Earthquake!?!

Howdy everyone from Dallas!

I don't know if it made national news or not, but apparently there was an earthquake here in Dallas Thursday night. Actually, two of them which were a three on the Richter Scale. So scary!!! We felt nothing, so no worries.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27472024/
And I thought the tornadoes last semester were bad. But we're all still here and no one is hurt, so on to the more boring stuff.

I felt so bad about my last post being so short. I was really feeling sick, but wanted to try & post something. So, I apologize for being so brief. But I promise to give you more detail this time. And for those of you who were wondering, I am feeling much better now. I did have a sinus infection, but it was not nearly as severe as usual. After a few days of rest I was back to my normal self.

Last Sunday night we had game night at my friend's house! It was so much fun. I made my mom's amazing peanut butter brownies and Julie & I taught them nertz!!! haha. They are hooked. And they taught us speed, which is pretty fun too. (Though nothing like the intensity of nertz) Oh, and we played taboo too! It was a blast!!! It really cheered me up since I was kinda bummed about missing the game night at home. :-(

For lecture this week, our guest speaker was Sy Rogers. He was an incredible speaker. What an amazing man of God! If you get a chance to google him and read his story please do. Such an awesome testimony. The lecture hour flew by this week. And he even did an extra two hour question and answer session. He was such a blessing to the entire student body.

My worship team was also up this week. Yay Yellow!!! And even though we only were scheduled to sing for chapel on Thursday and Friday, we ended up having all day prayer on Friday for the upcoming election. So, the normal 35 minute chapel became a three hour worship & prayer session, which we were on stage for the whole time. It was exhausting & my feet we so tired after. Haha. But it was an awesome time in God's presence!

And then last night, they had all night prayer on the campus. Julie was asked to play drums for the first two hour set, so of course my roommates & I went along from 10-12. Then we came home and played nertz til about two in the morning. :-) It was a blast, but I was definitely exhausted this morning. Always worth it, especially for nertz!

Oh, and one more exciting piece of information I forgot to share. I found out a few weeks ago that I am eligible to receive a music minor. I will have to do a special three piece voice recital with two classical pieces, which will be at the end of the semester (probably in the middle of finals - lucky me!) But I have met all of the other requirements, so once I do that I will be awarded the minor.

Only 55 days til Christmas! Ahh! We have a countdown on our door! :-) L0ve & miss you all!

It's Actually Cold in Texas!

That's right, folks. Believe it or not, it is 55 degrees here right now. Insane! And of course, it comes on a day when I'm not feeling very well. I got my first sinus infection of the semester on Sunday, and I've been sick in bed for the last two days. Ugh. But my fever finally broke last night and I was able to make it to some of my classes today. I'm just glad it didn't last as long as it usually does. Thank God!

But enough with the sickness. School's been going really well and we're now officially past the half-way point. Only seven and a half weeks of school left! Wow. That is so crazy. And let's not forget about our road trip!!! My roomates and I took a trip to San Antonio and it was awesome! I had never been, and I was so excited to just go sight-seeing. Take a look at my pics cause Julie took some amazing photos. We visited a Japanese Tea Garden, The Riverwalk which is Downtown, and shopped til we dropped, of course! haha. Our hostess Mona (my roommate Tanya's cousin) was so great about trying to show us every possible thing she could while we were there. We came back extremely exhausted! San Antonio is a beautiful city and I'd love to go back to see more of it sometime.

I love and miss you all so much! I can't wait for Christmas to come so we can catch up! And you all better get ready for game night!!!! :-)

Thank you!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but the internet in our apartment has been down for almost two weeks now. Ugh! It's so frustrating. But we're trying to make the best of it.

Anyway, I wanted to thank all of you for the birthday wishes! My friends made it a really nice day, though there was little time to enjoy it. Tuesdays are my busiest days, and my worship team just happened to be up twice that day. Haha. But the girls decorated the apartment and Julie baked a triple chocolate cake!!! It was SO GOOD! So, all in all, not a bad birthday at all.

And this coming week is midterms. Ahh! So strange to think we're half way through the semester already. Yet, here we are. And my roommates & I are going to take a trip to San Antonio next weekend. We have Friday off from school, and Tanya's cousin goes to school there. We're staying with her & it should be a blast. She has a ton of stuff planned from what I hear.

So, thank you again for all of the birthday cards, emails, texts messages, phone calls, etc. They meant a lot! :-) Love & miss you all!

Another Week

Another week is done, and I can't believe how fast the time has gone. We're already five weeks in, almost to midterms already! Ahh! Though this week did seem rather long. Everyday felt like it should have been later in the week, and friday couldn't have come any quicker. Between rehearsals, lessons (prep & practice for the two) as well as homework, I've been so busy just trying to keep up. The weekends are always a welcomed respite, though way too short in my opinion. I'm sure you all know what I mean. :-)
It's saturday morning & it's actually quiet in my apartment because everyone else is sleeping. It's weird, but it can be a nice break too. I love all of my roommates, but with four girls in here all of the time it can get crazy!!! As I'm sure you can see from the pictures. Worship team is also going really well. We're still getting comfortable with the new worship leader and trying to build our teams. It takes time to get to know each other, not only personally, but also musically. Once that happens, things tend to flow a lot easier in a service. This pic is from my first day of worship team least week. My roomie didn't tell me she was taking any pics. haha. Thanks, t!
So, that's about it for now. Oh, I heard that shining lights started last week. :-( it still makes me sad to think about it. I really miss those kids so much. please send them my love! and tell them i miss them. :-) oh, and i know you've all been praying for tanya's family in houston. they finally heard from them this week. they are ok, but without power, and probably will not get it back for almost a month. so please continue to keep that whole area in prayer. it's still really bad.

We made it!

So after quite a scare thanks to Ike, I am happy to report that we are safe and sound. Dallas just got a bit of rain and some heavy winds from the outskirts of Ike, nothing too bad. Unfortunately, houston and galveston were not so lucky. They still need are prayers, as they haven't even begun to clean up and assess all of the damage. My roommate Tanya's aunt and grandma were near houston, and no one has heard from them since Friday night, so please keep them in your prayers as well. Most places don't have power, so we're just waiting to hopefully hear from them in the next day or two.

Also, I wanted to tell you that I put up links to both my brother's blog and Julie's as well. My brother is currently on mt. washington doing an internship. he's got some awesome stories & pictures, so feel free to take a look. And julie's has lots of pics and videos of her worship team....which is amazing if I may say so. Go Orange! :-) yes, i am a little biased, but oh well.

have an awesome week! love you all!

Ike...and a few other things

Hi again!

In case you didn't notice, I was able to put up a slide show in the top right corner of some pics from this semester so far. I'll be updating those quite often, so please check back. I'm sure they'll provide a good laugh if nothing else.

Things have been going very well the last few weeks. My worship team was actually up for morning chapel yesterday and today. We ended up getting pretty much preempted yesterday because of 9/11, but it was an awesome time of prayer and worship.

And in other news, our apartment was fumigated this week. Julie started waking up with bug bites all over her, so we called maintenance and they are going to be fumigating two more times over the next few weeks. Though yesterday's seemed to work, since she had no new bites this morning. :-) thank God!

Finally, we come to the big news of the week...Ike! I cannot even count the number of texts, emails, comments, etc. I've received from everyone back home. And since I don't have a tv, it really started freaking me out. But we've been keeping up with the latest online and so far everything seems to be ok. Late tonight into tomorrow it will probably hit us. We're in a tropical storm wind advisory (up to 40 mph) and, of course, heavy rains. But we won't be evacuating or anything like that. Actually, we've got quite a few evacuees headed this way from the coast. So, I will keep you updated on how things are throughout the weekend. And of course, all of your prayers are greatly appreciated!

Love & miss you all! Stay safe & dry...like I'll be trying to do! :-)

My First Blog...Ever!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog. Yes, I finally did it. After much aversion to blogs, I finally realized that they really do make sense. So, instead of the mass email I was sending every few weeks, I will be periodically updating the blog. This way, you can catch up on what' s been going on with me whenever it's most convenient for you. :-)

So, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind. After a great summer at home, and an awesome vacation (yeah Sandbridge!), I was headed back to Dallas for my fourth semester at CFNI. The trip from Virginia to Dallas was uneventful, thank the Lord. The day after I returned were worship team auditions, so I had to get back into the swing of things very quickly. I got a callback for Wednesday afternoon, and then they set up interviews with everyone on Thursday. There's a new worship leader here, so he wanted to sit and talk with everyone before he put you on any team. After a very long week, I found out Friday that I made Praise Band, which is the main worship team here at CFNI. We lead worship for the morning chapels and some Tuesday night services, the monthly nights of worship, and other special events around the area. Luckily, they have enough people to make up two full bands, so every other week I will have a break. Practice schedules are three hours twice a week, and I'm required to take voice lessons as well. So my schedule is pretty full.

But there's also time to for hanging out with my awesome roommates! One of whom just so happens to have made a student worship team for drumming. Many of you know, but some of you may not, that Julie Garbowsky began attending CFNI this fall. She is from my home church, and practically my little sister. And it just so happens that she is one of my roommates. :-) And my other two roomies are Tanya & Kim, both of whom I've lived with before. The four of us are having so much fun together. It gets a little crazy at times, but that's to be expected. Especially when we start playing nertz!!! That's right, Julie & I taught the girls nertz and we play almost daily. Haha. With no tv, what do you expect?!

Also, I am very proud to announce that my brother has officially started his position up on Mt. Washington. He's having an incredible time up there doing what he loves...stuff with weather! lol. I don't really know all of what he's doing, but I know he is loving it. I am so proud and impressed with him for taking this position. It is a challenging one. If you get a chance, check out www.mountwashington.org. He writes the blog on the front page every few days.

Well, I guess that's it for now. Thank you all so much for your prayers and continued support. They mean so much to me. I got the chance to talk to so many of you this summer who were so encouraging. Thank you! Keep checking back. I'll be updating soon. Love & miss you all!