Too blessed

A week ago I told you all of my upcoming adventure: my fears, my prayers, my confidence in God. I thought I would update you on how He has truly blessed me this week.

I am thoroughly enjoying my course! I am learning so much, far more than I really thought I would in just a few days. Truly these professors know how to pack loads of information in just a short period of time.

I get up each day around 6 and I am headed out by 6:40 to the train. My journey continues to the busy Waterfront station. The masses of people the disembark from the transit move like a never-ending, unstoppable force. One little face in the crowd; I feel small and yet part of something bigger. Footsteps from shiny heels, scuffed sneakers, and polished leather soles join together in the muffled cacophony of noise, nearly overwhelmed by the train whistles, cellphone talkers, car engines and horns of the great city.

Up the block to the university I go and then up the escalator to my class where I am met with the smiles and greetings of now familiar faces. I know that God hand-picked my classmates. Each one of them with a unique story. I am intrigued by the truly different people He has brought together. Of course, none of my classmates would give God the credit for our new found acquaintance with one another but I know without a doubt that He has a purpose for each of us in this class together. I don't know what it is but I pray for courage each day to be His light in that place.

Six hours of class and an hour lunch break later I am back on the train and headed home. Exhausted and ready to relax, I instead work on assignments. My excitement to experiment with new knowledge and tools keeps weariness at bay until I can fall into bed.

I've watched with exasperation and yet a smile as my room slowly becomes more and more cluttered with news articles and brochures in addition to the general untidiness that I don't have time to combat. College life I suppose. I'm not too worried about it. How bad can it get in 5 weeks???

Suffice to say, my first week has been a delight - exhausting, stressful at times, but truly an exciting and enjoyable time. I am so very thankful that God lead me here and I cannot wait to see how He continues to work and teach me during this time. He truly has taken care of all the details.

As part of my course I am require to participate quite heavily in multiple social media platforms leaving me very little free time for this blog. I hope to keep it up, posting at least once a week. If you would like to follow my new blog, supposedly "professional," feel free. I'd love to have you stop by there or my new Facebook page. Personally, this blog will probably always be my favourite place to write. For here, I am truly myself.

Thanks for reading and spending a little time with me! Hope your week is filled with God's blessing as well.

From the backseat

I spent EIGHT FULL DAYS in the backseat of the Buick and such an experience is definitely not one to be tossed away and forgotten without at least a small blog post commemorating it. Indeed the long hours of repositioning for comfort, teasing the guys in the front, rocking out with Jess in the back, digging around for lost phones or iPods or treats or what have you, cannot be treated as some lousy old bag of potato chips, crumpled up and thrown in the waste basket, considered useless and undeserving of further contemplation. Truly, they were important hours of my life full of laughter, sleep, music, and, yes, learning how to have patience and deal with people in such close quarters for so long.

Interestingly, the poor fellows up front were forced to be entertained by my iPod of Jess's most of the time as theirs were too new for our radio transmitter ma-bob.They were very well cultured in pop/rock from Jessica and everything else from me. :) As some of you may know, I like pretty much EVERY genre of music and so over two hours, shuffling my 1400 songs gives you quite the mix! Everything from a cappella groups to Skillet to unique French styles to Michael Buble to Switchfoot to country to Lecrae to Jack Johnson and more! We took great joy in driving them a little bonkers with our enthusiasm and obnoxious singing. Also, they were introduced to my random skipping through songs which I'm sure they appreciated.

I was also in charge of the cooler and snacks within as it resided quite happily at my feet all this time (which greatly limited my sitting/sleep positions). We had made almost 200 Oreo truffles (ended up with about 40 left over), a couple dozen Scotcheroos, a bucket of gingersnaps, and a bag of double chocolate cookies. We also had apples, carrots, chips and drinks to consume along the way. Me thinks we made far too much food for ourselves because we were quite sick of it all by the end and didn't even finish it!

We had some very amusing moments in the car. We all traded easy-going jabs at each other and spent many hours laughing hysterically. One hilarious instance was when we played a prank on Josh. We were sitting at a gas station and Jess is like, "we should totally prank him when he comes back!" so we decided to throw crackers on his sit just before he sat down. Derrick was armed with the three Ritz crackers and as Josh went to sit down, he casually chucked them onto the seat. At the CRRRRRRUNCH!!! we all burst into hysterics, Jess and I practically rolling around in the back seat. Another rather amusing ride included making up stories sentence by sentence as each person took a turn adding to it. Here's an example:

One day Prince Derrick went out fishing. He caught a 50 inch trout. It ate him. So he was swimming around in the stomach acid for awhile. Then he used his amazing physics skills to turn the chemicals into a bomb and blow himself out. He sat rather happily in the fish guts on the beach. Suddenly a beautiful princess named Analea came by. It was love at first sight... when Prince Derrick saw the cracker in her hand. Analea left Derrick and the cracker to be alone with each other and walked off down the beach.

The rest were equally ridiculous but occupied us for about 20 minutes. 

As the hours dragged on, I would alternate between trying to sleep and watching my surroundings. From my position in the backseat I would stare out at my surroundings, unimpressed for the most part by these flat states. Seriously, from the desolate wasteland of southern Wyoming to the dried cornfields of Indiana, to the dead, brown fields of Nebraska, this part of the country is really rather dull. Kentucky was rather beautiful as well as southern Missouri. The fall colours in the trees were stunning. Other than that though, the flat flat flatness of everything was just so bizarre to me and odd to my senses. How I missed seeing even a distant mountain range! I really don't know how people do it!

It was altogether a very interesting trip both in the car and out. I definitely had a blast chillin' in my seat but... if I ever see the inside of the Buick again...it'll be TOO soon!

A "Fair-ly" Regular Day

Okay so, the Teton County Fair has been over for two days now but I have just now found time to sit down and write about it. For five days I lived and breathed the Rocky Mountain Ministries food booth and the last two days have given me some semblance of recovery enough that I think I can describe honestly what happened without exhaustion tainting my tale.

So basically, Tuesday was spent getting stuff ready for the fair: cleaning fryers, finding table cloths and decorations, getting coolers and such out etc. Then Wednesday morning the guys headed out early to set up the booth, put in the floor and lights and we followed shortly with the food, tools etc. So set up day was pretty busy for us just setting up but not very busy foodwise. However, the rest of the week was another story. Here is my typical day:

our booth

Get up at 8, get ready (close-toed shoes, hat and clothes that can get greasy and nasty), devotions, breakfast, be in the lodge by 9 or 9:30ish. Then we load trucks and head out to the fair grounds. There, we set up: snocones, deep fryers, BBQ, grill, food stuffs and cash register. About 10:30 Will, kid from the lemonade booth shows up asking why it took us so long to get there, orders a burger or some other such thing which shouldn't be eaten that early in the morning and heads back to his booth. Then we serve the few people who trickle in, try to survive the first round of the terrible guitar duo which performs three times a day, and if it's really slow we do monkey bars on the 2x4s which hold up the ceiling. (We even held a man challenge one day in which we almost split one of the boards...got a nice bruise on my palm from swinging up there but luckily now slivers.) If the slowness continues, ice starts getting thrown and we start eating the first of the deep fried oreos and scones (ugh so nasty but  delish).

Deep fried oreos

Then around 12 the rush begins and everything is chaos for a couple hours. I run cash with either Lisa, Jen, Cally or Holly and we take turns shouting orders, writing them down, grabbing drinks, taking money, directing people here and there. There are scones frying, burgers flying, philly cheese steaks grilling and snocones dripping.

We've got music playing, people shouting, metal clanging on metal as well as whatever act happens to be going on under the big top. I loved it. The noise, the chaos, the smells, the cheery people...it was fantastic. The mid-afternoon lull was always dreaded but we made the most of it with more ice cubes flying, lunch breaks, swing dancing and corn eating. (The booth next to ours sold corn on the cob with all these fantastic toppings. Jen and I went and traded them two cobs for a philly and WOW they were amazing. We were a little hesitant at first to try this odd concoction of corn, mayo, cheese, lemon juice and chili powder but I don't know if I can ever go back now! BEST way to eat corn, seriously!) The dinner rush started about 5:30 and usually goes steady till 8, a couple nights we went past nine! After that, we pack up, while still serving snocones and the occasional philly and hopefully get out of there around 10. Then back at camp we spent about an hour cleaning, preparing stuff for the next day and counting the days profit. Then it's to bed for 8 hours only to rise again and do it all over!

It was seriously one of the funnest weeks ever but also SO exhausting. We all decided that it's the kind of fun you really only want once a year. I mean, it just wouldn't be healthy to do it any more often what with the amount of deep fried food we ate. Ugh, I have never eaten that much grease in my life! We all would return home at night feeling like a deep fryer. I wasn't even that bad compared to those who spent the day over the grill and fryers. Oh, I have to put in a a good word for deep fried Oreos though. I convinced everyone to try them and then we started selling them and they went like CRAZY. By the last day we were also selling potatoes deep fried on a stick which were FANTASTIC as well as treating ourselves to deep fried Snickers which OH MY HEAD ARE SO AMAZING! Anyways, as you can tell, it's a good thing it's over or we would soon all die of heart attacks.

Tater Sticks!!!

Altogether it was a great time full of new experiences, fun fellowship with friends and a cool opportunity to practically serve God. One of the funnest parts was giving firemen and police officers all their food for free as a thank you for their service. Their reactions were always so great.

Anyways, that was super long and I understand if you gave up half way through. But if you read this far, thanks for joining me on this exciting retelling of my crazy week. It was definitely one to remember!

Slaphappy

As I drag my sleepy self around this morning I can't help but think back in appreciation for the reason for my drowsy-ness. After a long exhausting day of working on the AM book, I had an amazing fun-filled evening that has me still smiling this morning.

After dinner a bunch of us went out to the volleyball court and played several exciting games. I love how volleyball out here can be both competitive and hilariously ridiculous...at the same time! What with the pickles (yes pickles, this isn't a typo) in the grass, the ball getting stuck in the tree, the collection of unique sounds each person makes (okay not everyone makes unique sounds but I make up for those who don't), the nicknames that spring up, and the matrix-like acrobatics that have us landing on our faces, the game never gets old! So after playing until it was too dark to see the ball and hit it effectively, we headed in for a game of Fish Bowl (a lively combination of catch phrase and gestures). Shortly after that ended, Caela and I had a little laughter fit in which we lay on our backs and laughed for like 5 minutes straight, I'm not even kidding. my abbs were SO sore, I could barely breathe!

But the night doesn't end there! The whole group wasn't interested in playing another round of Fish Bowl so most of them left and headed to bed. But seriously, it was only 11! the night was still young! So the Rohrers and I headed to the lodge and after snagging the usual from the bread walk-in (chocolate-chip M&M cookies...and Tim grabbed some brownie cookies too...which we decided tasted an awfully lot like...squished, round brownies...surprise surprise), we sat down to play a game of Rage. Just one game mind you because SOME people wanted to sleep...cough cough...Missy and Micaela...

Well, what started with one quick game turned into two, plus a couple bind rage rounds. Not only that but the games stretched on and on as we constantly collapsed with laughter, unable to breathe or concentrate. It got the point where everything was hilarious. I mean, I was already at the point earlier as I lay gasping on the floor with Caela but now all four of us were barely able to sit straight. And so everything elicited uproarious laughter from "is there people in there?" (which scared Missy half to death) which turned into a ridiculous horror story about a lactose intolerant man wearing a day pack and talking on the phone (which scared Missy even more) to "why is there so many comfy chairs at this table" to "why is the coffee still on, we're gonna burn the place down". The climax was our two rounds of blind rage in which everything was just plain ridiculous and we ended the night with an amusing search for light switches (as they are NEVER where you expect in this place!). I don't know that I have EVER laughed so much, for so long in my life.

As I climbed into bed at 1am, I was still smiling. Oh the joys of slaphappyness!

Drainage

Back to working on the book this week and currently quite exhausted. I haven't felt this mentally drained in awhile. It's getting to that point where I start making odd noises to release pent up brain swirlings...if that makes any sense...

"Brain swirlings" - the confused muddle of shifting thoughts in one's head which comes from intense mental exercise involving many facts and opinions and ideas which all want to escape. As they are released onto paper or a computer screen, the left over fragments build up and need to be expelled verbally

So I've stopped working for the day and now just chillin, enjoying the sunlight filtering in the window, the wind in rustling through the trees, the birds singing and waving to the random people walking by. I decided today that I kind of wish we could go back in time and I was doing this project by hand because then I could sit outside in this beautiful weather and work. That would be just fantastic! ...except for the fact that it would take approximately 5312.64 times longer to complete this project and that just wouldn't do...

Things get scary

Evidently I have been working too long on this week's paper. It brings to mind the odd things which occurred during the writing of last week's paper...

I have this odd habit of making bizarre and apparently slightly scary noises after I have been sitting for a long time especially in deep concentration or exertion of the brain (hence, not reading a novel which I can do for a whole day with no negative side-effects other than a sore butt...these issues arise in activities more like, writing essays, researching etc). So last week I spent probably over 4 hours straight just researching, organizing and writing my paper on Hebrews 6:4-6 (which is like the MOST CONTROVERSIAL PASSAGE IN THE BIBLE). Suffice to say, it was VERY exhausting and though I enjoy this type of thing, I got bored. As such, I have the natural impulse to relieve the pressure of boredom building up in my very being by making outlandish noises. These could start off as over-exaggerated sighs, highish pitched squeally -type things, or rapid breathing. Last week, when I emitted one of these bizarre sounds (rapid breathing in this case), Natalie looked up from her study, gave me a weird look then broke out laughing telling me I sounded like I was in labor...well, I suppose I was laboring pretty hard but I don't think that's what she meant. It was quite amusing to the both of us and the laughter was a good break from study.

So today, I have only been working steady for about an hour and a half and I just suddenly "buzzed" really obnoxiously through my lips, expelling a huge burst of pent up air and energy that has been suppressed by this increasingly boring paper. This time there were a few more people in the bunkhouse and I heard immediately, "WHAT WAS THAT!?!?" One friend said it sounded like a bear's stomach rumbling. Another said, "I wasn't thinking that...but I won't mention what I thought it sounded like..." After more laughter, Natalie said it wasn't as bad as the labor pains so I guess that's something...

Bibles, commentaries, notes computer...ahhhhh!!!!

Because I have evidently grown too bored to work on my paper, I decided to take a break and post this. Unfortunately, I don't feel any more energized to continue for the next 45 minutes till dinner...I think it has something to do with staring at this annoying (but incredibly and unfortunately useful) glowing screen in front of me. These outburst don't tend to occur when I do such intense study by hand...I say it again: I was born in the wrong era.

Counting Sheep

It's said to be a exercise leading directly to sleep, for all those nights when sleep just won't come, count sheep. But seriously, I mean, if you've tried it you know, and if you haven't, well you knew better, that it really doesn't work. But, I was out of options last night and so I decided to try out the age-old trick.

At first the monotony had me thinking that maybe this was going to work. The sheep were stacking up in my brain, one-dimensional and all the same...however by about 16, this got too boring and they started to take on characteristics: old sheep with long white beards, young girl sheep in bonnets, cowboy sheep, skinny sheep,

fat sheep, sheep with buck-teeth, sheep with no teeth, sheep smiling, sheep crying etc. This went on for awhile but slowly the sheep because 3-dimensional and started moving. By the 40s there was a tap dancing sheep, a line dancing sheep, a sheep herding dogs, a sheep jumping over the moon, a sheep barbering a man's head and they got more creative over time.

Unfortunately, coming up with new mind pictures was growing exhausting and so by the late 60s I was back to monotonous plain old sheep. By the 70s, it was just sheep heads, the the 80s they had turned into ducklings somehow and by the 90s were fortunately back to sheep.

 By the time I reached one hundred I decided this exercise was fruitless and annoying. I thought about starting over at one (as saying one hundred and one would take too much effort) but gave up after about 10...I wasn't even imagining sheep anymore, just counting. So my mind wandered and I started writing this post in my head and so here we are...I eventually fell asleep around 12, long after the details of this post were put together and I was once again bored.

So, I have decided that the whole idea is nonsense and either bores you so that you can't continue or leads your mind on so many different paths that you get confused and more awake trying to figure out where the sheep are than sleepy.

According to Wikipedia it is "presumably, is to induce boredom while occupying the mind with something simple, repetitive, and rhythmic, all of which are known to help humans sleep." (maybe it didn't work because I wasn't imaging them all jumping one after the other over a fence, all identical and such...but I tried the monotony, it failed). However according to a study done at Oxford (people actually do STUDIES on this type of thing!?!?) it is less beneficial than imaging a calm seen such as a beach or waterfall (why do calm scenes have to have water in them??? and anyways, depending on the beach or waterfall, things might not be calm there at all!)

Interestingly one of the earliest references to this activity dates back to 1605 in "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes :

 "Let your worship keep count of the goats the fisherman is taking across, for if one escapes the memory there will be an end of the story, and it will be impossible to tell another word of it."

However, this sentence really makes very little sense to me so I fail to see its relevance...in other news, people of India and Pakistan would refer to the exercise as counting stars.

In regards to my further research on the topic I have found that there is very little information about the origin and effectiveness of this old folk lore. But I have discovered some interesting tidbits about the way shepherds in like the DARK AGES, actually, I don't know the time period, but they had this weird rhyming system of counting sheep...like, real sheep...I'm sure you wanted to know that. As my search has yielded nothing else which strikes me as particularly fascinating, I will here close my post. If you have more questions or interest in the subject...Google your heart out.

A bad day to nap

Back in Jackson for my last 8 weeks of study...moving on from that decidedly depressing topic...With the time difference and that wonderful thing called day-light savings, getting up at 7:30 this morning felt more like getting up at 5:30, as such, I was dreadfully tired all morning and could barely stay awake during church. So after a delicious lunch of spaghetti Alfredo, fried beans and garlic bread,  I read my Bible for a bit then decided to take a nap. As many of you would know, I don't nap very well - I can barely sleep in, never mind sleep randomly during the day but as I could barely keep my eyes open I decided it was worth a try, so I lay down and surprisingly am slowly drifting off. You know when you can like feel your brain start to lose it? like you start imagining the weirdest stuff and you feel all floaty-like, ya so I was in that state, enjoying it's delicious nonsensical-ness and SUDDENLY there is an outrageous ROAR like thunder and a large thud. Of course, my sleep-deprived yet half-asleep mind is jolted rather abruptly from its ease and my heart immediately starts pounding as my brain leaps in a million directions at once trying to decipher the source of this rude intrusion on my serenity. Thunder? Earthquake? Gunshot? Explosion? It doesn't take long for the mental image of the 6 inch sheet of ice and snow inching itself part way off the roof of the bunkhouse to come to mind.

Snow build-up and ice slide upon my return after break

Forest of icicles growing along lengthening ice sheet

Ice sheet in front of guys' door

I close my eyes and try to mentally calm my agitated body as I realize it was only ice sliding off the roof and crashing to the ground. (Normally, I would be up and checking it out but at that moment I was too tired and peeved to have my rest interrupted.) As such, when Natalie showed up a few minutes later describing the wreckage below, I had so drag myself up and go check it out. Indeed it was quite the sight and pretty cool to see but only minutes later, I was back in my bed hoping to get some rest. HA

Broken ice wreckage in front of girls dorm

Ice wall in front of guys dorm (note the post knocked over!)

I should have known that something like this is just too interesting and entertaining for a bunch of college students to ignore. Soon, there is half a dozen students outside, some clearing away the sheets of ice, some banging on the roof to dislodge more and most just standing around exclaiming, coming in and out and telling everyone else. At this moment, I ache for even the slightest bit of soundproofing in the walls. Yet, somehow I manage to just lay there with my eyes closed and slowly the sounds fade away. I think maybe I slept...half an hour. Basically, I plan on going to bed at 8, maybe that will be more successful...

To sleep or not to sleep? That is the question.

I am ever so sorry to not be posting. I'm sure if I were posting my posts would be fabulously philosophical and driving you all nuts. Unfortunately I have been very philosophically busy, ready and studying philosophical mumbo jumbo and going philosophically crazy...to put it very unphilosophically.

I'm tempted to take on Skepticism and therefore not have to do anything because nothing is really real.

Or I would love to be a relativist at the moment for then we couldn't be marked on anything because there couldn't be a right or wrong (which would be useful when you have no idea which is right and which is wrong...)

Ooooo, how about pragmatism!?!? Let's just say that this knowledge we are attempting to grasp is not practical and therefore...it's not knowledge sooooo we shouldn't have to learn it...or take a test on it...or write a paper

In reality...but wait WHAT IS REALITY...I am actually enjoying the class. It is just that I am exhausted and pessimistic about grades and never have any time to do anything except study, learn, read, study, eat, study and maybe sleep. (I'm giving up sleep in order to write this so be thankful.) Hopefully over break I will look back on the week and give you all something to think about...

I am pragmatically certain that I should now go to sleep for it is probable that I will be tired in the morning as I am psychologically certain I almost fell asleep today in class even though I am conventionally certain that class was full of practically useful lessons. Yet ultimately I have apodictic certainty that I will have no certainty of my understanding of all this stuff at the end of the week.

The Little Horn, the Prince to Come, the Beast, the Man of Lawlessness...aka the antichrist

So, no body told me what they wanted to hear about so I'm just gonna pick a topic. Seriously, you all have no idea how hard it is to just randomly blog about something that I am learning. We are getting so much information stuffed into our brains - IT'S EXHAUSTING!

So I have decided to enlighten you all about the career of the Antichrist (as interpreted by my professor). I never realized how many names this man has in scripture and how many places he is described and prophesied about!

He begins as the "little horn" as described in Daniel, and takes over revived Rome, probably before the tribulation (Daniel's 70th week) starts. Then now in power, he makes a covenant with Israel for 7 years. This signifies the beginning of the 70th Week. Isaiah calls this covenant a "covenant with death". You'd think, with all this warning, the Jews of that time would be a little suspicious at such a covenant! but they are going to do it or nothing else is gonna happen! So, now as Israel enjoys her "protection", the "Prince to Come" wages war with the nations of the world and manages to take them all over except Moab, Edom and Ammon (present day Jordan, east of Israel). This military career takes place during the first 3 1/2 years of the tribulation. Then the antichrist is assassinated (which isn't surprising as he would have lots of enemies after taking over the world) and he goes into the abyss (which is bizarre). He is then resurrected and commits the Abomination of Desolation (setting his image in the temple) and goes back on his covenant with Israel, stopping the sacrifices and the false prophet forces all to get the mark of the beast and worship his image or die. This begins the beast's religious career as he wars against all who practice a religion other than his (includes Muslims, Jews, believers, Hindus etc). At this time the remnant of Jews in Judea flee to the wilderness, miraculously being saved from the antichrist and are nourished for 3 1/2 years. Finally the Beast launches his campaign of Armageddon (which is not a battle but a series of steps AND there is no actually fighting in Armageddon - it is a base camp for the antichrist's armies). As the armies of the beast threaten the remnant, Christ returns, "the stone cut without hands" prophesied in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, destroys the antichrist's kingdom and he and the false prophet are thrown into the Lake of Fire (the first beings to be put there).

And there you have it folks! A brief overview of this scary person who is going to rule the earth. The man who has pretty much been fictionalized by media, the apocalyptic 666, Satan incarnate. He could be alive today - Satan is ready at any time to reveal him as soon as the "restrainer" is "taken out of the way" (2 Thessalonians 2: 7).  Somehow, this Prince to Come, a Roman will rise from inconspicuousness to full authority over the revived Roman Empire and eventually dictator of the world. How does this happen? How does the world with all her nuclear warheads and weapons of mass destruction allow herself to be overtaken!?! It is only explained by his intelligence, diplomacy, deception  and cunning. Perhaps, he will come as a hero during a time of great distress and unrest - we know the Rapture must occur before the 70th Week so perhaps this aids the beast in his take over of the world. Who knows - only God, and how thankful I am that He does! It is so hard to study this powerful man and yet realize that all his authority is given to him because God allows it. God is in complete control and in fact ordaining all of this to happen as part of His judgement of the earth. So much destruction but in the end - HE WINS!

Just call me Superwoman!

So, a bunch of us went snowboarding at Jackson Hole Ski Resort yesterday and had a BLAST! I just bought the beginner lift pass as that was only $25 rather than $91. However, by half-way through the day, Sam (my skiing friend) and I decided to call the pass the "limited-fun" pass. See, we had a lot of fun...it was just SEVERELY limited by having only 2 lifts, and basically 4 runs. We made the most of it though as I dragged her through the trees and over little jumps and it was definitely worth every penny. Even with the warm weather causing the snow to turn all heavy, it was still great.

On one of our last runs, we were going through the trees and we heard this little girl crying and I look ahead and see these two TINY girls on skis stopped beside a marked off area and then I see a little head beyond the poles and I'm like, "Oh man". I quickly whipped off my board and ran over and look into this little hole and there is this poor weeping child inside the hole, her legs spread apart against the sides so she doesn't slip into the water running beneath her (not like hugely dangerous, just a stream). I reached down and grabbed her hand and pulled her out and she is bawling in my arms as I try to comfort her. Sam comes up behind me and goes to get her skis out and I had to hold her just to be sure she didn't slide in. Then one of the instrutors (there were like a million because we were on the beginner hills) comes and checks that everything is okay, fixes the poles and finally the girls dad shows up (he was down the trail just sitting there). He didn't say anything to us or seem at all worried that his child had just fallen down a hole...I was a little miffed at him. And then he walked out with the one girl and left the other two stranded in the trees further down and the instructor had to help them out. Altogether it was an interesting experience and we were just so glad that we had gone down that trail and were there to help her.

Later, going down that same trail, our last run of the day. I'm going pretty fast, heading for the little jump at the end and I'm almost there and then suddenly, not sure what happened but I'm headed for the a trees. Luckily I ducked forward and just slammed my leg but, I've got quite the bruise there now. haha

It was a fun day altogether, but it got even better. After getting home, eating pizza, and showering, we all headed out to play broom ball. Sam and I went together in her car a little after everyone and we filled her car tires with air as they were low. We were pretty proud of ourselves as neither of us had ever done it before. Then, arriving at the rink, I just spent the time snapping pictures of my classmates falling all over the ice. It was hilarious and I can't wait to try it myself when I am not so worn out from snowboarding!

And that is the account of Saturday. After a week of exhausting study of Romans, I was so worn out, but it felt good. Bought my season pass to Snow King today so I may have more random stories from boarding. Stay tuned. :)

Home, a little unorthodox, but I got here

Was rudely awakened this morning by some hungry crows thumping and knocking on the roof. Apparently people think it is oh so funny to dump their pita bread stuffs everywhere and in doing so attract a million birds to come to the feeding grounds and then since it is so BLISTERINGLY cold out there, the bread is solid rock so the dear old birds fly to the roof tops and smash it on the shingles and patter about trying to eat the stuff. It's a good thing I love being home, or I might have woken up ticked this morning.

By the way, sorry I have been gone so long if you were wondering where I've been. Here is the story since I last posted. Sorry, it's a little long.

I don't really know what to write. This homecoming, this past weekend was not at all what we had all envisioned: big welcoming party at SEATAC, going shopping at the Outlet mall, staying up late looking at pictures and sharing memories and just enjoying being home. God had other plans and though I see His hand of timing through it all, it is still hard to adjust - hard to even believe all the stuff that happened the past few days.

I guess I'll start with Thursday. I got news that Uncle Dave wasn't doing well and my family was driving up to Kelowna to be with the family. We changed my flight to fly into Kelowna and my dear friends at the collage gathered around me and we prayed. Friday morning, in class, I got the text: "Uncle Dave is with Jesus. Hallelujah!" and well, everything changes. I couldn't go back to class but had a nice quiet time with my dear friend Elisha. God totally sent her there for me and we could comfort each other and talk and it was okay. Since I couldn't be home with my family, there was no better place for me to be. I thank God again and again for putting with that group of people. They were so awesome and supportive.

Leaving school was hard. We drove off in a big caravan at about 2 and it's weird how I feel like I've left a piece of myself there and with those people. God is really doing stuff in our class and I miss them already. Hours later I get to Tatiana's house and stay the night with her, then we drive out at 8:30 the next morning to the Denver airport (that place is HUGE by the way and just SLIGHTLY intimidating...I admit, I almost threw up but I survived). Got on the plane at 12, got to Seattle at about 2ish, got on another plane at 3 (oh but before that I had to find the gate - had to TAKE A TRAIN!!! - I felt so independent and smart finding it all on my own but in reality, it wasn't hard. The airport people are quite talented at making stuff easy to find - thank goodness!).

So I got Kelowna at about 4:30pm but had to wait a hundred hours to get off the little plane (which Dad told me was so small that we were going to do a loop-de-loop before we landed...didn't happen but it was atrociously loud in there). Then I had to wait a million years to get my bag - BY MYSELF because we came from the US and had to go through customs which was another billion year long line-up. However that wasn't bad because as I'm standing in line all antsy I hear a whistle, look up and through the sliding door leading out of customs I see my siblings with balloons waving frantically and shouting. I wave back and as the doors slide shut everyone in line slowly turns and looks at me and I'm like..."hehe, my family..." and I can't help but smile. So that happens a few more times and then suddenly I hear this garbled, "Annaaaaleaaaa???!! Analeeeaa!!" and so on...and my brother is at the wall (which is like not a real wall) and he is on the floor trying to see me under it...and then he is at the crack saying my name and I can see their silhouettes through the wall but what am I supposed to do, just yell back with all these strangers in line who already think I'm a weirdo?? haha This one old lady is like "they sound pretty excited" (I'm thinking...well that's an understatement, they sound like crazies!!!) and I'm like, "I've been gone for awhile.."

So I finally get through customs and there they are! My sisses with balloons and an obscenely bright poster and my Mom and Dad, my brother, my cousins, the Swaans, my grandparents and the whole seen is so perfect, well as perfect as it could be in the situation. After much hugs and a few tears, I get to hug my beautiful nephew, and then I spot a Tim Hortons cup and have an immediate craving and I want to kiss the ground cuz there is really no place like Canada, people!

It was hard though because my homecoming was tempered with the news of Uncle Dave and I was so glad to be there to comfort my dear cousins and Auntie but could've talked for a year about all my stories and couldn't stop hugging people and smiling. It really was a joyous occasion because Uncle Dave is in such a better place, but it is so hard being back here you know. I had bursts of joy tempered with sadness and it was just a confusing mix of emotions that really leaves you quite exhausted.

So we drive home on Sunday and I talked the ENTIRE drive home. Most of you won't be surprised by this. It was the shortest 3 1/2 hour drive ever!

It is so amazing to be home, back in Abby. A few things have changed...and the cold was unexpected (I just left this weather in Jackson!) but it's my town, my people. There is really no place like home and it's great to be back

Cakes, Quizzes and Cornpops

Yep, I'm still alive out here. Sorry about the delay in writing but it's been a pretty crazy week. I'll admit, today was super lazy for me and I could've blogged anytime. Don't ask me why I'm doing it now, at 11:30...

After a week of daily quizzes, lots of reading, deep theological stuff and an essay-type book report, today was blessedly quiet and I got a lot of chill time in. I started of the day with a solid meal of Cornpops (Canadian of course, the only way to go) and then Kaitlyn and I made 3 cakes for the cake-walk tomorrow. Oh, I totally forgot, tomorrow, instead of Halloween, the church is putting on a fun fair type thing and so I'm basically gonna be at the church all day helping set up and stuff. I've got to take some pictures of the cakes because we had such a blast. We made them all double-tiered and Kaitlyn broke the first one we made but we tried to stick it back together but it was doomed from the start. We ended up just making the huge crack down the middle and subsequent crumbled explosion out the side just look purposeful and lovingly called the cake "Landslide" as per Kenton's suggestion. The other two turned out really well. We made a carrot cake which Kaitlynn decorated amazingly with this nasty orange frosting and then a chocolate heart-shaped cake which I covered in chocolate shavings. They are pretty beautiful I have to say.

But that's not where all the cake fun ends. After spending like 2 hours making cakes, as you would expect, we were craving cake like CRAZY! Luckily we had rescued a bunch of store-bought ones from certain death in the garbage yesterday so we proceeded to chow-down on not so fabulous chocolate cake. I mean, I don't even know why we ate that much, it really wasn't that good but it was chocolate and we were craving...what else can I say?