Sunday

Tropical plants that I got Monday (Picture from Tuesday or Wednesday?). One of them wasn't looking so good anymore yesterday and today.

The rest of the pictures are from today.

Ruffy's King of the (a) snow mound.

See the fence? Yeah, I mean that lump of snow in the middle. There should still be a fence underneath it, though it is covered in snow. The fence is fairly straight and it's snow image shows up nicely, I think. Also note the sunlight on patches of snow. Pretty sunshiney moment.

See? Blue sky! And snow :)

Bella laying on a path. Again, note the sunlight and blue sky. It was wonderful!

And this is after/during the warm time when things seemed to be melting, but it looks like we still have enough snow!

Today was a lovely Sunday, to a large extent. Having missed work the day before because I decided against driving through about a foot of snow that was a bit heavier than the fluffy powder we had earlier, I really wanted to get to church today. I thought it was important. It was.

Sunday school... Ephesians 3 and 4. I had looked over the chapters earlier, which was good because I was really late for class. They are good chapters. I am inspired. Read them and be inspired, too. Be new in Christ! This is how I plan to get through the week. Learning to be new in Christ. The internet is being trouble right now, and my goal was to get to bed by 7:00... hmmm.

And the main service at church, and talking to people, and I was encouraged.

And the sun shone! And I saw blue sky! And I drove about 50 miles per hour! (i.e. I was somewhat confident - though still a little concerned - that I wouldn't spin of the road because of ice or snow!)

[more] snow

Here are some pictures - I think my mom took them all. After the ~3 foot snow last week, it has snowed off and on, typically with some kind of weather warning, antisipated or currently occuring, reported via the internet. This last night and morning, we got another foot or so. But it is warmer now, and this snow is heavier than the multi-foot powder snowfall.

The second big snow of the year (first of such depth in a long time - check the news for more detail)

Wednesday, my last day of normal student-hood at my community college... it snowed. Shortly after my last final, I walked through the snow to my car. I slipped and fell on my way from the science building to my car. But I survived. When I opened my car, it was like a cave inside because snow covered the windows. When I knocked the snow off the car, snow came up around midway up one tire. The wind-shield wipers were frozen to the car. And the temperature... was probably in the teens. I warmed the car up for over twenty minutes and still the windshield wipers were iced in place. Finally, I talked to my dad (thank God for cell phones) and he said to try to pull them off by hand. This worked. Then, with the car stopped when they were up, as he instructed, I could slap one against the windshield to remove the remaining hindering ice so that they could do their job. Finally, perhaps 45 minutes or more after I had first reached my car, (and after watching a car play in the deep powder snow, at one time driving fast enough that some snow flew over top of it, and after seeing a truck play in the powder snow by spinning) finally I left. The point is, I was more concerned about the hazard of the cold and the deep snow, so I didn't have as sentimental a farewell to my college as I could have. Actually, I think I forgot about the community college ending part (had the snow not been like it turned out to be, I had been considering coming back Thursday to sell back some text books).

It snowed Wednesday and through to Thursday. The snow stopped Thursday afternoon.

See the snow on the back porch?

Here is the back porch again in the light Thursday morning.

I thought it was interesting how the snow on the railing was leaning out.

Supposedly, by brothers and Dad shoveled around 9 inches Wednesday. It kept snowing. I helped them shovel about 22 inches more on Thursday morning. We started around 6:30 a.M. It kept snowing. By the time one brother and my mom shoveled the back porch there was 30 to 31 inches on it. It snowed some more. About 5 more inches were measured on the back porch. So it seems we got around 35 or 36 inches (around 3 feet). One very thorough snow storm. And it was cold, too. At this time, we are plowed out. Thank God for neighbors with equipment.

Only two big snows into the winter (only counting what I qualify as a big snow and remember), and I think there was only an inch or two of fence left above the snow in one place in front of the house (maybe the snow has compressed down some now, though?).

First big snow of the year.

Yesterday, the day after the last "normal" day of school (as if any last day of school is normal! this was perhaps a normal "last" day), it really snowed. When I measured it, it measured fairly precisely 8 inches.

When I went to work, it was snowing. So as I worked, I hoped I would get home soon enough that I would not get stuck.

When I finally reached the neighborhood, someone had plowed! Praise God! So I didn't get stopped by snow until I was just a foot or two from having my front tires in the garage. Imagine my relief! (No cold walk home in the dark; no trying to shovel the car out and hoping I wasn't blocking the neighbors; you get the idea, right?) I am so thankful to God.

So, stopped a few feet from my goal, I backed up to try again. Somewhere in this try, I slid to the side. See the tracks where the front tires slid to the side?

Third try, the cat was in the way. I was afraid he'd risk getting run over instead of moving into the deep snow or getting to the garage in time... :(

So I backed up and tried again. Success! I got all the way into the garage. But when I tried to close the garage door, the sensor stopped it because...

the car had pushed snow into the way. See the dirty snow where it was cleaning my car? This is an indication that the snow was too deep for the car (ideally) and if the road hadn't been plowed, I probably would have gotten stuck much earlier.

Now for some pictures from today.

Isn't Ruffy so cute?

See how big he is next to Belle? (Or how small.)

Isn't the snow so pretty?

(Trying to honestly appreciate the snow. For now, God has put me here in this snowy place.)

My hands are cold
I'm getting old
(er)
It sounds so good to sleep
I'm rather hungry
Missed most of lunch, see
But not ready to eat
(yet).

Four of my classes are complete
(enough)
Two finals are left to greet
A little study might be neat
'Cause 98.9999% percent right would be sweet

But finals are nearly a week away
I've lots of time to sleep and play
(or work).

(Now my hands are a mixture of warm like when you come in from a winterish cold day - which I did.)

change

what if I didn't capitalize letters? see, I can't (meaning "I choose not to") do that. I still capitalize 'I.' Oh, well.

Imagine! I have 5 days of classes at my community college left. Period. And then finals.

Its scarey. Change.

Lunch with people that I've eaten with many times. In the lunch area that used to be foreign and intimidating when it was full of the noon crowd but now is part of my normal life. With friends I may never have met without coming here.

Moving on, I wonder and guess, as I have wondered and guessed before when about to make a big change, what friendships will continue, and for how long?

Of course, all this thought could be un-necessary. The possibility still remains that I will take a class or more here next semester. Or tutor. (Or both.) (Or neither.)

I have appreciated... what?

1. Learning more about Spanish grammar!
2. The Early Childhood Curriculum class last semester.
3. Learning about Access in the Intro to Computers class.
4. Disecting in Biology lab.
5. Chem. lab. (What? I'm really saying that?)
6. The music we were supposed to learn to identify in Music Survey.
7. Watching La Historia Oficial in Spanish class.
8. Good teachers.
9. Funny teachers.
10. Making friends and meeting people.
11. Finding my church because of somebody and some people that I met through classes and Campus Crusade meetings.
12. The thought that soon I should have an official piece of paper that says I'm educated (at the A.A. level).

So did you know you could easily make a numbered list if you had a blog like mine?

So, I'm happy and sad and...

Have a great day! I should get to working on my last paper for my Engish class!! (Excluding the exit essay, I mean.) Well, I intend to work on it before toooooo long, but still not yet.

Christmas lights

I wish that you understand what I mean by Christmas lights in San Juan. I want you to glimps the lights that I think of, and I want you to know that Christmas season can be warm and without snow. Here are pictures from 2005. Only three years ago, but it seems like more.

Two Years

I remember when I was in highschool facing my last two years, and thinking, if I went on a short term mission trip for two years (like an older friend of mine had done), then I would want to really live those two years, so I should try to really live my last two years of highschool. ("Really live" as in valuing the time and opportunities given to you at that time.) Quite ironic, really. Since then, I have lived life in two-year segments (more or less), sometimes trying to really live those years, sometimes having attitude problems, sometimes struggling with both. Sometimes we are where we want to be. Sometimes not. Sometimes we are preparing to go where we want to go. Sometimes not. But are we really living where we are?

What happened to Just Trusting?

Yesterday, I wrote something for my blog, but when I tried to post it, the main message disappeared. So maybe today I'll actually post something.

But what about?

Seeking God. It seems to be a pretty good solution. Not the kind that takes away the problem. And not the kind that's easy and almost thoughtless. I mean really seeking God. But that requires effort.

Percentages. This percentage of Such-and-such group of people are likely to fall into That group, but of the Such-and-such group, if they also meet another condition, than a new percentage is likely to fall into That group. I've been researching; I'm not just making it up. But why all the numbers and math and trying to make sense of it? Can I change the percent chance? If so, maybe it's worth something. But if in the future I conclude that I can't influence the percentage, then why do I want to know? Why reduce some life-impacting issue into numbers and probability? Does it make me feel more "in control" or less? What does "being prepared" really mean and perhaps is it better not to be? What happened to just trusting? (How much have I ever in my life really fully completely just trusted God?) I'm not implying being stupid, though I suppose trust could sometimes look that way; I'm talking about the trust that appears more difficult (at first, at least) (for me, at least) than worrying.

An almost holiday!

Today there are no classes before 4:00. I don't have any after 4:00. So I am not going in to school today. That is very nice. But I am scheduled to work later today...

This picture is of huckleberries! I'm thinking we picked them the last day that I had off of school. Which was the Monday after school started. Which, I think, was Labor Day. My dad and one brother and I went hiking. I think it was just one brother... ? But it was a while ago.

A picture from the hiking trip.

One of my month birthdays. My brothers helped me get a good picture. I took the cake to college group (I had signed up to bring the snack that day), and then, when I brought it home, I ate some remaining crumbs - there were no pieces left :)

Yes, I finished the last Spanish paper in time. No, I did not get 100%. And yes, I have another one due Monday. Oh, the priviledge of being in a Spanish class where we are supposed to know enough to write. (At least it can be short.)

update and my latest pirate story

So, I would like to update my blog. Instead of doing homework right now. I have an essey to write in Spanish for Spanish class. And I should make sure that all the nouns and modifiers agree with each other (after I write the paper). And then all should be pretty okay on the homework front. Meaning, I have more I could do, but that is what will be visable to a teacher by Thursday.

Today is a sun-shiney day.

Rumor has it I can buy gas today for 30 cents less per gallon than what I paid last Friday (which was ten or 20 cents less than what I paid on Wednesday or whatever day I bought gas earlier that week). So that means that I will probably pay 40 or 50 cents less today per gallon on gas than I did about a week ago. That is amazing.

ONCE UPON A TIME (i.e. it never happened), there was a dragon. This dragon lived on an island with lots of treasure. The problem is, there were lots of mosquitos there. In fact, there were sooo many mosquitos and they made such an awful noise together, that the dragon decided to leave the island. So he patched up the old wrecked ship that had decorated the beach for 38 years. He loaded all (well, almost all) of his treasure onto the old ship. And he set sail.

After three days of sailing, he realized he had three shortcomings in his character. 1. He had too little patience for mosquitos. 2. He couldn't mend ships very well. And 3. He could not sail a ship. After 5 days, he was throwing his heaviest treasure overboard and dreaming he could hear mosquitos, but he couldn't.

Then a pirate ship came. The dragon disregarded his faint fealing of forboding at the sight of a pirate flag. The dragon begged for help. The pirate was an intelligent man, and he and the dragon began moving the treasure from the old sinking ship to the sturdy pirate ship. As the dragon moved the last item onto the pirate ship, he declaired (for he was a dragon with good manners), "Thank you Mr. Pirate. Thank you SO MUCH for saving me."

The Pirate grinned delightedly. "The treasure is mine!" he said.

Today was See You At the Pole. So I got up about an hour early. The positive aspects to that were 1. seeing the pretty sunrise colors with the mountain. (Yes, I took two pictures. No, I don't have my camera with me as I right this.) and 2. getting to pray with other Christians at my school. There weren't many people there, but there were some, and it was nice. I think most of the Christians forgot or didn't know it was today or had a class at 7:00. Or they were like me last year and wanted to sleep. But the moral of the story is, I'm about an hour extra tired, so that by my third class at 11 I tried making a colorful design to stay in a reasonable state for absorbing lecture. Then I had a piece of peppermint gum, which worked quite well. Maybe I was mostly hungry. For my fourth class, following my lunch hour, I felt hyper. For my fifth class (directly following my fourth)...

That's what I especially wanted to write about. My fifth class is interpreted. I feel like I shouldn't watch it - like watching it is unfair to the interpreters. But sometimes I do watch. Today, I could see the interpreter well most of the time, and I didn't want to just sit listening to the lecture (not interesting enough or I was restless?). So I watched. The problem is, the interpreters can see me. And I'm pretty sure they can know I am watching and understanding. Eye contact and communication. Being part and yet not a part of this other world. But for a moment, or moments, I was understanding, and I'm pretty sure the eye contact was there. I miss being understood in sign language and listening in sign language.

Before long, I was walking through campus, looking at one of the impressive (for my part of the world) buildings with college students in front and thinking, "Who would go there? I wouldn't." And then remembering that I ACTUALLY was going to that college. So much for that idea. Apparently I would.

School

Well. By the end of the 5th class today, I am feeling tired and hungry. Maybe food will help. And then the final class of the day... a dance class!
But I'm feeling overwhelmed. It's one of those times when I wonder, "What have I done [by registering for these classes]? What am I doing [taking these classes]?" Thankfully, I think Mondays are my hardest days class-wise this semester. Last semester it was Thursdays, when I started at 9:00 am and ended at 8:30 pm.

The puppy's name is Rufford. (PS, next time you name a pet, consider the tongue-twister aspect, like "Ruff Rutherford.") (Or maybe you don't want to ask me at all for input.)

Puppy

Guard dog in training.

I think Belle (the older dog dog) will be tired tonight (unless she already slept enough after playing).

My family got a new puppy. He's about 3 months old, I'm told. He's very cute. He has lots of energy. I don't think his name has been decided on yet (if it has, I missed it).

change (and comments) (and more comments) (made by me, and part of the original posting)

ONE more day at the part time job that had hours drawing remarkably close to 40 hours a week. (Not a bad thing, but when I was/am working two part time jobs, and I counted up the hours scheduled on two of those weeks, and the hours scheduled in the week exceeded 50, and that didn't include driving time, well, you can immagine that I did/do feel a little overwhelmed.) It has been a good summer. I got lots of hours of work, which enables me to take lots of credits this fall in school. And I was able to go to church. Church was a big goal of the summer.

So MONDAY, my 18 credits of classes start, Lord willing. Actually, I think that every single class (except for Chemistry lab) that I'm taking meets on Monday. So Monday should be busy. (This may mean that I actually will have to finish school work on Saturday instead of trying to finish it on Monday.) (Then again, maybe I'll be able to put some of it off until Tuesday.) (Immagine finals at the end of the semester. What will it do to my finals since I take so many Monday classes?) (Do you think they will let me get out of some of my finals by having good grades up until then?) (I don't think I did so well on my last Math final.) (Either I didn't do well, or the teacher never got the final because there was confusion at the testing center.) (Because I got the grade I would have gotten if I didn't take the final or didn't do well enough on the test. -I think, but I could be wrong.) (But technically I could still tutor that math class, because my overall grade was still good enough.) (The moral of the story is, give yourself enough time to learn the material before taking exams. The secondary moral is, do well on the earlier tests that are easier for you and then you have more room for error in the later tests.) (Do you think other people will read this far, or have they given up?)

UM. School starting, one job ending. OH, and maybe I'll get my room partly cleaned tomorrow, and finish (or just continue) putting things on my walls. I got some new posters last Tuesday.

sunset

My mom's planter that I haven't killed yet (I'm more concerned about some of the grass...)

The sunset was beautiful last Friday evening.

The lighting was awesome, and pictures aren't as good as BEING THERE.

Awe. When I am not the only one consuming my brainspace as I see the amazing sunset God created. Knowing God's presence in a different way.

It is funny to look back at the picture from May (?) of the gas station sign... when gas was "so expensive" at 3.65 or whatever it was then.

July

It's RAINING!!!!!!! That makes me happy.

Sunday, I went on a walk with my parents. I wanted to take pictures of the Indian Paintbrush flowers, but I took more than that. I kept stopping for pictures. Thanks to my parents for their patience. As you can see, we got to see a butterfly. Up pretty close. That was exciting. I feel blessed.

Indian Paintbrush. It grows wild near the road in one area nearby.

This pretty purple-flowering plant is fireweed. I think it was that a neighbor told us that 6 weeks after the top flowers bloom should be the first snow fall. This plant above is from near my house. The blooming flowers are passed the bottom, but they haven't reached the top yet, so hopefully snow is more than 6 weeks away.
But look closely at this example of fireweed. There still are buds at the top, but not so very many... When will it snow? The fireweed seems to be giving a range of predictions. I guess we'll have to leave the future with God. :)

Gardening Retry. Yes, I had planted another garden, but I suspect the plants died before I planted them. One kind suffered from the sun and no water, the other kind from the sun, no water, and the weed wacker machine. So early this morning at 5:49am or some nearly equally early hour (I was driving almost past there... save gas; combine trips, you know), I went to a 24 hour store, and searched for the perfect plants. Well, there were distant friends and relations of my pet plant Esmirilda, but they would probably have to live indoors, so I didn't buy them (not to mention the influencial price tag). Actually, I was a little late in the summer to get to pick from the usual pony packs, but I did find this one kind of plant that had flowers in a pony pack of 6, so I bought it. It looks like it's called Angelonia. And I planted it today as well (after sleeping for a while to help make up for the early morning). So that is nice.

Oh the joy of smart computers that don't know when to turn the picture....

Isn't this a sweat picture...

So recently I've been working two part time jobs (not including when I've worked for my dad). For one job I wear black slacks and for the other I wear blue slacks. All together, this two-job thing leaves me black and blue.

What do you get when someone throws dice and one die hits the television so hard that the screen breaks?

Die-wrecked TV.

Have I really not blogged for almost a month?

Uh-oh, what happened to my blogging at an almost regular rate? Maybe that works better during the school year.

Today, I think I got a little bit of a sunburn. When I saw it, I felt a little relieved. There was proof that the sunshine was actually reaching me! The weather seems to be about a month behind right now. I think someone told me that, and I agree with them.

Other important information... I'm working. That is nice. Praise God for work.

What else? Church. I've been enjoying the church I've recently been going to.

Enough for now. I do have some pictures somewhere, and maybe sometime I will choose some pictures from somewhere to put somehow onto some entry of this blog.

Weekend sights

Sunday, I saw this sign and was thoroughly amused.

Also on Sunday, I went to see how high the lake was. Having all that snow in the winter and then warm weather to melt mountain snow provides for amazing sights. I wasn't the only person down there taking pictures.

I think this "street" is more or less just part of the parking lot.

Here you can see part of the parking lot and a bench out in the water.

Lifeguarding stand... now in the water.

On Saturday, my family went for a hike. There were pretty wild flowers and pretty views.

A lofty view of my "home country."

Me on top of the mountain.