I love 4 day weeks

I am being completely honest in my status. I love these four day weeks. Especially when they skip my most class heavy day (minus that I enjoy the classes on that day). Oh also exciting since I do not have class on friday's my 4 day week turned into a 3 day week. Otherwise this has been a really good week for me and is a relatively light homework weekend. I am taking advantage of the light homework weekend to work on three different scholarship applications.

I was looking at my planner for next week. It seems like next week is when all the club meetings get back into full swing. This past Friday I had our first Honors E-Board meeting of the semester. The Honors program is something I have been involved in since the beginning of Freshman year. Second semester of Freshman year I got elected onto E-Board and have served as VP of Activities for the honors program for the past two years. I really enjoy getting to plan all the activities for the honors program. This year the honors program welcomed it's biggest freshman class that they have had in a long time! It is great to see so many freshman passionate in the honors program. This spring we have the official "Freshman Inductions" into the honors program and then we also have E-Board Elections. One cool thing about freshman inductions is that we choose one freshman to talk about how their experience has been in the honors program.

This past week the learning center also opened again for the semester. As I might have mentioned before I am an Accounting Tutor. This semester I am also an Supplementary Instructor for the Managerial accounting classes. I enjoy getting the opportunity to help the students.

Cool Pic and Quote for the Week:

Hope you enjoy! 

God Bless! 

Week One Done (#TuesdayisMonday)

Well week one of classes are one! (Well the first four day week that is).

On Tuesday we went to our Monday classes because we have this coming Monday we have off for Martin Luther King Day. The PR office made signs saying #TuesdayisMonday. It was weird though I felt like I was back in high school because the homework given on the first day was due the next day. 

Residence Life and the service learning center are putting together a "day on" instead of a day off. Their is a service project going on and then they are showing a movie about Troost avenue and the dividing line that it has been over time. It should be an interesting movie I am looking forward to seeing it. 

This semester is my forth semester in a row in which I do not have classes on Friday. I am really getting used to it. It is a nice day in which I can be productive (at least that is the goal when each Friday begins). Now, it doesn't always happen that way but there is always hope.

I am going to really enjoy my classes this semester I think. My favorite class will be my final nonprofit class that I am required to take for the major, that is Volunteer Management. Since my internship last summer with Northern Illinois Food Bank I have become really interested in volunteers and how organizations can use them more effectively. With the baby boomer generation getting ready to retire I am expecting to see more and more of them volunteer during their free time. A large part of my volunteer management class is going to consist of planning a half day program for a group of girl scouts from Kansas City. The second part of the project is then recruiting volunteers to run the program that we design for them. It should be a really interesting and fun class. 

As an added bonus it has been in the 50's the last two days so I have gotten to go run outside. I did 6 miles each of the last two days. Today's run was really good. 

So at the Nonprofit Conference I was at in Atlanta over the break each campus submits a video on why they think their campus should win campus of the year. One campus used the song "For the Money" by Montgomery Gentry 
Here are the lyrics, it really struck me as I have felt this way that you can't be in it for the money.

Ah, let me tell you a little story about my family

Daddy almost made a living with eighty acres and a plowHe could've bought that place twice over working for someone in townAh, but you should've seen him in his fields at harvest timeHe'd swear the gates of heaven opened and he was standing first in line
You can't be in it for the money Money comes and money goesYou can't be in it for the money Oh, you got to satisfy your soul
I grabbed the world when I turned eighteen I turned it over and I shook it hardI filled my pockets up with money But it burned a hole right through my heart
You can't be in it for the moneyMoney comes and money goesYou can't be in it for the moneyOh, you got to satisfy your soul
You know everybody's got a purposeFrom mending bones to tending farmsYou might say that I found mineWhen I wrap my hands around this guitar
And I still wonder if I'm crazyTrying to bring a dream to lifeBut I look forward to tomorrowAnd I sleep pretty good at night
You can't be in it for the moneyMoney comes and money goesYou can't be in it for the moneyOh, you got to satisfy your soul
You can't be in it for the moneyYou can't be in it for the money

Christmas

Christmas was amazing. Simply put. It was great getting to be home with my family and just relax. Possibly what made it even more rewarding was working at the food bank prior to Christmas and seeing all the people who were able to have a Christmas dinner thanks to hard work of the food bank staff, volunteers and donors.

On Christmas eve my Mom was in charge of the Christmas Pageant at the 4:10 mass and my sister Hannah was the narrator (she did a fantastic job if I must say so myself) so our family all went to that mass. I am always willing to help out at masses, so I ended up doing the sound board at that mass. It was a really great mass with a great but simply homily. It is so exciting to see the church all decorated and packed on Christmas Eve. You might be wondering why mass is at 4:10 it is because it actually takes place in the gym. The church has a mass that starts at 4 and once it fills up everyone comes to the gym. Some families just come to the gym every year for mass and do not even bother dealing with trying to find a seat in the church. Then our family came home and had a few family friends over for pizza. It tasted great to have Chicago pizza once again! Our family always enjoys going to the midnight mass  (actually at 10:30pm with a pre-concert at 9:30) so after dinner we went back for that mass. There is something very special about that mass. Mass ended right at 11:55. 

Christmas morning was spent at home with the family opening presents and having a nice family breakfast. After all that was finished we went to South Bend, Indiana to see my Dad’s extended family. Only my grandma lives in South Bend, but we all come there for Christmas. It was nice to see my cousins, aunts and uncles and grandma. For whatever reason part of me was just longing to be at home with my family though. Anyway it was fun and we had a great Christmas dinner.

The day after Christmas me, my Dad, uncle and cousin went to see the college football hall of fame before they moved it. It was a really neat place.  Below is a picture of my sisters and I. For Christmas my parents had been wanting pictures taken of the three of us kids so that is what we got them for Christmas.