Winter Beauty

This fall a litter of kittens was born by our house. As of now only two of them survived. If you read Rebecca's blog you will know that a stray dog ended up at our house. Well, this dog was a little too rough and killed one of the little kittens and hurt Spooks' leg. The dog is gone now so I think that the other two will survive through the winter. One kitten has long splotchy brownish fur and is still a little wild. We named that one Wolfman-Dan (after a radio anouncer[don't ask]). The other one that survived is a mousy striped grey kitten named Pip-Squeak. If I can get the video to work, I have a short clip of his squeaky meow.

The rest of the pictures are from the ice storm we had resently. The sheets of ice that covered the ground wre dangerous to walk on, but the ice made everything beautiful.

A Start

I don't really feel like blogging, but as long as I write something today, I might be more likely to write later. It's been almost 2 months since I last blogged, but I'll write about what happened someother time.

Yeah the Video Works!

Yipee Trampoline!

Bored

Sorry, that I haven't been blogging for while. The main reason being that nothing interesting has happened. Now,however, I have something to write about. A few hours ago I finished Terry Pratchett's new Book, Making Money, and as to be expected it was great. The story line is different from the last Moist Von Lipwig book while still being just as multilayered as

his other books which is amazing for an author to be able to do. My favorite book by Terry Pratchett is still Night Watch but Making Money is good too.

Here is the American cover for those interested.

Tent Over Airplane Continued...

Today (yesterday actually) I helped take down the tent that was set up three months ago over the navy plane. It was a lot easier to get the plane out then it was to put it in. Charity didn't feel like getting up at 6:30 in the morning so she didn't come. Stan's nephew Alex Nykamp (who went to bed at four in the morning after returning from a Twins game) came though so we still had 4 people to help. Stan, Dad, Alex, and I along with the help of the owner of the plane and his expert Canadian airplane mechanic helped us manuver the airplane in to the open. After that the rest was easy. While we were dissassembling the tent we got to see the mechanic trying out the newly fixed engine. It turns out that the plane was built in the fifties after world War II instead of during world war II as I had previously stated. These types of planes were used as training planes before pilots would fly jets. Then during the Vietnam war they were fitted to drop bombs. The smoke smudges on the side of the plane had been cleaned off, so it was nice to see the plane again in working order.

School has Started

As many of you know, I have switched majors. I am now at Dordt College for Graphic Design. I really like the change it's more enjoyable and I think I'm better at it.
My first class of the week is Ancient and Medieval art history with professor Sheesley from 8:00-8:50am. Professor Sheesley is new to Dordt and our class was his first class of his new job. I hope we didn't scare him to much. He is fairly young and I think he was a bit nervous, but he's a good teacher. Right now in his class we are learning about the art of the ancient near east and preparing for a group presentation. My group is doing our presentation on the Egyptian book of the dead.
Half way through this semester I will start my HPER class(PE)that goes from 10:00-10:50am, but that doesn't start until next month.
Next is my graphic design class with Professor Versluis from 11:00-11:50am. Professor Versluis is my new advisor and is graphic designer when he's not teaching. He has grey hair and beard and really enjoys his job. In his class we are learning how to use Adobe Illustrator. I had a class in high school where I learned how to use Illustrator, but it's a good review. We also are learning about the history of graphic design, and I still need to pick a graphic designer to write a paper about.
My last class of the day on MWF is Psychology with Professor Hitchcock at 12:00-12:50. Professor Hitchcock is really passionate about what he believes. He has a soft voice, but he is always very serious and firm about what he says. Right now we are just beginning, reading the textbook intros and such, but soon I have to watch the movie My Fair Lady(which is 3 hours long) and then write and identity paper of sorts on it.
On Tuesday and Thursday the first class I have is Drawing at 9:25am. I think this will be my favorite class. Professor Van Wyk is the instructor and makes a lot of prints, drawings, a pottery creations. His youngest daughter is going to get married soon and in his spare time he is building a barn. You can tell that he loves what he does and does everything the best he can. In his class we have to draw about 1-2 sketches per week out of class along with the projects in class. Right now we are taking negative space sketches that we did and transforming them in to abstract drawings that emphasize either the positive or negative space.
Next I have English with Professor De Smith at 11:40-1:00. Professor De Smith has red hair and a daughter, Rachel, who is in my grade. For his class we are reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and discussing it in class. Professor De Smith really enjoys digging into the things we read and the ideas they raise. I really like this class because I really like to read.
The last class of the day is Philosophy with Professor Tazelaar from 1:35-2:55. Professor Tazelaar has a short grey beard, grey flecked brown hair pulled back in a pony tail, and likes to wear ties with famous art works on them. He is really smart and even though he talks fast he crams a lot of information into what he says. He is very interesting to listen to but if you space out for a moment you might miss something. Right now we are just starting off, like Psychology, doing the readings and such and discussing them in class.
Well, this is becoming a long post, so I'd better give some one else a chance to be on the computer. I'll write more posts later.

Stuff Broke

It started off as a regular day mowing the lawn, until suddenly a giant monkey race a cross the lawn! The presumptuous primate jumped on handles of the mower and steered me into a hole in the ditch!!
Picture of monkey an the left...um...wait a minute...




...Actually I was carefully trying to mow around <-- this random hole in the ditch and turned to sharply. The mower was stuck so well that we had to use the pickup and some rope to pull it out. In the end no one was hurt...

...The muffler broke though.

Other than that this week has been pretty uneventful. Charity, Rebecca, James, and Michael all started school already. I have to wait until Wednesday.
:'(

This Random Cat Moment brought to you by Tiger, Sweet Pea, Houdini, Ashley, Squeaks, and Spooks!

Nama Tamago Ga Sukijyanai (I don't like raw eggs)

First off, for those of you I don't know, I work at We-3-Egg, or the world's foremost egg procurement and shipping farm. Ok, just kidding about the last part. In reality We-3-Egg packs eggs that come from the almost 1 million chickens in its 6 ginormous barns. Since chickens lay eggs all day long, the main goal is to keep the flow of eggs in check so the barns won't overflow. The things I do at work range from washing light bulbs to learning Japanese sentences from Charity. Charity and I are basically handy-women. Most days we pull out dead chickens from the barns and then do some random chores afterwards. Other days we pack eggs onto pallets, lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of eggs. If you have read Charity's blog you will see that I agree with her when I say that packing raw eggs is harder than barn duty. You can work the barns at your own pace, but when you pack eggs you have to work at the egg's pace.

Happy Happy Birthday!

Today is Mom's birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom!!!! Michael and I baked her a yellow cake and we all gave her a digital picture frame. The frame is really interesting, just plug in a memory card or other digital storage device and the frame cycles through the pictures or video clips. I would tell you how old Mom is, but I'll let her tell it instead (and I'm not exactly sure how old she is myself). Yesterday night I couldn't sleep so I came down stairs and made this picture on Microsoft paint. I have seen some cool drawings on the Internet that had been made on paint(example-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk2sPl_Z7ZU)so I wanted to give it a try. Oh, I almost forgot...we got 2 new rabbits, Cricket(male with black fur) and Brownie(female with brown fur). Now our original rabbit Miss Bunny has company.

Sad News

We have been having problems with our Internet for a few weeks which accounts for my lack of blogging. No, that wasn't the sad news. The sad news is that Michael's cat Boots is dead. It is a mystery as to how she died, since we found her lying on the side walk dead one morning with no apparent injuries. Charity and I were heading off to work (later I will digress on my wonderful new job) and we saw her lying there. Boots looked peacefully asleep, I guess we should have wondered why she didn't wake up when we drove by. We'll miss you Boots!

The Newbies

Boots: Thusly named because of her four white paws, Boots is the smallest of all the kittens. She is incredibly cute of course and has astonishingly blue eyes, for now. All of the trio had blue eyes at first but they eventually changed. Boots has a white throat and paws, big ears, grey and black stripes, and a small white mark on her nose.



Houdini: Houdini is an escape artist. While being transported to our farm a tool box was required to hold the lid of her box down. This Kitten has a brand of cute all her own. With those sad golden(previously blue)eyes and bend tipped ears it is hard not to pick her up. Houdini is grey and black striped with rusty colored splotches, and the M-shape on her forehead is half orange and half black instead of all black like the others.

The Original Trio

Squeaks AKA Stripes:
As well as being my cat and the name of my blog, Squeaks is the cutest of all the kittens. He was defaulted to me when Charity and Rebecca chose Tiger and Sweet Pea. Squeaks isn't a real people cat but he is a good cat cat. At first Squeaks would squeak a lot when he was held and was so named. He reminds me a lot of a striped cat we once had named Stripes, so occasionally I call him that. He is a typical grey and black striped kitten with golden eyes(previously blue), a M shape on his forehead, and all black pads on his paws.

Tiger formerly known as Teddy:
Tiger is the friendliest and nicest cat of all our cats. He was named Teddy at first but his unique(to our cats at least) orange color prompted a name change. Tiger's claim to fame is that he enjoys jumping on people's shoulders when they are sitting on the ground. He has white and orange stripes, hazel(once teal blue) eyes, and pink pads on her paws.

Sweet Pea, Cutie Pie, etc... :

Sweet Pea is the sweetest of our cats. She really enjoys being petted. She is growing into a fine cat, but is usually always the first of all of the kittens to curl up in your lap and fall asleep purring. Sweet Pea has grey and black stripes with patches of orangish fur, eyes the same color as Squeaks, with three paws with black pads, and one paw with pink pads. Basically Sweet pea is who you would get if you merged Tiger and Squeaks.

A Fresh Start

Well, here goes my first attempt at blogging. I can not guarantee that this entry will be very entertaining, or even correctly spelled, but I'll try. This week has been very eventful so far. On Tuesday dad, Charity, a guy named Stan, and I set up a giant 60 x 60 (feet of course!) tent to cover a plane so it could be fixed in relative shelter. OK, I simplified the process a bit, but it worked in the end. The airplane in question was very fascinating, it was a refurbished WWII navy sea plane of some kind. The pilot had made an emergency landing in Sioux City and its snappy new blue paint job was melted of in places where smoke had escaped from the engine.

Yesterday Mom, Charity (again), Aunt Brenda, my cousin Heather and Holly, and I picked Strawberries. So after much camaraderie and sore backs copious amounts of jelly were made. Midway through making this jelly we discovered, via my Grandma Sandbulte, that we really didn't need to be boiling the sugar gelatin mixture after all and in fact the a stove wasn't even necessary.

Today James and Michael each got a kitten. Charity, Rebeecca, and I already had some that were slightly bigger, but the new kittens seemed to get on well with the others. Later I think I'll do a section on them.