Hiya! It's me.

Though, you know, who else would it be? I wonder...

For me, it really hasn't been that long. My last post seems like it was fairly recent. Or, at least, not too terribly much has happened since I last posted.

Well, I started school. Guess that's technically a 'big deal,' though exactly why, I'm unsure. Yayy for aggravating text books. Boy, do I have a couple of whack-jobs this year. The curriculum I use believes in exposing me to all different viewpoints and letting me decide for myself what I believe. Pretty cool, sometimes. Opposing viewpoints=good, grumpy old guys who argue back and forth and call each other names in the name of 'theology' and 'politics'=not so great. Woohoo.

And then, there's chemistry. I adore chemistry. And I'm not being entirely sarcastic. I'm actually, honestly enjoying myself.

So far, I've read The Scarlet Letter and an Edgar Allen Poe short story. Both enjoyable to the utmost. At least I can always count on literature to be a blast.

There was that awesomely wonderful (and this time I am being sarcastic) youth group meeting. One of those 'you people are all crazy and I kinda want a time machine to skip the next hour and a half,' nights. Some things never change.

Oh, and last weekend. Hehehehe. Joy stayed over Friday night so she could go with me Saturday morning. Me and two recipes of my blondies were enlisted to accompany Grandma to a luncheon she was putting on for her church's nursery volunteers. Dawn and Nikki were both there, being nursery workers, but Dawn opted to hang withe kitchen help and assist with the waiting and bussing of dishes. But of course Nikki was dying of boredom, and as soon as she could possibly get away, she came in begging us to need her help. I love my little cousins. We had a blast.

After clean-up, Grandma dropped Nikki off at her house and drove Dawn, Joy, and me to the beach. Of course Nik wanted to go really bad, but she had a dance practice.

Being that last weekend was VA Beach's annual Neptune Festival, the traffic was AWFULLLLL. Most of our reason for going was the sand sculpture competition. The international sand sculpture competition, with seasoned competitors from all over the world. Apparently, we have one every year. Go figure!

But Grandma couldn't find a place to park, so she kicked us out of the car at a red light. We went down to the boardwalk. The crowds, like the traffic, were impossible. There was no getting close enough to get a satisfactory look at the sculptures. We did the best we could, while elbowing through the vicious mob and fighting to stay together. Then we made our way back to the general area where we'd been dropped off to call Grandma. She still couldn't find a parking spot. She told us she'd just drive around until we'd had our fill, and then she would pick us up. Well, of course I had to go and do guilt over that, because she wanted to seem the sand sculptures even more than we had. So I told her we'd wait as long as it took, and to call us when she found a spot. We agreed on that, and me and the girls walked down to the water to wait.

Boy, was that a mistake. Oh, it was great at first. We held our flip flops and walked in up to our thighs, running away every time a wave came along that would be big enough to get our shorts wet. And then I saw him. I swear, I SAW...umm...a guy. A particular guy, who, well, let's just say that randomly running into him on the beach was NOT first on my to-do list. I froze, stared at him, and said, "Joy. Please tell me I'm crazy."

And, of course, she replies, "DUDE!! You're absolutely insane! No way!!!"

Not exactly helping me convince myself I was wrong. The head, the hair (or lack thereof), the ears, everything. I'm telling you, it was him. And he was with a girl. Hahaha. No. Well, thank heavens, he stood up and turned around, which is when we saw the tattoos. It wasn't him. Thank you, sweet merciful heavens. I tried to go back to having fun. We all did. Poor Dawn didn't have a clue what was going on. And then Mr. Imposter and his girlfriend started making their way towards us. Well, I think they were just making their way to shore, but they were right in front of us, and we decided not to risk it. We turned and started walking back up to the boardwalk.

Called Grandma again, she really couldn't find a parking spot. So we decided to just leave. Ugh, just getting back in the car was a pain in the rear. Either her directions weren't clear, or I really am just an idiot, or something, because we couldn't seem to communicate at all. We went from fifth street, to seventh, then back to sixth, where we waited next to the bus stop for like, ten minutes. I don't know what came over me, but it was all I could do not to get on that bus. Just to see what would happen. I literally made Joy grab hold of me so I couldn't. Just imagine what an adventure that would've been. Eventually, we wound up stopping on third, then going to second, where we FINALLY met up with Grandma. Got in the car, made a stop at 7-11 to stave off the impending dehydration from the whole ordeal, went HOME!!!

Church on Sunday was as is to be expected. I helped in the first-and-second grade class, then wound up walking with Noah after church. He's so much fun. Then hung with Haley for a while, who was home from college on a visit. Then took Isabel and Corinne home with me to work on a dance. There's this big contest coming up, where you submit a video, and we're doing a dance to the Flyleaf song Cassie, but more on that later.

Had a blast working with them, as usual. Joy's gonna work with the other half of the group, then we're gonna all get together to shoot the video.

Then all three of us headed to the church for women's Bible study, same as every Sunday night. It's changed considerably since the last time I posted about it. No more boys, no more Stephen. A widely varying crowd, often involving mostly girls, two of which are under five. Two are between five and ten, one of those being obsessed with armadillos. Two are older than ten, and therefore require minimal babysitting. Our only boys are, occasionally, Brandon and his little brothers, and Noah, a fantastic little kid who just happens to be blind. Okay, so Brandon doesn't exactly require babysitting either, and neither, for the most part, does his thirteen-y-o brother, but they do make our lives difficult-er. And then, half of the youth group girls go. Me and Joy, plus Corine, Isabel, Tabby, and occasionally Tori. Oh, and sometimes the pastor's three darling boys. (Please note:voice dripping with sarcasm.)

But last week we had one of the under-fives, a three-year-old named Emmy, and Noah. Emmy spent most of the time pretend-cooking for me, bossing me around, coloring, and dancing around. Noah, however, found an evening's pastime playing with my iPod. Now, I have a third gen shuffle, the one with the controls in the headphones. Except I was playing it through a speaker, so the controls were just in the cord. But they aren't easy to operate. He got it figured out, though, and he hd a blast. Developed quite a taste for TobyMac.

And now, my friends, I've gotta be going. G'night!!! :)