Sweet Home Mississippi

I had a lovely and fast weekend visiting family this weekend. Michael was very blessed to get the day off from work, so we could leave as soon as I got out of class Friday morning. We went to Michael's brother's house Friday night to meet our new nephew, Andrew, and visit with Todd, Nicole, and Matthew. Andrew is absolutely precious of course! I got to hold him a lot, and I had forgotten how wonderful it is to hold a sleeping newborn! It was also great to see Matthew and how much he has grown and learned since we last saw him. He sang all of his ABC's perfectly for me! Lucky guy, Pops gave him $5 for his performance, which he immediately showed to his dad and said, "Wal-Mart". Smart Kid! He has also discovered wonderful toy magazines. We spend most of the night looking over and over again at the Toys R Us catalog finding things that Santa need to bring Matthew.

Then we drove on to my parent's house to spend the night. Saturday morning sweet Lindsay who cuts my hair met me at Profiles to give me a new cut while I was home! It feels so much better now! Then I made a quick visit with Carrie Westmoreland before heading over with the family to MSU for the Homecoming festivities. We arrived at 11:00 AM for a 6:00 PM game. Michael wanted to be there earlier! We had a good time hanging out with friends and family, PLUS MSU won!!! YAY!!

It was way too short but very sweet. We will be home again for Thanksgiving!

It Pays to Go to Chapel

We had a special guest today in Chapel. Bo Pilgrim, CEO of Pilgrim's Pride and self-proclaimed chicken plucker, spoke to us about the current economy and running a business based on Christian principles. First, he graciously gave everyone in chapel a copy of his book, One Pilgrim's Progress. Then as he is speaking, people come down the aisles and begin passing out tracks. He also wrote a track entitled "The Gospel for the Modern Man" which he gave everyone a copy of as well. Here is the kicker, during his speech, he mentions that many great speakers require you to pay them when they come to speak. He said that he was willing to pay anyone who would listen to him talk about Jesus, so he gave us all $20. There, tucked into the back of the track, was a real twenty dollar bill! Praise Jesus! It pays to go to chapel!

Then Dr. Patterson begins speaking and uses an object lesson. He calls up Dr. White, another professor, to come on the state. Dr. Patterson has prepared a lovely tray of mushrooms for Dr. White to sample. He only has to eat one, but he must be aware that some of the mushrooms on the tray are poisonous. After much joking and testing, Dr. White goes to eat the mushroom he picked, and Dr. Patterson grabs his hand and says its insane to do something that might kill you. He then draws the parallel to the importance as preachers and teachers of the word to study Scripture carefully, teach it truthfully, and lead our lives in a holy manner. In the past, God has struck people dead who did not do this. If you don't believe, me check out Leviticus 11 and ask Nadab and Abihu, they were priests messing with "strange" fire.

Interesting day.

Never a Dull Moment

This weekend my wonderful parents sponsored me (bought my ticket) so I could attend the America Association of Christian Counselors West National Conference in Dallas. I was really excited about going, but nervous about traveling alone. I found an upper classman, Rachel, who was getting a group to travel together. I signed myself up. A friend of hers suggested we use the train, so we wouldn't have to worry about traffic etc. BAD IDEA!! We didn't realize that at the time, so he mapped us out a plan and we embarked at SIX A.M. on our journey. Well, we missed the 6:20 a.m. train because we couldn't find the train station and our friend Samuel was late. So we barely caught the 7 A.M. train. This train took 1 hour to get us to Dallas. In Dallas, we caught another, smaller train up to LBJ Central, which was "in theory" supposed to be in walking distance of the conference center. HA. HA. It was in the middle of nowhere. A nice police officer called the transit people and they told us to go back one stop and catch a bus! So we do. The nice bus driver says there is no way to get us to the Hilton Lincoln Center. The best she can do is drop us off on the backside of the Galleria. The Hilton wasn't that far from there, but there was a HUGE INTERSTATE between us and the Hilton. Luckily, my friend Rachel had a friend who knew Dallas well and had just arrived at the conference, so she called her to come pick us up. We FINALLY arrived at the conference....are you ready for this?....at 9: 30 A.M. Now...think back....what time did we meet to leave? 6 A.M.!!! We traveled for over 3 hours! I could have been half way to Mississippi and I was only in DALLAS!!! It was worth all the trouble though. The conference was good!

My new Korean friend Son Hi.

One of the many trains we rode.

Me and Rachel (we were twinks in our jean jackets and Brown slacks)

Our whole group for the train adventure!

We saw the sunrise and the sunset from the train on Friday! Needless to say, I drove on Saturday! I will try to post later about some things I learned at the conference!

FINISHED!! Plus more MUST READS!!

I AM FINISHED!!! With an incredibly long (28 pages to be exact) Outline. I have now officially thought through my personal strengths and weaknesses as a counselor/person, my theory of personality, and my theory of counseling. The basis of which was a biblical worldview, which I also had to discuss. AHH!!! Glad to be done with that...at least for now until she hands it back and I have to start revising and writing the paper.



Enough of that!






MUST READS!!



Okay, so all the hype was that this new series Twilight by Stephenie Meyer was the "next Harry Potter". Well, if you are a Harry fan, don't get your hopes up. I just won't even compare the two because they just really don't have much in common except they are both fantasy.



That being said, you MUST read Twilight, especially if you are a girl. Fabulous love story. Now, I will tell you that I wasn't that enthralled at first. During the first three books, I was thinking, well this is a nice story, but really its not just phenominally amazing (like Harry Potter). Then I read the last book. It made me fall passionately in love with the rest and want to go back and re-read them now with my new perspective. Now, this is interesting because I have friends who were passionately enthralled with the series from the beginning and were seriously disappointed in the final book. So, be warned. I loved it though. I thought it was totally unexpected and creative!



Now I know you are thinking, she is going on and on about these books and hasn't even told us what they are about. Well, if you don't know, all I am telling you is that it is a love story between a girl named Bella and a man named Edward. They are from completely different worlds which I will tell you nothing about. Go read for yourself and tell me what you think.



Now if you know why they are from completely different worlds, you should still go read for yourself and tell me what you think.



If you aren't a reader, check out the trailer to the movie.

I would like to hear anyone's thoughts on these books. Please leave a comment.

Just Following Directions

I was informed last night by my mother that I needed to get my priorities in order and update this blog. School and work are not more important than blog updates. This came to her through my dear Brother Sammy! So here you are!

I am in the middle of mid-terms. I really only had one test. I have an outline due for a really big paper on Tuesday which I haven't done very much work on, so this weekend will be devoted to that.

Last weekend we went to the Texas State Fair. It is just all the rave out here. It is supposedly the biggest and most attended state fair in the country. Well...it was fun, but I don't have to go back again next year! Everything is SO expensive, and you have to buy tickets for EVERYTHING! Even the Food! I ate a fried s'more which was very good. I left my camera in the car, so I have no pictures. SORRY!

Today in chapel we took up a boot offering. Literally, Dr. Patterson asked for the men wearing boots to take them off and pass them around to take an offering for the Hurricane Ike victims. A group went down from SWBTS last weekend to help clean up, and they will be taking 4 more trips down there before Christmas. Needless to say, the offering had a "sweet smelling aroma"! HAHA...only in Texas!

I am coming home the weekend of October 25th which is Homecoing for MSU. Michael and I will be at the game and tailgating before the game. We haven't made the decision on whether we will be in church Sunday morning or not. We might leave in the morning, so we won't get home so late. The week starts up again on Monday, so late Sunday nights aren't good. (In case you didn't know that already) I have commited 15 minutes to Brother Sammy...(Yes she conveyed that message too!), so if you try to see me during that 15 minutes I will have to ignore you. Sorry...he is the boss!

That is all I can come up with right now. I need to go type up a paper. I love you all and miss you all!

Welcome to Our World!

Congratulations to Todd and Nicole Ketchum
upon the birth of their son Andrew!!
He is welcomed by big brother Matthew!
October 8, 2008
10:56 A.M.
6 pounds 12 ounces
19 3/4 inches long
Everyone is doing great!