First week of 5:45 mornings done! And it went surprisingly well, I think I could get used to this whole teacher thing. J But I am glad to have weekends! Today I went wedding dress shopping with my friend Jenae, who got engaged over Christmas break. She is going to make an absolutely beautiful bride. She entertained us girls as she tried on white dress after white dress; some in which she would never even think of wearing. There was one though, that her heart was so attached to. She had looked at it before and even after trying on several other dresses when she put on this one she just felt right. And it was right. Sometimes I have to remind myself that very soon we will be in a completely new phase of life. Listening to Jenae dream about her wedding made it all the more real for me. Life is so funny. We wait and wait to one day grown up, and then without even realizing that we are crossing over, we do. It happens just like that. And after it happens there is no going back.

You who are moving into the college years this is the time you are crossing over, whether you realize it or not. And it’s not something that should scare us, or that we should run away from. It’s something that should make us appreciate the end of one ride and the beginning of another one. Decide carefully what you want the end of this ride to look like and make it be what you want it to. Don’t let it catch you off guard.

Today was my first day of teaching! That’s right after three years of you hearing about all my education classes that have been preparing me for this very day, the time is finally here. Goodness gracious it feels so surreal. I am in Mrs. Pickard’s Kindergarten class at Chattanooga Valley Elementary. I honestly had no idea what to expect. I was coming from a fifth grade classroom, so a bunch of kids who just couldn’t seem to stay still if their life depended on it seemed a little overwhelming to me. I have to say that although I wasn’t wrong about the little kids with the wiggles and jiggles, I also had no idea that I would meet some of the funniest individuals I have ever met in my entire life. That’s right, these five year olds are much funnier then any comedian I have ever seen. I can’t explain how much they can brighten up someone’s day simply by being him or her. They have no idea what they’re saying or doing is absolutely hilarious, they just do things so matter of factly. For example, Mrs. Pickard had just finished reading a book on Martin Luther King Jr. when one of the students raised her hand and asked, “So where is he now?” Mrs. Pickard said with remorse, “Well, he died…he was shot.” The student didn’t miss a beat before snapping his finger and exclaiming, “Awww, shucks!” Yes it definitely brightened my day.

It also seems that I may have been right about how overwhelming it can be to control such a group of kids. I still can not wrap my head around how to get these students to stay still long enough for me to get through my lesson. I have to say even with how overwhelming it is, I am siked to start lesson planning for my class. I will start taking over Calendar tomorrow and then Phonics and Science on Tuesday after Martin Luther King’s Birthday.

Breaks always seem to come at the perfect time and give you just what you need. Christmas break was so nice: it was filled with relaxation, time with family, and preparing my self for this last semester at Covenant. As ready as I was to come back and get started with this final semester there was a part of me that didn’t want to. I knew that once the semester started there wasn’t any stopping it. It was going to fly by, and before I knew it I was going to be standing at the end of my four years here at Covenant wishing I had just one more year.

I went to lunch with my friend Olivia and we talked about our last semester and what it was going to hold and what we wanted it to look like. I talked about how I knew it was going to be a hard semester and that I wished it would just go by fast, she stopped me though and reminded me of something very important. She told me that this is where God has us right now. He is not finished with the purpose in which he brought us to Covenant. Therefore, we can’t give up yet. This is our mission field still. We still need to invest, love, and enjoy where he has put us and the people he has put around us.

And so I go into this final semester with mix feelings. I take a deep breath. I know it’s going to be a roller coaster, but I’m going to enjoy the ride while it lasts. I have a feeling that these blogs are going to be filled with just as many things God teaches me as they were my first semester I was here. He’s not finished yet.

I woke up this morning to screaming outside my dorm. It was eight o’clock, which meant only one thing…It must have snowed! There is so much excitement on campus whenever a fresh sheet of snow covers the campus. I rushed to my window to see the first snow of the year and what a sight! Everything was covered, I tried to take it all in because I knew that in a matter of minutes it would be ruined by students playing in it.

I was right just then I saw two people running out and forming the snow into small balls to throw at one another. To some the snow invited them outside to play, for me though the snow told me to stay indoors and put on sweats and cozy up under a blanket. And that is just what I did. Friends came with boxes for sledding snowballs were thrown at our window…but none of it tempted me enough to move from under my blanket. A cup of coffee was the only thing that could do the trick. The girls and I decided to go down to a distant coffee shop to spend the afternoon studying.

You see that’s the trick…finding a far away coffee shop. There’s a Starbucks on the mountain that most Covenant students go to study, which is nice most of the time. But then there are those days when you don’t want any distractions while you pour over your books with a cup of coffee and today was one of those days. Katja, Katie, and I decided to go to Greyfriers. Greyfriers is a coffee shop in downtown Chattanooga that was started by a Covenant Alumni. Our freshman year us girls would go there every Saturday morning, but hadn’t all been there together since. Greyfriers was just the place to spend our afternoon…we spread out over the couches they have there and pulled out our books.

…It was such a wonderful day!

Christmas is here, I have been so busy since I’ve been back up at school I barely realized it. Going to Madrigals tonight definitely got me in the spirit though. Madrigals is an amazing event Covenant does every year to celebrate the season. It is a traditional 16th century feast. Our Great Hall is decorated with Christmas decorations and dozens of candles. The evening began with the Lord and Lady greeting us in elegant garb. We said a cheers to the evening saying, “Wasaab!” Course after course was served to us by “peasants” and as we ate the most amazing singers and instrumentalist entertained us. They sang English songs, Madrigals, and Christmas carols. They had practiced all semester for this very night and did not disappoint. It was beautiful! One of my favorite parts of the evening is when the jugglers came. They impressed us with their talent and made us laugh with their jokes. It just completed the whole atmosphere of the evening, it really did feel like we were in the 16th century.

The whole community comes out for the event. Some people come every year! As I looked around the Great Hall during the dinner I was taken back by how beautiful everything was. The candlelight made everyone seem to have a glow about them and they all looked so nice dressed up in beautiful gowns and tuxes. Everyone has to experience Madrigals at least once during their time at Covenant. It is a night like none other.

Tonight was Runway for Africa. It was a new event for Covenant imagined up by one of the students and it turned out great! Every hall’s RA was responsible for creating and modeling their own costumes for the categories of Scots pride, hall pride, thanksgiving, high fashion, and formal. We saw quite the variety of outfits that’s for sure. We saw Indians, Scot Superhero’s, crazy outfits with spikes coming out of the legs, and much more. After the first four categories the judges picked the top 6 to compete in the final formal round. We went crazy when both our hall’s representative and our brother halls made it to the final six. We knew they were going to win! In this round each contestant had to answer questions. We were confident at the end that our questionnaires we had it in the bag!

During the judges deliberation over awards Laura Berger presented on what inspired her to have the event and what the money would go towards. She told us about her time she spent in Africa this summer. She explained how there were times when she couldn’t communicate with the people she was with but she knew that the word was a live and at work. Her hope was to raise money to send bibles back over to Africa. She raised six hundred and fifty dollars from the event plus bibles that were donated separately. Laura did such a great job! I know she worked very hard on this for weeks, and everyone who came had a great night!

After a brief intermission it was time for the tally’s. They had a series of awards to hand out that included: best stage presence, most likely to have a profession in fashion, etc. Our brother hall’s RA got people’s choice. Which was awesome! They had this whole system during the intermission where we could text our choice in…and our brother hall got it! Then it was time for the big awards of the night Mr. And Mrs. Covenant College. Mr. Covenant College was Josh DeGroot and Mrs. Covenant College was….April Holkestrum, CHI ALPHA’S REPRESENTATIVE! We were so proud of her! Yay Chi Alpha! What a fun night…I really hope they keep this tradition going!

Tonight, you guys probably well know there was a meteor shower! I only remember one other time in my life when I’ve tried to watch a meteor shower and can remember only one other time when I’ve seen a shooting star. When I heard about the meteor shower I was so excited to get to go and spend the night staring at the stars, watching for meteors shooting across the sky. We went with some guys from our brother hall to a huge rock in the middle of the woods that has the most amazing view. We had a great time laying staring up at the sky talking about things we were looking forward to about Thanksgiving break, laughing over jokes, and waiting anxiously for these seemingly invisible meteors. As the night went on the clouds begin to cover the sky more and more, finally we lost hope and decided that we should probably head in.

On our way back to our dorm though we found a break in the clouds right over our intramural field and decided to stop and look a couple more minutes for some meteors. We layed on the field for a while longer looking…and that’s when I saw my first meteor! It was the first one I had seen throughout the evening and it was great! But then the sky was still again, soon it was thirty minutes before what was suppose to be the peak hour. We hated to go in now, we were so close! So instead I ran up to the room grabbed some blankets and we moved locations one more time. It was 2:30 in the morning now and we began to run in to several people heading out to see the meteor shower as well. We decided to move this time to the Covenant baseball fields where there were some other groups watching the meteor shower as well. We saw a couple more meteors, which made us all real excited. Whenever someone spotted one, we all went crazy. It cracked me up! My favorite part of the night ended up not being the meteors as much as getting to spend time with the people who were there. We had a great time! I know you have heard me say this time and time again, but I am going to say it one more time-I absolutely love the people God has put in my life!!!

Tonight we had a Lion King party with our brother hall. Our halls made themed snacks and were judged. The winner would get prime seating to watch the movie. Guess who won!!!! Well, technically we got second place but still got the good couch for watching the movie because the first place winners weren’t present. I was happy with second though. My suite made a PooPoo Platter…I know I know a kind of gross, but it actually turned out pretty hilarious. We got all different kinds of chocolates: whoppers, junior mints, chocolate chips, donut holes, etc and then labeled them to be a lion king animal’s poop.
We continue to get closer and closer with our brother hall. I’ve never had brothers before, but I kind of like having them! I like the sibling rivalries, getting to tease them, and then just getting to hang out and have fun with them. I feel like our hall is pretty lucky to have the brothers we do.
P.S. If you haven’t watched Lion King recently you should definitely put it on your to do list…I forgot how great that movie is!

We gave the money to Katja tonight, and a smile didn’t leave her face after that. She was going to get to go home! She was completely overwhelmed by the generosity of her community here at Covenant. All of us have been praying for ways to help our sister, and when God gave an opportunity we were excited by the opportunity of God to work through us to help our sister. Tears filled my eyes as we told Katja story after story of how God provided. Katja bought her ticket home that very night and will get to be there for the whole week of Thanksgiving. I think she feels like she can make it til then, she has a hope in her eyes.

God has taught me so much these past couple of weeks as I have walked with Katja. He has taught me that Katja is his and he is taking care of her more then I can. I have to continue to humble myself recognizing my inability to truly understand what my friend is going through and thus having to admit to her and to myself that I although I may attempt my efforts to comfort her will prove to be minute. However, God has Katja in his hand and will provide exactly what she needs; he will give comfort, peace, and joy. And he gives me rest, knowing that he is going to take care of my friend. What a LOVING God I follow!

Katja has been back at Covenant for about two weeks now, but it is no secret that home is where her mind and thoughts are these days. She wants and needs to be home so bad right now, but knows that God has her here at Covenant to finish out the year. A few of us girls decided to try and raise money to send Katja home for Thanksgiving. We sent out an email to our hall, our brother hall, and a few of her close friends asking them to consider donating Plasma and giving the proceeds to buy Katja a ticket home. The ticket was going to cost about $500 and were fearful of this seemingly daunting amount. How silly we are though, we apparently had forgotten that we serve a mighty God. The first people to donate money didn’t even know who Katja was, they had just heard about what happened and what we were doing and wanted to help. Friends started to search their empty pockets for money to donate to Katja. I got several phone calls the next couple of days from people telling me that God provided in unexpected ways and they wanted to help out. Even families of friends who had never met Katja helped out. Our eyes grew large as we saw our little envelope grow larger and larger. It didn’t take long before we passed our $500 dollar mark and I began to pray for a thousand dollars. In three days we raised over a thousand dollars! Yes, we do serve a mighty God indeed! Not only did we raise enough to send Katja home for Thanksgiving, but also for Christmas Break and Spring Break as well. Wow! Even now I am in awe of how God has worked, this all is because of him. Praise be to God!