A little bit heartbroken...

Classes started up this week and so far everything has gone really well. I've gotten a lot accomplished in the past two days. Anatomy started full force and we just jumped in dissecting our cadavers. It's definitely a different experience. When I'm in the lab, I can't think of it as a person or I get a funny feeling in my stomach. Weird, I know but it's easier to go through thinking about this neat contribution to science they've made instead of wondering about their family and loved ones.

On another note, my roommates dog attacked my bunny (Rainbow) which is a stuffed rabbit that I've had since I was three. Three! And I guess maybe it didn't really attack it as much as she thought it was a chew toy. Anyways, she completely destroyed it's face. And I got really emotional! I started crying. Not because I was really mad, but just because it's so sentimental. My grandmother gave that rabbit to me when I was so little and he goes EVERYWHERE with me. I mean, he was even in my suitcase in Maine this summer. So yea, he means a lot to me. My roommate Rachel felt horrible too. I know it wasn't on purpose, it still sucks. So tomorrow I'm taking it to Cookie (who can fix any and everything). Hopefully she can give Rainbow a "new" face since both his eyes and nose is gone. Keep your fingers crossed...

On another completely different topic...

I stumbled upon this quote and felt that I had to share it.

Amy Carmichael: "Father, I'm not soaring today. Help me."
God: "Daughter, soaring is not always flying high above the world. Sometimes one is soaring only two feet above the ground, just enough to keep you from getting tangled in the thorns and crashing against the rocks."

Food for thought

Since this summer has been pretty packed with class and traveling, I didn't really have the chance to read as many leisure books as I would have liked. However, I did get to read a few books and I enjoyed most of them. I read some books by Jodi Picoult (who I would highly recommend). She is probably my favorite author. Her books always have an interesting conflict, all of them different. This summer, I read Vanishing Acts which describes the life of an anthropologist married to an abusive actor. Suffering from a sever case of amnesia (due to abuse, no doubt) the anthropologist must relearn who she was in order to return back to her comfortable life. Easier than said, she discovers she did not like her "new" self and ultimately must decide between her baby (oh yea she's pregnant!) and her abusive husband. The answer is obvious right? Wrong. Jodi Picoult writes the story in such a way that I often find myself cheering for the bad guy or rooting for what I know is immoral. Not just in this book but in many others written by her, it is easy to see life through the eyes of the guilty. Her books often leave me hanging on by small thread of hope that the bad guy really isn't the bad guy and some loop hole will be introduced before the end. But as luck would have it, the bad guy turns out to be the bad guy (who would have seen that one coming?). All in all, her books are very good and introduce a lot of factual information into the storyline.

Other books that I read this summer (other than my textbooks) included Wicked, Pants on Fire (Cabot), Dreamland (Dessen), Lock & Key (Dessen), the Pact (Picoult), and Nadal's Bio. All of them great in their own way. However I couldn't help but notice a common theme threaded between the pages. With a few exceptions, all of these books were and are obsessed with love and giving the characters their happy ending. While these may create a fun, bubbly read, I can't help but wonder how these unrealistic love stories have jaded some readers. I'll be the first to admit, I love a good love story. I'm all for happy endings (and seeing the princess come out on top despite how horrible her actions were). In fact, I'd love that happy ending -what girl hasn't dreamt of that at one time or another?

But the bottom line is that real life is not like the stories we read or the movies we watch. It's just not that simple. Truth be told, there are real consequences for our actions. While it's great to live through our favorite characters (movie or book), society has really pushed upon happiness coming from a great love story. I agree that love is a big part of happiness, but it is not the only part. Maybe it's because I'm young and naive, or maybe it's because my priorities are so different from societal views, but I think each person holds the power to create or disrupt their own happiness. I'm the only one who can decide how my happiness is affected. Other people can play parts in this but ultimately I'm the one who decides how I react and feel towards everyone else. I guess what I'm really trying to say, is that we should be able to decide for ourselves where happiness comes from. To one person, it just might be that great love story; happy ending; fairytale. To another, it could be job success or raising a family. The possibilties are endless. Reading books and watching movies gives us a nice break from reality. There's absolutely nothing wrong with either as long as it doesn't dictate what can and should make us happy in life.

"Is this real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality..."

As my last week of summer begins to end, I have this gut wrench feeling, that I don't really know what I'm getting myself into school wise. The summer semester went really well and I passed every class with flying colors. I'm a little bit nervous about the intensity of the anatomy class. I've heard from students in the class above mine, that once you get past anatomy, you can make it through any class in the whole program. Talk about pressure.

On another note, this past week I went and visited Emily in Roanoke. It took me 4 1/2 hours to get there from my house in Montross and it of course rained the whole way. We rested on Tuesday and then we did some school shopping hitting up Staples, TJ Maxx, and Old Navy on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday we took tennis lessons from Miss Pat (who is an amazing instructor!). I learned so much from her in just two lessons. Not only did I learn the strokes and volleys, but I also learned WHY certain things are done which really helped me understand the importance of changing my habits. Playing softball for about 8 or 9 years, I really had some "not-so-nice" grips and strokes. Miss Pat worked with me on that even showed me things that I could do from my softball skills that would benefit me in tennis (i.e. footwork and serves). I worked on my serve some and feel pretty comfortable in my abilities now. I'm going back in September for another lesson. By then, my new grip should be put on my racket which might increase the comfort level for my wrist. Anyways, it was a ton of fun and I can't wait to go back!

Just hanging out and relaxing was a nice break from all of the busyness that I've participated in this summer. I love being busy and I love having tons of plans, but the driving and planning can sometimes get complicated and strenuous. Although, I am already missing all of my friends that aren't at JMU. Hopefully, there will be enough room to make a visit here or there during the semester. Just got to work on that financial aid now...Ugh

"Today was a fairytale..."

Actually, these past few weeks have been a fairytale. Once classes were over for the summer, I flew to Maine for a week, drove to Georgia for 5 or 6 days, and hosted my little sister Riley at my house (without any parents). These past couple of weeks have been a blast! I've spent a lot of time in Harrisonburg but come home a few times too. I've visited friends in Hampton and Richmond and really made the most of this summer. It's so sad to see it go.

Last week both Leslie and Kim came to visit (seperate visits) and I had Riley with me. We went to the pool most days, shopped some, played at two different parks, shopped some more, made fun dinners, went to Riley's favorite place (McDonald's), visited the SPCA, and so much more. It was a very fun, but packed week. I enjoyed visiting with some of my favorite friends as well as little sister. I brought her back yesterday because she started school today.

So today, we took Riley to her first day of first grade. I really can't believe she's getting so big! Afterwards Bai and I went with our mom to Fredericksburg and ran some errands. After I got home I went over to my grandparent's house. I visited with my grandparents for six hours. We watched Wheel of Fortune and Deal or No Deal. We had a great dinner and watched "From Russia with Love". It's actually a really good James Bond movie. It's an older one -so old in fact that Sean Connery is James Bond. All in all it was really good and I had a blast just spending time with my grandparents.

I love the summer. I'm really sad to see it go. I remember being a little kid and feeling like summer lasted forever. I remember playing outside at my grandparent's house for hours. Sometimes Laura and I would explore down to the pond, sometimes we'd go for a walk in the Apple Orchard. Whatever we did, it was outside - we were so good at entertaining ourselves. Those days have certainly past. A couple blinks of an eye and school's right around the corner. I'm definitely trying to make the most of this last week. Tomorrow I'm heading to Roanoke to spend some time with Emily. I'm pretty excited. The summer has been short, but it has definitely been full!

3 Showers, 7 days...

Alright, two weeks later and I'm finally ready to post all about my Maine trip. To sum it up in one word: A-MA-ZING. I'm not even gonna lie, this post will probably be a little lengthy but to do my trip justice there are few details that I can leave out.

Just getting there was a process. My first flight got canceled which of course caused me to miss my connecting flight in North Carolina (why fly South and then North, I don't know). I had to get re-routed and ended up barely making another flight that headed into Philly. I had a 1 1/2 layover in there and then I was off to Maine. It was really nice though because there was practically no one on the plane and I didn't have to sit beside anyone. I got into Portland around 10:20 (earlier than scheduled). Bud and Leslie picked me up and we drove to their house in Bridgton, Maine. By the time we got there it was around 11:30 or so and I was exhausted. Les and I talked for a little bit and then we headed to bed.

So Tuesday we got up and hung out around the lake. We went swimming, kayaking, and played some volleyball. We stayed down at the doc and played with the dogs. It was really relaxing. Then Tuesday evening we watched the Sailboat races and had a campfire. Bud and Mr. Spangler shot off some fireworks which was pretty amusing.

Wednesday we went to this other place that I cannot pronounce and will only butcher the name. I'm just going to call it Andrew's. Haha. We went there and climbed down into some of the pools and went swimming. The water was so low that people could get down to the bottom. Then when, Leslie's mom made us take pictures in the waterfall. It was kind of silly and REALLY cold, but it's another memory to look back on.

We also went to Frenchmen's Hole (that one I can pronounce/spell). We jumped off the rock into the water below. It was actually a lot of fun. Les and I swam further down and explored. Maine/New Hampshire is really beautiful. The sunsets and various scenery had me constantly reminded of what a wonderful God I have. I thoroughly enjoyed just spending my time outdoors.

On Thursday we did some hiking. And of course took more pictures. This bench was the perfect photo opp.

If you look closely, you can see some of my bruises on my legs. They were pretty banged up.

We also did went caving. We crawled through (literally) on our stomachs, hands, knees, etc. to go through all of the caves. It was awesome! This was definitely one of my favorite day trips that we took. I definitely banged my legs up some more though. I should have gotten a picture of that instead.

We also went to the Cascades. It's basically a natural water slide with a few rocks thrown in. It was a lot of fun. I tried going down on the tube which was fun, but going without the tube was a lot better. It was kind of rough though. At one point I went down without the tube, hit the three main sections and then got turned around by the water. I turned myself around and right as I did, I ended up banging my knee and leg into a huge rock. It left a pretty wicked bruise, but was definitely worth it.

Thursday night we also played some games and even though I didn't win Yahtzee, I still beat Bud.

Friday we went on a kayaking trip down a river. It was a lot of work but so much fun! I kayaked a little bit before in high school but never like this. I really enjoyed it and am looking at some places in Harrisonburg where you can rent kayaks and go on day trips. Afterwards, we went home and went out to a movie. We had planned on seeing Salt but when we got to the theater, Bud agreed to see Charlie St. Cloud (which was horrible) with us (he must have been in a good mood that night).

Saturday we went into town to the library and roamed some of the shops. We went to a town fair that ended up not being as fun as we thought it would. We went candle pin bowling which is really hard. Small balls and ten pins is not a good mix.

Sunday we went go karting which was awesome. We had to wear these full length suits, neck braces, helmets, the whole getup and sign our lives away in legal forms. That's how fast these indoor go karts went. It too was awesome!

We went to downtown Portland and wandered around some shops. I tried Bubble Tea (which I still haven't decided if I like yet or not).

After getting lost for an hour or so on the way back, we finally made it home. Afterwards, we decided to venture out again for another movie. This time we did go see Salt (which was pretty bad too).

Monday we just spend the day jet skiing and sailing. I can't remember when, but at some point during the week we went tubing. I had one wicked wipe out (which left me with more bruises) but a lot of fun.

I loved driving the SeaDoo and sailing. We played some volleyball and some other games. Then I had to say good-bye and they dropped me off at the airport. It was so much fun! I was so glad I got to experience Maine and spend time with such a fun family!

Kim picked me up from the airport that night and of course we had to catch up too. I was sad that she couldn't make it to Maine when I was there, but I'm so glad that she lent me her family for the week. The next day we headed to my house and hung out at the lake at my house. We went and saw Inception (which I loved-a lot of thinking but so good). Then I went home and got ready for my trip to Georgia.

All in all, Maine was probably the best week of my summer. We did so much and got to spend so much time with each other. I know I'm leaving out so many details that I had wanted to include, but so much went on that I can't remember everything.

It's sad now because all of my Spanglers will be in different place. They're all only two hours away from me, but it won't be the same as heading down to Lynchburg. Hopefully we'll all be able to make it to someone's apartment or house.

It's weird to think how as you grow-up, all of your friends become scattered around. A few of my friends are at JMU but are leaving Spring semester. I have some in Richmond, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Louisiana, and Colorado. And those are just the people that I'm closest to. My plans are to stay in touch with these people because they all means so much. Hopefully I'll mean as much back to them, as they do to me.

As for now, Adios!

"You said the way my blue eyes shined put those Georgia stars to shame that night"

Tina moved to Georgia! This is just one of the many pictures of the cars we loaded up to get down to GA! She had a lot of stuff, but luckily we made it all fit down on the trip! It was a lot of hard work. We unpacked, packed, and unpacked some more.
We also had a lot of fun!



We played around, went to a couple of bars, and even went to a Braves game at Turner Field. We ended up getting free tickets right behind the dugout! Eventually we found out that the seats were box seats and we got to sit in the AC. It was really cool. Josh and I drove back on Tuesday and I got in late Tuesday night. It was a great trip, just a lot of work. I'm still trying to recover from my summer. Looks like I'm heading to the beach though! I'll be sure to post all of my Maine adventures and pictures soon!

Sweet Virginia

After 2 1/2 weeks of traveling from Maine to Georgia, I'm finally back in good 'ole Virginia. I literally just got back to Virginia about thirty minutes ago, but wanted to write something about the past couple of weeks.

Classes ended on the 23rd of July. I went home and spent a few days with my family and then headed out to Maine. I spent a glorious week there doing all of kinds of fun things with the Spangler family. Then I flew back to VA, hung out with Kim for a day, and then headed to Georgia to move Tina into her new apartment (she's going to UGA). I just got back today and am so ready to sleep in my own bed. I'm so exhausted right now that I'm going to save all my Maine adventures and Georgia stories for later posts. I have lots of pictures to share and fun things to talk about. Can't wait to share the rest!

Goodnight!