Friendly memories

I had dinner last night with three of my bridesmaids, and it was so much fun just reminiscing about college. Two of them were roomies of mine -- Jen is married and has a one-year-old precious son, and Keri and her husband are expecting their firstborn on (get this!!) our anniversary! So exciting. Jess works at our pharmacy, and she is absolutely the sweetest girl you could ever know. Anyway, we got to talking about some of our favorite memories, and, as I LOVED my college years, I wanted to share!

* Canada
In November 2004, we all went on a mission trip to Canada. Keri, unfortunately, was not in our group, but the rest of us (plus many others) had a blast in the mission house we stayed in during the trip. Seriously, this was the BEST place I EVER stayed on a mission trip -- spacious rooms, bathrooms with hot water, beds...Fantastic! We did a lot of prayer walking and spreading the word about a new church while there, but we also did a lot of other activities, such as...hide and seek around the mission house at midnight in the snow...walking three miles downhill (and then UPHILL to get back) just to get Tim Horton's (which is AWESOME and unfortunately not in the South) at two in the morning...losing Jen's scarf on one of those late night expeditions and then finding it on the way back...crawling on the bobsled track that was used during the Olympics (and during the movie "Cool Runnings") and nearly falling and sliding all the way down (got a picture of that, too!)...visiting Banff one day...getting to know the wonderful area ministers...It was a great trip.

* BCM retreats
The upcoming student leaders (which we all were) took a Baptist Collegiate Ministry retreat one spring, I believe, and while I sadly don't remember much about the retreat, I did get to know Jess, Jen, and Keri very well on that trip. I was a little shy at the time, but I quickly fell in love with those girls.

* TWIRP dates
Did anyone else go on "The Woman Is Required To Pay" dates? We had an annual week of TWIRP dates, and we got to talking about how sometimes the guys we asked as FRIENDS somehow got confused and thought that there was a possibility for romance in the future. NOPE. Sorry, dude. Of course, it wasn't always like that. One of the girls went on a date with a guy who LEFT HER at the concert to find another girl. But that's okay...She left him to find his own way home.

* BCM family groups
I find it so sad that the BCM doesn't have "family groups" anymore. Really, it was just a Bible study group that met once a week and had a girl leader and a guy leader. I liked that because as it was a mixed gender group, I felt you needed both genders leading in case a guy didn't feel comfortable talking with a girl or vice versa. I had a GREAT family group "husband" who was on the ball all the time and really made me get my rear in gear. He also played a part in assisting with my engagement, which I should probably blog about and may do so at a later date.

* Roomies
One day I walked in the house that I shared with Jen, Keri, and two other girls and found it empty. So I went to go take a shower, but, as I usually do when I'm home alone, I left the bathroom door open (I'm weird, I know). Turns out I was NOT alone. Keri and her boyfriend were watching a movie in the room she shared with Jen, and Keri, being ever-so-smart, told her boyfriend to stay in the room as she went to go tell me that, as there was a boy in the house, I might want to close the bathroom door. ;) However, as I looked through our almost-clear shower curtain, all I saw was a shadowy figure waving at me in the doorway, so, naturally, I gave a blood-curdling shriek. Thankfully, though, it wasn't an axe murderer coming to kill me.

* Weekly services
They don't call it by the same name anymore, and I'm really not sure if it still exists, but when I was in college, we had a weekly praise service where everyone from all Christian denominations came together to worship. In essence, it was incredible. Each week a leader from a different religious organization (BCM, Chi Alpha, Wesley, etc.) got up to speak, but the band was always the same. I LOVED that band. I even have their music still...and I might have listened to it this morning. ;)

Happy times...and happy times today, too, because Husband is coming back from his travels! Yea!!