Notice
You may have noticed that this blog now contains all the entries of my old blog. I copied and pasted them all in, but I did not copy all the old comments, so if you remember writing an enlightening comment on one of my old posts, you can recomment. Just so you know.
to my family
Dear Family, Immediate and Extended,
You are amazing. I’ve realized this semester how much my life has been shaped by all of you. After coming back from a literal mountain-top experience this summer, focusing on school and feeling at home at Trinity has not been especially easy. Under the strain of loads of homework, leadership responsibilities, living with five other young women in a two-bedroom apartment, missing everything about Mt. Rainier, and getting headaches just from the smell of the city, I’ve been a little homesick. But when I’m homesick, it’s not really for that place outside of Freeport. It’s just for family in general. Phone conversations have been encouraging. It was so good to be in Michigan last weekend and to have Mom come visit this weekend. It’s amazing to have my cousin on campus. It’s crazy to realize that many of my best friends are related to me, that I’ve known them my whole life, that we’ve stayed connected the whole time even though we’re spread all over the country, and that there’s no reason why we can’t stay connected for the rest of our lives. Sweet!
Love,
Rebecca
third times a charm
You may be thinking, “Why is she titling her first post ‘third times a charm’?”
The answer is, this is just the latest in a lengthening line of blogs that I have kept. Previous blogging can be found at web.mac.com/thatrebecca (abandoned because it cost money and it had technical difficulties). Even earlier blogging (some of my best writing, actually, especially the stuff written in the wee hours of the morning after hours of pondering at the switch-making factory) can be found at www.xanga.com/galationsoneten (left behind because of its limitation to the xanga community).
So, a new blog is in order. With all this schoolwork and extracurriculars, I still have this deep urge to write and write and write. The keys feel good beneath the tips of my fingers, and the words seem to fit like brick after brick as I build something that leaves me more open and free.
Entry
I had something written here, but then iWeb locked up and lost its changes.
I think it was something about how all six of us ACMNP people are here now and that the Sunday service went well and how I am visiting Nate and Hannah for my days off.

We went bowling on Friday and we had a campfire in Ashford on Saturday and so I am getting to know lots of people.

I will always look back with fondness.
Sometimes people are paying for their order and they say, “So you guys drive up here everyday just to work? That must be quite a trek!” And I get to tell them that I live in the employee dorms nestled into the mountainside and half covered with snow just a five minute walk from the Jackson Visitor Center. That’s our dorm in the back, framed by the ranger’s station.

Staying in the dorms is tons of fun. Almost everyone is done with work by six or seven in the evening and no one ever has homework. When we aren’t doing ACMNP meetings or prayer times or Bible studies or music practice, we just play pool, foosball, darts, ping pong, mad gab, pictionary, scrabble, or cards. Or we watch movies or prank each other or just talk.
Everyone gets a couple days off each week, and since everyone here loves hiking, and since everyone here wants to be relatively safe, we automatically cooperate into hiking fellowships. Today it was Ryan, Felice, Erika, and I hiking together. We went down the mountain to were the trails are clear and dry. Erika was teaching me some Chinese and Felice was finding artistic points of view to capture with her digital SLR. Hao bung o! (That is indubitably spelled wrong!)

Tomorrow is the next day of my weekend, so I need to find out who else is off so we can hit the trails.
This is a picture of a grouse, I think. Quite nice. He and his mate were wandering around the dorm. And here’s one of the neighborhood foxes, checking our the preparing hikers in the parking lot.
Now I need to go take a shower, do my laundry, and pick out songs to go with the scripture for this Sunday.
beauty everywhere
The beauty of Grandma and Grandpa heading up to Northwest Iowa right when I needed to go there.
The beauty of hopping in a car with a guy I didn’t know, and just knowing that he is a Christian being enough for credentials.
The beauty of the Missouri River valley, the cheese of the prairie, the rock formations of Wyoming, the cottonwoods of Montana, the mountains of Idaho, and the fruit stands of Washington.

The beauty of a blizzard in May at the continental divide and the beauty of finally driving out of it.

The beauty of seeing the peak of Mt. Rainier when we were still hours away.
The beauty of the winding road to Ashford.
The beauty of being escorted straight back to the employee break room and fed tacos and chocolate walnut pie.
The beauty of arriving.
The beauty of 60• and deep piles of snow.

The beauty of a dresser and a closet and a sink in my room and a toilet and shower room shared with the room next door.

The beauty of having my own room for a couple days and the beauty of expecting my roommate’s arrival from Rwanda.
The beauty of 100% awesome teammates.
The beauty of the body of believers.
The beauty of teaching some Spanish to my Singaporean coworkers.
The beauty of the walk home after work.

The beauty of God directing my words in a conversation with a seeking unbeliever.