the great outdoors!

This weekend was an AWESOME weekend. Saturday morning started off on a great note: we didn't get up until 1130am...amen! We were cordially invited to go to the lake for the day on Saturday to enjoy some fun in the sun! We met up with the guys who had spent the previous night in the forest. The temperature was an amazing 75 degrees, but the water...whoooo buddy, that thing was cold! There was a rope swing that swung out over the water. One brave soul, a freshman go-getter decided to brave the icicles and went for a
swing! It only took one time for him
and us to realize, it wasn't a day for
swimming. So instead we laid in the sun and skipped rocks...or in CW's (pictured right) case, see how close to the shore he had to throw the biggest rock, in order for it to splash those of us who were still sitting on dry land.

An hour or two after meeting up with the guys, we relocated to the beach/grilling area where the rest of the group met up with us. Some threw around the football while others tried ever so hard to keep the frisbee from flying into the water. After everyone had arrived, the grill man Curtis, decided it was time to
fire up the coals. He got the first round started with some hotdogs. Thirty minutes later, we were ready for the real deal: the hamburgers. The guys bought eight lbs of hamburger and probably twenty hotdogs. We tore through them all! I mean we are growing college students! This is the group to the left that we went with. Brett and I are the only juniors of the bunch, the majority are sophomores and a couple freshmen, oh and one senior :) God has really blessed me with a great group of friends here. Half of these guys here are Bible majors wanting to do something big for God
when they're done with school.
Sunday afternoon brought the long awaited fishing trip with Tyler (left) and Travis (right). These two boys were in calculus class with me last semester and everyday they would share their fishing stories. Abby and I asked them to take us fishing and they extended the offer anytime. Yesterday, we finally were able to get together and go. Abby unfortunately had to stay and set up for Vespers (student led church service) so she couldn't go. Tyler took us to a place up the road...where the uppity people like to hang out: the Country Club. This club just so happened to have a golf course on it.
Near the edge of the golf course was this nice little pond. PERFECT! The plan: hurry up and bait the line as quickly as possible in order to catch one or two fish before being escorted out of the country club :). So we rush down to the pond, Travis baited my hook very quickly for me and within two minutes: SHAZAM! check out that bass....ohhh yeah! Five minutes later I caught a good sized blue gill. It just so happened the pond stood between a tee-off and a putting green. So every so often we had to move out of the way of the golfers, who each spoke with us as they passed by on their way to the putting green. They all wanted to know the same thing...did we catch anything? No one seemed to really mind that we were fishing. I mean it's not like there was a "no fishing" sign...:) We eventually ran out of worms for bait, and Ty and Travis were able to catch baby blue gill without any bait. Little did the babies know..they soon would be bait for the big billy bass. The guys both caught a big bass using the baby blue gill. I unfortunately didn't have the same luck. I let my baby go before he gave his last breath. After fishing, we went to the last Vespers of the school year. We reviewed our theme: AKOLUTOS = unhindered. We sang worship songs under the stars and had an awesome time praising the Creator. Afterwards, the night was made complete with a little s'more action. It was a GREAT weekend! An awesome way to end the school year!

Terrific Thursday

(disclaimer: some of the following content may be inappropriate and unsuitable for those who have weak stomach systems. please take caution)


One of the joys of going to a small private college is: they can cancel a whole day of classes for no reason other than to give students a break! Pretty cool, eh? Once a year: Wonderful Wednesday strikes! It always happens after spring break, but not necessarily on a Wednesday. Only a select group of students know (those who plan the event) and none of the faculty know when it will happen, until the day of. Sometimes it will start in the evening and go throughout the next day, which is what happened this year. As I was laying down to take an afternoon nap on Wednesday, a student with a megaphone came running through campus "Welcome to wonderful Wednesday!!" And so it began. Wednesday night started off the big shabang with discounted bowling. The suitemates and roommate and I all went out and bowled out hearts out. Well, some of us did. I realize that you can't really see the scores, but I'll break it down for you... Miriam: 10th frame: X X X = turkey = 151 pts total! Shoooot yeah! I rocked the house!

Terrific Thursday was filled with lots of outdoors fun, one of those being the slip n slide. Now let me inform you that the weather was a hot 62 degrees with a 25 mph wind: not really my choice of water sports weather. Brett and I opted to watch from the side lines as students, numb to the water and wind, slid down the tarps aiming to take out the 7 construction cones waiting for the human bowling ball at the bottom.





The obstacle course proved to be an entertaining event. Each team consisted of four people who each had a certain assignment. The winning team was the team who completed all tasks in the shortest amount of time. The first person had to stick their face in this...You see, this nasty muck of stuff in the pool is: baked beans, sweet pickles and southern style green beans. Bulk cans of each were dumped in together, mixed up and contained two fun size muskateer bars. Person #1 had to dig through here with their face only and find the wrapped muskateer bar. Next,


person #2 raced across the creek to be wrapped in a roll of toilet paper by person #3. This is more difficult than one might imagine because person #2 is soaked from the creek. Once the toilet paper is gone, person #3 smears peanut butter on their face. Person #4 must throw and successfully stick 3 marshmallows on the #3's face. Once this is completed, person #3 blows up a balloon and pops it. Person #4 (as seen left) jumps onto the blow-up dolphin or crab, races it across the creek. Up on the bank, is a hula hoop. Person #4 must hula for 5 seconds. After the 5 seconds are up, #4 retrieves the floaty, jumps
jumps back in the creek, rides it back across and
runs up into the gazebo, where time is stopped. Two teams compete against each other. Again, Brett and I opted to view rather than participate.

AND NOW!! what everyone's been waiting for!!! THE ANNUAL MILK CHUGGING CONTEST!! of course everyone knows it's physically impossible to chug a gallon of milk in an hour without throwing up. the technical rule for determining the winner of this game is whoever can drink a gallon of milk in an hour without throwing up..within that same hour. but as i came to find out, the REAL contest, is to see who can 1) make the best puking sounds 2) shoot it out the nose the best 3) spew the farthest....get ready for this.

to the left we see CT. right here, he's about 45 minutes into the contest: about 1/2 gallon chugged and no stomach reflex..yet. by the look on his face we can see the milk churning! he decided to take the slower route and see how
much he could get down without throwing up. ten minutes
left in the hour and the crowd begins cheering. CT feels the pressure and begins his chugging as the crowd chants, "Chug! Chug! Chug!" he realizes his doom is about to beset him as he rises to his royal throne (the folding chair). being a senior, and having competed in this heroic contest in the years before, CT understands the REAL competition. he takes his place and continues the chug. only a few seconds later, the vitamin D whole milk refuses to stay put any longer. the first displacement is, yes...curdled.. you see, CT held down quite a bit of milk for a good 50 minutes before ever letting anything out. So the first bit had set in the stomach acid for quite some time.

CT downed all of the milk from the gallon (only to bring it back up) and is still going through recovery today. as i spoke with him on his follow-up, he hasn't eaten anything since yesterday and still feels woozy. he doesn't want to see milk again for a long while, but feels it's all worth it in the end.

meet casey: casey started the competition with a bang. he chugged his gallon of whole milk within the first 20 minutes. he set the standard for the REAL contest. as i first approached casey, he was quietly listening to a friend's ipod, apparently waiting in the calm before the storm. the calm didn't last long: and out came casey's fire hydrant spray of milk. Casey definitely won the prize for farthest distance and fastest chug. this guy...he was impressive.




yes, this is truly what college is all about. bringing your self-esteem to a new level, defending your dignity and honor in the name of milk chugging. long live wonderful wednesday!!!

(brett and i had our own chugging contest: free soda!)

i realize it's been a quick minute since i've posted, so i thought i'd take this time to give an update:

SCHOOL: becoming evermore challenging everyday with my math classes; finals start in two weeks and i'll be done the first week of may, only to start summer school here at home the next week. even though tensions are building with the onset of the final stretch of school, the roomie and i are still getting along marvelous, praise God! Brett is such a fun girl and God has really knitted our hearts together. basically, we're long lost sisters/bffs.
WORK: i'm working at a restaurant similar to applebees as a server. i'll usually work 3-4 nights a week, but each shift can be from 7-9 hours. on a daily basis, i'm learning patience and the holy spirit is constantly reminding me that i am a witness in this extremely dark place i call work.
GOD: wow, in the last couple days God has taught me that my will isn't always His will (who would have guessed?) and with that revelation has come a hard lesson. i have to be willing to give things up in order to be in His will. being a child of God isn't something that is easy, but it's a privilege; and if i'm really committed to be who God has called me to be, i have to surrender specific things in my life. this is proving more difficult than i thought, so please be in prayer for me. but above all, God is stinkin' awesome! (right, pastor terry?!)

ME or God?

HERE AND NOW: Impatience, selfishness, arrogance, confusion, annoyance, frustration...





THE BIG PICTURE: God has a plan that stretches far past the rest of my life...

"I am the first and I am the last. My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together." --Is 48:12-13



"..I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please." --Is 46:10b



"Aim at and strive for FIRST the kingdom of God and HIS way of doing and being right and THEN and only THEN will these things be given unto you." --Matt. 6:33 (paraphrased)

The joke...

This morning began like the average college student's morning does. After turning off my second alarm, I roll out of bed (which, if you recall i'm on the top bunk and that's a lot trickier than it sounds), hopped onto the floor with ten minutes to spare before I must leave for class. Feeling no urge to get particularly dolled up and girl-ified today, I threw on some sweats and tennies. Abby and I always walk together to class in the morning and she is usually the one who gets up to my room first because I'm running late. Well not this morning! I was ready to go before she was able to walk up the stairs and knock on my door. Grabbing my water and granola bar, I reached for the umbrella and opened the door. To my surprise and great startlement, this is what I found:

Yes that's right, I had been "cinder-blocked" into my room. Creative eh? When I opened the door, I literally jumped because all I saw was this big shadowy dark thing in front of me. See the crack between the door and the cinder blocks? At first, I thought I could squeeze between them and make it out, but then I snapped back to reality and remembered that I didn't weigh 95 pounds, nor was I made of elastic. Obviously, pushing them out of the way was not the safest or least-damaging way to go about things. I shut my door, walked through the bathroom and out my suitemates' door. I'd deal with it later.

Seeing this done before, I knew who the culprits were, well at least I had a group of suspects. I saw my RA today on the way to class and asked if she knew anything about it. Leah replied, "No......YESS!!"-with a big grin. I just shook my head and she said she and the girls would clean it up later today. While relaxing on my couch after lunch this afternoon, I heard banging and noise outside my door. I called out, "I hear you!!!" For the second time today, a surprise met me as I opened the door to find the two housekeeping ladies and an older maintenance man taking down the cinder blocks. Now you must understand, within each column of blocks, is a four or five inch PVC pipe which prevents anyone from simply pushing the blocks out. So each block must be lifted up and off the pipe. This weekend is "open house" for prospective students and housekeeping was trying to clear out the hallways. I quickly ran out the other door and helped them take it down. Being trapped in your own bedroom was funny, until the poor housekeeping people had to clean i up.

time to breathe...

Amidst my nightly five hour study sessions, I was contemplating the great, life-altering, climatic question every academically-minded and socially exposed college student asks themselves.."what am i doing for spring break!?"

First of all, these things must be planned in advance! Plane tickets become more costly as the date arrives; passports need time to clear and to fly to the other side of the world and back into your hand; parents need time to adjust to their "babies" going off for a week without parental supervision...all these things are essential to planning ahead. The next topic of discussion is "WHERE" am i going? Depending on what part of the country you live in, the beach may sound appealing. Or if you live on the beach, go inward to the mountains. What about the tropics? I've heard Cozumel and Aruba are nice vacationing spots! (wait, cozumel was hit by a hurricane and aruba swallowed a young girl..so maybe another destination..) According to popular statistics, most college students head for the beach for many reasons. I'd like to think it's just for the tan and waves, but for some reason there seems to be a more populous supply of substances at the beach rather than in the mountains or the plains. (please note, this statistic is purely observational) So WHERE do i want to go? And the last question, sometimes the most important is "WHO am i going with?" Brett and I were invited to go with a group of 10 people to florida, not having to pay lodging costs because of peoples' families. what? one of the biggest costs of spring break vanishing!? heck yeah!!--but then, we thought a little more about it, before making such a rash decision. you see, there was an even amount of girls vs guys going on this trip, which most would think turns out nicely, right? except for the fact that these guys like to have their "alone-manly-bonding" time and the girls, they like their girl time, but "can't we do everything together, guys??" brett and i foresaw (?) a few bumps in the road as you could imagine, and decided we needed to search for something different. brett opted to go on a short term missions trip with the school to louisiana and i decided flying to california for a week would be and excellent idea. family + sun - tennessee = AMAZING! and so that's what i did:


Charis and I started our sisterly-bonding by getting pedicures! For you gentlemen that means: sitting in a massage chair, putting your feet in a bubble bath, getting your toe nails painted and your feet massaged. Ahhh, relax!








Charis and Phil were the only ones in CA who knew I was coming out. My friends Holly and Mary knew nothing of my visit. Sunday morning at church, Ms. Mary walked into church and walked right past our pew. Not until the middle of the service did she turn around and with a look of surprise and glee and mouth, "What are YOU doing here?!!?!!" She came back to give me a hug and lots of poking, speaking things like, "why didn't you tell me? how long are you here for? you little tricker!"


Holly, unfortunately was out of town when I flew in. She returned on Monday night and Steven and I drove to the airport to pick her up. She didn't know that either of us were coming to get her, until she spoke with her mom on the phone after landing and her mom told her about steven. But she still had no idea I was there. Steven and I had discussed a few options of revealing my presence: 1) hide behind the passenger seat and when she got in the car, grab her from behind. 2) stand at the end of the departure/arrival lanes, and act like a hitchhiker until steven and holly drove by and then have steven pick me up. holly would've freaked. 3) walk past holly in the airport and nonchalantly say, "hey holly." and keep walking. The first one we chucked out; the second would've gotten me in trouble with airport security and so we chose the third one. but what we didn't realize is that there aren't very many people in the airport at 11pm. so we decided i would hide behind a kiosk and then when holly and steven walked past, i would follow them and quietly say, "holly..holly" until she turned around. I stationed myself at the kiosk and waited....three or four minutes later i see steven coming around the corner on the phone.."she's at the other entrance" he whispers as he walks by. seven minutes later steven comes running from the direction he just went and says, "she's actually at this gate over here!!!! i'll bring her by!" finally a few more minutes later, i hear steven's voice and holly's too. they walk past me and i proceed to follow behind. i have my camera ready and i start off whispering. my voice grows louder as i realize she can't hear me...until finally, "Holly!!" with a quick turn of her body she looks at me...stops for a moment and tries to put everything together: why would miriam be in california? then much screaming and hugs and kisses ensued. :)


Holly and I kept our annual tradition alive and went grocery shopping at 11pm at night. there weren't very many people in the store and so we were employing the role of "casual shoppers: let's stop and look at everything." i was kind of tired and so i stopped to sit on some cans of campbells soup while talking on the phone.












Holly and I were cuddling in the chair together and snapping photos. This is one of the better ones believe it or not.






Oh yes, the weather here!...with the exception of yesterday, it has been mostly sunny, highs in the mid 60s. tomorrow we're going to the beach and saturday it's supposed to be 71. ahhh yes! i'm finding lots of time to relax and breathe and continuing to learn about God's grace and goodness. And I'm also remembering how much fun my brother and oldest sister are. I'll post some pictures of them later! Love you all!

::checking in:: life had been insanely busy for me. thus, the absence of blog posts. however, i am finally on spring break and will have time to post a few things that are happening, so keep checking back!