5 weeks!

Until Dad gets home! I am counting the days! The days actually number 24--5 weeks is a rounded number.

Mama and Dad got me a 6 month membership to a ladies' gym for Christmas. I went every weekday this past week and I feel great!

Mama is having Ethan, Naomi, and Joshua read Paul Johnson's A History of the American People for their (wait for it) American history credit. So I volunteered to read it first and write tests, short essay questions and full essay questions for them. It's a great read. I'm really enjoying it! I have wanted to read it for a while now. I figured that volunteering to write a curriculum around it would be a good way to guarantee that I read it.

Hebrew class starts up again tomorrow. I'm so excited! I hope I haven't forgotten everything over the break.

The Bravest Thing of All Is To Hope

"And in the dark we climb this slope
'cause the bravest thing is always hope."
Binary from The Light of Things Hoped For by Brave Saint Saturn

"Deepest oceans of despair
This vast and somber
Charcoal night of space
Have you given up yet?
What hope lingers in the crevasses and corners of your soul?
I know you
You haven't given up yet
You are brave in this darkness, Saint Saturn
Sometimes the bravest thing of all is to hope"
Atropos from The Light of Things Hoped For by Brave Saint Saturn

No profound thoughts to go with it. I'm just enjoying their music right now. I'm also enjoying having BonnieJean, Chera, Ethan, and Naomi all home and in the same room.

The headache and stupid feeling from yesterday is gone, praise God! I just have zip energy but I can handle that, kind of.

I'm rereading Jane Austen's Emma. I had forgotten how funny Mr. Woodhouse is. "Poor Isabella..."

I'm also finally reading Rodney Stark's Victory of Reason. It's been recommended to me for forever. I'm only in the first chapter but it's good so far. It's a deep enough book that you have to take it pretty slow.

I got some wrapping of Christmas gifts done today. I love wrapping paper and pretty bows, but I am so bad at it. In fact, right now I can see the lovely gold ribbon that matched BonnieJean's black gift bag so perfectly lying on the floor next to said classy black bag. *sigh*

I have an itch to go Christmas ornament shopping. I'm noticing some terrible holes on the tree right now. I want to get some pearlescent (sp?) gold balls and maybe some more red ones, too.

I've decided to quit the praise band. Sunday was the third or 4th time I've shown up for rehearsal and had no music stand, music, or microphone. So, I'm taking the hint. I'm trying to extricate myself quietly. I just have to come up with an innocent but honest answer for when everyone starts to ask me why I'm not playing anymore. BonnieJean and Dad both suggested finding another group to play with because it is something I have really enjoyed. Something to think and pray about.

Ken Ham was at FBC of BA this weekend. I made it to 2 different talks. I'm pretty familiar with his materials (but's it's always good to hear again!), so the only new thing I heard about was a research study he and a behavioral science research group did on the people in their tweens who went to conservative churches through high school and then stopped going in their 20s. I went out on a limb and bought the book summarizing the study without asking Mama with her money. She's ok with it now though.

I got a henna tattoo at the State Fair Saturday when I went with Naomi and Caleb. It's a star of David with a cross in the middle on the inside of my arm just below the elbow. I wanted it up on my forearm, but it was so cold that the lady wouldn't let me take my jacket off, so I had to pick a spot reached by rolling up my sleeves.

I started Hebrew classes Monday night at the Tulsa Jewish Community Center. I was disappointed to find out that the beginner class works only reading and writing Hebrew, no speaking. But, I liked the teacher and the attitude of all the other students. I caught onto this first lesson really fast, but I think that's because I'm already familiar with a vowel-point system from Arabic lessons with Amani.

I need to get somethings printed and ready to mail in the morning, so I'd better wrap this up. I still had 2 other big things to write about, so I shall just have to continue this later.

Summer Reading List

  This is my summer reading list which will probably trail well into the fall at least.

  Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn

  Tolkien's Lord of the Rings

  Hurnard's Hind's Feet on High Places

  Harjo's How We Become Human

  Harjo'sShe Had Some Horses

  Pratchett's DiscWorld Series

  Ai's Dread

  Collin's Sailing Alone Around the Room

  Lewis' Until We All Have Faces

  Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince

  Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Ouladah Equiano

  Any more suggestions?

Blah

  I was driving along Scottie's road today and stopped to watch a grey heron.  It's amazing how still those birds can stand.  Occasionally, I could see the feather move some of his breast feathers, but other than that he could have been a statue.  He made a good illustration for "Be still and know that I AM GOD."  Compared to that bird, I don't know how to be still at all.  Even when I'm sitting stock still, my mind is still going in a million directions.

  I finished today--thank you Julie!  It is a great read.  I wish I had read it before Dr. Taylor's campaign class.  We, sadly, didn't cover anything about vote fraud in that class.  Now, I need to look up OK's rules on provisional ballots, absentee ballots, and voter registration.

  Sometimes being a girl stinks.  I have been outragiously hungry and craving sweets all day, not to mention being totally lethargic and getting nothing done.  Granted, I like this better than forming a permanent ovarian cyst every month, but it still stinks.

  I realized the other day that I was looking for a job this time last year.  Last year, I was much poorer than I am now and had been unemployed much longer.  God gave me the perfect job for that time, pulled me away from it when the time was no longer right, and is going to work this out yet again.  So quit freaking out already, Anna!

  I'm desperately trying to learn some fiddle fills for Beulah Land before Sunday.  My church family is so patient with me.

  I got my desk completely clean yesterday!  I feel so much better having that done!  Now, let's see if I can keep it that way.

  I'm going to go curl up with a book and a fleece.

Another late night post

  Why are most of my blog posts written late at night?  I do tend to be more contemplative in the evenings.  I think that's a good thing.

  Punyou had two seizures this evening.  The first one was about a mintue and a half and the second was a little less than a minute.  They were about thirty minutes apart.  His whole head would shake, back and forth not up and down, and his eyes wouldn't blink.  We'll call the vet in the morning.

  I think I'll go take the computer and U.S. history II CLEPs tomorrow.  Yeah for CLEP tests!  Everybody pray for me.

  Mama found my old violin shoulder rest--hallelujah!  I haven't been too happy with my new one.  It pops off whenever I really start hugging the violin to me.

  Hillcat basketball is having a great season!  The men are 6-0 in conference play, 12-0 overall.  The ladies just won their 6th game in a row last night and are 4-2 in conference play, 10-4 overall.  They both play St. Gregory's tomorrow.  I'll have to leave right in the middle to go to band practice at church, but I'm hoping to catch most of it.  I sat with Ethan, Mae, and her boyfriend Aaron at the last home game.  Mae played basketball in high school, so she was able to explain all the ref's calls, which was awesome because they're totally incomprehensible to me.

  I had a very productive day today.  I applied for 6 different jobs, filed the quarterly report for the Rogers County Republicans with the State Ethics Commission, renewed the club's registration (with the $52.50 fee) with said Commission, took the sample U.S. history CLEP, cleaned my room (some), worked out, and stretched.  I should have cleaned my desk, but I didn't.  Oh, well, tomorrow.

  I now have three of my textbooks in: Orientalism and Comparative Politics for my Comparative Politics class, and an Anthology of 20th Century Native American Poetry for my Poetry Writing class.

  I'm really enjoying a book Julie lent me called Stealing Elections by John Fund.  It's challenging my some of my views on absentee ballots and extremely interesting.

  I try to remember to ask this something-resembling-annually: who all reads my blog?

Merry Christmas!

  We're doing Christmas a little different this year.  We've all been taking it in turns to be sick with one bug or another since before Thanksgiving.  This means that nobody felt like shopping, wrapping presents, or cooking.  So, we decided to postpone Christmas to January 1st.  Or, rather, we're spreading Christmas out over several days.  We did our big Christmas breakfast of pancakes, bacon, orange, etc. today.  Either Saturday or Monday we're doing the big turkey dinner thing.  Sometime this weekend, I think, we'll drive around and look at Christmas lights.  Tomorrow and on other days throughout this week we're taking advantage of post-Christmas sales to buy presents.  Thursday we'll open presents and read the Christmas story.  We might do this again next year whether we're sick or not--it has distinct advantages.

  I don't know if any of y'all outside my family know them, but Katie Sova and Ryan Deckard have finally made it official and set a date of October 10th, 2009!  I think that's too far away, but I'm sure they have their reasons.  I don't know Ryan very well, but Katie is unadultered perfection and she's very happy with him.  Congrats, guys!

  Happy 19th birthday to my favorite teddy bear, Johnny!  I remember getting him as a present on my third Christmas when I was only two years old.  Very long life for a teddy bear and he's still going strong.

  The fam is watching Jingle All the Way (great movie!) and Mama had planned to watch it with us, but she's gotten a terrible ear/toothache from sinus trouble.  So, I'm going to go sit and read with her back in her room.  I'm reading The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett, the Gospel of John, and Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris.  I think right now I'll go with the Bible and Terry Pratchett.

  

Lazy ramblings

This is a meandering post of my random thoughts. Proceed at your own risk.

I want to learn how to play this.

I had such a lovely time yesterday! I don't really care for baby showers (they're just so feminime and trivial) and this was a very stereotypical baby shower. So I played with my cousin Sarah's baby Zoey most of the time. I wish I could have taken her home. The good part came after the shower when we just got to visit with Sam, Samantha, Tobin, Erica, Kent, Linda, Adam, Matthew, and Nathan (it gives me warm fuzzies just to write their names out!)

Erica has gained 32 pounds and it's almost all entirely in her baby bump. She's as gorgeous as ever! It still freaks me out to think that she's actually having a baby! I'm insanely excited, too! If it's a boy, his name will be Blake Cameron. I don't care for the name Blake, but if she has a boy I will instantly love the name Blake. If it's a girl, she'll be Molly Jean, carrying on the family name of Jean. :)

Adam went against all of our advice and bought a pick up truck--a huge truck. It's a Dodge Ram, double cab, really nice bed liner, silver, seats 6. I don't think he should have gotten in debt for it, but it is pretty awesome. I forgot to ask him what he named it. He's working two jobs and going to school--typical overachiever Sutherland, I love it. I like his girlfriend Sam more every time I see her.

While we girls were in Texas, Samuel, Ethan, and Joshua went with a bunch of other karate people to the Murrow's Children Home in Muskogee. The famous Zip Taylor was there! Erica, I hope you realize what I unknowningly sacrificed for you! Zip Taylor is old, old school ABKA, and THE kata man. He's helping out at Vicki Rutledge's dojo in Lawton. I think that's a good thing--their kata needs help and Vicki's health isn't going to be getting better. Vicki asked him to help out because she's been having trouble with gangs at her dojo.

I LOVE driving on the Indian Nation Turnpike. It's relatively flat and straight and almost desserted. I went 85 the whole way--Mama wouldn't let me hit 100, even though I really wanted to. Next time, I'm not gonna ask, I'll just wait until she falls asleep. I had a moment of pure joy when I came over a rise, got hit with a lovely view of pasture land and straight road all to Josh Groban singing Panis Angelicus on the I-trip.

I've come down with some kind of throat infection and left my voice in Texas. Poor thing, it's probably cold and confused, trying to hitch it's way North along highway 69. I'm sure it will eventually find me. I still have Whisper with me.

I'm reading Blue Like Jazz right now. I'm really enjoying it. It has deep truths, but it's still very readable.

There are a lot of CDs I need to get, which is rather unusual. Usually I just want specific songs, not the whole album. I want Dark Horse by Nickelback, Fearless by Taylor Swift, Anti-Meridian by Brave St. Saturn, Weezer: The Red Album by Weezer, And Winter Came by Enya, Peace on Earth by Casting Crowns, and the Twilight and Prince Caspian soundtracks. I think I'll space it out throughout my yearly budget, one CD a month. So I should have all of these in a year!

I need to make a point to read some poetry over my break. If you read well, you write well and I'm already nervous about my poetry class next semester.

It's sleeting right now and the low tonight will be 19. Yuck.

Starting tomorrow, I'm job hunting. Jia-o!

Facebook etiquette is confusing. Is it rude to peruse someone's wall? Does anyone read my notes that are a feed from this blog? Do people only read notes in which they are tagged?

Uncle Evan fell off a ladder after Thanksgiving and broke his pelvis. He's home now. Mama called Esther this evening, but I haven't debriefed her yet.

I finished reading Mort by Terry Pratchett. It was stunningly clever. I think I'll read The Color of Magic next, also by Pratchett.

I think I'm going to go play a mindless computer game, read my Bible, and hit the sack. Love y'all!

  I had a wonderful time this evening visiting with Haley and Chloe!  They so totally rock.  And apox upon Emily, Jesse, and Isaiah.

  I've finally come down with the flu bug that almost everyone else has had.  I thought I was going to escape, but guess not.  I don't think I have it as bad as everyone else.  I'm already feeling much better, but I still ache all over.  And I'm hungry but I don't dare actually eat anything that would fill me up.

  I'm reading Mort by Terry Pratchett right now.  It's highly amusing and original, like all of his stuff.

  Samuel got a text from a coworker, Jason, this evening.  Jason has expressed interest in Christianity and we've been praying for him.  So anyway, the text said "I need what you have.  What time is church tomorrow?"  Isn't that awesome?!  Please be praying for him.

  Being sick has really set me back on my homework.  Bleh.  Which means that I'm missing church, again, tomorrow.  I'm starting to miss church.

  OK, I need to get ready to go to work.  Love y'all!

Lists

I need to...

Be one of the first 75 students to enter the Student Union at 11 in order to get a free ice cream Sundae.

Call every high school in Rogers County and find out when their first football and homecoming games are.

Read two more chapters of America's Meltdown.

Write a journal for chapters 2-5 of America's Meltdown.

Read the first chapter of the book that I forgot the name of for my campaign class.

Review for a quiz on Tuesday in Intro to Public Policy.

Sleep.

Go to work.

Watch some more Monk episodes.

Hang my clothes.

Clean out a drawer.

Restack everything on my desk.

Do some banking.

Ponder and pray some more about getting a laptop. (What do y'all think?)

An Urgent Calling

"Because politics can protect the weak in the cause of justice, it can be a noble profession. And because the oppression of the weak is an offense against the image of God, politics is an urgent calling."--Michael Gerson in Heroic Conservatism

I'm nuts

I'm signed up for 18 hours next semester. Everybody keeps telling me I'm nuts. BJ, the great and powerful, survived 21 so I ought to be able to do 18.

I called my friend Rachel Sunday. She had just found out earlier that week that she's expecting a girl! That's what she and Josh had wanted, so they're real happy. She's due in March, so I would really like to go see them in May when school lets out. Yes, I've been invited. :)

Missions tournament is Saturday! Isaac, Ethan, and Joshua are all fighting a sinus bug so pray really hard that we all get well and stay well by the tournament. I really would like for Samuel and I to take both first and second in our kata division. Obviously, I want first, but as long as both end up at the house I'd be happy.

I'm listening to the Bond music right now. Sure is pretty.

I need to get up to school and check out a book that we're supposed to talk about in class tomorrow. Have to get it before everybody else gets it! If you hear about a fist fight in the RSU library it will probably have been me and one of my Perspectives classmates.

My brain hurts

This article review exercise for my Perspectives class is a little more complicated than I thought. It's not due until Thursday morning so I'm glad I didn't start working on it Wednesday night.

It got down into the 50s here. I think I might go into mourning for summer.

Dad took this week off. It's nice to have him around. We kinda like him. :)

I finished Monstrous Regiment yesterday. It's by the same fellow who wrote Going Postal. Monstrous Regiment wasn't nearly as good or entertaining, unless you're really into cross-dressing.

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.--Don Marquis

I'm sure the The Swimmer is allegorical. I searched Sparknotes, Cliffnotes, and Wikipedia and was unable to find out what the allegory means. Anybody know?

I could get an ipod nano for $50 off of Amazon. I'm seriously thinking about it.

I really like What's Language Got To Do With It? that we're reading selected articles out of for my Latin/Greek/English class. I mgiht keep it at the end of the semester instead of selling it back.

I love afternoon naps.

Did you know that on this day in 1698, Peter the Great of Russia imposed a tax on beards in order to move Russians away from Asiatic customs. Weird, huh? The things you can learn on the internet...

I'm going to write a few emails and go home for supper. Love y'all!