Thoughts.

First off, a small tangent of yesterday:

1. We (group of 11) went to Fargo simply to eat at Olive Garden. 

2. I have officially defiled my nice piece of equipment (aka: camera). It's been used as a camera phone would be used. I don't even know why I bring it along anymore... someday I'm going to take a picture with it and say, "Hey, I'm so glad I had this Nikon with me to document such a fine moment". Someday...

Here's onee of two pictures that were taken of this adventure:

OckSun and Marisa. Marisa was excited to see the unicorns (little did she know the unicorn pretense was completely false. It's how we get her to do things...)

I learned some things on the ride back from Fargo yesterday about Korean culture. This came about when Delissa called me and when I answered the phone she was singing  and wouldn't stop... I told her to stop, but no, she called me to sing. OckSun overheard this and started laughing and mentioned how she wish she could  be like that with her brother. She then told me how back home (South Korea) they went to school 8am-10pm and basically only thought of her home as a place to sleep. She had no memories made in that home with her family, or really with her family in general. Of course for someone like me (6 kid family), this is hard to comprehend. I really have no other thoughts on the subject. Just thought I would share that...

On a DIFFERENT note: I'm taking a New Testament/Christian Scripture class by an atheistic, liberal professor. I was excited at the knowledge that I would be able to speak up and disagree numerous times (I LOVE to debate), but as the class has progressed, I've become a little confused. The professor had us all write a "Letter to the Professor" telling him our religious background, as much as we wanted to say about what he believe, and how we think that will affect the way we will interpret the bible. He entered the classroom and asked us to pass these letters to the front of the class. I looked behind and watched the pile grow bigger and bigger as it moved toward the front, and I began to think about how weird it was that here we were, handing up our beliefs on pieces of paper. I desperately wanted to read them all. After a few discussions in class, I discovered there was more to biblical skepticism than I had thought... My professor has a fantastic view about the Christianity conspiracy, and yet many of the things he said convicted me to the core. He wrote a list of different beliefs in Paulian/Christian faith on the chalkboard and discussed them. He then circled them for emphasis and said "So if all this were true, then you had better go and start telling everyone about it. Why on earth you would you not want to immediately go out and share all this knowledge? According to this faith, God could be coming at any moment, you could die at any moment, time is of the essence". OF course I, believing everything in that circle, was instantly convicted. Why would I not want to go out and tell everyone? 

All in all, this class has played with my mind. I've been forced to examine the New Testament not from a confessional, but from a historical-critical point of view. It's different. I'm understanding Paul better, and many things in my faith are being/will be slowly strengthened, but I'm also being challenged in many ways. I have to admit, I absolutely thrive off of challenge. 

That's it for now Grand Forks, thank you and goodnight.

-Donica


P.S., someone is looking at my apartment tomorrow! This is too great! Yay!

It’s late.  I’m tired. I really just don’t want to think about anything; and yet all I can do is think. I feel like I’ve been quite good at accepting not only the good God gives me, but also the bad. This is merely what I I thought… I shed tears tonight for the first time since who-knows-when, but immediately felt humiliated that I was at that point. Here’s the dealio: Marisa Kauffman is now moved in at the Hamline house and we’ve both started our semester here at UND (YAY!).  I helped her move in, and she returned the favor. This girl I had met while searching for an apartment for Marisa texted me while I was headed back to GF saying that she needed a roommate. Well, I had looked at this apartment in prospects for Marisa, but it was filled and apparently the girl backed out so it was vacant. This apartment is on-campus, and about $100/month cheaper than my other place. I wouldn’t need to mooch rides! So I called my mother and told her that Kridhita (my new roommate)has others interested in the apartment so it was basically first come first serve. My mom advised to go ahead and get it and then look for a roommate to fill my place in the old apartment. I hastily agreed and told Kridhita I would move in. Oh yes. Yes I did. I know, hasty, foolish, and screaming for trouble. But God has blessed me greatly when I heed to my parents advice so I was okay with it. I had told my roomies last semester that I was looking for a cheaper place and was planning on paying rent until I found them a roommate (soooooo much drama about “unfair/fairness” that I won’t go into). Needless to say, they were not happy. The hard part for me has been not pointing out the “unfairness” that I’ve been through this whole past semester and why I’m right and so on and so forth. I’ve had very mean thoughts and words I’ve wanted to say but the Lord has had mercy on me and provided me with the grace to let only kind words out. It’s so hard. Especially when I’ve been cheated all semester ;)

I have so much going on! 20 credits, paying two rents, juggling two jobs, trying to work out a way to get accepted to the teaching program so I can come up next year and student teach, and blah blah blah I won’t bore you any longer. LORD PLEASE HELP ME! Crying tonight was such a weak point. I need to be cheerful and trusting in all circumstances! God is probably laughing at every little foolish choice and mistake I make. I can imagine Him cringing at my choice of car (sold to me when broken head gaskets. Bye bye car…and money…), and my hasty housing decision. But I’m also gonna trust that He can make bad decisions work for good. I just need some encouragement… Anywho, that’s a short (but oh so long!) glimpse at hectic, insane life in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Toodles!

A life of th-treth.

Thtreth (or "stress" as others have heard it said). Finances. Emotions. Family relations. I didn't have these in ND, and it all takes so much work... I'm surprisingly approaching them head on, although my natural tendency would be to simply run away from these fears, emotions, and problems...BLAH. BOPPITY BOOPY. 

Christmas was fun, I got my ancient Greek new testament! WOOT! I think I might just sit on the plane with it open and pretend I'm awesome (but who needs to pretend???). My Pennsylvania cousins came up for Christmas and we had a few days of straight "activities". Yesterday Lars Arneson, my two cousins and I hiked to the saddle on skyline. As always, I got carried away and took off, and surprisingly Lars was able to hold back and wait for my cousins. I had mix feelings of conviction, irritation, and pure joy. I forgot my coat and was in my underarmor and a t-shirt... but the the weather was great! And the snow was soft and dry, completely dust-off-able. Anywho, I don't have many pictures of my own, but I have lots of this Christmas break on my facebook. However, I believe it would be wrong of me not to post a picture of my little sista on Christmas morning.

TOODLES!

Home again home again jiggity jig.

I'm back in my home of Alaska!!! It's absolutely beautiful outside, fresh snow has been falling (and staying on the trees! It's so pretty!), and the -10 degree weather has felt like a bombing 30 above (compared to Grand Forks with that terrible wind chill factor). Driving home from Anchorage, the moon was gleaming on the mountains and ocean, and I wanted to cry. I never took for granted Alaska, but being gone from it only increased my appreciation. 

What I also forgot was that being home does NOT mean vacation. I was put to work shoveling the next morning and have been awakened by my mother excited to share her week's plans with me while I was still in bed trying to "sleep in". The noise level is frighteningly loud, the sound of the kids' (nieces, nephew, and sisters) feet pounding all over the house and the barking of Jersey has made for sore ear drums. 

I've been able to catch up with a few friends since being here. I realize that although I have been gone, people haven't been putting their lives on hold for me (shocking, eh?). It's interesting seeing the developments occurring, relationships creating, and life progressing. 

My second night home, my niece Mereiedi spent the night with Damaris, and we as a family played the ninja game in the living room. Here are a few pics, and also, a picture of our "dog" (I still don't believe it's a dog. If it were on the road, I'd hit it).

IT'S NOT A DOG.

  

That's all that's happening in Slow-dotna, Alaska. gahhhhhhhhhh I can't stop staring out the window!

HASTA LA BYEBYE

-Donica

(Young adults scavenger hunt tonight [December 22], 6:30pm, Soldotna Bible Chapel.)

I love yoga!!!

I just have to say. I love teaching yoga. I love taking yoga classes. I had some friends come take my class on Monday night and it was HILARIOUS watching everyone try to get in crow plank. It's really an easy pose so I was a little embarrassed I wasn't explaining it well enough for them to understand... anywho, here is my yoga library of some of my favorite arm balances! They're sweet. I like to use these to my advantage, if I feel that conversation is going bad with someone, I just whip myself into side crow or peacock pose and continue conversation. That'll show 'em. 

Good ol' crow pose. Slowly lift one toe off at a time until you feel balanced in your hands. Spread your fingers! Come out backwards if you feel like you're falling

Side crow trying to get into a cool grasshopper pose but couldn't. For side crow bend your knees for balance. 

I cannot believe I got a picture of this. I can barely do it. PEACOCK POSE.

Try these out! They're soooo fun and really easy (besides peacock, that hurts my wrists....) it's just hard understanding how to get into them. 

NAMASTE!

-Donica

P.S., I'M ALMOST HOME!!!!!! YAY! I had finals drama but everything has worked out fantastically and the end of the semester is here. PRAISE THE LORD!

P.S.S. check out these guys! They do slackline yoga on campus! They're called yogaslackers and are also a part of the Northern Heights Rock Gym here, which I want to start climbing at and taking yoga at. So cool!

http://yogaslackers.com/vinyasa-yoga.html

Updating this blog like no one's BIDNESS

Tonight was our H2O Christmas party.  Instead of it being your normal red, green, and white Christmas, Alyssa had the fantastic idea of making it colorful. Colorful streamers, snowflakes, table clothes, and even outfits. We had some intense girl time decorating (decorating does NOT come natural to me...) three hours before the actual event. And then we had some more intense girl time doing dishes afterwards. It's not 1am and I just arrived home and am taking the time to blog (okay, so I can't fall asleep. Blogging isn't THAT important to me...) 

I just wanna point out that I was the only one who won all events.  If any Cottonwood-ers ever check my blog, just know that I'm saying that out of a humble heart... I also wanna point out the the word "wanna" is no longer incorrect with my spell check. It has officially become a word. ALSO, my white elephant gift tonight was interesting... I forgot we needed a gift and my ride was almost to my apartment, so I threw an "I believe" pencil, package of sticky notes, autographed picture of myself, and a workout band in a box. Unwrapped. I called it the "Everything you need to be awesome kit". I also wrote on the outside of the box "Pick me if you're desperate." It got stolen THREE TIMES. Three times was the limit. Who knew.

On another note, my ride to campus had to teach at 6:30 this morning and I was NOT about to wake up to go to campus at 6:30 so I asked my roomie if I could hitch with her... but she decided to not go to class so IIIII didn't go to class.  I want a car! Since the head gaskets went out, I had to sell my car for parts. I received mere pennies out of the deal. Sadness. Well, I guess I really didn't have anything to blog about aside from whatever it is I just said, so, I will leave you to look at a few of the pictures of tonight. 

HASTA LA BYEBYE,

Donica 

Alyssa's hand painted ornaments!

Alyssa's colored cookies!

Apparently this is a snowflake...

This was our winning tower. I think we're all engineers in the making.

When you're wearing a grinch outfit, it's only APPROPRIATE to sneak around everywhere, even if merely attracts attention to you. 

Need to start taking pictures...

I realized I've been pretty slack on using my sweet camera. I'll try to fit in time this week to take pictures of the cool frosted trees! 

So, Sunday afternoon I walked to Caribou Coffee to get some homework done... and as soon as I arrived and ordered a coffee, one of my favorite yoga instructors at the wellness center said she wasn't sure if she was going to make to her afternoon yoga class and wanted to know if I could teach it. I looked at the clock. I had a good half hour to walk back home, whip up a yoga playlist and come up with a class. I decided that I know enough to not worry about it and I'll just come up with it as I go. She made it back in time but still wanted me to teach so she could take a class and to give me the opportunity to try out a Sunday afternoon class. It was packed! I was expecting a decent sized amount (maybe 30), but when more and more came in I was slightly nervous. I looked out at everyone and realized that they would be listening to and doing everything I said. POWER. I think the worst part was the group of guys in the back. But that also turned out to be the best part. They were tumbling and stumbling, panting and sweating, it was sweet. And this wasn't the normal week yoga crowd (which is made up of mostly college students), this was the businessmen and women with a few scattered students crowd. Intimidating. WELL... my yoga playlist did not in fact synch to my ipod so I had to put on this terrible mix I had. It wasn't too distracting until Luciano Pavorrati's blaring opera voice came on.  Ugh. Anywho, after an hour, I ended the class. I wasn't sure how it went, but I knew that it was pretty organized and that I knew what I was doing so I felt like it wasn't TERRIBLE, but wasn't sure what others thought. The guys came up to me afterwards and said "That was the most intense class I've ever had. WE ARE SO COMING BACK." SUPER. I was pumped.

On another note, I've made a pretty suh-WEET friend who let me borrow one of his guitars (and who is my carpool now). I'm psyched. I think my roommates have bought earplugs. I'm plucking away at the guitar like no ones BID-NESS. Okay. I know there's a million things I could always come up with to say but I realize I can't say them all.... therefore, I will let you go. Enjoy these few photos.

Toodles,

Donica 

P.S., FINALS ARE INSANE.

P.S.S., I think I broke my hand climbing yesterday. The middle/inner part is swollen and bruised and I can't squeeze my hand.... ehhh....

I don't know... this seems like too much pressure to blow out all the candles...

Christmas Time!

Sarah suffocating Amy. This picture was demanded by Amy. 

Tis the season!

Could not for the life of me find a good setting for my camera. I wish I had time to figure it all out!

So my head gaskets have busted in my car, meaning, I have no car. ούν (thusly/so) I decided to give myself a night to mope around and relax. This didn't work out so well. After eating to my heart's content (what can I say... I'm female) I turned on a movie I have been supposed and meaning to watch: Alexander. I don't think I've ever had such physical pain watching any movie. I couldn't finish it. Besides the endless supply of historical inaccuracies, I was so distracted by the mix of Scottish and Russian accents! Really?! So I stopped the movie and just sat in my living room looking through my books to see if there were any I hadn't read yet. Then my roommate and her best friend Amy walked in with Christmas decorations. They decorated the tree, hung up our stockings, all the while Kaitlyn and I sat back and directed the placing of ornaments. It's only 10pm but I feel like I've successfully completed a night of relaxing. I have tons (how I'm surviving, I don't know...) going on, and even more going on in my mind. It was nice to escape for thirty minutes or so. Unfortunately I'm gonna have to pay for it at the gym tomorrow...

Hope all is well, 

χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη πληθυνθείη ἐν ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ κυρίουἡμῶν.

-Donica

P.S., if you haven't noticed. The pictures are arranged like a Christmas tree. 

P.S.S. if you didn't already figure this out, the photos were arranged like that on accident. 

Finding the Joy in Everything

Wow. My weekend. I don't even know what to say. I had unending company; it was fantastic. We all cooked thanksgiving dishes and went over to the Hamline house (where the girls live) and had a gratitude feast there. Fellowship, food, and games started the night off well, and then we were invited to go out to Pastor Bob's house for dessert and MORE games. We got out there around 8pm... and didn't leave till about 2:30am. After touring town and seeing the tents camped outside of Best Buy, we realized a head start on black Friday shopping might be necessary. Thus, the ladies and myself made a pot of coffee and waited an hour back at the Hamline house until shopping time. Shopping was insane. I mean... INSANE. We could barely find a parking spot at Target, and when we entered, the aisles and circumference of the store made up for one... big... checkout line. We therefore had someone immediately just hop in line while the rest of us shopped, and rotated accordingly. This became our repeated tactic. I never use physical force, but I may or may not have shoved an old lady out of the way so I could grab the last deluxe plush Santa Clause teddy bear. Okay. That didn't happen. But if there ever was a deluxe plush Santa Clause teddy bear, I would push a THOUSAND old ladies out of the way to get the last one. Some of the ladies split and went home at around 7am while a couple of us went to the mall. The salesmen all greeted us with "Good morning!" and I think psychologically we were shocked, it felt like night and yet people were greeting us with good morning chants... I  finally got home at 9am and got in a few hours of sleep. I had to get up around 1ish to clean the apartment, workout, and cook because we were having a LOTR movie night at my apartment... And that concluded my birthday weekend (I believe I was sung "Happy Birthday" a good thousand times or so through the course of the week). After church I camped out at Starbucks, made slight progress on my homework, and now am at home, eating. It's terrible. I know I have less than three weeks to shed some good ol' lbs but as I reach for some fatty food I repeatedly tell myself "I'll start over TOMORROW..." and thus have put myself in an endless cycle. But for reals. I'll start over tomorrow. 


One last bit of news: it looks as though I have been brought out of Alaska for a reason... and it just may be permanent until I feel called elsewhere. I don't know how it is possible to have become content where I am (and I just so happen to be living in one of the most [in my opinion] uninhabitable places on earth), but I couldn't be happier. It made me realize it's not what surrounds me that brings me the "most" joy; and trusting God can bring about a surprisingly satisfying contentment not found by mere physical means. I'm praying about it, but I think I will be putting off graduation to December '12 instead of May and will be living it up here in Grand Forks, possibly taking a class that I need to graduate over the summer, but otherwise just wholeheartedly involving myself with the church and their ministry. This means I will most likely not be coming home again once I return after Christmas break. How I can spend a summer away from Alaska, only God knows, but we'll see what happens. Prayer. Prayer. And more prayer. And possibly some coffee. 

A few pictures from Thanksgiving, Bob's house, and black friday! Those were just a couple of the tents outside of Best Buy at 2:30am, and a mere portion of the line at Target. We were driving by and I was too embarrassed to take some SERIOUS pictures... 

Toodles!!!

Pre-birthday Birthday Presents

My birthday coat from ἡ μήτηρ and ὁ πάτηρ (Mom and Dad)! Lole winter coat from Midwest Mountaineering (the most heavenly store EVER) in Minneapolis!

My Metolius rock rings! Hanging from my pull-up bar in the apartment! I told my little sister this is what I wanted, and low and behold, a beautiful REI box came to my doorstep with exactly what I wanted inside. I truly am blessed with the greatest family. 

In other news, I finally auditioned for being a yoga and spin instructor at the UND Wellness Center, and I think they both went well. I interview officially on Thursday. So exciting! The best part is that, through this whole process, I have been able to meet other people who love yoga (students, instructors) and we've been able to meet outside of class and have impromptu yoga sessions. It's fantastic. It really brings a sense of community, and it's fun growing in abilities with others.  Life is great. I love meeting people and doing new things. I love progressing through this life, gathering new knowledge, applying old knowledge; it's fantastic. 

So I feel a bit sluggish and bleh right now, but I have a reason. I just did a cleanse and my whole system in internals are feeling fresh and babyish, but my aunt and cousin sent me a care package with baked goods (aka: cookies). Normally I don't eat that type of stuff, but 1) I'm poor and 2) I was glad to get a care packaged! So, I ate them. Afterwards, my stomach felt horrid, I was queasy, and just plain miserable. I still feel miserable. I am NOT doing that anymore. Also, call me crazy, but I have a new food plan! A mix of food combination/raw food diet. Google it. As many of you know, I've taken on the world's task of exploring diets,         

eating regimens, exercise routines, detoxes, cleanses, you name it! I know portion control and moderation is the ultimate key to wellness, but for some reason, I cannot moderate on certain foods such as refined sugar and junk food. If I have a little... it turns out to be a lot. Therefore, I've adapted many different eating routines such as all-organic, raw foods, low-carb, low-fat, no-sugar, vegetarian, and vegan. I finally stumbled upon food combining, and it really made sense to me. Not merely the "food will putrify in your system if you drink milk or eat an apple AND a banana within the same two hours", but just the eating regimen in general made sense. Fruit for breakfast. Fresh veggies and carbs (breads, beans, potatoes, rice, starchy veggies, etc.) for lunch, protein and fresh or steamed veggies for dinner. I've heard that protein should be your last meal of the day, due to the length of digestion it takes and how it works overnight. Therefore, I MUST try this new system of eating. I will let you know how it goes (I usually give things like this a month minimum, unless they turn out to be well [I've been vegetarian this whole semester]). Oh to be a single woman...

Toodles!

-Donica