So Anyways...

I'm back in Virginia Beach! This semester is going to be crazy and exciting. I have to take 15 credit hours, so the break is over. I have to write my senior thesis and I have not settled on a topic yet. Here are some options:

1. Micro finance as the future of economic development
2. The current revolutions in the middle east
3. Anglo-Russian relations
4. The current global order (or disorder)
5. Democratic realism and the support of democratic revolutions
6. Social justice and debt forgiveness
7. International energy security

I have more, but the point is to narrow them. I seem to be thinking of more and more. I need help!

On a less academic note, I am really enjoying meeting new students as an orientation leader! We are having some great times and I am really looking forward to the rest of the school year--my senior year! Regent really is an awesome place.

Busy, Busy, Busy

AAAHHH! I am so busy. But it is a good kind of busy. I always have something I can be doing. However, there are sometimes when I have to choose between something I want to do and something that I have to do. For example: Next week, I have a term paper due and I haven't written one sentence. Well, in my defense I have nearly completed the research process and I have pulled a lot of my quotes. But sometimes, there are far more interesting things to do than wright a paper that I know I can finish in one day anyway. Today, for example, I got to meet Conor Grennan, author of Little Princes. There was a group of about ten of us and we just talked. It was amazing! This man went to Nepal to volunteer and ended up starting an organization that has as its purpose reuniting trafficked children with their parents. How cool is that?

But I do know that I have to write that paper eventually...

Computer Virus

So sorry that I haven't been posting lately. My computer has a virus that will not allow me to go to blogger.com

I moved to VA Beach!! I love it! I joined several student organizations and I went on the Spring break mission trip. And I will be moving back home in six short weeks.

I don't think I'm going to backtrack with my posts. I think I'm just going to start from now.

So, I will be posting, but maybe only two times a week.

See ya!

Virginia Beach

First off: Sorry I haven't written in a long time.

Second: I went to Virginia Beach for a couple of days! It was awesome. I left home at about 8:00AM and got to Regent in time to go to chapel at 12:00PM. After chapel, I went on a campus tour and got to see all the beautiful buildings. Next, I went to hang out with my dear friend Abigail in the Commons! Then I went to another dear friend Tianna's house. Did I mention that it was COLD?!

On morning number two, I went to get myself some coffee and pick up some job applications (that was really good coffee!). The rest of the day consisted of filling out said applications and drinking coffee. At three, I went to meet my friend Juana at the Ordinary for eggnog lattes! Oh, yeah. I also managed to get lost on the way there, in the daylight, with a GPS. Anyhow, it was fun; Juana had another friend of mine with her when I got there! Did I mention that Regent is a very small world? After coffee, I went with Juana back to the Commons where we both did a little school while waiting to got to unChapel. UnChapel was AWESOME!!

Morning number three consisted of me going to get coffee, finishing my applications, dropping off my applications, and doing some school. After that, CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!! I helped put Christmas lights on Tianna's house; well, I didn't help very much. But it was fun...and cold!! After that, I went to watch Tianna in her play; it was brilliantly executed! After that, the three and a half hour drive home, on which I managed to get lost again. But I made it home in one piece at about 12:30AM!

Moral of the story? Regent University ROCKS!

Prayer

Over the past couple of years, I have been struggling with prayer. It never seems that I can settle down and pray for a long period (or even a short period) of time without my mind wondering to something else. Before I know it, I am lost in thought that does not even resemble what I was praying about in the first place. Today, I was reading ahead in a book for next semester's spiritual formation class called The Life You've Always Wanted. I was just reading the chapter on prayer when I came across the following words: "It may well be that when your mind wanders, it is wandering to what your heart most needs to speak with God about". That was when I realized that I was not praying rightly. I have been praying about the things that I think that I should be praying about. C.S. Lewis said that in prayer we must "lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us". My prayer life has just been revolutionized!

Baking Update

The fudge ended up being pretty good. Every time I make fudge it seems like I do not enjoy it, though. So I pondered the question: Why do I never like the fudge that I make? Then I remembered that I have never really liked fudge in the first place!

As for the "truffles", that is a whole other story. I began by mixing the inner truffle. I peeled off all the royal blue Dove chocolate wrappers and melted the contents with some light cream and vanilla. After the filling was smooth as silk, I poured it onto the wax papered baking sheet and threw it in the frig to cool and harden. Next, I melted the semi-sweet chocolate for the coating.

I must note that the recipe CLEARLY stated that I was to leave the filling in the frig for 30 minutes. I left them in for an hour, just for good measure. When I took the filling out of the frig and tried to roll it into a ball, I immediately realized that it just wasnt't going to work. But being the culunary opptimist that I am, I decided to try. I rolled the first section into a little ball and threw it into the pot of hot semi-sweet chocolate.

Of course, the filling started to melt as soon as I put it in the coating. I took it out as fast as I could and threw it in the freezer (which the recipe did not call for). To make a long story short, after all was said and done, I had a sheet full of brown pancakes. It was very sad...

I had a great Thanksgiving, though!

Tis the Season...to Make Fudge!

My latest quest into the previously undiscovered world of baking is that of the perfect recipe for chocolate fudge. Today I realized that I have only one short month until that most joyous of days: Christmas! This year, I decided to get out of the habit of buying everyone gift cards and consumer products. I want to do something for everyone that I have to pour myself into. In other words, I want to give people the one thing that no one has enough of: time. In fact, this is the main reason that I decided to try the recipe for truffles a couple of months ago. But hey! Who needs a good reason to bake truffles? The recipe turned out to be absolutely delicious! But I have my worries about the truffles melting a little and bleeding through the confectioner's sugar coating. So, I found a new recipe that I will be trying tonight that has a hard chocolate coating, as well as a new recipe for fudge that I have only just finished and put in the frig to set.

Here is a picture of the mixture before I poured it!