Merry Christmas

Exciting

My friend showed me this awesome website, cause I was asking her about how to cite things according to APA guidelines.

One at a Time

*sighs*

My photography portfolio is finally done. It took 12 hours in the dark room this week to get to this point. It isn't due until next Thursday, but I wanted to have it done early so I wouldn't be worrying about it. It isn't as good as I would like it to be, but I don't think I personally could make it better at this point. I kind of feel over photographitized. Hopefully it is good enough, as it is worth 5o% of our grade for the whole class. *trembles*

Now I just need to get that presentation for nutrition class done.

Thanksgiving

We didn't officially celebrate Thanksgiving today, though the rest of my family had a Thanksgiving dinner with friends. Our relatives will be coming down on Saturday instead. Even so, this was a rather nice day.

My nutrition teacher informed us on Wednesday that the final will be an open book final!

My Trigonometry professor will let me take the final early so I don't have it right after chemistry!

I spent five hours taking photographs this afternoon and have only three left to take for the final portfolio.

I finally acheived my goal of fitting 39 pictures in a 36 exposure roll of film.

I decided to be lazy and slept in until 7:28 this morning.

The crust on my pecan pies turned out nicer than they ever have.

We get to go to the fabric store tomorrow and I can get the materials for christmas gifts.

I finished listening to another of Dostoyevsky's books, Crime and Punishment, and I found it as interesting as the Brothers Karamazov.

There was a Divine Service last night.

It hasn't really snown yet.

I have lovely, nice, new, clean sheets on my bed.

I don't have to wake up until 6:00 tomorrow!



Yay!

what comes with sleep

Rapid patters could be heard.

I looked over.

To the right was an open doorway. Past it sped a small rabbit. A grey rabbit. A terrified rabbit.

Another blur sped past the door. A blur of fur and teeth. A blur of hungry coyote.

I was in a building. Many rooms. Much like a maze.

I was not alone. The coyote and rabbit were in the building too.

The room in which I was standing was the central part. Doors all around me.

Rabbit and pursuer were seen through these doors. Around they went. And around again.

The weary rabbit was loosing strength. Soon it would be caught.

Stand by and let it die? Watch a creature suffer? No.

I ran through the nearest door way. They were nowhere in sight.

Wait. Was that them?

The rabbit feebly limped past. The coyote was not far behind.

I grabbed the villainous creature and held it tightly. It wriggled violently to free itself. I held on tighter.

It did not snap at me. No. Not yet.

Its eyes were black and so was its fur. A black coyote. A rare species. Perhaps only found in the land of imagination.

Each unsuccessful attempt to loosen my grasp, angered it more. His eyes threatened that it would bite.

I held it tighter. I was worn out.

Threatening eyes. I needed help.

My mouth opened. A scream for Sarah was in my mouth.

A whisper came out.

Screams into whispers. She would never hear me.

Eyes told me biting time was here.

I let go and turned to run.

Rabbit was free. Coyote had new rabbit.

I looked behind me. It was coming.

Big black eyes. Black threatening eyes.


I woke up. 4:10. An hour and twenty minutes left to sleep.

(I went back to sleep and dreamt of trying to hide from Emmausites and then being chased all over a 18 storey apartment building.)

Shattered

Word of Advice

If you have a banana for lunch in your school bag, set your backpack down gently.

Squished bananas are rather messy and unappealing.
(no pun intended)

Life's Trials.

I haven't had a good cry for a while now, so it might as well be about something silly like loosing my calculator at school. But, oh, it was my special, dear, calculator. : ( Maybe someone found it in the library and turned it in. Oh, I hope so. : (

New Policy

If you are going to be maimed or injured, I need to have a two week notice, in writing. I will no longer allow last minute catastrophies or visits to the hospital.

[insert pleading face here]

Overheard

Before chemistry class started, two lab partners were discussing something like whether or not the other needed to be more diligent in his homework. They were sitting right behind me, and talking in a normal voice, so I couldn't help over hear.

It ended with:
"I don't like talking with you because you always make it so I don't know what to respond.
If I stop talking to you, it isn't personal.... *thinks for a moment* ...well, maybe it is."

*both laughed*

Happy Mole Day

'Tis a cold and wet mole day. I wish that it would stop raining; at least, that the rain would slow down. It makes walking to class uncomfortable.

Midterm is coming up, so all of the assignments for Photography class are due in a week. Yesterday, I arrived at the photography class early to work for a while on the assignments. After three straight hours in the dark room, I emerged with three final prints. Out of the ten assignments due, I have only three more to print. I also need to shoot two more rolls of film in order to get as much credit as possible. In total, I think I have spent at least eight hours a week in the photo lab and I still have about four more hours worth of work left.

Its here....

We have snow. It just started lightly falling while Sarah and I were driving to school, and now that I am in the Library, it is coming down fairly rapidly.

Please stop soon...?

I am so glad I don't have to be at class for another hour. I would really not like to walk in this rain. It is coming down so hard that I can hear it on the roof of the library and through the large windows, I can see the trees swaying back and forth. Hopefully it will end before I have to leave this nice warm building.....

Oh, why did I take the unbrella out of my backpack?

Reflections

This week has just proven that I really need to increase my attention skills. : P

Approaching Storm

Yet Another Mistake

*sigh*

Our photography instructor sent us home with the chemicals and equipment for developing our film so that we could come to class on Tuesday with our negatives ready to enlarge. We had developed some film already in class so I was pretty sure what to do.

One of the first steps is to take the temperature of the chemicals and set the developing time accordingly. I did so, and noticed that it was 18 degrees Celsius. Being the non-attentive person I am, when I looked at the chart to see if that was a good temperature for the film, my mind automatically read the paper to say that I needed to heat it up to 28 degrees.

I took forever waiting for the chemicals to heat up with a warm water bath. I put the first chemical in and re-checked the sheet and it said at the very top "Black and white film should not be processed at a temperature higher than 25 degrees Celsius." I had miss read the 18 on the chart as 28. *sigh* Hopefully the film will be gracious and still work..... I have to wait a whole hour for it to dry before I will know how ruined it is. Please. Oh, Please work. : (

I have got to pay MORE attention.

*sigh*

Annoying

This is horrid. For nutrition homework (due tomorrow) we are supposed to go to the Healthy People 2010 website and write down five of their objectives for 2010. Wonderful. Except, all I can find about their "objectives" is that there are 467 of them. I can't even find one of them. *sigh*

Good Bye Nasty Cows

Our two full grown cows go to the butcher today. It took Daddy and our neighbor almost an hour to get them loaded into the trailer. Nana was helping, but one of the cows smashed her wrist into one of the fences and really hurt it. : ( We are hoping that it isn't a torn ligament.

The cows also managed to snap one of the water spigots that we have down there, so our water pressure is completely down, so we aren't getting any water in the house.

Poor Mr. Almonzo is down in the pasture lowing because he is all alone, though he won't be for long as two other little feeder calves are coming tonight or tomorrow from our neighbors. They should, hopefully, be more docile than the last two as the new ones are Jersey steers not Holstiens.

*sigh*

" When Mrs. Tittlemouse vetured to come out -everybody had gone away.

But the untidiness was something dreadful -'Never did I see such a mess -smears of honey; and moss, and thistle-down - and marks of big and little dirty feet -all over my nice clean house!' "

The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse - Beatrix Potter

Superior Stones

Instead of sand beaches, the shores surrounding Lake Superior are rock. What looks like sand is just tiny little pebbles chipped off and then smoothed down by the pounding waves. All of the rocks are so pretty, each of them in a different way. The green rock in the right corner is Lake Superior green stone, one of the geological marks of the lake.


We took this photo at Old Woman's Bay, the first place we stopped after our three days of canoe camping. I had felt really dirty, as my clothes were covered in soot and earth, and hands were filthy and I smelled nasty like smoke. I didn't think I could survive being this dirty for the rest of the day, especially as we weren't going to get to a camp site until later in the evening.

At the Bay, Daddy hadn't told us we couldn't go wadding, he just sort of assumed that we would be too cold to want to get wet. Us children took off our socks and shoes and ran down to the beach while Mamita made lunch with Sarah's help. The feel of the water on my toes was so lovely. All that nasty dirt was gone. It was too nice to stop there, and pretty soon, I was waist high in the water.... :-/ Anyways, since my clothes were wet, I was allowed to change into nice clean clothes. *sigh* So delightful. It was nice to wear nylons and dresses again. Ones outlook on life changes drastically when one is clean.

After we left the bay, my hiking boots of only five years decided to fall apart. Like really fall apart. : ( Since my other shoes were packed away, I had to *choke* duct tape the shoe together. Such humiliation. The rest of the family found it rather amusing that I was the one walking around with duct tape wrapped around my foot. *sigh*

Though the way be difficult...

( Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario)

He Still Does!

He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.

He defends me from all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.

All this he does only out of fatherly Divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.

This is most certainly true.

I found out the first day of class that I would need to get a different camera to complete the assignments, as the camera I have been using is digital. Unfortunately, Mamita and Daddy had given away our film camera a couple years ago. I had been worrying about getting the necessary camera, and we going to have to resort to buying a used one somewhere.

We called one of our friends, who works at a camera store, to see if they had the option of renting one for three months. He said that yes, they do, but we don't need to as he is going to let me use his own camera for this semester. That is incredibly kind of him, and it is a really nice camera. [insert incredulous thankful smile here] He brought it over this afternoon and showed me how to use it. I can't wait to get the film and start shooting. God does still take care of us, even in small matters like cameras.

Night Falls

(Lake Superior is beautiful. )

Forgotten..... oh sorrow.

Poor me. I waited and waited for Sarah after my photography class and she didn't come. : ( We had made plans for her to meet me at 4:50, but by the time of her blog post, one can tell that she wasn't there. So anyways, after waiting a whole fifteen minutes, I got bored and tired of waiting in the front of the building, so I went back in and used one of the computers to check email while I was waiting. It just so happened that my lovely sister who was supposed to meet me was online too. :P I was actually glad to see her little chat button lit up, as I was somewhat afraid she had fallen asleep and it would be 6:00 before I'd ever see her.

Anyways. In my photography class, originally, all nine of us had been girls, but today one middle aged guy joined the class. The funny thing is that he looks almost exactly like John Tetzel from the black and white Luther movie. : ) You would almost expect him to be wearing monastic garb.

Partake of Some Refreshment

Fort Michilimackinac

We stopped at the fort in Mackinac city on our way up. I am fairly pleased with the photos from it.

Home

So we are back now. It was a very nice vacation. We went up to Ontario to Lake Superior Provincial Park and canoe camped for two days. Sadly, I got sick the first day after we had canoed into our campsite. I woke up so dizzy, I could barely stand upright and that was not so lovely, so I basically slept the whole day through. We got to see lovely waterfalls and mountains. *sigh* It was pretty. In the morning, the mist rose out over the lakes and then the sun came up and shone into it. Mamita, Matt, Daddy, and sometimes Sarah went fishing alot. Mamita managed to loose one of her fishing poles though.... oops. We also visisted Daddy's roommate from college and his family on the way up, and Aunt Kim and her three girls on the way down.

I Hate Cows

or at least full grown ones.
I have spent the last hour trying to get one of the big cows back in its pen, and it still is loose. Well, at least it can't get out in the road. All it can do is get lost in the woods. I give up. To begin with, how it go out was it greatly desired thistles, so it jsut walked over the fence. Best way to get out. Yay. So I went down with some grain tolead it back around the pasture, to the gate. First I had to get it near enough to realize that the bucket had grain. That meant trudging through the thistles (in a skirt) shaking the bucket, following the cow. Eventually, after several times of it runnign away when ever I close enough to feed it, I fed the other cows a handful and then the loose cow came over to see what it was. I tried to lead it with grain and that worked until we tried to pass the garden, and then it saw all mom's delicious plants and decided that fresh corn and beans beats cracked corn. So I had to run around yelling and pushing it until it got out of the garden. It got out of the garden all right, but it didn't stop there. It went crashing off into the woods. Thankfully, it came back out of the woods in a moment and headed right back into the garden. So I took a step towards it and it saw me and turned and ran as fast as it could right back to where it started. I give up. I hope Mom will coem home soon. I can't even get her with the cell phone as she isn't picking it up. *sigh* Cows are dumb.

Status

This week has gone fairly well (no pun intended). Our county fair didn't seem to be as well put together this year, but I supose the economy effects everything. Tomorrow the rest of the kids sell their market goats. I wonder how that will go.... I've only go to the fair twice this week, including once to just do the chores for the night.

Thankfully, I have been able to get a good deal of peaches canned, so we shall still be able to feed hungry Emmausites after catechisis if need be. Today, the canning of the last peaches went faster than normal, as I had help, though the help *did* manage to get peach peels *all over*. :D As of now, 80 quarts of peaches are done, and I think about 16 pints of peach jam..... It took three bushels of peaches to make that much. There is something very satisfying about have nice pretty jars full of peaches sitting in the pantry. : )

Awesome Quote....

While I was sewing the binding on the quilt, since it is such a boring thing, I was listening to an audio book and found this.

"Diamond got very angry, but he remembered that if she did box his ears, he mustn't box hers again. For she was a girl and all that boys must do to girls if they are rude is to go away and leave them."

-At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald

*is happy*

Ta Da!
:D
All my projects for the county fair are done, except some baking which will happen tonight.

The photos are framed or matted, and that makes me glad to have that done with. Thank you for helping me decide which one to take. : ) The guy at the photo counter really liked my photo with the pine branch in it. : ) We got up and I gave him the ticket thing so we could claim my photos and he asked me if I had taken them. I said yes and he wanted to know what camera I used to catch the water drops like that because that photo was really neat. That made me rather happy.

I finished sewing the last part of my binding this morning, so my quilt is done.
*is even happier*

And since I don't have any animals in the fair, I don't have to wake up until 6:00 tomorrow morning!!! : D

To top it all off, Mamita is feeling much better so life won't be so squished, as it was. : )

New Question....

*sigh*

So Daddy has picked out what he considers to be the three best of my photos.... It is very painful to take someone elses opinion on something that you have done. Mamita and Daddy always disagree with me on my favorite ones....

*whimpers*

He didn't pick the boat one at all! : ( That was my favorite.

I am very glad that they are helping me pick which ones to enter in the fair though, it is just painful to be critiqued....

Anyways, thanks for telling me which of the two in the last post that you liked the best. : )

Not to annoy you or anything, but perhaps, would you mind telling me which of these three is better in your eyes.....

Question...

Of these two photos.....

.....which do you like better?

Trakai Castle

I'm weird

It is 93 degrees outside and it is horribly humid. We have the air conditioning on and it is 73 degrees in the house. For some reason though, I am horribly cold. I have a sweater on and can't stand the thought of swimming right now. I went outside and I was still cold. Maybe its just from being tired. I hope so.

Sunset on the Baltic Sea

Sea Grass

Neringa Dunes

My Favorite Kind of Woods.....

Baltic Forest

There were lovely pine forests covering Neringa. They were so beautiful.

Ships of Nida

We spent several days on the Baltic sea in a little town called Nida. There were many boats in the harbor.

Cathedral Square

Empty Courtyard

Smile

Musicians

Faces

Frolicsome