New Blog

Hey guys...so I started a new blog for my trip to Africa! on there I will be keeping everyone updated on the planning process, and then my hope is that I will have some access to internet while in Africa to be able to keep everyone updated so go check it out at here!

Check this site out!

Hey so I'm sure most of you know about this site already but for those of you who don't....My friend Kaley has this awesome new site all about deals! and you know how I LOVE deals, especially since I am a poor college kid! so check it out... chachingonashoestring.com!

Ahhhh!!

So it's really funny how God works. I've been wanting to go on a Mission trip this summer for a while and as you know had a lot of choices that eventually narrowed down to me not going....until Saturday when I got a call from Jim Copeland the leader of World Venture saying that if I wanted to go on the Medical trip with them to the Ivory Coast in Africa that I could.... Crazy huh! How could I say no to something that God specifically worked out so I could go...I wish I could explain all the little details but that would take forever...soooo on June 4th I will be heading over to Africa for a month to various medical stuf!That is if I get the funds that I need...so be praying for that and that everything goes smoothly as I get everything together in such a short amount of time and then as the team heads over! So that's one stress that is a good stress...

Another stress that is not so good at all is that we just found out today that we can no longer live in the Lake house...Virginia has this (stupid in my opinion) law that no more than 3 unrelated females can live in a house together otherwise it is considered a brothel. Apparently there are a lot of brothels in VA??? Normally it's pretty easy to get away with if the landlord is ok with it but since we had to apply to have membership to the lake we got caught and now only 3 people can live there and it's too expensive for us..so I have 2 weeks to find someplace else to live!!! Yeah talk about a huge stressors...to top it off I have a big OB test on Weds, I have another test by sunday and starting next tuesday I have a test or final every day until the next tuesday evening when I'm done and wanted to be moving into the Lake house! ugh...but it will all work out! Hopefully!

Anyways I just wanted to give a short random update..I'm super excited for Africa....not so happy about this house thing, but both are in God's plan for me!

Easter

I remember as a child spending Easter in various places including our Grandparents house when they lived in Matthews, NC. We would wake up at a crazy hour (which was really only like midnight or even earlier) a few days before and drive through the night. My parents were smart in doing this because that meant that their 4 children (this was before the time of Megan) were sleeping the whole way down. We would arrive sometime the next morning/ afternoon and I remember the smell of spring, the south has a distinct smell that I love. On Easter Sunday we would wake up and hunt for our Easter baskets...get all dressed up in frilly dresses with white tappy shoes and Easter hats, take pictures in the front garden and head off to their church for an Easter breakfast. Then after church we would go back to my Grandmas and die Easter eggs, my Aunt Beth always coordinated that, go on an Easter egg hunt, and then have a big family Easter dinner. It was glorious!

Sometimes I wish I hadn't grown up, that I could still just be told what to do and not have to miss out on things like this. The past 3 years I have been in school for Easter. My freshman year I went to church at Thomas Road and then had chinese for lunch while I studied Anatomy. Last year I was able to go to a friend's family in NC for Easter Sunday which was great, but I missed out on Easter dinner on a count of needing to head back to school. This year my family stopped by on their way to the beach and we went to Thomas Road together and then shared a nice turkey sandwhich meal with a delicious hashbrown casserol (a tradition for my family) in my dining/ living room. Easter just doesn't have the same feel without a big dinner and family gathering.

But that's not what Easter is all about. It is intended for us to come together as a family, but to celebrate that Christ is risen again! Have you ever noticed that Easter falls right at the beginning of spring? When everything is begining to bloom and rise out of the ground. Maybe I'm stretching it here, but there is just something about Spring when everything is new and fresh that helps remind me that because of Christ we are new and fresh too! It may not be the ideal way to celebrate it, and it's probably going to be the same for the next couple of years...but no matter what way you eat dinner or where you are, Easter is not about the food or the easter baskets, or dieing the eggs. It has a deeper meaning, like most other holidays that we celebrate that we can't over look or let it become over shadowed by the worldly traditions...

Thanks for keeping your promise Jesus!

Why I love SPRING!

So I can't help but post one more post tonight just because when the weather is warm so much stuff happens!!! First of all, it is an indication of Spring and with Spring comes flowers and garage sales! Yesterday morning after a late night clinical on Friday and before a late night clinical on Saturday (for me at least), my roommates and I woke up early Saturday morning and went garage saleing! It was beautiful...here's my first buy of the season...

It actually rocks too..it's so awesome and the best part is it was only $5!!! I'll probably end up changing the cushions by buying some seat cushions for cheap at Walmart and sowing them together, but it's pretty comfortable for now! This will most likely be put in the sun room at the lake house! I'm so excited!!! That's all I got during the first garage sale outing, but my roommates made out pretty good..one actually got a microwave and toaster oven for 15 dollars total, and they are really nice too! Love it!!!

Another thing that I love about spring is flowers! Here are some that we have in our house...

I'm not sure what these are called, but they are my roommate's, she has a lot of different ones, but this is the only one that bloomed so far this year!

We also have Lilacs and not pictured we have sunflowers and Lillies in vases too! It's wonderful...trust me!

Recently my mom and littlest sister got into painting pottery, my sister made me a pot which I love just for the heck of it...so I was looking and debating as to whether I should put flowers in it or some sort of plant like basil or something. Well I went to Target and in their dollar section they had these little starter kits so I bought two.

The one in the yellow in the "green house" are sunflowers and the other one has Zinnia's in them... They were only a dollar so I wasn't sure if they were going to work, but as you can see they did and their sprouts came up earlier than expected! They gave me so many seeds I had extra so I put Zinnia's in the pot my sister gave me and I have more Zinnia seeds and Sunflower seeds I am going to plant outside at the Lake house

Look at all those...they are just growing like crazy, I didn't expect so many to come up so I might have to terminate some...this is going to be hard, how do you choose which one stays and which one goes????

Down by the James

So it's been pretty cruddy here weather wise the past week, raining constantly....but it's been looking up..this weekend it was in the 70's!!! Beautiful! Unfortunatly yesterday I didn't get to enjoy it because I was in Labor and Delivery clinical for 8 hours...was that ever interesting...still not sure if I want to have children, but that's another story...this story is about my 2 roomates and mine little hike by the James River in Downtown Lynchburg. Last Tuesday it was a beautiful day! and since we don't have classes we decided to go for a little hike!

Lynchburg is similar to Binghamton in the way that it's small, old, and was built around factories. It differs from Binghamton in the way it looks in my opinion, Lynchburg's looks reminds me more of downtown Owego! With all of it's old brick buildings built right along the river...

The main factory that founded Lynchburg was the Craddock Terry...this didn't really occur to me until recently. Downtown has the BEAUTIFUL hotel called the Craddock Terry Hotel. I always thought that was just a cool name for the hotel, but then as we drove around and noticed all the old signs on the empty warhouses that said Craddock Terry we realized that it was orginially a big shoe factory. Here is a picture of the back of the hotel...we didn't realize it was a shoe factory until a couple days later and this picture made sense then...

Notice the Red Stiletto....

On the river, there is this big fountain...I don't know what it's for, but it's pretty cool and it shoots up really high...

Here is some pictures of our walk...

There are my roommates...Mary is kneeling and Leigh is in the green...

Don't worry this was not from us...