I hate being sick when I’m up at school, especially with something like a cold. And I’m a big baby when it comes to colds. But having a cold isn’t enough of an excuse to miss classes or to stay in bed all day, so your just miserable and have very little pity. Last night I had some girls who were visiting Covenant stay with me. So when they got here I was going to take some cold medicine to hold me over until we went to bed, but I accidentally took the wrong medicine. Instead of taking just plain cold medicine, I took the night time stuff. I struggled to stay awake while we watched a movie and then after wards we played the game Catch Phrase. Oh boy, was that ever eventful. I was trying so hard to concentrate, but the words that were coming out of my mouth just weren’t making sense. I made a fool of myself. But the girls were good sports and my friends found it really funny. Hopefully today though I will be able to have a restful day and get this cold behind me.

Guys, tonight I went to my very first Opera ever! I felt like I was in Paris. My girls and I got all dressed us (that seems to be a must for our girls night outs.) Anyways, we got all dressed up and joined a large group of Covenant students at the opera down at the Tivoli. I think I’ve talked about the Tivoli in one of my previous blogs, but I had never been inside until now. The Tivoli holds many events: concerts, comedy shows, ballets, plays, and operas. It’s right in the middle of down town and the sign has these bright flashing lights all around it, just like those old theater houses. The inside was more then I had ever expected.

It was just like a real opera house. Have you ever seen the movie Anastasia? You know the very end of the movie when they go to the Russian Ballet, that’s what this place reminded me of. When you walked in there was this large U-shaped staircase. I just stood there and watched as you saw all the ladies in their beautiful dresses walking up it on the arm of their date. The Tivoli was three stories high and we were on the very top. The stage area had beautiful architecture and was trimmed with gold and torquoise. On the sides was special seating, just like in the movie Phantom of the Opera. You know how they always had to save that special seating for the Phantom. Well, I suppose that’s not that important but I thought it was kind of cool.

La Boheme was a beautiful story. I was surprised at how many times the play made me laugh, being a tragic love story. My goodness, if only life was like this opera. Full of so much passion. What really made the play though was the music. The orchestra playing was absolutely amazing and the voices of the actors and actresses were superb. I have no idea how they can sing so beautifully for so long. The play was sung in Spanish and above the stage area was a screen translating it into English.

It was truly and unbelievable night. I’m looking forward to going to the Tivoli again soon! And you guys should definitely go if you end up at Covenant!

Oh man, I love it when people come and visit me at Covenant from out of town. This weekend two friends came to Covenant, one actually used to go here and the other hadn’t ever been here before. The weekend was packed with late nights talking about life, late mornings sleeping off those late nights, afternoons of soccer (them not me :)), and then spending the evenings out and about in Chattanooga. It was so much fun, it’s not very often when I treat myself to just forget about homework and things that need to get done and just enjoy the weekend, but I kind of like it, I’m not going to lie. Plus, life is never boring with these people around. I don’t think I’ve laughed this hard in a long time. I mean the jokes never stopped. But today they left, and it was back to reality. I no longer had an excuses to put off all that homework I hadn’t done yet. Never the less, it was a refreshing weekend; an escape from how life has been these past couple of weeks. After one more good nights sleep catching up from our late nights I will be good and ready to go. Alright, talk to ya’ll later!

Today I walked into the exact classroom I want to teach in. I had to do a classroom observation for my Teaching Reading to Students class. I went to a local school and was in a first grade classroom. The class was so amazing. The walls were covered with posters, charts, standards, rules, etc. I don’t think there was a single space free. As we education majors say, it was a print rich environment. There was large carpet space with a rocking chair and a cushioned yellow chair for the teacher. The desks were collaborated into clusters of fours and on one side of the room by the window there was a large yellow couch. The teacher had an antique pink chair accompanying her metal school issued desk. But her desk was decorated just as elegantly as her chair. She had a pink and green lamp and a vase of yellow dandelions. Above her desk were three large pink picture boards where she put pictures that students had given her and some pictures of her own up.

When the teacher started instruction the class was so attentive even with the added distraction of having a stranger in the room. They all were excited about what they were learning and asked questions and made comments about the whale book they were reading aloud. The children were sent to go do some small group work while the teacher worked with a special group of students on their reading. After a while, the teacher left the group with another lady who came in and went around to look at the progress the groups were making. She curled up on the floor with the students and looked at their projects. She laughed and made jokes with them. It was so obvious how much she loved her students.

Oh my goodness guys sometimes I can not wait to be a teacher! I mean most of the time it just freaks me out, but then there are the times when I’m just so excited about it. Only a year left before that will be me in the room teaching a group of my own 25 students. Ahh! I have so much to learn before then!

Someone said that I should read My Utmost for His Highest, a book of daily reflections, a couple of days ago. Well today I finally went back to read the reflection for Tuesday, I then went on to read the following day which seemed to relate. Both reflections gave encouragement for those who are saddened, grieved, depressed, etc. I find these things creeping up on me especially around this time of the year. I am homesick, stressed with school, tired of school, and overwhelmed with life. Anyways, I wanted to share them with you guys, hoping that they will encourage some of you as they have been an encouragement to me.

February 17
The Initiative Against Depression
“Arise and eat.” 1 Kings 19:5

“The Angel did not give Elijah a vision, or explain Scriptures to him, or do anything remarkable, he told Elijah to do the most ordinary thing, viz, to get up and eat. If we were never depressed we should not be alive; it is the nature of a crystal never to be depressed. A human being is capable of depression, otherwise there would be no capacity for exaltation. There ar things that are calculated to depress, things that are of the nature of death; and in taking an estimate of yourself, always take into account the capacity for depression.

When the Spirit of God comes He does not give visions, He tells us to do the most ordinary things conceivable. Depression is apt to turn us away from the ordinary commonplace things of God’s creation, but whenever God comes, the inspiration is to do the most natural simple things–the things we would never have imagined God was in, and as we do them we find He is there. The inspiration which comes to us in this way is an initiative against depression; we have to do the next thing and do it in the inspiration of God. If we do a thing in order to overcome depression, we deepen the depression; but if the Spirit of God makes us feel intuitively that we must do the thing, and we do it, the depression is gone. Immediately we arise and obey, we enter on a higher plane of life.”

February 18
The Initiative Against Despair
“Rise, let us be going.” Matthew 26:46
“The disciples went to sleep when they should have kept awake, and when they realized what they had done it produced despair. The sense of the irreparable is apt to make us despair, and we say–”It is all up now, it is no use trying any more.” If we imagine that this kind of despair is exceptional, we are mistaken, it is a very ordinary human experience. Whenever we realize that we have not done that which we had a magnificent opportunity of doing, then we are apt to sink into despair; and Jesus Christ comes and says–”Sleep on now, the opportunity is lost forever, you cannot alter to it, but arise and go to the next thing.” Let the past sleep, but let it sleep in the bosom of Christ, and go out into the irresistible future with Him.

There are experiences like this in each of our lives. We are in despair, the despair that comes form actualities, and we cannot lift ourselves out of it. The disciples in this instance had done a downright unforgivable thing; they had gone to sleep instead of watching with Jesus, be He came with a spiritual initiative against their despair and said– “Arise and do the next thing.” If we are inspired of God, what is the next thing? To trust Him absolutely and to pray on the ground of His Redemption.

Never let the sense of failure corrupt your new action.”

Okay, guys so this is my third time trying to write this post…it keeps getting erased for some reason. So bare with me, this day was such a great day but having to rewrite the day three times takes a little bit of the love out of it. :) So anyways, Valentines Day is one of my absolute favorite holidays! I know I know weird, I mean I haven’t even had very many Valentines that I’ve gotten to spend with a boy. But you guys know how much i love love. :) And a whole day dedicated to telling each other: friends, family, etc how much they mean to you, what could be better?! Now don’t get me wrong, I get how the day can be…hmmm let just say not so happy at times. You are either surrounded by people who have a “special someone” and can’t help but feel a little bitter as their being showered with flowers and chocolates. Or you are surrounded by those who don’t have a “special someone” and spend the entire day thinking up as many cynic remarks about relationships, Valentines, or anything else that has to do with love.

So since I really like Valentine’s Day I usually try and do something a little special with and for my room mates. I mean every girl deserves a little chocolate or some flowers. Then that night we all decided to have a girls night. We pulled out our high heels and cute shirts and went to dinner. We went to Genghis Grill (which by the way is one of the best restaurants in Chattanooga). It’s a Mongolian Grill and you get this bowl to fill up with all the meat, vegetables, seasonings, and sauces that you want. YUMMY!!! We gobbled up our food over some girl talk…of course. :) After dinner we walked over to the movie theater downtown called the Bijoux. Which guys, if you do end up coming to Covenant the Bijoux is the cheapest theater to go to, besides the dollar theater that only shows old movies. With a student id at the Bijoux though you get $2.00 off your ticket. We watched the movie “He’s Just Not That Into You,” which was appropriate for a girl’s night. As always we had a great night out on the town. I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s as well! Sending you all lots of love!

Ok guys…I have to tell you something that I don’t know if I’m suppose to admit to. But I feel it is only fair to share that one thing about being a college student is that sometimes you procrastinate and end up walking into a test feeling way less prepared then you should be. That was me today. Yesterday, I was so distracted with the beautiful weather that I didn’t spend my day studying for my Doctrine Test like I should have been. So I woke up today feeling so stressed out to get as much studying in before the test at 2:00. I woke up early ran back to my room after classes to get as much extra studying as possible. Guys I do not suggest doing this, it is a horrible feeling! Surprisingly enough, I walked into the test not feeling 100 percent but feeling alright about it. God is so gracious though! The test was better than what I thought it would be. I got through everything, knowing at least what he was asking in every section. Golly I HATE procrastinating…but what can you do, sometimes it just happens. :)

So every semester Covenant has a day set aside for prayer. Yesterday, was such a beautiful day for it too! Many students got up early in the morning to have a time of worship and devotion watching the Sun Rise over Rock City. Many went on long walks to pray and spend some time with Christ. Others went to planned prayer and worship events around campus. Then I heard of a few who decided to take retreats off the mountain camping, or staying in a cabin and spending it in solitude. It really is an amazing day to refocus you. And after last weeks talk on spending time in quiet it couldn’t have been at a better time. I spent the days drinking in the weather. Oh my goodness guys, it has been just beautiful the last couple of days! Yesterday when I woke up I opened up the windows in my room and had my time of quiet. What a great day!!! Now it’s back to school and I have a killer Doctrine test today. Boo! Wish me luck!

So I know that you guys have heard me talk about my room mates Katja and Katie. They have been such a huge part of my life since I’ve been here at Covenant. They came into my life year when I moved in with them and two other girls. If you go back to some of my posts from freshman year you will find all of our adventures we went on. From birthday celebrations to camping out. I remember at the end of our freshman year all five of us girls crying as we said goodbye for summer break. We knew it just would never be the same. And it hasn’t been. Last year two of us five girls left Covenant, one got married this summer, and we have all changed in so many different ways. However, we still share a bond from our freshman year that has yet to have been erased. Katja, Katie and I now live in the exact room that we lived in our freshman year. A room that holds so many memories, and is constantly being filled with new memories. Our visits with the two room mates that left freshman year are very few, but oh so special.

This weekend Katja, Katie, and I took a road trip to see Jackie one of the old room mates. We missed out on Covenant’s 80’s skate night, which you should check out some of the other Covenant student blogs and see if they wrote anything on it because I heard it was awesome! So anyways, we left right after classes on Friday night and traveled to Alabama. It’s funny because no matter how long it’s been since we’ve seen each other we always get to pick up right where we left off. We went out to dinner and then went back to Jackie’s house to hang out. It wasn’t long before we had the chocolate out and we were having girl talk. We ended the night cuddled up watching a chick flick. The next day we spent outside. It was such an amazingly beautiful day!! We went out on a boat on the pond in front of Jackie’s house and we went to an outdoor shopping center and walked around. We stayed there until after dinner and then headed back to campus. It was so much fun! Man I miss those freshman days!

This week one of our chapel talks was on silence. Boy was it a good reminder! We all know how easy it is to get caught up in life. We move through our days with our music playing in the background, our friends chatting away, and hundreds of other distractions to break the silence. When do we ever just sit and be silent? Never, is the answer I had to this question. But I was reminded that it is in this silence that Christ speaks to us, it is in this silence that our lives stop spinning circles around us and we can actually begin figuring them out. Some might say that they are even afraid of silence. Oh but guys that silence is so precious, so freeing. I encourage all of you to join me. Turn of your radios on the drive home, crawl into your closet to escape from life’s distractions and just be silent.