Happy Thanksgiving

Camp 2011

I’ve been wanting to blog about a lot of things since I returned home from camp. So, I was thinking I would start by blogging about how camp went. I returned home on Saturday afternoon and was exhausted. At camp, everyone gets up at 7:00 and is supposed to be in bed at 11:00 but it was normally 11:30 for my cabin. I was so busy with games, hikes, sermons and etc. that when I return home I was super tired and very sore. But even thought I ached from head-to-toe and felt like I would fall over from being so tired, I had a blast. Sadly, I didn't take too many pictures while I was there, but I will try to get the ones I took posted soon.  There were a total of nine girls in my cabin counting myself. Our cabin was named “Cream of Wheat”. I have to say I think we had one of the coolest cabin cheers in camp. All the girls in my cabin were very nice and great to be around. I am glad God placed us all together. I also was blessed with one of the nicest counselors. God used her in my life in so many ways. She was very easy to talk to, fun to be around and was very understanding. I think all of the girls were able to open up to her by the end of the week.

Ok, so I am going to skip around a little bit and tell you about some of the things I did while I was at camp. First off, we played camp games, most of them include running, tagging, pushing, pulling, and that kind of stuff. Yes, they can be very violent and you can get hurt, but they are always fun. We played, Big Ball, Tube Tug, Feet Ball, Scrabble Scramble, and more. Most of them are a lot of fun unless a taller person steps on you, this happens a lot in my case. Besides games there is a putt-putt course, paint ball, land trolley, river tubing, basketball courts, volleyball, water slide, 65 foot giant swing, shooting area, snack/game shop, country store, waterfalls, lake and my favorite the Cool Beans Coffee Shop. The coffee shop at the Wilds is probably even better then Starbucks and is worth the twenty minute line you sometimes have to stand in to buy a cup. One of my other favorite things is river tubing. I went twice this year because my boyfriend, Isaac, wanted to go; I think he only wanted to go because he loves splashing me with cold water. It was worth getting wet and cold because it made some good memories. Also, on one night, they do a theatrical play that goes along with the theme of the summer (this year was medieval knights.) On another night, they have a small party with food, and random things to do. I mainly hung out with my friends. Beside my very first year, this year had to be the most fun I have ever had on “fun night”. This year, my fun night was complete with talking to Rachel, running into a guy from Isaac’s cabin and having a very odd conversation, walking around hyper, drinking lots of soda and coffee, and Isaac having an epic light-saber fight with a random person he did not know. The last part defiantly made my night and I think it made Rachel’s too. During two of the days, we have a lake day and also a waterfall hike day. This year, I went to first falls. In years past, I have went to fourth falls but this year I wanted to do a shorter hike. First falls is not as big as fourth but it is a nice size and very beautiful. Since it was a shorter hike, four of the girls in my cabin and I had time to shave our legs and wash our hair before returning back to camp. The hike there and back was very easy and went by quickly due to entertaining conversations. Since we are always busy doing something active at camp, they have a big cafeteria. I will say the Wilds also has some of the best food. I will never forget the very first time I went to camp, my Mom told me not to have high expectations for the food because the camps she had been to always had horrible meals. I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived and was served yummy pizza, hamburgers and spaghetti. At every meal, the cafeteria is full of noise from hungry teenagers. You cannot imagine how hard it is to get to your assigned table when there are 20 other high-school kids trying to push their way through to their own table. Usually there is a bunch of pushing your way through the thick crowd and trying not to get stepped on for the first few minutes of the meal. It is also so loud you have to scream to talk to the person beside you just so they can hear what you are saying. It is not the best place to be when you have a headache. There is always someone saying or doing something interesting while we are eating. This year during meal time, one of the girls from my cabin had what I think was a pick up line war with our brother cabin (a group of boys with the same cabin name). I sat about five tables behind Isaac. So every time he would see me, he would smile one of those silly, oh-so adorable, cute smiles that he has, which of course, made it where I couldn't help but smile back at him. We even saw one random dude, randomly start dancing during his cabin cheer. I don’t think anyone from my cabin found out the boy’s name or what cabin he was from but we defiantly cheered and clapped for him after he finished busting a move.  Even with all the chaos, I think that dinner is one of the things that makes camp memorable and enjoyable. 
      After breakfast and dinner, we have church. For our morning service, we have two or three different speakers and they all speak on somewhat of the same subject. After morning service, we have God and I time. This is a devotional time which corresponds with the morning sermon. This year one of the things I learned is that if I can spend 30 minutes at camp with God in the morning, then why can’t I do the same at home? Since I have got home, I have been waking up earlier and reading my bible more; I have also notice I have more time to do other things as well.  During our chapel (evening service), the speaker was evangelist Dave Young. He was very moving and an inspirational speaker. We also have Christian Life seminars. Theses are mid-day seminars that last thirty minutes to an hour and can be very eye-opening. This week, we had three seminars. One was on alcohol, another on purity and the other was on dating. All three were eye-opening and I learned something from each one.  

Over all camp was amazing. This was probably one of my favorite years so far. God used the sermons, people and certain moments to impact my life in many ways. I always come home feeling sore and sleepy but stronger in my faith and happy. I defiantly enjoyed all the time I was able to spend with my friends, boyfriend and girls from my cabin. I can’t wait till next year.

ON THE WAY TO CAMP!!!!!!! :)

Sorry for not posting lately. I have been supper busy with school & such. Anyways I will try and post something soon.
Sierra.

Quick Update

Been super busy the past 3 weeks! Sorry for no post lately.  I'll try and post some later but for now I have writers block on a biology report :( Wish me luck back to work I go!!

Dissection of an Orthoptera (Grasshopper) 11/4/10

Method-Two different kinds of female Orthoptera (Grasshopper) were examined. Both Orthopteras were measured head to abdomen with a ruler in centimeters. Each Orthoptera was 4-5 centimeters long. It’s abdomen was placed under the microscope to be examined. The forewing was broke off and examined. Next the hind wing was broke off and examined. The hind wing was bigger, more delicate and laid closer near the abdomen than the forewing. A microscope was used to examined a wing, veins in the wing were seen in a crossing pattern. The orthoptera was turned over and 3 pairs of legs were examined. The Jumping leg was broke off and measured in centimeters with a ruler. One Orthoptera’s jumping leg was 4 centimeters long, the other Orthoptera’s jumping leg was 5 centimeters long. Part of the leg was a yellow-orange color. The leg was examined with a microscope. Lab students located simple eyes by using a Magnifying glass. The Orthopteras was laid on a dissecting pan and pinned down through the head with a dissecting pin. The lab students scraped away the dorsal wall from posterior end of the Orthoptera using a disposable scalpel. White eggs were discovered inside one of the Orthoptera and yellow eggs discovered inside other orthoptera. The head was removed by using disposable scalpel. A cut was made within the cephalic range. Ganglia was found which was brown in color.
Discussion- During the lab I learned, that the simple eyes are located directly above the compound eyes and to see them you have to use a magnifying glass. It took us about 10min and a lot of guessing to find both eyes. It was cool having two different kinds of Grasshoppers because we got different results with both of them. One of the grasshoppers had a yellow toned and the other was a green-grayish color. The yellow grasshopper had longer jumping legs than the gray one. Also after we scraped away the dorsal wall, the inside of the gray grasshopper had white eggs and the yellow grasshopper had yellow eggs. Over all the Lab was very fun and very informative.

Wordy Wednesday!!

Here, we are again! Another Wednesday, Another Word.

Procrastination-

    Definition- the act of procrastinating; putting off or delaying an action to a later time.

    History- The modern term comes from the Latin word procrastinatus.

    Why I like this word- The reason I like this word is because I use it a lot and I procrastinate far too much. It is just one of those words everyone should know.  

Wordy Wednesday!!

Today, during History, I started thinking about some of my favorite words. As I was going through my mental dictionary, quoting to myself the words and their meaning, I began thinking about how often I actually use these words. The answer is, not very often. Mainly because most of the big, fun-to-say words that I like, just don't come up in my conversations. I then had the idea of using my blog to post some of these words. I know some fellow bloggers do "Wordless Wednesdays" or "Wise Words Wednesday" ; so, I decided to come up with my own catch phrase which shall be Wordy Wednesday. Every Wednesday, I will post one to three words with the definition and why I like them. So, now I shall begin with my....

Eureka-

     Definition- Used to express triumph upon finding or discovering something.

     History- It is originally a Greek word.

     The reason I like this word- Last week, while I was doing history I came across the story of Archimedes. The story goes...  A king in Archimedes lifetime was wondering how to tell if his crown had been made of pure gold. He asked Archimedes how he could find out. Archimedes pondered this question for a while. Then one day, while lowing himself into the bath tub, he discovered the displacement of water. He then realized the displacement of the water for the weight of a gold crown would be different than the displacement of water for the weight of a crown made with cheap metal. Upon finding the discovery, Archimedes leaped out of the bath tub in excitement and ran through the streets of Syracuse naked screaming EUREKA EUREKA!

I found this story quite funny and it has made remembering this word very easy.

Interesting Fact on this Word- There is a town in California bearing the name Eureka.

That is our word for this Wednesday. I wonder how many times we can use it this week.

Cooking Class

Recently, my Mom started hosting cooking classes for high school students in our area. For the first class, we had six teens, not counting myself, come to the class. Mom started by explaining measurements and tools that are necessary for cooking. The class is from 1-4 in the afternoon.
We start by going over the recipes. Then, we talk about different techniques and also other things you can use to substitute for some of the ingredients we are using. For most of the class, we make a main course, appetizer and dessert.
After making the meal, we get to taste each thing that we have made, and we also clean up our mess. For each class, we get the recipe for every dish that we made. The recipe also includes the approximate time and cost for each dish.
So far, we have made Manicotti, Mexican, and Home made pizzas. I am having a lot of fun and learning a lot. I’m just wondering when mom is going to make me cook dinner?

Saying Good-Bye

Today, I found out that sometime in March our dearly beloved speech therapist will be moving about 5 hours away. I’m am very sad to see her leave us. She has been such a blessing to my brother, my sister and my family. She has given me inspiration, for a profession I could not have even imagine liking a year ago.
Last year, I was wanting to become an interior designer. Painting a dull lifeless room, matching décor pillows with curtains and putting in one color to tie everything together to make a room, is something amazing and it is something I really enjoy and I still like doing for fun. But changing a bare space into a something spectacular, does not even come close to the feeling I get when I see a child beam with excitement becasue 2 months ago he barely knew any sounds and is now putting 2 words together. I know it may seem trivial to you that so little progress could delight a person so much,  but when you see a kid who can barely say a word began to talk to you, it’s…… it’s a feeling like no other.
I am so thankful God put Lauren into my life. She has taught me so much and has helped me learn more about myself. When Lauren started working at our home, I never thought I would end up shadowing her. I thought she was just another person to help my little sister, just another person in our home once or twice a week. Oh! How I was wrong. God knew that this one person would teach me and help me even before I became interested in any kind of therapy. Lauren has opened my eyes to how fun and rewarding this job can be. I’m am truly thankful for her. I hope her move is an easy one and she gets settled into her new house quickly.

Thank You Lauren for everything.
~Sierra.

"Love and Death" Alfred Tennyson

In Alfred Tennyson poem "Love and Death" I think he is trying expressing the relationship between Love and Death. I like how Tennyson referrers to Death and Love as a object. I do not see Love and Death as people but more as elements of our imagination. He makes them come alive in our minds. Tennyson said that death is the shadow of all life. At some point we will all deal with death in some form. Whether it is someone close to us dieing or facing death ourselves. Tennyson also refers to death as being a tree that is growing in the sun and how the tree shadows all that is beneath it. In the middle of the poem Death starts trying to chase away Love. He tells him to leave that Love does not belong there. Love begins to weep before he flies away. He explains to Death “The shadow passeth when the tree shall fall, But I shall reign forever over all” I think Tennyson is trying to get the reader to see how the pain of death will eventually go away. But the love for the person who died, or love in general will last forever.
　
“What time the mighty moon was gathering light,
Love paced the thymy plots of Paradise, And all about him roll'd his lustrous eyes;
When, turning round a cassia, full in view
Death, walking all alone beneath a yew, And talking to himself, first met his sight:
"You must be gone," said Death, "these walks are mine".
Love wept and spread his sheeny vans for flight;
Yet ere he parted said, "This hour is thine; Thou art the shadow of life, and as the tree
Stands in the sun and shadows all beneath, So in the light of great eternity
Life eminent creates the shade of death; The shadow passeth when the tree shall fall,
But I shall reign forever over all".