Where I'm at Right Now

   Wow!  It's been a long time since I've been on here.  Life just got so busy and I thought about writing but I never did.  I decided to get back to it again because life is exciting and amazing and I'm learning so much and I wanted to share with you.
   It's hard to believe, but I'm a Junior in college now.  This is the first year of college that I've felt like I know what I'm doing.  Classes get harder, but college gets easier as you go along.  I feel so much wiser this year.  Maybe it's the car.  Maybe it's paying rent on a house, or buying my own groceries and cooking my own meals.  But I feel like I know so much more than I did before. And yet, the more I know, the more I become aware of how little I know and how much, much more there is to learn about life and the world and God and everything else.  That's scary, but also exciting.  I can rejoice in the knowledge I'm gaining, but also look forward to all I will learn.  There will always be more to learn, and that is exhilarating!
   College has taught me so much.  The classroom learning is great - anatomy, math, physics, history, etc. - it's all very fun.  But I've learned so much more than that, both inside and outside the classroom.  I've learned to ask questions and not be content with the easy answers.  I've learned that the world is a much bigger place than I realized.  I've learned how to relate to people of different cultures, backgrounds, and ethnicities, as well as learn from them.  I've learned how to communicate effectively .  I've learned that nothing is as simple as you want it to be.  I've learned more clearly than ever that this is a sadly broken world filled with misery and pain.  But I've also learned that I have an important place in it, and I believe God will use me for great things, no matter how small they may seem.  I know college isn't for everyone.  And I know college isn't the only place you learn these things.  But college has been absolutely right for me, and I am so incredibly grateful for God's provision to allow me to attend Calvin College. I hope that I can honor His faithfulness by carrying out the works that He prepared beforehand for me, that I should walk in them.

Leadership training week...so far

   I'm back at Calvin!  What a fun and interesting week this has been!  I thought you all might want to hear about it...
   I arrived in Grand Rapids Monday night after a full day of travel and got back to Calvin around 6:00 in the evening.  All the other Sophomore leaders were in a leadership chapel service, and the new freshman were doing orientation related things, so I felt very lonely.  But as soon as my friends got out of chapel, I joined them for dinner and didn't feel so alone any more.  After dinner, I unpacked (with my roommate as my moral support) and then we decorated our room together.
   Tuesday morning most of the student leadership for our dorm was in a meeting, but SET (Social Events Team) was not part of that, so I (a SET leader) went to my room and did various assorted things until lunch.  After lunch, the fun began.
   Calvin College has a traditional dorm-against-dorm competition at the beginning of every school year called Chaos Day.  It's like a giant field day, and the dorms get really into it.  Every dorm has a theme, which they decorate for and dress up for.  Ours this year is board games.  Part of SET team's job is to help decorate.  Tuesday afternoon our dorm executive team got out paints, paint brushes, cardboard, paper, and other craft supplies, and we all got to work.  The above picture is of some of the front windows.  Here are a few more pictures of our handiwork:

 This is a Candyland path into the happiest dorm!

 

Decorating was lots of fun.  Someone had the idea to make a photobooth kind of prop.  I got to help with that.

 





   The next day, Wednesday, was even more fun (and a lot more work).  All the rest of the Freshmen arrived, and we helped them move in!  We got to wear really great shirts.

One of the best parts about We-Haul is that Calvin faculty and staff help, too!  President LeRoy worked with the NVW team for a while, as did a few other professors and faculty members.  I love it - it's such a good example and sets a great precedent for the incoming class and the whole school!
   I think this is going to be a great year. I can't wait!  :D

 

Summer 2014 Highlights

   Well, Summer 2014 is fast drawing to a close!  It went by like the blink of an eye - a sort of "turbo summer".  Haha, oh, well, it was a pretty good summer, even if it was busy.  Here are my highlights, in no particular order.

• Hailey's visit in June!  This was sooo much fun!  (I wanna do it again.)  We went to Disneyland, the beach and In-n-Out, and San Juan Capistrano.  We ate good food and had a fire in the back yard and ate ice cream and enjoyed every minute!
• Summer Concerts with my Daddy!  My parents and I have been to several amazing summer concerts this year.  One of the really fun ones was when we went to see Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boys.  I went up and talked to him at the break and told him I moved my last final in order to make it to his concert.  He was so pleased that he hugged me and gave me a kiss on the cheek! 
• Dance 4 Joy's Summer Conference!  This was an amazing 4 days!  I got to teach Creative Expression in the mornings, which was a new experience for me.  The kids were so great, and blessed me so much.  I also enjoyed being challenged by master teachers in the afternoon as I took Advanced Hip Hop, Advanced Street Jazz, and Advanced Tap and Lyrical classes.  I hope I get to do this again next summer!
• My Washington Vacation!  Obviously...  Haha, even with my unexpected roommate, I still had a beautiful time with my cousins, as I always do.
• Being in a Parade!  What?!  My sister and I were in the Huntington Beach 4th of July parade.  On a float.  Enough said...
• Knott's Berry Farm with the family!  So fun.  We were blessed with tickets through a friend, and enjoyed a great day at Knott's Berry Farms.  In the evening, we watched the Ghost Town Miners Bluegrass band play.  Part way through, they asked for volunteers to join the band and play washboard.  Three little tiny kids volunteered at once.  Then the band looked so sad that I did too.  It turned out to be really fun.  One of the musicians came up to me at the end and said "So you've played the washboard before?"  Haha, I guess if there's ever a dip in the Physical Therapy business, I have another money-making skill...maybe. 
• My lovely relaxing visit with Grandma!  It's always so quiet there...
• Swing dancing with friends at the Cypress summer concert!  That was a blast!  Thanks Michael and Eric and the Veals for joining us!  We should do it again sometime...

Thank you Lord for a great summer!

Midsummer's Update

   This has been a busy but good summer.  I just got back from vacation last Thursday.  I had such a great time with my mom's cousins in WA, despite the unexpected mousy roommate.  It was nice to come home, too, however.  Since I've been home I've: attended a wedding, enjoyed the Cypress Community Festival (complete with classic car show), gone shopping with a friend, gone to dance class, hit the gym with my mom and sis, and been to tea with a friend.  In between, I've found time to read Louis L'Amour books, write a bit, and enjoy a few old TV shows.  Tonight we're meeting friends at the park for a picnic and games.
   I guess the highlights of my summer (so far) have been getting back into ministry with Dance 4 Joy, a visit from my friend Hailey from Georgia in June, and my recent vacation.  It's been a good summer, a fun summer, a hard and challenging summer, a busy summer, and a great summer to draw closer to the Lord.
   All that said, I'm already getting excited to head back to MI at the end of August.  I just can't wait to see all my friends and get back to classes.  Have a beautiful rest of the summer!

A Scratch in the Night (one of my most unusual vacation stories yet)

My eyelids flew open and I lay there listening in the darkness to the rustling sound that seemed to be coming from just outside my window.  My heart was pounding a little faster with excitement.  Something must be out there!  Would it be a bear?  A moose?  A deer?  Or maybe just…an ordinary stray cat?  I sat up slowly and looked out into the shadowy darkness.  Nothing.  The only shapes in the back yard were the outlines of the lawn furniture.  Hmmm.  Maybe it was around the corner of the house near the garden.  I lay back down and heard the noise again.  It was a rustling, scratching sound that I suddenly began to realize seemed to come from inside my bedroom, in the corner at the foot of my bed.  I slid my hand up slowly and grasped the flashlight that sat on top of the dresser next to my bed.  My heart pounded a little faster.  In one swift move, I sat up and shined the flashlight into the corner.  Immediately the rustling stopped. 

Up till now, I had thought maybe there was a little critter in the walls, or maybe (I hoped), scrabbling around on the outside of the wall.  But when the noise halted with the appearance of light, my heart sank.  I laid back down again and turned off the light.  The rustling began again, and I repeated my former procedure.  Again, the sound halted immediately.

By this time, my heart was racing full speed.  Here I was, in a dark bedroom, in a dark house, with an unknown creature rustling around at the foot of my bed.  I consider all of these valid reasons to be terrified. 

At this point I decided, logically, since I was awake, I might as well get up and use the restroom.  I could deal with the problem after that.  When I returned to my bedroom, an unreasonable wave of courage seized me.  Armed with nothing but my flashlight, I walked shakily to the hazardous corner of the room.  I looked around my travel bag, which was on the floor, and I inspected the space between the file cabinet and the wall.  In that space was a yellow manila envelope.  Nervously, I reached for it and lifted it from the floor.  It rustled a bit as I moved it.  I tried to breathe a sigh of relief.  That was it – the envelope must have moved and made the strange and frightening noises.  But as I returned to bed, every reasonable part of my brain insisted that manila envelopes don’t rustle without being disturbed.

All right, so what should I do now?  I did the only logical thing I could do under the circumstances.  I tucked myself safely beneath the covers and grabbed my ipod.  If I listened to music, I could drown out any disturbing noises, and maybe even put myself to sleep.  I turned my ipod to my bluegrass instrumentals playlist and settled in.  My anxious mind immediately latched all focus onto the music, following each familiar tune closely in a tenacious effort to forget that I might be sharing my bedroom with a wild animal.  This took a great deal of effort, and in between focusing hard on the music, I tried to convince myself that whatever it was, it was probably just a little lizard or small mouse, in which case, I was much bigger than it, and therefore perfectly safe.  Somehow, that didn’t help.

I probably listened to that banjo and fiddle music for at least 20 minutes, yet I was (strangely) still wide awake when the playlist drew to a close.  I glanced at the time – it was around 2:30 am – and decided it was time to put the music away and try to go to sleep.  The noises seemed to have stopped, anyway, and I needed the rest.  Clutching my flashlight tightly, I pulled the blankets up around my chin and closed my eyes.  No sooner had I settled in when the noise started again, this time in a different corner of the room.  I’d had just about enough.  The stress was becoming too much.  I pulled the flashlight from beneath my covers and aimed its light in the direction of the noise.  There, in the corner under a little table, eyes glowing in the bright light, was an itty-bitty brown mouse. 

In a way, I was greatly relieved.  I had finally seen my intimidating roommate, and I now knew what I was facing.  But then I had another problem.  What was I supposed to do now?  Should I try to catch it?  Probably not, because I didn’t even know how to begin to do that.  I could turn the wastebasket upside-down on top of it, but how to get it out in the open to be captured was a puzzle.  Should I wake my cousins?  No, they probably didn’t want to get up at quarter to three in the morning to find out I had a mouse in my room.  What could they do about it?  By this time, the mouse had disappeared again.  My best bet, I decided, was to take the comforter off my bed, and go sleep on the couch, leaving the room to the mouse.  I scooped up the comforter and grabbed my flashlight, and then slipped carefully and quickly out the door, shutting it behind me.  That way, the mouse would be trapped there until morning, when my cousin Don could go in and find it.

The next morning, I awoke briefly to see Don in the living room, but I was too sleepy to say anything.  Eventually, around 6:30 am, seeing him in the kitchen, I rubbed my eyes and said good morning.  When he jokingly asked if the bedroom no longer suited me, I replied yes, that it did, but it also suited the mouse, and I didn’t want to share.  “A mouse?” he said, surprised.

“Yep,” I shook my head.  “But,” I promised him, “It’s okay, ‘cause I left the door closed so it can’t escape.”

He looked at me sheepishly and informed me that he had opened my door.  Now the mouse could be anywhere.

I can’t tell you yet how this story ends, although it probably won’t end well for the mouse.  I have a trap set in my room, and there is another in the kitchen.  I only hope it doesn’t get trapped in my room tonight.  That could make for another rather traumatic interruption to my much-desired sleep.

Coming soon!

   Hello, readers!  First, I must apologize for keeping quiet for so long.  I know it's been a few months since I've written any posts, but I have a few good reasons.
   One reason is, I've been busy writing something else!  You know that book I published a little over a year ago?  Yeah, the one titled "The Conflict of Love".  Well, the sequel you've all been waiting for is on its way.  I can't say for sure when it will be published, but I just want you to know that I'm working hard on it!  I can't wait for you all to read it.  I think you're going to like it.  :D  Are you excited?  Let me know!

Finishing up

   I only got 6 and a half hours of sleep last night, and it seems that that's the way it's going to be for at least the next week.  (Oh, well, sleep is overrated, right?)  This next week is going to be rough - Chem 104 lab practicum (excuse me while I scream in terror for a moment), last Chem 104 unit test, and my Spanish presentation (which I haven't started yet...).  It's only 1 week though, and I've only got 19 days to go until I'm home.  But if you feel like uttering a prayer in my behalf...I'd really appreciate it.
   Other than that, the semester is pretty much over, if you don't think about finals (which I'm trying to do).  I'm also going on a weekend vacation to Mackinaw Island with 3 good friends, attending a concert next Wednesday, and going to small group after church a couple more times.  I think I can make it - though I may arrive home on the 21st in a slightly zombie-ified form...
   Until then, then!