it is finished.

praise the LORD. i finished my first year of college. i am officially sophomore. cha-ching! at indiana wesleyan, all of the freshman have a curfew and are required to check in every night. sunday - thursday curfew was midnight. friday curfew was two in the morning. and saturday it is one in the morning. this curfew really didn't faze me. i enjoy my sleep. however, there were times when it was difficult to remember to
check in. there was one night, during the week, that i was laying in bed and realized i hadn't checked in. it was 11:57, curfew is at 12:00. i had the pleasure of jogging down a flight of stairs at 11:57 to check in. BUT i don't have to worry about it anymore. see:

this, my friends, is aleshia--a desk worker--checking me in for THE VERY LAST TIME. can i get an amen? 

amen. 

probably this is super exciting. i am super excited to start my second year of college, my first year as a nursing major (instead of just pre-nursing), my second year as a youth leader at bethel friends church, and my first year as an RA of beckett east. 

i really am glad it is over, the first year that is. i miss all of my reed 2 west girls though. i am sad we won't all be together again next year but it was definitely fun and entertaining while it lasted. 

now i am on my way back to ALASKA. i am currently sitting in the seattle airport...and have been sitting here for a good two and a half hours...and still have a good hour to go. i was lucky enough to have the same screaming child behind me from columbus, ohio to chicago, illinois AND chicago to seattle. oh the joys of flying. but it is okay. myself and the gentleman next to me were able to laugh through the last hour during the constant, non-stop crying. (take note: reason #1 not to have children) 

nowwwwwwwwww. a video. this video is what got me through finals week. my roommate, lauren, was so sick of me quoting it. i hope it brings you as much joy as it did to me....even after the 100th time. =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwwpwY4lyOo

it's okay, you are allowed to watch it again. i sure did. 

until next time,

bethany

i don't read. but i am. and my heart hurts.

my name's bethany.
i dislike reading.


most of the time.

a friend of mine, over christmas break, suggested i read kisses from katie by katie davis. she briefly summarized it and offered to let me borrow her copy. but there was a problem. if i am going to read a book, i am not just going to read a book....i am going to write in it. i love writing in books. (if you are an avid book lover, please forgive me. i mean no harm.) i love writing. i love sharing books. i love love love it. i love getting books back and reading what other people wrote, circled, or underlined. this first started when i lent my purpose driven life to my older sister. (who is an avid book lover and would kill me if i ever wrote in one of her books...or folded the corner of the page....yep. i am one of those too.) anyway, she read through the book and then gave it back to me. i had the lovely pleasure of going through and reading her notes. i am pretty sure i told her she HAD to write in it. (i probably just about killed her ha) wow i feel like this is a really long tangent. back to the book kisses from katie. i needed my own copy. so i got one. and read the first...mmmmm....three pages. (?) i brought it back to school with me, and didn't touch it. (i am telling you, i am not an avid book lover) i even brought the book with me over spring break. did i read it? guess.

yea i did. don't be hatin'. you all thought i didn't. well, i read like three more pages...maybe.

the week after spring break is/was super busy. but i picked up this wonderful book and kept reading. i love it. it amazes me. and i am only on page 93. it is even taking a ton of effort to type this and not be reading.

so what is the whole point of me telling you this? well, i hate spoilers. so i am not going to tell you the whole book (ha because i only what happens up to page 93 haha). but it is about a woman with a beautiful hear named katie. she goes to uganda. she teaches kindergarten, at the ripe age of eighteen. God takes her story even further than that. the things that happen in this book make my heart hurt but i am happy to know that God has placed specific people in uganda, people like katie, to do His work. i am not going to tell you anymore about the book, but i do think that you should check it out and look at her blog. =) she runs a wonderful ministry, which you will learn about when you read the book. because you will read the book. check it out. trust me.

-b

here is the blog: http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/

here is where you can buy her book: http://www.amazon.com/Kisses-Katie-Story-Relentless-Redemption/dp/1451612095/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363409762&sr=8-1&keywords=kisses+from+katie

(look how helpful i am. i even gave you links. you're welcome.)

also...i am a bad person

okay okay. it takes me forever to blog about stuff that happened forever ago. so in case you forgot, i applied to be an RA for the upcoming school year. i am happy to say, i got hired as an RA for beckett east 3 west. =) and i am super excited.



okay. that's all now.

-b

spring break

everyone knows spring break is the best thing in the world and that it sets off the countdown til the end of school. and i have to say, that count down has definitely started. for spring break i went to findlay, ohio. (zach's home town) instead of me typing a whole bunch you can just look at pictures. here ya go. 

this is deidre hiding her face at eight in the morning. it was early for me being on my spring break. 

this is chloe, zach'e littlest sister, after her basketball game. she is a pro.

this is madelyn, the middle sister. she is a pro cooker. i am not. but we cooked. kind of...

we made oreo balls. make them. eat them. they're addicting. 

she was super excited. 

i learned to play guitar. i had a really harsh teacher. but don't worry. i am tougher than him. i am sticking with it.

so pretty much my spring break was amazing. relaxing. i ate. i slept. i watched basketball. i napped. i watched movies. i played guitar. i played games. i watched more basketball. and more basketball. =) it was a joyus time. and now....i look forward to the next break. easter weekend. here we come.

until next time lovelies. 

-b

multi-tasking

i feel like i am a great multitasker. i am currently painting my nails, texting, watching tv, talking, typing, blah blah blah. againnnn such long pauses between blogging. how is the universe surviving? things i have done in the past couple daysss:

i went on a youth retreat with my youth group! whoo! lots of teens and no sleep. the most exciting thing that happened was me bruising my ribs. laughing hurt. for days. with all of the games we played, the next picture describes how my body felt the week after:

then i did a lot of school stuff.....we'll just skip that part.

then it was my birthday! 19 years. i am so old. i walked out of my door and found this:

balloon avalanche. =) my roommate woke up early on a saturday to leave this wonderful surprise for me. i love balloons. and balloon avalanches. whoo.

the best part of my day is pictured below:

friends and family, meet larry (aka lisa). lisa and i were best friends when i lived in texas. lisa goes to southern nazarene university, the same school my lovely cousin cora goes too. we recently started talking when lisa and her brother eric found out my cousin goes to SNU. lisa is a runner and runs track at for her school. she made christian nationals, which were held at IWU this past weekend. AND I GOT TO SEE HER! it has been more than ten years. =) best thing ever. 

when we were younger my dad call me BOB and lisa, LARRY. like bob the tomato and larry the cucumber. i was always jealous of lisa because she was the cucumber and i was the fat tomato. needless to say, it was great seeing her.

that is pretty much all that has happened. busy busy busy with school. spring break is in two weeks and i am very excited for the break. =) alsooooo RA hiring letters come out thursday. super nervous. good thing it is in God's hands. =) cha-ching.

-b

random bits of my life for the past three weeks.

wow. i am terrible at keeping people updated on what is happening in my life. so excuse me if this blog drags on forever. you can just stop reading when you get bored. there is this red "X" in the upper right hand corner of your browser. it was designed with you in mind. (i just made a funny, in case you didn't catch it.)

so school. it is going fairly well. my classes aren't super overwhelming yet but i am sure they'll get there at some point. my favorite classes are probably chemistry lab and anatomy lab. we get to work with chemicals in chemistry and is makes me feel like a super smart scientist, even though in reality i just read a sheet of paper that tells me exactly what to do. and anatomy has pretty much made me a doctor. i pricked a student's finger to test their iron levels and dissected a sheep heart. how much more intense could it possibly get? am i right? overall, this semester is off to a great start. 

i have also been getting back into the routine of turbokick and piyo. for those of you who haven't ever heard of them before: turbokick is a a form of exercise that involves lots and lots of cardio and incorporates some kickboxing stuff. piyo i have heard described as yoga and pilates, but i call it pain. i have also been lifting weights. lifting weights is the new love of my life. (haha yea right) just be prepared, i will be able to beat you in arm wrestling dad. be afraid. very afraid. 

is it dragging yet? 

my youth group had the opportunity to go to winter jam. its a christian concert with 10 bands for 10 dollars. however, our church was gracious enough to buy us "exclusive platinum access". doesn't that sound fancy? all it meant was that we got in an hour or two before the normal folk and got to ask some of the artists questions. the artists that preformed included: jason castro, obb, capital kings, royal tailor, newsong, sidewalk profits, jamie grace, matthew west, red, and the beloved toby mac. before the actual concert started they invited all of the youth leaders to a secret meeting. they didn't call it a secret meeting...i just thought it makes it sound more intense. (like camping...in tents. intense.) some of the artists came back to this room to talk to us. i stood like five feet away from jamie grace, matthew west, anddddddd......

yep. toby mac. we are pretty much best friends now. be jealous. we also go to learn about world vision's child sponsorship program. we discussed it with our youth and decided that we, as a youth group, would sponsor a child. very cool. at this concert i realized i am getting old. it was really loud. there were people everywhere. 

literally..everywhere. i also decided screamo music is not my favorite.

          dear red, you broke my eardrums and probably caused physical damaged to your throat. 

but overall, it was a really great experience and i think our kids really enjoyed it. can't wait til next year! (maybe i should invest in some ear plugs?)

you're almost to the end. i believe in you. 

my latest adventure was applying to be a resident assistance for fall 2013. i filled out an application in december and submitted it in january. this past saturday we had group processing day. the first part of group processing day was an interview. some students interviewed with resident directors from the different halls. i, however, interviewed with two assistant resident directors. i was super nervous. i have never interviewed in my life. the first question they asked was my name. that's easy. bethany cummins. the second question? what's your i.d. number? uhhhhh......it took me a second but don't worry i remembered. now the third question. if you could describe yourself as any two animals, what would they be and why? WHAT?! what kind of a question is that??? of course i didn't want to sit there for ten minutes thinking about it, but there are so many possibilities....so i just said the first thing that came to mind. i bet you're wondering what i said. buuuuuttttt i am not going to tell you. cause i find it super embarrassing. i guess the world will never know. anyway, the rest of the question obviously pertained to my spiritual life and the position. it was a grand time. 

then came the real group processing day. i was put in a group with sixish people (no, there was not a half a person...i just can't remember how many there were.) we had three different tasks to complete. one was planning an event on a specific budget that completed certain objectives. this was not my group's strongest activity, but we did have a lot of good ideas. the next was putting a list of things in order of importance. we were placed in the position of an RA and had to determine which of the given tasks were most important. a flooded toilet? a car crash? the absence of a master key set? a depressed resident? all of which could possibly happen while on duty. this was difficult but i feel that my group worked well together. the last event was the most fun and one which i feel my group succeeded at. behind a piece of poster-board there was a lego figure. one person was allowed to go back at a time and study the figure for 30 seconds. after, they came back and had to tell us what they saw. they, however, could not build the legos until another person had rotated in and out of the poster-board. stressful but fun. there were different lego sizes and colors and it had to be exact. we also had a 10 minute time limit. we had been going for a while and our supervisor said we had time for one more person to go back....i was the last one. in like 2 second i got super stressed out. but i went back for 30 seconds. when i came back all i said was that a little flower lego had to be moved to a different dot on the figure. that was all i got.....and that is all we needed. whew. if i hadn't have caught that, we would have gotten it all wrong. my group also thought i was funny for coming back from the poster-board in the middle of the game and all i said was the hat on the guy is turned to the right. it's the little details right people? right. 

anyway, so that is my whole group processing day adventure. now i am waiting for interview offers from different resident directors. they are sent by e-mail. i am sure i am not the only one checking my e-mail every two seconds...even though they aren't supposed to come out until tomorrow. oh well. =)

you survived! congratulations. you deserve a gold star...but i don't have one....so you are out of luck.

until next time.

-b

oh baldwin food, how i missed you

if you couldn't gather from the title, i am back in indiana at school. anyone who knows me well, knows that i loathe loathe loathe flying on airplanes. i pray and pray and pray. i am sure there were plenty of other prayers going up wishing that i wouldn't puke everything i am out on the plane ride. well, praise God. He heard every prayer and i didn't get sick even once. this was probably the best flying experience i have had, at least flying by myself. =) it was great.

the semester started on monday and i already felt stressed. my mondays, wednesdays, and fridays all start with chapel at 10:00 am. then i go to weight training, straight to chemistry lecture, then straight to psycology, then straight to anatomy, then straight to my room to sleeeeeep. =) just kidding. i do find that i have no time for lunch, not helpful. but don't worry, my goldfishies hold me over. tuesdays, however, are like a dream come true. one class that starts at 3:15. its like a saturday in the middle of the week?! except for the fact that i am trying to be "healthy". this meant that my room mate, lauren, and i woke up at 9:30....maybe 9:40? okay, fine....we woke up at like 9:45 and didn't make it to the gym until 10:25, but hey it was early and it was slow going. overall, i am pretty excited about this semester. i do have some classes i am nervous about but i am positive it will all work out just fine and dandy.

to celebrate the beginning of the semester lauren and i drove to fort wayne. why you may ask? well...to celebrate...by going shopping? yes! did you know that there is parking for prego mommies? i recently discovered this glorious thing. also, aren't all women mommies to be? soooo doesn't that mean i can park there? i think yes.*

this wonderful roomie-date also included going to olive garden (heaven on earth), a christian book store, and a sporting goods store. we got a weighted exercise ball. the men working the store thought i was ridiculous asking for this. i think they finally realized that i actually knew what i was talking about. the preceded to linger and ask us if we needed more help. no mr. immaflirt, we don't need your help.

i also got to go back to my indiana home church and got to see my wonderful kids =) oh how i missed them. 

random facts about being back:

-i didn't miss baldwin food.

-adjusting to a four hour time difference is grrrreeaaatt. (hello three a.m.)

-i disgust having to carry a box of heavy text books and slide my id to get into my hall....also stairs are the worst.

-weighted exercise balls are great for sitting on and watching THE BIGGEST LOSER, it makes you feel like you are doing something super productive. 

i know you enjoy the randomness of this post and that you are able to grasp just a little bit of the randomness of the life i live.

until next time, toodaloo

-b

*we didn't actually park there. it was only one parking space closer. and we are trying to be healthy...so mine as well walk...right?

i can see my house from here

well not quite. i am sitting in the anchorage airport people watching. it is one of my favorite things to do. there is a little girl throwing a fit because she got a boy toy at mcdonalds. #firstworldproblems anyway, i despise flying. zach and i woke up at 4:00 am to drive from findlay to columbus. early mornings and bethany's stomach don't get along that well. however, this early morning experience was made better when the lady at the columbus airport didn't charge me $100 for my bag being a pound over the limit. so i flew from columbus to chicago and the chicago to anchorage. chicago to anchorage. do you know how long that light is? i will tell you...six hours and three minutes. but even better news, this flight was made even longer by that large amount of traffic that was occurring. i cannot tell you how many times i dozed off, woke up, and we were still on the ground...in the same exact spot. it. was. glorious. anyway, you probably would like to know that the little girl who was throwing a fit is now calmly eating her happy meal.
til next time,
-b

christmas morning

picture this. me. sleeping in on a wonderful saturday morning when all of a sudden...
                  "wake up! it's christmas morning!! there are presents and panera downstairs!!"
yep. eight o'clock on a saturday morning in early december. my RA was yelling at us to get up and go to reed hall's lobby for a christmas morning celebration.

our beautiful tree with bags full of presents underneath. we had presents and bagels from the wonderful panera. =)

the back of our present, a tshirt, representing reed hall and the theme of redemption. 

the day ended with ornament making. =) all you need is a simple ornament, paint chips, a hot glue gun, and ribbon. it was fun to hang out with all of the 2 west girls before christmas break. =) 

-b

storm before the calm.

you read it right. storm before the calm. that is how this past week felt. five tests the week before finals. i have to say i was really concerned about organizing my time in a productive way so that i could get an efficient amount of time in for each test. thankfully, they all went well. now for finals week.

this is how reed 2 west celebrates finals. we wrote all of the finals we have on balloons and hung them on our doors. then, when you finish one of your finals, you pop the balloon. it is fun to hear a balloon pop and then random people clapping and screaming with joy. i am not super concerned with any of my finals, they should all be fairly easy. =) a week from today i will be on my way back to alaska! i am beyond excited. 

-b

do you see what i see??

do you see what i see?

no...really..do you see it? it is that furry thing hanging by that girl's side. do you know what it is? its a raccoon. a raccoon. a raccoon purse. a purse. that is a raccoon. you may be wondering where i saw this fantastic accessory (please notice the "fantastic" was highly sarcastic). well ladies and gentleman, i went and watched bull riding on a friday night. who new that every friday night there was bull riding?! i have to say, we--as in iwu students--did not fit in...at all. we lacked a couple things. 1. cowboy boots. 2. camo anything. 3. a hat. 4. the love of playing in dirt. 

they had an intermission to the bull riding where they played some country music and danced in the arena. it was quite entertaining. above is a picture of the wonderful entertainment of children running around, rolling in the dirt, dancing, and riding a pony. 

here is a sample of the bull riding. the youngest kid that rode literally looked like he was nine years old. but i have to say, i was surprised at how long he stayed on. overall, it was a blast. i think i know how i will be spending the rest of my friday nights in marion!

-b

sleepin' the days away

saturdays are my favorite days. today my roommate and i slept until twelve. yep. twelve. are college students allowed to do that? i guess i haven't totally grown up yet. don't worry mom and dad. i made it a productive day.

i mean...this is productive right? coffee....blogging...anyway, i actually did get a lot of work done and decided that i work best when listening to classical music. its great. my saturday night consisted of dinner with zach and finishing the sound of music. probably the best musical ever. he loved every second of it. (probably because his eyes were closed....and he was falling asleep.) but whatever!

today my youth group had the opportunity to organize a service for our church. our pastor just had surgery so if you will please keep him in your prayers. because pastor rod had surgery he asked zach to organize this service. i led the worship, we had the kids lead prayers, offering, announcements, etc. and zach spoke. i have to say that it was a bit rough but not completely terrible. i was reminded of my youth group and the first couple worship services we led. there were definitely similarities and there is always room to grow.

we are coming up on the end of the semester and things have gotten quite busy. it seems like everyday i have a test or quiz on top of any other work that needs to be done. i would ask that you please keep me in your prayers throughout the remainder of the semester! christmas break is coming up quickly and i am very excited. i will be flying home on december 15th. it will be great to be home and have the opportunity to catch up with everyone.

well. there is some ranting for the day. have a wonderful sunday!

-B