Spammers couldn't be more creative

So, guys...who writes emails with subject lines that say:
Are you snoring yourself to death?
Pedipaws! Trim your pet's nails
Christian Singles - we can make you happy!
Michelle Andrews: I can find you a new job
Kingsdaughter, are you paying too much for credit card loans? We can save you money!
And those are just a sampling...but I get the same ones every time I check my junk folder on Yahoo. It's ridiculous. :) But entertaining nonetheless. :D I love the snoring one. And just so's you know...I'm NOT snoring myself to death. I'm sleeplessing myself to death. And yes, Mozilla, that IS TOO a word.

Recipe for fun

One book.



One plateful of cookies.



One jug of milk.

A professor's home.

8 friends.

Laughter.

Discussion following story concerning personalities.

Discovery of personalities.

Encouragement.

More laughter.

Brotherly love.

Enjoy!

PS I did not take the pictures. :D

Some photos from this semester

Some of my favorites from the semester so far. :)

Camping trip that our church took together. Naomi and I shared a little tent...and the flash was really bright on the camera. :D


Me, Naomi, Victor, Geoff...our hotdogs were yummy. Naomi and I grilled them on the grill and then we dropped two on the ground. Victor ate both of them (he was actually like "It's ok! I'll eat it! The dirt makes it taste better!) and then when he had his plate on the ground, a little kid stepped on one of the hot dogs! HaHa! Crazy...


Early morning hike down to the Mississippi. Naomi and I were reenacting what being tied to the railroad tracks would have been like.


Kids from church...Naomi was blowing bubbles and that made them very happy... :D


With some dear friends...Emily, Rebekkah, Amy, and Naomi at Panera. Amy is our good friend Caleb Eby's (Emmaus alumni from last year who is now working in Japan) girlfriend and while she was visiting her parents in Dubuque (she goes to Moody), we all went out for lunch and had a good time...


By the way, my Chauncey fish died. That made me really sad. :( I miss the little guy.

Ok, Rachel, you're right

Wow, I think this is the worst I've been at communication in my whole life. Well, maybe. Maybe not. But it HAS been almost 1 1/2 months since I blogged and that's ridiculous. It's kind of like when I stopped by Mrs. Van Dine's office the other day (our registrar and in-school grandma). She said that it had been too long since I talked to her, but I told her that I had been waiting till just the right time because I knew it was going to be a long talk when I actually DID get around to talking to her. So, this will probably be a long entry. Or maybe I should just write a bunch of entries consecutively to catch you up. :P

In any case, well, yes, I am back at school. I was busy last year. I was busy this summer. But over these past couple of months I have felt unrealistically busy. I don't even know where to start. Hmm...

Well, the first couple of weeks, I was an emotional basketcase because my classes were rearranged at least three times, which was frustrating, one of the boys from home I care about was hurt in a bad car wreck, one of my best friends from school here was struggling with some real issues emotionally, I was trying to slide back into routine and it wasn't happening, I was trying to catch up with everyone and we were all trying to fit back into each others' lives again...and it was just crazy.

After about a month of classes, things finally fell into routine, and I'm feeling very settled and thankful now. What a blessing! The tough thing is that practically every moment of every day of my week is scheduled for me...and if you know me well, you know that structure is a challenge for me. Sure, some is fine, but this is borderline control-freakishness. (I mean that my schedule is being the control freak.) So at times I just want to burst out and go away somewhere like a sandy beach in Peru where no one can tell me where to be at what time or for what reason. :) I'm managing alright, though...the Lord is giving me grace for each day.

So, as far as classes go, I love all of mine this year. Some of you know that I was planning to work toward getting my BS in 3 years instead of 4. Well, after a week of thinking that was going to happen this semester, I nearly cracked mentally and I realized I couldn't press myself like that. Not having a summer break from classes and jumping right back into 19.5 hours of schoolwork was too much. So I dropped two classes and am at 15.5 credit hours for the semester. That has been a blessing, truly. The workload is just perfect. Enough that I still get this feeling of "Ah! I can't do it!" and have to run back to the Lord, but not so much that I'm already feeling like there's no way I'll get everything done.

I am taking Methods in TESOL I, Intro to Missions, and Hermeneutics (science of Bible study) on Mon/Wed/Fri and I'm taking Life of David and Cultural Anthropology on T/Th. I'm learning a lot about Bible study in both Life of David and Hermeneutics - a lot of practical things that should serve me well for the rest of my life. Then, in Intro to Missions and Cultural Anthropology I'm learning so much about cultures, mission work, and a lot of spiritual things I've never considered, or never knew much about. For instance, how does God reveal His glory through cultures, how do I experience God's leading and direction, how do you deal with cultural things in Scripture like slavery and holy kisses, etc. Really cool stuff. Methods in TESOL is a very practical class, and we're talking about how to teach English grammar. I need to find a tutoring position and do some hours of observation and teaching in ESL classes around Dubuque, so if you would pray with me about those details, I'd appreciate it.

It's good to be back with the people here at school and church in Dubuque. The Lord has given me a lot of service opportunities and I'm thankful for that. When I say service, I mean practical service...cleaning here at school, helping moms with their kids, helping people in practical ways. I'm learning a lot.

So, yes, now I can continue to blog in a more timely fashion, perhaps. That is, if I still have any readers...I know it's been so long! :D God bless, all!

PS Phyllis, I don't have your email, otherwise I would have written before. Can you give it to me? Or, mine is lizabeth.hannah@gmail.com.

I'm baacckk...

My body is weary. My dorm room is a complete and utter disaster. I have no idea what my final class schedule will look like this semester. I already have a million crazy thoughts about people and relationships and serving and growing flooding my brain.

But I have my fish. :)

Meet Chauncey.



All will straighten out. I'm looking forward to where the Lord leads me this semester. It will be a good journey.

PS I will post pictures of my room eventually, but NOT now. :D

PSS "Yakov, what does 'PS' mean?" "Why, it means, 'Please, Sweetheart.'" (Inspector General)

Three more nights

"Goodnight! Love you!"
"Goodnight! See you in the morning, Lord willing."

Those words are the equivalent of "Goodnight, John-boy" in our house.
And I only have three more nights of hearing them before I'll be back on Asbury Road, in Dubuque, Iowa, sleeping in my dorm room. Whoosh! What a summer! Where has it gone? I'm looking forward to being back in school, but I am already missing everyone here. It was sad to say goodbye to my little cousins on Sunday...





And little Deborah keeps coming into my room to hang around and tell me that she doesn't want me to leave. Boxes are starting to pile up in my room, and it is looking emptier. I have so much stuff. Why on earth? And every time I move, I give some more of it away. Soon I won't have anything. That is, after I move about 150 more times. :) For instance, I gave away two shirts today - one was one of my Hawaiian shirts. I have three and I only wear one of them. I offered one to Abby, and she took the one I always wear. That's a good thing, because then I'll actually wear the other two. :P It really is all just stuff. Most of it I could live without if I had to. But since I don't have to live without it and it makes life more pleasant, for the time being anyway, I keep it (except for what I give away). :)

I'll be heading up to Iowa on Friday morning, Lord willing. My next post will probably be from the land of never-ending cornfields. :D

Farewell, Kansas...I'll miss thee. :)

Not at all like August...

I'm sitting on the couch listening to my sister play the piano and a light cool, fall-smelling breeze wafts through the door. Sunday night it rained and yesterday it was cool all day even though we were canning applesauce - as a matter of fact, last night when I lay out in the Woodland Garden talking on the phone, I was actually cold! So yeah...this is a little unlike August...

Well, I'm home from camp, and it was a lovely two weeks, that's for sure.



First, the Lord gave me a wonderful week where I was able to teach 13 little girls about how faithful and trustworthy the Lord is. To be sure, it was more like the Lord teaching me, the other staff workers, and the 13 girls to boot, just using my mouth. :) Wow, I love teaching. And I love those girls. And I love Jesus. So...combine those three, and give me a week revolving around them all and it's just about perfect. :) Some evenings after I finished, I was on such a high I could hardly settle down. Two girls got saved! Praise the Lord! All of the girls were a huge encouragement to us on staff. It is such a blessing to see young women with a heart for the Lord. It was also a huge encouragement to see the Lord using the teenagers who were counseling. Two of the counselors, the director and I were in our twenties, but three of the counselors were only 15, and it was exciting to see their excited hearts for the Lord and see how He used them. We had a princess theme and it was so much fun to pretend we were a bunch of Cinderellas for the week.



Or, at least Prince Charmings...though I'm not sure where that one came from... :D

Then came family camp. Anyone remember Charlotte's Web when Wilbur is getting into the crate and the sheep says "That crate should say, 'Zukermann's Famous Pig...and two stowaways'"? Well, our white van should have had a sign that said "Tammy Skiles' family...and four stowaways." :) Brad, Karin, Grandma, and my friend Caiti came with us. Aunt Jen's family were there, too, so in all, our "group" totaled 19 people. It was a riot. :) Actually, we really had a lovely time. I just love my siblings and cousins and it was a huge blessing to be able to spend a week with them. We did lots together, tubing, swimming, paddleboating, singing...even managed a trip to the caves. So fun!



My three objectives were:
1. Time to rest
2. Time with my family
3. Time with the Lord

All three were accomplished very well. :) So refreshing. I had a nap every single day! That should be mandatory for every human being. Every morning I was able to read my Bible and pray down by the lake for an hour or more. Talk about refreshing! So lovely! What a good week.



Now I only have 10 days until I'll be back at school. Wowsers! Where did the summer go? Although while I say that, I look back and think, man, it's been a long one. :) Time is a funny thing.

Thanks all, for praying!