Shiona Rae

Usually the boys we take care of are pretty good. They fight like all siblings do, and ask for snacks that they aren't allowed, but today the youngest one did something that just has to be shared. One of the older twins was riding around in a miniature motorized vehicle, and the youngest was riding his bike (which still has training wheels) when the younger decided it would be fun to run head on into his brother into the car. My sister was taking care of them today and looked on in horror praying that they would be alright. Thankfully this stunt ended in giggle fits and no harm done. But seriously, where did he get the idea that running his bike into a car, even a fake one, was alright? Why can't boys do safer things for fun?

For the summer my twin and I have taken a job as nannies for the three boys that live across the street. There are twins (J & S) that are 9 and a younger brother (M) who is 6. Today was the first day of many with these boys, and we had come prepared for a nightmare. Apparently the boys had been crying in the driveway after their last babysitter, and we didn't want that to happen because of us. We were told to be firm, but kind. An oxymoron, yes, but when taking care of children oxymorons are just something you learn to understand. We won them over by deciding to not just be their nannies, but their playmates. I can already tell that I will be in shape by the time marching band camp comes around. Honestly, these boys have motors with only one off switch: television. The only problem with that is they have a limited amount of time each day to watch it. So what do we do when they're too hot to be outside, but out of TV time? amazingly enough, these boys love boardgames. So boa...

Im finally back at home after my first full year of university. It wasn't as scary as I thought it might be, but in the end nothing ever is, is it? You work up your nerves before the big speech and feel like you may puke out your guts. But while you're up there the words flow off the tongue and you sound like you may have actually rehearsed what you're saying. You look at the roller coaster with the vertical drop and imagine the number of people who must have flown off that thing and tell your friends you'll never risk your life on it; 10 minutes later you're experiencing the craziest feeling of weightlessness, but the strangest thing is that you love it. You date someone with the knowledge that it will only end one of two ways: separation or commitment. You're terrified of both, but we all know which we'd prefer. But say you know the dumping is coming; you're scared of the pain that's about to hit, but once it's over you realize that being singl...

So today was my last day on the dorm, and it was graduation day. I woke up at 5:30 for breakfast at 6 only to find out that our band director had unintentionally lied to us band kids and that food would not be served until 7. At 7 we were supposed to be heading down to the football stadium to set up at 7:30. So I went back to my dorm and got dressed for performance and headed to the stadium after watching a few muppet videos on YouTube. There it was muggy and cold for the entire commencement, with a few rain drops falling sparsely, so that my bassoon almost got wet. But that was ok, we were given a poncho for if it rained, and I had already decided that it should go on the instrument first, because I can get over a cold, but my instrument cannot recover from water damage. During commencement we played Pomp and Circumstance for a good 20 minutes, and then had to play 5 other songs throughout the service. It was over by half past noon, and we put our instruments away for the summer. I th...

Today is my last full day on the dorms. Tomorrow I can finally retreat home to my nice bed for a night, then we are heading up to MA to visit family. I woke up at a leisurely 9:30 am with no alarm set, and didn't really do much during the morning. For a while I was sat on my bed watching remastered Doctor Who and listening to the sounds of a girl moving her stuff out. After that, my friend Ashely joined me in my room and I hung my band dress up by the window to air it out (unlucky me, it still stank after going on tour) and while we were waiting to leave we played a few rounds of UNO. When we were bored with that it was near enough time to leave that my roommate did my hair up all fancy, I did my makeup, grabbed my bassoon, and headed out the door to the Vines Center. There I ate an early pizza dinner and we set up for some Pre-Commencement thingy. We did that, and now I'm back in the dorm sat on my bed watching Doctor Who.

Today was not a day of complete awareness. I woke up at 7, went back to sleep, woke up at 9, and went back to sleep till noon. At this point my phone had dropped off my bed. I attempted to reach over the edge of my bed to grab the phone, but found myself on the floor after a fight with my bed sheets. At this sudden drop my roommate became aware of the fact that I, the monster, had awoken and told me "that's the bed's way of telling you to get up." So I did, and after waiting an hour, we went and grabbed lunch with some choir kids who had to stay on campus for graduation also. After I made some new friends I went back to my dorm and watched some original Dr Who season 1 until it was time to head out to a band picnic. At this picnic I was welcomed with the gift of a t-shirt portraying our band show from this year and an invitation to play softball. I decided it would be best not to show off my "skills" at softball and opted to fail at something new. Disk golf....

I woke up this morning with the sun shining through my window. I don't know how it managed this, as the sky was covered in clouds, but nevertheless, thus I was awoken. I didn't want to go to breakfast alone, so I texted another band girl and we went together. We have spent the day together since then, playing cards, drinking cocoa, and for a small while cleaning our instruments. It also happens to be my roommate's birthday, so I gave her a hug and have promised to do as she wishes tonight. It's 6 and the rain has finally ceased, and now it looks as if it were only noon. Ah well, at least there's cake. and more cocoa.

So today was the last day of exams, and all the boxes in the halls keep walking out the door. I slept in until I was awoken by a shout of "MAN ON THE HALL" by someone's dad, helping move her out. Then I went to lunch with my boyfriend/now best friend and we played pool until it was time for him to get his allergy shots. We talked about things and then he had to go home. I skyped with my forever bestie, she and I shared some songs and talked. I was thinking about maybe painting a picture, but just went for a sketch instead. Tomorrow I might paint it. Or later tonight. I have nothing else to do, and Facebook is boring me. Or maybe I'll knit a tea cozy? I have enough yarn.... it's a strong possibility. If I can remember where I put my movies, I might watch Tangled again, or Anastasia.... or the Little Rascals. Oh well, I have until Saturday to do all these things. woo.

Today we celebrated the birthday of my boyfriend's roomie. We held a surprise party in the clubhouse movie room and watched the Avengers then went to the volleyball courts where the Olympians within decided to come out and destroy. In other words we ran around like headless chickens, but had fun in the process! And Tuesday will be the last official day of classes before exams which will conclude my freshman year here at Liberty University: the United States' largest Christian university! Go flames! As soon as these tests are over I am going to lie around and sleep until commencement ( I have to stay an extra week because of band). It's going to be amazing!

Do you ever have those days where you've gotten so confused you're not sure what to do with yourself? Yeah? Well that's been my week so far. I don't know what to do with myself but read. That's what I usually did before I got a life, but now my life is busy with school and I find that I'm reading books for classes instead of for fun. I can not wait to get out of here for summer so I can actually spend time with the people I care about, instead of having to squeeze them into a schedule. Plus I'll have a job this summer, which means money for school next year and experience for future jobs! I'm rambling now.... Bye

For the first time since I came to school, I find myself in my room coughing up a lung. So what can I do but sit and imagine myself British while I drink some tea and watch the third season of Downton Abbey? It's only for a while until I get dressed for the day and then I shall be studying for a test Monday. I suppose the best thing to do would be to stay inside today so tomorrow I'll be able to go to church. Pray for me?

With all the sad stuff that has been happening lately, it will be nice to finally get a break. I can't wait to just sit back, relax and sleep..... Oh wait..... I'm in the band. Which means that I'm going on a tour de the south east coast of America! One stop of which is Orlando, Florida! Which means Harry Potter world, and candy, and roller coasters! But no family time, no nap time, no sleeping in, hardly any (if at all) personal time, and only Skype calls with my man. Not sure if pros can outweigh not getting to spend time with my mom after the tragedy that struck our family last week, or the thrills of going hiking with Jonathan, or the joys of sleep to a sleep deprived college student. We'll see. Pray for my family, that they can get through this with their heads held high.

So this weekend is college for a weekend (cfaw) at LU. All these potential students have overrun the campus and are taking our seats in convocation. The dining hall actually makes good food for these weekends to entice the high schoolers to come here, so that was good. Usually these weekends are upsetting and make a bunch of students upset, but I have had an uncommonly happy Friday. I woke up groggy but had a good laugh at breakfast and in biblical worldview 102. I guess that set up the rest of the day to be good and I have been hyper all day. Now that night has fallen, however, it is time to enjoy the night life of LU and go see the play. This week the school is putting on Rogers and Hammerstein's carousel. I really loved watching this play on VHS growing up so I'm excited. I'll tell you how it was later.

So we didn't have convocation today. Which, for those who don't know, is when all the students at Liberty University meet in the vines center (our basketball/volleyball/concert arena) and we worship and then listen to a guest speaker. So I decided to just go to my communications 101 classroom and sit here. I just downloaded the blogger app on my phone so i can blog on the go which is pretty cool I guess. But what I know is cool is that last night after 9 hours of knitting, at exactly 10:03 pm, I finished knitting that purple scarf. So now I'm sitting here, wrapped cozily in my purple scarf just waiting for class to start. I still have 44 minutes until it begins though and I've already re-read the chapter in our textbook that we have a quiz on. Oh well, I guess I'll just go stumble around craft gawker to figure out what I want to do tomorrow. If I can't find anything, maybe I'll actually upload a video to YouTube. *gasp* I'm breaking out of my shell!

I left a knitting project waiting in my closet before I got in a relationship. Almost four months ago. I decided that today I would pick it up and work on it. I almost forgot how sore your hands can get after knitting. I'm pretty sure I've been at it for 8 hours or so, but I'm still not done with a simple scarf. But the colors are still pretty awesome, considering its blue and purple at the same time. When it's done, though it will go perfectly with my pea coat. Oh sunday, why did you have to be so cold and heartless. Btw, Happy belated Valentines, hope you all had a wonderful time either with your significant others or just chilling on your own. Don't worry if something bad happened, when you feel like you've hit rock bottom you can only climb up.

I feel like whenever I post on my blog, I forget that there are real people out there who have seen this and read this. After the last post a girl on my hall asked my about how my throwing arm was and I was so put off I almost got scared of the internet. Then I realized that if I didn't want people to see this, I should never have started it. But I wanted someone to see it. I want to change the world, have my name out there and just want people to know who I am. It probably has something to do with how I've always been a silent one. I  never really became "popular" as an "insider" but more popular in the dictionary sense of having many friends. I like expressing myself through written word and find it easier than talking, because unlike talking, you can erase and rethink what you say before you publish. So I have to get used to the fact that people read this. That you, yes you, exist and probably know me. It's weird, but you finally get to see inside of ...

The first snow fall of the year, beautiful when untouched but dangerous on a college campus. I was walking back to my dorm after supper, when I see above me a crowd of people tossing snowballs down an alley. I watch for a few minutes, surveying the scene for someone familiar. My friend Robby comes to greet me, with my roommate at his side. I asked what was happening, only to be informed that the hill (a group of dorms on north campus) were being attacked by a group of miscellaneous "freedom fighters" for the circle (a group of dorms on south campus). I was overwhelmed by the mob mentality and decided that my throwing arm may come in handy for our small group of warriors. Men from the dorms came out slowly to join the battle as the hill slowly overcame the group of fighters from the circle. The circle retreated home with their tails between their knees and our men gathered. We decided that we would conquer the circle and take over campus. the warriors from the hill followed t...

So yesterday in calculus we had our first test. we've only been in school this semester for a grand total of 4 days, so you can assume (correctly) that it was a previous knowledge aptitude test. I had taken calculus last semester, and I bombed this test. Worse than any other test. ever. Well we got our scores for this semester back today, and I only missed 2 problems out of 30. That's a 93% A. Thank you sweet baby Jesus! I can officially say I am looking forward to this semester. HAve a good day all, and God bless!