Happenings....

I realized that I hadn't blogged for a couple of weeks, so here is a shortened version of what's been happening in my life recently. I have been keeping fairly busy with school, only a few more weeks until this semester is over! I can hardly believe it, I guess time flies when you are having fun:) It really has been fun, I enjoy it so much. I have great friends at ICC, which makes it 10 times better. I also have enjoyed going to Wednesday night rotations with the ICC young group. Sophie is growing up so fast it's scary! She is really learning how to talk. Some of her cute sayings lately is we ask her who's cute and she replies "ME!" Of course she learned that on her own:) When I tell her that she is a meanie she just says "No, Nene(Lynelle) memie. Work is pretty much the same. I work only until noon on tuesdays, which is really nice, because I can come home and play with Sophie or do laundry. Today was my laundry day, and let me tell you it is quite a chore. I have to do my own laundry so I usually procrastinate and it sits in my closet for about a month until it drives me nuts enough to do it. I always feel so great after it's done though. It is pretty hard to do laundry and stuff like that, because I am never home. I guess I have to get use to adult life, like the girl who came into the bank today. She came in and said, "I'm trying to get use to the adult life, and I don't know how to cash a check so you will have to show me." I guess we all have things to learn about the adult life. Speaking of adult life, my birthday was November 3rd, and I celebrated it in Chicago with Amber Ehnle and Emmy Grant. We stayed at Emmy's sister and brother-in-laws. We went to the Art Institute(Amber got extra-credit for going there),  then for lunch we ate at the Cheesecake Factory, and lastly we shopped on Michigan Avenue. It was an awesome way to spend my birthday. This last weekend, I was in Washington for an invite. It was small, but I like it that way, since I usually get drained when there is an over abundance of people. I stayed at someone's house who was 12 and I was the oldest one there. There were 2 others who stayed there too. I decided that I have a greater respect for the older ones in the single group:) Well, I had better sign off, I here Dad praying upstairs, which means I missed supper. Have a blessed rest of your week, and shine the light of Jesus!
O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
Psalm 34:8

College Weekend 2012

The theme of College Weekend was What is the Gospel?. I was only there for a few hours, so I didn't get to hear all of the speakers, but I was very blessed by the ones I did hear. The first speaker was Bro. Darren Plattner from Champaign and he spoke on "For The Sake of My Name." I felt he explained what the gospel was more, but that was good that he did. He asked us to write what we thought of when we hear the word the "Gospel". I wrote down, "the gospel is the good news that Jesus saves, that he died so we can have eternal life with him." He stressed that there is only one gospel and it is not denominational, cultural, or traditional. He has talked about how we cannot comprehend the good news until we understand the bad news. It's very true that we always want to hear the bad news first so that the good news will be even better. He also told us that we are more like Adolf Hitler than Jesus. He had us draw a morality scale which consisted of a vertical line with God at the top and "bad guys" at the bottom. He then asked us to put an "x" on the scale of where we are. I obviously put mine right next the to bad guys, which was correct. The space in between is the gap of righteousness. Next he had us draw a horizontal line a third of the way down. It formed a cross and on it we wrote "the good news." One thing I really took from his talk was that he said God treated Jesus as if He was living my life, so that He can treat me as Jesus. That was really convicting, and even though we hear that a lot, he put it in a completely personal way. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. 1 John 2:12
The second speak was Bro. Matt Kaufmann from Bloomington and he spoke on "the cross". One of his main points was that at the cross there was an exchange. My sins for his righteousness. He also said that the only one who can forgive our sins is the one who we transgressed against. Very convicting. Also, he said that God turned his face away from Jesus on the cross, because of my sin. The whole time he was speaking, I felt so unworthy of what I have been given. When we walked up to Jesus, we walked up with sin and walked away with him and his righteousness. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5
Bro. Mark Schmidgall from Oakville was the third speaker. He spoke on "the resurrection". He spoke of how in Jesus days, they were writing about the resurrection at historians and scholars. We have eyewitness evidence! Mark also said that it can't happen naturally, but super-naturally. He also spoke on the resurrection of the new man from the old man, and putting off the old things, and putting on the new. We should set our affections above and not on things of the earth. He also spoke on death and that is our last enemy. Not satan. When we victor over death and are not afraid to die, that is when we are ready to die. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. II Peter 3:12-13 The last talk I was able to listen to was Karen Metz speaking on the Bride(to just the sisters). She talked about the bride of Christ, the church. She explained how we can prepare for marriage and it is simply being faithful to God, focusing on or relationship with Jesus, and being subject to Christ. We need to pursue him by spending time in his word, making it a priority. We need to pray, our time to praise him, bring our worries and cares to him, and faults to him. We need to practice contentment, letting his love satisfy us, and accepting how God mad us. She also spoke on purity and different areas on it and why we should practice it. It was a really good talk, especially for college-age girls, because for most of them, it really is probably the next step in their lives, and it's easy to make it an idol. We also had our discussion groups, where we went into separate rooms, with about 7-8 other girls and talked about what we learned that day and struggles we face in college. Overall, the weekend was a huge blessing to me and I can't wait until the next one! If you want to listen to some of the speakers the link is here ---------->http://www.acsermonstreamer.com/ 

Going, Going, Going....

It's been a pretty crazy end of the week, so forgive me not blogging for a couple of days. Wednesday was pretty normal. Nothing very exciting happened that day. Thursday I had some heart tests done at OSF. I actually was going to have 3 tests done, but my Mom didn't think the X-ray was necessary. I had an Echocardiogram, and Pulmonary Functioning test. We think it's nothing, but my doctor told me to have them. The nurse that did my echo was a mom of one of Rhea's classmates. The nurse prepping the room was a sister from our church and the man who did my Pulmonary functioning test was someone we have known for a long time. His wife was in my mom's wedding, and they have a daughter that is a year older than me. Their kids also go to Heartland with my sisters. I was pretty embarrassed, because of all the people that work at OSF, it had to be people I knew that did my tests. After the tests, my mom took me to Baskin Robins:) It was sooo yummy. Then we went to The Baby Shop, which is an old house that has tons of second hand baby clothes, carseats, bouncy seats, etc. We didn't find anything, so we went to Goodwill where I found a skirt for work and a cute shirt. I usually don't shop at second hand stores because I like my clothes to be brand new. I may have changed my mind now:) We also went to Wannabes, which is also a second hand store for nicer, higher end clothing. On Friday, I had class, and then worked from 2-6. After that, I rushed to Brianna Streitmatter's for Elderly Singing. We stayed later than everyone else and played volleyball in their shed....with our skirts on:) We always make jokes about all the things you can do in a skirt. When I went to Michigan this summer, we tubed in long jean skirts to say that we did. On Saturday, I went to College Weekend with Tonya Martin in Bloomington. I will write about some things I learned from it later. We stayed until about 4:35ish and headed to Ryan Stoller's for a wiener roast. We got there an hour late, but it was still good to be there. We had a very long hayrack ride:) When I got home from that, my mom had put a whole bunch of stuff from my Great-Grandma's in my room. She recently moved to a nursing home, so they were cleaning out her house. I got an awesome chair that I can use for photography, 2 afghans, some old wooden blocks, old hangers, and an old brush and mirror set. Oh, and a toaster for when I move out:) Today, was a pretty small Sunday, which was nice, and now I am waiting for Sophie to wake up. My family went to hiking, and left me with Sophie. The Young Group is going to Ben and Hannah Martin's for a wiener roast tonight, so I am taking Sophie along. She is becoming a regular at Young Group events. I always complain about taking her places, because no one else has to haul their younger siblings around, but it's never as bad as I make it out to be. Well, I can't think of much else to write about, so everyone have a wonderful week:)

Long days, early mornings

Due to internet difficulties, I was not able to post yesterday. I guess thats something that happens when you live in the country. It's probably better if I post at least two days at once anyways. Monday. We all love them don't we? A bad wake-up to reality. Actually, to be honest, I had a really awesome Monday. A great way to start your week:) I had class until 11:50 like every day. Nothing really exciting happened at school, except having fun(more like goofing off) with my wonderful friends. I got a call during class from Kristen Johnson asking if I could take their family pictures that day. It was pretty last minute, but the weather was gorgeous, so it all worked out. I meet them at Grandview Drive at 5:00 and took pictures until about 6:45. The colors were gorgeous:) I still have to edit them, but I will probably post some when I get a chance. After that, I went to the nursing home to sing like every Monday night. It was a pretty good turn out and the residents always enjoy it. I came home, and went to bed, attempting to have Sophie sleep with me on my top bunk. I smuggled her from upstairs down to my room, but she is loud enough to wake the neighborhood, so it didn't turn out to well. Plus, I tried to pretend I was sleeping so she would get bored and fall asleep. Well, long story short, it's hard to sleep when someone is centimeters from your face saying all the random words they are learned. The stinky breath didn't help the situation. As you can image, I couldn't hold back the giggles, which just egged her on even more. Eventually Mom must have figured out she wasn't in bed, and came down to get her.  I them woke up on Tuesday(today) morning at 5:30, because I had to open. I had a really good day at work, and really enjoy my co-workers, even though they all are my mom's age or older. I got off work at 3:15, so I went to Amber's and we had some really good talks:) It's always so nice to be able to have one-on-one time with her, because even though we go to school together and see each other all the time, we don't really get to have heart-to-heart talks. Claire called me up while I was there and wanted me to pick up an insect book for her for her bug collection. I ran back into Dunlap, picked up and book for her, and came home with 6 books for me:) For those of you who don't know, I LOVE READING!!! I use to read all the time, but now I just have to re-read everything, which is ok. So, I came home and ate supper with the family(well part). We never really have the whole family eating supper together, because someone is always gone. I guess that happens as everyone gets older. After supper, I went to my room and read. I already finished one book, so 5 left to go:) And now, I am typing this blog post, which I'm sure you are all enjoying reading;) Everyone have a very good week until next  post. Remember to be good stewards for what the Lord has given us!
As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
1 Peter 4:10

I live for the weekends....

Not really, but I do look verrry forward to them! This weekend was nice, because I didn't work on Saturday:) Not that I don't like my job, but it's nice to have a Saturday to relax, since I am going, going, going every single hour of every single day! Not quite, but it sure seems like it sometimes! I am going to start blogging about daily life now, just things I have been doing, and things that make me laugh, and things that make me proud(Sophie:)). On Friday, I did not have class due to our fall break! Yay!! I was hoping to sleep in, but got woke up at 7:45 to Sophie crawling on me. Not a pleasant way to wake up, but thats what happens when you have younger siblings I guess. So, I woke up, because Tessa was scared since Mom was garage saleing/shopping. I feed Sophie and Tessa breakfast(I had no idea if Sophie had eaten or not, but she acted starved!). Then I went downstairs to get ready for the day. I went back up stairs to get some hairspray(We always run out....it probably has nothing to do with having 6 girls in one house:)) and found Sophie sucking on the end of a broken mercury thermometer, and there was no line inside. I literally freaked out. I called Mom and she was like I don't know what to do, and I was like well I don't either and that's why I called you. Anyways, it's nice to have a aunt who is a very good nurse, so I called up Brittany and she said that is actually the fumes that are harmful so we should just get it out of the house and Sophie will probably be fine. So we did, and Sophie is still alive. I can't guarantee she is normal, but that's probably not from the mercury and more from having 5 crazy sisters. After settling down from that fiasco, I gathered myself up and took Tessa and Sophie to Tanner's Orchard for the morning. We went and played on the playground a while, although Sophie was a little wary of the whole deal. There was a school there, so there were kids everywhere. Tessa got bored of that pretty quickly. It was good that Sophie and I were free, because we didn't spend much time at the playground. Then we headed over to the animals. I think that was Sophie's favorite part. She loves animals! She's probably one of the only one's in our family who does. Let's hope she doesn't lose it when she gets older! We feed the goats, even Sophie:) Tessa didn't like the big ones, and I felt bad for them because everyone feeds the little ones, but I guess life gets harder as you get older....sigh. Then we went inside for some yummy lunch. Well mine was, I'm not sure how delicious their hot dog was, but thats what they wanted. Then we went outside to the playground some more, then we went inside and bought some carmel apples for the family:) delicious!! Aunt Marybeth was our cashier, so that was fun seeing her! Then we headed home, and I worked from 2-6. Here is a funny story that happened to me on thursday. I was sitting at my teller window, and I saw this black boxy thing that looked like a remote control. It was right underneath my desk, and I was kind of messing with it(problem #1). Next thing I know, 2 cops come walking into the bank. I guess it was an alarm for the cops if someone is trying to rob the bank. Why can't they tell me these things ahead of time?! After work, I went to Kaylie and Kourtney Stahl's house for the H.O.P.E wiener roast. It was a really nice evening. Saturday, I cleaned some at home, and they went up to Cherrytree to clean. I rushed home, packed up the 3 youngest girls and headed to Titus 2 at the Villa. It was Mom and Dad's 21st anniversary on Saturday, so they went out to eat and did some shopping. It was a fun evening, and I learned that tying comforters is harder than I remembered. On Sunday(today), we had a wiener roast at David and Crystal Streitmatter's for Crystal's 50th birthday. It was sooo much fun! We played knock-out, frisbee football, and even had a hayrack ride despite the freezing cold weather. So, that was me weekend packed into a book for you to read:) I really had a very good weekend, and next weekend won't come fast enough! Hope you all enjoyed yours also and have a blessed week this week!

Lessons from a Psychology Class

In my last Psych class, we were learning about optical illusions. Because I am not good at explaining things, and would probably completely confuse you if I tried, I will give you a visual aid which is above. My teacher was explaining how because there is something that blocks our vision of seeing a whole thing, we think it looks broken up or not lined up, as you can see above. She told us a story of two planes that were on opposite sides of a cloud, and knew the other plane was on the other side. The control towers were telling each plane to keep going straight so they wouldn't run into each other, but both pilots thought they would run into each other, so they moved over a bit, and ended up crashing into each other, because they didn't listen to the control tower. This easily can be taken to a spiritual level with God being the control tower and us being the pilots. So often we think we know a better way for ourselves try to adjust our course, only to crash into something and make it more difficult. Our human nature is to think that we know what is best for ourselves, but if we would just trust God, everything would turn out much better. It may not turn out how we had wanted it to, but God knows what is best for us, and his directions are much better than trying to find our way on our own. So let's encourage each other to continually trust God and stay on the straight and narrow.

I am officially employed:)

Well, it's been a month since I last blogged, so i decided it was time for an update. One really exciting thing that has happened to me lately is.......I got a job!!! Woohoo! Earlier this summer, I applied at the State Bank of Speer, which is about 5 minutes from my house. They called me back and said that they hired someone else, but would still like to keep my application. I had also put up and application on Care.com, which is a babysitting site. I had a lady call me with 2 sons that needed babysat on tuesdays and thursdays, which are the days I don't have school. I went for an interview and to meet the boys and got the job. I was all perfect until, about 3-4 weeks ago, I got a call from the Peoria Branch asking if I could come in for an interview, so of course I was very willing too. Linda called me a few days before my interview and told me that she had gotten into a car accident a couple weeks before and she wasn't able to start work until October, because her arm was hurting her. I then told her about my interview just for a heads up. I felt really bad, but she was very nice about it. I had my interview, which if you ask me, was not much of an interview. It probably only took 10 minutes or less. They called me back the next week and asked my to come in to schedule, so I apparently had gotten the job. They really wanted someone for mornings, which was hard for me, because I go to school 3 days a week, but they fit me in! I called Linda back and told her I had gotten the job at the bank so I probably wouldn't be able to babysit the boys. She said it was fine, because they found someone else, because they assumed I would get the job. How nice of them, except I'm not sure what I would have done if I didn't. I'm try not to think about that. So last week was my first week, and a little overwhelming, but I managed and love it so far. My co-workers are all moms, so I am a little out of place, but they all are super friendly and protective about me:) My schedule is Tuesday & Thursdays 9:00-5:00 or 7:15-3:15 and Fridays 2:00-6:00 and Saturdays 8:00-12:00. I will miss my days with Sophie at home alone, but hopefully she can cope without me:) I hear she is pretty difficult, because this is the first time she is home with just Mom. I don't think Mom is enjoying it so far. So I am pretty much busy all the time between work and school. I also observe at the Princeville High School on Mondays after school. I observe the kindergarten class, and loooove it:) It has been amazing to see how God has worked all of this out for me! This summer I was so bored with nothing to do and fretting over whether or not to go to college, because I didn't know how I was going to pay for it, and I didn't think I would like it. Turns out I love college, and I have a job now! God works in amazing ways. We just have to learn to trust Him, and wait on His time. For me, that was very difficult, which is why maybe I didn't get my job right away, and it took so patience and trusting.
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.
Ecclesiastes 3:11