Please....No more!

So it’s the eve before Christmas Eve. Decorations are hung, the presents are all wrapped and stacked neatly under the tree (except for the ones that aren’t... and the ones that have yet to be purchased. Commence panic mode in 3,2,1…), and the Christmas songs play on loud and clear. The endless supply of atrocious holiday tunes never fails to amaze me. Every year, from November until December 25^th, they bombard the ear and invade our homes and businesses like some sort of unpleasant and entirely unwelcome parasite . And just when I think it couldn't possibly get any worse, it does as Target begins to play the worst version of Winter Wonderland I have ever had the misfortune to hear.

The reason this whole business of terrible Christmas songs upsets me so is because there are SO many good ones to choose from! So if tonight, the eve of Christmas Eve, you too are ready to tear down the tree and throw away the presents upon hearing one more bad version of Silent Night (J Biebs, I’m talking to you), I would encourage you to try one of these alternatives:  

His Favorite Christmas Story, Capitol Lights NOT  The Christmas Shoes  

All those warm fuzzies minus the mournful Children’s chorus and the cheese

 

Christmas Cookies, George Straight NOT  Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer 

 

There’s a New Kid in Town  NOT Santa Claus is Coming to Town

 

Child of Love, Sara Groves NOT Happy Xmas (War is Over)

 

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer by Jack Johnson and NOT any other version...ever.

Seriously, his version is the best

Mary Did you Know, Kathy Mattea NOT Last Christmas

 

Christmas Waltz, She and Him NOT Santa Baby

Seducing Santa? That's weird and creepy. Please, let's keep it classy. 

 

Christmas Tonight, Dave Barns with Hilary Scott NOT Baby It’s Cold Outside

 Is it just me or does EVERY SINGLE musican ever have a duet of this with someone? Why???Seduced on Christmas?  Um, no thanks.  

 

Silent Night, YOU! wtih your family and friends  NOT All I want for Christmas (SuperFestive!) editition by Mariah Carey and Justin Bieber

 {Because, apparently, the original just wasn’t enough...}

But seriously, stop the madness. Sing Silent Night.  Silence is beautiful my friends.

 

 

Words

 "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. " James 3:9-10

 

As part of the worship service at the church I attend when I’m in Sherman, the pastor gives a children's sermon. A couple weeks ago, as the children gathered around Pastor Neil on the front steps of the sanctuary, he asked them if they had ever heard the saying "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." Immediately, one of the kids replied, "That's a lie!" I will never forget the look on that little boy's face. His expression was one mixed of incredulous disdain, amazed that anyone could be stupid enough to believe such a thing, and deep pain, revealing that even at his young age this little boy had been hurt by another person's words.

I am convinced that the very same expression could have been found on James' face as he wrote the words in James chapter 3. You see, James, like the little boy at church, was well aware of the power of words. Throughout my life I have been taught and reminded how my words have the power to heal and build others up, or to tear down and destroy. I know that, yet I am constantly finding myself speaking words that are hurtful and destructive. "My brothers and sisters, this should not be."

I like words. ...a lot. I love to talk and to write. I see instrumental music as a break before the words come back. Things with numbers frustrate me. Math is pure torture (which is ironic since I'm a business major). As a many of you know, I had to take calculus this semester and I can honestly say it was one the most unpleasant thing I've ever had to do in my life. I have never studied so hard or spent so much time complaining about something before. But, while taking basic calculus was certainly character building, I've learned more about my love of words through silence this past semester.

You see for as much as I loathe math, you can be certain that I dislike silence even more. Silence: The thought alone makes me squirm. I don't like it. I never have and I never will. To say that silence makes me uncomfortable would be a gross understatement. For me, silence is pure torture. (I mean come on it's the complete absence of words, or any sound at all!) And yet, it is through silence that God has been teaching me about the actual power behind the words I love so much.   

You know what they say about not truly appreciating something until you lose it?  Well friends that is 100% true. Earlier this semester I lost my voice completely. Now when I say "lost it completely", I mean COMPLETELY—as in all the way, absolutely, wholly, entirely and totally gone. 

I couldn't sing.

I couldn't talk.

For a while, I literally was not able to phonate and therefore could not make ANY sound whatsoever. It was a traumatic experience.  I never really understood how much of my identity and self-worth I placed in my voice until that awful week, but the really eye-opening thing about the experience was the way it forced me to think about how and what I choose to say.

You see, when you physically can’t make a sound, or when it’s hurts to talk, you become keenly aware of what you choose, and choose not, to say.  Normally, I don’t take the time to really think before I speak; I just say whatever pops into my head. So it was incredibly frustrating not being able to give my opinions, top that story, or fire off that witty comeback.  But because of all the extra effort speaking required, the things I did say, were carefully thought out to be 1) efficient, clear and concise 2) relevant and necessary 3) kind and beneficial. When forced to review every single thing I said in this way, I began to realize just how many mean, hurtful, or simply unnecessary things I say in a given day. I realized that many of the sassy comments (ya, you know the Alena-isms I’m talking about), the playful putdowns, and sarcastic remarks that make up most of what I say every day, really just weren’t worth it. 

And I began to wonder, how would my life—and the lives of the people around me be changed if I ALWAYS chose my words that carefully? If I made sure that every little single thing I said was used to bless, heal, and build others up, and not to curse, hurt, or tear them down? Can you imagine the impact those words could have our broken hurting world? It's certainly something I'd like to see, and so I've been making an effort to really think before I speak. It hasn't been easy and I can't say that I've been overly successful, but I am going to keep trying because, as I've mentioned before, words are powerful and how we use them really can make all the difference in the world.

Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

My friends and I have this theory that whenever kids go off to college, they actual regress back to kindergarten. There's just this new found appreciation of Disney movies, coloring books, and naps that occurs during the college years. (Seriously, I wish there was some sort of roll over plan for all the naps I refuse to take as a child!) Additional support for this theory can be found in the fact that the older I get, the more I love Christmas.

Maybe it's because Christmas break signals the end of stress filled finals, or the opportunity to return to the place where home cooked meals abound, the toilet paper is soft, and there's no cold tile to greet my poor little toes when I get out of bed in the morning, but I have never looked forward to Christmas this much before. As a result, I have kicked into full decorating mode. Starting with the RA office and moving to my cluster, I made it my personal mission to spread the Christmas cheer to Dean Hall.

Dorm Style Apple Pie

 
Last weekend was my school's fall break (a.k.a. fall day, since we only get Friday off). While most people went home over the weekend, I chose to stay on campus. Left alone on a deserted campus, a little bored and a little hungry, my dear friend and fellow RA Jordan and I decided that it would be good idea to make a pie...from scratch...in the communal hall kitchen.

As it turned out, this was actually one of our more brilliant ideas. Yes, it might have taken us a couple hours (ok, more like 3 and half....) and, yes, dorm kitchens are not really equipped to handle such culinary escapades, but all that trouble was totally worth it. Besides, nothing goes better with Star Wars than apple pie and ice cream.

To make dorm style apple pie of your very own, follow these simple steps:

1) Strategically remove apples from the cafeteria to be used in your pie.  

2) Find a friend who is naturally good at making pie crust and enlist his/her help.

3) Find another friend who has some nutmeg and barter for it with the promise of a piece of the finished pie.

4) Using an awkwardly large knife, peel, core, and slice the apples. Don't forget to panic when your pie baking buddy suddenly leaves and you think it because she just cut a finger off. (Don't worry she didn't.)

5) Forget your dorm doesn't have a rolling pin or salt and go borrow another hall's.

6) To make the filling: only use the recipe as a reference and instead follow your heart (and your stomach), combining the apple slices with a generous amount of sugar and healthy doses of cinnamon and nutmeg. Then add in a little flour because you remember that that's what you're supposed to do when you make pie filling. Be sure to taste test often.

7) Put your pie baking buddy's super power to good use and watch in amazement as she rolls out perfect pie crust.

8) Dump filling into that perfect crust. Then weave the top crust and pinch edges.

9) Remember that you forgot to put butter on top of the filling and spend the next few minutes sticking tiny bits of butter through the holes in the top of the pie.

10) Bake in the temperamental oven until the edges being to burn. (This is right about when you should be wishing you had some foil...but, since you don't, you'll just have to make do).

11) Cut pie, marvel at your success, and distribute to other RA's on duty.

 

Things Don't Always Go According To Plan

Sometimes, despite all our well laid plans and best intentions, things just don't go according to plan. I am currently back at AC for my second year, but this time I am also working as an RA. The freshmen moved in on Thursday, and since then I've been going nonstop, but couldn't be more excited! As RA's we did a lot of work preparing for their arrival. While most of this preparation was classroom work and proper "training", there is also a lot of crafting involved in the job description. (This came as quite a surprise to some of the guys, but I happen to like to craft, so the discovery that a large portion of my job would involve coloring and mass quantities of construction paper was rather exciting.)


The night before the freshmen moved in, I was pleasantly surprised to find that all my crafty projects had been completed, I was going to be able to go to bed before 12:00 for the first time in weeks....Life was GOOD. But then I get a call from my area coordinator around 11:15 informing me that he had added one more girl to my cluster. No problem I thought. I'll just run down to the office real quick and whip up one more dec before heading to bed. So I made my way down to the office for my last late night crafting sprint.

Now, before you can apprciate the drama of the rest of this story you need to know two things.
First, there are a total of six RA's that live and work in my building. They are all super awesome people and I am SO excited to work with them this year.  This year we decided to decorate our hall in a super hero theme and because there were six of us, we naturally become The Avengers. It's awesome.

Me and my fellow RA's at our training program "BIG BLOCKS AND BIG EGOS: How much do you REALLY know about your car?" It was awesome, just like them :) 

The second thing you need to know is that out of the six avengers, I was dubbed the Black Widow. While it is flattering to be put in the same camp as Scarlett Johansson, I personally have trouble considering being extremely good looking a super power. So I made a little change and went with Spiderman (arachnids are just in this year) who actually has some sort of super power. However this spider theme proved to little difficult to work with because, well, I have a cluster of girls and spiders are scary! But my dear creative friend and fellow RA came up with this cute idea for door decs and all was well. ....Until I got Leo's phone call.

Because you see cute as these those stinkin' little spiders are, those door decs are slightly labor intensive.

"But Alena you're the crafting wizard, one more shouldn't have been a problem!"

You're right dear reader, it shouldn't have been, but it was. Everything started out just fine. I had my little web cut out in no time and was feeling good. All I had to do was hit that bad boy with a sharpie, cut out a little spider, and slap it all together and I could go sleep. However, I soon discovered that my handy dandy sliver sharpie was on it's last leg. The lines were barely visible, but I persisted and with a lot of coxing I was able to draw my lines. Satisfied, I quickly added the girl's name and moved on to the next step --that cute little spider-- only to discover that there was not a scrap of black paper to be found in that office. I had no other choice but to run over to the nearest hall to steel some of theirs.

Back in my building, black construction paper in hand, I looked down at the desk where I had left my project to discover that, horror of horrors, I had accidentally written the WRONG NAME. So I had to begin the process all over again. Oh, how a cursed at, begged and pleaded with that stupid sharpie.(Before becoming an RA I had no idea that you could become so emotionally invested in crafting)
The good news is that I was able to eek out the very last little bit of life left in that pen and finish my project. 

However, my crafting project wasn't the only thing that didn't according to my plan this year. In fact, the very act of working as an RA marked a rather extreme change of plans. You see, a little over a year ago, I sat across the table from my friend Kim at the local Starbucks as she informed me that I should apply to be a RA. I laughed. That will NEVER happen I thought. There was no way that I was not going to be responsible for other people, it would too much work, I wasn't even going to consider it.

But as the year went on, the subject just kept coming up, and slowly but surely, God began to move my heart. Like a railroad switch I felt God redirecting me from the track I'd laid for my life to His. So I applied to be an RA --with the stipulation that under no circumstances would I work in a coed dorm. I should know by now that whenever I think, "No way, absolutely not," God usually has other plans, because, wouldn't you know it, the coed dorm is EXACTLY where I got placed. But it has be a very good and beautiful thing. I now know for a fact, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that this is exactly where God wants me to be. Thing's don't always go according to plan, but I'm usually better off that way.

In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

{Proverbs 16:9}

How to Survive Your First Semester

In honor of all you high school graduates heading off to college this week, may I present: 

HOW TO SURVIVE YOUR FIRST SEMESTER

(tips and tricks from someone who has) 

1. Rooms Are For Sleeping Find somewhere else to study. Your dorm  room is too full of fun and distracting stuff to really get any work done.  Go to the library, coffee shop or study room instead. That way, when you get back to your room you can relax. Also having a set place to study really helps in getting work done.

2. Dress Up For Test Day There’s truth to the power of dressing for success. Intentionally dressing a certain way signals to your brain that it is go time. The extra confidence of looking your best also goes a long way. So on test days I get dressed up, do my hair and makeup wear nice clothes. However some of my guy friends wear pepto bismol pink bathrobes on test days. Find whatever works for you, but dress up on test days.  

3. SLEEP! 

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****FUN FACT****

The performance difference on an intelligence test due to one hour's difference in sleep is larger than the difference in performance between a normal 4th grader and a normal 6th grader. Losing one hour of sleep over 3 days is equivalent to a loss in 2 years of cognitive ability.

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Teenagers and college students need an average of 7 1/2 hours of sleep each night. This is the best way to improve your learning and your grade. SO GET ENOUGH SLEEP!

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzzz....

4. Use a Planner  You will NOT be able to keep track of all your assignments in your head. The day you get your syllabi write down every single assignment in your planner. That way you can see exactly when everything is due.  Plan your schedule precisely and well in advance. Make sure to block what and when you will be studying in as much detail as possible. Try building your schedule in 30 minute blocks. Make sure that you schedule downtime and fun activities into the schedule as well, you’ll literally go crazy if you don’t have a little fun every now and then.

5. Make Your Bed Not only is your room the place you sleep, it has now become your living room, kitchen and study space. At home when your room gets messy you can move to a different room. That doesn’t work as well in a dorm. Making your bed automatically makes your room look 80% cleaner and will actually help you keep the rest of your room somewhat organized. Remember dorm rooms are small and you don’t want the reputation of being THAT slob of a roommate.

6. Keep Your Door Open When people leave their doors open, dorms feel more like home and less like hotels. Especially during the first few weeks when you’re in your room, prop the door open so people can stop by and say hi. Do the same when you see others with THEIR doors open. (Additionally, please note: friends can be bought with baked goods)

7. Attend EVERY Single Formal Dinner You Can Not only is the food exponentially superior to anything you’ll find in the cafeteria, but these events are also usually awesome networking opportunities. Remember it pays to have friends in high places.

8. Use Your ID Other Places Besides School 
Restaurants, hardware stores, museums and concert venues often have really sweet deals for College students. Take the time to find out where the bargains are in your town. You’ll be glad you did. 

9. Get Some Rain Boots and Good Umbrella Sitting through a lecture soaking wet is NOT fun.

10.   Leave the T-Shirt Collection at Home 10 shirts are probably more than enough because ***if you get involved*** by the time you leave, you will have an additional 15 to take home. True story. 

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And...
Just in case that was enough, check out this video from my favorite Canadian video blogger (remember this guy?) for more survival tips

Asheville {Part 3: Blue Ridge Parkway}

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

--{Romans 1:20}--

Today mom and I hit the road, exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway. After stopping at the Folk Art Center just outside of Asheville, we enjoyed a traditional Oglesbee picnic (peanut butter bagels) then hit the trail, making the short climb up Craggy Pinnacle.

Contrary to popular belief, the bat cave can be found in NC

After our hike we made our way to the Western North Carolina Nature Center (which was basically a small zoo). 

"No, no, please, no pictures"

"Ah, it's just too much, darling"

"Fine, if you must"

And no girls get away would be complete without some chocolate. So, as to end our time in Asheville we stopped by the French Broad Chocolate Bar for some dessert. Like everything else we've had, it was delicious. 

Chocolate Creme Brulee (lick the bowl clean good)

Asheville {part 2: The Biltmore Estate}

No visit to Asheville would be complete without a visit to the Biltmore. In fact visiting the historic home of was the main reason mom and I chose Asheville as our vacation destination.  As we walked through the house I was amazed not by how lavish everything was, although it certainly was magnificent, but by how high tech it was. George W. Vanderbilt originally  had the "house" built as a vacation home. When it opened 1895 and the whole thing, all 250 rooms of it, was equipped with electric lights and indoor plumbing. In fact, the house boasted 43 bathrooms, quite the feat for 1895 single indoor bathrooms were scarce!

All together the 117 year mansion contains 250 rooms (40 acres of house!), including a 70,000 gallon, 10 foot deep indoor swimming pool and bowling alley. One of the first rooms you visit on the tour is the seven story dining room, complete with record sized trophy heads and gigantic pipe organ. Why would someone ever need a pipe organ in their 7 story dining room?  To sing Christmas carols around their 40ft Christmas tree of course!
But seriously, the house was stunning and touring it with my mom made it so much fun! 

{A picture of a picture: so classy}

Asheville {part 1}

The Oglesbee boys have been having a lot of fun this summer. (My Dad just returned from backpacking in Colorado ---you can read about his adventure here--- , and my little brother went on a mission trip to Jamaica with the high school youth group earlier in July.) Consequently, my mom and I decided it was only fair that we have some fun too.

SO...

The two of us decided to take a trip, a rather lengthy road trip to Asheville, North Carolina be exact. We arrived in Asheville last night just in time to grab some "Kosmic Karma" pizza at the Mellow Mushroom.

***For those of you who were wondering: kosmic karma basically tastes like awesome topped with sun dried and Roma tomatoes, spinach, and feta cheese topped with a pesto swirl and it was delicious***

  Today we spent our morning exploring the downtown area before heading 

over to the River Arts District for some killer North Carolina BBQ at 12 Bones.  We spent the rest of the day browsing through the various galleries and studios.

 

{Downtown Asheville}

{Blueberry Chipotle BBQ Ribs at 12 Bones}

{Yes, I ate every bite. Don't judge me until you've tried them!}

 

 

  

{Mom and her new friend Rose}