10 Minutes in the Life of Mr. B

{Mr. B is one of our nicknames for Bluebonnet :) This is a little story about what he did this morning that I found amusing. The pictures were taken afterwards to recreate the scene.}

This morning soon after I got up Bluebonnet flew to the bathroom to sit on the towel rack and talk to the budgie in the mirror, as he often does:

I was busy doing other stuff at first and didn't notice what he was doing, but he evidently flew down to the counter and dropped one of "his" pencils (pencils are his favorite toy ever :D) off the counter and into the sink:

(If you can't tell, he's actually holding the pencil in his beak in this picture)

Anyway, when I started paying attention again he was talking to the broken hand mirror that sits on the counter:

Then he ran over to the edge of the counter looking for his pencil on the floor (where he usually drops it to):

Not finding the pencil there, he checked in the only other logical place he could think of - the sink!

Knowing that he couldn't go into the sink to play with the pencil, he ran back to his budgie friend in the mirror. But being the ADD budgie he is, he soon ran over to his other pencil on the counter. I had purposely tucked it behind some other stuff to make it more difficult for him to drop it over the edge:

Well he was a determined little fella. He hopped on top of my retainer case to get to it. After a couple tries, he got it out from behind the stuff:

And then, he carried it clear from about here to the edge and dropped it over! I've never seen him carry a pencil that far before - strong little budgie!

As soon as he had dropped it to the floor he flew down to join it. Again he lifted it clear off the ground and carried it for a little ways! About that time he realized I was watching him and so he got completely distracted ;-)

As I was taking pictures for this post, he did some other funny things. One of them was evidently stepping on the pencil which caused it to roll away from him. Since he's a rather timid little creature (he only weighs an ounce, after all!) he jumped when the pencil went rattling across the counter. I'm pretty sure this picture caught him in the middle of the jump :)

Here's a picture of him in the act of dropping a pencil over the edge of the counter. I don't know why he thinks it's so fun to make a pencil fall...but he does it a lot. Whenever I get home from being gone for a couple hours I find pencils on the floor throughout the house :D

A little later, he decided to take a shower. He takes showers by running around on my hands and arms while they're in the sink under the faucet on spray mode. He had a pretty good shower too! So afterwards he was a wet little budgie. You know the wet dog smell? Well it's true for birds too ;-)

The End. Thanks for reading! :D

Funny Fellas

Here's a post I've been meaning to do for a while.....about the funny things my little boys that I nanny say and do :) Brian will be 7 in July, and Christopher just turned 3.

Let me start off by saying that they have both changed since last summer!! I saw them a few times during the school year, so they both remember me and everything. But I can certainly see changes. For example:

• Christopher talks a lot more, and tries to tell me stories
• Christopher has learned how to use his imagination!!!!
• He's also completed potty training, which is great :D
• He's also learned to talk back..........which isn't so good :/
• Brian interacts with me more...car rides are rarely quiet now :D
• He's learning a sense of decency! Last year he would change clothes wherever, but now he does it in his room or the bathroom and warns me not to come in ;-)
• Brian can stay in the lines really well when he's coloring - and he does a great job!
• He's even starting to let me take his picture a bit more! :)

So, now on to some of the funny things they've done.....sadly this will be an incomplete list because I've been meaning to do this for a little while and might have forgotten some things.

1. Christopher's a fire man! He loves everything to do with fighting fires and has for the past 6 months or so. He's got a whole outfit that he loves wearing. When I watched them some during Christmas break, he rarely left the house without wanting his fireman's jacket and helmet. On the first or second day that I was there, this is how I discovered he had an imagination. He was telling me all about the fire we were fighting together and what tools we were using.

2. Christopher's stories. He always wants to tell people about what's happened to him recently... But when you mix a limited vocabulary with imperfect pronunciation and emphatic, fast talking it's usually difficult to follow what he's saying unless you know what's going on :D

3. Bugs Bunny. Christopher's evidently been watching Looney Tunes, because he likes imitating it. At lunchtime he always wants to eat some baby carrots so he can start eating one in the corner of his mouth and then hold it while saying "Ehhhhh, what's up doc?" His dad had to tell me what he was doing the first time, and we agreed the best part of the show is that it makes Christopher like carrots ;-)

4. Pronunciation. There are some things Christopher doesn't know how to pronounce properly yet, and it's really funny. "Samwich" (sandwich), "Buebies" (blueberries), "Noom Dough" (Moon Dough - I'll explain next), "Barnes an' Oble" (Barnes & Noble), etc. Although I think his mispronunciations are cute, I do try to help him learn the right way to say things :)

Moon Dough is this new-fangled version of Play Dough. Instead of being like clay, Moon Dough is more like a powder that kind of sticks together if you press it into a hard mold. If you try to mold it with your fingers, however, it just gives way. It's really weird to play with for the first time because it's not at all wet like Play Dough. It's dry, and that fact messes with your brain at first.

5. Simple misunderstanding. The other day when the boys and I went to the pool, some other children were playing there too and were nice enough to share their pool toys. They had some diving rings and they let Christopher play with one. So he trots over to me (he has this really funny prancing/trotting walk he does sometimes - kind of hopping from one foot to the other), holding the ring with both hands on his bottom. I couldn't figure out why he was holding it that way....then he said "I'm going to get it off the bottom!" Evidently the kids had told him that he was supposed to get the toy off the bottom of the pool and he took that to mean off his bottom! I couldn't help but laughing out loud at that - it was soooo funny to see :D

6. Hello, my name is Grammar. At least that's what Brian said I should be called. One time we were in the car stuck in traffic and we somehow got on the subject of littering. He said "I'm going to eat littering!" which started me off on an explanation of the fact that you can't eat verbs because they're actions. "It's like saying you're going to eat running!" I said. I had prefaced my mini-lecture with the question "do you know what grammar is?" Well then he said my name should be grammar because I talk about it so much. ;-) Evidently I told him the first week that I was grading papers and checking them for grammar. I don't remember telling him that, but he does. I think I've talked to him about grammar maybe one other time........

Later on in the car ride, he declared out of the blue - "You are part of the family, because you're my nanny!" I can't remember any reason for why he would have said that right then, but it made me very happy :) I think he sees me as something like a friend/big sister now. Occasionally as we're walking around at the Science Place or Zoo or something like that his hand will almost unconsciously slip into mine for a moment. It's never for very long, but it's still sweet of him :)

7. Playful ruts. It's funny to see how easily children get into habits and routine. They get to where they have certain favorite activities and certain ways they play with things. For example, whenever I take Christopher to the park I can count on the fact that he'll swing, do certain other activities, and swing more. Whenever we go to the pool (which has been every day this week!), Brian wants to play dolphin and Christopher wants to play doctor. And just because I took a seat cover off one of the beach chairs to stand on because the pavement was too hot one time, he thinks that's what must be done to play doctor properly ;-) When we go to Barnes & Noble, Brian typically wants me to read the same books to him and Christopher always goes and finds the same toy to play with. I do try to vary our activities and how we play with the toys...but it's just interesting to see their inclination to the familiar!

8. Children see/hear, Children do/say. Those two young fellas know almost every word of some pop songs like Bieber's "Baby" and Cruz's "Dynamite." I even heard Christopher sing the proper "Jingle Bells" all the way through the other day...but he might have been having some help with it. One of Christopher's favorite pretends is to use a "samarizer" like in the kid's show "Power Rangers." Almost any object the size of a TV remote quickly "becomes" one in his hands.

Boy oh boy is this one a good reminder. Anything they see me do or hear me say they could easily pick up and repeat. That's plain scary!!!

9. Sleepy boy. Christopher quit taking regular naps sometime early last fall. But this summer we've been having so much fun that he does get worn out. I can always tell when he gets tired because he'll start sucking his right thumb and his left hand will either get tucked into the waistband of his shorts or his fingers will slip through the tag on the side seam of his shirt. And about 75% of the time that I drive somewhere in the car with just him he'll fall asleep within a couple of minutes. One day he even let me read him to sleep and then I sat there on his bed and let him sleep on my lap for about 30 minutes. He tried to roll over at one point, so I helped him off my lap. He sat up on his knees and I thought for a minute that he was awake. He must have had his eyes open. But he wasn't really awake, because he put his head right down on his pillow/blanket and was sound asleep again :)

10. Surprise! This one kind of goes along with #7. I usually ride the train down to work, and the dad usually picks me up from the train station near their apartment. Christopher is usually with him. He knows all about "your train station" as he calls it, and I've taken the boys on the train whenever we've gone to the zoo. Anyway, Christopher is apparently of the opinion that the only way I can come see him is by the train. On the few occasions when I've driven down instead of riding the train, he's always really surprised to see me. It takes him a minute to register how in the world I got there, but then he greets me with "Esther!" in an excited voice :)

11. Talky talky. I'm kind of unsure what to do about this one...... The boys both love talking to other people - on the elevator, when we're at the pool, at the book store, etc. They're always curious about what adults are doing and love telling them about what we've been up to. While I know it's good for them to be friendly and curious, there's that old law of childhood - "don't talk to strangers!" And sometimes the boys just want to keep talking and I'm worried the adults might not appreciate these kids being so nosy and talking so long.

So there are some of my fun stories from my terrific job :D Of course, not everything is always so easy or always rosy. The boys aren't perfect and neither am I. And there's things I see that make my heart ache. But I prefer to focus on the happy things while trying to figure out how to deal with the flaws in a way that I don't step outside my bounds.

Relationship books (semi-reviews)

Back at the beginning of last semester, my room mate gave me a couple books to borrow...and I finally got around to reading them this semester. The first took me a while to get through, but I read the second in two days. They are both great books and both have been tools God has used this semester to grow me spiritually.

Book Info:
Title - When God Writes Your Love Story: The Ultimate Guide to Guy/Girl Relationships
Authors - Eric & Leslie Ludy
Publisher - Multnomah Books, 2009
Paperback, 15 chapters, 304 pages

Title - Emotional Purity: An Affair of the Heart
Author - Heather Arnel Paulsen
Publisher - Crossway Books, 2007
Paperback, 17 chapters, 151 pages

Although both of these books are focused on guy/girl relationships (and were very beneficial to me on that level), they both also apply to life on a deeper and broader level. Each uses real-life examples and scripture in searching out how Christian young people should handle relationships with the other sex.

Neither book offers a solution that is truly easy or in line with what common culture has come to expect. And yet each shows a way for singles to avoid the endless cycle of short-term relationships and broken hearts. In a day and age when people like me can feel there's no one who desires to approach relationships the way we do, these books give hope and solutions.

Honest Reflections on Hollywood

I'm in Hollywood, CA for the weekend, attending a college journalism conference with eight other Threefold Advocate staff members. After spending about 24 hours here so far (we got in late last night and leave Sunday afternoon), I'm experiencing a serious conflict/wide range of emotions. This is going to be an honest look at those, and an attempt to process what I'm feeling. I'll probably end up waxing poetic or lecturing. So please be patient and bear with me! (But before I really get started, allow me to add the disclaimer that I wasn't all that hyped about coming to Hollywood to begin with. I'm not into movies/pop culture/etc. etc.)

It all starts this afternoon when our group of students walked down the street to get some lunch. Our hotel (Renaissance Hollywood) is in the middle of Hollywood, in the middle of all that is shown to be glittery and glamorous. As we strolled down the sidewalk, taking pictures of famed buildings, I saw other tourists like our group. But I also saw something I wasn't expecting to see in Hollywood: homeless people. People waiting at a bus stop who appeared to not have seen a bed or a bath in days, weeks, months. And they were ignored. By the cars rushing by on the road. By the people around me. By me.

Traversing the popular Walk of Fame a while later, I was struck by many things. First of all was the idea that the stars embedded in the sidewalk were to honor the people whose names they bear. Each star now costs $30,000. And yet thousands, millions of people walk on those stars and on those names. They can't avoid it, they don't mean any disrespect by it....but these stars which are supposed to honors a person's level of fame are trampled on day-in and day-out. This made me think about the fleetingness of "fame," "popularity," and life in general.

On Hollywood Blvd, where most of the Walk is, we were surrounded by tourists who were taking in the sights and snapping photos of their favorite stars, just like my group was doing. But once again, there were people I was surprised to see: people digging through trash cans. A homeless man carrying all his belongings and walking with a scroungy dog on a leash. It reminded me of China. It reminded me of the "bad areas" of Dallas. But I wasn't in a third world country. I wasn't in what I would have thought of as a bad part of town. Come on, this is Hollywood! The home of movie stars and the hub of the entertainment industry. And yet I hear sirens of fire trucks and ambulances more frequently here (4-5 times today) than I ever have living down the street from a fire station. And yet there are people living on the streets who have nothing. Nothing.

Surrounded by this clash between my expectations of the glamor of Hollywood and its real life grittiness, I watched as tourists ignored the existence of the destitute people. I thought of the celebrities, living in their mansions not too far away. They had contributed to making this place what it is, and yet they apparently did nothing to help the people who call their Walk of Fame home. I was confronted by the difference between the star-studded Hollywood I had imagined and the sense of apprehension I experienced walking the streets. What if one of the homeless people tried to rob me?

What was I supposed to do about all this? We are trained to ignore homeless people. They could be dangerous and if you help them you are probably just enabling them to continue in their bad habits. What am I to do? When I go out tomorrow, I will be faced by the same dilemma and by the same people. Will I make the decision to go along with the cultural norm and choose to not see these fellow human beings? Will I instead take the challenge of interacting with them, sharing truth with them, and yes - loving them as Jesus would? I know what my inclination will be. I can only pray that God will grant me safety and wisdom to do as He would have me to do.

So those are my thoughts and feelings about Hollywood. Overall, I am not impressed. From my short experience of it, I am struck not by the grandeur of it, but by the hypocrisy of the people in it. I am not liking Hollywood (the city/atmosphere - I'm glad to be at the conference & visiting Gma Artie & Auntie Lynne!). I am eager to get back to Arkansas where I'm not faced with more than I can handle. I'm ready to go back to where I'm comfortable--to not have to see what I have seen tonight.

But can I really go back the same? This day in Hollywood has impacted me more deeply than I am able to properly communicate in this note. I don't know where it will take me. But I know I'll remember this night for a long time to come. And not because of how much fun I had in Hollywood, but rather because of what I saw by looking at my surroundings, not through a celebrity or tourists sunglasses, but with the eyes that see those whom society has made invisible to keep itself comfortable.

Our Crazy Weather and My Fun Day

We've had crazy weather this winter...both in Dallas and here in NWA. I haven't been in Dallas for the crazy weather, so I'll mostly talk about the NWA part :) The crazy weather has been in the form of snow - and TONS OF SNOW!

It snowed a bit on the weekend my parents brought me back to school - Jan. 9. But it wasn't much. It did stick around for several days though.

Our second snow storm came on Jan. 20th. It started early in the morning, if I remember right. I walked to my 9:00a.m. class through the falling snow and enjoyed taking some pictures of it :)

I would guess it snowed 2-4 inches....so not too much. Most of the snow disappeared in about a week, except for places where there had been a big pile of it.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous the weekend of the 29th, with highs in the 60's! I went for a walk to downtown and took pictures - I may have even been in a t-shirt.

It changed pretty quick after that though. On Feb. 1, it started snowing at about 1a.m. and continued to snow for well over 12 hours. It was basically a blizzard that morning - that's what a weather website was calling it! Campus closed down at 10:30a.m. and all classes for the rest of the day were cancelled. My prof. had cancelled my 9:00 class even before campus closed. I heard that only six classes were held that day.

Since that was a Tuesday, we were supposed to put the newspaper together in the evening. Because classes were cancelled, we decided to do it in the afternoon instead - so I had to walk the quarter mile or so to the honors house where the Threefold office is.

The snow was still falling at that point. After I finished laying out my pages for the paper, I went to dinner in the cafeteria. While I was there, one of the other students got the email saying classes were cancelled for the next day as well. It was so funny how cheering broke out in the cafeteria, kind of in waves as more students figured out what was going on.

So the next day my friend Brooke and I decided to get outside and take snow pictures! It was about 10*, but we didn't let that stop us :D We had a blast for nearly an hour and a half.

Most of the trees were really pretty because they were covered in icicles that were glistening in the sun :) I would guess there was about 6" of snow from that storm.

Our adventures included following deer tracks through the woods to an area I had heard looked like Narnia,

walking across the soccer field to get back to my dorm,

me being "forced" to eat snow after I shocked Brooke by saying I couldn't remember eating snow before (I liked it - I just look funny because I was laughing so hard at Brooke's shocked-ness),

and taking pictures of each other.

On Friday the 4th we got a little more snow - but not for too long. It just made everything pretty again :)

While Brooke and I were out and about, I had further shocked Brooke by admitting I had never been sledding before. I mean, come on - I'm from Dallas - when does Dallas ever get enough snow to go sledding? (Well, last year and this year it has...but I haven't been there either time!) So the next day (Sat. 5th) we got together to go sledding. But first we had to get the six inches of snow off of her car.......that took a while...and then we had to get her car out of the parking spot. And once we finally did get out, we weren't sure where we would find sleds. So we went to a hardware store and got "drip pans" instead - they look like giant cookie sheets. We think they're meant to be used under running generators, but not sure. Anyhow, we went with two of Brooke's other friends over to the honors hill which is THE sledding hill of Siloam and had a lot of fun sledding :)

(This is us trying to go down with three people on the cookie sheet - it didn't work. Two people worked great though :D)

And I loved it! :) After we finished sledding, we made snow cream (like ice cream - but made of snow and condensed milk - YUM!) and enjoyed it together :)

The snow from that storm is still around, although it had been cleared off most of the roads and gotten very trampled down everywhere else and was actually getting a little dangerous, what from the melting and refreezing it's done. But the weather wasn't done with Arkansas yet!

Tuesday night (8th) another snow storm was forecasted to hit our area. After I finished my part of laying out the paper in the Threefold office (at about 1:30 in the morning), I walked back over to my dorm. The snow had been falling for 30-45 minutes at that point, and was just a light dusting on the ground. I loved it because it was dark outside, so the snow falling through the light beams from the street lights was really pretty, and I could listen to the snow falling, and I felt like Lucy discovering Narnia :)

I went to bed in pretty short order, and woke up at 6:30. I got an automated call that classes were cancelled for the day because of the snow - which made me so happy because I had been feeling very overwhelmed about that day's homework. So I went back to sleep until 9. When I got up and looked outside, I could hardly believe my eyes. It had snowed so much that I could hardly see the cars in the parking lot - there were just lots of car-shaped white humps with antennas sticking out of them! It continued snowing until about 2 that afternoon - a total of TWO FEET!

That afternoon (yesterday) I trekked across the Quad (breaking my own path through the snow that was up to my knees!) to work on my homework assignment for the next day - it was fun, but it sure was cold toooo!!! When I was at dinner, I once again witnessed students' jubilation at learning classes were cancelled for our fourth snow day of the semester. That freed me up from worrying about homework that would have been due today, so I went to a movie night in a friend's room. I also hung out with some of the girls on my hall and talked with Nathan on the phone for an hour :D

So that brings me up to today - and was it ever a fun day!

I woke up at about nine, spent some time talking to Mom on the phone and doing other stuff until 10 when the Health Center opened for the day. Went down there and rode the bike machine for an hour (went 10 miles) and did some weights stuff. While I rode the bike I was reading John Perkins' autobiography for one of my classes.

After that I ate lunch with several friends of mine, and they invited me to play Wallyball with them. So we played that for an hour and a half or so, and I was actually doing all right at it! When I had tried it before (back in my freshman fall) I had done poorly...but this time I was actually a tiny bit co-ordinated!

After we finished playing, we decided to go sledding. But this time, we went to the big tall hill near the 100 stairs. We'd heard about a slope there that somebody found.

(I "stole" this picture from one of my hall mates of when they went down the big hill yesterday. We didn't have this sled today)

By the time we got to it, though, there wasn't much snow on parts of it because so many people had gone down it. So we promptly put more snow on it! As we were putting snow on it, the twins and I ended up sliding down it (without any type of sled under us!). I actually got stuck partway down on a vine type thing that was attached to something at the top and the bottom...but I was able to get myself loose.

After everyone in our group had gone down the hill, we had to hike up the 100 stairs which was a tad dangerous because they were covered in snow! But lots of other people had been going up/down them, and there was a handrail to hang on to, so it was fine :) The next time I went down, I tried to use my "sled" - but it decided it didn't want to go down the hill. My body, however, decided to keep going without the sled! That time hurt a lot more - and I got a bruise from it - but it was still fun :D The crazy thing about this slope is that as you're going down you're kicking up a lot of snow that flies up in your face - and then at the bottom there's this mound of snow from everyone sledding down - so it's quite the ride :) The third (and last) time I went down I used a friend's inner tube - and that was definitely the best :D

Lynnette and I then decided to walk the Dogwood Trail all around the campus - it was her idea and a bit crazy, but we had a ton of fun. It took us about an hour to go the 1.8 miles, following deer trails or human trails...but we were still walking in snow that was at least to half way up our legs. We made the mistake of going the uphill direction though :/

We wrote our names with our fingers in the snow. Lots of other people had been doing it too. At one point we saw four or five dear crossing the trail - we felt so sorry for them being out in this cold and having to walk through the deep snow!! There were also lots of cute little birdies out singing :) Of course I felt even more sorry for them than for the deer!

When we got about halfway around the trail, we stopped and lay down in the snow for a while - it was kind of cold but it actually felt nice too! It was so quiet and peaceful and the moon was up (it was only about 4:30p.m. at that point) - it was just wonderful...I could have almost fallen asleep :D

We came back around to the parking lot area for the library, and there was a big mound of snow around a lamp post - so I suggested that we climb up it - and we did, crazy as it was for us to do that :D It was pretty difficult to climb because of sinking into the snow anytime we tried to step up. But we did it in the end!

Of course, once we quit walking in the snow and were walking on the cleared sidewalk is when I started to realize just how COLD my ankles and feet were. I was very glad to get back to my room and take off my snow-packed boots and socks and take a nice warm shower! But the hot water made my feet hurt so bad because they were so cold--they're all right now though :)

Since then I've just been blogging and doing some homework reading and enjoying the last of my snow day...tomorrow I have a test in my one class, but then it will be the weekend all over again! While I'm enjoying the time off, I'm also ready for all the snow to just go away. This weekend it's supposed to get up to 50 degrees, and by next Thursday the high is supposed to be 70, so I'm really looking forward to that! And then my parents come for Family Weekend!!!!!!!!!!! :D

I've had such a wonderful day - thanks to all my friends who made it possible! :D

Spring Semester 2011 run down

My poor poor blog! I didn't realize I hadn't written for you in so long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was always intending to - just never did it. But here we go again!

I survived the Fall Semester of my Sophomore year, barely...felt really overwhelmed at the beginning and so dropped a class, then later wished I hadn't because I was ending up wasting too much time. The whole semester I was NOT in school mood and basically didn't care about most of my homework...which is very unlike me and kind of scared me. Somehow (I literally don't know how) I managed to pull out of the semester with really good grades....there were three classes I had been pretty worried about, but I did much better than I expected.

Christmas break was absolutely wonderful. Nathan was home for three weeks and it was so nice to all be together again :) We watched movies together, finished reading Return of the King together, and we had some new experiences together: namely decorating gingerbread houses and painting clown faces for New Year's Eve :D :D I was also able to nanny during the break and do some other work, so that was good. And of course it was wonderful to be with Bluebonnet again :D

Anyway, I entitled this Spring Semester run down, so I guess I better get to that part! I'm taking 18 hours this semester, being news editor for the campus newspaper, doing work study in the library, and whatever else I find to keep myself busy.

Mondays and Wednesdays I have Western Civilization II (also meets Fridays) and Honors Biology.

I'm absolutely loving Western Civ! Each class period we write reading reflections based on questions provided by the teacher. She doesn't grade them for every class, but we never know when she'll decide to pick them up. I think that's what makes me enjoy the class so much - because I process the readings better by writing about them.

I like Honors Biology too, but the teacher and I certainly don't see eye-to-eye about certain issues.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busy days. I have Graphic Design, chapel, Introduction to Photography, and Editorial/Interpretative Writing.

We just finished our first project in Graphic Design, and I'm pleased with how mine turned out. I was expecting it to be about learning the software programs like Computer Graphics was last semester...but it's not - it's about design concepts instead. But that's okay...it will probably still do me good (it's required for my major).

I've really been appreciating chapel this semester. The last several months have been a low point in my spiritual life, but God is working in me and reminding me of things that I had forgotten. To read more about that part of my life, you can go to my spiritual blog here.

Introduction to Photography is good, but it's a lot of work too - lots of pictures to take. When the weather's nice, it's fun work though :) During Thanksgiving break I ordered a digital SLR camera since I knew I would need it for the class. (For those of you interested I got a Nikon d3000 with an 18-55 mm lens). I like my new camera a lot :D :D :D

Ed/Interp is also a lot of work...every Thursday we have to turn in a 500 word editorial about some timely topic...so it takes lots of reading of news websites to stay up on the news! I am enjoying it though.

All those classes are each three hour classes. In addition to those, I have three one-hour classes...

Tuesday nights I work as the news editor for the Threefold Advocate, laying out the stories on the news pages. During the week I am also working on reporting and writing one or two stories. And I now serve on the editorial board. So far we've finished three issues of the paper - it's taken me 8, 5, and 6 hours respectively to lay out my pages...I probably spend 2-3 hours reporting and writing each week, plus about 3 hours in staff meetings. So working for the paper definitely keeps me busy! And I am currently only getting one hour of practicum credit for doing that (though I may go up to two hours). I like working for the paper though - even if it does take a lot of time.

Wednesday afternoons I have Student Leadership, which is required before applying to any leadership positions on campus. I'm mainly taking it because I'm applying to be an RA next school year...but if I don't get the RA position I'll apply to be a Passion group (small Bible study) leader instead. I'm really thankful for this class - I enjoy it and I'm in a great small group. Last Monday evening we did our service project that's required for the class. We had a little food drive in the community for a food pantry/thrift store that helps people who need assistance. In just an hour and a half of going door-to-door (in the cold) we were able to collect almost 200 pound of food and lots of clothing.

Thursday evenings I am currently in a one hour "colloquium" class for honors...but I think I'm going to drop it. I wasn't planning on editing for the paper when I signed up for classes, and that takes a lot of time. I'm starting to feel very overwhelmed again. If I drop it I'll still have 18 hours because I'll change my practicum to two hours.

Work study is going fine...this is my second semester in the library. I work two hours on Sunday, Monday and Thursday evenings and Friday afternoons. I close on all those days except for Sunday. The nice thing about working at the library is that I can study quite a bit of the time. As the semester progresses, however, more and more students use the library which means there are progressively more books to shelve! I enjoy it okay, but I'm looking forward to being a TA next semester :D One of my professors has already asked me to do that after his TA graduates this spring.

I also do a little bit with a couple of the CAUSE ministries on campus. Because my schedule is afternoon and evening heavy this semester, I wasn't able to help out with either CEF or mentoring with Right Lead like I have in previous semesters. So far this semester I've knitted some things for the ministry that donates items to a children's shelter. I've also helped once with the community service group, raking leaves for a elderly lady.

I'm really enjoying my friends this semester. I have one of the best roommates ever, and I have three friends that I regularly get together with, as well as several others that I like to hang out with. I'm thankful God has blessed me with good friends :)

Lastly, I've been trying to exercise regularly. I'm doing all right at that---last semester I somehow pulled a muscle in my leg or something, and it bothered me basically from late September until Christmas break. Because of that I had to slack off quite a bit on my running and such. Now I'm finally working back up to running again - but I still have to be careful and pay attention to how my leg is feeling. Anyhow, I typically try to run on the track/machine or bike on a machine 3-4 times a week and do core workouts/weight lifting on alternating days. I did a lot of exercising today, and it felt great! :D

Well, that's about all I have to say about my life this semester in a nut shell.....I'm going to do some homework and then do a post about the crazy weather we've been having here!

Rafting Down the Illinois River

On Saturday (the 11th) the Honors Scholars Program here at JBU took all the new freshmen and the Honors Orientation mentors rafting on the Illinois River! I’m typing this up today (9/12) so I won’t forget anything, but there are a few other things I want to post about on my blog before this actually goes up.

Anyway, we all (I think about 85 of us!) met at the Honors House at 9:00. Yep, it was a bit early for college kids on a Saturday. Then we all piled into a long caravan of a couple JBU vans and lots of personal vehicles. Thankfully it wasn’t a long drive. It took a while for everyone to get into the river. The rafts had six people each, and most rafts had one mentor and all the freshmen in that mentor’s group. I have four girls in my group, and then we had another girl from a group who had too many people to fit in a raft.

Here’s a picture of me and the girls I’m mentoring!

We weren’t doing anything near white water rafting. Just down river of the drop off point there was one little part that had a bit of rapids. I was sitting on the front seat and promptly tumbled off the seat into the girls behind me when we went over that bit, hehehe…. Not long after that we got stuck on some driftwood stuff, so I decided to hop out and pull the raft off. I managed to do that, but then of course the raft got away from me a bit and so I had to catch up to it and then try to climb in – and I made a grand fool of myself :D But I had fun doing that! J

We went around a bend in the river, and enjoyed some nice scenery – high buttes overlooking the river and things like that. It was nice and peaceful, and we enjoyed floating down river with the current. (We did have 4 paddles, but sometimes we didn’t row and just floated.) A couple times we made ourselves go round and round and round in circles – and that was really fun :D

All the rafts (I think there were at least 14 rafts, plus several 2-person canoes) were really spread out, so we weren’t really near any other people for most of the trip. After about an hour (maybe?), we got to the place where we were all pulling off to have lunch. Our raft was in the second half of the pack, so by the time we got there the boys from the rafts ahead of us had gotten the “bright” idea of stopping the rafts and pulling or making everyone jump into the water. Not that I minded getting wet – but I’m independent enough I didn’t like being forced to, so I tried to “defend myself” a bit :D

Anyway, we enjoyed our lunch. There were lots of butterflies landing on people, a cute little tiny turtle (only a little more than an inch in diameter!) and a not so cute baby snake…the snake was probably about a foot long, and it kind of slithered over one girl’s leg, then went around and tried to hide in a life jacket that was lying on the shore, and then swam off right in the middle of us all. Yep, a lot of us were a little freaked out about it!

After lunch all the rafts and canoes headed on down river again. Some of the other people decided to just swim/float down river rather than riding in the rafts. Our raft was doing just fine, but then a couple of the floating guys decided to come “attack” us. We tried to paddle really fast and get away…..but it didn’t work. Two of the girls went rather willingly into the river, but the other four of us held our ground. J We lost one of our paddles though :/ So there were only four of us in the raft, and we only had three paddles. And we were rather disoriented. There was the really low hanging tree, and we tried to stay away from it….but no, we went under it. We all ducked and screamed a bit, but we made it under :D A couple of the girls said that was their favorite part of the ride….. J Well, we went a little further and then I grabbed onto a tree trunk so that the other two girls could catch up to us and get back in the raft. A little further downstream there was a bank about 10 feet high, maybe? And the water below it was about six feet deep. So five or so students were taking turns scrambling up the bank and jumping into the river. Yep, it made me pretty nervous, and I certainly didn’t do it! But no one got hurt.

We were the last raft, and there were a couple canoes near us. So the four or so people who had been floating/swimming decided to join us on our raft – at least it wasn’t for very long! We went a little further downstream and then we could see the place where we would get out of the river. There was a boat jam there of people trying to get out, so we hung back and floated around really lazily for a little while – the more adventurous ones went and climbed on a big tree that was sitting partly in the water. Lauren, one of my girls, did a neat flip to get out of it :D Eventually, the people downstream hollered at us that it was time to go, so we went the rest of the way down, and got out of the water.

And thus ended our epic boating trip. It was a great idea for a bonding time between mentors and students, and I had a blast. J Of course, today my shoulder and hip are really sore, but it was totally worth it!