Weekend fun

This weekend was pretty fun...

-Friday night I went to the movie's to see "Rendition." It was a good movie about an Egyptian man who was taken out of the U.S. (away from his pregnant wife and son) to be "interrogated" (a.k.a. tortured) for information about a suspected terrorist.

-Saturday night, I played poker with my friends and ended up winning $55.00!

-And today, I went to Apple Hill!

-I also managed to write a paper and I still plan on studying for a test before the weekend is over. I refuse to sacrifice my social life for school! There is definitely a way to have a healthy balance of both!

Bauer

My roommate, Rachel and I have had a cat, Bauer, for about 10 months now. I say the cat is mine and Rachel's but Bauer is actually Rachel's cat. He is super cute and my mom had been asking me to post pictures of him on my blog.

This is Bauer, just kicked back, with his little arms crossed.

Bauer sometimes squeezes into this little box.

Whenever Rachel or I am on the computer, Bauer sits on the hard drive and sometimes he sticks his head out by the keyboard.

Bauer likes to sit in little spaces; this is on a little shelf underneath the t.v. in my room.

Bauer has also claimed a spot on my bookshelf in the dining room!

Sitting in paper bags is one of Bauers favorite things, too.

Bauer is a very cute cat; he is still pretty small for being 1 year old, though. I think he might be small because he doesn't keep his food down well. He throws up about 5 times a week, which has pretty much guarenteed that we will never see our pet deposit again.

On a rolll...

So, today is the 6th day in a row that I have taken a nap! It makes such a difference! =)

Videos of Taylor

This video was taken when I was in MN last January. Taylor was trying to stand up on the couch; she was pretty successful but her little legs succumbed to gravity!

This second video was taken in July when I was in MN for a 2 week summer trip.

John Piper

I went to a John Piper conference this weekend. Piper is a Pastor and author who is based out of Minneapolis, MN. This weekend, Piper spoke on the things that God takes pleasure in. First and foremost (and rightly so), God takes pleasure in himself; He is holy, perfect, and glorious.

In my own life, in a round about way, it is starting to hit home that salvation is not simply believing Jesus existed, or even that he is the Son of God. While those beliefs are essential, salvation also means that Jesus is infinitely valuable, beautiful, and glorious to the believer. It means the believer has made Jesus Lord of their life. Tonight, I was on John Piper's website, Desiring God and found an excerpt from the Q&A feature "Ask Pastor John" where Pastor John addresses this issue:

What does it mean to believe?

Q. If I believe that Jesus is the Son of God the same way that I believe that Vladimir Putin is the leader of Russia, have I fulfilled the conditions needed to be saved? Or is there more to belief than that?

A. We know that it doesn't fulfill the conditions, because the devil
believes it. And we know that the devil believes it because when Jesus came into the world and began to confront the demonic powers of the Devil, they said out loud, "We know who you are. You are the holy one of God. You are the Son of God." So the Devil is absolutely orthodox in his belief in the incarnation of the Son of God in Jesus Christ. To believe in orthodox Christology is not to be saved. The Devil is very orthodox when it comes to his understanding of Christ.

So what is missing is not believing in the fact that Jesus is the Son
of God but delighting in that fact, embracing that fact, and making Christ the treasure and the Lord of your life by surrendering to him.

In other words, "belief" is seeing him for who he really is, seeing him
as infinitely valuable as the Son of God. It's not just acknowledging the fact that he is the Son but also seeing him as infinitely precious and valuable. Satan, on the other hand, does not view God as precious and valuable. He hates Christ and Christ is a threat to his own value.

But when the Holy Spirit begins to work in our lives we're not deceived like that anymore. We recognize that our value is nothing compared to Jesus' value. Instead, we just want to know him, be with him, enjoy him, follow him, and celebrate him. That transition—that change of heart, so that we are now looking away from ourselves to Christ and embracing all that God is for us in him—that is what faith is. That is what belief is. That is what saves.

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Finally, a nap!

I am so excited! I got to take a 5 hour nap today! The only problem is that I woke up after 8:00 pm so I hope I can still go to sleep tonight!

Results of my first homework assignment...

So, remember that paper I had to write about the Political Era of Policing? I got it back tonight and I got a 96% on it! Besides the fact that I earned a good grade, I am glad to have scored so well because I have succesfully figured out what the professor expects from our papers on the first paper I wrote... College students always go into the first test, paper, or assignment blindly, having no idea as what the professor's expectations are until you take that first test, get your first paper back, etc.


I had another "first" tonight in a test I took for my Interview and Interrogation class. The first 20 questions were multiple choice and get this, the first 19 answers were "A" and the last answer was "B" (I will confirm this when I get my test back, but I am pretty sure this is accurate because: 1- I pretty much knew the answers and 2- I saw him grading the tests when I turned mine in, which confirmed what I already knew). The rest of the test was answering 3 essay questions.

I only have 3 more "firsts" (2 of which are this week), and then I can exhale! =)

When it rains, it pours!

You know how the saying goes... "When it rains, it pours."

Well, it's starting to drizzle and next week it's going to be pouring when I am flooded with tests. I am not sure, but I might be willing to bet that professors have actual meetings, conspiring as to which week they are going to give tests because they always seem to give them on the same week. I am not talking about mid-terms or finals week; I am talking about the other 13 weeks of the semester. I mean, how is it that 3 of my 5 classes would have a test on the 6th week of school? The only thing that makes sense is a conspiracy! Don't professors know that I work 40 hours a week just to pay for their over-priced textbooks? That the time I spend in the evenings listening to them lecture actually replaces the time that I would spend studying? That I squeeze in 6 hours of sleep (if I am lucky) just to have enough energy to actually show up to class after work? Ahhhh... the joys of being a college student!

One nice thing about rain is that when it is all done and you dry off, the sun comes out! Rain promotes growth! Recently, I have been reflecting on this "rainy" season of my life. At the beginning of the semester, I found myself looking forward to the weekends. I would wake up Monday morning with Friday night on my mind. It quickly dawned on me though, that each day is a blessing and each day I live and breath, God has a purpose for me in it. I know I like to go on and on about how busy I am and how teachers have no empathy for students, and while that may be true, this "rainy" season is promoting growth in my life. The difference between rain pouring from the clouds and rain in the form of things like 3 tests in one week is that the Son (of God) does not wait until the rain is gone to come out. He is with me each step of the way, giving my life purpose for His glory!