Isn't it classy

Our lights

The Nativity

Stocking and nativity (the third stocking is Jesus)

Bre putting ornaments on the tree

Bre putting lights on the tree

Putting the Tree together

What's up

So this last week has been busy but good (well mostly). I have actually been sick for the past week or so and I lost my voice but I am starting to feel better and my voice is returning. All the different classes are winding down and getting ready for finals (woot). I have my last writing conference on next Tuesday and the paper is suppose to be on culture changes, so I am going to write about the differences between the military chapel and normal churches. I also have a term project in biology due on the same day and I thought that those would be the last two writing assignments, but today I found out that I have two more papers due in one of my classes on the day of the final (bummer). Yeah that is pretty much what I have been up to school work and sleeping off the bug I have had. Not all that exciting but it is life.

Redwoods

So we had an amazing trip and visit with G-ma and G-pa G's. It was Katies first time to go to California so she was excited and really enjoyed the Redwoods. We were able to get a lot done at the house for G-ma. umm yeah it was really good.

We found the road

Can you see Katie? (this picture really makes me realize how small man is)

Katie's first time to use a hatchet

Me getting ready to cut the prone tree (I was not able to get the saw working Don came over and cut it for us with his saw)

Katie waiting to pull down the prune tree once it was cut

Katie Doing dishes

Katie Putting up a curtain rod (the curtains are floor length and suppose to help stop the cold air from going from the river room into where they live)

Rock Wall

River in the morning

Backyard where it was torn up

Fence into the backyard

Happy Birthday Dad!

ok...so we really tried to make this work...it kept freezing and cutting on us. Hope it does! We love you DAD!

Are headless neighbor (he and his son are in the play)

Rachel and Bre

American Gothic couple (they are in the play)

Me!! I am a fantasy warrior princess

Bre a Pirate

Me at Wal-Mart

Bre at Wal-Mart

Bre before Speech class

A dress that a friend and I dyed for her halloween custome

Katie (the friend) mixing up the dye

Bre and Issac waiting for writing class to start

More students from the writing class

Just for you Mom

Guess What!!!!

I got an A on my last essay!!! The teacher says that I am a good writer that I show great reasoning (although my reasoning never matched the class when we went over reasoning?) and development. Now that I am starting to understand how to write thesis statement and how to develop outlines it is becoming easier. I also have a nifty little book with all the does and don't of writing i am getting my use out of it (lol). I have my last mid term in an hour or so...

Molly and Leah from Spokane are coming to visit this weekend. Bre and I have play practice tonight.

Life moves on...

Random Info

Because it's illegal to say "Heil Hitler" in Germany today, Hogan's Heroes episodes airing in Germany re-translate the German soldiers as saying "How high is your corn?"

I made the play!!!! That makes me really happy. I went to try outs and they picked me not because there was nobody else but because they thought I would do a good job! WOOT

Saturday's are not my days

Okay so last Saturday I was pulled over for driving to slow.

Today I ran to Wal-Mart to pick up a few items. When I came out of the store, my right side rear tire was completely FLAT. I pulled out the spare and the jack and the different bar things and then I was looking at it and going "hmmm Dad said the jack had to go in a specific place or it could do damage...but what was that place?" I was going to call Bre and see if she could find a EBC guy to come help me out (Dad I think you showed me how in Malstrom if not there it was Elmendorf) because I could just see me forgetting to do something and the tire rolling away as i was trying to drive. You know like in one of the old movies where the person is driving as happy as you please when they notice the back half of their car is passing them (g). But then (as I was about to call Bre) a young man walked up and asked if I needed some help. Now I lived in Spokane for four years before moving here and every winter I would always have to be the one to start helping someone in trouble and then some guys might help. So I was shocked, but very pleased. He not only helped me place the jack he changed the whole tire for me. The whole time he was very polite and nice. I was speechless, chivalry is not as dead as I thought after all.

So now I have to get my tire fixed...

Jared and Arieall

So I was looking in the cupboards to see if we had any popcorn kernels and I found two of the ding dongs we got that night we had you two over lol. Bre and tried to eat them and think happy thoughts of you two but they were stale and it ruined the moment (g).

More stuff (don't you love my titles)

So after classes on Friday Bre and I had a friend coming over. I found out through the grape vine that there was some financial meeting taking place at the same time. So I set out to find someone that would take notes for me. I eventually found someone that was going and asked him if he would take notes since I had "a prior engagement" another young man that was standing there said "Wait I did not know you where engaged!!" oy veh

Bre ended up getting called in to work so Rachel (the friend) and I watched Nicholas Nickleby it is a movie based off of a Charles Dickens book. It was really good and I would highly suggest it.

The high school nest to use has started having games that are very loud on Friday nights and Saturday morning. Anyway I need to do some homework so I will write later when something has happened.

Another quick update

So we have been doing mid terms this week and we just got are grades back from speech. I got a 95% on the weekly homework and a 90% on the mid term itself. I also just took the biology mid term. I knew pretty much every answer for the first two thirds of the test but somehow I complete managed to study the wrong thing for the last third. But so did pretty much everyone (lol). So I had to make educated guesses, I'm sure I past (hmmm maybe I should not say that) I think I will get either a C or a B though not the A I was hoping for.

I am continuing to help Cathy Hammer on Thursdays with a Children Bible class that she does with some elementary kids. It is a lot of fun and I am slowly figuring the kids out.

I have started going to the improve group here on campus on Thursday nights. I really enjoy doing this. I love improve, I am really excited about the school play and I can't wait to here back on what they have decided and what part I am doing. I am trying to refuse to think that they are going to cut me since I did receive a call back and she did say that if we had a call back we would be in the play. But I keep thinking that if it is a musical there are so many people that are more talented than I am.

We have a friend coming over this afternoon which will be fun. Anyways I need to go, do a little more homework it never hurts to do more and it just might help.

Chriastian Mother Goose

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

Humpty Dumpty shouted amen

the Lord can put me together again.

Okay so this is my first essay that I did and I got a "B" on it. Which is so awesome...She said that I have a good grasp on the English language and that it is well developed. She said that I am actually a good writer. But she also showed me what to work on to continue to pull the grade up (oh thank you nothing is more frustrating then not knowing what to do to get a better grade). Such as fragmented sentences, the use of comas, smother transitions, and repetition. So I still have a lot to work on, but there is hope. Class is starting so bye.

My life as a Christian College Student

For the past week I have been keeping a very close watch on what I have been doing with my time. As a result of these observations I have come to some realizations about my life. My life, as a Christian student is out of balance, because I give my quality time only to homework, I need to regain balance in my life.

I will talk about quality time, so here is my definition of what quality time is. Quality time is the time that we can best comprehend what is going on around us. For me that time would be first thing in the morning and first thing in the afternoon. I cannot put together coherent thoughts after 9 P.M. knowing this about myself I go to bed early and wake up early so as to make the most use of my quality time. The problem comes in when I am only using my quality time for homework. This creates an imbalance in my lifestyle; because I am getting all of my homework done but every other aspect of my life is suffering, because of the lack of time I am devoting to it. As a Christian student this is not the correct way to handle my time.

As a Christian student I am called to a different standard than most students. The Bible has this great narrative of two sisters and how they reacted when the Lord Jesus entered their house. Mary went and sat at the feet of Jesus, listening to what He had to say. But Martha was busy working on all the details that were present because of His visit. Martha out of frustration goes to Jesus and tells Him that He should make Mary help her, His response was “…"Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."”¹ Jesus says that Mary has chosen the good thing, that is to say it is far better to sit at the feet of Jesus than it is to get caught up in the daily grind of life. I as a Christian student need to spend time with the Lord in devotions, sitting at His feet and being nourished by His word². Often I feel like Martha running around working on homework

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and forgetting to spend time with the Lord. Another important aspect of being a Christian student is the need for fellowship among other believers “but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another…”³ the fellowship of believers is also discussed in the book of Acts, where all the believers came together of one accord. People in general need fellowship, it is part of our human nature to desire to be with other people, and feel like we belong. But for a Christian it is important that we are spending a good amount of time with fellow believers. So that we can be refreshed and recharged by our fellowship with other believers, from this fellowship we are then able to minister to others. It is also important that as believers we be involved in ministry. The last recorded things that Jesus said before His ascension to heaven in Acts was “…you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."”⁴ This is a call to ministry, not everyone is called to fulltime ministry but all believers are called to be involved in ministry in some capacity.

For me, my life as a Christian student is out of balance. Due to the value I place on my academic education, which can be seen by my use of my quality time. I am giving my quality time only to homework. One of the reasons that my education is so valuable to me is because it is a means to my goals; which is mission work in Israel especially with an orphanage. My academic education has also always been a way of proving to myself that I am valuable. That is to say, I have always tried to be academically wise enough, so that I could look at myself and see past my other flaws. The problem comes in with the fact that I value my academic education so much that it is controlling the rest of my life. The first thing I do in the morning after my shower is work on homework until it is time for classes. I have one period off and during that period I do

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more homework. After all of my classes have finished I will then go back to my apartment and do more homework. When I reach the point that I cannot concentrate or I am finished with homework then I will do devotions. This is not giving the Lord my quality time it is giving Him my left over’s, the time when I really cannot think well enough to be effective. Or sometimes I just won’t do devotions at all which is even worse. Another aspect of how my lifestyle as a Christian student is imbalance would be that I am not spending time with fellow students, or believers, above what is absolutely required by Eugene Bible College. I am using all of my quality time on homework, to further my academic education and giving no time to anything else. A further example of how this value that I place on my academic education is creating imbalance is that I do not spend time finding out what is going on in the world. Unless someone tells me what is going on I have no idea. All of this combines to create a very imbalanced lifestyle for me as a Christian student.

It is important for me to regain balance in my life. If I do not regain balance I will be useless to the ministry that I want to be involved in. An important issue that I need to address in working towards regaining balance will be making my devotional life a priority. As a Christian everything that I do needs to flow from my being; that is from who I am. But if I am not spending time with the Lord, who I am, will not be who the Lord wants me to be. I have found that for me to make something a priority I have to make the conscience choice to devote quality time to it. With that being said I have been making sure to do my devotions in the morning when I first get up. The other area that I need to regain balance in is with fellowship with other believers. A couple ways that I have been trying to address this issue is by studying in more public places where there are other people around. I have also been taking the time to talk to

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people and to try and get to know them. I have been actually working on remembering people’s names. The Lord has really convicted me that if I go through college and get really good grades and yet cannot interact or sympathize with my fellow humans what good will I be. I have also taken the time to start attending one of the weekly night activities. I am working on developing the Lord’s heart for people, and that can be done through spending more time with the Lord and with other people. I want the Lord to be the center of my life. I no longer want the academic aspect of my education to be the center of my life. So keeping this in mind I am really trying to regain some balance in my life as a Christian student.

Watching my life for the past week is going to be really beneficial to me on the whole. Not only did I realize that my life as a Christian student was out of balance. Because, I gave my quality time only to homework but I have started making the necessary changes in my life to regain the correct balance for a Christian student. This includes spending time with the Lord, spending time in fellowship with fellow believers, spending time in ministry, and getting my homework done.

1. Luke 10: 41 – 42 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

2. 1 Timothy 4: 6_b (NASB)

3. 1 John 1:7 (NASB)

4. Acts 1: 8_b (NASB)

Driving to Slow

Okay Mom and Dad do you guys remember the discussions over the summer about whether than actually would pull people over that drove in the left lane. Well tonight while I was lost and trying to find somewhere to turn left. I was pulled over for driving to SLOW in the left lane. After the trooper was satisfied that I was not drunk and that I was just a stupid out of stater that was lost he let me go without a ticket. He did however let me know that it is against the law to drive slow in the left lane it is meant for passing. So lets add that one to the weird laws I have found out about. It is also against the law to pump your own gas and to top off your tank. Hmmm I wonder what other weird laws I will find to break while I live here.

So I wrote a very nice and long blog post and then blogger would not let me post it :( Anyway I am really loving school. I enjoy busy and having stuff to do. I also am really enjoying all of my classes and all of the teachers. I want to be like Ms. Lee some day. She is so amazingly sweet and sarcastic. I was in her earlier class and Bre was in the later, but there was over 20 people in the class I was in and only about 6 in the one Bre was in so two of us switched classes. Now Ms. Lee because she address everyone by their last name is having a good time of it. The other day in her class she commented that in some meeting one of us came up and some asked which one the blond or the brunette. She was a bit confused to tell us the story since I now have more of a brunette hair color to. I dyed it again and this time it did take better it actually is a shade of brown some of the blond is still visible but it just gives it a highlighted look. I'm sorry down it also has just a hint of red. Work is still going really well. I volunteered at the scholarship dinner which was really fun. We wore Black and White and scurried about making people happy. The perfect type of job for me. My academic adviser and I have started looking into different options for an internship, so I'm open to hear ya' all bid :) The financial person and a professor from elsewhere offer a Hebrew class, I did not know about it for this term but he gave me the Hebrew alphabet to work on and said we would try to do it this next term. So far I am the only one this year showing interest. There is so much more still going on...But I am going to try and sleep...BUT I do have the laptop in bed with me so Japanese branch of the family feel free to wake me...

Oh one more thing on Thursday night I received a VIM at work. It was a good VIM. The people at the building I clean called and told brothers that I am doing an amazing job the place is cleaner than they have ever seen it. So Brothers gave me another gift certificate.

Me at the Coast
Me studying

Baby Josiah

My books and netbook

Bre with her Netbook

Bre and Rachel

Bre and I

Bre eating (everyone had free meals in the cafeteria until thur)