I love these guys!

Church on Fire!

This is a church on fire,
We have a Holy Spirit flame.
We have a burning desire
to lift up Jesus' name!

Let every tongue and every heart
Light the way
Defeat the dark
Let a flame of love burn higher

This is a church...
This is a church on fire.

This song was written awhile back but it was in my head today. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from all the blog readings and communication I have up there, it seems like this is true of our church right now. Perhaps I'm speaking in faith, but aren't we R.U.N. Revival right now? Even though I'm not there, God is still moving in me and changing me. I've found a church down here called Calvary Church and I really enjoy it. The worship is SO awesome and the pastor gets fired up just like PBR (ok, maybe not to the same extent, but it's there). I've found a girl down the hall who is Spirit-filled and we've already prayed together. I think we might start meeting in the morning (I'll be crucifying the flesh this way...making myself get up before 8am! ahh!) to pray in the Holy Ghost and seek God. Pretty cool. I miss you guys so much and I love you even more! Be blessed today!

Logarithims, Rice Krispies, and Male-Bonding

One thing I can say is that the weather down here has been pretty amazing. I would dare say ::perfect::. The average temperature is about 76 and there's always a breeze with partly cloudy to clear skies. Yesss, i love autumn! I remember being in middle school and high school and asking the teachers all the time if we could go outside for class. The obvious answer to a 9th grader would be "Yeah, sure!" But I was rejected and told time and time again, "No, because we won't get anything done." SO WHAT!?? Anyway, relentless and ready to give the "outside class" idea another stab, i worked up the courage to ask my math prof. We had been in the 55 minute class for only about 15 minutes. He had done a few problems on the board and then paused for us to soak it in, for him to ponder and collect his thoughts too perhaps. I shot my hand up..."Dr. Glover? Since it's so awesomely gorgeous and nice outside, can we go outside for class?" Giggles and snickers were heard throughout the classroom as Dr. Glover looked at me, then checked his watch and looked back at the class. "Well okay, i don't see why not?" And so we gathered our bags and out the door we went into the beautiful sunshine. Dr. Glover ran to his office to retrieve something and the class settled onto a big circle of cement. Glover came over to us with a pink bucket in his hand. He dove back into the lesson with sidewalk chalk in hand. (Why a math professor has a bucket of sidewalk chalk in his office, i have no idea? Perhaps for times such as this).

This next picture displays the artistic talent of the Hart dorm. The cafeteria staff put on a contest for each dorm to sculpt a buffalo (school mascot) out of rice krispie treats. Each team (consisting of 3-4 people from that dorm) was given a big mound of rice krispie treat, candy for accessories, gloves and 3 minutes for sculpting. This one was the winner: from Hart hall. We all get fresh baked cookies! Mmmm!

Scott (the tall one) and Christian are two really awesome guys that I've met down here. (Chill out girls: they're only friends). Scott's a sophomore and it's been rumored he has the best singing voice on campus, and I would have to agree. He also has a really dry sense of humor and it's hilarious. Christian (or better known as C.T.) could go by the alias of "Mr. Milligan." He's a senior at Milligan and everyone knows who he is. He's vice president of SGA and a leader for Vespers (our student-led worship service on sunday nights). C.T. is all about having fun and sometimes too much fun (perhaps lighting speed bumps on fire and then "lowering" them by applying a pick-axe is a little much; or how about changing the dynamics of the school's pool with red kool-aid?)

Anyway, these are just a few happenings around campus presently. I went on a rescue mission tonight and was successful. I'll have to write about that and my new job later. It's currently 313am and my body is shutting down. Goodnight!!

I woke up at 1030 this morning to the bouncing of someone on my bed. Brett and I have bunkbeds, I'm on the top. Brett got up and left earlier this morning to go to a community event. I decided to use Saturday morning for God created them for: SLEEP. My sleeping habits recently have not been adequate enough (i.e.: going to bed at 330am, getting up at 715am) My body doesn't like it too much, so I'm getting myself into a routine. So this morning when I opened my eyes, I found a young lady on my bed crawling towards me. Her name is Jax. Jax (or Jackie; girl in pic w/ me w/ pink shirt) was the one that first "brought us in" to the Milligan COOL KIDS. :) She's an awesome woman of God and I'm really blessed to have a friend in her. We sat on my bed and had some girl talk (of course) and then she convinced me to go to brunch. It was pretty tasty: biscuits & gravy, hashbrowns, etc.
Today is my FIRST day that I've woken up and been able to just relax. There will be some activities later tonight such as an Organic Fest in Asheville, NC (apparently, all the hippies go there?) and then maybe some star-gazing tonight on top of Roan Mtn; maybe I'll get some homework done in there somewhere...hehe. Brett and I are supposed to go couch-hunting sometime this weekend. We've rearranged our room, making a space for a couch/sofa because there's nowhere for our guests to sit when they come to visit us. I mean, we don't want to be known as anti-social because we don't care enough to let our visitors have a seat.
There's not too much happening right now, but I realized I haven't posted in awhile. So it's a small update.

(Pictures:) #1. Jax and I. #2. Isaac and I on the late night trip up the mtn to the Firetower--I'll write about that later. #3. Milligan soccer boy: Justin. he's pretty tall. #4. We did a photo scavenger hunt for Bible study and we had to pose with mannequins.

GO BUFFS!

Tuesday night was the first home guy's soccer game. There was a contest to see who had the most spirit...anyone who knows me...OBVIOUSLY i was out to win this one. So together, my RA Leah (the one in all black) and my roomie Brett, went all out: we painted the soccer socks on our legs--which turned out to really look like socks! (notice the shoelaces on my kleats hehe!) we used poster paint for our socks and faces---because leah began putting the orange FACE paint on her face--only to realize it wasn't coming off of her hands even with soap. so we decided it was better to use the washable poster paint on our faces...well except leah-it was too late and she'd already decided to put the face paint on her arms too! but don't worry, it all came off, with a little elbow grease that is. anyway, our only other competition was 4 girls who bought retro outfits from goodwill and dyed them orange. *yay, rah* their only "weapon" was they made a hat and a few headbands out of an old soccer ball. apparently that counts for originality. (psh! THEY didn't have PAINT!) so the judges (the student government committee, who we happened to be tight with :) voted and we definitely WON!! apparently it was a tough decision---but the S-P-I-R-I-T girls came through! AND the boys won their game (i think it's partially due to the magnificient sign i made w/ all the guys' names on it.) GO Milligan Buffalos! wooo!

Yee HAH!

What an awesome weekend! Yesterday, a group of about 15 of us went to Watauga Lake. One of the girls' parents own a boat and we went tubing! (Wow, my muscles ached when I woke up this morning). We laid around the lake for awhile and then came back to campus. A senior on campus was having a BBQ ::invite only:: (of course Brett and I were invited...we're known by many on campus as "The Transfers") We ate some burgers and then headed on into town to the fair. Brett, a friend: Christian, and I all went to the demolition derby. Heck yes. The picture of the man in the cowboy hat was one of the best representations of what I'm in the midst of down here: the hat, the mullet, cigarette hanging loosely from the mouth, the extra cigarette behind the ear; The only thing missing was a beer..but I don't think those were allowed at the fair. It was pretty awesome watching the derby. I must admit, it's something I had never done before but thoroughly enjoyed it!!! The three of us picked out our "winner" before the each heat began. It was soo crazy! One guy's whole rear axel came off his car!! And he kept going!?! Then of course we had to take a ride on the ferris wheel. It was a great weekend! But alas, I must bring myself back to the reality that class starts again tomorrow...so I'm off to study..or not. :)

Calculus, A Nametag and A1 sauce

HOORAY! The first week of class is OVER! It wasn't a bad week though. I'm gonna love it down here. I have 3 education classes, a family sociology class, "fitness for life"--how to stay healthy and keep off the freshman 15 i guess--, Old testament survey, and CALCULUS! I have a wide variety of professors: one eccentric lady, a funny Bible prof, and a mellowed out math prof : he called us his "little calc babies." Hah! So overall, classes went smoothly and I have an overwhelming sense of peace about this semester. God's grace is awesome! And He's definitely been blessing me.

This is a picture of my roommmate Brett and I. She's also a junior from Missouri. We get along really well! She's a photography/sociology major (I've talked about you a few times, Ash!) and is going to grad school for occupational therapy. We were sitting at our desks last night, side by side, each doing our homework. I look over at Brett who is pouring over her gigantic photography/art history book and taking detailed notes over her reading. I look back at my desk and look at my markers, scissors and construction paper I'm using to create my "nametag" for my education class. I'm preparing to teach upper elementary and then eventually junior high math. But for now I'm learning how to cut and color as Brett is learning about film quality, color contrast and camera angles. HAH! It was a pretty funny sight.

The cafeteria food here is above average. Last night was STEAK night! MMmmm! Okay so it wasn't any Texas Roadhouse, but it was pretty good. We stood in line and told them what spices we wanted on our steak, how we wanted it cooked and if we wanted onions, mushrooms or green peppers on it. Then they'd throw it on something that looked like one or two steps above the George Foreman grill. However we ran into a problem when I noticed there was no A1 sauce in the cafeteria. You can't eat steak without A1!!!! And then...I remembered! Mom bought me a little bottle of A1 before I left for college "in case I needed it." But when she told me about it, I was thinking "uh, when will I use steak sauce on campus?" MOMS ALWAYS KNOW BEST!! I was so excited to run back up to my room, grab my A1 and run back down to the cafeteria. Some people asked, "Didn't you feel weird/embarrassed walking into the cafeteria with a bottle of A1 in your hand?" My answer: "HECK no!! I held it out in front of me and let my whole table use it!" So Mom...thank you so much! My night would've been incomplete had it not been for your wisdom and instincts.

These are a just a few things happening down here. I'm sure I'll have more stories later!!