Grandpa

It's been a very long and difficult past 5 days. My Grandpa Starman passed away on Thursday evening. He was out for his daily walk and slipped on the ice and hit his head...causing bleeding on the brain. My dad and his family had to take him off of life support later that night. It was all very sudden and very much a shock. He was well-loved, the father of my Dad's farm, our family's faith, an incredibly talented wood worker, a passionate accordian player and singer, and a dearly loved Grandpa and father and husband and brother and friend....I'm too tired and overwhelmed to blog anything other than the only thing that has mattered to me in the past few days, so I'm sharing with you the poem I wrote in his memory. Please keep him and my Grandma and family in your prayers...and have a blessed week.

The Carpenter

You say my Grandpa was a carpenter

who crafted perfection from wood,

but my Grandpa was an artist

who created beauty lik no one else could.

With music in his heart,

Grandpa was a carpenter who could sing.

His life and creations were a song

whose lyrics will forever ring.

A carpenter can construct a house,

not a home like Grandpa would build

as he tirelessly toiled for his family

who grew strong on the land he had tilled.

And as a carpenter forms wood,

Grandpa built a faith he held dear,

carrying it and sharing it with determination

to remind all that God is always near.

Carpenters need nails to close

the places Grandpa simply used his heart to fill.

He was building memories and lessons

that will remain inour hearts forever - building still.

You say my Grandpa was a carpenter,

but he's an artist, singing now above,

for God build a house in Heaven

where the carpenter can rest forever in love.

Annnnnddd We're Back.

My 8th and final semester at MMC is officially under way. I have successfully lived through my LAST first Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of a semester at Mount Marty. :P Haha. I'm going to be dramatic about this 1) because I can be, 2) because I've spent a lot of time in dear old Yankton and I cannot fathom leaving, 3) graduating and leaving my friends is a very depressing thought (despite the excitement of the graduation itself). I gave that LAST first line to a friend who's in grad school right now and he laughed at me and said that another girl from Omaha said the same thing to him that day. He attributes the sentimental value of it to "a girl thing." So, if you're male and think I'm crazy, know that other females are as well.

I'll give you a run-down of my classes this semester even if it is a boring thing to discuss because it's very probable you'll hear me comment on one or two of them before the year's over. I am currently registered for 19 credits (no rest for the weary) - Chamber choir, mixed choir, genetics, writing and publishing, chemistry seminar, symbol and sacrament, sociology, and the Gospel of John. After three days of classes, I'm still excited about the learning opportunities in this random array of classes. It's fun to be a senior and have the opportunity to fill your schedule in with random things that have no value to your graduation status other than general credits - credits that I'm taking for the general excitement of learning. Take Symbol and Sacrament and The Gospel of John for instance. Neither of these classes are doing a thing to fill requirements for graduation, but I'm ready to be enlightened by S. Marielle's impressive knowledge of the subjects. I'm taking the Gospel of John class as an independent study course with another friend and under the instruction of S. Marielle. We met for the first time yesterday to plan out an initial course of action and I'm already fascinated. Choir is always a fun adventure - in particular this semester as we will be going on a recruitment tour over spring break involving a cruise in Mexico!!! WOOOHOOO!! Writing...always a stress relief and challenge to my imagination. And Genetics, well what's a semester without a class of scientific fact and wild attempts to study late into the night in hopes of grasping the absurdity of the workings of life on earth. Oh, and sociology, well, that's my one lone general education requirement still waiting to be fulfilled. I'm taking it as an ONLINE course so it might pose a challenge in the motivational/procrastination department.

In the mean time, we are awaiting a new employee to arrive and tackle her first day of work here at the Clinic Pharmacy, which means that until that happens we remain short staffed and poor Kelly, originally contracted for 8-18 hours a week, is putting in a full 30 hours of work during this first week of class. My only comment for the time is that we need to train the new gal and train quickly because when homework starts raelly piling in, my brain will be too crammed to remember drug names for such hours. I'm counting on her to be my life support. :P

I also hopped back into the tutoring mode last night in attempting to help my outside MMC weekly tutee, a 7th grader, learn how to solve an algebra problem. All of you who understand letters mixed in with your numbers in math books, don't take it for granted. It's a devil to teach a new-be such a concept.

And what remains? I have somewhat of a rambunctious spirit right now - getting up at 6 a.m. to fit in a refreshing morning workout. We'll see how long that lasts. I had a little Christmas in my mail box here at school when I received 5 hand-written snail mail letters/cards. I was so incredibly excited that I kicked friends out of my room so I could savor reading my mail. I'm contemplating the best course of action for summer living/employment (to be or not to be in Yankton - other option = move to Omaha and figure out life there before I try to be a pharmacy student in the big, bad city....feel free to express your opinions on the matter). And my last comment, I haven't practiced the piano once since I've returned to school. :( There's simply not enough hours in my days. It's one of my life's biggest goals to learn to play - like really learn to play - and I'm failing for the time being. My lessons are on hold. Do I let it go for now and pray I can resume later/post-graduation? Ohhh such trying decisions!!!

Ohh, and my spirits have been soaring in the presence of all of my friends returned from break and with this warm weather...I even ran outside in the wet slush, muddy, remaining snow banks and mountains obstacle course. It was a wondrous adventure!

Enjoy the warm-ish weather, the mid-January air, and time with all of your family and friends. Goodbye for now. :)

Let the Year Begin (Blizzard #2...)

Well hello there! How exciting that this is the first time I have the pleasure of speaking to you this year! I hope all of your new year's were safe and fun and filled with love of family and friends. I'm writing to you in the middle of blizzard number two of the winter. This time, I happen to be stranded in Yankton rather than at home, so it makes for a new adventure I suppose. I should actually be at work right now (the reason I'm here in Yankton). But, I bundled myself up so thoroughly that I resembled a toddler (you know, that little two-year old child who is such a ball of winter layers that he can hardly walk and splats in a new snow bank every two steps) to walk across the MMC campus and over to the Yankton Medical Clinic to begin my long shift. Low and behold, I look up, nearly frozen and crying of no accord of my own, to discover a single vehicle in the parking lot. I think, "could it be?!" So, beings I am already frozen to the core, I continue on my trek across the street and find locked doors. Apparently even doctors take time off during blizzards. So, despite the fact that I nearly froze for nothing, I am pretty excited to have a day without plans to do whatever I please.

I have a few updates on recent adventures (pre-blizzard) for you. The TEC Christmas Party was refreshing and wonderful. It's always a surprise to go back and find people you haven't seen in months or even years show up. I was on a high from good conversation and hugs afterwards. :) And, that high carried me all the way down to Kearney, NE for New Year's Eve. I was beside myself with excitement at the opportunity to go there. My best friend from high school goes to school down there and I am only lucky enough to see her a couple of times a year. On top of that, one of my very good TEC friends goes to school there and so does Emmy, a former MMC volleyball player who transferred two yeas ago. I took Briana (my MMC buddy) with me and I was all smiles and excitement to spend the first hours of the new year with these long-lost friends. Never mind the fact that I drove four hours to stay less than a full day. I'd do it again!

The reason I had to rush away so quickly was that I had to be back in Wisner, NE by 4:00 on Jan 1st to finish final preparations for the Core Team (leaders of the whole TEC movement) TEC retreat that I had agreed to put together with four other wonderful people. The five of us put together a special day for these Core members who have done so much for the TEC movement. I gave a talk (super nerve racking) and one of the guys even wrote a song for them that we all sang. What a great 1st weekend of the year!

And then from Wisner I back-tracked back to Elgin where I spent the next day with my sister and her husband who were home again from Michigan. And my last adventure of break? Well, I then left with Worthington, MN as my destination for the second time in a month. I spent two days up there with Jessica and Brett (more MMC friends). We had intended to go sledding in Adrian on some hill notoriously referred to as "Killer Hill," but the plan was scratched due to freezing temperatures and icy conditions. I guess we decided we didn't actually want to die. But, I had a wonderful time all the same. Jessica and I rode to Redwood Falls with her dad and tried our luck at the penny slot machines for a while, we visited her friends in the area, and attended a couple of Adrian high school basketball games. It was a relaxing and enjoyable end to my break.

And now I'm back at school, supposed to be working, but instead enjoying my snow day from work. We'll see if the next three days make me as lucky. In the mean time, I'm ready for all of my friends to return and for the year of my graduation to begin...AHHHH!

I'm going to be crazy now and rebundle up to walk (my car is buried and I don't want to get stuck again) over to a friend's apartment to bake muffins and be cozy indoors. If I fail to post again, know that I froze to death on the way.

Stay warm. Enjoy your days off if you were so lucky, and Mount Marty students, come back soon!!