I graduated last week.
I am a really mechanical engineer now!
And a real physicist.


I stole this picture from Anna. Maybe I will post more later, but they are all on my flash drive, which is on my keys, which is in my room, and I don't want to walk back there because I am making chicken pot pie and german chocolate cake for dinner. I like cooking. I start classes again Tuesday. I am paying for my summer classes so I can finish my degree in a year. I didn't realize summer classes cost SO much more then regular schooling. Yikes. $444 a credit hour. I am taking 6 credit hours. The school would pay for them if I did my degree in two years, but I am trying to finish in a year.

Have you read about this? I felt like crying when I read this. I have always really like Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. They seem so real.

Maria Sue Chapman (2003-2008)
Maria Sue Chapman, adopted and youngest daughter to Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman, was killed Wednesday night in a tragic accident in the family driveway on Wednesday evening. She was LifeFlighted to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital but for only reasons God can explain she went home to Him... not to Franklin as we all so desperately wanted.

Your prayers are needed for all in the Chapman family. This is a family who has so generously loved and given to so many. Just hours before this close knit family was celebrating the engagement of the oldest daughter Emily Chapman, and were just hours away from a graduation party marking Caleb Chapman's completion of high school. Now, they are preparing to bury a child who blew out 5 candles on a birthday cake less than 10 days ago. These words are unthinkable to type. And yet we trust in a God who was not surprised by this and because of Jesus I am certain through faith in Him we will see Maria again. - Jim Houser (Manager)

What this quote doesn't mention is that one of his sons was driving the car. That makes it incredibly harder on the family. Please pray.
* By mail, send to PO Box 150156 Nashville, TN 37215.
* In lieu of flowers, the Chapmans request any gifts be directed to Shaohannah’s Hope.

In the words of SCC:
"We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end."

edit: Thursday morning

At 9:45 I finished my last exam and left 15 minutes early to go figure out grad school stuff yet again (I am trying to sign up for two classes and one of them isn't showing up...anyhow). At noon I turned in my journal paper. So that means... I am finished undergraduate schooling forever!! And now I am going to go play soccer with Andrew and Chris. Then gym with Michelle one last time before she leaves me. Tonight I am going to dinner with my small group and then Michelle and I are going to watch movies tonight (I'll probably crash since I only had two hours of sleep). Tomorrow I am going to go bike riding with the Howards to get ice cream and then graduation!!! la la la. Who ever thought I would graduate college, God is great. Through my weakness He is strong. :D Weeeeeeeeeeee!

I'm just going to just write down here because it is along the same line of thought. Soccer yesterday day was amazing. I love playing soccer and it rained yesterday for a while during the time we were playing and that made it all the more better. Plus, it was only me and 7 of my favorite guys on campus playing, so that was even better. And I can still play soccer, which is sweet!! So that was great. Then I went on a trip to Michelle's house (in Odenton) to pick up her honor cords that she forgot (no, I didn't buy honor cords because I didn't feel like paying the money for them). Then we took showers and headed to DC for dinner! *green turtle doot doot* Dinner was really good and laughing with all the girls was a blast. Then we headed back to Michelle's house to watch Equilibrium. But the guys called and wanted to play signs. So they came over around 10:30 and stayed to 3 playing signs.

Signs is this new game I just learned. Each person has a sign (like mine was looking at my watch and Andrews was throwing a frisbee and Alision's was opening a book...etc). There is this invisible ball that you are trying to pass around the circle and hide from whomever is in the middle. To pass the ball you must first do your sign (to show that you received the ball) then do someone else's sign (to send the ball), that person must see you and accept the ball by doing their sign and then pass the ball along. It sounds complicated, but it is really fun. The person in the middle goes around asking people if they have the ball until they catch a glimpse of the signs and can follow them to a person and make someone mess up or have the ball for longer than three seconds. It gets pretty intense at some points.

Then I crashed on the floor and slept until 7. And then I went back to the Howard's and slept some more until now (10:50) and now I am going to get dressed to go on a bike ride with the Howard's. We are going to get ice cream. Woohoo. Tonight I am coming home to pack some stuff, get a good night sleep, wake up early to make the Howard's Swedish pancakes tomorrow, and go to graduation!!

Life at school, without school, is great fun. :D I should hang around after finals more often. Everyone but the seniors are leaving this morning though... sad sad sad. I am glad I am coming back next year to see almost everyone.

Best Friends

Anna took us on a photoshoot to Pemberton. I love these pictures. I love these people! I love being home; six days to graduation. :D

Today is national Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!!

*hint*
*hint*

I love chocolate chip cookies. I'll give rain checks and you can send them to me next semester. :D We can pretend that September 20 or October 11 is ccc day and I'll enjoy them just as much (for those of you who didn't plan ahead this year to send me cookies today - heh).

(Scott, Fred (and yes, I am always on a team with another F name making it impossible to assign things by letter - I just think it is funny that I am always with a F since there are so few F names), Allison, Me)
(Cameron, Fred, Me)

Since I haven't posted pictures of me for a while... here are two from today. This is my senior project prototype... (Dad the second one of the back of my head is for you - note the beautiful circuit board and me hooking in the voltmeter - isn't it great? :D Oh, you can also see the red bucket playing double duty by running up the stairs and back down the stairs to act as the holder). Anyhow, sorry but I can't really explain what is going on in these pictures for patten purposes. This is only the prototype, the actual system looks a lot cooler. But I thought I would post pictures (one of the guys is taking the photos - so he isn't in the pictures) of the best team that I have ever had (the best team comes with drawbacks though, they work too hard and we spend too much time in meetings - heh). But if that is what I have to give up to not have to write the entire report (like I have in previous semesters), it is a small price to pay. Anyhow... here is what I have been working on for 16 weeks. It is pretty exciting! The final report is single spaced and 120 pages and the final presentation is tomorrow. I get to wear a suit!! :)

I turned in homework yesterday and that 120 page final project report. I took one final exam today and turned in a presentation for that class and a homework set. I have my final presentation for my senior project tomorrow. And then all I will have left are:

* Mechanics Final (Saturday --> requested to be moved to Tuesday at 2pm and granted. YES!!)

* Reliability Final (Wednesday 8am)

*Reliability Journal Paper (Wednesday 5pm)

* Graduation Main Commencement (Thursday night May 22)

* Graduation School Commencement (Friday noon May 23) and I am so glad I refused to speak at graduation. That would be too much pressure.

Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
“Lord, why was I a guest?

“Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And enter while there’s room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?”

I've had those words stuck in my head for the past two days so I thought I would post them here. In other news, I finally got my admission to the graduate school moved from Fall 2008 to Summer 2008. YES!! That means I can take two classes this summer and only have six more to graduation!! I love jumping through all the hoops and filling out all the paperwork to get what I need done. Also for more exciting news, I just bought Jared his birthday present (see below picture). Aren't they nice? I like them. And I am coming home this weekend!! I requested that my Saturday exam be postponed (I have never done that before), but I wanted to be home this weekend. So, I am taking a make-up exam on Tuesday instead. It will be a lot of work on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I will have Saturday free now! Woohoo.

Oh the deep deep love

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbid to shine
But God, Who called me here below
Will be forever mine

My chains are gone
I've been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy rains
Unending love,
Amazing grace

My Dad, Mom, Sarah, Hope, and Jared all came up today and went to church with me and brought me strawberries!! YAY! I made swedish pancakes, peaches, fried apples, and sausages for breakfast (I made them for my small group on Wednesday and I had leftover material). Double YAY! It was so great to see my family and go to church with people I know. Thanks! I really appreciate you driving all the way up here to spend the day with me. :D You have started my week off well.

And Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!

I love you so much.

12 days

My life as a Dilbert comic strip... I laughed outloud at this today. Maybe because this is what I am doing for my final reports. They ask us to quote so many cost figures on everything under the sun and how much you think the user is going to have to pay over the entire lifetime of the machine... and on and on and on. So yeah. A lot of it is guessing and using some formulas that sort of make it look more official. It still takes a long time.


This is the comic (thanks to Jared) that started me reading (and enjoying) Dilbert. heh.

C.J. Mahaney is awesome!! He is coming out with a new book soon that is called Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World. It comes out in September. But he is previewing parts of the book on his blog right now. This is the 2nd of seven parts (he only has five of them up so far). I think this book sounds like it would be good for many small groups and young women. His latest section (section five) is about the father's responsibility to the daughters. Take your Dad shopping; it is fun. :) Anyhow, I really like this post. He gets to the heart of the matter. I think the American church is afraid to do that a lot of the time. We seem to treat the symptoms but not the cause. And a lot of us don't think because we don't struggle with the same thing guys do. That is dumb. God says to encourage both your brothers and sisters to Godliness. Anyhow, I like the way CJ puts this.

"Any biblical discussion of modesty begins by addressing the heart, not the hemline. We must start with the attitude of the modest woman.

This emphasis on the heart is front and center in 1 Timothy 2:9. Note the phrase “with modesty and self-control.” All respectable apparel is the result of a godly heart, where modesty and self-control originate. Your wardrobe is a public statement of your personal and private motivation. And if you profess godliness, you should be concerned with cultivating these twin virtues, modesty and self-control.

Modesty means propriety. It means avoiding clothes and adornment that are extravagant or sexually enticing. Modesty is humility expressed in dress. It’s a desire to serve others, particularly men, by not promoting or provoking sensuality.

Immodesty, then, is much more than wearing a short skirt or low-cut top; it’s the act of drawing undue attention to yourself. It’s pride, on display by what you wear.

Self-control is, in a word, restraint. Restraint for the purpose of purity; restraint for the purpose of exalting God and not ourselves. Together, these attitudes of modesty and self-control should be the hallmark of the godly woman’s dress.

In Paul and Timothy’s day, modesty and self-control were foreign to many women walking through the local marketplace, just as they were to Jenni and are to the majority of women at the local shopping mall today. And these concepts are certainly foreign to modern fashion designers, whose goal in clothing design is sensual provocation.

But for godly women, modesty and self-control are to be distinctly present in the heart. The question is, are they distinctly present in yours?

Such an attitude will make all the difference in a woman’s dress, as pastor John MacArthur has observed:

How does a woman discern the sometimes fine line between proper dress and dressing to be the center of attention? The answer starts in the intent of the heart. A woman should examine her motives and goals for the way she dresses. Is her intent to show the grace and beauty of womanhood?.... Is it to reveal a humble heart devoted to worshiping God? Or is it to call attention to herself, and flaunt her…beauty? Or worse, to attempt to allure men sexually? A woman who focuses on worshiping God will consider carefully how she is dressed, because her heart will dictate her wardrobe and appearance.*

Any conversation about modesty “starts in the intent of the heart.” So consider for a moment, what is the intent of your heart in purchasing clothes to wear? Does a humble heart and a servant’s heart dictate your wardrobe and appearance? Is your shopping informed and governed by modesty and restraint? Or is your dress motivated by a desire for attention and approval from others? Does your style reflect a lack of self-control?

There’s an inseparable link between your heart and your clothes. Your clothes say something about your attitude. If they don’t express a heart that is humble, that desires to please God, that longs to serve others, that’s modest, that exercises self-control, then change must begin in the heart.

For modesty is humility expressed in dress."

edit1: blue (May 6)

There isn't too much interesting stuff happening to talk about. Here is my list of things to do before the semester is finished (oh and I graduate...):

This week:
* I-Beam Built and tested (this Friday, May 2 - finished)
* 8 homework problems for Mechanics (Monday, May 5)
* Senior Class Homework - 3 pages essay on modeling methods (Tuesday, May 6)
* Senior Final Project Report Draft - we are up to 130 pages so far (single spaced) ... (Wednesday, May 7)
* At least a four page essay on Reliability and Absolute limits on parts (Wednesday, May 7)
* Build prototype of turbine (Wednesday, May 7)
* Programming code homework - I have never programmed before this homework is impossible, so far it is 150 lines of code... and I'm like half finished (Thursday, May 8)
* Final Senior Report Due (Friday, May 9)
* Beam Report - already written - 14 pages single spaced (May 9)


Next week:
* 4 homework problems (Monday, May 12)
* Reliability 4 homework problems (Monday, May 12)
* Grad Class Final (Tuesday, May 13)
* Final Presentation Due and Given in Senior Project (Wednesday, May 14)
* Mechanics Final (Saturday, May 17)

The next week after that:
* Grad Class presentation due (Monday, May 19)
* Reliability (grad class) Final (Wednesday, May 21)
* Reliability Journal Paper Due - so far this is 11 pages, single spaced, 10 font....yeah, bleh...(Wednesday, May 21)

*GRADUATION!!!

(Friday, May 23)

Gray text is stuff I have already finished and have marked off my list. The beam project is for my mechanics of materials class - we had to build and I-beam that held 1000 pounds and broke right afterwards. The team that had a beam that reached 1000 lbs and then broke the closest to it won. Out of 120 students, our beam broke the closest at 1069 lbs. It is funny to me since we didn't do any work on the beam at all. My beam partner and I are both seniors and have too much other work to do so we just built the thing because we didn't have time to do any real calculations. I mean, we did a few, but once we got a number that looked good we went with that and didn't try any other designs. So that was pretty nice. ha.

Today, I have spent almost the entire day programming in the wonderful language of Matlab (which really isn't a language... I don't know what you would call it). I am trying to get this wave to propagate over a board so that it can search for the quickest way to route a board with the least amount of wire and the most efficient way. It is SOOO frustrating because I know what I want it to do, but it doesn't do what I want it to do. It is sort of like my flesh. I am sure there is some lesson in this... like stick with battling against the flesh even when it is hard and you are discouraged.

Stef also called me today, which was awesome. I miss my good friend Stef so much some days. Almost as much as I miss my family. Life just isn't as much fun without them around. I am always so happy to hear from her and all about her new life. For some reason I have taken like no pictures with Stef. I guess since we are always on the move when we are together and don't have time for that kind of nonsense. heh. I'd post a picture of her and me, but I can't find any. Anyhow, I thank God for Stephanie Hornor and her friendship. It is a blessing and a great encouragement.

I got to see Derek Webb in concert last night with Sandra McCraken (his wife - my favorite song by her was Goodbye George) at this fun little coffee house right near Tysons Corner Virginia (Vienna I think). Anyhow, I liked Derek Webbs music before I went, but after seeing him in concert I like him even more. He and his wife both sang some of their solo stuff (with one of them playing in the background - they both played guitar and would harmonize with each other - it was really neat - if I could sing I think it would be awesome to write and play music with my husband). They were just so adorable together. It was so cute to watch. And then they sang songs together from their new ep called Ampersand (how cool is that?!?). I love the word Ampersand. Ampersand & ampersand. :D Anyhow, it was a really nice study break just to go down there with some of my friends for his show. He is really entertaining in concert.

And this is one of my favorite songs that we sing at RUF... I found them singing it on youtube. They sound better in concert.