randy travis sings to my wandering soul.

right now, as i study dysphagia, all i can see in my head is this image...

driving 97 along the west bank of the columbia river, listening to randy travis...oh mighty columbia, how i miss your beauty!

today, i miss evergreens.

today i really miss home.

i miss how green my parents' backyard is.

i miss driving a few minutes to see carrie and eat blueberries and watch gilmore girls.

i miss driving to carnation to see the beauty of the valley.

i miss walking around redmond aimlessly with annie mcphee. mostly, i just miss her.

i miss stopping at victor's for a cup of coffee with a good friend.

i miss how the rain looks and feels.

i miss my favorite bookstore.

i miss the general feeling redmond...bustling yet quiet.

i miss easy access to target and fred meyer. funny how distance can make you miss the familiar places you always went and didn't think much about.

i miss driving to the mcphees' house.

i miss driving through the mountains.

i miss my grandma's view of the mountains.

i miss evergreens.

i miss alice.

i miss watching movies with my parents.

i miss the covered wagon. i miss laughing with janae in the covered wagon and her telling me about how when she envisions her future, it's in the passenger seat of the covered wagon.

i miss queen anne safeway. yeah, i do. laugh if you must.

i miss my fiore.

i miss cheap(er) rent.

i miss my church. i miss my sunday school kids. i miss familiarity. i miss the sense of community there.

i miss my home. i miss it so much.

I just also really want to repost this quotation because I love it too.

"But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer."

I think I love it because I'm reminded of a woman who once worked at my high school. When she suddenly passed away during my senior year, my entire school was shaken. We had all loved her, and I wept because of that loss. During her funeral, one thing her husband said that really stuck with me for the past 7 years is this: that as he looked through her torn and well-loved Bible, he found that she had underlined every instance of the phrase "and this too shall pass".

missing janae detwiler (and other such thoughts)

I'm sitting in a coffee shop (of sorts) working on a difficult midterm and missing Janae Detwiler so much. I often do, but today, I miss her in particular and a lot. I thought I'd post a quotation from one of her favorites:


"this world is where i breathe. let it never be called home."



I've been thinking about this quotation a lot the past few years since I first read it, and I don't really have any conclusions just yet.

But it does make me remember something someone said to me the other day, "Ghandi was the best Christian since the Apostles." It made me so happy and so sad at the same time.

For years, I have loved that moment in church on Easter Sunday morning when people greet you with the following words "Christ has risen" and you respond "He has risen indeed". And yet I'm also so sad right now as I think about that moment, because for some, most, for me sometimes even, Christianity has been so tainted...and it makes me so sad, because He--Christ, Immanuel, God with us--is the fullest form of Good and Wonder and Beauty.

People do such stupid crap all the time. I'm confused and frustrated about a lot, but I do know this...I respect and cherish people who serve others, who love to serve others, no matter their religious creed or beliefs or anything. Thank God for good people who love...and I don't say that lightly.

My last random thought is this: Christ has risen, and praise God for that. Now let us go forth with that knowledge and that song in our hearts, and love unselfishly as He first loved us.

my list of things to do...thankfully, not all today.

In the spirit of consistency, I must post this list of things to do before the semester ends...and it ends really soon!!! May 14, here I come!

Phonetics: DONE!

Hearing Practicum: 3 visits to local schools, 1 assignment, a final

Clinical Practicum: 5 sessions, 4 Lesson Plans, 6 SOAPs, a final reflection paper

Literacy Group: 5 sessions, 5 Progress Notes, 4 Lesson Plans

Aphasia: 1 seminar, 1 write-up about said seminar, 1 midterm (which will be finished tonight!!!), 1 quiz, 1 take home final

School-Age Language Disorders: 2 Case Studies, 1 quiz

Preschool Language Disorders: 1 exam, 1 paper, 1 presentation

Dysphagia: 2 quizzes, 1 final

AHH! It will all be done soon though.

farewell Liz.

Elizabeth Taylor passed away today, and I am sad! Despite her colorful life, I really enjoyed her acting.

Perhaps her best and most fitting role was as Katherina in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

As Petruchio jests,

"Say that she rail, why then I'll tell her plain
She sings as sweetly as a nightingale.
Say that she frown, I'll say that she looks as clear
As morning roses newly washed with dew.
Say she be mute and will not speak a word,
Then I'll commend her volubility
And say she uttereth piercing eloquence.
If she do bid me pack, I'll give her thanks,
As though she bid me stay by her a week.
If she deny to wed, I'll crave the day
When I shall ask the banns, and when be marri'd."
(2.1.169–179)

farewell Liz.

happy second day of spring in new england!

and it's snowing.