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This quarter has been very busy with friends, work and keeping up with school work. I haven't had much time to write, but here I am now. School has been an awesome experience so far. The friends I have met so far are the best and God has really opened my eyes to many things in the past couple months.
I managed to accomplish many great things while at college:
#1: Take my friends to get PHO (it is their favorite food now )
#2: Go to sleep at 4 in the morning (multiple times)
#3: accidentally sleep through class
#4: spell my professors name wrong on a cover page for a paper ( funny story actually)
#5: Start a private club in the Ashton stairwell ( for eating bagels)

These are just a few of the many great things that I have done at SPU (:

Book Suggestion:
The Reason For God by Timothy Keller

Movie Suggestion:
Batman: The Dark Knight
( If you like an intense, scary movie)

TV Show Suggestion:
Psych

Merry Christmas!

Thoughts On School

The school experience has been fantastic so far. Being in a new place with new people and a new schedule has been weird, but wonderful at the same time.
Lately I have been thinking a lot about what I want to major in and it has been a
very hard choice. I am praying that God will show me what he wants me to do with my life.
For now, I am thinking about not going back to school next year, at least for the first quarter, and doing a little traveling. I know it won't be any cheaper than going to SPU, but that is something I know I want to do right now and I am going to try to do it.

Explanation of the pictures:
#1 : Eating PHO : I took some of my friends out to eat PHO because they had never eaten it before . They all loved it as they should because its amazing.

#2: Rubber Face: This picture was taken at Beth's cafe. I will give you the directions on how to make your face look like that in a picture.
Step one: Relax your face. Gently massage your cheeks to loosen them up.
Step two: Shake your head really fast, making sure your lips and cheeks are loose and free flowing as you shake your head
Step three: Take a picture ( or multiple pictures) during the step two process and make sure the flash is on or it might not work.
ENJOY!

#3: Red Robin: I went to Red Robin with my friends Josh and Mark. Mark decided to tell the waiter that it was my birthday. I am almost positive he knew it wasn't my birthday ( not even my half birthday) but he still brought the gang out to sing me ' happy birthday' and give me a fudge sundae. He told everyone that it was my tenth birthday so people were very confused when I left and saw that I was definitely not ten.

Toms Shoes

Just a quick post to let you know about this really cool
shoe company called "Toms" that gives a pair of shoes to someone in
need for every pair that you buy from them! There was in event
at school today where you could buy them. I encourage you to
go to this website and check it out and let me know what you think!
http://www.tomsshoes.com/


These are the shoes that I bought

It's been a long time

It really had been a long time since I wrote in this blog. I just didn't
think that many people read it so there wasn't much motivation to write, but
that isn't fair to those happy few who enjoy reading this.

School is still great! I am actually in my USEM class right now. It is
a class about the psychology of your family. The teacher's name is
Donald MacDonald and he looks like Santa.
I also have a politics class with a teacher who is half deaf, so he always
has to cup his ears when people speak in class and he always has a funny
look on his face and says "EH?" over again until he understands what you
are trying to say.
My other class is tricky. I can't remember if I signed up for "Design Fundamentals" or "Hug a Tree" because pretty much all the videos we watch are all about recycling and being nice to the environment.

We made up a game this weekend which invloves a soccer ball and the ping pong table.
Basically, you play 'around the world' with the soccer ball and no paddles, BUT you need
to make up a sound effect or a small phrase to say whenever you touch the ball.

Things are going really well so far!

School

Things are still going fabulously! It is a sunny day and my room has the nicest view that overlooks the water and Ballard/ Fremont. I love my classes. They have not been to terribly difficult and that has been a big blessing.

I took a few girls swing dancing on Sunday night and we had an blast. I ended up running into a few people from Tacoma while I was there, too (:

First week of college

SPU has been a fantastic experience so far and I am really excited to see what the year will bring. Classes started yesterday and are very interesting. The people I have met and become friends with are really awesome.
Orientation last week consisted of crazy dance parties, meeting with a small group and going to the SPU mens soccer game. This is going to be an awesome school year and I hope to be able to keep you updated on my life.

Goal for the school year: Learn to play the mandolin better

Moved in!

I have officially moved into SPU! It has been a fabulous
three days and I can't wait to see what the year has in store
for me!

Bridesmaids Dresses

I think this is the dress that Andrea decided on for bridesmaids. Ain't it purdy!!

Pottery!

Finally, my mom and I took out the pottery wheel
and clay today! Lizzie, Anna and I all had a chance to
throw some stuff on the wheel.

More Crafts

I recently made some earring holders out of picture frames. Here are pictures of the bigger one I made. It was really fun! Thank you to Andrea Mehmel for the idea! If you want to know how to make one, let me know (:

Packing up

Only a week and a half left at home!
I am getting a little nervous and little
excited about moving out. It will be nice
to not be so far away from home that I can
come home when I want, but just far
enough away to feel more independent.
I am moving in early because I am going
to be working at Noah's Bagels on campus
so if you ever want to come see me at work,
you know where I will be (:

Day with Claire

Claire is a little girl that I tutored through a program at
my high school called KidReach. I still like to keep in touch
with her because I had her for my Junior and Senior year!
She is a bundle of fun!
We painted pottery at Art and Soul in Proctor District,
went to the toy store and bought some foamy stuff to
play with, went to Starbucks for lunch and topped the day
off with balloon flowers from the farmers market.

Aunt Laura is Crafty (:

The other day my Aunt Laura showed me
how to make this really cool photo album
that is a box that folds out when you take the top off.
Its pretty nifty!

Quilt

I thought I would post a picture of the quilt my aunt
made for me. This is what I will be taking off to college
with me in a few weeks! I also made matching pillow
cases.

Love and Marriage

Just a quick blog to say.....
ANDREA IS GETTING MARRIED!

MEXICO!

Hey y'all!!
Mexico was absolutely fantastic!
(Despite the smelly bathrooms, dirty tents and
2 gallon bucket showers)
We had the great privilege of building two houses
right next to the houses we built 2 years ago!
One team built a house right next door and
my team built a house across the street!

We worshiped in a Mexican church on Sunday.
We were all surprised to see more children than
adults at the service. Then we soon found out that
the church WAS a childrens church. It was probably
the most fun I have had in a church service before because
of all the singing and dancing ( there were hand motions that
went along with all the songs). What an experience!
After church we went to the beach in Rosarito which
was really nice because it was so sunny out. A couple of us girls
got our hair braided by some of the Mexican ladies at the beach
and I convinced almost everyone in our group to get
a henna tattoo (: Yes, even Pastor DeMass.

The house team "Omega" built was for a family that had
4 kids. Elisabeth-13, Esmerelda-10, Danilo-7, Imelda-5.
The youngest, Imelda, was so cute! I tickled her one day
on the job site and for the rest of the week she would always
try to sneek up on me and tickle me. It was really cute!
Esmerelda always watched by the door and looked like she
wanted to join but she was always too shy, then on the last
day she finally came out and joined the tickle fight!
It was a GREAT week!!

back from nevada

I have been back from Nevada since Saturday and
have been meaning to put more picture up from
my trip. I have been trying to get some rest while
I get ready to go to Mexico for a mission trip with my
church.
To continue with Nevada, at the end of the week, we
all went and watched three of the Patterson boys play soccer
and some of the other kids from the church.
It was the cutest thing ever!
The time I spent in Nevada was so rewarding and
fun.
I cant wait to go back next year! It is such a fun
tradition!

More Battle Mountain!

I didn't have a chance to write anything yesterday because we were so
busy. Mary and I spent the afternoon at Ken and Judy Cox's house.
Their two grandchildren, Jessie and Marisa came along too.
We had fun watching Anastasia while the girls played with
our hair. Marisa told me that when she was 27 she wanted to
be a hair groomer.
Jessie got a comb stuck in my hair, and thanks to Judy's skilled
hands, she was able to get it out in about 15 minutes. I was afraid I was going
to have to cut my hair!
VBS is still going great. Jeanne Patterson has done such a great
job at planning the activities for the Kindergarteners. It has been
great fun.
Again, God is doing some wonderful things here in Battle Mountain!
Keep Grace Orthodox Presbyterian in your prayers

Day 2 of VBS

Today was another wonderful day of VBS. Our class still
is very enthusiastic about their Bible memory and they seem
like they are learning much from the Bible lessons.
Mary Simpson is helping with the junior high kids. Keep them
in your prayers! Today we learned about David and Goliath, and the
junior highers, because they are older, were learning about David and
Nathan and the temple, and even the girl from the mormon church and girl from
the Catholic church had no idea who in the world David was, so their teacher
had to start from the very beginning and tell them all about
David.

We also took a hour drive up to Elko and went to the museum and
to walmart. It was pretty fun!

God is doing so many wonderful things here
in Battle Mountain!

P.S.
I know you probably are all wondering who
that adorable baby is asleep in my arms
in the picture from my last post.
His name is Darton and he cries a lot, but
he never cried when I picked him up, in fact,
he fell asleep (like you see in the picture) after
about 15 minutes (:
new profession : baby whisperer

Battle Mountain

I decided to start a blog, because I am currently in Nevada helping
Jeff and Dena Wheeler with VBS and I thought the people back home
might be interested in seeing pictures and reading about what is
going on down here.
We went to the Battle Mountain bluegrass festival on Saturday. I was too tired
so I wasn't listening as well, but it was still pretty fun.
Today was the first day of VBS. The weekend was really crazy because
everyone was getting prepared for the rest of the week.
Though there werent has many kids there as we had hoped, there
was still a nice turn out.
Pray that kids will bring friends!!
It has been a blessing even just today to see how enthusiastic the
Kindergarteners (the class i am helping with) were about learning their Bible verse.
The more we said it together, the louder they would shout it!