Silly Fears

So Im spending the couple of days at Lauren Snyder's house which reminds me of a very funny story of the last time I stayed with her. It has to do with my lovely imagination. I was staying in her guest bedroom all by myself and sleeping which is normally what you do. But I have really cool dreams most of the time. I LOVE dreaming. It is so much fun but sometimes it doesn't turn out into the best situation. For instance, when I was in Lauren's guest bedroom and I dreamed that there was a snake at the bottom of the bed near my feet. And my dreams always seem SO real! So I woke up and thought that my dream was real..so I definitely just knew that there was a snake in my bed and I was WAY too scared to look myself. So I took a blanket and laid on the floor next to the bed and went back to sleep. That morning I walked into Lauren's bedroom and in all seriousness told her that I thought there was a snake in the bottom of her bed and that I had slept in the floor all last night. Later to find out it was deefffffinitely a dream.

It was really funny. So other funny and super silly things that I am afraid of (I will probably be adding to this list constantly):
-ants
-planes
-closed shower curtains
-being by myself in a big house
-snakes in the bottom of my bed
-people reaching toward my neck
-needles
-blood

The list probably goes on and on. Most of these fears have a story behind them. Feel free to ask me if you want to know about them!!

Death is Real...

Death is real and often brings us back to reality in so many ways. Last night I sat in my sister's room hugging her as she cried in my arms. She never shows emotion. One of her friends from church..his mom had died and my sister had just come from seeing him. What makes it so difficult for us to let go? My other sister will never get over my grandfather's death which happened 4 years ago. She constantly prays for him and it unfortunately keeps her from knowing the Lord. She doesn't understand why God would take someone away from her. I don't always understand either. Why would God take away an 18 year and her dad leaving a mom and two sisters, a grandfather, a best friend, or a mom of a 16 year old boy, etc. I don't know. But this is what I do know and what I claim to be true.

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." Psalm 116:15

Why is the death of saints precious to God? Because Jesus defeated death!!

"O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" 1 Cor 15:55

God gave his son to die for us, so that death would be defeated. We are able to be in a relationship with God and receive eternal life because of Jesus Christ. When someone who knows the Lord and have surrendered their life to him dies, its like Jesus takes that person by the hand..runs up to the Lord and rejoices and says "Look, Father, look what we have done! Look at the fruit from what we have done! Look, another sinner that has been saved and another soul that has been made perfect!!" This is precious to God.

I don't know much but I do know that "God works all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son..." God has a plan. His way is perfect and flawless(2 Sam 22:31) and he wants us to become like his Son. And so through death we can find comfort that God knows what is best and NOTHING works outside of his plan. Though we mourn, because it is never an easy thing, we can rest in the Lord's plan for us. Death always hits me hard, but I don't know how I would cope if I wasn't able to find comfort in God and his plan for my life. God has saved us, not because of anything we have done but becuase of his mercy and love. And becuase of that we praise him and glorify him by living for him, surrending our lives to him, making him our treasure above all else and by getting to know him more and more everyday.

So when it comes to death and suffering..I don't have all the answers, but through my experience and the things that I know are true, I can cling to my Father and the cross and know more of the God who has saved me from eternal death and has given me life in Jesus Christ.

My imagination.

So I have an absolutely HORRIBLE imagination. So this is the kinda stuff that happens to me quite often. I'll share an example from tonight.

I was chillin at Panera, reading some from Galatians, writing some emails when my mom calls and tells me its time for dinner. SO I head home. I get in my car and head down the road for about a 15 minute ride. When all of the sudden I hear a scruffle from the back seat and the drivers seat moves alittle...it kinda felt like someone pushed on it. So my first thought: SOMEONE CLIMBED IN MY CAR while I was in Panera and they are going to kill me. So right away I call my mom, trying to be smart. Thinking that if I call someone, the guy behind me wont be able to do anything..and if he does do something..at least someone will hear something happening. (Most people might think to pull the car over...but i was too scared.)So I call my mom and the convo is as follows. The problem was...NOONE Wanted to talk to me!!

Mom: Hello.
Me: Hey mom, how are you?
Mom: Good, I just talked to you. Are you on your way home?
Me: Yeah. On my way. Just wanted to call and say hey and tell you that I love you. How is dinner coming along?
Mom: It's good, But ive really got to go. Im cooking it now.
Me: Ok can I talk to Lauren?(Frantically trying to keep someone on the phone with me)

Lauren: Hey.
Me: Hey. How are you?
Lauren: Good, why do you need me?
Me: oh, I just wanted to say hey. What are we having for dinner?
Lauren: Roast, macaroni, potatos, bread.
Me: Oh thats cool.
Lauren: Yeah...Did you have something to ask me?
Me: No. I just wanted to say hey. How was church?
Lauren: It was fine. Look I have to go help mom.
ME: Can I talk to anna kate?
Lauren: Sure.

(Me, frantically hoping to strike up a good convo.)

Anna Kate: Hey.
Me: Hey how are you?
Anna Kate: Good, why do you keep calling us to talk about nothing?
Me: its not nothing. I just want to hear about your day.
Anna Kate: It was good. But I need to set the table.
Me: Well why dont you just talk to me for a while.
Anna Kate: Why??
Me: just becuase. Tell me about your life..
Anna: Its good, but ive got to go.
Me: ok....
-----The rest of the time I pretended like someone stayed on the line and I talked to absolutely no one all the way home...haha

And I finally I get home...and of course, there is no one in my car. I walk inside and my mom was like...Are you ok?? and I was like NO!!! I needed yalls help! I needed yall to talk to me!!! haha. My mom and Lauren were like...yeah we knew something was up. You called us for absolutely nothing and it was annoying. So to my mom...dinner was more important than me being killed. To Lauren I was just annoying...and my little sister Anna Kate was annoyed becuase she thought I was calling to talk about "God Stuff". Haha.

Moral of the STory: My imagination is extremely out of control. And If I ever call you to talk about nothing PLEASE talk to me and/or tell me that whatever fear I am feeling is probably definitely irrational!

Roommate Date Gone to Waste...Literally

So today Brittni and I had our last roommate date till we get back from Christmas break. So we thought that we would go to Bojangles to start our day off with a good meal to get us ready to study and take our last exam today. So we go and the food was great we sat and enjoyed our meal and conversations about the previous nights pranks. We go to leave and we see this huge semi parked behind Brittni's car and from inside we thought no big deal we can wait a couple of minutes. Then we walked outside and smelt the worst smell hands down in the world. We were blocked in our parking spot at Bojangles by a semi that collects bathroom waste!! Oh my, so we run to the car holding our breath and think that when we reach the safety of our car that the stinging in our nostrals would stop, however the smell peirced through the open car doors as we got in and we were trapped in it. As soon as we got in the car our conversation went like this,

Brittni: "Oh my gosh I dont think I can do this, I dont think I can do this... I think Im gonna throw up, I think Im gonna throw up...'
Amanda: (Laughing)
Brittni: "Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh...I just threw up in my mouth, I just threw up in my mouth!"
Amanda: (more laughter)
Brittni: "Oh my gosh, OH NO...I JUST THREW UP IN MY HAND, Amanda, I just threw up in my hand! I need a napkin."
Amanda: "Wait..I need to blow my nose, you can have half of the napkin"

All the while..I am staring this man down as he slowly walking to the semi to move it for us. He hops in the semi and in the slowest motion ever, starts backin his truck up. And we were free. So we roll down all of the windows, despite the freezing cold outside, to air out the smell of bodily waste from the toilets of Bojangels.
Moral of Story: Brittni has a weak stomach and I have a new appreciation for all the sewer men out there who dump our waste.

Prank War

It all started when Amanda, Lauren, Rachel and I pulled a pretty legit prank on Sam, Sam, Clay and James. We filled their room with balloons and some of them were glitter filled! We also notecarded their bathroom to help James study for his teacher test next year. We used about 400 notecards in total. Good Prank.

The guys decided they would prank back by hanging signs off of GDH that read: "Amanda Miller needs a stench killer", "Lauren Snyder needs an odor fighter", "Rachel Rutan smells worse than a man" and "Brittni Dulaney only showers when its rainy." ONE PROBLEM: They did think about how windy it was because of the tornado and the prank was ruined. The signs are as of now crumpled onto the roof of GDH where no one can read them. Good prank.

But they didnt stop there. We were in for a HUGE surprise. Clay and Sam came over tonight to hang out with Amanda and I and we were having a really fun time. We were painting and laughing and hangin out when all of the sudden Sam E, Garrett, and James dove threw our open window from the balcony..it was really sketch. They ended up hanging out for a bit and then decided we should go see the wonderful pottery Sam and Sam had masterfully created. We all went there and afterwards Sam and Clay treated Amanda and I to ice cream in Springs. It was all so much fun. We all hung out for a while, playing horse (pool horse), and just chilling but then Sam and James decide we should all go play cards in our room. This is when we knew something was up. There definitely was a prank that had already happened.

We get to Smyth and the floor in front of our hall is very dirty....We walk in and there is a FOREST in our room!! There are about 20 to 30 trees standing in our room!! A couple on my bed and more. Merry Christmas! We couldnt even walk into our room! It was HILARIOUS and Very well done. The pictures don't even do it justice!! Good Prank.

1:00 pm. We just recieved a text from Brinck inviting us to Waffle House. We walk outside and our cars are nowhere to be found...We are awaiting what is next.

The Prank War is on.

5:00am wake-up call

So its been a hectic week with exams and all so I thought I would get to bed early. Brittni hasnt yet come back so I left the lights on and both windows open to get a nice breeze. Well at 5:00am we were awoken by a billowing wind that blew our lamp and picture frame down. This is when Brittni started to go into tornado crazy mode. She freaks out and realizes we need to close the window so she looks at the open window and then looks at me and says "Are you going to help?" but everything still hasnt registered to me yet. But then we finally get the window down and the put the lamp back up. We go into the other room and we forgot that that window was open and rain was pouring in and the wind had blown leaves in the room and all the picture frames have fallen and pictures came out. Once we get the window down we go out to the hall to find some of our fellow residents in the hall freaking out talking about some tornado warning. I say ok one second I will be back. So I go back into the room grab my phone, robe, and of course bear claw slippers, I am ready to be and RA and save these girls lives. So Brittni and I talk about it and we say..."what should we do?"..."I dunno. What do you think we should do?"..."I dunno. Let's just go back to bed."...So I tell all the girls that everything is safe and to go back to sleep. We get back in the room and we crawl back into the bed. Right before I fall asleep I hear Brittni...she looks over at me and says, "Amanda Im really scared". I didnt really know she was serious and so I laughed and said "Ok" and went to bed.

Just another Sunday

Yesterday, I was leaving church, like any other sunday and was walking through the line to shake PJ's hand. PJ stands for Paster Jim who is the paster of West Minster the church I go to (PJ does not actually stand for his name..like Paul James or Peter Joshua...I was mistaken a long time thinking his actual name was PJ). As I was walking out of church, PJ shook my hand and stopped me and this is what he said:

PJ: "Brittni, You know, its funny. I come to GDH (our dining hall) many times during the week. And everyday you are wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt. You are always dressed the same. But on Friday I walked in and you were wearing real clothes. You actually looked good!"

As I was thinking about it, I actually get that alot. If I am ever wearing real clothes, people look at me shocked and say.."Brittni, you look pretty today!" and sometimes its when Ive just rolled out of bed and thrown on jeans and a tshirt. So what they are really trying to say is this: "Brittni, I didn't recognize you because you aren't wearing the matching sweatpants that the lacrosse players wear absolutely everywhere!!"

Moral of the story: Although sweats are the most comfortable, and they keep you from changing over and over for weights and practice, etc, they must not be the best look...ever. If lacrosse players ever put on real clothes, they will ALWAYS get compliments, whether they look good or not..because it just isn't usual.

Breaking News

This Just in: My roommate is a Hoodlum and I am a Ninja.

Amber

See this is the thing...My name is Amanda but for some reason Dr. Frey believes that it is Amber. It allll started freshman year when I had my first class with Dr. Frey. He called me Amber every day. 2 years later I am in my third class with him and I am a psych MAJOR. I was giving my presentation today in front of the whole and I finished hoping I did well and as I walk to my seat he says..."Thanks Amber, nice job."

Obviously I don't make that much of an impression on the man.