Life...and random pictures

First, several people have asked about Grandpa, so here's a quick update: For the first few days, my dad spent the night there, but Grandpa's doing well enough that he doesn't need that. He typically gets foggy at night...like he'll dream or whatever and in the morning, he'll realize that he didn't actually have a church meeting at his house like he thought he did. He's taking water pills for his legs, and blood pressure pills. The water pills have really helped...he's lost something like 10 or 15 pounds I think, and that makes it easier for him to walk. At his second doctors appointment, they took out quite a bit of wax. His hearing had been worse, but when they took that out, it improved back to whatever it had been before. And physically, he's in good condition. We check on him a few times a day and give him his pills (we don't want to risk him taking them himself, in case he forgets he already had one and overdoses or something).

Second...I realized that I haven't yet posted pictures from our squadron banquet yet. I really wanted to post them, so here they are!

First, the food. I had lasagna (below), while other cadets had steak (above). And no...I promise I did not stick my hand in my food...it's a reference point to show you how huge the lasagna chunk was. Mhm.

Also lemon meringue pie.
For some reason, I love pictures of people taking pictures. I dunno why. But I do.

This is called a challenge coin. You get them by doing something noteworthy or meritorious at a CAP event. The reason you *always* carry them around with you is because cadets tend to take sadistic pleasure in pulling out challenge coins at dinners and challenging their table buddies. If you don't have a coin on you, you owe that cadet a drink or something. So it's always a good idea to stick a challenge coin in your pocket :)
Have I ever mentioned that Matt's camera shy?
The rest of these are pictures we took by the lake. Some of us decided to spend the pre-banquet mingle hour outside, so I grabbed my camera and we headed out. And I'm glad we did :)

See, Matt's not so camera shy after all!

Unfortunately, I can't reach into the past and tell myself to fix my tie tab, push my hat up higher, or tuck my shirt in again...but I'm posting it anyway :P
And on the other hand, Sarah's uniform is perfect...

And so is Jeff's...

but that's okay because I like this picture.

The end :)

past couple days

Don't know where to begin
It's like my world's caving in
And I try but I can't control my fear
Where do I go from here?

sometimes its so hard to pray
When You feel so far away
But I am willing to go
Where you want me to
God, I trust You

-Let the Waters Rise

So hi everyone! This is one of those posts that I need to write...not necessarily that I want to write. I started this post this morning before work. I was kind of a mess, the crying sort of mess. I'm happy to say that things have since improved. So I scrapped the dramatic post I wrote this morning and wrote out this one.

Essentially, yesterday (Monday), I felt that my world had flipped completely upsidedown. I say "I" but I think I can speak for pretty much all of my family. Background story: on Sunday, Annetta and I went down to Grandpa's house (my dad's dad...the one who loves right down the road) like we typically do on Sunday afternoons. Grandpa had made a crisp, and we ate it and read comics. He was fine. Problem: The next morning at 7 am, however, he called our home and told my dad that he was stranded in a coffee shop in a town about 20 minutes away...he didn't know how he had gotten there or anything. So my dad went down to Grandpa's house and attempted to convince him that no, he was not at a coffee shop, he was in fact home, and no, he did not spill coffee down his shirt. The entire rest of the day he was like that...Annetta and I spent about 4 and a half hours in the afternoon with him, and he had imaginary conversations (well, the convo was real, just not the other person), yelled at people who weren't there, etc.

Upsetting? You bet. Abrupt? No kidding. It was like the grandpa I'd known for the past 19 years was completely and totally gone, just like that. So my world kinda tipped over.

Today, he's been lucid 95% of the time (according to my dad). He went to a doctors appointment. He has trouble with his ears (anyone who knows him knows that to communicate is to yell. Forcefully :P ) and water retention in his legs. So he and my dad spent about 3 hours at the doctors. They prescribed him some blood pressure and water pills, and they want to see him again next week. They also did some memory tests, which he did relatively well with. Alzheimers does run in the family, though, which he is aware of...it doesn't make it easier for him that he more or less remembers that he was out of it yesterday, and he knows there's a good chance that he will do that again.

So we're currently playing it by ear. We'll see how he does tonight...tomorrow...the next few days. We're sorta cleaning up a bedroom downstairs at his house so that if he needs us to be there a lot, we can do that comfortably in that room. We'd appreciate your prayers so much...for patience (it's hard for my dad to watch his dad go though this), nerves of steel (hey, you try talking to a grandfather who's convinced that people are stealing his money!), for my grandpa's health, and just for us all to be able to deal with this.

I can't really think of much more to add at this point, so I shall say goodnight, and thanks for reading!

the wedding of the decade: part 2

Boy, I'm on a roll today! Be sure you scroll down and check out part one, cause I see from my handy dandy feedjit that only one person thus far has been on this afternoon (must be everyone has a life? huh.)

So after the ceremony, we trickled forth from the church (minus the wedding party and family and so forth) and drove cautiously and carefully through falling snow to the reception hall. Then we hung around and ate cookies.


While we did that, Logan did...something technical. I have no idea what it was, but I'm sure it was vital to the success of the reception. The only reason I say that is because he doesn't have facebook..if he did, my guess would be that he was updating his status to something like "wedding was nice, but I'm hungry now...think they'd notice if the cake and I disappeared?" But since he doesn't have facebook, we can be sure he was saving the world from disaster.

Then the bridal party showed up. It was nice they could join us. I got "pictures" of them coming in. The reason that that word is in quotation marks is because these "pictures" are so bad they don't even deserve the name. So I'm not posting them. The only one that came out even remotely okay was the entrance of the best man with the ring bearer. And neither of them read my blog, so I'm posting it. so ha.


Food! And I didn't get pictures of that (thank me later), so we move on to the after-food entertainment. (Duncan, you're famous now! Also Mr. R's elbow is famous too.)

Then we took some actual posing pictures. Someday I'll share with you my candid from-the-hip shots, but that day is not here yet (I heard that sigh of relief...). First, we have Arielle and Katrina

and Katrina with Jessica


and Jennifer and Jessica

This next picture...well, let me say something. I love all my friends. I really do. So when I say this, I say it with all Christian love and encouragement. And so I say: Reuben, YOU LOOK LIKE A STALKER! I'm kidding you.. you know that, right, Reuben? Reuben? Reub--he's gone. hmm. wonder why he left...


Then we come to this group photo. The game night group. This is where it started, and this is where it ended...(tissues?) Many thanks go to Mrs. F for the photo...her's turned out roughly 167 times better than mine did. I labelled some of the more interesting points for you.



The toast by Jess and Aaron was awesome. Unfortunately, the video is 167 MB, and blogger says that a video can't exceed 100 MB. So. I am currently uploading it to facebook. It doesn't look like it's working, so I will be working on uploading it somewhere and putting the link up, but that might be a separate post.

And so we now move on to the decorating of the getaway car. Balloons were used with abandon, glowsticks and a glowmarker were utilized, and jingle bells. This picture does not accurately portray the bitter freezing cold that we endured (have you ever tried to string jingle bells onto ribbon with frozen, numbing hands? It doesn't work well.), but such was our great dedication to the Task At Hand that we remained loyally on the job. We all did an excellent job, if I do say so myself :)

And then it was over, and Matt and Arielle drove off into the freezing unknown, and the rest of us cleaned up like industrious beavers, and then we went home and stared at the clock and were shocked that it was only 6 o'clock cause it felt like a lot later. And a few days later, I finally thawed out. And that was that.

the wedding of the decade

December 17, 2011 was a day to remember. For one, it involved glowsticks and balloons and jinglebells. But another good reason to remember this day was because Matt and Arielle chose it as their wedding day. There were bridal showers and preparations in the days leading up, but that's a different story. Today's post is all about the wedding (see, I can stay on track when I want to. The sun is shining. I like birds. Hamsters are cute. I like the name Skippy for hamsters. Charlie would also be a good name. I don't like walmart's kind of gummy worms. Or their chicken...it's too spicy. Where were we? Oh yeah...staying on track.)

I have to give you some history here first (most of you know this anyhow, but this is for, like, my grandmother, or you know, people who read my blog from far away, like my grandmother and, um...okay, I guess just my grandmother. Hi Grandma Suzy!). Matt And Arielle met at our house, actually. We had just met his family and decided to invite them to the homeschool game nights that we do roughly once per month with homeschooled teens in the area. And the rest is history...a doozy of a history. Of course, at that time, who knew that history was in the making with a simple introduction?

Facebook now enters the story. Specifically, Matt's facebook profile. The speculations at this point were beginning... "do you think he likes her??"...and Matt's facebook would appear to support this. I mean, when a guy posts country love songs on his profile all the time (like, several per night??), it either means he was hacked by a conniving female or he likes someone. So for those of us also on facebook, we decided it was the latter option and commenced popping popcorn and charging camera batteries and drawing diagrams for decorating getaway cars. Matt graduated highschool and went to basic training...and Arielle (from all accounts) missed him, fell in love, he called her dad, they started a relationship, blah blah blah, called her dad again, engagement, blah blah blah, wedding. Which is where we are today. Pictures. Wedding. Enjoy :)

The first picture...watching his bride come down the aisle on her daddy's arm (sniff...tissues anyone?)


Who giveth this woman to this man? (TISSUES?? halp!)

Arielle's grandmother sang a song ("Each For The Other")...besides being an amazing singer, she's also a talented seamstress. The seamstress part came in very handy when the bridesmaids dresses were delivered a couple weeks before the wedding and needed adjustments done to prevent passing out due to lack of oxygen. (Oxygen = a good thing. Always remember this, kids.)

Next: the bridesmaids (here they're turned for Grandma's song). Please don't hate me, girls...you all looked amazing, and this is the only picture that I took that had you all in it :)


We also watched a slideshow of pictures of Matt and Arielle. (It's playing right above the groomsmen.)


The rest of these are from the exchange of rings. For whatever reason, I don't appear to have taken pics of the rest of the ceremony.

Gotta love the look on their faces... :)

awww...


Can you concentrate any harder there? :P

And my favorite :)


Next post: the reception.

Official Christmas Preparation Guidebook

We interrupt the blogflow of our historical perusal of the past few weeks/months to bring you this special edition to help you through the pre-Christmas Christmas preparations. This post is designed to act as a guide as you go through these steps, or to help you feel better about yourself as you read my steps and realize how close you are to the ideal set forth here. We shall begin.

The Christmas Tree: Preferably evergreen, this member of the Pinophyta kingdom is either bought from Walmart, bought from a tree dealer, or selected from ground plots that may or may not belong to the individual in question. Selection for the latter two categories rests primarily on answers to the following three factors: how far away the car is, how many individuals getting the tree are under the age of 10, and how cold it is. This may result in the acquiring of a tree that makes Charlie Brown's tree look like the White House Christmas tree by comparison.

Decorations: Once the tree has been brought in and placed in an upright position somewhere within the individual's home, it must be decorated. Decorations must be large enough to be visible, but not too crowded to cover the tree completely. The National Authority for Christmas Tree Decoration advises that no more than 3/4 of the tree be obscured by the decorations. Any more than that and you run the risk of obliterating the tree, spokesman Christopher Pringle stated. The NACTD also warns against placing open flames or bare electrical wires on the tree as fires could result, inconveniencing firefighters everywhere.

Many people also place figurines and lights in strategic areas of the outside of their home. Outside decor primarily depends on the distance between one's house and one's neighbors, and also the energy which said neighbors devote to decorating their house. This guide does not recommend using plastic inflatable decorations, as they typically deflate 43 seconds after being set up. However, this guide also realizes that in neighborhoods populated primarily with inflatable-plastic-decorating types, usage of these items cannot be avoided.

The indoor decorations can be a little more individualistic, but must still be in proportion to the amount of traffic that the home expects to see during the time the decorations are expected to be up. Many find it effective to set boxes of decorations on the kitchen table and turn the children loose. If anything, the result can be passed off lightly as "just what the kids did! haha, isn't it artistic?"

Gift Purchasing: Many gifts need to be purchased, as the spirit of Christmas is allegedly measured by the stack of presents under the tree. Lists need to be made, bank funds withdrawn, trips to Walmart made, and then...the wrapping.

Gift Wrapping: There are two categories in gift wrapping. We shall examine each in turn, beginning with Category A, which most males fit into. This group is prone to wrapping gifts in grocery bags, typically the same plastic bag that the cashier placed the gift into at the cash register. A knot is tied at the top, the name is written in permanent marker on the side, and the gift is pitched beneath the tree. Another typical wrapping method for this category is the plain cardboard box, sometimes tied shut with string.

The second category, Category B, is the group which most females fit into. This group wraps minute gifts with great precision and creativity. It has long been suspected that there is competing within the group to see who can wrap the oddest shaped package the neatest. Some members have the proficiency level of wrapping a 4 gallon size package in a piece of wrapping paper the size of a normal business envelope. A bow is attached to the top, the name is written on a matching gift tag, and the gift is arranged neatly under the tree. Please note that the categories are general; some girls find them in category A, and some guys would be more comfortable with a category B rating.

Preparation of Food: In some homes, planning for the Christmas Dinner Menu begins as early as April. The perfect meat, the coordinating side dishes, the incorporation of traditional and new food items, all these take much foresight and preparation. In most families, the female members take care of the making of the dishes, while in others, the father lets his culinary abilities shine forth. Although the majority of Christmas dinners are delectable treats, this guide would be remiss in not pointing out that even a major national holiday cannot transform a bad cook into a good cook. This guide advises caution if one suspects that one's host is one of the former.

Eating of Food: This guide would like to state that the male members of the family generally do this the best.

We conclude this short perusal of common Christmas preparations. We hope that this guide was helpful to you. Merry Christmas to all and sundry!

Trip to PHC

[Note: this post was edited a couple hours after it was originally posted to include a photograph taken by my mom on Betsy Reich's camera!]

Whirlwind. That's what it felt like, going down last Tuesday to get Jess, and then coming back on Wednesday. In fact, I forgot about packing until Monday night after Awana, when it struck me that I was leaving in less than 12 hours and I needed to toss some stuff in a backpack and set my alarm.

Tuesday morning: we left at about 7:15. We drove to ShurFine and picked up our sub, activated Garmin, and drove off into the wild blue yonder. My mom drove for the first couple of hours, and then we switched places, stopped in Altoona PA for lunch, switched drivers, and then switched again when we fueled up again. The trip included Anaximander, my penguin pillow pet (hey, I just liked the name, ok?)...

Below, my mom and I confer on apparently very important details before driving off.


We arrived at about 3:30, and Jess was taking some trash to the dumpster, so we saw her right away. She took us around campus, meeting people and seeing various places like D5 (oh my. it's one of the two guys dorms, and there were actual guys inhabiting it that we, like, talked to. oh my.). It was so cool to see all these people that we've heard about but haven't met, since a lot of them weren't on campus when we dropped her off for freshman orientation. Anyhow, after that, we walked to a little coffee shop that is frequented by PHC-ers, and then headed back after consuming our beverages.

As we were walking back, we received news that one of the people we had met (see sentence 2 in above paragraph) had invited us and one of Jess's roommates Callan (oh, and Betsy and Seth) were invited to his house at 8. So we had time to go jogging and eat supper. Then, Brady met us with a flashlight and escorted us to the house right off campus that he shares with like 3 other guys. We played a fun game called 4 On a Couch and drank some tea (my taste buds still have nightmares about that tea :P ). Then, several more people showed up and surprise! Brady announced that since Seth's birthday was in a few days, we were having a party! There was brownies and ice cream and hot cider to consume, pictures to be taken, and piano pieces to be played. And games. But, at this point it was about 10:15, and my mom, Annetta, and I were tired from being up for over 16 hours, so we went to our hotel.

Here is basically all of us, sitting oh so photogenically against a wall. Birthday boy Seth is the 7th from left. And yes, I was freezing cold and I wrapped myself in a random coat that was on the floor. Hopefully whoever owned it didn't mind!


Annetta poses with the mirror in our hotel room.


Wednesday morning we slept in, ate an awesome breakfast at the hotel. Then we drove to PHC. This is me with my bagel.


So we got there, and Jess had a work shift that she had to do before we could leave. I was able to go around with her (she was just getting trash from various offices), so I got to meet a lot of people and see how much trash they create. While we did that, Annetta and my mom walked around taking pictures.


The picture above is Lake Bob and the PHC gazebo. The amusing thing about this particular photo is that it's upside down. Cool reflection. The next 5 pictures are also ones that they took. I left out my mom's self portrait attempts...she can thank me later :P





And this is the running track that I almost died on. On my roughly 10 and a half minute mile. Yeah. I kinda fail at running so bad it's [hopefully] funny to other people. Go ahead and laugh...just don't let me catch you laughing or I'll stuff my sneaker in your mouth.


So then. Work shift finished, out processing was completed, and we left. After saying goodbye to about 57 people that we ran into :P We drove pretty much continuously, through rain and fog, till at last we arrived home. Well, at least to the church. Jess and I decided to take in choir practice, but then we got home. And then we commenced preparation for Matt and Arielle's wedding, but that's a post for another day!

Niagara Falls Airshow

Remember that list I wrote a couple blog posts ago with all the blog posts I need to write? Well, this is the beginning of that list...I'm starting from the top and going down. Which means that we are going back in time...way, way back in ancient history to September. Something like the second weekend of September.

The Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station (NFARS from here on out, to save my fingers from getting arthritic or something, because you know that's something I totally worry about) hosted an airshow commemorating 9-11, and so CAP traveled from all around the group to help with parking, recruiting, and manning booths. Not to get ahead of myself here. Starting at the beginning, which I guess was Friday, Hosanna and I waited in the parking lot of Arby's for the CAP van to appear. We put our stuff out on the curb in full sight of all who passed and felt like vagabonds. Tent...sleeping bag, overnight stuff, camelbaks, the works.

The CAP van arrived, and we loaded all our stuff and ourselves in. And thus began Operation Airshow. We drove for several hours o'er hill and dale to a small, unspecified airport near NFARS where we were to bivouac for the next two nights. So we got near-ish to this little airport, and my squadron commander handed me her cell phone and told me to call this random senior member whose last name I wasn't even sure how to pronounce and tell him "the blue possum cries at dawn." I was like, huh? Actually, I had to tell him we were close to the airport so he could come show us where we were supposed to be.

So he met us there and led us to the back edge of the airport which had been specifically chosen as the bivouac site by virtue of its being the bumpiest area. Then we tracked down, captured, and sacrificed the blue possum and set up camp. Did I mention that this was in September? And that nights in September get chilly? It wasn't as cold as the bivouac in April when it rained all weekend, though...that time I slept in my coat, full BDUs (sans the boots) and as many layers as I had. [Some quick nostalgia for you there.] When CAP roughs it, we rough it, man. (*coughsnort*)

So tents went up, jackets went on, and we shoved off in search of nourishment. Some of them went to like Applebee's, but Clayton, Erik, Hosanna, and I went to Arby's. My food was super good. I even photographed it JUST for you to see.

I also photographed Erik and the Goliath of Curly Fries.


Then we went back to our tents and went to sleep (sleep being a general term here). Morning routine involved Hosanna and me getting up at...something like 5am, I believe, so that we would have time to walk all the way down to the hangar bathroom to get ready, and then leave for breakfast. We went to McDonald's on our way to the NFARS, and arrived there at around 0700.

We signed in at the base theater, filed in, and sat down. It was pretty cool being there, as that's the place where CLS graduation is held. It was much more relaxed this time. We even had a cricket chirping endlessly in the corner to keep our teeth on edge. Great times.

We had a safety briefing, and then we were split up. Those of us who were over 16 went out to do parking, while the younger cadetlets went to the actual airshow area and did stuff like recruiting and manning ice cream/lemonade booths.

I didn't take any pictures at the airshow with my camera, but these pictures are fairly indicative of parking. The first day, the Air Force sergeant in charge of my little group was named Sergeant Darling. I asked him if he was related to the Army Sergeant Darling at the NER Cadet Academy, but apparently not. I thought that was pretty cool.

This picture is us ancients heading out to wait around before we were split up into groups and sent off to our parking location. True story: I rode shotgun in a humvee. I had to tie my door shut with a piece of string. Actually, some nice AF dude tied it for me. ("RealMilitary: where the gentlemen tie your doors shut for you.")

We're so cool we're black and white :D
This is us waiting around, fixing our sleeves and adjusting the reflective vests. Officers are OCD when it comes to things like that. "Sir...your sleeve is a quarter inch lower in the left side than on the right side. Permission to adjust it for you so that I don't have nightmares tonight?" "Permission granted!!"

Just to give you an idea of the massive amounts of people: the next two pictures are two halves on a field. Note that you can only see part of the field...it extend to both sides of the photo (my lens isn't wide enough). Then realize that in roughly two hours, we parked about triple that. And then add in that there were several other parking lots closer to the airshow that were being parked simultaneously (they'd like send every three cars to us or something). There were a lot of people there.




How many cadet officers does it take to park a car? :)

Also, is it bad that I didn't notice that camo plane until I saw it this evening in the picture? Now that I see the plane, I think I know where we were... I had such a bad sense of direction that weekend it wasn't funny. I have yet to figure out the NFARS.

We left at noon on Sunday. I think this picture does a good job of summing up how we felt.

Oh yeah, there were some really noisy things zipping around in the sky, too. Thunderbirds and other random airplanes. Good times.

The End.

Exciting News!

It's a happy day in my world. I have a new external hard drive, and right now, even now as we speak, I am moving several millions of megabytes (gigabytes? kegabytes? bytes? bites? food? hungry?) over to it. Actually, I have no idea how many things I am moving over. People have explained the whole mega/kega/gigabytes thing to me multiple times, but the information just zips out through the other ear. I guess my brain figures that as long as so many other people know it, why should I bother storing the info? I need a mnemonic.

But regardless...my computer was stuffed. I kinda couldn't put any more pictures on my computer because a message would pop up and say "we didn't copy the last 14 pictures because you're a moron and you don't have any more space on your hard drive. hahaha." Also I am running out of room even to make small word documents for college. Also, my computer is kinda slow. So I am creating space with my hard drive, and it will be a good hard drive, and I will put all my pictures on it, and we will live happily ever after. Then End.

Snapshot

*camera_click*

Jessica and Katrina just made lemon meringue pie. The sugar may or may not have been forgotten in the meringue. We won't comment on that.

Annetta is looking through pictures on the laptop, and is also about to make brownies for the [third] Thanksgiving get together tomorrow.

Lydia is wrapping gifts for Arielle's bridal shower tomorrow. Since Jessica is her maid of honor, we get to host a shower for her, and it's going to be so much fun! Annetta, The CocoaNut, and I have had a lot of fun organizing details, planning, going shopping and so forth over the past few months, and it will be so fun to do it! :)

Daddy is observing and commmentating and so forth life in general. My mom is observing and interacting and so forth. Conversations include meringue, college, college friends, pictures of college friends, wildcats (that would be Josh and K), fortune cookies (also J and K), bedtime, "he wasn't heavy, but he had that blobbier look" (my dad commenting on someone that none of you know), etc.

Katrina is soaring around, sound effects included. Josh is relaxing on the couch.

Hosanna and Joanna are reading upstairs, I think.

And I'm...blogging.

We're all enjoying Thanksgiving break. Jess got back here around 4:06 Wednesday morning...Daddy, Annetta, and I went out to Bath to pick her up where college classmates dropped her off. She's going back on Sunday for a few weeks, and then Christmas break :) Amusing quote from Thanksgiving: "I call one half!" "I call the other half!!" -- and the amusing part was that they were talking about a can of cranberry sauce. Yep, that's the big thing here at our house...cranberry sauce.

Random update. Very random, I know. But for those of you who wanted a random snapshot update of our family life, there ya go. :)

Awkward

Tonight was the Awana Fun Fair. It's where we set up various games all around our church's family life center, and the Awana kids and parents come and have fun and obtain insane amounts of candy and then go home and have sugar highs and sugar lows for roughly the next three months. It's a great time. I had the photo booth this year, which means that I had a "mini studio" and took pictures of kids, and sometimes their parents as well.

There was an awkward moment. Give me a minute here as I gulp afresh as I relive the awkwardness of it.

*gulp*

Okay. So there's this Spark. His name is Tyler. Tyler was at the fun fair with his grandmother. That wasn't the awkward part.

There was also another little boy (I forget his name) who was at the fun fair with his mother. That wasn't the awkward part either.

Anyhow, Tyler, his grandmother, Little Boy, and Little Boy's Mom all converged on the photo booth, where Tyler proceeded to sit down in the cute little chair with the teddy bears and pumpkins to have his picture taken. Now, I love incorporating parents into these pictures whenever I can-- a lot of these kids do not have idea family life situations, and any time I see parents interacting with kids, my heart sings. So it was perfectly natural that I should...oh, I don't even know how to say it. Let me just say it: I asked the wrong maternal entity if she would like to get in Tyler's picture with him. [That was the awkward part.]

Yeah, I know. How awful would that be? I can just hear the discussions about that picture for decades to come: "Oh, this is a great picture of little Tyler! But who's this strange woman in it with him?" "Oh...that's some mom of one of Tyler's Awana friends. The photographer told her to hop in the picture and smile, so she did..."

Thankfully though, Little Boy's Mother did *not* hop in the picture with Tyler, and so we don't have to worry about that happening. Until next year :P *gulp*

I feel like a hermit

*walks in*

*footsteps echo*

Hi. I feel like a hermit. It's a burden that hath been thrusteth upon me. Let me 'splain. Actually, most of my readers know what I'm talking about. Admit it: when this post came up in your feed, you were like, who in the world is that? My point precisely. Over the past...like 10 days, I feel like I've hermited (it's a verb now, Just go with it, k?), and my reasons for hermiting are many and varied. They include: college, work, college, work, college, work, and surprisingly enough, college has also contributed. The past two weeks or so have felt insanely busy. However, I had today and yesterday off work, and it was so exciting to come out of my cave and explore a world in which there are human beings that I remember from past life.

Last night around 12:30, I finished up my second week of Adolescent Psychology. That class is seriously cool. I'm learning tons of stuff; some of it I may actually share later. I have 8-ish quizzes, 6 lectures, and 2 discussion boards before I'll be done with week 2 of Apologetics and Worldview. That class is seriously cool too, but as you can see, I've been focusing on psychology this week. I hope to convince my manager to give me days (or even one day) off this week so I can catch myself up and stay caught up.

I have lots of pictures and stuff to post in the future.
1. Niagara Falls Airshow
2. Occurrence of Pie Making
3. kittens
4. pizza (maybe...)
5. random expeditions
6. any other pictures that I can't remember at this point cause they're still on my camera.

So yeah. Maybe I'll be lucky and post some of them. And till next time, stay warm and dry (cough, that was for you, Thimble :P :P )!

Beginning

Today marks the beginning of two online classes that I'm taking, from Bob Jones University. One is Adolescent Psychology, and one is Apologetics and Worldview. I'm excited for both! I have all my books for the Apologetics and Worldview, but I'm (gulp) still waiting for my textbook for Adolescent Psychology. I'm hoping it arrives tomorrow... I had off work today, so it was a good catch up sort of a day. I caught up on sleep (it was a rather long work week...for a chronic part timer like myself, almost 40 hours is quite a bit), made supper, and had a good evening at Awana. And here and there, I worked on organizing myself for theses classes. I still need to do something on printing out my course schedules. Maybe. I might be able to get out of it. The schedules aren't copy/pasting like they're supposed to, and I never look at them anyhow. Jessica always prints out her course schedules and tapes them to her wall in very straight lines. I do too, but then I don't bother looking at them. I just copy down each week's worth by hand on a sticky note or something. So maybe I'll just skip that part and copy straight from online. Yeah.

Well, I'm off to bed...