figured i'd update. why not, right? hope you're not emotionally damaged, with me leaving you out to dry like this for 4 months!

it's been a fun few months. :) life is good right now. spring has sprung at cedarville, and i love that feeling. capris, 75 degree weather, light breezes, and the lake is REALLY blue. i go home for easter break on thursday, which is crazy to think about. after that, 2 weeks later i go home again for a wedding reception and my grandad's 80th birthday party, and then 2 weeks after that SUMMER begins!!! nuts.

i have a job lined up for this summer, working as the youth group intern under jeremy. :-D i am so stoked. it's going to be amazing. we're going to study Gods' Word together in the mornings, and then i get to lead Bible studies, make phone calls, visit kids, help plan youth events, etc. every single day. it's everything i would do anytime without pay, but i'm being offered a terrific salary for the job. praise God! what a ministry and what an opportunity for spiritual growth. i just can't wait for summer. late movie nights with the girls, driving around with the windows down, tan skin, dinners on the porch with my family, going to Grove every Sunday, playing guitar till 3 in the morning, the smell of chlorine and sun screen. :) 3 solid months at home. WOW.

i had 9 friends from Cedarville come home with me for spring break. :-D it was INSANE and so much fun. i just loved showing them all the places where I grew up and all the people who are important to me. we watched a lot of "the office" and all pitched in around the kitchen a lot - jen and leslie and bethany cooked some FANTASTIC food. we even went to the beach in north carolina for a few days and stayed in a condo. it meant a lot to me that they loved richmond so much - it's so close to my heart, and i feel like they're closer to me now because of it. :)

i'm doing my multi-cultural field experience at a public school in dayton right now. it involves 5:30 a.m. mornings and a LOT of resulting exhaustion, but i know it's worth it. the kids are very disrespectful and very behind academically, but i'm learning so much from my teacher about how to love kids regardless of their behavior and to expect the best from them no matter what. i'm getting excited about being a teacher someday!

alright...i'll try to post again soon. behave yourself, you journal-reader you.

Christmas break. :) Gotta love it.
So much to tell! God has blessed me with a wonderful new car to replace my beloved Henry. I am so pumped. Meet Henrietta. :) Isn't she precious???


My Christmas was really nice. Yeah, maybe it's sappy, but giving really is so much more fun than receiving. I love watching people open gifts I buy for them. Ha...especially when it's my dad opening season one of "the Office"...because that means I get to watch it with him. ;) Hehe. I got a nice new digital camera and a cute new Vera Bradley bag. Spent the day with the big Dunnevant clan. We finished our mad present-opening marathon in a whopping 5 hours and 5 minutes!!! I am so thankful for each of them.

Taking Old Testament this semester really opened my eyes for the first time to the intense implications of Christ's birth. God's entry into the world wasn't just a miraculous virgin birth and the beginning of the Gospel story, although those things themselves would be reason for much celebration. Christ's birth was the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham and Isaac and David - the actualization of years of prophesy. This was the hope of Israel, the one promise they were all awaiting with breathless anticipation. And here He was. God with us. The husband coming to reclaim his bride. A new covenant was beginning. Understanding this really casts a new light on a Christmas Eve candlelit service...

New Year's was pretty much amazing. :) We had a college New Year's Eve party at my house. THERE WAS SO MUCH FOOD!! We had a foosball tournament, and Katelyn and I lost by one point in the finals to Stephen and Matt - I thought I was going to have a conniption fit - it was 9-9, and there were about 30 people screaming and chanting our names. MY WORD! At about 10 minutes to 12, all the guys started jumping up and down and blowing on their noise-makers as loud as they could - our wood floors were shaking up and down! It was a crazy time. :)

New Year's resolutions:

*Stop being fat. (i.e. lose 10 pounds and keep it off)
*Live in a healthy manner (i.e. work out, get up 45 minutes before class, stop snacking non-stop, actually sleep at night, etc.)
*Spend time with God more consistently
*Make HIM my center

Haha...so a funny story. I was babysitting for this 6 year old little girl two weeks ago. She really likes to dance, and so she turned up her music and started dancing around the room. This kid is GOOD - she's about to join a hip hop class, and she has got serious rhythm. I decided to join her, and so I started dancing. A few minutes later I look up and see her standing still. staring at me with this look of disgust on her face. I asked her what was the matter, and she said, "What were you DOING???" Hahahahaha

A little less than a week left in Richmond. Not sure I'm ready to go back just yet. I've been enjoying hanging out with my family every night in my pj's. :) I just love Virginia. Sigh. At least I have wonderful friends to come back to...

happy 2:49 a.m. :) can't sleep tonight...i think i've unintentionally trained my body to come alive around 1:00 in the morning. this is not a good habit.

it's christmas time at cedarville. :) the last few weeks have been really fun and memorable. christmas dinner at chuck's, story time with dr. brown. we decorated our hall in the dorm-decorating contest with the theme of "christmas at home" - the picture up there is us in our "family room" listening to donna read christmas stories. :) mom and christina came up for a weekend visit to hear my choir perform in the christmas concert, and then they took me and several of my friends out to olive garden afterwards - of course then we stayed up having girl talk in their hotel room until midnight or so. it was so fun having christina see the campus - i LOVE my cousin! jill's and my room is all decked out with garland and lights! i love this season so much.

unfortunately, however, finals week is upon me. luckily i have a crew full of refreshing friends to take the edge off. tonight we ended up staying at chuck's for 2 hours or so, and then we studied in the willett's lounge until about 10:00, when it became necessary to take a quick mofia break. :) it was hilarious, of course. i had a sentimental moment as I was looking around at everyone laughing (i'm kaitlin dunnevant, what do you expect?)...we are all so comfortable with each other, and we invest in each other's lives every single day. i love all of them for different reasons, and I am so blessed to live with such a support group on campus. God has simply blessed me with GREAT friends. i am especially thankful this month for rachel and for jen. i didn't really know rach last year, but she brightens my day whenever she walks in my room, and she has a level of depth and insight about her that is really sharpening to be around. and my jennifer :) we have really bonded recently, and I can't even put words to how much her friendship has uplifted me. i can be completely myself around her, and I feel totally at ease. i can't explain this one. but wow, i well up with praise to God every time i spend time with her.

i'll be heading home on friday :) can't wait for caroling and weekend get-togethers at my house and christmas movies and shopping and dawson's creek with arika. ;)

Bethany and I were talking today about how God desires us to remain flexible and moldable with him. when we begin to harden ourselves and yank back the reigns, it is often then that he gently breaks us of strongholds...and we come running back to him. yet he is always waiting with open arms. the everlasting prodigal's father. his mercy is new every morning. i'll close today with these lyrics by chris rice in his song "untitled hymn." mmm...these bring back some australia memories :)

"Now your burden's lifted and carried far away...
And precious blood has washed away the stain.
So sing to Jesus, sing to Jesus...sing to Jesus, and live.

OH and when the love spills over! And music fills the night...
And when you can't contain your joy inside,
Then dance for Jesus! Dance for Jesus, dance for Jesus...and live."

Life is precious.



I totalled my car on Thursday. It was raining hard, and I was on 35...I got off an exit ramp and immediately started hydroplaning...I panicked and overcorrected, my car did a 180, and it careened into the guardrail, smashing it twice. I remember seeing the guardrail coming, and I closed my eyes...when I opened them, there was blood everywhere...all from a tiny little cut on my finger, thank goodness. I don't remember much from this point on except crying a lot. A really nice family stopped on the side of the road and tried to calm me down, and they called the police. Eventually the cops got there with a firetruck and everything...my door was jammed and so they had to pull me out the other side. They strapped me to a stretcher in case of any internal injuries...I didn't like that too much...and then they hooked me up to oxygen on the way to the hospital.

After about 2 hours in the ER, It turns out that I'm completely fine except for a bump on the back of my head, a cut on my finger, and a LOT of sore muscles. My memory of that morning and afternoon was a little fuzzy for awhile, but it came back one bit at a time. Ben and Jess and Jill and Elizabeth came to pick me up at the hospital, and they were all really sweet...back in the dorm I found a heating pad and a note and a colored picture on my bed...my RA read me a bedtime story too. :) I am so taken care of and so loved.

It's a lot to think about. Everyone keeps saying how incredibly lucky I am - I should have been a LOT more hurt than I was. God saved me from so much. He still has a purpose for my life. I keep having strange thoughts...like I'll be walking to class and think, "Wow...I could so easily be in a wheelchair right now." It just really makes you reexamine your priorities. I just don't understand, though...God is so good, and I will never understand. He saved my life, and SO soon after the crash, I revert into my selfish, sinful habits. It's all about me, only a matter of hours after He protects me from death. I am so low, and He is so good, and I don't deserve it.

"It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfuless by night." Psalm 92:1-2

Thank you for all your encouraging comments after my last post. :) I get so excited whenever anyone writes on this thing...when I noticed that my comments had gone from 4 to 5 yesterday, I literally gasped out loud and broke into a HUGE smile. So sleep satisfied tonight, knowing your thought-provoking commentary has brought a glimmering smile to the lips of yours truly, Kaitlin Dunnevant.

Life is still weird and painful, but God never changes. That's something I've learned. If you feel lonely and start looking to relationships to fill the gap, you're not running after God's purpose for that season He has ordained in your life. He's ready to be your sufficiency. And to teach you...purify you...prepare you. Are you letting him? I've been reading in Numbers for Old Testament, and I've seen that despite God's faithfulness to the sovereign plan He had set up for the Israelites, their disobedience disrupted and slowed the carrying out of that plan. Are we going to continue to live in doubt and miss out on what God wants for us? When I am selfish and cling to bitterness or idolatry, I'm preventing Him from filling me completely and meeting my deepest needs...I'm blocking the perfect love of my Savior. Think about it.

Tonight was fun. Drove out to Young's to hang out in a corn maze, but it was closed...so we just drove around some back roads, looking at the BEAUTIFUL fall leaves. After a brief stop at "Kreuger's Korn Maze," where we were assaulted by a masked man with a chainsaw (WOW), we eventually ended up at Wal-Mart and played a few crazy games...came back and talked and hung out with the boys in my dorm room (hooray for open dorm nights)...then three words: TACO BELL RUN. Amazing. And we ended the evening with the movie Clueless. Gotta love it.

I leave Wednesday for fall break. :-D I'm so excited. You don't even know. It's going to be a great time of refreshment and reenergizing and rest (notice the alliteration). Can't wait to see my mom and dad and brother...and MOLLY!!! And I'll get to hang out with Katelyn for the first time since July. :-D And of course my love Arika. Meghan, are you coming home??? Haha.

Love ya'll.

Life is weird.

WEIRD.

Just when you think you've got everything figured out, everything blows up in your face and pieces scatter in completely RANDOM directions.

I mean...who would have guessed last year at this time how everything would have unfolded by October of sophomore year?

Wow.

I'm never assuming anything again.

Today was your typical collegey day. It was hilarious, and FUN. All the leaves are turning, and it's about 70 degrees outside. Slightly chilly...blue sky. Jill and Cos and I went outside and did some homework on a blanket under a tree and just layed there soaking up the sun for awhile. Eventually we got hungry and decided to have a picnic, and we spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out what food we owned that we could actually EAT at a picnic. Cos realized he has some Raman noodles in his dorm room, which happened to be right by our picnic blanket. So he proceeded to throw boxes of noodles and macaroni and cheese out the window for us to choose between. Cos then dug up a plate and tried to serve us hard noodles with cheese powder on top. This is why men need women for guidance in life. We gave him instructions on how to cook macaroni and cheese, and as he heated everything up, he cranked up Moulin Rouge music - we danced in front of his dorm room window to the "So exciting...so delighting" song!! It was amazing. Now as I write this, we're lying on the blanket watching Moulin Rouge together and "doing homework."


I love Cedarville. :)