Classes, churches, and chicken, oh my!

Well, the first day of classes is behind me! This morning I had Bible Study Methods at 8, Bible and Doctrine Overview at 9, and Math for Elementary Teachers at 10, so it was a pretty full morning. After those, it was straight to Convocation chapel at 11, where Dr. Anderson talked about being a Servant of Righteousness, which is kind of the school theme for this year. That was awesome. We all have these little chapel journals, that have calendars with special events and a section for note-taking. They seem super helpful.

This evening I tried out my first church. They have a system here at school where you have four weeks to try different churches, going to Sunday morning & evening, as well as Wednesday evening services, and then at the end of that time you have to "declare" a church. By declaring it, that means you have to attend that church for the rest of the year. So, it's a pretty big deal.

Anyway, we got quite lost on our way to Fellowship Bible Church, which is where we wanted to go, so we ended up at this place called Cranberry Baptist Church. It seemed very nice, but unfortunately we timed it badly and they were having their annual business meeting, so we didn't really get a feel for what their Wednesday evening service would be like normally.

The day ended well with a Chick Fil A picnic (complete with chocolate milk) with my roommate, Moriah, in our dorm. We're pretty much convinced that Chick Fil A makes everything better.

Looking forward to Day #2 of classes tomorrow!

~Hannah Grace

Beginning a New Adventure!

Yesterday I officially moved to Appalachian Bible College. I feel like I really need to type/write those words to help make this whole thing seem more real. It still feels as though I'm just here for summer camp.

Right now I feel like I'm "drinking out of a fire hose", as Dad put it. So much information! But I have so enjoyed hearing from the Dean of Students, the various faculty members, and my favorite session- President Anderson and his wife.

I'm loving my dorm room- when we first walked in the bed was positioned right smack in the middle of the room. Thankfully, we were able to move it up against the wall giving us lots of more space. A couple pictures of the room:

It was inevitably hard to say goodbye this afternoon after lunch. I just have to keep reminding myself that this is a new season of life and it will have ups and downs just like any other experience. A verse my roommate and I are counting on to help us this semester (and all four years) is 2 Timothy 4:17a, "But the Lord God stood at my side and gave me strength." What extraordinary words of encouragement!

Looking forward to an exciting, challenging, fun, and unpredictable semester! 

~Hannah Grace 

First's and Last's

I woke up this morning and my first thought was, "I'm leaving home tomorrow. WHAT?" This will be my last day to eat dinner at home. Tonight is my last night to sleep in my own bed.  I imagine it will be a day packed with last things. But instead of dwelling on that, I want to spend the day looking forward to the first's that are in my near future.

We're all enjoying spending time with Grandmom Trip. I'm particularly glad that she'll be able to travel to Appalachian with us and and then back home with Mom and the boys. I think it will be very helpful to Mom having Grandmom for the first couple days that I'm gone.

Last night we all had a treat at Sweet Frog, a frozen yogurt-with-lots-of-toppings-bar. One of my favorite places to go!

I should probably get started on packing the van as I'm anxious to see if everything will fit! I'll let you all know how it turns out.

~Hannah Grace

[insert profound & interesting title here]

Andrew, the baby of the family, turned 11 yesterday. So hard to believe how fast that boy is growing up! He is such a mature, thoughtful, hard-working, handsome, diligent little brother. This summer he has been working hard to achieve some goals in reading and, being a reader myself, I really couldn't be prouder. A picture of the birthday boy: 

Mom and Dad got him a good ol' hiking backpack for Boys Scouts, a new remote control car, and a party at the pool with lots of his friends. He's not a big fan of cake, so I baked his request- a giant chocolate chip cookie. I had never tried making one before, but it was just like making regular chocolate chip cookies-- except in a pizza pan. Yum! 

Today we're preparing for my grandmom from my dad's side to come stay with us. She'll accompany us all to Appalachian on Saturday and then come back and stay with Mom and the boys for a couple of days before heading home. We're all so excited to see her! We've always called her "Grandmom Trip" because when we were little, Jordan and I thought it was quite a loooong trip to go see her. 

The countdown continues with two and a half days before I leave! So many preparations still going on, but I think I'm finally getting there. My stuff looks a bit more like organized chaos as opposed to much less-organized chaos. 

~Hannah Grace 

Soft Pretzels and Hot Chocolate

Only four more nights in my lovely bed at home. I'm suffering through stages of complete and utter denial, super excitement, sadness and nerves, and everything in between! A couple pictures of the packing process:

I think I have too much stuff. 

Anyway, I'm trying to fit in lots of family time in these last few days. I know I'm going to miss everyone so much. This afternoon I hung out with my fellow "middle child", Noah. We ate soft pretzels and drank hot chocolate while watching an episode of the Brady Bunch. Obviously, the two of us know how to have a good time. 

Now I'm off to look at textbooks! 

~Hannah Grace 

Surprise Party for Mom!

Today we had an unusual birthday party in the Amedick home. Mom's birthday is on September 25th, a month after both Jordan & I leave for college. In the past couple of weeks, I had been thinking a lot about what I could do to make her birthday special from a distance. Then, only three days ago, it came to me: a month-and-a-half early surprise birthday party!

So, this morning while Mom was at a meeting from 9 to 12, the four of us kids blew up balloons, wrapped presents (we got our shopping done yesterday), baked a cake, and generally had a good time preparing a party for Mom. I worked on this banner to greet her when she walked in the door:

Needless to say, she was quite surprised. Honestly, I think that's the only way I could ever actually pull off a surprise party- with very, very short notice. It was much easier to keep the secret for two days as opposed to knowing for months and months and not being able to say anything!

Anyway, it was quite a fun afternoon and I'm super glad that Jordan & I got the chance to celebrate her birthday- even if it was a month and a half early. 

Back from obscurity

It has been many months since my last post, but a couple of friends brought up my blog within the last couple weeks and I've been thinking about it myself-- what with wanting to record this new season of my life-- so I'll start with this post and see where the whole thing goes!

Plenty has happened over the last few months, but I'll skip over the boring things and summarize quickly: 

1) In June, I competed in my second (and final) NCFCA Nationals, this time in Minnesota. It was an interesting week filled with old friends, new friends, the Mall of America, and lots of speech and debate. 

2) In July, our family joined our local YMCA. This doesn't sound too exciting, but we have all spent a good deal of the remaining summer there, swimming, taking various exercise classes, and working out in general. Jordan, in particular, has enjoyed her time there. 

3) We're now past the halfway point of Dad's 8-month deployment on the USS: New York. Counting down the days to Thanksgiving- he'll be home only a day or two after that! 

Speaking of Thanksgiving, this brings me to the elephant in the room! College. In less than ten days, I will take off for Appalachian Bible College in the beautiful mountains of West Virginia. I'm still in a little bit of denial. I don't think the whole thing will seem like a reality until I've officially been moved into my room and on campus for a couple of weeks. Taking some classes will probably help with that too! 

I'm certainly excited about beginning this chapter, but can imagine some rough moments during the semester. Just saying goodbye to begin with will be difficult. Having grown up in the military, I've always felt like a bit of a pro at saying goodbye to friends. But my family is a whole different matter. Even when I have sadly said farewell to the best of friends, I have always had my mom or dad, my brothers or sister around, so this will be a new and painful experience. 

On the other hand, I'm beyond grateful for the job my parents have done in preparing me for this moment and can't wait for the adventures that lay ahead of me. Praising God for bringing me here and trusting that He is the only One who can carry me through. 

~Hannah Grace