Jerusalem Fiasco

The last week or so has been a nightmare of stress, despite the Thanksgiving break. I've been trying to figure out how to pay for the Jerusalem Center since the final payment was due yesterday. I thought everything was going to be fine, even though half of my loan wasn't coming until January. Because of that, I called to see if I could wait to pay that amount until I got the money in January. (The picture here is of my first cat, 'Lil Ben, and my aunt and uncle's dog, Ashley. This is how I felt, like my head was stuck in a bigger animal's mouth.) The girl that I talked to told me that she could change my loan to a Fall loan and get me all the money now, so I agreed (of course). She told me that it would take a few days for that money to be credited to my account. I waited, but that Saturday I received a letter in the mail saying that the second half of my loan had been canceled. I freaked out because there is no way that I can pay for it without that loan (unless I suddenly win a sweepstakes or something of that nature).
Since it was Saturday, I couldn't do anything about it and I had to wait until Monday before I could call. I called on Monday and was told that there is a limit on the amount of money a student can receive in Financial aid per semester. I set up an appointment to meet with a counselor for the next day. Now, this was last Tuesday, the day before the beginning of the Thanksgiving holiday. I met with the counselor and he told me that he couldn't do anything about it but that he was submitting a comment and I should be contacted. I was still freaking out because the holiday as coming and the money was due the following Monday. I thought, there is no way this is going to be resolved before that time.
I was about $1000 short of being able to pay for the program and so all I knew was that I needed to figure out where I could get that money from by Monday. I thought I could pay with a credit card online, but on Monday when I went to do so (since my other options hadn't panned out. I would just have payed the full amount with my credit card except the online company charges a fee that is larger depending on the amount) I realized that they accept every card type EXCEPT Visa (which is the only kind I have). So, to say the least, I was freaking out. I didn't know what to do. My dad had recently hit a deer and totaled the van and had had to buy another one, so I knew he couldn't afford to loan me so much money, but I had no other choice. So I called. Luckily, he was able to loan me the money on short notice, but I have to pay it back as soon as possible. So, I drained my checking account, added the money my dad loaned and payed for Jerusalem. I guess I'm going to be living off of my non-existent food supply for the rest of the semester! Its a good thing I bought that big bag of rice!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving; a day filled with gratefulness for the things that you have! My was definitely that, though it also reminded me of all the things I no longer have.
Well, I don't have much to say, but remember to count your blessings!
This picture was done on facebook's sketch application. I thought it looked pretty cool, so I thought I would post it here to make my Thanksgiving post a little more interesting.


Currently Reading:
Dawn
by Elie Wiesel

Toe Story

One day has passed since that fateful night. That day has been filled with crutches, story telling, and limping around. At the end of the day, I realized that someone had painted my toe. A dab of black, a little blue, and a smattering of purple now adds character to my toe, nicely complimenting the large and swollen look. Whoever made this toe must be an artist.

As a side note, walking around campus on crutches has taught me one very interesting thing, guys who know you are very helpful, but if they don't, they won't even pause to hold the door after walking out ahead of you. On the other hand, so many random girls stopped to help me. It was very interesting. One girl even gave me a number in case I need a ride. Cool huh?

Enough adventure for one night

Today was a very adventurous day, and it was a good one, despite an interesting end to the evening. I had classes like always on Mondays until 5. After my last class, I decided to go take the Russian Challenge Exam so I could get 16 credits of earlier Russian classes. It only took about 20 minutes and I got a 99%! That made me very excited.
I came home and told my roommate about our nighttime visitors from last night who invited us to their ward's activity. It was to be a Thanksgiving Feast at a place called Spring Haven. We decided to go (free food!) and called to get a ride. We were a little late leaving, and as we were driving up, we weren't really sure where we were going. We turned off at this building that had a bunch of cars and we thought we were in the right place. We walked up to the door and saw a sign about another ward's FHE, and so we thought we were in the right place. We walked right in . . . We were all astonished. The place was gorgeous! They had high ceilings and incredible style. They even had an electronic light switch that looked more like a computer screen then a light switch. We started walking around trying to find the people we were supposed to be meeting. It was then that we noticed the shoes and coats, and realized that we were in somebody's house. That's right! We walked right in to someone else's house! It was hilarious. We left, hoping no one had noticed our error.
Then we continued on our way. We finally came to Spring Haven. As we were walking up to the place, we were told that they ran out of food. That was very disappointing, but we went anyway. That place was incredible, too. There is an indoor tree house and an indoor basketball court. We explored a little, found some left over salad and chowed down. Then we went to the tree house to go down the slide. (See pictures above. The top picture is me coming out of the infamous slide. The second picture is me with ice on my toe. The third is a small shot of the tree house. It is actually a lot bigger. The next picture is me eating pizza) It was a lot of fun . . . the first time. Then something stupid happened. As I was preparing to go down the second time, I tried to get myself to go really fast. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite prepared for the size of the hole I was jumping in to and I stubbed my right second toe. It hurt so bad! I came out the other end and had to limp to a seat. A guy brought me some ice, but thinking that I had hurt my ankle, he brought a huge bag of ice. I iced my toe, but it kept swelling up. (These last two pictures should illustrate a little what happened. I hope you can see the difference with my swollen toe. The last picture is me typing this blog with my foot elevated. That is quite a feet [a pun, hee hee!]) Still, we managed to have a lot of fun, and we finally got pizza.
Luckily, I have an awesome home teacher who found me a pair of crutches within 20 minutes of me calling for his help. It was great because the crutches came from my awesome visiting teacher. Now I have a way to get around campus tomorrow. So, if you see me walking with crutches, that is my story. On the bright side, it gave others the opportunity to do service.

I'm going to JERUSALEM!!!

So, I just got my schedule for the Jerusalem Center today in the mail. I cannot even describe how excited I am starting to become. I was reading through the schedule and almost started crying from joy! I can't believe I'm really going! How did I get to be so lucky, so blessed? It is a miracle, I assure you. This is the opportunity of a lifetime, an opportunity that I have dreamed of for so long that it is weird it is finally coming true. But then again, I should be used to this, right? I dreamed of serving a mission in Russia, and I did! How many people are able to say that? Now that I think of this a little more, opening that envelope today and reading my schedule brought many of the same feelings that were present when I opened my mission call letter and read the words "You have been called to serve in Samara, Russia." The joy almost burst out of my chest! There are no words to describe it!
So, to give you a little idea of what I am going to be doing for the first 4 months of 2008, I've found some maps and circled the areas that I will be visiting/touring.
Basically, we have one full week in Egypt, 4 days in Jordan, and a little over a week in Galilee, besides smaller day trips inside of Israel. I will see the Giza Sphinx, the Pyramids, Funerary Temple of Ramses III, Memphis, Luxor Temple, Old Cairo, Mount Sinai (and even spend the night on Mount Sinai), the Red Sea, Jericho, Nazareth, Caesarea, Mount Herzl, City of David, Hezekiah's Tunnel, Pool of Siloam, Jordan River Baptismal Site, Bethlehem, Shepherds Field, Nimrod's Castle, boat across the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Mount Tabor, Tiberias, Qumran, Tel-Aviv, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Bethany, Bethphage, Bethesda, Gethsemane, Garden Tomb, the Mediterranean Sea, and much more. I will be studying Arabic, Ancient Near East Studies, Modern Near East Culture and History, Old Testament, and New Testament.
In addition, I just found out that I have received a scholarship to help pay for the Jerusalem Center. So, with that money, I have 34% paid, (leaving 66% left to pay). Then, when I subtract the money I got from my loan, I only have to figure out how to pay an additional 35% of the total . . . by November 26. The other half of my loan will cover most of that amount, but I won't get it until January. So we will see what happens. But, I am not worried about it. I am very excited and can hardly wait for this semester to be over because that means I will be going to Jerusalem!!!!!
Well, I was planning on writing about something else I did today, but when I got home and received that envelope, my other thoughts were blown out of my mind. Today I went to see Anton Chekov's The Seagull, a play that is very Russian. It kind of felt like a soap opera. He loves her, she loves someone else and he loves another, she loves yet another who loves no one but himself. I'm still not quite sure what the point of the story was, but that is how I often feel after reading or seeing something Russian. It takes a while of contemplation to feel like I understand, though I probably don't really understand completely. It was rather sad and kind of depressing. But all that went quickly away. Now all I want to do is read my schedule and get a little more familiar with what I am going to experience starting January. Why am I so lucky? But then again, there are a lot of things that aren't so lucky in my life, and maybe partly because of them, I am given other experiences. Not to make up for them, but to comfort and witness that I am not forgotten. I guess it doesn't really matter, because I am grateful for the opportunity, but I would give it up to not have to go through certain other things.
Anyway, I hope that these maps can help you to understand a little of my excitement. If any of you out there ever have the opportunity to do this, I am sure it will be worth your while!!! (By the way, unfortunately, they don't have married housing, so you can't go if you're married, but you could always take your own trip! If you end up going later and would like a guide, I would definitely volunteer my services, though I don't know if I would be able to pay to go. That's for later, though).
(The last two pictures are from the play. They didn't allow any kind of photography, so I had to get these pictures to show you. They were downloaded from the BYU website. I didn't get specific permission, but they did have a link to download the picture, so I figure that they don't really care and I wanted to give you a taste of the play).

5 years

My Brother

By Rachel Atwood

My brother may not be
the smartest guy of all,
nor the nicest one,
or even very tall.
He may not be the greatest
or the best looking
not likely to be famous
or to become a king.
But I will tell you this,
whether he is or not,
he is the best brother,
and the only one I've got.
He is barely older than me,
yet he thinks it is a lot,
but I would not trade him,
I can't entertain the thought
I love my brother dearly,
more than I can say,
so I wish him luck
on every special day.
I hope he lives a long life
and a wonderful one too,
and if he gets stuck
I know he'll start anew.
My brother may not be
the smartest guy of all,
nor the nicest one,
or even very tall.
He may not be the greatest
or the best looking
not likely to be famous
or to become a king.
But I will tell you this,
whether he is or not,
he is the best brother,
and the only one I've got.

Written: July 2002

Jerusalem Update and a puppy

Here is a little update on Jerusalem. I have 20 days before my final payment for the Jerusalem Center is due. My loan has finally come through, but unfortunately it is not as much as I was hoping for and not even as much as I need. So, that leaves me in a sticky predicament. However, I am very grateful for those who have been able to help me out. With your help, I have only 74% left to pay and with the first half of my loan, only 32% left to go! That is less than half!
So, somehow it is working out.
Now that I have shared that, today was an interesting day. I went to West Jordan for my aunt's birthday. She has been obsessing about this puppy that she found online. The puppy's name is Ammi and is an AKC cross-breed (I don't remember of which ones). Well, she has been wanting this puppy but they decided to wait until next spring to get a new puppy and then my aunt was really disappointed when she discovered that Ammi had been put on hold, meaning that she had been sold. What she didn't realize was that her husband and son were the ones who purchased the Ammi. She arrived in Salt Lake today and my uncle picked her up from the airport. Then we all drove to my aunt's work to pick her up. She was so surprised when she saw Ammi! She kept saying, "Are you serious?" She was really excited and I'm glad that it was such a nice surprise for her. (Above -Ammi in my aunt's arms, my cousin to the right and my uncle closest to the camera)
For her birthday, my cousin also got some Mexican food and my sister baked a cake. It was a nice evening spent with family. I'm really glad I was able to be there.

Currently Reading:
Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language among the Western Apache
by Keith H. Basso

What a long weekend!!!

I had a very long weekend, and not in the sense that I had a lot of time for fun and resting. In fact, I had no time to rest whatsoever. On Halloween I drove up to West Jordan and spent the night at my sister's house so she could take me to the airport the next morning. My flight left at 6 in the morning, so I didn't get much sleep. I flew in to Bismarck around 1pm. My dad picked me up and took me to the house. I ran some errands and spent a little time with my sisters before Heather's sister came and picked me up so we could drive to Sydney, Montana.
We got in to Sydney at 10:30 but were not able to go to bed until late. The next morning we had to be up early to finish some preparations for the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. We went shopping, made meatballs, and finished bouquets. (Right - Erin, Ashley, me, Heather, Danielle, and Angie. Bridesmaids and the bride. Erin and I have been friends with Heather since the third grade, Ashley is Heather's sister, Danielle has been friends with Heather since High School, and Angie is Mike's sister) The rehearsal started at 5:30, but we needed to be there a little earlier. Than we had the rehearsal dinner at Mike's parents' house (Mike is Heather's husband). They have a beautiful house and the dinner was delicious. Heather asked me to pray, and afterwards, people started clapping. That was the first time anyone has applauded me after praying, it was very interesting.
We ate and then Heather gave out presents. I got a t-shirt that says, "I was a bridesmaid in Heather and Mike's wedding and all I got was this crappy t-shirt" as did all of the bridesmaids. We put our shirts on and went out. That was interesting because it was my first time in a bar. We went to one bar first. Most people weren't drinking (which was fine with me). They had some casino machines in the bar, so Erin and I went over there. It was really weird. I won $.70!! I can honestly say that it wasn't very appealing, but was interesting anyway. Its not something I would choose to do for fun. After a little time there, we left for a different bar where supposedly EVERYONE was. Erin and Angie (Mike's sister) went home to put their kids to bed, but the rest of us went to the Triangle. There weren't that many people there, but pretty much everyone there was from the wedding. The others started drinking, and we each had a shot (don't worry, my shot was root beer, free because I was designated driver). We were there for awhile. We danced some, but mainly sat around and talked. The guys were all pretty much drunk. (Left - me, Danielle, Ashley, and Heather, toasting our shots) That was uncomfortable. It reminded me of a few experiences from my mission, but there was no one there to tell me to ignore them. Anyway, though it was an interesting experience, it is not one that I intend ever to repeat.
We didn't get home until late, around 1:30am but then we had to finish some decorations. I didn't get to sleep until after 3 and then we had to get up to be at the church to start decorating by 9. I went with Heather and Danielle and a few people showed up to help. We didn't have a lot of decorating to do at the church, so we then went to the Triangle (where the reception was going to be held) to decorate there. That took a little longer, but we finished relatively quickly. Then we went back to the house to start getting ready. I hate getting dressed up when I have to do it all myself. (Left - the wedding party) I never know what to do. But somehow we all managed to get ready to be to the church by 3:30 for pictures. A few people worked on my hair after we got there, and then began the long task of pictures. We were in a few, and then the bridesmaids went out to decorate the car. That was a lot of fun. We tied a cowbell to the rear, wrote on the car, and put balloons inside. (Right - the decorated car) It was really cool.
We hurried back in and then waited for the ceremony to begin. The ceremony was short, which was nice. I read a traditional Irish blessing after the unity candle. We then headed over to the Triangle. We had a nice dinner, and after cake, the dance started. We stayed for a few dances, but after the bridal party dances, we left. (Left - Heather and Mike cutting the cake) We (my dad and youngest sister came to the wedding) got back to Bismarck around 1:30, but we had to be up in time to be at the church at 9am. I did not get enough sleep this weekend.
Oh, I got to see the change that was made to the Bismarck temple. They changed the entry-way. It is pretty nice.
My flight left Bismarck around 7pm. (Right - the changed temple. Can you see the difference?) We got in to Denver early and I was upset to learn that my flight to Salt Lake was delayed an hour. I was supposed to get in at 10pm, but didn't get in until after 11. Becky picked me up from the airport, I went to get my car, and drove back down to Provo. I got in around 1:30, but I had to get up to be to work by 7 this morning. I definitely did not get enough sleep this weekend, but it sure was an adventure!

Currently Reading:
Brothers Karamazov
by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Meme

So I was tagged by Heidi for this meme, which no one really seems to know what that stands for. Anyway, here goes. For those of you who don't know the deal, here are the rules:
*List 7 interesting things about yourself.
*Tag 7 people
*Don't tag the person who tagged you or say whoever wants to can go.

Ok, I've been thinking a little about the things I can say and the ones I've come up with will most likely make me sound odd, but it seems that that is the purpose of the game. So, here goes:

1. Unlike most people, I am not afraid of dieing. In fact, I would really be ok with dieing tomorrow, or this year, or anytime soon. Its not that I want to die, the thought just doesn't worry me. I don't know how to explain it really. I guess the idea of seeing my brother and now my mother is more exciting than the thought of being unprepared to meet God.

2. My biggest pet peeve is dishonesty. This encompasses a lot of things. For example, I hate it when people say they are going to do something and then don't, even if it is a matter of "conveniently forgetting." I firmly believe that if you say you will do something, you should do it, no matter what. And if something comes up where you absolutely can't, let that person know and make other arrangements. Don't offer to do something or to help with something that you have no intention of doing. This also includes falseness of any kind, which is probably why I hate it when people say, "how are you?" in passing without wanting an answer. I also hate it when people fake interest in what is going on with you. I think that people who come across as false are the only people I cannot get along with.

3. I hate to sleep. I know, I know, lots of people love it. I hate it and would be happy if I could sleep a couple hours a night or less and not be tired. I think this is because I feel like I'm missing things when I sleep, especially when I nap. This is also related to why I hate being by myself. I think that everyone else is having fun without me and I am missing out.

4. On the other hand, I don't like to force people to associate with me, or to talk with me. So, I'm very passive in relationships until I feel like the person actually wants to spend time with me. That's probably why I only have a few really good friends, because only those who think it is worth it stick around. Thats also probably why I end up being alone a lot.

5. I love cold and hate heat. I can't sleep if it is too hot, which unfortunately happens a lot with roommates who turn the heat up. I love snow and love winter. In fact, I can't feel sad when there is snow on the ground.

6. People tell me all the time that I am the most patient person they know. I don't agree with that, I'm just really good at keeping my impatience inside.

7. Finally, I am afraid of commitment and especially family responsibilities. Unfortunately, my fear of family responsibilities mostly comes from experiences on my mission that for a time made me not want to have kids and even not want to get married. I've been working on that ever since and sometimes I want to have a family, but it usually lasts for a few moments and passes. I hope that that will change when I am ready to get married. Oh, and I usually feel like I want to when I watch the show Medium and often during conference addresses on the family. Sometimes when I see really well behaved kids, that makes me feel like I could have kids of my own. I know, weird.

Ok, here are the people I would like to see do this. If you don't have a blog, go ahead and post a comment on here, or if you are my family members, post on our family's blog.
Becky, Elizabeth, Sara, Heather (now Arneson), Erin, Heather my roommate, and anyone else who reads my blog and hasn't done this yet.