Monday, March 26, 2007

The Journey Begins

It’s still not real: We leave TODAY! I am so excited to embark on another journey! I still have fond memories from the DC Trip, so I can only imagine how special Europe will be with my best friend and other close senior buddies! We will have awesome pictures for sure! I survived work last night and brought home $68, so not bad! I organized all of the digital pics for the senior slideshow, but 4 of 18 years is a bit lacking! :) Mom and Dad are scanning other ones soon.

Yesterday I took a picture in the cockpit of 51Mike and one by the Statue of Liberty in my Red Robin. Guess what? When we get back, it’s only 2 months until graduation (and a mere 2 weeks until Banquet) and after graduation, 2 months until Berlin mission’s trip and then 5 days until college at Embry!! I’m so glad Mom and Dad are coming down with me! So fun! And just last night we figured out that I won the MOF/WA state Pathfinder’s scholarship. So, I got $15,000 (ER) + $1,000 (Math) + $1,000 (Comcast) + $5,000 (Pathfinder’s) = $22,000 for my freshmen year. The larger amounts are renewable (get it every year!) Praise God!! Well, I need to finish packing and getting ready! Europe, here I come! Cheerio!

~~~

After some last-minute shopping with Mom, we picked up Dad and headed to Sea-Tac. It was group picture and goodbye time. Next came security. After that, we sat by S10 (our gate) and waited. Esther and I wandered to fin d a cinnamon roll. Seattle’s Best had exactly two! Es and I also got chai and enjoyed. The lady was so sweet, we both loved talking with her about our trip and our college plans. Later, we wandered through shops to get 2 coloring books and colored pencils. On the 747, we had the very back middle rows:

(back)
Kate Dolly Angela Kim
Me Es Sarr Levi
Andi Ian Frisk Lugg
(front)

The two meals served were excellent, but I only slept for 15 minutes…
The entertainment system was crazy! You could pick pretty much anything to watch or do! I played Hangman and Solitare and watched Night at the Museum, Dream Girls, and School of Rock. Each day I’m going to write down fun quotes and words I learn:

“Many Thanks.” Steward
“We’ll hit you as soon as we can.” Mr. Lugg

Nappy = diaper
Toilets = restroom
Bonnet = hood
Mind the Gap
Underground-Tube = subway
Take-away = to-go

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NatNannyNad at 12:48 PM

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Saturday, March 10, 2007

Monthly Madness

Whew! It's been awhile (weird... one month exactly) since I posted, for sure! I think I will enlist the help of my daily planner to remind me of all I've done in the past month:

Let's see... Red Robin Smokey Point opened on the 12th of February. I cannot say how much of a blessing that job has been! Sure, I did spend many-a-day at school completely exhausted, but I also quickly made the last bit of money I owed for the Europe trip and am now saving whatever tip money I make this month for spending. No, I am not going to spend it all (I hope!) but when our money is only 1/2 of one Euro... Better safe than sorry, right? I mean last time Es and I went on a trip, we ended up eating weight loss bars and eating other people's scraps so we could spend lunch money on more souvenirs! :D But, back to RR. God gave me a couple of days off school for various reasons that allowed me to catch up on sleep. We had a half day on the 13th and 16th (Europe trip Tea Party).

On the 17th, I hung out with Sarah, Kramer, Becs, and Steph. We went to the bowling alley... but didn't go bowling. :) Then, we went to McDonalds for food and Fred Meyer to buy Milo & Otis which we watched at the Giordanos only to fall asleep. Good times.

I wrote a couple of papers (Calvinism for English and Pilgrim's Progress for Bible).

Worked on several scholarships. I also won the Comcast one I applied for in February. Hooray! $1,000 less for my parents to pay!

February 23rd, we had a very fun senior surprise! We met in the gym with a veritable banquet of food and played several games with our parents to earn points for prizes. Volleyball, relay, ping-pong, b-ball, Yahtzee, and karaoke! Whew! Many of us went to the Weinberg's after to watch Just Like Heaven. Cute. Ian even gave Levi and I a ride in his sweet car! ;)

On the 24th, Katie's friend Jake had 4 extra tickets to the Aaron Schust, Audio A, MercyMe concert at Overlake. Ironically, it was in the deaf section, so we were literally in the front row a bit to the right. First, though, my parents and I ate at Red Robin with Sarah and Becca. When we finally found our seats at the concert I took a bunch of pictures and video. Talk about feeling the bass! Sarah, Becs, Steph, and I had quite a memorable time there! We also discovered 3 streets to not take when leaving the church to get back home. :)

On the 26th, track began and the b-ball banquet was at Eagle's Nest. I was awarded second team all-league. Andrea, Stuart, and I are the captains. Unfortunately, I can only go to 1-2 practices a week. I'm doing my best to keep up! Today, there was a Health Fair at Arlington High School, so I invited the team over to do that and then watch Flushed Away (HILARIOUS!). Josh, Danners, and Brian were the only ones who showed up... ha! We got free stuff at the fair, learned our BMI's, and hung out at my house. Tasty food, playing cards, watching a movie, seeing a 90s b-ball tournament, Flash Gordon, walking down the street... fun, fun.

Back to February, though! My favorite day had to be the 28th. After school, it began to snow like crazy. Esther and I went up to the office to wait for her aunt Heidi to drive us to the Martin's (parents were at elder's retreat). There were free goodies and Esther had some soup that we warmed up to eat for a snack. Within hours, there were 5 inches of snow! We bundled up to walk to Albertsons (Sun Chips, hot cocoa, and movies). We watched Open Season and Just My Luck and ate the pizza and brownies Mrs. Jason had made. Delicious! Most of the evening was also spent discussing how people would get to school if we had it the next morning (Jesse, Heidi, us). At 5:30, Jesse came in Esther's room to say... SCHOOL'S CANCELLED! Hooray! Esther and I slept in for a few more hours. She made me coffee to try, but, it didn't convert me... yuck! We drove Jesse to the "bus stop" (I was captain of the stratus! :D) and stopped at Puma for the 50% off sale. Es got 1 pair of shoes and I found 2! One is a lovely many-shaded green and the other is white and grey with black and gold Chinese flower fabric. I enjoy both very much! We finshed the morning by watching Flyboys. LOVE IT! So, anyway, who'd've imagined a snow day on March 1st?

On to March. On the 3rd, I went to the Future of Flight and got my grandpa some fun presents. Then, I met my family at Red Robin (My Grandpa's 81st was on the 1st). My manager was very nice and gave us a great discount and we really enjoyed having Pedro as our server.

Yearbook is coming to a close, but I certainly can't say it's winding down. We've had plenty of submitting issues to work out the last couple of weeks. One day I spent 3 hrs in the room staring at the computer screen fixing up the proofs. I hope it looks as beautiful as we think it can... HOPE, baby!

I also turned in my housing request for Embry-Riddle. I want to be in the Doolittle dorm with a Christian roommate. Keep that in your prayers, please! I would think at least one of those would be God's will, but I certainly don't know the mind of my Lord.
And now, between RR, track, SLC, scholarships, and assignments, here I am! I look forward to Friday for a St.Patrick's day celebration, MaKenzie's Tea House with Mrs. Frisk, and anberlin concert on Saturday, VIP style! May I come to the end of March closer to God than when I began! Thanks for listening to this wonderful update. Time to go sit with da fam!

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NatNannyNad at 9:05 PM

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Monday, December 11, 2006

To Florida and Back Again

Whew! Much has happened! I think the best and easiest way to sum it up is to copy/paste an e-mail I sent to my dear small group leader, Mrs. Sarr about the "interesting" basketball game and my trip to Florida. Here ya go:
~~~

I am doing very well! It feels great to be caught up at school already and to have gotten some sleep last night! The weather was unbelieveable! The first 2 days it was in the 30s and 40s! FL had an arctic cold front moving in. On Katie's graduation day, the weather went up to 60s and 70s, so that was more like it! :D The trip was a huge blessing also because visiting Florida Tech helped me to make the final choice (as of now :)). I want to go to Embry-Riddle. I can tell you why if you want to know some other time, but I won't bore you with the big list of reasons now... :D I really appreciate your prayers. It was a great bonding time with family. If you can believe it, we had 10 suitcases to check-in! Katie had accumulated many things over the last 4 years. I don't even want to know how much junk I'll have to haul back. I tend to collect even more things than she does even though I still organize it all.



Let's see... my tooth. At the b-ball game, a girl whose height put her elbow directly at my mouth was pivoting with the ball. She swung pretty hard into my mouth, not knowing I was behind her. It was a loud crack sound and I didn't know what to do. Just one second before I had been poked in the eye which teared for 5 minutes! Kate grabbed me saying "It's ok!" but all I could say was, "My tooth is broken!" It just didn't feel right. Turns out it was just my right front tooth that had bent back about an 1/8 of an inch, almost as if it was on a hinge. Surprisingly enough, this doesn't gross me out. For some reason teeth don't bother me. Anyway, I was very worried that it would come out or forever be stuck in that position. I had quite the lovely lisp. It was bleeding quite a bit too. I ran into the locker room only to discover the V boys on the other team talking... I ran out of there up the stairs to cry in the hallway. Crystal got me an ice pack and my mom found me to call the dentist and orthodontist. We never did get ahold of them until much later, so at the time I just walked downstairs to watch the rest of the game. I felt bad not going back in, but my mom was concerned that if it got hit anymore, it would be much worse. God's providence allowed me to test the tooth to see how loose it was. I certainly wasn't trying to push it, but I ended up clicking it right back in place. The dentist said that's exactly what you should do. I had no idea, but God allowed me to do just that. Anyway, I missed school on Wednesday because of teeth appointments. The orthodontist said to keep wearing my retainer like I had been. The dentist said he'd seen looser ones, so I might just be OK. Worst case senario is that the tooth dies. It could happen in one month, 5 years, or even 30 years. Bizzare! It would just turn brown and then I'd have to wait to get implants... etc... doesn't sound like fun! My prayer is that it will be just fine, but I know the Lord could use it to teach me to trust Him and not how I look. I had a mold of my teeth sent off for a clear, form-fitting mouth guard I have to wear for every basketball game from now on. It's going to keep hurting for a couple more weeks, so I need prayer that it will settle down and anchor properly.

~~~
And another praise: God blessed me with a $1,000 scholarship for me and for Grace Academy math aka Mr. Goodwin! Hooray! Here's the essay:

"When are we ever going to use this?" Another weary student questions the application of polynomial derivatives. Many students too often believe math is only for "smart people". Living in an age of advanced technology and information, why are so many educators still struggling with making math an enjoyable pursuit? To help students learn math well, teachers must passionately use a variety of creative techniques to meet each specific need.
To stay current, many public schools receive grants and funds to purchase the latest computer system or visual aid. But as a private school, Grace Academy does not have that option. Mr. Goodwin, our high school math teacher, does an unbelievable job challenging students to succeed. He takes hours before and after school to prepare lessons and tutor students. Yet he patiently uses the resources he has: EXPO marker ink covers the whiteboard for each class, while graphing examples require an old overhead projector. As a gift not only to my fellow students, but also to my dedicated teacher, I now imagine what we could do with $1000.
I recently visited some college classes and discovered an intriguing system. As students walked into the classroom, they picked up a remote. The teacher had a laptop with information and diagrams projected on the wall. As he asked questions, the students could click a button on the remote that would allow them to answer and participate. By using a notebook with this capability, students easily interacted with the class. Another exciting technology is Microsoft's Tablet PC program. These laptops allow the instructor to write and draw directly on the flat screen, projected on the wall. With this addition to the math program, Mr. Goodwin could show and manipulate diagrams from learning websites or open a document with example problems for the students to solve. Eliminating the time it takes to erase the board often and clean transparency sheets gives students more attention they need. And so, Grace students would be more eager to learn seeing math's applications.
How can this lofty idea be achieved with a limited amount of money? Using funds wisely will allow the unique products to enter the classroom. A Tablet PC notebook can be purchased from a variety of reliable manufacturers including HP and Gateway. Searching auction sites such as eBay.com or getting school discounts at office stores will allow us to make the most of the money. Perhaps nearby colleges would be willing to donate older remote systems. Because math is important to all areas of life, our students must be prepared for their futures. The possibilities are limitless as long as Grace Academy is faithful to dream and believe.
So please, help my little school! We have the staff, students, and dreams. All we need is help to encourage the kind of learning we have always hoped for. This is my school. This is how I would love to help. Thank you!
~~~

Only 3 1/2 days until Christmas break! I can hardly wait... December is the most wonderful time of the year! Hooray! Oh... and only 1 more week of being 17... craziness!

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NatNannyNad at 6:31 PM

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*Natalie Ann*

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