Catholic and College Bound

Over the summer I went to a college get together at my home parish. They gave us a book called "Catholic and College Bound." It is a book about 5 challenges and opportunities a Catholic student may face in college. It is short and to the point and very insightful. I am going to share some quotes and prayers from it.

"One of the best things about being Catholic is our belief that God is always ready to forgive"

"Take any challenge to the way you used to live as an opportunity to grow"

"Your curiosity during your college years will motivate you to take advantage of the opportunities to explore the incredible diversity of culture and life that is part of God's creation"

"When you are surprised by goodness, thank God. If you let yourself, you will be surprised by the goodness all the time"

Prayer of the Hurried Student

Dear God,

I am on the run again,

between classes and papers and work,

and- if I'm honest- some good times.

But I do not want to run from you

or believe you are ever far from me

Help me to be grateful today

for everything I received yesterday.

And, tomorrow, show me the path

that will lead me to do

what I know to be right and true and good.

Watch over those whom I love

and bring us all

into the Kingdom that your Son preached

would come

"on Earth as it is in Heaven"

by: Fr. George Szews

First Day of School

I had a great first day! So far I like all my professors and my classes are going to be great! I ate lunch with a friend and for dinner I went out to eat with my mom. I also went for an afternoon workout after lunch. So overall successful day...(minus locking myself out of my room and having to pay $25 until the hall directors are back...)

Ready for a New Semester!

Friday evening I finally made it to Bowling Green. We stopped in Louisville to visit a few old neighbors. It was really great to see them! And it was weird seeing my old house. There were toys everywhere in the backyard and a huge play set too. We arrived in Bowling Green around 8:30.

Yesterday morning I moved in! Surprisingly it wasn't busy and it was a really easy move in. I had four other people helping me so it was quick. It took me awhile to unpack some things, but everything is in its place for the most part. I am on the first floor in Bates-Runner Hall at the very end of the hall. Since we are at the end of the hall we have a room that is different than most. We have two movable wardrobes instead of built-in ones on the wall. We also have a sink that is in our bedroom. It is bigger than everyone else's too! But it is a weird shape. We also have three windows in our room which makes it extra bright. Which also means great people watching views :) It was great to see everyone again.

So tomorrow classes start! I'm excited about learning new things and meeting new people in my classes. I'm not sure if I'm ready for all the work, but I will have to be! My first class is at 9:10 so I won't have to wake up too early. The bummer is I won't be done with classes until 4:20 tomorrow, but I have a LONG break in the middle of the day.

I can't believe I'm a sophomore already!

Here are some pictures of my room:

My side of the room

Elizabeth's side

Our sink

Lovely shower curtain. Elizabeth is holding up Cinderella our pet albino squirrel because that's our bathroom theme!

Movable wardrobe and Elizabeth's desk

I'm Packed and Ready

The car is completely full.... just about. I am WKU bound! Tomorrow morning my mom and I are leaving at 5 am. It should be about a 15 hour drive. We are going to stop by to see some old neighbors in Louisville on our way down. I will be staying with my mom's friend in Bowling Green Friday night and then I will be moving into my dorm Saturday morning! Here I come WKU!

It's Cold!

For the past three days it has been in the 60's outside. It has been cold and rainy! Some of the leaves on the trees are starting to change already too. I don't want summer to end. I'm not ready to get out my jeans just yet. I hate the cold weather, I rather it be hot and humid all year round. But the good thing is I will be in Kentucky in 3 days so I'm ready for the heat.

Cape Cod and Newport

We just got back from our vacation to Cape Cod, MA and Newport, RI. It was a lot of fun! Here is a recap of our trip...

Day One:

We arrived in Cape Cod at our beach resort in the early afternoon. We looked around the area for a little while. We went to the Hyannis seaport and the shops around it. Later that night we went to Provincetown, MA which is at the very tip of Cape Cod. It is a really cute little town, but it is known for having many gay people up there. And of course we pick the week of carnival. It was very interesting. There were many cross-dressers and when I say many I mean MANY, HUNDREDS. We left before it got too crazy.

Day Two:

My mom, Chris, and I laid at the beach from 10-4. It was so pretty outside and it was a perfect day! I got in the water for a few minutes and surprisingly it wasn't that cold, but too much seaweed and other nasty things that grow in the water. My dad and Nick went golfing while we were sunbathing. That night we went to Hyannis to eat dinner.

Day Three:

Everyone except me went kayaking right outside our hotel until we left for Newport, Rhode Island that morning. It took us about 2 hours to get there. Newport is known for its mansions. We first went to the Breakers Mansion which is a HUGE house that was once owned by the Vanderbilts. This place had 15 bedrooms, 20 bathrooms, and it was 133, 000 sq. ft. The view from the house was amazing too! Afterwards we went on a walk called "Cliff Walk" along the ocean and saw lots of mansions! It was beautiful. The only downfall was we weren't expecting to walk for almost 4 hours! We had to climb rocks and there were very few exits. Other than that it was a great day to take a hike! That night we ate dinner in downtown Newport.

Day Four:

We visited 4 others mansions including:

The Elms- a smaller version of the Breakers but still big.

Kingcote -Victorian style-

Rosecliff- BEAUTIFUL! Has the biggest ballroom in Newport. Gorgeous views and a lot of weddings happen here. 27 Dresses was filmed here too!

The Marble House- Completely made out of marble and 24 karat gold.

After the mansions we ate lunch and then went to mass. We went to St. Mary's Church in Newport and it is the oldest church in the diocese. John and Jackie Kennedy were actually married there!

We drove home after mass and made it home in 2 1/2 hours. It was a great trip!

I hope to make so more trips to both of these places in the future.

St. Mary's Church

View from our hotel room in Cape Cod

On the Cliff Walk in Newport

The Breakers Mansion

VACATION!

Newport, RI

Tomorrow my family and I leave for a short summer vacation. We are going to Cape Cod, MA for three days/two nights and then going to Newport, RI for two days/one night. It is going to be fun! I have never been to either place so it will be a new experience. We are going to do plenty of site-seeing and sunbathing. Keep your fingers crossed that we have good weather! When I get home I will let you know all about it.

Fall 2010 Classes

My schedule for first semester....

CD 280 Survey Speech Pathology (ONLINE) 3 HRS

CD 290 Lab Clinical Experience (TBA) 1 HR

SPAN 370 Spanish Conversation (MW 3:00-4:20) 3 HRS

PSY 310 Educational Psych (MWF 10:20-11:15) 3 HRS

PE 101 Weight Training for Women (MW 9:10-10:05) 1 HR

SOCL 100 Intro Sociology (TR 12:45-2:05) 3 HRS

HON 300 Coll: Monsters, Maggots (TR 9:35-10:55) 3 HRS

Total Hours:17

Only 2 Weeks!

Two weeks from today I will be leaving for school. It is bittersweet. I am really going to miss my family and spending a lot of time with them. I am also not looking forward to all the studying and paper writing. I am excited to see friends though! I am ready to learn some new things and take some classes in my majors! It is going to be great to be living the college life again.

Charlie St. Cloud

I finished reading Charlie St. Cloud in two days! It was really good and I couldn't put it down. It definitely was a short and easy read. I am very excited to see the movie in theaters. I would rate the book 9 out of 10 stars.

Here is summary:

Charlie St. Cloud is a young man overcome by grief at the death of his younger brother. So much so that he takes a job as caretaker of the cemetery in which his brother is buried. Charlie has a special lasting bond with his brother though, as he can see him. Charlie meets up with his brother (Sam) each night to play catch and talk. Then, a girl comes into Charlie's life and he must choose between keeping a promise he made to Sam, or going after the girl he loves.

Next book on the list is the 2nd Harry Potter book or 2nd Chance by James Patterson

End of Summer Job

I am finally done with my job at Quassy (the amusement park). Saturday was my last day there and it sure was a long one. I started at 10:30 am and didn't leave until 9:30 pm. I worked for 11 hours straight with no breaks or sitting down! I served 1,000 people hot dogs and hamburgers for 7 hours and then I worked in the Fried Dough/Pizza stand. I'm a pro at making pizzas and fried dough now, but I'm sure glad that job is over. I liked the people that I worked with, but I didn't enjoy the work and the working schedule was wishy-washy. It was long and boring. Now I need to turn in my shirt and pick up my last check. Yes!

I also babysat last week. It was fun playing Wii, swimming, and watching movies with an 8-year-old boy! And I sure made a lot of money :). I hope they will call me back soon.

I thought I was done working.... but my family will be watching our neighbor's Golden Retriever puppy (Tucker) for 8 days. We will see how that goes. The good thing is Bailey is good friends with Tucker so they can play a lot.

Eat, Pray, Love

I read another book off my summer reading list! Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. The main reason why I wanted to read this book was because the movie is coming out next week! The previews look really good and I can't wait to see it. Also, the book is so popular that I thought it had to be good. And it was! I have to say the middle was a little slow, but overall I would recommend it. I loved her writing style and it was easy to read. It was a feel good book because she learned a lot about herself. She had many great insights too!

Next on my list to read: Charlie St. Cloud because I want to read it before I see the movie and I really want to see the movie! I will let you know how it is.

My Summer Job

At the beginning of the summer I had the hardest time trying to find a job. At the end of June I finally found one. I was hired at an amusement park in Middlebury, CT called Quassy. I was really excited to finally get a job and make some money. Little did I know it wasn't going to be a great job. They seem unorganized and I only work on weekends. I wanted to work almost everyday because I had nothing else going on. They would only tell me a couple days before that I was working that weekend. They also never told me when my shift would be over. One day it was one hour another day nine hours. They expected me to know what I was doing, but I was new. So how would I know? So.... because of all of this, a new babysitting job, and a busy August, I quit my job yesterday. Saturday will be my last day.

For a week and half I will be babysitting a neighbor and making twice the amount of would be making at Quassy! It is sooo much better than serving hamburgers and hot dogs all day.

I am very pleased that I am making some money this summer because I didn't think I was going to at all.

Hullabalou

Train

On Friday July 23 while I was visiting in Louisville, I went to Hullabalou. It is a 3-day concert with around 50 bands/singers at Churchill Downs. I went for the first day with my friend Maura! It was awesome! Even though it was sooo hot and I was sweating sooo much I had a great time listening to music and spending time with Maura.

These are the bands we saw:

1. Green River Ordinance

They were really good! I had no idea who they were but they sounded great. The very last song that they sang ("Come On") I recognized! So I did kind of know them. I bought some of their songs on itunes already.

2. Sam Bush

3. Chrisette Michelle

R & B singer... not really the kind of music I like, but she had a nice voice

4. B 52's

They were really cool! We didn't get to hear "Love Shack", but we heard some other songs. Their dance moves were hilarious considering they are in their 50's or 60's

5. Train

Great! We grabbed our sits early so we got decent sits. They sounded great and they played their most popular songs

6. Dierks Bentley

I am not a country fan, but he was awesome! It was country that I could handle and he was very good looking :)

7. Bon Jovi

The main band. They were amazing! It was fun to sing and dance along to their songs. Some of their dance moves were funny too. Even though they were small and far away the music was loud. The best song was the last one... "Living on a Prayer"

It was a long day, but totally worth it! I hope to go next year. Also Maura and I were in the newspaper the next day... the back of our heads!

Happy August!

Hey there! It has been an awesome past 10 days! I made it back from Louisville and brought some friends back with me to Connecticut. I can't believe it is August already. Only a few more weeks until school. I will be sharing all about the great time that I had with my friends and family :) Keep checking my blog to find out more.