Miracle Meadows

This past weekend, I went with my parents up to Miracle Meadows to visit my sister Vica. MMS is located in the beautiful countryside of West Virginia, and the fall colors all the way up were gorgeous.

Vica is a student at MMS, and I can already see what an affect the school is having on her life. She is not the same girl that left home a few months ago. She seems to be doing really well, and has definitely grown since I saw her last (physically and mentally). There are certain areas in her life that are a constant battle for her, but she is learning to take responsibility for her actions and control her emotions.

She is still her bubbly, chipper self, and is quick to laugh, and to tease. While sitting next to me after a meeting Friday night, out of the blue she turns to me and says "So, you got yourself a man yet?" and then cracks up laughing like it was some hysterical joke! lol Seeing as I thought it was a pretty amusing question myself, I decided to laugh along with her. I don't recall ever answering the question... ;) She had already moved on to some new topic by then.

Later on when she saw my camera, she got a hold of it and took some classic shots of certain people, most of which I am not posting for very good reasons. ;) She did take the second picture below, of mom talking with one of her teachers.

I really thank God for Vica and the blessing that she has been to me. She has taught me some life-lessons that I couldn't have learned on my own, or through anyone else.

Vica is a very special sister, and I know God has some awesome plans for her life...

-Shannon

Meekus

Please pray for my kitty Meekus.
He's very sick right now.
-Shannon

Tamarack Springs Academy

A few weeks ago, a local newspaper up in Northwest Montana wrote some articles on Tamarack Springs Academy. Seeing as I felt like bragging about my academy, I thought I'd post a link to those two articles, along with a link to my friend Kristi's blogspot. She just posted a buch of really neat pictures from their fall backpacking trip in Glacier, along with some from the school. She and my brother Michael are the only seniors there this year, and my little sister Elise is a freshman. So far it sounds like they've been having a great year, complete with multiple grizzly bear visits... but I'll let you see the pictures and read about that for yourself on Kristi's blog. ;)

Hope you enjoy!

-Shannon

Articles:

Back to the Basics

Off the Grid, Self-sufficient

Kristi's Blog

Once Upon a Dissection...

“Today we will be studying the muscles of the mink. You will split into groups of three, and each group will receive its own mink to dissect…”

As Dr. Norskov continued with his little introduction to lab, my mind was far from the lecture...

Taking another chomp on my mint-flavored chewing gun, my attention was riveted to what lay on the counter. In my mind, when he had said “mink”, I was picturing this cute, furry, long-tailed, little creature rolling around with a ball in the pet store. There, sealed in a plastic bag, lay a very un-lifelike looking grayish mass, partially floating in what Jessie (one of my lab partners) termed “mink juice.” It had a strange resemblance to something I had once seen packaged in Saran wrap in the grocery store… or maybe that was just my imagination.

As they removed the dripping, grayish mass from the bag, the pungent scent of formaldehyde permeated the air.

*blink*…*blink*blink*… “Oh no you don’t! If you even think about passing out right now…” I fixed my gaze on the lab book in front of me… “Come on… you can handle this… you’ve seen 2D road-kill before!... not to mention all the deer carcasses our collie used to drag into the front yard during hunting season…” The awful scent remained, but after a second my vision cleared and I was back to “normal.”

“I’ll go pick us out a real good looking one!”, I volunteered, as my two other lab partners donned their latex gloves. Digging through the barrel of plastic-rapped mink carcasses, I pulled out one of the smelly, fat covered, grayish masses and pronounced him ours. I think I saw him smile…

While returning to our table, I passed another group that had just picked out their mink as well. Unfortunately not everyone shares my sense of humor, as my comment of, “Boy, you picked a cute one!”, was met by protesting squeals of, “Oh sick! And we’re just about to cut him up!”

We got ourselves a tray, scissors, tweezers, tags, and some blunt-tipped probing things, and set to work. Cutting open the bag, we pulled out our little creature who was indeed grinning ear to ear, rather ominously. Teeth were about the only recognizable feature the poor little fellow had left on his face.

“Awww look… he’s smiling at you!” My lab partners (Jessie and Emily) chuckled, as we laid the little fellow face-up on the tray.

Our first task was to clear away the fat. Greasy globs of yellow adipose tissue clung tightly to the underlying muscle as we poked, prodded, and pulled. Upon reaching the thighs we came to the conclusion that our mink was most probably a female, due to the excess amount of adipose tissue in that area, (further investigation proved this hypothesis wrong.). It was at this point, (after making a comment about the fat tissue looking an awful lot like my chewing gum), that I decided to dispose of mine, as it was losing its minty flavor, and… yeah… it just had to go.

After exposing the muscle, our next task was to identify and tag certain muscles from a list we were given. “Sternomastoid, Pectoralis major, Pectoralis minor, Serratus ventralis, Transverse abdominis, Clavotrapezius, Gluteus maximus, Gastrocnemius…”, and the list went on. As Emily labeled the tags, Jessie and I poked and prodded, uncovering the various muscles. Upon locating one from the list, we would stab two holes in the muscle and slide a tag through, looping and cinching the tag.

Once finished, our mink resembled an already-marked-down, half-off sale price piece of clothing at an end-of-season closeout. The writing on the tags was only partially legible as most of it had been smeared off while cinching the tags, but upon inspection by the TAs’ our mink was pronounced good.

Then it was time to say good-bye to our furless little friend. We returned him to his plastic bag of mink juice, and began cleaning up our area. Using a paper towel, we scooped up all the scattered chunks of muscle fiber and fat tissue. I casually mentioned that the stuff had a striking resemblance to veggie burger… But once again, my appreciation for the lighter side of things was not so equally shared by all those around me.

When lab was finished that day, I stepped out of the room with a new appreciation for what an awesome Creator we have, and also for fresh air. Now it was on to other classes, other appointments, other fragrances…

Reaching up to brush a strand of hair out of my face, I caught the pungent scent of formaldehyde still lingering on my hand. At least for a couple more hours I would not be forgetting that day’s A&P lab…

-Shannon


(The result of too much A&P study and lemon-lime chewing gum...)

Where he stands...

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

I wrote this quote on our message board just over a week ago… Little did I know how much a part of my life it was soon to become…

The past week has been one of the most physically, mentally, and emotionally draining weeks I’ve had since coming to SAU. My day-planner can testify to that with all the exclaiming, circling, and highlighting. I remember looking at my planner at the beginning of the week and thinking, “If I can just make it until Sunday night…”

How is it too, that the Devil has a knack for knowing just when we are at our weakest—when we will have the greatest tendency to fall to pieces?… and so he chooses those moments to strike even harder… Unfortunately it’s times like these that my natural tendency is to stand with the “woe is me” crowd, (“Life is so hard right now…” “People are expecting too much of me…” “I’ll just go to my room and be an unsociable hermit.”). And of course seclusion only provides more time to dwell on my “unfortunate circumstances”, plunging me even further into the “depths of despair.”

I read a quote in Steps to Christ, two summers ago, that I haven’t forgotten since…

“When the mind dwells upon self, it is turned away from Christ, the source of strength and life. Hence it is Satan’s constant effort to keep the attention diverted from the Savior, and thus prevent the union and communion of the soul with Christ. The pleasures of the world, life’s cares and perplexities and sorrows, the faults of others, or your own faults and imperfections,—to any or all of these he will seek to divert the mind. Do not be misled by his devices. Many who are really conscientious, and who desire to live for God, he too often leads to dwell upon their own faults and weaknesses, and thus by separating them from Christ, he hopes to gain the victory.”
Steps to Christ, p. 71

So basically whenever I fall into that mentality of, “woe is me”, I lose access to my only source of strength and life! No wonder things start to look pretty depressing.

And thus this past week was a constant battle to evade my natural tendencies and find alternative methods for dealing with difficulties.

One way that God helped me to see beyond my problems was through the simple joy of helping others. Looking back I see now how many opportunities for service God provided me with. Most I accepted joyfully. Others I took to be an added burden to my life. All in the end were a blessing.

A wise man also once said, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up… Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Ecc. 4:9, 10, 12.

Friends and family are priceless. I can’t begin to express how much they have meant to me, especially during this past week when I felt like I just couldn’t stand on my own. Most of the time all it took was a sympathetic ear, or an encouraging word to make my day seem so much brighter So why then do I tend to seek seclusion when what I really need is a friend? Is it because I feel like I am being a burden by sharing my burdens? I’m not sure exactly, but whatever the case it’s obvious that we are better able to stand when we have someone there to help lift us up.

So what did I learn from this past week? In retrospect, I see now that what Satan intended for hurt and destruction, God was able to use as a building block in that thing that we call character. I know that the tough weeks aren’t over, and that this probably won’t be my worst, (final’s week is yet ahead! ;). But I also know that in this life I don’t walk alone…

-Shannon


P.s. Writing things out always makes my problems seem more manageable as well… so this little pep talk was more for my benefit than anything else… By the way, this week is looking much brighter! I only have two quizzes and an essay due, and come this weekend I get to go camping with my family!!!

Update on Mr. Fishy...

For those of you who were wondering about the condition of the unfortunate Mr. Fishy... he has indeed defied all laws of probability, and remains alive and kicki...err, I mean swimming! Astonishing I know... he's definitely a survivor.

What's amusing is how he responds to my roommate and I. I swear the little fellow has a mind of his own, no matter how fishy that may seem... You see, Allie claims that the poor little guy gets freaked out whenever she approaches the tank! He puffs out his little gills and charges at the glass!!! Whereas, when I go over to see him he gets all excited and swims around in little circles! :D Maybe it's just because I sweet talk him... "Hey mr. Flishy!... how's my little flishy doing this morning? You wansome food mr. Flishy? Awww.... such a good little flishy..." (and so on and so forth...but I won't gross you out anymore... you're probably already puking on your keyboard... just be glad you can't hear it with the vocal intonation!...hehehe...) So say what you may, I think the little guy actually likes me... (could just be my imagination, but for my feelings sake we'll say that he likes me...)

As you can tell we still haven't named him... poor little guy... My mom suggested "Agent 317372", seeing as that was the "winning number" that doomed him... but tell me, how would you enjoy having the name "Agent 317372"??? Ok, so it wasn't so much for HIS sake that I nixed that idea, as it was for mine... I just couldn't fathom waking up in the morning, trying to recall a name like "Agent 317372"... never mind being able to verbalize it at that hour... I'd probably just end up calling him mr. Flishy anyhow... so I'm not sure if it's ever going to change from mr. Flishy (don't ask me how that "l" got in there... it just did...maybe it's part of the whole baby/sweet talk thing... ;)

It is a wonder that the little fellow has survived this long, especially considering his location! He is strategically positioned to the left of the sink, beneath the mirror... on the bathroom counter! :D He's seen morning faces, bad hair days, and much more that I won't mention... lol He's had to deal with hair spray, body spray, and multiple other girly "toxic" fumes. (Little does he know how fortunate he is to have a lid on his tank!) But I DID remember to move him when I cleaned the mirrors with mirror spray... I just forgot to move the toothbrushes... :p

Then there was the time when I went to feed him and spilled fish food all over my hands and the sink... I cleaned up the sink and then promptly went to lick my fingers clean... (those of you who were falling asleep while reading this blog, just regained consciousness) Fortunately I caught myself just in time... (Mother always did tell me it was rude to lick your fingers...) :D

And so the saga of mr. Fishy continues...

I've heard that some of these guys have lived up to ten years... more often five. In Shannon's care... well... I guess we'll find out. I never thought of myself as a failure of a mother until those last four fish... so maybe this is a chance to redeem myself. :D Even so, we're aiming for the one month anniversary before we do any serious rejoicing...

I've flushed one too many fish in my short life-span...

-Shannon

SAU...

Reality is setting in... homework is piling up... assignments are due... I am back in school!!! :D

I arrived here last Sunday in a whirl of boxes, suitcases, and bags. I had woken up that morning in a daze, with this strange sense that something was different about that day... something... Oh DUH! I was going to Southern!... and I hadn't packed a THING YET! So the morning progressed in a flury of packing, and around 3pm. we were on the road.

We pulled into the parking lot at Thatcher Hall (girls dorm), and were met by a cheery faced Allen Parker, sporting his We-Haul shirt, and a dolly. :) We were very thankful to have help getting all that stuff up the stairs to our third floor room!

Now seeing as my poor harp had been baking in the back of the truck for the past few hours, we next ran over to the music building to see if we could find where it needed to go. After unsuccesfully locating a single person, we eventually decided on leaving it in the orchestra practice room, with a note attached to it. (little need to fear that anyone would run off with it... ;)

The remainder of the afternoon was spent unpacking, and setteling into my new residence for this next phase in my life... my dorm room. Upon entering my room for the first time, I was greated by my roomate... ALLIE!!! I am SOOOO thankful to be rooming with her! (she was one of my best friends on WFL)... and to make thing even better, our suite mates are my friend Lindsay Smith, and my sister Audrey!!! :D We're going to have a blast... :p

That evening I went to the New Student Dedication. We were exhorted to study hard, learn lots, and date lots of guys/girls. As I pondered this bit of sage advice, I decided dismiss the latter... I mean, who has time to study hard AND date lots of guys!!! (never mind the fact that I don't care to date lots of guys...) :P

Monday and Tuesday were all more orientation stuff. We had the Presidents Prayer Breakfast, and Acedemic Success Sessions, and Acedemic Department/Schools Orientation, and The Amazing Race, and New Student Residence Hall Orientation, etc... (fancy, after all that "orientating" I still felt somewhat lost...) On Wednesday we had Community Outreach. That was really neat. We split up into groups of between 10 and 15, and each group went to work at a different place in the surrounding area. My group went to the Collegedale library where we dusted book shelves, washed windows, cleaned the flowerbeds outside, etc...

That afternoon was the Organization Showcase. All the different clubs/organizations at SAU had a booth set up in the gym (it reminded me of the booth halls at ASI and GYC). They had everything from kayakers and running clubs, to health and outreach clubs. As Allie and I were standing at one of the booths, they announced over the speakers that the Student Learning Success booth would be giving away a Japanese Fighting fish as one of it's prizes. I didn't think much about this, seeing as I had tried the fishy thing four times before, and failed miserably... (they all passed through the porcelain portals within a week of my possessing them...) Well, Allie decided that a fish would be nice to have in our room... so we made our way over to the booth. We took their learning quizz, and were then given a ticket and told that the drawing would be at 5:30. So we wandered around, and made some new friends until they announced that it was time for the drawing. They drew three other winning numbers, and then on the fourth one, of all the absurdities, who's number should they call but MINE! I went over to the booth, and was informed that the first three people to get their numbers drawn hadn't wanted the fish... so guess who got mr. fishy... poor fellow... maybe I'll have better luck this time... :) I did find that he made for a great conversation starter... guess it's not ever day you see a person carrying a fish tank around campus...

Thursday was officially the first day of classes... and I had NONE! :P So I caught up on some e-mails that morning, went to convocation, did some last minute shopping, etc... Then that night was the department welcome parties... so I headed over to the Allied Health/Biology pary... sounds fun huh? :p Someone had it rumored that it was going to be a lecture... so a bunch of people didn't show up... but in actuality it turned out to be just what they said it was... they had banana splits, popcorn, fruit, punch, and games. The extent of the "lecture" was an introduction of the different teachers. :)


Friday was my first REAL day of classes... I had Anatomy & Physiology from 8:00 - 8:50, on one side of campus; and College Comp. from 9:00 to 9:50, on the absolute opposite side of campus! (so nice of them to give us all of ten minutes...) I did some of my homework right after class, and then after lunch I was free for the remainder of the afternoon... so I did my weekend food shopping at the Village Market, and came back to my room to do... I wasn't sure what... (I ended up taking a two hr. nap... :P ) Sabbath cleaning didn't take too long, and then it was time to get ready for Vespers.

As Audrey and I were walking to Vespers, the cord to my student ID card was swinging from my pocket... and unbeknownst to me, somwhere along the way it fell out. We arrived at the church, and not long after, I disocvered that it was missing. My first reaction was to panic... but Audrey told me that it was no big deal, and that someone would most likely turn it in at the girls dorm, after Vespers. So I sent up a quick prayer, and enjoyed the rest of the program. Gordon Beitz (the president) spoke on our purpose/focus/drive as students here at SAU, and the strings section of the orchestra performed Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 ... (I can't find word to express what it was like hearing that performed live...)

After Vespers we went back to the dorm, and my ID card hadn't been returned yet... so we had someone let us into our room (your ID card is you room key as well... and Audrey had left hers in the room.). I sent up another quick prayer, and got ready for bed... then, just after I had gotten into my PJ's, the phone rang... and it was the front desk, saying that someone had returned my card! I was so happy that I just threw something on, (not sure it really matched....), and flew down to the front desk, hair all askew. :P I'm so glad that God cares about the little thing too... :)

Sabbath was an awesome day. We went to the North River church in downtown Chattanooga. This is a church plant, meeting in a Methodist church, that was begun just last year; so it is still fairly small. I think yesterday was the largest it has ever been, with a bunch of the returned SAU students. Sabbath school was a lively discussion of Job and his wife, and then for church there was a young missionary couple that did a slide presentation of the work in Africa where they are. After church there was potluck, and then some groups split off to do different things for the afternoon.

Audrey, Luke, myself, and a few of their friends went on a bike ride near some big river that I've already forgotten the name of. Boy, was that quite the ride... I hadn't been mountain biking in a while, and this was some trail! Stick, logs and stones scattered the narrow path, and there were multiple times when you couldn't even see the trail due to the think brush! lol Thankfully I only wiped out once, (and it was very minor). I won't soon forget the thrill, though, of racing through the woods, sweat pouring down your body, not having a clue what lies around the next corner. :) It was great. Now just so long as we all don't break out in poison ivy all over are legs...

When we reached the car we quickely loaded everything up, seeing as we were supposed to be at a birthday party about then... but we weren't stressing too much due to the fact that the birthday boy (Jonathan Renolds) was with us! lol We called ahead and told them that we were running late, but that we would be there asap... Well, we made it within a minute of their house, when the car started sputtering... and stopped... we had run out of gas. :) Luke, Jonathan, and I got out and started pushing, while Audrey drove. We got it a little further before deciding to just push it over to the side of the road and leave it there. Then what should we see coming down the road, but a truck full of guys from Jon's house! Jon had called home and told them right when we had stopped, so they had loaded up all the guys that were there for the party, and come to our rescue! :D They made quick work of pushing it the rest of the way to the house... :)

The party was a blast... Mrs. Renolds had made Thi noodles that were awesome, and there was fruit salad, cookies, muffins, cake, and popsicles. After eating we all went around the circle, saying how Jonathan had been a blessing in our lives... it was neat to hear how many lives he had touched in just 22 years. The rest of the evening was spent chatting and having a good time with friends.

As we drove back to the dorm that night, we passed the SA Welcome Back Party on the lawn by the duck pond... there was smoke and hazy green lights and lots of people... Luke suggested that I run over and check it out... :p I declined... I was more than happy with the small party that I had been to... and besides... I was sore and ready for bed. :P

So... thus ended my first week at Southern... Tomorrow begins a full week of classes... Today... lol... well, seeing as it's nearly 3:00 and I'm still in my PJ's... maybe I'll go get dressed and do some studying now... :D

-Shannon