Christmas Break

Hi!

Well, since most of my readers are here in Liverpool, I wasn't planning on updating my blog... but I suppose I will for the 3 or 4 of you who aren't here.

Christmas break has been going very well. Work is work... nothing much to report. I've been working with my RA from last year cleaning the Quads (girls' dorms). We finished all 8 floors last week, which was more than our boss expected we'd accomplish. I think that when I get back to school we're going to have to clean the cleaning closets (oh, joy). And at some point I'm going to clean my dorm.

I got home last Saturday, and have been enjoying a lot of good family time :) Christmas was really nice this year. Very laid back and relaxing. On Christmas Eve I gave the Children's Message (in front of the congregation)... I'll never do that again. It went okay, I guess it's just that it's not something I'm used to doing. When I told Rachel I'd never do it again she said, "Oh, stop Elizabeth, you will so do it again" and she's probably right. Oh, well. The service was really nice. There were two services, and of course we stayed for both. Christopher Ames played for us -- I love his music! Second service the Keller family did advent, and they did a great job of sharing their family's Christmas traditions.

The day after Christmas I got some really good time with my family. We all stayed home and played board and card games all day. I don't think that any of us even changed out of our pajamas that day. I loved it!! Today has been laid back, too.

I'll go back to school on Tuesday and start work again on Wednesday. School starts again on the 14th. I can't believe I'll be a second semester sophomore!! I'm looking forward to my classes next semester. I'm taking my beginning classes for R&P. :)

I'm running out of things to say... Oh! I got a new cell phone! It has unlimited calls and texts. I don't have it yet, but I'll let you know when I get it what the new number is.

Bye for now!

Finals Week

Finals are finished! I am so happy to be done with school for a while... but at the same time, I'm ready to dive into my next semester. Oh, well. This break is very much needed. And the money that I'll be making is much needed too.

I only had one test - The rest of my "finals" were projects, presentations, portfolios, and papers. I feel like they all went well. I got three of my grades already, two of which were actually lower than I anticipated and the other was much higher than I probably deserved (weird...).

Everyone in my dorm is gone. I think there's one other person in the building, but I'm not sure. I'm starting work on Monday full-time, so that should keep me busy enough. I also plan to work on writing the curriculum for the summer's Kid's Church (I'm thinking a sports theme... any suggestions?) and playing lots of Sudoku and coloring in lots of coloring books! :)

I guess that's pretty much it for now... my last few entries haven't been very interesting, have they? I guess I have a pretty boring life, lol. Oh, well. Maybe over break something exciting will happen and I'll figure out an entertaining way to write about it.

Until next time,
Liz

Update

For those of you wondering when I'm coming home, I will be staying at school to work for Housekeeping until the 23rd, and will be returning to school on January 1st to continue working. We'll have to get lots of playtime in during that week that I'm home!!

I'll keep you posted on stuff going on here. Nothing much has changed since my last entry... I'm very glad that my Tuesday/Thursday classes are done forever. Now I just have to get through this research paper and I'll be good for my Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes.

Blessings!

~ Elizabeth

Loss of Motivation :(

**Warning**
I just read this entry and it's basically me rambling because I feel guilty about not updating this blog in so long. I can sum it up now if you don't feel like reading: Nothing has happened since my last entry. :)

So this past week I have not been motivated at all to do any work whatsoever. It's gotten pretty bad...

Finals are next week. I have a take-home test, a research paper, and another paper due on Monday; a presentation on Tuesday; a test and a portfolio due on Wednesday; and a party for FYS on Thursday. It's that stuff due on Monday that is stressing me out the most I think, though it must not be stressing me out very much considering I have procrastinated so much this week.

I'm not sure yet when I'll be coming home. Honestly, I'm not anxious to be home. I am afraid that four weeks of being home won't necessarily be good for me. I love my family so much, and I don't want to get on their nerves (or vice-versa). We'll see. I'll come home on Friday at the very earliest.

Nothing out of the ordinary has happened recently. It's been pretty normal here. I'm finally done with Social Life stuff for the semester, so that's good. My last OPE was today. I baked the kids cupcakes and some of them drew me pictures. I wasn't tired last night... either that or I just didn't feel like going to bed, so I didn't get much sleep last night. I think I may be getting a little sick, so I'm going to be sure to get more sleep tonight and the rest of this week. Of course it doesn't help that the food in Garlock has been less than appetizing and it's been really cold out lately.

Well, I didn't have anything to say in the beginning... and I have even less to say now, so I'll releive those of you who are still reading. :-P Have a great week!

~ Beth

I know, I know

I know there hasn't been a post in a long while. Sorry about that! Finals are coming up, and suprizingly I haven't yet turned to blogging as a form of procrastination! (Of course, I have found other ways... many many other ways.) I will post an update soon! It's time for class. :)

Pressing On

Hi all,

Sorry I haven't written in a while. This week has been pretty horrible. Schoolwork is bogging me down like never before. I got so behind this week simply because of personal issues and Social Life stuff that seemed to take up all of my energy. As a result, this weekend is also hard. I'm just trying to get through it at this point and go home for Thanksgiving break. I'm so glad there aren't classes after Tuesday.

I have a research paper due tomorrow and a test that I have to do very very very well on in order to bring up my grade in that class. I got an extension on another paper that was due tomorrow also because that was just too much to try to handle this weekend. I don't know how I'm going to do it. We'll see.

Anyways, that's why there hasn't been a new post in a while. I won't go into detail about why this past week was bad, but I have to say that in the midst of it all, I am so very blessed. My friends are pretty much amazing -- and my family is, too. My dad is in town until Tuesday when he's going to bring me home, and seeing him brightened up my weekend! And, as always, I am so thankful for the friends that I have made here at school. They are a true blessing to me. I don't know what I would do without the late-night chats, tickle wars (and snorting - AUDREY!), and the time spent skipping class to talk about what's been going on. I've also been so blessed with a great church here -- and transportation!! No matter how bad things get (or seem to be), the Lord has been looking out for me. I am so thankful for that!

**In the Pictures**

Top Pic -- From back to front

Left: Sarah, me

Right: Audrey, Kelsey, Ashley

Bottom Pic -- From Left to Right

Me, Phil, Ashley, Kelsey

Happy Thanksgiving week!!

~ Lizzy

Weekend Thrills

This weekend was probably the best one yet. I worked hard, and I played hard. I ended up accomplishing my goal: to finish all of my homework for Monday and Tuesday. Horray for time management!!

Besides getting lots of schoolwork done, I made time to play! :) Come on, what is college for?

Friday night Sam and I decided that we were going to hang out, so when she got out of work she came over to my dorm to figure out what we were gonna do. I left the room for about a minute, and came back to find her wearing my clothes. Sam is so funny that way - if you put clothes in front of her (no matter what context) and leave her alone for more than a few seconds, you will come back to find her clothes - along with many of your clothes - scattered across the floor and the items that used to be neatly hung up in your closet will instead be on her.

Anyways, since she was in the mood to dress up and I was in the mood to see a movie, we got all dressed up and went to the dollar theater to see Harry Potter. It was so much fun! I think that one of the strangest parts of the whole night, though, was going to garlock all dressed up like that.

Saturday was going to be homework day, but I didn't get much done. The gang (me, ashley, kelsey, nate, and phil) and gwen, another friend of ours, all went bowling, and then hung out at BTs! That was a lot of fun.

Sunday was probably the best. I went to Northgate as always. The message was good - and very touching - it was about marriage. After church, I got a lot of homework done. Actually, I got all of it done in anticipation of going out that night. After I had all my homework done, Phil gave me a piano lesson!! Horray!! I'm worse than I was last year... and then I went out with some other friends to Spot then a service. Okay, now for the best part of my weekend!! This church service was amazing. It was a candlelight concert at Christ Church Episcopal. I loved it! I want to go every week. I think it was so cool because there was no speaking - there was a pianist and then a (gregorian??) choir. I felt like I was just sitting in the presence of God. It would be so nice to go to a free methodist church on Sunday mornings, and then this Episcopal service on Sunday nights. It was such a nice way to start the new week - just being there in the presence of the Lord. Did I mention that I loved it?!

I am looking forward to this week. I feel like getting so much work done this weekend has given me a good start. I want to do all of my homework two days early, so that the pressure is off the night before something is due. We'll see how long I stick to this.

Well, it's time for me to go. Thanks for reading!! Happy week!

Full Speed Ahead!

I have made a semi-final decision about my major. I am going to try to double-major in Elementary Education and Religion/Philosophy for a semester. If it is too much work, or I don't like it, or there are other things I want to do which I wouldn't be able to do with the double major, I will go from there. But as for now, I am very content with my decision.

I will be taking LOTS of gen-eds next semester, so I'm not sure that it will actually give me a good idea of how busy I will be with the double-major, but I'll just take it as it comes. Until then, I made the decision to put the pedal to the metal on my academics. I slacked off this week - extraordinarily (for me). I decided that this weekend I am going to commit myself to catching up on readings, finishing papers, and filling my mind with ideas for upcomming projects. I want to get my GPA up as high as possible, so that it is not as much of a concern next semester. We'll see how long this vigor lasts.

I am quite excited about this change. I was so ready for a change of pace. I think that I get restless in El Ed so easily because teaching is not all that I want to do. But over the past week I have realized how crucial a degree in teaching will be for me in the future. Not only will I use what I am learning in ministry, but I will also very likely teach in a school while attending Seminary. Also, it's a back-up plan for if it turns out that the Lord isn't calling me to ministry (I must clarify that I do not in any way doubt my call to ministry, but Jesus has many ways of working, and I cannot ever assume that I know exactly where He wants me or why I feel Him working in the ways that I do).

Sam and I were talking today about where we see ourselves for the rest of our lives (it began with Sam telling me that I have to have at least one girl, so that our girls can be best friends... and then we decided that one of my boys will marry one of her girls. But we have to live near each other for these plans to succeed). I go through stages of how I feel about my future. One day it excites me to think about the uncertainty of where I am headed, and the next I can feel overwhelmed and scared because I don't know where I'm going. There are also the days when I feel like I know exactly where I am headed, and I am so very excited about it; while there are other days that I think about where I think that I am headed and I am scared to death about it. There are so many directions that I see my life going in right now. It can be overwhelming and scary and at the same time feel adventurous and exciting! I think that the two things that are really on my mind the most, though, are getting married (of course) and missionary work. I have mixed feelings about both of these things, but at the same time I am constantly open to wherever God wants to lead me. Now that's a pretty cool feeling!

Well, this got long, and it's past my bedtime. Thanks for reading!

CMC Interview

I just wanted to update those of you who were praying for me yesterday about my interview. It went very well. Actually, I don't think it had anything to do with what I said or did. When I left the room and the MEG Board was deliberating, I told my dad that I really didn't feel like I communicated well at all. But he told me that I did - and I think that was totally God's doing. The board is going to recommend me for Conference Ministerial Candidacy. The next step toward becoming a CMC (no, I'm not one yet...) is to attend the annual conference at the end of May and give my testimony and answer questions about my call. At that time, the conference will vote and I will either become a CMC or I won't.

God is moving - and whether He wills that I become a CMC or not, I know that His plan is beautiful and perfect. I'm not going to worry about it, and I don't want to make a big deal out of it either. If this is where God is calling me, this is where I will be. If not, that doesn't say anything about who I am or whether God will use me. I'm leaving this in His hands. Thank you all for your prayers through this process.

Christmas in October?

I have been in a Christmas mood since yesterday morning. Kinda random. I'm just glad that I had a CD of Christmas music to play (over and over and over again) yesterday, because otherwise I don't know what I would have done with myself!

I'm in the Library right now, and I just finished my homework. I have another hour before I have to do anything, so I figured I would update my blog! I don't really have anything spectacular to report, though. There was an article about LIVE in the Beacon (our school newspaper), and it got a WONDERFUL review! It made me very happy. My next event is the Barn Party, on the 26th. The 26th also happens to be the day that I register for classes! Wow, that came up fast!

I am going to try to double-major. I don't remember if I have mentioned this yet or not, but I switched my concentration to Spanish (from Language Arts). My goal throughout my college career (well, one anyways) is to become fluent in Spanish. I am going to stay in Education with my SPanish concentration, and try to pick up a double-major with Religion and Philosophy. I at least want a minor in Biblical Studies. We'll see if I can end up doing the major. I may stay an extra year, because I really would like this experience.

I got my ears peirced this weekend!! That's what I spent my Birthday money on! :-D I am so glad that I did it... but I'm already wishing I could take out these boring things and replace them with fun dangly ones! Oh, well. I will be able to wear fun jewlery by Thanksgiving - which means that I need to go earring shopping for Winter Formal (which was my motivation to let someone punch holes in my ears in the first place).

I have been invited for an interview to become a Conference Ministerial Candidate! This is the next step in the process to be ordained in the Free Methodist Church. My interview is on Wednesday night, so please keep me in your prayers. I am so very nervous, but I know that if this is the direction that God is leading me in (which I think it is), He will make it happen.

I have been working very hard in my studies. I am getting pretty good grades so far, so I suppose it's paying off. Plus, I'm learning so much!! With El Ed it's weird, because a lot of the stuff that I'm learning seems to be common sense to me, but actually learning it gives that common sense purpose and reason, which helps me make more connections and conciously apply what I'm learning to my teaching strategies. It's funny to learn, for example, how to write a lesson, and realize that I was applying these strategies all summer without even realizing what I was doing or why I was doing it. Teaching really comes so naturally to me, which is a big reason why I feel confident that I could possibly handle a double major. The time commitment is the only thing I'm really worried about.

Anyways, I still have 45 minutes until I have to be done, but I won't bore you with 45 more minutes worth of words. You're welcome. :) Have a fabulous weekend!!

Birthweek and Homecomming

My birthday was pretty much amazing! I was SO overly excited about it this year - I think that's because I haven't been able to get excited about my birthday since my 16th (because I didn't do anything for my 17th, and I didn't have close college friends to celebrate with for my 18th), so it was long overdue.

My family came on Monday to celebrate with me. We went out to Olive Garden, and they brought brownies for my floor for Wednesday. It was really, really nice! On Tuesday night, I was out of my room for a long time because there was a soccer game, and when I came back to my room, my friends had decorated it with crepe paper... alllll over!! It made me feel SO loved!! At midnight I got about a million "Happy Birthday's" from the girls on my floor. I thought that Wednesday (my actual Birthday) was going to be horrible because Wednesdays are my busiest days... and I had packed it even more full with meetings and such. But the Lord was watching out for me, and all of my meetings went SO smoothly, and got out on time so I was on perfect time for my next meeting. Sam and I got lost looking for Party City, which was a ton of fun... and when we got back we had brownies with my dorm!! What a perfect birthday!!

Thursday was my very first event as Social Life Director!! We had a Glow in the Dark Sports night in the VAC. It went SO WELL!!!! We had about 120 people show up, which was over our goal of 100, and there were people who didn't even want to leave after we turned the lights back on. People loved the pizza and glow sticks and glow volleyball, soccer, basketball, and frizbee. It was awesome!!

Yesterday was my second event as Social Life Director - and it went VERY VERY VERY well!!!!!! It was a variety/talent show in Hale that we have every semester called LIVE. The pressure was on to make it a good show, because LIVE last semester was pretty awesome. Julia, the Student Association President, told me after the show that this was the best LIVE that they've had in years, and we had the best hosts that we've ever had! Sam took me out to Java's after the show to celebrate, which was just perfect!

So, basically, this week was pretty amazing. And now it's the weekend, which means I get to finally sleep!! How exciting! Why I'm not sleeping right now, I don't know. lol

My Birthday wishes from my Dorm buddies!!

Fifth Week

Lots happening at Roberts Wesleyan College!! It's the end of the fifth week of classes, and I am still loving it! Next week is going to be crazy though, because it's Homecomming week and Social Life is sponsoring two events, separated by less than 24 hours. I am going to be going insane next week, to say the least!

Today I made my switch of concentration official! I am still an Elementary Education major, but rather than concentrating on Language Arts, I now will have a concentration in Spanish. I am much more happy with this, as I know that I would have been taking a lot of Spanish classes anyways - now they can count toward my major!

There has been lots of work in all my classes. I have my first test tomorrow in Child and Adolescent Development, which I think will go well. My OPE (Observation/Participation Experience... you should feel special - I had to look that up for you!) began this week! I am in Ms. Penns' class. Ms. Penns is an interesting teacher to say the least. She has a very different personality than I do, which makes for a very educational experience for me. She is harsh and tough; a little rough around the edges, but in a way that is a good thing for her students. I think I will be learning a lot from her. I love applying what I am learning in my education classes to my everyday life!! I am taking an Educational Psychology class this semester, and it is so interesting to watch the kids in my OPE and relate it to what I have been learning.

My hardest class this semester would either be Educational Psychology or Writing and Research. I'm getting good grades in both, but it's taking quite a bit of work. I surely have never worked this hard at school in my life! First Year Seminar Mentoring may be listed on my list of harder classes as well, simply because it's a lot of work outside of class. I have to read and grade the journals of all of the freshmen in my class, and I have to meet regularly with my professor to discuss what the classes will be about. It can be quite challenging at times. I am having a lot of trouble with my professor, only because I don't think that he really understands what this class is supposed to be about. He's treating it like a literature course, which is far from what it should be. It has been exceedingly frusterating the past few weeks, but I think that God is trying to teach me that I need to just suck it up and soak it in (I have to make the most of my circumstances, and realize that I can learn in any sittuation that I am given).

Well, I'm headed off to a R&H cookout. Have a beautiful weekend!! I probably will be too busy next week to write anything.

Other Blogs

Hey! I was thinking, and I don't think that many people really know all of the ways that they can keep in touch with me. So here are some other ways that you can contact me if you want:

Room Phone: Email me if you want to know my room phone # - this is the only place that I can really talk because my cell phone has limited minutes

Cell Phone: Email me if you want to know my cell # - I can't talk for long on this because I have limited minutes, though

Facebook: Search for Elizabeth Macaluso within the Roberts Wesleyan College network on facebook.com I think you'll have to create an account first, and then add me as a friend!

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/awizabef

AIM: joy4jc2464

MSN Messenger: joy4jc@hotmail.com

Email: macaluso_elizabeth@roberts.edu joy4jc@hotmail.com

Address: Email me if you want to know my address at school

That's all that I can think of!! I love hearing from you!!
~ wibby

I love my Friends!!

Today I had to do a "walk through" the dorms to let people know about auditions that Social Life is holding for a talent show. I had never done it before, so I had no idea what to expect. Two of my friends decided to come along with me - Ashley and Kelsey. It turned out that it took us two hours to go through 1.5 dorms... yeah, it took a LONG time!! I have the best friends in the world!!!!!!!! They stuck with me through it all... and they didn't complain once!!
In the picture, Kelsey is to my right and Ashley is to my left (looking at the picture, from left to right - Kelsey, Me, Ashley). This picture was taken last year - I think on the way to the RPO. Anyways, the point is that they're AMAZING!!!!

So much fun at school already!!

I Stole Sam's Camera!

Procrastinating

Hey!

It's the second day of classes and already I'm procrastinating on my homework! But I don't have another class until 3:05 today, so I've got some time to myself... then of course there's tonight!!

I am SO excited about my First Year Seminar class. This year I'm a mentor for 17 of the freshmen (the ones in my section of FYS). I am really getting into it. I met the students on Saturday for dinner and I think they like me... and I like them!! I was very overtired when I met them, so I was extremally hyper and just all over the place, but I think that it helped them see how excited I am not only about school, but about being their mentor! Today is our first class. I have great hopes for this class.

My first executive cabinet meeting is tomorrow night. Exec Cab is basically the leaders of the Student Association (President, VP, Chaplain, Senate Chair, Social Life Chair, Intramurals Director). I'm the Social Life Chair this year. I'm a little nervous about this meeting, because I have to tell them about what's going on in Social Life... and I'm running out of things to tell them (we had training week all last week, and we did a lot of sharing about what's been going on).

My room is all set up!! And it looks really good! I love it. Sometime I'll steal Sam's camera and put a picture of it up. It makes me very happy.

Well, that's enough procrastinating. Back to homework. :)

Room!!

Hey! If I had a functional camera, I would take a picture of my room - which is now officially only MY room!! My roommate came today and took one look at how small the room is and left, so I have the room to myself at least for this semester and hopefully for the whole year. I am so much more content with this sittuation. I have a pretty busy schedule this semester, and it's not going to get any lighter!! Having a place to escape to is going to be really nice for me. What a blessing!! Now the only challenge is deciding how to arrange the furniture so it looks nice! Horray!!

I made it!

I'm at school! I made it here around 4:00 (4 hours ago) and have pretty much been unpacking ever since. My family helped a TON with the packing and my mom stayed for quite a while after we got here to help me unpack.

My room is sooo small. I'm nervous about having a roommate in a room this size, but we'll see how it goes. I have a feeling I will end up moving by December again. Hopefully next year I can plan to have a roommate who I'm friends with - instead of getting stuck with one who I barely know. Oh, well. She seems nice, so it should go fine.

This week the Student Association has a packed schedule - down to the minute every day through Saturday. I'll be busy busy.

That's all for now :)

Testing

Hey! I'm just trying this out to see how it all works. My plan is to post blogs as I am at school, as a way to keep in touch with everyone while I'm in Rochester.

I have been trying to get ready to go back to school on the 19th. There is so much to do, though, with KC Camp and homework that I already have for one class, and of course Student Association duties. It's just a bit overwhelming. But no matter what, I'm leaving this Sunday! 6 days! I can't wait. I have been craving school - and not just the social aspects of it, but the schoolwork too! I feel like my brain has melted this summer.

Well, I suppose that's all for now. I need to get some cleaning done before a friend comes over and I have work to do besides that!

~ Elizabeth