my roomie is going to be an artist

need i say more?

happy belated birthday to my blog

feb 21st marked three years since i started the blog.
happy birthday blog.
well, it's wednesday and the week is half over... and a week from saturday, i leave for my spring break in florida with the tennis team. so excited about that. i hear they have this thing called a sun than changes your skin from pasty white to nice and tan. that should be fun.
otherwise, not much else going on right now... just homework and class, and a little fun here and there.
to answer a popular question from the previous post: it kinda hurt for like 2 seconds when she actually put the needle through my ear and took out a little piece of cartilage, but otherwise, it wasn't bad at all.
oh, in english today, our teacher gave us each a bag of mini m&ms. my bag wouldn't open too easily, so i had to pull really hard to get it open. and what happens when you pull too hard... well, it opens of course, except with the consequence of mini m&ms flying all over the place.
i have a hard time in that class.
did i ever tell you the "orange" story? well, if i have, it's worth repeating.
my prof was making an analogy as to how all our examples and stuff should add together and fit with our thesis (main point). so if we had a green thesis, all our supporting elements would be colors that add to that... like blue and yellow. she then proceeded to ask the class, if our supporting elements were red and blue, what color would the thesis be? i confidently said out loud, "orange."
the class turned to look at me (i sit in the back). oops. i heard red, and got all excited because that's half the equation to make orange. but of course, the answer was not orange but instead was purple.
so now people think i don't know what my colors are.
oh well.
k, homework time.
ciao

the cat is out of the bag

and a needle went through my ear...
yup yup, i pierced my ear today. well i didn't pierce it, the professional did. there ya go. that was my crazy thing for the day.

hot chocolate, popcorn, and an intermission

what's the first thing that comes to mind for you when you hear those three things?
well, as of yesterday morning it means church for me.
I went with my friends to a church called "keystone" sunday morning... and the moment we walked in the place i was intrigued. First we grabbed our hot chocolate (free, might i add, and very very delicious) from the drink counter where they also had coffee as well. then we walked in to the seating area and grabbed some seats. I'd say about half the seating of rosewood back home (for those of you who know it)... or i guess i could say 10 times the seating of my house church back home... that's about right. anyway, much smaller than mars hill. there were even a couple of sofas... but after a late night and early morning, sofas are not a wise decision during church.
so we grabbed our seats (which were these chairs that were the most comfortable chairs i have ever sat in in a church... almost like patio furniture?). as i sipped on my fantastically delicious hot cocoa, i observed the place:
on the screen in the front was a countdown till church would begin (i love punctuality). i observed the average age... i'd say about 15-20 years younger than the average of rosewood... haha, sorry, i keep on picking on rosewood. i'll stop. so, i'd say 30s is the average... so a young church. the service began with a few songs and a little intro to what the sermon was going to be about... and then it was intermission.
intermission?
yup. popcorn and socializing time. pretty cool--a five minute intermission. i had a lovely chat with the lady sitting in front of me while the others went and got popcorn. then we resumed and listened to the band play a song, and then the preacher came up and gave his sermon. fantastic sermon, might i add.
so, all in all, a great first experience, and i'm looking forward to going back. it looks like i might even get plugged in with a few things (my friends are pretty involved at the church).

my lesson learned for this weekend: God is fast, and God is good... and you shouldn't be surprised when He answers a prayer, even when you're not the one praying it.

have a wonderful rest of your monday... today's advice... do something crazy :)

three more

wind and cheese (chicago and wisconsin)

okay, so here are the pics from this weekend... and they are in the randomest order possible. whatever.

so this pic: yummy fondue after the match at the house of a girl on the tennis team.








rose... bet that one was obvious.


okay, so i haven't quite managed to figure some stuff out yet, so i can't get my captions right (did i mention i am now on a mac??? so much to learn yet.)... so i will just go all in one shot.
so we've got my first jimmy john's experience... then the courts of our first match... this place was huge (unlike the second facility which looked like a green barn and only had three courts). then there's ping pong after the match. then there's, well, new form of advertising... and yes, i licked that. then the team (we won both our matches), my dub's partner (we won our 8-game pro set), and the wisconsin sign (which i have yet to crop and add to the collage).
'tis all. now time for more homework.
did i mention i am tired because we didn't get in until 3am this morning and i woke up early to go to church. there most definitely be a nap today.

i felt the sun

i saw the sun today, big and bright, and i felt a faint bit of warmth on my face. then the wind blew and it was gone.

i leave in about, oh, 45 minutes. tennis team is headed to chicago for our first match today. i'll be playing a doubles match at about 7:00pm central standard time. after the match, we'll be staying the night in chicago and then leave the next day for wisconsin.
cheese heads!
i won't be playing in wisconsin, but we'll be up against a very tough team (carthage).
i get back super late on saturday... super late... and then i'll be back, hopefully with some good pics.
sound good?
good.

am pm

"my alarm didn't go off."
that is officially the story of my life.
lets see...
okay, so i have a 8am class every morning. my alarm is always set for 7am (i like long morning wake-up time) and usually press snooze once, waking up before the alarm goes off a second time.
yesterday morning, i woke up around 6:45 am, saw how early it was, and went back to sleep thinking, i'll wake up in 15 minutes when my alarm goes off.
i awoke again. however, not at the time i thought i'd be waking up at... i woke up at 9:15 am. oh shoot...i slept through my entire bio class. turns out my alarm didn't go off. since there was nothing i could do, i quickly jumped in the shower and was out of the shower by 9:30am. i get out of the bathroom and woke up my roomie... turns out, she had a 9:00am class. not only did my alarm not go off, but hers didn't either. we both slept through our morning classes. whoops.
today, as usual, i came back from bio at 8:50am and lay down on the futon for a nap until my 10:30am class. my roomie didn't have class til 10:30am as well. so there we both were, on the futon, napping before out 10:30. she even set her phone so that we would wake up. so, we nap.
i wake up. i look at the clock. 10:21. moments later, roomie wakes up, realizes it's 10:21. we both freak out and bolt out the door. i made it to my class at 10:30 on the dot. close call. turns out, her alarm was set to pm, not am. whoops.
after these two incidents, we have taken extra measures to assure that these types of things shan't happen again... hopefully.

hope y'all are having a wonderful day.
hooroo

hay

All the leaves are brown
And the sky is grey
I went for a walk
On a winter's day
I'd be safe and warm
If I was in L.A.
California dreamin'
On such a winter's day

well, i wasn't really california dreaming today, but i heard the song on the radio and thought i'd put up the lyrics for a little fun.
actually, today was quite warm and rainy... super rainy... rain boot-rainy (i just got some fun rainboots for valentine's day from my parents... i'll have to put a picture of them up sometime). anyway, i was going to join my roomie this morning and go to church, but as we stepped outside, we realized it probably wasn't going to be possible... not wearing rainboots, we slipped and slided all the way to and through the parking lot. seriously, the ground was a slab of ice with puddles all over it. i was practically ice skating. we got to her car (keep in mind it's pouring), and since i was wearing regular shoes (which were already soaked), i was just going to wait for her to pull out. except, pulling out didn't happen. so i was standing in a puddle trying to help her push the car out. after all this ordeal, i was soaked up to my knees, the car got out, and then we decided not to go to church. so we just grabbed a closer parking spot, went back to the dorm, and dried off. then i typed my history paper in a half hour. suh-weet.

we also fixed our futon today... it's kind of amazing. i also splashed through puddles in my rainboots. good times.

ciao

blast

being the good student i am, i grabbed my backpack and treked all the way to the 5th floor of the library with my monster of a laptop on a saturday morning to begin working on my history paper that is due monday.
being the absent minded person i am, after making it to the library and setting everything up, i've managed to forget the one book i need in order to write this paper. i've also forgotten my head phones, which i would really like to have.
i am not about to pack all up and hike back to the dorm, grab the book, and come back. i guess it was just destined for me to procrastinate.
so instead of writing an intelligent history paper, i sit here writing on my blog... shall i fill you in on what's been going on lately.

well, lets start with the fact that the stomach flu has succesfully infiltrated our suite and has taken over our two suitemates this past week. so far, my roomie and i have managed to not get it. lets hope it stays that way.

in the matter of about one day, my sleeping habits have changed. no longer am i in bed at 10pm and up all fresh and happy in the morning. now, you're looking at a changed woman. i have tasted the fun of a late night doing homework and hanging out in the basement... the fun that happens after 10pm... i'm now quite the night owl. i know, i am quite shocked too. and its not even that my homework isn't done... i have plenty of time to finish it before tennis, it's just i like saving some of it now. i wouldn't call that procrastination.

i've been exposed to the greatness known as hobby lobby. my roomie and i went to hobby lobby last night, and let me tell you, this place is awesome. so much stuff... paper, yarn, all sorts of crafty stuff... and super cheap. almost everything was 50% off when we went. amazing.

snow. i absolutely love it... can't get enough of it. here's a fun little weather fact. last year, during the time period of december through february, grand rap had five days where they had 3 inches of snow or more in a day. this year, from december through the first week of february, grand rap has had ten days where we have gotten 3 inches of snow or more in a day... and we've had plenty since then. that's just a little example of how much snow we have been getting. so much fun.

it's sibling's weekend here at calvin, and everyone's got their little siblings running around, eating in the dining halls, playing in the dorms. it's really cute. it makes me wish my brothers were here (although, they aren't exactly younger siblings). funny thing: in the dining hall, there was a guy with his little brother, and he and his brother were smuggling out some food (a common occurence here) and he was giving his little bro the advice on making it out without getting caught: "dude, you just gotta walk out like you own the place." funny.

first two tennis matches coming up this friday and saturday--saturday's is in wisconsin. i've never been to wisconsin... i'm excited to add another state to my list and snap another picture of a "welcom to..." sign. those are my favorite. i want to make a collage of all the ones i have.
maybe that's what i'll do right now, since i don't have my paper materials.
***update*** did it... except i can't seem to find my ohio sign... i'll keep searching.***


OH
and the most important news of all.
oh my goodness, i almost cried when i found out about this.
are you ready for this? cause it's HUGE.
no longer will polaroid be making polaroid instant film!!! i freaked out when i saw this. i have my super old polaroid camera here that i believe was my grandma's from when they first came out. so i'm gonna go out and stock up on some polaroid film.
this is huge, i mean, it's going to mark the beginning of a whole new era... kind of like, now, instead of 2008 A.D. it's going to be 1 A.P. ... after polaroid.

crazy times.

well, i am going to go work on that collage now.

tootles

happy s.a.d.

S.A.D.
single's awareness day. i wore the perfect shirt today: "in tennis, love means zero." plus it's green... not pink or red.
i shall comment no further on the most awkard holiday halmark ever created.

not much has been going on here... just homework and stuff. classes are going well, and so far it seems as though i haven't gotten myself in over my head... so that's good.

i best be off though. exam tomorrow, paper due monday, and so much more.

for those of you in california...

i recieved this in an email, and i am sharing this because it is all too familiar and far too acurate for me to not share it.
and you think traffic is all you need to beat...
***i just watched it and realized this is a different language version... anyway, the first set of words that come up say "bad morning?"
enjoy

snot-sicles?

you know it's cold when you wake up and check the weather as to dress properly for the trek to breakfast. you know it is even colder when you wake up to this forecast, and the first thing that comes to mind is, "at what temperature do eyeballs freeze?"

after going out in that weather, i think the better question is, "how can i keep my snot from freezing?"

i saw that it was 7o-something back home... that makes me sick. actually, you know what, that's okay. you have 70 degree weather in winter, i have going to the movies on a saturday night for $3.50. yes, i paid the same amount that you would pay for popcorn alone to go see a movie. a group of us went to go see 'PS I Love You." it was really good. if you see it, bring a box of tissues.

anywho, so what do you do on a zero degree day with massive wind chills? build an igloo of course. actually, more like start to build an igloo. my suite mate and i started to build an igloo, but we only lasted about an hour and then had to go inside due to lack of feeling in the rear end. we're going to try and finish today though. pictures to come.

we had a fantastic meijer run last night... so much fun... we stocked up as if we were going to be hibernating. we also got some valentine's cards to pass out... mine are "viva pinata" themed. so excited about that. despite my participation in the handing out of valentines this year, it is still my least favorite "holiday," if you even want to call it that.

well, i must get going... stuff to do, and naps to take.

Cold Knight Club 2008

http://video.woodtv.com/?video_id=10482 (this is the clip that was on the news that night... no, we didn't make it on tv)

you would look like this too if you knew that you were about jump into a frozen pond.

this is everyone taking the cold knight club pledge:

We promise to leap into the Sem Pond,Surrendering ourselves to the icy waters,And embracing our falleness as creatures.
And when the waters cover our entire bodyAnd our feet are mired in muck,We will be given the graceTo emerge from the depthsAs lifelong members of the Cold Knight Club.
Having attained our reward,We will serve our fellow humanityKnowing that we have goneWhere few dare to tread.
All for one,one for all.
this is me and my roomie about to take the plunge. we jumped hand in hand, faithfully into the freakin freezing water. unfortunately, there aren't any pics of us jumping in or stuff like that. if one turns up, i'll post it.
afterwards... not so bad, eh?

then catie, me, and lindsey just couldn't wait to warm up in a nice luke-warm at first then hot shower.here is a video clip of the whole event. the first person you see jump is alex (in the red shorts), then it's jordan and carolyn (you can't see that one too well), and then it's me and lindsey. i wish you could hear our screams. hilarious.

yup, so we are alive and well.

ta ta

guess what?

chicken butt.

no, sorry, i couldn't resist. that is not what i wanted you to guess.

so lets try this again.

guess what?

*you say what*

i got the job!!!!!!!!

i am officially working at snow mountain ranch as as outdoor adventure educator in colorado this summer!!!!!!!!!

i am still dancing.

in my seat, i sit here bouncing up and down.

too excited...

must go run down the halls another time.



yippee!

wanderlust

one more thing:
i don't think i have ever mentioned it before, but there is this guy, Troy M Litten, who has done what i have always wanted to do. he has these sweet photo collections called "wanderlust"... a bunch of photos of things and places he's seen all over the world... seriously, i have always been in love with his works. i'm sure you've seen some of his stuff. check out the site. i was reminded about it because i just got this cool set of wanderlust postcards that i am really excited about. it's the kind of photography that i just absolutely love and hope to get more in to sometime in my life.
http://www.troyland.com/
enjoy

PS
THE ENTIRE CAMPUS HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN DUE TO THE BLIZZARD

free time

i'm taking a little break from my day to sit down and say hi.
saying that i've been a little busy would be quite the understatement. you see, when you've made a new year's resolution to be a model student and do all your reading and homework, it kind of ends up taking up a lot of time. it also shortens your day considerably when you make yourself finish all that homework before tennis practice because you know that you've got about 10 minutes after you get back from practice at 10:30pm and just crash for the night. what makes it even harder to skip out on homework is the fact that most of the reading and work is actually rather interesting, and, dare i say, entertaining. and that feeling of actually knowing what your professor is talking about in class because you did the reading the night before like you were supposed to... ya, so now that whole reading before class thing makes sense.
so classes have been busy... busy, but good.
right now, it is snowing really heavy, as it has been the entire day. forecast says 6-10 inches of snow today. isn't that amazing? its snowing super hard and the wind is blowing pretty good as well... so when walking paths, everybody's heads are down, not in an attempt to be anti-social but in attempt to save their eyes from being bombarded by the fine flakes flying in all directions.
by the way, to be random... i see that california voted for clinton... how did that happen? and don't anyone dare say its because i didn't vote. i've got my reasons.
creative dance class... i've been learning lots of things in that class that i've actually really enjoyed... things like, the fall and recovery theory, the shoulder girdle (my new favorite body part), and the three stages of learning a skill(cognitive, associative, and autonomic). for example, walking. do you realize how we walk with such little effort? i mean, i don't know about you guys, but when i walk, i don't focus and think to myself, left, right, left, right, left... what's next? oh ya, right. although with all this snow and ice i do pay a little more attention to my balance as i walk... in fact, judging by the numbers of slips i've seen lately, i'm thinking more people need to focus on that. anyway, it's wierd to think that it wasn't always that easy. a toddler, in the cognitive (earliest) stage of learning focuses so hard... you can just see the focus in the eyes of a toddler learning to stand up and figure out what to do in order to move themselves forward using their legs and feet... and then of course, falling multiple times before even getting that first step right. it's the same with every skill. heck, it's the same with almost all things in life. fascinating.
anyway
this friday... cold knight club here i come... my roomie and i are taking the plunge in the sem pond. i can't believe we are, but my motivation: free towel!
bummer: the indoor frisbee golf tournament in the library is february 22... the same day as my first tennis match which is a night match far away. i'm kind of really bummed about it.

well, its 3pm, and my free time is over.
ciao my friends.

sled and climb

well, twas a fun weekend. a friend from home, danielle, came to check out calvin and see what this stuff is all about. after quite the travelling time, she finally made it to calvin, and rebekah and i played hostsesses. among the many fun things we did were a trip to meijer, lunch and Rose's on Reeds, and sledding. so this is a pic at rose's.

this is reed's lake frozen over with, yes, people ice fishing. the moment i saw this, i wanted to go ice fishing... like, really wanted to go ice fishing. so after talking to my friend angela, looks like i will be ice fishing some time this week. i am super excited.
sledding... my first time (except i think i went one time when i was 10 years old or something). anyway, our sleds? big metal cookie sheets. in this pic, you see danielle getting up and recovering from quite the ride, and me rubbing my back side... these metal sheets aren't very gentle on the rear... and lets just say, after one wipe-out imparticular, i've got a nasty bruise in a spot that hurts when you sit.

Rebekah and flat stanley... those two go everywhere together...

my preferred method of sledding... see the cookie sheet?

this is danielle... she looks pretty terrified... sorry i forgot to rotate it.
the three of us. what in the world would we do without the self-timer function.

so today, sunday, i went with my roomie, a friend from ultimate, and my roomie's brother and his fiance to inside moves... the indoor climbin gym. it was a ton of fun, but super tiring... super tiring.

here's my roomie climbin on up...
rope!

this is my roomie's brother... he's kind of crazy good.
me messing around in the bouldering section.
matt attempting the cave...



my favorite hold in the entire place... although, it seems to have absolutely no grip.

me attempting this doozy of a climb. it was very tough, very tiring.

roomies. what would we do without eachother. we found yet another reason for why we are roomies: our mutual love for this joke--

so there were these two muffins, hanging out in an oven, getting baked.

one muffin turned to the other and said, "man, it is really hot in here."

the other muffin looks at him and says, "holy crap! a talking muffin!"

haha, i love it.

speaking of ovens, that's exactly what the climbing gym was not. it wasn't even 50 degrees in the gym... so cold.

yup yup, good times.

ciao for now. have a good time.

PS so far, i am thoroughly disappointed by the overall quality of the super bowl commercials.

video break

this'll brighten anyone's day... watch, it's cute.


i love how he just starts laughing right after... so cute

myth confirmed

you know what it feels like? it feels like these little tiny pieces of ice fly at millions of miles per hour and go through your pores and begin to freeze you from the inside out. it is so so so so so so so so so so so so.... so so cold when it is 8 degrees outside, and the wind is blowing, making it -14 with the chill factor. minus fourteen. keep in mind the whole time snow and ice are blowing straight at you. weather is absilutely fascinating here. so much fun.

my hair froze on the way to class today. i thought that was a myth. nope, it's real.

in other news... jenny and i have been having too much fun on skype...

can we say, numa numa?

hoo roo

first day in review...

so here's a look back on my first day of semester number two:
8am: biology 115 (human biology)... awesome professor... she's very entusiastic, very laid back, very entertaining for an 8am class. subject seems pretty sweet... i am actually pretty excited about it. plus, the classroom is in the science building, which i have never been there before.
10:30 am: history 151... another good professor (he's actually from california). he said it's going to be a lot of work, but i think it's going to be a good class. also a new area for me to have a class.
11:30 am: education 102... this is the class i have to take in order to be enrolled in the education program. seems like a fascinating course, and the professor is quite a character. for valley students, i'd say he compares to a mr. hoekman... very strong similarity there. i got lost trying to find this place (lower gezon lobby?)... and in the process of being lost, i discovered the art department and that we have an art gallery... fancy that.
1:30 pm: creative dance. oh ya! dude, this class is hard core. the people in the class itself makes it hilarious... at the beginning when the professor took role, she asked everyone to state their year, major, and dance experience. half the class was a dance major with years of experience... and the other half was a pe major with no dance experience... quite hilarious. and by creative dance, it does mean creative dance. she also called it improv dance. anyway, we did some of it today, and i have to say that it is very interesting. i'll have to perform the routine for you guys some time. it's in a dance studio (another place i've never been), complete with mirrors and hardwood floors on which we must not wear shoes. so there i was in creative dance, wearing my striped socks loud and proud. this class is a hoot, and i look forward to seeing where this goes.
tomorrow is a very similar schedule, just swap out the educ class and the dance class with pe 204 and engl 101. good stuff.

now, on the weather front, i don't think i could say it much better than weather.com:
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GRAND RAPIDS HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR UP TO 6 INCHES OF SNOW AND NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM THIS EVENING TO 12 PM EST WEDNESDAY.
SNOW AND PLUMMETING TEMPERATURES TONIGHT WILL MAKE ROADS VERY SLIPPERY. BLOWING SNOW COULD RESULT IN NEAR ZERO VISIBILITY AT TIMES. EXPECT VERY HAZARDOUS TRAVEL CONDITIONS TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING. SCATTERED POWER OUTAGES ARE ALSO POSSIBLE TONIGHT AND WEDNESDAY DUE TO THE HIGH WINDS.
A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE EXPECTED ALONG WITH STRONG WINDS... MAKING TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE. AVOID TRAVEL TONIGHT IF AT ALL POSSIBLE.

i like how its in all caps... its a good touch. and by plummeting temps, it means this. right now it is 46 degrees (everything has pretty much melted), and by tonight it is supposed to be 10 degrees. yikes. anyway, this weather stuff is absolutely fascinating... i love it.

yup yup. well, tis all for now. may your tuesdays be truly awesome.

ready, set...

i had my interview today... and it wasn't on the phone. in fact, i was expecting it to be on the phone until about 60 seconds before i was sitting at a table in johnny's talking to the interviewer. you see, i had gotten an email at 1:50 pm EST saying that he forgot to mention that he was here at johnny's. he realized there was a miscommunication and told me to come whenever. so i ran very fast and made it for an interview. i was so baffled by his use of "MST" in the email when communicating the time... anyhow, it's all over now, and the interview went well. he was impressed by my chick-fil-a experience... and about my cow-suit experience too. haha, that was a good laugh. anyway, now it's the waiting game, because he told me that he would talk with SMR and would try to get back to me soon. now, is that soon mountain standard time, or eastern standard time?

tuesday tuesday tuesday... first day of the second semester... and i've got a full schedule--16 credit hours i'll be taking. i kind of momentarily messed up my schedule by dropping a class, making me ineligible for sports because of too few credit hours... so then i went to re-register for that class (english) and it was closed. pretty much every class was closed, and i couldn't petition a class online. so i had to go to the registrar to try and get in a class (i was trying for meteorology... would count as my physical science credit, and would be amazing!) but it was filled to the brim. so i figured oh well, why not try to get in to an english class and get it over with. she tells me, 'looks like someone just dropped out of this section." yup, that was me. so full-circle ended up right where i started. i figured, i can't take all the fun classes all at once... so i am saving meteorology for next year. and i am excited. (fyi, it's the study of weather, not meteors :)
i've got quite a confusing schedule too... i've got tuesday-thursday classes, monday-wednesday classes, monday-wednesday-friday class, monday-tuesday-wednesday-friday class... i'm going to be carrying my schedule around with me for the first few weeks! and did i mention, 8am classes everyday... it's a good thing i am a morning person... but we'll have to see how long i last as a morning person... what with practice ending at 10pm or even 10:30pm some nights. yikes.
i like the day-before-class day. probably the most organized i am all semseter. you know, two pens, two pencils, paper, highlighter... you know, prepared student. then about a week in, you begin to hear, "where's my pencil? can i borrow a piece of paper?" yup... it goes a little like that. i'm hoping to make it last a little longer this time though.

and so it begins... semester two.

tootles

a note to my college friends:

go to www.alibris.com
i saved $220 on my textbooks by buying through alibris... including shipping and handling.
it's kind of revolutionary... in my mind.
this kind of sounds like a gieco insurance ad. "i saved $ by switching to gieco."
so, ya. do it.

700: have i got a treat for you!

all right my friends!!! this post, is my 700th post!!!!! and due to the fact that my major bench mark posts have always fallen at rather boring times, i was super excited that i would actually be able to provide a good... no... fantastic post for my 700th. as you can see by looking at the statues to the left, i spent my interim break in good o'l holland, mi. i am going to come right out and say it: holland, mi holds a special place in my heart... absolutely love it there.
rebekah joined me for a nice three day break staying at the brands' house, and i had a wonderful time. so lets get this post rolling... there's a lot to show and say!
mrs. brand loves birds, so she has a ton of bird feeders. this beautiful red bird hung out for a bit... doesn't it look so cool with the snow in the background?
this picture is sideways, but just look at how much snow there is... all stacked on top of the picnic table... crazy!

at night, rebekah and i took a little walk through the woods in the backyard... you can see... i like snow... even if it's just sitting in a big pile of it.
then we decided to see if the pond was frozen... although it appears that i am standing in the middle of it, it wasn't frozen solid--there was about a couple inches of slush, and lots of cracking sounds as we walked out.
this is rebekah "skating" with 'flat stanley' out on the pond. very talented.
so it snowed and snowed and snowed all night... leaving tons of snow all over the property. well, i've had a hankering to try out shovelling snow for a long time, so i asked mrs. brand if i could shovel the front little part of their driveway (we were going to need to anyway so that my car could back up and what not. but you see, i began to shovel, and i loved it. i thoroughly enjoyed shoveling snow... SO MUCH FUN. wierd, i know. but i must say that it is my favorite chore... if you even want to call it that... actually i am going to call it a hobby. so, i didn't stop at the driveway... i kept going.here is a little video tour of my snow shoveling job. what i didn't mention in the video was that i was in a short sleeve tshirt the entire time while shoveling... and it was 19 degrees out. now that's how good of a workout it was... you stay fairly warm while shoveling.

so now that the car was able to get out, rebekah and i went out to rent some cross country skis for a day. so this (sideways) picture is at van raalte farms... a place with a bunch of little trails to ski on. it was a lot of fun... more on that to come.
despite the lack of packing snow, i managed to make my first snow man... as you can tell by how big the hat and gloves are on my little snow buddy, you can tell that it is rather small... either way, he's my first snow man. and as i was making my snowbuddy, i saw this:
the sun was beginning to set. so, since we still had the cross country skis, i decided to grab them and go on the trails in the woods in the back... then i worked my way out towards the front of the property and stood out there and watched the most amazing sunset i have ever witnessed in all my life.

isn't that just amazing?????!!!!!!!! i took about a gabillion pictures of the sunset, but this one is my favorite because it has all the amazing colors and the red reflection on the snow. i'll have to show y'all some of the other pictures some time. it was absolutely breath-taking.

the next day, rebekah and i took our cross country skis out to tunnel park. after going through a great ordeal trying to get through the tunnel, we made it down to the snow covered beach where i saw the craziest things. lake michigan frozen. it's hard to fully see it in these pictures, but there are two sets of frozen waves. repeat: frozen waves. incredible. it was so fascinating, i couldn't get over it. so we skiied from tunnel park all the way down to the holland lighthouse (about 3 miles roundtrip).

here is rebekah the eskimo nomad... i love this picture. the red building is holland lighthouse.

this is on our return trip... we had a hard time smiling... couldn't quite feel our faces. cross country skiing is a blast... i hope to get to do some more of it this season.

then i decided to use my skis as a little sled and slid down the beach... good fun.
we climbed up the stairs to see another amazing view... this kind of shows the frozen waves a bit better... keep in mind, these things are more than twice my height... that's crazy tall. anyway, you can see a bit of the sand where the lake begins, the frozen waves, more frozen-ness, and then where the unfrozen part is. amazing.


this picture is funny if you can understand what happened. we were about to walk down what is usually a sand dune, so i took a step, and then my entire right leg plunged straight down, and i was over waist high in snow. that was probably one of the funnest things i have ever done.


these two dolls were in the room we stayed in... i couldn't get over how great these dolls were... aren't they awesome?!?!

so that's just about it... a wonderful couple of days in holland. and today is the calvin vs hope basketball game... it's going to be great. man, all this fun i have been having, and it's only saturday, and we have monday off!!!

speaking of monday! i have an interview with the place i applied to for a job this summer in colorado! i'm a tad nervous because it's going to be a phone interview... never done one of those before... but we'll see!

well, how about that for a 700th post!?