Diane’s World

First of all, here’s the song of the week. I’ve had it stuck in my head for at least 3 weeks now, so it must be good. It’s by the shins, and it’s called “mine’s not a high horse.”Anyways - here’s a whirlwind tour of my spring break.

Sorry it took so long for me to post, mom. I’ve been in a whirlpool of life ever since I got back from spring break. But I’m back into normal Diane mode now - whatever that is.Well Spring Break went a little something like this (this post is going to be very long… sorry about that. ):

Day 1: we drove from around 2pm-12am to go to house we were staying at.

Sunset on the way there

Janice and the most confusing diesel pump ever. the poor gas station worker had the hardest time ever trying to explain how to use this pump.

Group picture minus Janice

Day 2: We were allowed to sleep in till 9:30. Then we went to Emma’s house to scape and paint it.

Janice is dangerous… with the caulking gun.

Kristina, Andrew, Janice and Joel scrape the house.

IN the afternoon, the girls and Joel decided to take the 30 minute walk to the nearest starbucks. In that time we got whistled/honked at/or Vrroom vroomed at 41 times. (We lived in the hispanic part of town)

WE also had our first major shopping trip, where Janice rode inthe cart and got a few weird looks.

By this time everybody in the group had a nickname.

Diane = Mom (in charge of groceries, 1/2 of the cooking, everybody’s wellbeing (drinking enough water, using sunscreen), contacting the site before the trip, and in charge of finances and spending)
Andrew= Dad (in charge of the driving, the vehicle, the worksites, 1/2 of the cooking, and directions)
Kayla = The old maid (the only person older than me on the trip)

and we have 6 kids

Janice = The “special” or “retarded” one

Joel = The parrot (apparently he repeats what has already been said a lot. I wasn’t there when this nickname was bestowed)
Hope = the mini mom or the little suck up
Kristina = the smart glute (she just has a really good eye for catching mistakes, which is good because she’s an accounting major)

Stephen = the silent child that will eventually turn into a serial killer

Tasha = My adopted Blond daughter

We are one happy yet dysfunctional family.

Day 3: WE return to emma’s house to paint it.

Andrew (aka my husband)… he was really good at falling off ladders. I mean, he had this whole safe way of falling off a ladder - and he even used it once or twice

Some how a huge paint war started. This is Stephen and Joel…

Hope, Tasha, and Kristina post-paint war action. (I have such attractive children )

We decided that cutting off sleeves to our paint shirts is the way to go… woopie!

(The people are Kristina, Me, Hope, Tasha, Janice and Stephen)

Our entire group with Emma after finishing the job!

Day 4: SUNDAY!

We went to a mennonite church that our site coordinator, Jason, Goes to. (Jason is AWESOME. We love him and his family)

It was nice seeing a different denomination - even though this was a pretty contemporary mennonite service.

We got some directions from Jason, and headed up into the mountains for a day of walking and relaxation. Did I ever mention how much fun my team is?

That little yellow speck is Janice.

woot Denver!

Joel, Stephen and Andrew in a tree

Kayla, Me, Kristina, Hope and Tasha about to do some flippies!

Girls on a tree. Want to see the best part about this picture?

Oh man. Every time I see Janice I can’t help but laugh. She’s one funny woman.

Day 5: we moved on to our second house - which was a trim painting job.

Oh by the way, this is Jason. He’s the man.

Mike and Janice. Mike is another guy that works with the incorporation we were working for, and he was pretty awesome. He actually auditioned to be in the band THE FRAY! I met someone who was almost famous!

… Who let Janice on the roof?

The finished house, our team, and Mike!

That night we had a homeless christian man over for dinner - his name is Jimmy, and he played his guitar for us and told us his conversion story. He was brought to christ under the care of a group of college mission students (a lot like us) that were working with Campus Crusades for Christ. It was a huge blessing having Jimmy over.
Day 6: RAMP BUILDING DAY!

Our break away from painting -we got to build a series of 3 ramps for a woman who has muscular dystrophy. I got to use power tools! (dun dun dun)

Actually, Jason made me use power tools, because I was afraid of them.

Jason and Stephen on the main ramp

Andrew and Jason on the same ramp

Andrew and Stephen trying to get sun on the only parts of their arms that were still white.

(I don’t have any pictures of the girls working at this site. Probably beause all the pictures were taken during lunch break, where the girls successfully escaped to buy bread, use a bathroom… and OK! I admit it! We also went to starbucks!)

Checking out her new ramps for the first time! She was so excited!

Second ramp with andrew and janice

Our third ramp!

Just so you know -the people in order are Stephen, Me, Tasha, Hope, Kristina, Kayla, Janice, and in the front is Andrew and Joel.

On this day we also got on Denver’s Ghetto news station. I was interviewed and got my 15 seconds of fame!

The guys grilled that night - funny pictures resulted.

Day 7 - and then 8: Painting the evil house!

I have to admit that everybody was very discouraged on this day. The house seemed like it would never get done… but thank the lord it did on day 8.

The problem was that most of the painting had to be done was over 6 feet in the air, and some of the girls weren’t so keen of heights. Things just seemed to happen soo slowly.

We didn’t take any pictures on day 7 because we were all not in a picture taking mood, so here is day 8:

Janice wayyy up there!

Mike is the man.

That was our last project.

We set out after finishing, and Jason took us up in the mountains to see a beautiful sunset. It was exactly what our group needed after that last house.

Hello Mommy! I’m in DENVER!

My children can be very scary sometimes.

And sometimes they like to break the rules.

But I love them

The mom and dad of the trip!

Denver is so beautiful.

Our last night with Jason. Our last night sleeping in Denver.

Day 9: FREE DAY!

We took one last group picture including mike and jason

Then set off to downtown Denver.

We shopped on 16th Street Mall

then went to the Denver Art Museum

and saw pretty much every genre / nationality of art possible.

Then we went to a park.

We played frisbee, the guys threw a football with some drunk homeless guy, and some read books.

We went out to eat at the hard rock cafe, and then started our trek home.

On Sunday we got together again to watch Finding Nemo, went to the PLIA GIFT, and went stargazing.

I love my dysfuntional PLIA family.

Anyways I’m back into real life.

My Gen300 profs gave us this link to find out how much resources you consume:

http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp

in the end it tells you how many worlds would be needed if everyone had your habits.

In Iowa, I take up 1.8 planets. In Washington - it nearly doubles to 3.6. I would love to drop this down to under 1… I have a lot of changes to make.
Please pray for the following things;
1) A girl at Dordt - Suzanne Clark - lost her father unexpectedly. I’m sure her family and her need a lot of prayer.

2) I heard a rumor the other day that has made me very unhappy. Someone said that my closest Professor is leaving Dordt. I have yet to find out if this is true…

I am very very very upset about this news, and I’m praying that it’s not true. If it is true, I might have a mental breakdown. This woman means a lot to me. Pray for her and her future … and the long run of uncertainty I will go through if she leaves.

(She is the only person I know that has faith in me and strong expectations for me as an artist. She’s the only one that cares about the correlation between my art and my heart/morals/personality/life. She reads beyond the canvas. She’s the reason I’m an art major. Three years ago, art was the last thing I cared about, now it’s one of the first… she’s why. )

3) One of my family members is going through a rough and very scary time. Sorry about the lack of details, but this person needs prayer. (I love you - - - you know who you are )

Okey dokey - that post was long enough to make my mom happy for a week, right?

Have a wonderful week, y’all!

Deeds