sucker punched

happy halloweed everyone... i am kind of curious as to what y'all are going to fress up as... please, do tell.
i am either going to be a sack lunch or corn on the cob.

so this morning, i was reminded that you can check the status of the classes that you want to register for by looking it up online and seeing whether they were open or closed... since i register tomorrow morning, i went and checked...
closed...closed....closed...closed...
4 out of my 7 courses were closed.
:l
that caught me off guard.
you may remember, but my schedule was pieced together ever so perfectly, and now this messes things up super bad. i have been trying to move things around, but i can't because the classes that i have that are open still are ones that are only offered at one time so can't be moved.
oh the pains of scheduling classes.
so i can petition closed courses, but the chances of getting all of them are super slim. out of panic, i emailed my advisor and asked what to do and if petitioning was something that would help. she gave me some helpful tips for what to say when petitioning for the courses (did i mention i love my advisor?!).
ick, so now i am in this weird mood...

hmmmmmm
arrrrrggg

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

basically, imagine olive's scream (from little miss sunshine) when she listens to the message on the answering machine about the little miss sunshine contest...

that's what i did when i read the 10-day forecast...

FINALLY!!!! my very very very first time having snow in my forecast!!!!!

it actually says rain/snow showers, and the weather changes so much that it probably won't be the same in the next 24 hourse, but i don't care... i have snow in my forecast!!!!!!!

i was first looking at the pictures of the forecast, you know how they have suns, or clouds, or raindrops... well, i got to this picture for tuesday, and it looked really weird... i was like, i see some raindrops, but what are those other things mixed in??? i don't get it...
(see, it's super small, so it's hard to see)


then i read the forecast, and i saw a foreign word... so i tried to sound it out... "s... sn... snoooww... snow? snow!!!!!" it pretty much went like that.

:)

monday monday

gotta love the mommas and the poppas... they're great.

speaking of great, ultimate update is we placed 6th out of 23 teams (pretty rockin) and we only lost to the team that eventually won the whole thing (we had to play them twice... stinkies). i even got a sweet tshirt (score!)
we got back a little after 11:30pm last night... yes, a very long day, and i was exhausted. in fact, i woke up at 7:30am this morning for breakfast, went and ate, came back, and went to sleep for another 2.5 hours. luckily my schedule now allows me to do that.

speaking of schedule, i register for classes on thursday (registration times are assigned to us) and i think it's the last day, so i am hoping and praying that i get all my classes that are all planned out right now... cause otherwise, it's not going to be pretty... did i mention that i am super excited about next semester's schedule (if i get it)?

speaking of excitement in relation to school... declaration no longer has anything to do with independence... last week i officially declared my major. again, i am super excited! it feels good to declare!!!
and before anyone even tries to pull out these statistics about how many times people change majors and what percentage of people will end up with a different major than they started with, let me vent... i am aware of those statistics (thanks to too many people) and i am not ignoring those statistics, i am not denying that those statistcs have a chance of being true to me (although i think the chance is very very slim), i am just following my heart right now... and trust me, i have had more affirmation than anything lately. so don't tell me about those statistics, i am aware... and quite frankly, i will slap the next person who pulls out those statistics on me...
can you tell i am a bit bitter :)
end of vent...

speaking of vent... the guy i played against in the ping pong tournament tonight had such a tough serve that basically every time he served i would miss hit the ping pong ball and it would fly straight up and hit the air vent above me. it was best 3 out of 5 games to 11 points... rally for serve. so, it pretty much went ping pong rally on, and then it was over. it went pretty fast, with me losing horribly... but it was fun... and judging by the fact that the last time i played was probably that time that chrissy and i made it over a hundred in that one rally at house church, i think i fared rather well.

speaking of church, at wendy's on the way home from ohio last night, there was a group of over 20 menanites ("amish people who can drive and go to walmart" as it was explained to me last night) were there... it was awesome!!!!!! they totally had the amish get up (i love their outfits... i wanna get me one of those hats that the ladies wear)... and they were very nice. i had a conversation with one while standing in line, she was just asking where we were from and what-not. and to add to the exciting amish atmosphere, there was a group of about 15 senior citizens (all well over 70 years old) enjoying a wendy's meal. and then there was a group of 15 college kids (us). wendy's was the place to be last night, it was hoppin'.

speaking of hoppin'.... actually, i will not say what "hoppin'" reminds me of because it isn't appropriate... lets just say it was the graphic that was on the tournament disc for the ultimate tournament, and i was rather disgusted by it, so i did not buy a disc... sadly, yet another look at college ultimate culture.

speaking of culture, i have a 4-page paper to write for my communications and culture class that's due tomorrow. i should get on that and start writing.

speaking of writing, in case you haven't noticed, i have been purposely writing "speaking of ______" to see if y'all would get annoyed... or even notice that i was doing it. if you haven't noticed, go ahead and hold your head in shame, because it should be pretty obvious.

speaking of obvious, is it pretty obvious to you guys that this should be a good time to end the post?

speaking of ending the post...

o"hi"o... hammers and stones

"hi" from ohio.
so we played ultimate frisbee from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on the front lawn of a rather large mansion. the front lawn could probably comfortably fit... um, i dunno, 10 soccer fields on it. ya, huge. we won four games and lost one game, so tomorrow we will be playing in the championship round.
so i've experienced the culture of a large ultimate tournament.. i will leave some of it out... but there was one team of guys who had obviously gone to the thrift store some time that week changed outfits very often, some of which included dresses, some vests, bright parachute pants, and icky enough as it is seeing fat hairy guys run around with their shirts off, one of the outfits was a speedo. gross... i know... the only thing worse than hairy guy pits are hairy guy thighs. and the guys on the team, knowing my extreme disgust of guy thighs counted off super fast so that i got stuck with guarding speedo guy. gross, and lets just say that thankfully the point was a fast one and i quickly got off the field.
and, i the team captains have thought of nicknames for everyone and were bestowed last night... my nickname: JEMIMA... as in, Aunt Jemima... carissa is mrs. butterworth.
so i guess you can call me jemima.
funny thing is, theother day at the market, i was telling a friend that if i had two kids and one was a girl, i would name her jemima because then the other kid's kids could call her aunt jemima.
what a cowinky-dink.

so now it is raining (it rained during one of our games) and we are going to go to this place called CCs... i guess it's something like all you can eat pizza for $5. interesting.

ciao for now.

it's coming...

season 7... get ready... jack is back
http://www.24trailer.com/

cuff and link

so i just got back from my communications class, and we watched Rocky I tonight.

I have never watched the movie all the way through, and i have to say... i absolutely love the movie... i never realized it, but i am a rocky fan.

there was this one line that mickey said... "you're gonna eat lightning, and crap thunder." i don't know why, but i busted up... it's just hilarious.

and i totally had a crush on rocky all the way until the final scence where he fought apollo creed and ended up looking like this: why did he have to go and break his nose??? i thought it was cute how he always had a joke to tell adrian every time he went to the pet shop.

and question of the day (from the movie) is, what ever happened to butkis (the dog adrian gives rocky)... rocky goes for a run with butkis and the poor dog is never seen again.

hmmm

well, tis all for now.

i am adding another notch to my list of states i have been to... i will be traveling to ohio this weekend for an ultimate tournament... so excited! so i shant be posting til i get back on sunday.

hooroo

if i could give one tip for the CA firefighters:

i hear that it is so hot and windy that the water and stuff they are dropping on the fires is evaporating and blowing away before it even reaches the fires...

my tip:

engineer some type of large water balloon.

maybe not made out of balloon material, but the same concept... drop something that can hold a lot of water, but not release the water until it breaks when it hits the ground at the base of the fire.

hang in there california.

and...

to brighten anyone's day, a fun picture that i never posted this summer.

yes, that is a trailer hitched up to a truck, with a recliner on the hitch.

yes, that is a man reclining in the recliner.

and yes, that is his dog sitting on his lap.

does life get much better than this?

i caught this on the way out to wyoming on my wilderness trip. good stuff.

reading recess

reading recess today and tomorrow.
what is a reading recess? we have two days off of classes so we can "catch up on our readings." we also have academic advising appointments. mine was this morning at 9:00 (which i probably would have missed had rebekah not called me... haha, thanks!)
oh my goodness... i love my advisor... she is super nice, and we got my schedule for next semester all figured out. creating a schedule is pretty tough, trying to get it all to work out with times and stuff... and keeping in minde tennis... but, by george we figured it all out!
so, assuming that none of my classes get filled up beforei get to register, this is what my schedule will look like...
biology 115, 9-9:50am (M T W F) and lab on Th from 8am-9:50
history 151, 10:30-11:20 (M T W F)
pe 204 (which is 'curriculum and intruction principles for teaching PE) 11:30-12:20 (M W)
education 102 (one of my education requirements) 11:30-12:20 (T Th)
so that is the bulk of my schedule... now, these next two classes are only for the first half of the semster and will drop out half way through the semester, leaving only the classes above.
Information Technology 110, 1:30-2:20 (M W F)
PE 156, 1:30-2:45 (T Th)

this last PE class, 156, is a requirement for PE majors... you know what it is??? creative dance.
hahaha
for those of you who have seen a few of my movies... or one imparticular... you know that there is no lack of creativity--well, i guess you could call it creativity--in my dance.
hahah, i don't think i'll have a problem... :)
so, i also learned a lot more about the PE major during our appointment too. there are some sweet requirements (like showing competency in practically every sport), but there is a lot of outside work that will be needed too. also, my advisor told me that i would only need to take an additional two classes in order to change from a secondary education focus to K-12... so i changed that as well.
coming out of that advising appointment... i am just super excited... super super excited.
so much fun!!!

tis all for now... actually, there is more, but i am saving that for tomorrow's post.
ciao for now

bids 'n' stuff

alright, so, here are the sweet pics i promised...

that's carissa and me (aka "the team moms")

sweet defense, sweet throw.
these guys can jump so high!
alright... bid time!!!!

this is andy... one of our captains... he always has some sweet bids.

reach!

again andy, and then the other guy is paul, another captain.... and no, i don't wear headbands...

yet :)

this was a huge bid... biggest i have ever made, running full speed and then dove and tried to catch the disc and keep my feet in the endzone.
...going for it...

and the disc fell out of my hands when i landed and slid... bummer.

so those are the pics... good job father.

quote of the day: "hey, who's that girl?" "buzz buzz buzz"

from the narration of charlie chaplin's "gold rush"... one of my all time favorite movies... i watched it today... part of my kick back and relax day... which went well... church, laundry, good phone calls, movies (i also went and saw "across the universe"), and a skype call from tippy.

now, knit, then sleep :)

go dog go

ushpizin.
this is the hebrew word for "guests" or "visitors."

this weekend, i discovered that i enjoy having usphizin. my parents came out to calvin on thursday night and leave early tomorrow (sunday) morning... they came out here for "parents' weekend," and although calvin has all these "super cool" events and what-not planned for parents and stuff, i decided to plan and host my own rendition of parents' weekend.
so they arrived thursday night after my night class, and we went out to dinner at buffalo wild wings... they loved it. Since i had a test the next day, they dropped me off back at the dorms after dinner.
so friday was pretty much the day at calvin. i had two classes, but i assure you that we packed in stuff to do in every little crevice... breakfast in the morning, class, lunch at johnny's, class, official parental wear from the campus store, a visit to my dorm room, dinner (which rebekah and shiloh joined in on... shiloh never gets full, for the record, so her and jenny might need to have an eating contest sometime), then back to the dorms, and sleep.
the next day (today, aka saturday) was "let stina show you some cool stuff" day. it started out with breakfast at stavros... which i can't even begin to tell you how awesome it was. i was greeted with hugs all around (how awesome?!), and paul (the father, the guy who owns the place, the guy who came here from greece... yes, we are on a first name basis...) came out from the kitchen and hung out and talked with us for about half an hour (it was a slow morning, so there was like, one couple there, and their food was already cooked). anyway, it was so fun sitting there and talking to him and hearing his story and stuff. his wife sat and talked with us too, and their daughter (athena... can you tell they are greek?!?!) came out and talked with us too. their son, nick, is currently at michigan state, and they were telling me that he would be coming and working there tomorrow... there something about greeks that like the idea of greeks with greeks :)
anyway, at the end, they asked for my number and they gave me theirs (home and resturaunt), and they're gonna give me a call if they ever need help on the weekends with waiting on tables... how awesome!!!
i love family.
so after breakfast, it was off to robinettes! we had cider and pumpkin pie (mmm, yummy). after that, we stopped by my dorm to grab my rackets and went to tennis connection to see if this was a place i could get my rackets re-strung... turns out, it looks so much like cerritos tennis, it's kind of scary. so yes, awesome place, dropped my rackets off. then we went back to calvin and i had my ultimate game!!!
i am not going to say much about my ultimate game in this post.. that'll come either tomorrow or the day after.... cause my dad brought his camera, and let me say that saying "sweet pics" would be an understatement. and i'll just say... two of my biggest bids (remember, dive for the disc) i've ever made... and incredible pics to go with it! more to come.
after the game, we picked up my rackets and then headed off to meijer (any visit to michigan is incomplete without a meijer run). then it was dinner (at this amazing italian place... AMAZING), barnes and noble, the center point mall, then back to my dorm room, and then good byes.

i love being a host. it's so much fun.
but at the same time, it is so exhausting!
and today, not much time was spent in my dorm room, and i kinda missed my room. i love my room... and my parents did too... they were impressed with my neatness and organization... all my years leading up to college, my bedroom floor was a rare sight :)

so i can't wait to post the ultimate pics, and tomorrow's going to be a nice day of relaxation and catch up. it's nice that since midterms and all my tests and papers were last week, so this week isn't going to be rough... plus, we have "reading recess" on tuesday and wednesday which means advising appointment and no class!
sweet stuff..
ok
i am tired
i am gonna knit a bit

ciao

weather!

well, tis my very fisrt tornado watch!
is it weird that i am excited?
and they're predicting large hail storms tonight... as i quote my friend chrissy: "hail no!"
haha
tis all.

karate kid

okay... imagine that the guy on the left represents my philosophy midterm.

the guy on the right would be me... i know, aren't i hunky?

i seriously just kicked some major booty (or face in this picture) on my philosophy midterm. 4 short answers (paragraphs), 2 essays (three pages all together) and one more long integrative essay (another 2 pages). do you know how good it feels to come out of an exam like that feeling like the one doing the kicking, and not the one being kicked!?

i owe a lot of it to the fact that he gave us a study guide, and basically half the study guide is what the test was composed of. plus last night, about 8 of us girls in the class got together and studied at Johnny's. It helped sooo much to just sit there and discuss it all. on top of that, we had such a blast (who knew studying could be fun???)

so now that's over. i've got one more test this week, and it's in my history of pe class tomorrow. that one won't be so bad, especially since he told us what the questions on the test were.

i got to play tennis again yesterday! only one little bummer... my first hit when warming up broke my string, and my other racket still needed to be strung, so i had to pull out my ultra-back up racket... my old orange hammer. haha, i haven't played with it in well over a year... maybe almost two. plus, the last time this racket was used was to whack a pinata :) so i wasn't hitting too great, but i still had a blast... we played my all time favorite game/drill, "rush 'n' crush" (which i prefer to pronounce "russian crush"). so yes... good times had by all.

my parents are currently in air space on their way toward grand rapids michigan. they'll be here tonight through sunday morning. good stuff.... i am excited to show them around and show them where i live... cause it's way cooler in person :)

tis all for now... has been raining a bunch but now blue skies... gotta love it :)

give this equation a try

waffle + hard core studying + last day of prelude + gyros + notecards + rain all day long - the fact that tennis was cancelled = ?

a rather good day :)

today was the day of my first midterm, and it was in my communications and culture class. we hadn't had any tests yet in this class, and midterms carry a hefty part of our class grade, so i was super nervous. so after my philosophy class (which was done at 11:45), i went straight to my room and studied hard core all the way until prelude (my half a semester freshman class which is at 3:30). that's some pretty sweet studying. what does my studying look like??? it looks very silly and studious at the same time haha... can you tell i was cold!? well i was, so i was wearing my hat. and my glasses, they give me super studying power. actually, i just wear them because only what's right in front of my face is in focus, so if i get distracted and look away from my studies, i get blurry. and you might be able to see the white wires coming from under my hat... gotta have study music (and occasional dancing, which my roomie just can't get over).

speaking of roomie, we've been having a blast. i am really glad that we get along so well, and i am loving living with someone... i mean, the last time i shared a room was when i was a wee little tyke, and i shared a room with steven! so it's been good on the room mate front.

so let me see, what other part of the equation do i want to talk about. oh ya, back to the midterm...

well, i arrived to class for the midterm and was super nervous. but then right before he passes out the tests, he passes back our notecards.

amidst all my nervousness, i had completely forgotten that the notecards (which we get to write whatever and as much as we want on a notecard for every reading we have) would be passed back for midterm and the final!!!

so i consulted my cards every once in a while on the multiple choice, and once i reached the essays, i had ALL the information i needed to write more than enough for an essay. how awesome is that! what a wonderful surprise, and definitely something that calmed me down. i'm kinda glad i didn't know about that ahead of time, otherwise, i wouldn't have studied so hard (as fun as studying is :)

so to celebrate, shiloh and i are going to meijer :)

oh, and my suite mate and i have started a knitting circle for our dorm! that's going to be a lot of fun.

twas a good tuesday.

i hope all is well with everyone back home

it's a small world...

You may not realize it, but the world is shrinking.

Right here, right now, as you read this, the world shrinks… Michigan is no longer 3,000 and some odd miles away from California… Michigan is no longer days or weeks away by post… Michigan is no longer a long distance phone call that you’ll rarely make because it costs an arm and a leg. Now, due to technology, Michigan is right here in front of your face. Michigan is an “in” call that costs you nothing. Michigan is two seconds by email. Michigan is even a skype call away where you can talk face to face for the cost of nothing.

It’s pretty crazy if you think about it.

Smallness-by-phone… sometimes you love it, sometimes you hate it. You love it when it’s your friend calling you because a certain song came on and they just had to let you know. You love it when it’s your friend calling you from atop a cell phone tower. You love it’s someone you haven’t talked to in forever and get to catch up. Despite the wide spread negative connotations, you gotta love it when your parents call. And of course, you love it when it’s someone calling to just say “hey,” or confirm lunch plans.

(and, of course on cue, my parents just called.)

I’ve learned that calls can change things… they change plans, change the momentum of a day, make it good…

…or, make it bad. You know… there is always “that call” that you don’t want to get. There isn’t necessarily a definition or set of details that would describe that call, and you don’t really know what it is until you get it, but once the phone rings and you answer it, it quickly becomes that call. This was all foreign to me until, unfortunately, recently. It’s a phone call that’s turned into many more phone calls, and lots of waiting—the kind of waiting where you think twice before answering.

As there is this dark cloud that seems to be washing over this post, I want to offer a bit of light. There have been rays of good news in some of these calls, so although there is a lot more waiting ahead, it’s a lot more hopeful waiting.

…

Say someone walked up to you and tried to pitch this phone plan to you. You get this phone for free, and with it, you get unlimited minutes from anywhere in the country… in fact, anywhere in the world. No roaming, no peak minutes, so on. The reception is great… you’re guaranteed to be able to make a call anywhere… no dropped calls. If you think you’ve dropped a call, just try listening a little harder. There is no start up fee, and, hey why not, no monthly fee either. You get all this awesome stuff for absolutely free. You've completed a full background check and it is in no way a scam.

What would you say? What would you do? Would you take absolute complete advantage of it?

It’s called prayer. It’s there. It’s available. Use it.

I’m just now learning how.

few things i forgot

i forgot to mention yesterday that a guy on my ultimate team broke his nose during the first game!!! it was pretty crazy... it happened when the guy he was defending went to throw the disc across his body and hit his nose along the way. lots of blood.

another guy got clotheslined while running and had a pretty awful bloody mouth.

ultimate is pretty awesome, but it can get pretty intense and crazy too.

i ate at stavros today!!! its a quaint little place... good breakfast... when i went to pay (kinda) i asked if the resturaunt was named after the owner, and she told me yes, her dad. so i explained that i had the same last name, and she looked over to who turned out to be her sister and told her. they then proceeded to take me back to the kitchen where their dad was cooking.

after a nice little chat of heritage, i am pretty sure we are distantly related.

crazy!!!

and on the knitting front... while messing around with the yarn, seeing if i could figure out a few things, i ended up making a little sweater for my teddy bear... now that i figured out how to make the little ones... LIFE SIZE here i come... y'all will get hats with matching sweaters for christmas now!

and it's been raining all day... i love the rain.

ultimate

well, i am absolutely exhausted!!! we played 5 games of ultimate today... which is pretty much the equivalent of 5 soccer games.... tons of running!!!
so in the pics below, we are the red/maroon team (we don't have all our jerseys yet). some vocab to know as i explain some pics...
the pull is when the team starts the point after a touchdown by throwing (pulling) it to the other team.
a bid is a dive made either 1) to knock the disc down while on Defense or 2) to catch the disc... i got to do a lot of both today!!!

so this is our team pulling to the other team.




i want you to see how much air these guys get... it's crazy!


sweetest picture all day... dan laid out on this sweet bid and landed in the endzone...you gotta click on it to see it bigger!

tis it for today!
i am gonna be so sore tomorrow!

waiting room 3000 miles away

big day today... in many different ways. when i say big, i mean filled... not necessarily busy... just filled... with stuff... all sorts of stuff.
we played townball in my PE history class today. townball is the earliest form of baseball, and it is a whole bunch of fun. not much relates to baseball today except for the fact that there is a bat and a ball.
then i had my theology test this afternoon... i was so nervous... it's my toughest class, and it was a big test. you see, my prof doesn't like objective testing (multiple choice, TrueFalse, matching), but prefers defining and essays. so i was a bit worried about it. however, after studying super hard, i think i did very well on my test. one of the essays i absolutely nailed... it feels good when you know what your are talking about. but all in all, i think i did well.

i just looked at my watch... 4:44. good time of day. my suite mate has gotten me to like the time 12:34 as well.

anyway.
so there's some not so fun stuff going on today as well, but i don't really feel like getting in to details at this point. there's a lot happening/changing back home right now, and it's a little tough to be far away from that. i think it would be a little easier had all this stuff been less condensed together, but nonetheless, stuff happens. it's the element of being away from home that you don't prepare for... more so because you don't want think that you will have to prepare for it.
anyway.

ultimate tournament tomorrow. i am so excited for it... it's gonna be cold, and it's gonna be fun.
i can't wait to post pics and stuff.

'til then

shattered, then glued back together.

that about sums it up.












let me explain why... it's over. it's done. life as we know it will never be the same.
on the first hole of frisbee golf, as i trotted over to my disc in the 50 some degree weather, my world shattered. the picture below should sum it up.


yes... sadly.... very sadly... it is true. my flip flop broke today (as did my heart). i was so overwhelmed, i didn't know what to do. i couldn't even walk in my flip flops, so i had to run back to the dorm barefoot. for those who think wearing flipflops provide no warmth for the feet... trying walking barefoot, and you'll see that flipflops provide plenty of warmth. so after lamenting a bit, i grabbed my chacos and ran back out to play frisbee golf.
so that would explain the sad face in the pic above.

as for the happy face...
i had TENNIS PRACTICE TODAY!!! it was awesome. i love tennis. tennis makes me happy. tennis and i were meant for eachother. that optic yellow tennis ball can brighten any day, even a day the was covered in the darkness of my broken flip flops. although it was super cold outside, we got some good tennis in. it felt sooooooo good to be on the courts and playing tennis again.
yay!

so according to my pillow, i am going to live in ohio. i was sitting in rebekah's room, and biz came in and saw my pillow (with the us map on it) i was holding, and so we discussed all the states we've been to (biz had more than rebekah and me combined... 33!) and then we decided to find out where we'd end up living by closing our eyes and eventually pointing to a spot on the pillow. i ended up in southern ohio, biz in indiana, and rebekah in kentucky. it was fun.

and to end this post, here's a verse that was my verse of the day a few days ago:
proverbs 15:30
"a cheerful look brings joy to the heart."

indeed it does... that's why you should smile. that brings me to one of my dove dark chocolate messages:
"smile... people will wonder what you've been up to." and "smile before bed... you'll sleep better."

that last one is not a hard thing to do when your living in the dorms... there's always fun/funny things going on.

oh, and this pic (courtesy of rebekah's phone) is from after breakfast yesterday morning... it was crazy because it hadn't rained or anything (it did later that day) and it was super early. i noticed it when we were walking out, and it lasted for a brief minute or so, but rebekas was able to capture it before it faded away... pretty sweet stuff...good reminder!

ciao for now.

jeapordy

wow, so the last two posts were really random and done in the high of knitting... knitting works you guys... it's good stuff. as i was about to fall asleep, i was trying to remember what i was so angry about after class before i started knitting, and i realized that, even though i planned on thinking about it when i got back to my room, i completely forgot because i went knit crazy... and then shiloh came over, and we had a blast knitting. it's a community craft. it's genuinely good stuff!

so, some may wonder, what was i angry about?
first, let me tell you what i was happy about...
two days ago, i went to the fish house/johnny's, and on the way out, i wanted to get some dark chocolate (they raised the price to 25 cents, by the way). so i grabbed two and held out my two quarters saying, "just two of these."
it was the same old lady. she reached out her hand and closed my hand that held out the two quarters saying, "it's my little treat" and put a finger up to her mouth to signify to keep it hush hush. i was grabbing two this time so that this wouldn't happen, because i thought if i grabbed two, for sure she wouldn't give them to me for free. but this old lady is just too kind... i love her.
i actually avoided her for a week as to not seem like i expected her to give it to me for free... i didn't want it to be like i was taking advantage of her niceness. but nonetheless, she is awesome. she made me smile and see there is good in the world.

which brings me to why i was angry yesterday. yesterday, it finally just overloaded on me that there is a ton of not so good in this world... a ton of it. my reaction to that fact (which came along in my prelude class) is what made me angry. and on top of that, theology is really frustrating me... so many stinking questions.... the answer to the questions, are more questions (kind of like jeapordy). i'm the type of gal that likes solid answers... answers that don't comprise of a different question that adds a whole other level of confusion and frustration. for those who have read velvet elvis and the part about the trampoline, my theology class is basically taking out all the springs at once... kind of a faith examination overload. we have our test on friday... which is fine because i understand what's being taught... in a way, that's kind of the problem.

anyway, knitting made that all go away... and tennis (which is right after my theology class today) will do the same... i love that fuzzy yellow tennis ball :) i can't wait until tennis!!!!!!!!!

did i mention, a high of 48 degrees today?
and i am wearing my new hat :) speaking of which... i would love to make a hat/something for anyone and spread the knitting cheer... so if one desires, tell me two colors and we'll see what happens :)

its midnight... and i made another hat

it's official... i am addicted to knitting.

so after finishing my first hat this morning (which i wore to class haha), i got back and started on a new hat... one that would be a bit more my style. so i started a bit of knitting after lunch. after my night class, i sat down and knit knit knit.

and now i've got my new hat!!!

and yes, i am wearing my footie pajamas.

wind blew like crazy today... and tomorrow is supposed to be a high of 49 degrees!!!! wahoo!

tuesday night dinner is my favorite dinner of the week... gyros!

and tomorrow is my favorite lunch of the week... grilled PB and banana.

i know... me, eat bananas??? it is only in a grilled PB sandwhich that i will eat a banana.

i am super tired

time for bed

and yes... all my homework was done before i started knitting.

my new beanie

i told you i would find a way to make that square a hat!!!!! haha, it's a bit too small for my head... but the more i wear it, the better it fits... yay for stretching! hee hee.

anyway.. it's good fun, and i have got some fun yarn that i want to make another hat with!!! this time i will size it better :)

ta ta

gettin' started

i have a few exciting announcements to make.

1) we have our first ultimate frisbee tournament this saturday in albion, MI (eastern side of michigan). super excited for it!!! it has been so much fun, and i can't wait to see what this whole ultimate tournament scene has in store. hopefully cool t-shirts (cause y'all know that i love my event tshirts... but i hate when they're awful... *cough* anaheim tennis tourney *cough*). plus the following weekend (parents' weekend) we'll be having a game at home, however it won't be against hope anymore... we may play kalamazoo (which some people call k-zoo, but i don't think i could ever do that... it's too much fun saying "kalamazoo", and i still can't help but smile when i say it). so that's what's up on the ultimate front.

2) the tennis off-season is officially on. hee hee. anyway, right now it's two non-mandatory practices a week, and unfortunately i can only make one a week at this point due to ultimate. and nov 26 is when tryouts are. i am a bit nervous. the math scares me a bit... there are 16 trying out, 10 can make it, and 6, maybe 7, are returning. we'll see!

3) midterms are already next week!!! crazy... halfway through the first semester. so some hard core studying will be done... that's not all the hard core that'll be happening... that brings me to number 4...

4) i have a new hobby... one i have attempted at 2 or 3 times. it has finally stuck, and i am addicted.
knitting!
my suite mate knits, and so she casted on the yarn for a scarf, showed me how to knit, and i took of running. after one day of knitting, i had a 1 foot by 1.5 foot square of knitted material. i am going to make it in to a hat. how do i plan on making a hat out of a square... oh trust me, you'll see, and it's going to be AWESOME.
so then shiloh wanted to learn to knit, but i didn't know how to cast on, and my suite mate wasn't around. so i found a website and figured out how to cast on. for those of you who need a refresher or want to learn how to cast on, i highly recommend:
http://www.bloglander.com/knitting/article/how-to-cast-on
it's pretty good. i had to mess around and figure out a little bit, but the site does a good job for the most part.
so i am now becoming a knitting machine.

don't be surprised if y'all get scarves for the holidays... haha i'm just joking... you californians wouldn't need em' anyway :)

speaking of the weather... it was over 87 degrees today!!! shorts, tshirt, flip flops... feels good!
however... tomorrow is going to be 67 degrees. haha, how awesome is that! i love weather. and then the next day... 51 degrees. from then on, it's gonna hover in the 50s, and then after that...
SNOW!

well, tis all for now.
til we meet again.

:)

summer days

we had our dorm retreat this weekend at a camp called Camp Roger in grand rapids. this place is awesome... and to make it more awesome, the weather was awesome!!!! we seriously have been having summer weather the past few days. it was hot, making the lake an attractive place to jump in. i wasn't planning on going in the water (didn't even have a bathing suit), so some of us just hung out on the shore. then came time for the boat races. we needed 8 people from each floor, so i volunteered. turns out, these boats are super unstable, and we had to use our arms to paddle. we had 4 people in a boat at a time, and i was in the first group. we got off to a horrible start and were immediately in last place... so what do we do??? me and this other girl jumped out of the boat and started kicking behind the boat to help it along a bit. let me just say, the water felt great! anyway, so our strategy at that point was to tip as many boats as possible along the way. so me and the other girl would swim off to the guys boats and tip them/fill them with water so they'd be slowed down. after finally getting our boat back to the second group, they kicked butt and we made it all the way to 4th place!!! yay
after that, i was soaking wet, but it was so warm out that it felt good. so rebekah, melissa and i took a row boat out (with the oars) on to the lake and hung out there for a good 45 minutes... just rowing around, checking out the scenary and trying to catch these cool little jelly fish. we had so much fun. then it was dinner, and then some of us colored in coloring books... so muc fun. then it was sleep, wake up, breakfast, worhsip service, back to calvin.

this is the boat race... you can't see our boat because we're in way last...
and there is our boat... and no one is in it... we're all just outside of it, trying to pull/pull it along... haha, so much fun!
heres rebekah scared at the fact that i am soaking...

rebekah and melissa...

me and melissa doing rowing like the pros.

this is a little jelly fish guy...

isn't that beautiful!?!

our cabin...

okay... now this place is right outside of camp roger... i saw this while driving and was absolutely shocked... isn't this incredible... it's some kind of breakfast place, and it was really busy when we stopped to take the pic. i can't get over it... a Stavro's in grand rapids, michigan... a family business i never knew about.. HILARIOUS... haha

nothing like it

anywords i could try to say would just take away from the awesomeness of this tree...

so i'll just leave it be.