Sunday, September 1, 2013

College. {Part Two}

Hi friends!

...continued from part one :)

Tuesday. I started off the morning with an 8 am A&P class at LU. I had decided to sit in on Belmont's and Lipscomb's classes in case I wound up taking one! I didn't want to get behind. I then arrived a little late to the orientation sessions! During orientation I was introduced to an amazing app : GroupMe. So great. Our group had an awesome game of iSpy. It was great. Definitely one of the highlights. Cue our whole group looking in certain directions trying to find blue/brown/yellow/etc items in the Curb Center. After lunch, I headed back to LU to sit in on lab. It was so wonderful to see my micro LU friends! I love them and am glad to call them friends! That evening my TT group and our partner group (all are part of my seminar class) came for dinner! 20 people around our table - so.much.fun. Lots of laughter! "My best friend's dad killed a raccoon with a baseball bat." "This is what heaven must look like - lots of amazing food and someone playing the harp." One of the super talented gals brought her fiddle and played for us! We made Julia play the harp and piano :) {Have you heard her medley with Downton and the Hobbit? umm you need to} It was so fun to have all of these lovely new friends at our house for fellowship! After a wonderful meal (Mom you are the best), we headed back to campus for Life Under the Tower. Several people spoke and then we lit our candles! All of the TT leaders formed a tunnel (kind of like the tunnel of love and acceptance on day one minus the jumping and screaming, plus lit candles) around the belltower and we walked through. This was such a cool moment. I knew or had connected with several TT leaders and it was a very special experience walking past them - our final part of orientation! Then it was time to get a good night's sleep for DAY ONE!

Wednesday. My first day as an official college student! The day began with an opening Convocation with President Fisher speaking. Wednesday was the first day we saw upperclassmen - it was scary to see so many people and not anyone that I knew, especially after seeing just freshmen for several days! I was thankful I sat with some friends during convo :) After that I headed to my first class - Advanced Spanish 1! Already I love my Spanish professor. She is adorable. I am also super thankful for my friend Hannah - we are reppin the freshies in our Spanish class! Hannah is one of the coolest people I know. Really. When our prof learned it was our first day and first class she was like, "I can't scare you!" :) I had my hour for lunch then headed to first year seminar. I was so so relieved to see people I knew! (So smart to make your orientation group one of your classes!) I then went to sit in on Belmont's A&P. After class I went to find out if I could join the class. Unfortunately, I found out that my microbiology credit would not count as the prereq for A&P1. This made me very sad. I didn't expect to end my first day of classes super sad! Mom came to get me and we decided to go chat with my advisor. She is seriously one of my favorite people. Not only is she super nice and encouraging all.the.time., she was an influential person when I decided to go to Belmont. I came into her office, visibly upset, and she said she knew why I was upset - she had been working on my behalf that day! How comforting is that?! That night was the Nurses Christian Fellowship Mixer!

Thursday. First day of TR classes! I was so thankful to have a lot of peace on this day. It was a great reminder that God's ways are higher than ours! I brought my burden of schedule stress to His feet. And in return He gave me peace! I went to LU's A&P 1 class that morning. I then met with the BU Foreign Languages dept chair to talk about SPAIN and then my dear nursing advisor! We decided that I should take A&P1 at Nashville State. Then, I had my first English class! There is another Lily in my class (really Lillian). The prof exclaimed, "We cannot have this! Someone will need to change their name. Do you have any street names?" Umm, well, some of my WW people call me Grandma Lolly... But I can't say that. Definitely cannot have that on my academic papers... "How about you add my middle name? Lily Lauren?" Prof: "How about LL?" Guy: "How about Ldub?" Me: "Uhh I am totally great with Lily Lauren!" Double name/double life what up. After English I have general psych. On Thursday I sat in on a religion class but realized that 19 hrs was probably a bad idea, so I dropped that class. Thursday night was the Bruin Link fair! Once again, I was so excited to see RUF friends... and meet the new intern! She is lovely. That night Justine had dinner with us!

Friday. I got to start out the day with an Indelible Grace chapel! How great is that?! It made me so happy - my girls Brooke and Emory toured BU and I got to have lunch with them!! Mom and I went to register at Nashville State - and pray that I would get into an A&P 1 class! They were all full. I was so thankful to have heavenly peace. I told the fam, "God kind of slammed the Belmont A&P door. So He is going to open another door!" That night I went with Julia, Cara, and some fun friends to the CPA vs BHS football game :) so fun!

Saturday. We had the RUF pancake breakfast!! So great! Justine, KatieMay, Sydney, and Courtney came with me! What a great time of fellowship! After the bfast, we went to Goodwill to shop for Throwback Prom! Then for lunch we had Satco :) Dad came and had lunch with us! That night we went to Throwback Prom at BU hosted by SAPB and Good Clean Fun!. It was awesome! I wore the dress Mom wore to a Vandy prom with Dad :) Super cute :)

Sunday. I was excited to be back worshipping with my church family... and playing piano for the first time in a month! I was also glad to have my girls J and S at church with us! I emailed the Nashville State A&P1 professor to see if I could get into his class. I was so so thankful. God did indeed throw that door open :) *cue celebrating* The professor overrode it (or maybe a spot opened up?) but anyway he was very kind. God is so good! A great reminder that He has the best plan for us and will provide what will benefit us the most!

S: "They should make a reality show about us! ... except it would be us eating food."

I am so thankful for many wonderful friends that the Lord has already blessed me with! Feeling very blessed. Glad that the Lord brought me to Belmont!

I've officially declared as a dual degree - Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Bachelor of Arts in Spanish!! Here we go!!

Sweet friends at the RUF pancake breakfast!
Life Under the Tower
Candles
TT Family photo! Love them!

Babysitting my gal MB! Puppet giraffes need leaves too.
Three schools :)



Love them!!
Family!!
Prom!! 


Post prom Fido snack :)
TT fam around the table :)
Coming soon... Hanging out with my girl Joelle, RUF, club meetings, what college girls do on a Saturday night, and more :)

Sunday, August 25, 2013

College. {Part One}

I can't believe it was a week and a day ago that I started college!! We had orientation Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Wednesday was our first day of classes!

{This is kind of like a journal entry... But here you go :)}

Saturday. There was a family picnic on the Lawn. Walking in, there were sooo many people. Me: "Umm why are we here again?!" Cara: "yeah let's leave and go to chickfila." helpful. But we stayed :) I got to connect with a friend from summer orientation! To conclude fam time at the picnic, we walked through the tunnel of love and acceptance (aka yelling, cheering, jumping up and down, excited TT leaders!). {I need to post the video Julia took of it!} Then we had our first sesh and time together! We ended the evening meeting our TT groups! Group 31 Finding Bepo represent! Bepo stands for Belmont Police :) Our sign was Nemo on a bike. Yesss. My TT leader is awesome! His name is Jesse and he is great. I immediately liked my group, and was super excited that of the 10, one of the girls was a girl I had met at orientation over the summer and really liked! Yay! We played a fun game on an app called Heads Up! Good use of 99 cents. Some of us went to Jesse's apartment then we walked over to Sweet Cece's!

Sunday. We had an awesome worship service (I loved the singing!) and then the matriculation ceremony! Then of course lots of seshies. I think it was maybe on Sunday that I discovered the gem that is GroupMe?! Best app ever. Cue lots of quality group messaging during said seshies. Sunday afternoon we went to the Belmont vs Samford soccer game to see our darling and favorite girl Ariane!! Yay!! She is wonderful and it was such a treat to see her! That night they split up boys and girls to have deeper seshes with little skits. AKA don't do bad things in college. My seminar class "Living an Intentional Life" was split up into two groups: 31 and 32. While I was at the soccer game, they had the first combo of 31 and 32. I missed this so got to meet them at the evening program! I was excited to meet the other people in my class! That evening was the church fair! I was so excited to see my dear dear friend Bella reppin her church and then my new RUF family! Sometime during the day we did the Wobble for the first time. The first time of manyyyy :)

Monday. Julia's first day of dual enrolling at LU! I went with her, got our parking permit, and Starbucks! I wore a jacket over my BU orientation shirt ;) I was walking into the morning session back at Belmont when I got a text from our neighbor saying our alarm was going off. Eek! While my group was jumping up and down to win a free tshirt, I had to peace out to go check on the house... Kind of freaking out, I called Julia who was at piano. After finding out that the police were called by the alarm system, I had Julia come get me and we went home in time to meet the police officer. We think the alarm was just being weird! I went back to school in time to watch some of the game shows illustrating the honor code stuff. That afternoon was SERVE! Our groups (31 and 32) were assigned to the Nashville Rescue Mission! All 1800ish incoming BU students (freshmen and transfers) were put on buses and shuttled around NashTown. At ours, we helped organize a bunch of mattresses in storage then got an awesome tour! Such an amazing ministry. That night was the Bruin Blitz! "Raise your right hand and say 'I hate Lipscomb'" I could not say that against my former school ;)

Coming up next... Tuesday, sitting in on several A&P classes, our best GroupMe yet, TT family dinner, my first day of official college, the last thing I expected to do on my first day of college, I see how many colleges I can attend in the NashTown area, my current fave songs, a new name in my English class and whether or not I said Grandma Lolly, throwback prom, RUF, if we were a reality TV show, thrift shopping, and the awesome friends I have made :) Check back soon :)

Matriculation ceremony
I got way too much entertainment out of stalker cam. 
View from the stands

Belmont soccer 
Awko taco rivalry
Good sister, yes?! Julia wasn't as impressed.
Goodness I love these gals!
ARIANE!! We love her!!
Mattresses 
First fam photo! Love them!
I guess you could say things are gettin pretty serious
I may or may not have put in a request for them to make adult sizes of this.
Belmont party
Freshies on the first day! (I am out of the screen to the left)
Stolen from someone? Wobble baby wobble

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Last Days of Summer

I will be posting Europe pictures soon!!

But, in the meantime, I want to share some pictures from my last days of summer! I have had such a fun week. I got to see lots of my favorite people before we head off to college! It is a very bittersweet time! So thankful for the amazing people God has placed in my life! I can't wait to meet all of the people God will place in my life at Belmont! I check in for orientation tonight!
Loveless with three of my favorite people! Can I talk about how much I love them?! Best coworkers in the world!!
Our girl Anna Lea is headed to Harding! We love you! Yall are seriously some of the coolest people we know. really.
Spent the night with my favorite Nana and Papa!

Working on his Mona Lisa puzzle from the Louvre!
Much needed catch time with this lovely lady at the Well!
And then there's that time Julia and I crashed Lipscomb's freshman orientation... We kind of go there right?! 
For my LU friends :)
Our boy Zach turned 19!
Breakfast with two of my faves! #miguel #sweetpeaches #payatthefront

ENOOOOOOOOO

Hot and Cold - Jeni's ice cream!

Friends fo life!! I love you girls!!

Last girls night and the first one we have all been there!! I love yall bunches!!
BMS girls' vball game with our little brother!
Go Vikings! 
Chill and Satco with my favorite guy!
I LOVE YOU!! Union is so blessed to have you dearest one!! 

Why you want to leave me?!
Yeah what did YOU do your last night before college?!
My fave Brenda! 
Ummm how high is the cuteness factor in this picture.