Nothing too exciting

I realized that I haven't posted anything much here in over a week so I thought I would at least let you know that I was still around just haven't had much exciting happen to me lately. I will try and give you a few highlights.

Last week I registered for a class that will take place most of July so I will be busy with that somewhat starting after July 4th. I thought and prayed over this class for a week or so and even right up until I registered I kept thinking, "Do I want to go to class during the summer? What if I change my mind or something better comes along than sitting in class for 6hrs. at a time? Am I doing the right thing?" I had to laugh because before when I was in school I would register for quarter after quarter of classes and never give it a second thought but now that I have had two years of life post school it suddenly becomes such a big deal and it's not even a long class...sometimes I am so silly. I will be taking a course to become a Certified Nursing Assistant and I am really looking forward to it. I have no idea what it will mean for my future or how I will put it to use but I have been thinking of going towards nursing for a while and I thought this would be a good way to poke my toes in the water and see how I like it. And besides I got to go shopping for some new clothes to wear for my clinicals so what girl shouldn't like that? LOL Yes they are just scrubs but I got cute ones! Time will tell I guess how much I actually like it!

Voice lessons are still going along great and I am making some progress which thrills me. I had my last skating lesson for the quarter this evening and the other girl and I did a little last min. recital along with all the kids classes which we enjoyed. We did lunges, crossovers, sort of shoot the duck, spins and spirals. She is more advanced so she also did a jump while I watched! Her husband said we looked pretty good (yes I know husbands are supposed to say that!) and he said the audience comments he was hearing were positive so that was nice to know, especially since I didn't feel to graceful at all. Our lunges went great and her jump was good so that helped. I can't believe it has been almost a yr. since I started skating...time sure has flown. I am not exactly where I wanted to be in some things but I am farther along in others so I guess I have to be happy with a bit of give and take!

Last Friday I gave my first official Toast Masters speech so I guess there is no turning back now! I have some things to improve on but over all I guess it went ok. One comment that made me laugh was that I left my audience exhausted with the amount of material that I covered in 6 min. I talked pretty fast too so I will be working on narrowing down and talking slower. It was exciting and I am working on next speech which I give in 2 weeks.

Still with me??? Ok moving on to this weekend.
Friday evening I went skating for a little while while a bunch of friend/aquaintences where there and I enjoyed getting to see them all skate. They are pretty much all better skaters than I am so I enjoyed watching them carrying on and having fun together. I got a few tips and learned a few things along the way too which never hurts. When I got there I also was pleasently surprised to see a girl that I went to school with at the community college whom I haven't seen in probably 4 yrs. After we greeted one another she asked if I wanted to meet her boyfriend who ended up being a guy that I had met once and who I had been looking for the last yr. to thank. He was a skate guard last May when I was on the ice for the first time and he took the time to really encourage me to get on the ice and then once I was out there he took the time to show me how to stroke, stand, etc. even to the point of changing his skates so he was wearing the same type of skates that I had so I could really see how it should look. He encouraged me to take lessons and told me about the teachers and how good they were. I had been wanting to take lessons already but that was just the push I needed and soon after signed up and the rest is history. I wanted to thank him for his time and encouragement but I didn't even know his name and so had been watching for him ever since but had never seen him again. I knew right away this was the guy I was looking for and it was very exciting to share with him how he had impacted my life and actually get to finally thank him in person. You never know how something as small as smiling at a stranger or just doing your job well could impact someone. We all have an awesome responsibility to use our influence and talents well in everything we do and say because the impact can change someones life, even if we never know about it.

On Saturday afternoon/evening I went up to the local ski area and went hiking for a few hours. It was a little rainy when I started out and when I was returning but over all it was a wonderful time. I saw a Marmot, a Deer, a baby black Squirrel, and lots of hummingbirds and song birds. The clouds were awesome and in the valley that I was hiking in they would swirl around the tops of the mountains, swoop down into the valley, that back out again, then the sky would start to clear and it would start all over again. There was so much running water all around and the sound was echoing off the sides of the valley so you could hear it everywhere. I sort of took a circular route and I counted over 60 waterfalls/streams of varying sizes in the valley I was walking through. I went on a part of the trail that I hadn't ever been on before and I figured out how to use the timer function on my camera so I will put up a photo or two maybe this evening. The wild flowers were just starting to bloom up there so in a couple of weeks I think it will be really pretty and I will have to go back and see how it's changed! The Lord gave me a little lesson to think about while I was up there as well. I was noticing how beautiful and how clear the water was there and then I came upon one of the little lakes that was still half frozen. It then came very clearly to me that if that water did not have those times of extreem cold and the vast amounts of run off from the snow that then flows out the other end it would not stay that clear. It would start to look like the greenish swampy ponds that you see often in the lower elevations and are not nearly so pleasent to be around. I thought about that a little and realized how much like my life (people's lives) that is. If we always had just the warm, comfortable times that we think are the best, where we just take in nice pleasent experience we would be in danger of growing a huge amount of grim and algee and "harmful bacteria" in our characters and few would say of us that we had been with Jesus. On the other hand it is those experiences and those times when things sometimes seem cold and harsh that remind us to rely on Him, that on the otherside of winter, the spring will come again. Also it is only by continuing to recieve and give in service, communion with God, encouragement, etc. that the "water" of our lives is kept clear, pure and inviting. I am going through some things right now that are really causing me to question, murmur, be frusterated, cry, whine, etc. and I know these thoughts were just for me but I hope they are encouragement to you as well, not matter where you are in your life.

Sunday afternoon Mom and I went to the Deming Logging Show which I enjoyed tremendously. I spent my first 11 years around logging and forestry work so the sounds of the chain saws and the axes and the smell of the wood brought back a lot of wonderful memories. The show was good and the equipment that was demonstrated and that was on display that some places use now for logging was incredible. I love machines so watching them work and getting the chance to walk around and look at them closely was very exciting for me. We got there just in time to see a guy doing an act at the top of a 90ft. spar pole which mom didn't think was to great since she is afraid of heights but I thought it was pretty funny. He was dancing up there, standing on his head etc. Then there were these guys that climbed to the top of the spar poles and back down, 90ft., in just under 25 sec. Yes 25 sec.! These are the two fasted climbers in the world and one did it in 24.06 sec. and the other in 25.09 sec.! It was amazing to watch. In the 16 yrs. we have lived here this was the first time we made it to this event and I will definetly plan on going again.

Well so there I go again packing in a lot of info into one long post. Sorry about that. Hope you found something interesting and worth reading in there. If not my sincerest appologies!

I want to finish with a great quote I saw this week:

"Opportunity is often missed because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work!"