Evaluate Your Life

Today is evaluate your life day. This day could be scary for some, but how else can you make sure that you are on the right track. My life right now boils down to several things: friends/family, writing/editing, school, training, and work (changing in order from day to day and hour to hour).

First of all, my family and friends are important to me. Once a week I like to drop my Oma an email telling her about anything exciting that happened or just how my week was. I grew up living next to my Oma and Opa and as a kid would always run next door after school and these little emails are still my way of running next door to them after school. Another one is my best friend, Laura. Although we haven't lived close to each other for several years, we still text and email about problems and our days and happy moments and have the occasional phone call that lasts at least an hour.

Second thing in my life is my writing and editing. I'm currently editing another book to be published with the help of friends and family, after having read it over several times myself. I'm also working on and planning another book that I'm going to write for this years NaNoWriMo. I love writing. It gives me a chance to be different people and to not be interrupted.

School is of course a big part of my life right now as I'm in grad school. To those that are currently in grad school or have been in grad school, you know what I'm talking about. Also with school I'm the Criminal Justice Student Association President where I get to talk to federal agents (yes, I have some awesome contacts in federal agencies) and arrange speakers and tours for the members.

Training is another big part of my life. I would say working out, but training sounds better for one, and training means that there is a goal that you want to accomplish at the end. For me, I'm training for my third Tough Mudder in 323 days.

Finally work. Last week I was promoted of sorts to House Management Supervisor. Basically meaning I get to do a little more work. 

All in all, I love my life even with all of my weird medical stuff that has been going on this year. Yes, sometimes it's a bit stressful and challenging, but if it's not challenging, is it really worth it?
So, evaluate your life today. If you find that you don't like a specific thing, then ask yourself why and don't be afraid to make some changes for the better. 

Happy Second Birthday!

People only have one birthday...well, that's the rule. But when there's a rule, there is always someone who it doesn't apply to. That person would be my Opa (grandpa). He has two birthdays. His real birthday is on April 17th. This was the day that he was born way back in 1927 (yeah, he's 86 years old and still rocking it). Today is his second birthday. Back in 1975 he had open heart surgery. The doctors gave him two years to live. It's been 38 years and he has outlived several of his doctors. 

My Opa is awesome. He gardens, he picks weeds, cuts the grass, still paints things around the house (and if you stand still, he'll paint you too), he goes on walks and goes swimming at the gym. 

This man has nine lives it seems. He's been shot in war, was a prisoner of war, and survived a firework factory fire...just to name a few.

So today I raise a glass to you Opa, Happy Birthday Opa and here's to many more!

To Grandpa

Today my Grandpa would have been 79. I never met the man but I know he was great. I know this because he raised a great son, my dad. My Grandpa loved planes, trains, boats, tools, but most of all, his family. He had a model train set that my dad, sister and myself still set up every year around the Christmas tree in the living room, zig zagging all over the floor. Notes would be passed around on it while little trolls would take a ride. He loved planes so much that he was building one with my dad before he passed in 1981. The plane was never finished and was sold but we still have the propeller hanging in the shed at home. Grandpa loved boats and the warmth from the sun as they drove around on the lake. He loved tools and working with his hands, some of those tools I now have and use on my lathe, his other tools scattered about in the shed. But most of all he loved his family. He taught my dad how to be a great person and a great dad to us. Making us laugh and holding us when we cry. Cheering us on and picking us up when we fall down. My dad is a great person and a great dad and I have to thank my Grandpa for that. While I never met the man, I still love him and feel close to him. So today, I celebrate what would be the 79th birthday of a great man. Here's to you Grandpa! I love you. 

German Script

In one of my German classes this semester we are going to learn to read and write old German script. Our professor (my Opa's lodge brother) showed us a letter that was written in this script and you were lucky if you could identify one letter much less a word. Each individual letter of the script looks different than our 'now' script. Here is the alphabet in lower and upper case so you can see what I mean: 

The 'c' doesn't look anything like the now c but like a 'i' without the dot (otherwise known as title). One of the projects for this class is to find an old letter written in the script, preferably from our family as that would be more fun and interesting. Well, my Oma when she was in school had a little book that was considered her 'year book'. It is nothing like our year book in that there are no pictures or even the list of the children's names; however, all of her friends and teachers memorized a little poem or something to write in the book. I now have this book. Here are a few pages from the book:

My Oma, having grown up writing and reading this script still makes some of her letters the same, mainly the 'm' and 'n'. Hopefully by the end of the semester I will be able to read this and the rest of the book or poems from her school friends like I would a normal book, like you are reading this, without pauses to identify letters.