Graven upon His Palms

Behold, I have graven thee upon
the palms of my hands;
thy walls are continually before me.
~Isaiah 49:16

Monday night Miss Josa spoke in dorm devotions and she brought up this verse. At the time I remember thinking, "That's a good verse," but I was soooo tired that night that I really didn't think much more about it. Today in my devotions I read the verse again. Matthew Henry wrote: "Some mothers do neglect their children; but God's compassions to his people, infinitely exceed those of the tenderest parents toward their children. His setting them as a mark on his hand, or a seal upon his arm, denotes his being ever mindful of them." In a sense it is like God tattoos us on His hand. We are always there, and He is constantly looking at us, thinking about us, and caring about us. In his commentary, Barnes says: "Thy walls - The meaning is, that he constantly looked upon them; that he never forgot them. He had a constant and sacred regard for his people, and amidst all their disasters and trials, still remembered them." What a wonderful God we have. To think that He is ever watching us and cares so much for us that even when we are going through trials we are literally in His hand, and we don't have to do anything on our own. He is there, not just walking beside us, but holding us, protecting us, and defending us. What a great God we serve.

*****Jay Cook State Park, Minnesota*****

More Heat!! UGH!

For some reason this morning I was REALLY dragging. It took me forever to get anything done. It was rather frustrating. :(
Classes went well. Nothing exciting happened in Christian Home. It was a good thing that I had a free period after that cuz I had to finish up some things that didn't get done earlier.
Chapel was VERY good. Bro. Randall preached, he sermons are always good, but this one was especially fitting in light of Johne dying and the fact that Bro. Randall was very close to him cuz he was on music groups for several years. Bro. Randall preached from Psalm 90, "So teach us to number our days..." It wasn't a message about dying young, but rather about making sure that we use the days that we are given to serve God. At the beginning of that Psalm it talks about living threescore and ten years, and possibly fourscore years, Bro. Randall added it up and 70 years comes to 25,500 days. That is all the days that we have to live, it's not very many. His point was what are we doing with those few days that we have been given? It was a very sobering message, and I don't think there was a dry eye in the auditorium.
My Christian Womanhood class was outside today! It was wonderful cuz everything was rather warm again today. :( Once again, it was a major ADD class, but hey, we weren't dying from the heat!
Nothing new in Intro to Missions. Just the same old, same old. I didn't play any games, but I was IMing and working on other things.
Work was HOT again! Goodness! The auditorium was 86 degrees, and the administration
building was 89 degrees! It was another "hair up" day! Mark it down in history, THREE days in a row I have put my hair up in some way!! LOL!

**********

I thought I was gonna get in SOOOOOO much trouble this afternoon while I was at work. I was vacuuming in the auditorium and I had taken my shoes off, cuz I couldn't stand the heat. Dr. Grimbilas (the Dean of Students) walked through as I was vacuuming and saw me bare foot! When I saw him my heart sank, cuz I thought he was gonna chew me out for breaking dress code. :( Instead he looked at me and said, "That's the way to do it, bare feet and your hair up. Stay as cool as you possibly can!" I was relieved to say the least, and I felt more freedom to be bare foot later on cuz he said it was ok, and if anybody were to write me up, all I have to do is go to him and he will take care of it!! YAY!! :)
After work I took some pictures, which will be on A Bug's Eye View soon, probably later tonight.
My roommate, God bless her, works in a coffee shop, and I asked her to bring me a lite iced vanilla latte (lite meaning skim milk and Splenda. She did, and it sure hit the spot! I REALLY needed it after working today. Not only was it nice and cool, but it also helped to wake me up! :)

*****My Latte*****

*****The cup totally cracked me up! Eco-Friendly! Isn't it wonderful!*****

*****HAHA plastic made from plants!!*****

HEAT!!

Since I have started the new blog with the main purpose of posting pictures, I will not be putting as many on this blog, but I will most definitely be posting some on here as well.
Sunday went well. Bus attendance was down, which was sad. There were only 30 some kids instead of the 50 some that usually ride. :( I'm guessing the reason for that is probably due to the weather. It was GORGEOUS!! At least the first part of the day was gorgeous, it got REALLY hot by mid-afternoon.

*****This was taken around 11:30 Sunday afternoon!*****

Bus drop offs were miserably HOT! The bus was rather warm to say the least, even with all the windows open. It did finally start to cool off once all the kids were off and we were on our way home.
There was a bit of excitement after bus route. Bro. Mike drives a limo for his boss as a second job. He was supposed to go to the city Sunday night to pick his boss up, so he brought the limo with him to church that way he could leave directly from there for NYC. He offered to take several of us for a spin!! It was SOOOO sweet! :) It was WONDERFUL! On top of everything else, it was air conditioned, something that we were all desperately needing! (By this time the temp had reached 90!) It was a blast!! :)

*****Looking from the front*****

*****Looking from the back*****

*****Total Sweetness!*****

*****Bro. Mushtaq, our maintenance man, posing with the car :)*****

So, that was the excitement of the day. :) I got all of my homework done for Monday, and then took a brief nap before it was time for choir practice. When I got into the auditorium it was HOT!! The thermostat showed 87 degrees!! Apparently the air conditioning is broken, so UGH!! Bro. Randall decided to move choir practice downstairs to the music room, which was cooler, but after putting so many people inside it got rather warm.
Church was pretty hot as well. It got really hot in the choir loft. I was glad that I didn't have to stay on the platform like the assistant pastors had to do.
After church I worked like normal. I vacuumed for over an hour, and with the temperature being soooo warm, I was rather hot and sticky by the time I was done working. I went through 3 bottles of water in 2 hours! I actually put my hair up, so you know it was hot if I did that since I NEVER pull it back in any way, shape, or form!
I was sooooo glad to come back to my room and take a cool shower before check in at 10:00.
The research paper for English Composition was due today. Mine was written on Joan of Arc.
World History was a BLAST!! We convinced Mrs. Donaghue to have class outside, because the class rooms were sooooo hot! :) There are four of us in that class, and all of us had a major case of ADD during class! I don't think we got a thing out of the class, but we all had a blast being dumb! :D It was fun!
Nothing else exciting happened in any of my classes.
I took some pictures today, but I think I will post them on my other blog.
Work was REALLY hot again! I put my hair up yet again! AMAZING!! Two days in a row!

*****This was the temperature in the auditorium this afternoon, it got even hotter later!! The class rooms were even warmer than the auditorium!*****

I came across this poem today and thought is was really good and really sobering!

His Plan for Me

When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ
And He shows me His plan for me,
The plan of my life as it might have been
Had He had His way, and I see

How I blocked Him here, and checked Him there,
And I would not yield my will --
Will there be grief in my Saviour's eyes,
Grief though He loves me still?

He would have me rich, but I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While memory runs like a hunted thing
Down the paths I cannot retrace.

Then my desolate heart will well-nigh break
With the tears that I cannot shed;
I shall cover my face with my empty hands,
I shall bow my uncrowned head. . .

Lord, of the years that are left to me,
I give them to Thy hand;
Take me and break me, mould me to
The pattern Thou hast planned.

~Martha Snell Nicholson

New Blog

I have started a new blog for my photography. Check it out here

Just what's been happening

I had a test on Friday in World History. I think it went well....I don't know for sure.
Other than that, classes went well, and nothing unusual happened.
Work really wasn't that bad yesterday. I cleaned the dorms, which is a change for me, and a nice change, so it didn't really seem to drag at all. :)
I did get more pictures, (shocking I know!! :-P) And, yes, I was up in a tree taking a lot of them....I couldn't resist, they were beckoning me!

*****Even dandelions are gorgeous!*****

*****In the tree*****

t

*****On the ground again*****

*****YES! Tulips!*****

I also managed to get some MUCHO better pictures of the tulips that my parents sent me on Thursday.

**********

Today the weather was absolutely GORGEOUS!! I was able to be outside quite a bit, and got some nice pictures, although no tree climbing today. I can't say it wasn't tempting though.

**********

*****Even weeds can be pretty*****

*****I can't go a day without taking pictures of tulips*****

I finished up everything for my research paper for English Composition tonight! :) That is VERY good, I'm soooo glad that I will be able to turn that in free and clear on Monday, never to write another paper until next school year!! YAY!! The joy of the thought!! :)
One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that yesterday we got our schedule for finals. They run May 8-13. I have 2 exams every day except for Monday, and I only have 1 that day. UGH! But at least once they are done then there is NO school for several months! I can't wait!
Tonight we got some shocking news. A guy who used to come to college here, and was on music groups at least one year, 2006, died either yesterday or today. He was camping and fell off a waterfall. Most of the freshmen don't know him, but I knew him because he was on music groups the year I came for music camp. His name was Johnne Gistinger. Please pray for his family as this is quite a shock to them, and really to everybody who knew him.

WOWING WEATHER!!

I woke up fresh and ready to go this morning which was amazing because I only got 5 hours of sleep, actually less than that, but I was ready to take on the world! My entire morning went well, it was really nice, and I wish that every morning went that way! I read a really good verse in my devotions this morning, one that I had never noticed before: Isaiah 25:4, "For though hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." What a comforting thought, how good it is to know that God is there for us in our hardest times. It made me think of this picture:

*****Yosemite National Park, CA, 2007*****

Christian Home was my first class for the day. A pastor from Maine brought 4 of his high school kids last night to check out the college, so they were in class with me, and also later in the day.
I spent my free period outside taking pictures of tulips and other flowers. With the early morning sun I got some gorgeous pictures, including an AMAZING picture of a daffodil, one of my best pictures ever!

*****Amazing Daffodil*****

*****Tulip bud*****

Chapel was good, I guess. I really don't remember much about it, guess my mind was still outside!
In Christian Womanhood we had the 2 girls from Maine join us. For some reason the room that class is in is the HOTTEST classroom in the entire building, I'm not really sure why, but that is the way it is, but today it was FREEZING cold!! So cold, that Mrs. Donaghue had one of the girls that works in the kitchen run down there and make hot water and hot chocolate for the class!! BRRR!!! I got my test back that we took on Tuesday, I got a 92% which is a B+, I wasn't too disappointed with that cuz I thought I had missed more than I actually did! :)
Intro to Missions was just plain old interesting, I really don't wanna even go into it! UGH!
After that class I was going past the office on my way outside when the secretary's husband, who was standing at her window talking to her yelled, "Hannah stop! You have a package!" I remembered that last night Mom had told me on the phone to be watching for UPS today. I had seen the truck come during one of my classes, but had completely forgotten. I was expecting a box of food or something, special, but not unique. To my shock and amazement there was a box from Pro-Flowers for me! My parents had ordered me tulips!! How sweet is that?? I cried! I was SOOOO excited! They are soooooo pretty!

*****MY TULIPS!! not a very good picture, it was taken on my phone, I will get a better one tomorrow.*****

After Intro to Missions I once again went outside and took pictures of a friend of mine. They turned out really nice! :)
I came back to my room and got some homework done before I went on a walk with Mrs. Phillips soon after 1:00 this afternoon. We walked for about an hour before I started climbing what I think are cherry trees and taking pictures! Oh my word! It was soooo much fun!! Mrs. Phillips took a picture of me taking pictures! :) It was actually a pretty neat shot!

*****New buds!!*****

*****Mrs. Phillips pointing out some especially beautiful blossoms*****

*****Back to tulips....they had opened and were GORGEOUS*****

I got quite a bit of homework done and did a little bit of job hunting this afternoon. I found out that the grocery store that I had had to fill out an application for 2 times isn't hiring....frustrating!
Church was tonight. It went well. Nothing too exciting.....

New Blog

I forgot to mention in my earlier post that I am thinking about starting another blog that has mostly just my photography. However, I am having a hard time coming up with a good name for it. If any of you have any ideas please leave a comment or get a hold of me somehow with your ideas! Thanks!

What's Been Goin' On

I had a wonderful surprise Monday night. Bro. Barnes, who teaches Christian Home, which is my first class on Tuesday and Thursday, sent me a text to call him when I was done with dorm devotions. So, I called him and he said that something had come up and he wouldn't be in class on Tuesday, he decided to cancel class!! :) :) :) Fine with me, and everyone else in that class!! The rejoicing in the dorms was rather loud!! It was AWESOME!!!
I didn't have to be ready until 9:20 for chapel! I still set my alarm for 5:00, but didn't roll outta bed til 5:30. I took my time getting ready, read my Bible extra, did laundry, got homework done, and straightened up my room! It was WONDERFUL!
Chapel was really good! Pastor Douster from New Jersey preached from Ezekiel 22:30, the title of his message was "The Person God Uses." It was amazing and VERY convicting. His 3 points were, 1. We must have a clean heart, Psalm 51:10, 2. Clean Head, Romans 12:2, 3. Clean Hands, Psalm 24:3-4. In his conclusion he said, "When God has control of your heart it will control your head which will send signals to your hands. The greatest need in the Christian life is your heart." WOW!! How important it is that I "Keep my heart with all diligence."
I had a test in Christian Womanhood. I don't know how that went, I remembered a lot, but there were somethings that my mind went completely blank on! :(
Intro to Missions was boring cuz Dr. Grimbilas went over the same notes that he gave on Thursday! I played Monopoly on my computer the entire class!
Work seemed went pretty well, but I was exhausted by the time it was done.
I went to bed before 10:00 last night!! I think I was really tired because of the fact that it rained all day.
Today was a normal wake up and classes. I had a REALLY hard time getting up, I'm not sure why cuz I got around 7 hours of sleep! I even fell back asleep this morning. It was really bad!
I had a test in English Composition. I think it went well.
Mrs. Donaghue was gone for World History, so we were given the answers to our homework and a review sheet for our test on Friday. We were out of that class early! :)
Dr. Akl, a deacon in the church, spoke in chapel today. He is an oral surgeon, but has his B.S. degree in Biology! COOL! He talked about Evolution, I loved EVERY minute of it!
We got our test results back in English Grammar.....I got the highest grade, it was a 75%!!! UGH!!!!
There was a quiz in New Testament Survey. It went ok.
Choir was nice, we got out 10 minutes early which is CRAZY!! We got out 5 minutes early last week. Normally we get out right on time, or a few minutes late. Its been nice.
Voice lessons went well. I hit a B-flat, not quite as high as last week, but it was still good. :)
It was raining again today, but I decided to take more pictures of tulips anyways. While I was outside I figured out that my setting for up close shots on my camera was turned off, so I turned it on, and the pictures turned out GORGEOUS!! I think I took a couple of my best pictures today! Totally AWESOME!

**********

I did some more job hunting this afternoon. I found a good possibility working for a photographer. I would mainly be taking pictures of horse shows! How sweet is that??!! :) He took my name and number, and we talked for between 5 and 7 minutes! AWESOME!! He said to call back the middle of May, he is pretty sure that he will be hiring somebody this summer! :)
I also started packing and going through stuff tonight! I threw away a LOT of junk, gave away some clothes, and packed some clothes and other things! My room is pretty clean right now! It's really nice! :)

A Busy Week!!

This entire week has been absolutely HECTIC for me. With the World History lesson due, and other tests, quizzes and assignments, I feel as though I've been run over by a truck! Many late nights, and early mornings made for an exhausting week.
Classes were normal yesterday. Chapel was really good. Pastor Kurt Skelley preached from Jeremiah 18 about the potter. His main points were: 1. We need a Master, 2.
After classes I went on a walk with Mrs. Phillips and Charlie. We had a lot of fun with "rock races." :) We were kicking rocks and racing them. I won quite a few times!! :) LOL!!

*****Charlie*****

*****The first and second graders were outside enjoying the weather*****

*****A bumblebee was enjoying the weather and the flowers*****

After our walk I went back to my room and worked some more on my World History! I spent hours on that class!! UGH!
Church was good. It was a nice break from World History! :) Bro. Dan Donaghue preached from Luke 15:11-8.
Friday was the big day for World History. I taught chapter 27, which was about World War I and the Great Depression. It was a LOT of material. I didn't finish it! I had to finish it on Monday, but will get to that a little bit later.
The class schedule was change on Friday because we had a split chapel, which means that the girls and guys had separate chapels, the speaker for the guys chapel hadn't gotten in until really late Thursday night, or actually really early Friday morning, so he had asked for chapel to get moved a class period later than what it usually is. So right after World History I had a test in English Grammar! I had not had very much time to study, so I was not really prepared. Oh well.
Chapel was really exciting. Instead of having a chapel service for the girls, we loaded up on a bus and went to the Stony Brook harbor and were able to just relax, take pictures, goof off, whatever we wanted to do. The administration had decided to give us a "mini-vacation" and all of us really appreciated it a LOT!! It was a beautiful day, and we needed the break.

*****Me and Nichole*****

*****Me and Dina*****

*****Me, Arrianny, and Mirta*****

*****I was able to get really close to this goose, I was almost able to touch it, but it wouldn't let me. The city girls, (Nichole, Mirta, and Arrianny) all from Brooklyn were terrified of it!! LOL*****

*****I thought this house was beautiful, I like the style*****

I really wasn't feeling very well on Friday, I was REALLY exhausted, so I took the day off work and slept for 4 hours! It was WONDERFUL! Even after I woke up I didn't do anything except lounge around. I fell asleep between 10 and 10:30 Friday night and slept until 7:30 on Saturday!! I got over 13 hours of sleep! AMAZING! It was wonderful and I could sooooo do it again!
Life got really fun on Saturday. Instead of doing my normal bus route I went with Bro. Barnes and several other college students to another bus route where for about half an hour we knocked on doors, in that time we were able to get 4 or 5 new families that wanted to ride the bus!! :) After that we picked up some bus kids, went to Subway for lunch (yay!!), picked up some more bus kids and then headed for Yonkers, NY for a youth rally. Dina was supposed to sing and needed someone to play for her, so I was asked to do that. There was a slight problem though, it was a Spanish youth rally, I don't understand much more than mucho, gracias, and muy bien. LOL! The rally went from 3 pm until 8 pm!! It was insane! There were 4 preachers, one of whom was Bro. Barnes, so at least I could understand what he was saying!!
I gave up trying to understand, and went outside and talked on my phone for the last sermon. I wasn't the only one who decided to get out, Bro. Barnes and his two sons that came with him also decided to leave! They went for a walk and found a Dunkin Donuts, smart people!! LOL!
The people that had come with us, weren't very happy with us for skipping out on them! :) I say it was their own fault! They could have left too!!
There was a meal that was served after the rally, it was REALLY good! MMM.....the rice was to die for! I love rice when it is cooked right, and nice and tender, but not mushy, that was the way this rice was! AWESOME!!
The ride back was pretty uneventful, although we couldn't find a Star Bucks anywhere, and when we finally found one it was closed! :( We decided to try Dunkin Donuts, cuz they are normally open 24 hours, well, it so happened that the 1 that we did find had closed about 15 minutes before we got there!! What a rip off!! We did finally find a 24/7 DDs and we got our drinks and food and were good to go!
We didn't get home until 11:15 Saturday night. I was pretty tired, but thankfully I had been able to get a lot of homework done, (I did hw at the rally when I couldn't understand a word!)

*****Jamecca taking a big gulp on our way to the rally*****

*****This was on the way to the rally, I thought it was pretty*****

*****Bro. Barnes preaching with an interpreter*****

*****My boredome expressed, a banana peel on the floor!!*****

Sunday started bright and early at 5:15. It really wasn't that bad. :) The bus kids were really wound up, so by the time I got back to church I was ready to kill a couple of kids, and was pretty tired. LOL!
Sunday school was really good. Bro. Randall talked about having patience. He said, "Stop trying to figure out what you are going to be doing in 25 years, and start trying to figure out what you are supposed to do TODAY!" What a good point! It's so easy to try to figure out what God wants me to be doing later, when really, I need to be figuring out what God wants me to do NOW! Bro. Randall also said, "Good things happen to those who wait." Yet, another good point!
The girl who normally works on Sunday afternoons was sick, so she asked me to work for her. I worked for about 1 1/2 hours Sunday afternoon. Then I got out my camera and started taking pictures, cuz there were more tulips in bloom!! :) :)

***************

Choir practice was interesting. As Brother Randall put it, "We have an ADD choir." That was pretty much it, the weather was GORGEOUS and nobody really wanted to be inside singing.
Church was good, Bro. Longhoffer, from Brooklyn, spoke on finances.
I worked for almost 2 hours Sunday night and then took a shower and went to bed. :)
I finished up World History today. :) I must admit, I really do like teaching, it's a good thing that is what I am going to be doing for the rest of my life. :)
Work was ok.....it seemed to drag though, but I think that is probably because it was raining and I really didn't want to be working. :( At least April showers bring May flowers!! :)