Grandpa

How can I express my love,
When I don't know what to say?
How can I unveil what's lost,
When he's not yet gone away?

He was the rock
That we all leaned on,
Though he spoke
Very few words.

I know I cannot change a thing,
Though now I wish I could
Go back to when I was a kid
And spend more time with him.

I'm sorry for the small ones,
Who don't really understand;
I wish they could know him better,
Though they probably won't remember.

I want him to be here forever,
Though I know it's selfish of me;
He belongs with Jesus,
Who he's going home to see.

Hooray For Tech Geeks

So I went up to the computer lab to see if my Cisco Clean Access (we sign on and it lets us use the Internet) was working in the lab. It was, and I posted the previous post. Than I realized that I don't have accounting today (don't ask: I don't know), so I brought my laptop over to the tech geeks who reside in the basement of VPH. I have not been able to get on for the past two days. The amazing Jon fixed it in literally two seconds. Apparently it wasn't my Cisco, it was my Internet settings.

I had to go to the dentist yesterday. Apparently I have good teeth. "What's your secret?" Uh... I forget to brush, I despise flossing... "Um... I don't know..." Then the dentist comes in. "You have both the Hooyer and Sandbulte teeth." Hygienist: "So thats you secret!" Anyway, I need to come in again to get a few fillings, and I also need to get my wisdom teeth out. : (

Oh! I was the first one to pick up one of the new kittens! He's grey, and I named him Ares!

Short

My internet here at school is all wacky. I'm trying to get it fixed, but I can't get on in my room yet. Will blog either this weekend or when I get the tech geeks to fix it.

Titles Are Not My Strong Point

So I have this project for marketing. I won't go into details, because I can't remember all the details. Suffice to say that this project requires too much information, too much time, and there is no point to it.

Last night I went the the library to work on said project with my group. Meet the group. Travis, 20, Freshman. Coming to Northwestern for orientation is the first time he has traveled outside of Nebraska. He also likes to draw. Maggie, 21, Senior. Good student, no creativity. Andrew. Don't know anything about him because he has not come to any of our group get togethers. Than there is our group leader Will. He's a senior. He looks like he's in his early 20s. He's not. I found out last night that he is 32, married nine years with a seven year old son. He does not look that old. It's funny though. He wanted to show us a picture of his wife (on his cell phone) but he didn't know how to get to it, so he called his wife so the picture would pop up.

Apparently they are going to tear down Heemstra Hall (something about it starting to sink), so today the guys who live there staged a silent protest in front of chapel before it began.

Pictures

Truck... and Car

Tractors, Trucks, and Three Legged Dogs

Ah, Saturdays. The day of relaxation. Unless you help your dad all day.

So I went with dad to try to find some replacement piece for his spreader. It looked kind of like a little screw a quarter inch long with a little ball thing at the end. Apparently it is important. First we went to Boomgars. They didn't have it in the right size. Than we tried Franken Implements because, according to dad, the definitely would have it. They didn't. So dad drove to the field that he was spreading in, and sent me off to find the piece. First stop, SAC. They didn't have it. Apparently not many people need the part in metric. Last stop, AWS in Hull. They had it.

Then I had to stop in SC to get dad lunch (2 Big Macs) and water (six bottles) and a bottle of mountain dew. The next time you are at a convenience store, I challenge you to try to carry eight bottles of liquid by yourself to the counter without dropping anything. The next two hours were boring. I sat in the tractor and watched dad drive it. On the upside, I learned how to use a payloader. Than I decided I was going to go home. Not going to happen. The front, driver's side wheel was flat. Not just slightly flat. Oh no. This was the-rim-is-almost-touching-the-ground flat.

First things first. Call Becka. Ask her to come to the field with the air compressor. Receive a call a few minutes later. The green car is dead. OK, jump it. Receive a call shortly after. She couldn't get the trunk popped. She got out of the car to try to get it opened. The door closed behind her and the door locked. With the car still running. Call mom. Tell her to leave Sarah, James, and Mike in La Mars and come pick me up. Get bored. Call mom and ask where she is. She had left La Mars and had to turn back around because she had their money. Get picked up 15 minutes later. Go home. Unlock the doors to the green car. Which is still running. load the air compressor into the white car. Drive back to the field. Inflate my first flat tire. Drive home. Sit down. Relax. The rest of the day is mine!

Unfortunately not. Dad called. He needed something. I couldn't find it. Mom had gone back to La Mars. Becka had gone to babysit. I had to take the gold car to Franken to get the stuff. *Side Note: The gold car's tags have been expired since June.* I got the stuff, drove to the field. Dad then sent me straight back because he needed something else from them. I drove back to the field, gave dad his part, he realized he needed something else that he had in his truck. Which was at this point at home with a flat tire. He said I could drive back, and he would follow with his tractor. I was ecstatic. Until I started fish-tailing, lost control, drove into a ditch, into a corn field, spun around, and than stoped the car by driving back into the ditch and colliding with the grassy embankment.

I called dad. He said he would be there shortly, and radioed back for someone to bring a chain. I waited for him with only a three legged dog to keep me company. We pulled the car out, and found the only damage to be... a flat tire on the front driver's side. And a missing license plate.

None of this is made up. And the best part? I got paid $7 an hour while all of this was happening! I mean, who else gets paid for crashing their car?

Happy Friday

Today feels like a Friday. Not the I'm really happy feeling, just It Needs To Be Friday So I Can Go Home feeling. On a high note, I'm listening to White Lightning at this precise moment. Ooh... now its Kaw-Liga!

Any-hoo. Nothing much happened today. Dad woke me up at 6:30. I showered. I did nothing for a few hours. Sarah took me to class. I did nothing for a while. I ate lunch with Shantry at about 1:45. Still! Though you broke my heart... Still! Though we're far apart... I looove you still! Than I did nothing for a while. Than I blogged.

Ok, so was I the only one who was completely surprised that Becka's friends are coming down? I thought for sure that they wouldn't get permission, or that it wouldn't be until summer. Who da thunk. Ah well. I guess I should write out the directions for them some time soon.

Side Note: Does anyone else have trouble thinking of good poll questions? Oh... that gives me an idea...

Knock on Wood

Around campus everyone is getting sick. In Fern alone, every single hall has at least one person with mono. Every single hall but mine. Knock on wood. Hopefully it stays that way, but in these confined living quarters it is hard to keep sickness from spreading.

Ah well... I had my first econ test today. Because we hadn't had any before, I didn't know what to expect. The material we are learning is difficult, so I assumed that the test would be hard too. I assumed right. Hopefully I did better than I think I did.

"I always use the bathroom in Second South. They have good reading material." -Laura at D-Groups

Happy Day

As of about an hour ago, I no longer have any more speaches to give for Public Speaking! After memorizing and presenting 624 words, I will never memorize anything for anthing ever again.

Open your bible (or go to biblegateway.com). Look up Psalm 107. Now imagine memorizing the entire thing! Oh, than present it in a way that "establishes your passion for this passage," and create the "feeling of the first time." Oh, and you'll be doing this in front of the entire class. And the Prof. And if you're still feeling good about yourself, just remember that the Prof has the text in front of him waiting for you to make a mistake.

It wasn't all that bad. I was absolutely certain that I'd forget something, but I didn't. And I only messed up word order twice. I got a 97! My best one yet (according to him).

Jeff (my Prof) has handwriting that no one will ever be able to decipher. Some comments include: "What a mo[squigglesquiggle]te t[squiggle]k!" and "You've t[squiggle]k[squiggle]d one of the toug[squiggle] memory [possibly d][squigglesquiggle]s [squigglesquiggle] is!" These comments are meant to help and to inspire. And they might if they were legible.

"You can't look hot and play dodgeball." "It's kind of hard not to." -Laura Beth and Jenni