Cameron has a really intriguing excerpt from an article posted on his blog, check it out!

I have always loved “Random Acts of Kindness,” and his post made me realize that there are so many more things that I could do to brighten someone’s day–and not just on Valentine’s Day. It’s time to get started! Small, often anonymous, things that make people smile are well worth the effort and the time!

Find something that you can do this week to brighten someone’s day! Whether it be sending a card or a letter to a friend, or cleaning the apartment for your roommate, or folding laundry in the laundry room for someone, I’d encourage you to do something nice for someone. It brings such joy to you and the person for whom you are doing things!

Today was a pretty good day…so was yesterday. I flew to Sacramento for the day to see my Mom and my brother, and it was really fun. We drove to the Bay Area to see some friends of ours, whom I hadn’t seen in at least 10 years. We also went to Travis Air Force Base, because my brother has access to all military bases now, and he wanted to go to the BX (store for military personnel). Good times.

Today is day seven of no sugar–and I’m doing rather well! I’ve only been tempted a couple of times to eat sugar. I’m not sure how long I’m going to do this, probably until I go to D.C. in March. I can already see/feel a difference!

Thursday I leave for a weekend in Ensenada…and I don’t have a really positive attitude about it. I mean, I’m excited to go and “bond” with my Tunisia team, and the other teams, but…the thought of sleeping in tents, in the rain, in the cold…knowing that our tents may wash away like they have in the past…all these little things are dampening my spirit. I need to just get over it, so I’ll be working on that this week! I’ll be back Sunday night, exhausted I’m sure. 🙂

Tomorrow is “Single Awareness Day” (AKA Valentine’s Day), and I really don’t mind this year. I feel ever more aware of the Lord’s love for me, and I am going to just celebrate that. Someday I will have a someone in my life, and we can celebrate that love…but for now, and always, God’s love is far greater than that of ANY man, and I am going to just enjoy His love. 🙂 It will be a great day, with class, work, chapel, homework…all the good stuff.

More and more I am just loving U2…I don’t know quite what it is about them yet that I love…but they’ve been “growing on me” for over a year now (though I grew up listening to them)…their latest CD is brilliant.

“Take these hands, teach them what to carry.
Take these hands, don’t make a fist.
Take this mouth, so quick to criticise…
Take this city, a city should be shining on a hill.
Take this city if it be your will.
What no man can own, no man can take.
Take this heart, take this heart,
take this heart and make it break…”

U2, “Yahweh”
(How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb)

To leave you with an “inspirational” thought…

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons,
neither the present or the future,
nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

–Romans 8:38-39

Okay, I have a question for those who have been to Europe…which city should I go to? Prague? Florence? Rome? Edinburgh? I have an opportunity to go to maybe two cities after Tunisia, and I have to decide fairly soon…where should I go? 🙂 Any other suggestions? Right now I’m leaning towards Prague and Florence…I’ve ALWAYS wanted to go to Florence, but I always wanted to go on my honeymoon someday…choices! 🙂

I’m up for any suggestions you have–IF you’ve been there!

It always amazes me how much things can change…I think about where I was one year ago today, and who I was with…and how wonderful it was. But, if the same circumstances were happening today, it would not be as wonderful…at all…

And that makes me sad, to a point…but more than anything it just makes me sit in wonder. Why do things change, why do people grow apart?

Just some random thoughts…trying to get a handle on all the changes that have occurred in the past year, some invited, some forced…but all for the greater good.

Christina, Leslie, Lesa, Shannon, Allison and Cara

This week, our RA (Resident Advisor) from our freshman year came back to APU to recruit for the grad program at the university she works for (Regent University). It was SO great to see her–she has definitely been the best RA we’ve ever had! Shannon is living on the East Coast now, with her husband, so I hope to see her often if I move there!

It also is awesome that my group of friends and I have been friends all throughout college…we lived together (or lived right next to each other) and the bond we all share is so deep! There are a few girls missing from the picture, like Sara, Jessica and Amberly; it’s so great how the Lord provided for us from the first day of our freshman year in college!

To use a line from M.W.S., “Friends are friends forever, if the Lord’s the Lord of them…” (that’s just for you, Tyler! :))

If you haven’t noticed, I added a link on the sidebar to a site which displays local time in Tunisia, just in case you are ever curious! 🙂

Also, I am working on an article for our school paper about U2…

Please leave me your comments about U2, including your opinion (with explanations–please don’t just say “i love them”) on their message, their mission, their influence…etc. I’m especially interested in Christian opinion of U2. So PLEASE comment and let me know! Thanks! 🙂

Here’s the article about my trip to the Inauguration…

Also, want to calculate how much money you will lose through the current Social Security plan? Here’s an estimate based upon your age and gender. Fascinating!

…you get totally excited about being excused from two chapels this week (for a class), because that means that you can miss 12 this semester, rather than 10.



…89 days seems like an absolutely short period of time to wait until graduation…



…going to class actually makes you mad (some times)…

There are more, but those are the ones I experienced today. I have the worst attitude about school right now–and I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been like this. So here’s a quick venting session, so that my roommates don’t have to hear about it (though they are going through the same thing)…

I am so tired of my math class already, because every day it is like a flashback to high school. Today, Leslie and I found out that we are going to be teaching 6th graders math on Wednesday and Friday, for ministry credits (an APU thing–we have to do 120 hours of community service/ministry to graduate)…

What were we most excited about? Getting excused from chapel. One of the main reasons I came to APU was because of their amazing chapels. My first three years here were great–I felt like those who were leading worship really did it from the heart, and that it wasn’t just “their job.” I felt like I was being “fed” spiritually, especially when our old campus pastor spoke (Chris Brown)…now I honestly feel like my walk with God is being hindered by chapel.

I have NO desire to go. I dread attending a “performance” by a worship leader who seems to just care about being “showy” and feeling like I’m being entertained. I actually have had first-hand interaction with one of the worship leaders, when I auditioned to be on the worship team. I expected them to talk to me about my walk with God and my spiritual life…nope. Nothing. All they wanted to know was if I could sing, and if I could blend with one of the singers. I was pretty upset about that–because leading worship is NOT solely about talent. It is about 10% talent and 90% heart. It all just seems to be about being “the best”…all the lights and fog and stuff they have added really don’t help my opinion of the whole thing, either.



We have had a few amazing speakers this semester, but I really just haven’t been impressed with/touched by 95% of them. Our new campus pastor talks to us as if we were in junior high or high school–and the few times I’ve heard him speak, I have felt like his message was something I could teach my junior highers on Sunday. It’s very frustrating! Chris Brown used to challenge us constantly…and it was real “spiritual food”…

But enough about chapel…enough venting…life isn’t terrible–just annoying right now. 🙂 But I guess we all go through these phases!

On a “lighter” note–I am 85% sure that I am getting shingles again…yeah…I’m 22, and I have already had shingles once, last June. Now it appears that I might be getting them again. Oh the joy. At least I know now what to look for and expect so that I can get on the medication quicker than last time. I need to learn how to not be stressed out. I am almost positive, based on the timeline for my last episode of shingles, that this is from my trip to D.C. last month, because that was incredibly stressful for me, and I didn’t sleep more than 8 hours in three days. Yeah. I really need to learn to relax!

Anyway, it’s Monday…things can only get better, right?

Holland and Lesa at the Inauguration, on ABC News–courtesy of Aunt Karen

Lesa’s eyes on ABC News!