?hah) but she's been gone for 7 years (wow) and i miss her so so much.

my favorite colors are lime green and bright sky blue.

doublemint is my favorite gum. a close second is peppermint orbit.

i love rollercoasters! my favorite is millenium force at cedar point.

target is my favorite store...for a few reasons :)

okay so i think that's all. maybe later down the road, i'll have more.

PSYCH!!

2006-04-20T12:00:00.000-04:00

OK. so all day yesterday i was thinking, pondering and stressing about the trip. i called a few people last minute to see if they could go with me to TN because i really didn't like the idea of driving 7 hours there and 7 hours back by myself..not to mention if i decided to go to virginia. so: all day back and forth i went with my decision...i couldn't even concentrate on school work it was so bad. finally at the last minute dad and i decided it was best if i wait until next week when he can go with me, even though it's crunched in between two school days. but i was soo stressed out!!! why can't i just be done with school!! i need a break this is too much. (ha, i'm such a drama queen, seriously.)

Road trip extraordinaire...

2006-04-19T00:53:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow night I will begin my 20 hour journey in my car. I'm driving myself down to Tennesse to look at a college Thursday and then I'll drive over to Viriginia to look at another college. That's goign to be some major bonding with the Stallion (my black honda). I'll be back Saturday night. Please pray for a SAFE trip and that I won't be bored out of my freakin mind! I love you all! Peace out.

Back in the day

2006-04-18T00:26:00.000-04:00

In case you don't remember what the Solomon girls looked like, or perhaps you didn't know us then..this is a glimpse of what we had goin on. This was taken Easter Sunday of '90 or '91, back when we had church in the Eastern Hancock cafeteria. Someone made these dresses for us but I don't remember who...maybe Kay Henry? But they all matched and they were pretty cool. Mom always made sure we had our little white sweaters for church. I guess the little white gloves came a few years later :) And check out the BANGS! we all had them...oh dear.

C'est moi..

2006-04-13T00:48:00.000-04:00

I'm copying Lisa's idea to tell you guys a little bit more about me (thanks lisa). Most people have come to know me as "the announcement girl" "ms. excitement" (thank you, jessup boys) as someone who is over enthusiastic sometimes to the point of spaz. how about crazily loud and energetic. yeah, i guess i do fit all those at some time or another. but perhaps most of you don't know the "other" side--oh yeah....there IS another side:

i cannot stand wet socks.

my favorite movie is aladdin.

thunderstorms make me happy.

i'm addicted to dr. pepper and gum.

i can drink like 2 gallons of milk a week..by myself.

cigarette smoke, wood smoke or any other kind of smoke gives me a killer headache.

i have mild OCD, for example checking to make sure all the "electrical" stuff is turned off in every room of the house before going to bed: VCR, stereo, monitor, etc. and then i check it a 2nd time.

i can hear really high pitched noises and can tell when the downstairs t.v. is on when i'm upstairs because i can hear like the really tiny (radio?) waves.

i hate folding clothes so they are always on my floor.

i'm a pack rat.

i've played the piano for 15 years.

clicking noises and tiny tapping noises drive me crazy.

i can't sleep with any lights on or any sounds.

i still sleep with my blankie :)

i can eat a whole can of black olives in like 2 minutes.

i drive pretty fast.

i can speak french pretty well.

i am a photo freak. i have over 1500 pictures--easily.

i am the wedgie-giver queen, just ask cindy.

i can belch with the best of them (i know, it's not lady like but i'm working on it)

and oh yeah: Jesus Rocks my FACE off!!

okay so these are just a few things about me.

Holy Ghost rollers!

2006-04-11T12:18:00.000-04:00

Originally uploaded by rimo523.

These three ladies are among the many people who have impacted my life, each one individually whether they know it or not. Andrea has taught me to never be ashamed. In whatever way God chooses to use you--you better do it and do it with a willing heart. Ashley has been my BFF for the last 5 years or so. She showed me it alright to be myself and be who God has called me to be no matter if it's the "cool" thing to do or not. Lisa has taught me how to overcome and that it just takes a little bit of faith and God will show up. Arrows will come at you from every side at the same time..just put up your shield and go to praying! These three ladies also have a tongue for the Holy Ghost. They can pray with a fire! I love you all!!!

Of Mice and Mirm.

2006-04-10T22:30:00.000-04:00

1. Another bites the dust..*dun dun dun* another bites the dust..and another's one down and another one's gone and another one bites the dust!

Mouse count: 4 (8:34pm)

2. Another bites the dust..*dun dun dun* another bites the dust..and another's one down and another one's gone and another one bites the dust!

Mouse count: 5 (11:15pm)

Strike Three!

2006-04-07T00:37:00.000-04:00

I apologize if you find my mouse posts redundant or mundane, but it's a big part of my life right now. My family left me and apparently someone informed the mice, so they've come out of their homes to try and "comfort" me; except, I don't want their "comfort." I upped the anny and set out 2 additional traps for a total of FOUR! "Surely, one of them will catch a mouse," I thought. Twenty-four hours pass by, 36 hours...I'm wondering if the "3am crinkle mouse" has gone into hiding..not so. I came home from work, checked the trap line...first one: BAM! sha-bang! Right on the money! Ok, not gonna lie..I screamed a little bit, because it took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting to see a mouse in this trap b/c it's been there the longest and it seems as if they've moved on from this spot. But this makes the THIRD mouse in 2 weeks. Aren't you proud of me!? Again, I disposed of him/her myself and set a new one. Maybe, I need my parents to go away a little more often..to toughen me up. Perhaps that was their whole plan of leaving me here so I could bulk up and realize mice are no big deal. (EEP!) So guys, I'll try to make this the last mouse post and post about more interesting things. Thank you for letting me share my horrors, terrors, bravery, and victories with you!

Dangit, there's more!

2006-04-05T11:25:00.000-04:00

i was awakened at 330 this morning to yes, another *crinkle crinkle* Will this ever end?

Mouse story Part II

2006-04-04T20:23:00.000-04:00

I come home from work and I carefully tread my way upstairs. 1st mouse trap check: nothing 2nd mouse trap check--the one I reset this morning--: there lies MR. MOUSE! I peer over the chair to look because I thought one might be there. I saw it flipped over and knew I’d caught one. “Well, I can’t leave it here ‘til Dad gets back because Sadie and Tiger will be up here before then and I don’t want them to get it.” –more thinking-- "Uh oh..that means I have to clean it up."

Utterly grossed out I searched for some rubber gloves. FOUND SOME! They had been used to clean out Bunny's cage. But Bunny found a new home..so, “Yes I'll use these.”
I put them on...feeling pebbles and little pieces of something in the gloves, but trying to ignore and not think about what they might be. I search around my bedroom for a plastic bag, "There's got to be one somewhere!" No, so onto the next room. “AH-HAH!” I found a big trash bag that someone started to fill and then neglected. I grab the bag and make my way over to the SOTC (scene of the crime). Moving boxes and papers 6 inches away from the "zone", I notice that when the trap flipped, it made the mouse protrude a few centimeters off the paper towel. "Gross, he's touching my floor."
I analyze the situation, trying to figure out how to dispose of this thing without having to really look at it or touch it. "It's near impossible," I think to myself.

So, I go in for the kill..WAIT, he's already dead hah! Ever so carefully, I pick up 2 opposite corners of the paper towel so that it makes like a pocket thing for the mouse + trap. As I maneuver the trap, his tail brushes the wall. “Noo!! Now I have mouse germs on my wall!!!” I set it down to get a better grip, so he doesn't drop out of the paper towel completely--because that! could potentially cause a rumble in my stomach. One more try and PLOP! he's in the bag! Quickly, I pull the bag's drawstrings so I don’t have to look at it again (however, I did pause and give him a moment of silence to see how exactly the he had been trapped). Out to the trash barrel I go. Back inside the house, I'm cool and confident. I grab another mouse trap, "This time I'll set it myself." I place it in the same position where I found Mr. Mouse this afternoon. And THAT, is my mouse tail. (HA!)

Good morning to me!?

2006-04-04T10:15:00.000-04:00

This morning my alarm went off and i was laying there getting awake..and i heard really loud paper rustling. i sat up and looked around on the floor and saw a flash of brown. i sat there...like a spy---as still as a rock by night (trust me, rocks are stiller at night)--about 30 seconds passed by. all of the sudden here rushes mr. mouse. he runs up to a bag that has CHOCOLATE in it. i watch as he tries to chew through the tinfoil of the chocolate bag. then, as to not be spotted he dashes off. 10 seconds later, he's back for a second (possibly 79th try, who knows?) shot. again, *nibble nibble* *scratch scratch* and then off he goes. i wait for a few more minutes, but he's gone off to another part of the room. i can hear him though..scratching around. so i reset another mousetrap and put it where i thought he was. i was a little scared to walk around up there--he was a little on the big side for a mouse. Not to mention the fact that our cat Tiger, who is supposed to be a 17 year old, professional mouse-catcher, couldn't be any less concerned. So our dog Sadie thinks that now she's the mouse-catcher. The only problem is that she's too loud and way too slow. If the trap catches a mouse, I have to be the one to dispose of it, since everybody in my house has left me. I can handle them when they're out in the wild, but IN MY ROOM, where i SLEEP!!? Different story, people! Ohhh dear. I hope these mice festivities come to an end soon!!!

Where's the sun?

2006-04-03T11:37:00.000-04:00

Again, it's nasty outside. I woke up this morning with the sunshine in my face---but as I made the trek to school---the sun was swallowed up in the dark, gray clouds. The rain began to flood the streets and my windshield wipers were working overtime. It's so hard for me to want to do anything besides cuddle up in my bed when it's like this outside. Not to mention, I'm totally ready to be done with school. But if I transfer--I have at least 3 more years...oh dear, let's not talk about that.

So, my family has left me this week. They packed up and headed West, to find better jobs and less stress. Hah! No, they're really just helping Charis and Phil move to SUNNY California and taking a vacation at the same time. I'm left to fend for myself...they trust me to hold down the fort?? HEY, I can do it! It's time for me to play the "excellent student" role again, so I'm off to conquer my math homework. Did you pray in the Holy Ghost today?

God is on the move! Are you ready?

2006-03-27T23:50:00.000-05:00

If you didn't get a chance to go to church Sunday night, definitely get a hold of a tape or CD---maybe even for the new technology junkies: download it through itunes podcast. Whatever way you have to do, DO IT! PBR preached on the "future of the charismatic movement." It starts with our willingness to use what the Holy Spirit has given us: His power and our prayer language. If you have it: use it. If you don't: make sure you ask God to receive it. After the message, we had a time of ministry. I cannot tell you how long it's been since I've taken part in ministry--something like 6 or 7 months, and that my friends, is WAY too long. Pastor Bill laid hands on me, I received, but didn't "feel" anything. But by faith, I received it. I noticed there were two or three rows of youth just sitting back for different reasons I'm sure..."too cool" or afraid, or embarrassed, the list goes on. I walked over there to encourage them to go up front and receive a touch from God...they all just kind of looked at me like did I really expect THEM to go up there? "Yeah, right." No sooner had I walked ten feet away from them, that PBR addressed the youth group, relating to them about how he was once in their position. Pretty soon, the whole row filtered up front. Many of them had never had a touch from the Holy Spirit or experienced His power, so they were a little scared. One girl didn't want to let go of my arm. But God is faithful and He touched her and let her catch a glimpse of who He is and what He can do. Another girl was baptized in the Holy Spirit and received her prayer language right then! How awesome!? I was able to minister to a group of teens who were all experiencing God at the same time. It was soo cool to be able to relate to them...I'm not all high and mighty by any means, but I've been where they are and I remember just starting out like them. I really felt the Holy Spirit telling me to get them into a circle and have them start praying. Then I went around the circle and prayed for each one. After all of this, I was sitting down, praying, and realizing what I've been missing out on the past few months. I had forgotten what kind of power explodes in us when we pray in the Spirit. I felt so refreshed and ready for God to move again. I know that I've not been as faithful as He's calling me to be. I am changing that. Let me leave you with this:

**Are you prepared to give out what God's put in you?**

Stress!

2006-03-18T13:18:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by rimo523.

Sometimes my life and brain..feel like this picture: AHHHH! Stress is starting to accumulate and I'm trying harder and harder to surpress it and push it back down. It's only midterm but school is getting tough. I'm having to get extra help with my math--and I want to be a math teacher? Perhaps maybe I don't? But if I don't, then what do I want to do with my life? And if I DO want to be a math teacher..IUPUI is not the place to do it...so where am I going to transfer to?! I've applied to 3 different colleges..but transferring colleges especially out of state, is a big deal. And then there's work. Cracker Barrel---well as Tracy K. refers to it: it's a barrel of crack. haha! Nah, it's not too bad, but I don't like working there and it's really bad on my back. So I need to find another job. And AHHHH! I apologize that this is more of a complaint post than anything else, but I'm frustrating and the stress levels are rising. So if you think about it, say a quick prayer for me. Thank you guys! LOVE YOU ALL!

SPRING BREAK!

2006-03-15T01:48:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by rimo523.

I know that you all have missed me so very much. I tried to blog while on the beach, but my picture uploader website was blocked from the computer I was using. Mehgan and I had an awesome time! I got to see a friend I haven't seen in a year, we got to sleep in and make our own schedules, we laid on the beach, went to the dixie stampede, cruised the strip *whhat?!*, got a really nice tan, but best of all: two best friends bonded! yeah, that's mushy, but that's ultimately what happened. :) Here are a few photos from the trip:

Mmmhmm!

2006-03-15T01:42:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by rimo523.

This was the night we went to Club Kryptonite--where only the COOL people (18 & up) went! :) What a dance party it was...and yes, parental units out there, no worries, we abstained from the alcoholic beverages and remained sober.

Seriously?

2006-03-15T01:37:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by rimo523.

Yeah this is for real..there was a high school MARCHING BAND on our beach...?!!? they marched like 1/4 mile down the beach drawing a thick crowd, then turned around and marched back..playing their instruments all the while. it was CRAZY!

Dead sand man

2006-03-15T01:23:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by rimo523.

Some girl took about 45 minutes to create this..i dont know if there's a hidden message or not..it's kind of creepy actually.

Whhaat??!

2006-03-15T01:22:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by rimo523.

Things were getting a little crazy! Maybe too much sun!? Nah...:)

2006-03-15T01:19:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by rimo523.

Sunburned and tired..but happy to be on break and at the beach.

OUT OF THE COUNTRY!

2006-03-04T01:02:00.000-05:00

eiffel antique
Originally uploaded by rimo523.

Someone (??) informed me that no one cares about the beach, and I should write about more interesting things like going out of the country. So that's what I've done with these few posts. But let it be known: there ARE beaches in other countries and i LOVE them too!!

Les Baux

2006-03-04T01:01:00.000-05:00

01010122
Originally uploaded by rimo523.

This is in Les Baux: old ruins of a castle/village on top of a mountain. We drove up some curvy hills to get to this site! Ash & I are enjoying the hide-outs! We also saw a man peeing in the corner at Les Baux. Apparently, it's natural--but when nature calls--dont ignore.

Roussones

2006-03-04T00:59:00.000-05:00

blue shutters
Originally uploaded by rimo523.

This was in a little town called Roussones..they call it the "red city" because most of the buildings are a deep red-orange from the dark red clay used to build the buildings. You can kind of get a glimpse of it with these apartments. Through Lisa, I gained an appreciation for blue shutters.

Carcassone

2006-03-04T00:58:00.000-05:00

carc road
Originally uploaded by rimo523.

This is an old castle called Carcassone. It's now vacant and a touristy place, but if you could see the size of this bad baby, it would blow you away! I can't imagine living in something so huge!

SPARKLE!

2006-03-04T00:57:00.000-05:00

01010017
Originally uploaded by rimo523.

The first 10 minutes of every hour, the Eiffel Tower sparkles. During the evening hours, it's lit, but in those first 10 minutes all one million of the lightbulbs start flashing at different times giving the appearance of "sparkle". (can you imagine changing those lightbulbs!? whew!)

Notre Dame

2006-03-04T00:55:00.000-05:00

01010062
Originally uploaded by rimo523.

This is Notre Dame. Pronounced: Notra Dahm NOT noter dayme. I was told by our excellent tour guide Anais, it was built circa 16th century. I also learned that there should have been 2 tower steeple things (i'm sure there's a word for them, i just dont know it) on top of the 2 towers. but the builders ran out of money and couldn't complete it. perhaps this is why there's ALWAYS scaffolding off to the left side--?? if you look at other cathedrals almost all of them have steeple cone things (again, i dont know what the word for them is) on top.

SEVEN DAYS!!

2006-02-28T00:29:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by rimo523.

OHhhh yes!! I will be outta here in SEVEN days...the countdown started back in december, with 75 days. Mehgan and I will be heading out on Wednesday March 8. We will be gracing the beautiful beach of Myrtle with our presence for one week--though I hardly think that's enough time. This is the "backyard" of our hotel--a lazy river?! what in the world?!! I'm so super excited...I've missed the sand...oh how long it's been. I pine for the smell of the ocean! I long to feel the salt drying out my skin! I love to feel the hot sun roasting my epidermis--only to turn it a dark bronze. Okay-enough poetry. :) SEVEN DAYS....

WOW.

2006-02-25T02:17:00.000-05:00

Wow and DOUBLE WOW. I am extremely frustrated right now. I'm in college because that's what I'm supposed to do and "I have to have a degree." Do I want to be in college? Who does, really? Do I want a degree? Yes, of course. I have had 3 different majors: business, elem ed. and now middle school math ed. (Am I crazy? perhaps). I don't like IUPUI for many reasons. One of the most important ones: not a good education program. (Josh & D: excellent engineering program, and for that, I DO recommend IUPUI). There are so many ideas that have popped into my head within the last couple weeks. Things that I don't like to think about, but have to because they are life decisions. I'm beginning this semester to take my math classes for my middle school math education. I just had a math test, thought I did good on, barely passed it. This is really frustrating for me, especially because this is only the FIRST course of like 12 that I have to take. In order to maintain scholarships, I have to keep my GPA up--this is not the way to do it. I'm starting to freak out...I know I know "don't freak out, God will let you know his plan in due time." Honestly though, that isn't much help to me right now. Perhaps, my faith is lacking and needs to be strengthened. In fact, I know it does. But I can't do this on my own. Will you guys pray with me and for me please? I love you all so much! I know it may be hard to think, "Miriam is upset?"---because I've always been told I'm almost "too" happy sometimes...but we all have downs . Thanks guys!

Je t'ai a l'oeil!

2006-02-23T01:50:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by rimo523.

C'est Dhimitry. La photo a été prise tôt le matin. Nous sommes fous ! Il a venu à Indiana pour dix jours. Aujourd’hui, il est revenu à la France. Tu va ma manque beaucoup. Dieu est travailler dans la cœur de Dhimitry. Et je suis heureuse a voir quel Dieu suffira ! Tchao !

This is Dhimitry. This picture was taken early this morning. We are crazy! He came to Indiana for 10 days. Today, he went back to France. I will miss him so much! God is working in Dhimitry’s heart. And I am happy to see what God will do! Bye!

The Cutest Couple

2006-02-21T10:02:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by rimo523.

Everyone knows that this is Chris and Becca. But just because you know WHO they are, doesn't mean that you KNOW them. I've had the awesome opportunity to get to KNOW them individually and as a couple and I am so blessed to be apart of their lives. Sometimes they might feel a little out of place, but honestly, I dont know what I'd do without my handsome brother Chris or my beautiful sister Becca. Chris has a heart to serve God, cook awesome food, and play music--which he does EXTREMELY well, might I add. And Becca has a compassionate heart, a silly sense of humor and a passion to help the sick. Chris thank you for encouraging me, I love you SO MUCH Chris! And Becca, you are gorgeous and I love you A LOT!

Vegas

2006-02-21T09:58:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by rimo523.

This precious little girl is holding Chris and Becca's son. His name is Vegas and he's only 2 months old. If you haven't met him, you really should plan to visit him. He is the most adorable thing I have ever seen. (And he potties on a potty-pad! how cute!?)