My Weekend Recap :)

Friday night I went on a date with Lindsay :) We ate at Macaroni Grill and then saw Dan in Real Life. Everyone should see that movie! It was so cute :) Maybe a bit of a girly movie but I think most guys would enjoy it (even if they don't want to admit it lol). Good company, good movie, good night...:)

Halloween Howl was this weekend at Rollins. It is an event that all of Greater Orlando is invited to for kids to come and play games, win prizes and candy, and jump in bounce houses. And for the older kids there are haunted houses in the fraternity houses and other buildings on campus. It just proved to me how much of a scaredy cat I am. We had to do walk-throughs of the haunted houses to make sure everything was okay - which means none of the characters jump out to scare you - and I still had to hold Ingrid's hand for her to pull me through haha.

Although the end of the event got rained out, there were some of the cutest kids there which was the best part of volunteering - getting to see all of the adorable costumes :) Here are two of my favorites!


The cutest pumpkin in the patch :)


Abby, my bosses daughter :)

It was so nice to have a girls day today even though it was short because I had school work :( If any of the HDs are reading this, we have to do it again :)

Tonight, we had our hall-wide Halloween initiative - "Pumpkin Party." We bought all sorts of pumpkin-flavored goodies and watched Saw 3. Lots of our residents came for the food but only a few stayed to watch the movie. Let me just say this - I am going to have nightmares for a very long time. And to top it off, my RAs want our next staff development to be going to see Saw 4...what?! I don't know about all that...

Just thought I would write an update of my weekend since it was overall pretty good. Oh side note: I've also learned this weekend that a woman's intuition is always right. I don't want to say too much - but I know now to always trust my gut instinct. I think I could have saved myself a lot of heartache if I just opened my eyes to what was right in front of me. Although, I feel like I always knew, I just wanted to believe it wasn't true. I wish you luck and happiness...I do...

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend! Keep checking back for more updates :)

Ferris Wheel!

I finally rode one for the first time in my life!! (Sad I know...)

I was soooo scared - but if I had to do it again, I would ;)

What's Your Love Language?

I had an epiphany today! At our in-service we learned about the five love languages. And as I sat there listening to the different groups present their love language, my past was flashing before my eyes haha. When we have a significant other, we need to be conscious of how they like to be loved and how they show love, among other things. I believe if we could figure this out while we are in a relationship so many problems would be eliminated. To truly understand this, here are the five love languages:

#1 Words of Affirmation: You need to hear praise to know you are loved and you may also prefer to express your affection verbally. Negative comments cut right to the bone. You want to hear that you're loved and how much and why. This could be done in the form of compliments, kind words of recognition, thank you notes, "just because" notes, cards, etc.

#2 Gifts: You are moved by presents and physical tokens of affection. It's the fact that someone is thinking about you enough to give you something that moves you. You also like to give personalized gifts to show your love for someone. The monetary value is not important, only the sentiment with which they were intended.

#3 Touch: You want to give and/or receive affection physically. This would be someone who loves to hug, hold hands, high five, etc.

#4 Acts of Service: You prefer to show your love through favors and chores and doing things for others. You feel put-upon and unappreciated when your efforts are taken for granted.

#5 Quality Time: This can be expressed either through those intimate tete-a-tete discussions or just by doing things together. You enjoy spending time with the people you love and it is very important for you to feel included.

So now that you know maybe you can fit yourself into one of these categories. Obviously these descriptions are just skimming the surface, but you get the jist of what they mean. If you are a "words of affirmation" person in a relationship with an "acts of service" person and you don't know it, issues could arise. The "acts of service" person may be doing wonderful things for you but you aren't appreciating them because you aren't recognizing that that is how they show love. And since you aren't thanking them for all of the help they are giving, they feel like what they did was pointless. And on the same token, the "acts of service" person isn't realizing that the "words of affirmation" person is just looking for a simple compliment or for their significant other to tell them how much they love them. So I leave you with this challenge: continue learning about the people in your life - your family, your friends, your boyfriend or girlfriend, and most importantly yourself. Find out what your love language is and what their love languages are. Then use that new knowledge to your advantage and start showing love the way that particular person best feels it. Your relationships will grow stronger because of it. Apply this knowledge to past relationships: I guarantee it will answer some questions and you will be better off in future relationships. When I think about the people in my life, it is rather easy to fit them into their love language. I have a new found appreciation to those who may have a different love language than me. Not only will I be able to show love, I will be able to acknowledge and be grateful when I am being shown love in a way outside of my language.

Go now and take the quiz! Let me know your result so I can show you some love ;)

Oh I forgot!

I wanted to add this to the last post...

Get the Rascal Flatts CD!! :)

One of my favorite songs on the CD:

"No Reins"

She left that loser in a dust cloud
Heart in his hand, chin on the ground
Cried her last tear for that clown
She can see a little clearer now
She said, "Oh, oh, I gotta go and find me"
Oh, oh she found the strength to break free

Like a painted wild mustang
Flyin' out across the open range
Finally gets to live her life that way
No fear, no fences, nobody-no reins

No reins

All she's ever felt is held back
She says, "It's kinda nice to hear myself laugh"
She's gonna do a lot more of that
She's makin' plans and makin' tracks
She said, "Oh, oh I gotta go and find me"
Oh, oh she found the strength to break free

Oh, oh she's learnin' how to let go
Oh, oh whichever way the wind blows
Oh, oh she's learnin' how to let go

No reins

It is so inspiring. I know you are thinking, "It's just a Rascal Flatts song." But as a woman continually trying to find out more about myself and find what makes me happy, this song gives me strength. It is okay to be selfish sometimes. Life is an "open range" for me and that is exciting that I have the world at my fingertips. I have to learn not to let my schedule hinder me from living my life.

Easier said than done...

Lessons Learned

There are quite a few things I have learned these past fews weeks:

1. Facebook is the devil. I don't think I have to say much else about that. No matter how much I wish I could erase my account and never look back, I know I couldn't, which makes me sad.

2. Baseball is not as boring to watch as I thought it was. Watch a game with someone who loves the sport and you will understand.

3. Working full time and going to school full time is really tough.

4. After realizing #3, I know now the value of relaxing and having free time. Those two things are taken advantage of so whenever you are bored, think of me, I'm probably off somewhere wishing I could have five minutes to sit down.

5. If I try to look at the last two months of my life from an outsiders point-of-view, it is so clear that there was definite plan with what happened. I didn't know that at the time, but certain people were coming and certain people were leaving for a reason. No matter how much I still wish I could go back, I know the situation was not in my hands - the outcome would have been the same. At least, that is what I'm choosing to believe, and that is comforting.

6. Back to #3 - I need more time for friends and family.

7. My hair grows slower than I thought - I'm waiting very slowly for those inches to come back :)

8. Getting up at 6am to run is refreshing.

9. It is okay to say no every once in a while.

I was hoping to think of more lessons, but I am exhausted and excited :) My mom is staying with me tonight. I'm looking forward to that, because although we talk every day, it may only be for a few minutes of a time. I am excited to go shopping and finish decorating my apartment :) My dad comes into town tomorrow as well. It has been way too long since I have seen him. Andrea and Kyle come in tomorrow also. Being that my Grandma's 80th birthday party is this Saturday means it will be a weekend full of family :)

Next week is my mini-vacation to Chicago! We didn't get tickets to the Cubs game but I know we will still have an amazing time. Hopefully I will have some pictures to share with you, but if you know me, you know I'm not the best at taking pictures. I will force myself :) According to weather.com, it will be in the 60s as the high. Brr :)

Side note: Giving laptops to students to bring to class is the easiest way to encourage us to not pay attention.

Time to learn about statistics...:)

Very Cool!

I signed up for a very cool website tonight! Once I get more into all the features of the website, I'm sure I'll have more to write but until then...

This is from my brothers blog (about the website)....

YouVersion is a website run by a LiveChurch.TV development team...they've developed an online bible that has become an interactive community, it really takes the bible and injects it into the viral video/myspace/facebook age. When you sign up you'll get a email kind of like this, explaining what it's all about....

-----
Dear Kyle,

Welcome to YouVersion.com. You're now part of a revolutionary online community! Whether you've been studying the Bible for years or are simply curious about its claims, YouVersion will allow you to read, share, ask questions, and learn from others in an exciting and interactive new way.

Now that you're signed up and ready to go, let's explore some areas of YouVersion you'll want to check out.

Discover
Easily find a passage in one of many translations. Search by reference or use the Table of Contents to locate a specific scripture.

Contribute
Share what God's Spirit is showing you, and read how He is moving in the lives of others. Contribute images, video, text or links to passages, or email something meaningful to a friend.

Reflect
You can journal about what you're reading, as you're reading it. And even better, what you write is linked directly to what you are reading so you can easily reference back to those special passages.

Remember
Mark references with tags that make sense to you, and find what you want, when you want. It's like your own personal concordance. Or you can star anything you'd like to remember.

We hope you'll take some time and explore YouVersion today. We believe that this tool is going to create a whole new way of uniting relevant media and web content with scripture, community and collaboration. And we couldn't do it without you.

Sincerely,
The YouVersion Development Team
-----

For me, this is going to revolutionize the way I read the bible...it's now more than ever the living word of God.

Go check it out...

www.youversion.com



Let me know what you think!!
(Thanks Kyle for the blog)

Taking a Moment to Breathe...

Wow - I am sitting here on my couch not stressing about school or work for the first time in three weeks. Don't get me wrong...next week I have three quizzes, a presentation, and a ten-page paper due. So there is plenty that I could be doing. But it is my weekend from classes now and I am going to take advantage of these few minutes that I can just sit here (and watch my new 32" LCD HDTV haha).

Graduate school is a lot different than undergraduate school. This is something that I have been told but I don't know if I really believed it. I'm good at school...I may not be great at anything but I know for sure that I'm good at being in school. But my classes, I would say for the first time in my life, are hard. Not necessarily because of the content but because of the amount of work that is required outside of classes. It has caused me to wonder if I made the right decision in going back to school. But I think I did - everything fell into place too easily before I got here. And I know that it will be a great accomplishment when I am done and it will help me achieve what I am put on this earth for. I have an idea of where I want to go with my life but I won't put it on here because I want the flexibility to change my mind ;)

My main goal this weekend is to finish the decorations in my apartment. My mom comes to Florida next week and I am determined to have pictures hung and curtain rods hung and everything. And I'm tired of having all the decorations in my room in a pile (well...a neat pile haha). And if it continues to rain all weekend (which I hope it does - it has been so peaceful sleeping to the sound of the rain), it will be a perfect time to get it done.

This past weekend I went to the beach for the first time in such a long time! It was so nice to be out in the sun - I had kinda secluded myself because of everything that happened back in April. Rollins took a bunch of students to Playa Linda for a beach clean-up and then a group of us went to Jetty Park over by Cape Canaveral. The water was absolutely gorgeous. Usually I'm not a fan of actually swimming in the ocean but that is where we spent most of our time. One of the people in the group had a jet-ski so we got to play around on that too...so much fun!!

Monday is when I'm starting to run again. I've seen all the lacrosse girls around campus and it has made me miss playing and working out so much. I'm thinking about helping out the coach on Saturdays. But I have to decide if I'm that committed because that is my only day to sleep in and I would be taking that away from myself haha. But it will be nice to start my day with an early morning run.

Hmmm....well I guess that's it! It's been nice to share my thoughts again :)