An hour ago, I was walking from my work office on campus to the classroom in which I was taking my final final. (That is, my last one. But final final just sounds so much funner, doesn't it?) I was listening to my copy of Andrew Peterson's independently released album, Walk, on a walkman with the batteries dying. So it sounded more like "a drunk Oscar The Grouch sings Andrew Peterson lyrics while his non-rhythm-having friends attempt to play ghetto versions of instruments!" rather than the songs I know and love. But I did get to hear "Lullabye" without too much drunkeness, which was a great bonus what with how incredibly much I love that song. (He wrote it for the child that his wife miscarried before they had their two healthy, bouncy, baby boys. It's incredibly beautiful, and since I'm told my mother once had a miscarraige, and since my first niece or nephew miscarried, it's a very personal song for me as well.)

So I went to my final and finished the 55-question test in half an hour because we had had a cheat sheet -- er.. study guide -- that covered most of the questions, and I read quickly.

As of this moment, I am on an almost-a-month-long break from school. The excitement is filling up my soul with much joy!

I'm almost certain I'll have straight A's, but I may get a B in First Aid 'cause the earlier tests were a bit hard and confusing. My teacher was wonderful, though, and made class somewhat of a joy to be in. The fact that we didn't have any homework other than reading the text was quite the bonus.

As if finishing my very first semester of college with a better GPA than I had for any one report card ever, things are really pretty good right now. God is blessing me in ways that -- even the darkest parts inside me must admit -- are marvelous. Things are on the up and up in ways they haven't been for at least a couple of years now. All in all, I'm very excited to see what the next couple of months, and maybe even couple of years will bring.

As for the next couple of days -- tomorrow I'm going to see the Andrew Peterson Christmas Tour again, this time in NC. This will be my second time this year, and I can't tell you how pleased I am at getting to make up for missing it last year.

And tomorrow is one week away from the release to theaters of the first installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Ah, the word waiting doesn't even begin to describe it.

I really hope that each of you is recieving, and recognizing, the joys of life as much as I am. I'm sure I'm still not aware of at least half of them, but the ones I have noticed are almost more than I can handle anyway.

Here's to life! Here's to joy! Here's to God!