this morning i cooked for the last time at my house. i walked out to the barn for the last time. played in the garden for the last time.
tonight will be my last night to sleep in my room, in my house. my last shower tomorrow morning (at the house guys! not forever!), my last breakfast in my kitchen in the morning.
i have lived in this house for nine years. a lot has gone by in that time. will i cry? probably. most likely. i hate it, but i probably will.
and then the harder last goodbyes. my grandparents. my aunts and uncles. in saying goodbye last night and earlier last week i look at these faces i love and wonder if i will ever see them again. if they ever come to this website, i want my family to all know how much i love them and will miss them. we have never been this far away before, and now that we are leaving i start to appreciate what i have. it is like graduation. you never know really how much the school has done for you until you are out and then it hits you how much it ment to you.
i know i will miss my grandma hoagland's cooking. =) she has this killer chop souey recipie. she gave it to me, but who knows if i will ever get it right! grandmas have some kind of magic in their fingers. and my grandpa's cooking too. cause i don't think grandma could do all the cooking w/o grandpa right there. i love you both!
maybe i better stop now so i can stop crying. starting already. how dumb.
You give us a clear path, and then place so many obsticles in our way.
You tell us to go, and yet you prevent us.
You say "this is My will," and yet You close so many doors.
clearly You are testing. but You have promised that when (not if) we go thru the fire, we will come forth as pure gold. refined as only the best. that
You, the Master Potter, mold us to Your perfection, for us.
You are the Good Sheepherd and when your little helpless lambs are subject to storms, winds, danger and faced with being lost, You find us and lift us into Your arms and carry us safely back to the shelter of Your fold.
guide us now. may You be glorified in our weaknesess and our imperfections. may our trust in You be renewed not once at a camp meeting, but daily, an afirmation of our faith. placing our lives daily in Your nail pierced hands that are so loving and so capable.
thine be the honor and the glory and the power forever.
amen.
i live on a farm. or will until saturday. things are a little different on a farm than in the city. for instance.
this morning, i woke a little (ok, ok, a lot) earlier than usual. lets say around 7:00 am. (cut me some slack, it IS summer!) dad and i decided to check on my cat who just had kittens two days ago, and the chicken who hatched 18 chicks last week. can i just insert that it is rather funny when you are trying to move, your animals seem to know that to they have all these babies and you have no idea what in the world to do with them all? anyone want 18 chicks? half of them when they are old enough will lay either green or blue eggs......
back to my story. we have a barn. and one of the main threats to a barn is a groundhog. what a groundhog does is goes under the foundation of the structure and undermines it by tunneling. we knew we had groundhogs cause there were big holes on the ground level of the barn.
dad and i went to check the "have a heart" trap we had set the night before. the bait was rotten corn....not very inticing, but hey, to each his own.
BINGO!! we caught a female! we were worried that she could have pups, but thankfully she didn't. so we tried to think of how to get rid of this thing. we walked down to the creek and saw that it wasn't deep enough to drown it, so dad got the bright idea to drown it in a trash can. but he didn't reckon on the desire this groundhog, we will call her bertha, had to live. she wouldn't drown. she just wouldn't. we tried for about 1/2 an hour but she always found a way to climb to the top and get air.
so we decided to take her somewhere and drown her (hang on tree huggers and animal's rights people, it gets better. ) our neighbor had a nice creek that we could use, but upon arrival, it wasn't deep enough either. i think bertha had been blessed or something, or this was her lucky day or her horiscope said, "you have the desire to live, and that will save your life today." and so she didn't die. (i just want to insert again, that groundhogs are VERY smelly animals. and when you are driving ten miles away in a car all closed up.....i will leave that to your imagination.) we drove ten minutes away and dropped her off at a bridge(she didn't seem to want to fall 15 feet for some reason. we had to shake her out of the cage) . we dropped her off the bridge because mom has seen dogs badly hurt by groundhogs and bertha was very mad. dad and i didn't want her to turn on us and, well, you know. and away she ran into the sunrise.
so if you want, buy our farm and you can have experiences like this too!
i will need all your help on this one. please write your favorite quotes about books. i was looking around on google (blessed place!) and found several sites dedicated to quotes on books. here are a few. add more!
"Some books are meant to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to
be chewed and digested : that is, some books are to be read only in parts,
others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with
diligence and attention."
Francis Bacon, Apothegms
Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most
accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers.
Charles W. Eliot
The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?
Henry Ward Beecher
Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day
makes that day happier.
Kathleen Norias
I wonder what's in a book while its closed. Oh, I know it's full of letters printed on paper, but all the same, something must be happening, because as soon as I open it, there's a whole story with people I don't know yet and all kinds of adventures and deeds and battles. And sometimes there are storms at sea, or it takes you to strange cities and countries. All those things are somehow shut up in a book. Of course you have to read it to find out. But it's already there, that's the funny thing. I just wish I knew how it could be.
~the neverending story by michael ende
i think it is finally here. whatnot. my blog. kinda all amazing in the long run how someone is smart enought to get one of these things running, but i owe it all to ben young. ben, if you are out there and reading this, thanks a ton.
a slight intro would be nice i guess. i am hill. aka hillary hoagland. junior at bju. great school by the way. i am studying interpretative speech and am loving every moment of it. sometimes i wish i could be an art major, but the funny thing about being an art major, is you kinda have to know how to draw, and well, i am lacking in the drawing field. =) my minor is family and consumer sciences, and oh, by the way, i have difficulties spelling. often late at night is the worst. so i just apologise now.
i was first introduced to blogs by ben and then got more fascinated by them. i decided to visit others and since then have made friends thru their blogs.
i don't have anything profound to say on my blog, and will use it to get my ideas down. dumb as they may be and sound. =) that is why the title is whatnot. ramblings and whatnot! =)
i hope you all contribute to my blog whenever you are led to do so. i look forward to writing more entries in the future!
happy blogging!