*Cough Wheeze*

Made it!  I'm back!  Ayi, now I think life will settle down to normal.  Thank goodness the school year's starting!

Interspersed you find pictures of our latest venture, to Tennessee, to the lake house, plus some minor excursions on my part to a couple schools down there.  Bryan College and Covenant College, to be precise.  Both awesome schools, but Covenant is incredible!  And they gave me a T-shirt.  Which of course makes all the difference. :P Haha!

Aaaand just about to get my driver's license, just need to go take the test.  Nervous, yes?  But it'll be convenient so I can drive myself to school.  Maybe freaky, but still, good.  And we've created a thingummy, to remember the streets in order like you remember the planets in order.  Instead of My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas (minus the Pizzas now, poor Pluto!!) it's Queen Samantha Ate Muffins Not Rolls.  Clever, yes?

Aaaand not much crafting going on at my end, unlike all the stuff going on in the blogocosmos but I have some ideas floating round in my head!  Which is a promising sign.  Just as I plunge into the time of year when I have NO time whatsoever...

Aaaand writing isn't really happening, but it's because I'm waiting for cold weather.  It's vital to the "mood."  I'll get there, y'all.  Somehow.

Mainly still a lot of reading and studying going on!  Updated book list:

1. Understanding the Times by Doc (David Noebel)
2. Just Six Numbers by Whatsisname (Martin Rees)
3. Economics in One Lesson by The Other Chap (Henry Haslitt)
4. El Dorado by the Baroness (Orczy)
5. A Prince of the Captivity by Buchan (John Buchan.  Shaken, not stirred.)
6. Why We're Not Emergent by Two Guys Who Should Be (Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
7. Just Do Something by The Guy Who Wrote That Other Book With That Other Guy (Kevin DeYoung again)

And still to come, as soon as I can justify starting new books...

1. Starship Troopers by Heinlein (already read but WANT to re-read!)
2. Unnatural Death by Dorothy Sayers (friend gave it to me and I STILL haven't gotten to it!)
3. Books by Kuyper and RC Sproul and Norman Geisler...piles of 'em!

AAAAND we got a dog!  And he's amazing.  Perfect little puppy!  About 5 mos. old, a cockapoo who's more poodle than cocker (pookapoo?) and we're calling him Kuyper.  Extremely smart little guy.  Very sweet.  

Aaaand I think that's it!  Had a lot of fun, but it is good to be home.  Lots on my mind, lots to pray about, but life is pretty darn good.  :)

AMZi x x x x x

Good Day

Hullo-ullo-ullo, what's all this?

Sorry, always wanted to say that.  Anyhow.  Knitting milestone has been reached!  The...middle bits...front, back, etc...whatever!  Everything but the sleeves is finished!  I clipped the pieces together to make a sort of "mock-up" and see how it'd fit.  I'm very happy with it!  And I'm over halfway through one sleeve.  So.

Hair flower of the day. :)  My favorite color seems to be evolving through the color wheel.  Let me explain what I mean by that.  For a long time when I was younger, my favorite color was BLUE.  Then it changed definitely to GREEN and has remained GREEN for a long time... but lately... I'm noticing something.  Though I'd never given YELLOW a second glance, color-wise, it's slowly but surely becoming my favorite color.  Above all.  It just is so amazing!  I need more yellow in my life!

And here's the sleeve status, in the afternoon light which is now fading.  I might finish it tonight, or I might read one of the many books I'm in the middle of... Just Six Numbers, Understanding the Times, a PG Wodehouse collection, The Westminster Confession of Faith, Economics in One Lesson... you get the idea. :)

Quote I just heard:  "If somebody gives you a definition of 'postmodern,' by definition, it's not a definition of 'postmodern.'" I just heard it from Jimmy Long, but he may have been quoting someone else.  I'll leave you to think about that for awhile. :)

AMZi x x x x x

*Insert Snazzy Post Title*

Oeps, sorry.  I didn't mean to be silent so long, not even sure if I have any good excuses... ah well, here's what I've been up to, besides general study and thought of course.

My knitting is coming along MAJORLY, due to listening to this book, narrated by the brill narrator I can't remember the name of.  Oh well.  It's a bit "older" than the first one (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie) but still good.  Caution :: Lots of British language if that bothers you.  As for the jumper, hard to tell, but it's white and blue, and I've got the back (that's the inside of the back you can see, the other side looks just like the front of the side you can see) and one side front.  The other side front is on my needle atm.

I am, ahem ahem, writing again!!  Finally, at long last.  I am working on Chapter 8 (hitting the point where all my plans trickle off and I have to actually THINK about the writing and the plot) BUT I am also working as of now on a brand new story idea I'm really excited about.  I'm having a lot of fun with it.  Yeh.

And, big news, I got to talk to my friend Jane in Britain face to face yesterday!  Through Skype!  *cue Hallelujah Chorus*  Apparently she didn't know I wear flowers in my hair.  I do, rather.  See? :P  I have that rose, a gigantic green Gerber daisy, a frilly bluish something (can you tell I'm not really a botanist anymore?), a yellow daisy, and lots of little white rose-ish things in miniature.

And I'm cooped up inside because it's literally sweltering out.  I kid you not.  Opened my window for five seconds to take some pictures and I couldn't actually breathe.  Lately, we had a heat warning for our county with 110 degree heat index and 70% humidity.  I believe it.

Very tired now, was up like all night with ideas for the new story, so... popping off now to get some real life done. :)

AMZi x x x x x x

Coming In For Landing...

*skids into home base*  We made it!  We survived!  For the most part, anyhow... 

After some cards...

My grandma's gorgeous baby grand...

A visit to the cemetary...

Some seriously adorable kittens...

And their very patient mother...

And a rainy day shot of a fence...

And a great sunset...

About 40 hrs of driving (this pic was taken as we set out for home)...

Going a little crazy...

Over 2,000 miles in a van with five other people... sleeping on friends' floors...sunburn and allergies...dogs and cats and LOTS of card games...

We Made It!

AMZi x x x x x

Checkin' In

Not much to report!  More driving... more goofy-ness in the car... shadow puppets, anyone?

Oh, forgot about those shots I got before we left that house.  Now we are very comfortable for two nights in a hotel with MUCH BETTER internet.  I therapied with grooveshark last night and it was sooo enjoyable!  Missed my music, I did!

AMZi x x x x x

I'm Back!

After two weeks in Manitou Springs, Colorado, a day in the Black Forest, and a day on the road.  Plus a day of recovery yesterday.  I appear to be on Warp Time Zone--where I sleep on CO time, eat on Hawaii time, and lose track of all time regardless of what's going on.  Forget Kansas time!

So...the Report.  Y'all should check out the website, summit.org.  The Summit, student conference in CO, I can stand as witness to.  It roxx.  Epically.

No seriously.  It's hard to describe :: all of the awesomeness is still swimming around in my head...or maybe that's the change in elevation...  At any rate, it's a shock to come back, like I've got torn up by my roots.  Which is strange.  I wasn't homesick for home while AT the Summit (too busy making friends, learning new things, doing all sorts of stuff, etc.) but now that I am home, I'm homesick for the Summit!

I've always been looking for a place where I fit.  I remember distinctly trying to find it in churches we've been to. Waiting to fit in, to become like the other girls (and I wanted so badly to be like them).  It never clicked.  The church we attend now is very nice and I like it there.  When asked, I would tell my friends, "It's as close to a home as a person like me is ever going to find."

Well, I was wrong.  I found it.  Summit is a place where there are people like me.  Let me explain that, because it's not quite enough yet.  I have various "groups" or "classifications" of friends :: my writing friends, my music friends, my doctrine/theology friends, my friends who think, my friends who laugh.  I hope I can say that for every area of interest, every passion of mine, I have at least one friend I can share that with.

But at Summit, I can be ALL of me.  That means a lot to an introvert like me :: it takes so much work to bring myself into the outside world that it can be tempting to just drag out one element of my character--the entertainer, or the nerd, or the writer, or the musician.  Whichever aspect is most convenient.  It takes about three solid hours of interaction to get past whatever element I pulled out, and then you get closer to the real me.  At Summit, I don't need to be one element.  I can be ALL of me, every aspect, and people know it and they don't care.  They can see me, varying from hour to hour like every other human being.  See the music, see the thinking and arguing, see the joking and laughing, see the need for solitude and peace, see the joy or the pain or the anger.  It's a place where I don't have to review everything I say to check for politically-correct-ness.  THAT aspect alone is worth the price of the conference!

Not to say that we're all alike there.  Not by a long shot!  The difference is, you can disagree without getting stomped on.  You can sit down over dinner and have a nice logical conversation with someone who is vastly different.  People all around you are hearing new things, thinking new things, following their beliefs to their conclusions and seeing where they're headed.  And everybody knows it.

It is nice not to be such a minority anymore.  To have at least five people I can count on to back me up and help me out.  It changes my outlook from argument-weary to argument-worthy.

And this post has turned out super long, so I'll leave you with that.  Tomoz I think I'll give the report of what I did in between all of this home-niche-place-where-I-belong finding. :)
AMZi x x x x x

Rain...AGAIN

Because of the rain, I had to take some long-distance shots of the new roses....

 After all that writing yesterday, I was thoroughly excited for Ch. 7 but haven't been able to translate that excitement into actual work.  Too bad! :)  For me, the most challenging thing about writing during the school year is not finding time to WRITE but finding time to THINK.  Because in order for a scene to be written on paper, it needs to take shape in my mind.  I need to have a little 30-minute pow-wow with myself and start asking myself questions...

"Does he mutiny or blackmail him?  No, he TRIES to blackmail him, and that doesn't work.  So he mutinies.  But is he going for total control, or only Velocitas to betray them?  Total control, but that doesn't work, so he'll take the Velocitas and..."

Q and A just like that.  "Why does he want this?  What does he try first?  How on EARTH does she end up on board?  And what in the world will we do with Davies and Brigham?  How can I manage to make Ewings flog someone?"  If you barge in on me during one of these sessions, well, let's just say I've gotten some really weird looks in the past.

Me :: *happily explaining to some writerly friends*  I've stabbed two or three people already!

The Ginger Who Happens To Be Walking Past :: *mortified stare* Oh My Quesodilla!  *hurries back to Spanish class*

Stuff like that. :)  Anyway.  So I know it's coming, as always, it just needs a little time to congeal.  Yeah.  So far what I have is ::

Ch 7

Ta Da!  *bows*  Ah well.
AMZi x x x x x

My Late Creative Space

Would have had this up last night, as I was technically doing it yesterday, but yesterday was MAD!  Took a trip to the Nelson Atkins Art Museum, of which... I sound like a Philistine here...  my favorite parts were the Corinthian columns in the foyer and the rich Dutch made furniture in the American section....  Haha.  I'm sure the paintings were nice too.  What disturbed me was the fact that the canvases were laid bare to the air and anyone who wanted to stick a pencil through them.  And not nearly enough security standing around looking intimidating.  IMHO.

Check out this lovely iris... not dark purple like the others... cross pollination perhaps?

And we're petsitting again, a very charming little Yorkie with the best manners I've ever seen.  Love this picture of her.  Nothing like a picture with a well-defined window screen in the background...makes it feel like summer!

And we arrive at my Creative Space.  This week it involves some help from Alan Dart, namely, using his Farmyard Animals pattern.  Stop laughing, you!  I've always been fascinated by little animal figurines, cows and horses and sheep and goats and geese.  Of course I like the real thing, but those are rather hard to keep round the house, don't you know?  So I saw this pattern and about died of the cuteness.  Hahahaha.

Progress as of last night....wish me luck!

Progress as of this morning.  All the while, I'm listening to A Test of Wills, by Charles Todd, the first Ian Rutledge mystery.  Loving it!!

AMZi x x x x x