Life

Well, nothing much has changed. However, today or tomorrow, there will be a little excitement in the air. Grandma Gail generously bought new mattresses for Mandy and me (we're very excited about them), and so Mom and Dad went to Ikea last week. Ikea is a great furniture store with good prices. It is so much fun to go to. They looked at some beds, and it's been decided that Mandy and I are getting new beds! It will take some reorganization of our bedroom, but we're excited about it since we're also getting new bed covers as well. Seth is also getting new covers, and it appears that Mom and Dad will get a new mattress and maybe a new bed as well. We're planning on going to Ikea either tonight or tomorrow and picking up our new furniture and then setting it up.

Otherwise, life has been normal for us Cunninghams. I've had a stupid cold for over a week now, and it's driving me crazy. Mandy's been having a lot of fun with her new camera. She's been filming hilarious short videos of the students at Geneva and taking funny pictures. Mom took her biology midterm on Wednesday, and her biology lab has been giving her grief. Chemistry and its lab had also been giving me grief, and my midterm grade would have been either a D or an F. So, today, I am withdrawing from the class because it's going too fast for me and I'm having trouble keeping up. Next semester, though, I am planning on taking chemistry again, this time a class that meets more than once a week. My digital media class had its second test on Wednesday, and I got a B, which pushes my midterm grade up to an 85, compared to the C I had when I first started the class. College is going pretty well, and withdrawing from chemistry will certainly take a load off.

Last weekend, Seth, Mandy, and myself went to the Howlands' farm for our monthly youth group. It was a gorgeous day, and we had fun taking walks, riding in the boats on the pond, and talking. I'll be sure to post some pictures as soon as I upload them to the laptop.

Oh, and another note about college. I'm quietly boycotting the cafe that all the students eat from. Why? Because there are bugs in the kitchen. When a classmate saw the bugs too and called someone about it, they said "oh, it's just fruitflies." Maybe genetically altered fruit flies, but I know that's not what they are. Gross, to say the least. So, I have not been ordering any of the sandwiches, since the bugs were spotted near the sandwich makers. I've been eating a bagel for lunch. Besides boycotting the kitchen, a bagel is much cheaper than the usual sandwich (which costs $5) and it saves me money on my little "credit card" with its limit of $200 for a whole semester of food. Impractical. I wonder how people who buy both the sandwiches and the drinks everyday at the cafe can afford it.

Well, there's nothing else I remember to talk about. Today, I'll take pictures of our the unaltered rooms. And, after we've reorganized everything and added the new furniture, I'll take more pictures. Then, I'll be able to share them with you on this blog.

Around Here

Nothing much has happened around here since Mandy's birthday last week. Mandy's asthmatic cough returned last week, but this week she seems to be doing better. She's only had to sleep on the couch one night, which is a first for that cough. And now, the cold has transfered to me while Seth remains healthy, as usual.


This week, Seth and Mandy got their five-week progress reports. Overall, they are both doing well. Mandy has really improved since last semester, and we're proud of her rising grades. Today, the two of them are going to O'Charley's with all their classmates and a few teachers. For what occasion, I know not. I think it has been somewhat confirmed that in late March, the school will be taking another trip to Virginia. Dad has been asked to be a chaperone, but sadly he won't be able to make it. In April, I also believe that the school is making a movie. Mandy, from what I hear, is the fashion consultant. Beyond that, I don't know what the movie is about or what is actually going on.


Seth has been practicing driving. This week, Mom has let him drive through our neighborhood while we're on our way home. Someday this week (I believe it was Tuesday), Seth was driving when Mom said "slow down, Seth!" And Mandy pointed out that Seth was only going twenty miles an hour. On Sunday, he drove through the neighborhood but had some trouble since the van is a more "powerful" car than Dad's car.


College has been doing fine. My geography class has done nothing beyond inventing a new game (which is stupid, in my opinion, even though one group did invent a cool new game), giving talks on islands (which have varied from boring to very interesting), and watching movies. This'll be an easy class to pass, I'm sure. My English class has moved away from our Indian-Spanish topic and is now learning how to write essays and how to do research. Today will be our last discussion of "A Small Place," a book we recently read. Digital media has still been tricky. Some days are good, and some days aren't. The class recently had to do a podcast, but I wasn't able to do it due to complications with the software. On Wednesday, I had my first chemistry test. I was panicked the day before and the day of the test because I was having problems with stoichiometry. I wasn't alone, as many of my classmates were convinced that we were all headed for the slaughter. However, we were relieved when the teacher helped explain some of our issues and when the test didn't turn out to be that bad. I'm still waiting for a grade, although I fear I may not get it until next Wednesday. My chemistry lab is going to conduct an experiment concerning lead around the GGC campus, so yesterday we started working on that project.


Last Saturday was busy for us Cunninghams. We girls cleaned the church and then we went shopping. At Wal-Mart, Mandy and I decided to go clothes shopping. We found cute tunic-tops that we adored and some leggings to go with them, but Mom said no to the leggings because the tops were too short. Mandy ended up buying a Valentine's Day gift for Bethany, and I bought the top and some new headphones. On Sunday, we had the Greer family over for lunch after church. We had a good time, and the kids filmed three short movies at the remains of the house behind ours.

Well, that's all I can think of right now. I'll be sure to post more if I can think of it.

Mandy's 14th Birthday

Last Friday, Mandy began her birthday celebration. She had about ten or eleven of her friends over, and they went to the ice-skating rink, where they skated for a few hours. After skating, the girls all came to our house for dinner. We enjoyed fried rice, and for dessert we all enjoyed frozen cream puffs. The girls each made a scrapbooking page with pictures taken at the rink, and they watched the newest version of "Hairspray." After the party, I discovered a new program on my computer that allows me to make slideshow/ videos, and ever since I have made about four of them.

On Tuesday night, we five went to Steak and Shake for Mandy's birthday dinner. After dinner, Mandy opened her presents. Among them was a camera (which she absolutely adores) and a bag for it and a pretty teacup.

I've been doing ok in school. I've got my first chemistry test coming up, and I'm a bit worried about it. I got a good grade on a recent digital media quiz. Seth and Mandy have been doing good as well. Seth got his driver's permit this week, and he's been proud of it. Tonight, we five went to Longhorn Steakhouse to celebrate Grandpa Mike's and Mandy's birthdays. We go once a year, and tonight we had a blast. The food was delicious, and we all enjoyed hanging out with our extended family.

GGC

It's been a weird few days at GGC. Last Wednesday, while I was waiting for Mom to pick me up, a fire truck and an ambulance showed up at the school. What happened hasn't exactly been stated, but the answer for now was that a student had a bad asthma attack and fainted or something like that.

On Friday afternoon, security at the college text-messeged students to check their college e-mails. There was a messege that said a student had gone missing and that police were looking for him. On Saturday, I got a messege that said the student had been found. Today, Blair and I discovered what had really happened. The student who had gone missing was being accused in murdering his parents on Friday morning. That is disturbing, to think that a murderer attended your college.

Digital media class has been a killer. The quizzes have three questions, so if you miss one, you fail the quiz. Last week, my class took our first test. I got a C, which I was not surprised at, since some of the questions I had not remembered discussing. We got a quiz soon, but I'm not sure when we're going to take it. Geography has been extremely easy lately. This week, I'm going to do a little presentation on Easter Island. Nothing much has happened in English or chemistry.

And this week, there is Mandy's 14th birthday. I'll be sure to have a nice long post about it.