flashing blue light...

Sgt. John Carl Osmolski

2008-02-08T21:04:00.000-05:00

Sgt. John Carl Osmolski

82nd Airborne

October 19, 1984 - February 5, 2008

Nick's best friend since early childhood was killed early Wednesday morning serving our country in Iraq. Please keep John's family in your prayers, as well as Nick and his family who considered John to be a brother and son.

He was scheduled to come home next week and Nick was waiting till then to ask him to be his best man at our wedding. Words can't describe our grief. We will never forget John, he was a hero and one of the best men I have ever met.

We'll be traveling up to DC to Arlington National Cemetary next Friday for the funeral.

This is an article published in his hometown paper in Eustis, FL.

Sgt. John C. Osmolski, 23, Eustis, was searching a house when a homemade bomb exploded in Iraq.

Helen Eckinger Sentinel Staff Writer
February 8, 2008

After 15 months in Iraq, U.S. Army Sgt. John C. Osmolski was ready to come home. The date was set: This coming Wednesday, Osmolski would be back in Eustis, playing with his nephew John Micheal and tinkering with his Jeep with his brother Daniel.

He never made it home.

On Tuesday, Osmolski, 23, was searching a house in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad, when a homemade bomb exploded. He and two other soldiers died of injuries from the blast."He was just doing his job," Daniel Osmolski said Thursday as he sat with his wife, Heather, in his living room in Eustis.

"His goal was always to go into the Army and serve his country." Osmolski grew up in Eustis, where he lived until he left for boot camp in January 2005. He attended Circle Christian School in Orlando, where he was a forward on the soccer team. As a teenager, he was active in the youth groups at New Hope Presbyterian Church in Eustis and at nearby Bay Street Baptist Church. David Kelly, the youth director at New Hope, went on several mission trips with Osmolski and his twin sister, Julia, to Peru, where the church ran a ministry for street children. Kelly said Osmolski was "like a big brother to the children." John was passionate about whatever he did, and he poured his whole heart into those children," Kelly said. "He didn't let any of that bother him, the fact that they were dirty or poor. He just opened up his arms and let them come to him."

A childhood dream
Osmolski had wanted to join the military ever since he was a kid playing with G.I. Joe dolls, his brother said. He thought he would attend college first, and after he graduated from high school, he spent a couple of semesters at Valencia Community College. Then he got impatient."He got tired of waiting — that's why he enlisted," Daniel Osmolski said.Osmolski became a combat engineer and was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, based at Fort Bragg, N.C. He spent six months in Afghanistan in 2005 and was deployed to Iraq at the end of 2006. "He did have a rough time, but he still believed in what he was doing," Daniel Osmolski said. "He always said, 'I'm doing great things over here.'"

Osmolski was scheduled to be discharged in May, and he did not plan to re-enlist. He wanted to start a family and finish college, and he had told his brother that he was toying with the idea of working for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — the agency that rounds up illegal immigrants.

He planned to take the summer off and spend time with his family, work on his car and play with the dog named Ophelia that he had brought home on a whim as a teenager." He and I went to buy a truck one day, and he came home with a dog," Daniel Osmolski said. "Mom was not happy that night."

Osmolski's MySpace page, which his girlfriend, Lindsey Cruz, is maintaining in the wake of his death, lists Metallica as one of his favorite bands, and Jesus Christ as his personal hero. The page is listed under Osmolski's nickname, Squirrell, which Daniel Osmolski said his brother's friends have been calling him since he was a teenager.

Today, Daniel, Heather and John Micheal Osmolski will travel to Virginia, where John Osmolski's mother, R. Eileen Osmolski, and sisters, Ruth Janna Wheat and Julia Osmolski, live outside of Richmond. The soldier's father died when he and his siblings were children.

Close to his family
Daniel Osmolski said John Osmolski was extraordinarily close to his family, especially with his twin sister, Julia, who was born a minute after him."The joke was always that she kicked him out," he said. "They did everything together."

Daniel Osmolski said John Osmolski was considered the clown of the family. He remembered his wedding, when John was the best man. Rather than make a toast, John gave Daniel a pair of boots that he dubbed "man-of-the-house boots." One boot had "Man of the" embroidered on it. The other said "House.""He was always doing what he could to make others laugh," Daniel Osmolski said. "He brought joy to all of us when he was around."

Osmolski's family plans to bury him at Arlington National Cemetery later this month. They also want to have a memorial ceremony in Eustis, although they haven't settled on a date.Daniel Osmolski said his brother often warned his family that he might die in Iraq. But John Osmolski's Christian faith helped him make peace with that possibility."Someone's got to do it," he told his brother. "And who would be better than someone who knows where their eternity lies?""That was John," Daniel Osmolski said. "Trying to comfort us."

Helen Eckinger can be reached at heckinger@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5934.
More articles
Copyright © 2008, Orlando Sentinel

2 AM at Baptist Hospital, 1333 Taylor Street, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

2007-12-23T01:54:00.001-05:00

late night musings from Ragamuffin Gospel...

"Put bluntly: the American Church today accepts grace in theory but denies it in practice. We say we believe that the fundamental structure of reality is grace, not works - but our lives refute our faith. By and large, the gospel of grace is neither proclaimed, understood, nor lived."

"Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie points, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat denial of the gospel of grace.
Our approach to the Christian life is as absurd as the enthusiastic young man who had just received his plumber's license and was taken to see Niagara Falls. He studied it for a minute and then said, 'I think I can fix this.'"

Brennan Manning, Ragamuffin Gospel

"It is by grace you have been saved through faith, not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything you have done so that nobobdy can claim the credit"

Ephesians 2:8-9

"The Lord said, 'My grace is enough for you; my power is at its best in weakness.' So I shall be very happy to make my weaknesses my special boast so that the power of Christ may stay over me."

2 Corinthians 12:9

sparkley sparkley sparkley!

2007-12-18T16:50:00.001-05:00

for those who don't yet know (or can't guess) i'm engaged to Nicholas Lomma! yeaaa!!

ah HA! i figured out how to post it.

2007-09-25T13:26:00.001-04:00

please enjoy.

2007-09-25T13:21:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xath6kOf0NE

just in case you ever want to know what i do all day long.
it's pretty interesting. i challange you to watch.

2007-09-15T17:23:00.000-04:00

two of my closest and best friends got married last weekend and it was beautiful! i've never seen two happier people.

my new apartment!!

2007-08-29T22:10:00.001-04:00

Welcome to my new apartment! Home of Katie Sollenberger, Becky Stetson, and MOI!

this is what my friend Michael calls the "romance shelf" :-) my roommate Katie and her boyfriend Austin, me and Nick, and my other roommate Becky and her boyfriend Matt!

Nick playing guitar...

Katie's and my bedroom!

the kitchen!

our entertainment center of sorts... basically just three shelves courtesy of Wally-World.

our awesome charity shop couch!

the dining room, complete with painting by Katie Sollenberger!

and that, ladies and gentlemen, completes your tour of my apartment. come visit whenever youre in Charleston.

euugghh

2007-08-10T06:36:00.000-04:00

it's hot. wicked hot. you know it's hot when it's 89 degress at 11pm (when i go into work) and 89 degrees at 7am (when i get off work) and it only climbs up from there. we hit 102 yesterday. heat index of 110. EEUUGGGHHH.

had the sweetest patients last night... this one precious little lady had her husband with her all night and he called her "baby" and "honey bee." i hope i'm still sweet on my spouce when we're 86.

moving to school in two days!! yeaa!! only one more night shift and then it's off to the mind-numbing months of school that will make me appreciate summer work again.

happy 21st birthday to Rob McAlister who i saw last night... we shared funny "Rob moments." take a moment and think of your favorite Rob moment, and laugh. it'll do you good. (Janice, i love you, and i know you're laughing!)

hope everyone has a wonderful August 10th. and for those south of the mason-dixon line, don't get heat-stroke.

nursing humor

2007-07-22T06:16:00.001-04:00

Ha.

snip snip snip

2007-07-19T11:45:00.000-04:00

nooooooo more hairs!!! ha! i love it.

Real gold fears no fire.

2007-07-18T06:27:00.000-04:00

My new roommate, fellow nursing student and dear friend: Becky Stetson. She's 5'3", ADD, constantly singing, can NEVER sit still, loves Jesus, and is generally the life of the party.

And a HUGE encouragment and challange to me.

Her dad died on June 2nd of this year after a long hard battle with terminal cancer. Mr. Doug was an amazing godly man and an excellent father and treated me, like most of the other kids who practically lived at his house, like his own children.

The truth that Doug Stetson taught me is that great trials really do show true faith to be the gold that fire refines. Becky, her mom, and Mr. Doug never once said, "Why me? Why us?" but constantly used every opportunity to give the reason for the Hope that they had. Several hospitals across the country had entire floors with staff and doctors who heard the gospel from a man who was in excruciating pain for the last year of his life. And as a testimony to the life he lived, over 500 people were at his funeral, and they stopped counting after that because there was standing room only.

Becky has been so strong, not that it didn't affect her, but she is confident that God's purpose had been accomplished for her dad. I can't imagine losing my daddy. And being able to praise God through it.

Anyway... thought I'd share my thoughts on a family that really lived out their faith for everyone to see. Well the beach and Becky were *WONDERFUL* but I didn't sleep at all because I'm really not used to sleeping at night... go figure. So I'm going to go home and go to sleeeeeeeeepppppppp...

2007-07-13T02:49:00.000-04:00

i'm tired.

brain tired. spirit tired. all over tired.

but! i have this weekend off (who knew!!) and i am going to *try* to revert from my nocturnal schedule and actually join the rest of the daytime world and drive down to hilton head (stopping briefly to see Nicholas in Charleston) and spend the weekend with my soon-to-be roommate and dearest nursing friend, Becky Stetson! yeaa!! just what the doctor ordered. a VERY silly, very SHORT, but very wonderful friend. i am excited. 2 whole days at the #1 SC tourist destination. yummy.

yeeeeaaaaa BEACH!

2007-07-08T05:39:00.000-04:00

addendum:

I found some English breakfast tea bags in the nurses' lounge and so rather than my usually crappy hospital coffee, I made tea tonight. We even had some milk to put in it. And do you know what?

It tasted just like the tea served a certain old English manor in Carnforth, Lancashire. LA6 1AG.

2007-07-08T05:12:00.000-04:00

I had a patient tonight who was only 20. He was really nice. We talked about school and books we had read and places we had been. He told me he used to want to work in a hospital and asked me what made me want to be a nurse. I really liked talking to him, nice break from the usual slightly senile patients who talk about things that happened 50 years ago. But this guy was really nice. And my age!

And he had AIDS.

I know that having AIDS isn't nearly what it used to be, but still. But even with today's technology, the prognosis isn't too great. It kinda shook me up. I didn't even find out until my shift was almost over when his nurse was reviewing his chart with me. She mentioned it as an afterthought, "Oh yeah, and his cultures came back HIV positive." As if that wasn't an important detail in a 20-year-old patient's chart. He never mentioned it and I don't know if he was aware of his diagnosis before this hospital visit or not. But it made me sad. Diseases that kill the young make me sad. Especially ones with no cure.

It also made me think... would I have treated him any differently if I had known he had AIDS earlier? I'd like to think that it wouldn't have made any difference. But it might have made me more apprehensive. I'm not one to panic and double-glove, but would my attitude towards him have changed? AIDS is still one of the biggest threats to the healthcare world. That, and Hepatitis B. We watched HOURS of vidoes in nursing school about how to handle sharps, and how to dispose of needles, and how NEVER to re-cap your needles, and how to report needle-sticks if you do get one, and what drugs you will immediately be put on, and what chance you have of contracting AIDS, even with only one stick. And all that rushed through my mind when I heard that my patient had AIDS. Even though all I did was take his blood pressure and empty his urinal, everything ran through my head. No wonder he didn't tell me about his diagnosis. I'm sure he's seen enough bad reactions.

Well... that's my thought for the night.

On a brighter note, I was told tonight that I reminded someone of Jackie Kennedy. Ha! Who knew?

infections, antibiotics, and other joys.

2007-07-05T06:42:00.001-04:00

So I finally got a weekend off (yea!!) and then, WHAMMY! sinus and ear infection.
So I got a $95 (ouch!) prescription filled for an antibiotic and prescription strength pseudophed (which is so strong it makes me light-headed and a wee bit loopy - not good, I assure you).

this will have to be continued... I have to go walk a patient before the doctor gets here!!

Mind, body, and soul...

2007-06-26T02:21:00.000-04:00

I hate Alzheimer's.
It breaks my heart to care for a patient who's decaying body has begun to limit the mind and imprison the soul.
Which leads me to my question:
At what point can the soul no longer communicate?
The body still functions with the intake of food, water, air, and pharmacological interventions. The mind still demands certain things, comfort, attention, and communication. But the soul somehow has lost it's voice. So the mind reverts back to it's last memory, be that three years ago with the birth of a great-granddaughter, or 1913 when Woodrow Wilson was elected. And then it gets frustrating by reverting further back to the tantrums and mischief of a three year old. But either way, the soul is lost. That person is lost.
Or is it? Does the soul understand what the mind and body cannot? What a horrible prison. In moments of lucidity, when patients seem really connected with reality for a brief moment, their eyes light up. Sometimes you can actually see it. But the moments are so brief. I always feel the desire to seize it and ask them something important. What have you seen in your life? What wisdom have you learned? Was it all worth it? What about now? What about later? Where do you stand before God? But it only lasts a moment and the bright glance from their eyes fades back into the dull glazed-over confusion where they think I'm their daughter and why won't I bring them some brandy on the porch? Or worse, they think I'm trying to hurt them and they rip out their IVs (blood goes everywhere) and start crying for help. It makes me feel so helpless.
How can I be expected to "nurse" a body whose mind is hopelessly confused and their soul is trapped. When we first learned about the theory of "Holistic Nursing," philosophers of the medical world speculated on the benefit of treating both the mind, body, and "spirit". But of course, they don't mean the soul because they believe that the intricate and fearfully and wonderfully made human body is merely a mistake of chance that eventually evolved, sans Creator. So we treat the mind. And that is why (apart from a knowledge of Imago Dei and the true existence of a soul able to communicate with God beyond the confines of body and mind) Alzheimer's is the absolute worst way to die. If the only unique quality of a human is its ability to reason (existence of mind) then the disease that destroys the mind leaves its victim reduced to an animal-like state.
There's a reason to consider Deism. Avoids a really depressing death.
If there is a soul, then Alzheimer's, while devastating to those still on earth, isn't so bad. It's merely a temporary delay of earthly communication between created and Creator. And death removes that problem.
If there is no soul, then Alzheimer's is the vacuum that consumes the last moments of life, which is all there is. And death makes the silence permanent.

the trouble with elevators.

2007-06-23T03:16:00.000-04:00

I am now the proud owner of a 40 hour a week job. yeah for me. too bad those 40 hours of wonderful employment are at NIGHT. Yes, I am a student nurse tech working on 3rd Surgical at Palmetto Health Baptist. Basically, I'm the poop-patrol. Crude, but there it is.
So it is currently... 3:19 am and my patients are all sleeping (lucky them) and I'm surfing the Internet to stay awake. The cruel thing is that facebook (my e-communication form of choice) and myspace are blocked on the hospital computers. Tricky. But I figured that since it's 3am, I may as well blog. But I don't know if anyone reads my blog anymore... I'm rather inconsistent.

Tonight has been routine thus far... We did have a funny incident earlier though, we were moving a patient from here to a different unit and we were going to try to take a shortcut and use a service elevator that would take us directly to the floor we were transferring to. (A rare find here, since somehow each of the 6 elevators in this 90-year old hospital all connect to DIFFERENT floors, so to get to the 8th floor, for example, it takes 3 different elevators. So a direct route, service elevator or otherwise, is infinitely to be preferred.) HOWEVER, we were having difficulty fitting the bed into the elevator so we had to maneuver it around and then... the wheels turned sideways and fell into that wretched little crack between the floor and the elevator. So there we were, patient in the bed, bed in the crack, and Mary (the other tech) stuck IN the elevator behind the stuck bed. Well, what could you do? So we laughed, the patient really got a kick out of it. Thank goodness she wasn't in serious condition. Well, we pulled and pushed and tried and tried but to no avail. So finally I ran down to the station and called security and asked for two brawny guards to please come up and save our pretty little souls. Well they did, and they got it up and out and we finally got our patient down. But what a fiasco! Next time Palmetto asks for construction tips, I'll tell them to A. Make the elevators BIGGER and B. Eliminate the gap between the elevator and floor. Or they could just wax British and put up visual and auditory warnings of, "Please mind the gap."So that was the entertainment for the night. C'est la vie.

Life continues... I'm having to work to stay immune from engagement-ring-envy-itis. Most of my close friends are now engaged or getting engaged this summer and I, well, I work the night shift. And that's ok. But I do get to take part in some of the nuptial fun, I'm a bridesmaid for an old highschool friend. Lots of talking about flowers and colors and cakes and other girly shiny things.

I've really missed the C-wray world at large lately... the password to get into all the computers and supply machines here at the hospital is Capernwray related... so I think about everyone whenever I type in my password. Which is about a million times per shift. Well, it's getting close to 4 so I need to start doing my rounds again and getting vital signs and emptying catheter bags and such.

Hope somebody reads this...

PTL!

2007-05-04T19:59:00.000-04:00

for those who don't know, "PTL" is a southern abbreviation for PRAISE THE LORD, usually accompanied by a few HALLELUJAHs and THANK HIMs and AMEN! the capitalization is to emphasize the fact that these phrases are only uttered in a strongly accented and rather loud tone in order to bring across the point that the speaker is really and truly excited about the event that inspired the spontaneous praise.

i have officially survived my first year in the Derry Patterson Wingo School of Nursing at Charleston Southern University.

PRAISE THE LORD!

whew! i can't believe that my life is my own again! i feel liberated! i can do anything!! well. not true really. i have to go home and work. but the possibility is there and that makes all the difference. i'm completely broke, exhausted, recovering from a massive sinus infection, recovering from traumatic stress (a.k.a. nursing finals), and really ready to go home to mommy.

but this year was so much... fun? i don't know, yes, there were fun times, but the emotions throughout the year weren't always good, but they leave a good feeling when looking back. so the year WAS good, and definetly had a lot of God-induced faith that pulled me through.

but also hard... in many ways.

to the global community of Christ - please pray for my dear friend (and future roommate) Becky's dad. he is dying of cancer and it's in the final stages. she went home early to care for him and is really discouraged. it's a terrible thing to watch your daddy who's always been strong for you, slowly turn into a living skeleton. Mr. Doug is an amazing man of God and he has witnessed to every doctor, surgeon, and nurse who has cared for him and has amazed them with his peace (that passes all understanding) and marvels at his faith. but it doesn't make it any easier for the 21 and 19 year old kids that he's leaving behind. so if you think of it, please pray for him (he's in a lot of pain) and his family (especially Becky since she's taking the brunt of his care onto herself and she's only just finished nursing finals too so i know she's already exhausted.)

thanks... this family is really dear to me - they've really taken me in and been very kind to me and to see my friends go through this is hard. especially since i don't really don't know how to be there for them, but not be a bother either. meh.

love you all... miss you most.

family group memories... i miss these kids!

2007-03-22T19:34:00.000-04:00

so i found that awesome movie that bethany and BJ made about our family group and i watched it and it made me really happy so i got all excited and put it on YouTube so that i could post it and THEN, i found out that my 16 minute movie dosn't qualify for YouTube's 10 min length restriction and it won't show it. and i'm not computer savvy enough to figure out another way to post it. sorry. i wanted to share those memories with you but i just couldn't!!

but at least i tried.

i love everybody.

remember this day?

2007-02-16T14:07:00.000-05:00

this was my birthday two years ago, with the mostest special girls. i miss you all. very much. my birthday will never be the same again.

Apple Launch

2007-02-16T12:48:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV6v_4WIBlA

a must see for those who wish to witness what charleston southern students do when bored with an apple, a water ballon launcher, and a very dumb roommate. apologies Mike Myers, you aren't dumb, but honestly, why on earth did you let these guys talk you into this?!

enjoy.

dearly beloved...

2007-02-06T22:07:00.000-05:00

OH MY GOSH, DAVEO IN SC?? SOMEBODY PINCH ME!!

nathan: i'm currently on a PCU floor, Progressive Care Unit. it's next door to the ICU and we get patients from there once they're stable enough to breathe on their own. i won't work a rotation in the ER until my senior year, but i will get to work in Urgent Care clinics, and i'll probably work on a Med/Surg floor this summer. [but i can't wait for Labor and Delivery!! next year i get to play with BABIES!]

another funny clinical story:
so nursing students are required to wear the very flattering all white uniform that makes us look like marshmellows and basically announces to all the world, "BEWARE, THIS IS NOT REALLY A NURSE." anyway, so my patient that morning was a dear little man who had a few psych issues and was on heavy meds to keep him in this reality rather than the one where there are spiders on the ceiling that won't let him sleep. well, i came in to do a sterile dressing change on his surgical incision and i had two other students come in with me to help me turn him and maintain my sterile field [a difficult thing to do with your patient flopping all over and asking for sweet tea and for somebody to get rid of those spiders.] anyway, the three all-white-uniformed girls inspired this comment from my patient:
(him) "you know what? ya'll just look so mechanical in those uniforms!"
(me) "don't you mean medical?"
(him) "oh yeah, same church, different pew!"

dang it! again, it so dosen't look as funny as it was to me. well it was funny. take my word for it.

but this morning's clinical wasn't all fun. one of my patients declined very rapidly and had to be rushed to the ICU to be intubated. it was really rough on his family who had been there for several days already and hadn't slept much. how do you tell a wife that her husband can no longer breathe on his own? how do you ask her if she wants him to be a DNR (do not ressusitate)? what do you say when you know that everything's not going to be ok? how do you express in words how much you feel for them without sounding idiotic? "i'm so sorry" just doesn't cut it.

then, after that patient had left i had just one little old lady who was so precious, but so sad. she had no family, only a nursing home. she was in the hospital because of a fall that re-broke an already broken arm. then she developed an infection from the surgical incision to re-set her arm and was on heavy antibiotics the side effects of which leave her feeling miserable. i brushed her hair for almost half an hour because no one had done it in about a month. it broke my heart to know that when she dies, the only people who will miss her are her nurses who call her "little miss maggie."

y'all! i'm really not a depressing nurse! but sometimes the reality of life hits you hardest when you see death face to face. but then invariably, when a patient dies in the hospital, you'll hear a little lullaby played over the intercom to announce to the whole hospital that a new little one has been born.

hospitals are conflicting places. life and death. and both are ushered in with tears.

For Daveo and Courtnay:

2007-01-30T18:50:00.000-05:00

ok Daveo, i should be studying right now about infections and diseases of the skin (ewww) but instead i will quickly post a humorous episode from today's clinical experience:

my patient, an elderly gentleman with multiple health problems has, as an effect of his medications, extremely fragile skin. because of this, he recently suffered the effects of "shear" on fragile skin, basically it's a rug-burn that takes your skin off with it. so his arm was all torn up and it was very painful. so i went in there, and being the good little nurse that i am (and very enthusiastic and thorough) i patched him up with Viscopaste (a very sticky gauze with zinc oxide paste in it), an entire roll of dry gauze wrapped all the way up his arm, and some tape to secure the whole thing. well this little man's arm was so well bandaged that there was little left to be seen! and he looked at me, quite seriously, and said,
"Now look what you've done dearie, you've made me a mummy!"
maybe not so funny now that i read over it myself, but the thought of this tiny little man on 5 liters of oxygen, 24 different drugs, two IVs, and absolutely no ability to move on his own running around terrorizing people was REALLY amusing to me at 6:45 in the morning. i was so tired i might have laughed at anything, but regardless, i thought he was cute. :-)

minor tangent: i've decided that i can't work with people who are declining. i like helping people to get better, not watching them suffer and prolonging their pain. but he was a joy, even if he was dying.

downright rabbit trail: (ohh, no, ELEPHANT trail!! AP Bio memories) i've recently been wondering where the line is in this politically correct world where i can and can't pray with/for my patients. i'd love to pray with my patients before i leave them [because they probably won't live to see me again] but that's not popular and i don't want to get my supervisor in trouble. I don't mind getting in trouble, but i'd hate for my teacher to get blamed for a "non-complient student." that's complete trash, but i do want to be respectful while i'm practicing under someone else's liscence.

anyway... enough procrastinating.

OH! to answer Courtnay's question: a good wedding is one where bride and groom survive, and LEAVE as soon as possible.
a REALISTIC wedding is one where your mother plans everything, invites everyone, and puts you out 10 grand. but it's really pretty.
i don't know, do i want to have a painless wedding, or a pretty wedding? can you have both? or would the space-time continuum spontaneously combust if they were to combine?

que pasa

2007-01-26T14:03:00.000-05:00

nursing girls throw their studies to the wind and hit the town!
and then the stressed out and went crazy. :-)

my dear blogging friends,

i shall now procede to write the last post for a long while, so get ready, buckle your seatbelts, and hang on for dear life. just kidding.

so, i just took my second test this week, and now i'm about to "gird up the loins of my mind" and "hoe in" (to mix metaphors AND quote Anne of Green Gables AT the same time.) in preperation for next week which will be nothing short of academic brutality. but, such is life.

coming back to school was fun - i had missed all my nursing girls and friends, but it was overwhelming to see all the work i have to acomplish in only 4 months! but Nick is home so at least i'll have my own personal shoulder to cry on when it gets to be too much. :-)

congratulations to all those who got engaged over Christmas and thereabouts! i'm completely inundated with engage-ees, my suitemate and two of my close friends recently got engaged too so there are about 5,642 wedding magazines in my suite right now. [half are in the bathroom so while you're doing your buisness or just passing through you can flip through a PLETHORA of dresses and flowers and lace and cakes and invitations and caterers and ideas and generally things that make not-engaged girls depressed. [why did i want to do nursing school again?? remind me!?!]

well... thus ends the last-post-for-a-long-time and off i go into intelectual oblivion. hopefully. i may end up in brain melt-down! yikes.

take care... hope you are all doing fabulously wonderful. love and love.

happy all the time...

2006-12-20T13:45:00.000-05:00

we were cooking for christmas...

he got a little FIESTY!

never make a woman angry in the kitchen!!

happy ALL the time? not so much. :-) but MOST of the time is safe to say!

so i'm sitting here watching the food network and planning our new year's menu - YUMMY! i think i'm going to grill a pork shoulder with garlic, onion and ginger, and serve it with a cilantro, pinapple, honey, hot pepper, and parsley glaze. ooo, and grilled sweet potatoes. yeah yeah.

just wanted to post to say that i'm ok. and the world is sunny again. and to say THANKS to josh and ali for coming over - it was so nice to see you both! even if it was short. :-)

i'm leaving for florida on friday to spend Christmas with my godparents and to visit Nick's sisters and nieces. i'm pretty excited! it's going to be warm and warm and sunny and i looovvveeee the south! ha!

merry christmas to everybody if i don't post before then...

it's just one of those days.

2006-12-14T11:26:00.000-05:00

i realize that it's been... forever... since i posted last. i very humbly apologize.

i have officially survived my first semester as a nursing student, and i maintained a fairly decent GPA to boot. i enjoyed it, but i have a few gray hairs from the stress [no kidding], and a sleep deficit of about 238 hours. :-) but i have Christmas break to recover before i jump in again.

Nick is home from DC and visiting my family for a few days... very nice to have him HERE and not on the phone. having to adjust to having him back is interesting though... not always as easy as you think it will be.

also having to adjust to being back at home with parents who still [somewhere deep inside] think that you are a lost little 6 year-old who needs to be told what to do concerning EVERYTHING. i have to remind them that i've survived just fine for 3 years without their constant advice. mmm... i really do love them.

do you ever find yourself acting a certain way around certain people just to avoid conflict? i hate that about myself. it's really annoying. but i hate conflict even more so i'll act/say/do whatever is required of me to please certain people and then they'll leave me alone. Nick pegged me on that this morning. i hate it when he's right. just kidding, it's true. and i don't like it either.

feeling a wee bit dissatisfied with my accomplishments for no apparent reason. i got to the end of my semester goals and now i feel almost defeated. i did what i wanted to but who really cares anyway...? i feel ungrateful but somehow i just don't care right now. i hate feeling apathetic. haha, what an oxymoronic statement.

not my usual kind of post, but sometimes it helps to see one's meloncholy in black and white. makes it look more ridiculous that way and inspires me to get over it.

here's hoping i snap out of it!

PS i think a large part of it is that my family dosen't celebrate Christmas anymore. loonnnggg story, don't ask. but it's super depressing to not celebrate Christmas. i mean, it's CHRISTMAS for cryin out loud!!

title:

2006-11-12T13:54:00.000-05:00

i don't really have much to say... i just figured that i should post since it's been forever. i miss everybody... here's a big e-hug and cuddles and cups of tea and a few sheep thrown in there for good measure...

a few ponderings...

2006-09-27T14:01:00.000-04:00

"Keep your feet on the ground, but let your heart soar as hight as it will. Refuse to be average" - Arthur Helps

"The true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good." Ann Landers

"A sense of humor is a major defense against minor troubles." - Mignon McLaughlin

"To do what you do and feel that it matters - how could anything be more fun?" - Katherine Graham

TOP 7 SIGNS YOU'VE BEEN A NURSING STUDENT TOO LONG:
7. You identify the nursing lab as your primary place of residence.
6. You study for your annual physical exam.
5. At dinnertime, you inform you family that they're NPO until morning.
4. You have sacral decubiti from sitting in lectures.
3. Your fingerprints are fading from washing your hands so much.
2. Your best mouth-to-mouth contact in months involves Resusi-Annie.
1. You inadvertently write "Student Nurse" or "SN" after your check, credit card, and other important documents' signatures.

SO, nursing is my life, but it is very fun - i am getting ready to go meet my patient tonight and plan out my interventions for tomorrow. I think I'm gonna watch Patch Adams tonight... sounds appropriate. :-)

hope everyone is doing well... congratulations to Kaylie! i need PICTURES WOMAN!

peace out.

quick update!

2006-09-18T13:38:00.000-04:00

today is monday. bleh, je n'aime pas lundi. BUT at least the sun is shining and i have a new polka-dot shirt on and i made a fantasticly amazing B+ on my nursing test and uhh, hold on.

i had to run down to the campus ministries office to get a paper from the BCM president about Bible study stuff. and i stubbed my toe on the way back. ouch.

um,"diaries of a mad black woman" is really funny. "WELL, WHAT HAD HAPPEN WAS..."

well... time to start studying. this was an incredibly scatterbrained post. sorry. this is how my brain works - random firing bursts. meh.

so apparently...

2006-09-07T13:27:00.000-04:00

L	Lucky
I	Innocent
A	Amazing
N	Neat
A	Ambitious

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

pictures tell a 1000 words!

2006-09-03T19:12:00.000-04:00

nursing expiraments on my roommate. i heart kristin!

me, my suitemate april and my roomie!

curly trio... dustin and britt! at the coffeehouse!

my darlin friend SEAN! who is getting married next sept!

this is what we did during Hurrican Ernesto. puddle jumping.

lots of wet CSU kids!! :-)

an english assignment with ponderable qualities:

2006-08-28T21:47:00.000-04:00

"Yet I see, when God calls a person to anything, and through never so many difficulties, yet He is fully able to carry them through and make them see, and say they have been gainers thereby. And I hope I can say in some measure, as David did, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted" [Psalm 119:71]. The Lord hath showed me the vanity of these outward things. That they are the vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit, that they are but a shadow, a blast, a bubble, and things of no continuance. That we must rely on God Himself, and our whole dependance must be upon Him. If trouble from smaller matters begin to arise in me, I have something at hand to check myself with, and say, why am I troubled? It was but the other day that if I had had the world, I would have given it for my freedom, or to have been a servant to a Christian. I have learned to look beyond present and smaller troubles, and to be quieted under them. As Moses said, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord" [Exodus 14:13]."

Mary Rowlandson
From A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
1682

amazing woman. read it.

quick update:

2006-08-23T11:33:00.000-04:00

in order of importance:

1. God is faithful.
2. Nick left for D.C.
3. Nursing is going to be REALLY hard.
4. My cold still isn't entirely gone.
5. God is still faithful.

this semester, if you ever have need of a health care professional, or happen to see a white lab coat, or buy some tylenol, or just randomly think of sunshine, curls, and an air-headed little friend of yours, please pray for me! I know this is where God wants me, and I know that God will never lead me where He will not sustain me. However, that dosen't mean I've been completely sucessful in embracing the truth of Philipians 4:6-7. I'm working on that one. ["Do not worry about anything, but in everything, with prayer and petition..."]

but I did find Romans 12:12 to be amazing:
"be JOYFUL in hope, PATIENT in affliction, FAITHFUL in prayer."

that's pretty much what I need for nursing. so pray that I will really have that, and give me a call to tell me i'm loved every so often, and i'll be ok.

thanks for those who have already "checked up" on me. you are PRECIOUS.

achoo

2006-08-13T16:28:00.000-04:00

do you ever find yourself just tired? i mean just really tired, physically, emotionally, spiritually? worn out, can't go any further, i'm just going to sit here and let the world fall to pieces around me tired?

i am tired.

but that's when God taps me on the shoulder and says "Good! Finally, now I can work."

why can't God use me/grow me/break me when i'm full of energy and the sun is shining and my parents are happy and my responsibilies are all under control and my friends are stable and the future looks secure?!? i mean, honestly, i think i'd respond so much better if He tried working with me then. unfortunately He knows me better and He knows that when i'm "satisfied" i'm really stagnant.

yesterday:
so i have a horrible cold, my finances are a wreck, i'm dealing with a long distance relationship [and all the stress that entails], it rained all day, i was late for a CPR class across town [i had to drive in the rain, i hate driving in the rain], i'm nervous about nursing, my parents are being pretty darn negative about a lot of stuff, and the future is all up in the air. again.

but this morning, i woke up, it was gloriously sunny [AND only 78 degrees with low humidity!!], my dad told me that they were going to cover the extra $500 or so that i was worrying about, went to church, had lunch with friends, and then read Jeremiah 17: 5 - 8:

"This is what the LORD says: "Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans and turn their hearts away from the LORD. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, on the salty flats where no one lives.
"But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit."

and suddenly i realized why i was tired. umm, i think i was cursed.

i was counting on my depraved sin-strewn strength to fix all my problems, and that obviously gets you nowhere. actually it gets you backwards. but God [in his wonderous mercy] took over and said, see you couldn't do it if you tried, so how 'bout you let ME do it, since that's the only thing that will work anyway, and then you can give Me glory for it.

sounds good, Lord.

moving to charleston thursday, say goodbye to nick on monday, start classes tuesday [a.k.a. sell my soul to the nursing program], and then probably cry, pick myself up, read Jeremiah again ["trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord, trust in the Lord"], and attack this semester with God's strength.

THROUGH CHRIST I CAN DO ALL THINGS!

2006-08-08T22:18:00.000-04:00

WILL POST SOON.

HAVE NO TIME.

AM RIDICULOSLY BUSY WITH WORK AND GETTING READY FOR SCHOOL.

I LOVE YOU.

IM SORRY.

QOTD: (fye)

2006-07-28T00:06:00.000-04:00

Quote of the Day:
(for your encouragement)

Don't let anyone steal your joy.

in tribute to Jonathan Bedell.
and a random man who came into Carrabba's and left me with that thought. and a rather nice tip.

when world's collide.

2006-07-27T23:34:00.000-04:00

apologies for the lack of posting -- i am a horrible person, i know.

reunion was a smashing sucess. except i was ridiculously depressed after everybody left. talk about a super high and a super crash. but i am recovered and the whole experience was soooo amazing.

bizzare, to be able to walk downstairs in the morning [after waking up caroline who rolled over on the other side of my bed] and see rob and steven and josh who had slept in my living room on various couches and sleeping bags, then jumping onto the sofa bed [that had slept no less than 3 girls] with leslie, sarah, and ali, and then onto chelsea, elin, danelle, becca, and anna who slept on the floor. oh yeah, and rob's girlfriend lydia on too. it was CRAZY but ohhh so much fun.

i never thought i'd see these people in my house in south carolina. who knew? world's collided... amazing.

and then we made a valient attempt at making beth cry/pee her pants, but she didn't. we did however, suprise her very much by driving out to gaston on a ridiculously hot day. steven got to canoe for the first time. it was quite the expierence.

leslie and sarah went to sonic for the first time and expierenced drive in roller skate service. something we southerns, apparently, take for granted. very entertaining.

jon wilson - we bought you beef jerky and swedish fish.

well, the pictures are currently stuck on my camera since i broke my usb thingy... i'll have to buy a new one.

two week notice at carrabbas is going in on aug 1st. oohhh yeah. but pray for one of my friends there - she has been asking some awesome and scary questions about God and what/who He is. she came out last night and asked point blank if i believed that Jesus was the Son of God. wow. it's one thing to talk about the deity of Christ with your christian friends, but another to answer straight up to someone whos next question is "why?" definetly keeping me on my toes. anyone read Case for Faith by Lee Strobel? yeah, good book. C S Lewis Mere Christianity too. i just re-read those so i wouldn't be completely scrambling for answers. i'm still nervous though - i don't want to overwhelm her you know? but i'm not going to sugar-coat anything, i'll tell her truth. i just hope she's ready for it.

her name is Caralee. pray for her, please.

well, it's time for bed, te quiero.

guess WHAT?!

2006-06-23T09:17:00.000-04:00

i talked to CHELSEA DOUCE [yes, be jealous], and she wants to roadtrip with ELIN, NORWEGIAN GODDESS to join the SC insanity!! would that not be incredible??! everybody pray and send money to Chelsea for gas! haha. um, i'm really excited.

ATTN janice, speaking of being twins and such, there is a girl at my work who is freakishly similar to your own charming self. not in appearance, but an emo film artist with dyed hair who is a closet country fan and who likes wearing spandex leggings under skirts. [that a big deal for the south!] maybe i should box her up and send her to you, "best friend in a box."

so i am home alone for the next few days, my rents and sibling have abandoned me for the beach. rarrr. i don't like being alone in this big house. creepy.

time for shower!

its a party.

2006-06-18T09:23:00.000-04:00

Leslie:

try calling again! i was screening calls and i didn't realize that the wierd number i didn't recognize was my darling leslie!!! josh and rob and emily and nick and my sister and cousin were all over at my house and i was getting persecuted for answering my phone [Caroline Chick had called earlier] so i didn't pick up and didn't realize my GRAVE error until later. sorry.

Stephen IS coming to SC, and his visit with Anna Stewart overlaps with yours so i made her promise to road trip down here while he was with her. so, the list so far is:

Leslie Fiddler
Sarah Clerc
Anna Stewart
Stephen Morris
Becca Bowen ??
Josh Schreck
Rob McAlister
Beth Gross
Allison Moody [who's new short hair is HOT btw]
Jesse Maranger ??
Caroline Chick ???? [really iffy on this one, but worth a try]
and me.

Anyone else going to be in the south around the 20th of July??

time for church... gotta run!

PS Italy v. US was insane, that ref was ridiculous.

As per Miss Rae's request:

2006-06-13T11:24:00.000-04:00

"It's summer, so post more" -- Janice Rae.

you know you'd think that it'd be easier. but not in my house. no no no, my house, as Josh Schreck recently said, has a revolving door. there is very rarely a moment in time where the only occupants of my house are members of the Byers family. my parents have a small group from church of mostly college/seminary students who have decided to adopt my parents, my house, and more specifically, my refridgerator.

i've spent half this summer cooking ridiculous amounts of food [to satisfy my Italian mother] to large groups of bottomless pits. uh, i mean college students. [who amazingly enough, eat enough to satisfy said Italian mother]

the other half of this summer has been spent at Carrabba's Italian Grill. not too bad if you like waiting on whiny customers with bratty kids, working with heathens who's body weight is 20% water, 70% alcohol, the rest is coated in tar from the 2 packs a day they inhale, and managers who really don't believe in days off. ["days off" you say, what is THAT?]

but in between, God has been good. the new church i'm going to here is really cool, i even have a few really old friends from highschool there including a history teacher, a diciplinarian, and a jazz pianist. Josh is the only one who will understand that. my pastor there is a total crackhead as my friend mandy says but he is an incredible teacher. reminds me a bit of Rob Whittaker, he even uses powerpoint in strangely familiar patterns.

i don't have a lot of friends in Columbia anymore, but Josh and Rob and Angela have been faithful as always. as well as several suprise visits from Capernwray friends that felt like saturday afternoons in the lounge. nice.

3 friends got married. 3 more to go. ahh, it's summertime and the wedding bells are ringing. congrats to marisa and marty [the next two]!!

i get to see Nick on saturday for a few hours! yeah!! he's been in florida with his parents and sisters and nieces for a family vacation. its raining. HA. but he's coming back up to see me before he goes back to Charleston. i now have much MUCH more sympathy for those who are doing the long distance relationship. and even then i still see him once or twice a month.

well, i was supossed to clean my room before i got ready for work so i'd better do that.

hope that post satisfied even janice, the Queen Bee. by the way, i really miss you jan. i don't know if you know that.

much love to all of you -- i really do keep up with what's going on in your lives, i'm just too lazy to keep you updated on mine. :-/ sorry.

The Frailty of God's Plan

2006-06-10T00:28:00.000-04:00

my dad wrote this a while ago... it's an old post of his, but i recently re-read it and it's so true. good reminder for me. hopefully it will encourage you too!

Have you ever been caught in a family moral crisis that resulted in much embarrassment, awkwardness, and estrangement?
Have you ever faced a hard important life choice about who you were going to marry and didn't know what to do?
Have you ever had to comply with a legal requirement that cost you a lot of effort and money?
Have you ever had to take an out-of-town road trip, but at the wrong time of year when traffic would be terrible, and your transportation wasn't very reliable?
Have you ever worried about and felt helpless in doing anything about the health and well-being of your expecting wife?
Have you ever worried about the health and wholeness of your unborn child?
Have you ever found yourself on a trip where every hotel room in the city was full due to some sporting event and there wasn't anything available?
Have you ever had to make do with difficult living situations until something better turned up?

I could go on and on and on, describing the events leading up to the birth of Jesus in the lives of His earthly parents - Mary and Joseph. Each of the things they faced were so like the things we face. But there was a huge difference, they had the responsibility of caring for God's own Son. The salvation of the world was at stake. Your and my salvation was hanging in the balance.

If that donkey had stumbled…
If the long journey had harmed the baby…
If the stable had some infectious disease…
If the shepherds had let in a draft…
If the wise men had forgotten something back in Jersusalem…
If Herod had located them before they left…

It all seems so perilous, so fragile, so fraught with danger that it could upset and come crashing down at any point.

Doesn't that sound like our lives? So many decisions affect us - made by ourselves and others, circumstances we put ourselves in and are forced into, events and situations out of our control.When I read in God's Word the circumstances in which He introduced the single most important event in all of eternity, I can't help but ask - why choose so fragile a plan? There was too much risk, too many things that could go wrong, too many unknowns…

And then I realize that I, a human being, am trying to manage God's plan. And that I am not God. What is fragile to me, is solid to God. What is risky to me, is certain to God. What could go wrong for me, is under His control. What is unknown to me, is known to God.

God could have chosen another method, but He chose this one on purpose - why? God was going to accomplish our salvation, but He wanted to do it in such a way as to demonstrate - illustrate - His power and ability, knowledge and intimate understanding, to deal with the every day events of life, including the risks, the dangers, the struggles, the heartaches, the disappointments, the confusion, the separation, the grief.

God did not send His Son into the world on a risky endeavor. He was not gambling. He was not taking chances or playing the odds. It was as sure and as certain as His Word said it was. It may have LOOKED risky; it may have LOOKED chancy, but it wasn't. God was in control. His purposes were being accomplished.

Our lives may LOOK risky or chancy or out of control. But they aren't. God's control and purposes in our lives are as certain as His Word. God proved it by sending His Son to live among us.

--- Rick Byers

DESOLE!

2006-06-10T00:20:00.000-04:00

notice the cute lil brunette to the right? yup! BECCA BOWEN!

i just got off a 7 hour shift. it's friday night. and i only made $45. ugggghhhh.

here are the pictures, i couldn't decided which one i liked better. you choose.

i love you all.

Chelsea Douce, CALL ME?!

busy busy terribly busy

2006-05-31T22:55:00.000-04:00

soooo... life is pretty much, eat, work, eat, call nick, sleep. the end.

carrabbas is insane. a bunch of crazy heathens, but they're good for a laugh! and the food is AWESOME. but i'm tired. my feet hurt. and i smell like chicken. blech.

HOWEVER!! tomorrow i am going to drive down to Charleston and see all my friends and go to the BEACH and celebrate my 6 month anniversary with Nicholas and then his 21st birthday on friday! its pretty much going to be a FANTASTIC two days. and then back to life in columbia.

very sorry for the lack of posting lately.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSHUA DAVID SCHRECK! welcome to 20 my old friend.

well, i have to pack, wrap a present, and shower all the chicken off.

PS. Becca Bowen does still exist. she was at my house yesterday with Nate Smith. wonderful to see them.

it's raining and Liana is going blog-crazy...

2006-05-08T14:00:00.000-04:00

You Are Apple Green

You are almost super-humanly upbeat. You have a very positive energy that surrounds you.And while you are happy go lucky, you're also charmingly assertive.You get what you want, even if you have to persuade those against you to see things your way.Reflective and thoughtful, you know yourself well - and you know that you want out of life.

What Color Green Are You?

You Are Apple Red

You're never one to take life too seriously, and because of it, you're a ton of fun.And although you have a great sense of humor, you are never superficial.Deep and caring, you do like to get to the core of people - to understand them well.However, any probing you do is light hearted and fun, sometimes causing people to misjudge you.

What Color Red Are You?

love the apple theme...

it don't mean a thing...

2006-05-08T13:51:00.000-04:00

if it ain't got that swing!

courtsey of Ben Clark-Mitchell's photos.

update:

2006-05-07T10:28:00.000-04:00

unintentionally matching marilyn monroe look-alikes....

i survived. my GPA suffered a wee bit, darn psychology, but i pulled through to sucessfully apply to the nursing program. haha, i love how people actually TRY to get into the program that tries to KILL you for 3 years. if you survive, you get a BSN. if you fail, you get a bunch of useless medical credits and a waste of $24 grand.

so thats that... now i'm home again and i've cleaned for 3 days straight. i think the third law of thermodynamics is stronger in this house than in any other. honestly, my mother can think up things to clean that i NEVER would have thought of. in fact, i think she makes up messes just so she can clean them. i've never unpacked so quickly. she fairly attacked my stuff and wrecked havoc that i had to clean up under pain of death.

enough complaining! sheesh!

i went midnight bowling last night... much fun. especially when you have to dance your way up to the lane and any and all pins knocked down require a creative victory dance. for those who know jessi cornwell -- it was quite an expierence. then crashed at angela's house. just like old times...

i start training at Carrabba's soon... i have to memorize a HUGE wine and liquor list and menu before then. should be fun.

keep in touch. call me if you're in Cola town.

it's that time of the year again...

2006-04-25T11:21:00.000-04:00

EXAMS.

i love you Elizabeth Anne [with an "e"] Gross! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY you darling thing you!

in special response to jeff dick [who i greatly miss]

2006-04-15T10:20:00.000-04:00

LEBISTAN:

This, my friends, is the South Carolina state flag that flies over our campus and that some idiot raised upside down. Therefore, my conclusion is that in the rare case that the SC flag is flow upside down, it must then convert to the flag of that little known establishment known as Lebistan. See Jeff Dick for more details.

Beth -- i will gladly dread your hair. It was actually really fun.

spent all day yesterday at the beach with about 25 friends... ahhhh good friday.

over and out.

dread head/knotty boy

2006-04-11T15:33:00.000-04:00

ladies and gentlemen, this is Isaac Gardner - longboarder extrordinaire, emo hippie, fellow honors student [we suffer through Linda Gooding three days a week], and my dear New Hampshir-ian friend. And those charming little things on his head are the babies that i created after many painful hours and 7 epic movies. i am extremely proud of my creations. i have visitation rights.

before:

nick and Isaac being southern italians... slash irish... don't ask. it's a weird identity crisis going on. regardless of nationalities notice the curly hair pre-dreading.

after:

aren't they pretty?? mmm. ok Kaylie - what do you think? you are the master, i, merely your humble apprentice.

well. time for my second term paper of the week. Global Issues: World Health: HIV/AIDS. i think i'll just show the movie RENT for my presentation and leave it at that. haha. ok just kidding. off to the library for research.

fellowship of the unashamed

2006-04-09T15:37:00.000-04:00

This prayer was found among the belongings of a young man in Rwanda the day after he was killed for refusing to renounce Christ.

"I am a part of the fellowship of the Unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit Power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slowdown, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure.

I am finished and done with low living, sight-walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity.

I don't have to be right, I don't have to be first, I don't have to be on top, I don't have to be recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by presence, learn by faith, love bypatience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.

My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, myway is rough, my companions few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted,or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in thepresence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I've preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ.

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes. And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My colors will be clear for "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is thepower of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.." (Romans 1:16)"

from Words Aptly Spoken
Dr. Bob Moorehead

apologies for the previous hyperlinked post. don't exactly know what happened there. meh. have a wonderful week.

i've visited 4% of the world.

2006-04-04T19:06:00.000-04:00

i figured out my unknowns.
1. Escherina coli
2. Bacillus megaterium
3. Sarcina lutea
4. Enterobacter aerogenes

after HOURS of staring into a microscope, and running tests and mixing potions and generally playing around with pathogenic bacteria, i conquored and figured out my bacterial unknowns!

now: to write a research paper on Hamlet. then a research paper on AIDS. then, i have a microbiology test, physiology test, history test and a project all in one week. and THEN, the week after that i will shut myself up in the library only emerging to eat and sleep until my exams are over!!

then and only then will my life resume any semblence of normalacy.

Grace is going through a hippie stage. she just played "puff the magic dragon" while dancing around the room. ooo, now it's "if i had a hammer." mmm...

finished dreading my friend Isaac's hair this past weekend. it looks great. i'll post pictures later. remember those late nights on the balcony with the light pulled over onto the landing? mmm... yeah. i miss you Heidi. and Kaylie.

my paper on Hamlet is crying out to me, "to be [written] or not to be [written], that is the question!"

i must needs answer.

irony

2006-03-26T19:19:00.000-05:00

charlie's angels... obviously.

my psychology teacher is psychotic. go figure. the woman is a hippie who thinks the 60s are still in full swing. i have a test tomorrow. i have ZERO motivation.

You must check out this video clip. Especially if you could use a good giggle! http://gingerbeethebusybee.blogspot.com/2006/03/got-giggles.html

i should have studied earlier but sleep and then cute lil videos trumped school. meh.

yes the formal most certiantly did involve dancing -- swing, shag [the state dance of SC, nothing dirty you... dirty... minded people] and of course the cha cha slide. mmm. lots of fun. actually the fun part was dodging drunk st.patty's day revelers who were staggering around downtown. they were all ridiculously dressed and veryyyy friendly. "hey what the *beep*? why are y'all the *beep* dressed up? it's not *beep*in prom is it? i mean, you ladies look *beep*in hot! hey, you want some beer?" we're very nice in the south. offering ladies beer, how nice. mmm. nick wanted to play "bowling for drunks" by running over intoxicated pedestrians. 10 points for frat boys, 5 for slutty sorority girls, and -10 for non-drunk innocents. or elderly folk. or any people who are actually of irish descent.

well. psyche calls... unfortunately.

SORRY!

2006-03-20T14:50:00.000-05:00

spring formal... looveeee it.

ok, my excuse: CSU internet crashed for the past 2 days. grarrrrr.

the reality: i haven't had time. i'm sorry!

so spring break was awesome... chillin at home. got to hang out with schreck, anna stewart and beth for an evening -- it was AMAZING. i had forgotten what a total crazy beautiful girl anna was. heck yes she's in SC!

sooo... life. continues as always. getting cabin fever. the beach calls my name. got sunburned yesterday.

Kaylie called today. i love you kay kay! tatoos, bartenders and rockstars. amazing.

took an evil history test today. then made t-shirts for my friend's SGA Presidential campaign. helped a friend with some basic apologetics to share with a coworker who is asking her about God. that was cool.

my left leg is asleep.

i need to write a microbiology lab. i don't want to write a microbiology lab. bleh.

love you all.

yes, it's a tiara.

2006-02-28T22:31:00.000-05:00

my roommate's prom queen tiara. she made me wear it for my birthday. notice it's only on for one picture. tiaras may be pretty but they are not comfortable things to wear. believe me.

been sneezing incessantly for 3 days.

studying for a massive micro test. lots of fun:
Escherichia, Salmonella, Shigella, Klebsiella, Serratia, Proteus, Yersinia, and Erwinia are all enterobacters, gram negative facultative rods that live in the GI tract, ferment sugars, and produce bacteriocins, toxins to other bacteria.
that just for your enlightment.

i'll post more that less boring soon. nursing classes are rather all consuming at present. sorry.

well, it's official.

2006-02-25T16:54:00.000-05:00

i'm 20.

as i've been so graciously informed, that's half of 40. thanks y'all. that comment just made my day. honestly, what do people think when they offer that ray of sunshine to a birthday girl? sheesh.

so my mom and dad and sister surprised me by driving down with two of my best friends from highschool and busting into my room! sooo good to see them. those who lived with me will remember me talking about Jessi and Angela. they both came down from columbia and hung out with me for the day.

nick took me to dinner and coffee. and spent way too much money on me! he is absolutely precious. and hysterically funny. nick + caffine is something to behold.

missed capernwray. daffodils and shakespeare. courtnay danny and caroline taking me to stratford upon avon for my birthday! so much fun. thanks courtnay. i'll never forget that.

euphoric.

2006-02-17T18:25:00.000-05:00

for those of you who have long harbored doubts as to my ability to do anything sports related -- be dismayed! i have conquored my girly stereotype and risen above athletic incompetence!

I PLAYED BEACH VOLLEYBALL FOR 4 HOURS THIS AFTERNOON.

and i didn't suck! i even scored a few times. oh, and got sunburned. it was awesome. february 17 and it was a balmy 75 degrees. i LOVE south carolina.

so... that's my acomplishment for today.

furthermore: i would like to address those who critisize my girly pink and chocolate affiliations... it could be worse. i am neither a barbie, neither am i a satanist. i may be a tad girly, but hey! girly is good.

no i didn't cut my hair - it was just really curly in that picture!

will definetly call you kay kay and talk to becca too!

have a wonderful weekend everyone... be good, don't do anything i wouldn't do. "love ya, mean it!" -- kristin addy

Valentine's Day!

2006-02-15T22:31:00.000-05:00

...for the first time in 20 years, february 14th was not S. A. D. [single's awareness day] rather, it was my-boyfriend-is-AMAZING-tine's day.

he surprised me with pink roses, took me to dinner [the way to my heart is most definetly through my stomach :-)], and then watched Return of Zoro with me. umm... pretty much he's my favorite person in the whole world and my best friend. we had so much fun just being crazy!

it was so much fun to see all the girls walkin around campus with various arrangements of flowers, all the guys whispering secret plans, the odd giant "will you be my valentine" cardboard sheet propped up in front of Women's North dorm [good job isaac, julie was pretty darn happy], having yet another excuse to wear pink, eating way too much chocolate and sweet hearts, finding sweethearts at walmart in spanish "Corazones Dulces," helping josh rustin make a valentine for becca that was as big as she is [she's only 5'1" but still, it was impressive], going downtown and seeing everybody all dressed up and all the restraunts packed out. but the best part was hanging out with all my friends and telling them how much i love them.

so here's to all my friends, far and wide... I LOVE YOU!

recent musings.

2006-02-12T20:03:00.000-05:00

Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed
Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.

Book I: 1-16
John Milton
Paradise Lost

spring break '05

2006-02-08T22:50:00.000-05:00

this time last year...

sportin paden's Channel shades, haha...

guess who sent me pictures!! thats right, paden followwill! thanks so much girl, you made my day - all those memories. wow. costa del sol anybody?

just an update

2006-02-05T15:44:00.000-05:00

i have a two tests i'm studying for, but i thought i'd post just for the sake of posting. leslie - i love the fact that youre dutch. dunch. dut-nunch. haha. and maybe my inner european is italian because i AM italian?! :-) brilliant observation there.

speaking of italians...

cheesy grin... :-) and straight hair - yikes.

happy super bowl everyone. go steelers!

my inner european

2006-01-30T18:58:00.000-05:00

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful.

You show the world what culture really is.

Who's Your Inner European?

crocs and baptists

2006-01-30T12:26:00.000-05:00

it monday. it's raining. murphy's law holds true yet again.

what a little birdie told me i was getting for my birthday:
i heart crocs!

so the BCM weekend was really good - for baptists, they were really nice people. haha, sorry, unless you had Bobby Young as a teacher my baptist jokes don't make sense. anyone ever heard Clayton King speak? amazing. Crossroads Ministires. and Todd Fields is one of the best worship leaders ever. i also recommend 2 am glow in the dark frisbee on the beach, just don't get dunked. it's cold. oh, and we had freezing showers because embassy suites is incompetent and couldn't seem to figure out that we really meant it when we said we had no hot water.

ps: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. CSU isn't wealthy enough to ship us up to Ontario. unfortunately.

FS, eh? amazing. i actually said that outloud the other day when typing something and got a really wierd look. haha.

it's time for lunch. i'm hungry. too bad the caf food is gonna be scary. ah well.

ninja princesses

2006-01-27T13:57:00.000-05:00

Kristin Addy, me, Julie Mimms, Stephanie Odom, and Amanda Hobson. amazing girls. we're showing off a street sign we were holding for ransom.

soooo i'm a little nervous. BCM [Baptist Collegiate Ministries] is sending groups from all over the state to go up to myrtle beach this weekend for a retreat. while i'm excited, i'm also wary of baptists bearing conventions. mmm. in any case, the CSUers will have fun because the NINJA PRINCESSES [see picture above] will be pranking any and all who cross our path. all five of us are rooming together and pretty much it's going to be amazing. mwahahahaha!

in other news, [shed a tear] Nick cut his beautiful curls off. he looks very professional and "sharp" now. --he had an interview for an internship in DC for next semester-- but you know me and long hair. ah well. he's still really really ridiculously good looking. i'll post the new impoved look as soon as i can upload some pictures. don't hold your breath though, it could be a while. what with my being a failure in the blogging world. *sob* i'm sorry! i'm sorry! i'm sorrrrrryyyyy!!!

new favorite movie to quote: Anchorman. "Lan, lan, lanolin? La-lanolin? like sheep's wool?"... "stay class san diego" "would you like to come to the pants party?" "i'm kind of a big deal... people know me"

PS BETH: wildly jealous that you have anna stewart?! curse my lack of vehicle! ya know i could always pull a liger and hitch it to cola... i'll consider it.

insanity thy name is liana...

2006-01-25T11:12:00.000-05:00

downtown... just foolin around.

to those who filed complaints slash death threats, my sincerest apologies. i assure you that the relationship in question has NOT been the cause of my life's current state of chaos or lack of blogging. in fact, he very rarely sees me these days, poor darling.

well... since my last post, i recovered, relapsed, and then overdosed on vitamin c for 4 days and am now back to relative health. below: the daisies that my incredible boyfriend gave me to make me feel better. daisies are such happy flowers!

just typed up a microbiology lab report. speaking of, i am having way too much fun with these bacterial smears. if i catch E. coli and DIE, know that i love you all.

i took my french 202 clep yesterday. allison - it was rough. study hard my friend. but it's over!! however, all that studying in french meant that i slacked in my other classes and now i have 2 tests and a paper that i'm having to rush. ah well. what's college life without staying up until the wee hours of the morning?

have you ever had a sudden craving for gummy worms? maybe it's just me.

just because we all miss penguins:
Q. Why did the elephant bring toilet paper to the party?
A. Because he was a party pooper!

quit yer fussin.

2006-01-10T16:07:00.000-05:00

ok ok, i'm sorry about not posting lately, but i moved back down to Charleston and got STRUCK with a horrid sickness from HELL and haven't moved from my bed [other than class which was brutal] in two days. uuugggghhh. pretty much i would like someone to shoot me and end the misery.

in other news... Christmas break was good. saw Jerusha - awesome surprise! she spent the night with me and got to see Schreck and co. on new year's eve. got to see Ali!!! which was a definete highlight of my break - not to mention Schreck's. we got to hang out twice at my house and even got to swing dance for a while. Rob McAlister and Shannon Headley are the other two darlings in the pic... Ali already posted this but the explanation is worth hearing - Rob decided that his hair was too long and sweaty to swing dance with so instead of a haircut, i provided a bobby pin for him. pretty darn funny.

i got to see my boy for New Year's day... i went up to Charlotte, NC and hung out with him and his parents for two days. this was one happy girl! i hadn't seen him in almost 3 weeks... then came home, packed, and trucked it down to Chuck-town.

other than that, i ate wayyy too much food - i heart large family gatherings with too many cooks, :0) saw all the cousins, hung out with old friends, caught up on sleep and read 4 books. ahhh... now, back to school.

my schedule:
Physiology and Lab
Microbiology and Lab
English Comp and Rhetoric
Phychology
Hon. World Civ.
French 202 [clepping out of this, but i'll still get credit.]

well. that was to satisfy those who wanted a post - know that i love you all and miss you. kits. [to quote Rieppe]

links, reunions, and new years

2005-12-29T16:41:00.000-05:00

at angela's christmas party... shannon may headley!! the original curlie girlies :-)

me and my sister at our grandparents house...

it's been a good day.

1) it took me forever but i have resurrected my links. yea!
2) i babysat for a really cute little girl this morning. getting paid to play with barbies is always nice.
3) i got to hang out with Rob McAlister, Josh Schreck, Alison Moody, and Kate Jeffcoat last night... pizza, apples to apples, and muppet treasure island. fun times.
4) those above mentioned are coming back out to my house for new years [along with a few highschool friends of mine and Josh.]
5) nick comes back from florida in 2 days. [hurry!]

geeze, you'd think that being home i'd have plently to time to be online and post... but this is actually the first time in about a week i've blogged! sorry! i hope everyone had a really good christmas. i definetly did - it was really good to see friends and family. :-)

i hope everyone has fun over new years - and the East Coasters Party will be sure to call the West Coasters Party on new years at midnight because we'll get to experience 2006 3 hours earlier. we'll miss y'all!

help!

2005-12-22T11:55:00.000-05:00

uhhh... so i changed my background. and now my links are gone. i have no idea what the html code bracket was, AND i have no idea where to put them in this new template?? this is a plea for help to all the internet savvy of the world... i want my links back!

wierd habits and 7am surprises:

2005-12-22T11:05:00.000-05:00

nick and his dad...

5 weird habits:
1. i like talking on the phone lying upside down on my bed.
2. i write my "to do" list on my hand, and frequently wake up with it stamped in reverse on my face.
3. i can't stand hair in brushes. i clean mine out everytime i brush my hair and force my roommates to do the same.
4. my toenails have to be red.
5. i'm ridiculously fond of soft fuzzy things [recall my fuzzy red blanket from c'wray] and my bed is a giant nest of softness. mmm.

so now i tag anybody else who hasn't been tagged! Leslie! i know you haven't done this yet and i KNOW some of your wierd habits [my darling bizzare roommate!]

just write 5 weird habits and then tag 5 people. and you have to leave the people you tag comments on their blog/xanga/whatever to let them know that they are tagged. if i can do it you can too.

mmm... now that you know my strange habits...

guess who woke me up at 7am and told me to come downstairs and meet his parents?? yep, nick. i am still thoroughly embarassed that his parents met me sans makeup, in my pajamas, and with hair that would do Daddy Rob Whittaker proud [an atomic explosion in a matress factory]. originally i wasn't going to be able to see him until new years day but he decided to surprise me and make his parents stop by my house on their way to florida. mmm, nice to see him but the good impression on the parents was kinda shot by the sweat pants and the whoopee goldburg impression. meh.

oh, Beth and Josh & Alison, if you are free December 28, i cordially invite you to come to my house and reune. [verb form of reunion? sure.] i already asked Rob, but i'll have to remind him later, i'm sure he's already forgotten. i still have yet to call Jay Burke, but i know he wants to see y'all too. no Mr. Tumnus jokes. P.S. Beth - you need to call me! i left a message on one of your family's 30 cell phones and i really don't know if it got to you. anyway, let me know if that works.

there's no place...

2005-12-13T17:28:00.000-05:00

brandi, angela, [me, myself] and irene. before salsa dancing during fall break. daaaannggg my hair was long.

no place ...like home! wow, it is really amazingly good to sleep in my bed in my room in my house. not that my dorm room is horrible - it's just not the same.

home, where the first phone call i get is from jessi who wants to go salsa dancing, where the food is homecooked, where laundry is FREE, [and the dryers work], where my bed actually fits my rather long appendeges, and where my darling family all come in to say good night [haha, a bit ridiculous, but i think they missed me or something].

anyway... i don't have a particular lot to say in this post... i could rant about the materialism that is currently ruining Christmas but i think i'll pass on that soapbox for now. at present, i am trying to figure out a way to get up to north carolina to visit nick and his family before they go to Florida and in between his work schedule. rarrrr. oh well. i'll get there.

ok. going to fold laundry and maybe watch a movie or somesuch lazy activity. haha, oxymoron, lazy activity. anywayyyy... merry christmas all.

awwww...

2005-12-08T11:33:00.000-05:00

at the sadie hawkins dance - and yes he is wearing a sweater vest and khaki pants. haha, this kid can go from preppy southern to rockstar skater boy without even blinking.

that, ladies and gentlemen, is fashion talent.

yeah, pretty much - that's the hottest person ever. consequently, that's my boyfriend to her left. HAHA, just kidding. nicholas is the hottest boy in the whole world and i don't care who knows it! [reference "elf" for that last part]

daveo, penguins, and smiles.

2005-12-05T10:26:00.000-05:00

uhhhh so Daveo is pretty much the most AMAZING person EVER! i got a package from him today containing... you guessed it... PENGUINS!! thank you thank you thank you! my roommates were introduced into the wonderful world of McVitie's. ahh, memories of such things as digestives, hobnobs, ribena, and malteasers. mmm.

so finals start tomorrow and i've been studying all day... it's been lots of fun, let me tell you. right now, my roommate and i are going to the midnight breakfast hosted by a local church to help out the poor starving [cramming] college students. fine by me!

The great mystical work of the Holy Spirit is in the dim regions of our personality which we cannot get at.
—Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Psalm 40:7-"And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is you."
[verse courtesy of Rieppe Moore's xanga.]

and now, ladies and gentlemen, the hysterical results of the daveo photo smile: [i think this looks ridiculous, i think only british asians can pull this off]

les mémoires de jours allés par

2005-12-04T14:40:00.001-05:00

josh, we definetly need to bust out the calieghes for our c'wray reunion. too bad these two dashing gentlemen won't be there. i heart you daveo!

found my quote book. decided to continue the quoting trend.
i laughed. i cried. it was good.

"hi! i'm single, i mean, i'm Rob"
"crucifixion-r-us, how may i help you?" janice
"it's like... i'm already down here, and you're doing this..." famous last words of a certain someone.
"i'm the evil temptress!" caroline
"i'm not a blender!" -again, caroline
"i'm for the ethical treatment of polar bears.... i only eat cheeseburgers in the summer..." my favorite roommate leslie
"boys at capernwray are looking for a mix between J-Lo and Mother Theresa" Rob Whittaker
the downtown inapproptriate underwear dance party
"mmm... josh schreck..." megan hazleton
"isn't that cruely to animals or something?" caroline
"my armor of God is pink spandex!" courtnay
"BJ, the 80s called and they want your headphones back!"
"where the devil is my Bible??" leslie
"if you only knew how many times i've heard THAT today..." leslie
"who are the annoying little mexicans in your life?" rob whittaker
"i feel like a hoe... and i like it!" janice [wearing anna's gold pants]
"a loincloth... a club... Jane." rob cox, on what men need.
"MINERVA!" dawn
"Capernwray outreach teams are a bit top heavy with North American women" Dave
the 80s rave in lower tower with the helicopter... that never happened. sorry ben.
"hello, Gremlin Hall" beth
"Spalatin!" josh and ben
"i just christened the shower, but don't worry! i have the aim of a sharpshooter." leslie
"i feel unclean, and not just dirty, i mean Leviticus unclean!" leslie

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

2005-12-03T14:13:00.000-05:00

nick and andy... foolin around. :-)

so the temperature dropped and now it's freezing! not cool at all. haha, no pun intended. and no comments on how 30 degrees is ridiculously warm and you-have-no-idea-what-cold-is-you-wimpy-southerner. i know, i know.
last night we had a sadie hawkins dance [girls ask the guys, it's always a surprise, there's nothin better, oh oh oh!] and the girls in skirts and dresses were seriously in danger of hypothermia. but it was fun - alex kauffman can break dance like NONE other and i got to teach nick how to swing dance and shag. he's pretty good! but i'll tell you it made me miss capernwray days in the sports hall with ben, becca, evan, crystal, stephen, chelsea, josh and i making up crazy new moves [the washer and dryer, the lightsaber, the buritto.. haha] and dancing with janice teaching her the charleston!!

PS thanks for all the comments, i showed nick and he cracked up. especially daveo's comment - he's no asian/british hottie like you daveo, but the italian-mafia scruffy look suits him so i'm not complainin. :-) leslie, yes this is the same guy i told you about, nathan, we do still occasionally talk via llamas, and you all need to come to Charleston to meet him. for those of you coming for the christmas reunion in Columbia - he might be there, depending on his work schedule.

anyway... finals are coming up and i have some serious studying to do, therefore i bid you all fondly adieu.

so...

2005-12-01T10:10:00.000-05:00

we're officially dating!!!! and this is one happy girl.

just so you don't have to ask:
Nicholas Anthony Lomma, 20, Weddington, NC, Criminal Justice major, minor in Spanish [but he's changing to Political Science next semester]. Enjoys surfing, playing guitar, "borrowing" school golf carts, sunsets and long walks on the beach and he asked me out last night!! i'm ridiculously sleepy and he still has a paper to write but i'm reeeeaaaaally happy. mmm... there were a lot of squealy girls in my suite at 2 in the morning, let me tell you. it's sorta been a long time coming [understatement of the year].

further girly details availible upon request. :-)

back to reality

2005-11-28T10:28:00.001-05:00

after 5 days of turkey and tryptophan induced naps, it's back to the real world... my new favorite word is "brachiocephalic." kinda catchy, eh? try fitting that into day-to-day conversation.

in between the digestive system and the respiratory system, we decorated our little tree!! ohhhhh christmas tree oohh christmas treeeeeeee...

my tiny little yuletide contribution. very pretty in our room with all the twinkle lights!

i've decided that maybe if i fall asleep on my textbooks every night, maybe i'll absorb more information that way. by osmosis. you know.

merry december-is-almost-here!

happy thanksgiving yanks!

2005-11-23T09:57:00.000-05:00

remember where we were last year?

"Thankful for...
plastic.
pretty girls.
pretty foreign girls.
digestives..."
-Benjamin Jacob Clark-Mitchell

after my next class, my family and i are driving down to Florida to visit my godparents. crazy excited! haven't seen them in so long.

i still have yet to pack, finish cleaning my room, and find my lab book that seems to have dissapeared?? and with that, here's hoping everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving [even if you silly canadians already had it, but that's ok]!

wohooo!!

2005-11-19T18:34:00.000-05:00

Michael Whitsitt and myself...

josh, andy, and mike... great guys.

college sports really are a way of life in the south. and i'm not even kidding.

this afternoon we brought down the field goal after our football team pulled off an incredible win: "BUCS CAPTURE SHARE OF BIG SOUTH TITLE; DEFEAT COASTAL CAROLINA IN DOUBLE OVERTIME, 34-27"

and last night we all went crazy when our basketball guys beat College of Charleston 82-77 for the first time in 23 years!
pretty much all i have to say is, "GO BUCS!!"

as if that isn't enough, tonight is the USC v. Clemson game, GOOO COCKS!! Williams Brice Stadium is hosting and i realllyyy hope Carolina wins because i kinda made a bet that if we lost i'd dress up as a tiger for an entire day... uhhh... not cool.

so last night we threw a surprise party for my friend mike's birthday, much much fun. watched Elf. mmm, IQ dropped but hey, it's will farrel. and then after that laaatteee night, we got up at o'dark thirty and went downtown and worked for Convoy of Hope, handing out groceries, holding services, and entertaining tons of kids. amazing. a wee bit cold for the poor souls who volunteered to be in the dunking booth [robert, isaac, and josh, i admire you darlings, but pnemonia ISNT worth it!!] but all together really incredible to be able to hand someone a months worth of groceries, play with their kids, and then tell them the gospel of the only One who can truely give them Hope.

tonight i'm gonna be a party girl again [ha]... this time it's robert's birthday! we're going out to his house in Mt. Pleasant for the game, food, capture the flag. sweet. memories of "ultimate" capture the flag with paint, pictures, and sheep fields. mmm... spring school.

maybe i'll actually get to sleep tomorrow. that'd be nice.

getting ready for thanksgiving!! ohhh yea, family and food. best combination ever. except that i'll be study like crazy over break because i have 3 tests right after i get back and then 1 week before exams. ahhhhhhhhh!! oh well. what can ya do?

all things together for good

2005-11-14T13:57:00.000-05:00

Mon ami Jeannou de Paris, que je manque beaucoup. Jésus aime Jeanne, oui il fait !

today my friend mike came running over to me grinning from ear to ear and told me that he just got to pray with a friend of his who accepted Christ. after seeing mike sob for two days straight after loosing his friend and teammate, seeing his total joy now is a complete tribute to what God is doing. thank you all for praying!!

continue to pray for Dan. the charges may be raised to premeditated murder, for Grant's family, the funeral was this past saturday, and please please keep the baseball team in your prayers, there are now two brand new Christians and many others who are still asking questions.

enough of that... in other news... it's november 14 and it's currently 73 degrees outside. this, ladies and gentlemen, is why i nearly died in freezing cold northern england! and it's why i loovveeee the south.

foot is falling asleep. hold on.

ok, had to move my roommate OFF my leg. silly gracie. sleepy ducky was cutting off my circulation. but i'll tell you, i love that girl! we made a wal-mart run last night [no comments kaylie!] and our wal-mart here in north charleston is notorious for the sketchy mexicans that harass the CSU girls. funny thing is that they are none of them taller than 5' 2" and grace and i at 6'2" and 5'11", respectively, can actually pull the intimidating card and its really funny. especially when we pull up in our suitemate's firebird [that car is a speeding ticket waiting to happen... i LOVE it!] and then these two really tall girls get out. haha. guess you had to be there... but trust me, it's amusing.

so is fighting in the library using whispered explatives including "yie jierk! yie nierily kielled mie!" at 11:30 at night. and almost knocking over an entire shelf. mmm... no spanish homework... sorry.

called my australian friend a "crazy aussie" today and suddenly missed very much my two cheeky germans and crazy aussie from the capers pool: 31 degrees celcius, the ONLY place i wasn't freezing cold, the dumb pool cover that gave me blisters, those tiny little tablets that always crumbled before you could get them out of the foil, getting yelled at by Rich for skipping a shift that was actually Zach's, work days scrubbing tiles, sauna nazis, amir and papa's swim suits [ahhh], girls night [THREE FEET!], and listening to U2 on the sound system at 7:00 am while Jeff and Caroline swam laps. and trying to keep heidi out of the snack closet. [ah janice, memories.]

played hearts with my suite-girls... memories of playing in the lounge. and beating the CRAP out of austin leif bauer! caroline, we really need to play when you come up. PS still haven't figured out a solution to the puppy problem. unless we can smuggle her into my room for two nights. mmm...

s'all for now... time for anatomy lab.

please pray

2005-11-10T11:14:00.000-05:00

monday night two students got in a fight that ended up with one in critical condition and the other in prision. Grant died later on tuesday of cerebral hemorrhage and Dan is now facing serious manslaughter charges. they were both 18 year old baseball players. it happened about 30 feet from my dorm window. over 20 people witnessed the fight and saw their friends make choices that changed two lives forever. we're a small school and this tradgedy really shocked us. the entire campus was devistated, especially the baseball team.

Grant was a believer, and his family has shown incredible strength. pray for them, but especially for Dan and his family. a lot of people are bitter and angry.

the praise is that at the prayer service we had on tuesday night we packed out the chapel, and then at elevate last night we had over 200 people, most of whom had never come before. it's still difficult though. a lot of people are asking questions that don't have answers. pray that i'll have answers for these people even if it's only that God is in control and works all things for the good of those who have been called according to his purpose. pray that i will be able to comfort my friends. pray that the church will be strengthened.

Deadly beating shocks CSU:

One family plans son's funeral as another plans a legal defense
BY JOHN CHAMBLISS

The Post and Courier Staff
There seems to be no sense to be made of the tragedy at Charleston Southern University that left an aspiring pitcher dead and another student possibly facing life in prison.
By all accounts, Grant Ringenberg, 18, of Apex, N.C., was heading toward a promising future in baseball.
Dan Thomas Davis III, 18, of Williston, the man accused of savagely beating Ringenberg early Tuesday, was seen as an 'all-around good young man.'
Today, Ringenberg's family is planning his funeral. Davis' family is planning his defense.
Davis was charged with murder Tuesday night after Ringenberg died from his injuries.
Emma Bussell said she first noticed Ringenberg's sense of humor and caring attitude toward her while attending a party earlier this year. The two Charleston Southern freshmen began dating about three weeks ago. They went to the movies together, talked for hours to each other on campus and attended more parties together.
'He was fun to be around,' Bussell said Wednesday. 'He was very sweet.'
Davis' former principal at Barnwell High School, Linda Zionkowski, said she couldn't recall a time when Davis ever fought with anyone at the school.
'He was always so respectful and always made you smile,' Zionkowski said. 'It's a sad day for all of us here.
'He was an all-around good young man.'
Davis was being held without bail Wednesday in the Charleston County Detention Center on a charge of murder. If convicted, he faces 30 years to life in prison.
Police said a dispute between the two freshmen culminated in Ringenberg being beaten into a coma outside Russell
Hall in the horseshoe, an area outside the dormitory where students socialize. He died 15 hours later.
Nearly 20 students saw the beating, but it happened so fast, witnesses said, that they were unable to intervene in time to save Ringenberg.
Ringenberg and Davis were arguing about Bussell. It started with words and ended with punches, all of which, witnesses said, were thrown by Davis.
While Ringenberg's hands remained in his pockets, Davis punched him in the mouth, witnesses said. Ringenberg fell to the ground, striking his head against the concrete surface and getting knocked unconscious. Davis then crouched over his classmate and repeatedly beat him in the head, they said.
'It was so spontaneous,' said Rebecca Peters, a friend of Ringenberg's.
By the time one of Ringenberg's friends pushed Davis away, Ringenberg had been struck numerous times in the head. It appeared as though Davis was leaving, but he walked back to Ringenberg and kicked him in the head, police reported.
The death of Ringenberg and the arrest of Davis devastated nearly everyone connected to the freshmen.
Bussell, 18, of Paris, Ky., met Davis earlier this year through mutual friends. He cheered her up when she was homesick.
'He's just a funny person,' Bussell said. 'When I was down, he would be there.'
Bussell said Davis was a friend and nothing more.
Friends of Ringenberg on Wednesday sat several feet from where the beating occurred. They hugged each other and talked about the freshman, who was known in high school as 'Sunshine' because of his constant smile.
Ringenberg's coach, Jason Murray, said Ringenberg had the ability to be a star for the Eagles.
'Grant was the type who was really focused on the field,' Murray said.
The teenager who once threw a no-hitter for his high school was in line to receive a scholarship from the university, he said.
It was at Middle Creek High School where Ringenberg developed his best pitch, a wicked curve ball. 'He saw one of the biggest improvements from his junior to senior year I've ever seen,' said Mike Matthews, athletic director at the school.
Graham Chapman played high school baseball with Ringenberg.
'He was definitely one who put his friends first in his life,' Chapman said. 'I can't imagine how or why this happened.'

Contact John Chambliss at jchambliss@postandcourier.com or 937-5573.
This article was printed via the web on 11/10/2005 11:34:10 AM . This articleappeared in The Post and Courier and updated online at Charleston.net on Thursday, November 10, 2005.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

2005-11-04T10:14:00.000-05:00

my beautiful little sister turned 14 today! Krista Louise Byers... even if i drive you crazy, steal your clothes, bug you about boys and drive with no hands just to freak you out: you're my my longest and forever friend darlin. we've survived a lot. ahh, memories: you were freakish [purple, spotted, and slightly yellow], adorable ["a'do-ble!"], annoying ["she stuck her tongue out at me!"], crazy [you and the croop girls... 'nuff said]. and then you turned out to be this really amazing, beautiful, smart, funny, talented woman of God who i am proud to call my sister. you're my absolute confidant, a challange and encouragement to my faith, the one who can sing every lyric ever written by relient k and switchfoot, the one who hears the real scoop on me first, the one who KNOWS what its like to homeschool with jennifer, the one who rolls eyes at darryl just like i used to do, the one got all her mad babysitting skills from me, the one who put up with my musical critique and still played duets with me anyway, the one who shares my love of laughing hysterically for no reason, the one who built forts with me, the one who got in trouble with me [even though it was usually my fault]. i love you baby, thanks for being all that you are. i miss you. here's hoping you have an amazing birthday!!!

"courage is found in the most unlikely places" jrr tolkien

2005-11-03T10:18:00.000-05:00

almosts...

in a moment of reminiscence, the almosts come rushing back:
the almost-theres, the almost-withs, the almost-faileds... the almost-succededs.
and now, is it time for another almost?
there's always the has-beens.
of times that were kinder.
happier.
does the current state of affairs trump the has-beens?
the what-ifs.
sustenance for the ghosts of yesterday.
i came.
i saw.
i conquered.

mon couer:
"turning our chairs towards another [Larry Crabb]." it's easy for me to recognize someone turning their chair towards me but hard for me to turn mine towards someone and truely speak my heart. PRIDE?? probably but ...no buts... what if i did? I think that's why i write these thoughts. i can pour myself out and not see your faces. the what is she talking about? face. so i write and say i don't care what anyone thinks but I check my comments all the time...

God knows all this about me and i know He has a plan for me but sometimes... Ecc. 7:8 The end of a matter is better than its beginning and PATIENCE is better than PRIDE......patience...... but sometimes I just get so bottled up, lonely, and impatient. i feel like i'm wasting time...

Good Lord, impatient for what? For YOU... Your plan... i know i know YOU have a plan and the sooner i submit to yours the better off i am... why is that so hard?? it's that whole thinking i am in control of my life thing isn't it? me thinking i know ANYTHING let alone what it is YOU are doing in the world. Yesterday knowing I need to pray more and yet this morning i just start worrying and stressing about me. who would want to listen to this over and over? You. You listen and guide me when I take the time and soften my heart to hear You... "be STILL and KNOW..."

quotable.

2005-11-02T16:47:00.000-05:00

"Those who can laugh without cause have either found the true meaning of happiness or have gone stark raving mad." - Norm Papernick

"In a mad world only the mad are sane. "
Akira Kurosawa

“some people just naturally suck”
- my BRILLIANT ROOMMATE gracie facie lee deal.

all hallow's eve

2005-10-31T10:12:00.000-05:00

happy halloween all! unfortunately the scariest thing i'll be facing today are NOT the creepy costumes or ninja-mike attacks i hear rumors of, but an anatomy lab practical. well i guess an entirely flayed open cat and various organs strewed around a room IS pretty scary. for me it's more ahhh crap, there's HOW many muscles in the forearm again?! brachioradialis, pronator teres, flexor carpi radialis, palmaris longus, extensor digitorum, extensor carpi ulnaris, flexor carpi ulnaris.

yea, so none of you wanted to know the names of the muscles in your forearm but NOW YOU DO! mwahahaha.

tonight, watching Bio-dome with the quad guys... nicholas anthony says its a classic and that i haven't truely lived until i've experienced this, the source of much of his humor. having horrible flashbacks of being fed that EXACT line before watching Tommy Boy and Dumb and Dumber. well, if my IQ ends up dropping then so be it. i acquiesce!!

"I came here with a load And it feels so much lighter, now I’ve met you And honey you should know, that I could never go on without you." - Coldplay

angela maria nordstrom and me before Ben Lippen homecoming... i miss you baby!

GO BUC WILD FOR CSU!

2005-10-26T17:31:00.000-04:00

the beautiful letdown

2005-10-26T14:43:00.000-04:00

wow, so winter came out of NOWHERE! we sorta skipped fall. it was 80 degrees last week and this morning it was 43!! 43?!? ahhh! i was FREEZIN and i had to walk all the way to the nursing building with 2 shirts, a sweatshirt and a jacket... and despite all that, chattering teeth. remind me again how i survived an english winter 'cause i sure as heck don't know how i did it? ahhh yes. my fuzzy red blanket. i'll bust that out tomorrow for chem class.

sooo... after all my acedemic stressing God reminded me that he is faithful and that if i work hard his purpose will be accomplished. looks like i'll be a nurse after all. 97 on the chem test, 99 on the anatomy and two 100s in math. *phew* now i have to write a 250 word paper.... in french... and memorize every muscle in the body, the sensory organs and receptors [skin, eye, ear, brain, spinal cord], and the heart. HA! me and my lab manual have a date this weekend, believe me.

on that anotomical note, i got to dissect a CAT! wow, WAY more fun that i expected. peeling the skin off took some effort but entirely facinating. all the cats were from mexico so i named mine "el gato"... and since i was the only one brave enough to actually slice the darn thing open [i was in a group of very cute, very nice, pearl-wearing, cute-skirt-and-matching-purse southern belles who were having trouble being in the room much less slicing open a stiff cat. i tied my hair back, rolled up my sleeves, and flayed! HA.] anyway. i may be morbid but at least i'll be a good nurse, eh?

BL homecoming this weekend... should be interesting to see some of my classmates. and really crazy fun to see my friends! i think we're going out salsa dancing after the game friday night. sweeeetttt. here's hoping there are no creepy puerto rican stalkers. they can DANCE but then can also STALK. meh, win some loose some.

saturday i'm spending all day with Abuelita y Abuelo... they are such precious darlings and i miss them. my cousins will all be there too. mmm, full house. but i love playin with them - even if the younger ones view me as an inexhaustible personal jungle-gym. ever had 5 kids jump on you at the same time? meh. but justin will be there too and i'll just tell them that if you jump on HIM i'll get them candy. hahaha.

well... i have to go. we're doin a walmart run to pick up stuff to decorate our room for halloween! the local children's hospital is bringing their kids to go trick or treating on our hall and we need more candy and more spider webbage and more pumpkins. and candy corn. ooo, and i'm gonna wear my cat mask! ah courtnay... memories of last year... dude! i just looked for those picture for like an HOUR and i can't find them. anyone have those pics of me and courtnay? rarrr.

hope everyone is doing well... happy early halloween!

CHABECCA!

2005-10-23T16:46:00.000-04:00

congratulations to capernwray's FAVORITE couple... they are *finally* engaged! road trip to virgina for the wedding? HECK YEA TECH YEA.

TAG!

2005-10-21T08:48:00.000-04:00

10 YEARS AGO I WAS: a 9 year old whos dream was to own a hundred horses, live in a tree house [a la swiss family robinson], speak every language on earth, and marry someone just like my daddy.
5 YEARS AGO I WAS: a freshman at ben lippen, figuring out what the heck these kids DID since none of them read any decent books, knew anything about music, or appreciated broadway and shakespeare. i mellowed out, i promise. either that or they figured out that those things really ARENT that nerdy.
1 YEAR AGO I WAS: trying to figure out how to open a big castle door that was a lot heavier than it looked, deciphering what Leslie mumbled in her sleep about cheeseburgers and polar bears, trying in vain to understand a hundred Icelandic/ German/ Mongolian/ Russian/ Korean/ Scottish/ Australian/ Austrian/Northern Irish/ British-in-general accents, and beginning to learn to joys of CHRIST IN YOU! swing dancing in the gym, lifeguarding at 7 am, drinking massive amounts of tea and being introduced to the wonder that is british food.
NOW I AM: at uni trying to remember all i knew about readin, 'riting, and 'rithmitic - atrophy, believe me! making new friends but missing the old, trusting God for each day at a time.
YESTERDAY I: took a really hard test, studied for another one, then through academics to the winds and went out to Yamoto's for my friend Sean's birthday, [but then came back and studied with some crazy raptors that have taken over quad 1... who knew!?]
5 SNACKS I ENJOY: cheeze-its, oreos, mcvitty's digestives, penguins [mmm, melted], and cooooooookies.
5 SONGS I KNOW ALL OF THE WORDS TO: any and all Les Mis/Phantom, Ice Ice Baby, Wanna Go Home [CH room 2!], any and all Disney, Kieth Green.
5 THINGS I WOULD DO WITH 100 MILLION DOLLARS: si j'eterais riche... buy capernwray some new decor so we can BREAK all those plates and make the conference hall sound proof for all those poor girls who wake up to Dougie and Dave acting like three years old at 7 on a saturday morning. quit school and go back to europe to see my darlings.
5 PLACES I WOULD RUN TO: England, Austria, Ecuador, Seattle, and heaven [my ultimate goal]
5 THINGS I WOULD NEVER WEAR (unless paid enough): pleather, faux fur, clown costume [*shudder*], PINK SPANDEX!?
5 FAVORITE MOVIES: Much Ado About Nothing, Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter, Matrix, Boondock Saints.
5 BAD HABITS: procrastination, forgetfulness, compulsive eating while under extreme duress [it will come back to haunt me later, i just know it]...
5 BIGGEST JOYS: under-the-stairs-time, hot tea, soft cuddly things, sunshine, llamas, sunsets, beaches, chocolate chip muffins.
5 FICTIONAL CHARACTERS I WOULD DATE: d'Artangan, Robin Hood, Mr. Darcy, Petrucico, Donatello [Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]
5 PEOPLE I TAG: Beth Gr-gr-gross, Leslie, J, Kaylie, and Gracie!!

ever had a dipole moment?

2005-10-20T09:42:00.000-04:00

my HOT suite mate Phoebe cleaning our shower before room inspections... and yes those are her chem lab goggles. haha, she'll kill me if she ever sees this!! mwahaha.

so the results of the last 5 days of intense studying for an insanely hard test that i took this morning at the scandulous hour of 8 am will have to wait for the weekend before i can know for sure the cold hard truth: that i failed chemistry, that i won't make it into the nursing program, that i'll flunk out of college in general, and i'll have to marry a plumber and live in a double wide with six or seven bratty rugrats and a screaming baby on one hip where i'll watch soaps all day and bemoan the fact that i could have actually had a future...

mmm... i love my cynical side. pretty darn funny now that i read back over it. but that WAS a hard test and that class is my achilles' heel. acedemic suicide i tell you. anyone feel like e-tutoring? i might take my super-smart chemical engineering friend up on his offer ["Pauly-Peptide", ah, AP memories] to help me over the phone. desperate, i know, but dire straights require desperate measures!!

so last night, taking a break from chem, i was reading oswald - as usual, exactly what i needed to hear. thought i'd share:
"... we are to be obsessed by God. The abiding awarness of the Christian life is to be God Himself, not just thouths about Him. The total being of our life inside and out is to be absolutely obsessed by the presence of God... we are to "live and move and have out being" in God (Acts 17:28), looking at everything in relation to Him, because our abiding awareness of Him continually pushes itself to the forefront of our lives. If we are obsessed by God, nothing else can get into our lives - not concerns, nor tribulations, nor worries. and now we understand why our Lord so emphasized the sin of worrying. How can we dare to be so absolutely unbelieving when God totally surrouds us? To be obsessed by God is to have an effective barricade against all the assaults of the enemy." Chambers, Oswald. My Utmost for His Highest, June 2nd entry.

haha, now go read my cynical complaints above and contrast it with oswald. i am a walking contradiction... "partly truth and partly fiction"

now it's time to study for the anatomy test i have tomorrow! i love how these teachers conspire to hit you with all their tests at the same time. meh!

Dewees Island

2005-10-11T22:17:00.000-04:00

so... pretty much last weekend was the most amazing EVER! grace lee deal is the most incredible roommate, and she has a crazy generous family!! my family came down and we brought crystal, brittany, nick, and jason from CSU to their beach house on Dewees Island... near Isle of Palms. such a beautiful island! it's a nature reserve so no cars are allowed, only golf carts [the deals' have rad off-roading golf carts]. we went crabbing [and then ATE them, yum], and fell asleep on the beach, and watched the music man [we've got trouble, right here in river city!] and italian job [yea for spaghetti americans] and ate some of the most delicious food ever. *sigh* back to the real world...

the boys exploring...

hanging out in the kitchen... EATING YUMMINESS!

brittany and grace eating the not so lucky ones... haha.

2005-10-05T15:04:00.000-04:00

Thankful for
relaxation, complication,
hibernation and irritation
Seclusion, confusion,
all of my impurity
and insecurity
Cause I know it's God
just perfecting me
That's why
Today I take life
as it comes

- India.Arie

yesterday was both horrible and encouraging at the same time. dichotomy. figure that out. listening to c'wray swing music... REALLY want to go dancing all of a sudden... mmm...

today we had CSU's "culture fest", basically what international day at BL was. pretty much made me want to sell all my books and buy a ticket to england. met 2 people from britain that i didn't know even existed. one guy was from PRESTON and was actually born in Lancaster and knew exactly what i was talking about when i mentioned our darling little Carnforth Train station [involved in the filming of "Brief Encounter" that somehow none of us had ever heard of before...] and Carnforth Bookstore. he also had several books of aerial shots of the lake district area and was actually able to somewhat see where Capernwray would be, Kendal, Keswick, Morcambe Bay, Leeds [Morley!!], Windamere, Ambleside, Stratford, Edinburgh [tons of pics of Princes St. and Edinburgh Castle], and of course London and York and Manchester. we had the first rainy and cool day of October today - very English. and then of course we had to mention cadbury chocolate, and prawn flavored crips, yorkshire pudding, tea, penguins, mcvitty's digestives, Gregg's and Bella Italia...

tonight, going to seacoast wednesday communion and praise service since this is probably one of the few wednesdays i won't have to be at elevate [cheers for guest speakers]. but before that i will be spending several hours doing a chemistry lab that makes no sense, doing chemistry homework that makes no sense, and studying for a chemistry test that, again, makes absolutely no sense!

i love the weekends...

2005-10-01T17:33:00.000-04:00

above picture from my junior year of highschool... before band practice.

so this weekend has been pretty much amazing so far - Rob McAlister stopped by and hung out for the evening/morning on his way to his grandma's [sooo good to see him!], heard my singer/songwriter Irene Smith's first concert [standing ovation!] i was her official groupie. watched the new family guy movie... quite an experience in stupid humor, let me tell you. then this morning, got up early to play with elevate for "Youth Alive" [formerly known as "Church Youth Day"] which is basically CSU's invitation to every lowcounty youth group to come down and get free food, see a game, and get CSU paraphenelia. but we had Jeremy Kingsley speak - which was amazing - and then had a few of the coaches speak. then we watched the Bucs lose YET ANOTHER game. cheered anyway. and now i'm 'bout to go grab some dinner before we all head out to a JUMP LITTLE CHILDREN CONCERT!! holy crap, i love charleston. we were shocked to find that if you are student, the show at the venerable Galliard Auditorium with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra is only five bucks. heck yea teach yea.

well that's what's goin on... Dieu merci c'est le weekend!

nothing could be finer...

2005-09-29T10:49:00.000-04:00

than to be in Carolina!

"Factors such as habitual pearl-wearing, time spent at the beach, proficiency of the Carolina Shag, and a diet of fried foods, green beans, and oysters have all played an instrumental role in ranking South Carolina 1st by a National Hottie Report. The Palmetto State, is renowned as being a perfect, exclusively southern area filled with smiling faces, beautiful places, and the sweetest and most charming girls in the country."
-The New York Times

"If South Carolina isn't the essence of Southern hospitality, I don't know what is. Those women sure know how to dress. Of course, in the South, a college football game is practically a formal event. Everyone – especially the ladies – gets all dolled up. But USC takes it to a whole new level. That football crowd is like something you would see in Vogue magazine"
-ESPN Gameday

Liana Quote of the Day, "Isn't that amazing? I'm multifaceted abnormal!"

ramblings...

2005-09-28T00:16:00.000-04:00

"Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love." Charlie Brown

mmm. how true.

suprisingly productive day today. and an amazing day yesterday! after the lab practical [yea! it's over!] Marty, Beth, and Rieppe picked me up, took me to Carabbas and Books-a-Million... acted like a hyperactive 8 year old but popular rumor has it the result was entertaining. i loovvvveeee sugar jitters!

incredibly sleeeeeeppppyyyy... but will post pictures tomorrow. promise!

this time last year...

2005-09-26T10:29:00.000-04:00

i was trying to figure out the twists and turns of a very confusingly laid out [but oh-so-lovely] castle in the north of england with beautiful pastures surrounding it... and getting to know my brilliant brit becky chooseday, my canadian courtnay clair, mona good mooorrrnnning langstadt, leslie poopie shlub fiddles, emo kay kay wilson, crazy swing-dancin ben c/m, jonathan wil- except-there's-a-****-in-the-middle-son, canadian/american janice deported baby rae, caroliners from 'bama, elizabeth anne kindred-spirit gross, ecuadorian mamacitas bethany [my little vegan] and chealsea marie, "ste" now-wot-does-that-mean-toxic morris, and so many more unforgettable people that will forever be a part of my heart.

Capernwray... here's to life afterwards.

back to the present: fantastic weekend, spent entirely at the beach. you wanna know why we're all at CSU? because it's at the BEACH! now an offical surfer, have the sand burns and brusies to prove it. and wax in my hair that still won't come out. and sand in my ears. sick.

however, anatomy lab practical at 4:00 today... intercondicular eminance of the tibia fits underneath the synovial joint that has the intercondular fossa of the femur above it... BLAAHHHH.

studied bones in the library all night. we looked like demented halloween trick or treaters gone wrong. ben and i started a fencing match with two femurs after it just got to be too much. *brain overload!* the stress gets to you, and bones start to have alternate functions. for example... skulls make excellent footballs. just don't spike them when you make a touchdown in the non-fiction endzone. i think the librarians have a few new grey hairs. ha.

everybody go read the "Utmost" for septermber 25. amazing. i love oswald chambers. "You did not chose Me, but I CHOSE YOU..." (John 15:16)

sweet like chocolate

2005-09-22T20:44:00.000-04:00

very productive day. went to class, wrote in my journal, had some quality Jesus time, studied anatomy, AND got a french composition written. i'll expound on that last one - my subject is traveling the world. it just seemed bizzare to write about America... in french... so i wrote about the rest of the world. i was supossed to emphasize the conditional so i had to say what i would do if i had unlimited funds. apparently i would meet the Dali Lama [or llama, as he just may end up being one after all], fix the Sphinx's nose, and have tea with Queen Elizabeth. those were the first things that jumped into my head. i love the random factor. hopefully Dr. Luton will too.

If love is always discreet, always wise, always sensible and calculated, never carried beyond itself, it is not love at all. -Oswald Chambers

watched "Beyond the Gates of Splendor" at elevate last night... a movie about the lives of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Fleming, and Roger Youerian. really really good - you need to see it. never fails to bring me to tears, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot loose" -Jim Elliot.

CRAZY INSANE GOD-MOMENT: God just showed me a tiny bit of how much i really don't understand him. for those of you who knew how crazy last minute my decision to go to CSU was, here's why God did it: Clemson just got denied certification for their nursing program. if i had been there in a pre-nursing program, i would have had to transfer schools, move to another city, transfer credits... blahblahblah... God spared me all that. wow. what a CRAZY God-thing. still getting shivers over that one.

HIGHLIGHT OF WEEK: going surfing with Mary Gross and friends today at 2:30!!! i get to show off my lovely Charleston and chill at the beach and then go DANCING downtown with Irene and oh-my-gosh-thank-goodness-it's-FRIDAY! saturday will be entirely devoted to studying for anatomy lab practical. boo. but today - i play!

reading john 8... Jesus really lays into those Pharisees... intense. "Before Abraham was, I AM!"

Elevate @ 8!

2005-09-21T23:43:00.000-04:00

the kids i spend most of my non-class time with...

left to right: Teddy [bass guitar], Nathan [guitar] Larry [keyboard & vocals], me [meh!], Mark [drummer extroidinaire], and Nick [guitar].

ITS ELEVATE @ 8!

me and my hilton head darling BRITTANY! i heart you girlie, we need to go SURFING! forget class, i'm off to the beach... :-) you are precious.

Jason Fry... who calls me "La La"...

Alex Kaufman!! former BL student and amazing CSU-Buc-WILD-man!

"the Trinity is like... a pickle..."

2005-09-21T14:48:00.000-04:00

i miss Tanisia Charles!! CALL ME YOU CofC DUNCH!

blog title, a true quote from today's New Testament class. 'bout fell outta my chair laughing. Biblically ignorant people trying to explain what spiritual giants in the evengelical world can barely conceptualize. hilarious.

i got a new cell phone!! yea! it dosen't cut out after a few minutes anymore, so now you can ALL call me. ha. [merci mille fois Nick-Llama, tu es tres sympa mon petite chou]

anyone who wants to come down to C-town on FRIDAY and go SURFING at folly beach should definetly call me! marty is coming down and some CSUers are going out with us to frolic in the atlantic... i heart the beach! oh... and those of you from Columbia [ana], i'm going home [80% sure] the weekend of October 8th, so don't make any plans! my mommy's cookin. you're all invited.

ok. need to shower and then do some homework before elevate... a toute l'heure mes amies!

memories...

2005-09-20T23:48:00.000-04:00

amazing racers, this is for you... i miss y'all oh-so-much. never forget.

i heart my keswick darlings! richard and the iron king, FOR LIFE!

ATCHOO!

2005-09-20T09:52:00.000-04:00

grace and i at the PC game that we lost 42 to nuthin. haha, GO BUCS!

i just finished a ridiculously confusing chemistry test, [atchoo!] but here's the good news, IT'S OVER! ahhhh... nice to have that done with. done and DONE.

did you know that i am a compulsive cleaner when under stress? you should see our room. i cleaned for 2 hours while [atchoo!] grace quizzed me on chem stuff. not only can i tell you what Dalton's atomic theory is, but i can also tell you how many dust bunnies we had hoppin around. sick out.

point of great joy for room 110: we have our own dehumidifier now. yeeeeaaaa! charleston [for those of you who have yet to visit this great place] is part of the "lowcountry" of South Carolina, known for it's swamps and rivers and [ATCHOO] humidity [and other wet things]. therefore, being on the first floor, our room is crazy damp - guess what damp rooms breed? MOLD. yummy. we've had it so bad in my suite that all 5 of us got sick. i'm sneezing like crazy. [new nickname: sneezy - just like christy zimmerman, my hero] to solve this: the school finally found an extra dehumidifier [a huge monstrosity that sucks about a gallon of water out of the air at a time] and our room no longer feels like a sauna. it's going to be a good day. [ATCHOO!]

for those who care, charleston southern is now on FACEBOOK.

sunday, elevate band played for a see you at the pole rally in walterboro [a.k.a. middle-of-nowhere] interesting. but fun, always fun. below, larry [keyboard and vocals] and nathan [guitar and occasionally vocals]. i'll eventually get a entire band picture...

desole mes amies...

2005-09-16T10:20:00.000-04:00

inconsistancy, thy name is liana. i am really sorry that i have been so horrible about posting lately. life is starting to catch up with me... insanity and all. you know.

disclaimer: i am now going to do one of those ridiculously annoying posts consisting of "what i've done recently." apologies in advance. hope it's mildly entertaining regardless.

yesterday was beautiful. exception: the 8 o'clock chemistry ["can i relate to you the way you relate to me CAN YOU HELP ME OUT WITH MY CHEMISTRY?"], but from there it definetly improved. i got my math test out of the way early, finished chem lab in about 15 min [and turned in the report] and then sat outside in the gorgeous sunshine and read "blue like jazz" with gracie.

room inspections tonight... need to clean. yikes. ah, memories of friday work day at c'wray.

after being lazy all afternoon, a bunch of us went to grace's house for dinner. that doesn't do the experience justice. allow me to explain the circumstances. CSU has a "caf," not a "cafeteria," a "caf." if you use the full word no one will know what you are talking about. the aforementioned "caf" is not exactly known for it's culinary excellence and yet 80% of the student body eats there every day. [c'wrayers, it's a step up from "pass the flavor" but not much. sad.]

that being said, going to grace's [amazingly beautiful river-front] house for home made chicken parmasean, bread, salad [green vegetables! who'd have thought?], fruit, and chocolate pie was something close to heaven. boys played Halo. girls, having no interest in virtural-reality's stealth-murder-insanely-testosterone-driven video game, made cookies. fun. forgot my camera. irene's an amazing musician. i want your CD.

mon coeur? ahh, the ever present struggle to follow God and not let life distract me. even good things can be distracting...

reading "Habitudes" by Dr. Tim Elmore. required for my leadership seminar, but applicable. 2nd chapter, "the starving baker". christian leaders who spend so much time feeding others that they forget to feed themselves. i fall into that. i also fall into "been there done that" mode. what kind of sick pride thinks it has no more to learn about Almighty God? mine, apparently.

eating pretzels and raisins. brain food, says grace. mmm.

this weekend, my roomie is abandoning me. [going to clemson to visit her boy, you're a lucky man Sammy Perry] ack! to console me, i'm going to learn how to SURF! yea! wish me luck. slash pray i don't end up displaying my complete lack of grace in front of all of Charleston. heh. sunday after church going with Elevate praise band to Walterboro for a SYATP thing. rally. meeting. whatever.

Take my life, and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to thee;
take my moments and my days,
let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Take my will and make it thine;
it shall be no longer mine.
take my heart, it is thine own;
it shall be thy royal throne.

flashing blue light...

Sgt. John Carl Osmolski

2 AM at Baptist Hospital, 1333 Taylor Street, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

sparkley sparkley sparkley!

ah HA! i figured out how to post it.

my new apartment!!

euugghh

nursing humor

snip snip snip

Real gold fears no fire.

infections, antibiotics, and other joys.

Mind, body, and soul...

the trouble with elevators.

PTL!

family group memories... i miss these kids!

remember this day?

Apple Launch

dearly beloved...

For Daveo and Courtnay:

que pasa

happy all the time...

it's just one of those days.

title:

a few ponderings...

quick update!

so apparently...

pictures tell a 1000 words!

an english assignment with ponderable qualities:

quick update:

*achoo*

QOTD: (fye)

when world's collide.

guess WHAT?!

its a party.

As per Miss Rae's request:

The Frailty of God's Plan

DESOLE!

busy busy terribly busy

it's raining and Liana is going blog-crazy...

it don't mean a thing...

update:

it's that time of the year again...

in special response to jeff dick [who i greatly miss]

dread head/knotty boy

fellowship of the unashamed

i've visited 4% of the world.

irony

SORRY!

yes, it's a tiara.

well, it's official.

euphoric.

Valentine's Day!

recent musings.

spring break '05

just an update

my inner european

crocs and baptists

ninja princesses

insanity thy name is liana...

quit yer fussin.

links, reunions, and new years

help!

wierd habits and 7am surprises:

there's no place...

awwww...

daveo, penguins, and smiles.

les mémoires de jours allés par

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

so...

back to reality

happy thanksgiving yanks!

wohooo!!

all things together for good

please pray

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

"courage is found in the most unlikely places" jrr tolkien

quotable.

all hallow's eve

GO BUC WILD FOR CSU!

the beautiful letdown

achoo