Memorial Day Weekend

So, another wonderful weekend has come and gone and I'm back in the WCC library, counting the hours until graduation. I'm really excited and terribly scared about it, but mostly I'm just ready for this quarter to be done. Spring is tough because I'm usually getting really burnt out by then and the weather is often so nice that studying takes a backseat to playing, and then on days I can study, the workload is so huge that it's somewhat overwhelming.

But let's think about happier things!

Last Thursday night was the Running Start graduation reception. I went into it with some trepidation, mainly because I had foolishly volunteered to play the piano. Also, Rachel and I decided to spend the afternoon at the park rather than studying like the mature girls we are, so I was feeling a little behind. My original plan had been to practice my sonata all afternoon so it would just flow from my fingers that night, but I went to Blodel Donovan and got sunburnt instead. But it was worth it!

There were so many people that I love at that reception. My aunts drove up from Concrete, a large portion of my dad's extended family came, many friends from church showed up, and I also had many friends from Whatcom there. As I sat on the stage, I almost cried as I thought of all these loved ones.

We had a great group of Running Start students graduating. There were many strong Christians who stood up and made bold witnesses of their faith during our open mic time. I almost went up and said something, but I felt like there was nothing I could say that hadn't been said better by someone else, so I just offered up a silent prayer of thanks to God. Caleb read something about it though, and he made me cry.

My piece went OK, but I was shaking dreadfully toward the end and missed some of the keys. But there were no major catastrophes, for which I was exceedingly grateful!

Afterward, my relatives took about three million pictures, and I was able to greet most of the people who came. It was such a blessing to me to get their hugs and hear their words of encouragement....by the end of the evening, Brittney said I walked like I was floating on air. I don't know about that, but I definitely was very high!

As the evening wound to a close, Brittney and I left. We got mocha shakes at Cruisen Coffee (as if we needed sugar and caffeine!) and then went down to Bellwether and talked until I had to have her back to Carol. We talked about everything, and went from hysterical craziness to serious dreaming and back again.

Then when I got home, my mom came down to my room and we talked. She couldn't sleep, and neither could I, so we had one of those heart to hearts that come all too rarely, but are so awesome when they do happen.

And that was only the beginning of my weekend!

Friday:

• School
• Girls Bible Study
• District track meet
• Starbucks
• Babysitting and watching a chick flick with Rachel
• Serious conversation with Caleb
• More girl talk with Rachel

Saturday

• Up early, another Starbucks trip
• Off to Seattle for Kimi's birthday
• Yummy lunch near Pike Place
• Shopping
• Makeovers
• Rachel and I walking down to the pier when we ran out of money
• Gorgeous sunny weather
• Sleepy drive back home

Sunday

• Church
• Lindsay's grad party
• Field trip, driving all around Whatcom County with Mom, Lyddy and Caleb B.
• IGA chicken on the bank of the Nooksack
• Visiting family
• Watching the end of The Two Towers with my family

Monday

• Sleeping in!
• Big, leisurely breakfast with the whole family around the table
• Making quesedillas for my siblings for lunch (after a long shower and cleaning my room)
• Trip to Family Christian Bookstores and the mall with Audrey and Marcie
• Off to the lake, Lyddy and Marcie being insane and SWIMMING!!
• Party at Eschbach's, doing homework, watching volleyball and visiting
• Back home, dancing in the car and Caleb dancing in the driveway

It was crazy good fun!

:-)

Your SAT Score of 1500 Means:

You Scored Higher Than Howard Stern You Scored Higher Than George W. Bush You Scored Higher Than Al Gore You Scored Higher Than David Duchovny You Scored Higher Than Natalie Portman You Scored Lower Than Bill Gates

Your IQ is most likely in the 140-150 range

Equivalent ACT score: 33

Schools that Fit Your SAT Score: California Institute of Technology Stanford University Princeton University Yale University Harvard University

What Does Your SAT Score Mean?

I'm having troubles...just trying to see if I can get my blog to come up...

If You Read This

if you read this,
even if i don't speak to you often,
you must post a memory of me.
it can be anything, good or bad,
just so long as it happened,
then post this to your journal and see what people remember about you

A Confusing Education

I am so glad that I am a Christian. If I didn't have the firm foundation from my parents and church, I am positive that I would be so messed up right now. Ideas of all sorts come at me from every direction in my classes that I would be lost and confused if I didn't have that things I know to be true to compare these ideas too.

The main reason this is on my mind is because I've been thinking about all the classes I have ever taken at this college. The ideas that each espouses as true are so contradictory, yet I know people that are alternately sucked in by one or the other. Take, for example, two classes I am taking right now: Social Problems and History of Environmental Ethics (simply because I needed another Honors class). Social Problems is, of course, humanistic at the very core and believes that humans are what really matters in this world, while I sometimes get the feeling in my "environmentalist" class that we humans should really just commit mass suicide so the world wouldn't be as messed up as it is.

I realized this the other day, and had to just laugh. If someone who had no idea what they believed was taking these two classes, what conclusion would they come to? Would they even care or would the confusion just cause them to block the ideas and just strive for a good grade? I really hope to get more than a good GPA out of my college career; I hope that it will teach me about the world and I will have a better understanding of my part and responsibility in it. And, surprisingly, Whatcom has actually helped with this. It's gotten me to think about things that I never considered as a homeschooled student. And some of you might be surprised at the conclusions I've come too...there are a couple essays that you might raise some eyebrows at, but they are what I believe, and my closest and most trusted counselors agree with me. Maybe someday I'll share my feminism essay, but that day is not yet. It's still a theory. A theory based on much prayer, Bible reading, counsel, and thinking, but it's still a theory. I have yet to see how well it works...I'll let you know!

Not in My Strength

Now I'm terrified.

I've been so looking forward to going to CYIA as a fourth year student. Everything is so familiar and I know all the ins and outs of how things work. I know so many people, all the supervisors and higher-ups support me, and I just really enjoy it even though it's a packed week.

But now that's all changed. I've agreed to be a supervisor. When Natalie asked me, I immediately knew it was something I needed to do because of my internal upheaval. I instantly didn't want to do it, and the only reason was because I thought I couldn't. But I know from past experience at CYIA that His grace is sufficient for me...His power is made perfect in my weakness. After thinking it over, I decided that I should do it just because of my misgivings. I decided not to let my pride get in the way. My pride would only have me do the comfortable things, the things I know I can do. But when I get outside of my comfort zone, that is when God shows Himself magnificently faithful.

So I do have to go to pretraining to learn something new now. I have to learn to be a supervisor. Oh, wow, how I tremble at the thought. But He is faithful and will complete what He has begun in me. Pray that I will always rely on Him and that I will be an awesome supervisor!

Senior Prom

What do you get when you combine some of my favorite things (friends, pretty clothes, roses, good food, music, dancing, movies, and virgin margaritas) into one long, fun-filled night? Senior Prom!

I had so much fun last year at junior prom that I wanted to go again this year, but as the day got nearer, I began having doubts. It looked like my friends were all going to have dates, I didn't want to be the fifth or seventh wheel or whatever it would have been, and I couldn't find a dress for any price, let alone cheap. But God just made things fall into place so beautifully. It turned out that I had another single girlfriend from WCC going who I could split the price of a couple's ticket with, and I finally found a dress the Monday before prom. I got it at Colima Design, a little dress shop in downtown Ferndale, and she told me if I ever needed another, she could make any dress in any size if I just brought her a picture. And her prices are really reasonable!

The day of prom I went to the Walk for Life and then Lydia and I went Mother's Day shopping, so I was already wiped out by 2:00. I read and tried to nap, and then got my stuff together and drove out to the Sebens. Karin did my hair absolutely beautifully and then put miniature roses that my mom bought me in it. I did my makeup and got dressed there so they could see "the finished product" and then I went to our rendezvous point at Lindsay's.

We took a couple pictures there and then went to Coconut Kenny's for appetizers. Rachel and I went in my car and we had a good time listening to country music and smiling at all the people who stared at us. We got cheese balls and a miniature pizza for appetizers and then went to my house for dinner.

My mom had prepared a wonderful four course dinner for us...everyone was completely amazed. The first course was striped jello (compliments of Mrs. Breakey--that's some GOOD stuff!), the second was a beautiful salad, artisan bread, and butter molded to look like shells, and the third was a choice of Sour Cream Spaghetti or Seafood Lasagne with a side of green beans. By the time dessert came out, we were all too full to hold another bite, so she took it over to Lindsay's where we could have it after the dance. I seriously haven't been hungry ever since though! We had such a good time at dinner, and we ended up being late to the dance because we lingered so long over it.

Daddy let me drive his 2002 Dodge Ram 2500 Cummings Diesel to prom, which made me very happy and Marcie and Danae a little scared! But we had no mishaps and I parked it successfully. When we got there (about 1/2 hour late), no one was dancing, but we soon fixed that. The time seemed to just fly. I was considering about asking what time it was, thinking it was around 11, when the DJ announced that it was the last song. Midnight, you know...time for Cinderella to leave the ball (I tried to leave a shoe behind, but my feet hurt too much). My biggest complaint about prom was the music. The DJ didn't really play the best songs for dancing to because many were in that between-slow-and-fast range where you're not exactly sure what to do. But we just made it up off the tops of our heads and had lots of fun and laughs doing it. :-) My little brother was there taking coats and purses, and he didn't have the highest opinion of the way I was dancing, but not everyone can have the gangsta' moves of Caleb Hazel, now can they? I'm content with my sad lack of "hipness."

Afterward we went briefly to Denny's to continue a tradition started at Junior Prom, and then we went to Lindsay's. We piled about 11 of us into her hot tub, which responded by doing its best imitation of Niagara Falls. We sat in there and talked until I turned into a giant prune, and Lindsay, Chrey and Rachel made us virgin margaritas...which were so good!

Then we went inside and talked some more and a few people left. We decided to watch Phantom of the Opera after awhile, starting with "That's All I Ask of You" and then going back to the beginning. I only watched until "Angel of Music" because I was realizing that I had church in the morning and it was getting terribly late. Reluctantly I left, but I will finish the movie sometime soon!

It was a whirlwind night, and a beautiful memory of senior prom. I'm glad I will have no regrets when I think of what others have experienced during their senior proms. Mine has no unhappy memories...just the way it should be!

My Pink Blanket

For me, happiness and comfort is sometimes synonymous with my pink blanket.

Last night, Brittney and I were huddled under it for warmth while attempting to walk to Carol's car. We have this problem with walking in sync, and with distinguishing right from left, so this walk was quite an adventure. (An actual Brittney quote: "No, your FAR left!") As we stumbled madly around, a friend who we were walking with warned us that the blanket was dragging on the ground and in serious danger of getting dirty. But I replied to him, "This blanket has been through so much...it really doesn't care anymore." He simply gave me one of those "you're insane" looks and continued on, but eventually commented again that he felt sorry for the blanket.

But I think there's really no reason for him to be sorry for the blanket. My pink blanket is one of my most prized possessions, but it didn't become that way because it was protected from the dirt of Bender Fields. The reason I love that blanket is because I look at it and see all the memories contained in it.

It used to be Audrey's or Lydia's blanket on their bed, but when they got a new comforter, I took possession of it for extra warmth on winter nights. Since then, it has been used for so many purposes and become something which contains many of my best memories. I'll list a few here.

• Tanning and reading with my sisters
• Playing various insane games on the trampoline
• Trying to fly
• Many, many picnics
• Stargazing
• Every church campout
• Football games, cheering on the Trojans
• Watching "The Best of Will Ferrell" on my cousins' dock
• Softball games
• Curled up reading on the couch
• Playing Speed in the trailer with Brittney
• Napping in the sun at the "VanLiew Campout"
• Sleepovers...getting scared out of our wits by imagining noises outside the trailer
• Sitting on the Tennant Lake boardwalk with Brittney, talking, reading our Bibles and dreaming
• Singing and talking around campfires
• Long roadtrips and late-night rides in the car
• Revive girls' Bible study sitting on it
• Sitting in the WCC courtyard with my friends
• Of course, trying to walk huddled underneath

I love how my blanket smells after it's been washed...I dry it in the sun and it smells like a mixture of detergent, fresh air, and sunlight. When I curl up in it, I think of all the fun memories I've made with it, the serious discussions and moments of wild laughter it has seen. I am reminded again of God's grace to me in giving me such wonderful friends and family.

I love how mornings smell.