Thanksgiving...and other things =)

three turkeys. Why? I think the real question is why not?!

we had so much stuffing, turkey and potatoesAustin, Alan, Katrina waiting for food!!three generations--grandmom, mom, meGrandmom and some grandkidsAunt Sandy and Jack's birthday cakeon our way to Princeton to see the lights

Austin and Alan with me at the tree in Palmer's Square

Mom and the boys at the tree

That was my break. How was yours???

Flying high into the bright blue yonder

My day has gotten ten times better: Philly airport has free internet access!!! Before, you had to be a "member" or pay as you surf. Definitely not for me. However, now that the internet is free, I'm able to surf the Web without limits. WOOT!

I love sitting at the airport and waiting for my flight. You get to see the kinds of people who come and go. They're all so involved with their lives. It's sometimes fun to guess who they are: occupation, family, kids?, where they're going and why they're going.

I need to put Thanksgiving pictures up here for all of you to see. Thursday was indeed Thanksgiving and with the bird day comes my favorite part besides the food: the Macy's Day Parade!!!! It was so great to watch on TV this year. I was able to flop and watch. One of these days (if I'm not already living in NYC, able to watch the parade from the comfort of my flat) I want to take a trip to New York to see the parade in person. I think that would be the greatest thing to do. We'd get up really early, get on the train from Hamilton, NJ and go. It would be spectacular!

We went to my Aunt Sheryl's house for Thanksgiving. We haven't had Thanksgiving dinner with my mom's side of the family since God knows when. My grandmom didn't know we were all getting together for Thanksgiving so it was a really nice surprise for her. And it was so much fun because my mom's side is NUTS! Lots of laughs and food to be had. Yum!

Nothing really happened on Black Friday much to my enjoyment because I wanted to sleep.

Saturday was a busy day. My uncle has an annual Toys for Tots motorcycle run at his restaurant. Santa and elves ride on a firetruck and go out into the surrounding area and brings some early Christmas cheer to those who may not have such a magical Christmas.

Around 5:30pm, mom took grandmom, Austin, Alan and me to Princeton. We walked around to see the decorations in the store windows and at the town square. It was so much fun and I got a lot of pictures. The town square tree was beautiful! Afterwards, we went to a diner and then back home. I was ready for bed but not until I watched Polar Express.

Now I'm waiting for my plane to get here so I can go back to school. We're planning a little party for Ash since it's her birthday tomorrow. I can't wait for her to open what we got her. She's gonna be so surprised!!! I love birthdays. Buckner and I are supposed to be decorating my room. Ash is working in the art building tonight so it's a perfect set up. Oh, I can't wait!

Pictures will be put up, I swear.

Projects, Packing, Plane

This semester has flown by! It seems like a week ago I unpacked my things and moved into TK. My sophomore year is flying by and I don't know how I feel about that.

I'm planning for about eight projects being due when I return from Thanksgiving. I probably won't be able to update this bad boy while I'm gone. I have five days with family, one including dinner with Jill. This time will definitely just be spent with family and away from the computer, unless I'm writing papers and such at night. Sorry, ya'll. But, when I return, I will regail my Jersey adventures with you. Promise.

My flight is tomorrow at 10am, which means Buckner and I have to get up at like 5:30 to leave her house at 6am. It's going to be BRUTAL but oh so worth it. I also need a haircut like woah! Andrea, my cousin, is a beautiful beautician and she said she'd be totally willing to give me cut. I'm trying to decide on the next hairstyle I want. I'm going to keep my hair short but I don't know if I want a bob or if I just want a short cut.

These are what I'm thinking about:

Which one shall I choose?

















Top secret stuff about to go down. For my parents' Christmas present, my brothers and I are getting a sibling portrait done. It's gonna be so awesome. We'll get a HUGE frame and everything for it. I'm expecting happy tears on Christmas Day =)

And just for the record, it was my idea hahaha

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, ya'll. Remember all those overseas fighting for us. Pray for them. Remember we are so blessed in these United States. No matter what politics are happening good or bad, God is in control and He has been so good and merciful to this country. Let's always keep that in mind.

Stress be gone!

Thursday is nearly over which means this highly stressful week is almost over. I have overcome! Hallelujah! I hear angels singing and children giggling.

My Advanced News article isn't due until Tuesday so I have a little extra time to work on it. My CDP article was handed in yesterday. Kinda worried, not gonna lie.

The photoshoot last night was amazing! Ben and I, I think, did very well. We model great together haha Martha was really appreciative which, as long as she's happy, I'm happy. She didn't take any digitals so I won't have those to share with ya'll. Oops!

Urinetown is premiering tonight in MPAC. If you're in the Nashville area, swing by Belmont's campus and have a looksy at the most peculiar show I'm attending. A review for the Vision is in order so that's why I'm going.

Have a great rest of the week & a fab weekend!

One stress down 12 billion more to go

My woman article for Covering Diverse is complete and hanging out in its little binder, waiting to get handed in and then mauled to death with blue ink (or whatever color pen Syb decided to use). I was thinking last night that I would be wonderfully fine with getting a B- or C in that class. It's been one huge annoyance and, frankly, a waste of my sacred time.

(<---Oh, isn't that precious.)

I think the main problem I have with that class is that we have to see differences. Like I was expressing to some of my friends in that class, I don't see 'racial' or 'status' differences. I see the person for who they are. After this class, I'm now seeing those differences which I think is a negative learning experience. I was always taught to look at the person for who they were than what they looked like or wore or drove or whatever you could possibly think of to put them in a box labeled "black" "Chinese" "poor" "rich". I think it's utterly ridiculous and that's where society completely and utterly fails.

Now that my rant is complete...

I have another article due tomorrow. Vegans and vegetarians at Belmont unite! You will have a voice once I get this bad boy written. It's technically now due Tuesday but I want to get it done and over with. Maybe I won't hand it in tomorrow but...wait. no. yea I'm handing it in tomorrow. Better early than waiting around for the cows to come home. I want it out of my life!

Yet another article is due on Monday for Covering Diverse. Wait what?! Yea, I know. It's insane. It's like she's trying to smoosh all this work into so little time. She should've figured this out during the summer. She said we weren't going to write ten articles for that class anymore. Well, considering I've written five before fall break and now there's another five due, I'd say yea if my elementary math is right (5+5=10, right? They didn't change it on me?) then I've written ten articles. What she means is she wasn't going to grade the first five articles.

So I did that work for nothing? Yea pretty much. Here's looking at you, sucker.

Such is my Wednesday. After this week, I'm going to sleep and sleep and sleep some more. Oh and then I have to pack and write an English paper and pull an article out of my batooty for Monday.

Fabulous.

I'm not going to have any hair left after this.

Time needs to fly out the window

You might be asking yourself "gee, why would Amanda want time to fly?" If you're asking this question you missed my point. Read the phrase after fly.

Out the window.

I want time to disappear. I want that disgusting clock to run itself right out the window and crash to its depths.

See, with time, we make schedules. We plan the crap out of our lives and where does that get us? Stress, anger or depression because of stress, and that a-word college students hate: assignments. Yes, I'm going there.

I wish we had a world without time. We could do things without having to worry about when they're due or worry about HOW much time we've spent on a project. We could go on our merry ways not really worrying about the next day and the day after that. We could enjoy every second of the present day.

That's the kind of world I want to live in.

Alas, that's not the kind of world I live in NOW.

So, allow me to regail to you, fellow readers, what my schedule consists of before that happy holiday we call Thanksgiving or as I'd like to call it let-me-eat-until-my-insides-want-to-explode-and-I-have-to-sleep-for-four-days-just-to-get-my-body-levels-back-to-normal day.

Monday:
Set up interviews for CDP article and Advanced News article

Work on Jonah presentation

Tuesday:
Go to said interviews
modelling with Ben for Martha's project
work on CDP article (finish before modelling at 10pm)

Wednesday:

CDP article due

Give Jonah powerpoint to group members

Work on Advanced News article

Thursday:

media ethics case study due (finished that on Friday night woot woot!)

Advanced News article due

Friday:
Sign up for Spring 2010 classes
Work on English paper (due Nov. 24)

Sleeeeeeep

Saturday:
sleeeeeeep

Sunday:

practice Jonah presentation

work on English paper

Monday:

Jonah presentation

SGA meeting

Tuesday:

English paper due

Wednesday:

Morning flight out of Nashville

Thursday:

THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!

Friday:
BLACK FRIDAY!!!!!!!!

Saturday:

meh

Sunday:

return to Nashville

Yea, I got a lot on my plate. It'll get done I swear!

Sidenote: Dude in the computer lab a few computers away from me is snoring up a storm. HILARIOUS!!!!

Enjoy your Monday, everyone!

Forgive but don't forget--what Jesus intended?

I was trying to go to sleep a couple of nights ago when a thought popped into my head. It's funny the things that come to you at night. A common saying is tossed back and forth in society. "Forgive but don't forget".

Now I ask you, if I'm a Christian aren't I supposed to forgive as God forgives?

David had a good knack at describing how awesome God is. He is merciful, just, and faithful even when I mess up.

As far as the east is from the west

so far has he removed our transgressions

from us. Psalm 103:12

When someone does me wrong, it takes a while for me to forgive them. I rant, rave, stay silent around them for a couple of hours or days (depending on the 'crime'). But, then I get over myself, realize God forgives me, and I forgive the person. I don't really remember it anymore. Sure, the scars are still there but Jesus had scars on his hands and feet from carrying our sins; I think a few scars on my heart during the course of my life is bearable, don't you?

Now this thing of not forgetting when someone wrongs us is a very tricky thing. If you truly forgive someone, don't you automatically forget? If you forgive but don't forget, you're still harboring hard feelings towards that person. Even when you think everything's perfectly fine, you'll remember and get mad all over again. You open your own wounds. In the quiet, while you sit and think, while you read and your mind wanders, those thoughts can and WILL come back to haunt you (mainly because Satan wants to get you down). The wounds open up; the feelings you had come back and you're mad all over again.

Is that truly forgiveness?

I, even I, am he who blots out

your transgressions, for my own

sake,

and remembers your sins no more.

Isaiah 43:25

If we are to be like Jesus, holy and pleasing to God, shouldn't we forgive like Him? Is this easy? Heck no! It wasn't meant to be easy. Jesus said some pretty heavy stuff and STILL says some pretty heavy stuff, if only we listen. Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother. "Seven times?" he asked, thinking seven times was a good amount of times a brother could mess up until he could serve a punch. Jesus had a different answer. "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." In other words, we're supposed to forgive AND forget. Not forgive and not forget.

In order to do God's perfect and pleasing will He has for our lives, we can't be partial in forgiving our brothers and sisters, friends or foes. If we are to truly forgive, we must truly forget. When we forget, the slate is finally clean. God does that with us. Jesus comes in and washes us white as snow, squeaky clean.

Bear with each other

and forgive whatever grievances you

may have against one another. Forgive as

the Lord forgave you.

Colossians 3:12

If we do not forget the wrongs our fellowman has done against us, how are we to fully live up to the potential the Lord God has for us? Cast off your burdens, your wounds and "haters" and surrender them to the Lord. Jesus wants us to live life to the fullest. By forgiving and forgetting, humbling ourselves before our Savior and letting bygones be GONE, we can then rise, take up our daily cross and follow our Jesus Christ strongly until the day we will be made over again. Perfect and complete in Jesus.

Creatively Smooooooth

Recently, I've been OBSESSED with Sinatra. I've gotten in that stage where I want some classy music played in my room 24/7. I want to escape to a time when women were always in fabulous dresses and men had their own "swagger" without bragging. You know you only have swagger when you have it naturally and don't have to announce it. Just a side comment to all those people who are all gung-ho about having "swagger". Please, the men in the 40s and 50s had more swagger in their pinky toes than the men do today. Moving on...

To celebrate (and hopefully curb) my recent obsession, I have compiled a short list of songs I currently love to sing.

From good ol' Frank Sinatra some of those titles include (but are not limited to):

Fly Me to the Moon

Come Fly with Me

I've Got the World on a String

New York, New York

I'll Be Seeing You

Call Me Irresponsible

The Way You Look Tonight

Those are just a few because I'm pressed for time. I have a class in about 15 minutes. Google those songs. Listen to them on Pandora, Limewire, Youtube, iTunes, wherever you can listen to them. I've fallen back in love with Sinatra's croon and I hope you do, too. Or at least you'll remember fondly of his croon. Either or.

Have a good rest of the week, ya'll!

Confidence

I want to step away from the mundane task of writing about the schoolwork that seems to pile up with each passing day. I want to talk about spirituality and what God has been doing in my life, showing me all sorts of awesome things.

I read my Bible every day and last night. I'm currently in the process of reading all of Paul's letters and Revelation. I'm in Hebrews right now and a verse that would usually be read over, really struck me last night.

"We have come to share in

Christ if we hold firmly till the end the

confidence we had at first."

Hebrews 3:14

Before I get into that, let me fast forward to this morning. I was washing my face, getting ready to spend some quiet time with the Lord before breakfast like I always do. 1 Chronicles popped into my head. I felt like I needed to read that book today. I thought, "Why would I have to read 1 Chronicles? Nothing of importance pertaining to my life is in there." However, I kept it in the back of my mind, thinking, if it had any relevance to today, I would read it. And off I went to the bell tower.

Back to why I started this post to begin with...

The last phrase of that verse really struck me last night. "...the confidence we had at first." This got me thinking about the past and now where I am with Christ.

Freshman year of high school I really started to get serious about my faith. I had accepted Jesus when I was six years old, but never really did anything with it. I didn't grow; I didn't fall back. I stunted my growth and ignored the potential God wanted for me. So, my freshman year I decided to be serious. I began reading my Bible, praying throughout the day and especially night. Junior year, my spiritual confidence went through a boost. The end of October 2007 God told me I was going to be a journalist, completely destroying my aspirations, replacing them with what He wanted me to do with my life. His thoughts are higher. It was hard to accept, tell my parents, but He held my hand through all of it. I was able to stand my ground when my parents dealt out very hard questions. I didn't know much but what I did know, I held on fast and prayed it rang true.

God made it all work out by providing an excellent college for me to go to and new friends. My awe in the Lord was just mind-blowing. As I was working my freshman college year out, I would ask if this was truly what I needed to do. Did I truly miss the mark? God, I think, chuckled a little bit as He sent confirmation after confirmation that writing and reporting was what I needed to do. I was content. I was confident. I was happy.

The first half of my sophomore college year is almost over. As internships and jobs are discussed, I feel swamped. Lately, I've been asking some hard questions and not really getting any answers. I don't know where I'm supposed to work. I don't know where I'm living after college. I don't know how I'm going to pay off this astronomical tuition I'm accumulating by being at Belmont. I dont know. I don't know. I don't know! Before my quiet time today with the Lord, before He showed me that verse, I was asking a lot of questions. The one main question I have though, is directed at me: Where is that confidence I had at first? That confidence that seemed to fuel every word that I wrote, drove every interview to the point where there was information begging to be published?

I think I get a little taste of God's will and I run with it. Literally, I run. Where do I run? I typically run away from the rest of God's will. He begins to say, "Okay, I want you to do this and..." I hear the 'this' and I say, "Oh, okay, God. I got it. Let's go!" To which He shakes His head. I go run off, start working really hard, but then I get burned out and then the insecurity seeps in and I start to question. I start to wonder if I'm supposed to do what I'm doing. He then shows me a verse like that. Where's the confidence I had before I began His will?

 God did not give us a spirit of timidity,

but a spirit of power, of love

and of self-discipline.

2 Timothy 1:7

I had so many questions running through my mind. I was uncertain of God. That's such a crazy thing, to be uncertain of God. He's so powerful, so big. He's got everything under control. But for some odd reason, I tend to think He doesn't. I forget He actually MADE the earth I live on and everything in it. I forget He planned me before I even knew it.

I need the confidence I had when I first got to Belmont. Not really knowing what the rest of God's plan was but working with what I had at the present.

"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Matthew 6: 34

Remember the whole Chronicles thing? Well as I was writing in my journal about this same subject, the word 'seek' popped into my head so I went to my Bible's concordance and looked up a verse. My eye came to a verse and I turned to the passage: 1 Chronicles! Here's the verse:

"For the Lord searches every

heart and understands every motive behind

the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will

be found by you.

1 Chronicles 28:9

Isn't that the weirdest thing? Continuing...

I'll be confident in the Lord, then. I'll have that confidence I had when I first accepted Jesus, when I first found out about God's will for my life. I think if I lived with that confidence, I'd be able to accomplish more and grow more with Christ. Worrying stunts the growth so I will cast off that worry and run towards the goal God has for me.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y hey!

Tomorrow is Saturday which means I can sleep in, do some necessary shopping, and go to the Urban/Pop Showcase with the girls.

Today, however, is most definitely Friday and how excited I am! It seems like these weeks are just going to fly on by. No sooner is it Tuesday, that the days seem to mesh together and before I know it, another week has passed. Before we know it it'll be Thanksgiving and then comes my favorite holiday ever! CHRISTMAS!!!

I'm telling you, as soon as Thanksgiving is over and Black Friday makes its appearance, it's happy-go-lucky Christmas carols from here on out! WOOT!

This blog, once again, has no point to it. I would be very surprised to find out if you readers actually read through to the end. If you did, I commend you on your patience levels hahaha

Oh! Last night I went with Martha, her boyfriend Stephen, and a guy friend Ben to go to V for Vendetta. I've never seen it before and it was convo credit (double whammy!). I sat next to Ben and at the really good parts, he would get all excited and start slapping me, making sure I was paying attention. It was hilarious to see his face! It was such an awesome movie and I found myself on the edge of my seat throughout the movie. It was steller!!! A fun evening spent with friends. =)

Tomorrow will be a good day to be sure

Woke up this morning feelin' fine

Songs playing in iMind:

I'm into Something Good--Herman's Hermits

Feeling Groovy--Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel

Thank Goodness--Kristen Chenoweth

Today is Wednesday and I would love it to be Friday. I had an interview today for my article for CDP, now due next Wednesday. I swear I feel like this article is never going to get handed in and graded because of all the advances. Nevertheless,  the days are going by so quickly. We only have about three weeks left of intense classes. Then I'll hop a plane to Jersey for Thanksgiving.

YES!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, my mom just text me saying the tickets we got at $309 are now $698 for an express flight from Nashville to Philly for Thanksgiving. That's INSANE!!! Thank God we got ours early. YEAYA. Thanksgiving will be spent at my aunt's house. Hey, I'm not complaining. After that amish escapade we did last year, I'm glad we're staying near the home front. It'll be good to see everyone, too.

I have an urge to go shopping but no money. PREDICTAMENT!

Sorry for these helter-skelter thoughts but I'm in a good mood/totally stressed, so you will see this side of me. I'm thinking a nice cup of coffee will wind me down ;-]


Ciao, ya'll!