South Carolina 3

I could not sleep this morning AT ALL, so I got ready super early and read about half of my new book: When Dreams Come True (Ludy). Left with my friends Shay and Cheyenne, and caught up with how they've been as we drove to their church. Cheyenne and I spent about an hour and a half or so organizing several boxes of books for their church's new library. We then went to lunch at good ol' McD's. I had a wonderful time with my wonderful friend. She is really such a blessing to me, and I hope we can stay close even when we start getting busy with college. ;)

This afternoon I played with the kids. :) Did "Treasure Hunt" on their backs and read them Henny Penny till I started tripping over my words and making them laugh. :P Then I napped and started a new book. ;P

Tonight Dad and I did our traditional Bald Rock outing. Dad found this little huddle of buildings on the side of the road and said, "Let's stop and get dinner." I told him it looked like a good place to get shot. :P (I have little faith in run-down-looking buildings on the side of Pickens roads. I'm sorry, but it's the way it is. :P) We pulled in anyway and ate. I am SO GLAD we went. It was one of the best cheeseburgers I've ever had, and definitely the best potato chips I've ever had. Afterwords, being a typical girl, I asked the lady if they had restrooms. She hesitated, then said, "We DO, um, just go through that door and follow the walk path." I'm like, "Uhhh...okay!" Found the door and path while muttering "Seriously??" under my breath. The building was labeled "OUTHOUSE." And get this. I locked myself in the outhouse. You do not know panic until you can't get out of an outhouse that has no A/C and no running water in the faucet and no lights. Ugh. Finally got out, but man was I scared. :P It WOULD happen to me.

Finally made it to Bald Rock. It was gorgeous as usual. Here are some pics:

The view.

The view + Rachael.

Table Rock in the background. (And that smudge to the left of the pic was two big blobs of people that I not-so-gracefully removed. :P)

Me and my daddy. :) <3

So, happy last day. So thankful we got to do this trip. It was definitely fun. :) Tomorrow we're doing another Jockey Lot, visiting two good friends, and then starting the long drive back home. Bye y'all!

P.S.- Forgot to update you on the fishing activity. I was a good girl and touched worms. I got slobbered on by a dog. I got pond muck in-between each of my toes. And you know what? It felt good. Didn't smell good, but it felt good. I sorta miss that part of me. :P Bye for real now. (Get it? :D)

South Carolina 2

Not sure why I'm blogging now when tonight should prove exceedingly interesting. (We are "ALL" going fishing. :P) I am very excited though because today was our big Greenville excursion.

We first stopped at Educator's Marketplace where I got a piano book, as well as a few other essential literature items. ;) Saw the Hendricksons who are friends from our old church. They are now teachers in Korea, so it was a blessing (and surprise!) that we happened upon them today as they were visiting the states.

Second stop: BJU bookstore. Got another piano book - a collection of duets by Dan Forrest. Can't wait to try them with somebody. Any volunteers?? ;P I also got some other Christian books that I can't wait to read.

Now my favorite part. Mom and I went to a store in the middle of nowhere called Children's Books. I asked a worker if she knew if they carried anything by Leslie Ludy. She walked through the entire store (hundreds of thousands of books), up to a small table, thumped a small stack of books, and said, "This is the only one I have by that author." Couldn't believe how well she knew the store!!! :P Anyway, it was a book I really, really wanted, and it was clearanced! YAY! Also got two Lamplighters and other books that I am just dying to start delving into. :)

So, excellent book day. You guys know how much my library needs to grow. I mean, I barely have anything to read as it is.

I shall let you know how the "fishing excursion" goes. I may not be able to type after being bitten by insects a thousand and one times or hooking my finger instead of a worm, but I will do my best. :P ttul8r

South Carolina

So, this has to be THE most travelingest year I've had so far. :P I am once again away from home - in the gorgeous land of South Carolina. It was amusing to survive a 12-hr drive with only myself and my parents. We were all insanely tired (I had gotten up at 5:30), and we therefore laughed like utter goofballs throughout the drive.

It is always nice to be here, but always a little sad too. I remember so many fun times with fun people and I wish I could zoom back in time and enjoy everything once again, just how it was. Anyway, today we all went to the Pickens Jockey Lot where I found everything from blades for my razor to a rare book by Beatrix Potter. (Told you I was random. :P) Mom and I are the worst at talking people down on anything. :P So I went a different route. I needed the razor blades. I wasn't going home without the razor blades. But I was NOT going to pay $10 for the razor blades. And I said so. :P The lady was like, "WHY?!" I said, "Because they're just a few dollars more at a regular store!" She then went down $2 or so at which time I promptly agreed to buy them. :)

We stayed there till lunchtime. We ate at a little diner type thingy. I sat with the kids. Kids and ketchup. I got ketchup all over my hands, on my foot, on my skirt, and on about 1,000 napkins. Abigail and Hannah (the Marsceaus' girls) got a huge patch of ketchup on both their skirts. It was just a ketchup disaster day. :P

After lunch, Mom, Meredith, Amanda, and I went to two thrift stores. I found a few neat books and a blouse that I am VERY, VERY excited about. Can't wait to wear it. :)

And now we leave soon to go to our old church for their Wednesday night service. More memories. Green and orange decorated auditorium, bathrooms so small you can barely turn around in them, and wonderful hymnals with all the good old songs in them.

Parting note: I think it wouldn't take much for me to be convinced to come down to BJU so long as I could see Bald Rock as well as the beautiful Marsceau children every week or so. :) It's nice down here. I'd have to embrace my rusty "country side" but it wouldn't take long for the Southern accent to influence my speech, I assure you. I smile everytime I hear "ain't" and "y'all." :) Okay okay. I'm done typing. Really. You shouldn't have even spent your time reading this. Bye. :P

P.S.- RB, I don't have a camera so pics are out. :(

For lack of something better to post...

Found this picture on the family computer this morning, and it literally made me LOL. :P We are SO. WEIRD.

(Taken in an elevator during our AL vacation this year.)

Our Prayer

O to be like Thee! blessed Redeemer;
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I'll forfeit all of earth's treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

O to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wand'ring sinners to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer, others to save.

O to be like Thee! Lord, I am coming,
Now to receive th' anointing divine;
All that I am and have I am bringing;
Lord, from this moment all shall be Thine.

O to be like Thee! While I am pleading
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love.
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit for a life which Thou wouldst approve.

O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee!
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

~ Thomas Obediah Chisholm

Too Lovely For Words

I know. I've been blogging way too much. I'm already annoying myself. :P BUT. I felt I had to share these gorgeous paintings I came across by the artist Leonid Afremov. I just love them. :)

Had to do it...

My dad beats Greg Brady ANY day of the week. ;)

The Goodness of God

For those of you who follow me on Google Buzz, this is probably not a new image. I am blogging it because it reminded me of how incredibly blessed I am, and how good God is. I wanted to share some answers to prayer that I've seen in the past month. These were not vast requests, but sometimes the smaller, more personal answers to prayer make us that much more thankful for the ever-personal God that cares to meet our little needs or wants.

1. He helped me pass my driver's license test. ;) I was pretty nervous about this, and even thought praying for a nice test person was too goofy a thing to pray for. Well, not only did God allow it to be a woman (YAY!), He had her be the nicest lady there. I was MUCH more calm due to that and was told I passed the test! :)

2. He gave me the energy and courage to do this whole week of Suzuki training. This was not only an answer to my prayers but also to those of my friends and family that were praying for me while I was gone. (Thank you to those of you who did!!!) I truly did benefit from going and am thankful I had the opportunity to gain experience in the areas available.

3. He gave me my second violin student. (This was something I hadn't even prayed specifically about!) It was really an encouragement for that to happen right after the Suzuki thing. Right away He gave me an opportunity to put into use some of the things I learned! :)

4. He had my placement exam thing with the piano professor at COD go completely smoothly. I was SUPER nervous about this as I hadn't even played a piano in over a week, and now I had to prepare stuff to show this guy who would then evaluate if I could waive a class or not. AAAAHH! :) I was praying HARD, and so was my family. Lo and behold the guy is a VERY sweet man, was very kind to me, and might in fact be a Christian. I came away literally awestruck at how God answered above and beyond what I prayed for.

So, here is what has been on my mind lately, and I wanted to somewhat publicly share it so as to emphasize it more. God is SO good, and He loves us and wants to answer our prayers, however big or small they may be.

Now, what are some of YOUR recent blessings? :) I'd love to hear about them!

Random Pic

Just a random picture that made me laugh. I wish it were Christmas. :)

The Suzuki Chronicles: Day 8

It is ALL. OVER. :) During our final two hours of class, we played through all the Book 1 songs and then learned yet more practice/exercise ideas for the final pieces. We all had to draw a song out of a pile of paper slips, and I got the ONLY one I didn't want: "Gavotte." WAAAH! :) I did manage to forget if I repeated or not, but whatever. I didn't die. ;) (It did kinda hurt though when Joel gave me a thumbs up afterwards. I was like, "Thanks, but don't bother." :P)

And then I had my consultation. My very SHORT consultation with Mrs. George. I really had no questions for her except for ideas of how to get my name out or how exactly to schedule lessons for very young kids. I made sure to thank her for all the hours of preparation and planning I'm sure it took to teach all of this week. Must've been draining. :)

So now I'm home and all is complete. I do still have to send in my audition recordings, but I'm not really worried about that. I've got a certificate and I got tons of tips for teaching which is what I wanted out of the course, so I'm content. Kinda sad I have nothing to blog about now. (You guys are happy, right? ;P) We'll see if I find something to put up sometime. ttul8r :)

The Suzuki Chronicles: Day 7

This has been the shortest Suzuki day so far. Class started at 9 this morning. (Got up a bit after 6. I seriously looked so rough. :P) We were in a different room today: more like a choir rehearsal room. Mrs. George wanted a room with a piano so she could accompany when necessary. The first hour and a half was spent going through more Book 1 literature and discussing practice sections, helpful exercises, etc. The next half of the session began with each of us playing a solo piece from Book 1 for everyone else to watch and comment on. (I was #2, as I wanted to get mine over with. :D) I played "May Song" three times: the first to start with, the second one so everyone could hear my excellent open strings (???), and the third to use the 4th finger as opposed to open E. No bad comments, so yay. We then worked through more literature.

Awful lunch monopoly today. The cafe that is usually open all week was closed, so I had to pay the $9 for lunch today. *GAG* I cannot STAND paying lots of money for food, so this was hard to surrender to. :P (I really had no other lunch option besides vending machine-type stuff.) Food was good though, as usual, and I talked with a lady in my class that has kind of been avoided and ignored a bit. I feel kinda bad for her, so I was happy that she could talk and somebody would listen. :) I didn't have a lunch buddy anyway, so it worked out.

The last hour of class was super fun. Mrs. George went through lots of game ideas/exercises for a group class setting. Lots of mind-twister things. :P I love watching Victoria during this stuff. She has a very fun-loving personality. :)

And now I am home, soon to start my laundry project. (I honestly am so happy to get back to laundry! It's my stabilizing "comfort chore," not to mention it needs to get done. :P) I will blog what little I will have to blog tomorrow. I am thanking God for helping me survive all of this. I seriously was so stressed out about it and He gave me the courage to just do what needed to be done and not wimp on anything. ;) Answers to prayer are powerful.

The Suzuki Chronicles: Day 6

Only two more days to go! This morning I once again watched the group class that I didn't like yesterday. It was WAY better today, I must say. The teacher did find some good exercises to keep the little players occupied. She was quite funny at times, too. :)

Went to class and got my very last observation sheet returned to me, so all that is completely finished. :) Discussed the previous group class and whatnot, played a little, and then went to lunch. Once again, the food was fantastic, so I enjoyed getting full. :P After lunch I had a HUGE break, so I went back to the dorms, emailed, did my usual blog stalking, listened to music, packed up some stuff, and took a nap.

Had the usual 3 hours of class time this afternoon. Before everything started, I had all my classmates and teacher sign my Suzuki t-shirt with various colored Sharpie pens. Made for a very colorful and fun souvenir thing. :) Victoria put a message in Spanish, and a girl named Sook Young put her name in Korean. Kinda neat. :) This class session was FULL of heavy-duty teaching materials for the first few Book 1 songs. We learned songs and practice sections and bowing exercises and the like. Very helpful, but a tad hard on the brain. ;) (We easily discover who's the most tired when we have to do coordination stuff.) Had to be Joel's partner again today. So funny when we each get turns at being the other person's left hand. We make each other sound AWFUL!!!! :P (It's hard when we're both the tallest too.)

After class, I went to see what dinner was. Skipped it, besides the pound cake and raspberries. ;) (It was fish and some sort of spicy Mexican rice......yeah.) Went to my room and packed up everything and then Mom came and we LEFT. I am now HOME and in MY OWN BED as I type this. So happy to be back in my comfy room. And tomorrow and Sunday are totally light days schedule-wise, so I am good to go. I am getting excited. :)

The Suzuki Chronicles: Day 5

Today was a day of changing plans last-minute. Instead of observing a Mrs. Montzka, I went to Mr. Yamada's class again. Glad I did. I've decided I totally like him as a person, regardless of a few really bizarre things he's taught the students. He has a lot of fun and is joyful. Gotta love that. :)

The pre-twinkle class was, as usual, very fun to observe. All four of the children are simply adorable. Elizabeth continued to dance to her rhythms, and it was excellent how Mrs. George channeled that into a profitable excercise: walking around the room singing "Twinkle Twinkle." :)

I was kind of talkative in the hour of class we had after that. I have been commenting a lot more than I thought I would. (This doesn't fit my normal personality...) I like to share what I find very interesting in the observations though, and see if anybody noticed the same thing(s).

At 11:30 I observed a small Book 1 group class with one of my classmates. This was an extremely enjoyable class to watch. The teacher had the greatest ideas for musicality mixed with fun. She told the story of Cinderella and occasionally would stop and play a bit of a Book 4 piece that matched what was going on in the story. (My favorite part was her modern terminology: "Cinderella was really bummed out" and "She got this message on her iPhone.") :D Victoria and I were totally cracking up.

I loved lunch. Mostaccioli, chicken nuggets, steamed mixed veggies (MY FAVE!!!!!!), and the usual fruit. (And for those of you who treasure dessert above all other, the dessert was pumpkin bars. :P) I had to eat fast because my roommate Carrie forgot her key in our dorm room and needed me to take her and her friend over there and let them in. :P Where would they be without me. I mean, seriously. jk ;)

And then we had 2 hours of class, followed by my very last observation - #15!! I had heard much negative feedback about this class from my roommate who has gone twice in a row now. I was very interested to see what's so bad about it. It was BAD. Like, within the first 5 minutes I knew I wouldn't like it. The instructor showed up 5 minutes late, had very little direction during the lesson, couldn't control the students, etc. Victoria and I got out of there like MAJOR fail. Hard filling out an observation form when there are only negative comments to make, pretty much. :P We'll see how Mrs. George comments on that tomorrow.

I had a bit of a break after dinner before going to a recital. This recital was over 2 hours long, was totally a solo recital, and every single piece was like a full movement of a (boring) Classical piece. The guy even said at the beginning that we shouldn't leave until the entire thing was over. I had NO idea it would be that long, or I probably would've stayed here. Oh well. Got to see how several students perform.

And now I am so happy to say bye to my last day before going home and commuting from there on. :) I miss my family. Like, LOTS. I also miss the ability to get up in the morning, look in the mirror, and loudly say "OH MAN YOU'RE ROUGH-LOOKIN'" without waking anyone up. :P Talk to y'all tomorrow.

The Suzuki Chronicles: Day 4

Well folks, my left eyelid has not stopped twitching for 4 days. You know what that means. Yep. Exhaustion. All of us all day were saying Wednesday is the lowest point in the week. Everybody's tired, everybody's making writing errors, everybody can't think of stuff or say things correctly. Ah me. At least the teacher said, "Hey guys, this is exhausting work. Just having to sit for so long is tiring." :)

Started the day by observing a Book 1 lesson taught by Mr. Yamada, a Chinese guy. (Toyota, Yamada, yeah.) Beginning of the lesson was kind of boring, but near the end he was SUCH FUN! Really being a fun guy and involving even those of us who were simply observing. Very little reception in that room though. Awful for texting. :p

Then I observed the usual pre-twinkle class taught by Mrs. George. Excellent progress was seen in all four students, so that was great. One really bad thing but funny thing happened during that. Twin boys were waiting for their lessons. Both were wearing their name tags. One of them pulled the brother's tag WAY down, and....(you know it's coming)...let go, TOTALLY snapping the tag into the poor guy's eye!!! Mother and child immediately exited the room. :P We tried so hard to keep from laughing. I mean, it was just so pathetic. :P

Then we had an hour of class, with the usual turning in and receiving of observation sheets (no bad notes on mine!), and discussion of the previous lesson.

Final observation of the day: another Book lesson for 4 taught by Ann Smelser. Also noticed progress since yesterday. Took better notes this time. ;)

MAD DASH TO THE WAYBRIGHT CENTER FOR MY SACK LUNCH! I had like 5 minutes to get into the SAA meeting or whatever it was. I was mostly in my own little world for that. Definitely did not enjoy it, besides eating my lunch. Lots of typical proud Suzuki comments that turned me off once again. Met a new guy though. A cellist who teaches and takes these courses along with his wife.

And then I had a break. Nice break. Checked emails, brushed my hair, put on fresh deodorant (TMI?), and looked over my papers once again. And then went to my last class session of the day.

Lots of playing involved today. Playing with the CD and stuff. Lots of partners work. Partners work gets so awkward sometimes. :P Especially holding hands stuff. We had lots of laughs though. ;) Dinner afterwards was kind of random: nachos, an obscure chicken dish, rice, and pound cake with raspberries. Yummy and filling, so yay.

And now I have the entire evening "off." Might watch a movie or something. Wish I could go to church. :( Tomorrow is my last crammed full day. Should be good.

Quote of the day: "I feel like a wreck." ~ a young Suzuki student named Camille :)

The Suzuki Chronicles: Day 3

Aaah. Much more relaxing morning this morning. I slept well, except for a monstrous leg cramp in the night. Solved that by drinking a glass and a half of chocolate milk today at meals. :P Breakfast was very yummy: tater tots, bacon, and mandarin oranges. Sat with my roommate Carrie. We usually eat our meals together.

Right after breakfast I shot right back to my dorms as I was to observe a parent lecture in the dorms lounge. It was led by a Scottish lady from Peru (???), a FUN guy who looks like a duck, and a Chinese girl who said she was the world's worst practicer. (Um, nope. I am.) Anyway, I took lots of notes mainly because I had to, but a few things stuck out to me, such as the importance of raising children in a musical environment. For as long as I can remember, I've been hearing music. Good music. And now look at us. All of us playing or singing something. :P Listening to stuff. Also, Mr. Holmes (the duck guy) gave a deep thought: "Even if our children never go into music professionally, music is a great thing to have had them do." And it's true. I know in my own life. Even if I never ended up using music very much, the character that I've had to learn through various performances or practices is something that should always be cultivated and remembered.

After the lecture, I walked across the street to observe a pre-twinkle lesson taught by my teacher to four students. (I will be observing these four the entire week to notice progress.) All of them are adorable. Two are twin boys, one is a TINY girl named Demi who loves her foot chart, and the last is Elizabeth, a girl who dances to Goody Goody Gumdrop and who loves to control her mother. :P It was interesting to notice progress in all four since yesterday.

I stayed in that room for an hour of class. During this time, we were returned our 4 observation sheets and we turned in some more. Several of the class also gave their presentations.

More walking to yet another observation - the last one before lunch! (And believe me, that's what was on my mind for those 50 minutes!! :P) Watched another 4 students be taught by a different teacher, this time Ann Smelser. She's the typical Suzuki-looking person: perfect white teeth, perfect dress/jewelry combination, perfect little brown/red curled under hair, hip glasses, etc. etc. etc. Brought back memories of my Miss Betsy...*sniff sniff* Okay I'm over it. Anyway, she used a lot more "fluff" in her teaching than Mrs. George did. Interesting to take notes on a different teaching style.

LUNCH AND BATHROOM TIME! YAY! GLORIOUSNESS! I AM HAPPY ONCE AGAIN BECAUSE THERE IS FOOD IN THE WORLD AND IN MY TUMMY! That's really how I felt inside, although I was way too tired to express it outwardly. (Good thing, huh? :P) Lunch was grilled ham and cheese, taco casserole, fries, and choc. chip cookies. :P Random meal, but it was good and full of protein, so I didn't complain.

Right after lunch I went to a recital of numerous students who had been chosen from auditions to perform. Two really, really stuck out to me. One was a pianist who played the NEATEST piece ever. I have to look it up sometime and try to learn it. "Toccata" or something. Then a violist guy played a Bach piece a capella, and it was SO nice. I just sat there soaking it up. It was delicious almost, like Pepsi on a hot sweaty day. (Poetic? Maybe?) So yeah. Took lots of notes again.

The penultimate event of the day was the required, every-day-of-the-week 3-hour class session with our teacher. During this time, we played a little, but most of it was doing the various actions while singing Twinkle along with the CD playing. Some of it was awkward, like shaking hands with a partner, or getting dots drawn on your fingers by, ahem, Joel who is always on my right. We WOULD be the only two without partners on that one. Anyway, I'm moving right along with observations. I should be done on Thursday. We'll see.

Last, but certainly not least, I went to a concert tonight at 7 o'clock. The Corigliano Quartet played three pieces for us. My favorite was the two movements of Beethoven's "The Harp" quartet. (Rhapsody Strings? Someday...) The quartet is comprised of two sisters and a couple. After the concert I got all four to sign my program. Just for fun, you know. :) Elisa, the first violinist, zipped my pen into her case. MY PEN WAS IN HER CASE FOR ALMOST 2 MINUTES!! :P It's the little things in life... Anyway, that's how my day was.

And now I'm in my room listening to the other two roommates talk and talk and I can't shut our door cause it'd be so obviously rude, so I just sit. And wonder where Carrie is. And eat my Salerno butter cookies. And think about sleep. Sorry this is so disgustingly long. This is what all-day offline-ness does to you. Fill you in tomorrow. :P

Battle of the Blog

JUST SO YOU KNOW, I am having computer issues today and it won't let me change my blog's background. So ignore the little "luv u" on the side and whatnot, and rest assured that I am trying to get it to change. :P

Thank you.

~ Blog Manager

The Suzuki Chronicles: Day 2

Well, I woke up at 5 this morning on accident and couldn't fall back asleep. It ended up being sort of a blessing because I was able to write my essay and do my devotions and walk around a bit before starting the day officially.

First I watched a beginner orchestra rehearsal. Fun to observe the teacher be so patient. Also fun to observe Joel (the guy I know) constantly read my notes. :P So funny. I write, put down my pen, he tries to read it, then scribbles on his paper. :) Then I observed my teacher, Michele George, instruct several students on their various pieces. Then normal class time where we practiced playing the Twinkle Variations with one person doing the left hand and another doing the right. Suddenly your coordination flies out the window!! :P In my class time, I also turned in all of my homework (YAY!) and gave my presentation. Went well, I think, and thankfully I didn't panic, and now it's over with, so yay again.

Tonight once my classes were all completed, my family came, picked me up, and we headed over to Six Flags for their whole 4th of July extravaganza. Mike and I went on our favorite rides (Viper and Raging Bull), Charlotte and I went on Big Easy Balloons, and all 3 of us kids went on Batman: The Dark Knight. Yep! Char finally got brave enough to try it! :) I just love going on the coasters. As we finished riding everything, it was just about time for the fireworks show to start, so we found a spot and sat down. One firework went off. Several seconds later another one. It continued until we started questioning how great this really would be..... Suddenly the Glow in the Park parade began. I cannot even explain how interesting that was. Maybe it's on YouTube somewhere. VERY neat!!!! Right as we were all screaming and clapping for the Batman float, enormous blasts of sound and color appeared behind us. BIG TIME FIREWORKS!!!!!! *screaming, cheering, the whole works* The show was fabulous. Absolutely fantastic. Probably the best grand finale I've ever seen. So, I had a WONDERFUL 4th of July evening with my wonderful family.

So thankful for the highly profitable, although somewhat exhausting day. Tomorrow the schedule just gets busier, but I've found that I am way bolder with people I don't know than with people I do, so I'm not being as timid this time. :)

Again, I will hopefully update this tomorrow after the long day's done. :) Thanks for praying if any of you did. God was very good to me today. :)

The Suzuki Chronicles: Day 1

Many of you know that from today through next Sunday I will be doing this Suzuki teacher training here in Deerfield. I thought to keep myself light-hearted about this whole thing, I'd blog about each day's experiences.

So. The dorms are clean and fine. I hate how the toilet is separated from the shower. (Should've seen my face when I discovered that, eh Mom? :P) I successfully put the sheets on my bed and the pillow in the pillowcase. As soon as I had a spare minute I connected to the wi-fi. ;)

Today after registering, we all had a short orientation meeting that accomplished nothing save confusing everyone. :) I was not given my lunch ticket like I was supposed to so guess what? I didn't eat. I sat with my sweet roommate, Carrie, and another girl who came all the way from Malaysia. Yeah. These people are devoted. Then we all had 3 hours of class time. I only knew one person coming here, and he was in my class, so that was sort of a blessing. He's the only guy doing Suzuki book 1, and already it seems this girl from Uruguay has a crush on him. (*rolls eyes*) The class time was pretty good. I took lots of notes, and we got to play a bit. But my teacher gives LOTS of homework! I'll have to seriously put my writing abilities to use tonight - I have about 4 things to prepare. Please pray that I present my stuff with confidence and clarity. ;)

So, all in all, I have not died yet. YET. I've already got a head start on my 15 required observation hours, as well as my writing projects. I have two friends: Carrie (my roommate), and then a young mother of 3 that I met in class. We started talking because she asked if I came from a homeschool background. She is actually an ex-ATI person so I am very interested to talk with her more about all of that. I am thankful God has already given me opportunities to lovingly share my beliefs with people. My goal this week, above anything I could get out of this training, is to love people and somehow be a loving representation of God's truth.

This post has convinced me I'm the blogging type. :P Sorry it's so long. I feel like talking to SOMEBODY. Wish I could've gone to church tonight. (Miss you guys already!) I shall fill you in about tomorrow tomorrow. :P

P.S. - Some quotes of the day:

"I want a little more structure in my head." ~ Victoria, the Uruguay girl :P

"Only Suzuki taught the Suzuki Method." ~ a well-known saying amongst Suzuki teachers. I wrote this down because it's so true. ALL teachers have ALL different ways of teaching. Three cheers for diversity! :P

God's Plan {poem}

I wrote this poem last Christmas and never shared it with anybody...until this morning, when I let my mom read it. Hopefully it's a blessing to you! :)

He put me in a place of pain

That I would seek His face.

He held for me the greatest gain

That I would run the race.

He brought me through the valley low

That I'd my faith renew.

He knew in time He would bestow

His strength so strong and true.

He took from me all outer peace

That I would trust Him more.

He knew His love could never cease --

His grace, th'eternal store.

He gave me struggles that I'd grow.

Praise God for His wise plan!

He knew eternity would show

The depths his mercies span.