There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glory of Christmas's long long ago...

They are playing Christmas music all day long on my favorite radio station!! AWESOMENESS!! I am in such a good mood all of the sudden. heh. I love Christmas music. I just want to sit in my car for the rest of the day and listen to it. :D That is probably not a valid excuse for missing class. heh. Sing all you citizens of heaven above!!


Joseph's Lullaby - Mercy Me.

Go to sleep my Son
This manger for your bed
You have a long road before You
Rest Your little head

Can You feel the weight of Your glory?
Do You understand the price?
Or does the Father guard Your heart for now
So You can sleep tonight?

Go to sleep my Son
Go and chase Your dreams
This world can wait for one more moment
Go and sleep in peace

I believe the glory of Heaven
Is lying in my arms tonight
But Lord, I ask that He for just this moment
Simply be my child

Go to sleep my Son
Baby, close Your eyes
Soon enough You'll save the day
But for now, dear Child of mine
Oh my Jesus, Sleep tight

I am completely healthy except for a virus (common cold) and high blood pressure (125/82 ... it is supposed to be under 120/80). So she gave me this list of things to do to reduce my blood pressure:
* stop smoking
* stop drinking
* lose weight
* eat healthy

Let's look at this list shall we... I don't smoke, I don't drink. My Mom will worry about me if I lose weight. I eat three vegetables at dinner and at least three fruits between breakfast and lunch. I eat whole grain foods with nothing added to them. I drink skim milk and water. I live with the Howard's where everything is bought from Trader Joe's or is equally healthy. I really don't think I can do anything on the list. There were some other things on the list that were equally absurd, but I don't remember. So anyhow, I need to lower my blood pressure. Anyhow suggestions?!? heh. It is like my big joke right now. I even had a salad with dinner last night. Woohoo salads!! (it was the strawberry, orange, walnut, and Gorgonzola cheese salad... YUM YUM YUM).

Now if I could stop feeling tired and get rid of these spots on the back of my tounge and this annoyings runny nose, cough, and sneeze that I have had for two weeks. Maybe it has something to do with my high blood pressure...

Mom, you should be proud of me. I just got blood taken and I didn't freak out. They took blood to see if it was mono, otherwise she said it is probably a cold. I'm so tired though. It is weird. I slept from 9:20 last night to 7:20 this morning. Yes, that is ten hours of sleep. Anyhow, I can't wait to come home this weekend and rest up a bit.

In other news, my parents, Hope, and Jared came up to visit me on Saturday. We went to lunch at Chipotle (my favorite mexican resturant up here) and went to DC and hiked the Billy Goat Trail on the C and O canal. It was awesome! I had a blast. I am so glad they came. I hadn't seen Hope or Jared in over 30 days. It was a really nice day.

Back to studying. Midterms on Thursday and next Monday.

Two of the greatest joys of my life:
1. Playing sports in the rain
2. Changing into dry comfy clothes afterwards.

What more can you ask for? Maybe a cup of hot apple cidar or hot chocolate. But those are just extras. They just are so wonderful and they go together, hand in hand. It is awesome! Andrew and Chris Ahn taught Michelle and I how to frolf today. I was pretty awful. But the fun part was being outside in the pouring rain playing a sport!! Oh how I miss playing games outside with friends. Then we went puddle jumping and to our RUF flag football game, but it was cancelled. So we decided to play anyhow. It was pouring. It was AMAZING! I would have rather been playing soccer, but football is cool too. I'm just not as good at it. Anyhow, this post is really just to declare how much I love sports and being outside and how even greater it is when it is pouring down rain. Woohoo! I'm soaked. Seriously, it is raining so hard outside. It is perfect muddy sport playing weather. Go outside now and find something to throw or kick around. It will improve your mood! :D

I love this set of photos!!
Classy bridesmaids.

See more by Laura and Jared Dye!

I've always loved the jumping photo!!

I want it done at my wedding.

Fun.

So I totally just took an hour nap in my car while it was raining outside between classes. It was prefectly wonderful. I love sleeping with rain pouring down on the roof. I even have a blanket in my car now for whenever I feel like sleeping.

RUF retreat time...

This is where I was all weekend. It was so much fun and so good for me. We played basketball until three in the morning, played foosball and pictionary, took hikes through the woods, invented a new game (a cross between ultimate Frisbee and soccer), and we did a ropes course. And that was in our free time. We had four sermons, five small groups sessions, one breakout session (where we learned about different aspects of the RUF philosophy), and sang countless songs (there were at least 30 of them). Anyhow, the weekend was awesome. I can't really sum it all up really well because so much happened. But I really loved just hanging out with my friends and playing games. I miss that at home. I love doing things outdoors and no one being distracted by other things. So here are a few pictures from the weekend. There are over 90 that I have received so far, so I'll spare you.

Julia and Faith - Curly Hair unite pose!

My RUFers!!! Love them. This is after church on Sunday. If you look on the right you will see Andrew and Chris Ahn (you might see why we call him little Chris).
Starting from the right (a sentence or two will not capture how awesome these people are... but it will give you an idea to start with):
* Julia (my favorite curly haired RUFer! We have dinner at the diner every three weeks before small group so I can spend her meal points. She is one of the most energetic and real people you will ever meet. I love her!)
* Rebekah - frosh
* Sarah Bell (I love saying her name together. Her parents live in Indonesia. She is a transfer. She is also a speech therapist major. woot woot.)
*Ndang - he sings in the choir and is a chem and bio major who is going to pharmacy school in two years).
*Rebecca - my favorite freshman from last year! She is so sweet. I try to make her smile whenever I see her because she is rarely smiling. She is definitely one of my favorite people in RUF.
*Michelle - small group leader - christian bale appreciator - the person I hang out with the most this semester - we text message each other or post on each others facebooks or send emails constantly about just random stuff.
* some girl that was a friend of someone else
* Greg - my nerd computer science major. We make fun of each other for being nerds and rule at pictionary together when the words are computer related.
* me
* Tara - sweetest person ever. linguistics major. So interesting.
* Brian - one of three seniors - bio major - plays bass - is pretty awesome. Most of the guys in RUF are. they all just make me laugh so ofter.
* Sarah (gouch) - sophomore - English major - crazy fun - she is very full of life.
* Josh - Josh needs a lot more than a sentence to explain him. The pictures don't even start to describe how much fun he is to have around. Josh is the strangest person I have ever met.
* Chris - RUF leader
* Andrew - reminds me of Greg Taylor. That is probably why I love him so much. He reminds me of a little brother. We tease each other all the time and he makes me play sports with him.
* Chris Ahn - little Andrew, seriously (they both refuse to do anything that is stereotypically Asian, like ping pong, or stuff like that).

Our speaker.
Ndang! You gotta have Faith. (His name is Ndang, the N is silent).

Ropes course. That was the only rope we touched the entire time. We had to swing everyone over to a three foot by three foot platform. We had 14 people on that thing by the time we were finished!! I'm pretty proud of us. :D
Ndang swinging over the "poisen peanut butter". That is what they called it. They never told us why were were all swing out to the middle of a lake of poisen peanut butter, just that we had to do it.
This was evacuating the Titanic. We had to get everyone through the tire under a minute and a half. We made it because we were awesome.
Chris Ahn.

Me and Gouch (Sarah).
Brian Crawford and me beasting at foosball. After this we didn't play together again because it was impossible for other people to win. So we'd take on one other person on our team and challenge each other.
ME!
Other people really got into foosball. I think this picture is amazing.
These are the only pictures of us playing the game we invented. This was taken through a high powered scope on the opposite hill. The game was basically ultimate frisbee, but with a twist. At the end of the field, instead of scoring like in ultimate, you had to throw it into the goal and each end had a goalie who could swat it out of the air. We played for over an hour and a half after the historical fair we went to was boring. There was this school next door to the fair and so we walked over and started playing. It was the highlight of my trip! Seriously, I love this game. I was so sore the next day from diving on the ground so many time. But it was that good kind of sore when you are just reminded by the soreness how awesome the day before was.
Us walking off after "amish ultimate" or soccbee. We haven't quite determined the name yet.

We stopped at Turkey hill to get drinks after the game because we were all about to pass out. This is what Josh bought. Josh is crazy and makes every event fun. Normally I might be embarrassed to be around someone like this all the time, but Josh is hilarious. Everything he does is so strange. We just look at each other sometimes and say, "well that is Josh".The rest of us all bought half gallons of lemonade and tea because they were on sale. I guess that makes for 8 or so gallons of tea and lemonade. heh.
Andrew plays bass.
Brian and Andrew play bass. One of the best photos of the weekend. We were eating these really nasty chicken sandwiches and bugles for dinner. And so we look over and we see this. There aren't really any words to describe this.

In no order...

Me eating a doughnut and laying on the ground and laughing uncontrollably.

My RUFers!! Are they great!?!
Andrew eating a doughnut.
Ndang eating a doughnut (he beat me).
My RUFers on the stairs outside the Amory.
My full outfit.

A frosh and three of my small group girls, Sarah, Julia, me, and Michelle.
Andrew and me.
Chris Ahn. We call him little Andrew. He is adorable.
Me being beaten by Ndang in eating the doughnuts. So close.

Another favorite hymn...

1. Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come; Jesus I come.
Into Thy freedom, gladness and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of my sickness into Thy health,
Out of my wanting and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

2. Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of earth’s sorrows into Thy balm,
Out of life’s storms and into Thy calm,
Out of distress into jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

3. Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into Thy blessed will to abide,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of myself to dwell in Thy love,
Out of despair into raptures above,
Upward forever on wings like a dove,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

4. Out of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into the joy and light of Thy home,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold,
Ever Thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

Well, Stef is married...

She was such a cute bride!

So totally Steffy. heh.

I'll try to post pictures whenever we get any.

Mrs. Shelton has photos uploaded!!!

Mother Taylor has uploaded photos!!! (warning: I look scary in the one of Sarah and me. They told me they were going to put a little makeup on me... HA!) I would like my Hannah Townsend, natural makeup look next time. :) I like the way she does my makeup. Maybe I am just not used to it. heh, I kept looking in the mirror all day and going, "who is that?" It was weird.

Next time life gets you down, here are two things to raise your spirits.

1) Wear bright colors. Get a bunch of friends together and wear crazy outfits. Then go somewhere public. More pictures coming soon.

2) When it rains in the summer, go puddle jumping! Man, this has to be one of my favorite things ever!! I'd take pictures, but I look like a drown rat. heh. Try it sometime. Summer rain smells SO GOOD!!!


Andrew Zhao!!! One of my favorite people!! Isn't he adorable?!? If I were younger I would have a crush on him, seriously. He's such a sweetheart. And he is hilarious. I love Andrew! He came up with this idea to de-stress from midterms and to surprise Chris and test his preaching abilities when all of us are dressed like crazy people. Andrew told me to wear bright colors...

Michelle, Hannah, Andrew, and me.
Michelle is the other senior, this year (there are only three of us, I don't know if I got in any pictures with Brian, I'll try to get one of him up here one of these days. Michelle makes me laugh and brings me cream of crab soup as surpirses. She is another one of my favorites!!! We send each other random and crazy text messages throughout the day whenever we need a good laugh. She was my small group leader last year. This year a couple of us are co-teaching it. We are doing Romans!

And two more of my original small group girls. The only person I didn't get a picture with was Rebecca. Then I would have all my original small group girls. Julia has the curly hair. She feeds me meals and we tell everyone that June birthdays and dark curls are the best!! Tara is in the back. She is one of the sweetest people that you will ever meet.

I'll have to tell you stories some other time. But I have to go do homework now and then get to bed so I can have breakfast with Andrew, Brian, Michelle, Julia, and Tara tomorrow morning!!

Dear World,

This is just a friendly reminder to be thankful for your air conditioners because it sure is hot outside (and inside depending on where you live). heh. We broke a record in College Park yesterday for the warmest it had ever been on that day (it was 94 degrees outside!!). Also, be thankful for the people you live with, if you live with people, because they are a joy. I find life is a little bit boring all by myself. I sure like the Grandi- Howards! Not only do they cook me good healthy food, they also teach me a lot of interesting stuff! Woohoo.

Faith

Today I'll introduce to you to professors...
I'll rate the classes next to them from 1 to 10. 10 being the best.
I'm taking three 400 levels and 2 300 level classes. woohoo. I'm almost finished!!

My HVAC professor...
2
I thought this class was going to be awesome. I was mistaken. It is the longest hour and fifteen minutes of my day. And I haven't learned anything yet. He uses powerpoints and a computer program to show us formulas. BLEH. I hate powerpoint. I can't learn with powerpoint.

My Circuit packaging class.
6
This class is a graduate level class. We are taking apart a wireless mouse for our project. Other people are taking apart the wii controller and an IPOD. We had our midterm one in this class today. It was nothing like I expected or studied for. I thought I was pretty well set. He tests differently than his homework. Live and learn. I put the black and white photo up and then realized that you couldn't see his red hair. So then I put the first on up. This professor says okay at least 100 times each lecture. No joke. But he is really nice and extremely friendly. I think I'll have him again next year, if I take the second part of this class.

My Controls Class (Vibrations 2)

8, maybe a 9 - it is my favorite class this year. It was the one I was least looking forward to because I HATED vibrations 1 and everyone said this professor was hard. But I like him. He is the one that says bloody during the lectures. heh. We also took this midterm today, it didn't seem too hard, but we'll see when I receive it back. I posted the second picture because I thought it was funny to see my professor not in dress clothes. I guess he climbed a mountain in Peru or something. Oh and he writes on the board! HOORAY! Love chalkboards!!!

Heat Transfer

6.5, maybe 7

I really liked my TA (the one from Alabama, but he had a constuction acciedent and had six hour surgury on his back and I doubt he will be coming back to be my TA anytime soon; so the class has lost a little of its charm and ease). The professor is very intelligent. He told us today to questions everything he says and never take anything he says for granted. The class isn't bad; it is certainly much better than fluids (the part one of this class)!! And the professor is so much better! He writes on the board! GLORIOUS DAY! I love when professors write on the board. I cannot express to you how much I hate powerpoints because I can't take notes and they go to fast. My brain needs notes to be able to function. I need that head to hand connection.

Materials

6

It is interesting to learn how materials get put together. I really like my professor. She is very interesting, but she uses powerpoint and I can't take notes. But she makes the class a lot of fun. I just am not to hot on memorizing all the stuff from chemisty all over again. Other than that, I enjoy the class. It isn't too much work. I couldn't find her picture.

Oh and this is a picture of a bruise that strangely appreared on my hand for an hour or so on my first day of class. Weird, eh? It then disappeared and I haven't seen it since.

This is one reason I love and miss my sister. Today she sent me a message that said, " * Why can’t Walter be my drawing master?"

To which I replied, "Why can’t Gilbert be in my school?"

And from there we went back and forth for the next hour with the following. Brownie points to the person who could name each and every referenced movie, book, and/or musical... heh. My favorite is by Sarah... It is, "Why don't we have a farm boy?" I laughed out loud when I received that one. I love you, Sarah! So much. Oh, I get to see you tomorrow. I am so excited. :) Oh, and Hayley, the second to last one was for you. I don't know if anyone else would get that quote. haha. I can't wait to see you either tomorrow. WOOHOO!

* Why can’t Mr. Bingley move to my neighborhood? And bring his friend?
Why can’t John Harmon work in my house?
* Why can’t Peter Warne ride on my bus?
Why can’t Marius sit in my park?
* Why can’t Prince Phillip haunt my forest?
Why can’t Percy rescue my brother?
* Why can’t Raoul rescue my scarf?
Why can’t Laurie move next door to my family?
* Why can’t Will Darcy find me strangely attractive?
Why can’t I take my father’s place in a haunted castle?
* Why can’t John Preston convict me of sense offence?
Why can’t Batman be my childhood friend?
* Why can’t my brother go on strike with Jack Kelly?
Why can’t Hans Solo find me in a prison cell?
* Why can’t Dr. House be my doctor?
Why can’t Wooster try to get on of his friends to marry me?
* What can’t I lose my gravity so that a handsome young prince can be willing to die for me but he doesn’t and we live happily ever after?
Why can’t Peter Parker live next to me or work in my office?
*Why can’t someone fall in my well and then help me watch the sheep?
Why can’t I be the governor’s daughter?
* Why can’t I marry the son of a sea cook?
Why can’t George serve me ice cream?
* Why don’t we have a farm boy?
Why can’t Prince Rillian be trapped under my house?
* Why can’t Robin Hood take me to Sherwood Forest?
Why can’t Jamie Boy kiss me?
* Why can’t Murphy watch me play the violin?
Why can’t Benedict write me sappy poetry?
* Why can’t I throw Buck’s flowers in the trash can?
Why can’t Rhett drive my buggy?
*Why can’t Humphrey Bogart let me get on the plane?
Why can’t Indi rescue me?
*Why can’t Captain Wentworth write me a letter?
Why can’t Jack be stranded on my Island?
*Why can’t Jack be my pumpkin king?
Why can’t Andrew come fix my room?
* Why can’t Woody help me defect from Russia?
Why can’t Woody be my cowboy?
* Why can’t Horatio Hornblower captain my ship?
Why can’t I argue with a kidnapped boy?
*Why can’t I watch Captain Von Trapp’s children?
Why can’t I bee a lonely stubborn school teacher out west somewhere?
* Why can’t Landon Carter promise not to fall in love with me?
Why can’t Captain Blood anchor his ship in my port?
* Why can’t Cornelious Hackel put on his Sunday clothes to come visit me?
Why can’t I twist my ankle while chasing a blue patch of sky?
* Why can’t Jimmy live in my town?
Why can’t I discuss politics and slave trade with a man who sings amazing grace parliament?
* Why can’t my shoe be the smallest in the kingdom?
Why can’t loops be my pilot?
* Why can’t I go singing in the rain?
Why can’t I be the lost penny that keeps coming back?
* Why can’t I be stranded in the desert with Dirk Pitt?

I asked to get my hair trimmed on Saturday...
After losing about six to eight inches (it depends on where you measure the loss), it came out pretty cute.
I am mourning the fact that I can't braid it any longer. :(

Friday... long hair Saturday, short hair...

More short hair and Jared.