adrianna...

this is just for you. well, ok, not just for you. everyone else can read it too. :) you just called me out on the fact that i havn't blogged in a while, so i figured i'd go ahead and give you a shout out. well. i've been pretty busy lately. i don't even remember when last i blogged. i've been trying to be good about working out. it hasn't worked out aaas well as planned. um what else. i gave blood yesterday, but didn't feel the affects until today when i almost fell asleep in both of my classes (granted one was world civ... and the room was unnaturally warm.) haha. my friend patrick was kind enough to film zak and i playing two of the songs i wrote last friday, and as of tonight, the video is on youtube. i'm too cool for school... what can i say. haha. i've also recently finished a 3rd song, and i have a 4th lingering in the sidelines, just waiting for me to feel clever enough to finish it. :) classes are generally good. choir is great. it's so nice to sing in an organized group again. i almost forgot how much i loved it. brandi told me that VSB is going to Colorado for their s.b. tour. My choir is going to Scotland, but I will sadly be staying behind... thanks to the fact that I wasn't a student here last semester and missed the deadlines... sooo, i'm thinking maybe a little trip to C.O. would be in order. eh? One of my roommates, Jennifer, is actually going to be in denver and colorado springs at that time, so maybe i'll just hop on her flight real quick. that would be the MOST amazing thing ever. it would be sad to not get to see my family or other friends not in VSB though... stupid schools across the country having different schedules but the same spring break. who even does that? haha. bands i've been listening to as of late (thanks to zak): wilco (looove them), radiohead (not a huge fan of the experimental techno phase, but as far as techno goes, they've got some skills), Fiction Family (Sean Watkins from Nickelcreek, and the lead singer of Switchfoot... very intriguing), Nathan Angelo (saw him in concert at school... Jamie Cullum meets Gavin Degraw), and Caroline Herring (saw in concert at the Crimson Moon... very good live... learn to love the CD). I don't think there's much else to say really. just livin the dream. haha. sort of.



Here's two of my songs, "Changed" and "Our Separate Ways"... if you didn't see them everywhere else. ;)
rhyming until next time...

so far so good.

school's been pretty good so far. i have two asian teachers, and a teacher from argentina, so the language barrier is always a joy... but other than that, i'm just happy to be a student again. i've been working a fairly good amount at eddie bauer (plus my measly 4 hrs a week at steamers), so i'm staying pretty busy... which i love. i almost tried out for Bye Bye Birdie at the Holly today (an old historic community theater in town), but I realized if I got it, it would be like working another part time job, and would be cutting into hrs that I desperately needed at work. So, hopefully I'll be able to audition for something this summer, because I would love to get back into acting again. It's something I've always loved doing, but it's been put on the back burner as of late. Something that hasn't been on the back burner is singing. I always sing, but being back in an organized choir is especially nice. Plus, Patrick is going to film me singing/playing a few songs this weekend that will eventually make their way to youtube per request from my mother and her friends (who hardly know what youtube is). haha. According to them, "I'm going to get famous." we'll see about that. ;)
In other news, I've found the study abroad program I desperately have to be a part of. It's a trip specifically for Art majors through UGA that goes to Cortona, Italy. Cortona is a picturesque Italian village located on a hilltop in Tuscany, that has been home to said study abroad program since 1969. The second I saw the website, I knew I had to go eventually. There are still some pre-reqs I have to get out of the way since I'm so far behind in the Art major (color theory, and 2 & 3D design), but I'm hoping to be able to go atleast by Fall of '10, since it'll be a while before I graduate. haha. well, I have world civ and art history in the morning, and I'm supposed to be reading Huckleberry Finn for amer. lit... so I should probably stop blogging at 2am and be a student. :)

Sipping Chai until next time...

i forgot the best news

I also, through an amazing friend and connection at the school, was able to be granted a waver for the out of state tuition for this semester... and actually until I graduate. I basically just saved $4,000 a semester, and now I don't have to go to all the trouble to apply for in state tuition next semester after I've gained my year of residency.... I can't even tell you how excited and Blessed I am. Also, Erin gave me the book "Captivating" by the authors of "Wild At Heart" the other day for christmas. I havn't have a chance to really dive into it, and it looks like my amer lit class probably won't allow me to for the time being, but what I've read so far, and what i've heard about it makes me so excited to read it. I'm pretty sure I can safely reccomend it to every woman already. Seriously.

There can be miracles, if you believe

Wow. That's all I can say about this last week. God is so good. I went from being completely stressed out and uncertain to almost completely worry free in a matter of days. It's amazing what can happen when you let God handle things. I find myself always trying to control situations without God's help, and I end up carrying unnecessary burdens. I am now a student at North Georgia College and State University. I'm registered for 12 credit hrs. and I have a surprisingly good schedule for registering the day before classes started. Today was the first day of class. I never thought I would be so happy to be a student again. Actually having more than one thing scheduled in a day is an amazing feeling. I love to stay active and busy, and this last semester has basically been one big veg fest. I'm taking two choir classes, one a combined choir (like CC), and the other a small women's chamber ensemble. I'm also taking american lit, world civ, art history 2, and an aerobic dance class. I'm most excited about the dance class, because it's basically a mixed cardio class that i'm taking with my roommate jennifer. It's the first class of my day MWF, and I have an hr break afterwords to shower if needed. I'm really hoping that this class will help me get back into shape so I can be happy with my body. We also have a brand new rec center at the school that's basically a free (minus the mandatory student fee added into school costs. haha) gym for me to attend any time i please. I think this is going to be a good semester... no, I know it will be.
Welcome back Kristen Weller, welcome back.
content until next time...

lots and lots of crafting

crafting: what one does when one's bank account doesn't supply funds for Christmas gifts.
that's the definition... check websters... scouts honor! haha.

so i've been feeling pretty crafty lately. and not in the sneaky sense. jennifer and i went to starbucks recently (a rarity when living in dahlonega), and we saw the world's cutest wreath.
we thought it was so cute that we decided to make our own interpretation. so, after 4 trips to walmart for styrofoam balls, a wreath base, green yarn, and red sparkly ornaments we created this.somehow, ours ended up more substantial. probably because we were working from a base and not attaching them to eachother. also, we only had one size of ornament, which didn't help. needless to say, we love it... but now we have to figure out who gets to keep it...

last week, i also did erin's hair for a wedding she was in. she was just going to hot roll it, but at the last minute, the other brides maids said they were having theirs put up.. so she frantically called me and asked me to do it the next morning. she came over that night, i played around, and ended up with this. these are pics from the practice round, but it looked pretty similar... just more polished. oh, and the funny thing was.. when she got to the wedding, everyone's hair was down. haha. atleast her's looked the best. ;)i was pretty happy with the end result. :)
other things i've been making... several scarves. i'm on number 4, and i've decided it's for myself, because i've never made on just for me. plus i'm also in love with this particular yarn. i've also been painting and making some top secret christmas presents for my roommate's christmas exchange... it's tomorrow... i'm not going to finish in time. oops. haha. here's the painting i did for jennifer.
she was in the room while i was doing it, but i saw the one she made for me the night before, so we're even. we were watching mona lisa smile and feeling very inspired. :) also, it's supposed to be crooked. haha.

let see, what else. i'm making something for erin. and right now i'm actually working on hand made christmas cards for friends and family. they're a tad time consuming, so i won't be able to give them to everyone, but every little bit saved helps right?

well, that's about it for my craft update right now. i'm going to try and get some sleep. much to accomplish tomorrow... too much.

the little things

I'm missing the little things. well, and the big things, like my family and friends... but every day, something little hits me. Like the fact that it's weird for me to see pictures of the new kids in Concert Choir, VSB, barbershop and beauty shop, etc. It's weird to see MY friends in pictures with people I havn't met... and they look happy, which makes me sad. It shouldn't, but somewhere deep down, it does. I think it's because everyone's moving on but me. I came back to the same old people, but everyone else is moving forward, and now not everyone in choir knows my name, or at least my face. And it's not just choir. I think I'm having a harder time than I realized with the fact that I wasn't in school this semester. I accomplished nothing while everyone else around me was busy working towards graduation. All my friends will be second semester Juniors, but with the semester I missed, and the classes that didn't transfer, I'll be a second semester sophomore.... a whole year behind. I'll graduate in 2011 instead of 2010. I thought that didn't bother me anymore, but I guess it still does. I miss the comfort of passing a exorbitant amount of Starbucks in 5 miles down the same road. I miss the ocean and newport church. I miss living on campus. I miss driving through 3 cities in 10 minutes. I miss funky places to hang out like the Gypsy Den. I miss silly photo shoots at the park and stealing bread from the caf to feed the ducks. I miss Office parties in Carly's room. I miss seeing a krochet kids shirt or hat on every other person. I miss trendy slouch boots, skinny jeans, v-necks, scarves, and slouchy beanies... even if I didn't wear them. I miss my digital camera. I miss singing. I miss worshiping. I miss seeing my friends lead worship. I feel like I'm floating, and like everyone else is moving along in a straight line. I'm so proud of all my friends who are RA's, worship leaders, members of VSB, members of dboys and entourage, frontline leaders, etc. They're all accomplishing their goals and achieving their dreams. But what am I doing? Staying up till 5am writing this sad blog? I'm sorry this is so cumbersome and depressing. I'm not depressed... I'm happy I'm here, I'm just in a slump. I feel kind of unmotivated, and I guess I'm second guessing myself. I worry so much about the future and how my actions affect the outcome of my life. I really just need to put it all in God's hands and trust that he's taking care of me. It's just so hard to do when you have no idea what lies ahead...
I can't go back for Christmas...
time to grow up Kristen.
until next time...

SNOW day

ok, ok. so it wasn't a snow day, but it did snow today... all day! nothing stuck to the ground, but they were predicting that it would ice over tonight, and i think it's a sign that the first snow of the season happened on december 1st. i'm so excited for christmas. actually, i think i'm just excited to be here for christmas. the square is so beautiful this time of year. i would put a picture up, but i still don't have a digital camera here. i've taken pictures on my phone, but i don't know how to get them onto my computer. if anyone wants to help me out there... i don't have a memory card in my phone or a iphone nor do i pay for the internet on my phone. any great ideas? although, i do miss my family and my friends in california and west virginia a lot. i'm starting to get prepared for next semester, and i'm hoping all my loans will go through in time.. and for that matter i'm praying that i'll have enough loans to make it through the semester! another thing i REALLY have to get done is get my georgia license. i don't know WHY it's taken me this long, but i really need to take care of that pronto. somethings i have been doing instead of getting my license are working, babysitting, staying up all night crafting, and watching movies with my roommates. i think i've officially seen almost every movie in our house. which is sad... we have a large collection. one craft in particular that i'm very proud of is my christmas stocking. i made it my hand from scratch, and didn't use a single stencil or template. it took about 4 hrs... because i'm an ocd perfectionist.. but none the less, it was quite enjoyable. i've also been crocheting a lot again, which i always thoroughly enjoy. christmas presents and such. oh christmas. my half birthday... sort of. it's actually jan. 25th, but my birthday's christmas in july, so i like to claim christmas as my 1/2 bday. shout out to the 25 club... me, molly, drew, josh, and jesus.
wishing for snow until next time...