Almost There!

It's early Tuesday afternoon during the very last week of classes. I am so ready to be finished and free for the summer. This week has been good so far, but I've been having to be patient alot. And the good news is that I think I'm really succeeding!! I sat through two very long and boring conversations yesterday, and I only got up and left them 1 time. (My excuse was that I wanted a drink of water, which I went and got.) I've been learning alot about patience lately. That's one of the many ways to show love for people. I also have learned that being patient doesn't just mean painfully enduring it. I mean, I know that in some versions of the Bible, in the fruit of the Spirit, patience is called "long suffering", but I think that even in pain and suffering we should be able to find joy. And, yes, even in long boring conversations. ;-) We're called to love. And that's one step closer towards loving peope, I think...I've really been working on that. In my relationships with friends and family. I've been trying to love. Those can be difficult, sometimes. But what's really really difficult is when you have to love people who don't love you back! Ahhh...it's exhausting! But God's teaching me alot through it. And I hope I'm growing...

Finally Decided to Update... :-P

Once again, I did an awful job of keeping up my blog! I haven't posted anything since Christmas cookies!
Well, my second semester of college is about to end. Can you believe that?? I sure can't! It all feels completely normal to me. I feel like I've been in college for forever. But, at the same time, it still feels like I just started!
Some really big things are about to happen in my life, though! First of all, I am going on my first big mission trip! I've gone to New Orleans with my church and also done alot of the Hope For Opelousas ministry, but never a real big mission trip that's far away. And, let me tell you, this one is far. I am going with the BCM to South Africa!! I can't believe it! In less than 2 months I will leave. I'm going to be there for 2 weeks. I can't believe that God has me doing this! But, I'm just gonna have to trust Him. And that's all. I started raising money in November and I had a goal of $4000. That was a very big scary number. But yesterday, I got some incredible news! Out of the $4000, I still had about $1000 left, which was a little stressful, since I have to have all the money by May 1st. (And in case you didn't know, that is less than 2 weeks from now...) So, I was a little concerned, but at the same time I knew that if God truly wanted me there, then He would certainly provide the money. And yesterday, it happened! My church said that they would give me the rest of the money I needed to go!! So, it's official! As official as ever. I am going! I am going to South Africa to serve my Lord! Friday, I am going to get my Yellow Fever vaccination...
Another HUGE thing in my life is that 2 people that I'm very close to are about to have babies. My older sister Nichole, and my older brother Jade's wife, Jennifer! They're both due in August. Nichole/Nony is having a girl and Jade and Jennifer are having a boy...But here's the amazing news. I am going to go live with Nony in New York after the baby is born!!! For about 8-9 months! So, wow...
I am going to have an incredible summer though. I will be performing in "Beauty and the Beast" at the OLT, going to South Africa, and then in August, going to the Grand Canyon and Glorieta with the BCM! I'm ready!! I just have to get through the next week and a half of school first....tests and studying and stuff...bleh...

Christmas Cookies

One our Christmas traditions is decorating Christmas cookies every year. Nony is in town this week and last night we decorated our cookies :-)
Mom headed the operation by baking the cookies. Lydia and sometimes me helped with the cookie cutters. Then me, Mom, Lydia, Nony, and Lydia's friend all did the decorating.

Hard at work ;-)

As the little sister, I have always thought that Nony's cookies were the prettiest. I still think that...

My masterpiece of the night: The Sugarplum Fairy

Some of my creations...

The finished project!

The only problem is, we can't eat them until Thursday at Aunt Diane's!! We did sneak a few last night though....

My First Semester Of College

Wow! Okay, I haven't been very faithful in updating my blog, but I've got some time on my hands right now and so here I go! I'm done with my first semester of college, and I SURVIVED! I'm very thankful for Christmas break though!

The first few weeks of college were extremely overwhelming. I had work to do, and a deadline to finish it and I had to remember how to get from class to class and I didn't really know anybody too well. I mean, I made friends pretty quickly, but they weren't my friends. Just classmates and accquaintances. People who's faces I knew, but not names. But I am SO grateful to one particular person, who helped me out imensely during my first few weeks. Ashley Brown. She answered questions, encouraged me, explained where to go for class, and so many other little details that just made me feel better about this whole new experience called college. And I'll admit, at first, I hated it. No matter how much everybody assured me that it got better, I hated it. I made a couple friends at the BCM, but they all already had friendships and groups and I didn't quite feel like I was fitting in with them.

But alot of changes have happened since then. Now, I've really made some friends! There are some other Theatre majors that are fun and friendly that I like alot. But I haven't gotten too extremely close to any of them. However...I have made some incredible friends at the BCM. I finally started to connect with the people there when we went to Ignite a collegiate conference in Shreveport. Besides finally making friends, it was an amazing weekend that I spent praising and worshipping God and learning more about Him. One of the afternoons we went to the riverwalk and just had some free time until supper. I ended up walking around with 2 people that I did not know very well at all. Wiley Kersh, who works at the BCM and Ashley Hill.

Me and Ashley started talking while we were walking around and we just talked and talked and talked. When we went and met up with the rest of the BCM people to eat supper at Buffalo Wild Wings we sat next to each other and talked and talked some more! We got to know all kinds of things about each other and our families and we just had a connection right away. She's 22, which is 4 years older than me, but it didn't matter! I finally had a friend! I also made friends with Kaleb and Victoria and Matt and Kyle. We played "Extreme" Alphabet game anytime we were driving anywhere. I got to know Scott, who is the BCM director. It was a great weekend!

Soon after that I met 2 more girls. Just about every Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, they were at the BCM at lunch time. "T-Plus" and "T-Minus" is what I first heard them calling each other. Their names are actually Caitlin and Kaelyn. I got to know them better during our fall break though. A few of us spent a few nights at the BCM and painted a house for a lady in town for a service/outreach type of thing. Me and Ashley and Caitlin and Kaelyn all did that. And soon I became friends with both of them, too! Also, during that time we met Ershad and Jamal. They are 2 guys from Iran. Neither of them are Christians, but they were very interested and asked lots of questions. We were all excited to get to share our faith with them.

Since then, I've grown increasingly closer to all these people. Me, Ashley, Caitlin, and Kaelyn all have a bond that's so strong. They're all like older sisters to me. They are so supportive and loving and have taught me so much about my relationship with Christ. Plus, we have so much fun when we're all together!

As for my classes, they all went great. Math was very difficult, but a guy from church, Johnny Carriere helped me through the first few weeks over facebook and the phone. Then, as me and Caitlin got closer, she started helping me. If it weren't for those 2, I'm afraid that Math 105 would not have been so much of a success! I got a B in Math and English and A's in all my theatre classes. So, I had a very good first semester of college! Here are some pictures of some of the high points of the semester:

My first UL football Game:

That's me and Kaelyn (T-Minus) and Brittany waiting for the game to start.

Me, Kaelyn, and Jamal (one of the Iranian guys)

Wiley, Ershad (the other Iranian guy), Ashley, and me. It was very cold at this game, so me and Ashley were huddled up together in her blanket!

Apparently it's a tradition to go to Sonic after the game, so that's all of us at Sonic!

This is one night when I was supposed to be doing math homework...

Me and Ershad at the BCM one night.

A few of us got together to play cards and hang out. We also crunched Life Savers in the dark and when you chew it, it makes a spark! And we opened Band-Aids in the dark and they have a little glow...it was so fun...

Me and Kaelyn cleaning the kitchen because our team lost Cranium...

Me and Caitlin :-)

Natalie Sibille also came and hung out with us that night :-) That's me and her and Ashley

Caitlin, Natalie, Me, Jamal, Ashley, Kaelyn, Ershad, and Emad

I'm glad to be on break now, but honestly, I'm missing seeing everybody everyday!

College Day 1

Well, today was a really long day. I woke up, took a shower, ate a biscuit, packed my lunch, had a small meltdown, talked and prayed with Mom, felt better, and then headed away to my first day of college. I made it to Cajun Field to park my car without any trouble. Then I got on the bus that brings me to the campus.

When I was sitting in the seat waiting, I saw somebody I knew! It was Aaron Olivier, who was in my Kindergarten-3rd grade classes at Westminster! He sat next to me and we figured out that we had the exact same first class, which was Honors English.

When we got to the UL campus, I got off the bus and found the BCM (Baptist Collegiate Ministry) which is an organization for Christian college students to hang out together. They have get togethers and Bible studies and you can hang out there in between classes. I went and met some people over there. It turns out, one of the people in charge, who's name is Scott was attending UL at the same time as my big sister! He knew Nony! So, I left my lunch in the fridge over there and went to find my English class.

I found it very, very easily and (guess what) all by myself!!! My English class is very small. It's about the size of my dining room and kitchen. And we just have a table that we all sit around and a couple of desks behind the table. The teacher was late. And he's kind of strange. His name is Dr. Smith. The thing that was kind of strange about him was that I could never ever tell whether or not he was joking or serious or if he was being sarcastic or trying to be funny....He was a very confusing man. But he seems nice. I hope he turns out to be a good teacher! I think we'll be reading some interesting things...he likes the old stuff alot....like the ANCIENT stuff!

Next was Honors Seminar. I have to go to one of these every week. And (surprise, surprise) a boy in my English class was also going to the seminar. So we walked there together. He is one of the hugest nerds I've ever met! He's very weird. He likes computers and stuff. But he makes me laugh. Honors seminar was interesting. Right now, I'm just learning about what it really is. I don't really know what I think of it yet.

After Honors, I had a little over an hour for lunch. I went to the BCM. Once again, I found my way there all by myself! I met some more people there including a girl named Brittany and a boy named Kyle who were both really nice. After lunch I found my way back to the Student Union where Ashley Brown, a friend from the OLT was. Our next class was together and it had been moved to a different place than what was on the schedule, so she was going to show me where the new place was. When I met up with her, she introduced me to some other Theatre majors. Then we walked to our class. A few other people showed up in the same room. We waited for quite some time. But the teacher just didn't come. Eventually, we came to the realization that we must be in the wrong classroom...

We found out from somebody important that we were indeed in the wrong classroom. So, all 6 or 7 of us walked to a completely different building and found our class, which was Movement for the Actor. I'm not sure exactly what'll be going on in this class besides learning some stretches and yoga type stuff...so we shall see....

After Movement, Ashley and I walked to the bus stop. We were waiting for the bus and talking, when I suddenly realized that I had forgotten my lunch box in the BCM fridge! So, I had to walk ALL THE WAY to the BCM and get it, then walk ALL THE WAY back to the bus stop. Then I rode the bus to the parking lot. And I had to walk so very far past so so so many cars to get to mine. But finally I made it. I took a huge breath and turned on some good music! I was ready to go home!

Natalie Sibille called me on my way home, which was very nice. When I got home, I just dropped all my stuff on the floor and flopped into Dad's recliner. My sweet puppy Lottie came and crawled up and fell asleep in my lap and we barely moved until Mom and Nathan got back from the dentist. Then Mom and I went swimming and I told her all about my day.

Lydia and I watched some TV (which I never do) then we ate supper....the rest of my evening has been very relaxed. I mapped out my classes for tomorrow. And I'll be ready...

For now....Goodnight!

Ready for College

Today I am going to college. I'm going to UL in Lafayette. I have a new book sack, a new lunch box, all my school books, new notebooks, new pens and pencils, and even a whole bunch of new clothes. We made a map of how I'm supposed to get around the campus. So, I've done absolutely everything possible to make sure I'm ready for today. Only problem is that I am SO nervous! And I don't usually get nervous! I'll be leaving in just a couple minutes....I hope I don't get lost! And, Lord, PLEASE let me have some really nice teachers!

Nieces, Nephews, and Performances

Thursday morning, Jennifer dropped off all five of her kids. Claire, Ethan, Blythe, Owen, and Evelyn were staying with us for 5 days. That meant we'd have 8 kids at our house, and half of them would be 6 and under...that means we have a house full of chaos.

Thursday night, I had a show. It went well. Mrs. Heather and Catherine were there. I have to fall down onstage quite a few times in the play and I started noticing, that the bruises on my knees were growing bigger and darker each day....After a few months of rehearsal and a couple performances, my knees were really feeling the pain. Jay informed me, a little late, that for Shakespeare, he very cleverly wore knee pads all through the rehearsals, so he wasn't hurting himself again and again all throught those weeks. Pretty smart...but, to tell the truth, even if he would've told me before, I still probably wouldn't have used knee pads...I just don't like the way they look.

There's me and Natalie in our costumes. After the show, we end up taking lots of pictures. All these sweet, and usually timid little girls come up asking for our autographs and pictures with us. It's so cute!

Friday was a long boring day. We didn't do very much. We were pretty bored all day. Claire and I went with Natalie LaCombe to get her hair done. It was a waste of time and money. The lady didn't do the best job, and it costed alot. Natalie, who is going to cosmetology school was not satisfied...

Lydia and Natalie had a show that night. They are in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" at the Opelousas Little Theatre. That night Mr. Kent and Mrs. Tara Sibille worked at the door at the OLT for "Willy Wonka". On their way out of town, they picked me up to go spend the night over at the Sibille's house.

Natalie, Mikie, and I decided to watch "Rent". Michael is obsessed with "Rent". And I hate it. But I'd never actually watched it. So, I decided to give it a chance...

That was a mistake...

I didn't enjoy it at all. All I got out of it was people in bad clothes singing annoying songs...

So, before it was even half over, the disc started skipping alot. I was rather pleased. Mikie and Natalie were not.

We went to bed, but we talked for awhile in the dark, of course.

Saturday morning, we had a Theatre Workshop. Kids ages 8-12 came to the Eunice Players Theatre where we're performing "Dorothy Meets Alice". Most of the cast came. And we all dressed up in costume. Not our costumes from the play. Just any costume. We each had a character that we had to act like all morning. I dressed as a Southern Belle. Natalie was a flapper from the 1920's. Taylor was "Jacqueline" (Jack) Sparrow. Bradley was an 80's (I think) rockstar. Audrey was a hippie. Angie was a nerd. Holly was a belly dancer, I think. Chelsea was a cat. Duncan was a monk. And Mikie was Mark, a character from "Rent".

It was a very fun morning. I enjoyed playing the acting games and teaching the kids about the theatre. Saturday afternoon, we went back to Natalie's house for a little while. Then we went to the OLT to see our fellow thespians in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory".

We picked up Claire from my house on the way because she wanted to see the play too. As soon as we arrived, we went in the back to say hello. As soon as a got backstage, Mrs. Pitre came up to me. She said, "Gracie, can you do a huge, huge favor for me?"

I smiled big, and said, "Sure!" (even though I had no clue what she wanted)

She sent me across the street to Walgreens to get some glue sticks for a glue gun. They needed it to do something for the play. I needed a ride to get to Walgreens, so Natalie and I stopped Hannah Stewart (a friend from Showcase) as she was coming in the door. She drove us to Walgreens, but of course they didn't have any glue sticks.

We had approximately 30 minutes before the show started, so we decided we could risk going to Walmart. We headed down Creswell lane. Me, Hannah, Natalie, and Claire. It was crazy.

Hannah and Claire dropped off me and Natalie at the door. We ran through the store to the craft section. We grabbed the glue sticks and ran to a check out. We checked out and went back to the theatre. We made it! It was 6:51, I think. And the show was supposed to start at 7:00.

There were so many people there that I knew! I was so excited! Mr. Dirk and Mrs. Liz from church were there, to see their grandson, Connor perform. Kristi and Mrs. Diana Burleigh who are involved in "Dorothy Meets Alice" were there. Angie, Duncan, and Taylor were there. Jay and his son Jude were there. It was so fun! And there were other people there, too. Plus, all the people in the cast! It was a good night.

Willy Wonka was very cute. The singing wasn't the best. It was often off-key. But they had some very good actors and actresses! Their set was cute and clever. It was a very good night! After the show, I went with some of the cast to Casa Ole to hang out. That was fun, too.

Sunday morning, we had church. We had all the Stanford kids with us, so that was an adventure.

Sunday afternoon, I had a matinee performance. Mom and Dad were bringing all the grandkids to see it. Plus Grandma-Mona was coming. Oh and Jay was bringing his son to see it, too. So, I was excited. I love when I know people in the audience!

It was a wonderful performance. I think it was our best yet! We didn't have hardly any messups with our lines. Only a couple very insignificant ones. It was wonderful. I loved hearing my family and friends laughing at us. Especially Owen. He laughed with all his heart everytime anybody else laughed. Even when I know the jokes were over his head. He's so funny...

After the show and the chaos of seeing everybody was over and we went backstage again, I realized that my ankle was really hurting. Apparently on one of my falls throughout the play, I'd hurt it, and not really noticed during all the craziness. But, man, it was really hurting, then. It was swollen too! Everybody advised me to take it easy on my ankle until Wednesday, our next performance. I don't do very well with the whole "taking it easy" concept...

Today was another "stay at home" type of day. We just hung out around here. Lydia and Claire went to a Music day camp sort of thing that's going on all week. The rest of us stayed at home. Nathan and I had the responsibility of feeding all the kids their lunch. That wasn't as big of an operation as it could have been, which was nice. Then out of all the little kids that were there, it was Nathan who made a big mess by spilling my tea...

This afternoon was just hanging out around here. Me and Claire cooked some taco soup for supper. We went for a bike ride, even though I shouldn't have cause that's bad for my ankle...

Now, I'm sitting here while everybody else is going to bed. I talked to friends on facebook and watched some of "24" with my family...and had a nice dessert of Oreos and milk...I'm resting my ankle up on the top of the table (which feels very nice, it helps it not hurt as much) and I think that I'm kinda tired, so I'm gonna head to the bed....goodnight. :-)