Missions, Math, and a Musical

Since last posting, I was in the musical Godspell here at college, and it was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life.  Then I started the most time-intensive course I've ever taken, a four credit math class packed into one quarter.  All this happened while taking the most important course of my undergrad time, Maternity Nursing.  I assume that not getting some form of A in that class would jeopardize my chances of ever getting accepted into a midwifery program.

There's been some uncomfortably cold but much needed rain.  I've continued to organize weekly movie nights for my dorm's wing.  I read half of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them today.  I got plane tickets to visit Portland, Oregon, right after finals.  I'm preparing to lead another Teen Missions International summer team, this time to Australia.

Godspell.  Feeling incredibly privileged.

Congrats to Kara for finishing up her school year.  My thoughts are with Kelli as she says goodbye to Nebraska.
Peace out, Girl Scouts! :)

See You Later, Not Goodbye

Sometimes in life, things do not happen as you think that they are going to. Sometimes in a really awesome way, and sometimes in a not so fun way. Currently, I am stuck in between the two.
This semester has been a roller coaster of emotions for me.
I started my nursing classes this semester, and I am loving them! I am taking two nursing classes, and one clinical. I love that part of my class is going out into the community to hospitals and senior centers. It beats classrooms any day for me!! That has been the "up" on "Kelli's Roller Coaster of Emotions". Along with my nursing classes, Community Based Nursing and Health Assessment, I am taking two more classes. Those are Microbiology and Anatomy and Physiology II, both with labs.
You know what? Sometimes things do not always go as planned.
When I graduated High School last year, I knew exactly what I was going to be doing for the next four years. I was moving to Omaha, Nebraska to go to Nebraska Methodist College to get my Bachelor of Science in Nursing. I was going to live by myself in an apartment in the middle of the city. I was going to be working as a nurse in a hospital by summer 2019. I was going to do it all by myself.
I hope you noticed I used past-tense. That is because those plans are no longer current in any way. Like I said earlier, sometimes things do not always go as planned.
Do not worry, I did not fail out of Methodist. I am actually doing quite well there! However, my eyes were bigger than my wallet. After this past semester, I started doing math. I calculated the amount of money that I would be in debt for when I graduated. I did not like that number. I did not like it at all. I knew that I could not continue at Methodist
This is my new current plan:
At the end of the semester I will move home like every other college student. Except when fall rolls around, I will stay home.
I will be going to DMACC to take as many classes as possible to knock out my gen. eds.
When I finish all my classes at DMACC, I will transfer to a nursing school that I will get accepted to.
I will earn my Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, just not in 2019.
The past several weeks have been so emotional and stressful trying to figure out where I would go after this summer. After much contempating, I have decided that by going to school close to home while living at home and working will be the best combination for me.
It will be sooooo extremely hard to leave all my amazing friends that I have made while here in Omaha, along with the amazing church that I have become involved with.
But as the title says, "See you later, Not Goodbye". Omaha will always be a short trip away from seeing everyone again!

My Homely Abode

** Long Post Warning!**

School will be in session for 6 weeks coming up and I realize that it has been pretty quiet from the Omaha area.

Since everyone else has posted about their living conditions, I decided that it'd be best to show off my apartment!

First, I live on campus at Josie's Village. It is an apartment complex that the college bought to use for "Student Housing". I would not call it dorms, in the slightest.

http://www.methodistcollege.edu/student-life/housing/gallery

This is the outside of one of the apartment buildings. It's not mine, but they are all identical, so you get the point.... 

Fun Fact: There are balcony railings, but no balconies. I have no idea, something about insurance..... I don't have worry about all that, because my apartment is underground! 

As soon as you step into my apartment, you run straight into the closet. The thing is, there is literally nothing in it except a vacuum and empty boxes..... not very exciting.

Carrying on!

Take a hard right, and you are in the living room!

Much like the "closet" there is nothing in here either. It has been used 4 time during the almost two months I've lived here. Two of those times were a friend sleeping on the couch.

To the left of the living room, we have the dining room!

Now this room I use much more than the living room!

There's nothing much to it other than the four chairs and a table, but they do the job!

To the left of the dining room, there is the "one-butt kitchen"!

Although it is small, it has lots of importance all shoved into it! I have a full sized range, fridge, and dishwasher, microwave, along with decent cabinet space! 

This has been extremely nice because I am responsible for all my meals. I made a goal with myself at the beginning of the year that I did not want to eat microwave meals for every meal. I have a full sized kitchen, so why not use it? And use it, I have! To stay away from the oh-so-easy grab and nuke meals, I try to make one big meal every weekend and divide it into containers for throughout the week. To microwave them takes just as "long" as a microwave meal, but it is SOO much better!

So far I have made myself spaghetti and meat sauce, lemon chicken and rice, chicken and broccoli "hot pockets", components for breakfast sandwiches, and guacamole! Don't worry though, I've still got a bag of chicken nuggets in the freezer, because who doesn't like chicken nuggets?

Ok, back on the tour we go......

Going down the hall, you will see our bathroom. Its a bathroom. Nothing special, like Kara's window, but the AC does blow right into the shower, so that's interesting....

Continuing down the hall, you'll run right into my bedroom.

Its a tiny bit cluttered, but I'm cool!

One might ask, "What's in that black box?" 

Snacks. Snacks are in the black box. They are a necessity.

My room is very big compared to basically anything. I'd say it is bigger than a dorm room that would be shared at any other college.

I spend many many hours in my room everyday, mostly studying. I do this mostly at my desk.

Like I said, its a bit cluttered..... but it works great!

What IS cluttered in a good way is my calendar!

I have everything color-coded along with my daily to-do lists and coupons!

I was given this as a graduation present, and holy cow has it been helpful! All of High School, I never used a planner. I relied on my memory. Obviously you can't rely on your memory in college, and being able to see everything laid out everyday has been sooooooo helpful in keeping afloat in my first couple months of college!!

So that is my apartment! If you would like to see it in person (and me!), come to Omaha! I'd love to see you!

Also, as you probably noticed in many of the pictures, my walls are pretty bare..... Letters and drawings are very appreciated to fill up the empty spaces!

Here

After a wonderful two months of leading a Teen Missions team to Zimbabwe, I'm back in cute little Orange City, Iowa.  I have less college left than college already under my belt, and our dorm wing truly feels like home more than ever.  We have a new crop of freshman and transfers who (whom?) I adore... such "wonderfuls" as Peace (who dreams of helping deliver babies in Uganda) and Annika (likes dehydrated peanut butter & documentaries).

Some of my wing friends by one of Orange City's tulip murals.  Annika is in the cute print dress and leather jacket, whilst Peace is doing the splits.  I am "eating" the foot of dear Ashley, a freshman, and Ellen (a fun new Spanish major) poses in the middle.  

It's a Midwest heat wave apparently, which is just fine with me.  LifeLight, a Christian music festival in South Dakota, was a barrel of fun.  I saw Rend Collective, Tenth Avenue North (for the third time), and Switchfoot.  Mother came this weekend, and we bawled over Inside Out (miraculously still in the town's theater).  Been binging on the U.S. Tennis Open and enjoying my new classes (sociology, psychopathology).  Glad to have Kelli on the blog and to have a more flattering photo of myself up on the blogger profiles!

I did have this thought.

I would end this post with a "#Blessed", but that's just too much cheese for this chica.  Still, I'm feeling cozy, loved, and happy... and what could be better than that?

4 Housemates, 3 Bedrooms, 2 Couches, 1 House

I have some different living accommodations this school year, and I'm pretty happy about it. I am definitely a homebody, so having an actual house is perfect for me! Now don't get me wrong, as far as living on campus goes, I had it pretty nice for the 2 years I was there. I enjoyed my res. hall and I had great roommates both years.
I've been here almost 3 weeks and let me tell you, it's been SO great! I share the house with 3 other girls, and I share a room with one of them. There is lots of space to spread out because it used to be a full sized house, and to make it into 2 separate places. So basically we get the whole first floor. I've taken pictures of it before, but they don't really show how BIG it is, considering I pay less than $200 a month! (Sharing = lower rent!). I decided to just take a video of it so I could pan around explain things. You get to hear my lovely narrations. They're better than usual.
(And yes, I understand the irony of my vlog within a blog.)

Let's Hope You Like Omaha!

My name is Kelli. I’m Kara’s sister.

photo by Sarah Bandy

In the fall I will be starting nursing school at Nebraska Methodist College in Omaha, Nebraska. I will be getting my Bachelors of Science in Nursing, the same degree as Eliza, but in a different way. Nebraska Methodist College is a bit different than a normal college or university.
First, the college is a building. That’s all. Granted, a large 4 story building, but only one. However, small building does not mean small offerings. As part of my Human Anatomy and Physiology classes, I have a Human Cadaver lab. I am very excited about these labs because normally nursing schools do not get the opportunity to use cadavers. Since they are very expensive, medical schools are the first to have them. (Ok, enough about those. Sorry to everyone who I just grossed out. Great first impression…..)
Second, I will be taking 4 years of nursing classes. You are probably thinking, “That’s what you do in a four year degree…..” You would think that. However, in most nursing school cases, you spend the first two years of college taking Gen. Eds, or basic classes that really do not have much relation to your major. Then, when you are a Junior, all you take are nursing classes. At Methodist, your Gen Eds and nursing classes are mixed together. So, instead of starting nursing classes as a Junior, I will start them in January! I am extremely excited about this because I highly doubt I could wait two more years to start learning nursing!

Third, APARTMENTS!! Instead of living in a crammed dorm room with another person who probably does not have the same “standard” of clean as me, I only have to share an apartment (with separate rooms!) with them. Nebraska Methodist bought the apartment complex right behind the college, and now uses it as student housing. This also means I’m on my own for cooking, but I have a feeling that I can survive. ;)

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Now, school does not start for another month and so, but that does not stop me from being an “adult”. I will be moving to Omaha in the next few days to start my job that I have before school starts. I am already a Certified Nursing Assistant, so I will be working as one at Rose Blumkin Jewish Home. I am so excited to start and become a “city girl” instead of a “small town girl” (although living in a small town has its perks!).

I hope to keep you up with everything that’s happening with me while in Omaha, so like the title says, let’s hope you like Omaha. If you don’t, you probably will after four years of hearing about it!!

--Kelli

*default to sweeping*

It's been 2 full months since I started working at the car dealership. Let me tell you, this is the nicest summer job I could have asked for! The people are incredibly nice, I work inside a lot, and I have quite the variety of things to do.
Here's what a typical day's tasks might look like:
-fill the cooler with drinks. [Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, water, and 4 types of Capri Sun]
-clean the coffee maker
-check cars on the lot and fill them with gas if they're low
-drive cars to dealerships/people and bring different cars back
-go get lunch for salespeople
-go buy 200 hot dog buns and 200 mini bags of chips from Sams Club (no joke)
(I am the girl your math problems warned you about!)

via

When they don't have anything for me to do, I wander around until I find something to clean, which isn't too hard, since I like cleaning. Generally I default to sweeping, because there is quite the expanse of marble tile floor in that place, and that + a lot of open doors means they always look dirty. A perk is that whenever I'm working and not around "the public" I can listen to my music! It's a pretty good gig; listen to music and be alone with your thoughts while sweeping a gigantic showroom.
Other perks:
-occasional Hickory Park for lunch
-driving new cars

I'm actually going to miss it when I go back to school!