Oh October!

Wow, if you really think about it now, this year has kind of flown by it seems. I know there was definitely some slow months but I think the year has flown by.

I'm learning to trust in God and to place all my faith in Him because all things are possible through Him!

Life has been crazy busy but I still manage to keep things interesting it seems. I do not know where I should start since it has been a couple weeks.

I'll start with my full time job. It has been going well, definitely an interesting position to hold because you'll never know what each night will hold in store for you. From weird guests, to random requests, to a mix up of rooms and other funny situations, it all can be oh so interesting! This job has been an awesome learning experience for me and definitely has given me more insight as to how a hotel runs. I do not think I'll be wanting a full time job to balance with the rest of my current life's schedule for the time being (haha). I'll be finishing this job on November 15th as finals will be taking place the following week and then the next trimester of school will start. I will have an internship at a hotel next trimester. My school is very specific on where I can do it at and I have an interview for it this Friday so that is definitely going to be interesting and I will be looking forward to learning more things! However the internship will contain a crazy schedule which will prohibit me from keeping a steady job which definitely has its downfalls.

Next, my part time job is at an elementary school. I supervise fellow college students that are doing community service hours and make sure they are staying on task. I do it in 2 programs, Globetrotters and a leadership one. The leadership one is to help 5th graders transistion from elementary school to middle school by learning how to deal with situations etc. The Globetrotters one is dealing with 3rd graders and there is 4 group of international college students that teach the elementary students about their home countries. It's all very fascinating.

School is going ok. I have no really exciting classes this trimester, just a bunch of boring ones that require lots of busy work which can make life entertaining.

Church is going well, I'm enjoying the college aged group and I think it is going to be a fun year! I have regular church Sunday mornings, a new Sunday evening short study, Tuesday night college aged group, and Thursday night Bible study. Yes, I know that seems like a lot of church but in this world out here, you need all the loving of Jesus you can get and all the fellowship and support of Christian brothers and sisters.

My living situation is going pretty well. We are all getting used to each other of course and all our crazy quirks and what not. We established chore schedules and actually maintain a pretty clean household a majority of the time. I love my roomies and they mean a lot to me and definitely help me out in this crazy world! I'm so happy I have their support!

I have an amazing group of friends in my life as well that are Christians and great to be around. Any night with them is almost guaranteed to be a wild (in a good way haha) and fun night. This weekend, we all went to see the movie, Fireproof, and then had dinner together afterwards. The movie, despite its low budget, was great and I definitely recommend it.

I think that is it for now! Can't wait to see what God has in store for me this week!

A Week in the Life

Well, there is nothing too terribly exciting happening in my life other than me trying to make everyday be 32+ hours long rather than a mere 24!

Last Monday, I had my work study meeting for SLICE (Student Leader's in Community Engagement). I was excited to get my work placement at an elementary school. Apparently I'm going to be in charge of making sure some school programs are running and mentoring. I'm not entirely sure as I haven't had a day in the life yet. This job gets tied to Americorps where I will do 300 hours of community service and receive a scholarship! I think this job is going to be awesome for me, it should help brighten my week and make my life more interesting (haha like my life is dull!).

Tuesday, I had my Tuesday night college aged group Bible study. I am the missions leader for it so I usually always go and try to meet new people and make new friendships with new freshman to make them feel welcome etc.

Wednesday, I had a full day of classes as well as work which was hectic but I managed. I also had lunch with my old roommates from last year and I think we are going to make it a Wednesday ritual. I also had lunch with my friend Carrie. I'm blessed that her boyfriend works at the school dining hall and lets me eat for free on Wednesdays.

Thursday, I was excited to crash after such a long Wednesday. I had my accounting class on Thursday, it is a difficult class for me because the teacher is new and does not teach it the best. But I guess its a new style and perspective on things for me to learn how to deal with people like that later on. I also went to my Thursday night Bible study which is going through an exciting series right now. It is a great time of food, fellowship, fun, a message and some worship.

Friday, I had a leaders' meeting for church then directly afterwards, I had an orientation meeting for SLICE. I cannot wait to start my new job! Afterwards, later that evening, my roomie, Alissa and I grabbed some pizza and watched a movie together. We were super hungry when we ordered that pizza and we stuffed ourselves to the max that we went for a walk together. Ahh, good times and crazy adventures as always!

Saturday, one of my friends got married and it was a nice, small wedding. Melissa and I helped clean up afterwards as it was a potluck type of wedding. After the wedding, I slept for a good long while as I worked that night.

Sunday, I was bad and slept through church then I got up and did my laundry and went grocery shopping. Then I went to go hang with my friends that live on the border of Rhode Island and Connecticut. We went to these cliffs that overlooked a lake and a whole bunch of trees. It was amazing!

Yes, I am still working at the hotel, I work there 4 nights a week and it is going pretty well for me. I am done with training and I think I'm starting to get the hang of things.

The difficult thing for me right now is trying to find a balance for my days as I mainly nap and sleep 3 nights a week. It is hard to determine when I shower and when I do things that a normal person would do after waking up in the morning and before going to bed at night.

1st Week of School

Yes, school has finally arrived. I have one jam packed schedule with some interesting classes.

First, I'll start with my new job. It is working out great for me! It is basically my first corporate full time job so that is something to get used to. I enjoy it a lot. I work Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday nights from 11pm to 7am as a night auditor. My duties include but are not limited to counting out the cash drawer, taking inventory of the "suite shop", doing security patrols/walks, completing any laundry and folding sheets (I like my new friend the "extra arm" sheet folder helper haha), doing the night audit process, delivering guest receipts and the newspaper, helping set up breakfast and various other duties.

School is going ok for me, I know I have several difficult classes with a lot of tedious projects. I do enjoy my math class though with my teacher. He is this hilarious, really old, French guy that makes so many jokes and he is a great teacher!

My living situation is going great as well. I love my roomies :D. Just the other night, Melissa and I went grocery shopping rather late and we were both in a funny mood and we were running around the store playing hide and seek with all the freight pallets (you know at night, they stock the shelves) and other games (yeah I know so mature! haha).

Things have been going fine. I just have been basically sleeping, working, schooling, eating and going to church, I kind of miss the lazy days, but don't we all?

Last Summer Fun!

Well school starts a week from today oh boy! Today, I went in and finished all my paperwork for my hotel job and I start tomorrow which is exciting.

On Wednesday I picked up my friend Kim. Kim had been in Germany all summer pretty much. She is a fellow classmate and has not moved into her dorm yet. She came up to Providence for a few days for a leader's retreat then she headed back to Jersey on Saturday morning.

I went to a leader's retreat on Thursday. It was great fun, there were about 4 of us girls that were able to make it. We grabbed a picnic and then headed to Purgatory Chasm where we went hiking and rock climbing through this small canyon. It was so nice. Afterwards, we headed up to a lodge and brainstormed activities for the year for our college aged church group TNT. It was a great retreat overall.

Then after that, I've been taking it easy the past couple of days mainly. On Saturday, I went to a BBQ and there was a lot of us. We played some outdoor some indoor games. I had a great time hanging out with friends.

On Sunday, I got to help with the little kids at church which is interesting. Afterwards, Melissa and I headed to a friend's house where about 5 of us all headed to the beach. The beach was great fun and the 5 of us had a great time. After the beach we had dinner at a friend's house and just hung out together.

I can't believe that I start my new job tomorrow and then school on Tuesday! It's going to be a crazy year for me!

Mom! You have a package on your doorstep!

Haha yeah, that is what I told my mom Tuesday night at midnight while I was standing on her doorstep awaiting for her to open the door!

What started off as a mere joke actually turned me into flying home for a week. I had been making the joke that with no job, I could be twiddling my thumbs in Idaho just as easily as Rhode Island. I made that joke with a friend and then we looked at airfare and found a really cheap window. My friend along with another friend offered to help pay my way home (thanks guys!). I have never done something so random as flying home with 12 hours notice before, it made for a lot of excitement for me!

Well, you know as luck would have it, right as I was getting on the plane to head to Idaho, a hotel that interviewed me about 2 weeks back called me and said they had changed their mind and wanted to hire me. Luckily, they were willing to wait for me to return.

Idaho was good times. I got to spend time with family and friends and it was just relaxing and pleasant to see everybody again. With my schedule ahead, I really do not know when I get to return back to Idaho, who knows what God has in store for me in that area!

I got back to Rhode Island on Monday and Melissa picked me up from the airport (how wonderful to be picked up by a warm smiling face!). Today, I went to the hotel and finished my background check and did a drug test. Then I headed to my friend Carrie's house and we hung out together. We had a great time catching up and playing some games.

Here's the scoop on the hotel, it is a Homewood Suites which is Hilton's version of an extended stay hotel. I am to be doing night audit there from 11pm to 7am, 4 shifts a week which should work out well with my schedule. It is full time and I get full benefits after 30 days and possible tuition assistance. This job should give me a lot of experience and I looking forward to it!

Also to add to my busy schedule, I have a part time job. It's a community work study job where I will get a placement most likely working at one of the area public schools helping/mentoring students. This job will also fit under Americorps which I love because they give you a scholarship if you hit a certain amount of hours. This job also has leadership training workshops as well as other leadership things.

I figured while I was at it, I would put my school schedule in here as well so you guys can know what classes I am taking (that is if you care haha, if not then you can stop reading now).

I don't usually take classes so late in the day like this so this shall be interesting for me.

My schedule (course descriptions listed after schedule):
Monday:
HOSP Human Resources 11:30am to 1:25pm
Leadership 3:50pm to 5:45pm

Tuesday:
HOSP Acct II 9:20am to 11:15am

Wednesday (probably not going to be a good day for me haha):
HOSP Acct II 9:20am to 11:15am
HOSP Human Resources 11:30am to 1:25pm
Leadership 3:50pm to 5:45pm
Math 6:00pm to 9:30pm

Thursday:
HOSP Acct II 9:20 to 11:15am

Course Descriptions:
Hospitality Accounting II
This course is based on the Uniform System of Accounts as approved by the American Hotel & Motel Association. Comprehensive coverage is given to revenue and expense accounting, the periodic inventory method, preparation of departmental and corporate financial statements for a hotel, ratio analysis, accounting for intangible assets, and selective topics in property and equipment accounting and hospitality payroll.

Hospitality Human Resource and Diversity Leadership
Operational and staff managers in today's hospitality-related businesses often manage a diverse group of employees and are responsible for compliance with employment laws and human resource policies. Therefore, managers must be knowledgeable about laws and best practices when working with their employees. This course helps students develop managerial knowledge and skills in several areas of human resource management including recruiting, interviewing, selection, orientation, training, performance evaluation and management, discipline, terminations, and employee and union relations.

Survey of College Mathematics
This course is designed to teach students the basic mathematical concepts and methods that will assist them in using mathematics in both their personal and professional lives. Topics include problem solving, sets, probability, statistics, and the rudiments of college algebra.

Foundations of Leadership Studies
This course draws upon a variety of researched-based theories and applications germane to the study of leadership. Theoretical paradigms of motivation are discussed and applied to communication styles, decision making, risk taking, team building, conflict resolution, negotiation, diversity and inclusion. Leadership traits, leadership styles and roles are examined in the context of ethics, power and social responsibility.

Mid-August Update!

Well another week has gone by! The last few mingling weeks of summer are shooting by rapidly!

My other roomie moved in without any issues on Sunday night and I later hung out with some friends that evening. It was great, we played some games such as Bible pictionary and another game. I enjoy having great friends that we can play wholesome games and have good clean fun!

Monday, my roomie and I rearranged things in our room. Made our beds into bunk beds. I get the top bunk, there is no ladder, it makes things interesting for me as half the time I usually slide/fall down off the top but the interesting part of this is that the bunk beds are set upon 7" bed risers making it even higher off the floor! Ahh, yes life has to be interesting! Later, my roomies and I went to the store to get a few essentials and we also had to get a 4th peg that we were missing for the bunk bed. They apparently did not make the pegs or something similar to that anymore so we found a bolt and asked the guys in tool rental to cut it for us (they did, it worked out great!).

Thursday, I had my job interview at another company as the last interview fell through then later on, I picked up my pay check from Best Western only to find out that they shorted me on the hours. So on Monday, I plan to call the Department of Labor or do something as the manager is not returning my phone calls. After that, I went with Melissa to some dance lesson thing at Providence swings with some other friends. I watched the lesson, it was a similar form of belly dancing, it fun to watch. Afterwards, we all took a walk and got ice cream. I'm really enjoying this group of friends I have, we all support and care about each other and they are real people that do not act fake!

Friday, we had our friends invited over dinner and I was kind of in charge of dinner somehow. That made things interesting for me as I had to shop and plan it. Then Melissa was home from work to help me make it but I had decided to make it simple so we had Mexican style with nachos and a burrito bar with homemade guacamole and pico de gallo which turned out really good. After dinner, we all played Taboo and that was so much fun! It is a game where you have to describe words without using certain words. Then when they all left, Melissa and I went to go pick up Carrie from the airport. She had been in California practically all summer long. It was great seeing her again and we all played a game together even though it was late at night, but you can only live young once, right?

Saturday, I found a free couch on craigslist that was in awesome shape. Now as to how to move this couch, we rented a truck for Home Depot for about $19 bucks. Yay for a new couch that only cost $19 bucks! It was in great shape! God really does provide, just have patience and faith!

Today was great! I went to church then afterwards, I went to the beach with Melissa and met up with some friends and that turned into an awesome day! We went to dinner afterwards and then on the way home, our friend got a flat tire. It was kind of funny because we happened to pull into a gas station and there was a AAA guy there already. It was funny because we pulled up in 2 men in black, old fashioned black marquis and you almost would expect Will Smith to be popping out of the car.

I wonder what next week's adventures hold in store for me!

First Week of August Update!

So I left off on the last Thursday of July......

Melissa returned home on Monday (Aug 4th) from Soulfest and was extremely exhausted (she was volunteering in a kitchen all day long).

Tuesday, I called up the people that I had 2 interviews with and they were like who are you? Oh that job? We filled the position. I was like great, thanks. Then like an hour after that I got a phone call from a hotel for an interview. God does keep these doors swinging open and closed. I think he's teaching me patience this year.

I went into the interview and it was the best interview that I've had all summer. The guy said he would call me back Friday but that never happened. So I called him and left him a message.

Thursday, I hung out with some great new friends then went to Thursday night Bible study. Friday, I hung out with friends and we played charades. I love having friends that are just able to play good wholesome games and not go out and do stupid crap.

Sunday, I went to church and then went shopping for a couple of things then my other roomie was moving in. That should make life interesting (haha). Then I went with Melissa and hung out with friends. We had a great time and these friends are great Christian brothers and sisters that seem to really support us in general.

As for today, I have no idea what is to be happening, I was going to go to the beach but it is raining so it just may be a rainy day in!

The last week of July!

Knowing me with my luck, my life seems to hardly ever be dull. Monday, however, was a great chill day with nothing really huge happening in it. Tuesday, I went to the Providence Rescue Mission to help send out 4,000 mailings of support letters since the mission is going through a really tough time right now. I was there for about 9 hours having fun with church ladies. It is amazing the feeling you get after practically spending it talking to God and about God for a day.

During my time there, I received a phone call from a company for an interview for the next day. After spending time at the mission, I hung out with a friend of mine then headed home.

On Wednesday, I had my interview and I think it went smoothly. On my way to the interview, I was walking and this guy in an ice cream truck hollers out to me, "Hey! How are you?" I was not thinking straight and I responded. The guy then turns left into oncoming traffic all the while staring at me, luckily oncoming traffic responded with horns and not anything else. The guy pulled into a parking lot and I did not stick around to see what he had in mind. My day went pretty normal for me after that. It was Cheesecake Factory's 30th anniversary so they were celebrating $1.50 a slice day so a friend and I were headed to that but we never made it since we were stuffed from dinner.

Thursday was a little bit more interesting of a day. I had received a phone call the night before to come in for a 2nd interview. I've never had a 2nd interview before. I headed back into the place and the guy came from his office to get me. He merely said follow me, he did not shake my hand or anything. I followed him into his office admiring his fanny pack (haha not!) and he told me to have a seat. He sat down and started working on his computer. We then proceeded to make small talk for 20 minutes then right at the end he told me what I might be doing if I was hired there then he told me that he would call me. I walked away thinking wow that was odd but I figure it must have been a personality test.

Later on that day, I was taking a bus from downtown and it was my favorite bus driver. I was so excited to see her on my route for once. Right as the bus pulls away from the station, some guy pulls out his stinky fast food lunch and the smell just permeates the whole bus. There is no eating or drinking allowed on a bus. The bus driver asks him to put it away, he does not so then we have to call a supervisor to get this guy removed from the bus. The guy responds back by giving her threats and then the whole bus erupts in noise (it was a packed bus) about the bus driver and the guy. We had to wait 10-20 min for the supervisor to come.

Then later that night, I was taking a bus to Bible study and I get on and it is the same driver that I had when the bus' back door wouldn't close and we got stuck with the bus for 30 min. I should have guessed the next situation with that bus driver. Our back door would not work and we had handicap people on the bus meaning whenever we had to let them off we risked the chance of not be able to go again since the door might not shut.

Bible study was good, it was a mini concert and the guy had never gone public before. He had some great songs.

I'm not sure where my day is going to take me today or the rest of my weekend but I hope everyone has a great weekend :D

Changes Come Around Real Soon

I should warn you that this is kind of a long one!

Did I ever have a work filled past weekend!!! I think I almost worked 50 hours this past week! I worked/got trained on Wednesday for the night shift, it was really slow but I learned what I needed to do and it was pretty uneventful. Thursday, I worked my other temporary job for 6 hours making shakes for this new cosmetic company coming out. The people I worked with on the first day were great and we all got along well.

After work on Thursday, I went to a get together at a friend's house who lives in the beautiful outskirts of Rhode Island/Connecticut border. We ate burgers then played some games. The first game was Mafia which is the game where you have townspeople, mafia, a cop and a doctor and the mafia try to kill the townspeople before the townspeople managed to get rid of all the mafia. It is fun and can be crazy! After that, we played 4 people on a couch. You get into 2 equal teams and then everyone puts their name on a piece of paper and puts it into a hat. Then you draw a new name and that is your new name for the game. The object is to get 4 people of your team on the couch through strategy without discussing how with your teammates. This game was lots of fun as well. Afterwards, we played Catch Phrase. Overall, it was a fun night.

Friday, I worked 4 1/2 hours at my temporary job then I slept before heading in to work at the Best Western. It was going to be my first shift alone. That meant the whole entire hotel was my responsibility from 11pm to 7am including maintenance and security. The first 2 hours were kind of hectic with a lot of requests for towels and blankets to be brought up along with a lot of people calling to request wake up calls as well as a few noise complaints since there was no vacancy that evening. I did laundry, folded towels and pillowcases (sheets get sent out to another company) and put towels away in the maid closet or in the pool room. I did night audit as well (for this hotel it is really simple) and I also set up breakfast which consisted of scrambled eggs, sausages, waffles, cereal, pastries, toast and some other things. Newspapers to be delivered to each room once they arrive. I also swept and mopped the lobby and on this particular night, I also cleaned up the meeting room for Saturday's events.

On Saturday, I went home and arrived back at the hotel at 2pm to drive a shuttle (a Ford E150 7 passenger minivan) to take people to a wedding in a little town called Bristol which was about 30-50 drive away. I was supposed to take 2 groups of people along with another shuttle & driver. The first group consisted of 10 groomsmen for the wedding. I got 6 of them in my shuttle. All 6 were on their 5th or 6th beer and were chugging some down while I was driving, it can be quite entertaining to have 6 buzzed/almost drunk men for that long of a drive. They requested to stop at a liquor store (I passed it already, haha) then they wanted to stop at a local bar before heading to the wedding location to do a round of shots (their tradition apparently). I told them I would stop only if they got the other shuttle to stop as well. That they accomplished and we went to the bar (haha I sat in the car thank you very much!). The men were quick as promised and I dropped them off. I rushed back to go pick up the girls but by the time I got back, the girls had already lost patience and decided to drive themselves to the wedding. The person at the front desk back at the hotel was alone and had a bunch of different jobs to do left by our manager who apparently rarely makes an appearance on the weekends but does plan to have a lot of events and stuff done by various people so we are usually left to make things up and do things on the fly for guests. I offered to stay but both me and the other person thought it best to not stay since I would be hitting overtime and this hotel does not prefer to pay its employees past overtime. I headed home and returned back at 10pm at the wedding to pick up whatever people needed a ride back to the wedding. I showed up at 10pm since it was requested of me but I actually did not manage to get my drunks packed up until 11:40pm since the wedding was still in full swing while I was there.

While I was waiting, I was in the catering area and one of the groomsmen came and found me, he wanted me to go "polish the dance floor" with him but I told him no. I am not a huge fan of dancing that particular way with a drunk guy. He got mad at me for it and made sure to let everyone know how upset he was with me that I would not dance with him (that's why I didn't get a tip but I don't care, my body isn't worth it). Once the wedding winded down, I loaded up my shuttle with 6 people (all of which were really drunk and in a very playful mood). I got the person riding shot gun to be DJ and the party was taken on the road!

I got back to the hotel at midnight and everyone in the shuttle were excited to find out that I was going to be their front desk associate for the night. My night was a little busier than the night before because the hotel was at full occupancy with 2 wedding parties and a softball team. Both wedding parties were pretty drunk and noisey. Earlier in the day prior to my shift was a few food functions at the hotel and the breakfast room was in poor shape with several dishes to be done. I did these along with my usual laundry and as soon as I started getting requests to bring things to people's room (you know, soap, coffee, toilet paper, towels, etc.) I discovered that I had no key to both of the maid closets. I tried every key I could possibly find and I was forced to ignore requests for things which was hard. The room above the front desk was having a full on party (luckily their neighbors were passed out) and I had to make sure nothing stupid was being done (yep they smoked, $500 fine for smoking at the hotel). I did the rest of my duties as best as I could, newspapers didn't arrive until it was too late so that didn't get done.

At 7am, I was ready to head home when I got a phone call from my manager. He asked me how I was feeling and what not, I answered and he's like ok do you think you are awake enough to take the next shift instead of working the 3rd shift on Sunday night? If I switched, that meant I would be working 16 hours straight on barely any sleep as well as not getting any breaks while working and handling any events/functions the manager had arranged for that day. I told him no and I also told him that I would be quitting. He was shocked and disappointed since he was down to like 2-3 people (a person usually works 5 shifts a week) to cover the week's 21 various front desk shifts. I also told him that I would not be working that evening, he was extra upset with me. I did not like the way this company treated its employees as cheap labor amongst various other things and with the support of my father, I agreed to quit this job even though I need the experience.

I had to stay there until someone came in to cover for the employee not coming to work. They didn't arrive until 7:30am and by then I had missed my bus back to downtown Providence. I had been bussing to work. I was upset that I missed the bus especially since the next one wasn't for another hour. I headed outside in the pouring rain. No other businesses were really open this fine Sunday morning so I headed to another bus stop about 1 1/2 miles away in the pouring rain (yes I was smart and forgot my umbrella). I hate to admit that I just was not a happy camper that morning but God definitely had other things in mind.

I was waiting under a bus stop shelter with a guy and I had about 50 minutes to wait. The other guy and I are started talking and making jokes etc which really helped the time go by. It's just not like me to talk to random people like that. Then I got on the bus to head back to Providence. I got on my next bus and I watched as other people trickled onto the bus. I was very suprised to see 2 morman missionaries getting on the bus. They were the first set of mormans I had seen out here and they were also the only mormans that I even knew of out here which can be a shocker. I was suprised to see them sit next to me on the bus and a bunch of questions flooded to my mind to ask them. I started talking to one of them and we had an interesting conversation, the guy even made a joke about mormans which cracked me up and it was nice to talk to him.

Once I got home, I changed out of my sopping wet clothes and hopped on a bus to head to church. The lady across the aisle from me started talking to me and we carried on a conversation all the way to downtown. I walked to church in a happy mood realizing how much happier I was then when I had first started this morning and that I was possibly turning into my mother with me talking to all these random strangers. It was also pleasant to be somewhat social with some people since Melissa had left last Friday afternoon to New Hampshire for a little longer than a week and I definitely miss her.

I went to church then I went to lunch with this one friend that I had not been getting along with. I decided that even though he can be a pain in my rear, I decided to be friends with him since there is no use in having enemies in your company of friends. Afterwards, I headed home where I talked to my mom about my crazy day then I passed out from sheer exhaustion around 3:30pm. I awoke hours later and saw that it was 1am and I continued to sleep. I finally pushed myself awake at 7:30am to get ready for my chiropractor appointment. Yes, I got 16 hours of sleep! Holy cow! I looked at my phone this morning and realized I had been texting people and making/receiving phone calls in my sleep, oh how entertaining of me!

I wonder what adventures await me this week. I do know that I am still tired and plan to head to bed again very soon, haha. I also do know that I need to find a job again. Can't wait to see what God has planned for me in that department!

My New Job

I just got a job at the Best Western of Providence-Seekonk. I get to work the third shift for right now which is the 11pm to 7am shift. I am a front desk associate which means I check guests in and out, answer phones, do laundry, handle guest complaints, deliver stuff to rooms, clean the lobby, set up breakfast and keep that well stocked during breakfast hours, insert in reservations, and an assortment of other fun duties.

I was trained today for about 5 hours and then I will be trained again tomorrow at 11pm to 7am then I will supposedly get to run a shift on Friday and a shift on Saturday alone so it shall be interesting.

As well as that job, I also am working for a temporary staffing agency and get to help run a convention this weekend. I work on Thursday during the day and on Friday during the day as well. It is kind of funny how I went from no jobs to 2 jobs within a week and already having to juggle them and their times.

When school starts I'll have these two jobs (the temporary staffing agency one will be a gig by gig basis) as well as a work study job working with the community as well as being a missions leader at church, I think I'll have my hands pretty darn full. I praise God for blessing me with work to do!

Mid-July Weekend Update!

I had a fun jam packed weekend! I thought I would share it all with you guys!

On Thursday night I went to a weekly Bible study which had a great message to it this week. Then on Friday, I had to go in to this temporary staffing agency to fill out some paperwork to get a temporary job for next weekend (at least it is some form of money right?) and then I went to go get drug tested (yay!). Afterwards, Melissa and I headed to Sam's Club to do some grocery shopping then later that evening we met up with some of our friend's from Thursday night Bible study. There was 7 of us for dinner @ Texas Roadhouse then 6 of us headed to go see Dark Knight. We came right as the movie was due to begin and there was no 6 seats together so we exchanged our tickets for a later showing and went for ice cream while we waited. Dark Knight was decent however it was really dark and twisted and it was the first batman movie that I can remember watching (I'm sure I've seen others, I just cannot remember them). The night was fun and it's great to get some new friends.

Saturday, Melissa headed to go work at a wedding in Newport all day and I headed over to my friend Rachel's house where she and another friend, Kat were hanging out. We played a junk food trivia game (wow I am so not a junk food junkie!). After we played the game we got into the car and headed to southern Rhode Island to go to a hot air balloon festival where they had 11 hot air balloons set up at dusk with glows going. After the balloons were packed up again, there was a firework display. It was a great evening. After the festival, we headed to Rachel's house for pie and ice cream.

As for today, I had church as usual which had a great message with it. As for the rest of my day, I do not know what all I am going to do but we will see!

Mid-July Update!

Well I am starting to get better on updating my blog ;)

Yes, I have been busy, there seems to always be something to do that keeps me busy! On July 9th, early morning I flew to Los Angeles, California! My friend, Mauricio, picked me up from the airport and we hung out in Santa Monica and grabbed some In-n-Out Burger. He dropped off at my cousin's (Dimi) apartment. Dimi was getting married that weekend and had rented some guest suites in his apartment complex to accomdate incoming family. I crashed with Aunt Rose that night (it was fun, thanks Rosie :D). Thursday was fun as Tammy (Dimi's now wife) took me along with her sister to her office and then we went and picked up my parents from the airport.

Once my parents got in, my mom's family trickled in over the rest of the day and we all hung out together. Friday, my brother flew in early morning and then we got back to our place and my dad, bro and I took a walk to the beach. We lost track of time and arrived back 4 hours later much to our suprise that we had been walking for 4 hours! There were sting rays in the ocean which was fun and interesting (shuffle your feet!!) to swim around with as well as a fun assortment of shells and sand dollars! Later on Friday, my cousin had a rehearsal dinner during which we saw a few dolphins off his patio which was an awesome sight!

Saturday, my cousin got married and it was a lovely wedding! They got married on the rooftop of the Marriott in Marina Del Rey. What an amazing sight! Sunday was fun as well as about 20 of us went to brunch at a yummy restaurant. Then afterwards, the family hung out and wrapped things up as most of the Blumenschein clan was leaving on Sunday.

My parents and bro flew out first then I caught the 10:30pm redeye to Charlotte, North Carolina. I got in early to Charlotte (5:30am yay! right?) and found a rocking chair in hopes of catching a snooze in. Well, some lonely married business guy came and sat in the chair next to me and we talked for the next 2 1/2 hours about the United States, the gold rush, books, history, evolution/creation, and an assortment of other things. It was a great way to pass the time especially since when I fly, hardly any speaks to me because I usually end up with grump people on the plane to sit next to. I flew the last leg (Charlotte to Providence) and my loving roommate, Melissa came and picked me up.

I had about 3 hours of sleep but I told Melissa I was game for any adventure she had in store. We ended up going to a new swim spot that isn't too terribly far away along with 2 friends from a Thursday night Bible study that I usually go to. Afterwards, we went grocery shopping at Price Rite (where we buy most of our produce) then headed on home. Tuesday, I ran some errands downtown with Melissa and we ended up having lunch with Pastor Andy discussing our plans for next year as I am a missions leader and Melissa is a semester missionary. After that, we went grocery shopping (yes round two, because we get meat at a different store, crazy yes I know!).

That's it for now! I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!

Summer!

Here it is July 5th and I just got internet in my apartment hence why I probably haven't written in a long while. May was an interesting month as I lived in 4 different places for that month. I was fortunate to move in May 31st.

Move in was interesting since my roommate and I got to rent a UHaul (I got to drive hehe). Why you may ask did us 2 girls rent a UHaul? Oh because we have a lot of stuff aparently including an assortment of furniture that I managed to collect with all my other friends moving. I was lucky to get a bunk bed set (it breaks into 2 separate twin beds yay!) and 2 dressers and my friend gave me his television to hold onto for the summer. My roommate, Melissa, (the other one is chilling in Buffalo, New York for the summer) had a couch (yay), a tv, a dining table, some chairs, a dresser, a desk, some end tables, a bookshelf and some other furniture. So we are fortunate to have a decently furnished apartment.

I flew back to Idaho for 3 weeks starting June 2nd and flew back to Rhode Island June 23rd. It was great to be in Idaho to see family and friends. I also was lucky to see my 2 friends graduate from high school. In week 2, my parents and I made a road trip down to Salt Lake city for a foodshow and then we drove up through eastern Idaho to Jackson Hole. We also decided to go to Yellowstone. It was great and it was a great time for me to hang with my parents. I enjoyed it a lot. In the last week of my time in Idaho, my brother flew home and I enjoyed seeing him again.

My time back in Rhode Island has been somewhat eventful. I've been busy searching for a job and have had an interview. I'm praying to have patience in seeking God's plan for what job He wants me to have. I've been making new friends as well and that has been fun. I have been going to church on Sundays as well as a Thursday night Bible study with a group of people from various churches in the area.

Here are some random interesting moments:
~Carrying a 6' by 9' rug home 1/4 a mile (while crossing a street people made sure to stop hehe)
~Getting stuck on a broken down bus for a 1/2 hour until the replacement came while being in the middle of 2 people in a fight (that was interesting!)
~Going to Newport and having fun playing in the waves

I am going to California this week (leaving Weds flying back Sunday night) to see my cousin get married. So I am really excited about that and also hope to see family while I'm down there.

Hope all is well for everyone! :D

WOW! Like TWO months later!!!!!

Wow! So much has happened! I am sorry for not writing sooner! Life has been crazy busy!!!!!! Guess what!? I'm coming to Idaho June 2nd!

Yes, I fully know I left off on April 2nd! Things have finally started slowing down and I've managed to get the world to stop spinning for a minute! Here are pieces of my life!

April 4th-6th:
Went to Freedom, New Hampshire for a spring retreat with about 14 other people in my group. There were various churches there and about 100 people or so in attendence. It was very relaxing and at the same time a great way to come and take rest in God.

April 13th:
My birthday-my birthday was great! My parents found a local bakery that delivered a cake to me. Then Melissa took me out to lunch. Later, after hanging out with Melissa, we and several other friends headed to an Italian restaurant. I brought my cake with me and when I got to the restaurant they took the cake from me and put it in the refrigerator. After we were done eating, the people at the restaurant brought out my cake and sung me happy birthday, however my parents put one of my nicknames on the cake, one nickname that my RI friends did not know, so when the whole restaurant broke out in song for me through that nickname, we all burst out laughing. It was great!

Later on the next week, I found a car, a 1999 Honda Accord and bought it. Now I'm trying to figure out the whole registration scene for it. I think I have it down and should be registering it in the next week or so hopefully.

I also got the whole apartment scene figured out! God works in mysterious ways! I had found this 2 bedroom apartment on the 2nd floor in a good area. I put down a deposit on it and things went through and I was supposed to move in May 1st. I was working through an agent and at the last minute, the apartment was pulled out from under me. My agent was upset with the landlord for this and the landlord offered us his way nicer 1st floor and my agent managed to get the rent knocked down a tad. So I have a nice 2 bedroom apartment with 2 other fun loving roommates so things should be good! I get to hopefully move in May 27th! So excited! That's 2 days away! I've been staying at a friend's apartment as I moved out of the dorms on May 16th. Which closes the dorm chapter of my life!

School was a very difficult trimester for me with this past one. My classes all were very challenging for me. I had one class that had 40% of the grade be a project that we all each spent about 20-60 hours on and another 20% of that class' grade was the final. The project was first researching a city from a random state that we drew out of a hat (the professor threw Idaho out, I couldn't believe it!). I got Colorado and chose Denver as my destination city. Then we again drew out of a hat and got a corporation, association or non profit group to plan and organize a 3 night/4 day convention for in the city that we research. I got Boeing, which was great for me because I love airplanes. Another class that was difficult for me was macroeconomics just because I had a hard time grasping and memorizing concepts. I also was challenged in my advanced English class with having a teacher who disliked God and presented me with a lot of challenges/conflicts upon my own personal views.

My friends here are amazing! I have most definitely a wonderful family out here of all sorts of random people that manage to find me! I do not know what I would do without my friends here, they mean a lot to me and we all teach each other things everyday. It's amazing to see everyone's different managing styles and lifestyles. Because truly, we all having an amazing and unique story to share, of how we were brought up and how that in turn makes each of us very different!

I was also presented with the challenge of having chronic back pain. I have had consistent back pain everyday since mid-April and off and on from at least March. I did go to the hospital one night that it was so bad and they took x-rays and said nothing was wrong. They gave me a prescription to pain killers. With my luck, I was allergic to that and my whole body broke out in a rash (2 of my friends put me on a no scratch rule lol and me and another made the scratch club.....haha). I hunted around and found a back specialist who was 2 weeks out. I made the appointment and waited anxiously for it. As nothing was helping my pain at this point, not even vicaden (my friends love me on that because it makes me really talkative and takes me for a ride down memory lane). I had the appointment and the doctor was like well I do not really see anything wrong with the x-rays so you can do physical therapy or whatever treatment method and here's a prescription.....I was kind of frusterated and this was almost my breaking point with the pain....luckily the prescription helped with the pain and it has gone down a tad but I'm fearful that my body is getting used to it now.

Let's see, random fun times:
~Playing hand and foot (an awesome, crazy card game) or various other games with Carrie who is an awesome friend to have around. She is very understanding especially with me and all my crazy moods!

~Going on random adventures with Alissa (one of my future roomies) to who knows where! Which is always a blast! Alissa cracks me up, you never know what comment or random thing she's going to say or do next!

~Hanging out with Melissa...which is always fun! Melissa helps me out so much with so many things and she is like a sister to me! I can't wait to tear up the upcoming months with having her for a roomie.

~Haha! Running around downtown Providence from midnight on and ending up at a 24 hour IHOP only to get home at 3:30am/4am!

~Walking down the WRONG street on the WRONG side of town and almost getting picked up because some guy thought I was a hooker(yeppers, I learned my lesson) because I missed the bus by accident. Yeah, I was doing a church thing at the rescue mission and I missed the bus and decided to walk to the mission, whoops, not a smart idea!

~I know there are so many more.........haha I guess you'll have to wait and hear them from me!

Another cool/important things before I end....I am going to be a Missions Leader for the college aged church group that I am involved with. My job will be to present a general awareness of missions and mission needs including prayer for places around the world as well as helping to coordinate spring break mission trips.

Well, that about sums it up! I'll be seeing a lot of you come June 2nd! We can really tear things up then!

Life is crazy!

Well, yes I know it's been forever since I've posted my last blog! I've somehow been crazy busy!

Classes are going okay for me this trimester, and I cannot believe that I only have like 5 more weeks of school left until summer!!! Speaking of summer, I just went to the summer job fair with my school, I turned in a few apps, had 1 interview, and I just recently got a job offer. Not sure how thing are going to pan out but we'll see, sometimes things just take patience although its difficult.

I just recently started trying to find a part time job to fit into my schedule now to keep me busy until summer hits. Not sure yet where I'll be working.

I'm working on getting over a whole yucky mess of sickness including yet not limited to a double ear infection and bronchitis. Never had bronchitis before so that was an adventure.

As most people know at this point but I'm including it for clarification, Corey and I broke up about a month ago. It was a great first relationship and I learned a lot of things in general for any future relationships I may have with people.

Other than that, I've just been running around, busy with school, finding a job, getting an apartment, being sick, going to church, growing in God's word, and being sick. This weekend, I'm looking forward to heading up to Freedom, New Hampshire for a spring retreat with college students from all over the New England area! It should be lots of fun!

Start of Week 3, 3rd Trimester!

So I had a pretty good weekend, it was long though at times. On Thursday night, I hung out with my good friend, Carrie, we went shopping and played some board games. It was enjoyable and relaxing, a great way to take a load off the week!

Friday was Relay for Life! Relay for Life started at 6pm and ended at 6am. It is a 12 hour fundraising event for cancer and it was so long and at night because cancer never sleeps! It was located in the rec center at my school with almost 400 people, we walked laps around the gym all night and did various other activities. It was a lot of fun and I was team captain and managed to get 8 people on my team from Christian Student Fellowship and from school in general. Also, leading up to the event and during the event, luminaria bags could be purchased in honor or memory of someone then during the event the luminaria bags had glow sticks placed in them and were placed around the gym. Melissa gave her story of why she relays to the whole crowd then we walked laps around the luminaria bags. It was definitely a touching moment because everyone has been affected by cancer in a loved one of some way. After the event was over, I helped Melissa who was on the committee for it, clean up but I was definitely tired! I went to bed at 7am and woke up at noon then caught lunch with Melissa and together we went shopping and hung out. Then on Sunday, I had church and hung with friends then cleaned up my room.

Classes have been going well. They are just challenging and somewhat boring at the moment and I'm trying my best with them!

These are the classes I have:
Career Planning
This is the second course in a series of three career management courses that students will participate in at the University. Students will further enhance their knowledge of career management topics such as career planning strategies, industry/segment exploration, experiential education options, job search techniques and skill development. Students will continue to use the Best Fit Career Management System as a resource and guide as they explore their options and work toward Best Fit Employment.

Macroeconomics
This course is designated as the first of two courses serving as an introduction to economics. It is a survey course covering the foundations of economics and focusing on macroeconomic concepts and issues such as the features and goals of capitalism, the market system, national income, business cycles, macroeconomic theories, and monetary and fiscal policy.

Advanced Composition and Communication
This course is a continuation of ENG1020 English Composition. Building on the research and audience skills from ENG1020, students develop more complex and rhetorically advanced papers. All work, written and oral, is aimed at persuading an audience, and instruction begins with the essential components of a logically constructed and articulated argument. Critical thinking skills are reinforced throughout the course, as students develop, peer critique, and present projects to the class. Research and MLA skills are expected of students, and all projects require research from a variety of sources. At the end of the course, in addition to a final exam, students present a representative portfolio of their writing.

Hospitality Information Technology
This is an introductory course in information systems in the hospitality industry. This course focuses on property management systems, Internet/Intranet systems and other forms of technology.

Hospitality Sales and Meeting Management
This course familiarizes students with the scope of sales and meeting management within the hospitality industry. The reciprocal relationship between selling and service is presented within the context of hospitality marketing practices.

So those are my classes and I have 18.5 credits in all. I hope everyone has a great week!

RUSSIA & 3rd Trimester!!!!

WHEW! It's been like forever since I've updated my blog! I'm sorry, I've been so busy with everything, life has been crazy busy!

So I'll start off with Russia, because I'm sure that's where everyone wants to me start ;)

Friday February 22nd (Day 1) of our trip, we wake up to a snow storm happening outside. This causes some issues due to the fact that we are departing from Boston and not Providence, so we rush to get everyone together and hop on a train from Providence to Boston instead of having people drive us to the airport. We get through security and everything fine and have a few hours to wait now at the airport. I believe we got there around 4pm and our flight left at 7pm. Lucky for me, I brought the game of Catch Phrase which we all played for a while (it sure does come in handy when traveling with groups of people, I must say!). Our flight was only delayed by like 45min so we all get on the plane. There are 8 of us, 6 girls, a guy and my pastor. On our first flight which was set up 2 by 4 by 2 seating in the rows, we got 2 sets of 4 for seating which was great but we ended up sitting on the tarmac for 2-3 hours waiting our turn to leave. Then our flight was 6 hours long or so and we got to Amsterdam and missed our connection. Thankfully, praise God! that another flight was headed towards Moscow in a half hour and we were lucky to catch it. Now, flying out of Amsterdam is crazy because you have to go through security again! We made it into Moscow, and headed through customs. You were not allowed to speak or smile when handing your passport to the Russian official, my roommate, Allison, and I were the only 2 out of 8 that had not been to Russia before. We get through customs and hurry off to go find our bags. Someone had already picked up one of ours that we had to go steal back and then of course, Pastor Andy's bag never left Amsterdam and he was assured that it would be put on the next flight to Nizhny Novogard which was our destination city. A tour guide and driver and van picked us up and took us to this nice restaurant for dinner. It was like family style and there was a wedding reception going on as well. By the way, at this point, it is officially Saturday evening because Moscow is 8 hours ahead of RI and for you Idahoans, thats 10 hours and for you Californians, thats 11 hours! After dinner, we headed to the train station and got on an overnight train. We had sleeping cars that slept 4 people each. We got in and everyone pretty much crashed.

Sunday morning around 7am, we arrive in Nizhny and get picked up by our host family with a van and car, much to everyone in the van's delight (teehee), the van had no seats in the back and instead had dining chairs that were not bolted to the ground. This provided much entertainment. The 8 of us were staying at a church dorm/hostel with the 6 girls in 1 room and the 2 guys in the other. Sunday mainly consisted of us going to 2 different church services and having fellowship with youth there. It was a great start to the week!

The rest of the week, we visited various schools and a dorm to give presentations on what life in America is like and what college life in America is like. At the end of the presentation, students were allowed to ask us various questions and that was quite entertaining. Then we invited the students to a church party that we were going to have that Friday. Our main focus for the week was to establish a relationship between the students and the few churches there. Our interpreter also taught an English class and we made 2 special visits to that class and did some exercises and interacting with the students like acting out popular Russian phrases and English phrases, picking apart the meanings of crazy sayings and other fun language activities.

On Thursday, we made a special trip to a nearby town about 1-2 hours away. This town, that starts with a Z and sounds like Zavuljah (def not spelled that way though), was the town that the past years mission team had stayed in and there was a special church family there that was in the process of building a church and it was amazing to see what progress they had done on it!

Another activity we did a lot was that we had about 50 4 x 6 cards with pictures on them of like various landscapes, people settings, and other various life applying things on them and we had students pick out cards in answer to our questions and had them explain. This activity is called Solarium and opens up people to deeper conversations and leads conversations to talking about God. So this activity was pretty fun.

One student/woman that was about 32 or so had invited us to her "flat" for lunch one afternoon. So part of our group went. She lived in a town about 1-2 hours away by bus. She had a lovely lunch laid out for us with various salads and amazing desserts. She also made her own wine and "juices" and had us try her gooseberry juice. I'll tell you one thing, it wasn't juice! We all laughed about that for a while and it was an amazing cultural experience to see how someone would live. This woman lived alone which is unusual and she had a garden and grew most of her vegetables and pickled/canned them for the winter months.

Some of the funny things about Russia....? Well, first toilets are quite entertaining over there! You never know what you are going to get to use! Plus, you often times have to pay about 50 cents to get about 1 square of toilet paper to go in a hole! That's right! A hole! Another thing, public transportation. We mainly used this method to get around (pictures to come) and we would get on a bus and it was jam packed!!! Wall to wall people, no use holding on, we were squeezed in tight enough there! Everyday we ate most of our meals in the church kitchen with a older Russian lady. Since it is winter, most of our meals consisted of soup and then something else such as barley and beef or pasta and chicken or a salad. However, with every meal we ate tons and tons of cabbage, by the end of the trip, we were all cabbaged out!

The weather was not too bad, actually it was the first time anyone in my group really saw the ground in Russia since the snow was melting. It made everything really icy and several of us made good habits of falling! Yes, that would include me with my amazing ability of having no balance! I enjoyed providing entertainment though to my fellow friends and Russians!

One little problem we encounted in the middle of our trip was that one of our team members encounted a kidney stone problem and got to experience a Russian hospital (oh fun!!).

Friday evening, we took the overnight train back to Moscow and spent Saturday touring around Moscow with 3 missionaries, 1 of whom was from El Paso, Texas and another was from Las Cruces, New Mexico, places that I had just visited last year! We spent Saturday night at Hotel Cosmos which was a hotel built in 1979 for the French for when the Olympics came. It was a nice hotel.

It was pretty smooth traveling heading home and we didn't really have any problems, thankfully. Overall, the trip was amazing and I had a blast and I definitely learned a lot about myself and got a deeper understanding of the European lifestyle. There really aren't enough words to describe all the feelings that I got out of Russia.

Jet lag was entertaining to experience and definitely took a few days to get used to. I'm already almost done with my second week of my 3rd trimester at school. Time is just flying by like crazy! In my next posting (which will be this weekend, promise), I'll tell what classes I'm in and other things that have been happening in my life!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Life is crazy but good, right?

It has almost been 2 weeks since I have last updated, after talking to some people, most like a long version of the blog and a few like the short version, so here is a long version, if you want the short version, email me.

So I left off pretty much around superbowl weekend. I have been so busy with life and just working on trying to grow up to be the woman that God wants me to be!

First, there has been a huge addition and change in my life and that is my awesome friend, Jacqui, who means a lot to me even though we've only been friends for 2 weeks, I know she is going to be a lifelong friend, she means so much to me already! We get together every night and read the Bible together and discuss what we have just read and basically have our own little Bible study. We also talk about our days and making sure that the other is doing ok and not having any problems with anything. She lives in my dorm so its awesome to have her close by, haha not to mention we keep each other in line for all the crazy things we do and all that mischeif that we get into!

Life has been pretty busy for me. I am getting ready to head into a week of finals then on Friday I will be departing off to Russia. I will make sure and squeeze in another blog posting before I head off to Russia though.

Classes this trimester have been really difficult and I have started to become a little burned out feeling with my really full course load. I made sure to drop a class for next trimester so I can take things easy and possibly seek out a job!

A recap of my classes from 2nd trimester:
Hospitality Accounting-learned all the basic fundamentals of accounting with restaurants and hotels from doing daily cash reports, to creating various income statements and balance sheets, balancing a checkbook and knowing what to expect with errors on it, and various other fun things! This class has been difficult for me with all the stuff to memorize and all the right patterns and formulas.

Hospitality Law-there are so many things involved with running a hotel or restaurant, that it is crazy! There are so many technical terms and little details that it is really hard to remember all these things! This class was also a really difficult class for me!

Career Management-this class was a simple time consuming class where I created a version of my college resume and learned about job networking and other various career based things.

Marine Biology-this class was jam packed of lectures and lots of notes to be taken! Along with various nature films, some things were very fascinating to learn about and who knew that there was so much to be found in the ocean! This class was moderate for me and just challenged me when I had to learn all the special species names and phylum names for critters!

Front Office Operations-this class was all about how to operate a front desk of a hotel! I learned how to use one of the various check in/check out reservation computer programs, I learned how to do night audit (where a person closes all the accounts for the day and balances things out) and hotel forecasting (planning on how full your hotel will be and getting the best occupancy percentage possible) along with basic understanding of various areas in the hotel. This class contained a big project of creating your own full service hotel and creating a theme for it. I did mine based on a Jungle theme with exotic tree house rooms overlooking a jungle.

Guest Service Systems-this class was all about writing papers based off the teachers lectures. The teacher was a very colorful teacher and brought various teaching methods into his lectures which made things entertaining at times and you never knew what to expect from the teacher based upon all his various moods!

So other than taking those 6 classes, I also participated in a few clubs. I am in Club Manager's Association of America which deals with clubs such as country clubs, yacht clubs, art clubs etc. and I am co-secretary for this club.

I also am in Christian Student Fellowship and we have our weekly Tuesday Night Truth (TNT) meetings which are great since it is filled with worship, fellowship with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and an awesome message presented by Pastor Andy!

Other highlights of my weeks are going to church on Sunday mornings followed by lunch at the mall foodcourt! Also, group lunches on Tuesdays and Thursdays with Pastor Andy, Melissa, Dan, Corey and anyone else we can find that happens to be downtown at the right time!

Since I am so busy, I can hardly remember all the key things that have been happening but here are some key events from the past couple of weeks!

I was happen to be blessed with the opportunity to go to a monthly event called Mug and Muffin which is where all the ladies of my church gather together to go over a book of the Bible. For the month of January, we went over the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter is an amazing book of the Bible and really touched me! I would highly recommend reading it and so far it is one of my favorite books of the Bible!

Another fun thing is when Melissa, Corey and I all get together and head to the store to buy dinner fixings then we head to someone's house and make dinner together then watch a movie together! It is great fun and quite entertaining!

Valentine's Day was great as this was my first Valentine's with a special someone! We went to dinner and the movies. We saw the movie Definitely Maybe which is a good chick flick presented from a guy's point of view. Corey got me flowers and chocolate. He is so good to me and it amazes me as how he always manages to know how to make me smile, he sure does know how to turn my bad days into good ones!

My roommate situation has worked out really well, I am starting to become good friends with Allison and we already have a lot of special memories of crazy things that we have done together! My other roommate have a real basic relationship which is fine.

I'm sure there are plenty of other things, but that is all for now and I'll be sure to post another update right before I head off to Russia! I hope everyone is doing great and I hope everyone has had a great month so far! Please, I would love to hear from you and to hear what's new with you and how things are going! Take care everyone & God bless!

Superbowl Weekend Update!

Yep! The Pats just lost to the Giants. I just got home from a great superbowl party full of college age friends and other amazing people at my pastor's house. My pastor and his family are such wonderful people and I'm truly blessed to know them!

I have been so busy lately, I've barely had time to eat and sleep! There is only 2 weeks of classes left before finals, teachers are giving out big, fat projects that require a lot of work and research and often times a lot of work with groups.

I just got over being sick, at least everyone had it at once, apparently here in Providence for the public school system, they give the elementary school students a week off in February for the students to be separated and to let the schools air out because everyone gets so sick.

Some highlights from my week?

Spending time with my guy...hanging with great friends and taking crazy bus trips (what would I do without public transportation!?)...running around Wal-Mart trying to kill an hour because of bus schedules by chasing fellow friends with stuffed animals (haha who let 3 crazy girls loose)...getting lost in a tiny town of Middletown, Rhode Island....and so many more!

I hope everyone had a great week and I'll try to keep you guys updated!

The Last 10 Days or So

Ok, I have been conflicting stories from people about the length of my blog. So I will start writing shorter blogs and if you want more details or more in depth info or a long version, just email me and I'll get back to ya!

So I left off waaayy back! I had a great 4 day weekend (thanks to Martin Luther King Day along with my usual Friday off). Saturday was fun with a game night at my friend's house, there were about 10 of us and we played Catch Phrase and Cranium, it was a great time for all of us to be together and just relax. Sunday was interesting because I had the opportunity to talk to Corey's parents and he got the same opportunity to talk to mine and we set up a time to meet his parents for the following week. His parents seemed like nice people and I was eager to meet them! Monday (no school), I hung out with Corey and then along with Dan too during the evening after he got off work. We had a great time playing Scrabble, I do not think I have really played that game before but it was fun!

Tuesday was a crazy day because my classes were following Monday's schedule so that took a moment to get used to, my Monday schedule is way more relaxed then my Tuesday's schedule so it was almost nice to have Mon-Wed-Thurs week of classes. It was definitely a tough week at school with several midterms and term papers along with a various mix of other lovely homework.

Friday was my friend's birthday (Melissa). A bunch of us threw together a surprise party for her and it was my job to bring her. I had struggles in getting Melissa to go to dinner with me which was understandable because she wanted to hang with more people but it worked and she was surprised! After dinner, 4 of us headed off to the movies to see 27 Dresses which was a great chick flick!

Saturday was kind of a big day for me as I was meeting Corey's parents. We met them at this nice little pizzeria on Federal Hill. They are really nice and funny people that are easy to get along with. It was a pleasant and humorous afternoon and I definitely enjoyed meeting them! After that, I headed to Carrie's house to hang out since both our guys were out at this wrestling event. I love hanging out with Carrie! I can be my complete crazy self around her!

Life has been crazy and jam packed and full of adventure and I'm trying to take it all one day at a time! So farewell until the next post!