Snow

Hello, I am taking a break from reading about language development in hearing impaired children (for a final paper due Wednesday). It is interesting.

This is my sister. She's on the ball.

I have read most of the words in the article, except for the references and such. It was interesting. Now I am uploading pictures and soon I think I will hurry to eat some food and go to bell practice.

Sunshine can be such a happy thing.

Snow in a parking lot, plowed into a pile (above). (Below is me standing in my driveway at home.)There is lots of snow at my house.

And there was even more snow this morning.

The last picture was taken out of the car window just before I drove off to

take my music listening final.

It was fine. It was easy. It was fun. And I left home early enough that the drive could take me extra long and not make me late (it did take me extra long and I wasn't late).

Well, now I've taken long enough that I probably wont eat all my food before I go to bell practice. Oh, well. But maybe I should hurry so I can eat a little...

Well, the picture doesn't quite do it justice. It is so pretty at night when the snow is on the trees and I am on a back road and turn on my high beam lights. You can see the trees a little; immagine seeing them more.

You know those times when it is extra clear that we can choose to thank God or we can get really upset? Yesterday was one. It had something to do with a job possibility/maybe not so likely a possibility anymore. But when I stopped and was happy in having schoolwork, and when I conciously realized that I have a nice place to live and I have food and I have transportation to school, then I was better.

So stop and listen and hear God tell you He loves you and you HAVE so much. Or cry through the silence, but don't give up on God; keep waiting.

Pictures

Do you think she wants to come inside, or is she just being sociable?

Christmas lights on my family's house.

It snowed about a week and a half ago.

And it snowed more this week. Will we see all the ground again before march?

(Nicole, here are pictures of snow for you! My camera is working about the same as before.)


Oh the joy of being a dog in the snow outside with one of your people nearby.

water, exercise, and snow

Today I went to get my camera out of my school backpack to take a picture, and I found a problem. I had left my lunch bag in my backpack. I had left a bag of ice/water in the lunch bag in the backpack. The bag must have been insufficiently sealed. The lunch bag is not sufficiently waterproof. The backpack kept too much water. So the condition of a few textbooks has fallen, my camera bag is supposed to be drying, and my camera is sitting "to dry" without its batteries (just in case that improves it's chance of working when I try it later). While I know there is another way to get the pictures off the camera and still post them on my blog, I am currently using the "my camera might have gotten wet" (and my backpack DID get wet) excuse.

Exercise is reported to be a good thing. I'm pretty sure that is accurate. Right now, I am going with life exercise. Anything you do in your life that has a purpose separate from exercise, competition (i.e. sports), or expression (dance). Yesterday I pushed a shopping cart. Understand, it was a well-loaded shopping cart. Don't lightly volunteer to shop to restock a larger family's pantry; it's more of a heavy concept. Today, I shoveled snow. What will I do tomorrow? Oh, probably not much. I think just whatever walking I happen to do. Unless there is more snow to shovel. Maybe I should do some exercise that doesn't fall into my "life exercise" category, too. (Next semester, maybe I will try "once-a-week exercise" in a ~2 hour dance class to fulfill a P.E. requirement.)

Monday, I went to school and there was a snow warning. I still stayed out for bell choir practice, but when I left that, the snow was falling. I haven't driven while it was snowing on the road in front of me in a long time. I was scared. But I drove (like I had much choice). This is where I am now, and this is where I follow God now. Snow driving is interesting. The unspoken ways of the road change. Suddenly, driving slower is understood and practiced in a different way. Suddenly vehicles mutually are inclined to slow down and give themselves more space to stop. So I drove home and that was that. Now I guess I should wake up early tomorrow so that I have a better chance of getting to class on time.

A pictoral autobiographical collection

Well, appearently uploading pictures is temporarily not an option. Some "error" is making it's appearance.

I feel like I have finally caught up (more or less) in my school work, so now I can focus more on looking for a job and taking care of the stack of papers on my dresser.

Thanksgiving break is coming!

Sunday, the bell choir I play in played for church. I'm pretty sure we rushed, but don't tell the poeple who haven't figured that out. And then yesterday we had bell choir practice. There is one song we are playing that I particularly like. It has syncopation and moves along. (Appearently I prefer bell choirs who play fast.)

Well, I thought the pictures might truly upload, but not yet. Now I'll try just one. It looks like it is from the end of May or some time in June, so it's not super recent, but I really like it. Isn't she cute?

It worked! So now for my original plan.

a pictoral autobiographical collection

summer 2006 (backpacking trip)

Puerto Rico

summer 2007 (on Day Camp)

frost

sand by the lake

La Playa

Sunday (after church), I went to the beach. I listened to the waves and felt peace, as if my internal clock was being re-set.

The sand may be more course, and specked with pine needles, but it is still a beach. I can still sit near the water with my bare feet in the sand and read my Bible. God is still around.

And then I could appreciate the rich green of the pine trees (ponderosa, I think).

Afterwards, I went home and ate with my family. Then one sister, one brother, and I left for a different lake and a hike. I think we hiked to a bay, not the main part of the lake. The water was very still.

There's a certain kind of pine tree that turns yellow in the fall and drops it's needles. It adds color to the view. (My brother took the picture of me and my sister.)

So it was a nice Sunday.

Then came Monday. I retook the math placement test after studying occasionally since the placement test in August, and then studying hard last week end. I tested into a class two classes higher than I did in August! Praise God! (I regained the placement I would have gotten with my test scores taken at the end of highschool.) So that was very exciting!

The frost has come

The frost has come. It gets cold at night. These pictures are from the morning of Oct. 27.

Today, I took a placement exam in Spanish. In part of it, I think I got 26 of 50 questions correct. I can't tell you what that means. Maybe next week I'll find out more. For now, I'm happy that I did that well, and that it's done. Now I can study to re-take the math placement exam, because I can take it twice and the results from the first time (in August) weren't as good as I wish for.

On Fridays, it seems that a group of Spanish speakers and learners get together at lunch time and speak Spanish. Today I went (yes, right before my Spanish test). It was interesting to see how outside people looked at our table speaking Spanish. I thought, they don't know, but really we are the ones speaking the normal language. The whole scene might be reversed in Puerto Rico. (And once again, I'd be at the table that was different.)

So I really did mean "these pictures." One is at the beginning, and the other is near the end, but they are both of frost and cold weather taken on the 27th of LAST MONTH. IT'S NOVEMBER NOW.


Isn't frost pretty?

Thursday

(cooking on Tuesday)

This morning (Thursday) the thermometer said that it was about 29 degrees Fahrenheit. I think it is over 40 now.

I met my advisor yesterday. (I've seen her before; she has substituted for my regular Child Development teacher before. But yesterday I met her as my advisor specifically.) Hopefully next Tuesday I can meet with her to discuss next semester more.

I am going to a two-year college right now, but yesterday I also got to talk to people about transferring to extension programs of 4-year (or more) colleges/universities to complete a degree here in the area in Elementary Ed. I liked one of the ladies I talked to.

On Tuesday, I finally unpacked boxes from PR. (This of course should not be taken to imply that I didn't put some of the things into other boxes.) That was an accomplishment (the fact that it took me until mid-October to do this should help you understand).

And I got my desk cleaned off beautifully (but the dresser beside it is full of papers).

Ready for winter?

Today I went shopping for snow boots and a winter coat. I hope that the winter coat is warm enough to be worth buying. (I have an old winter coat.) The boots are nice. (I don't have old winter boots.)

The leaves have been falling. I picked these off the ground at my college. Now I am pressing them for you, Jen...

Today I had a job interview. The interview went well.

An interesting question is now in my mind. What is my favorite age group? Because I said it was around ages 8 - 12. I was thinking of kids I worked with last year. She started talking about fourth grade kids. I don't think I was thinking about "normal" hearing 4th graders. I like them, too, but that wasn't what I meant. How would you say what I meant? And what level DO I like? I like different things about different ages and levels and abilities. DO I have a favorite age, or not?

Child Development is interesting. I should do more homework and/or go to bed soon. :)

Homework

It is Tuesday again. Actually, Tuesday is drawing to a close. Today I have slept, watched a silly video with my brothers, and done some homework.

I really was doing music homework at one point. But when I tried to take a picture of myself doing music homework... It is at best inefficient and at worst shouldn't really count as time spent doing homework.

So taking a picture of yourself while doing homework may not work very well. But how about asking your brother to take a picture of you while you study?

Okay, so I knew he was taking a picture, and that shouldn't count as true study time either. But I did work on reading the book afterwards! (I needed to; the 10 question test/quiz is tomorrow.)

And then my brother took a picture that I didn't pretend to ignore the camera on. He likes to take pictures. Apparently I like to smile.

Tomorrow is Wednesday. I like Wednesday relatively well. Lord willing, I get to help with kids. That's a nice variation.

Tuesday again

I went on a walk with my brothers, and one of them took the picture of me. You can see some yellow leaves. Winter is approaching. I took the picture of the road to help you see why potholes are a taste of home for me. :)
Priscilla is my favorite cat. I missed her sometimes in PR.
Sunday, I went to church and then drove to my college to see an opera. I got there early and ate lunch in the car. I enjoyed watching the birds. This one looked like he considered himself a parking lot security worker.


I'm not sure what I want to say. The week has gotten off to a rough start (Monday and today). So that's when you pray, huh. Maybe you might want to avoid going to a church with a sermon on Paul and Silas when they got put in jail and sang there (Acts 16)? :) Okay. I praise God anyway, even though I'm sad today. :)

P.S. I'm still figuring out how this blog works. I think I changed it so now you can comment without being a member?

Isn't it beautiful? This is a road I practiced driving on. Pretty (litterally) good place to learn, don't you think? It might also explain why my definition of an acceptable road might be a little bit different than yours...

My backyard. Now do you understand why I thought PR was so green and what we might mean by fire danger?

This is Belle, the surviving dog.

This is one of my family's goats.

This is my fish Levitica.

And this is me. The tall picture is from a family outing. It's not that far away, but the land looks different there. And the second picture is me by the lake at camp, getting ready to leave at the end of the summer.