Spring Break.. minus the break

So it has been about two months since I've blogged. Needless to say this semester has been extremely busy with school, work and Phi Mu.

To Update:

Classes are going well, I am taking 18 credits so it is a pretty full load. I am taking a Children's Literature class, which I really enjoy because it is helping me with my future career as a Kindergarten teacher. I am writing a paper in that class about Harry Potter, yes be jealous. I think I might be ADD though or ADHD because I have been having a very difficult time focusing on school work, while I get things done it is a struggle to concentrate. I might get it checked out?

I took a little (little sister) in Phi Mu and I absolutely adore her, along with the other 20 new girls we got during formal recruitment this spring. They are absolutely amazing young women and awesome additions to our chapter. We just had big/little week this past week so I got to spoil my little a lot and throw her off so she doesn't know I am her big. Revealing is next Sunday and I can't wait for her to officially join my AMAZING FAMILY !!! Especially because my big and my grandbig are graduating in May and I am going to be devastated. More on my little later when the secret is out :)

I have been anxiously been awaiting the arrival of Chris and Emily Dowdy's new baby Charley ! When I read her blog and found out I literally screamed. I was so excited when there oldest Sam was born two years ago, he was like my own, like at the Senior Athletic Banquet when I was carrying him around, one of the parents there asked if he was mine ! haha (thank you Emily for letting me steal him away at all of the soccer games and functions). I can't believe how big he is now, I remember when Emily brought him to soccer practice when he was a week old so I could see him and now he can talk. Baby boy Dowdy was completely adorable and I fell in love with him at first sight, so I am positive baby girl Dowdy is gonna be just as wonderful! Any day now Emily!

I just found out a few weeks ago that I was placed at Windy Gap this July for Summer Staff. Windy Gap is a Young Life camp in North Carolina, and I will be there for four weeks working in the snack shack and serving the Lord. I did the same thing last summer at Sharp Top Cove, a YL camp in Georgia and that month was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I can not wait to see what this summer will hold and how much I will grow as a Christian. I was very excited when I found out my friend Annie will be on Summer Staff with me at the same time!

I am completely insane, and probably a certified workaholic. I am working just over 70 hours this Spring Break between Katie's and the RAC. The money will be nice but I would love nothing more than to be on the beach right now, just relaxing. Maybe next year?

Well that is all for now I will try to update more frequently.

New Year, New Somethin

Wow, it's definitely been like 2 weeks since I last posted on here. Well 2008 did not bring much to the table (other than Phi Mu obvi) so good riddance, I say bring it on 2009. As usual I have been working working working at Katie's and the RAC so I haven't had much to blog about.

The highlight of my break was getting to go on a retreat for some quality pink bonding time with my lovely sisters. I love my sisters prob more than anything. They are so full of life and hilarious and I really did miss pigging out and having dance parties so I got my fill for the break. Outsiders might think we are a little nuts, but I can't get enough. For example, we had a bonfire with smores, typical right? WRONG. On the way to the bonfire, my fellow miniature pink, Megan Cox, and I were quoting The Sandlot.
"Do you want a smore?... Some more of what? ... a SMORE! .. how can I have some more if a haven't had any? ... YOU'RE KILLING ME SMALLS!"

This girl understands the beautiful art of movie quoting, which is why I love her.

You might say Brynn really thats not weird, well fast forward twenty minutes after we have all had a few mallows, let the 90s pop/disney music jam session commence. NSYNC , BSB , Mariah Carey, Ariel all made an appearance.

Reason # 1 million why I love my biggie:
"today my teacher asked me "what's the capital of North Carolina?" and I said "Washington DC" and she said "NO you're wrong" and I said "you got a lumpy butt"
this along with pretty much every other line from talladega nights and bonquiqui is what you would find in the typical conversation of Brynn and Laura.

Speaking of friends I love, let me tell you about one, future senator... Nathan Hintz.
Probably the coolest guy you'll ever meet and I love him because he can quote A Christmas Story with me when my big refuses. Anyways Nathan and I were discussing our life plans/aspirations what have you. The following quote is why Nathan is amazing and just visualizing this in my head makes me crack up....
"i'm having 3 boys 3 years apart. they will play varsity basketball, football and lacrosse. i will be the president of the booster clubs for 4 years then take a year off then retake my position for 4 more years i'll have college athletes then 3 nfl quarterbacks"

When I picture this I can not help but see a crazed man running down the sidelines of his kids little league games (yes hes the coach) with a navy blue sweater vest with a pink oxford underneath, khakis and sperrys, complete with sunglasses on croakies with a backwards Pi Lam baseball hat. That in a nutshell is Nathan Hintz. Great man.

All of this reminiscing (sp?) reminds me of why I am SO excited to get back to CNU on Saturday to see all those who complete my life. While I am stoked to get back to school, I know this semester will be especially busy... just to give you a preview check out my Tuesday schedule

620-920 (AM!!) Work
930-1045 Class 1
11-1215 Class 2
1-215 Class 3
230-345 Class 4
4-515 Class 5!

Im insane I know! Being busy is just in my nature I suppose. Wish me luck and please pray for my sanity. Yay recruitment is only three weekends away!

Christ Mass

So I was watching the History Channel the other day and there was a show about the history of Christmas. The actual name Christmas came from Christ Mass which occurred December 25th, so it was shortened to Christmas.

I went to church last night with my sister and her boyfriend and Mark, one of our pastors, was talking about not forgetting about what this day actually means. Christmas is not just about presents and santa clause, it is the day our savior came. "the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us" I felt really convicted because it is so difficult to see the holiday as a celebration of Christ, not presents.

This morning my family woke up early to open presents. I really liked my presents like my new sewing machine! , my fave green tea and a new one year chronological bible to name a few. After we opened presents here my mom, brother and I drove up to Kenbridge to see my Grandma and Pa. My Grandma made me a recipe book and put some of her amazing recipes in it and I am soooo excited.

This Christmas showed me that I have a calling as Suzy Homemaker, I mean I got a sewing machine and recipes, what else could that mean ha ha?

I also decided yesterday to serve on Summer Staff next summer, which I am very excited about! Updates on that to come !

Merry CHRISTmas To All and To All A Good Night!!!!

lil game of LIFE

So does anyone remember that board game life? How easy would it be if life was really like that, it was all a matter of rolling some dice and drawing some cards, and having it all laid out for you, your job, your house, how many kids you have, how much money you earn... oh how easy ..

The reason I bring it up is because although I have two and a half years until I get my BA, another for my MAT, I have been thinking a lot about where I wanna go when I graduate. I want to really do all that I can while I am still young. I want to live in Manhattan, I want to live in Europe, I want to do everything. I was looking into Teach for America, and I was thinking that I really want to do it. Teach for America is a two-year contract (kind of like the Peach Corps) under which I would be placed in a urban or rural school with a large achievement gap. My goal I this job would be to give underserved children an equal opportunity at an education. I was doing more research in this position and some of the bad reviews I heard.

I'm worried that it will negatively affect me as a teacher in the sense that I won't be teaching in this type of situation for the long haul, so I am afraid it will completely turn me against teaching, then what? Teaching is what I have wanted to do my whole life.

I guess all I need to worry about now is finishing school and getting the best grades that I can.

I am also torn with something completely unrelated to my future career plans. I am unsure of whether or not to do Summer Staff this coming summer. I love working at any Young Life camp, really I enjoy it more than anything else I could be doing in the summer. The reason I am torn is because it is four weeks of serving the Lord, which is the best feeling ever, but the service is unpaid. I feel selfish letting that be the deciding factor, but I am paying for school and my apartment next year, so I feel like on one hand I could serve the Lord for four weeks and have a life changing month and on the other I could work at my jobs here in Roanoke and make like a thousand dollars? Hard pill to swallow I know, any suggestions/words of wisdom?

Oh the stresses of reality....

I'll be home for Christmas

I was just thinking about the song "I'll Be Home for Christmas". My Mom tells me that it used to make my Dad cry, because when he remembers being in Vietnam for Christmas. I actually have a postcard that he sent his family for Christmas while he was there. The reason I bring up the song is because Christmas is my favorite holiday and the holidays are a really hard time for me without my Dad being here. I miss him that much more because I remember how Christmas used to be with him here. It makes it difficult at times to find joy in the holiday. I love that this song meant so much to him though because even though he isn't actually here, he still is home for christmas.

I will say though that my favorite part about the holiday is going to church on Christmas Eve night, it is always such a beautiful service and a good reminder of what Christmas is really celebrating.

I can't wait to start baking some yummy Christmas goodies with my Mom !

3 semesters down..

So I just finished my third semester of college and it feels like its flying by !

My finals went well, my leadership and latin finals were difficult but I think I still managed to do well.

I have to say that I probably had about 10 or so hours of sleep during finals week, it got to the point where I felt allergic to sleep, seriously.

I know get to look forward to five weeks in Roanoke doing nothing but working at the RAC and Katie's Ice Cream. So I look forward to seeing all of my regulars again!

I have not even begun my Christmas Shopping and I am just overwhelmed at the thought of it.

I'm sure all of those who are in college now or attended college remember the burden of the books, that time of the beginning of every semester when you buy all of the books for classes that cost more than most people make in a days work each. Well today I looked at the books I needed for next semester, and imagine my surprise when I saw that I need not one, two or even three books for my Children's Literature Class, no I need 16 !!! Yes that is correct 16 books, which in reality I am excited about all of them, the list includes books like the first Harry Potter, Captain Underpants, Rumpelstiltskin, and Where the Wild Things Are. Including the 16 books for my one class, I have to purchase a grand total of 26 books for the spring semester. Nice I know.

Well I wish everyone happy shopping ! Have a safe and happy holidays !

Finals

So, it is Sunday morning before finals, and I am just so lookin forward to Friday because I will be done with my first semester of Sophomore year. It has been such a busy busy semester, which I guess is my fault for takin 18 credits (6 classes) and working 20 hours a week. I have been getting awesome grades in all of my classes which I am so happy about. I have three finals to actually study for, but they happen to be my three hardest classes: Child Development, Leadership Theory & Research and Latin. I have my Psych "final" tomorrow, I say "final" because it is not cumulative, it is one of four tests grades and she drops the lowest grade, so I really wanna kick butt on this one so I can bring up my average. I have my leadership final on Thursday and I will say this is probably gonna be my hardest final, because it is so much information. My Latin final is on Friday and I think by that point I am gonna be so ready to get out of here I might zone out.

Hopefully I can do awesome on these finals and my grades will turn out great.


Oh so yesterday I had the priviledge of taking an 8 hour Driver Improvement Course for the speeding ticket I got this summer on the way to the beach. I thought that having to pay sixty bucks to sit in a room so someone could tell me not to speed from 830 in the morning til 430 in the afternoon was gonna be extremely boring. Well to my joy and surprise it was not that bad, we got a few ten minute breaks and even an hour for lunch, and all we did really was watch this video thing and exchange driving stories! Nan,our "teacher" was a real sweet older lady who called us all sweet pea and sugar and I could not help but think what it would be like if my Grandma were to teach a course like this.

I can not wait to be home for 5 weeks and to just work and make some money without having to worry about school work. I am working at the RAC and Katie's again. I am so excited for Christmas this year because we will actually be home instead of traveling somewhere (don't get me wrong I am itching to be in New York City right now) but it has been so long since we have woken up on Christmas morning and opened presents together.

Lord's Lesson:

So all summer when I was serving on Summer Staff I felt like the Lord was really telling me to be patient and things would happen in his time. I still am feeling convicted by this because I am so impatient and I want to know now the plans that the Lord has for my life, I want to know where I am gonna be five years, am I gonna be teaching already or am I gonna be doing some completely random crazy job? Am I gonna be married? It is so hard to just have faith enough to not worry and wonder about my future. I feel like the Lord is still telling me to just calm down and enjoy life and he will take care of the rest.

For God has said "I will never, never fail to forsake you". - Hebrews 13:5

New Years Resolutions coming soon!