Week of Patriotism

Personally, I think it's sort of hilarious that Canada Day and Independence Day are just three days apart. It makes for a very fun week in this mixed Canadian/American home. We went hiking in Waterton for Canada Day, just like last year, but I didn't take any pictures this time. I was a little busy hiking. And avoiding the dirt Sam was making fireworks with. (Note to all young boys: Dirt is NOT good for fireworks. Just wait until your water bottle is covered in dirt. Or, actually, don't. Just trust me and don't try it.)

I did take pictures at the parade in Raymond, though. Josh got a call the night before and ended up riding his dirt bike for said parade, so we went to watch him. In the rain. But, honestly, rain is better than sun if you're going to be sitting on the side of the street for an hour. 

And then today, for Independence Day, I made cupcakes. It was mostly to make up for July 1st, when I made cupcakes but never got around to icing them because we didn't get back from Waterton until way past my bedtime. I was a little worried about how the icing would turn out because it was a new recipe, but it turned out. A little soft, yes, but silky and beautiful. 

Anyway, the puppies are getting bigger and bigger. They eat up enough of my time that I've started thinking about how puppies are an excellent preparation for babies. Feed them, take them outside to pee, don't let the owls carry them off, keep an eye on them while they're sleeping... It's a lot of work. I will post pictures soon. Hopefully.

Birthdays-- AND PUPPIES!

It seems that I always end up posting on here for Sam's birthday. That was last week and he was a real champ about it. You know that little kid attitude of 'today is my birthday so everybody should be my personal slave'? Well, this year, he finally dropped it. He went around sowing peace and expressing gratitude. I'm so proud of my baby brother.

The Boy...

...and the cake.
I was pressed for time and so it didn't turn out quite nearly as well as it should have, but he loved it anyway.

In other news, our dog had puppies last month! Dad was away in BC at the time and didn't get back until last night. We have all fallen madly in love with the two puppies, and it probably adds to our love of them that we almost lost them several times over. They've been through a trying first month, but they're good and healthy now. We have yet to name them, but I'm calling them Truffle and Champion for the time being. 

Truffle

Champion

He's winking at us! 

A Little Victorian Tea Party...

Monday was Victoria Day. This is pretty much how it went in our house (Please excuse the cross-dresser. It was that or suffer death at the hands of the scalawag in white. Again.):

I'm glad Dad wasn't home or the craziness might have given him a heart attack. The house survived, though, and I guess that's all that matters.

Oh, I'm home, by the way.

Papers, Blessings and Art Galleries

So, this week has been pretty fantastic, which is funny because it is midterm week so it ought to have been terrible. I am just going to start at the beginning:

I had some eye-openers last Sunday. It started with some insights at church and then a not-so-gentle admonition that I was going to spend the rest of my life doing nothing but work if I didn't change something. I made the decision to stop worrying so much, put some more trust in the Lord, and live my life now the way that I want to be living in the future.

As previously mentioned, it was midterm week and so seemed to be a rather bad time to make such a choice. I spent all of the Saturday before on a course excursion to the National Art Gallery in Washington, D.C., so I had a bit of catching up to do on homework. In particular, I was worried about a research paper that I had barely found time to think about, let alone to work on.

This week has been filled with the most fantastic blessings in regard to that silly paper. First, my professor said that the papers could be turned in at class on Friday rather than Wednesday. Then I was given the rest of the week off on my shop hours because I had been so reliable in showing up. On Wednesday, the time for the papers to be due was extended to any time on Friday. Thursday, classes were cancelled because of the snow. Finally, on Friday, the professor said that we just had to have the papers in before he came to get them on Saturday morning.

All of these little things combined into a miracle that just blew my mind. I am quite sure that it was God's way of telling me not to worry because He had everything in hand and would take care of me if I did whatever I needed to do. I've spent the semester bogged down with all sorts of weights, and I'm feeling them lifting now as I turn them over into the hands of the Lord and only take back the part that He wants me to carry at this time. I am so, so glad.

One thing I'm planning to do now is keep in better touch with friends and family, so this blog ought to be seeing a bit more of me for the next little while. We'll see.

P.S. I didn't have much any extra time for photography in the National Gallery (in the five hours we spent there, I only managed to cover one floor of one wing), but here are a few pictures I snapped. Just to show you I was there. It was absolutely gorgeous. I must go back sometime.

Madame du Barry - 1770 - by Francois-Hubert Drouais

I loved this painting because she just looks so nice. The painting was very soft, pale and pretty. It doesn't come across right in the picture, but she just looked like the type of person you would want to know.

A Gentleman of the Zorzi Family - 1570/1580 - Alessandro Vittoria

I fell in love with this guy. The statue, not the artist. It probably helps that he's wearing armor. I've always had a soft spot for any guy in a uniform. It's the set of his jaw, I think; very determined, but carrying a hint of ideology...

Aquamanile in the Form of a Horseman - 13th Century - Probably English or Scandinavian

Guys, this is a pitcher. Not everybody gets that, so they don't appreciate its awesomeness. 

Please appreciate the awesome.

I failed here and didn't actually find out what she was called. Venus Washing, or something of the like. This is a fountain and the water -- wait for it! -- drips out of her hair. *mind blown* Also, it spews out of the mouth of the fish beside her. That is significantly more freaky and less cool.

Disjointed Dump of Seriousness

(Note: This wasn't ACTUALLY published until 2016, when I found the fully completed draft hiding out among all the published posts. I had finished it and completely forgotten to post. As a favor to the Meg of 2014, I decided to remedy that.)

I am ashamed. I said I would post more often, and I haven't posted in more than a month. In my defense, we had midterms in the middle of October and I just needed to give myself a break from HARD THINGS. Also, I spent the last few Sundays talking to people here or at home, which is rather more important than blogging. Right now, I ought to write in my journal, but I don't think I can do it with the guilt of this neglected blog riding on my conscience.

A few weeks ago, Dad asked me to rate my experience here at SVU on a scale of 1 to 10, and I placed it at 10. (I think. I don't actually remember what I said, but the sentiment was that of 10.) Have there been some things that haven't lived up to my expectations? Yes. The food is first on the list, but I can forgive that because I like to think that I wouldn't have reason to complain about it if I wasn't a paranoid vegetarian. As it is, many meals are slightly traumatic as I determine to turn a blind eye to the fact that someone just dropped a chunk of beef in the beans, etc. But the staff really tries to provide us vegetarians with food we can eat, and I appreciate the thought.

As I was preparing to come here, a lot of people asked me why I'm going so far away to school and the only answer I had to give them was that this is the only school I wanted to go to. That fact remains the same. I miss Canada. I was lying in bed last night and it suddenly occurred to me that if I go to school here, I'm probably going to marry an American and end up living in the US. The idea is painful, in a way. A lot of kids talk about how they didn't realize how much they loved their families until they left, but I always knew that my family was the most important thing to me. The place where I hold all my regrets is in my appreciation for my country and my tiny little Magrath. The USA was the one who fought the revolution, who has all the cool places and the hustle of a bustling nation, but there is a distinct tranquility about Canada that I really miss. Canada: the 'invisible' nation. Where 'everybody's nice' and the world just looks clean.

Even with all of that, I want to come back to this school. I recognize that I am insanely blessed in that I love all of my teachers. Homework and classes can pile up at times and make my life go crazy, but I still savor every opportunity to sit in class and soak up whatever the teacher has to tell me. I feel like I have the world at my fingertips, and it shows. My life is changing. I started NaNoWriMo yesterday, and everything that I have learned in Tyranny & Totalitarianism came spilling out as my main character was learning how to bring down a country. I have some sort of crazy dream about working at NASA now. Dad is going to be so happy when I come home and know how to use a drill and build a wooden flat. Over the past few years, I've felt like I just didn't like to learn, but I do now. I'm excited for life now.

As you may know, I spent the last year wishing to die. It got better in March, but I still didn't really have any idea of what my life would be like if I lived to old age. On the one hand, I had a sort of hazy idea about getting married and having kids, but I couldn't picture it anymore. The other option, the one where I spent my days doing things I didn't really care about and then came home to a place that was cold and dark and empty, was seeming far more likely. Both ideas scared me, but they don't anymore. It's funny because during those months of depression, I chose the second option in my head. It wasn't the one that I wanted, but it was the one I could see. Now, as my life has opened up, I can see myself being happy whatever happens. The idea of marrying somebody doesn't seem alien to me anymore, but I think I could be happy if it was my lot to live alone. I've learned to love life again, and that makes me happy.

Sorry for the disjointed dump of seriousness. It just sort of came out, but I think I'll keep it. If all the testimonies given in sacrament today give an accurate depiction, this last week has been pretty hard on everybody, but I'm feeling at peace now. I've decided to do NaNoWriMo this year, if you missed the reference above. It is going to require writing 2,000 words a day (besides homework), and I'm still not quite sure how I'm going to do it, but I feel like I need to get this story out of my head before I can move on with life. (And yesterday's writing was pretty stinking fun.)

Good luck with your lives. I love you all.

Learning, and Growing... and, um... Illness?

Hello!

I know I missed last week, but that doesn't matter because I didn't even say I would post every week! The last couple weeks have passed in a bit of a blur. I can hardly believe it's been--what, three weeks now? Four! Time flies when you have a lot of homework.

I have learned a lot in the past month. Both about myself and the world around me. For example, I now know more than I ever did about the nature of light and how telescopes work. I know why Nero was a bad guy (though, at least according to Suetonius, Caligula was rather worse). I've learned that the children of Israel really were significantly more righteous than your average ancient culture, and that Hector of Troy was the first hero worth fangirling over.

I have also learned that I really need to brush up on my essay-writing skills. I will get my first paper back on Tuesday and half of me can't handle the anticipation, while the other half thinks it would be a good idea to go bury my head in the sand and pretend I did a good job. Thankfully, we will have writing conferences with our professor where we will go over the issues in our papers so we can up our grades.

Last week, I neglected to post even though I really wanted to. I have a public thank-you to make, you see. I woke up feeling rather ill on Wednesday morning and, despite my best efforts, I was not doing well by the end of the day. My sore throat made it hurt to breathe, while my stuffed up nose made it even harder. I was starting to feel nauseous and achy, as well as suffering from sudden chills. I knew that it was the 'freshman flu' everybody warned me about.

Terrified that I wouldn't be able to go to my classes the next day, I covered myself with essential oils and then prayed as hard as I could with a brain that felt wrapped in cotton that I would either get better, be sick only for Thursday, or that my sickness would be staved off until the weekend. I then slept for nearly a full twelve hours and I am very pleased to report that I was ten times better the next morning. I was still hoarse and congested, but the flu-like symptoms were gone. I know that a loving Heavenly Father saved me from a doom that maybe wasn't such a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but really felt like a big deal to me, and I want to bear witness of that.

There isn't really much else to say. Sarah and I got to talk to our ZoeyBrielle and Jocelyn last night, though they weren't quite sure what to make of us talking to them out of a screen instead of in person. We also got to talk to Dad and Meme, which was also great. For all those who were worried about me moving out, I'm doing very well. Surprisingly well. Time is going by so fast that I haven't really had the time to feel homesick. I mean, yeah, I want to see my family but it isn't something that I think about unless I think about it. You know what I mean?

School... and Stuff (Lame Stuff)

I have tried...
     ...and tried...
          ...and tried again to write this blog post. (Actually, that's a lie. I only actually tried to write this once before, but it was such a harrowing experience it counts for three.) The fact is that so much has happened in the last year I just can't cover it all. Heck, I can't even cover what has happened in the last three weeks.

So I have given up.  I am not going to try to cover it all. If I have something to say that relates to something that happened in the last year, I will give you the story as it comes up. Suffice it to say that in the last year, I went through the toughest things in my life so far and I came out alive. Mostly.

I also went away to school. Actually, that was just a few weeks ago. I'll be starting my third week of school tomorrow and it's going great. A little hectic at the moment since I have a presentation to give on Friday and I'm not near ready, but it'll be okay.

(Quick note: I'm going to try to blog more often, because it is a lot harder to start up blogging again than to never stop. So if I haven't posted in the last month, feel free to yell at me.)

So, anyway, I have some loved ones back home who probably have all sorts of questions for me. I'll try to cover the ones I know are coming, but go ahead and leave questions in the comments. Seriously. Do it. It'll make it easier for me to blog if I know what you want to know. (So make sure you only ask questions I know the answer to, 'cause otherwise I'll just make things up and stuff your head full of fluff.)

Question One: Has the hill killed me yet?

I don't think so? For those of you that don't know, that hill is how you get from main campus to The Lofts (the girls' dormitories). If you think it doesn't look like much, try climbing it when you're already sweating from the heat and worn out from the schoolwork. I think I'm going to die every time and then I end up taking the stairs instead of the elevator when I finally reach the building. Crazy right?

Apparently the walk gets slightly easier with time, but I'm really just dreading it in the winter. I'm considering packing a crazy carpet in my backpack.

And... I know I should write another question but I can't think of any and I'm already really sick of this blog post. I know it's lame, but that's allowed because this is my blog, so I can do what I want. Mwahahaha.


P.S. Please, please, please ask me questions. Funny questions are good. If you give me good questions, you avoid future lameness. It is an investment for the future.