Happy the Dog

So, left my flash drive at school, looks like I can't do homework tonight! oh well, all I had to do was pull photos off of Facebook . . .no big deal. But, I thought I should at least do something productive, so here goes.

Three more days until end of the semester! Two for me, because of the Prairie Grass Film Challenge. You have 48 hours to make a 5-8 minute movie. They email you a Genre, Character, a Prop, and a line of dialogue that must be incorporated into your movie. I have never done something like this before, so I am super excited! In a GREAT group of people, and we have some great ideas. (my favorite one so far is the cinnamon rolls for breakfast . .thanks to ME) While I'm not planning on necessarily winning, it would be great to win that $21.86 prize money. (after it's split 7 ways) that's almost a half tank of gas!

Getting out all day Friday isn't so bad either, won't miss College Comp, that's for sure! As helpful as that class was, you can start singing the Hallelujah chorus right about now. And American politics. One more test and I'm home free! I would be studying . . .but I had this novel idea to type my study guide instead of writing it. which means its on my flash drive. oh well, not like I would have enough motivation to do it anyways.

I know this is probably already pretty long, but one more thing and I'll let you go. I promise.

It's spiritual renewal week at school, which is pretty cool in it's self. But, we have "Happy the Dog ministries" with us, which makes it even cooler. At first, I thought it was a really lame name, what are we, Kindergarteners? But, when you find out the reasoning behind it, it is really cool. Its a rather long story, but to make it really short, basically someone had a really mean dog and named it Happy. Ironic, huh? Anyways, it's like how God looks at us and sees how absolutely horrible and sinful we are, but loves us anyways. Amazing Grace and all that stuff. We are also looking at who God is to different people. Someone described God as "Bewildering {insert ADJECTIVE that I don't remember}" Ms. VD would be proud that I at least knew the word was an ADJ. But, that's beside the point. The fact that God loves us even when we most certainly do not deserve it is absolutely BEWILDERING. What could we possibly have done that God would want to Love us? Save us? Be our Father? Nothing. We can, and have, done NOTHING.

That's pretty mind blowing and spectacular when you think about it.

Welcome 2012

Happy New Years everybody! My celebrations included babysitting and watching Sound of Music. Not a wild welcome the new year party, but not many things can beat Sound of Music.

It's 2012 and this year is going to be great, whether or not people think the world is going to end.

Looking back at 2011:
I turned 16 and bought a car. Worked a little bit, scrubbed mold off of desks for two weeks. Went through an impossibly scary process of deciding if I really wanted to go to Unity. In one month I went from "I REFUSE to go to unity" to "Ah, why not? maybe I'll like it a little". I met some amazing people at Unity, and I am so thankful that the Lord put them in my life. And then there was CAST!! One of my favorite things in 2011, all those crazy people! I miss it like crazy, even the not so cool awkward moments. And the gum balls. Can't forget the gum balls. (I apologize to those who have no clue what I am talking about. you seriously missed out) Also there was the trip to CA where I fell in love and knew for sure that I wanted to go to Providence. And the Occupy LA which was pretty sweet to see.

Looking forward to 2012:
January: hopefully it snows and that will make it much better. :) School semester ends and Pajama day is  coming up soon.
February: Ummmm . ..yeah. something exciting is bound to happen. maybe.
March: Hopefully we actually got winter and now it is  almost spring time. But you never know with March. Anything is possible!
April: School is almost over, and I will be panicking to decide what I do the following school year. Very much panicking.
May: GRADUATION!! as a junior turned senior this is both scary and exciting. And, as a true Orange City-ian I must mention Tulip Festival.
June: Working my butt off trying to earn enough $$ for college. Which means no sleeping in and smelling like blue cleaner and clorox.
July: 17th Birthday. A scary thought really. Also, we are possibly going to Washington state for a graduation party with the relatives. Fun fun! (this is not sarcastic. I can't wait to cream my cousin in pool)
After that I really don't know what is going to happen, but I do hope that my plans include College in California, Go Sea Beggars!

But for now  . . .I am just going to wait and see what God has planned for my future, for my 2012. Who knows what will happen!

{Insert Snow Here}

Merry Christmas everyone!! Such a beautiful day out. Even though there isn't any snow . . .

Loving that I can sleep in this week, even if it was on the couch. :)

To me, this Christmas was very much about Tradition, both new and old.

The old traditions will stay around for a long time. We always watch "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" and "The Muppets Christmas Carol" Two of my favorite Christmas movies, ever. Another great tradition is the Gingerbread boy baking. Gingerbread boys used to be frosted really simply, but now we always make them look like our favorite movie Characters. Mr. Darcy, Phantom of the Opera, and Doctor Who.

New traditions probably won't stick around long . . such as eating soup by the fire, and lawn games. Since the weather was so nice we sat around a campfire and ate "little meatball soup" (that's suppose to be a dutch word, but I'm not going to attempt to spell it!) We got several weird looks from the neighbors, but hey, what's new? If its this nice out again next year, we're gonna have to do it again.

So, first winter in a long time that there wasn't any snow. That's weird. And I'm starting to miss it, I want to go sledding!! There's this snowman I want to make, a couple people I want to throw snowballs at. (you know who you are) Sadly, right now there is nothing to do but wait patiently for it to not be 50 degrees anymore. That and sleep in. ;)

Hallelujah King Kong

This week has been centered around studying for exams, writing papers, watching Schindler's List, and most importantly, (at least for the choir teacher) the Christmas Concert.

I just got back from an hour and forty-five minute concert, and the last part of the Hallelujah Chorus is still ringing in my head. That was the first time I have actually sung that famous song. Don't get me wrong here, I've heard it over and over, hummed it millions of times, but never sang it as two combined choirs, plus audience members, the string orchestra, and band. All together, it was beautiful sound, even if we all wanted to just go home .  . .myself included.

It's almost Christmas. That means loads of Chocolate and hopefully peanut butter. (there better be peanut butter!!!) Seeing family, school break, no more exams, sleeping in, and possibly even snow. It means going to church and everyone is smiling because they just can't help it. Jesus was born! How can people not sing Joy to the World, and Hark the Harold Angel, Away in a Manger, and of course, Go Tell it on the Mountain. That was a favorite of everyones in Sunday School way back when . . .we all wanted to sing (shout) that one.

I'm going to show you my favorite christmas songs. They are both on the funny side . .but that's cool. Enjoy them.

This one is Good King Kong Looked Out. KnightSounds sang this one tonight. By the end of the song everybody was laughing and the applause was just as thunderous as on the video. Way to go KnightSounds!!

This is a some what humorous version of the Hallelujah Chorus. Gotta love those Silent Monks!! (and sadly, Unity did not sing it this way . .. we stuck with the traditional way.)

This last one is still the Hallelujah chorus. But it's a flash mob, in a food court, which basically means it is awesome. These are some very talented singers!

Okay, so enjoy. Have a merry-almost-Christmas.

Snow.

Okay. Deep breath. Stop shaking. Stop staring at the snow falling from above and pretend its warm for just a little while. Okay, now you can start.

First of all, Happy 1st Birthday Analiese!! Such a special sweetheart.

Second, its snowing. Well, duh! you say. Of course its snowing out, thank you for stating the obvious. The first few moments of snowfall was rather beautiful, white, quite, slow, peaceful, but that only lasts until you realize the snow is not melting when it falls to the ground like a good little snowflake should do. Nope, this snow is here to stay. But, I wasn't to bummed yet, I have a pretty sweet idea for a snowman that I want to make when we get enough snow. But I'll have to wait for awhile yet.

Last night I went to LeMars to meet up with one of my best friends for Ice Cream. I was late, but I had to practice before leaving and I got a little carried away . . .good music does that to me. She was worried that I crashed, but I told her "I'm a great driver, don't worry!" But, on my way there I was a little paranoid about my car burning to ash. Dad told a story about a bus driver who smelled smoke and stopped his car, got out to check, and minutes later the passenger side erupted in flames. Okay, great. Note to self: Check for the smell of smoke every ten minutes to make sure car does not burn to ground with you inside of it. Am I being to paranoid? okay, maybe a little . . .you can thank the scary drivers ed videos we were forced to watch last summer.

But, back to today, and the evil snow. I have NEVER driven in snow before. That being said, I was a little nervous on my way to and from the library. I was going really slow, not caring about the drivers who where behind me, most likely rather annoyed with me. Came to a stop sign, okay, so far so good . . a little skidding, but nothing dangerous or scary yet. Took the turn. Not good. Started skidding, sliding, and up the curb we went. Oh great. Wonderful. Fantastic. All the images of the crash videos we watched came flooding into my brain. I didn't hit the sign that was about two feet to my right, and none of the cars that where on the road at the time, and everyone was okay, including my Camera. Slowly back off the curb, and proceed forward, REAL SLOW. In the end, my car doesn't have so much as a scratch on it. My camera is in one piece, and nothing/no one got hurt. Only problem? My wheels and steering wheel don't line up quite right anymore . . .oops. Here's hoping Dad know's how to fix that and it doesn't happen again.

And for goodness sake, Drive safely out there!

Sunny Trip to CA

So . . .it's been awhile. Nineteen days to be exact, but who cares. I figure that you all want to hear about the amazing CA college trip so I decided I better write about it. And if I was wrong, and you don't want to hear about it, then why are you still reading?? Just hit "Like" on Facebook, and no one will realize you never even read it.

It was a really good trip, and I was so super excited about it. Now that I'm back in the freezing cold area of NW Iowa, I feel  . . .bored and kind of sad. But mostly cold. Yeah, really cold. The weather guy said rain all weekend. Thankfully, he was wrong. It was warm enough that I could wear shorts. That definitely made my weekend.

We left for the airport Thursday right after school's early out. By the time we were flying out of Sioux Falls I could hardly remember that I even went to school that morning, other then the homework I took along of course. (Because I'm a good little student) So, for the first half hour of our flight to CHICAGO I was classifing fingerprints. Thank you Mr. Kamp. Okay, wait a minute, back up you say. Chicago? Isn't that in the opposite direction of CA? Yes, yes it was. It was also cheap, so I didn't care.

After a four hour flight to CA, made longer by a delay in Chicago, we finally made it to LA by midnight. California time; so around two in the morning. Justin was really nice and got In-n-out while we waited. (and waited, and waited for him to come back) Gotta love those burgers, wish we had them in Orange City!

Friday began the Sea Beggar experience. We toured the campus, talked with professors, students, even the president of the college! We got to go to Chapel and the lunch. Which, by the way, was super good. Not at all like Unity, it wasn't chicken! That night, after game night, a couple car loads of students went out for Cheesecake at the Cheesecake factory on Colorado Blv. OH YUM. A little guilty pleasure, but for seven bucks, it was definitely worth it.

Saturday was a tour of Pasadena, and lunch at Bella's Gourmet pizza, which was also amazing. When we got back my favorite CA big sister took us on the Metro to LA. We went to Little Tokyo for Mochi, and Olvero street, (Not sure how to spell it, but it was a pretty neat place) for shopping. We also got to see Occupy LA, which was pretty neat as well, even though everyone smelled bad . .but I would smell bad to if I was camping in LA for a month and a half.

Sunday was the day where we tried to cram as much stuff in as possible. Picnic at Griffith Observatory after church, a walk down Hollywood where they were setting up for the premier of Happy Feet Two. Then off to the beach to watch the sunset. That was so spectacularly pretty. Our last stop of the day: Korean BBQ in Korea town. MMMMM, that was SO GOOD! Spicy, but good. My only problem was the chopsticks. Someday maybe I'll get they hang of them. But probably not . . .

So, that was my college visit. (and sister visit) For all of you Unity Students who aren't sure what college you want to go to, a Providence Rep, (a.k.a. my sister) is coming in December. :D It is a really small college, but that is one of the things that makes it so great, everybody is really close, its like a community of people who really care. It's like a mini-Orange City, but better, and warmer. O.K. bad comparison, it is so much better then OC. I could go on and on about all the things I really love about Providence, but you are probably bored out of your mind, (I said you didn't have to read it, but you obviously didn't take my advice if your this far already) and this is already super long. (sorry!) So, now you may click the exit button at the top left hand corner of your screen and move on with your life. Also, if you want to see pics (I am to lazy to add some and you've probably all ready seen them anyways) you can look at them on Facebook. But like I said, you're probably already a step ahead of me.

Field Trip!

Wow. It's only Tuesday and already its been a long week.

Monday was the Ultimate Field Trip for those of us at Unity Christian High. The entire school, students and teachers alike, helped pick up corn from two fields that had burned down early this fall. It really was actually quite fun, even though I couldn't breath at all because of the dust and my cold. It was amazing how much corn we picked up in two short hours, and how dirty we got! It really was the perfect day for it, not to warm, and not to cold. However, it was really windy, and the dust was flying everywhere! Faces, teeth, hair, clothes, gloves, boots and busses where covered in it. We raised over $14,000, and Unity is planning on giving some of it, if not all, to charities.

News reporters were even out there, from Orange City's paper to KTIV news channel. (Watch it here I'm pretty sure that you catch a quick glimpse of me at 14-15 second mark. I'm the one in the light blue sweatshirt working really hard at trying not to cough my guts out) We could tell who the reporters were because they where the only ones out there who were not either hauling five gallon buckets or driving tractors. And then there was the one reporter who was wearing high-heals in the field . . .not so bright there. On top of that, there was the choir teacher who wanted to know how she would find a row of corn. Obviously she's not from Iowa. :D

Overall, way to go Unity. That's one of the things I really enjoy about Unity, there are opportunities that we can use to serve each other, the farmers in our community, and those in third world countries who are suffering from hunger just by doing something simple like picking up burnt corn. Another thing I learned from that day, I'm not going to be a farmer; or eat corn ever again.