Yesterday

Well, yesterday was interesting. Very interesting. Like I said, I had five children. Three of them were my siblings, and the other two were a set of four-year-old twins, one boy and one girl. Anne and Riley did a pretty good job of keeping them occupied, so all I really had to do was make sure everybody was playing nicely and handle snacks, drinks, and lunch. Pretty easy gig. Then church band practice last night. No comment.

Sunday was great. Church then Haley's party. She loved her gift. We swam in the pool, played the Wii, and ate food, namely hotdogs and insanely good bean dip. I came home with a wicked sunburn. It was just Haley, her friend Destiny, Joy and me. Pretty small group.

Church went well also. Except for the fact that, since one of our three microphones is broken, Joy and I were reduced to having to share a microphone. That isn't easy. I still don't know if the situation is remedied yet, but I sincerely hope it is. 

Today is nothing much. Dinner at Nana's tonight. We have some family in from out of town. It'll be nice to see them. Today I should probably study for Bible Bee, and I want to finish Emma.

Well, all, I should probably go. I hope you have a wonderful day!

I am babysitting five children today, two of them under the age of five. Wish me luck!

The Longest Day In History (almost)

Yesterday was the longest day of my life, or something very, very close to it. My day began at, horror of horrors, 6:30 AM. My brother stuck his head in my room to inform me that it was time to get up, Mom and Dad want the living room cleaned up before the boys get here. Ehhh, I'm getting ahead of myself. Mom offered to keep our Pastor's three boys while their mom drove Pastor Jon, two men, and a youth guy to the airport. Yesterday was the first day of the annual missions trip to Peru. Aaaaanyway, I was woken up at 6:30 in the morning to clean up my mess in the living room, which consisted of two pieces of paper, a pair of shoes, and a coffee cup. Yeah, that was a big enough deal to wake me up for. Aww, I'm just kidding. I'm really not as much of a grump as I sound. After breakfast, Mom drove me down the street to Grandma's to do some general cleaning (i.e. dusting, sweeping, etc.) in preparation for a get-together of hers this weekend. Around 11:30, Mom came and got me and brought me home, where I had twenty minutes to switch gears from cleaning to errand-running. Our first errand was a trip to a nearby church whose VBS program was similar to ours. They are very kindly lending us many of their decorations. Many of their decorations. About two truckloads full. Thankfully another lady from our church (Actually, she was the one who asked this church if they'd lend us the stuff. Our hero!) was there with her truck to help. There was an entire forest in my fifteen-passenger van, complete with a fox, two deer, a bear, a fox and a skunk. Mom couldn't even see out the back window. Ha, and we'd planned on going grocery shopping next. Well, that was out of the question. We had to make the 40-minute trip from down-town to our church way out in the boondocks. After we've been on the road for about fifteen minutes, Mom glances at the clock and realizes that we don't have time to make it all the way to the church and get back in town to get to the bank before it closed for the day, so we double back and stop at the bank. By now it's like, 2:00, and both of us are starving, so we grabbed lunch at Chick-fil-a. We then drive out to the church and unload. Remember, yesterday the temp was about 93, so by the time we're done there, both of us are dripping in sweat. We couldn't shop like that. So we stop at home, freshen up, and drive all the way back into town. We then spent about, eh, four hours in WalMart, two of which I spent looking for a birthday present for Haley, whose birthday party is tomorrow. We finally check out, which took about ten minutes in and of itself, and are on our way our of the store when I remember that I'm not the only one with a birthday party to go to this weekend. Andrew, Anne, and Riley also are attending a birthday party tomorrow. So we stick our two carts, full of about 400 dollars worth of groceries (Hey, it's a big family and we were shopping for a whole month!) at customer service and trek back into the store to get a birthday present for the little kid.

By the time we get home it's eight o'clock at night and I'm exhausted. Absolutely exhausted. Blah.

Thankfully, today has been much more restful. A totally chill Saturday, without even chores to ruin it. I spent much of the day reading Jane Austen's Emma. 

Well, my friends, I must bid you adieu. I need to help with dinner, and then decide what on earth I'm wearing tomorrow. Have a wonderful evening!

Okay, I promised I'd tell you how the concert went, so I will. I don't want to, but I will.

You can call me picky or hard to please, but it was awful. I felt so sorry for the band, the actual Newsboys. It was more of a Newsboys/DC Talk merger than a Newsboys concert. They did almost as much old DC Talk stuff as they did Newsboys. And Michael screwed up the lyrics to half the Newsboys stuff they actually did. 

But the worst part by far was Michael's behavior. He sat down on the stage. He crawled on the stage. He laid down on the stage. It was icky. My heart goes out to Jeff Frankenstein, Duncan Phillips, and Jody Davis, the real Newsboys.

The highlight of the night for me was the fact that Mr. Tait's microphone still had Peter's name on it. It was great.

All that being said, I have found two great new bands to like. KJ-52 and DecembeRadio were there last night, and they both put on a really good show. I enjoyed them immensely.

Our group was right next to the stage. And I mean right next to the stage. Close enough that if there had been somebody that I cared about enough to want to touch, I could've touched them.

The one time I tried to get somebody to touch my hand, some kid knocked into me, and knocked me into the guy in front of me, and I missed the moment. It stank. 

The youth trip yesterday was one of the weirdest I'd ever been on. Even the ride up there was weird. Joy's brother Cal rode in the trunk the whole way. We dubbed him 'Trunk Monkey'. The other people at the concert were weird. The time we spent in the park was weird. Our 'tram hostess' (that is, the person who talked to us while we were riding the tram from the park to our obscure parking spot in the 'Scotland Parking Lot') was the weirdest of all. She kept singing to us, and getting us to sing. The song went something like, "We're riding on the tram, we're riding on the tram, and we're eating Virginia Ham, and we've got some candied yams, we're riding on the tram." Yeah. Weird.

The ride home was the weirdest part of all. We were about half an hour away from being home, and suddenly, we hear this 'thump-thump-thump' noise, feel the car bouncing, and smell the distinct smell of burning rubber. Yes my friends, we had a flat tire. And get this. We had a spare tire, but not the tool to take the old tire off. How dumb is that? 

Pastor Jon showed up to help, followed by a random nice guy from Michigan, and my Dad. My hero! He picked up me and all of my friends and drove them back to the church so that they could get home. 

We found the answer to the question, "How many people does it take to change a tire?" 

It takes five girls supervising, two pastors, two guitarists, and a random nice guy from Michigan. 

Well, friends, I have to go. Mom is getting a little aggravated. I have chores to do. Wish me luck!

Alrighty, so if you haven't checked out the new Newsboys cd, titled 'In the Hands of God', you absolutely have to. In my opinion, it's their best work ever. A pretty good 50/50 mix of their signature pop sound and their awesome praise and worship. An awesome band, an awesome cd.

Definitely bittersweet, though, since this is probably the last cd they will ever make, or at least the last one with the one and only Peter Furler on it. Peter will be missed dearly. Not that I don't love Michael Tait, I do! However, he is no Peter Furler.

I will be attending my first post-Peter Newsboys concert this Sunday at Glory At The Gardens. I promise that I'll let you all know how it goes.

Sunday, June 14, 2009 marked a very momentous occasion for Abundant Hope Baptist Church. It was our first Sunday in our own building!! Isn't God good? After four-and-a-half years of meeting in another church's building, and two months of meeting outside rain or shine, we are finally in our new building!!!!!!! The atmosphere was that of a celebration. There was so much joy in that room. Thank you Lord! 

Well, I have to go now. Bible study tonight. TTFN!!

Oh, wait! I thought of one more thing. Who voted on my poll? You know, "Is love a spiritual gift?"

Who voted, and why do you think that. I really need to know, because my youth pastor is gonna grill me come September on why I think love, and faith for that matter, is a spiritual gift. I need to work on it, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Hey, everybody. I was just caught by the unconquerable urge to blog. I suppose that it's just because this is such an awesome moment. Actually, an awesome evening. Again, Aunt Becky and Uncle Jared are over. I'm at the desk, which is across from the dining room table, where they are playing a game of spades. Nobody else would get why that is so important to me. I guess that to understand, I have to take you back into my childhood. Back when they lived in the states, every single New Years Eve, and several nights during the year, Aunt Becky and Uncle Jared would come over to play spades with Mom and Dad. As we speak, the sound of it is transporting me back to when I was eight. I would sit next to Aunt Becky and listen, and watch. Sometimes, if I caught her in a really good mood, she would read Dr. Suess's Fox In Sox to me in between turns. 

Oh, I need to stop before I start crying.

Now, though, the only thing that's different is that my little siblings are awake (which they rarely where back then), and that little Cara Grace is with them. They're all in the next room watching 'King George and His Ducky' - a very silly VeggieTale, and a personal favorite of mine.

Well, I suppose I'll sign off for the night. But before I go, I submit to you a question: do you have any treasured family memories? Is there anything you'd like to share?

Everyone sleep well. Goodnight!

Hello, all. Happy Summer Vacation!!! Or, at least, it is for me. I don't know about you. I know some people get out later than I do. 

It has been an eventful few days. Aunt Becky and Uncle Jared came in on Thursday. It has been so wonderful to spend time with them. Three whole years it's been since i saw them. Their baby girl Cara is four years old. She's the most precious, adorable thing you've ever seen. Her laugh just melts my heart. I love her to death. I'll post a pic. 

I love spending time with my little cousins. Yesterday, all of us were at my grandmother's house. And I mean ALL of us. I guess a little family-tree-info would be helpful to you all. 

My paternal grandparents, we call 'em Nana and Papaw, have three children. Their oldest is my dad, then Aunt Becky, then Uncle Andy, who has recently separated from his wife. He has two children, six-year-old Hailey and four-year-old Calvin. And all of us were in Nana and Papaw's little house. The kids swam in their little blow-up-pool for most of the day. 

Today marked the beginning of my and Andrew's first annual Monopoly Tournament. It's going to be a week-long game of Monopoly, with some rather high stakes if I do say so myself. If he wins, I have to make him whatever dessert he wants for two weeks. If I win, he has to read any two books of my choosing. Which doesn't sound like it would be something I would want very badly, but believe me, it is. He's so closed-minded when it comes to books. It would be my opportunity to force him to broaden his horizens. I'm thinking The Comet's Curse by Dom Testa and Artemis Fowl:The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer. 

Well, I had better sign off for now. TTFN!