Six Flags, God's Plans, and Imogen Heap

Where to begin? Today is a significant day for Megan and I. Today, we are adults. Yes, its shocking and surprising but we are chaperoning a youth retreat (for the youth group she attended and coincidentally I now work for). One perk of the job- sharing a room with my best friend.

Its really spending time with this youth group. God's hand is so evident in me being here. As I prayed about where to go to college, I spent a lot of time praying about whether I should go to Wheaton College or UT. In fact, the subject consumed much of my prayer life during my senior year. The February of my senior year, I heard Brad speak about prayer at a local retreat. I remember him talking about praying for God to "open what ever door should be opened and close whatever door should be closed." That became my prayer. From that point on, I assumed if I was supposed to go to Wheaton, I'd get in. If not, I wouldn't receive the acceptance letter. I told myself that a really great job would be the only reason to stay in town. After several more months of prayer, I received my Wheaton letter. It contained all of God's sense of humor and none of the answers I hoped for. I was not rejected. I was not accepted. I was wait-listed. I remember when I opened the letter, reading it for the first time, realizing I had never considered this option. I decided to leave my name on the wait-list, meanwhile confirming my enrollment at UT. Yet I met this decision without an job prospects...that is until several months later. I received an email about a position as a youth worship leader and quickly applied. I began to see God's plans and options at work. After more waiting, I was offered the position. I accepted the job and removed my name from the Wheaton wait-list.

I truly believe that God provided me with options. If I had written a letter, most likely I could have gone to Wheaton . It is a fantastic school and I know God would have taught me a lot there. Wheaton certainly offered a lot of experiences. Yet, in all of its unique flair, UT offers me many opportunities as well. All of which I am grateful for. God's plans are so much bigger and brighter than I expect. I see so much of God's provision in being where I'm at now. Everything fell into place and still is today- down to the little details of my new best friend being in the bed next to me on my first youth retreat as an adult.

Love and Peace,
D

Megan now, and I'm sitting in a room with Dani--two double beds, a bathroom to share with only my best friend, 2 bags of M&Ms and 2 bags of Sour Patch Kids, Imogen Heap playing in the background, and lots of giggles. This is the life. This is what I've been waiting for. This is what chaperoning should be... although it's more difficult to be "scary" when the boys next door are being too loud--especially since just 3 months ago I was still a youth--than I thought it would be.

Seriously, though, this trip is such a blessing. I love these kids. And I love being with my best friend. For one thing, worship tonight, which I helped lead, was awesome. And the kids are amazing. I can't stress that enough.

Today, we met Batman. We hung out with three AMAZING young ladies. We rode the carousel and the swings... and we ate a funnel cake, after which we had a slight... sugar fight of sorts? Notice the odd white powder on the ground in the last photo, and realize that all of that was Dani's fault, and I was not to blame in any way.

...or not, haha. We're a little too goofy to be chaperones.

I have a few pictures to put up, so I'm going to do that now. But I hope that all who read this realize what a blessing best friends are... and that sometimes, God pulls them from the most unexpected places.


-M

The Problem With Busy Schedules...

We never have time to blog. So since I drank a very highly caffeinated drink less than two hours ago (very, very bad idea), I am going to catch you up on the best friend life of Dani and Megan.

Around three weeks ago, Dani and I (if you didn't know, this is Megan) went to a football game. I hate to say that I can't remember who we played, but I can't. Unfortunately, football is not my forte. However, we lost... by a point, so it wasn't an awful disappointment. At least, I didn't feel it was. An interesting tidbit of information... for those who wonder why I am such a creeper, I get it from my mother, who sent me a text during the game which said this.

"Fantastic! We see you in the binoculars. Have fun, sweetie." Yes, she is a slight creeper... but only when it comes to me and Rikki!

The point is, we had fun. Girlt-night watching the game and hanging out--it was a blast. And here are some pictures.



Last weekend, Dani, Jacob, and I worked a catering gig for The Shrimp Dock. It was a wonderful evening, full of rich people, boats, messes, seafood, giggles, and money... yes, we made money, thank goodness... but the most exciting part of the whole evening occurred afterwards!

There was leftover food. A LOT of leftover food. And we got to bring some home. Shrimp. Crab. Potatoes. Garlic. Lemons. An ENORMOUS pan full. Delicious as all get out, and not what girls normally have for dinner in their dorm rooms. So Dani and I watched the Nanny and ate shrimp before we went to bed.

And the next day... Carter and Ashley received two tupperwares of shrimp and potatoes, and lucky little Spencer got a gallon bag full of frozen crab. Talk about absurd. And wonderful. :)

Our latest adventure occurred this evening. Dani, Whitney, and I decided to go on a Guitar Center expedition... I am looking to purchase a git-fiddle, so we were going to try some on for size... and Dani needed strings for this weekend. So, we headed out on our adventure.

Afterwards, Whitney informs us that she wants chicken. And so, we go to Sawyers, which was a delightful experience for my uninformed taste-buds... delicious! But as I was saying, we sit down and begin eating, when Whitney exclaims, "That's Rick Dunn, the pastor from Fellowship! Let's invite him to eat with us!" And so we do, which leads to a wonderful conversation. I have to say, when things like that happen, it's awfully delightful. God really has some cool surprises that he gives us each day, and I think dinner with Rick Dunn was one such surprise.

We leave--finally, haha--and are driving home, when Dani confesses her absolute love for--of all things--Cherokee Boulevard. Not only does she confess this, she decides we need to take a tour of it. At 9:30 PM. Of course, it's not a problem... but it is a bit odd. I suppose that's why we're friends.

The long and short of this excruciatingly funny tale is this. Dani and Whitney attempt to fly a kite... yes, you read that correctly... a KITE... through her SUNROOF. So she pulls over and pulls some kite from her trunk, and as she's driving down Cherokee, Whitney attempts to fly this kite through the sunroof, as I sat in the backseat hopelessly giggling at their ridiculous antics.


More to come soon, I'm sure! Especially since D and I are chaperoning a church retreat together this weekend. God bless, love you!

-M

The Horrid Smell in the Fifth Floor Corridor

Because Dani shared her extraordinarily unfortunate event with you, I feel I should do the same. Suffice it to say, college life isn't all sweet smells and pleasant experiences... particularly the smelly part.

Today, I left class around 3:30 and headed back to the dorm. Upon arriving, I went in and sat down and began playing around with my git-fiddle. It was around fifteen minutes before I smelled the less than delectable scent wafting through the air. At that time, I also began to hear the bloodcurdling screams of my oh-so-wonderful suitemates. It sounded as though something had gotten loose in their room and was wreaking havoc amongst their belongings. I was soon to find, however, that this was not the case.

Upon closer examination of the situation, I learned that a can of cream of potato soup had exploded in Shelby's drawer... many, many days ago... and was now rotten and disgusting and... well, stinky. How this massively unfortunate event occurred, I'm not really sure. However, the point is that it smelled.

Shel and Mal decided to wash everything in the drawer in the shower. So Shel--fully clothed--jumped into the shower with the dishes to "sanitize" them. In the meantime, Mal deposited all the disgusting remnants of the soup in the trash bag, which they then placed in the corridor for later removal (Keep in mind that we are supposed to take our trash to the "trash chute," not place it in the hallway...).

I went to the gym approximately five minutes later, and upon returning from a nice workout (hahaha--actually, it was nice), the trash was STILL sitting in the hallway. Not only that, but it stunk so terribly that upon exiting the elevator, my nostrils were assailed with a stench that almost--not quite, but almost--made me gag. Two girls who got off at the same time as me looked at each other and one said, "What is that SMELL?!" My response was an attack of silent giggles, because I knew what it was--the awful, awful truth--and so both ran in the opposite direction of my room to try to escape--holding their noses, no less. As I walked towards my suite with increasing dread, it grew worse and worse... to the point that I could barely breathe. Talk about disgusting.

So I kindly told the girls that the whole floor smelled, and they needed to take their trash out. At which point, they did, thank goodness.

Now, the hallway is a combination of the sickeningly sweet smell of Febreze air freshener, perfume, and trash, because my two girls decided that they needed to douse one bad smells with two supposedly "good" smells. Overkill, in my opinion.

And so, the moral of the story is this. If your soup explodes, take care of it quickly, or it's going to be a disgustingly smelly thing to take care of. And... well, don't try to cover smells with other smells.

Pictures coming soon.

Love ya'll! Hope God is blessing your day.

-M

Our Little Foe

As a resident of the 6th floor, I knew it was only a matter of time until we met an unfortunate fate of dorm life. You see, amidst thousands of college students with less than hygienic habits, bugs are an obvious misfortune. And today, when I opened the door to our suite bathroom, there it was, lurking with its 15 pairs of banded legs (according to google post bug incident). (Ok, maybe it wasn't that intense, but the bug was a decent size.) But yes, when I saw it, I let out a slight yell and ran into Liz's room. At which point, Liz checked out the bug and freaked out along side me. We went through a short list of people we could call about the matter- including maintenance (as a joke), and quickly realized that we should "man up" and handle the situation ourselves- after all, that's what college is all about right? So we got a cup and some paper and trapped the bug. (Complete props to Liz). After squirming for a few minutes while the bug was trapped, we made a team effort in carrying in to the window and launching it out what is actually 8 stories. So maybe just killing it with a shoe would've been slightly more practical but here we are. Needless to say, we lived to tell the story and I'm sure this won't be the last bug we encounter.
But I must finish with one thought about bugs in the bathroom. Why?!?! Its always such a vulnerable encounter...
I hope you enjoy our random college rants. Stay tuned!
-D

Your common house centipede

its a long way down, especially when you're small

Liz's sterilization of the trap.

The Beginning of the Voyage...

It is 12:41 am, and we have just completed our sixth week of college life at UT... and our Subway sandwiches, because we seem to eat there together a lot. Dani just told me that she feels creepy because this is like one of those engagement blogs... "The Knot" or whatever? But no, this is just a "best friend" blog. Or a "college life" blog. Whatever you prefer.

Hi, JB.

As many of you know, college students never do anything. We, however, are doing something productive and wholesome with our time. So if anyone decides to complain (*ahem, Carter Cross and Jacob Fowler)... swallow your comments and realize that it's late, and we're two college coeds who are trying maintain some semblance of integrity while the rest of campus is out partying. Because yes, UT just won a game.

So now, for a list of things we have learned... most often, the hard way:

--The UC does not serve food on Saturdays. Period. So if you're hungry, you shouldn't walk all the way over there. There is NO FOOD.
--If there's noone on campus, and all the lights are dark in the UC, that DEFINITELY means they're not serving food.
--Boys shouldn't carry umbrellas, unless it's for their lovely lady friend.
--White v-necks get you through the week. They are a STAPLE ITEM.
--Dino-bytes are delicious.
--Don't drive on Magnolia unless you know EXACTLY where you want to go. It's scary as all get out.
--Golden Roast is wonderful.
--...but Dirty Dancing is WAY sketch.
--Sometimes, you become best friends really fast if you're saps and you like to cry in the cafeteria.
--Always take a friend when it's late and you're walking from your car, because there are a lotta creepers out there.
--Frat boys wear suits. A lot. And DO NOT help carrying heavy loads, even though you'd think they understood what chivalry was... apparently, many college boys don't understand the concept.
--Cafeteria cookies are really easy to wrap in napkins and give to people as gifts for getting planners out from behind washing machines.
--Mold grows in the practice rooms.
--Don't put your books on top of the washing machines.
--If you fall easily, you shouldn't grab a friend as they're reaching into the ice cream cooler. It might scare them and make bystanders laugh a lot.
--The fortune cookies in PCB are not so fortunate.

And our final piece of knowledge...

Sometimes, you become best friends with someone you never really expected to. And it really is a blessing.

We hope you enjoyed our first post! And we promise, it WILL get better. Goodnight, and God bless!