Today was the most wonderful adventure! It was the sort of day that makes a person happy just to be alive! Perfect weather, a full gas tank, and 5 hours free time meant I got to go exploring! I used the trusty Google machine to find a park a few miles outside town with river access. It. Was. Gorgeous. Made me remember why I love living in Missouri!

I'll just leave you with a few pics:

Friday! I didn't tell you about Friday! Or Saturday!

*Flashback*

Friday: I woke up at 7 am and went to the friendly neighborhood grocery store to meet up with my lovely friends! Then the girls piled into the Holbrook's suburban while the guys opted to watch the Muppets with the younger kids in the Lowe's van, and we all headed out to Union Station in Kansas City! We went to the Titanic exhibit first, where we were assigned roles of passengers, Jacob being the richest man on board with an 18 year old wife, Elise trading a survivor with 2 kids for somebody who drowned who didn't have any kids, which was preferable for her, and Tom being a 15 year old girl. We all thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit, which was really interesting and well put together, even being comparable to the permanent Titanic exhibit in Branson.

After that, we took a break for lunch, then some of us went to Science City while others went and did a Lego robotics thing that lasted incredibly long, and by the time it was over, the Science City people had gotten bored with the museum and were pressing our faces against the glass, or startling mothers and their small children when the elevator doors opened unexpectedly during a photo and they were greeted with this:

That evening, the lot of us met at the Lowe's house to cram into their 12-passenger van to go see the Hunger Games movie together! Even though I haven't read the book, it was extremely enjoyable! Making fun of the fangirls, who came decked out in homemade tee shirts with their hair in braids and trying to make it into Twilight by declaring themselves "Team Gale" and "Team Peeta", was also extremely enjoyable! Watching a movie with people who crack jokes during it is another thing which is, wait for it, extremely enjoyable!

Saturday: I met up with Beth at 11 and we drove out to St. Joseph where we wandered around the city looking for good Chinese food, but finally settling on Panda Express. After we ate, we went to Glore Psychiatric Museum where we wandered around looking at exhibits, being startled by mannequins, talking about Phineas Gage, and also finding our way to Native American, Black History, and Civil War exhibits, which included stories about people being broken out of jail by their mothers who hid pistols and files in their hoop skirts.

.....and then on Sunday I went back to BoMo. And THAT was my weekend!

I have been absolutely LOVING the weather this week!!!

Yesterday after algebra I went and picked violets...

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my phone with me and I lost track of time and sort of missed a class... But I didn't feel too bad about it, because it meant I got to dance around to Owl City while I arranged these, then I read some of Black, then I went to Leanna's room to watch Gilmore Girls [which I had never seen until yesterday] until dinner!

At the CA meeting last night we prepared for a BIG surprise for SBU that's going to be awesome and is happening on my birthday!

Then, I finally took the leap and went to lifegroup at Becker's house! I've been wanting to start going to that one, even though I'm already in one, to get to know some of the FC college students better. I've just been nervous and putting it off. But then Steven said his dad had smoked 20 lbs of pork that was going to be there last night, so, you know, I had no choice!

Today so far has been EXCELLENT and promises the sort of adventures that made me decide to blog this now instead of trying to cram in with this post, which had kinda been my plan.

So I'm off! Hopefully to get tan, take lots of pictures, and spend some quality time with my God!

Today I was supposed to finally defeat Captain Hammer with a devious plot which involved disguising myself as a statue, using my freeze ray, singing an evil little ditty, then destroying him with my death ray at a homeless shelter dedication, then winning the heart of my true love. Unfortunately, my plan went horribly awry when... I slept until 2. But hey, I did go to my grandma's house to eat tacos for her birthday today, so the day wasn't a complete waste!

I also finished the TTWC project I started a few days ago! The lettering could be better, but overall, I like how they turned out:

Tomorrow I'm going to Union Station with some of my best friends! Should be extremely fun! I also get to find out whether Nick and Jacob are moving to Colorado... I almost think I like not knowing better. It kind of sucks, because it'd honestly be such a good thing for their family that neither answer is necessarily good. Still, I'm selfish enough to really hope they don't move away!

So tonight was... epic! After being sick all day, I thought it'd be a fun idea to drive out to Overland Park to rock out with Manic Drive [and Pearlescent Shepherds and The Florescent]!

After getting to Overland Park and having quite a bit of trouble finding this place, we made it!

The venue itself was really awesome, one of those church-owned clubs, and sister and I made it on time, which was a relief!

They entertained those of us who were waiting for the bands to start by having this guy blow up a hot-water heating pad until it popped and tearing a phonebook in half.

Then the music started! The Florescent, an electrona band who uses gameboys to make music, made up of an absolutely adorable married couple played first. Then a guy rapped a few songs, then a hip-hop duo, Pearlescent Shepherds, played. In between sets, sister and I got to know some awesome people [seriously, if you want to make friends at a concert, pass around glow sticks!] and there was some dancing, a push-up concert, some freestyle rap, and a few testimonies.

Then.... Manic Drive!!!!! They've been in KC 3 times, and sister and I have seen them here 3 times now. They're really freaking awesome!

Thanks to a janky system, it took them 3 tries to start.. I guess it just couldn't handle their epicness!

the show, however, was fantastic!! I came out covered in sweat, deaf, and sore. Couldn't be better!

Afterwards, sister and I somehow managed to be the last people in line to meet Manic Drive! And thanks to Shawn's scatterbrainedness, we got to talk to the band for a good 20 minutes!

The girl working the table creeped on Keith, Shawn, and Michael while we were waiting for a picture:

and then they posed for a couple of pictures with us!!

So yup. Tonight was epic!

[did ya like how I kept slipping in the title of their newest album?]

11 pm, when I'm starting to feel sick? Obviously the best time to start a new craft project!

After spending way too much time on Pinterest today, I had to make something. So I gathered my resources and came up with an idea rather quickly.

This project is very much inspired by the meaning behind To The West Coast's name. Creepy? a little bit. Gonna look awesome? Heck yeah!

Of course, since this project requires about 3 coats of paint and 2 layers of Mod Podge, it'll be a few days before it's done...

Today I found contentment, a solid [though knowing me, likely to change] plan for the future, and new problems to deal with. Just another rainy day.

But having a plan for my career that makes me happy and excited for the future feel fantastic! I'm feeling a sense of peace and joy that I never did when I was going to be an artist, teacher, or filmmaker. I'm pretty sure that THIS is what God has planned for my life.

I'm also hoping to get a job this summer, then take an internship at Union Station, which hopefully will lead into my college summers being spent working in Chicago, Washington DC, and London. We'll see though! I'm just glad to have something to look forward to now.

So tonight was much fun! But start with the daytime, shall we?

I went to church at FBC. I was actually surprised at how good it felt to be back. I hadn't really considered it my "home church" before, that always went to Northern Hills, but today it definitely felt like home.

Then I ate chips and texted Jacob. I actually ended up texting him all day, about Gregory, our evil unicorn friend, jetpack business models, and plans to take over

the world involving nuclear arms dealing and mind control and NASA. I love that kid!

Then I helped sister clean out her room, then..... we went to a concert!!!!!

We saw Hyland and Shonlock at a church in Liberty, and the place was packed with middle-schoolers, but we had an awesome time! We also ran into some friends from our old homeschool co-op there, and made friends with some new people!

Hyland was incredible, I've been a fan since I saw them briefly perform in Springfield last fall, and actually knowing their songs [and them being able to play more than 2 songs] made the experience so much better!

Shonlock played after Hyland, and they were awesome! Very high energy and a fantastic concert experience!

All in all, so very worth the $10 tickets!!

After the concert, we went to sonic where we ordered drinks and took our post-concert photo with our freshly autographed cd's!

At home, we spent quite a bit of time trading around music, then we found out that Manic Drive is going to be in KC this Wednesday!!! We definitely aren't missing that one!!! It'll be our third Manic Drive concert! I'm pretty sure they're my favorite band to see.

So yup, that was my exciting day(:

Tomorrow ought to bring a thunderstorm, job applications, and my missile launchers should finally get delivered...

:D

I have the most wonderful group of friends!

Everyone came over tonight for Bailey's birthday party, which consisted of all of us* standing in a circle in the front yard, eating food, all of us* sitting in a circle in her room, all of us* standing in a circle taking turns shooting a basketball, and all of us* sitting in a circle on the trampoline.

GOOD TIMES!!!!

I'm so incredible blessed to have these people in my life. I'm glad I get to stay here for an entire week, crashing youth group, and going along on a field trip to Union Station on Friday.

Unfortunately, the night was a bit bittersweet... Nick and Jacob told us tonight that there's a really good chance they'll move to Colorado within the year. Their dad has been trying for a while to get a job there and they'll know for sure on Wednesday, but he'll probably get this one. I'm not sure if I can handle this again. It was bad enough with the Baxters, now two more really good friends moving? I'm just praying for peace and contentment. I know that God has each of our lives worked out for the best, but that doesn't mean there won't be pain. I just hope this isn't a pain He chooses to inflict. Even if it does happen, I'm just glad we'll at least have the summer together.

I've been thinking lately about study abroad. I think it'd actually be a better decision to save up and live in London for several months, either a summer or after I graduate. Studying abroad is just incredibly expensive, and I'd be so busy trying to keep up with classes I wouldn't have time to experience the city.

And that is about all for today! Making big plans for the rest of the week, hopefully a few of those work out! I need to go adventuring! Maybe I'll even post pictures! But right now? I. Need. Sleep. Good night!

*"all of us" is Me, Bailey, Amanda, Kaidyn, Kooper, Elise, Abigail, Bekah, Emily, Jacob, Nick, Tom, Joey, Marlyse, Calvin, and Harley.

How can I possibly be expected to handle school on a day like this?

....so I didn't. I gave myself the day off!

Of course, I spent much of today packing and cleaning, and quite a bit driving, but I'm home now!

highlights included dancing around my dorm to Rend Collective Experiment, buying nail polish with Ellie, and playing dominoes and watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off with my family!

It's good to be home! I'm looking forward to tomorrow, all of my lab friends are coming over! Should be fun.

Been thinking about a job lately too. I want to get a good job this summer to save money to do something really epic in the near future. My family seems to think a job at Worlds of Fun is a good idea, but I'd rather shoot off my pinkie toe. I'd LOVE to get some sort of job/internship at a museum here in KC. I think I'll work on that this week!

remember when I said yesterday was going to be wonderful?

boy, geez, was I ever right!

After dinner Ellie randomly decided to go to Wal-Mart. So me, her, Julie, and Leanna went and wandered about, looking at paper and easter stuff and OMG BABY CLOTHES!!! Amey's baby, Alista, will be born in May and I swear I'm going to be spending waaaay too much money on that kid.

Of course, since we left at 6:40 I had about 25 minutes of Wally World before I had to book it to Lifegroup. Things are getting much less awkward.. or at least, I'm not noticing the awkward as much, and hey, at the very least, there's dogs and cupcakes, two things I've been deprived of!

From Lifegroup, I went to spades night at Becker's, where Steven and Taylor played an incredible game, winning with Taylor going 10 for 2 and Steven going blind nil... meaningless to anyone who doesn't know the game, but it was kind of amazing. I think I'm beginning to understand spades.. maybe someday I'll play instead of watch! Although even just watching I love getting to hang out with this group of people.

We went to Thursday night worship after spades. They had it outside again last night, and it was fantastic! I like it outside much better than everyone cramming into Davis Theater. Since they decided at the last minute to do it outside, there was no lyrical projection, so they had us just shout out songs everyone knows.

And then? And then the fun part! We piled into cars, Ashley, Kayla, Mikaela, and Angela in mine with the boys following either having a dubstep party or stuffing 3 people into a trunk, and went to Ihop. We also met up with the worship group, who go every Thursday, and pushed together tables until we were all sitting at an L shaped table that took up the entire section. Crazy giddy hyper people with caffeine made for the best sort of meal! I cannot even say how incredibly thankful I am to have these people in my life!

God is good!

As the sun rose over Beasley Hall, creeping ever faster toward my window, a lone bird called out and I turned my back on the outside world. This was no time for nostalgia! I soon would be free! I pivoted towards my bags, sitting like hollowed out carcasses on my bed, waiting for me to give up on my crap dramatic writing.

I can already tell that today is going to be wonderful! Usually, the mornings kind of suck, then the day gets better as it gets later. But today? Even the morning is wonderful! I got up and got dressed in the sort of dress that is normally worn on Easter or to a wedding, the sort that restricts breathing and puffs up in the wind. Then I did poorly on a test, and now I'm getting ready to go to an art gallery for Fine arts!

The rest of the day includes one more test, hopefully going running, then, in quick succession, lifegroup, spades night, worship, and IHOP. Thursday nights are the best possible kind of crazy(:

but really, is this not the most adorable fabric pattern ever?

Today started in the best way possible: breakfast with Jordan, Joe, Julie, Jared, and Faith. And from there? It just got better. I stayed awake in classes, had an enjoyable, if not edible, lunch in Mellers, then Leanna and I went outside to study/read. I stayed after she left... I stayed for way too long. Three hours in the sun, and my skin is now redder than 20th century Russia [I told Tumblr I'd stop making Soviet Union jokes on FB.. that won't stop me from repeating these jokes, which were bad the first time, here, on my very own, personal blog].

This evening included going to my evening class while there was still daylight out, which was a first, and probably won't ever be pleasant, then I studied for my Critical Thinking test in Woody-Gott... "studying" next to a group of my friends, while Captain america happened to be playing on the tv... I legitimately got a lot done though. Including looking further into a study abroad program in Glasgow, Scotland!

Glasgow seems like it would be the perfect place for a history major to spend a semester. Even the front page featured news about an old building they're restoring and some new sonar technology that helps them to "see into the past". The school is gorgeous and seems to have a good program, though I couldn't find anything like a list of course offerings on their website. London would also be an acceptable place to go.. I'm thinking fall of my Junior year would be when I'd want to go!

So that was my day!

Now I'm going to go watch several hours of videos of people with Scottish accents...

Tonight my roommate got me to work on my homework by telling me if I got half of it done, we could go outside and color for half an hour. It worked. Last week it was "let's race! whoever finishes all their assignments first wins!". Tomorrow I'm hoping to talk her out of a cookie. But hey, I got my Critical Thinking flashcards done, and now I can do whatever I want all night!! [I say as I shove away the Fine arts assignment and pile of notes for 4 different tests]

Today was a really good day. Even though it started with an extremely rushed breakfast and my least favorite class, God decided to give us some absolutely freaking amazing weather today which more than made up for my morning grumpiness.

I spent an hour reading Black by Ted Dekker for an hour between classes. I've never read the Circle Trilogy before and so far it's really really good! Jordan and Joe walked by while I was sitting there and Joe got kinda excited when I told him what I was reading.. apparently they're his favorite books. I enjoy people who get super enthusiastic about books!

After class, I went back to my dorm and had two books I'd been waiting for in the mail sitting on my bed! One, The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks, from my dear friend Shelbey who recommended it, so she mailed it to me in exchange for John Green's The Fault in Our Stars and Stephanie Perkins' Anna and the French Kiss. I also got a book I'd won on Goodreads.

I ate sandwiches for dinner with Ellie and Leanna out on the forum while people lounged around on blankets or played ultimate frisbee, trying desperately to squeeze every bit of enjoyment out of the extraordinary weather.

We also had a Campus Activities meeting tonight which, thanks to successfully pulling off the Amazing Race over the weekend, was bigger and more relaxed than usual. Highlights included cookie-sundaes and finding out that our already over-sized budget was per semester not year, as we'd been assuming. So, SBU, big things coming! Get excited!

This evening featured not doing homework, coloring in my Disney Princess coloring book, and telling myself "you can't go running tonight.. you need to blog!" I've also been giggling over the "memes" my friends have created tonight featuring each other. Yup.

Tomorrow promises highs of 80 and eating at Meller's, which, strange as it sounds, has been rare and missed this semester. [it's not that the food's any good, it's that the social opportunities are much greater!]

It's been a long time since I've written. This was supposed to have been a daily thing. But then I went to the future to stop my dumb kid from getting arrested, but while I was there this janky old guy stole my time machine and gave a past version of himself a sports almanac so he's be rich instead of stuck washing the cars of people he hated, but I didn't even realize what he'd done until I came back here and everything was completely messed up, so I had to go to the 1950's to prevent him from giving himself the book, then the time machine exploded and I had to go to the 1880's and I blew up a train and I guess somehow in the excitement I landed a month or so off...............

So today?

Today I gave up not one, but TWO hours of sleep between daylight savings time and having to be at church an hour earlier than usual. I got dressed and did my hair in the dark so as to not wake up my roommate, then I drank 3 cups of coffee and headed to Freshwater. This morning I ran visual for the 9:00 service. It was my first time doing it and I was kinda scared I would mess it up somehow. It was also the kid running audio's first time too, and he had a lot more to worry about messing up, so in a twisted way it made me feel much better. Everything went just fine though and I only messed up once. Never mind that the slide I put up too early was the only slide that had the power to actually move people. It worked out though and no one seemed to mind. I spent the 10:45 service completing membership training. Can I just say that I LOVE that this church recommends members get a passport since there's a really high chance that they'll be going overseas with the church before the passport expires?

After church, me and Julie headed to a fabulous Meller's lunch of meat-ish-stuff and instant potatoes which was every bit as delicious as it sounds!

Between lunch and dinner, I did absolutely nothing. Then at dinner, Ellie and I fought like whiny pre-school-aged siblings while bystanders gave us odd looks.

Then tonight I watched Finding Nemo with Julie, Julie, Faith, Angela, Joe, Jordan, Scott, Steven, and Mike. Wonderful movie, wonderful people! I am so incredibly blessed to have such awesome people in my life here at SBU!

Tomorrow promises sunshine, which might mean a trip to Dunnegan over lunch to do exciting things such as algebra homework! It also promises an end to Critical Thinking lectures, which is just fantastic! After spring break my earliest class on Mon/Wed/Fri will be at 1:00! But maybe I'll drag myself out of bed early enough to eat lunch or something..