Praying Mantis

I had my wire sculpture critique today. I walked into the classroom and everyone looked at my bug. Then this girl said, "You seem like you've done this before?" I was like, "Nope, this would be the first time." My professor said I had one of the best projects too! That was encouraging. This project probably took me the least amount of time out all the projects we have had to do for this class so far. Up next is welding...

Bug

Here is a picture of my praying mantis... You can only see the head but the body is coming along. I am making it out of wire.

Bored? Not anymore :)

Amidst my long long list of things to do, I am once again procrastinating. I don't really want to study for my art history test right now. I am at work and this is shaping up to be the looonngest 1.5 hours of my life. There is nothing to do work wise, so I should be taking advantage of the peace and quiet by studying. 


I picked up a package from my friend on my way to work. First of all, you should know that she lives in Alaska. Second of all, I am forever thankful because she sends me sweet things (and we have a sweet pen pail correspondence). Thirdly, it is way cool that I get packages addressed from AK. Anyways, today I received a book. Not just any book...

(The writing on the book is backwards- I tried to change it for you all...no such luck)

this is "The Official Nancy Drew Handbook" by Penny Warner. Not gonna lie, I've never read Nancy Drew but from what I've read already in this book, she sounds pretty awesome. 


This book "will teach you how to live the Nancy life, with tips on fashion and beauty, romance and relationships, survival, sleuthing, and success." Currently I am reading, "How To Get the Most Out of Your Date." Point #1 is, "Accept invitations from a variety of suitors: You may be surprised to find that what you thought was your 'type' may not be as interesting as a man who doesn't quite fit your mold. Like trying a range of foods or solving a number of mysteries, dating a variety of men makes life richer and helps you gain valuable experiences- and often information- from each encounter. Even a seemingly average guy can offer some surprises, if you know how to find them." The things you learn! Up next, "How to Get That Ring on Your Finger and That Man to the Altar." I think I'm going to like this book :)

1 Kings 17: 7-16

7 Eventually the brook dried up because of the drought. 8 Then God spoke to him: 9 "Get up and go to Zarephath in Sidon and live there. I've instructed a woman who lives there, a widow, to feed you." 10 So he got up and went to Zarephath. As he came to the entrance of the village he met a woman, a widow, gathering firewood. He asked her, "Please, would you bring me a little water in a jug? I need a drink." 11 As she went to get it, he called out, "And while you're at it, would you bring me something to eat?" 12 She said, "I swear, as surely as your God lives, I don't have so much as a biscuit. I have a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a bottle; you found me scratching together just enough firewood to make a last meal for my son and me. After we eat it, we'll die." 13 Elijah said to her, "Don't worry about a thing. Go ahead and do what you've said. But first make a small biscuit for me and bring it back here. Then go ahead and make a meal from what's left for you and your son. 14 This is the word of the God of Israel: 'The jar of flour will not run out and the bottle of oil will not become empty before God sends rain on the land and ends this drought.'" 15 And she went right off and did it, did just as Elijah asked. And it turned out as he said - daily food for her and her family. 16 The jar of meal didn't run out and the bottle of oil didn't become empty: God's promise fulfilled to the letter, exactly as Elijah had delivered it!


I really like this passage from the Bible. The widow had to completely trust God for food; each day she learned to trust Him more and more. Is there an area in life your life in which you are having trouble trusting? IWhat if you and I trusted God this much? I pray that we will trust God more and more each day like this widow. 

The People You Meet

"Out there things can happen and frequently do

to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew.
Just go right along. You’ll start happening too. Oh! The Places You’ll Go!" ~Dr. Seuss

Friday night Jenna and I attended a youth group event. They provided Little Caesars pizza for us and root beer floats. There were 20 people attending; we played Bunko. Five tables were set up around the room and four people sat at each table. You were partners with the person across from you- the point of the game was to roll three dice and see how many ones you could get the first round, then twos, and so on. If you won a game you continued on to a higher table, switching partners each time. It was great fun because we got to know a lot of people. After Bunko we played Live Mafia. This was a lot of fun too, but kind of scary! Jenna and I just hid in a room most of the rounds.


Saturday I did some homework. Later that night Jenna, Imma and I watched "Life As We Know It." This movie is a-maz-ing! I didn't expect much from it but boy was I surprised. It is a chick flick with lots of plot twists. And very very cute. 

Cubism Sculpture

One more project- done!

Back In the Swing of Things

Today I woke up feeling almost 100%. Most of my energy has returned and food is starting to taste normal again. I am mostly caught up on my school work too- I didn't miss much thankfully.


I am finding out that I don't have much willpower when it comes to sweets... I attempted to give up sweets for lent but that lasted about 9 days. I was doing good until someone brought a huge Costco cake to my work, which was covered in white frosting. It looked amazing...so I had to eat some! There went that resolution. Actually my friends thought I cheated when I ate chocolate pudding and drank chocolate milk, but I didn't count those things. Once I was done trying not to eat sweets I went ahead and bought a package of Snickers Peanut Butter bars. These are fairly new to the shelves at the store and I had been wanting to try them. They contain PEANUT BUTTER!! My all time favorite food. I got them the next day (after I ate the cake) at Walmart. They tasted really good. Now I don't have wonder anymore :)

101st BLOG POST

This is officially my 101st blog post! I apologize for the lapse in blog posts- from here on out I will try to post more regularly.

I arrived back to school on Sunday night from spring break, not feeling one hundred percent. It turns out I had the start of a cold and it continued to get worse, not better, as the days went by. I took some NyQuil on Monday night but it did not do much for me. Then yesterday I made it through 1.5 hours of my first class before I left, retreated to my room and slept on and off the rest of the day. Last night the NyQuil worked wonders and I got a full 12 hours of sleep with out waking. I am feeling a bit better today and I accomplished a few things too.

In class on Tuesday morning we had the critique for our pixilated portrait projects-

I finished Brad Paisley over spring break. It took a loooong time to complete! But thankfully I got it done. The professor said that it was good except for the colors should probably have been different. He thought it needed some warmer colors, like dark green or blue, to help with the value scale. Whatever...what's done is done.

I had a great spring break for the most part. On Saturday night my friends and I went to see our high school play. My good friend Stacey was in the play- she did a wonderful job dancing. The the play was very funny and the actors were amazing.

Me, Stacey, and Tori

Monday through Thursday I worked. I spent most of my 8 hour days stripping wall-paper. Needless to say, I know the BEST way to get any kind of wallpaper off the walls. When I wasn't working I was either shopping (I bought some new clothes and some stuff for future art projects), doing homework or spending time with my family.

On Thursday morning my parents left for Florida so I brought them to the airport. What I did not realize was how much more responsibility I would have once they left. I was in charge of my brothers for a few days- I had to make sure they made it to school, make/buy them dinner, and do their laundry, among other things. That made life a bit more hectic! I can't even imagine how my mom takes care of us day in and day out. No wonder she is so busy all the time :) Thanks for all your hard work mom!

Saturday night my grandparents came and I got to spend some time with them before returning school. Then, Sunday afternoon I worked on my sculpture project before we left to head back to school. There were five girls in the car riding back, which meant a whole lot of stuff. Basically everyone had a bag on their lap or surrounding their feet (except me, but I was squished in the middle back seat). The car got extremely hot and stuffy as the trip wore on. To top it all off, this was when I was not feeling the greatest so it made for one long car ride.

Now I am watching movies and enjoying not going to class. Yesterday Jenna avoided her homework by watching Mama Mia with me and talking with me. What a great friend! Today she was busy all day and so I watched Just Like Heaven by myself. This movie stars Reese Witherspoon who is my favorite actress. I was surprised to find out that Jon Heder is also an actor in this movie. If you don't know who Jon Heder is think....Napoleon Dynamite!

OH YEAH! This ranks pretty high among my favorite movies!!

My Thoughts Are Not Your Thoughts

God has placed people in our life for a specific reason, to help us through a certain time in our life. 

I have always been told that things change- circumstances never stay the same. As I am finding out, the people in my life change too. I have grown closer to different people during different times. People I have been close to have moved away and I have moved away from people I am close to. 

At first this concept bothered me. Ever wonder why you couldn’t have been friends with that person you have such a good connection with a lot earlier in life. Or why that amazing person who helped strengthen your faith moved away. It just doesn’t seem fair. Job 1:21b reads, “the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Here we are told that the Lord is the one who places people in our life, for however long it might be. The Lord is the one who takes people out of your life, or distances you from them. We need not get mad at God or think any less of him when he does this. God has a plan in everything he does. Isaiah 55:8 states, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.” We are called to trust God’s ways, even though we may not see the good in them or understand them.

God calls us to hope. We hope for the day when new people will be brought into our life to come close to us and help us though our journey. God has good things in store for those who love him and he is constantly blessing those who follow his ways. Psalm 84:11b, “The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.”

And the SUN is shinin', this road keeps windin'

Well folks, spring break has come around again. I am 3/4 of the way through my first year of college! My how time flies. The car ride back from school was great because we were all hyper and extremely excited to be coming home. And we listen to country music most of the time and sang along :) I arrived home tonight to an empty house. When your used to being surrounded by crazy teenagers 24 hours a day, an empty house seems sooooo quiet. Thankfully my parents saved me some left-over Little Caesars pizza (and breadsticks!!) to eat for dinner. Then they came home shortly after- we caught up on life real fast.

I could really use a break but this won't be a spring break for me at all. I have two art projects that are due the Tuesday after spring break. I brought those home to work on and so I will post pictures when they are done. I also have to research for my art history paper and finish my long to do list. I am working four days this coming week at my job here, too. I am pretty excited to see everyone at work again. I also can't wait to see my friends! A bunch of us are back from college/will be coming home for the weekend and so we are all going to hang out. Life is good!

I had a lot of witty things to say but I can't remember them anymore :( I will post more later when I remember.