you, too, can learn another language!

i think i have made it pretty clear that i like to learn.  (if you know what strengths finder is, i have gotten learner as one of my strengths both times i took the test.)

at work, i ask for resources to learn more about this new field (401k stuff).  at home, i read, i do logic puzzles, and i ingest random tidbits of information all over the place.

i don't have any desire to be great at one particular thing...it kind of bores me, actually.  so i try and develop skills in many different areas.  this is why i could teach myself acoustic guitar and bass guitar and be content with my medicore skills.  probably why i am a decent athlete in many sports but not super talented at any of them.  i just like to take in more and more content.

so i took 3 years of spanish and a year of sign language in high school.  passable...i can say things like 'por favor, puedo sacarle punto a lapiz?' in spanish (roughly, 'please, can i sharpen my pencil?') and sign, 'i'm sorry your cow is dead' in asl.  you know, important conversational pieces.

i met a friend in college who was from brazil, and i thought portuguese was such a cool language...kind of a smash up of spanish and french.  so i bought some cds to try and learn it, and she gave me a new testament in portuguese.  i learned a couple things but didn't really stick with it.

but...

last week, i was killing time and looking through free apps for my phone, and i found one called duolingo. 

dude.

this thing is baller.  it's totally geared toward a mind like mine...give me the lessons in little chunks, have lots of checkpoints so i feel like i am doing well, etc.  you can learn a ton of different languages, but if you're starting from english (which...i'm going to say the majority of my readership is...), you can learn spanish, german, french, portuguese, and italian.

it teaches you in a variety of ways: they write portuguese, and you write in english and vice versa.  they have a sentence in portuguese and give you options with which to build the sentence in english and vice versa.  they say a phrase or sentence in portuguese, and you write it in portuguese.  they have pictures to help you learn vocab.  they give you multiple choice questions.

i think it's really fun.  :)

travis is learning italian, so you'll have to ask him how it is. 

but now my speech is filled with phrases like ' eu como frango' (i eat chicken) and 'voce gosta o livro?' (do you like the book?)

check it out.  let me know what you think.  i think it's pretty sweet, especially considering it was free.


yes, i am talking about a product that is awesome.  no, i am not getting paid to do so.  yes, this is all my opinion.  no, i was not forced to say this.

everybody was kung fu fighting

g'day, mates.  welcome to the 'i committed to blog once a week for a year and this is the first week of that' blog.  i'm sure it will be a post full of wonder and adventure, so get your backpack and compass, and we'll be on our way.

yo, did you see this cuteness from my birthday?  please.

with regard to the list, i don't have a lot of updates.  i'm plugging away on my weekly items, although it was more of a challenge this week than it will be most weeks, i think.  i put a good little dent in my running miles, and twice this week, i ran much faster than usual.  so that's weird.  (yesterday, i ran 3.64 miles at 8:06 pace...bizarre.)

i also went through heather's list to try and identify 31 items with which i might want to help.  if you're not familiar with heather (she's my older sister) or her list, go HERE.  you should probably just follow her and make snarky comments.  she'd like that.

for the bulk of this week's post, though, i thought i should probably fill you in on what the heck is going on in my life.

at the moment, i am in my parents' house.  i'm hanging out with b & d for the weekend.  the past three weeks, i have been housesitting for my favorite grownup.  but on monday, i will be back at travis & kelli's.  which should be fun, since my room is currently being painted for baby squishy.  and in two weeks, i am moving.

yay!

well, not yay to the moving part.  but yay to everything it implies:

1) i will have a permanent residence for the first time since jennifer and i lived together.  yeah, that was in 2010.  remember my BLOG from back then?  haha.  :)  (in the past three years, i have lived out of suitcases and boxes (and occasionally dressers) in the following places: mom & dad's, aunt betty & uncle jon's, adam & alicia's, aunt betty & uncle jon's, wigger, mom & dad's, asian holly's, mom & dad's, travis & kelli's, rich & heather's, and travis & kelli's.)  ready. for. a. home.

2) i get to live with liz.  nonstop shenanigans, most likely.  and we will be neighbors with allyse and cam, which will be so fun.

3) i get to unpack all my books!!!!!!!!!!!

4) i get to organize an entire apartment.  my heart is metaphorically exploding with joy about this!

5) we will live in pendleton, which is such a cute little town.  you are all invited to come hang out.  in fact, i'll probably invite you for a meal or a tea party or something else on my list.  :)

five is enough, i think.

i am extremely grateful for the people who have housed me.  but i am so excited for this next chapter.  i would appreciate a lot of prayer in the next couple of weeks.  if you know me at all, you are aware that my mind has gone into insane list-making mode (and not the fun kind of list).  so i am trying to create lots of pauses and space in my days to remind myself to breathe and that the details will come together.

whew.  i'll see you in a week or so.  :)

i remember that swagger...

hey.  it's your negligent friend, holly.  let me just blow the dust off this blog here...

uh, you should back up if you have asthma or allergies...

ah, that's better.

so, a quick life update.

location: indianapolis, indiana
more specifically: travis and kelli's house

why i love it: well, to start, travis and kelli are there!  duh.  living with them is fun and awesome.  there's lots of good food, movie quoting, hugging, and jeopardy watching.  i am only an hour from marion, so i can get up there a couple times a month to meet with students and spend time in that heart community.  i am close to my family while not living in a room that is full of boxes that have been packed since last april.  when it's warmer out, i have quick access to a pool.  and i have a rad prayer closet in my room.  and it's only ten minutes from work.

wait, what?

yeah, i got a job.  no, it's not specifically using my degrees (and i still wouldn't trade them for anything).  but it is using the sum total of knowledge and skills i have accumulated in thirty years.  i work for capital analysts of the midwest.  i am pretty much a glorified receptionist.  but they want to turn the position into more.  cause of all my sweet aforementioned skills.  ;)  it's a wealth advising/management company.  what they do is pretty cool, actually...helping people steward their money, etc.  i really enjoy the environment there.

reminds me of interning at bridgeway: there is a lot of randomness to my job, and i work for a ton of different people/personalities.

reminds me of managing finish line: there's a money focus (but kind of the opposite of the one there) and a helping people focus.

reminds me of being a financial specialist for rec sports: i get to use excel so much!  i work with checks and help take care of lots of details for many people.

reminds me of grad school stuff: i am interrupted a bunch, get to organize and create helpful systems, and get to make up parts of my job as i go.

reminds me of powernine: i listen to people speak a language i don't understand, i think everything makes more sense in spreadsheets, i direct emails, and i wear t shirts and sweats (ok, that last part is a lie.  i have to wear nicer clothes.)

i guess if you want more, you'll have to ask.  but i like it.  i am in a settled season, which is a nice change for me.

i really am going to try harder about blogging (at least during my nors), so if you have writing challenges you would like to throw at me, i am open.  i may even consider creating a goals list.  so let me know if you have any of those, too.

oh, i did actually take some pictures of life...

so here's my sweet brother and his new wife. i love them. their wedding was beautiful and funny.

and here's my sweet best friend taking good care of ron swanson when we blew a tire on our way back to wisconsin.

and here are my sweet legs after a full weekend of frisbee. this picture probably doesn't even capture the full color difference between my feet and legs. you can also see a knee brace line on my left leg. and every place that looks like i was beaten with a baseball bat is, in fact, a bruise. those are real. and there are actually many more than you can see in this picture.

the monthly cooking segment: just what the tubby ordered

i don't have the time or energy to be deliberately funny about food tonight. it might happen incidentally, but i can't do much about that.

i fixed a meal for travis last night because he gave me half of his ethiopian coffee. which sounds like a weird statement. but it's true.

i grilled some tilapia. it was good.

i fried some potatoes. they were good. as usual.

i sauteed some asparagus. i had to keep travis away from it before the meal with death threats--that's how good it was.

i baked some zucchini bread. it was good. and the honors college benefited from the extra today. lucky.

and...voila:

picture this: he's the piano man

this is my younger brother, travis. or, as he is affectionately called around our house, lonny, skippy, or tubby. this is a picture of him playing piano. (the fitness orb is a whole other story.)

here's the context:

in my family, all of us took piano lessons when we were kids. some of us took them longer than others. some of us still play. and some of us are very talented pianists. (don't be fooled. despite my liberal use of the word 'us,' i am not actually one of those still-playing and very talented children.) travis took piano for approximately five minutes. ok, it was probably closer to two years. the point is, he didn't like it and didn't stick with it.

cut to 4 days ago. picture this scene: it's probably 9:30 pm...i'm in bed, reading and winding down. travis is in his room, bellowing 'it is well with my soul.' (i was later informed that he had been singing hymns all day, so it wasn't completely out of the blue.) suddenly, i hear him knocking on aunt betty's door and asking if she has a hymnal. out of the kindness of her soul, she digs one up for him, and he plops down at the piano and bangs out his part. i am not sure how long this lasted, but i think it was at least an hour.

over the next few [snow] days, he and betty jo dug up more music he could play--including christmas carols. t bone has been logging practice hours at the piano, hammering out chords, singing, and having a merry old time.

hilarious and delightful.

i think he shows great potential.

what is something you love about one of your siblings?

roast beef for lunch again

points of interest:

the poll is up. and it's working. so if you tried before without success, try voting again. otherwise, i'll just keep writing random nonsense that has no purpose or direction.

2. if you're reading this in google reader or something of the sort, go to the actual site...well, because you need to vote. but also because i adopted a pet duck. his name is puckerman. puck the duck. ;) how dare you accuse me of having a glee theme to my blog?

c. travis and i played racquetball yesterday. my right arm feels barely functional today. which could be a problem for frisbee tomorrow. not to mention the fact that i haven't run for months now.

next: madison is calling my name, and i am so excited to go. as usual, bj novak is a loser and will likely strand me somewhere. let's hope he doesn't.

(sidenote--real bj novak, if you're reading this, i don't think you're a loser. i love you deeply.)

this is my life: wednesday nights are on fire

travis and i are helping aunt betty. we try and do that sometimes in exchange for free rent. on wednesday nights from now till kingdom come (ok, i'm not actually sure about the timeline), we are helping out with awana.

some people (see: erin barricklow) know all about awana.

some people (see: travis and holly willman) had no idea what they were signing up for.

the concept is pretty sweet...sharing the gospel with kids ranging from puggles to t&t. tracking with me so far? haha. puggles are 2 and 3 year olds. then there are cubbies. then SPARKS! then t&t. guess which group i am helping with? :) that's right. i am sparkie! i have kindergarten through second grade. woohoo! this is a spark:

so for a couple of hours on wednesday nights, i walk around going, 'we're on fire! we're on fire!' my instruction book did not actually tell me to do it...but i'm just feeling it. plus i wave my fingers to simulate fire. pretty rad.

btw, shout out to my 4 current followers. i love the support.