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?