Until Every Heart Has Heard: Yes, I'm Still Alive

It has been a while since I have been gracing you bloggy friends with my blogging goodness. I know you have missed me so, but have no fear, for I am back... for the next few days. Expect a lot of writing in those next few days, and then probably nothing until next weekend on account of the fact that I sold my soul to the education program of NGCSU on Wednesday. Let's embark on an adventure of my first week here, shall we? Ven conmigo!

Sunday Linds came to church because we had a Mexico meeting. My parents took us to dinner and then we finished packing up my stuff before heading over to see Tammy and Kati for a little while. We had a wonderful time with them, laughing and catching up and getting Kati's stuff together. Love them so much. Leaving Sunday night was surprisingly difficult. I was so ready to be back in Dahlonega but not ready to embrace the many changes in life that this marks. I suppose I have been ignoring a lot of feelings lately and finally thought about it on Sunday. I pretty much cried the whole way back to Dahlonega, but I think it was needed. Linds had a somewhat similar ride back and we weren't in our house 5 minutes before we were both sitting on the futon crying. Thus the house had been christened as ours.

Our whole house (well, mostly the living room and my room) was a mess for a few days. My room is finally coming together, and a video tour will be coming soon :) We stayed up til 4 am Sunday night... and consequently didn't get out of bed until 12:30 pm on Monday. Most of the day consisted of people coming over and it was really wonderful to see everyone again. We went and saw Ashton's dorm room (LOVE having her up here!) and then headed to Dork's to get our books... and spent about $350. Ridiculous.

our first collegiate picture together :)

Getting my own key!

Tuesday we were determined to be more productive, and get out of bed... which we did... around 11:30. We got ready and went to convocation, which is this really boring ceremony deal where all these people speak about the school and you get a free t-shirt. Basically, everyone goes for the t-shirt. This year we had to walk to the drill field to get our t-shirts and it started raining as we were walking. This did not deter our t-shirt efforts and we stuck it out... all for a really ugly t-shirt and some ruined rainbows if you're me. The t-shirt did make for somewhat of a protective covering for my hair. I also must say that the whole military college thing usually neither phases me nor bothers me, but it did both when we had to stop in the middle of the pouring rain for retreat. Seriously? Dead silent, dead still campus in the pouring rain. Awesome. Linds and I had our Littles, plus Lauren, come over for a wonderful pancake dinner where we made them with chocolate chunks, peanut butter chips, and sprinkles. Talk about goodness.

Classes started on Wednesday, and for education majors, orientation also started. Savannah, Heather, and I went to breakfast that morning and got ourselves pumped up for the program. By the time we got out of orientation at noon, we were totally and completely freaked out. Then it was off to class until 4:30 that afternoon. I was exhausted by the time I got home and just wanted to crash. It was a very overwhelming day and I felt on the verge of tears most of the day. That night we had our first candle lighting of the year! For those of you who don't know, a candle lighting is a ceremony we do when someone in our sorority gets engaged. It's how they announce their engagement. Much excitement all around and a good ending to the first day of class.

Yesterday was a little better. We got out of orientation an hour and a half early which was awesome and gave me some time to wind down at home. Classes were a little better and not quite as overwhelming, but still a lot to take in. That night I made dinner and our whole Alpha Gam family came over for dinner. I made lime chicken tacos, inspired by Tammy, but did it without a recipe, and it turned out really great actually! Add some bean and cheese dip and you got yourself a great meal. Not gonna lie, I'm real proud of that. I was really missing Case and felt a little sad about the situation, and then she joined us on Skype. It was so great to talk to her and see her and feel like she was right there! A real, complete family dinner :)

And that brings us to today, Friday. I survived, and that's more than I thought I could do as of Wednesday. Woke up 30 minutes late this morning, but had a great day at orientation. I met with my mentor, Sarah. She is one of my sisters so it's nice to have someone that I am already comfortable with that I can go to with questions and when I get overwhelmed. And I am fortunate enough to have Case too! Tonight will be spent being crafty with Linds. She has made a new journal, covered her planner, and is currently painting a canvas for our bathroom. I have been blogging (obviously) and am working on vamping up my curtains a little bit. Ready for a weekend of relaxation before the craziness starts back on Monday!

In other news, we got an awesome new trash can and I made this great picture wall above my bed. It will be growing throughout the year.