Dillon Pictures

So, I was going to try to post all the picts of Dillon at once, but my computer is SLOW and internet is even slower. I'm about to buy a new one. Today was the straw that maybe broke the camel's back. The thing shuts itself off without even saying anything first. Anywhoo, here's a little bit of our life in Dillon. I miss that place already so bad. Here's Amy in a dress, I think she's dancing. lol. The other picts here are all from the ride. I love road trips.
More later,
Joanna

Emily's Wedding Shower

Here's some picts from Emily's recent shower. Thank you Ashley and Kacey for an amazing shower. Hope nobody kept you up too late. If you want to save the picts, click on them and they will get bigger :)

Dillon/Malta

I don't even know where to start. This past week and a half has been such a blessing to me. I started all the craziness off with staying up all night. Left for Malta at 2 am and I drove until 5 am. I think at that point I was probably tired. The Malta Music Festival was absolutely awesome. I couldn't help but think how truly happy Christian's are without drugs, alcohol, or other empty things. I felt my heart filled with praise for the two days of the music festival. Some of the finest bluegrass/southern gospel/Christian/family groups were there. It inspired me to practice more on the piano and guitar. Maybe one day, I'll be half as good as them. Thank you so much Hiedi and Nancy Lue for coming. It was great to get to know both of you. Congratulations on staying sane. Btw, the trip to Malta was an all-girl trip. Kind of scary, I know.
I got home at about midnight Sun night and left by noon on Monday for Dillon. Some of my friends have been trying to get me to come to the Dillon Bible Conference for a long time. It far exceeded my expectations. You seriously just have to come to understand. God is really alive and well. I don't even know how to explain it. The fellowship was amazing too. All the people were so down-to-earth and friendly. Highlights were swimming and getting stuck in a storm, hiking barefooted, sleeping in the woods for 4 nights and having the zipper on my sleeping bag break, eating one particular very bizarre food, listening to half the people lose their voices at the end of the week, hearing about the bleeding piano keys, ok, that pretty much sums it up.
Well, all good things must come to an end and I will resume back to "normal" life. I pray that I can take some of the things I learned at the conference to be a better Christian and better witness.

College Decision

I want to start off this post by saying that I didn't make this decision in haste, but I actually did think, pray a lot, and weighed all the negatives and positives of both options.
When I went down to PCC for my brother's graduation, I really was willing to go back to PCC if that was what God wanted for me. I talked to a couple of people when I was down there and they said they might be able to get me a job in the communications department and/or give me my scholarship back. Anyway, to make a long story short, God really did shut the door there. The college said they may not have a job for me in the communications department and they would not give me my scholarship back. I counted the cost. so I work another two years to make it through college. graduate with a degree. broke. . . In the end, people are looking for experience anyway? What did I gain? What really matters? When you die, it isn't going to matter how rich you were or how high your education was. The only thing that is going to matter is how much of any impact you made on people's lives. Don't misunderstand me. I believe in making the most of your skills and talents that God has given you; but I really believe for me, there are more productive ways.
I have to throw this out there too, because this was part of my decision making process. I'm not really interested in a career, because eventually I want to get married and raise a family. I don't see the point on spending my money pursuing a career, when I can be using my talents for God right now.
So. . . right now. I'm looking into some different opportunities. I'll continue to pursue sign language and piano, which usually opens up doors. I'm e-mailing a couple of different Christian radio stations in Alaska where you can volunteer for a certain amount of time and gain hands on experience. I'm also looking at furthering my filming skills either by buying a camera or going to some Christian film festivals.
I'm thrilled to see what doors God opens. I'll keep you all posted.

been a while. . .

Wow, I just realized it's been forever since I posted. The last couple of months have been a blur, but definitely a good kind of blur. I kept promising that I would post pictures and stories from the trip so here they are. Well some of them anyway. I actually took over 1,300 pictures. deleted about 300. so it would take forever to show even a glimpse of them. On top of that my hard drive is giving me issues. My computer won't recognize it over half of the time. Technical difficulties--got to love them. I think last time I posted about the trip, we were leaving Wisconsin. I drove through Chicago. It was really exciting. I actually get thrills out of driving through big cities. David was my co-pilot. . . scary I know. . . That night we stayed in. . I don't remember where. think it was on the Kentucky border. All of us in one hotel. Not sure how we pulled that off. That hotel room was so full. The next day we arrived at PCC. PCC is great as a visitor I must say. . . and the sunset on the non-oil filled beach was great! Josiah joined us via airplane that day and David got lost trying to find the airport and blamed his directional-challengism on me. The rest of the trip we had the car and the van. Not sure why I chose to stay in the car because it doesn't have AC, but it was definitely the car of fun. We picked up Elise (my wild friend from AZ) to join us for the rest of the trip. We left right after graduation (after Luke got his room cleaned up that is and we got all of the stuff stuffed in the car). Our first stop was Austin (11 people in that hotel room). and we got lost finding it. . about two in the morning. I was throwing sunflower seeds out of the window and a cop. . well he stopped us, claimed my brother was making "too abrupt a stop." I think he was just suspicious of that. Got that token care of and we found the hotel. I slept on the floor and got stomped by people all night, but it was only a few hours. Texas is a gigantic state for those of you who haven't been to it. 800 miles just to get across the thing. We arrived at my friend Elise's house in AZ about 2:00 am. I was thoroughly exhausted and a shower felt pretty amazing after being crammed in that car. That was the last shower I would take in a week. actually the last shower that 5 of us would take. David stunk the worst tho. From there, the rest of my family left for home and David (got payed 60 dollars by the parent's to be our guide/slave), me, Ruth, Bethany, and Elise stayed 5 extra days goofing off in the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park. I was supposed to hike the Grand Canyon, but we weren't quite prepared. . . well we weren't prepared at all and it was probably a good thing that we didn't do it. We camped out two nights at the Grand Canyon and froze like crazy. I didn't realize that it was so cold in the desert. Well I did, but once again, not exactly prepared. We lit a fire that went all night and slept around it. beautiful stars out at night. The Grand Canyon is so wild. For those of you who haven't been there, you are missing out. We hiked the "Hermit's Trail" and besides the whole canyon being alerted about us not bringing enough water (which we had enough), it was a fairly peaceful hike. Definitely some nice drop offs.
Elise's parents joined us at Zion. . and they are awesome, btw. We were so hungry. . they brought us food. . . and we they had a pop-up camper for us to sleep in. The next few days we spent hiking like crazy. I thought that my legs would fall off. We hiked a 2,000 foot elevation change in 1.5 hours. and the best hike of all-"Angel's Landing" (800 foot drops on the one side and 1200 foot drops on the other with a rope to hang on to). Google it. It is a must do. I went swimming in this very, very cold cavern. Almost as cold as the polar plunge. and cliff jumping. Cliff jumping was great. It looked like heaven on earth. The final bang was the last day drive home. 23 hours in one day. David locked himself out of the car. hahaha. I laughed so hard. Towards the end of that day, me and David were switching off and on driving and drinking coffee.
Well, that was the trip. It was better than I could have even imagined. I was just in awe of God the whole time and how amazing he was. I've only seen a tip of the iceberg when it comes to His creation and to think that He's interested in our lives.

The link to the photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065456&id=1291540410&l=c8abee2d75

On the Road Again

So. . . for those of you don't know. My entire family--well most of us everyone but Josiah (he's flying down later) are on this crazy road trip. Today I am in Wisconsin. It has not been without it's difficulties to get here. First of all, the car seemed to have some problems starting. But it really turned out to be no problems at all, just a glitch. It seems to be working now.
We made it through Montana with no difficulties. The first night we stayed in Wolf Point with some ranching friends of ours. They are awesome, btw. We were supposed to leave at 6:30 in the morning, but if you know my family staying on schedule can be difficult. I don't even remember why we were late, but we didn't get out of there until about 7:00.
I LOVE to drive and me and my little brother fight for the steering wheel. In the end there's enough for us to divide. My Mom didn't drive at all yet, but we'll see. Right when we started coming into Minnesota, David noticed the car was shaking kind of bad. Well, I noticed it before that. . . but got to keep going. We pulled over and 1 of our tires was flat. Thankfully, God was watching over us and we were right next to a Super Walmart. About an hour late and we were back to the wheel. If I'm not driving, I'm usually co-pilot. I kind of got David lost once, but I quickly navigated my way out of it. My parent's direction flaw, on the other hand, took a little bit longer to fix. lol.
It was pretty much an all out blizzard. We didn't get into Green Bay, WI until 4 AM. Needless to say, I think I'm sleep deprived. Therefore, I can't be responsible for anything in this post. lol. cause I'm not even going to read it over.
Tomorrow's menu--Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and then Florida. I think we're going to be driving all day and all night too. Woot, woot.

I am not afraid to admit

One of my friends posted this on her blog. . .and I thought it was a good idea. Hopefully, these aren't things you didn't already know about me. lol. 15 things.

I am not afraid to admit. .. I like to howl at the moon.


I am not afraid to admit. . . I would prefer it cold over warm. I love the snow.


I am not afraid to admit. . . I am not super-human. . . although I try to be.


I am not afraid to admit. . . Jesus is EVERYTHING!


I am not afraid to admit. . . I'm really not that nice all the time. .


I am not afraid to admit. . . I'm a hick at heart.


I am not afraid to admit. . . I grew up in a crazy family.


I am not afraid to admit. . . I am sometimes a geek.


I am not afraid to admit. . . I'm actually shy


I am not afraid to admit. . . The Bible is the absolute truth. . . and yes, I believe in absolute truth.


I am not afraid to admit. . . I love swimming in cold water.


I am not afraid to admit. . . sometimes I think I work too hard.


I am not afraid to admit. . . I LOVE music and believe God made it for us to enjoy. . and I love driving with my car window down with my music loud.. . and I bop my head.


I am not afraid to admit. . . when I camp I don't use a tent cauz the stars are too pretty.


I am not afraid to admit. . . I'm not perfect, but I have a God who is.

I am not afraid to admit. . . sorry this is the 16th one.. couldn't forget. I am a coffeeholic.