Sick of being sick

Gosh what a roller coaster I've been one the past few days. It was great being home over last weekend, but when I got back to SPU everything was kind of haywire. It's the last week of school before finals so that was kind of to be expected, but Monday I had huge test that I didn't spend much time studying for...thought I failed it. Then Monday evening Tori (roomate) starts feeling sick...she spends all of tuesday and wednesday bed ridden with the flu. Poor baby :(, it was so hard cause she was so helpless. Low and behold...Wednesday were out watching TV at a friends sisters place...and I start feeling really sick. Wednesday night I go to bed feeling pretty awful and dont get a very good night's sleep. I wake up on thursday morning feeling like I had been run over by a semi truck. It was AWFUL. So thursday and friday I spent all day in bed..doing absoluetely nothing and feeling like death on a stick. Saturday rolls around and I wake up thinking...I'm gonna get some dayquil so I can feel a bit better, roll out of bed...and...wow my neck reallly hurts. Not just an ache..it is in awful pain. I proceed to the drug store...trying to get a hold of my mom and am not successful till I finally get to safeway. I call her and tell her and she asks..."can you touch your chin to your chest?" at this point I'm in so much pain its impossible to do that, she says..."you need to go to the ER RIGHT NOW"...and of course I get all emotional and scared cause she's freakin out!

I proceed to the ER with my dear friend Janie...she's an ANGEL. She takes care of me and gets me checked in and everything. I explain to them whats going on and how my mom thinks I might have menengitis because my neck is so stiff. They take a few blood samples and tests...and give me drugs. Oh the drugs :) Man was I feeling great! Meanwhile my mom is still scared out of her mind...and all this time I just wanted to avoid having to get a spinal tap. Turns out, they don't think its menengitis (PTL), looks like a bad muscle strain that seems to have affected my whole neck and head. While I'm in the ER my mom decides to fly up to Seattle, bless her heart...it was JUST what I needed. She takes me to her hotel room while I'm all drugged up on muscle relaxers and vicodin and takes great care of me. Granted my neck still really really hurts, at least I dont have menengitis. Story goes she had every right to worry because she had a patient come in this week saying that there was a menengitis outbreak at her school with people who had all ready had the vaccine. Anyways...

Today I'm feeling a lot better. The flu symptoms are finally going away, but my neck is still in a lot of pain. And my momma just left..but it was so good to have her here. I love her so much! And I'm excited to go home for Spring Break in 3 days :D

Thankful

I am in awe of what this past quarter has brought me, and as it is the last week before finals I feel it appropriate to make note of the things God has done in these past 2 1/2 months here at SPU. Going into this quarter I was rather hopeless, I doubted that I would ever make solid relationships and truly enjoy my time here, and I doubted that God had anything here for me here.

As stubborn as I was about this issue, I can admit that I was wrong. One thing I lacked at home was real close friendships and relationships with Godly women. Sure I have girlfriends at church, but none that I would call my best friend and none that I was totally ok with talking about my relationship with God with. When I threw away my need to be on the phone with Seth ALL the time, and threw away my stubbornness about not being outgoing...I found a world of new friends here. Not a bunch of friends, but relationships that were REAL and deep and loving. Praise God! For this is what I truly needed! Maybe my grades slacked a little, and I didn't get to communicate with Seth as often as I would have liked, but I invested time in the women here and now I am seeing the benefits.

What has been really hard about leaving home besides being away from Seth...is that I watched a lot of my close relationships with my girlfriends deteriorate. Not that I wanted them to do that, but my two close girlfriends and I were no longer living in the same place, we all started new lives in new homes and had different friends. Not only did we live in different places, but we have different spiritual lives. Don't get me wrong, I love those girls SO much and respect that we don't all believe the same thing...but there is something about being friends with women that believe whole-heartedly in the same thing you do, and it is wonderful! I'm not so upset anymore that my old friendships have weakened because I have seen the power of Christian fellowship. It makes me want to invest more and more time in my Christian friends at home as well as my friends here! Even though I still plan on transferring, I know I will hold on to the relationships I have made here. God is SO SO good!

I still just can't believe I have a whole quarter here...summer come now! I want to be able to see Seth for more than 3 days at a time every month!

Redeeming Love

I have been captivated by this book for the past couple days. It's an amazing story. Please pick it up if you havn't read it yet!

I had coffee with one of the interns at The Inn (the college group I go to at UPC), annnnnd she told me about a singer/songwriter with some great stuff! Her name is Alli Rogers :)

Some lyrics that are sweeeeeeet:

So I offer up my life
It's all that I have to give
And I confess that I have sinned
Praise the Lamb, praise the Lamb
Praise the Lamb
Who was slain

Almighty God, beheld in flesh
Your body, murdered and buried
Rising up, overcoming death
While our burdens, you lifted and carried

With one sacrifice
You have forever made perfect
Those who are being made holy
We are being made holy
We are being made holy

pride

I've been reading Mere Christianity for a while..trying to take each chapter in and not speed through it like I do a lot of my books. As I read the chapter on the sin of pride...I felt as though God was talking right to me. I have been so proud about everything in my life, and I must change. Right now, I don't really know how and I know I just need to surrender to God whatever it is that makes me this way. Please be praying for me.