I realized I hadn’t posted any pictures in a while, so I thought i’d throw up a few from last semester.

Mary Frances and Me

Mary Frances and I went out on a date tonight. I hadn’t taken her out in a long time, so I told her to save Friday night for me in her schedule. I didn’t tell her where we were going or what we were doing… the element of surprise added a little bit of excitement! We first went to Alleia’s on W. Main street. It’s an Italian-ish place – great, candle lit atmosphere, and phenomenal food. I had the grilled quail breasts with charred roasted tomatoes, and MF had the wood-smoked pork tenderloin with a brown sugar glaze. Accompanied with bread and dipping oil, it was fantastic. The service was also great – the bread basket stayed full, and my glass was always 3/4 full at least. Great place.

Alleia's Restaurant on W. Main Street

After dinner, MF and I opted to get dessert at the Ice Cream Show down by the walking bridge. We split a coffee/toffee ice cream bowl. Mmmm, so good. After that, we drove back up the mountain and went to the Rock City Christmas lights which was also amazing. We spent a good two hours walking around and enjoying the lights and the views. Beautiful night.

Pray for the family and close friends of Ben Entwistle. He was a good friend, brother, and fellow student at Covenant College. He went home to be with his Father this week after suffering a bacterial infection on his heart, followed by a stroke. He was in Nairobi, Kenya and was in the process of being medically evacuated to South Africa to be treated… he died on the plane.

Ben was a good friend… and Heaven is richer because of his presence there.

It’s the start of the summer before my junior year of college. I can hardly believe that time has flown by this fast. I still remember the weekend I came up to Covenant to visit my sisters when they were in college.. I was only just starting my senior year of high school, and we had just flown back from England – September 23, 2005. I remember not being able to wait to get to Covenant.. and I remember meeting a bunch of Betsy’s friends — people who have been some of my best friends and greatest blessings during the last two years of being at Covenant.

Three years down the road, they have all graduated… along with Bets. It kind of hit me today that they won’t be back at school in the fall semester when I go back. It was hard saying goodbye today.

I went down to the Art Barn with Jess and Corban earlier this afternoon. Corban took Ceramics I last year, so he was heading down to do a little throwing on the pottery wheel. I went down there with him and grabbed a ball of clay and a wheel. It’s been a few years since I’ve touched a pottery wheel… it felt good to feel the wet clay move between my hands and to see it take shape depending on where I put my hands and fingers. It took me a long time to remember how to center the clay. It was frustrating at first. I had forgotten how much of your weight you have to put into holding your arms still and keeping your hands firmly around the clay while the wheel spins.

I didn’t end up making anything – the clay got too wet to form anything after about an hour of me trying to make a bowl then a mug then a plate then a bowl… :)

It was fun though. It definitely takes a while to get back into it. Pictures soon to come.

We went on a walk yesterday in a nearby park in Owensboro. Kentucky has had some bad flooding the last week or so, and half the park was covered in water… all but the half-mile sidewalk going around the park. I took a few pictures of the water, the new buds on the trees, and some random squirrel that was dumb enough to chase after an empty nut shell that I tossed in its direction.

It was so nice to get outside.

I have had the privilege of seeing yet another place that I’ve never been to before — Owensboro, Kentucky. A friend and I went up to Kentucky to spend Easter Break with Jess and her family. We stopped by my house on the way up yesterday and had dinner with my family… and then we drove on to Owensboro to spend the Easter weekend. The car ride down was about four hours — two hours to Nashville and then two hours to Owensboro from Nashville. I drove the last two hours… listening to anything and everything from OneRepublic, Imogen Heap, Pocahontas, Black Eyed Peas, Michael Buble, Frank Sinatra, Keane, and Phil Wickham. In addition to great music, we had some pretty serious and deep conversations… we talked about short term missions (and the negatives and positives associated with them), we talked about the callings people have to the mission field (and how America is just as equally a mission field as Africa), and a number of other topics that I can no longer remember. Click to continue »

It feels so good to be home… it’s amazing. Two of my friends from school came back with me to meet my family – the drive down was a ton of fun. I drove and we listened to some amazing music – Keane, OneRepublic, Goo Goo Dolls, Shane and Shane, Rascal Flatts, Shawn MacDonald, and a few awesome others… to name but a few.

My parents knew I was coming home, but I told them not to tell any of my little brothers and sisters. It’s always fun to surprise them! I called the house when we got into our neighborhood… I asked to talk to Johnny, my next youngest brother. He had no idea I was coming home. I asked him how his day was… he said he’d been watching the 3rd season of 24 all day. He recently got hooked into that tv show, so he’s been watching them like crazy. I told him I was watching Lost… then I asked him if he wanted to come to Chattanooga to watch it with me tonight. He was like, “Heck yeah!” I told him he should just drive down to see me… (again, him not realizing that I was on our street at that point). He’s 14 years old, so he can’t drive yet… He was just like, “Well, are you going to come pick me up?” (not really believing that I would, just kind of playing along) I was like, “Sure, open the garage door for me, and I’ll pick you up.”

He was kind of quiet for a second and then was like, “What do you mean? Philip, are you here??!!” I replied, “I’ll see you in a minute, Johnny,” and hung up.

You got to love it…

What can I say? I am finished freshman year, and I am officially a sophomore. Such a good feeling…

Me and a few friends headed down to Bear Creek this afternoon after everyone had finished their finals. It’s a beautiful trail and mountain stream further down Scenic Highway. We hiked for about 25 minutes, down the trail and along (and in) the stream. We finally met up with a few other people at the falls to do a little cliff jumping and swimming. It was such a beautiful day, and it was just amazing to enjoy the day without having to worry about studying for another final or writing another paper. You know?

It’s kind of sad to see people leave and to have to say “goodbyes.” People sometimes think that moving around a lot makes goodbyes easier, but it never gets easier to say goodbye… It’s hard to say goodbye to some people knowing they won’t come back next year – because of money, transferring to a different school, graduating, or just simply not coming back… It’s kind of a hard reality to come to grips with. Click to continue »

So I started writing some about my hall, The Five Points, on my last post… but I decided to actually grab the opportunity to spend time with my roommates and hallmates while they praised and worshiped, instead of writing. So I just wanted to kind of continue on from where I left off.

Each building at Covenant is divided into different guy’s and girl’s halls. My hall is the Five Points. It’s on the second floor of Maclellan. And I pretty much love everything about it. The halls at Covenant are really important to the people that live on them… and every hall has its own theme and unity. My hall, the Five Points, has more of an older theme…. the walls are covered in black and white posters and records of Elvis Presley and numerous other old musicians and famous people. But hey, enough of that. That’s just to give you an idea of what the hall looks like….

But what really makes Five Points what it is are the guys that live on it – and for me, those who I feel privileged to call my brothers in Christ. Last night was only one in many examples I could give of amazing times I have had with my hallmates and especially my roommates. After playing worship music last night, a bunch of the guys, as well as a few girls from the other Mac halls, came into our room and just started talking… our room is one of the bigger six-person suites, so there is plenty of room. After a while, there were a good 10 or 15 people just sitting on the floor or on chairs just talking and fellowshipping with one another. It was awesome. We talked about anything and everything - church denominations, school, past experiences…. what a blessing to just have fellowship with friends and brothers and sisters in Christ.