I'm Back?

I can't guarantee that this will be my start back into the world of blogging, however, it is a start. And usually, that's where things begin. My desire to write in this moment stems from a few different things. One, I am currently enrolled in a class where we are learning about the beginning of blogging and the importance that it can possess. Two, I've got a lot of time on my hands these days and blogging could be a better way to fill that time instead of sitting in front of the tv. Three, along with a lot of time, I also have a lot of things on my mind. This is a new season in life. A difficult one, yet a season nonetheless. And lastly, I may be updating just out of pure boredom.

While this post has no real content, it's merely reassuring you that I'm not dead. Just in case you were wondering.

Lucky Number 7

Thanks, Twist, for getting me back on the blog track! I've been meaning to get on here, but this semester is nuts. So, I shall try my best to start blogging again. And, thanks to Kristy Mikel, it begins with the 7 lists of 7.

7 Songs I've been listening to a lot these days:

• Give Me Faith by Elevation Worship
  
• Our God by Chris Tomlin (with violin-it's amazing!)
  
• Be With You Forever by Kristian Stanfill
  
• Day After Day by Kristian Stanfill
• Spirit Fall by Chris Tomlin (Passion 2011)
  
• Give Me Your Eyes by Brandon Heath
  
• Dynamite by Taio Cruz (judge me not)
  

7 Places in the world I've always wanted to visit:

• Disney! - Everyone that knows me knows this fact. My dream is Disney and I will go there someday!
  
• Egypt - I've always wanted to see the pyramids.
• The Caribbean - Not just for the Pirates, but mainly for the warmth, beauty and clearness of water!
  
• The remaining 20 states that I haven't visited- I have a goal to visit all 50 states, and at the age of 22, I'm averaging a little over one a year. Not too shabby.
  
• Greece - My stepmom and her family is from Greece. I've heard amazing stories, seen amazing photographs, and think it'd be an amazing place to go.
  
• Italy- Pasta and beauty, who could ask for more?
  
• North- see the Northern Lights
  

7 Things I've dreamed of doing someday:

• Scuba dive
  
• Get a photograph published in National Geographic
  
• Get married & start a family
• Visit the 50 states
  
• Go on a missions trip
• Make a cake similar to those on the Amazing Cakes shows
• Swim with the dolphins
  

7 Favorite games of all time:

• Yahtzee
• Scrabble
• Scream-o
• Candyland
• Chutes and Ladders
• The Last Word
• What's Yours Like?
  

7 Favorite Verses:

• Proverbs 3:5-6
• Matthew 6:31-34
  
• I John 4:18-20
• Ephesians 4:15-16
• Ephesians 6:11-17
• Mark 9:23
  
• Romans 12: All of it.

7 Books I love to read over and over:

• The Bible
• I am not but I know I AM by Louie Giglio
• Crazy Love by Francis Chan
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• Principle of the Path by Andy Stanley
• I don't get much time to read :/
  

7 Books that have deeply challenged me (some repeats):

• The Bible
• I am not but I Know I AM
• Sold
• Bondage Breaker
• Fasting
  
• The Vision
  
• Crazy Love
  

Double Deuce

So, it's currently 10:40 p.m. on 10-4-10. Twenty-two years ago exactly, I was born. Yep. True story.

As with all peoples' birthdays, or most people who have a Facebook, I was overloaded with notifications of best wishes and happy birthdays. Well, granted there are still a couple hours left, I am putting my favorites here (in no particular order and including text messages). Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Megar!!!!!!!!! I'm very glad u were born! Happy birthday

It is your birthday. (It's a factual statement) -Dwight K Schrute

O happy day, happy day! it is your birthday! ...sung to the tune of happy day by tim hughes

Megan- Thanks so much for the time you spent investing in me! I dont know what my life would have wound up like without a strong influence at church those middle school years. Thanks for your awesome smile and willingness to spiritually reproduce! I love you! Happy Birthday! God bless. : )

Have a Megarific Birthday

I forgot to push send on this when I got up this morning...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I love you!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAR :) so one time i was gonna text you at midnight and i'm a failure cause i fell asleep.

hpapy bthirady to uyo, hppay bitrhady to uoy, hpapy brihtday to mgaen, hppay bhetardy to yuo!!!

And last but not least, one of the 3 short songs written by the Terry Bley: (Rapper capt. T-bone) Yo Megan-it's your birthday-and your growing up so cool-one more year of work and another of school. You're giving God your best-gettin' very little rest-you past the SOAR test-and this I do not jest. You made me my own song-and there you didn't go wrong. I'm returning on back to you-tootle dee doodle doo!

Searching for the Truth

I'm on a mission. I've never been so pumped up and motivated about something related to school since...well...since I've been in school. I'm doing research outside of class. I'm going to seminars, sessions, and speakers that are not required all to help me out in a class. Just one.

This semester, 3 of my classes are very blah. I start the day out with Statistics (with my very monotone professor), then I head to Managerial Accounting (with my very loud and eccentric professor), then after my break I go to Calculus (with my professor that clearly got stuck teaching that class). To end my day, I have a Sociology class that is focused on being great leaders in the outside world. The class is a morals & ethics course. Yes, at IUSB. An oxymoron in my opinion, but that is part of my mission.

This class is by far one of the most fascinating, frustrating, and challenging classes I've ever taken at IUSB. It's fascinating in the fact that out of the 30 or so people in our class, the different backgrounds, upbringings, cultures, lifestyles, etc have the most diverse opinions about things that are good, bad, right, and wrong. It is frustrating in the fact that we are told to accept the fact that other people have their own opinions and beliefs and we can't change those. That doesn't stop people from trying though, so speaking up on very raw topics such as abortion, religion, homosexuality, and race can usually lead into some pretty heated arguments and battles amongst the class. The challenging aspect of the class is well, everything. Seriously. I'm challenged to know everything that I believe in, why I believe in it, what it means to believe in it, and I need to be able to back those things up all the time! It's really difficult sometimes!

Here's my mission: My professor (an African American non-Christian who loves swearing and putting down everybody's beliefs) does not believe that absolute truth exists.

On the other hand, Grow U, the new Sunday evening service is all about identifying and proclaiming the absolute truths of the world and how in today's society we are so ok with just accepting that different people believe in different things, despite if they are said true in the Bible or not. My professor doesn't hold Christianity too high, which stinks for the few Christians in our class. The challenge of speaking up to him is hard, but I want to stand up and not back down for the things that I KNOW are true. It's hard being torn apart by him day after day, and now I have to be graded upon it as well. I refuse to fail because I can't back up my beliefs. So, please, if you have any ideas, thoughts, or anything whatsoever to help me out, just let me know. :)

I Can't Believe It...

Dear Readers,

It happened before my 21st birthday. I thought I could hold off. But the temptation was too high. The pressure was too high. The constant teasing was getting to be too much. I couldn't escape it. What will my mom think? What will my junior highers think? What will my friends think?


I have now conformed to the patterns of this world...

...just as the Bible tells us NOT to do...



I now have a Twitter account. Yep. It's true.


Sincerely,

@mlrendall

Something You Just Don't See Anymore

Today while at work (Starbucks), a customer of mine, a regular and a man whom I've known nearly my entire life, came in to order something. Behind him, another regular and friend that I've known for a few years now, was pondering his drink choice. As I dried my hands and began to take the first customer's order, he looked behind him and told the second customer to go ahead and order and he would pay for it. Hesitant, the second customer was thrown off. After making sure that this guy was serious, he ordered his drink. Then, just as he said, the first customer ordered his drink as well and paid for them both. I was rather thrown off as well to this act of random kindness. I mean, I knew both of these customers, but they had never met before in their entire lives. As I prepared the drinks, I listened to the first customer explain why he was paying for the other's drink. He, too, received the same act of kindness just days before from a complete stranger who wanted to pay for his order at another place. He mentioned how that kind of friendliness is so rare these days. So, instead of just accepting it and moving on, he continued that random kindness to another person. How awesome.

Presidential Debate

Let me start off by saying that I am in no way writing this with a mindset of being for or against our President coming to town. I just found something rather intriguing, that's all.

Due to the fact that I work at Starbucks, the largest coffee company in the world, it came to no surprise to hear that an order was placed for the big meeting in Wakarusa tomorrow. I mean, I wouldn't expect the President of the U.S. to try something new that is unique to the town (not trying to bash or promote Main Street here). I just wasn't shocked to know that he would get what he knew best.

So, I am here to let you in on the inside scoop :) Why? Well, basically because I can and I find it so fascinating for some reason. At 10 am Wednesday morning, President Obama's "people" will pick up an order of 4 coffee travelers and approximately 30 Starbucks pastries. I've added what I could, and it'll come to about 100 dollars....which, considering today's economic situation and the reason for the President being here in the first place, that's just interesting. Yeah, clearly I'm trying to keep my comments to myself for now.

On the plus side, every order made at Starbucks is another order that ensures me that I'll still have my job there, so I can't complain too much. But yeah, interesting little fact for ya :)

The Elkhart County 4-H Fair

Every year, I have my traditional places and events that I try to visit. Tonight, I was able to accomplish most of the things on my list.

• Wheat Pretzel with Cream Cheese from the Pretzel Wagon-sounds kinda gross, but it's amazingly delicious!! I can't remember when I first had this wonderful taste on my lips oh so long ago, but it totally changed my...days at the fair. :)
• Vanilla Blended Coffee from Teakwood Coffee Bar-I almost feel obligated to visit here every year because it was my very first job, and now I'm working at their competition. I never liked coffee; in fact, I still don't. But this particular drink, which my co-worker and I used to add flavors to, just brings such joy and coolness to my body. I love it. It's basically frozen vanilla milk. Not strong coffee at all.
• Arts & Crafts Building-my favorite place at the fair! I used to have crafts in that building when I was younger. I always got a blue ribbon too! Everytime I visit the fair, I have to stop at this building to see the cakes, photography, scrapbooking, and amazing art peices. I'd still be in 4-H if I could, no doubt!
• Commercial Building-alright, so this one has become increasingly more and more boring as I've gotten older, but I still enjoy going through and picking up a few pieces of candy here and there :)
• And I saved the BEST for last---Dairy Barn Twist Ice Cream :) I don't think I need to explain this one. It's perfection in a little cup. Hits the spot every time. Beats out all ice cream places by a million. I love it!! (plus, it's one of the cheapest things at the fair, which is a HUGE bonus!)

What's your favorite part of the fair?

Boredom Took Over...

So, for the past month or two, the "25 Random Things" post has been all over Facebook, and as much as I'd love to conform, I'm trying not to. But I found, as I was reading some friends' lists, that most of them had struggles in thinking of 25 things about themselves. Granted they were probably trying to think of all of them in a short amount of time, I managed to make my own list in my times of extreme boredom....AKA...school :)

• My favorite show growing up was Wheel of Fortune-I got hooked when I was still in diapers! Haha
• I have never fully dyed my hair
• I used to run the mile in track my fresman year, but I only beat one girl all season...and she was handicapped.-That's when I decided to become a shotput and discus thrower!
• I have a birthmark on my finger that I can make disappear
• I work at Starbucks, but I hate coffee
• I've lived in 3 different houses-all in Nappanee
• I hate storms
• My first real haircut was in the 1st grade. My mom cried and she still has the 8 or so inches from it.
• I saw the Nutcracker Ballet at the age of 10 in Salt Lake City
• I've been to 7 different countries-US, Mexico, Germany, France, Belguim, Netherlands, and Luxembourg-That number may be increasing this summer :)
• I love listening to classical and piano music
• My mom gave me 20 one-dollar lottery tickets as a part of my graduation present-I ended up winning $519 from them
• I've witnessed a sunrise and sunset all within an 8 hour plane ride-To this day, I've never seen anything more beautiful
• I used to have a pet crab named Sandy-She died because I never gave her water
• My favorite movie of all time is Lion King
• I once spent 4th of July at my dad's house in Utah-Due to the mountainous landscape, I was able to see nearly 20 different cities' fireworks shows at once on the clear night
• One of my goals is to visit all 50 states-I'm about halfway
• The only Disney Park I have been to is located in Paris, France
• Misspelled words are a huge pet peeve of mine.
• My dream job would be to travel the world taking photographs for National Geographic
• I used to receive postcards from all my dad's travels while he was in the Air Force-I probably have about 100 from all over the world
• I collect pens from hotels that I have been to or stayed at
• I love camping
• I regret not going to see the Mona Lisa when I visited the Louvre-I'll be going back to do that this summer thank goodness
• I designed NorthWood High School's school flag my senior year-I received a free iPod for it-It will be flying high for the next 30 or 40 years :)

The New Year...

I blame the junior highers. It is their fault!

So, after a wonderful, yet exhausting Winter Retreat with the junior highers, I was looking forward to my nap before the New Year and the party with the young adults. We arrived around 5:30 at the church and I ended up leaving the church around 6:30 from helping with cleaning and luggage. My nap began at 7:30 and was only supposed to last an hour or so... There were 6 missed text messages when I woke up asking where I was and if I needed a ride. Obviously I missed them because I woke up at 12:02. Yeah, I missed the celebration. The ball dropping. Everything. I was extremely bummed.

Thanks to the junior highers, I spent my New Years alone. On the plus side, I went back to sleep a couple hours later and managed to get a total of over 11 hours of sleep. I think I'm caught up now.

A Day of Firsts...

Today, for the first time, I:

• Had to finish getting ready in my car due to the fact that a squirrel blew up in our transformer and took our the power in our house.
• Arrived at school only to realize that I left my backpack and all its contents at home, causing me to drive back home to get it (where the power was back on, of course)
• I scored less than a 50 percent on an exam. Don't worry, the highest score was a 76 and our professor handed back the corrected exams, went over them thoroughly, collected them, and gave us the exact same exam to retake. So, I got an A in the end, which is also a first for that class.
• Went to NMC to try to give blood with my mom. That's not a first. I've tried several times for the past two years, but my iron has been too low. This was the first time I actually passed the iron test and gave blood!!
• Counted all the posts in the auxiliary gym while blood was slowly being collected. Yeah, it took awhile. And no, I don't remember the number anymore.
• Lastly, I learned how to drive a stick shift...and I rocked it! :D

Yeah...that was my list of firsts for the day. Firsts sure do make life interesting!! :D

What a Wonderfully Awful Day...

Normal morning routine for Tuesdays:
Wake up around 7:30
Take shower
Get ready
Eat small breakfast
Pack up things for school
Out of house by 9
First class begins at 10


Today's routine for Tuesday (so far):
Wake up at 9
Yell at myself for sleeping in
Injured foot--hard to walk now
Take shower
Blow a fuse in the bathroom, causing all outlets to not function
Get ready in Mom's bathroom
Eat lunch
Get stomach ache
Pack things for school
Out of house by 10:30
Second class begins at 11:30

Teen-B-Gone

So, I just realized that in 27 days to be exact, my teenage years will be no more. It's weird that I even thought about it, seeing as how I feel older than a teen regardless. The group of people I normally hang out are much older than I am, so I have felt a part of them in the past year. My age comes up every once in awhile, but I consider myself to be pretty mature for how old I am. I mean, everyone in our group would agree that I am more grown up than some who continue to act 10 years younger than what they actually are. I was thinking about this concept earlier tonight and I actually replied to someone that I was 20 years old when they asked. Yeah....not true...yet. That's just strange. Two decades of life. Well spent or not, they are twenty years that are in the past and I can't get back. Now, to the next years of my life, which I will not completely focus on so I can just enjoy life and live in the moment. Yeah, maybe I should wait until it's actually my birthday before I start "not focusing on the future". Haha. We can see how well that's working out already.....

Some People....

People are often unreasonable and self-centered.

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.

Give your best anyway.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.

It never was between you and them anyway.

Broken

Have you ever lost something you care about? You would do anything to get it back?



How about a person, have you ever lost someone you care about? You would do anything to have them back in your life?



What if you did nothing wrong? What if there was no explanation why you lost this thing or person? Don't you feel even worse?



What if that thing or person doesn't want you anymore? It makes things rather difficult in trying to get them back, doesn't it?


Oh sad day.

Back in the Day...

Today, one of the first day's I've had off in quite awhile, I spent back in time. No, not time travel, but a day spent with the older generations of my family. For my history class, I am required to interview 3 people for my final paper. The topic of discussion in this paper is completely up to me, but the 3 people must be able to talk about it in some way. I think I learned more today then the entire semester of my history class in general. The day started out at 11 when I went to visit my 90 year old great-grandma. She may be old, but she has a lot of life to be learned from. She read some entries from a diary she had kept discussing events in her life and little miscellaneous information that might be passed on to someone when she's gone. As we were sitting at lunch, she noticed a man changing the gas prices on the sign. From 3.48 to 3.47 it went. And of course we talked about how it was easily obtainable to fill up a car for less than a dollar, but nobody could even afford a car, so they didn't worry about it then. After lunch, my grandma (her daughter) met up with us after work. And by 3pm, I felt like I was living in the most spoiled, disrespectful, shocking generation of the history of the world.

By the time I got to my grandpa, I knew what to expect. "Kids never find out the value of a dollar. They have gotten so spoiled. When I was young, I mowed yards at the age of 8 or 9, I had two paper routes, and I caught chickens until about 1 in the morning. Kids today expect the money that we had to work so hard for." The sad part is that each of my grandparents....were correct. Thankfully, I was raised having to have a job right when I turned 15, and had to pay my mom for any money I ever borrowed. To this day, I'm still in debt with her, but I know in the end it'll be worth it. Because unlike most of the spoiled kids today, I know that I need to save money if I want to do anything or get anything. It's life and it's going to happen sooner or later. I'm glad I was assigned this paper for history. I'm glad that I got to hear what life was back in the day, before the people passed on and were buried with all of their memories, experiences, and knowledge. And in today, I've realized that I need to spend as much time with those people around me that can teach me more about life before their life is gone. They have lived through much much more than our generation could ever fathom. It's quite incredible.

Wintery Weather...So Overrated!

I don't know about you all, but this weather is driving me insane. One minute it's sunny, the next it's snowing, and then it's raining, and then it's sunny again. When will it end?!

There are a select few things that I actually like about this weather, more of a cause/effect thing at least. Driving down a hill that's covered in a sheet of ice is an AWFUL experience, especially when there is a traffic light halfway down the hill. To sum it up, pressing your breaks doesn't do anything except make you swirve everywhere. This, unfortunately, happened to me yesterday on my way to school. Trying to stop before the red light was nearly impossible. The only reason it worked for the two cars in front of me was because they nailed the cars in front of them. I was only a few feet from being in that accident. Instead, I ended up stopped perpendicular to the road, facing a mailbox, with one tire half way on a curb. What a complete nightmare. Now, what is the good thing about this situation? Well, you may be thinking nothing. However, when you get so close to getting in an accident, your life kinda flashes before your eyes. All stress is put aside, all worries are put aside, all the material things of the world are put aside, and the only thing on your mind is a prayer to stay with the ones you love. Afterwards, all you have inside you is a thankful heart that you're still alive, and you begin to go about your day differently, as though it's your last. I believe that is how we should live every day.

Be My Valentine, Tomorrow?

Ahh. It's that time of year again. The day that people say everyone is thinking about love. But why is it just one day? This year will be my second time, in my 19 years of life, that I have a 'significant other', the same one as last year in fact. So, recently, instead of being asked "How's school?" or "How's work?" or "How's that one thing?", I am constantly being asked "So, what special thing do you and Christian have planned this Valentine's Day?" And you know what, I'm pretty much sick of it. Isn't that awful? I love this holiday, don't get me wrong; but with school and work and extra-curriculars, I am lucky just to spend any time with my 'everyday Valentine' this week. We have both agreed, that since things have been so hectic lately, we don't plan on doing anything "special". Every moment we get to spend with each other, as rare as those moments come, are the most special and meaningful. Why should we treat each other any different one day of the year? It's like saying we have to be super nice to our moms on Mother's Day, or that we can only focus on Jesus on, or around Christmas. It's not right. If you are going to love somebody, don't only let it show one day out of the year. If they are so special to you that you want to show how you feel, why wait for a "special occasion"? I do love Christian, everyday. And I will treat him the same as any other day of the year, cherishing every moment, despite the day, that we get to see each other. And I am looking forward to when we "celebrate" Valentine's Day with our USUAL Jack's pizza and a rented movie. It's what we love doing, and it's what we are doing as our "special plans".


By the way, Christian, I hope the whole pizza and movie thing sounds good :) There will be a Mountain Dew waiting for you, like always!!

Mickey D's vs. Starbucks?

Is it true? Can it be? No way...

If you haven't heard yet, McDonalds is replacing their "express" lanes to "espresso" lanes. Being a fellow barista at the competing Starbucks, I am finding myself worrying about this upcoming change. Why? I mean, Starbucks is the coffee capital of the world, they are everywhere! But competing with a franchisement that's been around even longer with more locations around the world, well, I just don't know what is to become of it!

With my knowledge and experience at Starbucks, I know why the prices are high, why people do or don't like Starbucks, everything that goes into working there, and basically how it's run in general. Now, I have been giving up on fast food as much as possible, so I haven't been to McDonalds in over a year. But now that they are trying to take business away from us, and see us crash, well, it gives me a whole different reason to not go there! I have a ton of thoughts and concerns about this new change and what's to happen. Will McDonalds succeed? Will we lose our customers? Will Starbucks disappear? Or will McDonalds suffer? Will people not like the drastic change from food-on-the-go to java-on-the-go? What is going to happen?

What are your thoughts about this craziness?!