Like Emma just said, we got back from CO two days ago. We stayed in a friend’s cabin in the woods, which was surrounded by the spectacular Rocky mountains, ranging from 12 to 14 thousand feet.  We did a lot of fun stuff…we climbed a 12,000′ mountain (although, we drove most of the way…but we climbed the last 600), we fed and petted wild chipmunks (they were used to tourists), we visited a ghost town (from the mid-1800s!), we visited the Focus on the Family headquarters (and Whit’s End), we went to a sweet shop in Boulder ( Anja’s personal favorite) that had basically any kind of candy you can imagine, even those chocolate frogs with collectible wizard cards from Harry Potter, and Jelly Belly’s flavored disgusting things like boogers and pepper (yuck)! My favorite part was (I’m crazy about wolves), this thing where they rescued and tamed wolves and wolf-dogs. I got to go into a cage with these two wolves, Ranger and Willow. Ranger was pretty shy, but Willow was very friendly. She let me rub her belly and she even licked my face (now I can say I’ve been kissed by a wolf, and that doesn’t happen every day).

We DID do a LOT of fun stuff in Colorado, but we also got to see God’s amazing work. How can people look at those mountains and say that there is no God? We had lots of devotions and quiet times while we were in the mountains, and just took the time to relax and talk to God. I found myself thanking him multiple times throughout the week, just for everything. At night when we stood on the deck and saw the stars, we could see all of the constellations, Mars, the Adromada galaxy, and even the Milky way. How often do you get to see that? Or when we were standing on the top of the Collegiate mountains, looking at the clouds below us and listening to the absolute silence. I see pictures like that on postcards and in magazines, but I just kind of take it for granted. I think it’s pretty, but I don’t take the time to think that it’s actually there. And the same God who made those mountains made me.

We had a great time in Colorado, and it looks like we are probably going to move there. But we’ll see. For now, we’re in 106 degree Texas, staying inside until it cools down. And for now, we’re happy. (come on, colorado, come on, colorado, come on, come on!)

We are going to visit Colorado on the 11th, because that is where we feel God is calling us to go after seminary. We’ve never been, and are VERY excited. It sounds like we might be planting a church in Boulder or some surrounding area. The only scary part is that we have to drive up and down the side of a mountain to get there and back. So, please pray that we will have a safe journey and that it will be very clear as to whether God wants us there or not.

You won’t believe this–I’m sending this from Cape Town! In Africa! Remember that time when I said we might be going to Israel? Well, there was a change of plans (it’s a long story), and we went to Africa instead! Dad’s professor payed for most of it and I saved about $300 and gave him that. Emma and Anja are at my grandmother’s house. They were very upset that they didn’t get to go.

Well, we’ve been here for about three days, and we’re going to Egypt in a week!! I can’t wait! Well, a lot has been going on around here. Dad actually got bit by some sort of viper! The doctor’s say he’ll be okay. I hope so. He’s in a hospital right now called Cape Raale. I’m not exactly sure what ‘Raale’ means. Things here are very different from America. It’s really sad. Being here just proves how lucky we are and how much we take for granted. We’re staying in Mr. Jayler’s home. He has a little two-year-old girl named–I’m not sure how to spell it… Radel? Well, anyway, she’s adorable! People here don’t know much english and I keep forgetting that. I’ll say something and their response will be a quizzical look. Thankfully, though, we have a translator, Carl, and Mr. Jayler knows a little. Well, I gotta go now. The computer is running very slow, and every word takes a long time to register. And, plus, well, I’m afraid that if I say to much, then you might discover that this is an April Fool’s trick.

….

oops.

I finally got a laptop! I’ve been wanting one for FOREVER!!! YAY!!! HURAY!!! I think I might just hyperventilate… YAY!!! I spelled hyperventilate right the first time… now I really will…. good…night…

Well, sorry about that. That was… well, embarassing. Um… right. This is how I got it:

I’ve been wanting one for a very, very, long time, and then someone posted a message on Swiss saying that they are selling a Dell for $75! I had more than that, because I had been saving for a loong time. So, I bought it. And THEN, Dad’s boss said that he got a lot of free laptops, and if he got one better than that, he’d give it to me! And he did! Now I have a really nice Intel, and we gave the other one to some friends that didn’t have a computer. So, it all turned out GREAT!! And I’ve got a wonderful story idea that I would like to start now. Well, good-bye all ye peeps!

Anyway, I’ll finish what I started last night. Dad is now a night-guard at our church, Fellowship Bible Dallas. He works Monday through Saturday. He doesn’t work all night, thank goodness. He works from 5-10 p.m. I shouldn’t be scared, but I kind of am. I mean, what are the chances that some criminal will come in with a gun and shoot him, and rob… what? The few dollars that are in the offering box? I don’t know. I shouldn’t be afraid. Anyway, that’s all I really had to say. And I’ve gotta cookie on the table waiting for me… yum!   Bye!

Okay, I’ve got a lot to say… well, here goes!

Usually every year we get a lot of scholarships, narrowing the tuition down to about $500 or $1000. But this year, we applied for the scholarships a day to late, and they said that they had run out of funding. And if we didn’t pay at least some of our tuition before Dec. 3rd, Dad would have to drop his classes and we’d get kicked out of Swiss! A week later… nothing. Another week, and still nothing. Eight days to go…

Finally, Wednesday, Nov. the 25th, a scholarship came in. The same day, another came. Two days later, yet another came in. And they kept coming, and now, Dec. 2nd, we only have $1000 left to pay. Now that we’ve paid most of it, Dad can still take his classes, and I know God will provide the rest.

Also, rent is due today (but we still have to Dec. 5th before we have to pay any late fees), and just today we got a letter under our door saying, ‘We are planning to give you $700.00 – you will receive it Thursday afternoon. With love.’ It was anonymous. So both our tuition and rent have been paid!

And, dad got a new job, he– oh, gotta go to A.W.A.N.A.! I’ll post about that when I get back.

I said I’d try to post more, but I haven’t been. I’ve been trying for a long time. I sit at the computer, staring at the blank page for hours, and just give up. Nothing is really happening, but there is a bunch of stuff that’s about to happen. It seems as if it is always that way. It seems as though I’m always bored, staring at the calendar waiting for something to happen. And plenty of times, I’m interrupted by a friend coming up to play, or something else fun like that. And normally, I’d have a lot of fun with them. But because I am looking forward to the day on the calendar when something big happens, I hardly notice that I am actually having fun. And the funny thing is, when that day on the calendar finally arrives, I am still blind to the fun that I am having there, because some other bigger more exciting event is distracting me once more. I wish that I were more laid back so I could take the time to enjoy all the friends and family and fun that are staring me in the face. I wish I were more thankful for today instead of longing for tomorrow.

Well, I suppose I’ll just tell you about my day. We woke up at about 8:00, ate breakfast, and left for S.W.I.N.G. (Seminary Wives In Nurturing Groups), which is every other Tuesday. The moms did a bible study there, and us kids did some of our school, had snack, and played on the playground. It was basically like a mini school, except for it was for homeschooling kids and it only lasted about two hours. Usually afterward, our S.W.I.N.G. group would go to a park and have a picnic together, but we didn’t this time, because it was to cold. So instead, we all went to the Bults (one of the families in the group). After that, we came home and just hung out (clean, practice piano, read, play on computer, call friends, watch Monk, invite the Harrison’s up). We ‘hung out’ till about 4:00, then Mom and Dad went on a walk while we stayed home. I worked on one of my books and Emma and Anja played superheroes (they play that a lot, and it’s pretty cool. It’s more like wizards than it is superheroes. I’m actually working on a book based on their game). After that we cleaned up and Emma and Anja went to bed, and I am sitting here at 10:04 p.m. typing this. Wait– 10:04?! Oh, sorry, I gotta go to bed!

Yesterday was Emma’s 10th birthday! First, right when we woke up, Emma opened our presents. I gave her a necklace that she’d been wanting for a long time from the bookstore. Anja gave her a 2010 calendar,  peppermint body-lotion, berry incense, and sour icebreakers. Everything that Anja got her cost $1.(“I was going to get you a snow-globe,” Anja said, “but it costed $2.”)

Then we all hopped in the car to go to Waffle House(a family tradition). But the car wouldn’t start! It’s battery was completely dead. It was because we had lent our car to someone the night before, and they had accidentally left the dome lights on, which drained the battery. So, we waited and waited until finally some nice man came and jumped our car. That was the tragedy for the day.

After a delicious, filling breakfast from Waffle House, we went to pick up Kaylee(the baby we watch, now a year old), then went straight to PetLand. PetLand is a pet store with ferrets, rats, guinea-pigs, rabbits, hamsters, dogs, parrots, chickadees, cockatiels, finches, doves, hedgehogs, and basically any domestic animal imaginable. But strangely, there were not any cats. Well, anyway, you could hold every single animal there. And, being a family that loves and is accustomed to having animals(and lives in an apartment where no animals except for birds and fish are allowed), we like to go to PetLand to get our ‘animal fix’.

After PetLand, we went home and put Kaylee down for a nap. While she slept, Emma opened Mom and Dad’s present. They gave her rollerblades. She was thrilled; she’s been wanting some for years. After that, our friends, the Harrison’s, came up to play. When they left, we went down to the fireside room and ate sushi for dinner(yum!). Then Kaylee’s mom came and picked her up, and we went upstairs again. We were going to go to a really cool astronomy place where we could look through telescopes and be given a tour. But I don’t know why we didn’t, I think because it was to cloudy or some dumb reason like that. I was really looking forward to it. Oh, well. Instead of that, we watched part of a show called Sara Jane, but Emma got to scared so we didn’t finish it. Then we just went to bed, and I stayed up late writing in my journal.

Emma thinks that the best part of turning 10 is that she’s going into double digits. I think that the best part of her turning 10 is she’s old enough to take out the trash and do laundery. I’ve been looking forward to that day for a very long time.

Sorry this is late. Well, anyway, this is what we did for the fourth.

There was a severe heat warning for our area, and it said that it was probably best not to go see fireworks. So, instead we rented ‘Inkheart’, and Mom made some delicious homemade sushi. And we did get to see two or three distant fireworks out of our apartment window. It was very fun. Again, sorry this is late.

My dad did a video project for one of his professors, so his professor said that next summer he was going on a missions trip to Israel, and he said dad could go for free, and mom for half-price! That has always been mom’s dream, and mine, too. I’ve always wanted to go somewhere other that America, but I can’t go. It costs around $3,000 to $4,000!!! There’s no way an 11 year old girl can save up $4,000 before next summer! I am praying, but am doubtful. Maybe……