1 To Go!!

I have 1 final left. Just ONE! Strangely, today is actually the first "finals" day. However, most of my professors decided to move their finals to the week before the technical finals. Each of them were trying to take a little stress off of finals week by having their final at a different time. NOT so lucky for me, they all chose the SAME day! That day was yesterday, but it's over and done. I am a happy camper! I now just have one left on next Tuesday and I will have a MONTH off! Time has really flown by since Thanksgiving break. I didn't really realize how close the end was at Thanksgiving break, but we really only had two weeks between the return from Thanksgiving Break and leaving for Christmas break.
Last weekend I went home with my friend Sarah. It was kind of a teaser though, spending a weekend with a family, in a house all decorated for Christmas, and doing all sorts of fun family Christmas things (baking cookies, shopping, ect). Then I had to come back to the reality of finals before I could go home to my family. I'm pretty excited about break (obviously), but my mind is already on what has to be done when I get back. I'll be returning to campus on Jan. 11, then at 6AM on Jan. 12, I leave for Washington D.C. I'm going for the Federal Business Seminar with the Christian Student Leadership Conference. Can't Wait! I've never been to D.C. before, so it will be a pretty good experience. Not to mention that we'll be there the week before the inauguration, so things will be crazy in the city. That is isn't until after break though.

I still have a few things to look forward to before I leave.
1. Christmas Banquet, which is Saturday night.
2. Late Night Study Break, which is Sunday night. Basically the cafeteria opens up during some really late hours at night and students can take a break from studying to go in and get something to eat!

Here Come the HOLIDAYS!!

My last day before Thanksgiving break... that's what today is. To me, that means that by the end of today, I'll get to sleep in my very own bed, eat my Mama's cooking, get attacked by my nephew as I walk in the door, and start a couple days of rest and relaxation. The past few weeks have really flown by. It sort of feels like one of those snowballs that you start rolling and then it just gets bigger and rolling faster before you know it. Between school, work, friends, and school activities, I'm not sure that I've had time to take an extra breath. It seems like I say that in every post, but I guess I just can't resist trying to do it all.
Over the past few weeks we had our final football and soccer games for the season. The football team was able to end the season on a fantastic win over a team with a winning reputation. I personally LOVE football, so I'm sad that I won't have any more games I can go to on campus. Luckily, there is plenty of college football to be watched on TV and this season all of the teams are keeping us on our toes! I am an LSU fan, so I'm not really ecstatic about how the season is going but there's always next year I guess. Winter time also seems to mean more frequent trips downtown Chicago for me. This past weekend I would guess that half of Olivets campus was downtown for the lighting of Michigan Ave. After missing the train once, I eventually made it down there too. I got to see the parade and fireworks from a HUGE crowd on Wacker Drive. It's a good thing that I really enjoy people because I have NEVER seen this many people in one place before. Downtown Chicago was complete and total insanity. I ended up with a group of 18 people at Ed Debevics for dinner. That's the restaurant where they are really rude to you on purpose. I'm not sure why it's fun to pay to have a waiter give you terrible service and be mean to you, but it is! We also had another Purple and Gold days weekend. In case you don't know, P&G days is when seniors in high school can come up and spend a night at ONU. We take them downtown Chicago to get some pizza and then walk around on Michigan Avenue and get some Starbucks. I didn't go downtown with the group, but I did get to host a fantastic and sweet girl named Lyndsie.
As the semester comes to a close, I have all of my final projects, papers, and tests to get done before finals. Sadly, I will have to start working on some of that over my break. :( When I get back, I know I'll be thinking about doing all of the things with my friends that we've been talking about all semester, but never actually done. It's tough when you know that you won't be seeing the people that you are used to spending day in and day out with for a WHOLE MONTH!! I have a little bit of time though before I have to really think about that.

Have a GREAT THANKSGIVING!

(The pictures are...)

1.A group of my friends on Olivet Candy and Costume Party. I was Sarah Palin :)

2. A group of my friends and I downtown at the lighting in the middle of the massive crowd.

3. Two of my best friends, Sarah and Whitney, and I at the last football game

I Made It Through!!

I finally made it through! Right around my last post, school was still in high stress mode. Midterm time is full of tests, big presentations, projects, and big papers to turn in. As of this morning, I finished the last of those mid-term type assignments. YAY! As busy as it has been with school work, it has also been a fantastic couple of weeks. We've had home football games the past two weekends with this past weekend being homecoming. Also, two weeks ago I got to go ice skating and horseback riding all in one weekend and I was able to take a short trip home for one night to work a college fair that was going on in my hometown.

That sort of brings us up to speed through HOMECOMING!! Each year during Homecoming, campus explodes with students and alumni. I mean, it gets crazy busy around here! Friday night there is the first home basketball game and then Saturday is the homecoming football game as well as a number of class reunions. This year, I actually missed the basketball game. Two of my sisters, Megan and Jade [see photo], and my mom came up to visit me because it was Megans birthday. They told Megan they were coming up because Olivet played the school that Megan attends in the Homecoming football game on Saturday. However... I surprised her with tickets to WICKED on Friday night. Soooo...Megan, Jade, my mom, and I all took the train downtown to see the show. Let me tell you, it did NOT disappoint! I knew that it would be a good show, but I guess I didn't realize how good it was going to be. The vocals were FANTASTIC! We didn't get back until late, so on Saturday we woke up in just in time to get ourselves ready and get lunch before going to watch the football team. We were playing St. Ambrose University and, after a valiant effort, lost 16-10. After the game, my family had to leave :( so I went over to watch our soccer team play with some friends [See other picutre]! {(YAY GO ROD!!) <--If you read one of my previous posts, then you know that I am Rods #1 fan!} The soccer team pulled out a 4-1 win over St. Xavier! After all of that, I was exhausted so my roommate and I had a bonding/movie night so we could just relax in our apartment!

Coming up this weekend is Halloween/ Olivets candy and costume party and I am going to be Sarah Palin :) Stay Tuned...

There's A Little Bit of Catching Up to Do...

There has been a little bit more time than usual between my last blog and this one. Life seemed to get very crazy all of a sudden. I've gotten the chance to do so much over the past few weeks. The last weekend of September, I got the chance to go to a wedding of some friends who graduated from Olivet within the past few years. The first weekend of October was also our first "Purple and Gold Days" weekend here at Olivet. Purple and Gold Days weekends are weekends especially set aside for seniors in high school to come and visit the school. For me, that meant hosting a few potential students, Krissy and Heather, in my apartment. We take the students downtown Chicago to eat at Giordano's Pizza and then spend a few hours on Michigan Avenue. Lucky for us, it was GREAT weather. I walked Michigan Avenue with a group of girls. We took advantage of our time there by getting some quality shopping time in. :D After we got back from Chicago, Krissy and Heather went right to sleep. They had to get up to drive back home in the morning and I'm pretty sure we wore them out walking around downtown! Finally, this past weekend, we had our Fall Break. Basically this means that our weekend was extended into Monday and Tuesday :) I went home and just spent the weekend with my family. I love being at Olivet, but I hadn't made it home in a long time and I REALLY missed them all! My mom, my sister, and I brought two of my nieces to a pumpkin patch! Laila (6) and Marley (2) LOVED it! (The picture is of their darling little faces) :) We picked out some little pumpkins to bring home and had apple cider :) It really made it feel like fall is here. Fall is such a great season. The colors outside are beautiful and there are fun seasonal things to do! Now that I've gone to a pumpkin patch, the goal is to get to an apple orchard or play in the leaves! Leaves are falling around campus, which means that I look like I'm walking in zig zag lines as I try to step on all of the crunchy leaves.
Although I usually just talk about weekend things, this past few weeks, they actually haven't been my main focus. SURPRISE! The week before break, I had midterms. That word, midterms, does not bring images of rainbows and sunshine to my mind. It was a tough week. I had 6 tests within a 3 days span of time. Thankfully I made it through mostly unscathed. I actually still have two more tests coming up, neither of which will be particularly fun. I'm sure I'll live though.
WISH ME LUCK!

It's a great week for Revival!

I'm happy to say that I've had a laid back week. It's not often that a college student can say that they are not too busy, but I feel like this week has been one of those weeks that comes along right when you need it to. It started last Friday with a visit from my sister. I transfered to Olivet a little over a year ago and this is my FIRST visit from her. I was beyond excited to have her here. On Friday night, we went to Broadway Review. Broadway review is a show that is put on by Olivet Students that highlights a variety of songs from a variety of popular Broadway musicals. On Saturday, we sort of did a tour of a bunch of different sports. We started the day with a two baseball games, then made our way over to McHie for a volleyball match, and finally ended up at the soccer fields to watch a girls soccer game. Lucky for me, my sister is almost as big of a sports nut as I am! She left later on Saturday afternoon to head home, but we had a good 24 hours!
To continue my fabulous week, Revival started on Sunday morning. I love revival...especially because it comes at this point in the semester. It's close enough to the start that you are still adjusting to being back at school, but far enough in to the semester that you can feel the fatigue that comes along with being a college student. Revival this year was especially great because our own University President, Dr. Bowling, was the speaker. Dr. Bowling is one of those speakers who makes an hour long service feel like it was 10 minutes long. You come out feeling very spiritually fed, but not like you were just in church for half of a day. That skill is SO helpful for revival because it makes being in church for 4 nights in a row not seem like a task. I honestly looked forward to hearing what he was going to say each night and seeing how God was going to work through the service. I guess you can say that Revival puts you on a spiritual high, but I know (at least in my life) that God did things this week that will be lasting.

How great of a week is that?!

The GREAT Flood of ONU!

In all of my life, I never imagined I could say that I had the opportunity to swim to church. This week, I can say that I SWAM TO CHURCH! My roommates and I woke up Sunday morning to a slight rain storm happening outside our window. By slight rain storm, I mean enormous downpour. Without thinking anything of it, we got ready for church and started to walk towards the door. As I opened it, I saw what I now refer to as Lake Olivet about 20 yards from my back door. For a few minutes, the four of us considered having our own church in the apartment, but decided that church needed to be a priority. So we braved the elements. It took us about 15 minutes to walk to church which is just across a parking lot (A parking lot knee deep with water). By the time we reached the door, I was SOAKED head to toe. It was definately an experience I wasn't expecting to have when I woak up this morning. After church, I waded to lunch and then back to my apartment. My roommates and I changed our clothes and went to play in the water! All the water is gone now, but I'm pretty sure no one around here will forget the day we swam to church ANYTIME soon!

Ollies Follies Results and Such...

Well Ollies Follies wrapped up last weekend. It didn't all end quite like I hoped though. The Juniors came in second, but we didn't lose because of our variety show! It looked great. It definately went as good as it could have. We were the 90's so did dances to "Ice Ice Baby", "Bye Bye Bye", "Cotten Eye Joe". The other classes did a fantastic job too, especially the sophomores. Their decade was the 80's, so they did a footloose dance and a thriller dance. All of my roommates are sophomores, so it's been a week full of having them rub it in. :) All in good fun though, of course! As fun as Ollies Follies was, I'm ready for it to be done so that I can start getting myself into the routine for the semester. Intramurals have finally started up and I'm supposed to be playing on 2 teams. I'm playing sand volleyball right now. We actually had our first match last night and won our first two games!! I'm also supposed to be playing soccer, but I'm having trouble with an old injury so I'm just going to be their #1 fan!! In a month or so, girls flag football will start and I CAN'T WAIT!!

And So It Starts...

Well, classes have started and school is officially in full swing. The whole past week has been a little bit of a blur. Between classes starting, seeing friends again, sports, and Ollies Follies, I think sometimes I've forgotten to breathe!
Ollies follies is part over. Last weekend were the "wackey games" and sports competitions. The scores between the classes are still really close, but the variety show is this weekend and that will likely be the deciding factor. I've been working with the Junior class on the dance part of the show. We started practicing last week and have all this week to practice. Between the actual practices and doing the choreography, that has taken up a LOT of hours! The Junior class is "the 90's", so our dances should be pretty sweet! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a Junior victory...
Speaking of victory, both the Olivet girls and boys soccer team got a win this weekend. The boys won 2-0 against St. Ambrose and the girls beat both Mt. Vernon Nazarene and MidAmerica Nazarene. The night before the games, a bunch of us made shirts with names of different people on the team on them. My shirt says FONTEM. I'm the super fan for Rod Fontem. He's one of our seniors and a defender. The boys were so surprised that we made shirts for them. EVERYONE loves having a superfan!! Another event this weekend was the "Block Party". The first weekend of school is always jam packed with events for us to do. This year, they set up a bunch of inflatables in the quad. It was a blast! There was music and random carnival type foods. Needless to say, there was a lot of excitement and I can't wait for this weekend either! Tune in next time for Ollies Follies results :)

Saying Goodbye to Summer!

It's so strange to look at a calendar and realize that classes begin again in just a little over a week. Even more strange then that is to walk around campus and actually see other students instead of the Chicago Bears! I had just started to get used to seeing Urlacher or Hester on a daily basis. It was so great to have the Bears here, but our own Olivet football and soccer teams showed up on campus not long after they left, a trade I was happy to make.
I finally got myself all of my stuff moved into my apartment for the school year. Now I just have to unpack and wait for my roommates to get here! It's possible that I am the slowest "unpacker" ever. I'm sure that the Olympics distraction hasn't helped that much though. We've sort of been rotating around my friends apartments, watching the Olympics at a different place each night. I'm pretty sure that we haven't missed a single one of Michael Phelps' races. There is definately a group of Phelps fanatics here in Bourbonnais! :)
A bunch of us did take a break from our Olympics watching marathon for a while to go see a concert that was in town. DecembeRadio came and played at Moon Monkey. I wasn't sure who they were when I first heard the name, but once they started playing I recognized a bunch of songs. They were kind of a Southern rock band and they reminded me a little of NeedToBreathe. I was pleasantly surprised at how good they were. There are a lot of bands that have great music, but when you hear them in concert it's a little bit of a let down. That's definately not DecembeRadio. They were fantastic!
(I'm pretty sure that if you check out Ashley's blog, she'll be putting up pictures from the concert)
Things will start getting more exciting as everyone arrives on campus and classes start. Ollies Follies is a sure bet for a good time too...Stay Tuned!