new orleans: i was there in '99. it is crazy to think about the people i met, the beautiful faces that i was able to encounter... my sister, was to this city during the early spring of this year-- i wonder about her memories. i suspect some of you have traveled here as well... i remember one particular football player who attended crown for a short stint from this state... i wonder where he is at now. wow. so, friends. i am watching the news and reading the journalist's accounts alongside of you...

i love you guys and i do hope that things are well with you. i hope gas prices haven't made you someone ridiulously grumpy. (fuel/oil/petrol has always been quite a bit more expensive in some countries other than our own... let me know if you want to go road tripping in my geo-metro.)

oh... yeah. i am still working with grandmas and grandpas. i put their socks on in the morning.

(there are redish leaves in dunn co.-- and my "little" sister has begun her college orientation)

it is still august... so, august is the best star gazing month. for real. i am sorry i waited until the 31st to inform you.

-the mullet pictures made me want to spit, but deep down i almost like it.
((he should be wearing stonewash for me to do a doubletake though))
-i second the happy birthdayness, and i add "belated" for drama.

later.

Happy Birthday Gabe!

Hello all! Sorry for the mullet pictures, but it had to be done. I assume that everyone has been as busy as I have lately and have not been able to post, but I will take up Steve's challenge to post something of substance. Well, I officially began teaching at Crown on Tuesday, and 8 a.m. is oh so early to teach grammar to a classroom full of freshman and PSEO students who don't want to be there. I was a nervous wreck on Monday, but when I woke up on Tuesday I felt fine, and ever since it has gone smoothly. All of my students come to class 10-15 minutes early and just sit there (while I am usually in the hallway talking to Matt), but I am sure some of that eagerness will wear off soon enough. Their early arrival to class also means that they sit there and watch me set up my computer, and yesterday some major technological problems sent me running frantically to the IT people for help retrieving my power point while my students sat in silence, wondering what was going on. I was telling my brother about this and he said, "Lynnea, are you sure you want to be a power point teacher?" He proceeded to tell me that power point means that you have to "dumb it down" for the students. I told him that their first assignment was a five paragraph essay which I clearly articulated to them, but I received back papers with 3, 7, even 9 paragraph essays consisting almost entirely of fragmented sentences. He said, "Okay, stick with the power point." Yes, I've got my work cut out for me. I am enjoying it, though, and I am excited to hopefully see some major progress in many of the students.

My largest concern was that my students would question my authority because of my age, but that has not been the case (in my classes anyway). A girl in my class celebrated her seventeenth birthday yesterday, to her I must seem ancient. Overall, it has been great, but it has only been one week so we will see...Steve you are more than welcome to sit in on my class. E-mail me about the details. Hope life has been fabulous for all of you, I look forward to hearing about it on the blog, if any of you will also accept Steve's challenge to post...

Well, it seems like it's been a while since anything of some length was tossed about on here. Who better to waste your time and the blog space? First off, Lynnea, I would like to attend one of your classes next week while I'm in town, but if you're not comfortable with that, I'll go with Bubna's idea of wearing a disguise and sneaking in. I told him that the second option was not likely to work as he seemed to think, but it is just a backup plan if you wouldn't like to have your former classmates watching you fill the minds of new students just five years after we were such. Also, this is a general annoucement to all who are interested - I show up at MSP early afternoon on the 31st of August, and I leave again early the following Monday morning. Now, I am specifically occupied on Friday and Saturday with the wedding of Scott Johnson and Christina Gianoulis, and I'm planning to spend some time on campus (hoping to catch some Crown faculty - eh Lynnea?), but other than that, I'd be up for seeing anybody that wishes to take out some time for a wily old man called Hubka. Oh, and here would be a good place to interject that I have a date to Scott's wedding, and she is a wonderfully cute brunette with an MA in English and not enough forsight to tell me no. I've never actually had a date to a wedding (Krista doesn't count because she invited herself and we only saw each other at the reception between times when I was filming Bach and Jahnke). It's kinda exciting.
On a strangely parallel topic, I just returned Monday night from a visit with a woman that captured my heart when I met her - we were starting 7th grade at the time, but I knew then what an amazing woman she was and would be, so for the last decade, I have either wished, been, or wished to be again, completely hers. Like I said, I went to visit her, three hours north, a perfectly easy drive that I would willingly make were there to be some structural change to our relationship. We haven't lived in the same time zone since we were 9th graders until now, but we've at least stayed in touch, and I have held out hope for quite some time that I would get a chance to win her affections. Well, she still completely has me. She convinced me to go kayaking - and you know how much I hate/fear deep water. We stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, baking cookies and looking at old photos and watching Comedy Central clips on her cell phone. Of course, there is a problem in all this. No, not the three hours separating us physically. Not desire on my end. Not even a denial of it on hers. No, the real problem is her boyfriend. Yep, that's right. I spent two days pining over a very close friend with a boyfriend. That does weigh a bit on one's mind - hanging out with the boyfriend that you wish to be. Feeling that your jobless state is lame next to... well, anyone. And just looking at his arms built like my thighs and his chest as wide as my torso is tall, I felt a little outdone. But I'll hold out. I mean, things could be worse. I've spent a few minutes trying to figure out how things could be worse, and all I came up with was the thought of a world without penguins (March of the Penguins is a wonderful movie, in contrast with the normal movies I endorse on here), and a world without Quiznos... yeah, this blog is falling apart. I guess I really can't convey in such a short space the ebb and flow of emotions that followed this celestial movement in my little world. Shoot, maybe I'll be singing a different tune here in a few days after my outing with Ms. MA, or MF, however you want to hide her identity. The moon is always changing, and so maybe there will be a new one to move my tides here soon enough. But the thing is, the new moon is really always the same old moon reappearing in an orderly fashion, and so maybe this is a terrible analogy, or maybe there is just one moon that holds a consistant course in my life, and I just need to acknowledge that. Well, maybe this will remind you all that I have only pictures and short sentences from the rest of you, and no matter how uninterested you are in my awkward life, I am interested in yours, so here's my classic invitation to blog away. I'll see many of you very soon here, and to the rest of you, until next blog.

Of course I HAD to ask him if the mullet was real...it was. He said that it was a "fashion mullet" and that it is all the rage in England. I personally think he is just a bit insane.  

Oxford Highlight: I know that most of you don't really care about what I am studying and all that (most of it IS pretty boring), but here is a highlight I know the Crown population will find interesting. I went to this Lebanese place to eat one night, and there was this man with the most ridiculous mullet I have ever seen! Here's a picture to prove it...

So I was riding with the fam after lunch today, and an interesting topic came up, quite by accident, mind you. My brother was in a church-sponsored golf tournament, and I made the casual suggestion that Jesus didn't seem like the golfing type, to me. If we're talking mainstream sports, I saw him as a soccer player, a midfielder for some reason. Maybe because I've seen soccer guys that look like Anglo-westernized Jesus more than football or baseball players. But I think it's a personality thing. Actually, I figure his sport would be ultimate frisbee. Not that I think because many of our comrades enjoyed that game it means the savior of the world should automatically be inclined towards it, as well. I didn't know if anybody had any other thoughts on the matter. I guess it'd be a little scary picking teams, because nobody would want to not be picked by Jesus. There's a theological quandry: Does Jesus pick you to play ultimate, or do you choose to play with him? I think some good Calvinists would have something important to say about all this predistined frisbee game. I'll keep this short. Later all.

So, I think that it has probably been about 6 months since I have even signed on to this thing. It came up in a conversation with my brother, and thought that it was about time that I got back on. It sounds like everyone is doing well for the most part though. Update on me...I have been looking for a new job these past few months, and believe that I am going to accept an offer that my boss gave me on Sunday evening. There have been some changes in my company, and my position was being eliminated as a full-time job. My boss decided to create a different job, and is offering me double my current salary, double my vacation, and a retirement plan(which I currently don't have). Can I really turn that down? At first glance, no but, I feel like I should do the good Christian thing, and pray about it for a couple of days. I have been keeping real busy with youth group stuff at my church. Too bad they can't afford to hire me on, since everytime I walk through the doors, someone asks if I am being paid yet. I think that I work more hours than our paid intern for the jr. high. Oh well, I love the kids, and am not discouraged by the lack of money coming in for something that I love. I have also been spending a lot of time with my brothers. Seth is 15 and we are very tight. I seem to be afraid that one of these days, he going to wake up and want nothing to do with me. Hopefully he will never become too cool for his big sis. Josh is 19, and starting at Bethel in the fall. Josh and I have had no relationship for the most part the past 6 years or so. He has walked away from the Lord, and then come back in dramatic fashion. I have been praying for this miracle for so long. It has been 6 months of trying to start a friendship with him. It has been a long time since I have spent a considerble amount of time with a new Christian, and am reminded of blessed I am to have a personal relationship with our Lord. It has been so fun to be talking with him and listening to how he views things that God gives us, but I take for granted. Thank you Lord, for the reminders. Even though there have been many blessings, it has been hard also. There is always wondering if he is going to fall back into his old ways, or wondering if he is being truthful after years of lying about everything. I have also recently found out some stuff about what he has done, and it was really hard. It is all still sinking in, but hard knowing that my little brother could have been in a lot more trouble than he is now. In the end, I just keep reminding myself that God had him go through these experiences for a reason, and will use the good, bad, and the ugly of all of us for His glory. Hope everyone is doing well!

An Update on my student.... Mostly for Gabe.
He is doing well. He came thru surgery well and we joking within 5 or 6 hours. Major relief off my chest! Now we just have to wait to see how the rest of recovery goes.

Its humbling walking into a room and seeing your student unconcious with tubes down his throat, IV's in his arms, monitors all around, and a mask on his face. Makes you VERY thankful for technology.

Folkestad