I would just like to share...

... that it is snowing in Austin, Texas. And not little whimpy flakes. They are big, fat, LEGIT flakes. Before I made it outside, I heard doors being slammed up and down the halls with girls eager to get outside and catch a flake on their tongues and eyelashes. I took a brief walk around campus and saw several streakers (typical) and cute couples walking hand in hand, cuddled up next to each other.

Though, this snow is kind of weird because it was literally 75 degrees this afternoon. I got breakfast/lunch in a tshirt and shorts, and I just put on leggings, long socks, pants, a long-sleeved shirt, tshirt, and jacket to go to the tower and back.

On my way back I heard several passing conversations of, "How am I supposed to study when it's doing this?!" and "OMG, I have a final tomorrow. But I've never seen snow before so I feel like I HAVE to be outside or something." It was kind of cool. Everyone had been buried in their books for hours and are planning on doing so for a couple more. However, with one swift mention of the word "snow", students jumped from their studying, piled on the layers, and were soon prancing about and giggling in the wintery weather like little kids. God plans the coolest study breaks.

The weather outside is FINALLY startin' to look a little frightful. And as I gaze out of my window at the sheet of white flakes floating down from the Austin sky, I can't help but whistle a familiar tune. After all, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.


Happy Finals, everyone :)

Basking in the Shade

Got me thinking:
Mark 4:31-32: "[The kingdom of God] is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."
Hebrews 6:1: "Therefore let us leave the elementary teaching about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying against the foundation of repentance of acts that lead to death, and of the faith of God..."
1 Corinthians 14:36-38: " Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command. If he ingores this, he himself will be ignored."
Philippians 1:25-26: "Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me."
Obviously up to interpretation, but this is what I got: Mature in faith from the mustard seed foundation from which you were given. Spread the good news and what Christ is doing in your life and be a disciple for God. You are not meant to be a dead end for His word, but rather a catalyst in spreading the good news that we do have an unconditional, loving God. Be a tree that people can bask in the glory of the Lord, reaching far and providing shade to those in search of it. The kingdom is INEVITABLE, so stop planning for the church in the future and help EXPAND the church in the now.

While discussing the American Revolution my HIS315K class last week and while I was zoning in and out of the lecture, I noticed something amusing. My professor was showing us the portrait on the left of Washington and went off on some random tangent (not uncommon), but while he was explaining it, this is what I saw...

I think what made it funnier is that it brought this image to my mind from one of my favorite movies, Airplane!...


I literally almost laughed out loud :)

Camille and I are going to take a look at a possible apartment for next year in a couple hours. Should be fun!!

And now to get back to writing about social narratives, norms, and competing moral orders in movies. I'm halfway done and it's due at 2 PM tomorrow. I've really got to get a hold of this procrastination issue.

My favorite center

Remember the centers from kindergarten or preschool? I always looked forward to the arts and crafts center WAY more than the house center. This is my creative effort for the week. All of these pictures were done in Paint, and yes, a five year old could do them better with his foot.


I took part in early voting this past week. Not only was I the only McCain-er in line (as made evident my the glares given right after Kristy shouted, "No you can't vote! You're gonna vote Republican!"), but I will be one of the only right-sided votes from the entire campus. Yeah minority.



LHB had Parents Weekend. This one is pretty self-explanatory.



This almost didn't happen. What an exciting game though, very intense. Now on to Texas Tech... it would have been a rough game anyway, but it being our final game of a four week Death March through the Big XII AND having the game in Lubbock is going to make it even tougher. Our team is just so tired... we can only hope they have four quarters left in them.



Camille and I were listening some good 'ol Shania Twain last night. When "Honey, I'm Home" came on, I was thrown back to those prepubescent years when Stacy rented a karaoke machine for a birthday party. After all her friends had left, I saw it fit to fill the Chadwell household with my beautiful rendition of the song. Thus, the end of my vocal career. (NOTE: the asteric around "pms" is because I thought I was breaking some sort of rule saying the term. I would always get super quiet when that part came around.. just to avoid any kind of trouble)



While bringing back laundry to my room last night, Aly, who lives next door, was walking out of her room. This was her outfit; the epitome of a trendy sheep. Please take notice in her overly fake-baked skin, 80s throwback of the sideways ponytail, the Tyler's shirt-Nike shorts combo that all the sorostitutes wear every single day, the random assortment of colors making up the Nike shorts, the UGG boots (completely unnecessary in last night's weather), AND the oh-so-favorite Coach bag. I had to run into my room and shut the door to avoid laughing right in front of her.

Finally, some time!

Apparently is has been a very long time since I've spilled my life into the world through my computer. I don't know how exactly to do this efficiently because quite a bit has happened over the past few weeks...

Alright, so OU Weekend was AWESOME! LHB left Friday morning, so I had to miss a couple classes. On the way down we watched True Lies, which is now the trumpet bus's favorite movie mainly because all of the guys had their jaw dropped in amazement of Jamie Lee Curtis and her undiscovered and very full chest. We arrived at Richardson HS around 3:30 and had rehearsal. My dad, Stacy, my cousin, and my uncle came, so seeing them in the stands was really a boost to the day. I was most proud of my uncle who, even though he has a Red Raider heart, came out to watch probably one of his least favorite college bands play one of his least favorite songs, haha. That night a few us went to BJ's to eat it seriously took us 3 and a half hours to get in, get food, and leave. Stupid Addison. Long night, 3 hours of sleep, and we were met with a lovely breakfast in the morning before we loaded up buses and headed to Fair Park. By the way, police escorts are so cool... we would never have gotten in/out efficiently without them. We went through regular warmup routines and whatnot, then were told to line up in parade block with the newmen at the front (lucky us). Because the only tunnel entrance in the Cotton Bowl is on the OU half of the stadium, those oh-so-kind Sooner fans lined up to give the Longhorn Band their best. They shouted such nice things like, "What the fuck is "fringe" anyway?" and "I bet you guys have great hairy butt sex down in Texas". Oh, and my personal favorite: "FUCK YOU!" Sooners are just so intelligent. Overall, the walk in was not that bad. I had heard horror stories of people trying to take mouthpieces and getting stuff thrown at them, but all that I really experienced were every cuss word in the book, to which I combated with a smile and a simple, confident "Hook 'em horns! Yeah, let's go Texas!" It was funny being in the middle of all of them because two of our drum cadence chants seemed to be louder than ever before: "Beat the hell outta OU!" and "OUFUCKINSUCKS!" (yes, one word as fast as it can be said). Wall-to-Wall Band during pregame went great and I got the tricky step-off in Grandioso... yay. Unfortunately during the game, I heavily relied on the jumbotron because, well, this was my view from where I sat on the last row of trumpets and almost the last row of the band:

Impressive, right? We were such media whores all day... any camera lense that was looking in our remote direction resulted in a massive upheaval of hook 'ems and jumping up and down so that we could tell friends and family, "I was the one near (some identifiable object) jumping up and down with a (some instrument) in my hands! Did you see me? You didn't?! Weird, I was jumping really high..." The actual game was the best sporting event that I have ever been to in my life. There were so many great plays, those that were controversial (the "Heisman Award for acting"), and of course the never-ending fight of that Texas team. It was so loud the entire game, and I had never experienced any atmosphere like that before. Oh, and in case you live in a freaking hole or something, we freaking BTHO OU 45-35! We marched out after crashing the ESPN Gameday post-game wrap up with a very loud and lively "Texas Fight", loaded buses, and arrived back in Austin at about 6:00. Had time to even have an evening... though I actually ended up staying in and passing out from exhaustion.

Last night was initiation for Betas, but I won't go into detail because I think it's supposed to be a secret AND I'm way too lazy to recall everything about the process. Two main feelings: very smelly and very cold. But with the initiation brings the 2008 pledge classes official induction into Beta Lambda Gamma "sorority." I use that term loosely because we really aren't like a regular sorority in that we don't do any kind of community services, pay any dues (as far as I know), and are not even official by university standards. We purely exist to host parties and have a good time. Our first mission is the Halloween party. The new classes of Beta-Bunch (Bunchers are our brother frat that function pretty much on the same guidelines) are completely in charge of putting that on... should be fun :)

School work has really picked up and I've been kind of stressed out lately trying to keep up. I decided to drop Astronomy for a couple reasons. Number one, the lecture style is not for me. It's extremely difficult to understand the prof and his tests NEVER consist of anything from lecture. Two, all the times that review sessions and homework help are hosted, I have LHB. The class is hard and I need these times if I want to do well on every-week pop quizzes and and impossible tests. And three, my GPA would have suffered had I stayed in the class with the circumstances at hand. It's hard for me to quit anything and is definitely not in my personality to wave the white flag. I think it was a mature decision and is beneficial for where I am at right now.

Had my first sleep in yesterday morning. Was finishing up some Beta flask-making until 11:30, got home about 11:50 and began a 5 pg paper about Rangers Ballpark in Arlington at midnight. Completed that at about 4:30, showered and was in bed by 4:45. I was hoping my body would take the nap approach and treat the sleep as just a little snooze session. I even put my alarm on extra loud to make sure that I wake up and get to my 8 o'clock (for which the paper was due) and my 9:30 (for which I have a midterm on Tuesday). I rolled over at 10:35, said a brief, frustrated word in realization that I missed both classes, and emailed my prof to see if I could still get the interpretation essay in by the 11 o'clock deadline. A quick stroll over to his office across the street and I experienced victory.

After watching "Under the Tuscan Sun" earlier this afternoon, I have decided that I want to live in Italy someday. Ok, maybe more realistically at least visit.

I'm kind of tuning in and out of a Big Foot program. They exist. So do ghosts and aliens. Judge me if you will.

For all of you C-line trumpeteers out there, "Carmen" totally looks like "Comer". If you disagree, you should consider sucking it :)

Big game tomorrow!! Mizzou will be tough and it'll be interesting to see how the Horns respond after last Saturday's win. We'll see if we can contain Chase Daniel and that fierce Tiger offense. LHB is playing on ESPN College Gameday tomorrow from 10-11... check it out!

Oh, and LSU won the Battle of the Bands. Thank you everyone for voting, but apparently LSU's slightly less than subtle dancers PLUS their pity card won them the $25,000. Oh well. 'Twas fun, nonetheless.

For your enjoyment: "The Eyes of Texas" from Texas-OU...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAWWcmUO__M

Told ya this post was gonna be long.