It's so hard

to want to go back to school when essentially everything and everyone I love is here {even if only temporarily}...

Home is where my heart is :)

Today was so good! Okay, so I left Elizabeth's at about 10:30 so that I could come home, get dressed, and go to brunch with mom, Jenn, Candice, and her boyfriend John-Paul {who was kind enough to pay}. This was my first time meeting him, and I think I approve; he seems to be quite the gentleman. Once we made it back to the house, I immediately got in Lovely to go meet Heather at Sweet Frog for some froyo! Yumm! We were there talking for quite some time. While we were there, these two guys came up and asked us if we had cash to spare because they needed gas to get home. I gave them all of the cash that I had, which was only $15. I almost only gave them $5, but then I thought, "What would Jesus do?" No literally, that's what I asked myself. I certainly hope they weren't scamming me. But they seemed so appreciative! They both gave me hugs and offered to meet up with me some time tomorrow to pay me back, but I told the not to worry about it. I hope they made it home and to work in time! Anyways, Heather and I proceeded to walk over to the mall. We sampled some amazing teas, and we even got two Strawberry Misaki teas to go! It literally tasted like a hot liquid version of the froyo I normally get at sweet frog {blueberry froyo with strawberries, granola, and almonds}. It was the most delicious tea EVER! Then, of course, we had to browse through Urban! So many cute things! Ahhhh! And then.... WEWENTTOSAXONWHEREHEATHERBOUGHTHERFIRSTPAIROFTOMS! So exciting :) I had such  a lovely time! Then, right as we departed for the time-being, Nikki called me and said she was done with rehearsal! How convenient?! Thus, I headed straight to the church where we met up and went to Chipotle for dinner. Oh I have missed our dinner dates so! It was so nice just to be able to catch up and chit chat over a delicious meal {even if she wouldn't let me pay!}. But yeah, so I loved that! From dinner, it was straight to Kelly's for a night of movies, gluten-free home-baked goodies, and just an all around good time! We watched Sweeney Todd and the musical episode of Buffy, ate lots of yummy nom noms, heel-clicked in the street, and had a dizzy race! I laughed so much, and I can't express in this blog how happy and loved I felt just by hanging out with Kelly, Heather, and Elsbeth :) Thank you, my dear loves :) Once I departed from there, I went to Elizabeth's house. I got to see Alex for the first time in about 2 months! I've missed him!!! Not long after I got there, we headed over to Waffle House of course! Maegan was just as excited to see us tonight as she was last night, and it was certainly reciprocated! We all got hats, and we used up the last of the diet coke and chocolate chips! Haha! As usual, we were loud, obnoxious, laughing hysterically, and drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves :) I love being home! It's like I never left! We're all able to pick up right where we left off, and I just love that! I appreciate you all more than you will ever possibly realize! I wish I could just relocated everyone to JMU with me! You mean so much to me, and I miss being physically surrounded by the love and support you all provide me with. I cannot wait to see you all tomorrow morning! I love you!!!! Forever. Always. Unconditionally :)

We didn't have a dance party in the Waffle House parking lot...

Except we did :) Haha! People stared, one really awesome guy even made fun of us. But never fret! We have no shame :)

Today, classes went by rather slowly in my anticipation of coming home. But alas, 3:00 came and Kim and I were on our way back to the 804! I got to my house at approximately 5:45. After only a short while, I accompanied my mom and Candice to pick up Jennifer from field hockey and to go visit Candice's classroom. Later on, I went to the Cat Bowl {Hermitage vs. Tucker} with Jennifer, where I got to see several people from Herm.  It was there that I realized that I don't really miss high school, and being in that situation made me feel so old! I feel like high school was a million years ago, and everyone there just seemed so... young in many meanings of the word. Anyways, after we left the game, I went into my house to grab my Northface. Well, that was my intention. I actually ended up talking to my mom and Jennifer for almost an hour in my kitchen. I'm not going to go into too much detail on here, because I don't think that would be appropriate on this public forum. However, I will say this: Never before have I been lied to in such a fashion. I was fooled, deceived. We all were. I had expressed genuine concern, and it really needed to be channeled elsewhere. I used to be the confidant, and now I'm the one blamed for the exposure? That's just awesome... Anyways, I made it to Elizabeth's by about 10:30, and our reunion was a lovely thing :) I hadn't seen her in-person since August! AUGUST! Needless to say, there was lots of hugging and squealing; haha! So we hung out at her casa for a little over an hour before going to Waffle House of course! Maegan came out from behind the counter and gave us all hugs! She remembered my name :) She gladly starred in our video recordings, and it was just an all around good time! We were loud, Kim laughed until she turned red, and pretty much everyone ordered a chocolate chip waffle. Haha, in the words of Maegan, "Oh... Suprise." Hahahaha :) After we paid and hugged out friend farewell, we proceeded to play football in the parking lot and dance around like the white kids that we are :) We jammed out to Katy Perry, Kevin Rudolph, Millionaires, Spice Girls, and so on. It was so fun :) There's no way people didn't think we were either drunk or on drugs, even though we weren't. Obviously.... But yes, I have not gone by my house, showered, and now I'm spending the night at Elizabeth's! Kim is here as well :) WE just finished watching The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and we are now viewing The Hangover. I am quite tired, and I just realized it's after 4 AM. Woah... Goodnight loves! Or shall I say "good morning!"

"I won't get by-y-y on mere imagin-AY-tion!"

A*teens love!

Haha. today was good! I woke up at 11, and didn't really do anything until 12:20 when I met Kim to walk over to Market One to have lunch with Page {from our small group}! I love those two girls; we're like peas in a pod :) Once we left there, I went to the building where my next class was and just messed around on facebook for a while. I finally decided to give my speech today in GCOM, haha. It went well! {Or at least I hope so!} Elizabeth and Susanne said I did a good job, so that's encouraging :) PSYC was actually pretty easy to pay attention in today. Not that I'm normally distracted, but you know what I mean. It didn't seem to drag on for forever and a day. Afterwards, I came back to my room, dropped my stuff off, and caught a bus over to Festival to interview Amber {an SAO sister}. I had thought we were going to eat dinner while we were there, but we didn't. It wasn't a big deal though! We had some awesome conversation, and I really did enjoy it! She was kind enough to drop me off by the commons so that I could meet up and have dinner with my small group at 6:15. We went to D-hall and took advantage of "cheesy thursday." Wondering what that is? Well, that is when they serve grilled cheese and soup as well as cheesecake for desert! Twas yummy! Haha, while I'm on the topic of JMU food, please watch this video. I wasn't joking in my tweet where I thanked the mountains for the lack of "freshman 15." Here at JMU, you can eat as many D-hall burgers as you want and you'll be fine. I speak from experience; haha! Plus, I just think this parody is really humorous, haha!

{And for the record, I'm actually extremely stingy with my dining dollars. Haha!}

Then my small group and I headed over to Taylor for "City on a Hill," which was an opportunity for some members of IV to share their experiences of worship, witness, and coming to accept Christ's love through music, dance, drama, and the telling of stories. I really enjoyed that! And it was also really cool because Betsey, my small group leader, shared a story from her semester abroad, and about how she helped lead one of her friend's back to God :) The event was really rather inspiring :) I walked back to Eagle with Brianna and Brittany, and as always we pretty much laughed the whole time. Love that! Since I've been back, I've got some stuff together for my trip home(!), skyped Heather, showered, and danced around my room.... I can do that when Danielle's not here :) Haha! I am so wired right now! But I really do need to sleep. I love you all! Tomorrow, I am Richmond bound! Eeeeeeeep! I cannot wait to see all of my lovelies! Goodnight!

Amber's favorite verse:

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

{Romans 12:2}

"I should like to give you... a thimble."

Oh Peter Pan, you do make me smile :)

Anyhow, today seemed to begin at a dreadfully early hour. Classes were nothing new or exciting, so I'll spare you the monotonous redundancy. After government, I met up with Nicole {one of my gamma sisters} for some Starbuck's in Carrier Library. It was really nice to just sit back and talk about what it is that we want to do with our lives, and why we're passionate about these things. God placed certain people and obstacles in our lives for a reason. He intended to use these experience as a molding for our future aspirations and life in general.

^"27My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. ³⁰I and the Father are one."
{John 10:27-30}


"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"
{Jeremiah 29:11}


Taking these things into account, I have more heavily pondered a potential career path as a social worker, but I am praying about it in hopes that God will steer me where I am needed and where he wants me. Something inside of me is saying that the latter may be where I'm headed, for there was a purpose in placing this issue in the forefront of my mind and heart, but we shall see. I have no need or desire to forget my passion about global injustice, but perhaps and can have my cake and eat it too. Maybe.... Well, let me continue on if you don't mind my doing so. I came back to my dorm to do some homework before going to get dinner at Market One with Brittany. And when our bellies were full, we went out to the quad to sit in line for free Purple-out teeshirts. Good thing everyone and their cousin doesn't wear a small. Oh wait....

{The line from my perspective...}

{Okay, ignore the "100" thing. See that black circle? That represents where the table was. See the arrows? Those represent the line for JUST the smalls. Yes, it "T"ed off in both directions so that we wouldn't stretch all the way to the performing arts building. Craziness!}

Yeah, Brittany and I waited in line for about an hour. But hey! You gotta love free stuff! {Especially when you can wear it :) Teehee!} Anyways, since we got back to Eagle, I've finished my SOCI homework for friday, watched Peter Pan {Jeremy Sumpter version}, showered, and now blogged! I think it is time for some shut-eye. But before I do, I need to get this out of my system:

Dear GCN,
Please stop depriving me of the already little time I have with my beloved friends!
Love, Stephanie

Okay, goodnight! I love you all!

So here's what I've decided:

I am going to grow my hair back out to Rapunzel-status...

And then I shall cut it all off again and donate it like I did before! I think it should be back at this length by either the end of spring semester or summer 2011. Maybe that's being too optimistic, but my hair does grow fast!

Only tuesday?!

Oh hey! Haha. I'm stoked to be coming home and seeing all of my darling loves this weekend! Eeeep! You have NO idea! Hurry up Friday!!!!! Oh dear, I'm getting ahead of myself; haha....

Okay, so today was pretty decent I suppose. I got up around 10:15 because I felt like I was going to die of a heat stroke being underneath my covers. {Well, that's a bit of a hyperbole, but you know what I mean.} After checking facebook, twitter, and blogger {the usual}, I struggled to get through the rest of my notes for my PSYC chapter. I got the notes finished, but not the chapter. You see, I had to go see my GWRTC professor about my paper that he so kindly reviewed for me. I know I've mentioned this before, but it makes me feel so awesome when I get positive feedback on my writing! Aside from the occasional wording change or miscellaneous suggestions, everything was all good! Literally, he wrote the word "good" six times throughout the course of my essay, haha. It's so reassuring! Anyways, from there I rushed over to Market One to get lunch. I really am an awful time manager, I was so hungry by that point! I managed to finish my food before my class at 2 though, so that was a plus. I once again avoided having to present my speech in GCOM today, but that just means I have to do it next time. Womp! PSYC was long as usual. From there, I went and had dinner with Ariel :) We got to chat about our personalities and our relationships with family and friends. It's always nice to kind of see where others are coming from or how they relate to others; it allows you to know them on a more personal level, I think. Once we finished eating, we had to drive over to Memorial to see a less-than-entertaining documentary for government. At least I got back to my dorm at a decent hour though! I was able to start/complete my SOCI homework, edit my paper, and chill with Brittany and Brianna all before 1:30! Success? I think so :) While we're on the topic of those crazy twins that I love so much, let me share this with you: They know every word to this song! {Along with SEVERAL other MaryKate and Ashley songs...}

Haha! Well my loves, I am quite tired. But before I depart, I want to share an excerpt with you that come from Sheri Rose Shepherd's "His Princess: Love Letters from Your King."

My Princess... 

WALK IN MY CONFIDENCE 

I know the world whispers in your ear that what you possess defines who you are, and what you like determines your worth. This is a lie, My love. The generations to come will never remember you for the things you accumulate or the efforts you placed in your appearance. In fact, the harder you strive to collect more things and to perfect your image, the more insecure you will be about who you and why you are here. I am in you and you are in Me. I will give you all that you need. Now go and walk through your world in the confidence that I've uniquely equipped you with all you [need] to impact the lives of those around you forever! 

Love, Your King and your Confidence (Proverbs 3:26) 

Sweet dreams, dear friends :)