Some pix

The stirfry

Pretty good, huh? Yummy!

Tyler State Park

Erin playing with a fish

The poor, terrorized frog that Erin caught (and dropped a few times)


The fish were all too small

Benaiah fishing again

Our "family"

Memorial Day

Look at my white family... hahaha

And again



At Martha's suprise party! Yay for all the Lipsys in a family photo! (Lydia, Joanna, Pastor Lipsy, Esther, Mrs Lipsy, Nathaniel, Beth, Pete, Martha, Dan)

An update

I left my wire at school so I can't post the lovely pictures. And now it's approaching 11pm so I am going to bed. So much for that.

Oh wait, you wanted more? Ok, here's a picture from 1989. Hehe. Mahal kita, Tay!

Grade change!

Mr Allen emailed me that he recalculated my grade so now I have an A- in the class which brings me up from a 3.63 to a 3.79!!!!!!!! Therefore, 4 A-'s and 3 A's!

Edit// Make that a 3.80

Ahhh so much homework! I need to start living in the library and beginning researching for my paper. I don't know what to do it on because there are a lot of interesting topics. I have the feeling the next 9 weeks will be as bad as the last 2 weeks of last semester. Heh.

Ok, food journal time.

Monday:
I brought some adobo that I had made on Friday. We cooked rice and I went to the produce store and got some veggies to steam. It was good finding the produce store (closest to a market that I've seen) walking distance para mag-market-market. ;) I also found Aldi and compared prices with Redner's (the second cheapest among grocery stores... except I heard Genaurdi's (sp?!) has good deals if you use coupons) and it's a lot cheaper for some things. We spent forever deciding what to have for dinner the next day. Walter said he'd make pasta, so he mixed it all up Monday night and put it in the crockpot on low the next morning so it cooked the whole day.

Tuesday:
Benaiah and I went to the produce store and got vegetables for salad and in the process discovered sayote. We had spaghetti (pasta...) and salad and some bread that night. Pretty good in spite of the hot sauce Walter put in. By the second meal we had attracted some more people. It's fun because there are a bunch of us in the kitchen area every night getting dinner together. We have a lot of fun. ;) We sat around deciding what was for dinner the next night. It took about an hour because we're really organized like that. We finally decided on tinola.

Wednesday:
I went out to Aldi to get meat at 8am, but I found out it opens at 9 so I went to Redner's and it was on sale! The night before we had decided to budget the meals to a dollar a person which actually covers it. We also started a sign up sheet with what's for dinner and people who decide to join just sign their name and contribute a dollar. Benaiah went for the vegetables while I was at work. I threw the tinola in the crockpot when I got back from work and then went to visit Millie for a while. I showed her my yearbook and she liked it. I'm not sure how the tinola went over with people (except for Benaiah and Roberto (who is half-Filipino)). We had leftovers this time which was nice because I had some for dinner tonight before I went to babysit.

Thursday:
We had fajitas. I had bought enough chicken for 2 meals from the night before so I dumped the rest of it in the crockpot Wednesday night and Brent shredded it and put it away for the next day. We saved the broth to maybe make soup. Walter got the idea to try to make the wraps in some sort of cooker thing that I don't even know what to call it. It didn't work. Because I babysit on Thursday, Walter and Benaiah went out to get the stuff for it. After I got back, I took a nap and then went for a walk in the backyard, aka the forest/PBU trails. I was so sad I didn't have my camera because there was so much wildlife! The trees have really filled out and it was so cool to see the changes. I hadn't been back in the woods for months so I hadn't seen the results of the cleaning up they did a while back. So that was cool. Then I came back and the guys were making dinner and then Brent decided we needed salsa and went out to get some.

Friday:
We decided to make today "fend for yourself". A couple people came over to find out what was for dinner... haha sorry we're closed!

Well the kids are in bed right now (I had to put all 3 down this time instead of just Aidan or Aidan and Luke because I had to come at 5:30) and I have mounds of homework to do. Aidan watched Scooby-Doo tonight. Poor kid, one of these days he's going to have to face reality and read intellectual stuff like The Aeneid. Haha.

I worked this morning. I went in at 8:15 to get it over with. Supposedly I'm supposed to work all day, but there really is nothing that can keep me occupied that long. I did a lot of stuff and left after 4 hours. Then I went on another walk through the woods, this time with my camera. I really need to find out what poison ivy looks like. I didn't get any, but I know it's out there. I tried climbing a tree, but I didn't get too far. It was too big and the branch I wanted to get to was too hide and there weren't any smaller branches to aid in reaching the big one. What a lame tree. I worked on homework until Ariel and Alicia (Ariel's friend who has been living in our room for the week) came in and distracted me. They were getting ready for Mattias' wedding, but Ariel changed her outfit about 50 times. I lost count. I'm glad it takes me 5 minutes to get ready for anything. Haha. So I got distracted and then I had to go look for dinner before I went to babysit. Anyway, homework calls my name loud and clear. Bye.

I thought this was so attractive so I had to post it. too

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Oh and here's another

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

All my grades are in. You know what's depressing? I was one class away from a 3.84! If Mr Allen changes my one grade (he forgot to put in all my 2 Corinthians questions) I will have a 3.68. It's sad how one grade makes you drop so far! But still, I am very thankful to God for helping me through all 18 credits! And now I am going to try even harder!

OT Wisom Books: A-
Pauline Epistles: B- (Should be B)
Prophetic Books 1: A-
Ed Tech: A
Emergent Literacy: A-
Foundations of Special Ed: A
Integrating Music/Art/Health/PE: A

Grading system at PBU is generally:
A = 95-100
A- = 93-94
B+ = 91-92
B = 87-90
B- = 85-86
C+ = 83-84
C = 79-82
C- = 77-78
D+ - 75-76
etc, etc

I wish there were no such thing as A-'s like most schools! Haha! I have decided that school is addicting. Once you get on a roll, you just want to keep pushing. Yeah, very addicting. And the fact that our grading system is so hard, it pushes you even more. Maybe that's part of the whole "molding young men and women of character" thing. Something about teaching discipline maybe? No wonder nobody graduated Summa Cum Laude! (3.9 and above)

Oh yes... the hike. It was longer than we had anticipated. We thought it was around 9 miles, but it was more like 14miles. Surprisingly, I'm not that sore! It was quite fun except for the fact that we had 2 water bottles between the three of us. We got gatorade at the end. After the first 10 minutes, we thought we had reached Sunrise Mt. Then we realized we hadn't and we walked for about an hour and got to a fire tower. We thought we had then reached Sunrise Mt but the fire dude on top of the tower showed us we had barely even made progress. Haha! We finally reached it and we were dying for water. There was a random motorcycle dude who wasn't too bright and Kait asked him if there was a water fountain at the parking lot about 100 meters down the path. The guy said "Well there's a porta-potty..." HA! Catherine and I cracked up. Anyway, we hiked almost 6 hrs straight w/ a few one minute breaks here and there. So by the end we were quite tired. Catherine and I were way ahead Kait and we were waiting for her at one point and suddenly we heard this noise and it was Kait filling the forest with her singing. She was singing "On the Street Where You Live." It certainly filled the forest!

We started the hike talking a lot (mostly about our mothers and the things they used to do when they were our age and what we'd be like when we're mothers) and towards the end we were just too tired. Oh and we talked about why on earth our parents let us go on a hike without an adult present.. and then we realized we're supposedly legal adults. Haha. Kait nearly killed us while driving home... ok, not that bad. But we were thinking how stupid it would be to die in a car accident pulling out of the state park where we had just hiked 14 or so miles! So Catherine called her mom and told her how far we had hiked so in case we died, at least the parents would know how far we hiked. Haha.


We went to Friendly's at the end. I still think it was a shame to put back all the calories lost. Haha. I had salad and soup for dinner and I shared some type of brownie thing w/ Kait.

For your amusement

Flashback!

So this picture sums up the last few weeks of school! I was minding my own business trying to type notes on my computer, read commentary after commentary, listen to music, and briefly check my voicemail when Philippe popped out of nowhere to take a picture of me "doing many things." Haha.

So the semester is officially over. People have gone home... it's so bittersweet. These last 2 weeks were incredibly busy and I thought I'd never hit the deadlines... and now it's over. So sad. I feel like there HAS to be homework due next week! So I'm going to do as much Lit and Arts reading as I can to get ahead. I miss school already. I hope next semester's classes were as fun as this past semester's. I haven't officially picked a favorite class, but I didn't have one that I absolutely hated (like past semesters). AND I only skipped class once (for a good cause). Not that I'm in the habit of skipping classes a lot...

I went to graduation and saw some people end the college chapter of their lives (unless they want to come back and get a graduate degree). And then I realized that Lord willing, I'll be up there too (although I'd rather not walk up the aisle and on stage thank you very much) not too far from now.

After graduation, Serina, Katrina (and their parents), Elena, Chanhthu, Patrick, Walter, and I went to the food court and had our last lunch together. (Colleen was already on her way back to NH) Can't believe the year is over. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone (except the geeks that are staying all summer like me). Katrina and Chahnthu aren't coming back next year. I'm already looking forward to next semester. Elena and Colleen are going to be suitemates with Jessi and me! And we're on main campus!!!!!

The weather has been beautiful! I love it! I could be outside forever! Except I just discovered that ticks are prevalent in the grass here. That's annoying. I didn't know that, so of course I was lying on the grass a lot. And ticks carry lymes disease. Agghhh.

So I decided to make a summer to-do list:
1) Survive 5 classes! (I am so excited! Except for the first class)
2) Work
3) Exercise and take advantage of the outdoors
4) Read The Sovereignty of God and More than Conquerors
5) Work on (and finish) my scrapbook from my trip to the Philippines LAST summer
6) Start compiling an album of the past 2 years at PBU so I won't have to compile 4 years in the end
7) Learn how to be very creative in cooking using a microwave, a hotpot, and a rice cooker
8) Practice my flute and the piano
9) Read as many kid's books in the library as possible
10) Actually accomplish some of the things on this list

I should take a nap. But why??? I don't have to drive back to school tonight!

Oh by the way, I mentioned watching "Facing the Giants." Well it's actually a good movie! I thought it would be one of those "Christian" movies that really have nothing to do with Christianity other than a wishy-washy type of faith. Granted, the acting was not all that amazing. It's a sports movie but not nearly as dramatic and well done as your typical sports movie like, say, "Remember the Titans." However, the Christianity portrayed was quite decent. Basically, it was about believing that nothing is impossible with God. The main plot was about a football coach who was facing a very terrible football team, people that wanted to get him removed from being coach, and on top of that stress, not being able to have children. It was a Christian school he was coaching in, but not a very strong Christian school. There was a man who walked the lockers every day, praying for each student as he passed their locker. One day he went in and talked to the coach and basically encouraged him to have faith and "prepare the fields for rain" even though it seemed there would be no rain. So the coach spent a lot of time reading his Bible and in prayer and then went in and with a whole new attitude. His attitude actually spurred revival in the school. At one point he asked his wife "If God never gives us children, will you still love Him?" His wife was committed to still loving God in whatever circumstance He put them in. Anyway, basically the soccer team made it all the way to the State finals and won. He then talked about how nothing is impossible with God. And then in the end his wife told him that he had "made the team... the daddy team." So yeah, for a Christian movie, it was pretty good.

Ok, picture time!

PS The Provost made a grammatical error yesterday during graduation. It bugged me.

SPRING SEMESTER IS OVER!!! So far I only have 3 grades in, so it makes me look really smart... until the rest of the grades come in and pull it down again. So far I have an A and two A-'s! I took a Dr A exam and it took me an hour and a half and I had to redo the first half because I realized something I had done wrong. I got a 97!!!!!!! (I could have gotten a 98 but I made a STUPID mistake) Yes!!! So now it says I have a 3.79. I wonder what it will look like when everything is in. Agh.

Let's see... I spent the day moving! Such a pain! I moved one carload of stuff down to Heritage this morning and then Walter was on main campus with his truck and he took my fridge (aka "ref") down. I didn't really unpack in Heritage because I'm lazy. Then I ate lunch outside on the walkway (the graduation banquet was today so we had to go to the Eagle's Nest and the plates were styrofoam so I went outside. It was gorgeous today!!!! Then I went to work and announced that I had no desire to be there because it was sooo nice out and Sarah said she didn't care if I left early. Sweet! I only stayed an hour and just got the mail out which was the only thing that really needed to be done. Then I spent the next two hours loading my car with NJ stuff and cleaning. Since then I've been hanging out in Heritage except for the time I went walking all over campus looking for Laura so we could get pizza. Zeeno's Pizza turned into the second PBU cafeteria. All the hungry students were down there. Haha. We ate our pizza outside on a hill because it was so nice out.

Tonight I am going to watch "Facing the Giants" (some sort of sports movie about a Christian guy or something... Colleen likes it) with Colleen and Elena and company and go to bed. I have to clean out the rest of my room and go to the graduation and then leave.

Yesterday we girls went to the park for Cyprus's birthday. It was LOVELY! We spent most of the time doing cartwheels, tossing Walter's very useless frisbee, and taking pictures. Next semester, to kick it off, we're going to dress up and have a tea party by the stream at the park. =) I'll post pics some other time (including ones from Easter and everything after that... life has been too busy lately!).

What are some past events...
* Student Appreciation Banquet. Now that was fun. The profs were all in aprons (except Mr Oliff) and were waiting on our tables. It's fun to have Dr Benware and Dr Hirt fight over tables. Haha. It was highly amusing.
* Fiddler on the Roof was GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Loved it!!!

Yeah there was probably more but it kinda got lost in studies and I don't remember anything anymore. Oh well!

Anyway I have nothing else to do. Soooo see you!

PS This post was quite short, UC. Happy???