Give Thanks to God on High

Thanksgiving is 4 days away! And only 3 showers in the community bathroom before I am on my way home =) Since my last post, life has been anything but normal. I posted on a Thursday, and that weekend (the 14-15) Kammerchor went on an overnight trip to Shawano/Green Bay. I, however, did not attend because Saturday morning while getting ready for the trip, I got sick to my stomach while recovering from a very horrible head cold/congestion. I spent almost the entire rest of the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) in my bed and room. Although I would have much rather been on the trip, it was very relaxing, and as of now, I am MUCH healthier =)
I have been busy working on papers due Wednesday before break, and was planning to spend most of this weekend working on them, but I found out Friday night that Mom was planning to surprise me for the Christ the King Celebration! (She told me, no one else let the cat out of the bag). Christ the King Celebration is a Kammerchor and Alleluia Ringers concert here at Concordia to mark the end of the church year. I had a wonderful evening with Mom and Grandma last night, followed by church, an interesting Bible Study on Revelation, and brunch with Mom, Grandma, Karen, Jon, Eva, Matt, Elise, Madeline and Carly... Very Fun!
Mom, Grandma, and Aunt Karen came to the concert today (which went over very well I think!) and then we went with Meagan to Culver's for dinner (YUM!)
I'll leave this post with the text from one of the songs we sang today, which I find very fitting for the coming holiday (Thanksgiving) and as we think back on this end of the church year, all those Saints who have gone before us to worship Christ, as our KING!)
Love, C

"Give thanks to God on high for saints of other days,
whose hope it was to live and die in love's consuming blaze,
for Christ and His kingdom, His glory and His praise.

Their vision long-fulfilled, our prayer is still the same:
upon their work of faith to build, their word of truth proclaim,
for Christ and His kingdom, and for His Holy name.

New tasks today are ours who serve a world in pain,
new calls to challenge all our pow'rs of heart and hand and brain,
for Christ and His kingdom, while life and breath remain.

Give thanks to God on high for all the future sends,
in praise of Christ to live and die who calls His servants friends,
for Christ and His kingdom, whose glory never ends!"
-Timothy Dudley-Smith

Alright

Alright is pretty much how I'm feeling right about now... I'm in the process of getting over a cold which had been coming for days, and finally hit hard Sunday morning, probably because I had too much fun the night before at Peter and Emily's wedding. I have begun to realize just how short and uninformative my posts are, so I'll try to make this one a little bit better.

So what have I really been up to since I came to Concordia? As I try to answer that question, really not much, but too much at the same time. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I go through a pretty packed day from 8-6 (including my lunch, organ and flute practice, and chapel). On Tuesdays and Thursdays I try to get up and work out by 8:30 but that hasn't been happening as much lately as I'd like it too. After my shower, I practice flute (or have my lesson) some point in the day, practice organ, go to Chapel Ringers, and Band, and have pretty much the rest of the day off. This schedule has really worked out well for me because I have time to get all my work for MWF done, and not really have to do much after classes on MWF (when my brain is pretty much fried) Aside from my daily schedule, I don't really do much else. I still have my favorite shows to watch on Wednesday (Glee) and Thursday (Bones and The Office) nights. Recently I have become involved in two Bible study groups which I really enjoy, one on Monday night and the other on Tuesday.
I have never had a bland weekend. I have always had something going on or somewhere else to be (with many thanks to Grandma for her trips out to get me!) Most recently, two weekends ago, was fall break, and boy, was it good to be home, sleep in my queen-size bed, and just sit at my own dinner table again. This past weekend, as I mentioned before was my cousin, Peter and wife-Emily's wedding. It was a lovely ceremony and reception, and it was wonderful to see Jon and Dad (again, I had just seen them the week before) and especially, Sandi, who I haven't seen since mid-August, and will get to see again at the end of the month! This up-coming weekend, Kammerchor is going to be singing at a church in Shawano (Saturday night) and Green Bay (Sunday morning), and I may be having a prospective student from Zanny's church stay with me Friday night, so this weekend should be enjoyable as well.

Well, I hope I've covered pretty much everything for now, and I KNOW I say this EVERYTIME, but I'm going to try to be more faithful about my posting. (speaking of which, where have all of you been? I love to see what's going on in your lives too!)

I'll leave you with a few lyrics from Darius Rucker's "Alright" (where I got the title of today's post) "It may be a simple life, but that's ok. Cause if you ask me baby, I think I've got it made" "And I've got all I need, and It's alright by me"

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY AND WEEKEND. GOD'S BLESSINGS

Love, C

p.s. all of the pictures are from this past weekend at Peter and Emily's wedding. From top to bottom: Sandi and I; Peter and Emily's first dance (unfortunately this was the only picture I got of the Bride and Groom); Cousin Andy, Grandma, and Dad; Jon and I... ENJOY!