Dream No Small Dream

Hurray for Christmas!

2010-12-19T10:45:00.000-08:00

These past few weeks have been utterly crazy. I feel like I go here, then there, then somewhere else, then finally fall into bed after 11pm (very late for me!), only to wake up and do it all over again. It’s a good thing that break is coming up in a few short days—I don’t know how long I could do this! On the plus side, I have been having a rather wonderful time being so busy. I just wish there were two more hours in the day, that I could spend sleeping!

Wednesday is the last day of classes, hurrah! I'm planning to spend Friday (Christmas Eve!) rushing around town, desperately hunting for a few last gifts. It’s so much more fun to buy things in Oregon, where I don’t have to think about sales tax!

Here are a couple pictures of what I’ve been up to. =)

First, I couldn’t let the holiday season go by without making something crafty! So, I made a Christmas decoration. I managed to restrain myself to just one! I found the idea here, decided to make it, then realized that it was a lot more work than I had anticipated. That’s usually how crafty projects go with me.

Hurray for miniature Christmas trees! It's about as tall as a clothes hanger.

Some of my friends here on staff took Esther and me to Silver Dollar City. It’s a big theme park, kind of a mix between Disney Land and the Renaissance Festival. Even though it was super cold, we had an amazing time spending the day with them! Their kids are in 12^th, 10^th, and 6^th grade. They had all been to the park many times, so we got the “Best Of” tour.

Here is their whole family, plus Esther. You may notice in the background that there are some Christmas lights on the buildings. Every year, Silver Dollar City decorates their park with over 4,000,000 Christmas lights. Yes, four million. It was mindboggling!

These were my favorite type of Christmas lights.

We woke up a few days ago to a fresh blanket of snow. Fortunately, it’s mostly gone by now! The top picture is the view from my front door.

A Two- Week-Old Update

2010-11-24T12:21:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of what I've been up to these last few weeks. I have to post them now, since I'll have holiday pics to post soon, hopefully!

This was the view out my window a couple days ago before class.

With the time change, it’s even brighter and cheerier now.

I’ve been hearing all semester that the local high school football games are a cultural experience that needs to be seen to be believed. There were thousands of people there, and it was pretty intense! As my friend Beka put it, “It’s kind of sad how all of these grown men get so worked up about some teenagers throwing a ball around.” It definitely rivaled the Division II college football game I went to in Michigan. It was really hard to keep from cheering for the Orange/Black team, even though that was the visiting team. =)

Good news! I found something yummy to eat that involves very little chewing! We had tons of apples in the Food Pantry, and I knew that there had to be some use for millions of seriously bruised apples. And, voila, a yummy dessert that is braces-friendly! I’ve made four crockpots full of this…yum! I was going to take a picture of it after I cooked it and before I ate it…but it mysteriously disappeared before I remembered to take a picture.

Weird.

Two of the ladies in my class will be having babies soon! I love making envelopes, so I decided to make them baby-themed envelopes to use for thank you notes. I felt a little silly making so many baby envelopes, but it was for a good cause, I suppose.

Of Grammar and Anniversaries

2010-10-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

I had to look at my calendar to help me remember what I did this week. Not that nothing happened--on the contrary, lots of things happened. Perhaps that is the problem. I spent all week going to and fro, and everything ended up blurring together into a haze of busy-ness. And when I wasn't busy, I felt compelled to be crafty!

Perhaps the most revolutionary thing that happened this week is that we started grammar class. Although I approached it with fear and trepidation, I soon discovered an affinity for it. It's actually pretty fun. Most people in my class seem to disagree, though. Word puzzles aren't for everyone, I suppose!

You see, not every language is like English. From what I have heard in class, it seems to me that most languages are able to put a lot of meaning into one word. While we use lots of little words, they make big fatty words to get their point across.

Here is an example. =) Aren't you excited? This is the word list that we are given. Let me walk you through how we figure out what each part of the word means.

Do you have a headache yet? Start analyzing! If your head doesn't hurt now, it will soon! Or, you can just keep reading, since I've already done all the work for you...

If you are a grammatical genius like me, you will probably need to scribble all over your paper like a mad person. Then it will magically make sense.

Then you make everything into a nice chart, and label all the word parts. Our homework assignment this weekend had nine columns and about ten rows. It was a little intense!

If all else fails, you can always don an African hat and sneak around your bedroom. They might question your sanity, and not make you do the homework.

I spent Saturday afternoon being crafty! And crafty some more! After the lamp I decorated a couple weeks ago, I was itching to make another. This one looks kind of like the lamp here, except made out of wax paper, and a whole lot cheaper (real ostrich feathers will cost you $3100!!)

Here's Dash, chilling (read: roasting) in Kansas this summer.

In other news, our anniversary was last Thursday! Even though he broke the week after I got him, Dash the Dragon(fly) Slayer made a stellar recovery and has faithfully carried me halfway across the country three times. We've driven 12,876 miles together in the last 368 days. The most I've driven in one day is 804ish miles. =) He's been a super little car...soon he'll need a lot more parts, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

For those who don't know, here's how he got his name. This summer Karyn and I drove through clouds and clouds of dragonflies. This was the end result:

Vive la Mazda!

New Hardware

2010-10-10T16:37:00.000-07:00

I have accrued a variety of new hardware lately. And by "hardware," I am broadly referring to a great many things containing metal.

Firstly, and most radical, I got braces. I thought about posting pictures, but decided to spare you. You can thank me later. Suffice to say that although my front teeth weren't too crooked, the back ones were more than crooked enough to warrant braces. Braces are definitely a bother. To the extreme. I superly wish I had gotten this out of the way in high school like everybody else! Oh well...After a steady diet of rice, applesauce, and soup for a week, I have finally graduated to sandwiches and burritos. Hopefully I'll be able to navigate salads and meat soon. =)

The really tragic part of this story is that I can no longer whistle. People keep telling me I'll relearn, but I just don't see it happening. Farewell, my whistle! I'll see you again in 15 months!

Secondly, my class is finishing up our Tech Tips class. It's been pretty intimidating and helpful, all at the same time. As it turns out, it takes a lot of tech knowledge to be able to live in the middle of a jungle! At least if you want electricity. Because electricity requires batteries and solar panels and wiring and fuses and soldering and inverters and lightning protection and diodes all sorts of things that I never knew existed.

It's been a good class, and has made me thoroughly appreciate the people who work at the Tech Center! They have been doing this for a long time, and know what will work and what won't in a remote location. They've done all the homework for me, I just need to believe them when they recommend what I should do.

Here are some things we've made in our labs, which our teachers promise we will need someday.

Lots of soldering practice on alligator clips! We learned how to solder using both AC and DC power. Long story short: DC is faster! It also sparks more, and is therefore more thrilling.

Look at those precise soldering skills!

This was our test. Solder a row of LED lights together, as well as connect the other end of the wires to that black thingy (they didn't tell us what this is called)(that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!).

The other side of the LED row. I was sad to cover up all my pretty solder connections!

We also learned how to read and follow directions like this. Now, when I'm in the jungle and they email me directions, I won't be utterly lost and helpless (in theory)!

Thirdly, I got bored today and applied my crafty skills to a lamp. Perhaps this doesn't count as "hardware," but I'm rather proud and want to show off what I did! This is a result of too much time spent online at home-decorating sites, combined with a lack of homework this weekend. I love lazy Sunday afternoons!

I started with a normal paper globe from Ikea.

Lots of wax paper, and lots of tape. And lots of paper scraps all over the floor.


It looks like a flower to me. I hope the wax paper won't melt...

My favorite is what it looks like from underneath. Which is good, since it hangs right over my bed!

It's going to take all my willpower not to make more of these. I have three more paper globe lamps, and each of them are just begging to be dressed up. Incidentally, if you have the hankering to cut out countless wax paper petals, I got the idea from here.

That's all for this week!

Ha Ha Tonka

2010-10-03T17:26:00.000-07:00

Ha Ha Tonka. What a dopey name for a state park, right? Well, after a quick google search, I found a couple odd state park names in Oregon, too (although it's hard to determine what is odd and what is not when you are familiar with many of the names!).

Here is my compilation of semi-odd Oregon state park/monument/etc names:

Neskowin Beach
Tokatee Klootchman
Iwetemlaykin
Memaloose
Erratic Rock

Alrighty, enough nonsense. Back to Ha Ha Tonka...

A couple weeks ago, I was invited to go hiking with a couple of my friends, Beka and Adriana. Halfway through the hike, I thought "I'm like 24 years old. I wonder if I should feel lame for having so much fun with a highschooler, a middleschooler, and their hyper dog." But I decided not to feel lame, and had an awesome time hiking. I guess the only explanation is that they are some pretty stellar people.

Here are some pictures. Let me tell you, I am so glad to be living here! Oregon is definitely my favoritest state ever, but I love to live here as well. Yes, it was unearthly hot/humid until a week ago. And yes, it will be unearthly cold in a couple of weeks. But this part of Missouri is so beautiful, and I am so thankful to get to spend some time here. I'll probably change my mind when winter arrives, but...oh well.

I just can't stop typing nonsense today! Here are the pics, for reals this time.

The old water tower. Some guy decided to build a pseudo-castle, and the is the leftovers of the water tower.

My fearless and inimitable guides.

We took a normal picture. It was too boring.


They tried to shove Piper into a hole in the rocks. Piper wasn't too enthralled with the idea.

This hole was easier to shove Piper into.

See, a normal picture in front of a pseudo-castle. Boring, right?

Although this definitely isn't boring, I wouldn't say it's much of an improvement. Poor Piper.

Piper rebelled by running away.

Piper got sleepy. For about five minutes. After that, she was ready to go for another four mile hike!

A few nights ago I my friends the Gills invited me over for dinner. Afterwards we had a bonfire, and I tried to take some pics with my new camera.

It was a pretty super bonfire. I super wanted to eat a s'more. But my teeth hurt super bad from my new braces. It was super sad.

That's all for today! =) Maybe I'll blog about something of more substance next week...or not...

Trip East

2010-09-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from my recent drive out here. According to GoogleMaps, it was a total of 2,168 miles. But that's not counting driving around looking for gas stations and hotels and getting lost.

Karyn liked to play with my camera. Which was convenient, since I was supposed to be keeping my eyes on the road.

Normally my driving did not provoke this reaction. Normally.

I like driving east because the sun sets behind you, instead of in your eyes. However, that also means that the sunrise is in your eyes. Best to go north and south, I say.

Each one of those propellers is longer than a semi.

It was windy in Little America. But we had to stop, since my grandmother had regaled me with tales about when she stopped here, many many moons ago.

Eastern Colorado and western Kansas had clouds of dragonflies. This picture doesn't do justice to the mess they made on my windshield.

Karyn's toes. And Kansas.

I slightly modified my car's name, to Dash the Dragon(fly) Slayer. He fared admirably. When I cleaned him a couple weeks ago (two weeks after the drive, during the first substantial rain), I pulled dozens of rotting carcasses out of the grill and headlights. Yes, these dragonflies were big enough to rot. Nasty.

This is the house where Karyn's grandparents used to live, and where her aunt and uncle live now. I wandered around and took pictures while Karyn (who is in vet school) healed all the farm cats.

This is "The House on the Hill," where Karyn's mom apparently grew up. It was also fun to explore, although a bit more smelly and full of bird poo. I was also afraid the floor would collapse, since it was a bit....soft.

Karyn's cousins had a penny-farthing bike, which was an adventure to ride. But I came, I saw, and I conquered.

We had to drive past school into Camdenton, because we needed to go to Sonic first. It was happy hour--half price limeades, hurrah!

Dream No Small Dream

2010-01-30T20:19:00.000-08:00

I spontaneously did a little bit of research today, and I discovered something pretty marvelous! You see, I've been using the quote "Dream No Small Dream" as the name of my blog for quite some time. It was something that I remembered reading somewhere, and I liked it a lot. I thought it was very appropriate for my aspirations of missions work.

But today I discovered that it is only the first half of a longer quote. The entire quote reads like this:

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Now, I have no idea who that is (some super-smart German guy who lived 200 years ago). But I think that it is glorious.

I want to opine about it, but I had better refrain because it is late at night. I only write long, boring novels late at night. =)