The Couchiad

WE GOT OUR COUCH! and of course, there's a story to go along with it.

Erica, my 25 lbs dancing roommate :) decide that we could move the couch on our own in our suitemate's car. We drove to our "shady storage shack," as it has affectionately been christened. There we found that although it was open, our loading dock was closed. We decided we had waited long enough for a viable seating arrangement in our room so we pulled into a loading dock down the way a little. We manuevered with our love seat through the mounds of forgotten junk people pay an extraordinary amount to store every month. When we finally reached our destination no matter how we pushed, shoved, twisted, squeezed, pressed, cried, pleaded, begged... the couch wasn't fitting in the car. Eight attempts later we finally resigned our fate and headed back to campus. After calling a friend with a slightly larger car, we started our journey again back to Central Mini Storage. with Thomas' help we achieved victory over the couch and drove back to campus only then to lug the love seat up three flights of steps and making ourselves and the couch think extrememly skinny as we pushed it through the door to Suite 121.

It was the time to celebrate, which I did by "studying" for the next few hours with the love seat. ZzzzZzzzZzzz....

(You know that you have already been in humanities too long when you begin writing Mock Epics about trivial things that no one cares to read. Call me the next Alexander Pope.)

Where the Buffaloes Roam

Summer has now officially come to a close and I am back in the state of TN. Move in went relatively smooth, other than not being able to get in our storage unit. Who needs bed sheets and refrigerators anyway? Our room looks pretty empty as of now, without our couch and tv and such but hopefully we should be able to get in today. FINALLY!

It's good to be back on campus although I am quickly reminded of the frustrations of school. I went and spent a small fortune on books this morning. Also Milligan has decided to block webcam usage on the entire campus. Byebye Skype.

Classes start Wednesday. Work starts Thursday. Tennis starts when Coach comes back.

Looking forward to good times, hard work, and a whole lot of humanities.

A Good Reminder

This week was FCC's Summer Impact Program. I was asked to be the "figurehead" of VBS. Being a water theme, I have become Lily the Lifeguard. From my pigtailed head to Sammy the Seal around my waist I have become a new character in the eyes of the kids. It's been a really good time. I also told the kids a secret about Lily, she can't swim. So all week I've gotten tips from the kids on how to swim in hopes to learn by Friday when they have a pool party. I've gotten some pretty good lines this week from our little VBSers!

"You're not really Lily. You're Kenzie. You're playing a character just like you played Belle. But don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"I know you can swim. You taught me how to swim!"

"The pool would never hire you if you couldn't swim. The church only hired you because there isn't a pool here. Didn't you think about that when you agreed to take the job?"

"You don't have to worry at the pool party. I don't think any of us could throw you in the pool!"

It's been lots of fun. And it's a good reminder of how much I love kids and how excited I am to be able to work with them everyday!

Ebenezer and Inigo

MAN IN BLACK: If you're in such a hurry, you could lower a
                    rope, or a tree branch, or find something
                      useful to do.

INIGO:     I could do that. In fact, I've got some rope
              up here. But I do not think that you will
              accept my help, since I am only waiting
              around to kill you.

MAN IN BLACK: That does put a damper on our relationship.

INIGO:       But I promise I will not kill you until you reach the top.

MAN IN BLACK: That's very comforting. But I'm afraid you'll just have to wait.

INIGO:        I hate wait.

No one has said it better.  I hate wait.  

I know where I want to go and what I want to be doing, but it seems like everything is so far off. Now I know as well as the next person that it's all part of the process and things will only be better because of the time spent in anticipation. But I'm so excited to get things going. To be moving forward, making things happen. But instead I sit here, on my couch, twiddling my thumbs, waiting...

I've have always been an indecisive being. And because of that, to make my life easier, God answered all the difficult questions for me years before I needed to know answers, as if to prepare me for what was ahead. I knew I wanted to be a teacher in preschool. I knew I wanted to go to Milligan my 4th grade year. He pointed me toward inner-city teaching my Sophomore year in high school. God has brought a masters program to my attention already. And I praise Him for that, for He only knows that I wouldn't have been able to make those decisions on my own. Knowing years in advance has given me time s to think about it, prepare for it, get excited for it, dream about it. And as that time grows closer, it gets harder to wait. As Inigo said, I hate wait.

"Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, ' Thus far has the Lord helped us'"

God heard my prayers. 1 Samuel 7:12 was brought to my attention at Bible Study this week. I love the idea of an Ebenezer stone. It is a reminder that although we haven't seen into our future, and we don't know what is ahead, we can look in our past and say "Thus far the Lord has helped me." And He has! Thus far, I can see God's fingerprints in every area of my life. Thus far, God has never let me down. Thus far, God has been with me through the craziest times and the times of waiting.

"After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun,and his clothes became as white as the light."

Another great message of relief I heard this week was that of the movable mountain. We've all heard "with faith the size of a mustard seed you can move a mountain." But there are somethings that just won't get out of the way. No matter how many times you scream for it to move, it won't budge an inch. If you ask a mountain to move, and it doesn't, could it possibly mean that God wants you to climb that mountain in order to see Him transfigured?

So I stand at the foot of the looming Mountain of Waiting with my Ebenezer stone in hand. Having lost my voice from months of screaming "MOVE!" And yet there it sits, casting a shadow of years of boredom and anxiety. I look down at the stone in my hands and see the fingerprints God has left upon it, making it obvious how evident He has been in my life. And so I start my climb. One foot in front of the other, every once in a while taking a break to look at the Ebenezer stone. And I wait in anticipation for the moment when I reach the top of that mountain and see my God transfigured. At that moment I will bow down and say "thus far, you, Lord, have helped me."