Whuz up

So I downloaded a new blog template. What do you think? Post your comments and vote on the poll.

Less than a week before school starts again. Waaaaahhhhh

Christmas

Our family opened presents on Christmas Eve day to make room for all that we had planned on Christmas. After opening presents, mom, dad and I went to the mall to go for a walk there. Well actually they went for a walk while I went shopping for a present for my Girl Friend and some stocking stuffers for mom (she fills all of our stocking and we forgot to get her something. So ashamed). After lunch we watched the movie Cristian had gotten, Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Then was supper and after supper we watched my movie, Narnia: Prince Caspian. Unfortunately Candlelight service was canceled at church so we didn’t go to that that evening.

Then Christmas day arrived and with it a bunch of new snow. Unfortunately part of the plans had been to go up to Lynden to visit my moms parents and bring grandpa to see grandma. It’s a long, sad and complicated storry but basically mom’s parents (who have been married for like forever) aren’t able to see each other very often because of health reasons. Dad took the van down the driveway to see if he would be able to get all of us out but then the van got stuck in our own driveway but with a lot of shoveling, some very cold body parts and a lot of help from the neighbors truck we finally got the van unstuck. Needles to say we didn’t try to make it to Lynden after that. By late afternoon the roads had cleared enough that we were able to get out and bring my dads parents over to our house for an early supper and a short visit. It was an interesting and different Christmas but different can be fun too.

Essay responses

I haven't actually submitted these to WSU yet. I'm going to wait until after christmas to give me more time to look these short responses over and to have my family look them over. So if you see anything, please feel free to comment.

Leadership/group contributions:

• When I was fourteen I was involved with the Vacation Bible School at my church. For three hours a day for five days I was in charge of ten five and six year olds. For the last two summers I have been involved with a Christian day camp for kids in which I was in charge of up to twenty children as well as two other teen workers. This past Christmas season I organized a group of teens to carol at a retirement home. I have also been in charge of an after school club at a local elementary school.

Knowledge or creativity in a field:

• I have played the violin for over eleven years and enjoy playing a variety of styles including classical, old time country-western, swing, and celtic. For the last year and a half I gained an interest in drawing and have taken a class at my community college in drawing. I have drawn a number of scenes such as portraits, still lifes, landscapes, buildings and Japanese Manga. I also enjoy photography and have had the privilege of photographing landscapes and wildlife in places such as Yellowstone, Glacier, and Crater Lake national parks as well as along several backpacking trips through the cascades.

Dealing with adversity:

• In 2001, my father left his electronic engineering job to purchase a woodworking business which, for years, struggled financially. I worked for my dad so that he wouldn’t need employees. Two years ago, dad sold the business to start an electronic engineering company. Unfortunately he recently realized the project he had worked on for two years was not coming together and he is now looking for work. To help financially, I work with children during the summer to pay for my personal expenses. Through this challenge my family has bonded together and I have learned to be a hard worker.

Community service:

• I am a member of the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association—a group of musicians who go to different nursing homes and play old-time music for the residents. This past Christmas I organized a group of young people to bring cookies and carol for the residents of a local retirement home. During the past two summers I have helped with a day camp that provides very low cost child care service to various communities including smaller outlying communities throughout Whatcom County. This school year I have been in charge of a free after school program in a local elementary school.

Handling systemic challenges:

• I have the privilege of coming from a multi-racial family. Ten years ago our family adopted a little boy from Guatemala named Cristian. Growing up, some of my best friends were our neighbor’s grandkids from Nigeria. Some of my best friends that I’ve met in community college have been from Taiwan and Thailand. Even though I know lots of people from other nationalities, I have been blessed to not have witnessed discrimination personally. However I have attended a diversity panel at my school to hear about discrimination that others have witnessed. I look forward to Washington State University’s international atmosphere.

Goals/task commitment:

• One of my biggest goals has been to become a better public speaker. I appreciate my homeschooled upbringing. Unfortunately it lacked the opportunity to give speeches. To overcome this challenge, I have spent two summers teaching stories to groups of up to sixty children. I have also spoken several times in front of my church of over one-hundred-and-fifty people. I have already taken a class on public communication in running start and plan on taking another one this spring. When I was eleven our family bought a home business in which I sometimes worked up to thirty hour work weeks.

WSU application

Well I've been filling out my application to WSU and I thought I would share with you a few of the wonderfull short essay questions that I've been answering.

Knowledge or creativity in a field: Describe any of your special interests and how you have developed knowledge in these areas. Give examples of your creativity: the ability to see alternatives; take diverse perspectives; come up with many, varied, or original ideas; or willingness to try new things.

Dealing with adversity: Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to address this challenge. Include whether you turned to anyone in facing that challenge, the role that person played, and what you learned about yourself.

Community service: Explain what you have done to make your community a better place to live. Give examples of specific projects in which you have been involved over time.

Handling systemic challenges: Describe your experiences facing or witnessing discrimination. Tell us how you responded and what you learned from those experiences and how they prepared you to contribute to the WSU community.

What Does Mama Say?

Christmas is comming

I decided to finally install a christmas background. After trying on almost all the themes from the website, I decided to go with this one. It is a bit feminine, but I decided that true men don't have to protect there masculenity.
Bellow are our family christmas photos.

A perfect day

This morning, Janel, Cristian and I decided that instead of spending the day cooped up inside we would get out and do some Christmas shopping. But instead of trying to brave the roads ourselves we decided to take the bus which goes along Northwest. So we trucked out to the end of our road and took the bus into Cordata station. Unfortunately the bus was 15 minutes late so we had to wait out in the cold. From Cordata we took the bus to Wal-Mart. After we had finished there we walked back towards Cordata station making a Starbucks stop on the way. From Cordata we then proceeded to take the bus to Bellis Fair where we did some shopping, then eat lunch, then did some more shopping and ran into Chris. After we had finished shopping we saw Madagascar 2 at the theater in the mall and then did some more shopping that we had forgotten about. After that it was back on the bus to Cordata then back to Northwest where we got off and walked home. It was a fun excursion. At times it was a bit cold but it still made for a fun, very full and tiring day.

Choir

Best of luck to the choir on Sunday.

Woot school is out. Sometime I'll have to actually write something intelegent but for right now this will do.

Oh, p.s. I actually wore a tie twice this week. (something very, very amazing.)

I'm going in

Yup, tomorrow begins finals week and if I don’t come out of finals week alive, well, Cristian you still don’t get my computer. This is going to be a killer week. Here’s my schedule

Monday – School is mostly review. I’ll probably skip my physics class (oh my gosh). Today is also CEF after school club

Tuesday – I have two tests (Math final part 1 and econ final chapter test)

Wednesday – 2 tests again today (math final part 2 and Physics final

Thursday – Econ final and a AIA architects award show. I’m just attending so it’s not like there’s anything to prepare but still it’s supe fancy and it involves food. Also there will be people in high (salary giving) places there if you get my drift.

Friday – study study study for the ACT

Saturday – Be in Lynden by 8:00 for the ACT. In the evening I’m going to a company diner at Janel’s work (logos). The only thing to worry about here is that I’ll go to sleep and my face will fall splat onto my plate.

Then I already have a lot planned for my winter break so maybe sometime I’ll blog about that. That is if I make it through this week.

Kristin Chenoweth sings

This is especially for Hannah who has to take philosophy text quarter. Something to look forward to.

Another rant

Ok so I realized that it’s been a while since I’ve done a good rant and since ranting is what I’m known for I decided I’d have a good rant. My target of ranting for the day is Praise 106.5 this Christmas.

1) Let’s start with the music. A lot of it isn’t Christian. When I turn to a Christian radio station I don’t expect to hear songs about Santa Clause. I know that praise has started playing more and more non-Christian music throughout the year but it seams like they’re especially getting bad during this Christmas season.

2) Their promo clip thingy. It goes something like “We’re celebrating the reason for the season: Hope, Love, family, and faith.” It’s like did you forget faith and just decide to tack it on at the end? The reason for the season is Jesus Christ. Pure and simple.

3) Their “Drive through difference” program. When I first heard about this I thought it was an awesome idea. When going through the coffee drive through you leave enough money to pay for the person behind you as well as a little print-out poster for them. I thought “what a marvelous way to witness to people around the Holiday season.” So then I go to there website at look at the poster. Not a mention about God or Jesus. It’s all about “I just wanted to bless you and do an act of kindness for you in the Christmas spirit.” I was so ticked off.

Does this type of thing make anybody else mad?