College Concerns

Today, I slept in for a while and had a slow start to the morning.  Mom, Ben, and I sorted through a few more things in the garage, but we can only do a little bit at a time because of the stifling heat.  I worked some more on college stuff, not only for Boston, but in general.

It's been a little stressful for me, because there are just so many options and so many colleges out there, and I tend to have the feeling that I may be missing something when I'm searching, and when I start to try and narrow a list down, I may still miss a college simply because it didn't come up or I've never heard of it before.  I know that I will never be able to fully research every single college and make a decision about whether I want to go there or not, but it's hard because of my tendencies to try and cover all the bases and search through everything available.  Right now, I'm praying for peace and direction as I start to narrow down a list, and discernment as to where I'm supposed to go and where I'm supposed to consider for now.

Tomorrow I'm going to be calling and lining up the Boston college tours for our week there.

Mom made french toast, bacon, and peas for a breakfast dinner tonight, and then Dad and I headed to Walgreens and the Home Depot to run some errands.

Bean Town!!!

Strange title, I know, but apparently it's a nickname for Boston. :)  We're going to Boston!!!!!  We've had it planned for a few days, but yesterday was the first day I started planning for college visits.  We'll be going July 30- August 6.  I've wanted to go to Boston for a long time, so we're doing a family vacation and combining it with college visits so I can get a feel for if I want to live there in college or not.

Monday started out with a dog walk with mom, and then after breakfast, I unloaded the dishwasher and washed the dishes.  The pest company guy came to try and figure out why we were hearing pattering feet noises in the ceiling at night.  When he finished looking around and exploring the attic space, he came back downstairs and announced that we had birds, squirrels, mice, and wasps up there.  Haha. :)  There are even two bird carcasses right above my room.  I just love the craziness that always seems to happen in the Moore family. :)

Later that afternoon, I researched some colleges that Robin had suggested for our visit and then joined Ben and mom out in the garage to sort through some boxes (our favorite pastime). :)  Not too long after, dad got home, and we had ravioli casserole for dinner.  It reminded me of my early 18th birthday party that I had back in FL before we left, when we had it for dinner with everyone.  I miss all of you guys! :(

The rest of the night was uneventful, with a few episodes of Say Yes To The Dress and some more college researching. :)

Acts 29- The Journey

Sunday morning, dad, Ben, and I headed to The Journey.  Mom had a really bad headache, so she didn't join us.  The journey is an Acts 29 church- a really doctrinally sound organization of church plants that are a lot like Eastside Community Church, where we went in Jacksonville.  It's kind of unique because there is no Acts 29 in the Bible, but the statement from their website is: "There are 28 chapters in the book of Acts and it is our belief that God is at work today continuing the building of His church and expansion of His kingdom through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are simply seeking to follow in the pattern of Spirit-led and Scripture-directed church planting and evangelistic ministry that began in the book of Acts and has continued in every age since through God's faithful servants."  Essentially, they're "writing" the 29th chapter of Acts.  The service started with worship- a not-too contemporary, but not-too traditional mix.  When we greeted some people around us, there was a Lauren sitting next to us and another Lauren behind us. :) The sermon was a video sermon given by a pastor from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary on the faithfulness of Boaz, since the church is in the middle of a series on the story of Ruth.  It was a really insightful look into a story I had heard before, but never thought of in the way it was analyzed.  We took communion- everyone walked to the front, took a piece of bread from the loaves, dipped it into the glasses of wine, and ate it there.  It was a different way of taking communion than we were used to, but the doctrinal explanation given before communion was just like Eastside.  We closed with 2 more worship songs.  I really liked the church and could see our family going there.

We decided to try Uncle Bill's Pancake and Dinner House for lunch afterwards.  It's a quaint diner that's just as unique as it's name. :)  I had a blueberry waffle, dad got tropical pancakes, and Ben got chicken nuggets and cottage cheese. :)

We came home and hung out with mom for a little while, who still couldn't get rid of her headache.  The boys wanted to head to the shooting range for a little while, so I decided to join them after dad invited me to go along.  We headed to Walmart to get ear protection for me, and then out to the Jay Henges range.  I had never shot a gun before, so I started with dad's .22 that he got from his dad.  It wasn't as bad as I thought, and I did pretty well for my first time.

My target

Dad and Ben both shot some more, and dad shot his shotgun (the deer slugs were huge).  I decided not to try shooting that one, since last time dad shot it, he bruised his arm pretty badly. :)

After we had spent enough time out in the heat for the day, we headed for home.  On our way back, we drove through a neighborhood in the middle of the woods to look at the houses just for fun.  It was really hilly because it was on the side of a big hill heading down into a valley, but all the houses were really nice, and we took pictures of the for-sale ones just for fun. :)

After dinner that night, we walked the dogs, and then watched What Women Want on tv. :)