Hey Guys!

Hello Weshos!!!

I too have been a slacker and am terribly sorry for not posting for my week, but as Emily said, better late than never! J

My summer has been going pretty well so far. I’ve been able to spend lots of time with old friends whom I didn’t get to see a lot during the school year so that has been quite wonderful. I have also gotten to spend a great amount of time with my family, and not just my mom, dad, and brother, but also aunts, uncles, and cousins that live out of state whom I normally only really get to see at Christmas so that has definitely been a big blessing J

I took my first vacation of the summer in Wrightsville Beach with my immediate family and my brother’s girlfriend. It was a very fun and relaxing trip. We were basically beach bums the majority of the time. However, we did take one day for a little bit of serious business to tour UNC Wilmington because that is where my brother wants to go to college. I was totally bored after three hours of walking around the campus and listening to tour guides but it was good for my parents and my brother to see everything and get all of that important info. During the tour, one of the guides asked me if I was thinking of coming there and I told her that I already attended Carolina. She then asked if I was thinking of transferring and my immediate and strong NO! might have come out a little more harshly than I had intended because I was trying to insult her school but I mean come on, can any of you guys blame me for clearly communicating that I didn’t want to be anywhere other than UNC??? Anyway, I think my brother really enjoyed it and I can definitely see him doing well there. I think UNCW is a pretty good fit for him J

Don’t worry my summer hasn’t been filled with all fun. I have been working as well at Mcleod Feimster’s Hardware Store for my fourth summer in a row Woot Woot! Haha. I can’t complain though because I genuinely enjoy working there and it is so nice to have an income again. I really missed that during the school year.

OH! I almost forgot to tell you guys. I am going to New York this Saturday!!!!! J J J (Hopefully you can sense my excitement from the excessive exclamation points and smiley faces) My mom and I are taking a 3-day trip just the two of us. It’s going to be great! Except, according to my last check of the weather, it is supposed to be thunder storming while we are there so I would greatly appreciate prayers for good weather.

I hope everyone else is having a great summer so far. I can’t believe that it’s still relatively early in our summer break. That just blows my mind. I feel like I have been away from Carolina way too long already. Plus, I miss you all so terribly much! There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss Wesley and Chapel Hill in general. But, before we know it we will be reunited, Yey! I am getting more and more excited about living at Wesley with all of you guys next year. It’s going to be awesome, I just know it J

BWSUMMERL!!!

Nicole

Summer So Far!

So my future wesley housemates...I am a slacker, I didn't realize we were assigned weeks for this post thing, but as I say very often,"Better late than never!"

This summer has been one of the best so far! I never knew I would miss UNC this much, but when you make friends as awesome as Wesley peeps, you are bound to miss them over the summer. With that said, I love my family, which includes three younger brothers that I am extremely proud of but also annoyed by at times. They are hilarious! Plus my parents are pretty cool, I can't believe I survived a whole year without them! (Well I can, but they are super helpful!) I'm super family-oriented if you couldn't tell, but almost as important as family to me are my friends!

Friends, they know you at your best and worst, and will ALWAYS, not matter what make you laugh!!! Laughter, and a lot of it, took place on our 2nd annual beach extravaganza! I had one of the most exciting, interesting, relaxing, and entertaining trips with 8 or so of my closest friends from high school. We call ourselves "The Lunch Table" group, because we all sat together our senior year, lame but it works for us! :) I love them all and can't wait for next year's trip!

Recently, I had another exciting trip to Chapel Hill. This surprise venture was meant to shock Miss Madicella (my roommate...lol) but she is way too smart, and was only slightly shocked when Reed Pomeroy (one of those crazy friends from the beach, also my best friend) and I flew through the doors of the Stone Center during her work hours to spend the rest of the day with her! We had been there way before, thinking she would return, but had epic surprise failure and ended up completely missing the lunch plans, but it worked out quite swell and we got to go with Madicella and Karen to Southpoint and Target. This summer I've had to learn to cope without constant laughter when we were in HoJo this year, but that spontaneous trip was so much fun!!! Can't wait to visit again!

On top of all that fun, I was blessed enough to find a job! My church has a child care center, and I got a part time position watching afterschool/school-age kids. So far they are pretty fun, but also rowdy since its the beginning of the summer. The one other teacher and myself get to round up 21 kids and keep them under control, so I will achieve many lessons in patience, I'm sure. I'm also working out, walking, jogging, and loving it! The book "Made To Crave" by Lysa TerKeurst is very inspirational and encouraging. :)

So, I know this has been long, but I am super excited to call Wesley my home and can't wait until we all arrive in August!!! Hope you each have a fabulous summer!!!

BWsizzlinsummertimeL,

Emily :)

My Summer

Hello Housemates,

 I hope that all of you are doing wonderfully. Well, I got to start my summer plans in April because I finished therapy in March! (which was fantastic.) From April-May, I took a c.n.a class at Wake Tech. I signed up for this class for two reasons. 1) I want to be a PA one day, (and I need patient-contact hours in order to do that) and 2) It is a great way to ease back into school.

 The class went really well and I met a lot of interesting people. I was actually one of the youngest in the class. Going in, I knew that it would be a challenge. When I started, my energy level was still low. I had trouble concentrating during lectures. But, I made it through and even survived the lab portion (we had to learn 69 skills!!!) Our instructor was quite a character as well. He was a military nurse and ran the course like we were in the Marine Corps! Some days, I literally felt like it was survival of the fittest!! We started off with 21 students. By the end of the course, there were only ten left! 

 Anyway, I’ve been spending a lot of my time studying for the state exam! I take it on June 11^th. Thankfully, I’ll still be able to use the labs before the state test (to practice the skills). Also, I’m feeling pretty good because at my last UNC appointment, I asked about NA positions on the rehab floor. My doctor said she would contact the nurse manager. I may get to work there next summer….*fingers crossed*

 I’ve also been cashiering at Food Lion: D. I worked there last summer, so I know most of the employees. The store isn’t overwhelming at all and has a friendly atmosphere. My original plan (before my accident) was to study abroad in Sevilla, Spain. Seeing my friends post pictures of Spain on facebook kind of bums me out, but I know I’ll definitely get to go abroad some other time.

 I’ve been spending time catching up with friends around town as well. One of my best friends is a swim coach for our old swim team, so I definitely plan on watching some of the meets! There’s also quite a big group of Wesleyans that live in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area, so it’s been nice to see them too!!

 Next up: I’m doing summer session 2 at UNC! I’m very excited about spending M-F on the hill. Also, Caroline will be returning from Sweden pretty soon and should be back on the hill around July! I’m really excited to see her again. J

 Lastly, tomorrow is a big and exciting day!!! I will have an updated MRI of my brain. After that, I will talk to my PA and neurosurgeon about my progress. My surgeon will also show me the scans of my new brain. I am very excited to compare the before and after images. J

 BWhousemateL,

Courtney

Summer at the Hill :)

So, as some of you may know, I am taking a few classes here on campus over the summer. That is about all that is going on in my life so far this summer. I haven't done anything very interesting or exciting yet. Campus life is very different than when all of the other students are here during the regular school semesters. It is a lot quieter and a lot less people. The pit is still a good hang out place as well as the Union. However, the amount of people in each is very slim compared to when it is a regular semester. It's a bit shocking. I walked into the Union one day and there were literally on about 15 people total that I could see. It looked so empty. I don't mind the change though. I'm getting used to it. Living here at Wesley thus far has been great though and I can't wait until all of us are here together because I know that we will make a great living community/family :)

Oh, one thing that was interesting/weird...Karen and I were walking on the upper, upper quad near Graham Memorial one evening on our way to dinner and there was a group of people playing some game kind of like quidditch, but not that game exactly. They asked us to join and we kindly kept walking and said maybe another time...lol. At the same time, there was a woman who was walking as well and she was calling out back to the birds that were singing/chirping/calling out. It was quite an interesting encounter that night with the middle aged people playing with brooms, sticks, and padded things to the woman calling out loudly as if she were a bird herself...

Mi Verano

Dude, I need a job! After a nice week at the Outer Banks with my parents, I have been bored out of my mind. I've applied to jobs at Lowe's Foods, Harris Teeter, the YMCA, NC State, the Biostatistics Department at UNC, and Lowe's Home Improvement, but Lowe's already told me they're "looking at different candidates." Not to mention UPS, with whom I thought I would get a job but then I found out they needed a one-year commitment, which I could not give them.

However, I do already have a part-time job: cutting grass in my neighborhood. The hours are pretty slim, but the pay is quite nice. And I feel optimistic about getting some job at Harris Teeter, because I applied to about five different positions at a store near my house. I just wish they would return my calls after saying they would...

Also, I joined a cool worship/fellowship group at my church for college students and young adults.

I hope everyone else has a blessed summer!

BWL,
Jared

Blogging

Hey Friends!!

Don't forget to post during your weeks. We want to know what you are up to this Summer.

BWweshoL,
Brittaney

One last time.

Greetings from Myrtle Beach!

I'm on my last vacation of the summer...and I cannot believe how quickly it flew by. I feel like I had all of these plans and ideas of things I would do, but haven't done any of them. It makes me sad. I feel like I'm growing up and am not going to have time for fun stuff anymore. = ( But I'm so so SO excited to move into Wesley and get to see you all just about everyday!
Hmm...so I guess I need to update you on what I've been up to since going to Florida. I'd say for the most part, I've hung out around the house, played games, went out on the lake, spent time with family, and so on. As Brittaney talked about, I went out to ice cream/Target/Moes with her, which was really fun. We also went to Adventure Landing with Landon and Caroline, which was really cool because I never get to see Brittaney & Landon at the same time! I also got go to Charlottesville with my Mom to visit my Uncle and one of my cousins that we don't see very often. My Uncle is a pharmacist at UVA, so I went to work with him for two days (7am - 4pm were two LONG days) and he had me follow around one of the pharmacy technicians that worked there. It was really cool, because I've never actually been exposed to pharmacy, especially in a hospital setting. I helped deliver meds to the bins in each ward, and helped fill some of the pods with medicines for pediatrics, and I went in the IV room (where they make all the IVs--I had to wear a funny hat and shirt and boots and mask). I did other things too, but those were probably the most exciting. A couple days after getting home, I shadowed my other Uncle who works for Glaxosmithkline. That was a complete opposite experience of what I had done just a few days before. I basically just sat in his office and listened to him talk on the phone about lots of things I don't understand. But regardless, it was experience and it was seeing a totally different leg of the pharmaceutical world. Altogether though, shadowing my uncles just made me more confused as to what do I really want to do for the rest of my life. Because really, I just want to sit around and have fun, and not have to work. Don't we all. = )
The first week of August, I went to Hilton Head Island with Landon and his Mom and brother, and brother's friend. It was a lot of fun--we played putt-putt golf, went to see Despicable Me (which was really cute and funny), got Mango Sherbet ice cream, and rode our bikes all around the island. Our last day there, we were riding the bikes on a bike path on one of the roads, and I was looking straight ahead of me, and heard my name. I stopped riding, and who do I see? Matt Corbitt! It was the weirdest thing, because you don't expect to see people you know like that while bike-riding on an island during summer vacation. But it was awesome. So the next day, I get home and after eating dinner with my family, they had some news to break to me. Apparently, while some guys were at our house the previous afternoon fixing the roof, my cat Smokey got scared and ran off the back porch. She is about 13 years old and mainly an indoor cat, but she goes out in the yard all the time, and has never left the yard. For some reason, when she got scared, she ran off, and nobody knows what happened to her. My family looked everywhere for her, and posted signs around the neighborhood. Three days later, we left for the beach, no sign of her anywhere. We're still hoping that maybe she'll come back home, but it's probably not likely. It's been really hard on my family, because she's really been a part of our family for so long. She's the only pet I've ever really hard, so its extremely hard to know that she is out there somewhere, and we don't have any idea as to what happened to her. = ( Just keep her in your prayers.
So that brings me to now. I'm at the beach, and I've been soaking up the sun for the past few days. I've also been working hard on Week of Welcome plans and sending out emails and all that...if you haven't read them or signed up yet, do it!! It's been getting me really excited to go back to school. We also went to Dixie Stampede last night, which was awesome, and I think we're going to a comedy show tonight! It's been nice to have the whole family together before my sister and I go back to school, even though we'll both be in Chapel Hill this time!
I think that's about it. I'll be coming back from the beach on Saturday, packing stuff up on Sunday, and moving in Monday! So to whoever will be there...see you then! After I move in though, I'll probably go back home until Thursday or Friday to say goodbyes and all. But I'll definitely be back by Friday. I can't wait. Happy end of summer, and see you all so so soon!

BWilovethebeachL,
Rachel