My Sister is Awesome :-)

Hannah has been up in Quebec for 6 weeks (getting back in 3 days) studying at a university there. Glad it's her and not me. French is a beautiful language, but I cannot speak it, and my reading comprehension of it is limited. Anyway, so my mom just e-mailed Hannah asking her how her money was holding out for the trip, and this was her response (shared with Hannah's permission):

Hehe... funny you should ask about the money. First of all, let`s start of by saying that Dr. Chesnut suggested that we bring about $300 for spending money. At a recent meeting of our group to get stuff straight about the flight home and everything, he asked how that was doing for everyone. Every other person said that they had needed way more than that... about $700. You wanna know how much poorer I am after this trip (okay, so not including the actual price of the trip!) - including having to buy a couple textbooks, going on a $25 shopping spree to a Goodwill-type store near here, buying some bus tickets, eating out a few times, buying a lock for a locker, paying $10 every week to be able to take my lunches to school with me, various other small expenses, etc? I changed $20 of American money into Canadian money when we first crossed over and I haven`t needed any more since. As a matter of fact, I was able to give about $200 of `leftover´ money to the churches here who have blessed me so much. How, you might ask, if I only changed $20 at the beginning of the trip? Well, for our lunches, Dr. Chesnut gave us $45/week to buy them. The first week I bought lunches, but then I realized that if I made my lunches like I do at home, I could save money there. Mme Robillard provided me with bread and carrots and fruit and such to made lunches and I paid her $10/week. Also, there were a few times I didn`t end up eating supper with my family because I was invited elsewhere at church or they were out of town or something, and most of those times Mme Robillard gave me $10 per meal when that happened since she didn`t have to prepare it. Plus Dr. Chesnut gave each student $45 to buy the bus pass for the month of August here, but thankfully I didn`t need the bus pass since I walk to school, so I just used some of that money to buy a few one-time bus tickets that I`ve needed and pocketed the rest. Ah, how I love saving money! Yes, yes, I know... all in all we spent a lot of money for this trip. Just burst my bubble.

And you probably didn`t want to know all those little details, but there you have them anyway. :-) So, yeah, my money is holding out just fine.

People think I'm careful with money, until they meet my sister :-). The funny thing is, she's been plenty social while she's been there too. It's not like she's been hiding in a closet. It just goes to show that you can have fun, with people, and do it cheaply :-D.

Hi there from Sister Dear!

Hello, Blogger World!

Mother Dear and I just thought an update would be nice. :-) So, Susan is very nice to let me take over her blog and post a short update, pictures, and a poem from yours truly. We had a lovely visit with Adrian. For part of his visit, we had to take him to Stone Mountain. We spent a lot of time there growing up, so it's a memory-filled place for us, plus anyone visiting down here has got to see Stone Mountain if you ask me. It's just cool! We hiked up and showed him around a bit and had a picnic. And, can you believe it, he hadn't ever eaten at Chick-fil-A! Down here, that's a real oddity, like not having e-mail or something. So, we stopped by there on our way back from Stone Mountain. It worked out quite nicely.

I was so struck with the wonderfulness and beauty of friction while we were walking up Stone Mountain (with some rather steep parts) that I just had to write an Ode to Friction. Here you have it! And then pictures below that. :-)

An Ode to Friction

Away we look up the great big rock
Our destination is the very top!
We march away with firm determination
To get to our great destination

Though the first part up is rather un-steep
Still Friction must assist and guide our feet
As we travel further and the going gets rougher
Keeping a sure foot-hold gets even tougher

Friction, my friend, my ever-present helper!
What a blessing you get the further upper
That we trod upon this great big rock
For you keep me from many falls and unpleasant shock

I place my foot with confidence and trust
I know you won’t let me fall to the dust
My feet are set on an incline so great
And your God-given powers keep me standing straight

Friction, friction, what wonders you bear!
What this world would be without you there
We’d have slipping and sliding and all things colliding
Thank God for you, our companion, ever-abiding

1. Playing Apples to Apples. Ashley, Paul, and Amy (Ashley's sister) came over for a fun evening of food, chess, comic books, and sewing!

2. Resting while hiking up. (Friction is even hard at work here, while we're sitting!!)

3. At the top, holding hands (everyone say, "aw!"), looking at the amazing view, and pointing out certain landmarks to Adrian.

4. I think they're kind of happy.

5. In front of the carving! Sadly the carving isn't all that clear in this picture.

6. In front of my dream house. ;-)

7. I think Adrian likes Susan's hair a little too much. He took this picture.

That's all for now, folks!

--Hannah, aka Sister Dear

Thankful on Thursday - Sister Dear

This will be quite short, but I didn't want to miss my Thursdays of Thankfulness on Thanksgiving of all weeks! I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, and don't forget to keep leaving your guesses about my voice (see previous post).

Last week Hannah bemoaned that I hadn't yet waxed thankfully on my Dear Family, so I thought I'd play right into her and be thankful this week for. . . . her :). Other family members will have to wait to be mentioned.

I'm very, very thankful to God for giving me my Dear Sister Hannah, and it's been an incredible amount of fun growing up with her over the years :). We're 25 months apart, and we were simultaneously best friends and worst enemies growing up. I'm thankful that Hannah still loved me even after sharing a room with me for 12 years *knowing grin*. I'm thankful that God allowed us to attend college while living at home, so we can still enjoy each other's comradery :). And I'm thankful that God created sisters (and brothers) as built-in playmates. Family is truly a wonderful blessing, and sisters are no exception :-D.

Unveiling the blog of "Une Fille d'Eve". . .

Sister Dear finally decided to register a blog, but don't get overly excited because she plans on posting almost exclusively in Spanish or French :). Typical Hannah-fashion. But it still may prove interesting. By the way, Une Fille d'Eve is French for Daughter of Eve, in case her user name has perplexed others in the past :). Yay for The Chronicles of Narnia!