Easter, Harding, and the Future of Me....

It is nearing midnight and I have too much energy to get in the bed right now. I think these 2 have a little bit to do with that...

We were on the 5th row!

Thank you Mandisa and Brandon Heath, for stopping by our town as part of the 3-in-1 tour on a Thursday night. My body will dislike you in the morning when the alarm clock goes off.

Last Friday was the Easter egg hunt for the first graders at school. I'm not sure I would've made it last Friday on the amount of sleep it seems I will get tonight. We had our regular testing all morning, and then went out in the afternoon for the egg hunt. It was a warm day (which was really just luck, seeing as how our current weather seems to be a little bi-polar) and it was nice to see all of these kids with their cute little baskets running around looking for eggs. They were instructed to get only 6 eggs to start with, so they would walk right by (or even step on) eggs that did not prove themselves worthy enough to be one of their chosen 6. (For girls, this meant glittery or cute. Boys would pick it up and shake it, listening for the sound of coins.) Good times.

Austin with his friend Grayson

Austin's class

After school, we headed up to Little Rock to spend the night. We let Aaron miss school altogether that day to go up to Searcy with the youth group to spend the day at Harding, but I am not ready to talk about the fact that he is now old enough to be in the youth group. I will get there, but these things take time.

We stayed in the same hotel as the youth group, but didn't get to see them all until breakfast Saturday morning. One of the first things that we heard about was that John Luke, Cole, and Sadie (As in Robertson. The Duck Dynasty kids.) (If you don't know that by now, I'm sorry. Duck Dynasty is really the only reason I even care to own a TV.) were also at Harding for Spring Sing weekend. We had one guy and one girl in our group that literally injured themselves to get their pictures taken with John Luke and Sadie on Friday.

My friend Lane with John Luke and Cole.

 

Oh to be a teenager again....there is not enough money in the world that could get me back there.

We spent all day Saturday on the Harding campus. This is where Robbie and I met, so every place we entered made memories flood back. I love that place. It's been 15 years since I graduated, but I actually got to see several people that I went to college with. There were familiar faces all over the place (including the aforementioned Robertson kids, who probably think that the Walnut youth group is a little crazy, but only if you call crazy standing outside the bathroom waiting on John Luke to walk out so you can follow him to his next place. Otherwise, I'm sure that is completely normal behavior.) Robbie and I walked all over campus, we sat in the infamous Harding swing together, kissed on the steps of my sophomore dorm (which is where our first kiss happened back around 1995), and walked down memory lane together. If I ever come up missing, check Harding before you report it. You may find me sitting on a blanket on the front lawn reading a book, listening to the birds sing, and fighting off the seemingly endless amount of squirrels. It is my happy place.

Our youth group just before going into the Benson for Spring Sing

My love...

And then there's Spring Sing. I grew up going to Harding's Spring Sing show every Easter weekend from the time I was little bitty all the way up through the high school youth group trips. It's a song and dance show put on by the students (mostly freshmen) that is a competition between social clubs. It is also the only time that it is completely acceptable and normal to walk around campus passing people who are dressed up as zombie's, Indians, or computer geeks. I was in the show as a freshman in 1995, and this was the first show I had been to since I was in it. The show was much more high tech than it was back in '95. The use of fire, costumes that light up, confetti falling from the ceiling, and fog machines were not even thought of in my day. We were doing good to get our costumes duct taped together and pinned on in time for our first appearance. Kids these days don't even know what they are missing...

After the show, I had an appointment set up with a lady from the Adult and Extended Education department at Harding. I've been throwing around the idea of going back to school to get my master's in education, but I've been fighting it and coming up with excuses on why it wasn't going to work out. But over the past few weeks, God seems to be pushing me into it. For every excuse I've given, He has somehow swooped in and taken that excuse away. It's as if He's saying, "bring it on". And because I can't out-do God, I decided to just listen. So Saturday evening, I sat across the desk of this lady that told me what I need to do to get started in this program. I left there with my application forms, curriculum plan, and schedules in hand. The first hurdle I must overcome is passing the Praxis test to get into the program. I have scheduled the test for next week, and am taking off of work next week so that I can study and hopefully have a chance of passing all 3 parts on my first try. And to be honest, I'm scared. I am not a fan of math. Especially when it goes to mixing letters and numbers.

This. Just this.

I will spend this next week relearning formula's, algebraic operations (Did I really just say that?), and I should probably focus some time on the reading and writing portions as well. I made a 55 on my first math practice test, so I have a ways to go, and only one week to get there. Prayers would be appreciated.