The Magic School Bus

Congratulations Human Biology lab-you have successfully convinced me that science is not the route I'm supposed to take in life. Good thing I'm an English major.

So I just got out of my human biology lab. Two hours of scribbling down numbers, measuring blood pressure, vital capacities, calculating standard errors, etc. All in all, it is everything I have tried to stay away from in my college career and have foolishly avoided it and now towards the end of my college adventure, I'm paying the toll.

It was during this painful lab (which not one single person in the class finished) that I came to a realization- I was perfectly content learning all the scientific facts and mechanics of life that we need to know from the Magic School Bus. Remember it? That show with a bus that spurted wings from its sides and rocket thruster things from its rear and could shrink, time travel, and journey to all the planets in the solar system in a matter of 25 minutes. Yep, sounds like my kinda ride. It sure beats my 21-speed mountain bike.

Lets be real, I would much rather be taking that class rather than human biology in college. Plus, their labs are much more...."hands on". Except maybe I wouldn't want to go on the trip to visit the dinosaurs-lizards bigger than myself scare me. Who knew children could retain so much knowledge from a red-headed eccentric teacher and a foot-tall lizard that has horns and could drive a bus? I wouldn't mind having them as teachers.

Ok...scratch that. This lizard scares me to.

Like A Lion

This semester at Radford University has been revitalizing.

For the first time here, I feel alive.

I am finally coming to grips with how big our God really is. He is moving in the New River Valley. He is the reason for this revival.

Cant you see it?

He is surely alive. He is living on the inside-roaring like a lion.

I cant be thankful enough to be a part of the awakening.

For the majority of this school year, I have been a part of a launch team working to start a church in the New River Valley- Valley Bible Church. Through the church, the Lord has taught me so many things. I am beginning to see the groundwork for transformation in this community and it's such a gratifying experience to be on the frontline.

I have been blessed with the opportunity to cultivate new relationships that seem to have been there for years while still strengthening old ones. Valley Bible Church has helped this place not just be school to me but rather home as well.

The Lord has instilled a desire to live missionally-loving the poor and broken to give beauty for ashes-to trade in a blanket of heaviness for a spirt of praise.

There is peace in the life that Jesus has to offer and for the first time here, I feel alive.

For He is living on the inside-roaring like a lion.

Spring Fever

Im currently sitting outside squinting my eyes so I can make out what is on this screen as I type it because the sun is so bright! The weather is 65 degrees and the wind is blowing at just the right speed-enough to give you some relief from the sun and enough to throw a frisbee straight. On my way over to my friend's house I saw two girls awkwardly tanning with barely anything on. Im also just starting to realize how many people have dogs around here-have all these dogs hibernated these past 3 months? The hollow thumps of a soccer ball going to and from people are the only sounds I hear right now. And free cone day at Ben & Jerry's is next Tuesday. But this all means one thing-Spring is finally here!!!

Winter has this lethargic and depressing factor about it, but this place sure does have some spring fever! Even though winter is where the technical end of the year happens, spring still has an element of closure to it. The school year is ending and if you're in high school prom is right around the corner.

Sun and funny shaped clouds seem to provide for a good mood no matter what.This good weather even had enough power to get the girl with a broken collar bone out here to toss a frisbee with me. Sling or no sling, you would have to be crazy to stay inside on a day like this!

Scared? Yep.

So my friends and I have been going through a phase (or at least what I hope is a phase).

Scary movies. I have yet to find a genuine scary movie that has a good plot line-but that's besides the point. As much as I usually dislike scary movies I have taken to watching them more often; hoping for a make-you-jump-out-of-your-seat kinda movie.

With the movies we've watched recently, I've definitely gotten that and much more. Here's the thing though-before watching the movie I'm usually the one out of my friends pushing to watch it the most. However, at the first hint of anything scary I usually think one, recurring thought,

"What was I thinking?"

Here's a rundown of some general characteristics that I take on during a scary movie:

1-The blanket is my best friend, something to hold on to, and a good blindfold (thanks to said blanket I have yet to watch the end of "Paranormal Activity"...and I've seen it twice).

2-I'm about as jumpy as a kid in a double-dutch contest. My jumpiness may result in me grabbing ahold of the person next to me. Just this past Thursday during "The Uninvited" a dead (ish) woman hopped out from under a garbage dispenser and it made me jump so bad that I grabbed hold of my friend, Jessi, sitting next to me. Everyone else claimed that I pushed her forward and was hiding behind her. I like to think of it as I was holding onto her to make sure she wasn't scared to....yeah that's not true.

3-My screams tend to get about 3 octaves higher. I'll be the first to admit that it's hard to differentiate my screams from that of a 12 year old girl who just got tickets to go see the Jonas Brothers.

4-I giggle. Not laugh. I emit a high-pitched, short, and detached squeal. I find that giggling at the situation helps me get through the temporary terrified state that I repeatedly have found myself in these past couple of weeks.


Now of course my friends dont make this process of coping or recovering from a terrifying movie any easier. The video below is a testament to this.

So really the obvious solution to this would be to simply stop watching scary movies so I dont get so freaked out. That and just keep telling myself that the girl below isn't some demonic figure who wants nothing more than to inflict pain and suffering on and off the screen....

But let's face it. Neither of those are going to happen.