My Favorite Things

These are things that make me happy...

Quietly reading a good book in the same room as good friends.
Eating a small piece of 80% cocoa chocolate very very slowly.
Walking in warm sunshine when the sun in just about to start setting.
Listening to music turned up too loudly.
Drinking a cup of very strong coffee.
Hugging a friend very tightly.
Laughing till it hurts.
Being tickled while I scream at the top of my lungs.
Feeling my phone buzz with a text message.
Playing the piano fast and loudly until I can't hear anything else and I can feel the music vibrating the whole room.
Falling asleep slowly under a warm blanket.
Hearing my neighbor scream my name from the other side of the hall.
Waking up and realizing I don't have to get up.
Taking a really long really hot shower.
The alternating hot-cold breeze that smells like sea salt that comes off a tropical beach.
Drinking a fresh green coconut.
Innertubing down the river behind Kudjip mission station.
Stepping on a dry acorn.
Watching a friend's face light up in laughter.
Speaking in a random language with someone who understands.
Drinking hot apple cider.
Telling someone exactly why I like them.
Being told exactly why someone likes me.
Singing at the top of my lungs.
Standing at the top of an Oregon cliff and looking out at the Northwest Pacific coast.
Having a completely random conversation that makes absolutely no sense to anyone but to those of use having it, while laughing so hard I can barely breathe.

Well, that's enough for now. Maybe I'll write more of these later. The song is right... it does make me feel happy to think of my favorite things!!! =]

wowww, this blog has been dead for a while

Ok. wow. where to start?

it's been a few months since I posted, it seems. So I shall just make a vain attempt to catch everyone back up on my life with a bunch of random facts about my current state of being.

-I have moved to america. I am now living in Bethany, Oklahoma
-I have started college at Southern Nazarene University
-I am now the proud owner of one little macbook
-I still have my same job (web coding)
-I am loving my life at the moment.

That's really about all for this blog post. Certainly not all that's going on in my life, but whatever. All we can fit in for now. And maybe I'll be better in the future about posting on here. But no promises, most assuredly we are making no promises.

Update on the Whirlwind Masquarading as My Life

wow, has it really been a month since I last posted on here?! good grief. I hang my head in shame. Well.... not really, I have absolutely heaps of legitimate excuses, but I won't bore you with them.

We have now traveled across the states... and I'm serious, we have traveled ACROSS the states. We landed in Seattle, WA, and drove to Orlando, FL via Los Angeles, CA and Bonita Park, NM. In Orlando, we attened the General Assembly of the Church of the Nazarene (which we are missionaries with). What an amazing Assembly! There is just something about tens of thousands of on-fire christians from around the world worshipping together. I also got to see a bunch of the other missionary kids who are normally evenly spread across the face of earth, so that was cool. MKs are pretty awesome people, I'll have you know.

After General Assembly and spending time with the Grandparents and their church, we drove up to Michigan for their NMI Convention... which is the missions meetings of our church, for you non-Nazarenes reading this. Then down to South West Ohio for that NMI convention. Some pretty amazing folks in all of those places, let me tell you. Hard to be cynical about the church after spending time with those kinds of people.

The things I am very muchly looking forward to now are Missionary Kid retreat at the end of this month (dances little happy dance of excitement); Family Camp after that back at my "home"... haha, yeah, I did live in one place in america, at least for seven years, believe it or not; and the start of school. I'm enrolled in pre-med classes for the first semester and can't wait to get started!

plus, at school, I will finally get a computer! Oh the joy! happiness! but until then, my loyal blog readers who are still checking this blog after a few forevers of inactivity... there will very likely be even more of that same level of activity.

And on that uplifting note... it's time to hit the road again.

Rubbish bin, pram, trolley, boot,

rubbish bin, pram, trolley, boot.... excuse me, I must use up these words before I have to start communicating with Americans so that they don't sneak out accidentally... rubbish bin, pram, trolley.....

Yes, I am still alive, surprise surprise. And life has not been devoid of happenings for the last few weeks... on the contrary, it has been a bit overloaded with happenings and that is part of the reason that I have been somewhat absent from cyberspace. The other part of the reason is that I am now stranded in the US of A with no computer... that's right, no computer. Danielle without a computer. See, I knew this was going to happen. I could see it coming. I am GOING to get a computer. It just has a date attached to it... the day I start university in a few weeks. See, at the uni I am attending, a laptop is included with tuition. So that's taken care of. But there is this GAP between the time of LEAVING the computer in Papua New Guinea and the time of GETTING the computer at school. Hence, Danielle Without Computer. Ah well. Probably good for me, actually.

So. What has happened in the last few weeks? Well, I can't upload pictures (since I'm using someone else's computer) but I can tell you in a short sort of manner:

1. I graduated from highschool.
2. Graduation party at Kudjip, which was awesome.
3. Left Kudjip on our way to the States
4. Stopped over in Fiji to get some essential work done. 48 hours in the country I grew up in... pretty good, I'd say.
5. Flew to Washington to some friends' house (hi Uncle Tim and Aunt Karla!)
6. Graduation party here, too... haha, such fun. and I did get pics, they just will probably have about a 2-month delay before they make it online.
7. Got in the car and headed out on the beautiful freeways of America headed for Orlando, FL... we will get there in time for the General Assembly of our church.

So. my life over the last little bit in a nutshell. *deep breath*
You can't accuse me of having a boring life.

Graduating...

Well, evidently I graduated... although for a homeschooler it's a bit hard to pinpoint the graduation because we kind of... ease out of school. There's always something else to learn, another book to read, etc, etc. But I have enough credits, and I start college this fall... so I'm graduating. Here is the email that my family sent out:
--------------------------------------
Dear Family and Friends,
We did it! We're graduating!
Well...Danielle is graduating!
Our homeschooling journey together from kindergarten to
12th grade has worked!Danielle will be starting at Southern Nazarene
University in Oklahoma City this fall.

Though we are not looking forward to the goodbyes, we are overwhelmed with God's faithfulness and
blessings over our last 18 years with Danielle. She is certainly one
of God's good gifts to us!

We've attached her graduation announcement
and invitation to her celebration. If you don't happen to be in the
highlands of Papua New Guinea on May 31, we'll miss you, but you're
off the hook! For those of you who would like to keep up with the next
chapter of her life, she has a blog and would invite youto follow it:
http://lifebydanielle.blogspot.com.Also, here is the link to her
Senior Photo Album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mk.danielle/SeniorPictures
Thanks for rejoicing with us,Harmon, Cindy and Quinton Schmelzenbach
-----------------------------------------------------------

Now, you guys obviously already know about the blog =]... and here is a link to the
"attached" graduation announcement and invitation.