just two finals left, and then my junior year of college will be officially complete. in the meantime, i have a banquet, a dsg dessert, i'm singing with some other ladies in church, studying in a coffee shop somewhere in chicago, and some serious packing! i'm SO excited to go home.

the weather today is gorgeous. i sat in front of edman chapel this morning and journaled in the warm spring sunshine. i am surrounded by such beauty, and i could imagine that life is perfect and the future is spotlessly bright. then the Lord reminds me of the frailty of life and i think of Taylor U's tragedy. friends at taylor, i am praying for you. your loss breaks my heart.

i must go to my last body comp class of the year. we are getting back our final body measurements, and will see our before and after pictures for the first time ever. it just makes the culmination of this semester seem even more real!

reformation test in less than half an hour! not feeling especially prepared...it's all essay, a sort of nebulous topic: "the outcome of the reformation." how about lots of bloody wars and cruel and unusual punishments?

i feel almost to the completion of school, and i'm really excited.

ten days, two essays, two finals, and one exam to go! hooray!

and my body composition class is now complete! though let's just say that it might take my body some time to get used to eating real food again...

well, the aforementioned bloody paper is now complete. i spent all of friday and saturday co-chairing the security council for a high school conference held on campus by wheaton's model un team. i'm not part of the class but just volunteered...something that, i'll admit, i wondered why i did when i reached the end of saturday, but it was fun. some of our representatives said some of the funniest things (often not on purpose). isaac and i had a blast, but i'm sure glad it's over.

i'm on a no sodium diet now through tuesday morning. our final after pictures and measurements are taken tuesday morning, so by avoiding sodium we loose water weight, which is supposed to make everything look better. we'll see. i had the worst headache yesterday, and i think it might be the no sodium thing. i'm only making it because i know it's only a couple of days. and i have to admit, i'm enjoying all the fruit i want and strawberry mini-wheats, which are also sodium free. =] it's hard to believe that our six-days-a-week workout is over, and that, starting tuesday, i won't have anyone to report to about my diet and sleep.

ohhhhhhhhh man. this bloody paper is killing me. i want it to be over. right now. but i think i'm only about halfway finished.

update: 18 days, 3 essays, 2 take home tests, 2 finals, 1 paper, 1 exam, and 1/4 book to go!! the numbers are shrinking!

i've found it interesting to observe my ever-evolving concept of "sleeping in" since coming to college. it began as something that could definitely go on until midday or later, and has slowly changed in my couple of years here. sleeping in is now what i did this morning...8am. i can hardly believe it myself, and even more surprising is how rested i feel.

grandma! i got my passport in the mail. thank you for sending it so quickly. to everyone else, oh the passport stories i have to tell.

i pray that you have a blessed Good Friday and Easter weekend.

found out that one of the papers i had due is now cancelled. the prof decided to make it due for just the grad students in the class...heeheehee. it'll stink to be a grad student one day, if this class is any indication. i'm pretty thrilled, though. the book that i have to read within the week is a little interesting but mostly too dense to understand. lifting was so draining today that all i could do at one point was sit on the floor and try to get up enough energy to do the next exercise. this new cycle didn't seem so hard yesterday...i've decided that i want to run the chicago half-marathon in the fall, but i know it would be so much easier if i had someone with whom i could do the ten week training. i'm much better with a partner to motivate me. i have a huge exam tomorrow and i'm battling apathy with schoolwork. i really just want to go home, but i still have two and a half weeks of classes. i am going to need to work really hard over easter weekend, unfortunately. and the more that time goes by, the more i realize that -- despite how truly excited i am about my family moving back to the states -- my trip home is going to be hard. it's going to be sad. at least i'm beginning to deal with that now.

twenty five days, nine take-home tests, three papers, two exams, two finals, and one book to go! boo yeah!

great job, gospel choir! i really enjoyed tonight's concert! today was great -- after lifting this morning, some of us went up to the dance studio with dr walters and actually practiced flexing. i kidd you not. and the man is insane -- he's definitely at body building level, and he barely had to move anything and you'd just see muscles coming out of nowhere! it's not going to work exactly the same way for the girls in the class...but hey, it was fun.

my parents leave for spain on monday, my sister is currently on a beach somewhere in an exciting place...and i'm in illinois. it'd be really easy to feel sorry for myself right now, but i won't, because this is the day that the Lord has made! and he placed me here, for some reason that only he knows! so i will live here, hopefully in every sense of the word live. it's hard sometimes, though. no, it's hard a lot of the time. the world seems so vast, and the here and now so insignificant. but God is gracious in all things, including his desire to use me in his will, which is something i was so happy to talk to bonnie about over lunch. i don't know why, but i'm excited for college group tomorrow.