A 24-hour RVA dash!

Ello poppets!

As some of you readers know, I am currently home for a brief period of time. Why, you ask? Well, today was Steph's dad's birthday. Thus, while she was already coming home, she wanted to get her hair cut by my dear love, Shelly. And since she wanted me to be there with her, I came along for the ride! We left the Fishbowl at 11:30, and a little before 2 Steph and I arrived at her hair appointment :) Please note the before and after photos:

She cut 10 inches of hair off! Crazy, right?! She's donating it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths :) Proud mom moment, right here (even though I did love her long curly locks)! It's always a good time, donating hair! I'm excited for whenever I get to do that again :) Weeeeeeee!

From there, Steph brought me to my casa, talked to my mom for a bit, and then went on her merry way.  Madre made one of my favorites for dinner: meatloaf :) It's not just any meatloaf that I love; it's hers specifically. She made that, along with baked potatoes, green-beans, and spaghetti squash (which I did try even though I'm not a squash fan... it wasn't too bad). I think my mom gets excited whenever we come home. She likes to go all out :)

And since my dearest Heather was a poor sickling today, I went out after my dinner and got her some tofu pho from Mekong :) She loves the stuff, and I thought maybe it would be a little pick-me-up even though she felt icky. It also gave me the opportunity to see her, and that is ALWAYS a plus :) I do love that girl! I even got to see Elsbeth and Jolyn for a bit, which is always a time in-and-of itself ;)

Well, I am going to do some slumbering now :) I have church family to go surprise in the morning! Goodnight world!

Nashville and rest

Tonight, after the tease from many regarding the potential of having classes being canceled (and that not being the case), I decided that I needed to just chill. I was up until almost 3am last night doing homework that was due today (and thank the Lord I did!), and after 4 classes between 9:30am and 6:00pm, I decided to cancel all of my evening plans. My plan: to relax on my comfy sofa, have some tea, and watch Nashville. The only wrench in this plan was going to retrieve my Macbook, and finding that they failed to put all of my stuff back onto the computer..... But after that period of stress, I was rest time. I even got a visit from Kelly; we drank tea and chit-chatted in my living room.

The point is, I am more stressed out than I care to be, and I need to learn when to give myself some time to just be. Time where I'm not running around, panicking about my to-do list, stressing over classes, or planning/attending a meeting. No, I need unstructured periods of relaxation with no agenda whatsoever. It's a nice treat; try it soon if you haven't recently. I still have a lot that needs to be done, but I feel less anxious in this moment; it's nice.

Gear shift..... Nashville. It's a new show on ABC, and I love it! The acting keeps me intensely intrigued, the plot is complex enough to pique my interest, and the music is pretty awesome too. Here are a few of my faves to date:

Remember Lennon and Maisy? This is them! They are casted as the children of Rayna on the show, and in the last episode they performed this song (originally sung by Hayden Panettiere's character, as heard above) in their talent show :) They are AWESOME!

Yep :) I'm a fan. And I'm so happy that I can now enjoy all of this from the comfort of my own Macbook. It's so nice to have it back! In other news, my hand looks much better! It's barely red or even sore now. I only had to wrap it like this today:

Better than the mummy hand I had yesterday....

Haha.... Well, goodnight loves!

Homecoming and a burn.

Well, this weekend was JMU's homecoming! I enjoyed getting two free shirts (10th anniversary purple-out and homecoming t-shirts), the pep rally on the quad Friday evening, our SAO alumni "tailgate" Saturday afternoon, the football game versus Georgia State Saturday afternoon/evening, a B-dubs dinner with SAO loves (taken to-go and enjoyed at the Fishbowl), and a Halloween party at Sarah and Nancy's Saturday night :) I'll skip over details at this moment, because I hope to post later with pictures included courtesy of Hannah :) However, this is a picture of seester and I at the game:

As for today, I spent it sleeping-in, doing very little homework, shopping for non-perishable foods (in case Sandy blows through), preparing for our SAO business meeting, going to said meeting, taking a stroll through Walmart, celebrating the cancellation of tomorrow's classes with Campus Cookies, and watching Spice World with my fishies :) Now, let's talk about the second part of this post title--- the "burn" thing. So, while making myself some pasta for dinner, I went to pour my noodles into my housemate's strainer. I had never used it before, and it was one of those collapsible ones. I thought it would just pop open when the noodle hit it, but that is not the case... Thus, boiling hot water poured right across the surface and onto my hand. It was quite a bit of water, and yes it was rather hot. It didn't hurt at first, but it certainly did three hours later after our meeting; hence the trip to Walmart for burn ointment/gauze wrap. So my hand stayed looking like this:

And now it looks like this (thanks to the wonderful care of Lauren):

 I'm a hot mess. Haha. And even though I know classes are canceled, I'm still not sure about work. I really hope it is, because I feel like my hand is going to give me problems once it gets stuck in a cutting glove and thrown into a toaster oven multiple times.....

 Anywhoo, goodnight loves!

Guess where I'm going?

January 1st-4th, 2013.... Yes, I'm going to Passion!!!! I am so thankful :) I am going to see Jesus at work in a way that I never have before, and I'm going to get to experience that with some of my dearest friends. Yes, I'm going to Passion with Eighteen22! I am beyond excited :) This is almost too surreal. EEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

A Prayer Request

I've been struggling with something as of recent, and these verses basically sum it up....

^“21 Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’"
{Matthew 7:21-23}

If you could pray for me, I would greatly appreciate it. Sometimes I get overwhelmed and upset when I dwell on this, and it gets hard. The one person I've talked to about it was so comforting and encouraging in her prayer, but I know that what I ultimately need is the peace and guidance of God. I need to listen, hear, and obey; I need transformation.

I love you all! And if there's anything I can do to be praying for you, please just let me know!

The Election

Okay, we all know that we're in the middle of a presidential campaign. I myself am registered to vote, and I know which box I'm checking come November 6th. And I've known for a while my stance, who I'd be inclined to vote for, and what issues are important to me. What I did not realize, however, is how nasty people get during election season. I'm not talking about the candidates, either; I mean my friends that I love and generally respect. The rude slanders and unnecessary comments being made all over my Facebook and Twitter feeds are despicable. The hostility of these debates I can bare, but not seeing my friends being so disrespectful; especially since they're my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Even before the debates, I constantly confronted this issue of being belittled for my political standpoint. My friends, and even family members, ridiculed my opinions, and they spoke to me as if I were senseless and naive. I am neither, and I was appalled. Someone literally even told me that, "When you're older, if you have any sense, you'll change your mind." Well, if I didn't have any interest in swinging the other way before, then I certainly don't now--- not after comments like that or the snide commentaries on my social media feeds... Needless to say I long await the race to be over.

As for the Fishbowl, we're a split house. Some of us are voting one way, the rest the other. Thus, I made it a point to make sure that we have equal representation on our house. If there's one poster, there darn sure better be another! It's fair that way, I think :)

Obama/Biden poster in the top window; Romeny/Ryan in the bottom.

P.S.- I purposefully omitting my platform. I don't need to stir-up avoidable drama, you know? I respect everyone's opinions, whether they're in line with mine or not. Utilize your voice; you do you. If you're acting for what you believe is right/best, then to that I say, "You go Glen Co-co!" Haha :)

Lennon and Maisy

Jennifer introduced me to these two amazingly talented girls! They are sisters (8 and 12 years old) that have their own YouTube channel singing covers of various songs. These two are my favorites that they've done to date. Give them a listen; you won't regret it :)