|
Missalainious
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Alaina
Country: United States
State: Iowa
Metro: Keokuk
Birthday: 8/4/1985
Gender: Female
Interests: Singing,
Acting,
Writing,
Thrift Store Shopping!!!,
Watching old movies and Musicals,
Playing Scattergories and other word games,
Traveling new Places, I'm very nosey,
Praising God
Expertise: Expertise....???
Well, I guess I love to sing. :)
Occupation: Student
Industry: Other
Message: message meEmail: email me
MSN: iamyourangelofmusic@hotmail.com
Member Since:
9/21/2004
|
|
| Hi Friends!
I know it's been a couple of weeks since I've updated and a lot has
gone on in my life. After that weekend at awaken I had my busy
'J-term Finals Week' where I had to write two papers and finish a
creative project about refugees that I presented last Friday.
Then I went to camp again that weekend for our first Awaken performance
in Gilbert, IA. It was a wonderful performance and God
blessed us with a great, full congregation. My friend Sarah Reuss
was there too so that was sweet.
Then I went home for a day and a half where I celebrated my Mom's
birthday with her and my sister, and worked on my language translations
for my voice recital. My Dad came home from France right before
my mom left for Hawaii...not kidding..so after my mom left Dad and I
went to my sister's show choir contest.
Now I'm back at school and I had my first 3 days of 2nd semester.
I'm taking 19 credits AGAIN, but I suppose that's what I have to do to
get my double major in. My classes seem like they will be really
good though. I'm in Contemporary music history, Advanced Public
Address, Persuasion Theory, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (A religion
Class. He was a German Theologian during WWII), Music Theory, and
I'm taking 2 credits of private voice study. Then I'm also in
Choir which doesn't give me any credits...but should because it's 3
days a week for over an hour :D I'm really interested in my
classes though. For Dietric Bonhoeffer our first reading was
discussing his dissertation about community in Christ. I really
liked what he had to say, but I won't go into it. If you want to
talk about it you can ask me :D Also, my first assignment for
Persuasion Theory is to write a 3-4 page paper on what an ad in a
magazine is saying by using a specific persuasion theory model.
It's pretty fun.
I'm going to be crazy busy but it's going to be good. My voice
recital is in 2 weeks...SPAZ. I had a lesson with KK today and
she sounded like I have nothing to worry about. I know worrying
won't do me any good so I'm going to stop it.
Well, I wish you all a great weekend! I'll post as soon as I can.
In Joy ~Alaina
| | |
| Let me just start by saying that this weekend was absolutely
amazing. I was at camp for AWAKEN, the Drama Ministry I'm in this
year, and so I was with many friends that I was with this summer at
Riverside, but also some new friends that are in the ministry with
us. We got there on Friday night and went right away to the
Lutheran chruch in Story City and got to work with rehearsal. We
rehearsed until midnight and then went back to camp and talked for a
while before falling asleep.
On Saturday we got up and went to the Chruch right away. We ran
the whole drama slowly, working on different scenes and also figured
out all of our costuming and props. That night we did a dress
rehearsal with everything but makeup. It went really well and I
think this year's touring drama will be amazing!
At our last few weekend 'attacks' (as they're called) we've had share
time where we sit in a circle. In the circle, each person has
used a couple of words to describe his/her self and then other people
in the circle are welcomed to speak up after the person is done and
affirm what ways they see those qualities in him/her. I went last
night and my words were 'Singing, Sensitive, and Sweet.' Many of
the people that I worked with this summer spoke up and said so many
words that really lifted and built me up.
The most honoring words actually came from Ryan, the guy who was my
bible study leader this summer and a member of the discipleship team
that mentored the guy counselors this summer. Even though he is
only a little over a year older than me, I admire him and see so much
of God's love and wisdom in him. My interaction with him this
summer was limited to our hour-long small group Bible Study once a week
and eating lunch with him in the deserted dining hall on random
Saturday mornings when nobody was around. I don't really feel
that from that he should be able to know me, but apparently he's been
pretty observant. 
In front of the whole team last night he said that he thought that I
was exactly the type of girl that he would marry. He said without
expectation that I am the kind of girl that he needs because I would be
able to build him up and encourage him in the way that he would really
need to be. He also said that someday some man will be really
fortunate to marry me.
I couldn't believe he said that in front of everyone! I was so
honored! It's amazing to hear that about myself from a man of God
that I admire. Especially one that is so amazed with me after the
small amount of time we've spent together. He wasn't saying
"Alaina, I'm in love with you" and he wasn't expecting anything from
me. I don't expect anything from him either. It was just
beautiful to have the affirmation from someone whose opinion I value
that God has given me a desire to be married, and he has made me
desirable for someone to marry.
I thanked him later and thanked him for being so honoring to me. He smiled and said "I meant every word of it."
I know how you feel about yourself shouldn't depend on what anyone else
thinks of you, but I am just in awe of those words and so honored by
them. I am not in love with him, nor was he confessing any love
for me. He was affirming my beauty as a woman and his sister in
Christ. I will never forget what Ryan Larson said to me last
night.
| | |
| Hi my Friends,
I hope all of you are doing well. I'm writing to you from School..yes I'm in school and I've been here for almost a week now taking a j-term class. J-term is sweet because you get credit for a class that would take you the whole semester in one month. This J-term I'm taking a religion class titled "Singing in a Strange Land" which is theological perspectives on Exile in the Biblical history and in our modern times. So far its been a lot of reading...a LOT of reading in a short time so I have been hard at work. That great thing is that the class is only 2 1/2 hours a day and I work right after that so I am done for the day at 12:30 and have the rest of the day to work on reading and do other fun things. One of my goals over J-term is to knit a scarf in my free time...my neighbors are going to teach me. Let's see if it happens.
Nothing has really been going on. We've all been pretty busy with our classes, but on Friday night my friend Kati had a birthday party and that was great. We went out to 'Mabe's', the Pizza place in town and then we went back to her room and had a game night. I laughed so much I almost peed my pants! We had such a good time. There were 5 of us that hung out that night and they were girls I don't usually hang out with so it was really fun getting to know them better. I felt like a middle-schooler or something because we ended the night by playing the board game 'Life' and I was angry because I never landed on the right spots to have any kids!
Every year Luther hosts the 'Dorian Vocal Music Festival' on campus where we host a bunch of high school choirs and singers for a weekend. The high schoolers get to stay in our dorm rooms on Sunday night and hang out with the Luther students. Well, last year I signed up to host 'Dorians' (That's our name for them) and I waited forever and they never showed up. This year I signed up again hoping that I would actually have kids stay with me. Last night was no different. I cleaned and vaccumed my room and blew up an air mattress with MY OWN LUNGS and I was so excited for them to come and they never did. How sad!!! My roomie is gone so I even had an extra bed for someone to sleep in :( What a disappointment. Maybe if I don't sign up next year that Dorians will actually come to stay with me...hmm...
I suppose I should talk about the rest of my Christmas break since I never updated this thing. Well, I have to say that I was really excited because for the first time in 3 years all of 'God's Girls' were back together again. Johnna, Elsa, Kalen, Julie, Vikki, myself, and then the amazing addition of Cori all got together at my house for an evening of playing DDR, talking, eating, and even going on an adventure to McDonald's and the old bridge in Keokuk. It was an amazing night and I can't even describe how much it meant to me that everyone could hang out together again and enjoy each other's company because we have had our fair share of conflict over the past couple of years. God is good and he truly is a God of healing.
Well, I'll try to update more over this month! I've been bad about updating in the fall of '06 so maybe '07 will be better...?...
Well, I'm off! In Joy ~Alaina | | |
| Hello Friends :D
I hope you're all getting excited for Christmas! I know I am. Mom and I have now made all of the cookies, Swedish Rye Bread, and other traditional Christmas foods. We're having everything this year but LUTEFISK...unless my Grandpa decides to surprise us with it when we go to Minneapolis.
A tradition that my family never skips is going to the tree farm and cutting down our own Christmas tree. This year my sister found the perfect tree. She walked right up to it right away and said that it was perfect...and it was.
My Dad always gets down under the tree and saws it down
Then we load it into the 'Ghetto Van' and take it home! This is the Ghetto's 15th year bringing home the Kelly Christmas tree :D
Besides all of the getting ready for Christmas with our family I've been running almost every morning because the weather has been in the 50's. That's almost unheard of for Keokuk this time of year. I got to see Anna and I've also been hanging out with Elsa a little bit. She and I hung out on Wednesday night and then on Thursday I went with my mom, Elsa and her mom on a walk to Illinois and back. (5 miles).
I really need to find a project though...hmmm...I'll figure it out. My mind has needed little more stimulaion. I'm not an artist, I'm not a great story writer...I scrap everything I start, and I get a headache if I try to read all day. There is only so much jogging and walking a body can take. I need a project. If any of you have suggestions let me know ;)
Merry Christmas, Friends! I'll try to post again soon!!!
Love and Joy~Alaina
| | |
| Hey Friends! Wow, it's been a while so I figured that it was
important for me to update. I've just been so busy, and I know
that the rest of you have too.
Let's see. Well, after I got
back from break I had a busy week because of Christmas at Luther, our
HUGE series of Christmas concerts. My parents and Nikki were here
for the Sunday afternoon performance and they took my friends and I out
to Culver's for lunch and then we went wild at the Scandinavian gift
store before the concert. All 5 of the concerts were packed and
as usual, the performances were great and lots of fun.
It's important to eat and drink lots of water before a performance!
Myself, Kat my roomie, Chris
The Classic Mista Gibbs and I
Kati and I
After the madness of Christmas at Luther
was over finals took on full force. I was busy trying to get
ahead last week because I had Awaken on Friday and Saturday and was
going to miss my 'Reading Day' to get ready for tests. Awaken was
fabulous! Julia, Candace and I drove the 3 hours to Riverside and
had a great weekend with our friends...some that we worked with this
summer and many that we're still getting to know. The drama for
Awaken is going to be so cool! We were able to run through the
whole thing with music and record it so that we can review our parts
unti January when we meet again. It was wonderful because even though I was gone this weekend I didn't feel behind with my preparation for my tests.
So far I've had 3 finals. I had my vocal jury yesterday and it
went REALLY well, and then I had part of my theory exam (It's 3 parts
and I've done 2 out of 3) and then I also totally tore up my Intro to
Mass Media test. Today I got up early and worked out and now I
have the rest of the day to study for my other finals :D
YAY! I have 3 left- one on Wed. and two on Thurs.
Last night after our tests Kat, Matt and I went to the 7pm showing of
'The Nativity'. It was really good! A lot of the
beginning isn't from the Bible, but it sets up culture and sets up Mary
and Joseph and why he was going to divorce her when she became
pregnant. The rest was from the Bible and it was put together
beautifully. I would reccomend going to see it with your family
or your friends this Christmas :D It's not a cinematic
blockbuster, but it definately got me into the Christmas spirit.
Well, I should go and take a shower...even though those are optional ;)...so I'll try to write again soon!
Lots of Love,
~Alaina
| | |
|
