okay so...

well... apparently the whole world is posting notes on facebook about their year! buuuut i dont do facebook notes... i do blogs :) haha. so i guess this is my "what i have learned"/way to procrastinate blog. just fyi... i have finished one final, i have three more to go. and my room is 98% packed. :)

I came to Corban not really knowing what to expect. I really didn't want to come either. I was scared about having a roommate, classes, not making friends, losing contact with my friends from home, and missing home.

Well... God blessed me with an amazing roommate! Bri has become like a sister to me over these last 8 months. It is crazy to think that we have only known each for 8 months, but we are completely comfortable with each other. From stripping in the middle of the room to talking about God, friends and life.... we can do it all. She is my God-stop when I am freakig out about something. She brings me back to Him. Having Bri as a roommate is a blessing I never expected. It has definitely shown me that God's plan is so amazing! Along with my roomate, my hall has been amazing! We are all so close, so real, and so united. I would not trade my hall for anything! Building relationships with these girls has been one of the best things about my year! We have become a family! Crying and praying together when Lindsay's dad, Katharine's grandpa, and Katies father-in-law-to-be died, when Callie's mom was getting tested for cancer, when Sarah was having issues with her boy, and when Brianna broke up with her boy. Lauging together when the other Sarah says something that shocks us all, when we are all overtired, when Alisa burps during prayer, when Kelli has an innocent moment, or when we all need a happy moment. Rejoicing together when Elisa got engaged, when Bri got a job, when Carrie got to go to CA to see her best friend, when Heidi started dating Josh, when Liane won her softball games, and when we see how God is working in each one of our lives. Each of these girls is a key part of our hall and without one of them, our hall would not be the same!

Classes... Yeah, they have been difficult. It has not been easy getting good grades, but it has been amazing! Getting to know my professors and see how much they really care about me has been phenomenal! I know that they are busy, but they are always willing to stop and help. I love all of them!

Friends... clearly I have remained in contact with my important friends from home (aka my HIPPOS!). :) I know I could have done a better job of it, but we have not lost contact! :) I have made amazing friends here too! They have their moments... but we all do! They are all so encouraging and fun! What a blessing!

Missing home... I had forgotten about this, but it was brought up at Bible study the other night.... I was homesick for the first couple of weeks! It was not easy at all! But slowly I have grown to love being at Corban. That love has made being away from home okay. I am pretty sad about leaving in 3 days. Corban is home. Yeah, I know once im home ill be thankful :) But I feel so at home here.... more than I ever imagined!

The most important change/growth... GOD! Coming to Corban, I was close to mad at God for taking me away from situations at home. But now... it is SO clear that God had BIGGER plans for me! Knowing that is amazing! God has shown me so much in these past 8 months. Our hall theme is "God is enough". This has become one of the most clear things in my life. God really is enough. There are lyics in the hall outside my room... they say "Be all my hopes. Be all my dreams. Be all my delights. Be my everything". These speak to me repeatedly about God. He IS big enough to my everything. I don't need anything except Him. Our dorm theme has been "Be real". At one of our dorm meetings we all wrote flaws about ourselves on a painted canvas. No one know what it is was. Then each hall put their canvases together and the word "real" was made. It made me realize that even in our brokenness, we are beautiful because we are God's. He made us to be who we are, brokenness and all. Being real is one of the most important things we can do for God.

My year has been so amazing! I have definitely seen that God's plans are SO much better than my own. I just need to be patient and wait to see what they are.

best day of my life!

okay not really..... but it was wonderful considering that it was just classes. heres how my day went:

speech... i just always love that class! full of love advice, jokes, and fun!
stats... WOW! what a class! we spent the first 20 minutes of class (it was only a 50 minute class) getting dating advice based on the David and Goliath story. then we all asked our prof about his dating experiences and how he proposed and stuff like that. It was great!
american thought and culture... our lecture today was about new age pantheism. it was pretty good! but the best part was the end. our prof had someone pray at the end... and it made me realize how blessed I am to be at a Christian college where we can learn about other religions, and world-views but still be so grounded in God and Christianity. it was a huge eye opener to how blessed I am!
i came back to my dorm after classes and did some homework. then i went to what we call "snacks at Pam's". Pam is our RD and every wednesday she has snacks in her apartment. today it was BISCUITS!!! OH MY! they were SO ridiculously good! and iwas very hungry! so it made me happy! :)
so that was my wonderful day! :)
unfortunately, the rest of the week or two will not be so great.... I have a speech to give on friday, a research paper due next tuesday, and a 15 page stats project due next friday. ughhhh. oh well! summer is only 16 days away! :)

Easter

This weekend was VERY eventful!
Friday marked the day that I was able to go on Facebook (which I actually didnt do until saturday), drink soda (HALLELUJAH!), and eat dessert in the dining hall (which didnt happen until today since I didnt go to the dining hall at all on friday).
On friday at about 3, my roommate and I packed the car, got Dutch Bros (my favorite coffee ever!!!) and drove to Wenatchee (her home). The drive is supposed to be about 6 hours..... BUT we hit terrible traffic and it took us 8 hours. It sucked! Funny stories though....

Here is one funny story...... we were completely stopped (as in the car did not move a single inch) for about 20 minutes. During this time, I let out some gas which apparently smelled really bad.... so my roommate opened my window. As she did this, two older men in the vehicle next to us rolled their window down and proceeded to talk to us. They started by asking where we were from, where we were going etc. THEN they told us that they would give us $50 if we flashed the traffic and got it moving! OH MY!! my roommate and I were like uhhhhhhhhh...... no! They then told us that they were just kidding. Then they asked if we would buy them lunch at the next town. We said no. Then they offered to buy us lunch. We said no. SO AWKWARD!!! And the fact that were could not move at all did not help! So funny though! Also.... while we were on this long stretch of road stuck in traffic, my roommate and I both had to pee. Unfortunately there were NO rest stops anywhere! It was terrible. It got to the point where we had to unbutton our pants! Thankfully, once traffic got going, it was only another 20 minutes to a McDonalds.

Once we finally got to Wenatchee (at 11:30ish), we went cosmic bowling with my roommates family. It was fun! But I was so tired! The next day (saturday) we got up, ate, went shopping with my roommate's sister (Cyra) for her birthday, made homemade pizza (SO good!), ate dinner with my roommate's family and Cyra's boyfriend's family. Then Bri's bf (Taylor) came and picked us up and we went to see his new apartment. After that, we went back to Bri's house. We made a fire and made smores :) then we went in the hot tub! so much fun! On sunday, we went to church, ate at Olive Garden for lunch. The service was terrible. Worst Olive Garden experience of my life! After that we went back to the house and did homework. Then later that night Bri, Taylor, Bri's mom (Ellen), and I watched Ghost Ship. It was alright. We also had some interesting conversations! Here is one example:

Taylor: "One thing I love is being able to stand up and pee!"
Ellen: "Me too!"
Taylor: ........uhhh.......
Ellen: "In the shower!"
Taylor: "EWWW!!! Ellen!"
Ellen: "What? Its true!"
Taylor: "Yeah but that gave me a visual!"

It was probably more funny at the time.... but Taylor's reaction was hilarious! That convo led into whether people pee in other people's showers, Taylor peeing on his brother, and other interesting things. Haha.

On Monday, we got up, packed, hung out with Bri's dad for while, then left. It was snowing when we woke up which was awesome! :) The drive back was much nicer than the drive there!

That was my eventful weekend! It was great! :)