A few...

I have a snow day today (YEAAAAAAA!), so I'm sharing a few pictures from the last month or so.  Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

My brother Garret, waiting to receive his sheriff's academy certificate!  Garret worked very hard through two rounds of academy.  He was the top shot, and he was second academically.  Very proud of him and hoping he gets picked up by a sheriff's office soon! :)

Certificate presented by Kaydee and Scott and Ross

So cute! :D

Baby Amelia has been out and about for a month now!  I got to see and hold her when she was only a few days old. :)  I managed not to get sick from both Amos and my family, but I didn't want to breathe on Amelia too much, so I only stayed a little while.

Awwww!

Danielle is looking very good for just going through an emergency C-section and fighting off a mysterious infection!  So thankful for God's protection of her and Amelia.

The sign I made for the Neumans to put above Amelia's crib

2015 reading list, updated this morning

What I've read so far this year...

Sixty

Here it is, at long last!  My book list for 2014.  Sixty books, most of them before I started working at OSU-OKC.  Blog and books were both neglected once I started working forty hours a week.  Whine, whine, okay...

Some of the books fit in more than one category, so I tried to put them in the dominant category.

My reading lists from past years are included on my homepage as tabs now, right under my blog banner.  If you'd rather click on a link, here you go:
2010
2011
2012
2013

Let me know if you end up reading any of these or if you have suggestions for books you think I would like!

Key
* fun
# favorite
AB audiobook

Jennica-Ayelet's 2014 Reading List

Christian
# Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God, Noel Piper
One of my favorites from this year.  Short biographies of five different women, including Lillias Trotter and Helen Roseveare.

The Small Woman and the Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Gladys Aylward as told to Christine Hunter
An autobiography of Gladys Aylward, missionary to China.  She went through some crazy stuff (including sleeping in the snow unknowingly surrounded by wolves).

AB The Cross and the Switch Blade, David Wilkerson with John and Elizabeth Sherrill
The story of a pastor who heeds the call to minister to gang kids in New York City.  It makes you want to pack your bags and go help, though you have to realize that a lot of hard things went on that were never mentioned in this book.

AB Captive in Iran: A Remarkable True Story of Hope and Triumph amid the Horror of Tehran's Brutal Evin Prison, Maryam Rastampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh with John Perry
Recommended by Heather; a true story of two young ladies in Iran who refused to give in.

Isobel Kuhn: On the Roof of the World, Janet and Geoff Benge
A biography of my favorite missionary!  I learned some new things about Isobel.

Jacob DeShazer: Forgive Your Enemies, Janet and Geoff Benge
A biography of a WWII POW who went back to his captors as a missionary.

Elisabeth Elliot: Joyful Surrender, Janet and Geoff Benge
A good general biography of Elisabeth Elliot, covering her various ministries before Jim and after.

Side note: This missionary series by Janet and Geoff Benge seems to be pretty good.


Autobiographies/Biographies/Memoirs
Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle East Historian, Bernard Lewis
Sadly, I can't remember many details about this book, but I remember it being interesting and insightful. :P

* Bill Peet: An Autobiography, Bill Peet
I read part of this autobiography of one of the best Disney storymen (Dumbo, Goofy tales, Jungle Book, etc.) for my Children's Lit class in college.  Something reminded me of it, so I read the whole book this time.  The illustrations are great!

The Invisible Girls: A Memoir, Sarah Thebarge
This girl is a TMC alumna.  Her memoir talks about her strict upbringing, her struggle with aggressive cancer, and her outreach to a refugee family.

An American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir, Phyllis Chesler
Naive lady marries an Afghan man and is taken to visit live in Kabul.  She eventually returns home and spends the rest of her life following Middle Eastern movements and writing about and supporting the feminist movement.


L.M. Montgomery
AB Anne of Green Gables
I got this audiobook for free this summer.  I'd started Anne of Windy Poplars before leaving Santa Clarita, but listening to Anne as an audiobook set me off on a Green Gables/L.M. Montgomery binge.

AB Anne of Avonlea
AB Anne of the Island
Anne of Windy Poplars
AB Anne's House of Dreams
Anne of Ingleside
AB Rainbow Valley
AB Rilla of Ingleside

The Blue Castle
Another L.M. Montgomery book.  I think of L.M.M. books as safe romance: love stories intertwined with day-to-day happenings, fluffy professions of love, happy endings, nothing too scandalous.


Elizabeth Enright
* The Saturdays
* The Four-Story Mistake
* Then There Were Five
Spiderweb for Two: A Melendy Maze
I love the Melendys.  The stories are fun and the writing is great!

# Doublefields: Memoirs and Stories
This was a very interesting book.  Not for everyone.

Gone-Away Lake
Two kids find an old brother and sister pair living near a lake surrounded by abandoned summer homes.  They all become friends and have adventures.

Thimble Summer
I don't remember much about this one except that it was a good, old-fashioned kids' book and the protagonist hitchhiked in a chicken truck.


Children's/Young Adult
AB Henry Huggins, Beverly Cleary
Funny.  What else is there to say? :P

Treasures from Grandma, Arleta Richardson
I really like the Grandma's Attic series; I think this one was free on our Kindle.

# The Man Who Lost His Head, Claire Huchet Bishop, ill. Robert McCloskey
I read this to Amos; he was not expecting the ending. :)

The Good Master, Kate Seredy
The Singing Tree, Kate Seredy
Hungarian family living through World War I.

AB The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin
Amos and I listened to this on the way out from CA, and we did not like it.

AB # * From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg
Amos and I listened to this on the way out from CA, and we LOVED it.  The narrator was great. :)

A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, E.L. Konigsburg
Fictionalized history highlighting Eleanor of Acquitaine.  Well-written and interesting.

Bluffton, Matt Phelan
Graphic novel about Buster Keaton.  I love Matt Phelan's illustrations.

City Boy: The Adventures of Herbie Bookbinder, Herman Wouk
Recommended by Dr. Adams, one of my TMC profs and my Children's Literature professor.  It was a funny story, but kind of weird, too.

The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, Christopher Healy
Not impressed.

The Pinballs, Betsy Byars
Not impressed.  A book about foster kids (it was okay, but the writing was pretty bad).

* Real American Girls Tell Their Own Stories, Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
"But how in the world," argued Madeline Vaughn, "can we ever get married if our father won't let any boy commit an 'attention' to us?"
"We can't!" I admitted.  Between drowsiness and resentment all issues became suddenly confused.  "But who cares?" I replied valiantly.  "I'd rather go off and be a missionary and eat cannibals."

Amos Fortune, Free Man, Elizabeth Yates
A classic and a Newbery Award winner, but I didn't like it that much.


James Herriot
AB * All Creatures Great and Small
AB * All Things Bright and Beautiful
AB * All Things Wise and Wonderful
AB * The Lord God Made Them All
James Herriot's stories of his vet days!  Hilarious, especially the stories featuring Tristan.


Et Cetera
Fatherhood, Bill Cosby
Funny book, but when you consider the author...

AB # Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, Laura Hillenbrand
Another favorite from this year. Amos and I both read it.  Laura Hillenbrand is a talented author, she made Louie's story very interesting, and she is writing a third book!  (Her first book was Seabiscuit: An American Legend.)  Originally recommended by Josh and Grace.

# The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, Anne Fadiman
Recommended by Heather.  This book reinforced how different cultures can be and the immense amount of work that must go into understanding (and reaching) others.

Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther
The account of the author's son's fight with brain cancer.  Terrifying and detailed, but very interesting.  I read this while subbing at the Christian school.

AB They Came to Baghdad, Agatha Christie
A thriller about a plot to bring down the Western world!
"Edward was adorable.  Edward had glamour.  But had Edward got brains?"
Good thing Victoria had.

AB Why Didn't They Ask Evans? Agatha Christie
A madhouse, a vicar's son, a duke's daughter, double-dealers, a dim-witted hero, an opium fiend, etc.

AB Appointment with Death, Agatha Christie
I don't remember this one at all!  Ah yes, a mystery set in Israel and Jordan.  I don't remember how it ends...a vague memory of a gunshot...but who was it?!

# I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
Two brothers come to England to claim the eldest brother's inheritance, and two sisters, living as tenants in their castle, fall in love with them.  I wouldn't recommend this book to everyone.

AB * Crocodile on the Sandbank, Elizabeth Peters
Recommended by Lester.  Amelia Peabody, Victorian traveler turned Egyptian archaeologist, is a crazy lady!

# Lila, Marilynne Robinson
The third book in the Gilead trilogy.  I like Gilead, but I loved Lila.  I have to find this one at a used bookstore to add to my collection.  It really shouldn't be stuck here in the et cetera section.

To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story, Casey Sciesaka and Steven Weinberg
Interesting account written by the girlfriend and illustrated by the boyfriend.  Not that great, but I really liked the pictures.

Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil, Deborah Rodriguez with Kristin Ohlson
This book was interesting, telling the stories of several Afghan ladies involved in a beauty school designed to train them in order to start their own salons.  Well, it turns out Ms. Rodriguez isn't as great as she says she is (culturally inept and naive; reneging on her promises to help the Afghan ladies when she left the country; etc.), so that was a disappointment.


Rereads
The Anne books

AB Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
AB Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire x 2
AB Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
AB # Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows


To Read in 2015
A Timothy Keller book (Prayer, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering, King's Cross, Every Good Endeavor, Generous Justice, Jesus the King, etc.)
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Daniel James Brown
A few Barbara Tuchman books (The Proud Tower, The Guns of August, Bible and Sword, etc.)

In the last week...

I have...

...suffered through freezing temperatures and no furnace for two days.

...remembered our friends who just moved to the Middle East and are living in a cold, concrete apartment.

Remembering our suffering has reminded me to pray for them.


...rejoiced over the birth of our CA friends' little boy, Owen!

...learned of the diagnosis of SMA for the little boy of some of our OK friends.

Life and death are so close sometimes.


...been terrified of the "what ifs" that come could come with trying to leave our current apartment.

...opened my Bible to rediscover Psalm 37, a partially-memorized psalm from this summer.

"Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him;
Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
Over the man who carries out evil devices!

Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil."

Success

Well, I think yesterday was a success. :)  Here's what I was up to...

Visited Super Cao Nguyen, a huge Asian grocery store
Bought paper for the Neumans' sign at Hobby Lobby
Visited Walmart ($0.25 cans of pumpkin for the win!)
Stopped by to say hi to Amos at work
Visited Crest
Started pho, Vietnamese noodle soup (which our Vietnamese brother-in-law actually doesn't like!  ?!?!)
Mixed bread dough
Washed the dishes
Started to rearrange the upstairs
Listened to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Ate pho for dinner (very good!)

Today?
Finish organizing the upstairs
Wash more dishes
Bake my bread (when it finishes rising)
Start the sign for the Neumans
Read a book (hmmmmm, which one?!)
Figure out what to make for dinner
Try not to freeze!  The wind chill is driving the temperature down into negative territory!
Ring in the new year with my sweetheart and best friend! :)

A week off

I have this week off!  Amos and I spent Wednesday through Sunday up in Nebraska, visiting family, watching movies, eating dinakoga (I think that's how you spell it), shopping at Goodwill, and watching a brother and brother-in-law fix up Amos' parents' new house! ;)

I don't have to work this week (YEAAAAAAAAA!), so I am going to try to get a lot of things done.  Today's projects?

Pay rent
Go to the library
Go to Sprouts
Go to ALDI
Go to Hobby Lobby for some candleholders for my Goodwill candle sconces
Do the dishes and clean the kitchen
Make a list for the rest of the week!
Unpack and rearrange the living room
Vacuum the downstairs
Pick Amos up from work
Make dinner

List
Make a sign for Danielle and baby Amelia
Bleach the bathtub caulk
Clean the bathroom
Write down all the stuff that our landlord has done so we have a record in case we need it :P
Paint this year's ornament (oops)
Add and delete books from our master book list
Reshelve books
Pour candles
Bake bread
Clean and sweep the backyard
Write more blog posts
Finish at least one book
Work on my annual book post
Rearrange the upstairs
Take pictures of our new place

Almost 2015

Five more days till Christmas! What?!?!  Where has the time gone?

Work
I've been working at the OSU-OKC Testing and Assessment Center for two months now, and it is going okay.  The work isn't that hard, but it is customer service, so you hope every person who comes in is going to be nice.  You hope they won't throw a fit when you tell them they can't take an expired test, they should leave their mechanical pencils in their lockers, and, worst of all, they can't wear hats into the testing room.
I like my coworkers.  One of them, the only guy in the office, is a retired Navy guy.  He tells me stories about narrow misses with aircraft carriers and almost starting World War III during the Cold War off the coast of Libya.  He and his wife are Christians, and his wife used to be a missionary in Morocco, before they married about twelve years ago.  They are in their 60s, but they have two young girls that they adopted from Guatemala.  He is a really nice guy.

Church
We've attended one small group party and one Christmas celebration.  We like our small group people, even though attendance fluctuates and we are never sure who we are going to see on Sunday morning (small group time).
Amos went to a men's Bible study, and I've been to one missions meeting. I will hopefully be able to go to more in 2015, though I can already tell that the Covenant missions committee and the Crossroads missions team are very different.

Housing
We moved to a new place about six weeks ago!  We really like the townhome's split-level set up. Our landlord, however, is not so great.  Between entering our apartment without notice, poking in our tool box, messing with our thermostat, not fixing our gas when the gas company turned it off, and neglecting to our answer or return our calls, we are not impressed, to put it lightly.  We will see what the new year brings...hopefully he will behave himself.

Books
I've read a lot of books this year, but I think I've only finished three in the last two months. :P  Oh dear. I'd better get on that; I only have eleven more days until 2015!
Recent reads
Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale, an Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself, Rachel Lloyd
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling, audiobook (almost done)

Neglectful

My poor blog.  The only post this month.

Work has been going pretty well.  I enjoy my coworkers, two of whom are Christians.  The students have been nice, with a few exceptions (one refused to leave on Wednesday; my slightly scary boss convinced him).

Bob and Kristen Bruce, some friends from our OK church, invited us to spend Thanksgiving with their three little boys and extended family.  We had a great time, and the food was really good. :)

This weekend we are trying to get our house put together, mostly.  I unpacked several boxes of books last night, and it was like Christmas!  Books that we haven't seen for eight months, finally reappearing! :D

Cold front

The weather is about to turn cool cold, so I guess I'll get to experience fall.  I've never been one of those people to bemoan a lack of seasons.  Many of my friends and acquaintances in California complain that the state only sees two-three seasons: warm, hot, and, maybe, cool.

I never really felt the absence.  I love the orange, red, and gold leaves brought on by a cold snap, but my favorite season is late spring/early summer.  Bring on school breaks, summer camp, bright evenings outdoors, ice cream, and the Fourth of July!

It has been an unseasonably warm October here in OK, just like the summer was unseasonably cool.  It was 86 degrees on Monday and 75 today, but tomorrow we aren't going to break 60!

Oh dear...and I've already started wearing my leggings under my dress pants and jeans.

Odd, part 3

Continuing my series on weird Oklahoma, I have a few more observations to share with you.

Oil derricks. Oklahoma pumps a lot of oil, so oil derricks are everywhere.  I've seen derricks in grocery store parking lots, in the field surrounding our new church, and even at the State Capitol (the only state capitol with a functioning oil derrick; they are very proud of this).

Driving.  Oklahomans are very bad drivers.  People who say California has bad drivers have obviously never been to Oklahoma.

Tribal license plates.  Oklahoma is home to many different Indian tribes, each of which is actually a sovereign nation.  Each tribe has a unique license plate design.

Sidewalks.  Where are all the sidewalks?  Do they take them in during the day?!

Overalls.  Many men wear overalls here (though definitely not everyone).  When Amos and I go somewhere, I keep track of the overalled men I see; the highest score so far is three.  Amos says that we will be seeing more because the cool fall weather is coming.  (Amos and I went to the state fair back in September; I saw a grampa wearing overalls AND a fanny pack!)

Ma'am.  I work at a university now, so I get called ma'am several times a day.  It throws me off every time.

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Part 1
Part 2

Hi-ho, hi-ho

Time to dust off the Nalgene and the glass lunchware; I go back to work tomorrow!  It's been a nice seven months off.  Tomorrow I'll get up at 6:00 am, leave by 7:30, drop Amos off at 7:50, get to work by 8:05, start work at 9:00, get off work at 6:00, get Amos by 6:20, and get home by 6:30.  It is going to be a loooooong day.

This morning I made these pancakes (before church!).  For lunch I made quick enchilada bowls.  Tonight I'm making chicken piccata.

We have a few muffins and a box of waffles in our freezer, and leftover pancakes, some vanilla yogurt, and two dozen eggs in our fridge for breakfasts. We have windmill cookies, three kinds of pudding, and pumpkin pie for lunchtime desserts.  We have a few choices for snacks, and we have several dinner options ready be whipped up (hopefully quickly).

I think I'm ready as I'll ever be, at least in the food department, if the rice will just cook...

Cleaning

One thing I will not miss about this apartment is the cigarette smoke that wafts in periodically.  I also will not miss the "gargoyles," aka pigeons.  The little varmints can have our porch back in about three weeks, when we move to our new place!

Amos and I put down a deposit on a small townhouse only a few blocks away.  We would prefer to live in a little house in a small town to the west, but this will be fine for now. :)  The townhome has two stories and a little nook under the stairs; I'm hoping that we can get a papasan for the nook.  (I was going to get a papasan many months ago from Craigslist, but just as Amos and I were leaving to pick it up, the lady woman texted to say her husband wouldn't sell it to us after all!)

Anyway, I have started to clean our current apartment so that we will have less to do when we actually move.  So far I've bleached the bathtub and shower, wiped down the kitchen cabinets, cleaned the grease vent (might need to do that again later :P ), packed up our DVDs and books, scrubbed the oven, dusted the ceiling fan, and started on the refrigerator.  My latest audiobook, Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery, just finished, so now I need to find another good one in order to keep up steam!

Pistol Pete

Pistol Pete; via wikipedia

Two and a half weeks ago, I interviewed for a job at Oklahoma State University at Oklahoma City. I dressed up in my professional clothes, drove over to the small campus, and did a good job answering all my interviewers' questions, in spite of a cold.  By five o'clock that same day, I had a new job!  No more substitute teaching! Yea yea yea!!!

I'll soon be working at the school's testing center as a clerk, proctoring exams, recording results, working the front desk, etc., but for now, I am waiting on my background check!  The dumb thing was hung up on Los Angeles County, last I heard.  Oh well.  I am thankful that I have this job and that my supervisor is as anxious for me to start as I am!

Soon I'll be working at an extension campus of one of the top schools in Oklahoma (the main campus is in Stillwater).  OSU's colors are orange and black, their team name is the Cowboys (or the Pokes), and their mascot is an ugly little guy called Pistol Pete.

I am very thankful for the way that God provided this job for me...and I hope I like it! :)