The Admiral

This is my latest project in my ceramics class. We had to slab or model a palm-sized object or do a self-portrait bust. My classmate is an excellent sculptor and he did a self-portrait of himself. I knew I would not be able to do that so I went out and bought a kids' toy and decided to model it. I went to Wal-mart and all they had was Strawberry Shortcake and Avatar figures so when I found this little Star Wars alien I chose him. Our finished project had to be about a foot tall. I think this guy is a bit taller than that.

He was so fun to make. I would have never picked this project for myself. I like throwing and am interested in slab-building, but I would never of my own accord make a model of something as useless as an alien. As it turns out, he is my favorite object I've ever made. I'm SO glad my teacher gave us this assignment. Even if I never do anything with the Admiral, I had a lot of fun making him and I learned some stuff while making him. It was great. I hope I get a good grade on him! I'll try to update this with a picture of the toy I modeled it after.

Bringin' back the hairbow...

Paper-napkin style! :) Not really. We were just being silly. I love being a girl and pal-ing around with my girlfriends. It's so fun to be able to talk about girly stuff and make silly paper-napkin hairbows and share our lives. I've had the opportunity to meet some wonderful girl friends up here. We have fun together. We all went to Campus Crusade for Christ on Thursday and afterwards we went up to the student center to hang out and get free food. Molly and me

Whitney and Courteney

Amanda thinks something is really funny!

All of us girls. :) Unfortunately, my camera has been on the fritz lately. I'm worried that it got too wet when I took it outside during the snowstorm last weekend. It's been a trusty camera for the past few years...hopefully it will last a bit longer. It's really hard to get a clear picture and lately it won't turn on properly. Pleeease don't die, camera! I need you!

I finished a ceramics project. I'll try to get pictures soon!

Sunday, Sunday...

So far we have been surviving our cold, snowy weather. I am seriously not used to this much snow. It snows every day it seems. And the roads are getting all messed up. My little car doesn't like it very much. And our city won't scrape the sidewalks which the students hate! snow

I went to church today with my friend. I only started going to this church since the beginning of this semester and I can't say how much I like it there. The teacher is really good and I come away with a lot each week. I feel so blessed to go there. It seems like a young church. It's small and they meet in an old theatre downtown. A lot of people from Campus Crusade for Christ go there too so I was pleasantly surprised when I visited and recognized or knew quite a few people. I go to a small group Bible study that meets in the home of one of the couples and in just a few weeks I feel like I'm already a part of that body of Christ. It's a blessing.

After church my friend and I went across the street to a little restaurant called Madeline's. We go there occasionally after church for lunch and it's a cool little place. It seems like everything is home-made, not heated out of a package which we all appreciate. :) I enjoy places like that much more than a chain restaurant.

Ha ha, I included this picture of the ladies' restroom. It's kind of an intense room...so purple and cheetah-ey...it makes me laugh. We are considering finding a guy friend to go into the mens' restroom to take a picture so we can tell if it is as wildly decorated. We are curious. Hee hee.

So it's Valentines Day. On Friday nights I go to a Women's Bible study that is through Campus Crusade for Christ. It's awesome. I love ladies' Bible studies. So on Friday the guys' Bible study gave a big bouquet of roses to the girls at the womens' Bible study. I don't really buy into this holiday. I think it's kind of silly. But I know I wasn't the only girl who thought it was really sweet of them. :) Nice move, guys! On the subject of Valentines day so many people I know are bummed because they don't have dates. It is kind of funny actually. Some years I am bummed too, but this year I don't really mind not having a date or valentine. I'm going to my friend's house tonight with my roommate to watch chick-flicks and hang out (I'm sure chocolate will be involved *smile*) for the holiday. Whether or not I have a special guy friend for Valentines day I feel so incredibly loved by my family, dear friends and especially by Christ. I can't say enough how amazing it is to me that He loves me. This semester I have become more aware than I ever was of how greatly He loves us. I mess up so often and am so selfish and act in what I think are my best interests and He always forgives; always takes me back, builds me up and then gives me another chance. Who else does that?

I hope your Valentines day is full of love from the people around you. Have a marvelous day!

Drawing class

My teacher has been making us do still life sketches. We're going to start working with value this week.
I still don't draw very well. At all. But I am excited that my drawing resembles the still life my teacher set up.
I am glad to announce that I no longer am about to have a panic attack when I go into that class. The first class we had my teacher set up a skeleton in the middle of the room and said, "okay, everyone draw this." I almost packed everything up and left. I was like, "there is NO way I can do that...no way!" But I didn't run away screaming, I stayed. And it's cool because I can see some improvements! This makes me so happy!

Snowstorm!

We had a snowstorm here! School is closed tomorrow...we never close! This is so exciting! It's my second snow day EVER! We got about 15 inches of snow here. Back home they have about 3 feet! 15 inches is enough trouble to maneuver in. I've never even seen three feet of snow.
(layering up on our gloves...next item to buy: insulated gloves! I didn't even think to get any until this storm hit!)

Anyway, I usually hate snow. I complain about it and say how terrible it is. But I think I like snow up here. This past weekend has been fun! My dear friend got stranded at my dorm with me and my roomie (who also is my dear friend) for two nights and we had a blast together! We got Nutella and pretzels and Reisens and played outside, listened to music, watched youtube videos of Christian 80s rock bands (their hair is hil-hair-ious), veggie tales silly songs with Larry (who knew there were so many?), made awesome dinosaur sandwiches and talked...talked...talked. I also got to see my sister and her husband and my niece who were traveling back home this weekend. Thankfully they made it back safely!

Here are a few pictures from the weekend! I'm so glad I don't have to go to classes tomorrow! It's so exciting!Cleaning my car. My RA was kind enough to lend me his scraper so I could get the snow off my car so I could get into my car to get my scraper. I'm wearing my new $3 hat! It's totally awesome!

Beautiful snow-covered branches.

The little seating area outside our dorm.

Our Resident Faculty Leaders brought food over from the dining halls and cooked a bunch of hotdogs for us so we wouldn't have to walk down to the dining hall for lunch. They also hosted a pancake dinner for us.

This is one of the guys from my dorm. He and his best friends who live here are sort of like a "breakfast club." We've got the smart guy, the jock, the quiet one and the clown. They come to our dorm Bible study and they're hilarious. This guy was running around outside WITHOUT SHOES!!!! I told him to "get thee inside and put some socks on, fool!" These freshmen (shakes head)...We made a trip to the store to get...um...provisions. Of candy and such. Well, we like to be prepared!We went outside at night while we only had about 6 inches.

Boy, do I look 80s here or what?

Some of the people from my dorm went sledding down one of the big hills. They were having so much fun! We opted out of sledding, but we still had fun too.Cold!

Unfortunately, you can't see it here, but it was so sparkly and it looked like glitter. Or a giant opal or something.
Okay, these dinosaur sandwich cutters are quite possibly the best 3 dollars I ever spent, (besides my new most favorite hat in the world which was also three dollars it has ear flaps and is lined with fleece. And it's fairisle...completely amazing!). Lunch is so much fun now!
And the next day the sun came out for awhile. It was so pretty to see the blue sky! It went away pretty quickly and it even was flurrying again today. We sure have had a cold, snowy winter this year! I can't say it enough, I'm so excited to have a snowday tomorrow! The gym will be open and hopefully the studio will be too. If so, then I think tomorrow is going to be a really fun day!