31. MS&T

As a Truman Bulldog, I felt that it was my duty to check out our technical counterpart, MS&T, and draw comparisons accordingly. Also, I recently realized that I've lived in Rolla for 5 years, and never been anywhere on campus except Havener Center and Leech Theatre. This afternoon, when the rain let up, a kind and gracious MS&T student gave me a tour of the campus. For being populated by a bunch of engineer students and professors, it was surprisingly beautiful. :) My favorite building was definitely the Mechanical Engineering building.

I really enjoyed it.
I'm glad I'm going to Truman.
That's all.

-Rebekah

16. Floating Away on a Cloud

Completed one more item! Our family float trip this past Monday was a smashing success. Kudos to Mrs. Hickle for being the great mastermind behind it - I love her mass amounts.

Basically, the trip consisted of:
Nathan and David tipping their canoe.
Nathan and David trying to maintain control of the bag of Sour Patch Kids.
Nathan and David tipping Abby and Sarah for unknown reasons.
Nathan and David trying to sleep on our trampoline afterward.
Nathan and David both serving the volleyball very close to the vicinity of my head.

Do you see a recurring theme? Nathan declared it the worst float trip he'd ever been on. I must admit that the weather was a bit chilly, and the water even chillier - and guess what? He confirmed that it was cold all four times he was tipped. I asked, just to be sure.

w00t for fun times, and being squished into the back seat of a van with three boys. I can't really imagine much more fun. OH! And I found a heart-shaped rock, as did Esther Nail. She basically rocks my socks. As does Abby. "Aflack!"

The *cough* Packing List *cough*

Well.
I have been packing. Literally.
Unfortunately, I have also been failing miserably at my other sort of packing. As in, my packing list.

Help! I am an over-committed list-maker of the worst kind! I need some sort of anonymous support group to assist.

But that's what friends are for, right? Below, I've listed the items that I think friends could definitely help me accomplish. Send me an e-mail if you think you can. :) I won't get it until we get home from Ecuador (August 3rd), but from then until move-in at Truman, I have 2.5 weeks. So let me know!!

3. Take on the Shed as a project - make it a great hang out spot for teens, that Abby and Zeke can use for entertaining through out their highschool years. Decorate, and fix it up. . . still working on brainstorming exact ideas.
5. Visit Elephant Rocks and Johnson's Shut-Ins, possibly with several other homeschool families (can't you just see the caravan of 15 passenger vans?)
8. Learn how to do a cartwheel
13. Make memorizing Scripture a habit
15. Have many, many Board Game Nights, Bonfires, Movie Nights (co-ed in the shed!), Outside Game Days, Volleyball at the Park Nights, etc.
18. Finish some of the many family photo projects we have
20. Fly a kite successfully (yeah, I've never done this) - Alida and Sonja
22. Complete a game of Monopoly with Zeke - Zeke (go figure)
23. Make and freeze tubs of cookie dough, for my family to use, and to bless others with (Zeke said, "We'll have to ration them. . .")
24. Learn how to drive a stick-shift
25. Shoot a gun (maybe - I haven't decided if I'll actually go through with this one or not)
26. Dissect the fetal pig that I still have left from senior year Anatomy
27. Scientifically determine whether cookie dough ice cream has chunks of plain, or chocolate chip cookie dough in it, preferably with friends
28. Touch a cow - the ante has been upped. I now have to kiss a cow!
29. Have my picture taken with Alida

Happy Birthday Zeke!

Wow, 13 years old. Yikes. Somehow, it’s never weird when Andy turns a year older. I guess it’s because he’s my older brother, and it makes sense for him to grow up. But with Zeke, it’s just different. I’m not ready for him to be all grown up yet! Although, I must admit it is nice that he’s beginning to mature. :D That, I can live with.

What I can’t live with is that he’s now taller than me. Sigh. I gave him a hug yesterday, and was shocked to discover that I wasn’t reaching down to hug a little boy anymore. I vividly remember when he was the same height that I was when I stood on my knees. We were so proud to be exactly the same height. Now – we are the same height. And I am not proud.

But it’s true – he’s growing up. Next thing I know, he’s going to be graduating, heading off to college, or announcing his engagement. Time sure flies.

 

Okay, so maybe it doesn’t fly that fast. But still.

 

If I had to sum up my favorite things about Zeke, with using only single words, these would be some of them:

Dimples. Trampoline. Strawberries. Words. Laughter. Monopoly. Mirrors. Weight. Enthusiasm. Singing. Dancing. Big Toe. Matching. Crocs. Family Devos. Blond Eyebrows. Brother. Teammate/Partner in Crime.

Love you kiddo! Keep siding with me against Andy and Abby, and life will stay happy. I might even buy you chocolate, and cease bossing you every second of the day. But that’s only a maybe – no promises.

An Update!

Okay, so rather than actually eliminating things on my list, I seem to keep adding them. :) I'm going to have a busy August!

Adding,
32. Watch Napolean Dynamite with Ashley R. And if you have never seen this classic, you need to come too. Just saying.

Take You Back - Jeremy Camp

The reason why I stand

The answer lies in You
You hung to make me strong
And though my praise was few
When I fall I bring Your name down
But I have found in You
A heart that bleeds forgiveness
Replacing all these thoughts that have overtaken me
But I know that Your response will always be

I'll take you back
Always
Even when your fight is over now
I'll take you back
Always
Even when the pain is coming through
I'll take you back

You satisfy this cry
Of what I'm looking for
And I'll take all I can
And lay it down before
The throne of endless grace now
That radiates what's true
I'm in the only place that
Erases all these faults that have overtaken me
But I know that Your response will always be

I'll take you back
Always
Even when your fight is over now
I'll take you back
Always
Even when the pain is coming through
I'll take you back

I can only speak with a grateful heart
As I'm pierced by this gift of Your love
I will always bring an offering
I can never thank you enough

You take me back
Always
Even when my fight is over now
You take me back
Always
Even when the pain is coming through
You take me back

Fourth of July

Everyone in our family, except Dad, headed up to Forrest, Illinois for the fourth this year. It’s become something of a tradition, and a sort of family reunion – we always have a picnic at the park, and do games and stuff at Grandma’s house afterwards. This year was no exception – although it rained all day on the fourth, we braved the wet-ness and had lunch in the enclosed pavilion at the park, even venturing to do a cherry seed spitting contest! Here are some pictures from the trip.

  Abby had been in Michigan for about 2 weeks before this trip, and we met up with her at Grandma’s house. Apparently, she missed Zeke. :)

 

My Grandma, Aunt, and Mum with Isaac and two little cousins

 We know this game as “Redneck Golf,” but they called it Ladder ball. I was the worst, by far. :)

 

Andy got to judge the adults’ cherry seed spitting contest – and here I am, trying to get Aunt Kiersten to explain how in the world one spits a cherry seed. I never did figure it out. :) See? Here’s Grandpa doing it – he actually did a pretty good job!

 

           Elizabeth’s birthday was on the 5th, so we had an ice cream cake to celebrate.

 

So, my almost-7-year-old brother can play pool.  Who knew?

 

 

Aww, look at how cute they are! Nick and Ben, my cousins from Dubia. They made the weekend quite fun – I think in this photo, they were showing me what they did when Abby was reading The Odyssey to them the night before. lol.

Breaking News!!!!

Hmmmm.

Hello.

My name is Becky.

And this is my brio.

And that is the Italian word for life.

Oh right. Breaking news.

My favoritest cousin is back!

Wahoooo!

His name is Ben.

And he can count to ten.

Can I borrow a pen?

Just for a lend.

My good friend Glen.

Or I'll throw you in the lion's den!

Amen.

God Bless America!

He calls me "Mom" and "Cutie Pie" - they all do. The people - I think they're jealous. Just 'cause I know the Secret. We don't have much time. If we work together, we can save the world. lalala.

All right. Now think of something really awesome.

And cube it.

And multiply it by two.

Now imagine it riding on an elephant.

A pink one.

And now imagine it had a son.

That's even cooler than it.

Now imagine Ben.

Same thing, right?

I'm just warning you - you have brought this "upun" yourself.

To write with a broken pencil is pointless.

I know, "write"?

Peace out, y'all.

Has anyone seen my horn?

A beautiful poem, by a lovely young lady.

The Recabites – Who would have thought?

This morning, I came to Jeremiah 35 in my devotional reading. I’ve been reading through Jeremiah and I Thessalonians simultaneously, and I must admit that I typically go into my quiet times expecting to “get more” out of my New Testament chapters. But today was different. I couldn’t recall ever having read it before, but the story of the Recabites was really interesting. Isn’t this so very applicable to our lives as Christians today? How often do we see “good” people (or even not-so-good people) so dedicated to what they do, whether it be a charity, a sports team, or their job? There’s definitely nothing wrong with this. . . but why are they often so much more dedicated than the majority of Christians are to God? It’s particularly thought-provoking when you realize that their efforts and works are totally useless.

So the question that came to mind was this – why am I, as a Christian, such a slacker? Why do I continually come up with excuses for why I’m not as sold-out to God as He asks me to be? I say to myself so often, “Well, I’m just too busy.” Doesn’t the word too in that sentence indicate a need for change, a realization that something is wrong with the way I live my life? If I’m to busy to be obeying God, then something’s up. And when I say “obeying God,” I’m not really sure what I mean – I guess everything, from the command to spread the Gospel, to His desire that we be holy, as He is.

But see, here’s the other thing that I thought of. Simply thinking, “Oh, I need to go do so that I can be obeying God!” isn’t the point. Rushing around and doing good things, regardless of how much they might serve God, is not what God wants from us. Check this out – His very words: "This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go and tell the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem, 'Will you not learn a lesson and obey my words?' declares the LORD.” (vs. 13) He was ticked off at His chosen people, and I would have been too! I mean, they had the Living God to serve, the great I AM, giving them commands – these Recabites were following what a dead ancestor had told them to do! Hello?

So what does God want? Why was He upset with His people? It comes down to relationship. Our God is a jealous God – the Israelites were following idols, and being sold out to other things besides Him. They were placing anything and everything before their relationship with God. Sound familiar? God desires us, wholly and completely. Now the real question: What am I going to do about it? In what ways am I letting those un-believers around me “outshine” me in their dedication to what they believe in? How can I change that, not by simply doing for the sake of doing, but developing a relationship with Him that drives me to obedience?

Windows Live – What is this?

Wow, so I recently decided that, since I am the proud owner of three, count them three e-mail addresses, I would try to be all nifty and smart and get them all sent to the same account. Then, I discover this amazing this called Windows Live, which just combines every thing you could ever hope for! And do I sound like an annoying infomercial yet? Anyways, I’m writing this using “Windows Live Writer” . . . I have yet to discover all it’s amazing tools, but I do see a little picture button over there on the side. Let’s see what that does. Would you look at that! It lets you add a picture! And you can even drag the picture around the page and change its size and all sorts of incredible things! Rounded corners!!! Oh my. This is almost as cool as Mum teaching me how to text last night. I’m lovin’ it – moving into the 21st (or wait, is it 20th? I can never remember how that works) century step by step. Watch out world, here I come!

No, I did not have caffeine tonight, why do you ask?

 

-Rebekah, the ridiculous