Recently in Family Notes Category

was born on May 24, 2008 at 3:17am. She weighed 6 pounds, 11.5 ounces and was 19 inches long.

Well. I'm home. I haven't been home too much, though, because I've been house-sitting. Through that, I have learned that I don't like being alone in a big empty house. In fact, I would really prefer to never live alone - at least not in a house. Also, I don't do too well with hyper dogs.

I've also discovered that I really do love my family. My almost-five-year-old sister Judith came up to me when I got home tonight and said she was scared of robbers. So I pointed out to her that there are three adults and six older kids in the house and that SOMEONE will hear the robbers, plus few people know our neighborhood exists, plus even if robbers did come she would be safe because there are nine bigger people to protect her. Then I told her about the time when I thought I saw a robber and screamed extremely loudly but it wasn't anything at all. Then she told me about presents. It was really sweet. My younger siblings miss me when I'm gone, they really do. I forget that. They can be overwhelming, but they're not bad kids.

I also realized that I do belong at home. Maybe this should be obvious. There are a lot of people in my house, though. I seriously thought there wasn't room for me. But they made room. Now my dad's office is half "bedroom" because they moved one of the couches in here, so I'm sleeping on a couch but it's in a different room, which I do have rights to at night. And now that there's only one couch in the living room, there's room for a baby crib. I don't want to live anywhere else during breaks, even though I might have a bed. Because I know that I belong here.

I volunteered at the local public library yesterday and today. I'm volunteering tomorrow, as well, and I think I'll keep volunteering until the children's librarian gets back from New Zealand. Basically what I do is sit at the desk of the children's librarian and make sure no one does anything against the rules. So far there haven't been any problems. I get to read, for MYSELF - no classics!!! I'd forgotten how nice it was to just READ.

Today I read a lot and helped a little girl find The Westing Game. That made me smile because I remember reading and loving that book. I also saw a little boy with about five books. Not kid's books, either; each book was at least half an inch thick. It reminded me of me when I was young. I love just being in the library. Luke commented today that I look so at home there. I basically grew up in the library, mostly in the children's section. And I would probably love being a librarian, possibly even a children's librarian. I can't explain it and some of you will probably think I'm crazy, but there's just something awesome about seeing little kids who love to read. Maybe it's just that I was that kid. I don't know. There was a little boy, probably between one and two, running around in the library and getting books and he was so excited about it. There's no way he could have read them yet, but he loved them, it was obvious. It made me smile a lot.

Then there's the library itself. Being around books makes me happy, even if they're books that I wouldn't necessarily read. Being in the local public library was especially nice because I know where to go to find books without having to look up the title in the card catalogue! (Library of Congress is CON-FU-SING!!! Dewey Decimal is so blessedly simple, though it is also possible for more than one book to have the same call number. That can get confusing once you've been around Library of Congress only for four months.) Bookstores just aren't the same as libraries, because in libraries you can pick the books and take them home and bring them back and it's probably free. It's just awesome.

Anyway. I'm home. I'm so glad to be home. Whenever I drive by the way to UD I point and go "HAHA I'm not going that way!!!" At this point, I honestly haven't missed anyone. And while I know I'll have fun when I go back, right now I'm not looking forward to it. I'm liking home too much.

That semester of college has taught me things, not all of which I have discovered yet. For instance, I've learned that I actually do what I'm supposed to do most of the time, and in any case I probably do more of what I'm supposed to do than everyone else I know. (This applies to high school as well.) But I also like learning. I don't like papers too much, but when I can get things out of the lectures I enjoy them. Not that super happy joy, just the mild school joy. Also, I'm taking out loans to pay for college - too many loans in my opinion. Because of that, I'm not going to slack off more than occasionally or if I KNOW I can get away with it and the professor sucks so I don't care anymore (and even then, some people would not consider my slacking really slacking). At the same time, though, I don't do extra work. I just do what I'm supposed to. I also go to bed earlier than others, because I know I really do need my sleep. I go home on the weekends because I want to see my family and my boyfriend and go to my church and youth group. So I'm not around campus as much as I could be. Towards the end of the semester I was feeling left out because of that, among other things. Some of the other things may have been in my head, I don't know. I've had that happen before, so I have to be careful with that.

I'm learning I don't have to apologize for being who I am. I don't need to do things simply so that I will belong. I will probably never have a large circle of close friends. I'm beginning to think such things are myths anyway. Now I just need to get to the point where I truly am okay with that all the time, not just sometimes.

I'm still finding my place in my world. But places tend to change anyway. The important thing is that I know where I belong right now:
Sitting outside my house in a car with Luke, talking about random things - like the way I wouldn't be able to capture the way the tree branches looked slightly distorted through the wet windshield and how you just have to live life because it's impossible to capture it perfectly. My grandmother's house on Christmas day and my mother being really happy about the Panera gift card I got her. In the library reading a book.

As a side note, I have As in half of my classes. Which means that right now I have a 4.0. Now I just need to find out what my Under the Bible, Politics, and Lit Trad I grades are........

I have found ants on my wall, on the baseboard next to my roommate's bed (that would be on the wall closest to the hallway), and in my closet. They aren't fire ants, thankfully, but they are still ants. I don't like ants in my room. Especially not in my closet. The result is that my room has been smelling of Raid and I slept with my window open all last night to air it out. It was quite nice having the window open actually, because they turned the AC off and the heat is ridiculous and doesn't work properly so we haven't had it on. I know it may seem counterintuitive, opening the window when there are ants in my room, but they're not coming from the window. I can't figure out where they're coming from. I think they built Catherine with ant-infested materials or something....

Thanksgiving was nice. Anna, my best friend from high school who I hadn't seen since end of our junior year, came and stayed for a week. She also got to come to Thanksgiving dinner with us, which was nice. Thanksgiving dinner had the most people at it that we'd ever had.

Great, now there are ants on my desk and I STILL don't know where they're coming from AND I need to go to breakfast now! Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My family is awesome because we put on some '70s music, turn it up, and go around the house singing along. Sometimes to the instrumental parts. "Afternoon Delight," "Hooked on a Feeling," "The Night Chicago Died"....

I randomly played handbells in church this morning because they needed someone. It was a part and a piece that I'd never played before, and I hadn't played handbells at all for several months. But the piece was easy and I was able to practice it beforehand, so it worked out. I think next Sunday I'm going to go to Incarnation [the church I went to for most of my childhood]. I'm looking forward to that.

Luke made me an apple pie (!!). It was REALLY REALLY GOOD. My mother can testify to this. Speaking of which, her birthday is tomorrow, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!

One day this past week, my German teacher mentioned das Telefon. He told us a bit about telephone etiquette in Germany, then proceeded to hand a walkie-talkie to one of the students and leave the room. That was the most hilarious bit of class ever. There was something quite hilarious about his voice asking these random questions: "Kann ich mit __ sprechen? Ah, __, wie alt bist du? ... Haben sie Geschwister?" The conversations had little to no resemblance to actual phone conversations one might have, which is, I think, why it was so amusing. You really had to be there for the full effect, but it was definitely still quite amusing.

On Thursday night I watched Grey's Anatomy in Jerome [girl's dorm across campus from me] with a bunch of girls...and two guys. One of these guys really likes the show; he owns seasons 1 and 2. I'm going to be borrowing season 2 from him. He's in my Lit Trad and Politics classes.

Parallel Fiction [Aaron's and Nathan's band] is doing a show Oct. 20th. I'm really hoping to go to that since I missed their other show.

They're remodeling my workplace. It's a mess. I don't know my PLUs quite as well as I did while working 20 hours a week, but that's okay.

Okay, that's random bits of my week. Now I need to read some Federalist Papers and hopefully go to the Cap Bar with Amanda. I'll try and update again soon!

The National Merit Scholar reception was today. There weren't that many people there, though I did find out a couple other freshmen were national merit as well. All the upperclassmen with scholarships were there as well.

They gave me another certificate. See...I've gotten LOTS of certificates from being a National Merit Scholar. I got one for being a semi-finalist - actually I got three...one from the corporation, one from the school, and one from a state representative or something. Then I got the nice official framed certificate for being a finalist, along with something from the school....And now I get another certificate for getting the scholarship. But this one is from UD and is hand-signed.

I met the lady in charge of alumni relations. It was extremely amusing, because we had a conversation about linguistics/accents that lasted for a good five minutes. She's one of those people who picks up accents really quickly as well, so we talked about that. It was really random and fun.

This Friday I'm planning on going to this From the Ashes of Vesuvius exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. It's going to be really fun, I think.

So Dad, you should get Esther down here on a Thursday night sometime so she can go swing dancing. I have no idea when this would work, but it would be so much fun if it did.

I have some homework now, but not too much. [Well, obviously; if I had lots of homework I would not be writing long blog posts!] I think this is a fluke week, if my friends' amount of homework is any indication of the proper amount of homework here.

"Summerlong" by Kathleen Edwards is one of my favourite songs, and Blake Lewis has a CD coming out sometime in October. Ivannah met him. I am very jealous.

So I didn't realise that when it rained, there were going to be RIVERS and LAKES of water lying in wait on the sidewalk, waiting to trip up the poor souls with slippery-soled shoes...

Unfortunately, that is how it is when it rains. I'm buying rain boots tomorrow.

My little siblings keep making me pictures. I love them and will have to get some sticky tack so that I can put them up on my wall. Everything else I've received so far has been junk mail, though.

I've been approved for each Chase Platinum card at least twice, I think (and they have a Visa and a MasterCard). It's rather ridiculous. Yet I haven't heard back from the one I actually applied for....I've also been pre-approved for WaMu platinum MasterCard at least twice.

Anyone who has a copy of a DHS newspaper in which I had an article published, could you please get that to me somehow? I need it so I can provide a sample of my writing to the UD newspaper. Oh yeah, I should see if they have a lit mag....

Tootsie rolls are definitely overrated.

As I find it highly unlikely that I'll be able to get to Lamar in order to watch the Duncanville/Lamar tennis matches, I'm going shopping tomorrow with two other girls. It will be a lot of fun.

Today was my first day of work study at the library. It was all right. They said we weren't going to have time to study, but we definitely do. Since I'm working what are nominally hour shifts but in actuality are fifty-minute shifts due to having to get to class, I haven't done much as well. I get to check out books and stuff though. It's fun. And my cash register experience helped with figuring out the cash register in the library.

"Germans don't need spell check." -- Dr. Eidt