You Lift Me Up

Songs for the Soul 

Here's just a few songs that have been giving me encouragement lately.  Give them a listen :)

You Lift Me Up by The Afters

This song is always playing on the Christian radio station at Auburn and it has become one of my favorite songs!  The video is kind of disturbing, but I do believe that it gets its point across- hence why I put it on my page :)  

 No Matter What by Kerrie Roberts

     Lately things have been looking up.  Sometimes I feel sort of lonely in Auburn, but God keeps sending things my way to let me know that He hears me out!  I used to eat lunch all the time by myself, but lately it's been crazy how many people have been like, "Do you want to grab lunch sometime this week?" and of course I do!!!  I've had people reach out to me from what seems like nowhere and it's just been incredible.  For instance today I pushed the dorm elevator button for a girl who I'd never seen before with her arms full of clothes to take home this weekend.  I held the doors open for her so that she wouldn't drop her things.  Whenever we went outside, it started pouring down rain!  She said, "Hey, would you like me to take you somewhere?"  I said, "No, I'm just walking to the Haley Center".  She was like, "I'd be more than happy to take you there!"  So I hopped into the strangers car and conversed with her while she drove me in the downpour.  It was just really nice of her! Also I had been worried about my spanish interview test that I had today...  a random girl asked me if I wanted to study with her in the library for spanish so I definitely took advantage of the offer!  It turns out that she goes to First Baptist of Opelika.  I have just delighted in these random things that keep happening :) I hope the Lord keeps them coming!

     Last night Leigh Ellen and I studied in the library until 2:30 a.m.  I would regret it, but I made an A on one of the tests so I'm not gonna complain!  One of my problems that comes with being up late is my delusional-ness.  Seriously, for some reason I couldn't get this one youtube video out of my mind and whenever I told Leigh Ellen about it I started to smirk, then laughed, then started laughing uncontrollably, then started laughing so hard that my face was read and that I was crying.  This went on for like 10 minutes and all of the people around me looked at me like I had serious issues... but I just couldn't stop!  Y'all prob won't think it's funny but don't get any sleep and then watch this and see how it is ;) First of all, why is she wearing the clown mask anyways?  Gets me every time!

     Today I went to "Dance Jam" which is the exercise dance class that I'm training to teach!  I went to a different teacher and it seriously was amazing.  I'm kind of concerned about how I would even choreograph something as good as that!  It's alot of fun.  We did a song today that I really enjoyed today called "Get Out of Your Mind" which Leigh Ellen had shown me a dance video to earlier in the year.... which of course the exercise is nothing like the dance! haha.

On a side note I saw an old man only wearing a tshirt and leggings today... scarred. for. life. :(

That Awkward Moment When...

I think that I will dedicate the beginning of this blog post to awkward things that have happened in the recent past (well, the few I can remember).

1.  That awkward moment when you go try to sit with someone at church that you think is sitting alone but it turns out that they are sitting with their family?

2.  That awkward moment when you are enjoying your bread bowl soup while chatting with your friends and your plastic spoon breaks in 3 places because you were scraping out the bread.

3.  That awkward moment when you are eating bread bowl soup and while in a struggle to get the soup out it splatters all over your shirt.

4.  That awkward moment when people think you wet your pants but in actuality your dog hopped in your lap and peed on you :(

5.  That awkward moment when a 40 year old man working for the school asks you if you have a facebook and what you're doing this weekend :/

6.  That awkward moment when Leigh Ellen leaves her zipper open all day unknowingly... twice.

7.  That awkward moment when you run up to someone and say HEY!!! and they don't remember who you are and look at you like you're crazy.

8.  That awkward moment when you overhear sounds in your dorm that you wish you had never heard.  If you know what I mean....

9.  That awkward moment when you open your curtains and you think there's an attacker but really it's just a hammock. 

10.  A few weeks ago a friend of mine named Courtney told me that she wanted to go to lunch with me, and said that she'd text me later since I didn't have her number.  A girl that goes to my church named Emily has been trying to set me up with a roommate.  She gave me a girl's email address and told me to get up with her!  Her name is Courtney as well.  I emailed the potential roommate asking her if she had a roommate already and if she didn't I'd love to get lunch with her sometime.  So a week later I get a text saying, "Hey, This is Courtney!  Sorry it took so long to get back with you, can we get lunch some time this week?" So I told her that I'd love to and I was finally thinking yes finally I hopefully have a roommate!!!  So I texted her on Monday night and said, "Hey girl, are we still up for lunch tomorrow?"  She said, "Yea, are you coming to church?" Which I was, so we decided to just plan it out there.  Then it crossed my mind that I had no idea what this girl looked like.  So I said, "Hey, I'm really sorry... but I don't know what you look like" then she said, "You don't know what I look like?" I thought that I had offended her!  So I apologized and she told me to look to my right.  The girl that I was texting the entire time was my friend Courtney.... not the Courtney that needed a roommate.  So the entire time I had been texting an entirely different person! Though I have to say I started praying and within 24 hours I found people I think I'm going to room with and they're awesome!!!  Fingers crossed it works out this time :)

This past weekend I went back home to go to DNOW!! I feel like God has been telling me alot of things lately.  Such as showing me how truly temporary every single thing in this world is.  It won't matter all of the worldly stuff that you had when you die (I mean really, you can't take it with you)...but it will matter how many people accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and live their life for Him!!!  This has really been helping me keep my eyes on the big picture of life and to focus on eternity and not get bogged down into the moment.

Speaking of DNOW... That crazy Crigger.  It's February!!!

So on Monday my organismal biology teacher brought in another critter.  She passed her around in a pan and told us that we could pick her up and pet her.  She's seriously crazy!

This is Rosie the rose-haired tarantula!

I Wanna Put on My Boogie Shoes!

   So remember how a couple of weeks ago I wrote about how I had found roommates to live with next fall? (Jan. 22)  Well, this is now a no-go.  We were planning to live on campus in the Village, which is apartment style housing and I didn't think it would be much of a big deal to get in.  I received an email last Friday saying that I did not get Village housing.  One of the planned roommates did (but she already lives there this year), and the other two will still be waiting to find out until April or May if they got in (since they live in apartments currently it's different for them) and since they want to be RA's they'll most likely live on campus regardless of if they get in the village or not.  Leigh Ellen knows a person that I can room with... and I'm so happy that she's doing that for me, but I really want to live close to campus but I guess if I can't find any other way to live closer I'll be living there (across the Walmart on College Street) .  And apartments are quickly being reserved for next year so I need to hurry up... but I just don't know.  It's a sticky situation and I wish it would go away.

     As for other news, I got a B on my first Organismal Biology exam!!!!!!!!!  Yippeee!!  I know it may seem silly to be so excited over a B, but seriously... this is a major improvement from last semester's biology class.  This class is not easy, but I actually understand the teacher!  Next time I'm aiming for that A+ ;)  I have also signed up to go through Group Fitness training to be an instructor.  But it will be a long time before I start teaching classes... because first I'll be doing training twice a week this semester, then I'll teach one class for free each week in the fall, and then if I'm approved, I'll teach classes next spring.  I've been going to this class called "Dance Jam" and I really would love to teach it!  It's like zumba but it's all hip-hop music.  Or Zumba... either one would be fun.  I'm still waiting to find out if I got my dream summer job.  I really doubt it, since I didn't do well on the interview, but we'll see!  

Boogie Shoes   I feel like this song is appropriate for the topic :)

     This past Saturday I participated in the AU Dance Marathon for the Children's Miracle Network. It was amazing!!!!  It started at 10 a.m. and ended at 10 p.m.  We played lots of super fun games such as "Are you Smarter than A Miracle Child?" "Dancing with The Stars" (they brought in Aubie, Miss Homecoming, Miss Auburn, etc. and each team learned a routine with them and danced) "The Singing Bee", a west side vs. east side version of Ships and Sailors, and so much more!  The AU singers, tiger paws and AU rhythm got to perform.  They even brought in a zumba teacher for about an hour and also a salsa instructor!  Plus when all of this wasn't going on, we were dancing.  They played all my favorite dance songs!  The purpose was to "Stand for those who can't" so we stood the entire 12 hours.  Literally, when we ate they had tables for bar stools but no bar stools so we stood while we ate!  The children that represented CMN came with their families and spoke to us about what all people donation's go towards and they also got to be the judges of some of the games we played!  There was never a dull moment- it was a  BLAST and I can't wait for next year!!  Some lady interviewed me but don't get all excited it's only one line ;) The Auburn Plainsmen- AUDM

 80's/90's Throwback Hours

 Nerds vs. Jocks Hours

 International Hours

Last hour- The Rave at the end!!!

Plus there was also East vs. West and Hollywood themed hours but I didn't dress up for those!

p.s.  Decided I'd give y'all a few of my favorite Taylor Swift songs to end on today :) Random, yes- Enjoy!

I'd Lie              Picture to Burn ;)

Superman

I'm Only Me When I'm With You      

Well, I better stop now, but I could go on and on and on...

A Month in Pictures

So I guess this blog is going to be a catch up for the past month in pictures considering I just now found the USB cord!

The Chick-fil-a bowl:

Those AU'S are bubbles!!!  How cool is that?!

Here's the mini-celebration when we won!

This is at the band banquet with my friend Ali!  We're going to do the AU dance marathon next weekend! :D

Me, Lauren, and Briana!

So this is the AUMB 2011 Highlight video!  Check it out.  It makes me miss the band already :(

Auburn Band Highlight Video

Passion 2012:

 This is Haley's pepper spray she keeps in her purse... Don't mess with her.  ;) Needless to say after 3 nights of only a few hours of sleep things start getting a little delirious.  Including mine and Callie Marie's freestyle rap battles.

Cathy G and I!

This is a hand statue with common items made by slaves everyday. 27 million people are currently slaves.

Worshipping with over 42,000 people... ahmazing!!!

Praying for the victims of slavery.

This is Hillsong United performing "Take it All" (One of my favorite songs by them) at Passion!

 Rat Attack:

One day before I went back to Auburn I convinced Dad to take me to the farm.  I'd never been there before!  When my brother Andrew and I were looking through the woods I saw something scurry away and heard squeaking noises.  I called Andrew over to me so he could help me find what it was.  We found baby rats!  I know this may seem gross to you, but seriously, look at how cute they are!!!

 Don't I look like a proud mother?!  Yeah, mom wouldn't let me keep them :(

Andrew also taught me how to shoot a gun.  It was just a 22, but it's the thought that counts, right? ;)  Thanks Andrew!

A Quick Visit:

I decided that Leigh Ellen needed to visit Andalusia in it's full glory.  So what better way than to come back on MLK weekend?!  Andrew took us to shoot the 22 and Leigh Ellen got to shoot a gun for the first time! Plus Leigh Ellen got to meet a few of my friends :)

Domination.

Life Lately:

I think I've forgotten to tell y'all that I'm no longer taking Kayaking.  I'm sad too :(  I decided to take Waterskiing instead with some friends!  It'll be fun!  I've never waterskiied or wakeboarded in my life though so this should be interesting.

My biology teacher has continued to bring in weird animals and pass them around the room... she brought a gecko that she caught the other day in the hall, hissing Madagascar cockroaches which she placed all over her shirt tapping them saying, "Aw, they never hiss for me, look how cute they are!"...ew.  And then she brought White's Tree Frogs!  I wonder what will be next?!?  She definitely keeps me on my toes.

So I think Leigh Ellen and I are going to go to the UA vs. AU gymnastics meet tonight!  It will be fun to watch :) So the other day when LE and I went to Andalusia we were talking about our cheerleading days.  First of all, I haven't tumbled since 10th grade because of my knee popping out of place and tearing my meniscus all because of a stupid round-off of all things (and it happened on stage).  So LE talked me into tumbling for her ( but not without a fight); it took 30 minutes of me staring at the ground trying to talk myself into doing it.  So I know it's not great at all, but it's been 3 years since I've even attempted it, so don't hate :) I'm just happy that I didn't break something.

An Answered Prayer

   It seems like a lot of things have been happening lately.  But hey, can't complain too much because life sure hasn't been boring!  I somehow last week got thrown into an interview five minutes after I found out about the job (bet you can guess how that turned out)... at the moment I didn't really think too much about the job, but they gave me a CD to watch after the interview, and I couldn't believe that I probably ruined my shot at something that seems so awesome. We will see how it turns out... but I really want it! 
   
     On Thursday I convinced myself to go to this exercise class called "Kick/Dance Intervals" thinking hmmm... wonder what that'll be like?  An hour (and the days following) of ab stinging, thigh burning pain!  That's what!  It's a class where you do 2 songs of kickboxing then switch to 2 songs of dance, repeat.  It's pretty intense but is alot of fun... haven't been that sore in a while! 

     On Friday and Saturday, I got to see Ander compete in the Distinguished Young Women of Alabama program.  It brought back so many memories.  Memories of my crazy section last year (love them), all of those rehearsals, events, letters of encouragement, etc. I ran into my host family from last year and many of last year's contestants.  It was so great to see them!  Ander did awesomely!  I loved her sparkly Converses in opening number.  Everything that she did was spectacular... opening number, fitness (terrific push ups!!), self-expression, and talent!  I hope that she had a great time and gets plenty of sleep to recover from that exhausting experience :)

     Mom and I stayed in Montgomery both nights, and I convinced her to come to Auburn with me this morning so that she could come to church with me!  She seemed to really enjoy it.  Afterwards, we went out to eat at Mellow Mushroom with Kinsey (remember the friend I mentioned earlier from Ohio? http://devin-williamson.blogspot.com/2011/09/sirens-and-fines-while-im-running.html)  and one of her friends from the AU singers.
    
      Lately, I've had 2 main things I've been praying about.  One of them is to clearly know what I want to do for the rest of my life, and the other one is to find a roommate for next year.  I haven't even a clue of what I want to major in.  It's been quite frustrating because I feel like I need to make up my mind now.  Everyone keeps saying, "Do what you love!" But the problem is that I don't even know what I love anymore.  I know I love God, my family, my friends, I love being around people... it's just so broad.  I don't want to pick something before I know for sure it's what I want to do.  So with that being said... I have alot more praying to do.  As for the roommate situation next year, I will not be rooming with Leigh Ellen.  You might be thinking, "What, why not?  Did something happen?" And the answer is no... Leigh Ellen has been fabulous.  I truly couldn't have asked for a better roommate.  It is such a blessing to have been "randomly" paired with someone with alot of the same beliefs and common interests and to be able talk about things with someone I can call a best friend.  We've never fought about anything and we get along greatly.  Leigh Ellen pledged Delta Zeta this year, and in Auburn sororities don't have houses.  Instead, your sophomore year you have the option of living on your sororities hall in the Village if you meet the required academic standards.  She hasn't been super close to any of her sorority sisters, so she wants to get to know them better and develop friendships with them... I completely understand :) So it's been time for me to look for a roommate.  Mom kept suggesting different apartments to go visit... but I just felt like I needed her to go with me because I've never looked for a place to stay before.  As for roommates, I didn't even know where to start.  I have alot of acquaintances but no one that I'm really close to. Different people kept suggesting to me that Kinsey might not have a roommate yet, but I kept thinking that I was sure she had already found someone... she's just that nice.

     So to continue my story from earlier, we were all at Mellow Mushroom eating lunch today.  We were  talking about apartments, and mom asked Kinsey where she was going to room this next year.  She told us that she was going to live in the Village with some girls from Lakeview, then she looked at me and asked where I would be living.  I told her the story about how I had no idea.  A smile swept across her face and she said excitingly, "Oh my gosh we've been looking for a fourth roommate!!!"  So of course she had to text the other girls (I've hung out with them before, they're really nice!) and ask if they already had filled the spot, but they hadn't!  It's just nice to have a prayer answered like that... it was amazing!

"They Say Be Afraid, You're Not Like the Others..."

     As Leigh Ellen and I traveled from Auburn to Andalusia, "E.T." by Katy Perry came on.  Haley made me this CD right before graduation, and I listen to it all of the time and reminisce :)  I couldn't help but to smile at the memory that the song brought back to me.  It took me back to last spring. 

....

     In your senior year of high school, you want everything to be as good as you can make it.  It's your last chance to make your mark at your school, and you want to end on a good note.  My senior year had gone the best that I could have hoped for, and there was one last big event before graduation: Sub Deb.  The Andalusia Country Club Sub Deb club hosts two dances every year- one in the fall that's a formal, and one in the spring that is more casual.  I had always loved going to them whenever I was invited- but I hated only one thing about them.  I hated having to ask a guy to go to the dance with me.  I know this is part of the tradition of Sub Deb, but I just never had many guy friends and it terrified me; However, this was the first time (well actually there was one other time, but we'll just say this was the first) that I didn't have to worry about asking someone to go to Sub Deb with me.  I was dating the person that I would ask!  It was so nice not having to be concerned about my date.  I was completely relaxed, until I was informed that there might be a slight possibility that he may not be able to go with me anymore.  Each day I would hear scattered answers.  "I'm pretty sure my dad's not going to let me go","Well, I don't know, today's not looking so great but maybe", "He said I might be able to go!".  I held on to my small piece of hope.  Certainly he would let him go, right?  It's my last dance.  I had already paid for our t-shirts and the fee to go.  I started telling my friends that I didn't know if I was going to go to the dance anymore if I didn't have a date.  No one goes by themselves to this dance, and I didn't want to be "that" girl.  So my friends started to look for people I could go with- some of them made things embarassing for me.  Hence when one of my friends asked someone to go with me that already had a girlfriend and I hadn't even met him before- this was quite humiliating... I know you meant well though friend, so I still love ya :) But the point is that I didn't want to go with anyone else.  The day of the dance finally arrived, and he asked me to keep my phone with me so that he could update me on whether he could come or not.  I waited...and waited... and waited...and I decided that I should go ahead and get ready just in case. I didn't hear the answer until I was getting my hair done at around 5 that afternoon.  And the final answer was... "No".  I considered not going anymore, but then I was reminded that this was my last high school dance, and I still had great friends to live it up with.  I put on my make-up and my dress, hopped into my car, and drove into town.  My friends told me that they were meeting up to take  pictures, so I joined them.  When I walked up- I saw my friends and their parents giving me confused looks.  The parents looked like they were thinking, "Doesn't she have a boyfriend?" "This is awkward..." But I joined in on their group pictures.  I got into Haley's shiny silver maxima with the rest of the crew, and they quickly made me forget that I was without a date. "You're so hypnotizing, could you be the devil, could you be an angel?" E.T. came on and Haley rolled down the windows and blared the music.  I caught myself smiling and singing along.  We arrived at the country club a few minutes later.  I could tell that people were looking at me because I was alone, and they wanted to know where my date was.  At this point, I just wanted to prove a point- I can have fun with my friends no matter what the case is.  I still wanted a picture to remember the night- so my close girl friends and I got a group picture together by Vicki Popwell :) It was finally time to dance.  The first song they played was the "Wop"... I love to Wop.  Though at that time, I'm pretty sure me and only 10 other people knew how to Wop but we were rocking it.  And then the raunchiness started happening- you know what I'm talking about!  I just feel so gross watching it :/ So it was about 3/4 of the people doing that, and then there's the circle of my friends making up line dances and fun things to do.  We were just ourselves and let loose.  Laughing, making up dance moves, and being free- not caring about fitting in or what the world thought about our goofiness. And at the end of the night, no one gave me "the look" anymore.  They saw that I was having fun regardless of the situation.  That is the most fun I've ever had at a dance... I'm not even lying to you.  So to all you guys and girls out there not wanting to go to a high school dance because you don't have a date... never let that get in your way.   Go with the people that you love to be around and there's no way that you won't have a great time ♥

Leigh Ellen says... "cingular, raising the bar" ;)

Oh, Happy Day!

     My morning began by waking up at 6:45 a.m.  I knew that my class was at 8 a.m. but I wasn't exactly sure of the location and I didn't want to be late (I couldn't sleep anyway).  I left at about 7:05 and soon discovered that it would only take me 15 minutes to get there.  I waited until we were finally let into the room.  Beginner kayaking is a class only held once a week on Mondays.  This time will be used for instructions on how to kayak, safety, etc. There are about 90 people in that class, but we will be split into four groups, and each of these groups will have a different weekend in April.  On that weekend, we will get to Kayak on the Coosa river and go camping in tents on Friday and Saturday!  I'm so excited.  The last time I went camping was when I was about nine- you could say it was an interesting experience.  It began to pour down rain at about midnight while my family was in the tent, and Andrew had eaten way to many hotdogs.  Andrew threw up in the middle of the night, all around my head.  Thankfully I was so deep in sleep that I never woke up!  I bet it was a rough night for my parents though, so we never went camping again.  Now over ten years later it's time to give it another shot ;)

     After kayaking class, biology was at 11 a.m.  When I got into the classroom of about 300 people, I noticed that there were a few things sitting on a table.  My organismal biology teacher had brought her pet corn snake, Corny, to class!  She passed him around for everyone to hold.  She says that she brings in organisms quite often (I can't wait to see what she brings next!).  She was so enthusiastic and you could really tell that she loves her job.  She was awesome to listen to and I'm excited for her class!

     Then, I had to hurry and go to my Spanish class.  It's been my smallest class so far- only 30 people!  Whoop whoop!  The teacher told us that he came from Africa, and that his first language was French, his second language was Spanish, and then his third language was English.  So when he speaks in English he has a French accent with a little bit of Spanish. Confusing right?  So it doesn't do him much good to speak English to us anyway.  Everyone kept looking at each other during class and laughing because we had no clue what  he was saying!  I still can't help but to like him though- I can tell that he has a good sense of humor and really wants us to learn so I can definitely deal with the language barrier!  He went around asking, "Te Llamas?" and we were supposed to say, "Me Llamo  __" whenever it was my turn I said, "Me llamo Devin" he said, "Como Estas?" so I said, "Muy bien, y tu?" he suddenly got all excited that I knew this small amount of basic spanish and started talking really fast in spanish to where I had no idea what he said, but I know that he was asking me a question.  I said, "uhhhh...." and the whole class bursted out in giggles!  I think it's gonna be fun.

     At lunch, I was waiting for my roommate, Leigh Ellen, to come eat with me so I was sitting by myself for a little while.  A guy came right beside me and said, "Do you mind if I sit here?".  I'd never seen this guy before.  His name was Andrew, and we total strangers talked for about 30 minutes! And surprisingly it wasn't awkward at all.  I wish I had the courage to just go up to someone that was sitting by themselves at lunch and bring up a conversation.  I liked the company, and he was fun to talk to!

     After lunch, I headed to my last class of the day... psychology.  My teacher told us that he was the happiest man on campus and loves his career!  There's about 90 people in the class but on Fridays we split in groups of 30.  He seems like he'll be very interesting.  I'm just so glad to have teachers this semester that care and are interesting.

     Tomorrow I only have one class thankfully :)