New Goals

Well now, things have changed somewhat since my last post. For one thing, I have a new job. Instead of working at Astor House, I now work at an orthodontic company via a temp agency. Interesting adventures there. It has its up days and it's down days, but it's a job and I'm earning more than twice as much as I was at Astor House, so that's a plus.

With reference to career plans, well, I don't think I'm gonna be doing beauty school. It sounded like fun, but it's not really my passion so I'm planning on going in a different direction . . . opening my own yarn shop!! Knitting and crocheting is one of my really strong passions and this would be an excellent way to put my passion to good use and earn money in the process. Last Saturday, Mom and I went on a yarn shop excursion. We hit 3 different shops: one in Tigard, and 2 in Portland. Our main mission was to buy yarn and have fun, a secondary mission was to take notes and observe things about the different shops so I can start getting an idea of how I want to run/set mine up. Got some good ideas of things I could do and some ideas of things not to do.

Next fall I am planning on attending a college in Indiana to get a business degree, that way when I open my yarn shop (which won't be for a few years yet) I will know how to and how to run it. :) The college I am planning on attending works through an accelerated program through a couple different surrounding colleges. What that means for me is that I will be able to get a 4 year degree in only 2 years for the price of one year (about 20K for the whole program).

Church involvement: Well, I've started attending our church's college/young adult group. I am 99.99% sure that I am the only one not currently attending college and I am also that positive that everyone else is a GFU student. :P Which makes me the odd one out. Oh well, it's chill.

And I'm becoming a regular part of our church's worship team for "Big Church" as the main Sunday morning services are called. That has been a lot of fun.

So yeah! My life since May. To be continued . . .

Life Update

Hey there! Sorry I haven't posted in several weeks. I'll eventually get around to posting about the rest of the classes from second semester at MWSB. But for now, this will be about what has been going on in my life for the year so far, what God has taught me through it all, and what God is doing.

So where do I start? Hmm . . . Well, I will start with explaining the big thing that God taught me this past school year. He has taught me a lot about trust. I never realized how little I trust Him. I grew up not really needing to trust a whole lot in God; everything I needed was provided for me. I never had to worry about anything, not even my future. Even getting accepted into MWSB I didn't really worry about. I figured that I would get in. But over the course of the year, especially the second semester, I realized how little I trusted. Over the course of year, I figured that I would get Venture pretty easy. But when the time rolled around for the staff to announce who the Ventures were, I was not one of them. But I had a backup plan and that was becoming a cook there for next year. Well, as it turns out, God apparently doesn't want me at MDub in any way, shape or form. Yup, you guessed it, no cook. Oh well.

Now I am beginning to trust God more with regards to my future. I have formulated a new plan, since my previous ones didn't work out, but now I'm leaving the details up to God. For some things, I am waiting for His timing (and with the matter I currently have in mind, it's gonna be a while for that to happen. :P), and I've learned that if things don't work out just right, or at all, then I shouldn't be too worried about it. God has everything under control, and He is guiding me and placing me right where He wants me. No matter what the world says . . .

Another aspect of trust that I learned about myself is the fact that I don't trust others very much. I have never been hurt by anyone, but I still have difficulty opening up my heart to other people. A comment one of my classmates made during Spring Break really brought this to my attention. Since that time, I have made an effort to be more open with people (trustworthy people of course), but, in that process, I am also learning how much to share, and what to share.

So what am I doing right now? Well, I'm going to be going back to work soon (they were so nice as to hold my job for me), and hopefully, sometime in the fall (if I can stop procrastinating), starting beauty school. But we'll see exactly where God takes me. I have no idea what He has in mind, but I know this for certain . . . It's gonna be, in the words of John Erickson (the director at MWSB) "more fun than anyone deserves to have."

MWSB-Feb 26-Mar 7: Spring Break

I spent my Spring Break in Plummer, ID with 19 of my classmates. We all caravaned in 4 vehicles (not too comfortable riding all the way to ID in the back of a pickup . . . no not the bed, but the back seat of the cab. It wasn't too bad, but not very much leg room.), leaving right after lunch and getting to Plummer in the evening (around 8 I believe). Us girls slept at the pastor's house 2 houses away from the church and the guys slept at the youth pastor's house a bit outside Plummer.

We spent the week doing a bunch of service projects around Plummer and helping out with various youth groups around the area: Valleyford (Washington! Yes, we were that close to the border), Harrison, and Fernwood. That's all in addition to youth stuff in Plummer.

For the youth groups, we were pretty much in charge of the whole thing each night. We planned games (the garbage can game was one we played each time), some of us did a drama (the Everything skit), others led worship (I was on that, as well as worship on both Sundays we were there), some of us (myself included) shared our testimonies, and we also spent quite a bit of time hanging out with the kids wherever we went.

The service projects consisted of several things ranging from cleaning up manure for Wayne's father in law (Wayne is the youth pastor), to getting firewood, to painting the basement of the church in Plummer to cleaning house for a widow (which 2 of my classmates and I did). All these projects were very fun. 3 of my classmates painted a mural of Jesus walking on water on one of the hallway walls. That turned out really cool. On Saturday morning, we also helped clean the house of the Dole family. The first Friday we were there (the same day we left MWSB) their little baby Jethro was born, but with a heart defect. His heart was enlarged and not all of the valves were working. The doctors were unsure that he would last the night, but so far he has amazed so many people, and he is still alive today. He went in for surgery the Monday after we got back. But I'm getting a bit off topic. So, Saturday morning, since the family spent a lot of time at the hospital, their house ended up not very clean at all. We spent the whole morning cleaning up for them. My roommate was brave enough to clean out their fridge, there were people gathering bags and bags (and these are huge trash bags, not little bags) of dirty laundry, vacuuming, scrubbing, and organizing. It was hard work, but quite fulfilling.

For some fun activities, we spent some time at Wayne's, spent some time shooting, hanging out and watching movies. Very fun!

Overall this was a very fulfilling week, and if I get Venture next year, I plan on going again.

MWSB-Feb 22-26: Scientific Creationism

Our class on Scientific Creationism was taught by Chris Sherrod. This was one of my most favorite classes so far, if not my favorite. The textbook we used is part of a series that Chris wrote.

We talked about many different subjects, like why evolution is FLAWED (I'll explain the acronym in a minute--a lot of what we talked about had to do with this acronym), various rebuttals to evolutionist arguments, and some of the logic behind why we believe that there is a Creator.

Now, for the FLAWED acronym. It stands for 6 reasons why evolution is flawed:

Fossil fallacy
Laws of science violated
Absence of observation
Without mechanism
Erroneous examples
Design & DNA

Fossil Fallacy talks about how the fossil record doesn't match up to the theory (which in my opinion should be called a hypothesis, not a theory) of evolution. For one thing, there are no supposed "missing links" and there are other things in the record that also counter evolution, for example what is known as the Cambrian Explosion, a sudden "explosion" of fully formed and very complex vertebrates. This is supposedly dated at 570 million years old, but contains fossils that match vertebrates today.

Laws of Science Violated talks about just that: how evolution violates 3 basic scientific laws: The Law of Cause and Effect, the Law of Biogenesis, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The Law of Cause and Effect states that 1) everything has a cause; and 2) every things that comes to be is caused by something before it. Evolution violates this in its statement that the universe just popped into existence. This doesn't work because to come into existence, there must be a cause and the theory of evolution doesn't provide that cause. Christianity however, does: God. And evolutionists will try and counter that by asking "Well then, who created God?" The problem with this however is they are trying to put God in a physical box of this world when He doesn't go in there. We are comparing the physical (the universe) with the spiritual (God). It's like asking how many inches does an animal weigh?

The theory of evolution violates the Law of Biogenesis (which states that 1) all life comes from life; and 2) Every living things reproduces after its own kind. The theory of evolution however, states that life originally came from nothing (violating the first part) and that one species will, over time, change from one to another (violating the second part) But it's impossible that things can spontaneously generate, which is the only option left for evolutionists.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that all processes or systems manifest a tendency toward decay and disintegration, with a net increase in the entropy (state of randomness or disorder) of the system. In other words, things are gonna wear out and decay. Which we see every day (rust, aging, cars running down, etc.). But this is opposite of what the theory of evolution states as true, that things are getting better.

Absence of Observation is simply the fact that we don't see evolution occurring and we cannot see it occurring. We can't observe it! There are three arguments that were presented that an evolutionist would propose: Evolution moves too slowly to observe (our counter would be like asking why we would consider something a theory that we cannot observe or recreate), then they might try and say the we can see evidence in the fossil record (then we can counter with the fallacy of the fossil record, but watch out for what Chris called the p.e.e.p.: Punctuated Equilibrium Escape Pod. Then we have to ask the question "If evolution happens too slow to observe it, but too fast to see it in the past, then when can we see it?) From here, the evolutionist will likely turn to the Galapagos finch, the pepper moth, etc. They will cite these examples as proof of evolution. However, at this point they switch from talking about macroevolution (one species to another, not observable) to microevolution (changes within a species, observable)

Without a Mechanism simply means that the theory of evolution has nothing to make it go. It's like expecting a flip book (you know, the books of cards, you flip the pages and a picture moves?) to flip without the help of a flipper. It just doesn't work. Creationism has a mechanism, we know Him as God. But evolutionists will try and cite Natural Selection (or survival of the fittest) as the mechanism for moving evolution along. The problem however is that, although natural selection does exist and work today, it does not produce new species. Evolution requires mutations to allow it to work. But the way natural selection works, mutations are actually eliminated because those who have mutations are not the fittest, on the contrary, they are weaker, and more likely to be killed off by predators.

Erroneous Examples goes back to the whole distinction between micro- and macro-evolution among other things. Examples such as the peppered moth, the horse, changes within car types/models, homology (similar structures), archaeopteryx, the list goes on! However, the peppered moth is an example of MICROevolution, not macroevolution. The example of the horse (referring to its "ancestors") proves false because some of the older horses were actually bigger (opposite of what you would expect in evolution), there is no fossil record of the transition, and (this bit of info I knew beforehand, not from this class) some of the fossils are out of order, that is, supposedly older horses are found in higher levels of strata than supposedly younger horses (flip-flopped . . . cause by the flood?). The problem with the change in car models example is that there was intelligent involvement to make those changes. Homology, evolutionists would say, points to a common ancestor since there is similar structures. However, the more likely interpretation of that is to say that there is not a common ancestor but a common Designer for a common function. And my little bit of logic on this is this: if a structure works in one species, why not use it for other species needing to do the same or similar things? And archaeopteryx is cited as an intermediate link between birds and reptiles. However, archaeopteryx is fully bird. Its wing feathers were as fully developed as any other bird (and besides, there is no fossil of a scale to feather transition), there is a strong breastbone (indicating that this bird was capable of powered flight, just like modern birds), and archaeopteryx possessed perching feet, like any modern bird, the list goes on and on.

Oh, and I gotta say something about the so-called "ape men" people conjure up. There were 8 examples listed in the book. All of them were frauds in one way or another. Nebraska Man, for example, was based off of the tooth of an extinct pig. Pig! Peking Man was based off of crushed skulls (which disappeared during WWII, leaving only photos). As it turns out, in the area in which these skulls were found, monkey brains are considered a delicacy. There were tools found with the skulls, but it appears that the tools were used on Peking Man, rather than by him. Piltdown Man was a deliberate fraud. Someone had filed down an orangutan jaw and attached a human skull. Java Man was conceived from a skullcap (just the cap) of a gibbon, three teeth, and a femur (found 50 feet away!!!) of a modern man! Oh, and 30 years later, it was admitted that 2 human skulls were found in close proximity to the same dig. Neanderthal Man was stooped due to arthritis, had a larger brain than modern man (with a fully developed language center) and possessed physical qualities of an Aborigine found in Australia.

Ok, final letter: Design and DNA. This points to the nature of these two tings. There is so much evidence for a Creator when you consider the complexity of things all around us. It would be silly to think that a message in Scrabble tiles came about by chance, or that a flagellum (which requires at least 50 genes [each one being about as complex as a sentence with hundreds of letters] for it to work, and they must be working at the same time!) could work on the first try. If even one of these genes didn't work, then the flagellum wouldn't, it couldn't work.

Or take into consideration the vast amount of information contained in human DNA. Richard Dawkins (a renowned atheistic evolutionist) is quoted as saying "[T]here is enough information capacity in a single human cell to store the Encyclopedia Britannica, all 30 volumes of it, three of four times over." That is a heck of a lot of information!!! All in one human cell. If someone saw this information for example from a SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) project, would he assume that there was an intelligent source behind it? Of course! This same amount of information is in each human cell, with the added capacity of being able to duplicate and translate itself!!! One of the problems confronting evolutionists is the question of where the information came from. There is no freakin' way all this information could come about by chance. Another problem is the fact that it can indeed duplicate itself. Nothing by human invention can do this.

Whew! So that's why evolution is FLAWED. Quite fascinating, eh?

MWSB-Feb 15-19: Spiritual Leadership

Our Spiritual Leadership class was taught by Dick Angelo, with one session taught by his wife, Vivien. This class covered a variety of topics, some of which, to me, seem more applicable if I was involved in a full-time ministry of some kind (especially camp ministries), and didn't seem very applicable to me today in the here and now. Don't get me wrong, it was still very interesting, but I find it a little hard to apply knowledge of board (operational and policy) structures.

But that definitely was not all we talked about. We talked a lot about what it means to be a servant leader and how it differs from the typical leader of today. A lot of things (e.g. putting others first rather than yourself) are totally opposite of what our culture tries to teach us.

We looked at the example of Nehemiah in his leadership during the time when he and a plethora of Jews returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. He faced several opposing attitudes, and yet he kept a cool head (unusual for many leaders today), and his first response was to pray. He was also confident in God, something else unusual for many leaders today.

So, although there were some parts of the class that didn't seem very applicable for a young college student not looking into getting involved with a board of some kind, there were still several things that were quite applicable.

MWSB-Feb 8-12: II Timothy

Our class on II Timothy was taught by Joe Jordan, the father of Adam Jordan, one of the staff here (Adam is the EMT, the one who bandaged up my head after I crashed into the dumpster--See my post "MWSB-A Tale of 9 Staples" [posted in January 2010] for the full story about that).

This class was a good one, most of what we talked about was the homework. Joe gave us handouts with several questions about each chapter. These questions required quite a bit of thinking to be able to answer then sufficiently.

Throughout the whole of the class, Joe stressed that this book wasn't one of gloom and doom, rather it was one of encouragement. Paul encouraged Timothy to stand up for the faith, despite all that was going on around him. A lot of what Timothy was encountering as a pastor is similar to what we encounter in the world today. Paul encouraged Timothy to stay strong and not waver in his faith, and we too should take and apply that encouragement to our own lives.

MWSB-Feb 1-5: Spiritual Warfare

The class on Spiritual Warfare was taught by the same teacher we had last week: Jim Shuman. Most of the class consisted of getting familiar with what we should know even before we really get into spiritual warfare. We talked about things like who we are in Christ, approaches the enemy uses, living how we believe, and different responses to spiritual attacks. Gradually this turned towards ways to actually defend ourselves against the devil's attacks and attack back. A phrase that Jim mentioned a lot was "Be aware of the devil--be impressed with God."

Thursday was a different day than what we were all used to. Instead of eating breakfast and lunch, we spent the mealtimes fasting, praying and praising God. It was an interesting experience. During what would've been breakfast, we sang and prayed for each other. During what would've been lunch, we sang and prayed for the whole world. At dinner time, we sang some more songs, had communion, and then had a dinner of soup and bread. It's a comforting feeling, knowing that there are people praying for me.

MWSB-Jan 25-29: Gospel of John

This week's class was taught by Jim Shuman (who is John Erickson's brother-in-law [for those of you reading this who don't know who John is, he is the directer here at MWSB] as well as Randy Shuman's, a Venture this year, uncle). Very interesting class.

Some of the things in the class that really interested me were all the connections between some of what Jesus said and the particular feast going on at the time He said it. For example: When Jesus said "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink . . ." that was during the Feast of Booths (aka Feast of Tabernacles--see John 7). Part of the celebrations included pouring water and wine over the altar as a symbol of the Messiah. (I am going to be a bit honest, I don't quite remember what the symbolism actually was, but it was somehow connected with the Messiah) It was very cool seeing the connection. So when Jesus said that He was the living water, the Jews knew exactly what He meant! Same with in chapter 8 when Jesus says He is the light of the world. Another part of the celebrations was the lighting of a couple of huge (like, 75 feet tall huge) candelabras. These represented how the Messiah would be a light in the world. Once again, the Jews knew exactly what Jesus meant by "the light of the world." Very interesting.

As part of the class, we watched a couple of music videos (one of them was Kutless "Sea of Faces") and, to get a better idea of what Jesus was going through in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night He was betrayed, we also watched that scene from "Passion." Powerful stuff! And very interesting to see how history and cultural traditions tie in with the Bible.

MWSB-Jan 18-22: Intro to Missions

This week's class was called Intro to Missions. It was taught by Joel and Kristin Snyder, a missionary couple from New Tribes Mission. Their job requires them to stay in the States and train other missionaries for the field.

This class was more hands on than previous classes. On Tuesday, we participated in an exercise demonstrating some of what some missionaries have to deal with upon entering a tribe or people group and not knowing the language (and no one outside the tribe knows the language either). Some of us were the missionaries, and the rest of us (I fell into this category) were the Luna tribe. That was fun.

We also watched several videos of various tribes' stories of their experiences with missionaries. We also watched several group presentations (4 students per group, with 3 in one group) about various missions organizations: YWAM, MAF, Christar, Frontiers, Wycliffe, just to name a few of them. Those were very informative also.

This was a very fun and interesting class. It made me think a bit more about the possibility of serving the Lord in a similar way.

MWSB-Jan 11-15: Godly Relationships

January 11-15: Godly relationships class. Woohoo!! This class in the second week of second semester was taught by John and Terry Erickson--the director of MWSB and his wife.

I went into this class expecting to hear a lot about specifically guy/girl relationships, like dating/courting/leading to marriage. However, this class wasn't all that. We began with talking about relationships with other people in general and some of the character qualities we should be striving for and looking for in other people. I was slightly disappointed at first, but ended up liking the class a lot. We did end up talking about dating and what-not, but that wasn't until Thursday and Friday.

However, I got a lot of good stuff out of this class. Each one of us was required as part of our homework to write a character sketch on one of four people or groups of people listed. I chose to do mine on Ruth and I found a lot of the characteristics we had listed that were good for anyone to possess: loyalty, respect for authority, and a good work ethic to name some of them. Through this whole thing, we were challenged to become men and women of character.

Thursday began the guy/girl/boyfriend/girlfriend talks. We watched a video of an example of a courtship relationship (kind of an extreme one!) and then compared courtship with modern dating. We broke into groups and discussed these and sent a spokesperson up to the front to state what we had come up with. Our group determined that courtship has greater potential for a healthy relationship, but those involved in a courtship must be careful to avoid legalism.

All in all, this was a very good and interesting class. A lot of good things to remember and know.

Retro Rockstar Legwarmers

Retro Rockstar Legwarmers

At school we were having a Retro Rockstar/80s night, and I needed some legwarmers. I looked at the yarn I had in my dorm and lo and behold, 1 1/2 skeins of Lion Brand Jiffy. Yay!! So, not finding a quick pattern to suit what I wanted, I designed these and whipped them up. The making spanned over two days, but I could've easily done them in one day. So here you go: Retro Rockstar Legwarmers. Note: they are easier than they look!

Materials:
Size L (8mm) crochet hook
2 balls Lion Brand Jiffy (3 oz/85 g; 135 yds/123 m; 100% Acrylic)—Avocado (NOTE: if longer warmers are desired, you will need to buy a 3rd ball)

Gauge:
5 sc x 5 rows in Sc rib=2”

Sc Rib:
Every row: ch 1, sc across in back lp only

Crossed sts (CrSt):
Sk next st, dc in next st, going behind dc just made, dc in skipped st

Cuff (make 2):
Ch 6, leaving an 8” tail for sewing later
Row 1: sc in 2nd ch from hook and in ea ch across—5 sc
Work in Sc Rib for 32 rows—about 12”
Do not fasten off! Extend lp so it doesn't come unraveled and remove hook so it's not so cumbersome. Using beginning tail, sew short ends together sewing through FLO's to keep integrity of ribbing. Place lp back on hook and return lp to normal size.

Warmer:
Ch 1, 32 sc around long end of cuff (you will be working into the ends of the rows), sl st to beg sc. Work now proceeds in rnds
Rnd 2: Ch 3, Work CrSt around (the first sk st is the one at the base of ch-3), join to beg ch-3—32 dc/16 crosses
Rnd 3: ch 1, sc around, join—32 sc
Rep rnds 2-3 (If desired, just rep rnd 2 only and skip rnd 3, in that case the first skipped st would be the first dc of the prev rnd) until you run out of yarn of one ball. Back-track and undo any sts to end of last complete CrSt rnd making sure you keep the sl st join.

Fasten off.

Weave in ends.

MWSB-Jan 4-8: Philippians

First week of second semester. A class on the book of Philippians. Yay! Philippians is one of my favorite books of the Bible. This class was taught by a pastor from Bozeman, MT named Brian Hughes. We went through the whole book in 4 days with a test on it on Friday. For part of our homework (but not discussed in class) we were given the book Be Joyful by Warren W. Wiersbe to read. An interesting read that went along well with what Brian taught us on. (There are other books in the series whose titles all begin with "Be . . .")

Some of the new things I learned: Learned about Textual Criticism. Textual Criticism comes from comparing various translations and why some translations say one thing and others say a different, but similar (and doctrinally sound and identical). This came up when we came across Phil. 1:16 and 17. Pause reading this a minute get out your Bibles (or go to www.biblegateway.com or a similar website) and compare these two verses in NIV, ESV, NLT, or most any other modern translation with the KJV or NKJV. Notice something? Yes, they are indeed switched! During Brian's discussion on Textual Criticism, we learned the reason why: the KJV and NKJV translate from the majority of documents, meaning that their translation is what the majority of the original documents say. The NIV and it's modern "cousins" translate from the earliest documents, not the majority. This also explains why some other passages in the New Testament have an bracketed note (not part of Scripture) that says something along the lines of "The earliest and most reliable manuscripts do not have such-and-such-passage." This didn't happen at all in the Old Testament because the text was copied out only by professional scribes: if they made one mistake, no matter how far into the text they were, they threw the whole thing out and started over--talk about dedicated copying!

Fascinating isn't it?

We also learned about the history behind Paul ending up in prison from where he wrote Philippians and the other three Prison Letters/Epistles: Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. He wrote from prison in Rome. Well, actually it was house arrest, but still a type of prison nonetheless. When Paul wrote these Prison Letters, he had been under arrest in 3 different locations (Jerusalem for a little while, Cesarea by the Sea and Rome) for a total of probably at least 4 years: 2 in Cesarea, about 2 in Rome and an unknown amount of time in Jerusalem. Doesn't seem like the best of contexts for the writing of a book about joy, eh? One of the things that Brian mentioned was that Paul was able to fulfill his desire of ministering to Rome best while under house arrest. The guards took turns guarding him, so they each got several hours of interacting with Paul and observing and having to hear whatever Paul said about Christianity. In fact, in chapter 1 of Philippians, Paul talks about this very thing: "Now I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ." That was chapter 1 verses 12-13. Notice something. Paul never considered himself a prisoner of Rome, rather he always called himself a prisoner of Christ.

Something else that I found interesting: Paul, Epaphroditus, and the Philippian church (which was founded by Lydia and her household-Acts 16:14-15 [Lydia was the first believer in all of Europe!] and the Philippian jailer and his family in Acts 16:25-40 on Paul's second missionary journey) all thought of others and never themselves. Paul was concerned for the church because they were concerned about Epaphroditus who was concerned for the church because they had heard that he was sick (not a cold sick, but like, deathly sick) and were concerned for him, the church was concerned for Paul because he was in prison, and Paul was concerned for Epaphroditus because he was sick. Just a loop of concern for everyone else but themselves. What an example of selflessness!

One more thing that I found interesting. At this time the Philippian church was off to a good start, they were nothing like the Corinthian church. But Paul had heard about some seeds of disunity that had been planted and in his letter, he was determined to nip it in the bud. Imagine something that Brian had us imagine. You're in 1st-century Philippi and the church has just gotten a letter from Paul in Rome. Euodia and Syntyche are there too. As was tradition in those days (hearing the Word rather than reading it for themselves, not usually having their own copies), someone read Paul's letter for their church service. Everyone is enjoying hearing the letter, but a few verses that briefly and subtly touch on being loving and unified start to make these two women a tad nervous. Then the reader gets to what is now chapter 4, verse 2-3: "I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life." Paul had the audacity to call these two women out by name as members of the church (they were believers, "whose names are written in the book of life", and they served the church "who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel"! Not typical characteristics of dissenters) who were causing disunity.

Quite some interesting stuff from such a little book (only 4 chapters), don't you think? I thought so.

Acacia's Socks

These socks came from a request at a family reunion from my young cousin, Acacia who asked me to make her a pair of socks. She had seen me give her older sister a pair that I had made (but were way too small for anyone in my immediate family) and wanted a pair. So I designed these on the train ride home from CA and named them after her. :)

Acacia's Socks

Materials
1 (2) balls 50g sock yarn
1 40” size 2 circular needle
yarn needle, scissors, 2 st markers

Notes/Techniques required:
Magic Loop knitting, Figure 8 cast on, sewn bind off, two-at-a-time, short-row heel

Twist Pattern:
Rnd 1: *K 2nd st on LH needle, do NOT slip off, K 1st st on LH needle, slip both sts off, K2* around
Rnds 2, 4: K
Rnd 3: *K2, K 2nd st on LH needle, do NOT slip off, K 1st st on LH needle, slip both sts off* around.

Rep rnds 1-4 for pattern

Twist Pattern can be used on top of foot and leg, or just on the leg (as in photo).

Written for a child's sock to fit foot 6” long, 3” wide. Instructions for adult socks in parenthesis.

“Side” refers to a part of the sts on one side of the circular needle

Instructions
Using a Figure 8 cast on, CO 12 (16) sts using one end of yarn ball, rep using other end (second ball) for second sock. K even 1 rnd, placing marker to mark beg of rnd.

Inc beg and end of ea side of toe EOR until 48 (64) or desired width.

Work even in St st with optional Twist Pattern on 1st side of each sock until 1 ½” (2”) less than desired length.

Work short-row heel, one at a time, on 2nd side, to 8 (14) unworked sts before bringing sts back into play.

When both heels are complete, K 4 rnds. Beg chart and work to desired leg length minus about 1”

Work 1x1 rib for 7 (10) rnds.

Using a sewn bind off, BO all sts—Note: to do this, you will have to BO the sts in the same order as if you were knitting them. You will also have to move the yarn needle from tail to tail or use 2 yarn needles.

MWSB-A Tale of 9 Staples

No, I do not mean staples for fastening pieces of paper together. The staples I am referring to are the special, surgical kind, used in lieu of stitches for holding together long/deep wounds while they heal. Here's the story:

It's my first day back at MDub (MWSB's nickname) on January 3, and I decided to go inner tubing down one of the icy driveways. I had seen other students doing the same thing and figured, 'Hey, why not? It'll help pass the time'. So up to the top of the hill I go. About a minute later, I am careening down the hill on a rather large tube, screaming my head off the whole way down. It was pretty fun. For a few short seconds.

We (my tube buddy and I) are heading towards a cement-enclosed garbage/dumpster thing. The tube turns. I am now closest to the dumpster, and parallel to it. My thought as I saw the dumpster draw near was "Oh crap! I'm gonna crash into the metal door!!" And BOOM!! Crash I did. I got up, laughing, and my riding buddy (who had bailed and probably told me to do the same, as did other spectators, but I didn't hear anything else except my own screaming) then told me I was bleeding. Oh great. My grandpa (my mom's dad, who, along with Grandma, who had come with my mom and my 2 sisters and me to drop me off--I call him Papa Steve) saw what looked like a cut on my face, but then saw a stream of blood coming from up higher. He put his handkerchief to my head and walked me to the gym. One of my classmates brought me a chair to sit on, while I waited for one of the staff to take me up to another staff house (one of the staff living in that house was an EMT) to get me looked at and cleaned up.

Some minutes later, I am in the van with Papa Steve and Mom on our way out to Great Falls to the ER there. Whoopee. A few hours and some waiting later, I emerge from the ER sporting 9 lovely staples in my head, holding my 1 1/2" long cut (or at this point, it might be considered a gash) closed.

And that's the Tale of 9 Staples from my first day back at school, with class beginning the next day.

profile picture

Just a quickie about my profile picture. It's not the best picture out there because it is really hard to draw something good on Microsoft Paint, but I made an attempt and so there you have it: my wyvern (which, for those of you who don't know, is a European dragon with no front legs, just back ones and if I am remembering correctly, may be one of the biggest types of dragons out there) quickly done in Microsoft Paint. :) Plus, it's my Internet identity avatar.

Somethin' New

Helloooooo there!!!

This is my first thing like this, so if it takes me a while to get everything going or if I mess something up, bear with me, I'll eventually get the hang of everything. Wee!! I have my own blog!

The contents of this will just be (as my title suggests) randomly-themed things, ranging anywhere from knitting or crochet patterns I have designed, to updates from MWSB (Montana Wilderness School of the Bible), to who-knows-what??? :)

If there is any particular category (like MWSB-related stuff, knitting stuff, or whatever) that a post will fit into, I will name the category first, and then the title of the post.

Enjoy!

Rawr!!