November 2012

My last full month of being a college student concludes in just a couple of hours!  How crazy is that?!  I'm so filled with excitement, and I am currently not scared/anxious/frightened, or any other emotions that come with getting ready to take on the world.  I know those will come soon enough though...  This month has been incredible with a long list of highs!  :)

Lows:

• I lost my car in the parking lot this month.  It was embarrassing.  There were people around and I was the one who could not fake the confusion and practical despair I felt as I wandered around the lot.
• In August I was raving about loving my room.  Sadly, that has come to an end.  I had to reloft my bed for the last couple of weeks.  I now HATE my room.  It felt more like an adult room, and now I feel like I've regressed.  Only 2 weeks left!
• I faced rejection this month.  MAJOR rejection.  I went to go visit my beautiful cow in her pregnant state.  Ya know, just to go stroke her belly and whisper sweet nothings in her ear.  She literally ran away from me.  I was devastated.  :(
• My contact that was replaced is giving me trouble, and I really don't like it!

High:

• In August I mentioned that I left my Oreos and body wash in Brock's truck on the night he left for Texas.  Finally, I received a big box filled with body wash, Oreos, and packing peanuts.  Someone was rather proud of himself for all my trouble with the static filler.

• I finally have my placements all figured out for student teaching!  I've been e-mailing with my teachers the past couple days and have meetings all set up to meet them and see their classroom!
• Phase 2 has been going wonderfully!  All I have left is 2 days!  The students really got into our lessons the past couple of weeks over the Alamo, Oregon Trail, and Western outlaws!  These are my favorite topics and so I enjoyed it quite a bit as well!  :)

• I almost missed RSVP for graduation because I didn't know about it.  Luckily, I made it and I came back from Thanksgiving break to my graduation gown, cap, and tassel!  December 15th can't come soon enough!
• I had a wonderful weekend when I went to Strawberry Point and to Elizabeth's musical!

• This month I added 2 medium sized snow globes to my collection!  I got one from Texas and one from Beauty and the Beast!  :)

• I WENT TO SEE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST!!!!!!!!!  

• I'm over half done with the Scratch Cupcake Tour!  I've got a lot of work to do in the next 2 weeks!

It has been an amazing month and so much has happened!  Here I sit in a room I will vacate forever in 2 weeks.  Here I sit looking at the shapeless gown I will don on for a couple of hours.  Here I sit knowing that my life will dramatically change in 2 weeks.  On the bright side, I can finally start listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies every night since I always hold off until it actually hits December!  :)

Photo of the month!

Thanks To God

Truth is that I have been quite the Debbie Downer the past couple of days.  I think that everyone can attest to the fact that is it so hard to come back to reality after a week of Thanksgiving break, especially when one is so close to graduation.  Really, Thanksgiving break was such a tease this year.

Truth is that while I was home I had ample amounts of time that I could have used to dig into my Bible, spend the usual time in the morning and at night in prayer, and so forth.

Truth is that I didn't.  I didn't journal the whole week I was home which means that I didn't pray like I usually do.  I had one blissful afternoon where I laid down in a waterway taking a break from searching for my cow.  I laid there and just smiled and praised God for it all for a few minutes.  Basically that was all the praying I did all week.  I can say that without a doubt the quote, "One week without prayer makes one weak," rings true.  I came back to school lacking so much joy and feeling like everything was going wrong.

I was still kind of feeling that way this morning when I was trudging off to class.  When I reached into my pocket for a glove, I pulled out a wadded up piece of paper from a church service around this time last year.  I remember shoving it in my pocket last year because I wanted to share it.  Who knew that I would finally be sharing it about a year later?

Thanks To God

August Storm

1891

Thanks to God for my Redeemer,

Thanks for all Thou dost provide!

Thanks for times now but a memory,

Thanks for Jesus by my side!

Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime,

Thanks for dark and stormy fall!

Thanks for tears by now forgotten,

Thanks for peace within my soul!

Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered,

Thanks for what Thou dost deny!

Thanks for storms that I have weathered,

Thanks for all Thou dost supply!

Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure,

Thanks for comfort in despair!

Thanks for grace that none can measure,

Thanks for love beyond compare!

Thanks for roses by the wayside,

Thanks for thorns their stems contain!

Thanks for home and thanks for fireside,

Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!

Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow,

Thanks for heav’nly peace with Thee!

Thanks for hope in the tomorrow,

Thanks through all eternity!

Thank you for it all.  Thank you for still being there even when I put you on hold.  Thank you for taking me back time after time.  Thank you for your mercies that are new every morning.  Thank you.

Who, What, Why

Brief Biography of

Katie Strupp

Latest Revision November 26, 2012

Who I am:

            12 E in Lawther Hall has become my home for another year here at UNI.  Hi, I am Katie Strupp, a senior here at UNI.  My major is Elementary Education with a minor in Special Education.  I wanted to become a Special Education teacher because in high school, a girl attached herself to me and the more time I spent with her at school, the more I felt inspired to teach students like her.  One thing that really stuck out to me when I spent time with her was how she lit up when she was receiving that one-on-one time.  Many students need this but do not receive it.  This is what I want to bring to teaching.  I enjoy baking-I make a blue ribbon winning sugar cookie-sewing, reading and would love to go horseback riding every day if time allowed.

            Growing up on a farm taught me a lot of things.  Cows are afraid of turtles, turkeys can outrun little dogs, and momma cows are as mean as bears if you get near their calves.  The most important thing that I learned though, was how to put others’ needs before my own.  If I was given the responsibility of a bottle calf, it had to be fed before I was to feed myself.  Instead of throwing the saddle and blanket in the shed before racing in to watch TV, it had to be properly put back as well as the horses.  My younger brother is still learning some of these lessons.  My dad taught me how to care for our animals, and my mom taught me how to cook.  My grandmother encouraged my love for sewing and creating beautiful useful quilts.  I continue to enjoy our time quilting together.

            Sometime in my journey through life, I hope to be teaching somewhere in a smaller school setting.  My future family portrait includes my gorgeous future husband along with however many beautiful children we are happily blessed with, and myself.  Our portrait will hopefully hang in the family room of our home in our desired town where we will be actively involved with the school, church and community.  I would like to be not only involved in my own classroom, but my children’s classrooms as well.

Why I am going to be a teacher:

            My favorite part is when you see the light bulb come on and a student just gets it.  That moment when they can say with confidence, “Hey, I understand what you’ve been teaching me.”  That’s why I want to become a teacher.  When students come in all excited to tell you they checked out a book you suggested and they love it, that’s why I want to become a teacher.  When students help other students with plenty of grace and tact, that’s why I want to become a teacher.  When students come back years down the road, talk to you like an old friend and tell you about their journey through life, that’s why I want to become a teacher.  Even if only one student comes back to me and tells me that I am the reason they became a teacher, that’s why I want to become a teacher.

What I hope to achieve through teaching:

            Achievement, that’s kind of a funny word.  Achievement goes with recognition and awards and newspaper clippings.  No, that’s for someone else, not for me.  I want the other side of achievement.  I want the side of achievement that goes deeper than the recognition, awards and newspaper clippings.  I want the kind of achievement that only I notice, not everybody else.  I want my students to high-five each other because they received a good grade on a paper.  I want a simple, “Thank you,” at the end of the day.  I want my students to achieve by becoming more knowledgeable citizens and respectable, responsible human beings.  I want my students to achieve through the little things, but make them out to be a big deal.  I want the achievement that does not need dusting because it has been sitting on a shelf; I want the achievement that can be seen in action, not just in my classroom, but in former students as well.  That’s what I hope to achieve through teaching.

Beauty and the Beast

A couple of months ago:

"Would you want to go see Beauty and the Beast in Des Moines?"  -Mom

"Is that a real question?!"  -Me

This weekend was it!  It has ALWAYS been my dream to see this show!  It was Momma, Alex, and I.  We headed to Des Moines on Saturday afternoon.  Momma made me drive.  I hate driving in Des Moines, and it was hard to find our hotel with all the one ways and such.  We finally found it, got moved into our room, and hung out until it was time to get ready for the show.  At one point, Alex wanted a snack and we ventured onto every floor in attempt of finding a vending machine.  No such luck, but I had a great time running around the halls and trying to beat Alex to the elevator buttons!

All week long you would have thought I was actually going to Broadway instead of to the Civic Center.  

"I gotta get dressed up for Broadway!"

"It's BROADWAY!"

Seriously, those words came out of my mouth more than once, especially yesterday.  All of us got gussied up and headed out to supper.  We tried to go to The Old Spaghetti Works, but the wait was so long that we would have chanced missing the opening.  THAT was not going to happen!  We ended up going to Legends and for dessert, we split a wonderful Snickers pie/cheesecake thing!  :)  FINALLY it was time to go!  :)  We got in and found our seats.  The whole time I was searching for Lu-Bird and her family.

The first half of the show was sooooooooo  good!  I can hardly describe it!  I loved everything about it!  I was a little surprised at how closely it followed the actually movie and I caught myself quoting so many times!  :)

At Intermission, I found Lu and Val and we giggled and laughed, hugged and smiled until it was time to go back.  I got myself a medium sized snow globe!!  Love it!  :)

The second half was just as good!  At one point, I was close to tears I was that into the show!  It was so stinkin' good!  I absolutely loved everything about it!  Alex and Momma both loved it too!  After the show, we met up with the Lindaman's and took some pictures!

While we were waiting for our hotel driver, we even saw a couple of the actors as they took pictures with their names on the sign.  Such a cool experience!  I honestly loved every minute of it!  :)

Alex had been begging to go on the Skywalk quite literally the WHOLE time.  Momma promised that I would take her on Sunday.  After breakfast, we went on the Skywalk-just me and her.  At breakfast I joked about pretending to spit on the cars as they drove under, just to be funny.  She took me quite literally and so there we stood "spitting" on cars as they drove below!  :)  We wandered through the Skywalk for a while and laughed about getting lost and wandering around an empty mall.

Alex had also been begging to play War the whole weekend.  Finally we played.  I won!  :)  We also got Momma in on the action and my butt got kicked first, closely followed by Alex's.

On the way home, we played the Alphabet Game as we had on the drive up.  I won!  Believe me-it is so hard to find things once you leave Pleasant Hill!  Especially a "Q!"

What a wonderful, beautiful, carefree weekend with some lovely ladies!  :)

Stitching My Dreams Together

Right now, this is my sewing station:

Yep, the kitchen table.  This is not permanent by a long shot.  Basically, if I don't have it all cleaned up by the time my mother gets home, she isn't too happy with me.  You know I'm in deep when I have my blocks all laid out on the living room floor too.

That's one reason I like to do the sewing at Grammy's.  We can spread out all over her big living room, she helps me cut, and is always there to chat the whole day through!  The best is when we're both quilting side by side.  Such a relaxing time!

Anyway, I have this crazy dream that will probably take a back seat when I have kids, but for now I'm hanging onto it.  Someday, I want to have a room in my house that is devoted to sewing.  I want a counter at just the right height so I can cut fabric to my heart's content.  A nice rolling counter or an island of sorts would be nice.  I want a permanent place for my sewing machine.  It's such a pain to lug it up the stairs, and it never fits in the box the same.  Maybe, with some hope, there will be room enough to be able to set up a quilt frame, but that is quite the long shot.

In this dream room, I dream of creating beautiful quilts, patching my children's clothing, and teaching my daughters how to sew just as my momma and grammys taught me.  I hope to wear this Brother out in that room creating beauties such as this current project of Granny Squares.

Or more creations like this baby quilt.  I want to be able to make these for my closest friends.  This one already is a blue ribbon winner!  :)

For now, though, I stick with the kitchen table and the counter.  Big dreams typically start in small spaces.  If my future husband proposes with a promise of this dream room, I just couldn't bear to say no to the man!  :)

Patience with the Placements

Okay, so I know a lot of you have heard by now that I do have my student teaching placements!!  What a crazy ride that started a long time ago, but finally picked up the pace last Thursday.

I've been praying a lot lately for these placements.  I am so excited to get out there and get more into teaching.  I spent a lot of that afternoon praying.

I left class early to get to the meeting.  Honestly, I only kind of knew one person in a room of about 20.  I feel like I'll be making a lot of new friends next semester at the weekly meetings.  Naturally, my coordinator wanted to build suspense and waited to give us our placements until the end of the meeting.  It was killing everyone!

Finally, it was time.  The tough part was that I only received one of my placements.  She was still trying to secure my second placement; my special ed. placement.  Ugh!  Really?  I was slightly frustrated, but satisfied that I at least knew something.

I called Whitney first.  Then I called Momma.  Then I called Momma Abe.  I was all sorts of excited because I felt like I was finally getting somewhere!

Monday came and I received an e-mail telling me I would have my second placement in Newton at the middle school.  I am so excited for this!  So many good things were said about the teacher and the students. I am so excited to learn and be challenged in a room like this!  :)

Tuesday I finally got around to contacting my teachers.

Wednesday I got a call and e-mail from my coordinator saying that there would be a switch with my first placement.  Instead of being close by in Grinnell, I was being changed to South Tama.  I still don't know the whole story of why the teacher couldn't take me, but it was something to do with her family.  She didn't feel she would be able to give me the best experience with all the stuff going on.  This news bummed me out a little bit, just because I wasn't expecting this to happen.

I have no idea why this little switch had to take place, but I know that God is in control, and that He will teach me so many lessons no matter the school I am placed in.  I gave him my career path a long time ago, and I am determined to follow where that leads.  I will continue to pray and to have faith in His plan.

I read over James 4 yesterday, and verses 7 stuck out to me:

Submit yourselves, then, to God.

Prayers and Pic Lines

Let's be honest with each other.  We all know someone who has been affect by cancer.  It's everywhere.  This will be one of the few times I ever write about it and share it with the world because I have a hard time talking about it.  I've had too many family friends affected, and more personally, my own mom.

*I'm about to get really real.  A lot of raw emotions are written here.  I don't usually write with so much raw and open honesty to be viewed so publicly.*

The first time, I was a kindergartner and I just don't remember that much and I just didn't understand.  The second time, I was almost done with my senior year of high school and things were looking up.  I was high on life and everything in my life looked as good as it could get for an 18 year old just about ready to take on the world.

Most single girls hate Valentine's Day because they have no one to spend it with.  I hate Valentine's Day because that's when I found out that Momma had made that appointment because she knew something wasn't quite right.

Senior year was a huge time of growth for me in my walk with Christ.  I had just led my best friend to Christ the summer before, and I was up and coming as a leader in the youth group.  I was filled with joy like I had never known before.  Through this experience, it only taught me to trust and have faith even more.

This new knowledge was like a punch in the gut.  It was hard to recover from, and in some ways, I still feel like I'm recovering from it.

I'll skip ahead a few weeks.  Basically, Momma went through a lot of rough stuff and ended up needing a pic line and such which she decided to keep through chemo.

Some of the hardest days during this long trial were the days that I went with Momma for her chemo appointments.  Not only was it hard to watch that drug seep into my mother, but once I stepped into the cancer center, the mood changed.  I don't think I've ever been in a place that lacked so much joy and happiness.  I went to support Momma, but every time I walked in there, all I wanted to do was burst into tears.  It was so hard to walk by chairs filled with people affected by cancer of various kinds.  Sunken shells of bodies and sad, melancholy people.  It was so hard to meet their eyes as I walked by as a perfectly healthy 18 year old with her whole life ahead of her.

My heart broke for these people and I typically prayed through Momma's chemo appointments.  Not only did I pray for the individuals in the chairs, but I prayed for the doctors who had to tell these people the bad news.  I also prayed for the nurses who have chosen to spend their lives caring for these people.  While there, I met an aunt of one of my high school classmates.  She is a wonder!  I specifically prayed for her and that she would continue to come in with a smile on her face and continue to bring the sunshine to rooms that were filled with clouds.

Thankfully, here we are nearly 4 years later, and Momma is only going for checkups every 6 months!  That was a major experience that strengthen not only my prayer life, but eventually my relationship with my own mother.

Happy, Free, Confused

Right now, I should be working on 2 presentations that are due tomorrow.  

Right now, all I want to do is take a nap.

Right now, I'm stalling by writing this blog.

Time is winding down here at UNI, and I am suffering.  I'm suffering from a bad case of seniorites and homesickness.  I can hardly wait for the weekend when I can go home and play with Ruby!  I miss my dog!  I've got that cooped up feeling again.  That feeling I get when I've spent too much time in the city.  Too many days walking down sidewalks instead of fence rows.  Too many dining center meals instead of home cooked ones.  Too many mornings waking up to construction noises instead of bright beams of sunlight streaming through my east facing bedroom window.

I know that my time spent at UNI has been wonderful and I have learned so much both in classes and out.  This is part of my story; the learning, the loneliness, the homesickness, the friends, the everything.  There is only a little bit more to write in the UNI chapter of my life, and I'm excited to see what that will bring.  I know that I will need to soak up my single room atmosphere because when I move in with the Abrahamson's, there will be a little girl following my every move!  :)

For now, I'll nurse my suffering with a little George Strait music and let that steel guitar sooth my soul and remind me of what all I get to go home to this weekend!

We'll Meet You Under the Deer

This weekend had a little bit of everything!  It had a night to myself, movies, pizza, cupcakes, wake-up calls, friends, high school musicals, sleepovers, and Chinese food.  What an adventure!  :)

Friday night I lived up my single girl dreams of staying in and veging out watching movies that I love!  When Harry Met Sally... followed by Walk the Line coupled with pizza, Pepsi, and popcorn put a great cap on a great week.

Saturday I thought I was going to sleep in, but I was jerked from sleep at 7:30 by a phone call from none other than Lu-Bird.  She was all flustered because of the PRAXIS, 1 hour parking, and cell phones.  After that, I decided it would be best to just get up and get the day started.  I was able to get quite a bit done before Lu came back in between tests.  We watched some of Footloose, and I sent her back to her tests.  When that was over, we went for pizza and cupcakes and the new version of Footloose.  :)

All too soon it was time to say goodbye to Lu-Bird, but on the upside, I was headed to Autumn's house to go to Elizabeth's musical!  :)  Naturally, I wouldn't drive far enough and I thought I was lost until the gas station lady told me I was close to the school.  Rolled up to Tums laughing hysterically!  So much laughter on our dive!  As soon as I saw that giant strawberry, I.lost.it.  Seriously, why would you have a HUG+E strawberry on top of your city hall?  :)

We headed to North Crawford.  I had only scribbled down bits and pieces of the directions we needed, and I got us turned down the wrong way.  It was dark, and we were chancing running late for the show.  I kept joking with Tums about stopping at a farmhouse to ask for directions, but she wouldn't hear of it!  We finally got turned around and got confirmation from her mom that we were going the right way.  We also found the landmarks like the goat cheese factory!  :)

After quickly finding a parking spot, more like a makeshift one, we ran across the parking lot and into the school.  After scrambling for enough cash to get our tickets, we struggled to find our seats in the dark.  Good thing it was a little easy because they were the only 2 seats left in the row!  :)  This play was AWESOME!!!  You can tell that a lot of work was put into the production!  So much fun was had and sometimes, I forgot I was watching a live production and I started singing along!  :)  Love GREASE!!  :)

Afterwards, we found the little lady in the middle!  What a cute cheerleader Elizabeth made!  :)

We made plans to meet back up after changing under the taxidermy deer head that hangs among other animals in the school hallway.  This jogged my memory about a conversation I had with Daniel about him taking that class during his senior year!  Speaking of Daniel, we found his senior picture displayed!  :)

We definitely needed to make a stop for caffeine after talking to Elizabeth for a long time late at night.  When we finally made it back to Tums' house, we all but fell into bed!  What a wonderful day!

Today, Tums took me to her church and I got to meet her Grandpa Charlie!  What a wonderful man!  Tums then took me all over Strawberry Point!  We took a trip to Backbone State Park and it was BEAUTIFUL!  :)  While we didn't see any cougars, we did see 2 Bald Eagles in all their glory!

After a wonderful late afternoon lunch of Chinese, it was time to head back to UNI.  What a great weekend with some great friends!  God has blessed me with some AMAZING friends that are close and live in strange places!  :)

Frontier Summer

Summer 2011 began my trek in a new frontier.  I was working at Village Creek Bible Camp for the first time and I had never been a counselor before.  No one can ever be prepared enough for what all can happen in a summer.

My first week was Junior campers.  I had a cabin full of completely new girls to the camp.  I also had an adult helper because I had one of the cabins of Crossroads kids.  My girls definitely kept me on my toes!  They were always asking me so many questions!  I loved them all instantly, and Momma Fry is an AMAZING woman!

Towards the middle of the week, I just got the feeling that the girls weren't listening to me and I wasn't getting through to them about ANYTHING.  I prayed over and over again that something that I said would get through.  I mean, I love these girls, but they couldn't keep their stuff collected and they wouldn't hang up their suits after an afternoon in the lake.  The room smelled and I felt like a mom.  I told them over and over what they needed to do.  Honestly, I was becoming my own mother that week!

Starting about Tuesday night, I just kept praying over and over that something would get through to these girls.  Wednesday felt the same as the others.  Thursday was feeling the same too.  I was still praying.

Sometime Thursday afternoon I had gotten my mail and had a letter from my best friend, Whit.  This made me cry because I missed her, but it made me so happy as she talked about things that were going on at her camp.  There I am crying bittersweet tears and I walk into the smelly cabin.  The first thing I see is the swimsuit and towel of the girl I was having the hardest time with, hanging up on the bed.  They weren't hanging nicely, but they were hanging.

I broke down in sweet surrender.  No, this sure was not the way I thought this prayer would get answered, but it got answered all the same.  In some way, what I said got through to this little girl.  It gives me hope that some of the other things I said sunk in too.