Finally!

Dear Readers,
     I finally write again! The end of the year craziness is in full swing!
     Today marks a big achievement among the Baldwin Christian School senior class. This morning we presented and defended our senior thesis papers! Our papers themselves had to be 18-20 pages long and our speeches needed to be 6-8 minutes long. We had two wonderful judges, Mr. Swanson and Mrs. Hanson, who were compassionate on us, but challenged all of us students to think over weaknesses in our papers and gave ideas of how to strengthen them. Everyone was nervous, but everyone did a wonderful job presenting and answering questions! There were many papers this year, as there are six seniors, so the whole defense took almost 2 hours. All the topics were very interesting and each student made their view clear. The order that we presented in and our respective topics were as follows:
     Philip - Social Liberalism
     Karsten - Steroids in Major League Baseball
     Mickey - Gun Control
     Kristina - Homosexuality
     Abby - The International Criminal Court
     James - Ethanol
Everyone is relieved to have the defense over with, but I think everyone is proud, and can be proud of what they accomplished.
     This weekend we have our next big event coming up. This is our Protocol outing, as we call it. This is essentially our prom, but we would rather not refer to it as that. The illustrious Mrs. Swanson teaches etiquette classes to the high school students, and the big test and culmination of this is our yearly Protocol outing. In past years we have gone to events such as the UWEC Viennese Ball and a riverboat tour on the Mississippi, and we have gone to restaurants such as Fischer's On The Green in Eau Claire, Fanny Hill in Eau Claire, and Mama Maria's in Hudson. This year we will be going for dinner at Lowell Inn in Stillwater, then we will be attending a performance of Hamlet at the Guthrie Theater. Every year is fun, and this year is sure to be no exception!
     After our Protocol outing this weekend, we have another very full and busy week ahead of us! Our school play, The Mouse That Roared will be performed on May 8 and May 10. We have done plays in the past, but never to this scale. This year is exciting because we are privileged to be able to preform on the stage at the Baldwin-Woodville High School as well as having an actual director to direct our play. Mr. Halverson is the executive director at the Menomonie Theater Guild. This is bound to be a wonderful experience as the Baldwin Christian School students will get to see what they are truly capable of! The week will be full of practicing and really attempting to perfect the play. I encourage you all to come and see it! You can buy advance tickets through any of the BCS High School Students or at the Baldwin Bulletin or the Hazelnut Tree in Baldwin, WI, just let them know!

     Still another busy week to come after the play, but we are wrapping things up! The week following our performance of The Mouse That Roared, is graduation week! The seniors will be wrapping up high school forever and busily working on perfecting their senior solo pieces! Graduation is on Friday, May 16, 2014 at 7 in the evening. Then it is graduation party time and recital time! The last week that the BCS students have school (except for the seniors!), they participate in the annual "Wilderness Survival" outing. Many, if not all the seniors are planning on joining back in the fun for this event! For our "Wilderness Survival" we camp out in one of our teacher's woods, play intense capture the flag in the pine woods, and do some orienteering the next day along with whatever other fun activities our teachers dream up!
     It is crazy crazy crazy! I cannot believe that high school is coming to an end! It is only 115 days until move in day at college! Life is moving at breakneck speeds, hold on! It is an exciting and wonderful journey, I appreciate all your prayers!
     I should really wrap things up, but, in closing, I have to share a verse from our Bible reading that is encouraging during this rainy week. "Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; His going forth is sure as the dawn; He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth." ~Hosea 6:3
     I really have no clue when I will be writing again, so have a blessed week, or month, or 2 months! Thank you for reading!

Beginnings

Hello blog readers!

     I have never blogged before, but am going to give it a whirl! Blogging seems like it will be a good and convenient way to stay in touch over the summer and for the next few years of college. Forgive me if my posts are few and far between, but the rest of my senior year is pretty full! I will try to be a more faithful blogger over the summer and as I begin the college chapter of life.
     It will be a busy next month and a half - the final months of high school- ever! It is a very strange feeling! This Saturday the Baldwin Christian High School will be holding their annual pancake breakfast, which is always a good time and a good fundraiser. At the end of this month, BCS will be having the spring concert and the senior class will be presenting their thesis papers and defending them in front of a panel of judges, a scary but good experience! Every weekend in May is full with our high school protocol outing, our performance of The Mouse That Roared, graduation, recital, Brat Fest, and graduations parties rounding out the month. It will all go so fast, I'm not sure if I am ready!

     As to the title of this blog, and it's significance, really it is pretty random. I was trying to think of a good title for this blog that was alliterated and sounded interesting, feminine, and vintage-y. "Peaches" was put in there because that is one of my color obsessions right now. I am not a huge fan of peaches the fruit, but I am a fan of peach the color, it is somewhat vintage-y and very feminine. I couldn't have "peach" singular, so I had to go for "peaches plural", whatever works! "Pearls" seemed like a decent choice for the next word because pearls are so classic, and "pearls" starts with a "P"! "Promises" is probably the most significant of the three words in the title. Promises are precious and need to be kept, who doesn't love a kept promise?! God never breaks His promises to us and that is one of the most reassuring things to think about, especially when your whole world will change next August like mine will!
     The title of this post, "Beginnings", seemed like an appropriate title for the first post of my blog, which I hope will interest some enough to read future posts! Another beginning, other than my blog, is spring! Spring has finally sprung in Wisconsin (I think)! Even though we had freezing rain last night and snow this morning and it is cool today (33.4 F), it was super warm yesterday (57.3 F) and there is hardly any snow now, so it is close enough!

Here is yesterday evening, storm clouds brewing!

Here is today!

I am so thankful for the warmer weather, and I think I speak for most everyone in Minnesota and Wisconsin when I say that! The changing of the seasons is one of the many beautiful things that God has orchestrated and the change from winter to spring is my favorite! One more quick beginning! We started up dance lessons again today at school and started to learn the Lindy Hop! We plan on learning the Lindy Hop, the Cha Cha, and maybe the Salsa this year! I highly recommend ballroom dancing, it is so much fun!
     I had better skedaddle for now, but I hope to keep writing soon! Thanks for reading!

"God thunders with His voice wondrously, doing great things which we cannot comprehend." Job 37:5 NASB