Blast from the Past

I remember this bio exam. I was extremely excited to find out that I had earned that grade. This was a little over a year ago but it seems to have taken place eons ago. To think that semester was the last semester I had all general education courses. Now I am in my third semester of upper-level classes required for my major.




Original Post From October 19, 2012:
"I went to school Monday thru Wednesday the week following the musical. I attended Crossroads, my church’s college bible study, on Wednesday night and we had a night full of games and laughs. Thursday and Friday we did not have class because we had Fall Break. Thursday thru Sunday night I spent a majority of the time studying for a biology exam Monday the 15th. I earned a 91% on that exam. I say earned because I worked my butt off. The rest of this week I have spent recovering from my “lack of sleep” over the weekend."

Oops!!

Wow! It has been almost one (1) year since my last post. Many things have transpired since then, but I will not bore you with every tiny detail.

First off, I finished all of my classes last fall and was able to stay sane from biology. Since then I have completed a Jan term class and a 16 hour spring semester.

During my spring semester, I finally finished up all of my graduation requirements in classes for my undergraduate. Now, I just need to finish working towards earning the 200 chapel credits within the next three semesters; I would say two years, but my last semester is when I am planning to do my student teaching and, as far as I am aware, when you are doing your student teaching the university does not required you to go to chapel during that time. So I am racking up as many as I can while I am still able. I currently have 121 of the 200 credits I need. This is a plus.

Also, during the spring semester, I did my first field experience. It was amazing!! I did it at one of the rural high schools in the area and I loved every minute of it! The teacher I was put with was soooooo much fun, I missed going to see her and the kids after I received my 30 hours. I would defiantly put in a request to do my student teaching there.

For Thanksgiving my side of the family went to Orlando, Florida. We spent one day at Sea World, another at Disney World and that Thursday we spent at our hotel/resort. I think my older sister, the two sisters just after me and I had more fun than the 5 – year old kids there. (For the record, we are all over the age of 16).

This summer has been a little different from what I have had in the past. For starters, I have been teaching piano at the same music store I took lessons from for years. I have been teaching since October of last year; I started about the same time as my last posts. I have three students who have stuck with it through the summer. I do not know how many more I will be getting but I might be getting two, one returning and the other one brand new, on the twenty-sixth (26). Making the grand total of five (5) students. This alone has taken an hour and a half of my week for the summer.

Also, we had VBS back in July. We did Kingdom Rock. If possible, I would like to do an entire post just on what happened during that week with pictures, but we shall see how I do in the coming weeks.

I am still cleaning the nurseries at my church; this takes about one to one and a half hours a week to complete. making my total weekly happenings to be about two and a half to three hours a week I worked during the summer.

On top of all of this, back in June I applied for a job at a local furniture store in town. Safe to say, I got it; otherwise I would not be mentioning it here. I worked three days a week for four – five hours a day making it about fourteen to fifteen hours a week to add to my two and a half to three hours I already had. The position I worked was clerical.

This is what my summer has looked like. I worked Monday – Thursday and had Friday – Sunday off to do whatever happened to take place.

This coming semester is going to be fun. I am taking five English classes totaling fifteen (15) hours. This means that I do not have to walk between buildings for my classes!! To top this already good news off, all but one of my classes are in the same room.

Also, this semester I will be working with a mission team of fellow college students as we prepare to go on a January mission trip to Senegal, Africa.

The little green highlighted section of Africa in this picture is where Senegal is located.

Well, this is all I have to catch you up with. Again, I apologize for the length of time it took me to post anything. I will also not promise to write really soon either, for we all know that lately when I make a promise to write soon it 99.99999% of the time be broken.

My life in a nutshell.

Well, my life since the musical has been a little on the unusual side.

I went to school Monday thru Wednesday the week following the musical. I attended Crossroads, my church’s college bible study, on Wednesday night and we had a night full of games and laughs. Thursday and Friday we did not have class because we had Fall Break. Thursday thru Sunday night I spent a majority of the time studying for a biology exam Monday the 15th. I earned a 91% on that exam. I say earned because I worked my butt off. The rest of this week I have spent recovering from my “lack of sleep” over the weekend.

Tonight, my sister and I are going to a theater production at our school. I am going for extra credit in one of my classes. I have to write a two paragraph response paper about the production, but it will still be a fun night. A couple of our friends are going to be there as well.

Wednesday my baby brother turned 10.He was the last one in our family to be in the single digits.

At the moment, this is all I have to talk about right now. I might post later, but as you all know, I might not be able to keep that promise. Therefore, I will not make it.

My life so far…………

Hello out there. Strange to see that I am back again in the blogging world. For all of my faithful followers who have not given up on me, I thank you for being patient for the long wait between posts.

Well, school is going well and the semester is almost half over. The half way mark might have already come, but I have other more important items on my plate to think about than how much of the semester I have left to go.

Tomorrow is going to be fun. This week is homecoming week at school. Tomorrow is the big parade and football game. With the yucky weather we have been having the past few days, tomorrow is going to look the same.

Then, later in the evening, several of my family members and I will be going to see a local production of Les Mis. I am super excited! I have recently become obsessed with this musical and cannot wait until I get to see it live. Not to mention that this coming December, I think, the movie will be coming out.

Wednesday in my World Literature class, I had to give a presentation over Chinese Poetry. It was my first shot at teaching English to people in the age range that I will eventually be teaching. Once I graduate that is. The good thing is, everything I had in my presentation, my professor regurgitated again when he went up to finish the lecture for the day. This fact in and of itself makes me have more confidence that this is the right direction I am to take for my life profession wise. Not to mention that I enjoyed every minute of preparation and actual presenting time I had to do. I used a power point in my presentation, and one of the slides I had was just for an overview of what I was going to talk about. When I had just finished this slide, my Professor asked me if I was going into the education or pastoral field. When I answered with education, he stated that the way I had ordered my slides up to that point was the way that someone in the education field would do it. Let us just say that I was pretty happy with this news.

Update

Well, I am 20 years old. I really do not feel that I should be 20 but I am.

VBS is over and done with for this year. We did SKY from Group. I really liked it.

For vacation, my family went to Branson again. We went to the Titanic museum. I ended up being Millivina Dean. She was the longest living survivor of the Titanic. The last day only my older sister, her room mate, and I stayed because we are all college students and we were able to stay a day longer. We went to see Ice Age 4. I really liked it.

Classes started on Monday. I am taking 17 hours. I might be crazy, but after this semester I will only have one more general education class to take along with the other classes I need for my major.

As I am well aware, and I am sure you all are well aware, this year was the Summer Olympics. The opening ceremony was ok. It was not as good as Beijing, but Beijing was amazing and I am sure it will be a long while before we see anything that could hold a candle to Beijing. Other than that, I really enjoyed watching the swimming, gymnastics, and a little of the track and field. Personally, I like the winter Olympics better. Primarily for the ice skating.

Well, it seems that I am not one for a long post anymore. At least I am getting thoughts down.

Summer Dealings

Well, yesterday I had my last test for my summer class. I ended the class with an A. The class was very easy. I recommend the class to everyone who has to take a second science class to take that class.

Now I am finally able to have a vacation from school that last more than two weeks.

My vacation consists of Vacation Bible School, going to Branson with family, and spending a lot of time not doing any school.

Next week is my birthday. I am going to be 20. I don’t feel like I am turning 20.

Well, at this moment, this is all I have.

Summer Happenings

Well, so far my summer has consisted of several things.

To start out with, after my last final on May 18th, I spent every day for the next two weeks sleeping in and staying up until 11 or so. During the day, I watched a TV show I had never seen before. It was ‘The Adventures of Merlin’ that I watched, at least the three seasons that were on Netflix.

Last Monday I started my summer class. I am taking Intro. to Earth Science. It is a Monday – Thursday class that lasts all morning. I have already had my first test on Thursday. I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Getting to keep my weekends free or having to cram the three days before the test.

Within all of these things going on, I have been babysitting, cleaning the toys at my church, and helping out painting VBS props. Last week I started meeting with my music team.

Well, that is all I have for my audience at this moment. Post more at a later date.

Summer Time

Well, school is out for the summer!

Swimming, vacation, tans, V.B.S., and loads of family time is what is in store for my summer which is a full one.

First off, I have had this whole week off of school and I will have all of next week off as well. Then on June 4th I will start a summer class. It will be one of my two science classes that are required for my general education classes.

After June 28th, I will be done with school until the 20th of August when the fall semester starts back up.

While I am on my break from school I will be participating in my churches Vacation Bible School again. So far, we already finished a rather nice chunk of decorations that we make by hand every year. Again, I will be doing the stage area this year. Our V.B.S. is going on during the second week of July.

Also, later in July or in early August, my moms side of the family will be going on our yearly vacation. We will be going to a different type of vacation from the past.

Then, as I said previously, on the 20th of August I will start up school again.

As of right now, this is all I have to share. So, when I have more information to share, I will share it.

End of the Semester

I really can’t believe that it is that time of the school year again. I have four classes left to finish up. At the moment I have one final each day next week.

My plan for this summer is as follows:

• Take a summer class. I am taking one of the two required science classes I am need.
• Partake in my churches Vacation Bible School. I am going to do the stage again.
• Making a dint in my HUGE reading list.
• Finishing up LOST. I have a few episodes left in season 6 to watch.
• Spend a week on vacation with my moms family in Branson.

Well, that is all I have to announce at this time.

Up-date

Oh, boy. Time to spill the beans on what I’ve been up to since December.

First up, my three week class in January. I took a computer class in which I learned how to use Microsoft Office applications as well as how to navigate and use a computer properly.

Secondly, I am taking six classes this semester totaling 15 credit hours. The classes I am taking are as follows:

• Fit and Well – This class is a P.E. type of class. We learn about nutrition, health, exercise, etc.
• Speech – This class is pretty much self explanatory. We learn how to give proper speeches.
• English Composition 2 – In this class we look at different short stories, poetry, one play, and one novel and discuss what we are reading about and what we think the meaning behind it all is.
• Intermediate Algebra – The next math class I need to take. I also have a lab in which I am required to take.
• Critical Thinking – This is a step up from the University Seminar class I took last semester. It is just learning about how to think critically in our homework and in our everyday lives. After March 25, I will be done with this class.
• American Government – This class involves learning about the American Government system.

Five – week grades will be posted in about a week and a half. At that time, I will be about a quarter of the way through the semester. Time flies when you’re not looking.

At the moment, this is all I have to up-date. Until next time, talk to you all later.

Finals Week

This week is finals week. Woohoo!! I have had my History and English finals already, they were both yesterday. I have finals for General Psychology today, Theater tomorrow, and Pre-Algebra on Friday. At about 10 a.m. on Friday I will have completed my first semester of college!! That’s it for now, I will attempt to post more after finals.

A long post to catch everyone up.

Well, I’m finally wondering back into the world of blogging.

To start off, I will talk about San Diego. Then I will talk about VBS, family vacation, and finish up talking about my experience so far in the college life.

San Diego:

Well, to start, I just want to say that flying is no big deal now. Up until Kara and I left for the airport, I had never been on an airplane in my life. As my dad told me, it’s like ridding on a bus with a little turbulence.

When we got in San Diego, on Thursday around noon Pacific time, my aunt picked us up, took us to lunch, then back to her house to unpack and change into our swimsuits. We weren’t in San Diego more than an hour and a half and we were already headed to one of the many beaches in the area.

We swam at the beach, then headed back to the house, changed, and settled in. When my uncle came home from work that evening, we cooked dinner, ate, then just stayed at home for the evening to get used to Pacific time.

The next day, Friday, My aunt took us out for breakfast in La Jolla. I ordered pancakes that had blueberries and strawberries cooked into them. I thought and still think that it’s a cool idea and I have already made pancakes with both fruits twice since then. We then went out and walked around the tide pools in the little ‘bay’ area by the little cafe we ate at as well as walking around the shopping area close by.

We then went to have a tour of where my uncle works. After that, my uncle took us to another beach to swim and to teach us how to boogie board. But before we went to the beach, we went to pick up some lunch at yet another cafe/bistro where we ordered a “Turkado.” For dinner, we dinned out at Mexican Old Town where we also walked around and browsed in the shops.

On Saturday, we went to the wild animal park/zoo a little farther inland from San Diego. After spending the morning walking around the park and taking the wild animal safari tour we had a nice picnic lunch outside of the park by the front entrance. The Wild Animal Safari was very neat. We were able to see a white rhino that is only one of seven in the world. I thought that was an interesting fact. That afternoon, my sister and I were dropped off at Balboa Park. We walked around in the flower and cactus gardens for a while, then walked the rest of the park before ending up at the Imax theater to watch an Imax movie. Back at the house, we ate dinner then proceeded to get ready for our night out to the theater to watch Shakespeare's “The Tempest.”

On Sunday, we “slept” in, ate breakfast, and then got ready for our harbor cruise. For lunch we ate wraps that we made at home. After lunch, we went to our third beach of the week. That evening, we went to church at my aunt and uncles church. For dinner, we had New York style pizza. It was really yummy! Dessert consisted of cupcakes from a local bakery in my aunt and uncles neighborhood. To finish the evening, my sister and I watched the “new” Matt Damon movie The Adjustment Bureau.

On Monday, Kara and I spent the morning at the Seaport Village. It is a little “village” that is practically an outdoors mall. For lunch, my aunt took us to a restaurant on Coronado Island that serves fish tacos. I had a fish burrito that was extremely yummy! After lunch, we headed over to Coronado Beach. That evening, before dinner, we went to take part in a segway tour of downtown San Diego and Balboa Park. Let me just pause here to say that segways are AWESOME!!! For dinner, my sister and I were exposed to Thai food.

On Tuesday, my uncle took Kara and I to a cafe called Mission Cafe. I had a Mexican Hot Chocolate that I enjoyed immensely. For the rest of the morning, my sister and I walked through the two art museums in Balboa Park. For lunch, we went home and ate left-over’s. We then were taken to the airport where we flew home.

VBS:

This year my church did “PandaMania” Vacation Bible School from Group.

I did the stage area again this year. I LOVE being up on stage. For you get to interact with the kids without having to watch them the entire time. You also get to do music(of course), skits, bible stories, bible points, bible buddies that help us with that days bible point, and just get to adore all of the kids and be adored by the kids themselves.

You definitely get loved by the kids. They love to have you talk with them. They think that’s one of the best things to happen to them during the week. For some of them at least. My “team” already has several kids that have unofficially formed a “fan club” for us. We all get kick out of it.

Vacation:

We went on vacation the week after VBS. The people who went were my immediate family and extended family on my moms side. We went to the place we have gone to for several years now.

Well, we could not check in until 4 on that Monday. By the time we had arrived and had gotten all of our luggage and other necessities in and put away, it was too late for swimming of any kind. But over the next three days we all became nicely “cooked.” From which we all were pealing, or as some of us like to say on occasion, “snowing”.

College:

College life is different from homeschooling. Having to go into town everyday to class and then having something called “homework” that you have to do outside of class. I am already at the point where I have been contemplating class options for next semester.

I am enjoying this whole experience. As I am finding out, the next four years are going to fly by.

Post-Grad Life

I have officially graduated!!!!

Saturday, May 28, 2011 I graduated from homeschool high school with a life-long friend. It went very well.

There was a slide show of our lives, and we did a Praise and Worship time at the end before we went to eat and fellowship.

There was a chocolate fountain, two different kinds of cakes, three different dips with chips, home-made mints, an assortment of nuts, and three beverages.

For my presents, I, of course, received a rather large chunk of money. Along with that, I was given a three piece suitcase set, an iPad and leather case for it, a very cool, very big pocket knife that has a seascape with a boat on both sides, a BIG box of chocolates and a very nice journal and a toiletry bag. I love all of my gifts, if anyone gave me anything, I would like to say here: Thank you for your gifts and your presence at a huge moment of my life.

Now, I can no longer say that I am homeschooled. L But there are bigger and better thing that are ahead of me. My best days are ahead of me, as Danny Gokey’s single from his first album says.

I have finished up with a lot of things that I will no longer be attending as a full student. I finished orchestra and choir and private music lessons. I am sad that they finished, but I am excited at the same time as well. Is that a bad thing? Now if I ever go back it will be to visit with friends.

The VBS decoration process has started back up. This will be my first VBS not being homeschooled. It’s sad, but exciting.

As I talk of VBS, it reminded me of summer and swimming and that we opened our pool a few weeks ago and I had my first swim of this year today!! Also that I go a new swimsuit.

This past semester I have been taking a class with my grandmother. It is a class for Swedish Weaving and Huck Toweling. I have been enjoying it very much. It will be going through the summer and into the fall.

I will be going to college in the fall. I will be going for English.

I think that is it for now. I will attempt to keep up with posting now that school is over and that it is summer.

My life as a Senior

Well, we’ve been at school for two and *almost* a half weeks now. So far I am liking my classes. I am taking American Government, American History, American Literature, Chemistry, Geometry, finishing up English Lit. from last year, a Beth Moore Bible study, the same type of Vocab. that I was doing last year yet it is the third book in the series, Grammar, and a really cool writing course.

My writing course is called “The One Year Adventure Novel” By Daniel Schwabauer. What you do, basically, is write a 12 chapter adventure novel, of your choosing, in two semesters. It is a really cool writing curriculum! I am really REALLY enjoying my time doing it. That is why I make myself do it after all of my other school work is done. :)

Orchestra is officially starting back up not this Friday but next. I can’t wait to start on all of my new music.

Yes, as the title of this post has stated, I am a Senior this year. My last year of High School. :( I’m not sure what I am going to do exactly after I graduate, we will just have to wait and see what God wants me to do.

First Post of the New Year!!!

Well, here we are in a New Year. Which means to some a start to a new life.

Christmas went very well. I got the Pirates’ trilogy. A book of new knitting patterns, which I started in that day. I have finished one and am on my second one. But you have to realize that I go for days without even touching it. If I do, it can vary from working on it form 30 minutes to a few hours. All of us kids got a $14 music download gift card from Wal mart. Which I used to get the music from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Us four older girls all got a $50 gift card to Maurices. We went and used them Saturday.

This is how my New Year started.

It ended up that we got three weeks off of school. We started officially back up last week.

Orchestra and choir and lessons all started back up and in full swing last week. We were supposed to have started back up with orchestra and choir two weeks ago, but we had lot of snow fall that week, so we didn’t go.

But we did get our new Federation pieces last Friday. All but one in Beethoven and one in Brahms.

That, I guess, has to be all of the new news that I can think of at the moment.

Late in Coming

Wow.

That’s all I can say.

Wow.

It’s been over a month since the last post. Sorry about that. I’ve been preoccupied this last month. Doing school, music/tatting lessons, orchestra/choir, and all of the performances for orchestra and choir.

The 5th of December was the day that pretty much started all of the performances. It was our big Christmas concert for all of the orchestras, choirs, bands, and small ensembles. That in itself was almost an all day deal. At least and all afternoon deal.

Last Thursday, Concert choir, Bel Canto chamber choir, and the Beethoven and Brhams orchestras had a practice for a performance that we had on Friday. I am glad to be over with them for the time being. But I get to do the Christmas performances only once more before I graduate next year.

We have the next two weeks off of school. Which is a good thing and a bad thin all at the same time. For I still have to do some things to get caught back up to where I need to be and other things that I just need to do. Such as read the Pilgrims Progress. I get to read that over Christmas break. I am almost all the way caught back up to where I need to be. Just a lesson here and there and I’ll be good.

Hope you all have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Catching Up.

Sorry for the long wait for the next post!

School has been going very well. I am enjoying all of my subjects so far. At the moment, I am doing Algebra 2, Consumer Math, World History, Vocabulary, English, an Elizabeth George Bible study, a fast moving Biology (I am doing several lessons a day at my request in order to get to Chemistry faster), and on Mondays and Wednesdays I am doing Economics. I am yet to have a writing class, but my mom is still undecided on how to do everything. I think I got everything. Well, there is Piano, Violin, Harp, and Choir practice that I have to do everyday as well. Music is a given.

Yesterday was orchestra/choir/theory! I LOVE my choirs, orchestras, and theory classes that I am in! I also LOVE my 11 eight year olds and 2 nine year olds in the beginner violin theory class that I teach. This year I am teaching a private lesson for the first time. It’s a harp lesson.

In the Brahms theory class (the one that I am taking) I LOVE IT TREMENDASLY! Mr. H. is AWSOME! I am learning so much. He makes everything very fun easy to understand. One of the things that we are learning is how to conduct. Very exciting! Yet, I had no idea how big the world of chords really was until I walked into this class three weeks ago.

I’m sorry if I am rambling! I just love music!

Quick Sum-Up

Sorry for waiting so long to post anything.

Orchestra and choir started back up last Friday. Really exciting. I got to see all of my friends, which made me happy.

We are starting school tomorrow. Yippy. I am kind-of excited, kind-of not. For I am ready for something to do, yet not wanting to spend all that time on school. Do you know what I mean? I guess what I'm saying is I am ready for summer to be over, but not wanting it to end.

I can't remember if I have already said this or not, but I have been teaching a girl from our church how to tat and other things. Such as, reading a pattern. Something that she didn't know. Hopefully I am doing a good enough job that she is getting it without thinking after I leave, "Now what did she just teach me how to do?" On the whole, I think I am getting across to her fairly well.

I guess that is it. There is really not much else to post about at this moment.

My New Template

How do you all like my new template? My sister helped me to get it on here.

At orchestra Friday, we had chair try-outs. I did horible! It might of had something to do with the fact that I was sitting. Usually I stand when I am doing something by myself. Like for lessons, I stand while playing. The only time that I sit and play for violin is in orchestra playing with a big group. So that might have had something to do with it. I'm NOT looking forward to seeing the results.

Well, have to go get ready for school.