Oh, what a week it's been!

I've officially been at college for a week today!  Woohoo!  Honestly, it feels like it's been about a thousand years since I'v been here.  Days run together, and feel a lot longer than they did at home.  Possibly because days HAVE been longer since I've had to get up for class and stay up a little later than I should.  Ha!

So tons has happened since I last posted.  I went to all my other classes, and love most of them.  My American History teacher (who I was worried about because I heard that she was ultra hard) is amazing.  She loves history, and inspires us to love it too.  The only beef I have about my classes, is my Computer Fundamentals for Business lecture with 350 people in it.  The size is not what bothers me, it's Dr. Abdallah who speaks 6 languages and has accents from each one.  I had a migraine after class trying to understand what he was saying!  Good thing I know what he's talking about, so as long as I get my assignments I really don't have to listen too carefully.  

I met my suitemates this week, as well!  They are both wonderful wonderful people, and we've already had a lot of fun playing board games.  Jaclyn is a Christian, which is such a blessing!  She went to Wesley with me last night to watch "Batman Begins" and eat Huey Magoos.  By the way, for those of you who are coming to visit me at some point, we are going to Huey Magoos.  It is absolutely amazing!!  I met tons of great people there, and we had a great time.  Plus, something I'm really excited about is that somehow one guy who plays guitar in the band and I got talking, and they need a bass player for the Wesley band!  I explained that I'm not that great, but he really wants me to come check it out.  I've been praying for a way to get involved with Christian music up here, and God has once again shown Himself.  Thus, my parents are bringing my bass up this afternoon.  I cannot even explain how excited I am about this.  God has shown Himself to me more this week than ever in my entire life.  

I could write about my whole escapade with what happened trying to get to Wesley on Tuesday night, but instead I'm going to copy and paste what I sent Suzanna in an email.  Much easier, considering that I've told that story about 10 times this past week.  ;)

Chelsey walked over from her dorm so that we could go with my suitemate Jaqulyn to Wesley (a Methodist ministry here on campus).  It was supposed to be outside, but it was storming, so we were going to go to the church.  Well...long story short, it was pouring rain and lightning a bit and we couldn't find my car in the parking lot!  After going out a second time, I have the epiphany that it must've gotten towed since they started checking for parking and I forgot to move my car into the correct zone after Sunday.  I haven't needed it, so I just didn't think.  On our way back the second time, lightning struck the ground right next to us and it was terrifying.  haha..We're all fine, but ran all the way back to my building.  ;)  We didn't get to go to the ministry, and now I have to pay a lovely fine.  AND, Chelsey left her car and it is now dark and storming so she can't walk back (and wouldn't either with it being so dark), so she's crashing with me and my roommate tonight.  We had a get-together earlier tonight in our neighbors room playing catch phrase with our entire floor :), and I remembered when I invited one of the guys that his roommate never came.  SO, we took his extra mattress for a night and kind of snuck it in (since the RA lives literally right across the hall from me)...b/c we're not sure if that's allowed or not.  So yeah...lonngggg but hilarious night.  :)

So yeah...that was hilarious!  I'll post the picture that's worth a thousand words along with some of my room.  Hope you all had a great week, and Emily, I can't wait to see you on Saturday!!!  John Mayer!!!! :)

Anner, have a blast at the game this weekend!  We'll miss you, but next weekend is going to be amazing, too!  

Love,

Brit

I've moved!

It's official.  I'm a college student.  I couldn't believe that it was coming up, but now that it's here, it feels quite natural.  Haha..

It feels so good to be all moved in a somewhat settled.  Because I left my camera cord at home, I can't post pictures yet, but Matt is getting it and bringing it up on Wednesday so it's all good.  I love my room...it's very eclectic but I love it.  

Classes started today, and let me tell you...it did not start out as a good morning.  I set my alarm for 7:45 AM, and woke up when it went off.  Well, instead of pressing snooze so I could take my time getting up, I turned it off and just closed my eyes for one more minute.  One minute can apparently turn into forty-five minutes pretty quickly I guess.  I woke up and found that it was 8:30 AM and my class starts at 9:00 AM!!  Totally nervous that I was going to be late for my very first college class here at UCF, I threw some clothes on and left without eating breakfast...I was so hungry all class long!  Once I got to my classroom, I went up to the second floor and found the door...but the door had no handle.  So, I walked around the floor about four times just to make sure that I wasn't crazy.  After definitely not finding it, I went into the band office (my class is in the music building..weird) and asked.  Apparently there is a hallway you have to go down and it isn't marked.  I had about 3/4 of my class follow me in there because they had no clue where it was either.  It was pretty hilarious.  Give the freshmen classes that they most definitely can't find.  Good going....haha

I liked the class, though.  My professor is really nice, and I love the kids in there too.  I already have a group for a group project...with the guy and girl that sit next to me.  Haha!  We all hit it off when talking outside the class when we were waiting for Professor Meehan to get a key to open the door.  That door is supposed to be monitored from eight to four b/c of all the computers in there, but alas it wasn't.  The poor guy couldn't get anything working when we got in either....but he's cool and just went along with it.  And that's just one class..haha

Tonight I have honors symposium, and that should be really easy.  Chelsey and I might run over to Target before class tonight.  I'm still shocked at the fact that there is every store in the universe within like ten miles of where I am.  Weird...My floor has a mandatory meeting tonight at 9:00..so that should be interesting.  I'll hear things like don't set stuff on fire, don't hang stuff from the sprinklers, etc.  Oh wait, my dorm doesn't have sprinklers.  Hope there isn't a fire.  Haha!

Hope everyone had/is having a good Monday!  :)

Love,

Brit

Last day at home..

Let's see...since my last post, we lost electricity for about 4 hours, got it back, packed a lot for college, had Emily over for the night so she could sleep in air-conditioning, and slept...a lot!

Fay wasn't all that bad, but we do have a ton of yard trash.  Plus, it keeps raining around here, so I'm not sure if our yard will ever be dry enough to mow again.  ;)  Today is my last official full day at home which is kind of surreal to me.  I'm heading off at 12:30 PM to get my stitches out, and then off to get a facial (late birthday present) with my Mema!  I'm so excited...I've never had  a facial, so I'm sure it's going to be relaxing and fun.  

I was going to have dinner with Kristen tonight, but looks like she is actually having Bible study.  She didn't know if it was going on and doubted that it would, but the girls can come...I'm bummed that I won't see her, but believe me, I understand the importance of having Bible study when your girls can have it...;)

See all you later!

Brit

Faayyyyyyyy.....

So we've been experiencing the wonder of Fay for about the last 12 hours, and my oh my, it's been....boring!  ;)

Apprently the more intense stuff came by at about 9:00 AM this morning when I was still asleep.  As soon as I woke up, however, there was some awesome wind and rain outside.  I'll post a picture and possibly a video.  I recorded a special video just for YouNews on winknews.com, so we'll see if it makes it on TV.  Not sure if it will, though, because there is actually a news crew in LaBelle covering the storm!  I'm guessing that a few 84 mph gusts puts us on the map...

No serious damage for us so far, other than our shed being torn up.  Our power is still on, though other households in our neighborhood haven't been quite so lucky.  We'll see if ours lasts, as we're still in the most intense part of the storm.  

Hope you all are safe wherever you are!  

Mamma Mia, here we go again!

Haha..I just posted my title without a blog accidentally.  Oops!

Yesterday was fun!  Mom and I went to Ft. Myers in the morning hours to do some errands, and then went to Daniel Dipofi's 2nd birthday party.  He is so precious, and we had a great time.  After that, Mallory, Rhonda and I went off to Ft. Myers to catch up on each other's lives.  After eating at Bar Louie, we went to see "Mamma Mia!" at the theater.  It's amazing, you should go see it.  We all rarely spend time together, so we had a great time reminiscing.  

Today is....the video scavenger hunt!  I'm so so excited about it...I'm going to try and take pictures while we do it and post some of the craziness.  Emily, we'll miss you, but thanks for letting use your camera!  :)

If you guys don't mind, please keep me in your prayers.  Tomorrow I go to the plastic surgeon to get my mole removed once and for all.  I'm not too nervous, I just want to get it over with, and hopefully all goes well so that I can get my stitches out the day before I leave for college.  Haha...

Hope you all have a great week!  

Brit

Perspective...

Yesterday evening was not a fun time for me, as I found out that the Winterwonderslam tour is coming to Ft. Myers on November 16th, which is very likely going to cancel our show of the "Rock What You Got Tour"...I was, and still am somewhat, disappointed that it may not work out, but then I watched the Steven Curtis Chapman interview on Good Morning America and boy did that give some perspective to the situation.  Yes, the concert being canceled is no fun, but my life is so blessed in so many other ways.  We've had 3 amazing concerts in LaBelle in less than  a year, which is something that just a year ago, I would have never dreamed of.  I've got an incredible family, the best friends you could ever have, shelter, food, finances for college, a terrific church...the list could go on forever!  Just one of those moments where I needed a little light in the situation.  They happen pretty much every day...;)

Anywho...I saw the most amazing sunset tonight as I was driving home from Praise Band.  Speaking of Praise Band, I'm really excited to play "God of This City" on Sunday.  Anna and Leslie sound great on it already, and Sunday will surely be even better!  Back to the sunset, I tried to get a picture with my camera on my phone, but my phone died.  So...once I got home I ran inside, got my camera, and my dad took me out in the jeep to try and get some pictures.  By the time we got to my Mema's house, it wasn't nearly as beautiful as it had been...but still a gorgeous Florida sunset.  With my awful camera, the pictures don't do any justice to what it actually looked like, but oh well.  Oh Florida...

My God sees a life beyond the chaos...

I am so thankful for my precious Lord.  Today was definitely not my day, but He once again turned it around and taught me a lesson.  

I went to work this morning planning to spend my time going over the concert rider with Pastor Benton since we are long overdue in getting this one approved.  As it would happen, nothing went as planned, because an older woman at our church passed away and I was assigned the duty of scanning a ton of photos to put into a powerpoint for the service.  Thank goodness for Stephen, who helped me out with it and ended up doing half of it himself.  I was able to get through about two pages of the rider, when I had to leave to go to a doctor's appointment.  

The doctor was running super late, causing me to miss out on bowling with the youth group.  Plus, good news did not come at the doctor's office...I have to get my mole removed yet again, and this time by a plastic surgeon.  More shots and even stitches to look forward to this time.  Oh, and did I mention that I need to get it done before I leave for college?  Eek!

After all that fun, I got home and was just totally exhausted.  I went through my clothes (checked off one item on my seemingly never ending list of things to do before I got to college...), and then began to just sit back and think about how crazy these next few weeks will be.  Then...the blessings began to be poured out!

Most people know that I've been kind of freaking out lately that I wouldn't find someone to go the John Mayer concert with me.  I inherited tickets, and was so stocked about the show.  Well...I'm happy to announce that Chelsey can go, and I'm looking forward to a great time.  We haven't spent nearly enough time together lately, and it'll be a great time to talk about how college is going thus far!  (Concert talk reminds me that we need to order our NOJ tickets ladies...).  Once that burden was lifted, I had this awful feeling that I had not done my devotion for like three days!  I mean, I've read through the Bible, but not really spent time with God.  So...I sat back with my lovely book and Bible, and dug in.  And you know what I found?  A whole chapter on attitude.  Ha!  I'm just going to post a short excerpt from the book below, and I think you'll catch on to how great God is to put this in front of me tonight..

"To counteract our humanness intruding on our attitudes, we need to 'throw off our old sinful nature and our former way of life, which is corrupted...Instead, let the Spirit renew our thoughts and attitudes' (Ephesians 4:22-23).  It might sound simplistic, but isn't simplicity what we need when we feel out of control?  Just like God to know that."

There is about..all of that chapter that I'd love to post here because of how it changed my outlook about these next few weeks, but I'll spare you.  

I know that my life is going to be insane over these next few weeks, but right now, I'm okay with that.  I'm okay because God knows the limits of being in a human body.  He's felt all the feelings I'm feeling now, and on a much larger scale.  God has blessed me with so many things, and instead of feeling anxious about the future and how in the world I'm going to get things done, I need to just let it go.  He has a wonderful plan for my life, and things will work out in His perfect timing.  

Now I know that I may have been repetitive in this post, but I'm just overwhelmed with the fact of how great our God is, and had to share it.  I'm so thankful, and hope that this encourages you all, as we ALL have busy lives, and lots of changes to come here soon.  "Take heart, for I have overcome the world..."

Love,

Brit

PS...I thought it was funny that after all this time of listening to AO's new CD, "Colors and Sounds" that the lyrics from some of the songs hit me in the face tonight.  If you haven't really listened to the CD, go do it now.  That's where I got my title for this blog...just thought I'd add this in.