From the Rear

Pastor Ole and Pastor Sven

Ole is the pastor of the local Norwegian Lutheran Church and Pastor Sven is the minister of the Swedish Covenant Church across the road.

One day they are seen pounding a sign into the ground, which said:

DA END ISS NEAR!
TURN YERSELF AROUNT NOW
BAFOR IT ISS TOO LATE!

As a car speeds past them, the driver leans out his window and yells, "Leave people alone, you Skandihoovian religious nuts!"

From the curve they heard screeching tires and a big splash.

Shakin' his head, Rev. Ole says "Dat's da terd one dis mornin'."

"Yaa," Pastor Sven agrees, then asks, "Do ya tink maybe da sign should yust say, 'Bridge Out?'"

What I do on my Day Off

Yesterday I actually had a day off (something that doesn't occur frequently). I was desperate to fill all the free time on my hands (not really). I went to extreme measures to entertain myself....

Day 17: A Piece of Art

I must admit I am not a lover of art...in fact I avoid art museums like the plague and really do not understand what people think is so amazing about it. Yes, some of it is pretty, I guess, but a lot of it is kind of pointless (at least to me). So when I was trying to come up with what to post today I finally decided that Baby Blues was just as good as Leonardo da Vinci. :)

A Tale of Two Coyotes

The Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail.  A coyote jumps out and attacks the Governor's dog and, since nothing was done, bites the Governor as well. The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie "Bambi" and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural. He calls animal control. Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it. He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases. The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged. The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals. The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a "coyote awareness program" for residents of the area. The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world. The Governor's security agent is fired for not stopping the attack. The State spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special training on the nature of coyotes. PETA protests the coyote's relocation and files a $5 million suit against the State.  

The Governor of Wyoming is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks his dog. The Governor shoots the coyote with his State-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The Governor has spent $0.50 on a .45 ACP hollow-point cartridge. The buzzards eat the dead coyote.  And that, my friends, is why California is broke and Wyoming is not. 

Day 7: Five Things I Couldn't Live without

This post should not be as hard as the other ones, although coming up with a list of only five things is going to be a little bit difficult...

1. Salvation -- without Salvation and the work that Christ has done in my life I would not be here today. I don't know where I would be, or if I would even still be alive, but I do know that were it not for the love of my Savior and His work on Calvary, and my complete faith in Him I would not be certain that I was going to Heaven when I die.
2. My Bible -- this kind of goes along with Salvation. However, the Bible is what I use to continue my growth in Christ. I have read it through a few times and read many parts of it over and over and over.
3. A tooth brush -- I think this one is kind of obvious. Have you ever seen someone who has not brushed their teeth in a long time?! EWW! I thought about going into a long description of this, but I think I'll leave it up to your imagination.
4. Music -- Someone once said, "Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows the from Heaven to the soul."
5. My brain. -- any explanation needed? Although, I have a feeling my mom is going to ask whether or not I had a brain to begin with. Love you too, Mom! :)

PROGRESS

This afternoon my parents and I went to mom's doctor for her one week check up. The doctor was very happy with how the wound has been healing -- in fact it is about two-thirds of the way healed! Praise the Lord! I have been the primary "wound packer" (for lack of a better term) and Dr. Simon jokingly told me that once all of this ordeal is over I should take my state boards (the test that nurses take after completing nursing school). I laughed, but uh, yeah, the answer is NO! God called me to work with teens, NOT to be a nurse! :) The point remains, Mom is doing much better!

The other exciting news of the day is that dad took his level two testing for his job. And once again he passed the first time! (He has now passed both levels the first time and was told before the first one that a very low percentage pass the first time on either one of them.) The Lord has blessed him for all the hard work and studying he has been doing.

God truly protects those He loves. Dad's test was in Ft. Wayne, which is about a 45 minute drive from home. He had to at the testing center at 7:30 this morning. About 7:50 I was reading my Bible when my cell phone beeped telling me I had a text message. I grabbed my phone and saw it was an alert from a radio station, it said that a part of US 30 (the road dad would have taken) was closed due to an accident! I jumped out of bed, and ran to ask Mom if dad was ok. It turns out that he had driven through there only a few minutes before the accident -- in fact he was less than 20 miles down the road when the radio station began to cover the accident. Wow. God is good!

In other news of the day, since mom's doctor was in Goshen, of course we had to stop at the Dunkin Donuts there! Mmm....I love that place! :) And even more exciting, DAD GOT A FACEBOOK ACCOUNT! Wow...shocking, huh? :)

Day 4: A Favorite TV Show

This day is not nearly as hard as some of the others have been. I am not huge on TV - in fact my family does not have a TV connection, so I have mainly only watched the older TV show reruns, or when I am at friends sometimes I will watch something with them. I think my favorite show of all times to watch is The Three Stooges.

I do not have a favorite episode - there are too many of them that I have found to be quite entertaining. One of the funniest in my opinion is The Uncivilized Warriors. (Sorry, Youtube was being a pain again and would not post for me.)

National Whipped Cream Day!

Let's take a break in regular programming for some very important, life altering news! Today is

NATIONAL WHIPPED CREAM DAY!

This news is extremely important to anyone. Because it is only with whipped cream that so many desserts are made complete. How could you eat a banana cream pie, or a ice cream sundae, a cappuccino, or a hot slice of apple cobbler without a nice touch of whipped cream? It would be impossible! I therefore decree that all people, both young and old, should go to the store and buy themselves a can of whipped cream and eat it...right out of the can!

A New Disease: Junioritis!

I am sure all of you have heard of "senioritis." You know, that's the feeling that seniors (in college or high school) get when it's close to the end of their respective schooling, and all they want is to be out of school. FOREVER.

Recently I have discovered this new disease, "junioritis." This terrible bug has bit me quite hard. You ask, "What is junioritis?" I'm glad you asked! Junioritis as defined by Hannah's Dictionary of New Terms is when one is in his or her third year of school (in my case in college). The freshman excitement and newness has long since worn off...school no longer fascninates a junior, rather it has become quite dull. A person afflicted with junioritis knows that somehow they have made through more than half of their schooling, but alas! it seems as though the end is still not in sight! That senior year seems oh so far away! Ah yes! they see a light at the end of the tunnel...they think...but they're not certain if it's the end of the tunnel or a train about to run them over!!! The cure for junioritis is not simple at all. The recommended course of action is to stick to the stuff, keep going no matter how hard, and most importantly rely on God for strength. A few things that may help are chocolate, caffeine, lots of sugar, and sleep, and don't forget those wonderful friends that make one laugh and relax when the stress is beyond belief.

So Far So Good

I've had an awesome semester so far! It's been packed full with classes (I'm taking 18 credits) and work, but I've also managed to have some fun! The classes I'm taking are, Biology II, Advanced Composition, Speech, The Education of an Exceptional Child, Teaching Science, Bible Study Methods, and Christian Womanhood. I'm back to work at LEE's and Paraklese and working around 25ish hours a week (much better than last year and 40+ hours a week).

I decided to post some pictures that I've taken so far this semester. As you'll see it's been a blast!

*****One of my roommates and I have birthdays just 3 days apart, so we went out to Cheddars to celebrate! This was the awesome cake we split!!!*****

*****Kaye Lani, my roommate Casey, and Me*****

One night a whole bunch of us crashed in the coffee shop and played Catch Phrase. The following are the result of that goofy time:

*****Ian (need I say more?)*****

*****Anthony*****

*****Silas, Me, and Kaasi*****

*****Hunter*****

*****Kaasi and Casey*****

*****"Oh come on guys! You know what it is!!"*****

*****"Aaahhhh if only I could describe it right!"*****

*****Setting the timer*****

*****Theresa, Anthony, Hunter*****

*****By the look on Kaasi's face I'm failing at describing the word!*****

*****One of my roommate's soon to be fiancee, Jon*****

This past Friday a whole bunch of us went to the park and the guys played football and the girls played frisbee and watched:

*****!!Football!!*****

*****Me and Amanda*****

*****Me and Jess*****

*****Scarlet, Amanda, and Me*****

*****Amanda and I have a tradition of taking pictures of our feet...mine have the blue nail polish, her's are polka dots*****

*****My roommate Heather and her almost fiancee Jon*****

Random Story from My Life

I thought I would share this incredibly random story from my life that happened the other day.
I had been out and about job hunting (which if any of you think about it, please pray that I find a job with lots of hours) and then I decided to stop at Dollar Tree because I needed a few things.
Well, I get in line and it's my turn to check out when I realized that I didn't have any cash...only my credit and debit cards. So I ran the one card through and it was denied, which I thought was strange, but the cashier said that sometimes the card reader acts funny. So I tried the other card, it too was denied. She then asked if I wanted her to try to run my debit card through as a credit card, and I said, "Sure!" So she tried that and it was denied as well. It was really strange. I said, "Well, I'm just gonna have to leave it here cuz I don't have any other way to pay for it!" There was a guy standing behind me in line who handed the cashier money and said, "Here I'll pay for it!" I was like, "UHHHHHHHHH.....you don't have to do that!" He said, "I know, but it's not very much anyways!" My response was, "Ok, if you want to...Thanks!" Apparently he was a caregiver for mentally handicapped people, because he had two handicapped guys with him. One of them said (REALLY LOUDLY), "It was nice of you to do that for that lady!" And his response was, "Well, that's what gentlemen do for ladies!" I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me!!! It was interesting to say the least!
I guess I should probably thank the Lord for providing those things for me, and now I can, but at that moment I was soooo embarrassed! All of my friends got a kick outta the story so I thought I'd share it with all of you and I hope that you guys get a smile out of it too! :)

New Years Eve Fun!!

We went to my Aunt Beth's house for New Years Eve and then spent the night. We had a lot of fun with everyone, and of course took a million pictures! :) Just a word of warning, some of these pictures get a little graphic, so if you're weak stomached you may not want to proceed!!

*****Mom and Adreonna looking at "The Encyclopedia of Immaturity"*****

*****I don't think any explanation is needed for this picture!*****

*****My adorable cousin Jenna - I love the messy face and fingers*****

*****A new cousin, Ashlin, I think she's gorgeous!*****

*****And another new cousin, Austin*****

*****Samuel and Will*****

***The whole group of us*****

*****Ashley*****

*****FOOD*****

*****Ashlin, Mom, and Aunt Beth*****

*****Some intense play dough time!*****

*****Another adorable cousin, Jayde*****

*****We did a white elephant gift exchange*****

*****He's probably trying to figure out WHICH present looks the best!*****

****Yes, that is a plunger in his face - no it had never been used before*****

*****Will dressed for Success!!!!!*****

*****Me and Adreonna*****

I love the way her eyes are- that's a typical Adreonna look!!! :)

****Yup, the plunger is stuck to the ceiling - my family is crazy, what can I say?!*****

*****And we finished the evening by watching "Up"*****