Ready for break.

This week has been crazy so far. Classes got really busy all of a sudden now that break is coming up, but break is now only 2 days away. Sooooooo ready for it.

Well, this was a short read for once, just wanted to say something.

Love you all!

~RLF

Halloween!

Halloween is probably one of my favorite holidays. I know some people think it's all about satanic worship and child sacrifices and whatnot, but really, when was the last time you saw a child sacrifice on Halloween? I think dressing up and getting candy is fairly harmless, and even fun, as long as nobody poisons the candy.

Well, for the joint hall meeting this past week, I dressed up as a pirate. Of course someone had to dress up as Jack Sparrow, or Halloween would not have been complete. We took pictures of me slapping him, and he let me borrow one of his bottles of "rum" aka IBC cream soda. He then asked to borrow my corset to let his girlfriend wear to a party at VT. I don't loan my corsets to strangers, so I said no...

Anyway, last night I went to volunteer to help set up and decorate for a kid's carnival. When I got there, they asked me to have a seat and wait to be paired with a child, stating that the children would be there in an hour. This was a decent shock to me, since the sheet I was given had said the carnival was today and only set up was yesterday, but I didn't mind. Then, another lady comes and tells us that she had heard we didn't all know that the children were autistic. So I went from decorating for a Halloween party to playing with, watching out for, and feeding autistic children. The boy I was paired with, named Will, was dressed as Thomas the train and was very cute. We ended up crashing Hot Wheels into each other most of the night and shooting Nerf guns. Overall, it was a lot of fun, and when his older siblings, Steven and Lilly, who had been partnered with other Liberty students, were picked up, their mom asked if we were going to be back for Christmas, so maybe I will be. They were so cute! I wish I had pictures.

Also, last night after the carnival, I went out to Amherst County High School to help a church called Oasis with an outreach event that they were hosting. They had an amazing dunk team, which I didn't know existed, but they did all kinds of crazy stunts involving slam dunking basketballs. They gave away tons of free pizza, had a drawing for a Wii, and had an unplanned dance party in the parking lot. It was interesting standing in the area between the gym and the parking lot giving away pizza, since I could see and hear what was going on in both places. In the gym, one of the guys gave their testimony and they prayed and things like that, and on the other everyone was dancing like crazy. By the way, did you know that there is a dance to the song Jump Around? Well, I do. I looked out when that song was playing, and everyone was doing the electric slide to that song. What a concept. But it was interesting to witness these two contrasting events simultaneously. I think big things may be getting ready to happen in Amhurst. I may be getting more involved with this church in the near future.

As for today, Halloween, I am going to be working at the theater from 5:30-11:30, which is sad because we're going to be slammed since we have Saw VI and Halloween 2, and maybe even Nightmare Before Christmas 3D, and also because I'd rather be doing other things. But, I can't complain a whole lot, since I was partly expecting to be fired after what happened recently. I may go to Wal-mart tonight and get some discounted Halloween candy to make myself feel better.

Anyway, I hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween! I may possibly be back home for Thanksgiving break, so if you want to see me then, let me know!

Love and lots of candy,

~RLF

If you want to pray for me....

I know some of you reading this are not Christians, and that's ok. However, some of you are, and I know how some of us love prayer requests. So, if you'd like to pray for me, here are some things you can pray for:

-me figuring out if I'm going to stay a biology major or switch to psychology, and how to use my major in the future

-relationships with others Nothing terrible has happened, I just get short tempered with people sometimes, and that's not fair to them.

-summer plans- I'm considering joining staff for Lift Student Ministries for the summer, and/or going to Costa Rica as a small group leader through Liberty.

-finances!! -Finding money to take some tests so I can test out of a few courses, cutting down the amount of time I actually have to stay in college, and pay for it. Also, for me to get the scholarships I need to stay in school!

Thank you for your prayers! Let me know if there's anything I can do for any of you.

Much love and thanks,

~RLF

Halfway through the semester...

Well, things are going reasonably decent still. Ironically, I've had a problem making it to church since I've been here, but that is improving. Today's sermon was pretty good. We just had mid-terms this past week, which were alright. It's hard to believe the semester's half gone already, but that's alright I guess.

In other news, my job has been going well, except this past week. At the beginning of each week, I call to get my work schedule. At the beginning of last week, I was told by one of my co-workers that I was not on the schedule, which upset me, but I was alright with that since it gave me more time to study for my exams. However, I called today to get my schedule, and my manager answered. She informed me that I was supposed to have been there yesterday and today, but that she got someone to cover for me. As you can imagine, I was not happy about that. I basically was lied to and had someone else take 14 hours, my average work week, away from me, along with about $100 out of my paycheck. It might not be to you, but to me, $100 is a lot of money. Lesson: go in to check the schedule

On the bright side, the weather is perfect, 70s and sunny, and the trees changing color all over the mountains is beautiful. In about an hour, I leave to go up to Snowflex, where I will be an extra in a movie being shot up there today, called The Potential Inside. I'm not sure exactly what the movie is about, but I know it involves bike racing and they need spectators, so I'm going to go and spectate.

After that, I'm going to go to work and talk to my manager about this scheduling issue, make sure I'm not in danger of getting fired, and possibly get put on the schedule for this week.

In addition, for our weekly hall meeting, we will be having a joint-hall meeting with our brother and sister dorms for Halloween. We get to dress up, and I'm sure whatever we end up doing will be interesting because it always is when all of us get together....And we'll be in costumes, so that makes things open to a lot more possibilities.

Alright, well I will update again fairly soon.

Much love,

~ RLF

Carmike Cinema and a Funny Flash Video

Before you read this, if you are interested in what Liberty university is all about, watch this video (LU students and alumni will get a kick out of this):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ffJK9GhZ40


Hello everyone, here's another update.

I started my job at a local theater this past Friday. Today was my second day, but the manager said I'm doing really well, and it doesn't seem too complicated or stressful. So far I'm not working a lot of days, but I get 7 hour shifts, which I think I like better than working 2 or 4 hour shifts almost every day. That way I'm still working, but I still have time to focus on my school work.

Went to Nelson Co. to pick apples and pumpkins with my hall and our brother and sister dorms. I had the most amazing Fuji apple and apple cider ever. No lie, the apple was bigger than my fist. The orchard was on the side of the mountain, so it was really nice up there, and the weather was perfect. Not too hot or cold or sunny or cloudy, just perfect. Got back in time for the second half of the Liberty vs. West Virginia Wesleyan game, which we won 45-7. After that, there was a Leeland and Brandon Heath concert with Francesca Battistelli as a guest performer. I volunteered for Food for the Hungry which is a child sponsorship program that I support and helped 50 kids get sponsored. for more information on Food for the Hungry, you can visit their website at http://www.fh.org/ . I sound like a commercial now...Haha. Well I really love what they do, so I can't help it. It's not just another one of those programs. They don't just give the kids and their families stuff. They provide the means for the entire village to support itself.

Classes are going decently well. Mid-terms are coming up, so that's exciting...

Seriously, I'm excited about the prospect of doing a psychology lab though. I think I may let them hook their machines up to me just because I think that would be really interesting.

Alright, might possibly see you guys soon for fall break if I'm off at all this weekend!

Love you all!

~RLF

P.S. I haven't gotten any care packages in a while..... ;-D

Getting Established

Wow, I just realized how long it's been since I posted here last. Sorry about that. Basic breakdown of the last few weeks:

In the last few weeks I guess I have been learning about my professors' expectations. My grades are not where I'd like them to be, but that will get better now that I know what they are looking for and have figured out what I need to do to make that happen. So far my favorite classes are still psychology and contemporary issues because of the course content and the instructor's teaching styles that require you to develop your own opinions on things and to challenge theirs.

I know a lot of people have been wondering about my employment status. I got called today by the movie theater I applied to and they want me to come in and fill out my legal paperwork tomorrow. The owner of a local coffeehouse, The Drowsy Poet, owned by a Jamaican that goes by Smiley who sells awesome coffee and Jamaican food, that I have decided I really like asked me to fill out a paper with my hours of availability and phone number, but I'm not sure that I would want to work there because then it would lose its specialness to me. I'm not sure when I'll be starting at the theater, but it should be soon.

I also went back home the weekend of September 12th/13th to help out with an event called Code:Honor that my church hosted to honor first responders and servicemen/women (firefighters, policemen, etc.). I ended up sharing my testimony with probably around 30 teens in the auditorium for the youth portion of the event, and was also involved with a short drama that we did to the song Savin' Me by Nickelback. Not my favorite, but oh well, life continues.

This past weekend, our hall went out with our brother dorm for dessert and then we came back and played the game Battle of the Sexes, which was pretty hilarious. I also found out that I guess I'm pretty good at the games Catcphrase and Mad Gab. Saturday, my roommate Jen and I wandered around downtown Lynchburg in search of the local market, which we found to be closed and failed at finding the riverfront. We did find a lot of shady alleys and abandoned buildings. My other roommate Hayley was out with her sister most of the day. That night, Jen and I went to see the Liberty men's hockey team play an awesome game against Davenport which we won 7-3. Sunday, one of my best friends from Fairfax that now goes to school in Roanoke came to visit and Jen, Hayley, and I gave her a tour of the campus and went to The Drowsy Poet for lunch. It was a good day.

Today my soccer team had a game at 5pm, but neither team had enough people, so we didn't play, but we still won because we had 6 players to their 1. Our next game is Wednesday at 10pm, and then Thursday at 7pm. This coming weekend, I plan to go back home and go to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. It should be pretty fun. I also plan to hang out with my friend Michelle K that I miss very much after spending pretty much all summer with her. :-(

For right now, I'm going to keep applying for scholarships, study some, and keep listening to Weird Al. :-)

weekend randomness

Well I went home this weekend but was occupied pretty much the entire time except when I was sleeping. We had drama practice on Saturday, which I was almost late for because I slept in for once, then today was the Mountain View baptism service. Basically, everyone getting baptized goes up in front of everyone and tells a little about themselves and why they are getting baptized, we eat a lot of good food, and then we go down to the lake for everyone to get dunked. After that, we all hang out at the lake and do stuff for the rest of the day. You can swim, go out in a paddle boat or canoe, swim out to the giant water trampoline, or go fishing, which is probably what I would have done if I had stayed after the baptisms. Catch and release of course. ;-) Yes I know, traumatize the poor fish...Anyway...Also went to see a friend and her three day old baby, who was very adorable.

Apparently I missed out on a heck of a 5 minute mashed potato war between dorms. They say our team had the most people and mashed potatos. That makes me happy, even though I would have liked to be there for it, but ended up not getting back in time.

Tomorrow:
-only two classes, plus some online review for psychology, which is technically considered a hybrid online/lecture class, meaning Mondays I do stuff on the computer, Wednesdays and Fridays I actually go to class. On Friday we went over the central nervous system. The prof asked if anyone knew how Christopher Reeves got injured was impressed that I knew he had a horse riding accident in Culpeper, lol.

-I am going to call the movie theater I applied to to see if they decided to hire me or not, and if not keep looking for places to apply.

-My hall's intramural soccer team is having their first pre-season soccer game tomorrow. I hope we do well, but I personally haven't played in at least 3 years, so that should be fun and fun to watch.

This week I am going to try to establish some type of regular sleep schedule. I barely have any school work so far and for some reason I'm still not able to fall asleep before 2 or 3 in the morning. Once I do fall asleep, I tend to wake up at least twice in the middle of the night. Wish me luck with that, I know I'll need it, haha.

Speaking of which, it's getting late so I should try to sleep now.

Thanks for reading all of this rambling.


Love you all!

~RLF