This is a blog post.

Oh LIFE! It's so good. Hard sometimes, but oh so good. It's like chocolate. Sometimes it's hard and gross, and other times it's creamy and delicious. And then you have those times where it's hard, but you enjoy it anyways. You can quote me on that.

On Saturday I had Marisa's car for the day, so I got up early and headed over to Urban Stampede for coffee and devotions before worship practice. I really enjoy getting away from my apartment and campus to read, but since I don't have a car that's not an option, so I treasured this moment. Like an old lady treasures her cats. You can quote me on that. 

Worship practice went well, and then one of Marisa's roommates had asked me to turn pages for her while she played piano at the nursing home (old people residence?) so upon arrival and return of Marisa's car, we headed out. The old folks really enjoyed Laura's piano playing, and I was able to get on the list to play in April. I love playing for the "older generation". They'll enjoy your playing no matter how terrible it is. I remember one time I was playing Christmas songs, and this guy rolled up to me in his wheelchair and kept singing "o little town of Bethlehem" to the tune of whatever song I was playing. You can imagine how difficult that would be when "Carol of the Bells" came around... 

Anywho, that night (last night) we went to Feast of Nations! It was great. The I.O. (international organization) puts on this extravagant event with a 5 course meal (each a different ethnic cuisine), and international entertainment. What we didn't realize was that this was a formal event... So in come Marisa and I parading around in our jeans and winter coats. A girl walked by me in a gown and Marisa and I looked at each other realizing our mistake. All in  all, it was a fun night despite our lack of appropriate wear.

I've come to the understanding that my blog posts are too long. And I have really nothing productive to say, and unfortunately the pictures from Feast of Nations are on Marisa's camera sooooooo..... I'll post those later?

In closing, I'd like to throw a few prayer requests out there:

1. That I'll be given 1 million dollors

2. That God will forgive me for thinking I deserve a million dollors

3. That God will continue to help me through this semester, and that I will follow God's direction as far as summer plans go. 

I'll for sure be here until the end of June, but depending on whether or not my dad has a boat this summer, I may or may not go home for a few weeks to commercial fish. We'll see. I'd love to have that experience with my dad! We'll see. 

Okay. HASTA LA BYEBYE.

-Donica

Whatta wha???

You probably can tell that I've ran out of ideas for blog titling... 

So the other day as I was browsing through my email I discovered a folder I found of my old cannery emails. I have no idea where I found the time to write these extensive emails, but it brought back great memories. I forgot a lot of the things that had happened and am glad I wrote them down!

I was able to sit on babies Saturday! As I sat there in the nursery, my child voice came back. It's like Spanish. Even when I haven't been around Spanish-speaking people and feel like I've forgotten all Spanish, each time I go to Mexico it just kick-starts back up. Bam. Same with child voice. All of the sudden I start simplifying my words, and answering their questions in way too much detail. I love it. Then on Sunday morning Marisa and I helped one of her roommates with Kings Kids (like a Childrens Church). The kids were just as kids should be: rowdy. I love how there's always that one kid who constantly interrupts and shoots  you these "what if" scenarios. It reminds me of my nephew. My favorite of the day (when talking about missionaries and spreading the gospel):

Cute kid: "What if you stood on someones porch because you wanted to tell them about Jesus, and they didn't want to hear you, so they close the door, and you knock, but they don't let you in even though you tell them they need to hear what you have to say...so what you could do is go get a chainsaw, and just saw their door down because really, they HAVE to hear what you have to say. They need to know. So you could just saw their door down and tell them so they can hear you."

Amberkay: "Yeah, you could do that."

Me, shaking my head giving the "absolutely not" motion...: "Yeah, you probably shouldn't do that..."

I was so glad to be there with Marisa, because after sensing the kids were a little too energetic and not paying attention, she jumped right on it and said "Donica, let's do a CEF song!" I looked at Amberkay for permissions to interrupt (I really did feel bad because it all happened so fast), but all of the sudden our CEF mode was switched on. Immediately I held up my fingers and taught them the two fingers rule (when I hold two fingers everyone hold their fingers in the air and becomes silent [boys try to beat girls], one of the best ways I find to quiet them down) and we stood them up to do some Child Evangelism Songs. Sure, some of the kids were a little hesistant to get into it, but they were so much better behaved after! All of the sudden we were applying what we've been trained to do, and it went great! I realized just how effective these skills are that we have been trained on summer after summer. 

After that, I remembered my passion for children. I'm loving being here at college doing college ministry, but I never felt a "calling" to do this (although I will never regret the experience of it!). But I loved Child Evangelism Fellowship. I loved good news clubs, VBS, and Awana. 

I know when I was at college in Alaska and I wasn't sure if I was gonna leave, I knew I wanted to involve myself more with CEF and Summit Ministries. Summit was too far, but CEF you can do anywhere. However, I left and came here to North Dakota. But I see a need. I see a need not only in the children, but also in the junior high-high school crowd. How amazing would it be to get these kids trained in CEF and send them out doing good news clubs in schools?! 

I'm going through the membership process at my church and am excited to get more involved (worship team and possible children's ministry), but I'm feeling like there's something missing. I know I need to be here this summer, and I assumed it was for LIT college ministry, but I still have felt like there's something else. I talked to Marisa about it and told her how desperately I want to get CEF involved here in Grand Forks. I don't know the process. I don't really know where to start. We looked up to see where the local chapter is, and luckily there is one half an hour away, so I figured I could start there and see what options we have. 

Ugh. The unfortunate part is that I need to get a THIRD job so I can make a dent in these two rents, and on top of a 20 credit load, I'm not sure how much time I'm gonna have to look into this! Oh I have so much on my mind in this area, but I feel like I must bore everyone with my endless words. Again, kudos to those who actually read this in one sitting.

TOODLES

-Donica

Discounted Chocolate Eve Day and So Forth and Such As

Last night was our Valentines Soiree, and it was a blast! The guys from church put on a fantastic evening of dinner, entertainment, and dancing. I was finally able to impress everyone with my lack of skills. 


A lot has been on my mind lately. Money. Life. Career. My future. Things I've given up to God and yet have been impressed on my mind lately. I know I need to just let go, but I'm having a difficult time doing so. One of my toughest opponents this semester is definitely this New Testament class. Especially going back and reading it in Greek. All the translation errors that have been made and the interpretations we have taken from it have really hindered from its infallibility in my mind. I have so many questions and have just been praying about it because I am not sure who to go to with these questions. It's definitely been a struggle. It really has hindered my devotions; I have to read so much for my class and am left depressed each time that I have a hard time really opening it up aside from that. I have to keep reminding myself that this stuff is minor and does not contradict the salvation message, but it still irks me. It also has reignited my desire to staff at Summit Ministries this summer. I had such a great time there; I was absolutely enthralled with such a scholastic learning environment that deals with the struggles a critical thinker goes through in college. 


Still don't have anyone to take over my spot in the other apartment. I can't afford to invest much time or stress into this, but going through my finances I realized I only have a couple more months of rent left in my bank account... I also think I'm going to have to put off graduation to the December 2012 instead of May 2012. I'm not stressed, but I have had a few moments of feeling discouraged. I also met with my advisor today, and he was giving me options, and I think I slipped in one too many "How much?", "Oh... yeah I can't afford that.", "And what would that cost?", "If I had the money I would..." comments to where he was finally like "DONICA. I see what you're doing here. And no, I will NOT give you any money." Haha.


I feel bad for you readers. Yes, I go to God first, but then I go to my blog with my problems. This is my problem blog. It's an outlet to organize my thoughts, so I commend those of you who actually finish a blog update in a single sitting. I truly do try to minimize my problems on here,  but since I hate to burden individuals with my thoughts, I type them. Otherwise I explode. I become the hulk. And then my clothes rip because I burst into a huge, green being. So I eliminate the possibility of that through "Being Awesome 101".


Here are some pics of the soiree! Toodles.

Skit

See through spoons!

Kah and Laura!

Dancin

Kyung-Do and Marisa

After OckSun's insistence for Taylor to spin...

P.S., I do like reading people's comments to my posts!

Life is so enjoyable.

I decided I know what I want to take a picture of, but my camera is dead so it will be a post or two until I get it up. But, to tantalize you, I will tell you what it will be of. It goes like this:


When Marisa moved into the Hamline house, we discovered she didn't not have a lot of room to store things. But we made it work. She has a box of stuff at my apartment, and a box of stuff in her garage. Yet the idea of a shelf above her bed sounded just so darn good. Jaimie (one of Marisa's 9 roommates), suggested that they ask Ryan to build a shelf. Now by "shelf", I was thinking a little beam along the wall to place books on, but THEIR idea was a bunk bed.
Ryan willingly came over and put the girls to work. I was stuck there with them and joined in at the very end (it was a 6pm-12:30am process). It was a fun process and, although we ran into a few problems, it turned out well. So that is what I want to take a picture of. Marisa now has this bunk shelf thing and it looks GOOD. 


Yoga is going well. I love taking yoga classes because you can challenge yourself and don't really have to think, but teaching is just a whole other level. It's fun seeing people respond to your words and figuring out communication techniques to get an idea across. I taught bike class a week ago and that was also a blast. I loved it! Let's see... what else... Steve Shepson came to Grand Forks for the UND career fair so he came over and we were able to catch up(two nights ago), and then last night we found out he was able to stay another night so Marisa, Steve, his friend Luke and I all went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Afterwards Steve kindly bought and replaced Marisa's headlight and then we headed to my apartment for some late night studying. Yes. Even Steve came over for late night studying. I had to give him the opportunity to feel like a college kid again.


Super bowl was a blast. Don't ask me who won. I was too caught up eating and being awesome to watch it. Made some pretty dang good buffalo chicken dip (recipe provided by Charley Tegerdine) and I'm pretty sure will be the cause of many heart attacks to come. 


I feel bad not posting pictures. I mean, what if someone accessed my blog who couldn't read? I have to appeal to ALL crowds, so on behalf of my attempt to market myself to everyone, I am going to remind you from an earlier post just what my sister looked like on Christmas morning. I love her. 


Toodles!

Also, you will no longer be my friend unless you watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Sfg1BHAZQ