At My Door

In a rush...

2007-06-15T01:42:58Z

No, I haven't been reading my Friend's Page. I am so sorry... I've been barely fitting things in, and have come to realize that with a final coming up, and a road test, and a job that I'd rather not get fired from... I don't have time to fit in anything else until I've come through it all on the other side, with sweet success.

So I'll be "gone" still for the next 3 or 4 weeks... wish me luck! And when I come back, it will most likely be with a new LJ - fresh starts and all, you know.

Have to run! Everyone have a good - er - 3 or 4 weeks. :)

Er... college?

2007-06-10T01:18:31Z

Well! I need some help here. It seems that there are ways that anyone can get financial aid to go to college, if they can't afford it themselves. My aunt is doing it, she plans for my cousins to do it, and my mother is considering it. I, of course, want to look into it too.

Now, none of the adults here have ever been to college, but luckily many/most of you on my friends list either have completed it or are there right now. Can you tell me about it? o_0 I mean, seriously, I know next to nothing about how it works and it seems very complicated. I am looking for more information about an Associate's Degree, a 2-year college, because I can't imagine spending FOUR years doing college. :D But any information will help, because college is college.

What all is available career-wise to someone with an Associate's Degree? And what about majors? Hmmm...

And especially Mari, (eattheolives) because I wanted to know if you need an Associate's degree or a Bachelor's degree to be a librarian, or beyond that? So far that is the only one of my childhood dreams, besides being a teacher, that has stuck in my head as being one of the most perfect jobs I can think of pursuing if I do this college thing. Being a teacher is already basically out, because I don't see the public school system functioning very well at all, and I'm sure that's at least a Bachelor's requirement.

So any information would be greatly appreciated!! My E-mail address is skyelark88@yahoo.com. :)

Happy Notes on This and That

2007-06-08T21:41:00Z

I was thinking of starting a new LiveJournal and retiring this one... may be on Sunday. And getting a new E-mail to match. ("Skye-lark" gets very old, at least after a few years).

However, I decided that it would be far, far too much trouble to go to... at least right now. Switching all my friends over and so forth.

I ♥ Facebook. I have been adding applications the past few days and it really is the one essential on-line presence... all of your favorite music, movies, photos, books, friends, and personal information all in one place! And I'm all for such organization. I just wish all of my friends had one!

I am quite happy today. I took a shower and washed my hair this morning, which always feels good. :) My reports in school this morning were, all but one, less than 1 minute long, and the next ten are the same!

Things are most definitely settling back into place after being topsy-turvily overthrown for a while there.

We now have a date and a destination for moving to Pennsylvania, which are both good things to have. The date is July 17th, exactly one month before I turn 19. The destinaton is a rural townhouse (ignore the contradiction! :-) in Watsontown. I am looking forward to a real house, my own room, and coming up here every summer.

As for the family matters, things are more or less the same as they were before everything happened. The case has been closed. There are things that are different, though; most of all that I have changed. I really learned during all of that what I thought I already knew. I must follow what I believe and not pretend. I can't waver back and forth. But I must also feel good from the inside out about what I believe, have confidence, and let it be apparent to every single person in my life that in spite of any differences, I love and appreciate them and want to share. I have learned that I will be misunderstood sometimes through my lifetime and that it can't be helped, but that things will always work out one way or another, and I have learned to accept that. Basically this event seemed to actually clear the air, even if not bonding us all together, and I am enjoying the clearness. We know where we and the other person stands. And I will continue to stand where I am, while loving others, until others do not want me at all, if indeed the day ever comes; and then, still, I suppose I will have to love from a distance.

I am very happy with Yahoo! Mail. They have gotten rid of storage limits! They really do get better and better. I haven't used any other web-based E-mail, and now I probably never will.

I made a new signature for the end of my E-mails, and me thinks it is very pretty:

I have to run... I've been on the computer just a bit too much the past few days. But you know... I'm considering again the new LJ/E-mail idea. :D After all, I feel as though I'm on the verge of starting an entirely new life.

It's time for flitterin',
Dustin' off the trunk and flitterin' far,
Where the grass is greener
Now and then comes a time again
For flitterin'.

It's time for packin' up,
Dustin' off our trunks and bric-a-brac for
Some new destination
Don't know where, but we're goin' there,
We're flitterin' again.

New places, new faces,
New friendships will start
While old places, old faces
Stay dear to our heart

As we go flitterin'
Followin' a rainbow glitterin' bright
Over the horizon
May be then and may be there
We'll settle down and never care
For flitterin', flitterin', flitterin'...again."

Really, though, I feel as though I'll have a home in two places, which I will. My homestate of Pennsylvania and my adopted home of Maine. (Not to mention visiting Daddy in California every winter! ;)

LJ Cuts - Yay!

2007-05-18T16:45:38Z

On a considerably lighter note than my last entry... my LJ cut worked!! I don't know what I did right, or rather, what I was doing wrong before, but I finally did one! No more long, rambling posts cluttering up your friends' pages. ;-)

Three Characters Meme

2007-05-09T22:33:40Z

I saw this and thought it would be fun to do it!

Name three characters...

1. ...you wish were real so you could meet them:
- Atticus Finch
- Anne Shirley
- Mr. O'Farrell

2. ...you would like to be:
- Besty Ray!!!
- Marty Davis
- Clay-boy Spencer

3. ...who scare you:
- Hmm... Cathy Ames from East of Eden - Don't read it!!
- Professor Moriarty
- John Boucher, North & South.

I guess we are moving

2007-05-08T23:53:55Z

...to a "town" called Mifflinburg.

We're supposed to find a countryish place -- a big house -- and move around the first week of July.

I don't know if anyone likes moving... at least completely. I think it's a great place to move: back to having the convenience of just a 15-minute drive to a super Wal-Mart, a better economy, the feeling of community; while at the same time, staying quite rural... but I have loved this place, too. I would be heartbroken at leaving, were it not for the fact that the opposite of those aforementioned Mifflinburg "pros" were "cons" here. Bug season is ick. And winter is a tad long, but even that I could live with.

Anywho, there is supposed to be a state park just minutes away from Mifflinburg:

Is gorgeous, no?

And there are mountains. And it is near Amish Country, complete with buggies that come into town.

I intend to work at the library in Lewisburg. :)

Speaking of work, I have a job. I signed a freelance writing contract yesterday. *Dances* It's a project for this educational program for parents and their 3rd-5th graders, and I am supposed to write essays on Famous Places in America. The man I am in touch with about it really liked the sample essays I sent. ^_^

And did I say earlier that I am supposed to graduate by the end of June? I forget.. but anyway, I am. I should be done with my final and have my Certificate. It will hardly feel like me, moving to a new place with a job and a driver's license. My goodness, it's the "coming out" I've always dreamed of. :D

19 years old (which I will be the month after we move) seems awfully old for all the things I haven't done. I've never been out on my own, and I've never been on a date, or to a movie theater, or lots of things like that. Sometimes I wonder if my upbringing has been something special, in a good way, or if it makes me some sort of a freak. o_0 In the old days, actually, lots of girls hadn't done lots of things until they were a young adult. May be the world does grow up too fast these days.

Ah, I do seem to ramble when I get around to posting, dont I? I am beginning to see a pattern - 2 or 3 weeks between posts, and then they are a mile long. :D

Life is Beautiful

2007-05-01T21:41:26Z

It is! There are times throughout life when you just feel as if a rebirth of your soul has occured; when everything you've ever learned is brand new and fresh, and you suddenly learn new things as well, that make you feel awake, and amazed, and different.

That happened to me yesterday evening. I took a walk. But it wasn't just the walk -- life has a way of saving back, one by one, hidden under the surface of every day life, a great many factors that all come out at some significant time and together bring about some impact.

I have a lot of things to update on... I don't know where to start. First, I suppose, that I have cancelled my application with that company that I was trying to test for. Their program just wouldn't work with my computer, and rather than waste my time trying to fix it (which I didn't have the slightest idea how to do, and was not getting much help from their IT people,) I realized that, by some miracle, I am still on schedule to graduate at the end of June. Completely! So I am going to skip the job idea and continue to do full-time (4) hours of school each day.

I thought of something else, too. It seems that, one way or another, we are moving back to Pennsylvania around the first week of July. And I will be getting my driver's license. And then I will have graduated to be an MT... when I actually won't be restricted to just a work-at-home job anymore! In fact, I am looking forward to getting other kinds of jobs at one time or another, sooner rather than later, just for the experience, and the pleasure of working in places I've always enjoyed frequenting. I want to meet people. It would all be so new.

Anywho, no matter what I end up doing, I will start out with a medical transcription job for the first several months, and I will always keep it as a supplemental income. (Wouldn't want to lose the hang of the skill by not working for a while!) The good thing is that, as an MT, and particulary as an IC (independent contractor,) you can work as little as you please; a few days a week, a few hours a day.

I also know that this course has been a good thing for me to take in innumerable ways. First, it kept me sane -- gave me something to keep working at and looking forward to -- through winter, and Mommy being pregnant again. Second, it streeeetched my brain emphatically. It was a challenge and it is also an accomplishment. Third, it introduced me to a professional and formal level of communication that I hadn't dealt with yet, and I found that I could take it in stride. Contracts, the medical world, networking with other MTs. Finally, I like transcription itself. Peoples' voices are so unique; and it's the best when, in the middle of a dull dictation, a trip of the tongue makes the doctor laugh. It makes you smile through the rest of the report. :) Of course, not all the reports are dull -- particularly in Psychiatry! o_0

When I came back from that walk yesterday, (it had been nearly sundown, and the air wasn't too cool, and I went to the beaver pond alone -- along with Joey's dog, Duchess, that is, who follows you wherever you go -- and it was quiet, and beautiful, and had the feeling like anything-can-happen,) well, when I came back, I had a story in my head. I hadn't for a while, but I did then. And I started writing it lastnight.

I also got a phone call, about an E-mail I had sent to someone that morning regarding their request for essay writers. I was doing the dishes, so Mommy asked him to call back this morning around 10:00. I was nervous this morning. (Phone calls, you know; yet I never fail to feel at ease once I finally start talking, so it's quite silly!) The project is one of writing short educational essays for 3rd-5th graders, with a few questions and answers at the end. I have seen samples of what they are looking for, and not only is it something I enjoy doing, it's very simple! He asked me to choose two topics to write on as a sample of my work. I've E-mailed him asking if the Carlsbad Caverns and Charles Lindbergh are good topics, and am waiting for his reply. I suppose if he likes what I write, then I get to join the project; it is mostly being worked on by college students, I think, including one girl in her Junior year who is studying in Rome. Impressive.

So I am very excited about that, and just how everything changes and doors begin to open up and life is after all intrinsically beautiful, even if for a while, for one reason or another, or several reasons, it doesn't seem to be on the surface.

Tomorrow is shopping day and Mommy is craving steak, so it seems we are going to end the day with dinner at the restauraunt. I am not complaining. :D

Back to yesterday evening's walk, though. Its theme seemed to be a quote I've read, "Life is a daring adventure... or nothing." I was standing outside the barnyard, watching the horse and the cows munching their hay, and I wanted to pet them like I used to. But after a long time of not going down there, I've become a real scaredy-cat of them. Animals are so unpredictable. But I wanted to pet them, and I wasn't feeling particularly nervous, just wary. That's the first time it dawned on me. "Life is a daring adventure -- or nothing." Even small things can be daring adventures, as songofsummer pointed out, who has that quote in one of her icons. :) I went in and I fed Star a couple handfuls of sweet feed, and I pet the calf. And I was glad I did.

Then I walked on Sunflower Drive. I came to the path that leads to the beaver pond, and I debated for a while. It was evening, and even at high noon I don't always like venturing off into the woods by myself. It seems to be the domain of the wild creatures who live there, and whatever else, when you are out of sight of the houses, and surrounded by the trees. But then, like a flash, I thought of it again. "Life is a daring adventure... or nothing." Why did I always restrict myself? Why am I so afraid of risks? Why is that half the things I want to do, I don't do? (Don't worry -- I don't want to do bad things.) So I went for that walk. And it was refreshing, and lovely, and exciting in that I was the whole while applying this new philosophy to all of life.

I've often thought that I have learned as much and had as many of life's breakthroughs in my rather uneventful and sheltered life than anyone else has ever had who lives on a daily basis intermingling with a busy world. What another may have learned in a big way, I have learned in a small way. But it is the same lesson, and we have both really learned it.

I came back smiling to myself and not caring who saw me smiling to myself. That is one thing that has always irked me. For as long as I can remember, being outdoors on a beautiful day makes me feel like laughing out loud. I can't keep the grin off my face, and then I feel imbecilic, should anyone see me. Once, in our town house back in PA, with its backyard flanked by neighbors, I had gone out to swing (my favorite pastime) and it was so nice that the laughter came bubbling up again. Funny how the windows of neighbors' houses seem to stare. At last I ran inside lest anyone witness my crazy fit of mirth.

Mommy told me last month, when I mentioned this quirk of mine, that I shouldn't worry. A smile is always a good thing to see. So I was smiling broadly when I came back from my walk, and I was smiling broadly this afternoon. It feels so free. I feel so free. And it's not as if I haven't felt free before. But just like the thought I began this entry with, life is just a series of re-learning and re-births and growing. It makes you wonder with amazement what person you will be in ten years from now, and it is gratifying to know that you and God can see to it that you are a better person. It's not just chance.

Jim Dale and Georgy Girl

2007-04-24T23:49:14Z

Ohhh!! OhhH!! Do you know who wrote the lyrics? Jim Dale did. Oh, yes. I love...this song.

*Tries to compose herself and fails*

So once in a while I do fall apart like this still. I thought I was over that.

Books, Employment, Weather...

2007-04-22T22:09:47Z

Yes! Spring has arrived! All in one day, really. That day was Friday. It's gotten up in the 60's and stayed there, and tomorrow is supposed to get up to *gasp* 78. The snow is all pretty much gone from its shady nooks and icy caches. The mud is drying up. The buds on my aspen, outside our trailor, are all but bursting into baby leaves. I have a sunburn. All over my face and arms.

I also have approximately 5 applications via Internet submitted to various businesses and companies that provide Transcription services -- General Transcription, until I graduate. I decided that with family finances the way they are right now (tighter than ever, as impossible as that seems,) and with feeling like it was rush, rush, rush to graduate my course and I wasn't getting everything out of it... well, I decided that working while I take extra time to finish the course was necessary and really, a good idea all around. Now I'm just praying that at least a couple of the companies will respond to me soon with a decent wage. I'll be working two hours a day, six days a week, and doing school the other two hours, which is a total of four. And -- with my new schedule, that I quite like -- I'll get them all done in the morning, by noon, and have the afternoons "free". :)

I'm rather excited about getting a job now, and of graduating Career Step soon, and the wonderfulness of a Transcription job in general. Not that it is something I really love, like writing, or music...but it will enable me to do what I love, and that's where the wonderfulness comes in. In that light, I do have an affection for it. :)

Lastly, I'm getting some books from the library. I've decided that the right side of my brain and my imagination need a major jostling. What with typing up coronary artery bypass graftings, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasties, transurethral resections of the prostate, and doing research, and writing resumes, and reading Every Day Ettiquette, by Grace Fox... I could use a change. Something not so heavy -- or, I should say, heavy in a different way. I prescribed myself fiction. Therefore I was found perusing my friends' LJs this afternoon for what looked like good recommended reading (I am such a picky reader), and decided to get a couple of Carola Dunn's books, per eattheolives. Per Lady Rissa, delectations, I am already reading One Man's Meat, by E.B. White. I read his biography and quite liked it, so when I read of this book of his essays, I knew I had to see what it was.

I also have John Steinbeck's East of Eden coming, which James Dean movie I am not allowed to watch (*weeps*). I'm hoping the plot isn't the reason, because I'd like to at least read the book. I've been wanting to see about Steinbeck for a while.

Conrad Richter wrote The Light in the Forest, which I read and fell in love with some years ago, so I am getting his trilogy The Awakening Land. I'm not sure if I will like it.

I was going to get more -- but I decided not to make that mistake as I always do. They sit around and run up a fine and then it is a pain to send them back, whereas having just five books out is different. :)

I looked up archive lists of the books and authors awarded the Nobel Prize and the Pulitzer Prize, and will use that some. Does anyone know of any other awards that would identify some extra good reading for me? I know there is another one, (besides the Newberry Medal,) but I can't remember what it was. May be I am thinking of the New York Times' Best-Seller's list, which I'm sure I wouldn't want to go by.

Anywho, I also want to write a short story. I'm still formulating the plot, but I just want to write one. This is how I know that I need to jostle my creativity again... plots used to come to me so easily and they were really rather unique. Writing is, they say, only hard work to a writer. But I think that, in a writer, there must be something there that brings the storyline and ideas, without the feeling that you are trying to pull the impossible sword out of the anvil, and in the dark, no less.

As you can see, I don't seem to have trouble with verbosity in ordinary writing, or journaling my thoughts. But that alone can make one very Dry and Prosaic.

Oh! I forgot! Just the other day we watched "Hot Lead and Cold Feet" again. A silly title, I always thought, but for the most part the movie itself is so funny. Jim Dale was very talented to play three different characters and do his own stunts. He could be goofy (and he often was!) without ever looking dumb; at least I thought so.

And isn't it funny how you can love a character so much? It's just a kid's Disney picture -- I put it on for the children, because it used to be one of my favorites -- but I still like Eli Bloodshy. :) Funny how someone can, not in real life, but on the screen, be everything you think a man should be. With a script and a setting, for that short while on the screen he lives. He was sweet. And though he was so naive, he was brave. And in spite of looking ridiculous because everyone was against him, he had such strength of conviction.

I'll stop now because I always start feeling silly at going on about a character. But I'm also sure that there are real wonderful people... and that someday someone really will be that special in my eyes.

skye_lark @ 2007-04-17T13:45:00

2007-04-17T17:47:14Z

I am soon going to be the eldest of a half a dozen girls. o_0

Facebook!

2007-03-27T18:07:53Z

Samuel invited me here... it's definitely a handy and organized way to keep all of your information together and keep in touch with your friends! You should take a look. :)

Times to Run and Times to Sit

2007-03-25T00:07:46Z

It's been a while. I think that my life is beginning to adjust again to having Mommy better and not having the whole house to tend to (this is her 12th week, which is supposed to end the last of the underlying morning sickness.) She has been up the past week much more, and has been able to keep the front rooms tidy, do some organizing, dish washing, and all those lovely little things that make the house a home, and which mothers do. (Or at times the assistant mothers. ;)

I realized how much I haven't said here. Daddy has gone to Florida now; he left on the 13th. I cried the two nights before he left, but that, too, passed and it has been all right. The coming of spring helps. I knew that it would be good for all of us, anyway; or at least that we would discover if it was a mistake and could do something about it. It is good to know if something is a mistake or not. He is actually going on to California on the 28th of this month.

Mommy still has plans for us to move back to Pennsylvania this fall after the baby comes. Grandma and their family still have plans to move off of the property. Joey has changed her mind and thinks she will be wanting to keep living here now. :) That is a very good thing. That means that every summer I can come up here and get "back to the farm"; we can keep this place. That's the way it should be. I mean, we've had it for so long and I love the country here -- and it would be hard to leave and sell it with Grandpa buried here.

I don't mind moving. Some days I do, some days I don't. I've come to a great many conclusions and have adopted a new life philosophy. They come my way once in a while and they tend to drastically change my life, when something dawns on me and I say, "You know, that's so true!!"

To explain, I've been writing things down in my favorite composition notebook, and in letters to friends... with my life having so many changes and everything, it can take a little bit to adjust; to re-think the future and what it holds for you. The past month or so, even more than before, I'd been analyzing what I want out of life, and what I am going to do about it.

Like I told Kristy, there are times I want to achieve the stars, move forward and never be still. Other times I feel like all I would ever ask for is a quiet corner of the world to just live, simple as that. And so I am rather a blend of opposites. In light of this, I wrote,

"I certainly have moments of doubt when it comes to Medical Transcription and just what I am going to do with my life- my future - in general. Other times, like this moment right here, I am quite sure I am doing as well as I can and the smartest thing that can be done at present.

A trade is a useful thing to have. When one wants to enter touchy worlds such as literature and music, especially -- neither of which ever guarantee money and success very quickly.

But what of the other things I want to do? Travel, and teach, and get married, and work in communities to make them better. That is a lot to do. Besides having my own family on a farm, and most of all living in touch with God. But of course, without living in touch with God my whole source of energy and inspiration is missing anyway. Taking one step at a time is the best way for me to approach all this. Which -- slow as it seems sometimes - is exactly what I'm doing right now.

Isn't God amazing? He is answering my prayers and guiding my affairs, right in the middle of my straggling along. How could I get along without Him?"

That was March 16th. On March 22nd, I wrote:

"More wondering about what I am really doing right now with my life, and will do with it -- I want it to be simple, but full; purposeful, yet free. And there are so many things to do. I keep forgetting that, since one step at a time is all we can do anyway, we may as well not spend so much time thinking about the rest now."

I think it's rather evident that I'd been somewhat overwhelmed with wanting to see that my life was what it should be; all the changes, I think, motivated me to try to "organize" my life and especially my future.

Here is what I wrote yesterday:

"I get such mood swings sometimes. I certainly have today. There is something about me with Fridays, I don't know what...

Anyway, I was thinking while I was vacuuming. You can over-analyze life. You can over-plan, and have such rigid ideas about what the ideal life should be that you rule out a wide array of other things; fail to see the other possibilities. May be, as humans, we psych about circumstances and forget to take all the best out of wherever we find ourselves, giving our best as well.

Today Joey said she wouldn't be moving -- pretty much no matter what. That's great, because we can hopefully then keep the property and I can indeed come up here every summer. There I was worrying and planning yesterday about how I was going to hold on to the "country living" I love so much, while doing everything else; and today see how it works out.

I need to remember to relax. Just relax. And do my best, do the right thing, as choices come up, great or small. To enjoy being me and to discover, wherever I am.

I think that if we just trust God and watch as things happen, we will discover our lives unfolding and becoming fuller than we could ever imagine, certainly more than if we hold on to our pen-and-paper outline of what we think our future should be...

It is a good thing to love being me and becoming truly better. It's like I always said, you can be at home everywhere.

Many, many times before God has taught me to let go; to "be still, and know that He is God." When I have most strongly and completely surrendered myself and the future into His hands, the first thing I always felt wash over me was Rest. A lack of worry. A wonderful letting go, to lean on other arms. Because really, a secret to life is that one's best is all that is asked. Really. It's as simple as that.

God doesn't tell you to do this and this and that -- live here, work there, this job, that friend -- and there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to these things, there can't be. We are free to choose, to find out what fits us best, to love two opposite things and find time for each of them. God just gives us the guiding rule for it all -- Do your best. Do the right thing. That's all. You won't go wrong.

Run when you want to and are able to run. Sit when you want to and are able to sit. Never plan out the sitting and running further ahead than the road you can see. Hold God's hand all the while."

That is my new philosophy. And today I wrote one more entry, after having been thinking during study and everything:

"More and more I see the simplicity and wisdom of living as I described in my last entry. The way it is supposed to be - taking one thing at a time, and living with joy in the present.

Spring is here! And I know I wear out the subject of my future and my plans. But at least now I've had a revelation along those lines.

I've just been thinking how lovely it will be to have a job and be able to buy clothes and do things; to have my driver's license in July. Most of all, I can take voice lessons and sort of try whatever strikes my fancy. I really think that sometime I would like to be a teacher's aid -- elementary school. Among other things. :) The thing now is that my level of stress has marvelously dropped and my knuckles are no longer white, holding on to the idea that "I will do this, and I will do that; I must do this, and I must do that." Instead, I see the road before me and I know that everything will fall into place, one step at a time.

It's all very nice to have dreams, and goals to work toward. But it makes it doubly nice to have the quiet heart that knows that Time does have a slow hand, and can appreciate and live in harmony with that fact. Times to run... and times to sit. And the sheer wonderfulness of living, one day at a time."

~~~**~~~~**~~~~~**~~~~~

We watched "Shadow of a Doubt" last week (and I watched it again the other night... it was too good.) :) It starred Joseph Cotten and Teresa Wright. The babies have also been watching "Curious George", the 2006 animated movie. The rest of us saw it too... and I loved it! It was completely funny. It actually amazes me sometimes, the exchange of ideas, the vicarious experience, and the pure entertainment that is possible through so many different mediums. It is a very big thing. I'm not much of a TV-watcher -- I mean, half-hour shows (or even hour-long shows), sit-coms, cable TV, etc. etc. But good movies are certainly a hobby of mine. I realized that the difference is probably how much more in-depth movies go. How much more story and theme is played out in them, more like a novel than anything else. I don't think a good movie is ever a waste of time. :)

I'll do you a favor and go help get supper. I get into phases where I could just write on and on and on, with so much to say... but there are times to make an LJ entry at least as close to a reasonable length as possible, having already been profusely communicative.

Promised Pics

2007-03-02T02:16:38Z

These are four photos I was able to quickly snap of my new Washburn guitar. :)

Front View The dangling bead-type thing on the neck is some "guitar jewelry" I had put on it -- a strand of pearls from a broken necklace I had. I took it off now, but it's always fun to decorate and personalize an instrument.

Back View This photo doesn't do justice to the gorgeous satin-finish wood and its rich color!

Beautiful Washburn This was sort of a special-effect pic... the sun was coming in the window so nicely. :)

Now I intend to get a book, or preferably a video out from the library that will teach me a lot more chords and techniques. Oh -- Lisa just put on The Waltons, and I think she expects me to watch it with her, so I'd better run! (Incidentally, somewhere along the road I fell in-love with harmonica music -- I mean, the right kind of harmonica music. When I hear it in a song I just adore it!)

A Postcard of My Life Right Now

2007-02-27T15:34:35Z

Hello dear friends,
I am having a busy time of it as always. There are several things that have happened of note since I last wrote. David, Aunt Eileen, and Joey are back from Pennsylvania and they surprised me with a Washburn guitar! (Pics to come). I just knew they were going to do that when I heard that they had gone guitar shopping -- wasn't that amazingly sweet of them? And it's a smaller size, too, just like I wanted.

Mummy is well on her way to being over the morning sickness. In two weeks she should be entirely on her feet, although I still have to see to it that she takes it easy. We will be doing spring cleaning then, joy of joys! I love spring cleaning.

Speaking of spring, this is a picture Uncle Michael took the other week, of our "little boy statue" under the tree:

We have 2 feet of snow on the ground up here, but the temperatures this week are well into the 30's and feel warm compared to the near-zero's we'd been having.

Lastly, I've redecorated my LJ. I like a little change now and then, particularly seasonally.

I've been reading all of your posts off and on when I grab the time and they are as entertaining as always, but I haven't had much commenting time, so my apologies on that. :) I'll write again soon!

Must run, ~*~Eve~*~

Mid-Term Exam

2007-02-22T13:19:52Z

Well in case anyone is interested, I just took my mid-term exam. :-) I know it was originally for the 20th, but I took a much-needed two-day break and instead I did it today.

I got three wrong, which gave me 96%. Is that an A? May be a B. LOL But the ones I got wrong didn't really bother me because they were just the grammar rules questions; the kind that are technical and confusing to answer, but the actual usage of which just comes naturally to me.

My next module is "Editing and Proofreading", and then comes the transcription portion, and then... well, I suppose I should just take it a little at a time. :D

Driving, housekeeping, North & South, and probably a jumble of other semi-interesting things

2007-02-13T01:59:39Z

Today I drove Aunt Beth to town, as today was both of our shopping days this week and we decided to join forces. Meme and Joel went, too. It was fun! I did several things I have never done before, too.. I navigated Main Street, parked in between two other vehicles (until now I have avoided that, for fear of side-swiping), filled a prescription and made a deposit into our bank account, all by my little lonesome. I am getting such experience. Do you know what a good feeling it is to fill the larders for your family at home, make supper, and know that they're well taken care of? And I must say that one feels efficient, too, when the whole household of seven is running smoothly even though Mother is out-of-order. Somewhat self-congratulatory, I would say. ;)

Saturday night and last night Katie, Lisa and I watched the four episodes of North & South, the BBC production with Daniela Denby-Ashe and Richard Armitage. Oh, it was so good!

We skipped the violent scenes or those in which corpses made their appearance, so it was left quite enjoyable. Good acting. I loved John Thornton and Margaret Hale, and the occasional lovely scenes of Southern England. Oh, and I loved John Thornton's sister! She was too funny. :D

It looks like the projected date for my Mid-Term Exam is going to be February 20th. Wish me luck! I have really been looking forward to getting there, and it marks the end of the book-learning part of my course and the beginning of the actual transcription practice that will get me ready for a job.

I have been thinking lately of all the things I want to do and how wonderful it is that as a part-time Medical Transcriptionist, I can do them all if the opportunity arises. I intend to get part-time jobs -- as a librarian at one point, a waitress at another; work in a bookstore, write for the newspaper. And I can begin and end each job as I please without having to worry about income, because of being an MT. I'll have time for community work.

Most of all, I have been seriously thinking about how I'd love to teach someday, and how I could make that a reality. I've always wanted to teach, but public schools just don't cut it these days. Homeschooling is sweeping the country in greater and greater numbers. So, until I have a family of my own and a brood of adopted children to school, I think I might try to become a tutor of some sort. In English Literature, History & Geography, Social Civics. I would really enjoy that. I think that if homeschooling parents aren't required to have gone to college, I wouldn't be... I would do it as sort of an aid to homeschooling families, and run it just like a little school. *Gets dreamy*

Well there are other things to write about. But I don't think I'll write about them now. Instead, here is a survey that I copied from marissa_leigh.

Comment on this entry and I will:
1. Tell you why I friended you
2. Associate you with a song/movie
3. Tell a random fact about you
4. Tell a first memory about you
5. Associate you with an animal or fruit.
6. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you
7. In response, you must pass this on in your LJ.....

I'm beginning to worry....

2007-01-29T02:05:35Z

I've been doing the oddest things today. I do believe my mind is going. *whimpers* I haven't been sleeping properly. Nor have I been getting school done, for the past three or four days, which is worst of all.

But anyway, while driving to town today I missed the gas station altogether, had to turn around, and then when I pulled out I just happened to move right along in the -- er -- left lane. Oh, it was a passing zone, and not a car for miles, but still...!

In Wal-Mart I came to the end of the aisles and needed to get some vitamins from the place I always get them... and turned right instead of left. *facepalm* I've never done that before!

Next, (although there were other things; I can't remember them right now, surprise, surprise...) I was supposed to be getting Carrie her milk bottle tonight. I got out the teacup, a usual routine, so I could heat the milk, melt the honey into it, and transfer it into her favorite bottle. (She's a picky little thing! It must be just right.)

So I put the teacup in the microwave on 1 minute and waited. I was surprised to see a spark. I opened the door and realized I ought to put the milk in there -- the teacup was empty.

Finally, I made myself a cup of mint tea for my sore throat this evening. That went well -- except when I went to strain it. When you reach a certain level of tiredness I do believe that you just plunge ahead despite foggy inner voices that advise better methods. I used our flour sifter (that, however, is common because it is the only strainer we have,) and I commenced to pour the tea from one mug into another. The only problem was that the strainer was wider than the mug I used as a receptacle. I got most of the tea into it. But the counter got a good dose, too.

Is it funny? I don't know. Everyone here has a cold except Mommy, which is good, because she is already feeling so bad. I woke up today with one of my most hated ailments, a sore throat. You wouldn't think I'd have been able to manage to make a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup for supper, would you? I mean, from the previous record of today you'd think I'd have served the bowls in the soup, or accidentally put in the chicken bones and thrown the meat away...!

Anywho, I now need to straighten things up, wash the dishes, and hang up one small load of laundry. (Our livingroom and dining room act as our nocturnal clothes-hanging place during the winter). And then I can go to bed.

Oh, yes, wanted to make note of one thing. I finished To Kill a Mockingbird on -- was it Thursday night? And I loved it! It was an excellent novel, minus only the details during the court trial. Atticus Finch was a dear. Now I can't wait to watch the movie, and utilize the forward button in the aforementioned spot.

Aunt Eileen, David, and Joey were here for a week, and now they are in Pennsylvania, so things are beginning to get back on a schedule. I did enjoy having them here. When you already have 7 people in a trailer, what do 3 more matter?

Love Comes Softly...

2007-01-18T16:46:00Z

We watched that movie lastnight. I loved it! It was sooo sweet. I hardly ever watch modern movies, but this one has restored my faith. :) It would have to be one of my favorites now...

I've also been listening to Josh Groban's CD, "Awake", lately... it's pretty good! My favorite songs are "So She Dances", and "In Her Eyes", "February Song", and lots of the Italian ones of course. Some of the peices are rather strange, though...

You won't believe the "poem" Carrie made up this morning. She was pretending to read, mostly from memory,) one of our little board books with the rhymes about God, and she made up one entirely on her own. Keep in mind that she just turned 4 years old! She said:

In our hearts is light and day,
When God is with us, He's the Way.

We were all amazed, needless to say. She comes up with the darndest things... for instance, when she grows into a "strong woman" she is going to have "twelve children", because "she can handle it". :D

I have to run, these were just a few things circling around in my head I wanted to share... we're going to have a guest for the next 5 or 6 days so I have to get busy!

Odds and Ends

2007-01-12T18:40:39Z

Getting one's wisdom teeth hurts. I wish they would just cut through and be done, instead of hurting off and on over such a long span of time.

Don't ever, ever, read Gene Wilder's autobiography, Kiss Me Like a Stranger. Not because he was such an indecent fellow, which I don't think he was; that's why the book was so surprising. The book itself is awful. All manner of dirty subjects that he came across in his life, and leave you feeling pretty wierd. I finally got around to looking over it lastnight and had to skip page after page, 'til I finally reached the end and knew that this was a book that had to go back unread.

I am still keeping up with school. I am typing Cardiology reports now, in my Focus on Medical Specialties unit. So many abbreviations! ASCVD -- arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, and PMI -- point of maximal impulse, and get this one: PTCA -- percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. (Yes, I did that from memory... :D) There was one more like that: SMA - simultaneous multichannel autoanalyzer, although it can also mean simply the superior mesenteric artery. Ahhh, Medicalese.

iPods are mar-ve-lous. And I've been impressed with CD players all this time!! Mommy gave me an iPod and I have 120 songs on it and I love it. So portable! It's actually a cute little gadget. The brand is San-Disk.

We got snow lastnight. Other than that this has been a crazy winter for northern Maine so far.

I like Bob Hope after all. Still don't care for Bing Crosby.

It takes a great deal of work to run the house. A great deal. But then, I already knew that... And I can't close without putting in a word that Katie and Lisa are an amazing help. We have a schedule and more or less, we stick to it. Suppers have been on time, we all straighten up the house together a few times a day, the laundry gets done, etc. etc.
Hard work is good for people. :)

Quite the bit of news

2007-01-08T02:19:44Z

Well! And well, again! I haven't been around anywhere lately because I have been very busy. I have been very busy because Mommy hasn't been well and has had to stay in bed for the past three or four days. She hasn't been feeling well and has had to stay in bed because -- because -- she is apparently going to have another baby!!!

Yes, that's what I thought, too.

:D Gracious. And all of our plans -- and my school -- well, I am still determined to do my school. Perhaps I'll be a week or so late, may be even a month, in graduating. But even if I must stay up late studying into the wee hours of the night after the children are in bed and the house taken care of to learn medical reports, I must do it.

Just the night or so before Mommy began not feeling well I had had a dream that she had a baby girl! And I was wishing to hold a newborn baby again. Funny how some things are just like premonitions.

Anywho, if Mommy does carry the baby and nothing goes wrong (she is feeling not quite right at the moment, beyond just morning sickness,) it means I will be the lady of the house (again) for three months. I can still do it... the past few days I've been cleaning, cooking, baking, etc. and feeling on the go from morning until night. Today I put together the shopping list and then did the shopping with Daddy.

This is the best day I've driven, yet... the sun wasn't glaring, but the sky wasn't overcast, either... and no precipitation, no ice, snow, water, or anything on the roads. It was beautiful, actually. Who has ever heard of 50 degree weather in northern Maine in January!? But so it has been, or close to it, for the past several days. I love it. Because I love spring, and this reminds me of it. The almanac was right when it called for another mild winter this year. This is beyond mild!

Before I go to bed, just a few tid-bits of trivia; I am reading The Little Prince on-line... it does remind me of James Dean. And it is fascinating, although very child-like. Also, since Vicky broke my guitar by standing on its neck and it appears irreparable, I am just for fun looking at replacements (won't be able to afford one anytime soon!) I want to get a small guitar... you know, like the old Spanish ones. Not too small. But not too big, either! I've found that 3/4 size models would be just what I'd like... about 35" long. People make those. And they look so pretty, and so cute! They even make half size.

I may not be posting much in the weeks to come. There is so much that comes upon one when she is the oldest girl in the family and the mother is smitten by morning sickness. I imagine it is much like being the Vice President.

Our front yard=ice skating rink... and other randomness...

2007-01-04T02:06:55Z

I just slipped and slid back from Aunt Beth's trailer and watching Lisa and Alicia's play. They did well! It was "The Court Jester II" -- from the Danny Kaye movie. :) And they learned the songs and had seven scenes, and a real curtain.

But as I was saying, it's gotten quite ridiculous out there... a day of ice precipitation, and then a touch of warmth to melt the top of the layer of snow, followed by freezing temperatures has left everything glazed smooth and glossy. And slippery. I was actually helping Carrie skate around outside yesterday in ice skates!

So, although we have the beaver pond frozen over just a short walk away, who needs it? Walk out the front door -- but be careful!!

Also -- (and yes, this is a random post,) -- it's the funniest thing. All my favorite actors/old celebrities were five foot something. I found out from looking it up today. In fact, I have a nice order: John Denver was 5'10", and Charles Boyer was 5'9"; James Dean was 5'8", and Perry Como was -!- only 5'6"! I always knew I liked the more average-height and not the six-footers. But this is funny. The only exceptions are Jerome Courtland and David Niven, who were tall.

I was reading this fascinating bit on Charles Boyer today. I like the title: Portrait, With a French Accent. ^_^

Also, these are the two links I've been looking at today in my search for some really good reading. What do you all think?

The Modern Library: 100 Best Novels
Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Novels

So far on my list I'm going to get To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, and The Chronicles of Narnia. I believe I'll also be looking into Sinclair Lewis... one of Charles Boyer's favorite authors. And in case anyone is interested, James Dean's favorite story -- one of those childlike tales that actually has a deeper, philosophical meaning -- was The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I'm so excited. I've reached "Focus on Medical Specialities" in my MT course and am finally getting exposed to actual medical reports. I'm finding it fun. Yes, actually fun; to figure out what it all means and know what it's talking about.

A brand new 2007

2007-01-01T23:05:21Z

I wrote this in my blue notebook yesterday morning:

I feel spring in my heart this morning. The sky outside is very, very blue and it's a lovely day to go to town; there is snow on the ground and I'm sure it's cold; but I feel like spring...And in this notebook I'm going to record my goals for the year to come -- the aims for myself and my life. I thank God for this beautiful day. I thank Him that the ability is in our hands at any old time, to decide on a new beginning. A fresh start.

Funny that the words 'new beginning' and 'fresh start' are so old and used! I'll have to think of something else, like 'a dawn of life'. :)

Here then, is my list: (Not in order of importance, but they're all important):

Discover. Read more. Find out what books have made an impression and read them to find out why. Expand in the world of music.

Live. Keep in prayer and give each day to God, because He is there. Stick to a schedule. Embrace health and happiness. Make others' lives a part of mine, and learn to work and play like never before.

Create. It is a part of mankind throughout the ages - a gift from God - to see, to express, to laude beauty. It is the meaning of every form of art and even of living itself. I want to write more this year; sing; in what is seen and what is unseen, to make beauty reign in every aspect of my life.

And specific accomplishments I want to fulfil are:

To graduate CS with high honors
To find the best job I can and do well in it
To get my driver's license
To make that quilt
To become a best friend to my sisters, and others beside.
To become a part of my community (Visit a town counsel meeting, go to a benefit dinner)
To make at least one trip (May be to visit some pen-friends!)
To be continued... :)

I am happy; I am blessed. I want to seek God and I want to truly find Wisdom in the year to come. My pretty new calendar goes on the wall tomorrow morning; and things just feel like spring; fond old times and memories come flooding back; moods, and magic moments, and carefree-ness. Places I've been and the way I've felt, so clearly. And they all spell 'happiness'.

I think one more resolution for the year to come is just that -- to keep spring in my heart and to begin now with staying youthful all my lifetime long.

Just a tad sappier than I had thought, perhaps? :D I wrote that early in the morning when I woke up.

I hope all of you are having a marvelous first day of 2007. I walked Lisa and Carrie to the beaver pond to ice skate this afternoon, and though it was gray, it wasn't terribly cold. Anna came, too, with their little ones; I enjoyed it. The beaver pond is always picturesque.

As the year draws to a close...

2006-12-30T22:56:41Z

Sometime tomorrow or the next day I am going to write down my goals for 2007. For now, I wanted to make note of how odd it is what a contradictory sort of personality everyone has. People can take personality quizes for fun; they have dominant traits and often describe themselves as this or that over-all. But actually, people often have opposites mixed together in themselves.

For instance, I never would have classified myself as strong-willed. It's just something I never noticed in association with myself; because when someone is insistent, I am the one to give way. It's been a joke in the family that everyone can always talk me down; I've just never been one to strongly say "no", and stick with it, unless backing down would be accepting something I know is wrong. I have never been able to push my way against others'; my friends are all better at that than I am. (Which is why I've always been found at a baseball game when I'd rather be home finishing that project; or joining a club, when lobbied, although I'd rather be meeting those deadlines.) Contradictorily, I've always loved a debate.

But anywho, I realized just lastnight that actually I have a well of determination in myself that comes out strongly at times. I recognize now that is has always been there, since my childhood. Is determination the same thing as stubborness? I don't know -- I think "stubborn" is more associated with unreasonable than "determination" is. But yes, I am determined; not in the face of impossibility, but when something is important to me. If someone tells me something can't be done, I don't feel the need to go do it so that I can prove them wrong, nor prove myself.

But when, as I said, there is something important to me; something I value and uphold greatly; something I want more than anything and that I know I can make happen: then every negative comment I recieve seems only to feed my will to succeed. To do whatever work it takes to reach my goals; if they are good; if they are true.

Sometimes my first reaction to negativity or being patronized is to feel discouraged, or to feel frustrated. But it was a revelation the other night to see that those feelings of mine never fail to change to determination. And it never takes long for that to happen. I am glad for that.

As I will be busy tomorrow, and going to town, I filled out the End-of-2006 survey yesterday, and am, obviously, posting it now. Since I still, pitifully, can't seem to make an LJ cut, I have it here. :)

James Dean!

2006-12-28T21:59:39Z

I just found these LJ userpics at tangerineicons, but I ask you, when could I ever use them? :)

Beauty

2006-12-28T21:38:45Z

It's nearly time to be writing down my goals for 2007. I was just taking a walk, before it got too dark. The sky was pink and blue; the ground was white with its thin layer of dry, powder snow. On one hand the flame-red sun was sinking behind the horizon of birches and pines; on the other hand, further up, a nearly-half moon was glowing softly. I was walking on Sunflower Drive. I love Sunflower Drive. I loved it when I first saw it three years ago, with its bends and curves and its country quiet.

I have more notebooks than just my composition notebook. Anyone who knows me knows that I have several of them; some of them full, some of them waiting to be filled. This is an entry from my blue one:

December 23rd -- So many strange and unexplainable things. It makes you think. And there are so many possibilities. One minute it makes me feel as though I wonder if my life has much purpose after all, and how it all works together. The next I feel calm and at rest, wondering at the magnanimity of it all and alive with all there is to learn and all that can happen in one's life.

I am optimistic right now. Life -- the universe -- is nothing short of a wonder. I want to know.

But more than anything, I want to fill with goodness and beauty the life I have, and exude it into the world wherever I find myself. To be in touch and in tune with God. And at peace in myself.

I was thinking along these lines while I was walking. And I was thinking of this John Denver video. And my friends. :)