East Asia!

So, I just figured something out, and I am so glad.  I had noticed that whenever I made a post, the timestamp wasn't correct, it was a few hours early.  I had messed the with settings a little bit, but couldn't figure anything out.  I just figured it was because this computer is getting old and has a bunch of quirks.  I decided to look at it one more time today, and finally figured it out.  It was set to the wrong timezone!  It was on Central, not Eastern.  Not that is of any great interest to you, but I just wanted to clear that up.

When Jenni and I were in school and were craving Chinese food, we would go to the food court at the mall.  We hadn't found a Chinese restaurant we liked, so that's where we went instead.  We've since found an actual restaurant we like, and that's where I stopped on the way home from church to pick up lunch for us.  On a rainy day like today, there was nothing better than putting on sweats, catching up on The Office, and downing some General Tso's Chicken.  And I ate the whole thing with the chopsticks!  I need my practice before I go to China in May!  And I would ask that you please join me in praying that the rest of my funds would come in.  In all honestly, I'm lacking a lot.  I trust that the Lord will provide, and I have a feeling that it's going to be a lesson in sacrifice and humility.  It's something I'm not really looking forward to, but know I need to experience and learn!

This is my classy look...

Serving Up Laughter

Yesterday The Well had Service Saturday.  We had lined up seven different opportunities for our students to serve around our community.  They were: cooking and serving breakfast to the homeless and needy; sorting and packing items at a food pantry; working in a thrift store run by faith-based ministry; cleaning at Grace Fellowship Church, the church where we have The Well; helping with landscaping at Doe River Gorge, a local camp and ministry partner; doing construction at a house with Appalachian Service Project; and chopping wood for a family in need who heat their house with a wood stove.  I spent the morning shuttling students back and forth, and then in the afternoon I worked with a group of students at the thrift store.  At was a great morning, but also a tiring morning, so I was really looking forward to the evening.  Michael and Haley had invited some people over to their place for dinner and games I knew it would be a low-key evening filled with good food, good conversation, and lots of laughter, and I was exactly right!  Michael made potato soup and Haley made Oreo cake, and I had huge servings of both :)  After dinner we played a card game that was new to me, Dork.  You don't want to be the dork, and I was.  Twice, I think.  We also played Catch Phrase, Encore, and two hilarious rounds of Telephone Pictionary.  I was a great way to end the day!

Homemade Tater' Soup

Homemade Oreo cake :)

It's warming up, which means all my fun flats are making a comeback!

Telephone Pictionary!

Life is Getting CrAzY

Hello again my faithful blog readers!  I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in three days, it's been bugging me!   I had all intentions of taking pictures at The Well Wednesday night, I even had my little camera in my back pocket all night.   But I then I got busy running around and the next thing I know we were tearing everything down and loading the trailer up.  So I don't even have a picture for Wednesday :(  I did take pictures for Thursday and Friday, but I didn't get home til after midnight each of those nights, and I was tired so I just went to bed.  And unfortunately, I think this is going to become a trend.  March is an insanely busy month for us.  But here are some quick highlights of the last two days...

Thursday, February 24th...This was the night of our 2nd Annual Black and White Swing Dance, and it was quite the success!  The room looked nice, the food was yummy, and everybody was dressed all snazzy!  I like events like this where you get to see people dressed up, especially the guys.  It's always nice to see them in something other than jeans, hoodies, and plaid flannel.  Jillian really wanted to get into the swing dances this year, so she wore black Converse with her skirt, as did a few other girls.  While I, on the other hand, just wanted to look cute.  I was thrilled that the ruffles on my heels matched the ruffles on my dress, something I didn't plan on happening, it just did!

Friday, February 25th...One of the big events we have in March is our annual fundraiser banquet.  One of the things we do for it is kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk....Ok,  I decided that I'm going to leave that in there to prove how tired I've been recently.  It's the middle of the afternoon and I'm nodding off!  I just dozed off with my finger on the K key.  Anyways!  One of the things we do for the banquet is put together a video ofmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (I did it again!) of student testimonials of how The Well has impacted their life.  In order to get enough footage to pull from, we do lots of "interviews."  So from 1:00pm to 7:00pm yesterday, I was at the church helping with the interviews.  It made for a long afternoon and evening, but between checking students in and taking headshot pictures of all of them, I was able to get some stuff done.  I downloaded all the pictures from the swing dance, edited them, and got them up on facebook.  I also spent a good amount of time with my feet proppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed :) up and reading, as seen below.   We're doing interviews from 9-5 on Monday and 9-3 on Tuesday, so I'll try to come up with pictures that are more interesting for those days.

Bread and Boots

I went to Panera Bread for dinner tonight, thanks to my dad and the gift card he gave me for Valentine's Day :)  And I was so glad to see that the water cups have gotten bigger!  I do not understand why at restaurants they give you these puny little cups if you order water.  Maybe it's kind of like payback, since we're not giving them as much money by not ordering a drink, they just get back at you by giving you a cup that literally holds a cup of water.  Ridiculous!  And I always said the water cups at Panera were like shot glasses, but not anymore!  Of course they aren't as big as a normal cups, but they're definitely bigger.  They even put the logo on the cup.  It's like we water-drinking customers are finally as good as all the other ones!

And of course, the foot picture...It's kind of an awkward looking picture, because my feet were curled up in the booth, but I had to figure out a way to show the side of these boots, because that's the best part.  The sassy part!

 

Mug Monday and the CPA

I just sat down to download pictures and make today's post when I realized something very frustrating...When I was taking pictures today, my memory card wasn't in my camera.  The pictures are on the internal hard drive of the camera and the only way to retrieve them is by using the photo cable.  That wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that this computer doesn't read USB ports.  So, no post for today :(  I could go ahead and write stuff and add the pictures later, but that just seems weird.  I'll plan on doing it tomorrow night, so check back for a double a post!

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Sorry about the delay of yesterday's post, but here it is as promised!  First of all, Mug Monday.  This mug I bought for myself, at an antique shop in Elizabethton, even though it isn't an antique. So I don't really know why it was there, but anyways...I bought it  simply because I liked it.  A good enough reason I think.  I liked the simplicity of it, and I liked the shape.  Basically, if any mug isn't shaped like the standard mug shape, then I like it.  And I took this picture on the counter for a reason, I wanted to show Sherri my spice rack!  It's an old Coca-Cola tray, bought at the same antique shop mentioned above now that I think about it.  I cleaned all the cobwebs out of it, propped it up against the wall, and viola! Vintagey (so I just made up another word...), one-of-kind, full-of-personality spice rack!

Sherri, the spice on the far left of the second row is Allspice :)

 And I did something tonight that I've been wanting to do for a while now but haven't been brave enough to do, take my camera into the CPA.  And for those of you wondering what I'm talking about, that's the Center for Physical Activity at ETSU aka the gym.  I'm not exactly sure why I wanted to take a picture in the gym, I guess just to change it up from a picture of my gym shoes.  So this is me all strapped into the rowing machine.  And yes, I actually use it, I didn't just get on to take a picture.  Thankfully it was pretty late last night when I went, so it wasn't very crowded and as far as I know, no one saw me take the picture.  I tried to do it all quick and sneaky like.

Quack!

I'm so lucky!  Today was another perfect Saturday!  I slept in, made breakfast, spent time with Jesus, and then got ready for a fun afternoon.  When I looked at the forecast a couple days ago and saw that today was supposed to be nice, I knew exactly what I wanted to do: go to the covered bridge in Elizabethton, feed the ducks, then sit on a blanket and read.  And then I had an even better idea, I would share it with someone!  When I love something, I want other people to love it too, and since I love that little spot in Elizabethton, someone else needed to be introduced to it.  Thankfully Jillian was free and so was Kathryn, one of the girls in my small group this year.  I didn't give them any details about the afternoon, just told them to bring a few bucks for lunch, dress to be outside, and bring a book or something to work on.  They met me at my house and we headed out.  We stopped at Dollar General so I could buy a few things, but I made the girls stay in the car and then hid the bag behind my back until I got it into the trunk.  We stopped at Sonic and grabbed lunch, and while we were waiting for the food to come out, I realized that it was still really chilly.  I was worried because the afternoon would not be fun if we were freezing.   We drove down to the bridge, my "happiness place," and then found a picnic table to eat at, bundled under the blankets I grabbed from my trunk.  After we finished eating I got all excited as I pulled a loaf of bread out of my bag and said "We're going to feed the ducks!"  When I was in school this was one of my favorite things to do and the best remedy for a bad day!  If I believed in reincarnation, I would want to come back as a duck.  They get to swim all day and people throw food right at them to eat, sounds like the life to me!  We spent probably the next half hour throwing bits of bread at the ducks and geese, and it was so much fun!  We loved watching them waddle around and shake their feathered little butts!  The geese would even eat right out of our hands!  When the bread was gone we laid out the blankets and found that it had warmed up, thank goodness!  I read and the girls worked on homework.  Every now and then I would stop and blow bubbles (I picked them up at Dollar General when I got the bread).  It was wonderful to spend an afternoon doing things that make me smile and laugh, but it was even more fun being able to share the experience and see the girls get to enjoy it too.

Here they come!

Frame Makeover

I don't have a picture of my feet today, but I'm sure you won't mind.  

I have a lot of my photographs hanging up around my apartment, but they're all hanging up in these cheap, thin, black, metal, BORING frames, so I've been wanting to replace them.  The first ones I wanted to replace were a set of three pictures hanging together on one wall in my bedroom.  I wanted to find a bunch of random frames and then paint them all the same color.  I found the frames over Christmas break, and they stayed in my trunk for a few weeks.  Then I brought them inside and they sat on my floor for a while.  A few weeks ago I painted them and they've been hanging out in the living room.  So finally tonight I took down the old frames, put my pictures in the new frames, and hung them back up!  They look good, but it's not quite how I pictured it in my head.  I think the frames needed to be wider and more elaborate, because from for away you can't really tell how different they all are.  It's better than what it was before though!

Before...

     ...After! 

Susie Q

Out of Order

No Turn On Red

 

: )

Look what I got last night!  See what I mean when I say I get to work with the best students ever?  They're cupcakes that say "RICHO MAY HATE YOU BUT 12:13 <3's YOU"  Richo is the printer, and 12:13 is the name of the ministry team I work with to pull off Wednesday nights.  We couldn't do it without them!

When I posted this morning I wasn't sure what to title it, so the smiley face honestly was a cop-out.  Now that the day is mostly over, I realize that it still applies.  First of all, it was BEAUTIFUL today!  It was probably already in the low 60's when I left my house (it got up to 66 later!), and there are little signs of spring popping up.  One of those are the hundreds of purple crocuses all over the yard at the office.  There's a huge patch right in the middle of the back yard, it's so cheerful looking!  As I was standing in there taking this picture I realized that it was one of those times that if someone saw me they would probably think "What in the world is that girl doing standing there taking a picture of the ground, or her feet?"  I felt kind of silly, but obviously not enough to keep me from taking the picture!

I think it's a little odd that there are dead leaves and flowers all mixed in together.

And do you remember how I said I like drinks in glass bottles?  Well today someone gave me a bottle of Cheerwine, a glass bottle of Cheerwine!  You can't get much happier than a glass bottle of Cheerwine on a sunshiney day!

There are fun things all around you, you just have to look for them!

Welcome to The Well

For those of us who are very involved in The Well, the way things function and are carried out just makes sense, it's like second nature.  But for those not as involved, it can be kind of confusing.  We're a ministry for all area college students, but our office is on campus at ETSU, and yet we're not a part of ETSU.  We have our Wednesday night gatherings at Grace Fellowship Church, but we're not a ministry of Grace.  See what I mean?  A little confusing.  We are so blessed and thankful that Grace allows us to use their facilities each week, but when students come on Wednesday, we want to to present an atmosphere that really appeals specifically to them.  And I think that most of the students that come to The Well assume that the way things look and are set up is how they always are.  Not true!  Every Wednesday afternoon a small group of wonderful, dedicated students unload a trailer and set everything up.  Then after The Well is over we tear everything down, load the trailer back up, and park it in the corner of the parking lot.  Below is a before, during, and after shot of the main entrance and hallway we use every Wednesday.  We bring in lots of different elements to jazz things up, and each Wednesday I'm going to try to focus in on one of them for you.

What it looks like when we get there...

Trailer of goodies.

Starting to set stuff up.

There are four sets of large, round, wooden tables and chairs that belong to the church.  We add funky lamps, games, some of our brochures and stickers.

And I just realized I never took a complete "after" picture.  I'll make sure to get one when I'm there tonight and add it later.

And here's the "after."  Much more fun and colorful!

One of the things we bring in to jazz things up are fun rugs.  We have two rugs like these in front of main doors people enter the auditorium there.  And get used to seeing those shoes too, they're my unofficial Wednesday shoes.  We have to wear the same shirt each week, it's black with a bit of white and red.  Most of us girls try to find different red shoes and accessories to go with it, and since I'm on my feet all night and these are comfy, they're what I usually wear.  They're actually little boys shoes, from Wal Mart, but I love them!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I've been hanging on to this picture to use on a day I didn't have anything notable to write about.  About a month ago my mom was cleaning out the basement and she came across the following little treasure: a pair of my baby shoes!  They weren't my very first pair, but possibly my first pair of running shoes?  As you can tell, the toes have been worn out.  These were the shoes I wore when I spent a lot of time in my walker, and I guess I pushed and scooted myself around on the tips of my toes!  This is also further proof that I've always been destined to wear fun, colorful things!

Happy Day of Love!

First of all, it's Mug Monday!  This is one of my favorite mugs; I would probably say that about all my mugs, but this one really is!  It's one of my favorites because it's a Mary Englebreit mug.  Mary Englebreit is an illustrator and I absolutely love her style, it's cute and happy and wonderful!  She designs stationary, office supplies, journals, calenders etc. and she also writes and illustrates children's books.  Not only is she an illustrator, but she also comes up with cute phrases, and my favorite is "Life Is Just a Chair of Bowlies."  That is the phrase and picture that's on my mug, which is why it's even more of a favorite.  Another reason this mug is special is because it was a gift from my Aunt Joy.  Joy is my mom's sister and there is no denying that we are related.  Even though Mom and I are very similar in many ways, there are things that Joy and I share that Mom and I don't, such as a love/slight obsession with shoes and purses.  Joy and I both also enjoy photography and Mary Englebreit!

Normally we have a meeting at 8:00 on Monday mornings, but we had to cancel today, which ended up being a blessing.  Two weeks ago I got pulled over by a state trooper because the tags on my car were expired.  I remembered getting the paperwork for it, but I put it in that "deal with it later" pile, but I never got around to it :(  So this morning I had the fine opportunity of visiting the Carter County Courthouse to renew my tags.  I only had to stand in line fifteen minutes, and in those fifteen minutes I saw a mullet, two pairs of mom jeans, and a leather Nascar jacket.  Oh Cater County, gotta love it...

After I left there I went to Starbucks to do some reading and journaling.  With it being Valentine's Day, I was expecting it to be kind of crowded, romantic coffee for two or something like that, but it wasn't at all!  Not only did I get to sit in one of the big, comfy chairs, but since there were so many other empty chairs, no one weird had to sit next me.  Always a good thing.

I decided to dress up for Valentine's Day, complete with heels and ruffles!

I used to be in Starbucks so often that they knew how I spelled my name.  Clearly that has changed...Also, I modpodged that journal!  I cut out the letter "A" from magazines and I also cut out my name from cards and things that people had written me.



 After Starbucks I headed to the office, where I filled up the gumball machine on my desk with Valentine's Day M&Ms!

Home Sweet Home

I went home for the weekend.  Home home.  Lynchburg.  My mom's birthday was on Thursday, which was one reason I came home, so we could celebrate.  The other reason is because my sister also had the weekend free so she came home too.  Actually, since VT is only 10 minutes or so off I-81, I just swung by and picked her up.  It was quite convenient and I got to say a quick hello to her roommates.  Shout out to Brittany, Melanie, and Amanda Mae (and Emily, even though she wasn't home)!  Amanda has lived with these girls for almost two years now, and I've spent enough time visiting her that I've gotten to know them all pretty well.   They are all wonderful young ladies and I always enjoy sharing the house with them when I'm visiting.  We are going to have so much fun being bridesmaids together this summer!  Which leads me back to the second reason we went home this weekend...So Amanda, Mom, and I could  go wedding dress shopping on Saturday.  Yay!  It's going to be so fun, but also a bit unreal.  One of those "Wait, is this really happening?!?" moments.  So how appropriate is it that the picture below is me and Amanda sitting on the couch watching 

Say Yes To The Dress...

And there are many thing I love about going home, of which is that I get to see my kitty, Chex!  I love her and miss her and if I was allowed to have pets at my apartment, I would have her with me in Johnson City.  The summer before my senior year of high school I worked at a camp for a month.  They always had kittens there, and towards the end of the summer they would let people adopt them.  I loved Chex from the beginning and always had her with me.  I actually found a picture recently of Chex tucked inside my zip up hoodie, sleeping, and this was before she was even mine.  On the weekends, the senior counselor I worked with would let me bring her inside the cabin and sleep with me. But shhhh, don't tell, we'd probably get in trouble.  And as you can obviously tell, I got to take her home with me when the summer ended.  I hate that I she isn't with me now, but it makes it even better when I get to come home to her. 

Isn't she so pretty?!? She definitely has the attitude to match...

Thrilling Thursday

I was wearing my potato boots again, and I wanted to try another way to keep my jeans tucked in.  Last time I tucked them in, I tucked them into ankle socks, which I think is why they bunched up under my feet.  So, this time I tucked them into tall socks, and...it worked great!  They stayed tucked in nice and tight all day long, with no bunching!  I will definitely be doing this from here on out!  

 

And the reason I named this post Thrilling Thursday is because we had a Karaoke / Talent Night with the Ministry Teams.  Some of the teams have been practicing all week and the Outreach team did the Thriller dance!  We had no idea that Trevor could bust a move like he did, it was quite impressive.  People had been asking if I was going to be singing anything, and I would chuckle and say "NO."  I did karaoke about 10 years ago and it was a bad experience, which is why I haven't done it since.  I swore up and down that I would not be doing it...And yet somehow I managed to...twice!  I wasn't by myself though, which made it a little easier.  First,  I sang My Boyfriend's Back, and it was pretty rough.  Later I sang I Want It That Way and that one was actually a little fun.  I do have pictures from the night, but I don't have access to them at the moment, so I'll add them next week, so make sure to check back!

Like I promised...

Obviously I was a little confused here...