"All Old Men Look the Same!"

Funny Pictures

"All old men look the same!"

The other day my mother and I were coming out of Thrive Fitness center after a good workout. On the way out a nice old man held the door open for us and smiled. **For this story a side note is needed.** Before my church received its present pastor it had a interim pastor named Jerry Cook. Jerry Cook is an older, friendly man; a stereotypical great grandpa figure. Well on the way out of thrive fitness center my mom thought that this older gentleman was Jerry Cook. I knew it wasn't. Haha.. she began to carry a full on conversation with this older man who was simply so confused. 

Mother: "Hey Jerry!... How are you doing?"

"Jerry": "errhhhh... uhhhh?"

Mother: "It is me Kelly, from Living word"

"Jerry": "Ohhh uhhh?"

Mother: "How's Barbara?" 

"Jerry": "Oh yes, Hi Barbara.."

Mother: "No I'm not Barbara, Your wife. How is she doing? I heard you were going on vacation"

"Jerry": "oh erhhh.. yeah.. well we were going to Arizona and erhh..."

Mother: "Well it was good seeing you. Talk to you later" 

hahah.. Poor old man. He never saw it coming. Once the car doors were fully closed I burst into laughter. "Mom, that wasn't Jerry Cook."...... "What?!... Dangit.. All old men look the same!

Hahaha.. Mom. I love her. Poor old unsuspecting man though. Haha.. After this incident my mom said that it would be really funny to go up to random old guys and pretend like you know them. "They might start thinking the Alzheimer set in early" haha that was her exact wording. Oh man. Has this kind of incident ever happened to you? I would love to hear about it. Got to love the adventures of life.

Mayday Mayday!!

Sorry everyone... once again it has been awhile. This time I have a valuable excuse! The hard drive of my brand new computer crashed on Christmas day, leaving me computer-less. My new hard drive arrived yesterday so I of course promptly plugged it in and started blogging right away. =]

So Christmas has come and gone and winter break is soon coming to a close. I only have about 10 days left on Whidbey Island until I'm back to the wonderful town of Eugene. It's weird, I feel kind of divided. I find that I use the word "home" interchangeably. I consider the house I grew up in home but now my small dorm room has become home as well. Home is where the heart is? It's good to know that my heart is in two places =]. Anyway. I am so thankful for my Whidbey Island home but I am very excited to reunite with my NCU home. Being away from NCU has helped me realize the great friendships I have built there and how great and perfect the college stage is in my life right now. Being back in my home town I realized that many people will always view me for who I was and not what I can be.

I'm excited for next semester. Last semester I realized that the more you put in the more you will get out. I think last semester I focused more so on my grades and less on the benefit and awesomeness of learning. If I will let myself, next semester I'm not going to worry about grades so much and focus more on learning and gaining knowledge in the subjects that I am studying. I'm excited for my sister Megan though. Instead of coming back with me to NCU she gets to go to Uganda in Africa to study abroad. This is something she has been wanting to do for a long time. It is awesome to see that this is finally a reality for her. If you all could keep her in your prayers that would be awesome.

I hope you all had a marvelous Christmas and a great New Years!
 

The Glenwood Breakfast Club

Well, there isn't much else to report here in sleepy, rainy Eugene. However, one highlight of being stuck here for most of break is that my university meal plan has been moved to a restaurant around the corner from my dorm called the Glenwood. Talk about Yummy! The other morning I was enjoying sleeping in when I received a picture message on my phone from two of my teammates dressed as cow girls. The text said "come to breakfast, we're dressing up as cowboys!" Thinking that I was having an absurd dream, I rolled over and went back to sleep. Well, it turned out not to be a dream--my teammates really dressed up like that to go to breakfast. They also decided that the rest of the days we are here, there are going to be costumed breakfasts. So we went as gangsters the next day and nerds today. I believe tomorrow we are going as super heros. Good thing we are easily amused starving college kids! Hopefully there will be more pictures to follow. This one is from nerd day. Much love! It's almost Christmas!!!!

(p.s,) You can't appreciate our full nerd attire from the picture, but we all have tucked in polo shirts, our pants hiked up and obnoxious socks so go with out awesome glasses (yes, jen is wearing shop goggles)

Story of my life.

Well this next story that I am going to share with you guys describes my life to a T.

Since being back I have been starting to get back into running. Yesterday I decided to go running in some trails close to my house. Before my run I was dismayed to find that my family was out of water. Mustering up my courage anyway I decided to hit the trails. Even at the beginning of my short jog my throat had already become choked with dryness. "Oh joy.." After pushing myself hard on some steep hills through the misty, teasing, and provoking drizzle, my unquenched throat and I headed back on the main road to my car. Keep in mind these trails are very secluded and you often see no one around. Being who I am... my mind began to race as I looked at the moistened leaves just to the right of the path.  I then began to get little clips of Survivor moments or the movie Cast Away. Well... what happens next should be expected. I decided to let my imagination take me over (like any good homeschooler would do) and tried gathering water from the leaves. I first picked a leaf but that made all the water fall depressingly to the ground. I then proceeded to stick my tongue on the tips of high leaves and received a drop of water from each leaf. I knew that I wouldn't get adequate amount of water from these leaves but my actions were solely for the experience. Haha. Well, after about 5 or 6 licked leaves I just happened to look behind me. And what was there?.... About 15ft behind me was an older lady simply smiling at me. I quickly and awkwardly returned her smile and said hello as I promptly turned back around.  "It's ok Lindsey, pretty soon this lady will be past you and you will never see her again," I thought to myself. However, next thing I know the older gal is to the left of me and asks me if I could do her a favor. "I twisted my ankle back a ways and I didn't bring my car. If you are done would you be able to give me a ride to the hospital where I work?" Of course I couldn't refuse giving her a ride. So I agreed and we continued down the path together. Oh my goodness! For a hurt ankle that older lady sure did know how to book it! Haha.. My heart was pounding just to keep up with her. haha. She gave me permission to continue running if I wanted to... I quickly declined. haha. I told her that my walking was probably faster than my running away =P Hahaha.

We continued the rest of the mile to the car making casual conversation and I then drove her to the hospital. Turns out she is a nurse. I'm surprised she didn't talk to me about the bacteria one might receive from licking leaves. haha It all worked out, and I hope her ankle gets better.

I hope this story shows you all how comfortable and trusting I am of you. Thank you faithful readers (Mom, Siblings...) you are appreciated. =]


**Always look behind you**

Winter Fest.

You know that Christmas is almost here and that school has come to a close when HomeConnection has their annual "Winter Fest". Each year this homeschooling program has a winter party that's full of crafts, potluck delectables, sing-a-longs, and small, crazy children. The holidays would not be complete for my family or I if we didn't attend. This year my little, beautiful sister (Carly) was part of the choir performance during this partaaaay of a life time. I was able to capture her skill and there was nothing she could do about it. Trapped on stage she was forced to endure the agonizing attention she was receiving and try to sing like she was too cool for school. With one arm held casually to one side she tried giving the impression that she wasn't secretly enjoying her awesome singing ability... we weren't fooled. =] I love my sister. Luckily for you, I am now able to share it with all of you! Enjoy!

Oh! I forgot about my best friend, Kristen. It seems that because of those 9+ years in HomeConnection herself,  her heart still longs so desperately to be a part of the Homeconnection's "Vocal Technique" class. Don't worry Kristen, one day you shall be reunited. Shalom Chaverim, Kristen, Shalom Chaverim =] Peace be with you... I will ask about a alumni reunion with the board (aka our dads and Mr. Mouw =P)

Home Sweet Home.

Once again I have arrived home. I'm back in Oak Harbor, Washington, away from my beloved BBFL (Best Friend For Life; for those old people out there who don't know the modern lingo =P). The two peas in a pod have been split, they're no longer joined at the hip. I miss Keegan. It is going to be a lonely month without her. However, thanks to modern technology we are able to communicate through many various ways. We have skype, facebook, texting, calling, e-mailing, and even good ole fashion snail mail =]. It will be good. We will just continue to tell ourselves over and over again to breathe in, breathe out. Maybe we will even put our spanish speaking abilities to use and count to ten in spanish.

 *uno...dos...tres......BREATHE!* =]

Well anyway, my sister (Megan) and I snapped some pictures during our drive back. Hope you guys enjoy!

                                Happy Winter Break Everyone!

So long, farewell, adieu, good bye my friend!

Finals are almost done and everybody is packing up to head home for winter break! (well, most people are anyway). But one of our dearest friends, William Louis Traylor, isn't coming back next semester. Despite our sadness, we know he is destined for greatness in whatever he does and God is gonna use his talents elsewhere. 20 of his closest friends got together and went to Shari's to share memories and eat pie. (you can't go wrong with good friends and pie, after all) We are gonna miss you so much buddy, good luck with your endeavors and never forget all the good times we had at good old NCU!

much love,

Keegs

SANTA!! I KNOW HIM!!!

Well, 'tis the season.....for finals!!! It seems like I haven't really had to do any homework until this point in the semester. Lindsey and I have locked ourselves in the room and have been working on homework all day! (Well, I am taking this small break to write a blog post) We are very excited for the Christmas break to be here! This week we made Christmas ornaments and decorated Christmas cookies (in between studying for finals that is). Yes, pretty soon Lindsey will go back to her strange island in Washington and I'll be stuck here 'till Christmas Eve with Skeeter. Sad Face. You might also like to know that Skeeter is louder than ever! I swear that little heater monster never sleeps! Last night he was making creepy moaning noises.....

It has gotten really cold here! I've put my new coat to good use :) Maybe we'll even get some snow over break! That would be so exciting!

This is a picture of me and my friend Kristen meeting Santa! He said I was definitely on the good list this year. (Not that I was worried or anything...) Peace out and stay warm!

much love,

Keegs