Well then...

I haven't posted in a while! Oh well... didn't miss much. Haha.

There are days when the list of things that need to be done seems insurmountable and the deadlines are coming at way too fast a pace when you step back and realize, "God will see me through this... take it one step at a time" Then there are the days when something happens and you are positively beaming with joy. Such a day is this one. Get this: I have 12 credits this semester. I went to my Tuesday night 5 hr class and Dr. Vasso says, "You know this isn't required for your program. You need to check up on this." I talked to my advisor and sure enough, I have more than enough grad credits! I had no need for Global Trends in Education! I dropped it. (And I am sorely tempted to sit in on a Tuesday night class with Dr. Hardesty because he's just amazing and I never got a chance to take him.......) This means I have WAY more time to research and do a more careful job on my IDP. Along with that, my chapter due dates are flexible which means I can spread this project out longer! I wish I could sit in on Pauline 1 with Dr. Hardesty. I wish I could take piano again. However, I do need to utilize the free day of no class to do homework! I might still sit in at least once on Dr. H's class. I celebrated by bonding with a piano after lunch. I'm in linguistics this semester (for fun... it's an audit!) and I am falling in love with language. Music is a language in itself. I miss piano lessons. I miss music becoming more than symbols on a page as my teacher made the music tell stories and have feelings and emotions. It's like reading a story. A reader can follow the guidelines of a story but without making the words come alive, the story can be dead. A musician can follow the music on the page, keep perfect time, and to some extent, follow the written symbols for volume and tempo, but without making it come alive, the music is dead. I can be methodical in my playing and I don't always just let the music become music. Last semester, music became music. I miss it. Not that music ceases to be music, but that I have ceased to go to lessons and have whole new worlds opened up right beneath my fingers. (Ok, not MY fingers... my teacher's fingers... my fingers are still learning the language) Not to be dramatic or anything...........

I have recently moved into the library. I could probably bring my sleeping bag in here and just camp out all day and all night.

We had a snow day yesterday. I spent it reading Dispensationalism by Ryrie. It's a tough read!

I have taken to walking to school every morning. I also walk back if it's still light out. I love it. In the early morning, on a sunshiney day, it's beautiful!

I need to go to work soon.

This picture failed to attach itself to the previous post

Why HI there, ya’ll! (Said in a very Southern drawl)

Well, folks, the picture here is a good display of my opinion of my blogging: Are you serious? Yes, I do believe I have failed to develop my writing skills as of late and have next to nothing to say. I read over some old posts from back when I was a carefree freshman and I was quite entertained. My posts used to be somewhat interesting and hold a lot of memories. However, those carefree days are over. As I logged into IQWeb to print off my course syllabi I realized once again how each semester piled more and more work upon me. Obviously, I am ignoring the homework looming over my head and am not doing a lick of it. Shame on me! (I did finish my Theories of Learning pre-course work today, though)

What else is new in my life… Like I said, my life is uninteresting! I start classes on the 21^st and life gets crazier from there. There is no life outside of school, apparently.

Here are some pictures I stole from Andy. When all else fails, post pictures! These are from the Helping Hands dinner. Eileen is really not THAT much taller than me.

Meet Abby. I was her buddy that

night. We made bead…project…things. Yeah.

Dear Mom,

Thanks for teaching me how to dress fashionably. This is my outfit of choice for hanging around the house. Do you think I did a good job?

Becky

While my computer is borderline functioning, here are a few more pics. These are our "Family pictures" that we took for our Nexus family. Nexus and Enrollment Operations have groups/families and we are all trying to earn points toward some prize (which I don't even know what it is...) and one of the ways to earn points is to take a family picture. We took multiple and it was fun doing it. Soooo here are some of the pics...

Got a little squashed at the bottom

Too bad we weren't evenly lined up!

James thought it looked like a band picture so he's doing his air..banjo...thing

James is actually behind us but he ducked down at the last minute.

Some pics for once

I went hiking with on Friday at Federal Hill.

I was trying to beat UC with ugliest self portraits

I always thought I was the only one who took lots of stupid pictures of myself...

Well Happy Thanksgiving! Here's a video to amuse you.

Why, hello! I am currently sitting in the library and have been in front of this computer for 3 and a half hours doing work on my IDP... and my head hurts. I got a big chunk of the final project for Educational Research done, though. Hurrah! And by the way, if any of you wonderful readers feels inclined to give me a Christmas present, you can contribute to my Word 2007 fund. I need it for writing my IDP next semester. I've been bonding with the computer lab computers in the library because they have Word 2007. I don't understand the program, BUT it does have automatic APA formatting for citing and bibliographic needs. It's AMAZING in that way! APA is such a pain, especially since I've so far gotten away with MLA even in the grad classes. Oh well.

Today was quite the tiring week. I did manage to write 2 papers. I had a position paper for Ed Psych due Tuesday but I got an extension date on it because Dr Mac said we could but turned it in on time anyway. The extension date made me feel like I was doing it way ahead which is why I got it done. Haha! I have a psychological problem. I also got my doctrine paper done which is due in 2 weeks. I wanted to knock those out of the way so I could write the section of my IDP that I need to do. I'm also trying to do a book report on a book about the Cold War. It's much more boring and confusing than the book on the immigrants. The writing isn't as interesting either. I could summarize the Cold War in a few words, but unfortunately I think it has to be about 5 pages.

In two weeks I have due: Doctrine paper, Ed Research final project, book review, Ed psych exam, and teach a lesson. After that, my life gets much better, except for White Glove.

Tonight there's a really cool concert for Veteran's Day. It's called The Greatest Generation. They're playing some hymns such as "Abide with Me", "For All the Saints", "Eternal Father, Strong to Save", as well as some patriotic stuff, movie soundtracks, and a couple marches. I sat outside chapel during their rehearsal last night and they sound AMAZING. Dr. Emmons is reading some letters that are often read at funerals of veterans or something. They have slideshows and stuff. One of my friends is in band and she said she almost cried during the one song. So the not cool part of the concert is that I can't go. I have a previously planned dinner date with our former MuKappa advisors... and we've been trying to get this date since September. I'm looking forward to that too though.

Saturday is a worldview conference. I'm going and I'm excited! Afterwards, I'm going with Jenn to the house of the Walton's for a missions dinner. (Mr. Walton was kidnapped in the southern Philippines for about 24 days several years ago). That should be interesting too.

I just realized I don't only have a half hour until dinner... I have an hour and a half! They haven't changed the computer clocks in the library yet. I suppose I should work on my book report. I'd rather take a nap. I've decided to begin the habit of getting up at 5:30 and going to bed at 11:00 so I can study more... it was working until this morning when I didn't get blanket victory. I think my eyes were in rebellion and didn't want to get up. I got up more around 7:30. Haha. I don't foresee much sleep next semester either so I should get used to it.

Ok bye!

Happy Election Day (tomorrow)

And it is He who changes the times and epochs;
He removes kings and establishes kings;
He gives wisdom to wise men,
And knowledge to men of understanding...

For His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
And His kingdom endures from generation to generation.
And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
But He does according to His will in the host of heaven
And among the inhabitants of the earth;
And no on can ward off His hand
Or say to Him, 'What hast Thou done?'

It snowed in October!

Post a picture of yourself.

I am... tired.
I want... to get an A on my Doctrine midterm
I have... a little shadow that goes in and out with me.
I wish... to get a head start on my IDP
I know... that they don't know that I know they know.
I hate... shoes.
I fear... C grades
I hear... Sesame Street songs.
I crave... chocolate.
I search... the Academic Search Premier far too much.
I always... greet my neighbor with a loud voice in the morning.
I usually... go to bed late.
I am not... a genius
I miss... not being a senior.
I love... school.
I never... succeeded in tagging a squirrel.
I rarely... get to go to the park.
I cry... over homework.
I lose... my cellphone a lot.
I am confused... in class.
I should... do my homework right now.
I worry... about my IDP.
I dream... weird things.

I have to buy Word by next semester. Great sadness.

Blast from the past

Three years ago

Three years is NOT a long time ago yet looking at this, it seems like soooo long ago! It's so weird. Three years never seemed huge until I came to college. Maybe it was because my life never really changed all that much in 3 years. Here I was worrying about Doctrine 1 and OT History and math... and now I'm in Doc 2 with only Doc 3 left for my Bible degree, I'm in class with Dr Van Billiard again but this time we're talking about Education Research in a graduate class rather than math concepts... I steer clear of the library unless I have to, and the upstairs library is freezing now. Oh yes, I have the same teacher for Social Studies now that I had 3 years ago for Teaching Bible, my first education class at PBU. Wow... what a ton changes in such a short time!

We celebrated our senior privileges and went to the pub for chapel! It's kind of a tradition -- during class chapel, seniors do theirs at the Great American Diner/Pub down the road. There were 100 of us and they were expecting about 50. Warren should have just preached to the entire pub since most of the population was made up of PBU seniors. The funniest part was that he was doing a devotional in Lamentations 3 and sometimes it's awkward to walk into if you have no idea what the context is... he was in the process of reading it when the waitress was handing out food. Anyway, looking around, it was so weird to see so many of my friends that started out as freshmen with me 3 years ago. I was at a table with Danae, Katie, Chris, and Elizabeth - we've been friends since the beginning when we all lived in Memorial. Danae lived across from Chris. Katie and Elizabeth were suitemates. Now Danae lives with me. Katie and Chris are still suitemates and Elizabeth lives with Chris. (Janita was working and couldn't come to chapel.)

Just look at www.xanga.com/pbudays from August 2005 on... it's entertaining... maybe more so for me than you.

I got a pink backpack at the thrift store today. Hooray! It's a pain to try bike to school with my computer back pack so this one is smaller, NOT a computer back pack, and less flimsy than my first blue backpack I got when I went to Essex County College... and besides, it's PINK! And it was $2.50 and brand new. I got Silverster and the Magic Pebble too... oh and a little kitchen decoration that's actually really funny.

Geography center for Teaching Social Studies

You know what's annoying? We have 10 article critiques due for Ed Research in 2 weeks. However, we're not allowed to start them because we won't know how to start them until the end of Thursday night class. Dr Van B's reasoning is so that we will have pressure and will get used to deadlines for when we do our IDP. Waaaaaaaaah!!!! I like starting things 2 weeks in advance! This defies all my habits of anti-procrastination!

Awkward moment of the day!

Rather than do homework, let me share my awkward moment of the day!

I finally remembered to carry my friend Brett's rubber ducky around in case I saw him to give it back. (I took it from him at the end of last semester and I completely forgot to give it back to him and have been slowly bringing it closer and closer back to PBU.) Anyway, he was sitting at a table, so I told him to catch the duck and threw at it him. He ducked and it hit the floor and bounced into the lap of a man eating by himself. The man was either a visitor, an IJS student, or a grad student. Either way, it was a little shocking for him to find a rubber duck in his lap and to find a whole table of college students laughing/turning red. Brett and I both apologized profusely. He thought Brett had thrown it at first. HAHAHA. He was really nice about it but I was mortified... well, sort of. If it had been a professor or even the president Dr Williams, I think I would have crawled into a hole until graduation. But it was actually really funny too... and now Brett has his duck back.

Happy Early Constitution Day

Dr Williams talked about the Constitution today. He read a list of attempted ammendments to the Constitution. He almost lost the whole chapel when he read the one about the 1893 attempt to rename the country to the United States of the Earth.

Check it out!

Maybe some day I'll post pictures and some wonderful blackmail videos of Elena. Last night when I got back from class, she had some Tang and apparently the sugar did her in because she was bouncing off the walls. She was lying on my bed serenading us "operatically" about life as a PBU student. It was a strange night.

I need to be reading right now but I'm not. Today is such a gorgeous day. It's not conducive to studying! I rode the morning shuttle to the tune of "Fun, Fun, Fun" (till Daddy takes the T-bird away). Yeah....... interesting.

Chapel was really good. A guy from Urban Promise spoke on innercity schools mostly and how solid, good Christian education should not be only for the rich. I saw there's a week long "mission" trip during Spring Break to Frederick Douglas School in Chester with World Impact. I want to look into that. It's such a good school. I loved it when I visited for a day during missions conference. It only goes up to 3rd grade, at least it only did last year. I like it when professors talk about our "teaching ministry" rather than our teaching job or career.

Anyway I really should do my homework before I have to go to the beloved dishroom.

Hi

I figured I should probably write something on my sadly neglected blog. We got internet in our apartment only yesterday.

So I started my last year. It's so weird to be a senior. I'm so antisocial. It is so much more enjoyable to come "home" ever day instead of going to a dorm room. We turned our apartment into our little home.. and I just noticed one of my pictures fell down. Silly 3M. I'm only on campus really for class and work. It's great. Today I biked to school and that was nice. Faster than walking and sometimes faster than the shuttle because the shuttle only runs every 20 mins and it takes about 5 minutes to bike... probably less coming back since it's all down hill.

Classes are great. I dropped my audited class (and I still had to pay to drop it.. sniff) and since I didn't want to miss out on anything I signed up for piano. Hahaha! I have one of the best pianists as a professor... which scares me. He's unbelievable! I've heard him play and now I feel like I'm in kindergarten. I start on Tuesday. He knows Jessi's grandma really well so Jessi said to just tell him I know them and he'll be nice. Haha.

My favorite day is Friday, not because of the weekend but because I don't have anything until chapel and nothing after chapel! MWF have my 2 favorite classes but Monday I work 3 times and Wed I work 2 times with 3 hours in the dishroom at night. So I look forward to Friday when I don't work and I get to enjoy class. ;) Except I think I have to babysit on Friday. But that's ok.

I had the first of my 2 five hour classes last night. It was actually fun. We did a lot of research. It's the prep class for doing my master's thesis next semester. Thankfully I have an idea but I need to tweak it a lot. Gaaah... it's stressful being a senior.

Speaking of being a senior...... I had my senior pics taken. The sitting is free and at least I get in the yearbook. Nobody really buys their pics anyway. I figured I'd just go to experience it even if I won't bother getting the pics. They're probably awful. The sitting was horrible. I had to turn my body one way, drop one shoulder, turn my head, lean back, lift up my chin.......... so the smile will probably be very fake and very pained. I looked in the mirror to check the cap and gown thing.. wow, freaky. It looked more official.. graduation is coming already?! Ok not for another year and a half but still! All my friends from freshman year are talking about graduation and stuff now. It's weird. All the freshmen are still running around stressing out a bit but not entirely overwhelmed and having 4 years to look ahead to. Lucky. Haha

I need to read for my book report. It isn't done yet and it's due on Thursday and I'm already stressing out. I had hoped to do it last weekend or at least finish it by yesterday but apparently that didn't happen. Oh well. Bye!

Announcement:

I HATE PACKING AND I WANT MY MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually on the bright side, this is the last year I have to do this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SENIOR!!!!!!!

Thought for the day

I want to go home. Oh well.

Nothing better to say

So this post I dedicate to my adorable, lovable, cute, angelic, and very stupid dog Pip.

Today I spent a lot of it terrorizing my dog so he'll miss me more. He loves the attention. This morning I made him beg for his breakfast. Then I played tug of war with him but I got tired of fighting him so I tied his rag to the grill on the outside of the window and cheered him on in his war against the immovable steel. Hahaha! He really got into it. I just stood on top of him and yelled "GRR!! COME ON! PULL!! FIGHT THAT THING!!!" He is so dumb, I love it. Then we ran out to SM to get a really small suitcase and apparently Pip is afraid of suitcases. (What's new!) He doesn't like the sound of them rolling. So I chased him around with them... he eventually sat outside in the rain because he was too afraid to come under the carport in case the evil suitcase was there. I had already put the suitcase in the house, but he kept creeping around looking for it as if it would jump out at him suddenly. He decided it would be safer in the house so he ran in and was confronted by the evil suitcase. HAHAHAHA!!! He'll get over it in about half an hour. What a dumb dog. That's why I love him. ;) Nobody else pays attention to him anyway, so he appreciates getting teased after the fear wears off. I'm trying to make him into a man. Unfortunately he's afraid of almost anything. At least he hunts and kills cockroaches and occasionally lizards. That's one of his favorite games. Whenever the garbage men come (which is rather rare and sporadic), my mom moves the garbage cans and he chases all the lizards that were living underneath. He used to be afraid of the trash cans too... when we got them, he spent the entire day barking at them.

YAY PIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah and lest the adorable munchkin Booger feels left out, he's pretty cool too but his skills are a little undeveloped. He's only capable of knocking his entire cage on the floor and making a mess. And Booger is a guinea pig, if you're confused. He looks like a little football and he has a black spot on his nose, hence the name Booger. He's not very friendly though.