Day 131: Valentine's Day Victories

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I hope you had as splendid of a day as I did! So many great things happened today. I will go mostly in chronological order, saving the best for last even though it didn't occur like that.

• Fell asleep during Boring Plants 101
• Lunch "lady date" with sister and CG member, Skylar, at the A Cafe
• Opened packages from Mom and Grace (candy and amazingly cute pins and accessories, respectfully)
• Received the box of tissues I sent myself for free from kleenex.com. DO IT. Really cute super tiny box covered in polka dots!
  
• Skyped with my BFF, Nick, who is studying in Austria this semester
• Found out that our hallmate, Kayce, and her roomie will be living on our floor again next year! This means that We know everyone on our floor! (all 8 of us!) Party every night, for sure.
• Watched Vampire Diaries and the final song was by Matthew West!! Here it is, I really enjoyed it and never heard it!! Family Tree - Matthew West
  
• Had a great Phi Lamb devotion tonight about putting God as our First Love and priority in life
• My amazing sister, Sam, baked me a Coca Cola Cake for my birthday!!! It is SO good!
• Ate said cake
• Hung out with two of my favorite people: Pocahontas and John Smith (aka watched Pocahontas)

And here's the final cap for why today was so amazing:

I got a job at Cedar Point (amusement park) for the summer!

I will be a prep cook at a restaurant there. I'll live in dorms on site, get to go to the park for free, and will have an overall amazing experience. I had such a great phone interview and I'm so excited to start! I'll leave around May 1st to get there and won't get back home until the second week of August or so, so it's the WHOLE summer, which I think will be fantastic!

I hope you had an amazing day and felt loved throughout the entire day. Remember, you do not need a significant other to make you complete. That is what God is for. We are his BRIDE, he is our BRIDESGROOM. He is the best thing that ever was or is or is to come. He alone can satisfy your life and make you feel complete. Please remember that and pass it on. I guarantee there is someone in your life that desperately needs to hear it. Please please don't hesitate to contact me if you need to talk at all, ever.

Happy Valentine's Day, my loves!
Here are some other songs that you might enjoy on this Love filled day.
The Face of Love - Sanctus Real
Beloved - Tenth Avenue North

Day 130: Chalk Full of Love

We left Savannah this morning around 10:30, stopped once to fill up gas, and arrived back home by 2. Not too much traffic! We stocked up on Publix necessities and unloaded everything to our rooms. I received two packages today (well yesterday, but picked them up today). One is a Valentine's Day gift from my best friend, Grace, that I can't open until tomorrow (but it's after midnight so I might soon...) and the other was the most fantastic Birthday Package ever received. My loving cousins, Leann and Jamie, got me a really cool cupcake decorating book for Christmas. They sent in the package today all the fixings needed to make Moose Cupcakes! I am so excited to make them, just have to find some time to do it! Hopefully this weekend. Be on the lookout for meese on the blog!

My big, Jenny, was "chalking" for Valentine's Day with CRU. "Chalking" is basically writing on the sidewalks with chalk. We wrote encouraging bible verses and messages so that everyone will know that they are loved this Valentine's Day, significant other or not. I really hate the feeling of chalk, so I only did one message before I couldn't handle it any more. Here it is!

We're excited to watch people read them tomorrow! Hopefully it will make a difference in some people's lives.

After chalking, I redid my nails and watch one of my favorite movies, The Parent Trap (with Lindsay Lohan). I love this movie because I can quote the entire thing. I had a great time just sitting by myself with Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. Good stuff right there!

Now it is time for bed! Early plant class tomorrow, followed by lots of stuff to do on this Valentine's Day! I already used most of my pink/red clothing... WHAT DO I WEAR!?

Day 129: Paula Deen Day!

Wow.

The end.


Just kidding, but really, this day was just fantastic! I'm beyond exhausted now. I've been sitting on the hotel bed for over an hour already and I'm surprised I haven't fallen asleep yet...

Soundtrack for the day: Chicken Fried, Zac Brown Band. Listen to it as you read.

Started the day with the Paula Deen Tour! We got a red Paula Deen Tour lunchbox (which we're using to take leftovers home in). We bought some chocolate covered peanuts and cashews. We went to Bethesda, which used to be a boys' orphanage but is now just a boys' behavior school thing. Paula got married the second time here and it is her biggest charity. We then went to lunch at Uncle Bubba's Oyster House. The meal there was DELICIOUS! We had the buffet which was all kinds of yummy. Low country broil, red rice, pulled pork, fried fish, corn bread, grilled parmesan oysters and, my favorite, banana pudding!

After the stuffing lunch, we returned to downtown Savannah and Danielle and I headed to Forsyth Park. It was here that I watched my first ever Rugby match. Crazy!

We walked around a little more, went to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, a cute book store, a paperie, a cupcake store, and the Andrew Low and Juliette Gordon Low houses. Afterward, we found a new parking spot (I pulled into several parallel parking spots all by myself today! Without any trouble!) and walked to City Market, which has a bunch of restaurants and galleries and more pralines. Today we got two samples of chocolate pralines. YUMM! We also stopped at a Mochi-look-a-like Frozen yogurt store called La' Berry. Yummy! (Had banana flavored yogurt with 'Nilla wafers! mmm)

Most stores started closing between 6 and 7, so we went to Paula Deen's store and loaded up on goodies and then took them back to the car. Goodies include: an apron and a purple knife for Danielle, a pen, some postcards and a Paula Deen green tupperware container that has a built in ice pack in the lid for me. Woo! Our dinner reservations weren't until 9:30, so we "chilled" out by some live music for a while, in a modern park, and then back for more music until we finally were able to sit down to dinner.

Dinner. A feast. I got a Chicken Pot Pie and Danielle got Shrimp & Grits. They were both delicious! It was the best pot pie I've ever had. The crust was a flaky puff pastry lattice on top of the soupy stuff. And there was fried chicken in the soupy stuff! Fantastic.

I can't even begin to tell you the amount of fun I had today. It was a lot! But I have a killer headache and I'm about to fall asleep on you, so off to bed I go! Leaving around 10 in the morning. See you back home tomorrow!

Day 128: HERE!

Welcome to Savannah, Georgia!

After about a 4 hour journey, Danielle and I arrived safely in Savannah! We attempted to go to the visitor's center first, but I guess that the address I had was wrong, so it took us quite a while to find the real place. Anyways. We checked in at the hotel, went back to downtown for dinner, and then walked around. Dinner was at the Crystal Beer Parlor. Yummy Yummy food! I had a lamb burger and Danielle had a fried oyster sandwich. Both were delicious. I'm still stuffed. Afterward, we decided to walk off the food on the riverside. Not too much was open, except for the candy stores! We got to sample two different store's pralines. I liked the first ones, Danielle the second. Guess we'll have to see if we get any later... We have tomorrow all planned out, starting with the tour at 10, leaving here around 9:15. So we have to get to bed now! Oh, one thing I forgot. Parking here stinks. I had to parallel park. Where we're from, they don't teach you how to parallel park because there isn't really any parallel parking anywhere. So it took me about 23 tries (no kidding) with Danielle's curbside help. Hopefully we can stay parked in a parking lot tomorrow...

Goodnight! Enjoy tonight's pictures.

Dinner!

Danielle and I chilling in the hotel room!

Day 127: So. Close.

12 hours until we leave for PDW! (Paula Deen Weekend) AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Today was filled with classes, typical of Thursdays. But I really enjoyed the topic in Aztec Civilization today! We learned a little about their poetry, philosophy, and games. The poetry was quite beautiful (in English). These are my two favorites - Enjoy!

Let us consider things as lent to us, oh, friends;
only in passing are we here on earth;
tomorrow or the day after,
as Your heart desires, oh, Giver of Life,
we shall go, my friends, to His home.

Truly do we live on earth?
Not forever on earth; only a little while here.
Although it be jade, it will be broken,
Although it be gold, it is crushed,
Although it be quetzal feather, it is torn asunder.
Not forever on earth; only a little while here.

Seriously, how beautiful are those? The Aztecs were one smart crowd, lemme tell ya! I love learning about them! My Forensic Anthropology class got let out early tonight, yay! And I took a 10 minute power nap in the break during my General Anthropology class. Surprisingly helped quite a bit. It's good having 4 classes that overlap with each other, but not when I learn the same things at least twice in one week and have to pay attention in both classes. Easy studying, I guess...

CRU was tonight, and was great. Had dinner at Panda Express as usual for Thursdays and received this fortune that I shared with Ana: "You will be fortunate in the opportunities presented to you." How cool? Haha, I don't know, just liked it.

My Big Sister, Jenny, has been accepted to go on a missions trip to Paris this summer with CRU! I am so proud of her and so excited to see what amazing things God has in store for her this summer! (Plus MY BEST FRIEND WILL BE IN PARIS. HOW AMAZING.)

Praise God for this amazing and beautiful day (even if it was a bit chilly!)

Tune in tomorrow for a broadcast from the gates of Savannah! (Not literally the gates because I don't think they really have any, but we'll see.)

Day 126: The End of the Stress

Not that I've been stressing all that much, but all of my work and tests and assignments are finished for a while which is so exciting! After a cold walk to lab and a warmer walk to class, I was greeted in Bio2 by our new teacher. The teachers split up the subjects so they can just teach their specialties. Entering in to the season of Plants (ugh/boring/ew), I already didn't have high hopes for the next 5 weeks. But to make matters, dare I say, worse, our teacher is not the most proficient English speaker. She does better than others I have encountered, but she takes a long time to say what she wants to say. I feel like a manatee or snail or sloth is talking. So the slow lecture + hard to understand + me thinking about those two things plus her bad grammar + boring subject of plants = me falling asleep. I will be needing a method of staying awake, I feel. Anyways. That's about it on that front. I will not complain about it again. Maybe just a little...

Tonight during dinner, I got a phone call from the number 000-012-3456. In case you aren't used to telephone numbers, that's not normal. Therefore, I didn't answer for fear of a scam on the other side. And lo-and-behold, the number was legit! It was Cedar Point calling to set up a phone interview! So I ended up e-mailing them back and alerted them that their number freaked me out. He replied apologizing because all the phone lines were busy, so he had to use Skype. I still think Skype shouldn't be that sketchy in their phone numbers, because who in their right mind would answer 000-012-3456 unless they knew about this already. Dumb. Anyways, I have a phone interview for Monday afternoon! Hopefully it goes well. It feels great just to be considered, rather than immediately shut down. Thank you, Lord, for this fantastic opportunity!!!

After a great community group tonight, Hannah and I did a little cleaning of the room and I packed for the weekend trip to Savannah! I surprisingly don't have a whole lot. So I'm wondering what else I could possibly need that I am forgetting. Luckily I have until Friday morning to figure it out. I'm really hungry right now, partially because dinner was 6 hours ago, partially because I am salivating over the thought of the delicious food we will be encountering in about 40 hours. AHHHH. The weather forecast for the weekend predicts sunshine and cool weather all weekend (yay) and a "sunny and pleasant day" on Sunday!! What a cute description.

Goodnight, my friends. I must say, I wish you wrote back more often. But I'll taken what I can get. <3

Day 125: Doing the Bone Dance

I successfully memorized all the bones I needed to know for my Forensic Anthropology exam! I feel so accomplished! Anyways. That was the easiest exam I've ever taken (especially in college). I was finished in 20 minutes, which meant we could start dinner earlier than anticipated! We made shepherd's pie. Yumm. It looked disgusting, so I didn't take a picture, but it tasted delicious! Other than that, I was really tired today. But I'm not right now... which isn't that great because I need to get to bed ASAP since tomorrow is an early morning.

I watched Anastasia tonight after finishing my homework. I love that movie so much. Wish she was a Disney princess so she could be my second favorite! (Favorite it Princess Tiana in case you don't know me very well) And during Anastasia, I redid my nails for the next week. They didn't come out exactly as I wanted, so I'll probably redo them just after Valentine's day. I love hearts.

If I can learn to do it, you can learn to do it. I don't know how I knew it, I simply knew it, Suddenly I feel like someone new, You can learn to do it, too!
- Learn to Do It, Anastasia

~2 full days left till PDW~