"A Problem Page For All!"

By my calculations, it's been more than a year since I last posted! I'm so grateful to Caitlin for letting me know that the forum is still up and running. I had a crazy, crazy year, busy and full of, well, stuff, and I didn't do very well with keeping in touch with any of my pen pals. But I'm really eager to get back in touch, because much as I like what I'm doing with my life right now, life's not worth much if it means I don't have time to keep up with my friends.

I might as well fill you in on what I'm up to these days. I'm in part-time uni at Huntington University, where my dad teaches. I'm a history major with an emphasis on pre-law. Last semester I took Elementary French and I fell head over heels in love with it. I've renewed my friendship with my French prof (I used to baby-sit for her kids about three years ago, and I hated her at the time -- but we've both changed and we get along well now!) and I have a pact with her that I'm going to become fluent in French. It's very exciting to me to realize my love of languages -- Caitlin has been loving langauges for years and I never realized how interested I was, too, until I started learning French and realized what a vocation I have for it!

Last year I wrote the second draft of my first novel, spending most of the summer on it, and I have a good start on another one. They're both fantasy fiction, but the first is set in a historically-based country I made up (a bit like Narnia or Middle Earth), while the novel I'm working on now is set on modern-day Earth, except it's about an Earth where faeries exist and co-habitate with humans.

I'm still living at home with my parents and siblings. My mom is pretty much fully recovered from mercury poisoning, and my dad is recovered from having his mercury teeth fillings removed as well. Rachel and Jimmy are doing very well -- Rachel is a theatre major at Huntington University and Jimmy is signed up to take one class there, even though he's not uni age yet. He's still homeschooling. Rachel is 22 and Jimmy is 16. And because I always forget ages and maybe you all do too, I'm now 20.

So, that's about what I'm doing with my life: School, writing, and enjoying spending time with my family. I hope to be full-time at HU next fall, but for now I'm taking it slowly to give myself time to adjust from spending so much time at home (while my mom was sick) to getting used to being in school. I got good grades last semester, though, so I think I'm handling it pretty well!

I'd love to have Fleur's and Ellie's addresses -- I'm going to record my voice onto a CD for you, Ellie, because I still owe you one in return for the tape you sent me last Christmas! Is a CD okay? I hope so...my new computer has a CD burner and I love using it now.

If you want to keep up with my online diary, it's at http://www.livejournal.com/users/rynmorianqueen I don't post interesting stuff all the time, but it's a record of my life on a sort of weekly basis! Oh, and my email is elizabeth@bouma-holtrop.com

Well, I'll have to read all the posts here and catch up on what you're all doing! I'm really pleased to know that even though I was terrible at keeping in touch last year you're all still here and I haven't lost my chance. You all mean so much to me and I want to keep up to date with you!

Lots of love to everyone!