There’s so much about me that’s changing and there’s so much about me that will always stay the same. Such as my love for Jesus.  And Peanut Butter. 
I am amazed by so many things in life (and am, therefore, also very easily entertained).  I am in the process of learning to love people. All people. God’s people.  I’m learning more and more about caring for those that I would easily ignore if my conscience would let me. God is changing my heart and He’s teaching me to love the unlovable, those that I don’t deem worthy of my friendship.  I’ve found that Jesus wasn’t just friends with popular people, or with people that he “clicked” with.  He loved everyone.  I’m working on that.

Since moving to Ohio I’ve realized that this will be (once I graduate in 4 years) one of the places I’ve lived the longest.  And this behooves me.  It’s fatally cold up here in the winters (especially to a little southern/desert kid), but I’m adapting, as I have for many other moves.  I can’t say that I plan on staying up here after I finish college, but I have to say being here at Cedarville University is one of the most amazing experiences I will ever have.  I’m so blessed that God has brought me to a school where people encourage and love each other on a daily basis. Friends aren’t always tearing each other down with sarcasm and bad humor. We have tons of fun. Don’t get me wrong, we do tease and joke, but it’s amazing how accepting everybody is of different people from different walks of life. I’m amazed that when people say “I’ll pray for you” they really do.  I’m challenged to lift people up in prayer whenever I remember them and their struggles.

 I also love that I am learning so, so much about the Bible and how truly, truly interesting it is.  My Bible minor is one of my greatest joys right now.  I never knew there was so much more to learn.  Of course I knew how much more I could grow, but I didn’t know how much of the Bible I was ignorant about, I didn’t know how dully I was reading it, I didn’t know that it’s okay to doubt God and ask questions, I didn’t know a lot of things.  And I still don’t.  But I’m learning, and I love it.  I love learning.  I love my classes.  (Save, perhaps, physical science for teachers haha)  They have all been uniquely uplifting and exciting.  My advanced grammar course, for example, is one that I never cease to look forward to.  For some very strange reason, diagramming is incomprehensibly enjoyable, and learning about my language is a very intriguing thing.  I can’t say that my speech will change due to grammar classes, I’ll still say things like “I didn’t do good on my test” …instead of “I didn’t do well.”  But I’ll definitely be more aware of the things I say, and of the way I write.  I just love knowing so much about the English language, and there’s so very much more to discover. This excites me.

Children’s Literature brings such joy to my heart. I look forward to bringing home kids books from the CMC and reading them aloud to either myself, or an interested friend or unit-mate. Going through these books makes me ardently desire to write one. I’ve mentioned this to some people very close to me, and they have encouraged me to try.  Not only does this class make me want to write books, but it also makes me miss, so very much, little kids.  I almost cry I miss them so much.  Especially the little boy I used to baby-sit, Tristan.  The way he listened when I read James and the Giant Peach, or The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was incredible. He would lean in intently and laugh hysterically when something funny happened. He’d tense up when things in the story got severe. He’d giggle loudly when I spoke in accents and would reenact scenes that I’d read with expression. Reading to kids, especially ones that just enjoy listening so much, is one of the most beautiful things in this world. To watch a child soak in everything you say, to watch a kid’s eyes gleam as you describe a place or a scene. To watch them and be able to recognize that their imaginations have just been sparked simply by words on a page is incredible. To think that books can do that to a person is incredible. I think words are the most beautiful thing ever created by man.

So there are many, other things about life that I could write about, and I’m just getting started. Really.  But I was sitting down to write something very briefly, and it got long.  As it most often does. Sometimes I wish that my task in life was to simply sit, and write and write and write. Everything and anything that I remember, a memory, an inspiring thought, a quote, something I had been pondering for a time, things I’ve been learning, life, etc.  Maybe someday, I’ll do that very thing.  Just sit and write. That way I can never forget something that has affected me so profoundly.  

Okay so it's fall break, and I slept in this morning and still can't believe it's Thursday not Saturday! Tis Glorious!

SO I'm in West Virginia at my roomies house, and being here makes me SO happy. Her house is so cozy, it's got a basement, the love of my life (I wish Texas had basements). We got home after 7:00 last night, and Diana's family was at church. But there was warm vegetable soup and broccoli bread and croutons all set out for us to eat. It was SOO FREAKIN GOOD! I miss home cooking so much. One bite (I re-read this and was like, bite? who bites soup?) I mean sip...of that soup was ten times better then all the meals I've eaten at Chuck's. So yum. So Diana, Brittany and I were pretty tired after our drive here, so we just went down to the basement to watch Oceans 11. Then her family got back and we ate dessert with them. Homemade pumpkin pie and homemade whipped cream...Ahhhh Oh my goodness. You know you're a college student when you freak out about home cooking.  It's like, the nicest present you could ever give me. Cook me something delicious.

So then we went down and watched some more movies. And went to bed around 1:30. Woke up around 10:00...finally got up around 10:30...and showered in a REAL shower. The ones in Printy are soooo tiny. You can barely shave in them. It's horrendous. We've had good times shaving in the sinks though.  So this morning it was so nice to be able to get a nice real shower, and then water didn't even go cold on me half way into it. yippee! Ate breakfast...for the first time in forever cuz I never eat breakfast at college. And then Diana and I had to go jump on the bed to wake Brittany up. 

So now we're waiting for her, and then we're gonna go shopping!!! YAY! Diana and I just concluded that we haven't been to a store besides Walmart in forever. SO, we're gonna go to this juice place that Diana's telling me about, and then to the store she used to work at, and then other places. WOOT WOOT!

So I'm outtie....

          While I should be studying for a huge Christian Life & Thought exam tomorrow, and finishing a paper for Politics that is also due tomorrow, I find myself quite distracted. So a xanga post it is then.

Last night, well, more like morning (it was 2:00 am) I was finally headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed, when Alyssa and Amber were like, "Liz, it's raining! We're gonna go jump in the puddles, you wanna come?"  Yeah well. You know the rest of the story.  So it's freezing out there, and me Alyssa, Amber and Caitlin are running around in the Printy parking lot trying out hardest not to make too much noise, lest we get  a demerit.

We called this...Operation Puddle Jump

GLORIOUS RAIN!!!

That is one hardcore puddle right there...but we tackled it, one foot at a time.

I decided to dry off...

Watch me spin! ....  AHhhhhh!

Operation Puddle Jump a Success! Cheers Mate.

  Yum-O nothing like a good swig o' Tide after a hard days work

Heavens! Look at the time! We best be off!

We traveled through the thick dangerous jungles of the Printy lounge!!

And eventually made it safely home to our beds.

Well...it was a good stress reliever. Despite the fact that I was so tired today, and am now not able to concentrate on the tasks in front of me...such as getting my laundry done, finishing this politics paper, and starting to actually study for this exam. BAD LIZ...bad.

I'm already in break mode. FALL BREAK is tomorrow, and I'm so ready. I'm headed to West Virginia with my roomie tomorrow, t'will be awesome. WOOT for breaks! 

Now off to being a responsible college student...

Okay so it's been a while. It's so hard to update when I haven't been updating consistently. Not that when I do, I update on anything of severe consequence. 

But where to start?

 School’s still going the same. I still like it. A lot.

GUESS WHAT?!!! It snowed yesterday!  I was freaking out, literally, I was out in the parking lot with some fellow southerners, and we were just screaming....we haven't seen snow in a long time. We ran around to all the dorms telling everyone to come outside cuz it was snowing, those northerners just looked at us funny and shut their doors. So it didn't cover the ground or anything, just some flurries, but it was AMAZING!  AH...in october at that...people said it wasn't allowd to snow. I kind of agree, because i'm rather cold, and I hear it's only going to get worse. Must worse.  I may have to transfer to ta college in the Bahamas or something...

This week was MIS week…with all the mission trip groups from last summer came and spoke in chapel. AH! It made me want to leave right now and gooo! I want to go help people…Pick me! Oh! Oh! *jumps up and down*  Lord, send me. Truly. I signed up for more information about trips to Germany, Hungary, and one in Kosovo. I’d rather go somewhere in the middle east, or china, or Australia, but all those trips were focusing on teams that did drama or singing, and I really want to do a trip that helps with kids and stuff. SO, maybe not this summer, but sometime in my future here at CU. And definitely if not a mission trips, I want to do my student teach overseas. That would rock.

So. Tomorrow is Junior Jam…where tons of kids from the inner cities come and we do a day camp type thing with them. It’s going to be amazing, mainly because…I miss seeing little kiiiiids.

I guess I sent pics to my family of my dorm room…but I haven’t posted any, so just for fun…and since I did end up stealing Zach’s camera (which I’ve had for a month now) I will show yall my dorm! I was so proud because we have one of the smallest dorms rooms in our unit, but we proved to everyone that we could unbunk our beds and still live comfortably with plenty of floor space. I love it. You should have seen me when our beds were bunked, it was like climbing mt. kilamanjaro every night. Hard work. People laughed at me ...I looked like a freakin gerbal trying burrow into some wood shavings...I'd be holding on to the far end of the bed and then flail my legs about wildly and scramble up with my arms by pulling on my comforter. Twas a site. Rather vexing.

Powder Puff football is done L we didn’t win any games, but we were a very small freshman team up against some pretty hardcore senior girls…I have some battle wounds from some of my awesome diving tackles, more like *cough* failed flag grabbings. Tackle would have been fun. Now that flag football is done I’m doing intramural volleyball. Unfortunately there was no mediocre “let’s just play for fun” leagues due to lack of interest, so our little team got booted up to the competitive league…and let’s just say that’s rather frightening.  We didn’t do as bad as I thought though. I think if we practice it’ll be great.

So tonight I’m going to see Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” and I’m very excited. I LOVE plays. Yes. Yes I do.

Tonight there was AMAZING strawberries on pound cake with really good whipped cream…oh my goodness! I wrote Chuck a note…and told him how uberishly amaaaazing it was. And, he brought back the good chicken patties for dinner, lately we’ve been having these really gross McNugget on steroids looking patties. They were scary. So I thanked him for bringing back the good ones. 

What else? It’s hard to say. So much happens everyday, and I don’t update enough to fill everyone in on what has gone on all of September and such. Oh well….my life as a college student is cwaaazy…my priorities must stray from xanga, unfortunately.

Anyway, take care all my homies.