Friday, August 28, 2009

All you need is L-O-V-E.

Hello hello hello fellow readers. I haven't written in a little while....

What to write about...

Lindsey is now officially dormed in to her new dorm. And we are officially attending the same college. YAY!!!
Times of day that I get to interact with my sister:

1. Breakfast= sometimes.
2. Lunch = most of the time.
3. Dinner= all the time.....
4. second dinner, 4th lunch, 10th breakfast...never. (maybe because those don't exist...) :P
5. When she needs a back massage...or the other way around :)
6. Passing in the hall...most of the time we pretend that we don't know each other... joking again...

Actually what really what happens within passing each other is this:

Setting: Sidewalk outside of class
People: Lindsey and Megan
mood: Love and passion and joy..
surroundings: Jealous bystanders watching the love scene. Trees. racoons. and buildings.

Act 1: Megan comes frolicking out from behind a bush just waking up from an afternoon snooze, as she is making her way to IDS 101 class. The birds are chirping, the breeze is just perfect, and butterflies are dancing around in circles around her head.

Act 2: Lindsey comes storming out of her Grief and Loss class, sad and depressed beyond any word in the world. Clouds of grey and storms of heavy rain begin to fill in all around her. The darkness began to get soo heavy in its darkness that if you were to put a piece of glass under the weight, the glass would shatter in millions of sharp cutting shards of glass just as hurtful and depressing as lost souls...blackness...greys...abyss..black holes...nightmares... death...plagues...turmoil..famine...disease...pestilence...You get the picture.

Act 3: Megan sees this deeeeeeeeep deeeeeeep depression from afar and turns her frolicking into a full out mad sprint of compassion and deep love towards her without a sway of direction in her locked eyes upon her sisters soul.

Act 4: Lindsey looks up from her state of doom and connects her greenish, brown eyes upon her best sister's.... with simply that one connection her clouds begin to be pierced by great rays of sunlight...from the sun :P... and her clouds and rain begin to fade away ..not from evaporation but only by the great mood of love and joy and compassion that the two begin to start feeling amoungst each other.

Act 5: After approximately 1 min and 20 seconds of this love...which in love language is 6 hours of slow moving joy and peace, the two sisters meet in a long embace. The tears begin to flow, all the surroundings turn from any darkness and BEACONS of light begin burst with radiance upon their heads, hearts, holy minds, and hands. (Beacons are our mascot)

Act 6: All fellow classmates/schoolmates within the premises begin to drop their jaws in jealousy of such love two sisters can have. Nothing like this sisterly love has been seen before. As the love encounter comes to an end (only because its dinner time and i am hungry) the two of them walk or frolick off to wherever..because it really doesn't matter when all you need is love...(thats from a song :P)

The end.

So...basically long story..good story..short, My sister and I are bonding quite well here at college.

Thanks for reading!!

(however, rafting trip= sister attack. Consisted of me jumping from my raft onto hers and with help... plummetting her into the icy, river water. But don't worry! because I got the same attack back at me min. later. and a big bruise on the arm from two people pulling me one direction, and outsiders pulling me the other :P)

Ok official The end.

Friday, August 21, 2009

6 am.

My family is coming with Lindsey today around 5!

Plans that they don't know about...

1. Frozen yogurt with toppings and the Campus sub shop :)

2. Moving in Lindsey into her dorm room which I have already seen :)

3. Shopping?

4. Touring the campus..

5. Dinner!

6. Riding Elephants

7. random surprises...ha

(if you didn't know, 6. is not real)

Today I learned about God's rest.

“HE MAKES ME LAY DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES.”
ps. 23:2

Yesterday I was tired, going, and moving for no reason….my mind was jogging and running in so many directions…my soul was so uptight. My mind was soo gahhh. But Somewhere between all of that, I finally just stopped…layed down on my dorm floor and rested. Listened to my heart beat start beating normally and listened… and was reminded that rest is good. That God is good.

GREEN PASTURES ARE NOT NORMAL.

The shepherd himself has to come in and water it, take out the rocks…work.

Jesus on the cross. Nails driven through his hands and feet, body whipped, face spat on... He has created green pastures for us to rest in His grace :). A gift with a mighty cost not for us...but from him because he truly does love us..

My questions? Why did it have to be done this way? Why did Jesus have to die on a cross? How can I live this out as a reality over a story that I feel like I have to convince myself of? How do I live getting everything that God has truly done for me...and be thankful..?

.............................................................................................................................................

“The sheep doesn't understand how the oil that the shepherd annoints their head with repels the flies. The sheep doesn’t understand how it heals the wounds. In fact, all the sheep knows is that something happens in the presence of the shepherd. And that’s all we need to know as well.”
- Safe in the Shererd's Arms

LORD, I GIVE MYSELF TO YOU; MY GOD, I TRUST YOU.”- (Ps. 25:1-2)


I REST.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

And the heat is on

It is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hot here! Ok, not so ok that you can't walk outside without fainting, but the humidity is a lot higher here than Washington making it a nasty feeling heat. I am sitting in my dorm room pretty much dying as I am writing this.

Within the last couple of days we have done a few cool things:

We went to Honeymon State park and did a rigorous sand dune workout. Running up hills of sand work your legs a ton and makes you feel as if you have cement blocks tied to your feet.. but the good thing is that we only had to do three of up and over and back.

After we got to have fun jumping off of some small cliffs into the sand. I took some really awesome pics and videos of these however, sad and super bummer news........................... After I had my camera with me in the school van on the way back...but now I currently have no idea where its at! :( I am waiting and praying that someone found it, and turned it in.

Another highlight: Pool workouts at 6am :) I usually don't like pools at all because I look at them as big cement holes filled with water that you float around in...for fun? ha.

But doing our workout in it was actually pretty fun. We all started "water jogging" with these floaty belts that keep you up. We would go from one end of the pool to the other and then inbetween do water exercises like high knees, butt kickers, and running in place. I guess water workouts are supposed to give you the same benefits as running does, like they are equal...however, with swimming, if you don't do the water jogging right its ez to just float through the workout and not get the full effects. (Which I started doing for the first part..)

I am getting ready to head off to this church / college group with the team so I hope I like it so I can start getting plugged in with a good church.

Once again, its really weird having the whole team wanting to be involved in going to church and stuff.

Its also still sometimes a little hard connecting with another team, but it is definately getting better as I try to focus on getting to know one person at a time.

I really wish I had pictures to put up...but until I get my camera back, it will have to be postponed...

Thanks for reading about my life :)

If you have time... you should post something random in my comment box about what you have done this summer so I can hear what you have been up to as well!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

New sheets are life changing :)

Closet ..
Bed! Thanks to my lil sister carly and her pro sewing skills I have my whole intitials in pillows :)





My dorm room! I really like having the bed up super high. However, in order to get up and down I have to climb up on the fridge, then the microwave, and then climb the bed ladder. Its a workout in itself. I am just waiting for the night that I really have to use the bathroom... :)

Today we did our workouts and then headed back to the school...

Highlights..played signs for at least an hour tonight with the team, got to upload 4 movies on my ipod from a teammates computer...The cafeteria pretty much spoils you with good...and healthy food. Today I had a super good omelet..

Went to trader joes and bought real peanut butter and trail mix and got sheets for my bed finally :)

Still trying to learn to rest in conversations..and not always run away from them which I am soo good at.

I think thats all I am going to post tonight.

Tomorrow we leave at 6:30 am for devos down by a river.

Its soo weird running at a Christian school now! The coach talking about praying, and Bible reading, and team building. Its actually pretty cool and encouraging.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Oregon College Life: Day #1







Ok, here I am, sucked into the world of blogging... :P






Yesterday my dad and I headed out from Oak Town in the morning and journeyed an 7 hour car ride. It was awesome being able to have one on one time with my dad before leaving for awhile. I had a great car ride of listening to The Monkeys, drinking coffee, talking about life and lectures of how not to get killed, and what to do if I am kidnapped... :), sleeping, reading, (There is a lot you can do when you are forced to sit in one place for hours).

When we arrived I hauled all of my stuff up to my dorm room... #229. As I began to unpack everything I started realizing how much of the stuff that I brought I don't even need. Ha.
(But mom, if you are reading this, I did forget shampoo and wash in the shower, my clothes in the dryer, and a sheet and some extra hangers. I will call you later :P) The rooms are pretty nice. I get a very springing matress thats really comfortable, a desk with drawers...a closet, and a beautiful view of a bar. I haven't gotten everything situated, but when I do I will take some pictures and post them.

Last night I went out to a taco place to say goodbye to my dad one last time. Lots of tears and very emotional... jk..not really. Sorry dad, I love you and know that I will see you lots and lots more times.

I think I am really going to enjoy having everything soo close. The Starbucks is not even a block down from the school...A cool ice cream place... a little bakery.... 7-11... Not to mention the University of Oregon.

This morning we left for some for some running trails that followed the Mackenzie River. It was super pretty and fun trails to run on. We did a 100 min run (50 in and 50 out) which added up to be about 12 miles. Afterwards we iced our legs in the river, which was way way too cold for me.However there are soo many rafters here its crazy! It makes me super pumped to go super intense rafting as its on my list of things to do along with sky diving :) So if anyone ever wants to go instense river rafting with me its only a 7 hour drive with a ready sense of adventure :)

Then after that we all piled in the vans and took off with the intention of hanging out at some cool hot springs that the coach knew about. However, when we got there, we found out that had to pay 5 bucks each and clothing was optional... Lets just say that the people that were already there took advantage of that and had us turned around heading back out to get our money back real fast. :P

After that we all ate lunch at the vans and headed over to a bridge that quite a few of the runners jumped off of. Usually I would be all for it, but I was pretty cold already and didn't feel like sitting in a van for an hour all cold without a towel. The water was soo super clear though! When you looked down from the bridge you could see directly through the water as if it was....ice? I don't know how else to explain it ha.

Ok, so, if you aren't bored yet...you probably are because I don't know how to write good blogs yet..haha but, after jumping off bridges we drove back to the school.

We all had chill time until dinner at 6:30 so I hung around campus..worked on unpacking somemore. Thought about taking a nap but decided to just get a cup of black coffee instead and go check out the little stores around campus. I got to talk to my lovely pregnant sister Allie today and hear the news that she is having a BOY! So exciting...However, I bought this really cute baby summer dress at a garage sale in hopes that she would have a girl... but oh well. I love love love to look at baby clothes, shoes, hats..anything baby so I can't wait to pick something out. Allie is going to make a great mom. :)

For dinner I had a baked potato with ketchup, cheese and sourcream and veggies. mmmmmm

Campus food: I love it! They have lots of foods I usually live off of such as bananas, apples, oranges, peanut butter and jelly, good bread, salad...

Then they have a hot food thing that I dont know what its called where you can order things to be made such as hamburgers, steak, and others..

You can basically have cereal whenever you want to...

Lots of juices and milk and CHOCOLATE MILK :)

However, there is a rumor that during the couple weeks that athletes are here before all the students, they really spice it up... as long as they keep the peanut butter and jelly thats all I care about :)

Bored yet? Blogging is a lot of work ha.

Hmmm, so after dinner I attemted to play a game of pool with a very nice girl I met named Melissa, but failed badly, so I left for my room and we lofted my bed which I am currently laying on. It feels like a cave. I can touch my ceiling, and my desk is underneath it. Its a pretty cool setting and it creates more space. I will post a picture up of it when I finish putting everything away.

The last thing that we did today as a team was got together at 8 and talked about nutrition and runners.

Our coach who is a nurtition teacher has a little different opinion on foods opposed to when I was at Everett. She says that things such as soda, and candy, and stuff like that are not all that bad..and there aren't any foods that you can't have. Just make sure everything stays at a minimum and you will be fine. I also found out that I need to consumer 523- around 600 grams of carbs a day. I don't know exactly what this looks like..but considering that I pretty dense carbohydrate snack like a bagel is about 25 grams of carbs, thats a lot of carbs for one day!!

Then after the meeting I was introduced to a game of ULTIMATE spoons. I think you guys would actually like it. Everyone sits in one room and plays spoons like you usually do, but instead of having the spoons be in the middle of the circle, they are all placed out of the room at the end of the dorm hall way. Its pretty crazy! I played a couple rounds until I was out, but as I am typing this I will every so often hear what sounds like a hurd of elephants running down the hall way. Its pretty dangerous too but a fun game.

Thats about it for today. And because its almost 11 I feel myself fading fast so I think I am going to post some pics and wrap it up and hopefully not allow the next ones be so long and drawn out. ha. Thanks for reading and keeping up with my life! If you have a blog don't forget to keep up with yours so I can keep up with your life! And if you don't...get one :)

Current thought and feelings: Still in transition mode. Pretty tired. Learning how to connect with everyone and get comfortable with new life and new state. Praying that each day becomes more and more comfortable and enjoyable. Missing friends and Washington. Also stoked for a new change. Although its hard now, I know that because its uncomfortable, its good and once more in the loop of how things work, I will not regret choosing this school.
i have more pics..just cant figure it out yet