Don't worry, it gets better after the first 3 paragraphs

Last night was the first night where I could not sleep due to a storm in a LONG time.

Usually, I sleep like a rock. Give me five minutes and if I'm tired enough, I'm out like a light for the rest of the night. The other night, I went to sleep holding a pillow and woke up in the same position holding the same pillow. Now THAT is rare. I've been told that I roll over, trample, smash, hit, kick, steal (covers), and talk in my sleep. I can be a dangerous person while unconscious...

Anyway, after about 10 minutes of laying there, I knew something was wrong. Like I said, usually I'm out. I kept seeing flashing and then came the storm. Grrr. The storm probably wasn't even the reason I couldn't sleep. It was probably because I had been so active at volley ball about an hour earlier. NOT. I was actually pretty lifeless at volley ball, but it was fun and good to see the "volley ball people" again.

It WAS nice to have rain, though, and it cooled things off around here. I woke up this morning VERY tired. I think I had myself fooled that 6 hours a night is all I needed of sleep, and now that I'm getting 8, my body is getting kind of greedy. Hmph.

I just took up 3 paragraphs talking about my sleeping experience last night. This is a sign that I have no topic for today.

Two exciting things, though....

1. Someone is working for me on Friday, which means that after ISU BS on Thursday I get to go home and go to the P. Fest and be home for the rest of the weekend!

2. I'm a counselor at the Jr. High girls/boys camp. The only disappoinment I have at this point is that I think they have done away with the shaving cream fight. Ok. That is only the BEST part of the whole camp! I guess I'll live without it, though. And as a counselor, I suppose that means I'M the one who has to be mature this time :-)

I have this teacher who always picks on me. I have him every single day because he teaches 2 of my classes. Yesterday in Sound Design, he was talking and out of the blue goes, "Right, Taryn?" because he thinks I never listen to anything he says because I look around the room a lot. Well, that's just me. He's like, "You think everything else other than the front of room where I am talking is interesting at this point."

So he proceeds to say, "Now I'm going to talk about something that I should just take out of the currciculum, but I leave it since someone always inevitably ends up getting something out of it." So he talks for about 5 minutes, then says, "Ok, so did anyone get anything out of that?"

Being my kind self, I raised my hand to signal that yes, I did get something out of it. He goes, "ALRIGHT! That's it! Taryn gets an A+ for the day, and everyone else fails." THEN, he turns around, and writes my name on the board with an A+ next to it and "Everyone else- F-." What a funny guy.

What else? The T House is great. I feel really bad because all my room mates study. Now, before you think that I DON'T, let me clarify. I do when I have to (kinda), but my major field of study is one that is very project-oriented. So, instead of burying my head in a book or notebook, I spend my time making presentations, giving them, researching, taking video, editing audio, and manipulating images. In my opinion, A LOT more fun then studying :-)

My favorite times are the random times where we sit around and talk in the kitchen while eating or in passing. It's spontaneous, humorous, and with most of us... you never know what's going to happen next. Everyone comes home with stories for the day, which are usually pretty funny. I think Tricia has had the best stories so far.

Yesterday, Tracy made my day with something that made her day. She showed me something really cool. We both have itunes on our macs, and there is this feature called podcasts. Neither of us knew what it meant, but evidently you can subscribe to radio station's programs that air certain shows for FREE. One of those programs is Walk in the Word with Dr. James MacDonald! YEAH!!!! So ever day, one of his talks downloads on my mac for absolutely FREE! How sweet is that? I listened to him talk about prayer yesterday. He talked about how God CALLS us to pray... He doesn't ask or request, he CALLS. Also, if we pray and ask for anything according to God's will, He hears us! What's a way to pray in God's will? Pray the Word! Then we KNOW we are in His will! We know if we say, "God, please help to get me through this trial," He's going to be like, "OK!"

Because, sometimes we pray for things we don't need. James said that as mature Christians, though, we get to the point where we stop praying for stuff we don't need and start praying for stuff that we desire to glorify Him that is alligned with the Word and His will.

He also told us how the Bible says God can't lie. It's not, "He WON'T lie or he SHOULDN'T lie," it is He CAN'T. James used the analogy that guys can't have babies :-) Or, (this is for Luke), like Kristi CAN'T spike the ball :-) Well, neither can God lie. God stands firm on His promises to us, and we need to rest assured that He can't lie to us about anything (not that we think he should), but then why do we doubt? If we think our way is better than God's, we are essentially doubting that God won't bring us through. As long as we do not forsake Him, He won't forsake us.

I'm looking forward to some more of James' talks!

Something I'm tackling in these next couple of weeks is memorizing James 1. I was talking to Katelyn Thames on the way out to the Purdue sing and she asked me if I was memorizing anything. I'm like, "Uh, the monthly memory verse for my church," but that sounded kind of lame. I used to memorize chapters of the Bible for Sunday School... why can't I, now?

So, I was flipping through my old KJV that I used awhile ago and decided that the first New Testament chapter I came to with highlighting in it (I highlight stuff that sticks out to me, so I knew it would be good :-) I would memorize. It was nothing other than my FAVORITE BOOK in the bible! James. I LOVE James! This may be overstepping it, but I made it a goal to memorize the whole book.

I have James 1:1-10 down pretty good, so I need to keep going. I'm thankful for Katelyn and her challenge, because otherwise I would not have thought I could do this! It's really not as hard as it sounds... Katelyn just got done memorizing James 1, as well, so it's kind of ironic that it's the chapter I opened up to, but as I sat and listened to her say it, I was amazed. Yet, all it takes is sitting down and going over it. Katelyn told me that whatever chapter I decide to memorize will become my favorite. I think she's right :-) There's something about really learning EVERY SINGLE word and having it in your heart that makes it special.

I challenge everyone to try memorizing a chapter in the Bible! If that sounds a little big, just work on some meaningful verses. It's so nice to have the Word of God accessible without it having to be there in physical form. And you never know when you're going to be able to use it for His glory or even for your own good to fight off Satan.

I love you all!

T