Greetings from Idaho

We arrived safely in Idaho yesterday afternoon. We will be here until New Year's Eve. I have been so neglectful of this blog though I thought I could update while I am here even though the majority of my readers have me in person now. Maybe the cyber me is cooler. Do you love the cyber me or the real me? Where does the real me end and the cyber me begin? Or is it the other way around? Is there a cyber me or did I just make it up to sound cool? While I have your attention I'll take this opportunity to whine and complain. I don't do it often but I think I should be able to do so once in awhile. It's my blog after all. So Jonathan was finally done with school on Thursday night. I had work off Saturday, Sunday and Monday so I had lots of fun things planned for us to do alone together before we went to Idaho to be surrounded by crazy people. But Saturday morning I woke up with a cold probably given to me by Jonathan. We still managed to have some fun and play our fantasy board game, Runebound, for hours and hours. Sunday Jonathan and I still felt sick so we ended up sleeping most of the day. After I woke up from my nap I made a sandwich with some leftover rotisserie chicken and ate it. Then I got a really bad stomach ache and it didn't go away until 2 am after I had thrown up all of the sandwich (it took two times to get it all out). Note to self: DON'T EAT WEEK OLD CHICKEN. Naturally, on Monday I was pretty worn out and still sick from the cold and had an uneasy stomach. But we had to get everything ready for our trip. It took us all day long to clean the house and get packed because I was so tired. Jonathan had to grade tests as well. Yep he gave a killer final exam; the average grade was 76%, which he thinks is way too high. His first semester of teaching is now over. Anyway we didn't get to have any fun on Monday either. Tuesday we woke up at 4 am to catch our flight on time. I think I am finally over the cold but my nose is driving me crazy because it is itching so bad and the skin on it is raw from blowing it so much. Okay that's it. No more whining. That was probably the most boring paragraph I've ever written. Thanks for reading!!!

Here is my poor sick mother-in-law. She can hardly talk she is so sick.

This is my sister in law Jennie with her beloved dog Merlin. Jennie is a rare breed of Nelson since the Nelson tradition is to despise all dogs. I don't know why this text is linked but it's annoying.

This is my brother-in-law James who is graciously letting me use his awesome Macbook to type this. Laptops are fun! 

My Favorite Christmas Treat

Sugar Coooooookies!!!

Note: they must be thick and soft with lots of yummy frosting. None of those thin crunchy cookies for me!

Cookies in the decorating process

Annika seeing what she was missing during her nap.

Mandy debating between feeding Joseph and decorating more cookies

The finished product

Kay-Gee

I love these folks, I really do. After two years of living in St. Louis, Misery, I finally feel like we truly belong somewhere...

With our Kingdom Group

(Mandy- you don't have a copyright on this photo do you?)

p.s. nine more posts until the 100th Post Contest, details to come

God, the Lord of All (including electronics)

So last week I turned on the digital camera and the LCD screen was all white. That's it, just a white screen. I didn't drop the camera or anything, it just happened all the sudden. It still took photos, but you couldn't see them. What's the point of a digital camera if you can't see the pictures you take? Of course I felt pretty devastated. I don't take pictures much myself of course, but it has gotten to be Jonathan's livelihood, and we aren't in any position to buy a new digital camera either. I prayed and asked God that the camera would get fixed somehow- God is the God of electronics even, right?
Anyway, I started to think that if we asked for money for Christmas maybe we could afford to buy a new one, so I looked up digital cameras on Amazon and there are all over 150$, which is just too much. Then, I think maybe it can be fixed somehow, even though I have no idea how. I go to google and type in "digital camera LCD screen broken", click on one of the sites and it takes me to some "Fixya" website that has a listing of electronic products. I look up our exact camera, and guess what- several other people have had the same problem. The solutions given are rather weird and I'm not sure what they mean, but they all say something like- "hit the Cybershot logo on the camera." I think to myself, okay whatever, and hit the logo on the camera, turn it on, and viola! the screen now works. I can hardly believe my eyes.

God answers even the smallest prayers and can fix everything from our hearts to our digital cameras.

Exciting things I did while away from Blog world

• got my first catering job (I made 120 ginger cookies for a friend's club meeting and got paid for it. This made me very happy)


• learned two crochet stitches


• went to two public library locations 10 times in one week and checked out fifty books (I now owe over three dollars in library fines)


• made and decorated a cake from scratch


• started decorating for Christmas


• kicked, cried, and screamed (stress does this to a person)
  
• got airline tickets to Idaho for Christmas using mother's credit card.


• Wrote papers and lesson plans, final exams, art projects, and on and on and on....


• That's all I can think of right now. My life is so boring. Yet you keep on reading...

Why it stinks to live more than a day's drive away

• You miss your great grandma's 100th birthday.
• You miss your great grandma's funeral.

Great Grandma Hochstetler

August 1906- November 28, 2007

Last year on her 100th birthday.

One-hundred-and-one years old. Last thing she asked for was a Dr. Pepper. Surprising? Nope.

Blog Break Continued...

I just wanted to let you all know that I am still alive. But I can't come back to blog world yet, and I apologize. I am still under a pile of books and papers. I'll come back as soon as I can. Thank you for your faithfulness.

5k and still alive

I ran my first race today and survived. My friend Karen has a friend who was recently diagnosed with Lymphoma, so when she heard about this 5 and 10k race to cure Lymphoma she recruited me and four other girls from our church (and her husband Karl) to run with her.

The cons were: I got up at 6 am on a Saturday, ran 3.2 miles in the cold, got 74th place (out of 101), and got sore muscles. The pros were: I had a good time with my friends, I got free stuff and free food, I contributed to a good cause, I achieved a personal goal, and I got a "bronze" medal for placing third in my gender/age bracket. I'd say the pros outweigh the cons :)

Here I am with the rest of the girls ( lt-rt: Amanda, Sarah, Karen, and Elisa). You can tell they are all actual runners, unlike me. They all did the 10k and I was super impressed with their hard work and endurance.

Me at the "award ceremony"

Slightly embarrassed for getting a medal for running a slow 10:32/mile race.

Karen is convinced the race will motivate/inspire me to keep running and to join more races.

We will see Karen, we will see....

Blog Break

Give me a break; give me a break; break me off a piece of that...

I need a short break from blogging to catch up on school work. Thank you for your patience.
I'll be back sooner than later.

100 years late

Thanks to those of you (Alicia & Brooke) who voted at the Vote For Your Favorite Poll, your photo won by an overwhelming two votes to one*. The one vote was mine, which doesn't count, so technically everyone voted for the first photo. Anyway, hope you still like it now that it's actually up there. I am totally uninspired blog wise. I don't have any pets or kids or plants (anymore) to be inspired by or take pictures of. You know from experience I can't put up pictures of myself.

The photos I posted, which are of some of the most unsightly parts of St. Louis, are part of a collection that Jonathan took which he calls "100 years late" in reference to when the city was at its grandest during the 1904 World's Fair. I wanted to put one at the top of my blog to represent my title/description. There are many beautiful places in Saint Louis, but also many not so beautiful places, which is a bit depressing, but such as life. Anyway, as I was looking through them for my blog I could hardly decide which ones to consider because there are many cool ones to choose from. Therefore I will post some more for you to look at and then you can be relieved of my rambling.... Enjoy.

*This just in... another voter, Kelly, for the second photo. So I guess it's 2-1 now :)

Comment to Vote

The Blog Poll thing I put at the end of yesterday's post sucks. So if you want to vote and it's not working, please just leave a comment.
Thanks.

Vote For Your Favorite

I was getting bored of my blog's "look". There are so many choices to choose from for blog layouts I want to try them all. Also I wanted to put a photo at the top. Below are five photos I am trying to decide between. Obviously it is hard to know what it will look like without seeing it at the top, but give it your best guess. All of these pictures are taken around St. Louis by Jonathan. View them all and vote at the end! I won't guarantee that I'll pick the most popular, but it sounds like fun anyway.

The Procastination Gene

Does anybody else have this gene? This week I was swamped with a ton of homework that I have been putting off all semester. And I am going to be swamped until the first week of December. That is why I have not been a faithful blogger. Excuses excuses... I know.

I don't have anything interesting going on in my life right now. Hence I will write about house plants. In fact, I will charm you with a poem instead. Even better.

Ode to House Plants
My heart has been broken six times
obssesive crush in 7th grade
one christmas bonsai
one valentine day orchid
one birthday orchid
one jade
and now the sago palm
oh why do you torture me so?
I bought you
I adored you
I loved you
I watered you
I sunned you
And this is how you repay me
Into the trash you now must go

Ode to the Plant Killer
Why do you even bother?
Six down
Three to go
find a new hobby


Is plant killing a gene too?

2nd Day

The second day on the job wasn't too bad. It certainly has been the easiest start to a new job I have ever had. Usually the first few weeks I go home crying (or maybe that was just that devil place Nadoz; I had a horrible start there). But I haven't cried yet, which is a good sign. Everyone is really nice and so are the customers. I seem to be catching on pretty well therefore that always helps. I even count back change! It's harder than it looks, especially for a dumb blond like me.

If you think of it, please pray for our home church, New Hope Baptist, which has been experiencing a lot of loss the past couple weeks. Each week they send us a bulletin with prayer requests, and this week I read that Julie Piper, a wife of one of the pastors of the area Baptist churches died. Also, two members of New Hope died, Shirley Bentsen, and Mason Jenkins. Shirley Bentsen was an older lady who was always so nice to us and helpful to everyone. I heard about Mason from Alicia's blog. Mason was only three years old and suffered from Hurler's Syndrome. You can learn more about him here.

P.S. Thank-you to you commenters for taking the time. All your comments on the last post made my day!

The Job

The inevitable happened. We ran out of money. At about the same time we ran out of money, I

decided that none of my clothes fit properly and that I hate them all. I rampaged my closet in

fits of anger, shoving into a box all the clothes that make me feel uncomfortable when I wear them. What was left in my closet and dresser drawers were gaps and holes needing to be filled. Having no money and no clothes that met my expectations, I decided I better get a job. And that's what I did. I am now an official employee of the Jefferson National Parks Association, more specifically and better known as, the Gateway Arch. The arch has two stores. The Museum Store is like a souvenir store, but different in that its purpose is to educate. Therefore, you will not find shot glasses in our store. But we do have the typical postcards, key chains, magnets and the like, which supposedly have some educational purpose behind them. Across from the Museum Store is the Levee Store, which is designed to be like a General Store from the olden days. I will be working in both stores. I am basically a guinea pig because I am the first person they will "cross train" to work in both stores. Anyways, my first day was Tuesday. I am going back tomorrow. Am I thankful to have a job, finally? Yes. Am I excited about working retail? No. Am I going to complain about it? No. Thank you for your prayers in this matter. Thanks be to the Lord Who has blessed me with this job.

P.S. Please tell me I am not the only female to go through fits of anger about her clothes declaring that she hates all of them and swearing she will never buy a piece of clothing that she is not absolutely positively sure that it fits and she likes it?

P.P.S. Sorry this is hard to read. I couldn't get it to be double-spaced.

The Deliberation

Thursday morning we heard the rest of the evidence. Then we were dismissed to lunch and were told to be back in the deliberation room by 1:30. We still were not allowed to talk to each other about the case, so we sat in a room together trying to entertain ourselves and avoid talking about what was on all our minds, until the judge called us back into the courtroom at about 3:30. For two hours we had to wait like this. By that time everyone just wanted to go home. But we had heard all the evidence and there was still some time left, so we heard the concluding arguments of the defence and prosecution. Then we were shut back into the room until we could agree upon a verdict. No more than two hours later did we find the defendant guilty of all charges: two charges of first degree assault with a weapon, one of the charges being domestic. Going back into the courtroom was overwhelming, knowing that everyone was just waiting for us and the whole time had just been trying to predict what we would decide. I just looked down at my lap while the verdict was read and tried not to cry. I sneaked a peek at the defendant's face after the verdict was read, but it remained unchanged. However, it won't be a face I will soon forget. I was so sure when I voted that he was guilty, but afterwards I couldn't help wondering if we were putting an innocent man away for a long time. The whole experience was very trying and seemed very foreign. It took me awhile to recover, and all the details and people involved in the case keep popping back into my head. My only comfort is knowing that God is the decider of all "fates," not men.

Sage Nelson, Juror

Yep, my fears came true. I was picked to be a juror on the case. So now it's up to me (and a few others) to determine another's fate (truthfully though, God is in control, not us). I don't know how well I'll be sleeping tonight. I had a feeling I would get picked. I shouldn't have been so quiet during the "voir dire" examination (questioning of the jury panel). Dang shyness!
Think of me again tomorrow when I am serving my civic duty in the jury box, trying to sort out all the evidence in my brain. Thankfully the chairs in the jury box are padded so my rear is a bit better today.

p.s. Fall is here! I wore my new coat for the first time today. Yay!

My Rear Hurts...

Because I have been sitting on it all day today. And don't even say... huh, I thought your rear would be used to it by now. No, I did not sit on it all day by choice. I, Sage Nelson, was summoned by the city of Saint Louis to report to the civil courts building for jury duty. It was a long day. From 8 am until 2 pm I sat and waited for my number to be called (not including an hour lunch break) in a very uncomfortable chair in a cold room. When my number finally was called, I, along with about 49 other people, sat in a courtroom for three more hours while the prosecutor asked us all questions to see who would or would not be an impartial juror for the trial. Then it was a quarter to 5 and the judge sent us home. But we have to report back at 9:15 am tomorrow, which just happens to be during my classes. It was somewhat cool to see how this whole justice system works but mainly it was just boring. Plus it's kinda freaking me out to think I may get chosen to be a juror for the trial. Of course I cannot tell you anything about the trial, but maybe someday I will. For now, that is all the exciting news I have to tell you. I spent the weekend doing all the homework I have been procrastinating to do, so no news there. I am glad you got a kick out of the silly pictures of me, but I am ready to take them down because I don't actually enjoy seeing them every time I look at my blog. Not that I look at my own blog in some narcissistic way, but I use it to go to all the sites I frequent. Anyways, I guess I'll just have to keep posting a lot so the pictures disappear into the archives and I won't have to look at them anymore. Have a good day tomorrow, and think of me while I am doing my civic duty on a hard wooden bench.

Because I can't think of anything to write about....

I will just ramble on until I can think of something. It has been really hot here still. It is October for pete's sake and it is still between 80 and 90 degrees. I am ready for fall. I am ready to turn off the air conditioning and get a break from high electricity bills. I am ready to wear my new-to-me corduroys and cardigan I got at Goodwill last week. I am ready to drink hot mint tea at night and take bubble baths. I am ready to wear the new coat I got on sale this summer. I am ready to jog in the morning in the cool air and jump in the hot shower when we are done to warm up. Oh yeah, did I mention I started dragging myself out of bed and dragging Jonathan to go jogging mon., wed., and fri. mornings? We are on our fourth week so far. It hasn't been too bad because we are gradually working ourselves up to jogging for thirty minutes sessions without stopping. I am kinda excited about it now because my friend Karen is running a 5k race in November and asked me if I wanted to join, so now I have something to keep me motivated. I have never run a race before, except for when I was an alternate for track in the fourth grade. But that was so long ago, and not even close to three miles. Jonathan really is sweet for going with me because he doesn't exactly enjoy it and thinks its completely ridiculous, and it hurts his shins. He said- why would anyone ever run for fun? And I said- we're not running for fun; we're running because we're fat!

But I don't want to complain too much about the weather because I know as soon as January rolls around I am going to be begging for spring and dying from the cold.

Because I think your eyes need a relief from all this rambling text and your heart needs some laughter, I will show you something you may have not known about me. I am totally, pathetically, and unbelievably, UN-photogenic. It's sad really. Jonathan tries so hard to get a good picture of me but it really is a challenge. See so for yourself-

And this isn't even half of the pictures that Jonathan took! He probably took thirty pictures of me that day and got only three or four good ones. This is one of the better ones (probably because it is farther away from my face :)

You didn't think I was going to leave you with those scary images imprinted in your brain, did you?

Lessons Learned (the hard way)

• Don't leave your cheap, little 20$ wal-mart grill, that you begged your husband to let you buy, outside in your backyard for three days after using it. It will get stolen.
• Don't put a bunch of potato peelings in the garbage disposal follwed by the greasy water from the pan that you cooked chicken in. Your sink will get clogged and a plumber will have to come and fix it.
• Don't sell something on e-bay, send it to they buyer, and then throw the reciept from the post-office away. If your package is late or gets lost your buyer will want to have proof that you actually sent the product. Fortunately for me, my buyer eventually got the package (after much frantic worrying about it on my part).

The Domino Effect

It all started a couple Saturdays ago when I got up the motivation to go to a yard sale a few blocks down the street from our house. They had a lot of good stuff, but it was a sad sale because it was advertised as a divorce/moving sale. Who I thought were the divorcees looked so young and so nice, it made me feel very melancholy that they were getting a divorce. But they had this great shelf for 10$. We are so in need of furniture and it was such a cute shelf and I knew exactly where I would put it that I immediately knew I wanted it. Anywhoo-- here it is-

Isn't it cute? I am extremely satisfied with it because it replaced a crappy little aluminum shelf that wobbled and didn't hold all of my many cookbooks without making it very difficult to get one out. The new shelf also holds a lot more so it freed up some very needed space in my kitchen cupboards. Crappy as this little wire shelf is, I still had a plan for it. Into the pantry/laundry room it went to serve the noble purpose of holding the food that was being stored on the floor. Well, of course I had to rearrange my pantry to make it fit properly and take advantage of the freed up floor space. And as I am standing here in this laundry/pantry room I have a revelation. First, let me tell you about my laundry room. Before all this, it was the laundry room from hell. No joke. Here, see for yourself.

(I had already starting clearing the shelves when I took this photo, hence all the junk on the washer and dryer)

See how awkward and junky it looks. The dryer and washing machine are not even next each other. They are at a weird angle that makes everything hard to get to and wastes a bunch of space. No matter how many times I tried reorganizing things it still ended up a big mess and practically impossible to do laundry without wanting to scream. Why, you ask, did we put the washing machine and dryer in such a silly place? I don't know why we were so stupid, frankly. Except that there were two shelves screwed in the wall in the way of where the dryer should have gone. For some insane reason it did not occur to me for to just move the stupid shelves. For almost two years I have been suffering under this frusturating set-up. So as I am standing here in the hated, hell room, it dawns on me. Those shelves are screwed in. All I need is a screw-driver to take them out. The landlord isn't going to care if I take them out. We can always put them back in when we move out. Let me repeat this very OBVIOUS revelation that for some reason never occurred to me. THE SHELVES ARE SCREWED IN TO THE WALL; YOU CAN TAKE THEM DOWN YOURSELF. So that's what I did. I took the shelves down, and moved the washer and dryer (with Jonathan's help) into a NORMAL position. And after a little more organization, viola! a regular walkable, laundryable, pantryable, room.

I am in heaven! I have a shelf that I can get cookbooks down from easily and a laundry room that I can walk in. Thank-you, Lord! Although, it does make me sad that I am benefiting so much from a divorce. I suppose it's their loss.

George III

I am back from my extended and unannounced blog vacation. Honestly my life is just so dull I haven't had a darn thing to say. Except this- for my Art methods class we had to make an animal paper bag puppet. And not just any old typical glued on construction ears and eyes puppet. It had to be 3D, anatomically correct, and made out of creative materials. Let's just say I took those requirements to heart. Meet GeorgeIII-

Come on, are you surprised? You know how adorable I think turtles are. The puppets were due on Wednesday. Everyone showed their puppets (turtle, blow fish, rabbit, parrot, elephant, and butterfly) and we critiqued and graded them all. Then we ranked them from best to worst (in a nice way, of course). And guess who's everyone thought was the best? Mine. Duh! How could you not think GeorgeIII was the cutest turtle puppet you ever saw?


In case you forgot, here is GeorgeII.
(GeorgeI was my pet box turtle from long ago who ran away).


Here are the other turtles I have joyfully encountered since living here in Missouri.

Okay, so this one was at the zoo. But the rest were in the wild.

Have a good weekend. And don't worry, I'll be back soon.

Granola

As promised, another whole wheaty, whole grainy, whole deliciousy recipe. Seriously this granola is very tasty. It's not too sweet, easy and inexpensive to make, won't break your teeth, and absolutely delicious with some yogurt. Oh, and it's good for you too. Unless you snack on it all day long (guilty as charged).

Granola*
Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
Combine in large mixing bowl:
2 cups whole wheat flour
6 cups rolled oats (not quick cookin')
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup wheat germ
Blend together separately:
1/2 cup water
1 cup oil (I substituted some of the oil for water and it turned out fine)
1 cup honey or corn syrup (I recommend honey; it's better for you)
2 tsp. vanilla
1 Tb. salt
Add blended liquids to dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Spread out on 2 greased cookie sheets and bake 1 hour, or until dry and golden. Store in covered containers.
Makes 2 1/2 -3 quarts.
Feel free to add in anything that you think would taste good; I added craisins and almonds.
(*this recipe courtesy of the More-with-Less Cookbook )
To print this recipe, simply select the text, copy it, and paste it to a Word document.

Sorry about the lack of updates. I got a complaint that I am not satisfying the blog-addicts out there, so I apologize. To be honest, I haven't the heart to write lately. I'm still bummed about losing my job, and not having to work is making it worse because sitting around here with nothing to do is making me go a little bit crazy.


On a more positive note, I have been getting a little bit of much-needed experience working with school-age kids. First off, I started tutoring again. Sadly, my previous tutee, Ariel, moved to Chicago this Summer, therefore I did not get to say good-bye. I was a bit nervous about getting a new kid, but it turned out fine because I got Alex whom I have tutored before. She is a sweet girl and I look forward to working with her this year even though I will miss Ariel.
Here is Alex with me last April- (not the most flattering picture, I know)

Other sad news- I quit the two year-old Sunday School class to get the aforementioned experience and moved up to the 2nd-4th grade class. I will really miss the two-year-olds. You remember how much I loved them (if not, click here). This Sunday was my first day with the older kids, and it was a lot of fun. I am not the main teacher, so I get a break from teaching the Bible lessons, but I get to lead song time which means I had to break out the old guitar. I spent practically the whole day changing the strings and tuning the dang thing.

Also, I have visited my friends from church Mary's and Brenda's classrooms the last couple weeks. They are both third-grade teachers at the same private school. That has been good for me because, frankly, I have been freaking out about student teaching next year. I haven't had a whole lot of experience in the classroom or with school-age kids so I am really starting to get nervous. So basically I am doing everything I can to get more experience to ease my fears a little. I am going to start helping at our church's Sunday night kids' program, and I am looking to either tutor another day or volunteer at another church's after-school program.

While I am on the subject, for one of my classes we will be going to an elementary school for a couple days for the next few weeks. We are learning how to give reading tests/inventories and are going to test them out on students. My first day was Monday, and I was in a fourth grade classroom. It was a lot of fun. First of all, the school we went to was awesome. I immediately decided I want to teach there just by the looks of it (probably can't judge a school by its looks though). The building is super nice and airy with tons of pets. Yeah that's right, animals. Everywhere you go there are fish tanks, and in the hallways I saw a huge parrot, other little birds, a snake, and I only saw part of the school. Outside they have a nice courtyard with a pond, and I hear the kindergarten has a pool.

Then I got to work with a fourth-grade girl and she was too cute. Part of our class assignment was to interview our student, and I thought it would be awkward asking her questions like- when is your bedtime? what do your parents do? But it ended up being really enjoyable because she was very talkative and had a very inspiring personality. For instance I asked her if she liked school and she said "Oh, I love school! And I always pay attention in school, for two reasons. First, I want to get a good education, and second, I want to be a teacher when I grow up!" She is a lot of fun, and I will be working with her each time I go to the school.

Yikes! I've got class in ten minutes! Have a great day!

Addicted

Okay, I admit it. We are officially Office addicts. We don't normally buy this kind of thing but..... we have to catch up for when season 4 starts! Let's just say at two episodes a night with a total of 22 episodes... you know what will be doing for the next couple weeks :)