Fall semester catch up: Part 2

As promised, here's part 2 of our fall semester at KSU RUF ... photo edition.

Here are just a few of the lovely ladies in our weekly Wednesday night Bible study. We've got through Tim Keller's "The Prodigal God," and it has been excellent. I'm so thankful for the discussion, conversation, and transparency in this group. I look forward to Wednesday nights just as much as I do Tuesday nights! (large group night)

This photo is what happened when I asked for their best awkward family beach pose. (Side note: We have girls from every class — freshman, sophomore, junior, senior — in this picture!)

Over the summer, my intern friends at Emory introduced me to a fun event called "Snap, Crackle, Pop Culture Night." You have people bring a box of cereal, and you provide the milk, spoons, and bowls. (And in our case: coffee and OJ.) Everyone gets the chance to try lots of types of cereal (thus the "snap, crackle, pop," and then you sit down to eat while watching a movie (thus the "pop culture"). We did one at my house and it was a hit — I just need a bigger den and a bigger TV. I think we crammed 24 into my tiny den to watch "The Hunger Games." Shout out to Rachael and Jake for letting KSU RUF shamelessly steal y'alls idea. We loved it, and we're definitely doing it again!

Joel (senior), Chelsea (senior), and Lucy (sophomore) going for the cereal — this was maybe half of the selection. Note to self: have a bigger kitchen table for the next "Snap, Crackle, Pop Culture" night.

In October, we headed to fall conference in Temple, Georgia with other area schools: UGA, Emory, GA Tech, Alabama A&M, Samford, UAB, and Mercer. (Sorry if I forgot anyone.) Rev. Les Newsom (former RUF campus minister at Memphis, then Ole Miss; now the RUF area coordinator for RUF Midsouth) spoke to us about faith. This is definitely a topic that I've talked about with students, and the weekend talks helped us continue some great conversations. Les, thank you for speaking and bringing the Word!

Our fall conference group — 26 students! We loved spending the weekend with them.

If you're friends with me on Facebook or follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that my hair was pink for the weekend. We challenged Emory's RUF to see who could get the most students to the conference. The prize: the winning school's intern had to dye her pink for the weekend. We beat Emory by 8, so my hair went pink for the weekend!

Taylor (one of our seniors) prepping my hair on Saturday morning. 

Candice (junior) took the photos and Taylor did my hair. Thanks, ladies! Now I 

know I can pull off the Katy Perry/Sydney Bristow look for Halloween next year.

"Winning" intern (me) and "losing" intern (Rachael). You decide who 

looks like she ended up winning for the weekend ...

Thankful that I didn't have to sport a mohawk like Justin (UGA's campus minister). UGA got 100 students to fall conference, so Justin had to do a mohawk. Look out, Bowen — you're totally doing this for SuCo!

We do a weekly Thursday lunch in the Commons. (The Commons is Kennesaw's state of the art "cafeteria" — I use that term loosely because it's way better than any college cafeteria I've ever had. It's actually ranked in Newsweek and "The Daily Meal" for best college food.) It's a lot of fun, and I love hanging out there every Thursday. One week, the new and improved Scrappy (KSU's mascot) stopped by our table.

David (senior) and Joel (senior) talking basketball with Scrappy.

Some of y'all know that I've tried to start running somewhat consistently. I've learned that if I pay money for it (a gym membership or 5Ks), I'm more likely to actually run and train. In October, I jogged a 5K with Chelsea, who graciously stuck with me, even though she totally could have run the whole thing and made great time. Thanks, Chelsea!

The run was at night, so we had glowstick bracelets and leg/arm bands. And yes, we're sporting RUF SuCo airbrush t-shirts. Pretty sure we were the only two running in airbrush tanks!

Three of our girls hosted an epic Halloween party at their apartment. We had a great time with the photobooth that Taylor (one of our seniors) set up. If you want to see more photos, check out the album on Facebook.

I went as Sleeping Beauty (hello recycled college costume) and Laura Kate (freshman) went as '80s workout Barbie!

I'm the one in the back wearing the helmet (that was part of Kevin's Tron costume). We've also got Poison Ivy (Lexi), Supergirl (Anna), flapper dancer (Mallory), Wonder Woman (Chelsea), tiger (Hannah), and Batgirl (Taylor).

Georgia Tech's RUF hosted the second annual fall semiformal in November. This year's theme was Hollywood. We weren't exactly sure what to do with that, so basically we just put on nice clothes and hit the dance floor. Thanks, GA Tech for having us!

Semiformal with Frances (sophomore)

All three of these ladies (Sally, Aubri, and Christa) are new to RUF this year!

I have a few more photos to add (and lots to write), but this will do it for now. More to come later ...

Fall semester catch up: Part 1

For a journalism grad, I'm really terrible at keeping my blog updated...I apologize. If anyone wants to be my blog accountability partner, please be my guest. (Seriously.)

This is part 1 of the photo edition of fall semester — I started off with one post and realized I have too many photos. This post covers August through early October. (I do have another detailed/more thoughtful version in the works, and that will be posted later; but sometimes, it's fun to let the photos and descriptions tell the story.)

Back to school cookout on campus: Sally (one of our new freshmen), Kayla (returning sophomore), Anna (returning senior), and Amber (returned to us after being away at another campus for a bit!)

David, Brandon, & Spencer playing Giant Jenga at the cookout. Chris got the
idea from another RUF campus minister, and it was a hit. (Leave me a comment
 if you want instructions on how to make your own!)

We set up Jenga on the Campus Green for almost two weeks. It definitely helped us
meet lots of students! Phillip (returning junior), Chris (our campus minister),
and Taylor (returning senior) are playing a round here in the shade.

Thankful for students like Christine (returning sophomore), who helped us man
the RUF table, played Jenga, and talked to newcomers. We did this on campus for two weeks.

New meeting place this year — thankful that First United Lutheran Church (on campus) has
allowed us to rent space. Also new this year — the nametag and welcome table! This enables us to greet and get the names of students before they walk into large group.

Several of our girls, including Anna and Chelsea, faithfully helped chalk up campus
on Monday nights to promote RUF. (And by the way, it worked! We have students who
found out about RUF because they saw our chalk!)

This photo is dark because it was taken around 12:30 am ... and that makes for a good story: We had a great turnout for our first big chalking event. I split the girls up into groups and we went our merry ways around campus, careful to obey Kennesaw's chalking regulations ... or so I thought. I got home around 11 pm, and thought I'd doublecheck my KSU handbook. Much to my dismay, I found we had accidentally violated the chalking policy — in about 15 different places on campus! Matt (holding the water jug) and Steve (with the broom) answered my desperate text messages for help, graciously provided cleaning supplies (water jugs, a pesticide sprayer filled with water, and a broom) and scrubbed away the illegal chalking. Guys, y'all are my heros. I don't know what I would have done without y'all!

First large group of the semester — so many students that I couldn't get everyone in the photo!

The new place means we get to plug in for music! Thankful for our band: Joel (guitar), Josiah (banjo), Anna (vocals), Matt (guitar and vocals), Eli (bass and vocals). (Not pictured: Phillip, who does our sound, Kayla, who does vocals, and Jordan, who plays djembe.) And yes, they're all in matching shirts for RUF photo night!

This was one attempt at a group photo. Sadly, the lighting is pretty 

terrible — but you get the general idea. 

The city of Kennesaw had food trucks every Monday night for the "summer" months (June through October). That meant several great trips with the girls (great for the food and fellowship, but not so much for the waistline). Sally and I split an apple pie sundae, and yes, it was crazy delicious.

Thus ends part 1 of the photo update — thanks for reading. Stay tuned for part 2, which includes fall conference, Halloween party, semiformal, and other shenanigans...