Mandie Jefferies

This past weekend my mom decided to throw a bridal shower for my future sister-in-law Becky :) It was wonderful! It was a rather small gathering, but we had a lot of fun talking about the wedding and the honeymoon and all of their plans for the next month or so. The wedding is about 3 weeks away so we’re all getting a little anxious! They just found an apartment so luckily Becky received lots of dishes and towels and things to make the apartment feel more like home until they permanently settle in after the wedding. It is kind of strange to think that my big brother is going to be out on his own soon but I’m super excited to get a new sister

me and my big brother (he graduated from GWU!)

My best friend Monica was so excited last weekend because she just got a new Macbook!! She’s a Communications Studies major here at Gardner-Webb and all of their projects are done on Macs so it is a whole lot easier to just invest in one if that is your intended major. Of course, you can’t get a new computer without playing around on it for a while…so that’s exactly what we did! We probably took about 300 pictures in an hour or so Photo booth is just so much fun! There’s even been some music videos being recorded on there…this will spice up the rest of the semester for sure!

This Monday was the finale of The Bachelor so obviously we had to have a huge party in our dorm for all of us girls who faithfully watch it every week! There was probably a group of about 10 of us and then 2 boys who had their own “man couch” so they wouldn’t feel weird watching such a girly show. Of course, if any of you watch the show you know that Jake chose Vienna and none of us wanted that to happen. We were so sad that Tenley lost, but then we were all so happy 2 seconds later! What caused this sudden happiness? Well…at the end of the show, one of my best friends got engaged!!! Her boyfriend created his own little rose ceremony for her and then got down on one knee and proposed!! It was so cute It definitely made up for Vienna winning the show!

our huge hotel!!

So…it seems like Spring Break is taking forever to get here, and my friends and I were really wanting to forget about all these tests coming up right before we leave. Therefore, we thought it was a perfect idea to go to the beach for my birthday weekend! It was so much fun. It was a little chilly, but we were so relaxed with our hot tubs and lazy river that we didn’t really worry about the weather! This was definitely one of the best birthdays ever

at dinner!

For any of you who might be interested in majoring in Elementary Education, get ready to do all kinds of things!! I’m in a class this semester where I’m learning how to conduct a choir.  It’s quite interesting.  Most schools have special teachers who come in to teach music and art and things like that, but Gardner-Webb prepares us to be able to teach anything in our classrooms.  My suitemate is also an Elementary Education major and she is taking Art for the Classroom Teacher this semester.  She’s been doing so many different activities! Her latest project was making an animal puppet. She made a swan and it’s amazing!!  If you’re planning on being a teacher, be ready for all kinds of fun assignments!

Sarah's swan!

So, to be honest with you, I was not too excited for last weekend to get here, and I kind of just wanted to skip it all together. BUT…I had a really great time with a bunch of my friends! On Friday, we went and saw Valentine’s Day at the movie theater in Shelby. It was amazing walking out of the theater to a winter wonderland! Everything was covered in snow after only a couple hours. Of course, the snow didn’t stick around for very long and we still had to go to classes on Monday… but this was a beautiful snow! Thankfully it wasn’t followed by ice like it was before.  Then on Saturday I ordered Chinese with one of my best friends who lives in my dorm and we played card games for forever! Lastly, on Sunday I was woken up by my friend’s boyfriend who gave me a teddy bear, a rose, and a card. It was so sweet!! I’ve made some of the best friends in the world here at GWU These people are amazing!!

So tonight Gardner-Webb played VMI in basketball, and I was able to see one of my friends who couldn’t make it to our homecoming on Friday! My friend Keith plays basketball for VMI so I was anxious to see him play against our team. My mom even decided to come up for the game because she was his math teacher in high school Gardner-Webb ended up losing by 7, but it was still a lot of fun. There was a competition to see which residence hall had the most residents attend the game and unfortunately we lost…one of the guys’ dorms won and they get a free night of bowling. Oh well…maybe next year right? Anyway, it was great to catch up with Keith before his team went back to the AmericInn for the night. It’s nice going to a school where you can go down on the court after the game and actually get to talk to the players. It was fun seeing a familiar face from high school!

This past weekend I was able to go home to Charlotte for my high school’s homecoming. I went to a very small school so we only have homecoming during basketball season since we don’t have a football team. I had been looking forward to this for weeks, but unfortunately the crazy weather changed our plans quite a bit.  We were supposed to play a team from Asheville, but they got too much snow and couldn’t come down for the game. It ended up being a dunk competition followed by a 3-point competition. It was rather exciting because our team is the defending state champion I was just happy because 3 of my best friends were able to come. A couple off them go to school at App State and had to use their 4-wheel drive to get out of Boone! All in all, it was a great weekend. One of my suitemates was able to come home with me and we were able to kick back and relax without having to think about schoolwork since we left all our books in our dorm rooms. Unfortunately, it only last for a few hours and then I had to say goodbye to all my old friends until our next reunion time…

me and my best friends from high school on our senior cruise!

This weather is seriously ridiculous. First it can be 60 degrees and beautiful. Then it’ll start snowing and you’ll slip and fall on the ice every second. THEN your campus will practically be flooded! That’s what happened today. We’ve been getting freezing rain all day long and it’s nasty! It’s also the last day of University Fellows interviews on campus so we’ve had a lot of prospective students all dressed up just to walk around campus in the rain Apparently there’s still hope for a wintery mix this weekend, but it’s basically just plain yucky. Check your weather forecasts though and come visit campus when the sun’s shining!! That’s when our campus really looks its best!

Gardner-Webb has officially had the first snow day of the 2009-2010 school year! The campus was covered in snow by Friday night and then froze over through Monday. It was awful trying to get around! Everyone was falling because the sidewalks were like an ice skating rink. However, any bruises that people got from falling were worth it because all classes were cancelled on Monday Some friends and I went out and took pictures and just had a blast being lazy all day. We were also excited to see that Papa’s Pizza of Boiling Springs was delivering during the icestorm on Saturday! We didn’t risk walking to the caf because of the dangerous sidewalks so we had a pizza party in the lobby of our dorm. It was definitely the best weekend of the school year so far!

yum!

skating in front of Dover Chapel!