Vacation, Finally.

Hello all! I have disappeared from my blogging space for a while. The last stretches of the semester and then finals took their toll from my mind. The first weekend I was home I slept most of it away. It. Was. Glorious.

Now, I have been working upon some of my goals for Christmas break, some of them are quite ambitious. Here is my list (not in any particular order):

1. Do some free reading (mostly read the Eragon series which so far I have already read books one and two!)
2. Study Greek
3. Get my driver's license back
4. Continue to help my hip get better
5. Organize some of my school notes
6. Possibly start studying for orals
7. Have a few movie marathons
8. Hang out with my friends

So far I have been working on the first part, disappearing into the world of Alagaësia. I read Eragon a long time ago when it first came out and since then have not been able to read for fun. It has been quite the adventure getting back into the novels.

Soon I will update hopefully about driving and such. For now...

it's just another day on the ant hill. :)

So, So Thankful

With Thankgiving coming up so soon, I thought I'd share some of my thoughts on thankfulness.

It's amazing how much we take granted the things God has blessed us with and how much we selfishly want more. Ever since my accident, an overwhelming feeling of gratitude has pervaded my life. God could have taken me out of this world; I think I was very close to it. I am thankful for each breath I have and for each morning I wake up to live another day (I may not be very thankful for the actual morning sometimes... still working on that). I go to an amazing school with professors who are sincerely concerned for your well-being. I love the education and the thorough study of the Bible I get to receive. Being thankful for God's Word, I have been learning so much about myself, life, and the God who gives everything to me.

I am also SO thankful for my family, friends, and churches. Before my accident, I think I failed to show how much I love my family. I have made it a personal goal to try to show my family how much I love them. My friends have been there for me so much this semester. They give me rides, put up with my emotional breakdowns, and encourage me all the time. I don't know what I'd do without the friends I have. Currently, I attend two churches, one while at school and the other while at home. Both have amazing congregations that I prefer to call family. I have sat under amazing teachings from God's Word that not only encourage me but challenge me in my walk with Christ.

I consider myself very much blessed.

So dear readers, what are you thankful for?

Content and Warm

On this cold fall day, I am thankful it isn't snowing (yet). It's not that I don't like snow; infact, I think snow is a beautiful aspect of God's creation. However, I am not a fan of slipping and falling. So I pray that if there is snow that comes, please let it not be icy. Being on a crutch has made my perspective change drastically about weather. I usually enjoy rain, but when I can't walk fast enough to get out of it and when it makes my hip ache like I'm fifty years older than I am, I am not quite a fan of it. So yes, I am a bit anxious about this winter. In about three weeks I'll be off the one crutch. Even then, my faith in my balancing skills is not 100%.

But God is faithful and will keep me from injury if He so choses.

For right now? I am sitting in a local coffee shop, eating a scone, drinking warm coffee, and listening to great music while blogging. For now, I'll be content and warm where I am, still thankful for no snow (yet).

Just another day on the ant hill.

Some Crutchy-ness

Just a fun Quote from the movie Newsies: Crutchy: Jack, when I walk, does it look like I'm fakin' it? Jack Kelly: Nah, Crutchy, who says ye'r fakin' it? Crutchy: I don't know... It's just there's so many fake crips on the streets today, a real crip ain't got a chance. I gotta find me a new sellin' spot where they ain't used to seein' me! For about the past two months I have been on crutches. For the first six weeks, I was on two crutches, and the last two I have been down to using only one. To you, my readers, I will confess something: I am not a patient person. Since my accident, I have been thankful for many things: being alive, God's mercy and grace, awesome friends and family who support me, people's prayers, etc. I have a hard time being thankful for my crutches. At first I often tripped over them while attempting to walk. I often drop them and struggle to pick them up. They get in the way and are quite bothersome for a small dorm room. Even worse: they constantly remind me how weak I am. Although I have made tremendous amounts of improvement, I still somewhat rely upon my crutch. You know what though? Even though I don't like using a crutch, I sometimes do need it when I am not as physically up to the task without it. Sometimes we treat God that way. We resent being so weak and in need of God's grace in order to get us through a certain situation or to have victory over our sin. We feel that we should be able to do things on our own when in reality, God is the one Who supplies us with the strength we need to get us through the day. We try to do things on our own but fall flat on our face. Now, I am not saying that God is a crutch. That would imply that someday, we wouldn't need God. We as fallible sinners will always need the Almighty God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. It is my prayer that I don't resent the fact that I need God for everything in my life, but rather, welcome His wonderful grace and be thankful for His help for all of my needs. So for now, I'll keep gimping along despite my dislike for the metal crutch. I only have a few more weeks on it anyway (hopefully won't be prolonged). I will rejoice, and be glad in my circumstances and in the God Who holds me in His hand.

The Country that Captured My Heart

I miss the people I met

Whose lives were shared with mine.


The people whose smiles encouraged


and joys overflowed, sweet and divine.


Even though there is an ocean


In between Germany and I,


God gave me a love for them,


That can go farther than I can reach,


(Too bad I can't fly).


I cherish the fast-made friendships,


And even though we are far apart,


The bond we have in Christ


Keep my new friends close in my heart.

Just a Blip

So tonight I had some girl time with a good friend of mine curling hair and looking pretty.

Oh, and a random note: I colored my hair black. Well... it was supposed to be dark brown... but, as you can see, it ended up darker than that. I think it looks pretty cool. (Especially when it's curled)

But anyway, after a week of craziness that made me go completely bonkers, going to the mall with friends sounded like it would be the cure for a hard week's worth of stress. We hung around for a bit. I went and looked for a t-shirt I have been trying to buy and couldn't find it. However, I did find a Zelda t-shirt that was fun. Oh. And an awesome $4 hat. Which, by the way, I am wearing while I am typing up this post.

Just another day on the college ant hill.

Resting in the Shadow of the Cross

Sometimes we do not understand what is going on in our lives. We question everything, wondering why our world gets turned upside down, or in my case, comes to a skidding crash. Sometimes I asked God why He allowed me to be hurt like this out of curiosity, but never once have I been angry about it. I fully understand that God is working something out in my life. He is making me a teachable vessel wherewith He fills me with the ever living water, His Word. Through this situation, I have learned to love God more. Why would I love a God who let me get into a horrible accident where I could have died? God created me. God gave me the very breath I breathe. God gave me life. Why WOULDN'T I love God? You know what else God has done for me? God has redeemed me from my life of sin. How? He sent His Son, who lived a perfect life and knew NO sin to die for my wages of death. Jesus paid my ransom, my debt. Sometimes I fail, I stumble, I fall, but God always lovingly picks me back up again and reminds me that He is always faithful and that He gives me grace for every need. My prayer is that I become so completely and totally in love with God that I put no other 'god' in my life before Him. "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Mark 12:30

Just a Small Town Girl

During the second half of my summer I spent my days at home being bored. I was not able to get a job, so instead I enjoyed the leisures of every day summer fun. During this part of the summer my car brakes were starting to go out. I was talking about it to a friend who I used to volunteer with at the pound (and during my break was volunteering again). This gentleman has his own garage and offered to help me fix it on one condition: I have to help.

I was pretty excited to have something to do. Spending my day with Murphy, working on my car, getting dirty? Sounds like fun to me! Working in the garage was a fun experience as Murphy and I jacked up my car, took off the tires, and inspected my brakes. Murphy did most of the work and directed me to do this and that. We listened to his country music mix all daywhich made me smile. It reminded me that I was from small town Iowa. Once he figured out what we needed to fix my car, Murphy took me to an O'Rileys to get the parts. Being away in a different country where I felt like I knew no one made me forget that I practically knew EVERYONE in my home town. I ran into different people while we were out and chatted with them while Murphy got the parts I needed.

After a few hours of work on my car we ate lunch at the gas station down the street. Murphy goes there very often and knows the people that work there. After a quick lunch we went back to work. Seeing as my car is also very loud because of my exhaust system, Murphy wanted to fix that too. So we put on a new muffler and tail pipe. Here is a picture of some of my piping underneath my car:

Fantastic! After buying pipes Murphy realizes that we needed to bend them in order to put them under my car correctly. Uno problemo: he didn't have a pipe bender. What to do? Well... ONLY in small town Iowa can you walk down the street and find someone who happens to have a pipebender! We went into his shop and bent the pipes the way they needed to be and went back to his garage and continued to work on my car. This was an all day affair and very exhausting, but totally worth it!

This day that I had was a reminder of the small town girl I really am.

Just another day on the ant hill. :)

Germany Trip, the short version

So, it's been a very long time since I have written a blog. Mostly because I haven't felt up to it. Part of this summer was spent in a six-week adventure in a foreign country (or a foreign ant hill if you will). For a month and a half I was in Germany experiencing and participating in the life of missionaries over there.

It didn't hit me when my parents drove me to the airport. It didn't hit me during my eight hour flight to Frankfurt. When I walked through the gates and saw all the signs written in German, it finally hit me: Todo, we're not in Kansas anymore. I was to the point of tiredness where I was shocked but not freaking out. After finally meeting our first host missionary, he sat my teammate Sara and I down to chat while we waited for our third part of the team, Debbie, to arrive.

After we all arrived at his house in Geisenheim, we dropped our bags in our room, claimed our beds, and prepared ourselves to go to the Wednesday night Bible study. It was all in German so it was painfully hard to keep my jet-lagged mind awake. Our first week we had oriention, helped my college chorale who were also traveling in Germany, and helped clean the church. It was a very tiring thing that week to be fighting jet-lag and keep up with all the activities, but God definately blessed our time there and taught us many things already.

Our next stop was in Landshut with some very interesting missionaries. Imagine a cute granpa-type man from South Carolina with a sanguine personality. Yes. Good times. Definately a lot of hilarious stories to go with that week including some "help" in finding ourselves husbands from our loveable missionary "uncle." During our week there, we helped clean the church, put tracts in mail boxes, and gave testimonies. We also got to go to Munich for a day. God showed me how empty Catholicism is and how much we need to share with others the HOPE we have in Christ.

Our adventure took us to Bad Heilbrunn which is close to the Alps. The mountain view was AMAZING. When we arrived the team was ready to be put to work. And work, we did. There was plenty of painting involved (mostly on the walls), packing books, cooking, and etc. This week was a very interesting and fun week fellowshiping with the missionary family and new German friends. We also were able to go sight-seeing. We saw some pretty neat castles, and many pictures were taken through out the day. It was neat to see the missionary's relationship with others in the church and to learn about his discipleship ministry. He really took the time to develop relationships with younger men and teach them more about the Scriptures. What an amazing example!

After Bad Heilbrunn we stayed in Ingolstadt with a German pastor and his family. They have six adorable kids but one problem: only the oldest could speak minimum English! It was a great week of learning as interacted with their kids. While in Ingolstadt we had some interesting adventures. We made a trip to Dachau which really... has stuck with me and made me realize more of the impact World War II had on the people over here. On a lighter note, the pastor took us downtown and let us loose... on bike! Riding a bike in Europe is different than in America, so this made for an interesting and fun adventure (including getting lost and trying to decipher a map). Fellowshiping with the believers and the children in this church was so amazing and encouraging. The pastor also had taught us so much. In addition, we had a very nice ice cream parlor across the street that we visited every now and then, including taking a troup of children to go get ice cream without adults. Seeing the results of the work of many missionaries had in this church really impressed upon me the ministry people can have others lives.

The last two weeks went by very quickly. First we were in Nuremburg, which was the city where Hitler came into power, so of course we visited the museum that talked about his rise of power and the conditions the country was in that aided his rising. This week was really stretching. For the first time in my life I participated in street evangelism. As I tried to smile, pass out tracts, and converse with people mixing German and English, I was hit with the spiritual condition of those in Germany. Many stiff armed me. Those who listened to what I had to say nodded but seemed only slightly interested. There was even a lady who yelled at one of my teammate's for trying to pass out tracts! Many have little or no interest in spiritual things, even less the gospel. Despite this set back, I was encouraged by some believers around my age who had greeted me as their "sister from America." I had a great time as God stretched me and taught me many new things that week.

My last week was spent in Berlin. Berlin was very different even in culture compared to the other places around Germany that we had been. I very much enjoyed the time we spent with the two ladies there. One was a mother whose husband was visiting churches in the states and one was a single missionary. We had a great time touring Berlin and meeting aquaintances of the single missionary. If there was any place devoid of passion for God, I think Berlin is definately one of those places. Berlin has definately been a harder mission field for the missionaries there, and now that I have been there, I know how to better pray for them. As I pray, I ask God that He send more help there for the missionaries and pray that they continue to receive the encouragement they need to continue on the ministry.

God taught me so much on my trip that I am sure I could write a book. And yes, this is a short version of my trip. Sorry for not posting for so long but I hope this post was worth the wait. And I definately have more to post in my blog. Many things have been happening in my life, and I am learning SO much. I love sharing what God teaches me!

Four Teeth Less Wise

Yesterday, I went to my long awaited appointment to Omaha. It was an early appointment to cut out all of my wisdom teeth. My mouth is too small to let them grow in fully (Yeah, I know ironic right?).

Constantly I was asked if I was nervous. My answer? Not really, I'm too tired to be nervous. Infact, I was pretty calm the entire time. Except when the oral surgeon was beating on my veins, attempting to find the perfect vein for the IV; he even said that they might try the veins in my feet (fortunately, a vein in my hand worked just fine). I wasn't put asleep, but I didn't feel any of the pain. Quite the surreal experience actually.

Overall, it was not too awful of an experience. However, now that I am supposed to eat soft food only and I am supposed to take it easy, all these food commercials are driving me up a wall. That's okay. I've always been inventive with my food (ex. PB&J without the bread, carnation milkshakes, etc).

So here I am, four teeh less wise, not feeling too much pain (thank you generic Vicodin), and preparing for my trip to Germany in less than a week.

Yup. Just another day on the ant hill.

Studying is STUDent dYING

You know finals week is coming when...

• People in the dorm start doing crazy/hilarious things
• The free box turns into a mountain of ugly clothes.
• Monster cans start piling in my room.
• Suite mates go crazy in the head (MORE than usual...)
• The desire to procrastinate sky rockets
• Eyes get redder by the day (Oh sleep, where did you go?!)
• Junk food finds its way in my room.
• My brain is full of thoughts of going home rather than studying.
• Stress is thick in the air.
• Coffee is practically my life's blood and Cafe Diem trips become more frequent.

Well... you get the idea. I have finals to take on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. I have to take my Greek final in the library sometime before Wednesday and work on my counseling final before Wednesday also. Then I can spend Thursday packing and cleaning. 5 days until I go home, and 16 days until I leave for Germany!

Almost to the End

Tomorrow is the last day of classes of my sophmore year! It has gone by SO fast. Is every year going to go by faster and faster?

Today was a beautiful day! As I was reading my last book assignment for the semester through half-closed eyes, I listened to the wooshing wind outside my window. The warm, sunny spring day was accompanied by pretty strong wind. At least it wasn't cold like last week!

After I struggled to stay awake while reading, I decided to take a short nap ONLY to find that my phone was missing. Great. So I trekked back to the computer lab where my phone was still there (yay!!!), checked out a book from the library for an extra credit book report, and came back to my room. After that came an eight minute nap, bdubs date with Ashley, orchestra, Disney songs in Ashley's car, IHOP devos, and now... a quick blog update before more studying and homework ensues!

Just another day on an ant hill among many.

Late Night

Late nights. My sophmore year has been filled with many nights of poring over my Greek book and notes while filling my homework out carefully. I have spent so much time translating and parsing, omai!

My friends for late night study this year are different. I have exchanged monster for cherry coke, a cheaper caffeinated alternative and discovered my new friend, cheese burger flavored doritos. I love them!

So, up til 3 in the morning, my companions helped me stay awake to finish out my homework. :)

Why "The Ant Hill"?

Welcome to my blog! This is my first step into the blogging world.

I'm sure, by now, you are wondering why I named my blog, The Ant Hill.

As I was contemplating names, a memory from Camp Northfield came to my mind which inspired such a name. The director had assigned the counselors an assignment that at the time I thought was pretty silly. He told us to watch an ant hill for about twenty minutes. We were supposed to do this probably about three different times.

As I observed a little ant hill at a sunny corner of camp, my mind drifted into thinking about what an big God I have. This little ant hill seemed much like how my life must look like to God. But yet, God knows everything about me! I'm just one person, of many, yet God knows every single detail of my life, even ones that I am not aware of yet.

So, as I post different things about my life, I am reminded I am like that little ant hill I watched at summer camp.

Psalm 139:1-3
O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.