6 class days left... but who's counting???

There are only 6 class days left... so only 8 more days until CHRISTMAS BREAK! I know I'm not alone in feeling a HUGE need for this break coming up. This week is notorious for all of professors to assign projects and papers, homework and tests all at the same time... Which for us students = major STRESS! So I'm definitely looking forward to a break... again. Just coming back from Thanksgiving break a week ago was a temptation to want to have a nice long break. I did have an enjoyable Thanksgiving break though... hung out with my family-- who all 19 of us had Thanksgiving dinner at my house and then played games after eating till we had to put on our sweat pants!
I am excited for Christmas break... super excited. This year our break starts after finals on Tuesday December 16th... and second semester classes don't resume until January 13th! Almost an entire month to relax and not have to think about projects, homework, classes, or anything dealing with school. It is definitely a much needed break. I feel as if my Junior year has been the toughest so far with having to think about taking the GRE for graduate school applications... applying to graduate schools, my sister's wedding plans, and my own wedding plans... it's kind of a hectic time... but AMAZING at the same time.
Tomorrow is our Christmas Chapel... which is going to be an awesome time of rockin' out to some rock and roll Christmas Carols =) I'm super excited for tomorrow... chapel that is... not the fact that I have a huge exam and a presentation to give, and a lab to attend to as well... BUT after the day is finished I planned a Cookie Decorating Christmas Party for my girls in UP 200... I'm really excited to eat Christmas cookies, listen to Christmas music, read the Christmas story, dress in our finest and ugliest Christmas sweaters and enjoy each other's company. Christmas is truly an awesome time that brings so many people together to simply enjoy one another.
Well... next blog will be over break... and I'll be sure to fill you in on all the FUN and RELAXING times I'm having! Enjoy the season... and the REASON for it as well!

THANKSgiving Break!

Thanksgiving break could not come any faster. Despite the fact that after coming back from break I will be running around like a chicken with its head cut off... I cannot WAIT for Thanksgiving break. I can't wait to sit around in sweats with my family, consuming large amounts of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green beans, and my grandmas homemade cream puffs :) I am SO thankful for this break coming up. Classes are winding down VERY fast and tests, homework, and projects are all being assigned and due at the same time!
The end of each semester brings the library-love out of everyone. Two nights ago when I was studying in the library (for about 5 hours) the ASC staff... that would be Associated Student Council... came around in the library and passed out Tootsie-Pops to all the students that were studying away. I am definitely looking forward to next semester and starting my internship for Physical Therapy at one of the clinics in town. I only have 2 semesters left, since I am graduating a semester early (which is exciting and scary to think about at the same time).
Christmas break this year is about 3 weeks and 4 days long. Finals will be done, there won't be ANY homework, tests, or projects to think about or complete. Christmas break will be absolutely glorious :) Time to relax with my older sis, little bro (who is 6'1... so not so little really) and my mom, dad, and fiance!

Homecoming Weekend

So this year's homecoming weekend was a bit different than the past year's homecoming... My parents (non graduates of ONU) came down and my man and his family came in from Virginia. At the beginning of the week I participated in the homecoming class volleyball games in which the Juniors entirely dominated over the rest of the classes, which of course, no prize but bragging rights was given out. Then Friday I went out and watched some of the Powder Puff football games ... which was sad to watch the Juniors get ran over by the Sophomores =( But later that night me and my family and my man's family went to the girls basketball game, and they WON! The really beat the other team pretty bad... it was awesome! Then after the girls game, the guys varsity basketball team took on Athletes in Action which is like a traveling ministering basketball team. So this game didn't count for anything it was just an exhibition game since Homecoming came so early this year. BUT... at half time of the basketball game, in front of thousands of people... my man PROPOSED on the basketball court. The announcer came over the speaker saying there was a contest for the RA's to come down and shoot a free throw blind folded... and my name just so happened to get called... so I went down there, got blind folded, and was about to shoot when they told me I could shoot for 3,000 with the blind fold on or 2,000 with the blind fold off... and when the blind fold came off... there my (fiance now) was on one knee and he proposed! I was in complete and utter shock! But yes, that is the latest news of my life and how Homecoming went for me =) Super exciting time!
Classes are getting really hard and the semester is drawing nearer and nearer to an end! Stress levels are rising, but God is still providing! We have another Purple and Gold days coming up next weekend, so that's another exciting time for me at work! Thanksgiving break is only 28 days away... not that I'm counting... =)

Fall Break & Homecoming

This semester is flying by. Fall Break was last weekend and I flew out to Virgina to visit my boyfriend and his family... We got to go downtown Washington D.C., went horseback riding in the mountains, carved some sweet pumpkins, and shopping :) So it was definitely a great break away from classes and homework. Last week we only had class Wednesday-Friday which was amazing as well... this past weekend I went home to visit my family since the last time I was home was in early August, and the next time I'll be home is for Thanksgiving. So I relaxed with my mom and watched movies, shopped, and help my little brother (senior in high school) with his senior pictures which was SUPER fun!
This coming weekend is homecoming which means tonight starts the beginning of class games. Tonight I have a volleyball game with some other Junior girls, and were taking on the Sophomores, so hopefully we'll dominate and make it to the next round and then the championship game tomorrow night. Powder Puff practice also starts this week and the game is on Saturday :) Tons and tons of Alumni come in for homecoming which crowds this campus! There is a men's and a woman's basketball game, a football game, and a men's and woman's soccer game this weekend, so our sports teams are about to dominate for homecoming and it's going to be super fun to go out and support all of them and cheer them on! Homecoming Coronation is Wednesday night, which is exciting because even though my sister didn't make top 5, our close friend from high school youth group did! So I'm rooting for her to get crowned on Wednesday night.
The semester is over half over, classes are kicked into high gear, and there are only 9 more weeks (44 class days) left before Christmas Break! It's crazy how time flies when you're havin' fun :)

Fall time at ONU

It's crazy to know that October is already here. Fall break is 8 days away which means the semester is already almost half over! The leaves are changing colors and already starting to fall which means.... it's crunch time... literally :) Classes are getting more in depth and being my juinor year this is really exciting. Being a pre-physical therapy major my favorite class now is Therapeutic Exercise and Rehabilitation... which is pretty much what I'll be doing for the rest of my life! Other than having homework to do... I just finished (by losing) in intramural co-ed soccer... our team was legit! However, when the play offs started we didn't have any subs and one of our players had just given blood at the blood drive here at school... and the team we had to play against was the ROTC team (who are in way better shape than us)... so to say the least- we lost :( It was a sad day... but it was still a lot of fun to play! Next week starts intramural flag football (for guys and girls!) I'm super excited to play since I've never played flag football other than in a high school gym class. Another sweet thing I've been doing every Tuesday is going to watch a friend of mine coach a local high school soccer team. So me and a couple of my friends have been going to his games and cheering him on.
October 23-25th is Homecoming here at school... and we just found out the top 10 guy and girl nominees for Homecoming Court which my SISTER was nominated for! So I'm really happy and excited for her... I'm hoping she will make top 5 along with another one of our close friends and a girl that we know since high school youth group! So Homecoming is an exciting time of the year, a lot of people come back for the basketball games and football game and it's a fun time to hang out with friends. Also this weekend is our first Purple and Gold Days of the fall semester... so that's always exciting to have prospective students come out and hang/stay the night and take a trip downtown to Chicago for some Chicago-style pizza and Starbucks :) So... I highly recommend Purple and Gold days if you're looking for some good pizza and fun times hanging out with current students of ONU!

what.a.weekend.

Due to the awesomeness of hurricane IKE bringing all this rain our way... this weekend our campus got so flooded! But there is still a lot of fun to be had here at school when it rains! Me and my roomate went bowling Friday night (which you can tell by the pic our scores are pathetic), then of course to Denny's to get some dessert nachos and a Razzdango (the greatest mix of Sprite and Raspberry minute maid drink), then we ended our night with running to Wal-mart to buy Sweet Home Alabama. Saturday was another grey-sky day that involved staying in the apartment and relaxing watching movies all day (which was fantastic). Then Saturday night, my roomate and I went over to our guy friends apartment for open house and watched the 4th Harry Potter and made another trip to Wal-mart to get some snacks! Overall, the weekend was very wet and rainy, but still a ton of fun. Sunday was filled with doing homework and watching football (GO SKINS)! Weather.com says that the rain was supposed to stop after today, so I'm hoping it does so me and my friends can start playing tennis again!

Ollies Follies '08

Last weekend and this past weekend were a compiled event called Ollies Follies, last weekend they had the class competitions in flag football, softball, sand volleyball and dodgeball. Also there were "Wacky Games" which included a girl riding piggy-back to a guy that had an egg strapped to his head while the girls tried to break the egg by slapping the guys on the face with a fish. So this entire week I practiced a dance to Vanilla Ice put together by my dear friend Morgan. Throughout the week we had practices with the part of the Junior class involved with the Variety Show (which is a class competition dealing with putting together a video/talent show)... the whole thing for our class was a 5 minute video and then a 7 minute talent show part. Our video had our President Dr. Bowling, Dean Woody Webb, Prof. Dr. Jay Martinsen, and Craig Bishop posing as a boy band "Red Street" since our colors were red. The video was hilarious and the dancing part we did was by far better than the other classes. The theme of Ollies Follies this year was "Through the Decades" and our decade was the 90's which was perfect since we all lived through the 90s. So some of the dances included were MC Hammer "Can't touch this", Cotton-eyed Joe, Ice Ice Baby, Woop There It Is, Everybody Dance Now, Fresh Prince, and of course, NSYNC "Bye Bye Bye". The Variety Show was awesome, all of the classes were standing up clapping for our performance.... However... when the results came in we came in 2nd to the Sophomore class! It was pretty disappointing, however, to make the night that much better my sister (a senior at ONU) got engaged! So the loss at Ollies Follies didn't even matter anymore =)
So overall a good first full week of classes has gone by to end with a great weekend coming in 2nd under the sophomores but in front of the seniors... and my sister's engagement! Great weekend! Check out the pics :)

RA Training/First few days of school

RA Training ended this past week and was a BLAST! It was a week full of worshiping and serving along side 76 other students that were passionate about living to serve others as Resident Assistants on this campus. Not going to lie, it's kind of hard being an RA when it comes to confronting people about things. Nevertheless, I have an apartment of 39 girls that I get to serve for the entire year. We had our first meeting and it was pretty fun... and I've planned an apartment BBQ for next Wednesday where we're going to grill some hot dogs (the girls are all bringing their own side or drinks) and play bags and hang out with one another... so I'm REALLY excited for that to happen next week.
Classes started yesterday (which I only had two!) It wasn't too bad... I do have Physics at 8:30 in the morning so that may be hard to stay awake in :) However my 1:00 class is with Dr. Kent Olney and is Intro to Sociology. He is one of the most energetic and passionate professors here! He is so fabulous I'm definitely going to take more classes with him (which are all Sociology based).
Another WAY exciting fact is that intramurals are starting up soon :) Ollies Follies (class games) start this weekend with softball, football, and sand volleyball... hopefully the Juniors will dominate! This will be my first time getting the chance to play Intramurals since I'm not playing Varsity volleyball anymore, and have already gotten hooked up to play girls flag football and co-ed outdoor soccer (where if the girls score it's 2 points!) There is also the "All School Block Party" taking place this Friday night which will be awesome with inflatables and music and food and lots of fun... and then the pre-release showing of Indiana Jones out on a big blown up screen on the football field. So I'm definitely looking forward to this week starting up with a lot of fun activities for all the students. It's awesome to have all of my friends back at school too! I have an awesome RA team with a great RD and am SUPER pumped about the school year kicking off!
(pic is of my RA team with the Bourbonnais Fire Department... their chief came in and talked to us about fire safety so we got to go up on the truck and it was WAY sweet!)

Summer is coming to a close...

Two weeks from today classes begin :( Summer has FLOWN by so fast! Tomorrow will be the first day without the Chicago Bears on our campus for their training camp which means... campus will be back to normal... and no more random run-ins with Rex Grossman or Devin Hester :( It has been crazy with them on our campus though, sweet to get to see them since they are pretty much a big deal, but crazy with traffic too. I went to two practices this camp and got to see Brian Urlacher up close which was pretty cool. No autographs this year though, or personal chats with Hester or (ex Bear player) Benson.
Yesterday while working the switchboard phone at Admissions the band DecembeRadio was in... who I had never heard of until I googled them and realized I had heard their music on the radio before... so they were in and had to borrow a friends hair dryer and hand towels just so they could dye their hair for the 9pm concert at Moon Monkey. So me and a few friends went to their concert which was pretty sweet (pics will be up soon)... their more of a southern rock type of group which isn't my most favorite type of music but it was still fun just hangin' out at the Moon Monkey.
Saturday starts the RA Training for 2008-2009 RA's which is VERY exciting. I finally get to move into my apartment now that the Bears coaches are out of there. I've started making my door decs for the apartment and am looking forward to decorating the whole building! More to come throughout RA training... :)