So, Blogger=procrastination central! I know I should be screnzying, and I know I should start school, and I know I should clean my room, but, here I am!

So last night was supposed to be that thing at the library, but apparently THAT particular library is just retardedly hard to find. We got lost. Hopelessly lost. In the rain. On empty.

It was Tom-Tom's fault. I swear, that stupid gps thingie has tried to kill us on several different occasions. The thing is evil! And it almost cussed at me, but that's another story.

So we get there about five minutes after the event ended. Walk in, attempt small talk with a couple of librarians, pick up our copies of the booklet of entries, take a cookie so we didn't have to feel guilty for not eating, and went off to browse the library until my parents came back to pick us up.

Yeah, they dropped us off and left to get gas, asking us if we could find something to do until they came back. Us. At a library. Yeah, I'd guess we could find something to do.

I embarrassed myself horribly, which made me thankful that it was just Joy who saw. I couldn't for the life of me find this one stupid book I was looking for. Apparently I don't know how to use a library. Whatever.

So she found the book for me. And here I suppose a little backstory is necessary.

A friend of ours claims this particular book as his all-time favorite. And, at face value, that's ridiculous. All the great works of literature this world has to offer, and you pick that one.

But my grandmother chided me on not giving it more of a chance before I just started making fun of it. So yesterday I picked it up.

I felt like it was stealing, or sneaking drugs into the house or something, they way I hid it from my family, simply because it would get me laughed at. I'm supposed to have better taste than that.

So I sneak it up into my bedroom last night, and turn to face the wall to read it, so Anne can't see. And next thing I know, I'm three chapters in, Anne's asleep, and I should've cut the lights out about an hour ago. So now I must grudgingly admit that it is a good book.

And that makes me so mad! I hate being wrong, especially about things I was soooo sure about. I mean, there was no way in this world it was going to be a worthwhile read, and yet...well written, good message, touching, a page turner. Grr.

Buutt coming back from a very long rabbit trail, we started home. Well, we went to take Joy home. Got stopped by a wreck, had to turn around and go the other way.

The wreck was particularly bad, with several emergency vehicles clustered around. We could see paramedics dealing with people on the ground. So there we are in our old community, hoping it was nobody from our old church.

And later we find out it was somebody from our new community, a friend of Joy's family.

He's just my age. He's alright, thank God, gonna be okay and all that, but it's a wake-up call.

We're young. We feel invincible, like nothing can touch us. We've got our whole lives ahead of us, right?

Wrong. Time and again I see people my own age and younger, cut down in their prime. Life. Is. Short.

So why are we still living like we have 50+ years on this earth? Why aren't we living like every day could be our last? Why do I still get so wrapped up in life that I don't stop and look around.

Love the people in your life till you drive them crazy. Don't go to bed angry.

Get things right with God.

Do you know that He loves you? Do you know what He did for you? Yes? Good! No? Find out. Ask somebody.

Have you accepted His gift of eternal life? Do it! You never know when you could lose the chance.

Wow. On that incredibly serious note, I think I'd best be going. As wonderful as procrastination is, you should never do it long.

Have a great day!

My Poem

Hey, y'all! Here's the poem I entered into that contest I was telling you about. :) Enjoy!

Music

Make a sound

Make it loud

Make it fast

Make it last

Fill the room

Boom boom boom

Fill my ears

Calm my fears

Stop my heart

Start stop start

My ears ring

Sing sing sing

Can't help that grin

Shout, "Again, again!"

And I smile

And I sing

And I soar.

So, yeah, not all that great. But, you know, I had fun writing it, and that's what really matters.

Good night, sleep tight!

A Dare

Hey guys! Check out this post on my other blog, Confessions of a Homeschooler. While your at it, hang out. Read some stuff. Tell us what you think!

ttfn!! :)

Pointless Ramblings

Wowwwww, it's been tooooo long. I'm a bad person, I know.

But I can' t think of anything to write about!

This past month has been life as usual, almost to the point of being laughable. Like, overly-dramatized going according to plan. Which gives me the sneaking suspicion that something is about to bust wiiiiiide open.

But as my life is going about it's merry way, it gives me a chance to sit back and admire. And when I do, I just get this bizarre feeling of 'who am I?' How could God possibly see fit to put me here? I'm nobody!

Sometimes, I'm almost scared somebody's going to start laughing at me. Like, when I tell somebody that I'm Joy Marie's best friend, they'd react about the same way they would if I told them I was really the President of the United States. Or being able to list Corinne, Isabel, Haley, and Stephen among the people I call 'friend' would be like saying I'm related to Brad Pitt (or somebody equally famous. I don't keep up with this stuff.)

"You? You work with kids?? Yeah right!"

"You? Worship dance? For Him? Yeah, just keep telling yourself that."

"You? You're friends with THEM? Ha!"

Or maybe even "You? You go to Abundant Hope Baptist Church? Okay, honey, thats nice. Now, if you'll just come with me, I'm going to take you to a nice place where these nice men in white coats are going to give you this nice jacket that lets you hug yourself, okay sweetie?"

But then I remember, 'Oh yeah! Sometimes that's how God likes to work. He uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.'

Well, I don't know about confounding any wise people, but it sure does confound me! But, even though I understand it, I can't even begin to thank Him enough! My God is an awesome God, and I'm am so psyched with His plans for me.

But anyway, after taking such a serious turn, ummm, yeah. This week is Nothing Special. Possibly a trip to the beach at some point, and definitely getting out of the house tomorrow. Grandma and Pawpaw are having their 'cousins' over for a powwow. And not that that doesn't sound like fun, but you know extended relatives. We won't be home tomorrow.

OH! I'll find out this week if I won the poetry contest or not. The public library puts on a teen poetry contest every year, and this year me and Joy both entered. So I should find out sometime this week. Hey, maybe I'll post my entry!

But for now I've gotta go. You have a fabulous day!!!! :)

So, here I am again. It's Saturday morning. That's another marble from the jar of life.

Don't know what I'm talking about? Check out http://www.naute.com/stories/marbles.phtml

We're watching Lord of the Rings. Just finished a lovely late breakfast of hash browns. Grandma and Pawpaw are out to breakfast. Today we're headed to the church for passing out flyers to the community (invites to our Easter, erm, Resurrection Sunday, service), then potluck fellowship, followed by a prayer service. Long day ahead.

Oh, btw. I didn't go to Joy's last night. It fell through. :(

That's okay though. We still have tonight. She's coming home with us from church. Which is good, because we need to talk about our SCRIPT FRENZY!!

Script Frenzy is the sister-event to NaNoWriMo, wherein participants ('screnzies') write a 100-page screenplay in the month of April. And me and Joy are tag-teaming.

So you should join us! I'll post a link asap. It'll be fun.

Our script is what you would call downright bizarre. As in, makes absolutely no sense AT ALL. But we're really just doing it for fun.

So, you guys have a super-awesome Saturday. I'll be back on soon! :)

Soooooo.....

.....hi. It's me. Been a while, I know. Sorry.

Life has just been a little wild these days. So, I know I told you about the Easter dance, right?

Oh gosh, I didn't? Holy cow.

Okay, so three weeks before Easter, the Pastor and the worship leader decided they wanted a dance for Easter.

Yeah. Drama. I don't feel like relating it all. It fell apart, and got put back together, blah blah blah. Long story short, it was a God-thing. DEFINITELY a God-thing. It was a really biiggg deal. God is having fun teaching me patience. And I'm learning. Slowly. Painfully.

So, I was gonna go over to Joy's tonight, but it fell through, so I'm a little lost. I'm on the couch again tonight, as Grandma has a friend over. It's okay, though. No biggie. I adore her friends. :)

And I could go into what's going on for the rest of the weekend, but I don't feel like it.

Well, I've gotta go. ttfn!

So, tonight, Mom and Grandma had the most pointless fight ever.

But, to the untrained ear, it wouldn't've sounded like fighting. Over who was going to make the honey mustard.

"Well, you can make it . . . or I can make it."

"Oh, well, I can make it, or you can make it. It's up to you."

"Well, if you've made it before, I wouldn't know your ratios for it"

"It's just honey . . . and mustard. That's it."

"Okay, well . . ."

"I mean . . . just . . . "

And I wanted to turn around (I was washing the dishes, minding my own business) and scream "Look, it's JUST honey mustard!! Somebody please just make the honey mustard!"

It was kind of hysterical. But that's completely needless information.

Today started out as one of "those" days. You know, those days when everything just kind of goes wrong? Well, nothing went wrong per se, but the kids were in rare form. I spent most of the morning hiding behind my iPod, and pointing at my ears and mouthing "I can't hear you" whenever anybody tried to talk to me.

Okay, so get this. Exactly a week ago from today, it was snowing. Today? Near 70 degrees. Why not? Of course! That makes perfect sense. And, logic says that it'll be snowing again by this time next week. Just you wait and see if I'm wrong.

Well, I'm not sure why I started this post. Bored I guess. But I've gotta go now. Mom made dessert pizza, and the smell alone is calling my name. Good night!

Picking Up Where I Left Off (And A Possible Taylor Swift Rant)

Okay, so, that would be, Thursday? Thursday was fairly ordinary. The only day last week me and Joy weren't together all day. Mom and I went to walmart to do grocery shopping for Friday.

Friday was psycho from beginning to end. The whole day was about getting ready for the party. Joy got here around two. We just barely managed to get ready before the rest of the guests showed up. Now see, here would be where I gave you a rundown of who was who and what the plotline was, but that would take up extra energy, and thought, and Joy already did it, so why would I when I can just copy hers?

"Ella: Captain Nancy Martin, of the Fury (luietenant to murdered Captain Flint)

Joy: Alice Tremain, Nancy's first mate
Stephen: Captain Black Jack McKraken, captain of the Scurvy Knave (also luietenant to Captain Flint)
Stephen's dad: Sawbones McGraw, Black Jack's ship's surgeon (murderer)
Corrine: Tom, Black Jack's cabin boy (secretly Meg , runaway daughter of Sir Percival)
Brandon: Sir Percival, hostage aboard the Fury at beginning
Isabel: Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Percival...also a hostage of the Fury (secretly requested that Nancy kidnap her and her father so she could avoid marrying the Don)
Andrew: Captain Hal Overy--pronounced ah-vry--of the HMS...something-or-other. My character hated him, so I decided not to remember. An English Navy officer
Dad: Don Inigo, Spanish...noble, engaged to Elizabeth. Also El Cuervo, masked 'do-gooder' suspected of murdering Flint
Bryan: Hayapitl, native chieftan...wanted to marry his daughter off to someone who would take her off the island.
Brandice: Tokeleth, Will's daughter
Josh: Bill Pistol, marooned pirate and my character's closest friend. Completely mad, but sort of knew where the treasure was."

It was the most incredibly fun night ever, and all of my friends were so fabulous. Everybody came in costume, and got in character, and it was great. And, true though it may be that Stupid Old Jack got the treasure, I pulled the coolest doublecross of the century, plus we got Tom. Aaaaannnddd, I get to treasure the memory of him running away from my little brother.

Upon me asking Jack why he was scared of the little brother, he replied "Because . . . aren't you??"

So yeah. It was funny.

Then Isabel and Corrine stayed over, which by all logic and reason should've killed me. I mean, they're some of the coolest friends ever, but the secrets they dragged out of me. Put it this way: just because I'm not dead now doesn't mean I won't be by week's end.

Went to bed at five, got up at nine, ate pancakes, went to (and tried to get kicked out of) walmart, dashed home, went to church (with a sidestop at the barn), practiced for almost as many hours as we'd had sleep that night, ate dinner (where my beloved youth pastor's laugh was almost more than my poor thin patience could handle, much to my little brother's amusement), practiced the dance some more, stopped at the gas station on the way home to get peppermints to try and stave off the incoming sore throat, came home, died. Almost literally.

Got up at seven on Sunday, having had eight hours of sleep that did me absolutely no good, went to church depending on the Lord and the trustworthy influx of adrenaline to get me through, helped out in Riley's Sunday school class, went home long enough to eat lunch, get a power nap, and be just aware enough of myself to feel slightly guilty for not helping mom with the kitchen, went back to church. Sat (or stood) through a memorial service for a teenager who died in a car accident a few weeks back. No, I didn't know her, but it was emotional enough just being around all those mourning people.

Hid in the preschool room having dangerous, hysterical conversations with Isabel and Tori. Waited for Corrine and Stephen to show. Smacked Tori for saying something dangerous to Stephen immediately upon his arrival, proceeded to talk dangerously and giggle like little girls, pelted Stephen with paper cups, ate GRAPES, discussed grape flavored snowcones, the fact that ice is CRUNCHY, and laughed at how twisted it was that there was a toothpick through the GRAPE Corrine was eating, and then how twisted it was that she was eating GRAPE!! lol

Apologized to Stephen for making him uncomfortable, whereupon he replied "It's okay, I know it has something to do with me in some way, shape, or form." To which I replied with a laugh and a vague implication that it had to do with the entire male race, but inside was thinking "Yup, dead by week's end. Just you wait."

Delighted in the fact that there is now a MIRROR IN THE GIRL'S BATHROOM!!! So that I could fix my makeup. Headed to band practice, then had the worship service. Which included the dance. Which went great. I couldn't have been prouder of my little sister or Joy's. They were awesome. Aaaannnddd, somebody got our symbolism!!! Me and Joy wore gray, Anne and Joy's sis wore blue. Do yooouuuu get it?

And now, I'm pretty much out of time. So the Taylor Swift rant either gets put off, or ignored altogether.

TTFN!!!

For Real This Time

Hey, guys. Twice? In one day? Really? Wow.

Well, it was an amazing birthday, from beginning to end. It started with Mom jumping on my bed, and ended with a hysterical, therefore normal, band practice. In between was a yummy breakfast (my choice), coffee with my favorite flavor creamer, a morning spent figuring out what to do with our day, lunch at Chick-fil-a, a trip to this awesome little costume store in downtown Norfolk, and a couple hours hanging out in MacArthur mall. Then dinner, Bible study, and band. Which brings us to . . . now. Sitting at the computer, blogging about my day.

Everybody has made me feel so special today. There's nothing like a birthday to remind you you are loved.

And that's nice.

Good night!!!

Note:

Today is my sixteenth birthday. Sixteen feels no different than fifteen. False alarm. Good to know.

Have a great day!!! :)

Life

Well, friends, here we go again. I'm going to try not to ramble this time. And hey, at least the month isn't over over. But when, the other day, dad remarked to me "You know, you've been wanting to be a cat for a long time on your blog. When are you going to post again?" I figured it was time to do some blogging. :)

You know, I just love blogging. I know that very few people read this, and that few outside of my friends and family would really care about the stuff I write about on here, but it's fun. It allows me to give my take on life exactly the way I see it.

Which is fun. Because I'm not this openly honest with many people in real life. I'm not a very vulnerable, open person. It's nice to open up here. :)

Ahhhh, what has happened since I last posted? Everything and nothing.

Two birthday party-thingies; one here at home w/Mum's side of the family, and one at Nana's with Dad's. Both fun, neither particularly eventful. I adore spending time with my cousins.

Today was same-old-same-old, for the most part. Church, then out to lunch at a new Mexican joint in town. Decent food, somewhat overdone atmosphere, good prices. A place we'll probably visit again.

A chill-ey kind of afternoon, which involved the watching of seriously corny old sci-fi movies, and the reading of Agatha Christie. Yup, still stuck on Agatha Christie. The woman's a genius, I tell you. A genius!

Tonight was babysitting at the church again, same as every Sunday night. What was not the same as every Sunday night was that everybody was really good, and I didn't come home feeling all beat up. I actually had . . . fun! Cool!

Well, everybody, I'd better be goin' to bed. Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite, and all that jazz.

P.S. Tomorrow is Riley's Birthday!!!!!!!!! :)

Hi. Okay, so this is funny. Really, my life would be a whole heck of a lot easier if I just stayed in bed. I woke up this morning wishing I could be a cat. I mean, think about it! Cats really don't do anything but sleep all day, eat, get into trouble, and run the household. Sounds like the life to me.

But I'm just whining. See, you already knew that this month is going to be wacko. Well, get this. My loverly worship leader has informed Joy and myself that he wants us to do a dance the night of the 28th (we're having a special worship concert service thingy). Twenty four days.

And it would really be okay, if it weren't for the fact that he totally doesn't appreciate what he's asking for. He doesn't respect the amount of work it's going to be to get a dance together in under a month. He seems to think it's going to be easy. Ha!

So, okay. Fine, we'll do a dance. The next thing to do, obviously, is pick a song. Joy and I tossed around ideas for a while, and the *SMACK*! God says 'East to West. You're doing East to West'.

You remember that song, don't you? Casting Crowns. Love the song.

Problem is, that's one that I've already choreographed. And it was choreographed for three dancers. Me+Joy=2. We need a third. But . . . who?!?!?!?!?! And that's where we're at right now. Every idea I have, there's a reason that it wouldn't work. And then I think, 'Well, maybe we can just change it, do three'. And then I play the dance over in the dance over in my head, and I think 'Yeah. No. We need a third. But . . . who?!?!?!'

So I'm chasing myself around in circles. And I'm going CrAzY!!!

What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? But I'm just running my mouth. I already know what to do. I do nothing. I leave it up to God. And I know that! But then, I keep thinking 'What do I do?' So I'm kind of losing it. And I would like very much to go to bed. But no, I have to to school. Stupid school. But, can't live without it. So I've got to be going. Have a great day!!! :)

Afternoon, folks. Hope you've had a good day.

I'm not snowed in anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!! Of course, that meant that there was no escaping the dentist appointment this morning. I hate the dentist.

After that was dollar tree and walmart, both a welcome change, in that it was contact with other human beings. Which is nice sometimes.

Andrew's birthday has come and gone, and he is now eleven.

Mine is coming up faster than even I'd care for. I mean, sixteen. Big step, right? Right? Man, I hoped you knew. Nobody else seems to, but it feels . . . big. Like, I don't know, some kind of threshold or something.

Birthday coming means birthday party coming. YAAAAYYY!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited, I can't wait. It's going to be so much fun. And yet . . . I don't know. I'm a bit apprehensive. See, you haven't met my friends, but if you know (or are) teenagers, and teenage guys more precisely, you know that they aren't particularly known for being joiners. My party this year is very interactive, a murder mystery, and I'm concerned that it isn't going to actually . . . work. But, here's hoping!

Ohh, this month is going to be insane. Very insane. Church events galore (one for the parents, one for me, one for Andrew, and three for all of us), three birthdays in one month, which means friend parties, family parties, and home party thingies (really just, you pick the meals and get your presents from mum and dad). So . . . insanity.

And the worst part of it all? Right now, my brain is trying to go all M.I.A. on me. Missing in action. On strike. And I don't know why. Focusing is just . . . difficult. Not sure what that's about, and it's really really really bugging me. Hopefully, though, it's not going to last long. Maybe tonight's a full moon.

Well, I'd best be going. It's been grand, but I should probably find some schoolwork to do. Or maybe handwriting analysis. Mom and dad consider that schoolwork. Who know. lol :) ttfn!!

Hiya

Good morning, Sunshine!! And how are we this fine morning.

I, myself, personally, have been better. I made a complete and utter fool of myself yesterday, by falling and hurting my knee pretty good on a semi-concealed piece of concrete. Today it's a bit better, but walking, sitting down and (worst of all) climbing stairs are a pain.

I hope that you have had a happy January. It would appear that I'm pretty bad at this whole blogging thing. I swore I'd never go a month without blogging again, to save myself the irritation of having to catch up. Well, I did it again. But I'm not going to really catch up, seeing as how nothing showstopping happened in January.

Oh, well there was that meeting with the Pastor and Youth Pastor, but we needn't go there. I'd really rather not. Joy and I had some concerns about the youth group, and we met with the two pastors. Yeah. Fun. Not. But, like I said, I'd rather not go there. It wouldn't be good for my cheery disposition.

I have been snowed in my house for a full 48 hrs, and it's not looking like I'll be leaving anytime soon. Locked under one roof with Mum, Dad, Andrew, Anne, Riley, Grandma, and Papa. a;nvoeinv;aiowenvo;aiwuer039jvanoern. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. There has been an incredible number of movies watched, which is always a good thing; and also a good deal of Agatha Christie read. I am utterly addicted to Agatha Christie. :)

Church Wednesday can't come fast enough. I feel cut off from humanity. Part of my reason for breaking my one-month silence here on the blog. Human contact!!!!! Or, kind of. Maybe. Not really. I have spent more time on Facebook in the last 48 hrs than most people would consider normal. Of course, it was quite necessary to keep myself from forgetting that there is a world outside this Winter Wonderland of a prison cell.

Today, being February 1st, is Bubble Gum Day. Chew a piece of bubble gum for me. I don't know if there's any in the house.

Tomorrow is dear Andrew's birthday. Friday is his family party. Saturday will see a number of his annoying little friends in my house to celebrate. Fun.

After that, who knows? Oh, before I forget, Winterjam has been postponed. See, we had fully planned on going to the show last night, but the snow, of course, prevented us. I was near heartbroken that I wouldn't be able to go, until I got word that it had been postponed to March Third. A Wednesday, which will cause problems, but nothing that can't be worked around. I'm so happy!!!!!! :)

Well, folks, I'd best be going. Dad's watching over my shoulder, no doubt wondering why I'm not doing school. Ugh. Ttfn!!!!

Good morning, sunshine! :) How is everybody this fine morning? lol

So the weather here lately has been great. Insane, but great. It's January. Sure. Why not? I'd love sixty degree days. Who wouldn't? (note voice dripping with sarcasm)

Today is Tuesday, one of the most boring days of the week. For me it's between Tuesday and Thursday. But this week, Thursday won't be boring at all. I'll probably spend most of it fearing for my life and seriously considering mysteriously coming down with some kind of illness the day before (drum roll, please) ICE SKATING.

I. Hate. Ice skating. Mostly because I pretty much suck at it. Bad. For me, it's more like Ice Falling. But the youth group is going on Friday, and I'm not about to let them go have fun without me. Especially not with how insane our last group outing was. I'm not going to miss a moment, so I'm just going to have to deal with making a fool out of myself and being all bruised and banged up for a week afterwards.

As if I'm not already sore enough. See, Sunday nights are women's Bible study at church, and Joy and I have been recruited for childcare. We recruited Stephen to help us, because the kids are all boys, and they don't listen to us worth anything. Stephen scares the mess out of those little kids. lol And then Tori showed up of her own volition, and helps out.

Well, it was Stephen's brilliant idea to have a crab-walk race. A crab-walk race. And, wouldn't you know it, I decided to be fun and play along. I fell and hurt my back. And my shoulders have been sore ever since. I feel like such an old person.

All in all, however, it was a crazy insane awesomely fun night. Those little kids got me laughing so hard I cried. And Stephen has a girlfriend. lol her name is Jaidyn. She's thirteen months old. :) That little girl is such an insane flirt, it's adorable. She's a total man-baby. Can't stand being held by women if there's a guy around. And she was squirming to get away from me, Joy, and Tori. So we stuck her at Stephen and said 'Hold this'. :) I think he half-expected her to bite him or something, but she just stared up at him like he was some kind of god. It was adorable.

Weeelll, what do you think, Joy? Should I go ahead and do that '. . . never mind' post? Okay. Fine. lol

Moving day was, as you know, a Sunday. And that, of course, meant there was church that morning. This whole thing happened way before service started, even before the band started practicing. Joy was running late (curse whatever it was that kept her from being with me) and Ms. Diane pulled this freaky freak out moment. I had been sitting on the front row talking to Corinne when Ms. Diane came and sat down next to me. Just sat down next to me. And started talking to me. Or, actually, more like talking at me. Now see, this wouldn't really be so odd if we talked frequently. But I had never carried on an actual conversation with her before that morning.

And then she just stopped talking, but stayed sitting next to me. And it was all up to me to keep the conversation going. Awkward to the max.

Coupling that with the funny looks I get from her husband Mike (It's this really weird 'I know something you don't know' smile, and I'm the only one he does it at), and all of Stephen's weirdness (he refuses to look me in the eye, or really even look at me. Like, he'll be talking to me but looking at Joy. And if, for some reason, I have to pass within like three feet of him, he jumps back like I'm going to bite him.) my end result is . . . what the heck???

I don't know what to do with these crazy people, or what on earth it all means. But it weirds me out quite thoroughly. Ugh. lol :)

Well, folks, I've gotta go. Everybody's ready to get this day started. Hope you have a super-awesome day!! :)

So I was thinking earlier . . .

But I'd ought to go back further. So I was laying in the couch in Grandma's den (they weren't home) watching Beauty and the Beast. See, whenever I want to take a midday nap, I stick in an old Disney movie and snap! I'm out. Funny how these things work.

Unfortunately, today my sister was in the kitchen, the room right beside the den, making cookies (or, more accurately, banging pots and pans together), so I took a little more time than usual getting to sleep. Which means that I actually watched a little bit of the movie.

The part I saw was Belle dancing through the town singing, "There must be more than this provincial life!"

And it started me thinking. When I was little, and I was convinced I knew what she meant, I would sing along with that song at the top of my lungs, and with all of my heart. It meant she wanted more from life, Almost that she knew that, deep down, she really was a princess. And I thought that I agreed.

But nowadays, I tend to look a little deeper. See, that 'provincial life' really couldn't be that bad, as long as you don't marry a meathead like Gaston. Looking around at the townspeople that Belle puts down for doing the same thing every day, you see that they're happy, providing for themselves and their families, secure in their simplistic lives. And that makes sense to me!

And what's more, I read even deeper, to see Disney's constant . . . errmmm . . . well, I can't quite think of the word. But it's definitely that humanistic, materialistic side of Disney that I hate, like that whole 'Follow your heart' theory. Umm, excuse me, but I do believe that the Bible says that the human heart is totally wicked? But I'm ranting.

I don't agree with that song anymore. In fact, it quite got on my nerves. In the future I'll skip that scene.

And then, silly me, I kept on thinking. But what happens after 'happily ever after'? What does Belle do with her life? It's not like Beast has a kingdom to rule, that Belle will have responsibilities and such of her own. What is she going to do?

In that sense, a 'provincial' life appeals to me much more, because you would never lack for something to do.

And now, I think that's all of the ranting I can possibly do about one poor innocent Disney movie that never intended to get on my nerves. And, as long as I don't think, Belle will probably stay my favorite Disney princess. I just have to learn to put the brain on autopilot.

Thanks for listening!!

Ugh (Part 3)

Yaayy!! The final part. Grr. I'm over this.

New years and the lock-in are the only things I have left to cover before I'm vaguely caught up. I am NEVER going that long without blogging again. lol :)

The lock-in is one of those experiences that I doubt I'll ever be able to adequately describe in words . . . using 26 letters . . . yeah, no. Not gonna happen. But I can try.

It started at 9:00 pm, and went on straight until 7:00 am. That's right, no sleep. I'd never done that before. I'm not entirely sure I like it, but I could probably do it again if I had to.

After the first two hours, it all gets a little hazy. First off, we played one of those typical icebreaker games people find it necessary to start such events with. Perhaps you've heard of 'Never have I ever'? It was kind of like that.

Then the guest speaker we'd somehow managed to get gave his message, which rocked by the way. He spoke on Philippians 3. His topic was something like 'where do we look for our peace', and he talked about how everybody and everything but God is going to let us down. He's a Christian comedian, and had obviously done youth events before, because he knew just what topics to touch on to get us laughing.

After he left, we had our first snack break, which consisted of burnt hot dogs, burnt pizza rolls, cookies, and this really good sausage dip stuff. lol :)

After that is where everything starts to get a bit hazy. We played all kinds of crazy games that involved things like: running around in the dark, pretending not to recognize a spoon when we saw one, whacking each other, I mean, a rubber ball around with toilet bowl scrubbers, wrapping ourselves up in floral print sheets and running around cones, and last but not least DODGE BALL!!!!!

Now, dodge ball is not in all caps because it was particularly fun (omg, I HATE dodge ball), but rather because when I think back, it feels like all we did was play dodge ball.

Well, there is a reason that I hate dodge ball. As you already know, I have a paralyzing fear of round flying objects, especially ones that are flying towards me. What you may not know is that I am viciously competitive, especially where boys are involved. More precisely, arrogant boys. So when I have a whole three seconds in the first game before one particular boy smacked me on the leg with a rubber ball . . . hard . . . I kinda got a little . . . miffed. So I played my hardest, trying especially hard to get that little pest out. It didn't work. And he got me about ten times as often as everybody else put together.

So the whole dodge ball thing didn't quite work for me, but it was fun anyway. I found out that I make a better cheerleader than an athlete. My favorite part by far was, while I was out (so, most of the game) cheering everybody else on, clapping and screaming and booing and hissing and such. It was fun.

Somewhere before dawn we took another snack break. Myself, Joy, and our new friend Tori vandalized the front doors of the church with . . . washable window markers that I had brought. About as boring as it gets, but we are good kids. We snuck away during one of the snack breaks (I have no idea which one), grabbed the markers from my bag and passed them around. We wrote crazy things and drew ginormous hearts, all the while giggling and looking over our shoulders and being scared silly somebody would come over and see us. It was a very good idea, actually, to include Tori, and since then I've been very glad we did. We've been trying to get to know her for a while, and something about cahooting and being rebellious together just did the trick. It was awesome.

We played Press Conference, Human Knot, and made up really stupid skits.

Before I move on, I should provide one crucial fact. With all of these competitive games, we had to be broken up into teams. Our youth leader divided the teams. And he split me and Joy up. Whether or not he did it on purpose, I will never know. Actually, he took me away from most of my friends. I didn't get it, but it was actually okay. Not what I would've picked, but I got to know other people a lot better, something that wouldn't've happened if I'd had Joy and Haley by my side the whole time. Anyway, moving on.

Human Foosball provided the opportunity for watching two teenage boys (and sworn enemies, I might add. We found out early on in the evening that one hated Ford trucks and the other was a rabid fan. Why men get so riled up about trucks is beyond me) being forced to hold hands. Hysterical.

Stupid skits provided the opportunity to act like, or rather, watch others act like, complete idiots. We had people running around like mad men and screaming for ice-cream sandwiches; normally completely sane people hurling themselves into walls (I laughed so hard I nearly stopped breathing); people walking around in circles pretending to be blind (and others sitting nearby pretending to be deaf, dumb, etc.); and very dumb blonds commenting that the sky was blue. I was the narrator. Moving on.

Toilet bowl hockey (hockey with toilet bowl scrubbers. I was found to be rather good at it.) provided the opportunity for extracting my revenge on aforementioned arrogant boy by showing him up and coming very very close (accidentally, mind you) to whacking him on the head with a toilet bowl scrubber.

Dodge ball provided . . . well, this is getting ridiculous. I told you there was no describing it, but I've tried my best. How it is that ten hours provided this much to blog about is beyond me, but life is just like that sometimes, I guess.

Eventually the sun came up, and we ate breakfast. Parents came. We all went home. End of story.

It took place overnight on December 30th, so that next day was New Year's Eve. I came home and went straight to bed. When I woke up, my parents had left, gone to work at the old house. They came back. We all went back over to work more. Came home. Got ready. Went to dinner at Red Robin. Stopped at Wal-Mart for sparkling grape juice, ice cream, and a movie. Came home. Watched (or in my case, slept through) movie. I woke up. We 'rang in' the new year (I will never understand that phrase. Ring in? Whatever.)

And then December was (finally) over. And now, I'm (finally) done blogging about it. YAAAAYYY!!

And January is a story for another post, and another day. Right now, I need to go get some school work done. Church tonight. :)

Have a great afternoon!!!!

emergency post

Hey. 'Ugh part 3' is coming soon, but something really important has just come up.

If you have a Facebook, please join the group ChinaHeart. I'll try and get a link up, but until then, it shouldn't be too hard to find.

ChinaHeart is a group that my dear friend Allyssa Tyler has created to help and support orphans in China. She has an incredible heart for these little ones who need our help, and her energy for this project is amazing.

Right now the group is just in the beginning/planning stages, and what she's really looking for is support, and ideas on things that we can do to be of help to these children. Please join. Even something so small as joining will help get ChinaHeart up and running, in that it will be an encouragement to Allyssa.

I am so excited to see what God is going to do through her, and through ChinaHeart. I have full faith that He will accomplish much. It's going to show what God can do through one young person who is obedient to him, and willing to stand up and do whatever they can to help a worthy cause.

I am proud of my friend, and I stand behind this project fully. Join Alyssa and me in taking a stand and doing something for those less fortunate. They need us, and, Lord willing, we can make a difference.

James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Matthew 25:40 "⁴The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

-Scriptures courtesy of www.biblegateway.com, NIV version

Ugh (Part 2)

Okay, now I've got a minute, and I think I can do part 2. I guess part two had better be moving.

I have yet to tell you, however, just where we moved to. We are now living with my grandparents. A very educating experience it is, having three generations living under the same roof. I've gotten to know my grandfather especially a good deal better. He's hilarious.

His grandfather-ness has seemingly increased since we've been here, but that may be due to the fact that we've been spending a great deal more time with him. He is a very quirky person. He can't pass up a bargain, no matter how pointless. He loves to give gifts, even stuff as useless as a pair of (possibly secondhand, not sure) grippy socks. You know, the ones with the rubber stuff on the bottoms? Well, yeah. The other day, he walked into the family room/porch-place where me and my fam have been hanging out for most of the time, and threw this gray pair of grippy socks at me, without an intelligible word. See, I can't tell with him. His voice is kind of like below the register, too low for the human ear to hear, or so I thought. Yesterday, he muttered a string of what I thought to be incomprehensible gibberish, or possibly German, and my mum replied in perfect English, as though what he said had been the most normal thing in the world. Lol, I love my grandparents, they're the greatest, but the past week has been a very educational experience. Moving on!

Moving day itself was vaguely uneventful. Well, plenty happened, and ohhhh, was I completely stressed out, but that was entirely independent of moving. It had nothing to do with moving. It had everything to do with . . . never mind. Not important now.

But the actual process of moving, on that first day, was simple. Until mom packed me up into a truck full of men and shipped me over to the new house. And then, all at once, they did that instinctive thing, they asked the woman for direction. And I, not being my mother, had none. See, I had been sent over to supervise the setting up of the fridge and to load all of the food into it. But then the guys realized that they had forgotten the tools that it would take to put the door back on the fridge (Joy, what is it with moving and refrigerator doors? lol), so my job got put on hold. And I got to deal with man central. See, you know how when guys are alone with guys, they speak little and grunt much? I doubt the English language was really used by anyone but me that whole time. Well, me and my uncle, when he decided to comment to me that, once we got rid of the 'creepy old lady' feel of the house, it would be just fine. And they talked about Chuck Freaking Ray Norris. Eeehhh, a story for another day.

Me and my dad tend to go at it whenever there is a move in the process. He gets all monosyllabic and I get all high-pitched and the end result is chaos. He tends to just be completely DONE with moving and ready to give up on organization, and organization is my favorite part of moving and it just doesn't end well.

On top of that, Anne decided to be little miss attitude-ey teenager (she's nine) and treat me like a child (I'm fifteen. Obvious problem), so we were going at it too.

The boys were . . . well . . . the boys. And on top of that, Ms. Diane was . . . never mind. So pretty much the only person I wasn't aggravated at that day was Mom. Well, I was aggravated at her too, because she was purposefully taking advantage of my frazzled nerves (frazzled over Ms. Diane's . . . never mind) and make me stressed out. She thought it was funny. But that was all in good fun, and I wasn't really mad at her.

And then the second day of moving came around. Everybody's bad attitudes from the previous day had stewed over night, and gotten decidedly worse. I had absolutely no patience left, so I fell to my default of just not speaking. I closed up like a turtle, and became the monosyllabic one. Until Joy came over.

Around three, her parents dropped her off. Poor her, she bore the brunt of my bad attitude for several hours. Not that I treated her bad because of it (at least, I don't think I did), but she just had to deal with me still being in turtle mode.

And then everybody else went to bed. And the turtle came out of her shell. And blabbered Joy's ear off. Sorry, girl, and thanks for being there that day. It was just so nice to have somebody who actually wanted to hear what I had to say, and was willing to listen to me, and wasn't in a rotten mood. And I think she's the one who got me through moving.

So now it's over. We are officially completely through at the old house. It's empty. It's clean. We're done.

Mr. O'Malley had to go to the animal shelter, because there was nothing we could do to keep him where we're at now. Very sad, but I'm trying not to think about it, 'cause there's nothing I can do about it.

We're settled in, or at least settling. I'm not sure when exactly reality set in, but this is life now. And it's okay.

And now I must be going. Stuff calls.

Have a great day!!! :)

Ugh (Part 1)

Wow. I really REALLY need to quit it w/the whole procrastination thing. It's January 6th, first week of a brand new year. Shoot, a brand new decade! Now is not the time for procrastination.

I'm really sorry, folks. I'm just lazy, that's all.

Thing is, the longer I put blogging off, the longer this post was going to have to be (to cover everything that has happened since I last blogged). And the longer I knew this post was going to have to be, the less I wanted to write it, and therefore the longer i put it off. Ugh.

But now, here I am. And I know for a fact that my last post was on December 4th. So that means . . . I have a lot of ground to cover. I don't even remember half the stuff that's happened since December 4th!!! Okay. Here goes.

December was typical insanity, Christmas shopping and the like, plus the irritating fact that no matter where you want to go, it seems like there are ten times as many people as there usually are. I distinctly remember multiple times walking through stores that really shouldn't've been affected by Christmas crowds, and it being so crowded that I found myself whispering to myself, 'I love Christmas. I love Christmas. I love Christmas. I love Christmas.' lol

Well, it wouldn't've been so bad, if it were just Christmas. Just Christmas I can handle, have been for fifteen years? Sixteen? Sixteen. This was my sixteenth Christmas. Wow.

But it wasn't just Christmas. It was moving too. And let me tell you, Christmas and moving DO NOT mix. See, moving is the time for getting rid of useless junk, and Christmas is the time when everybody and their brother decides to load you up on useless junk. Not that the stuff I got was useless by any means, but you know what I mean.

Moving was a pain in the rear this time around, and it usually isn't. Not remotely. Usually I love it. This time I hated it. I don't know if it was the Christmas thing, or the fact that we were decidedly less organized than usual, or what. But it was bad.

Not that I'm complaining. It's over now. I'm good.

Christmas eve was me and Joy's dance. Not sure if I told you about that one, I don't remember. Me and Joy did an interpretive dance (ugh, I hate that word 'interpretive'. Lyrical. Liturgical. Something! 'interpretive' is too easy to make fun of. lol) to the song 'Breath of Heaven, Mary's Song'. That went over well, I think. We've had several people (Stephen's dad especially) tell us that they want to see more of it. I was really encouraged by that, because I was worried about how it would be received. Dance, physical worship, isn't something that this church is used to. It was definitely a God-thing that it went over as well as it did. I felt like an idiot, though. Practiced, experienced dancer that I am, I screwed that one up pretty bad. Not so badly that it was very noticeable to anybody but me, but I definitely noticed, and beat myself up about it too. I was just so distracted, for reasons that I plan on keeping to myself, that I threw myself rather too hard into focusing on the dance, on what I was doing, on the worship side of things, that I totally forgot a major change that we had made toward the end of the preparation process. I recovered quickly, and Joy did an extremely admirable job of acting like nothing had happened, so I doubt anybody noticed that it happened. But I felt rotten.

And then I fell. I absolutely fell. We had been kneeling, and went to stand, and I stepped on the hem of my skirt. Well, right there in that moment I had a decision to make. Either I was going to fall, or the skirt was going to fall. I, obviously, chose falling myself. Better to fall and make an idiot of myself than the SEVERE wardrobe malfunction that was the alternative. lol

But, all that aside, it was an awesome evening. A dear friend of ours, Brandy, sang a solo (Mary Did You Know, you're probably familiar with it), my dad and a young friend of his (twenty-something college kid, I still don't get why my dad connects so well with that age group. lol) sang a random Relient K song, and little boy played the piano and sang Silent Night (it was incredibly sweet. precious!). And there, in a nutshell, is Christmas eve. Afterward, we went to the pastor's house, same as last year, and just hung out for a couple hours.

Christmas day itself was great, except that I had awful stomach cramps the whole day, and was consequently pretty out-of-it. Couldn't even enjoy Mom's traditional finger-food-feast.

The day after was Christmas w/my dad's side of the family. The day after that was moving day.

And there is Christmas.

Seeing as how this post is kind of retardedly long, I'm gonna sign off for now and finish catching up later. At least now I've covered most of December. lol

Have an awesome day!!! :)