Shiona Rae

It's really entertaining when your sister invites her burly friend over and they end up dancing on Just Dance and he's better than she is. I'm enjoying the show.

You would think that being home would make me really happy, right? So did I, until I caught a cold and am now stuck inside. Yesterday was spent wrapping presents for the family and so far today all i've done is take some medicine and start laundry. I am excited though, because tonight my twin sister and brother will be home and my mom has bunked my bed with my twin's, so we'll be sharing my room! then next week my older sister and her new hubby will be joining us for Christmas, and somewhere before christmas comes my grandparents will be coming! I can't wait to see everybody, and I hope i'm better soon so I can help bake cookies without my mom worrying i'm going to infect everyone. well, maybe i'll find something creative to do. happy holidays, merry christmas, and enjoy your family!

stuff to study for finals. As the end of the semester draws near, I can feel the christmas season blossoming. Being at a christian university really has nurtured my excitement for the upcoming celebration of Jesus' birthday. My boyfriend and I enjoyed the Christmas coffee house last night full of talented singers, dancers, and actors. The party ended at 2 in the morning and we arose early today to spend time with his father and a few older couples from his church. They were all wonderful people and we had a great time watching the Thomas Road Baptist Church Christmas special. If you are near the Lynchburg area and know of TRBC, you should definitely come out to see the show. It's great entertainment for young and old, believer and non believer alike; filled with amazing singers and a great light show, it really makes the holidays come alive. Enjoy this season of joy and wonder.

Yesterday I made my first ever Apple pie all by myself. Now in the past I had helped and I basically already knew what I was doing, but the fact that I got to do it all on my own gave me a sense of freedom and excitement. I made  the pie according to my father's family recipe, and when I had some extra pie crust, I made it into a rose at the center of the pie. Unfortunately for my rose, it's untimely demise occurred in the oven when the pie crust split underneath the rose. This made the rose sink into the pie, although it's leaves remained on steady crust. So my beautiful pie art will be edible, but I guess it's now a game of Who Get's The Rose? winner gets..... I don't know yet, maybe an extra scoop of ice cream? Jonathan and family will be joining my family the day after thanksgiving to get to know each other while we spend some time around the neighborhood. He's planning to tell me stories, and I was thinking a bike ride in the park would be nice. Enjoy t...

It's the end of the season, we have one last game to go, and I will not be there. Next week is the last football game of the 2012 football season, and is therefore the end of marching band. I, sadly enough, will not be going to said game to partake in the joys of marching band. Why? Well, since you asked: IT'S MY BIG SISTER'S WEDDING! And I honestly can't wait! It's going to be one of the most memorable nights of her life, and I get a new big brother. I couldn't ask for a better brother-in-law either. He treats my sister like a princess and I know he loves her with all his heart, even though they tease each other. Thank you Peter for being in our lives, and welcome to the family! I love you Keighley, and I can't wait to see you glowing in your dress while you float elegantly down the aisle. I CAN'T WAIT!

A night for fun, candy, and costumes is not typically seen as a threat to the beliefs of children, but I personally know the fears that follow the haunts. Nowadays if you go with me to a haunted mansion or fear festival, I will walk through either silently or I will make fun of every bad costume as we go. But when I was a young'un I was afraid of most everything around me. The Poltergeist and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer gave me nightmares, to an extent where I would spend nights waiting until sunrise to close my eyes. I would be afraid of windows  because I was worried I might see a face outside watching me, I would leap into my bed from a good distance to make sure no monsters could get me. And when I was small enough I would pile all my stuffed animals and dolls around my head and curl up my legs until I was the same size as my largest toy to fall asleep, because I wanted to look like I was a toy so no creature of the night would grab me. So be careful what you show the kids,...

What can you do on a cold windy day when you need a scarf? Well, if you have an old shirt you don't want and some scissors, you can make one! How to: lay your old shirt flat, then make a line under the sleeves cut along the line, making sure you don't have any logos showing cut strips into the shirt about half way up. pull on the shirt strips to make tassels Done! If your scarf seems too big, you can cut off a few tassels in one spot, then cut apart the fabric to tie a knot. Have Fun!

this is what a week of free time in between classes produced. A spin off of an original wedding chandelier idea, I decided that since it is now officially autumn i would create a light source that fit the season. So what better than pumpkins! But who wants to go spend tons of money on real pumpkins just to create a mess that will rot? Just kidding! I'll be carving a pumpkin soon too, but for now these are my crafty vision! So, how to: what you'll need: glue corn starch orange yarn balloons vaseline water orange tissue paper fairy lights green pipe cleaners, or fuzzy sticks directions: create a paste mixture in a small bowl. 2:2:1 ratio. There should be the same amount of corn starch and glue, but not as much water. It should end up as a smooth, thick mixture. blow up a few small balloons ranging in size lay down a tarp or towel to avoid messes and make cleaning easier smear the balloons with vaseline (this is so that your pasty yarn doesn't stick to t...

it's crafting time! Im having tons of fun turning yarn into spherical lanterns. I'm going to decorate these little babies so they look like pumpkins, then I'll show you all what they look like .

Today was a great day! I had two tests which I feel very confident about, and I am going to be watching The Sound of Music with some band kids tonight. Also, I got to go to a meeting with a bunch of government students to hear Mitt Romney's son speak and convince us to vote for his father. It was awesome! but there's another story that I haven't told you yet. A story so obscene you may want to turn away. Just kidding! It's 7:40 in the morning, and I'm sitting in class eating my Pop-tarts and drinking some water. Nobody's mind is working yet, and all the students are kind of grumpy. The professor walks in, and sets down a toothbrush on the desk. "We'll get to that later," he says, "for now, we're talking about sanctification." He then goes on to tell us how we're all set apart for God's personal use, and that when we walk away from God, we become less useful. Nobody's really paying attention, because they're all still ...

So today was spent going in and out of the Tilley after church. While Taylor was doing his laundry we went to the Tilley center to check on the Redskins game. When we went to leave, Taylor had decided that there were just enough people there to try something silly. So as we were walking out the door, Taylor whistles as loud as he can the mockingjay song from The Hunger Games and everyone in the Tilley center whistles it back at different intervals and it sounded just like the movie. After we got Taylor's clothes out of the dryer we went back to the Tilley with my roommates to play soccer and go swimming (I only made one goal on Taylor, he made almost 20 on me). While we were in the hot tub  we met a nice guy who lives only 15 minutes from me and went to OPHS. As we're talking to this guy, my roommates get up out of the water and start dancing. I felt left out, so I got up and joined them. I bet we looked hilarious. Note to self: Roommates are your best mates.

I would hope its not, but as it turned out I had no choice in the matter. But it was kind of fun. To explain: In LU each female dorm floor has a brother dorm floor, and we are expected to participate in co dorm activities. Today before hall meeting we went to the visitors center and made two circles. The girls were on the outside, the boys on the inside, and the girls didn't have to move. There were a couple more guys than girls, so there were two guy pairs switching partners together. We had a partner to talk to for a minute and fifteen seconds, then we would switch partners and the guys would rotate to the next girl. We got a topic question, and one of them was that the guys had to convince the girl they were talking to that they should get married. The guy I was talking to decided that the best place to start would be the beginning, but a few guys got straight to the  punch line making promises they could't keep and getting down dramatically on one knee. Some of them appare...

today, I promise you a painting of the view from my window. So, something to look forward to! Life at Liberty is always exciting. Friday night was prayer all night, in which groups of students take a few hours through the night to walk from station to station and pray for the requests. Lucky me, our dorm and brother dorm didn't have to pray until 7 am Saturday, so I was almost fully awake when we went. After we had finished praying for our allotted hour, we met and worshipped on the hill by Jerry Falwell's grave. The guys had reserved a section of Golden Coral for us (If you don't know, it's an all you can eat buffet that serves anything from breakfast food to dinner food, and all the deserts you could want) so we went, and ate our fill. A few of the girls decided they would like to try chocolate dipped bacon, but I was adamant that I wouldn't eat anything for breakfast that would make me sick. BUt they had fun, and so did I. Note to self: go out with the brother do...

Dreams can be a troublesome, torturous, dreadful thing. So here, internet; my worst nightmare. I was running around the kitchen doing a bunch of tasks like in those time management games; every so often running into another room to press a button on the wall. I didn't know what the button did, but there was a screen above it which showed me my next task in the kitchen. After a few rounds of running I forgot to press the button, and when I went to press it the screen was red. I went back to the kitchen to try and keep going, but i heard a hissing coming from the stove. When I turned to look at what was making that sound ("maybe I left the gas on?") I saw a small head with bright eyes lying on top of a heap of beheaded snakes. I realized that their heads had been chopped off by a guillotine every time I pressed the button. I turned to run, but it followed me, and two more were already coming out of the wall. The one I had first seen was preparing to attack, rising and spre...

yummy, right?  Well today I had a lunch "date" with my friend from home. He apparently goes to LU also, so we spent the whole lunch getting caught up. he asked if I liked Sweet Frog, and I looked at him like, "sweet what?" So he explained, "Sweet Frog's a frozen yogurt place in town," and proceeded to ask if I wanted to go sometime.  I looked at him blankly and said, "I've never had frozen yogurt before."  His mouth dropped open. He looked at me, and I looked right back at him. It was like an old western showdown. He closed his mouth, started to look serious and said, "I'm going to take you to Sweet Frog. And then once you've tasted the wonders of frozen yogurt, you're going to cry tears of gratitude and hug me and you're going to wonder how you went so long without it. Then you're going to beg me to take you every day and I'm going to have to look at you and say 'no' and it's going to be diff...

Everybody likes to shower, right? I know i do, and when you finally get to see a safety shower in use, your life gets a little better. Today in chem lab, we were learning all about safety equipment, where it's located, and what to do in case of emergencies. While our teacher was showing us how to use the eye wash station she almost put her face in the stream of water, she pulled out some fabric from a tub full of cloths to wipe up spills, and so when she went to show us the safety shower, we all knew what was coming. But I don't think our professor did. See, our lab doesn't have a drain in the floor like normal, ordinary labs. So when she turned on the safety shower, a whole corner of the room got flooded, and made everyone laugh. Except our professor. She stood there, in disbelief that a chem lab would lack something as necessary as a drain while the class just started to talk. She eventually returned to herself and cleaned up the water, but the rest of the class, that wa...

I am a registered voter, I like to stay informed politically, but put me on the spot and I will flounder like a fish out of water. Just so you know what's going on at Liberty: the upperclassmen have to have a certain amount of christian service (CSER) hours, and these CSER opportunities set up stations in a busy hallway to try and get your attention. Sometimes the tables that are set up have nothing to do with CSER credit, but they have permission to be there, like banking and scholarships. Today, it was a video camera. My friend and I had just finished eating our lunch after convocation, were headed back to our dorms and we had to walk through this crowded hallway. We had barely gone three feet when we were stopped by this guy with a camera. He asked us if we were registered to vote, we said yes, and he pushed the camera into our faces. "look into the camera," he said. "tell it your name, and why you're voting." So my friend steps in front of the camera, p...

This was my first week of college, and one of the most nerve racking things I have done. I've left home,   become self reliant, and now am starting to get into the swing of life in college. I have it easier here than most of my friends at secular schools because I get to experience God every day, I get to snowboard whenever I want, and I'm pretty sure no one has better roommates than me. Yet even though things are going well, I am having difficulties reaching out to others. So a note to myself: don't be afraid to show who you are, because true friends are the ones who will be there no matter how crazy you seem.