KINGS DOMINION!!!!! (part 2)

I'm baaack. :)

So right after Intimidator, half the group rode it again, while the other half went next door to Flight of Fear, a smallish indoor coaster. I knew I needed water, but I put it off. Not a good idea.

I started feeling really dizzy. Everybody else said it was sweltering, but I was freezing. I told Joy I needed to get out, and she started to lead the way. From there on, it gets pretty hazy, but I've been told the story, so here's how I think it went. I slumped over onto Joy, and she kinda layed me down on my back, then I wanted to get up, so she helped me up, but then I slumped over again, and some random guy behind me offered to help me sit down. Some other random person way back in the line passed up their cup of water. And then, while I was sitting on the ground, Isabel comes rushing by, dragging Corine by the hand. Corine calls to us, "I feel like I'm going to pass out." And me and Joy looked at each other, and started hollering. Tori came after, and I like, yelled, at her, "GO GET CORINE!" meaning, go take care of her, but she thought I meant to get her and bring her to me. And she gets there and tells her that I wanted her. And Corine bit her head off and told her she'd call me when she got out. Fortunately, we worked it all out later. Amidst it all, Joy asked me if I was with her, and told me to talk to her, and I stared at her like she was crazy and said "I'm here." Like, where else would I be? And, some random lady asked me if I was diabetic. Which, kind of irritated the overprotective best friend. She told me yesterday that she thought, "Umm, don't you think I would know that? Wouldn't I be digging in her bag for insulin?" lol. A lady (who we think worked there) went and got help, the guy who was running the ride came and got me and lead me out. As It was scary, it was aggravating, it was vaguely exciting, I am NEVER doing it again.

Mr. John came and met us, then we met up with the rest of the group at a restaurant for drink/chill break. After that, Mr. John, Ms. Carol, and Isabel, not having brought stuff for swimming, went to ride more roller coasters, and everybody else headed for the water park. But, not before Ms. Carol could sneakily whisper in my ear, "Watch out for the little munchies." Meaning, keep an eye on all the kids younger than yourself. Which, was everybody but Joy. I swear, I must have the word mother tattooed on my head. Because that sort of thing is always happening to me. Joy says its a good thing. That everybody needs someone like that. And, I am the one always doing head counts and making sure that we stay together in a crowd and carrying everything anybody might need and anything anybody doesn't feel like hanging onto for themselves around in my ginormous black hole of a bag. So, maybe they're right. Whatever.

On the way to the water park, us girls got clothes-lined on Drop Zone, which we'd all been wanting to ride all day long. So we sent the guys ahead to the water park and told them we'd meet them there. But, of course, as we're waiting in line for the ride, it starts raining. They close it down. So we went to the water park, only to find people pouring out in droves. They closed it down. Because of the rain. Well, the tornado watch might've had something to do with it too. So we waited outside the water park for the boys. Freakishly tall, freakishly short, and mohawk. You'd think they'd've been easy to spot. Not so much. As we're standing there, it starts pouring. So, being us, we get off to the side out of the way and start dancing around like maniacs. :) It was fun.

Eventually, they made it out, and we all decided to just stroll about for a while. Yeah, that lasted a long time. Not. It hadn't been a minute before the guys started running away from us, full-tilt. At first, we thought they might've just been trying to get away from us. And, maybe they were. But they made a beeline for the carousel. So we followed them, and we all rode the carousel together. Oh, yeah. We're cool.

Well, folks, thats all the time I have for today. But one more post should take care of it. Maybe. How one day can provide this much to blog about is beyond me. Ttfn!!! :)

KINGS DOMINION!!!!!

Okay. Okay, how stupid is that. Like, every blog post I write starts with the word 'okay.' Whatever.

Okay, so my youth group went to King's Dominion last Thursday, just for fun. Sounds like no big deal, right?

Wrong.

You'd think we would've learned by now that we can't go anywhere without it being a biigggg deal. Whiiich is why I'm a tad apprehensive about our beach trip later on this month, but moving on.

This is probably going to take more than one post. I mean, I could fit it in one, but it'd be realllyyyy long. And, you know, there's nothing worse than a retardedly long blog post. I mean, just telling my dear cousin Spring about it took two emails. Granted, she gets a considerably different version of stories like this than cyberspace does. So, consider this part one. I've been doing a lot of multi-part posts here lately. Whatever.

But, anyway, it was the most epicest youth trip ever. We all piled into my family's fifteen passenger van together. No girls' car/guys' car deal this time around.

For the ride there, we played 20 questions. It's us girls' favorite game to play on car rides, but we'd never played it with the boys before. One person asks a random question (i.e. what's your favorite food?), then everybody else answers it. We had to FORCE the guys to play. Which is fun, especially when Ella gets evil ideas. I asked the question "What's your favorite thing about a member of the opposite gender." I know, evil, right? Those poor boys. And, of course, the whole thing was infused with inside jokes that zoomed right over their heads. They hated it. :)

So, anyway, when we were about half an hour from the park, the van broke down. We were stuck sitting by the side of the road for about two hours. My mom saved the day, got in touch with a church nearby, and had them come pick us up in their youth bus and take us to the park.

We ate our lunches outside, which involved Corine trying to tie a cherry stem with her tongue and her big bro yelling at her for it. . . lol. I have to admit to being a bad influence there. We did it at my birthday sleepover. The conversation played out like this.

Me: "Stephen, your sister's trying to tie a cherry stem with her tongue."

Stephen: "Corine! Do you even know what that means?"

Corine: "Umm, no?"

Stephen (whispering): "It's to see if you're a good kisser!"

Corine: *coughs and splutters, spits out cherry stem.*

Everybody else: *laughs*

After that, we dropped most of our junk at a locker, then headed into the park. Without really meaning to, all of us stuck together. We rode the three biggest coasters in quick succession. Dominator, Volcano, and Intimidator. Boy, do I love roller coasters. Somewhere in between them, we rode the little Boo Blaster's ride, with the laser guns, where you shoot the little ghosts and stuff. I love that ride. :)

Well, I think that's enough for one post. I shall return. :)

Set Me Free

Okay, so I wanted to post a video, but can't manage to without it displaying my real name, which, I kinda don't wanna do. Grr. The sound quality was awful anyway.

It went off without a hitch. As everybody arrived, I spirited them away to the girl's bathroom to apply dark eye make up, befitting their characters as either demons or the demon possessed person. Corine played the demon possessed person.

Okay, I'm starting to sound a little crazy. Ever heard the song? Set Me Free, Casting Crowns. If not, check it out here. It's about the story in Matthew, about Jesus casting out a great number of demons from a man. Corine played the man, and the rest of us were her demons. It was really emotional, really powerful. Everybody did a fantastic job, from little Noel, Joy's seven-year-old sister, to seventeen-year-old Joy herself.

And, we've welcomed a new one to the fold. It was Anne's friend (I'll insert screen name later) first dance with us, and ever since then she's been telling me what a great time she had and how excited she is for the next one.

I adore worship dance. I love the changes it makes in life after life after life. I've seen how much it's come to mean to Joy, who technically just started last December. I've seen the changes, the unbelievable changes, it's made in Corine. She's closer to God! Through this, she's growing and thriving in her relationship with Christ. Noel, (insert name later), all of them! It's such a powerful thing, and we have such a gifted group. A truly gifted, Holy Spirit gifted, group. When this door is opened up to someone, it's literally like shackles just fall off. To learn that there's this full-self, mind, soul, body, way that you can worship your Creator, it's freeing! If I may, John 4:23 "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." Worship in spirit . . . and in truth. And, also consider: 2 Corinthians 3:17 "Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." and, John 8:32 "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

So, it follows that to worship in spirit and in truth is to worship in freedom!!! Now, I can't claim that logic as my own. Ann Stevenson wrote that in her book Restoring the Dance, which I highly recommend.

And that's what dance means to me. Freedom. Freedom to all-out worship my King.

But, I'm starting to ramble. It's what happens when I'm passionate about something. But, I should stop. Bye, now! :)

DANCE CAMP!!!!!!

Umm, yeah. So I'm trying to play catch-up, if you hadn't noticed. And three days after Vacation Bible School ended, the epicness that was dance camp, erm, excuse me, worship arts camp, began.

First day. Got up at five in the morning, rode with Grandma to Aunt Ruth's house. Aunt Ruth heads up the whole thing.

Okay, forget the play-by-play. In the words of the fabulous Inigo Montoya, "You killed my father, pre-" wait, wrong quote. Hang on, "Let me 'splain. No, would take too long. Let me sum up."

I listed two worries that I had going into dance camp several posts ago. The were A) running into people I used to know, and B) (hahaha B) looks like a funny little face.) my own lack of ability. A caused no problems at all, besides Joy, Aunt Ruth, and my two little cousins, I didn't know anyone from that famous patriarch of patriarchs, Adam. Can you tell I'm feeling ADD today?

But anyway, B. I had four classes. My dance skill level caused problems in one, a very, shall we say, vigorous? dance class. But, it only meant I had to work that much harder to get the dance, which I didn't really have a problem with. It was fun. The other dance class was really fun. Took me outside of my comfort zone, but it was fun. One of the two pieces we worked on over the week was a hip-hop dance, to the song Shackles, by Mary Mary. Ella. Does. Not. Hip hop. Me and Joy both almost decided not to do it, because we were scared. But we stuck with it, and we managed. We did something hard. Go us.

We had a Bible study, oddly enough lead by a friend of my mom's from growing up. It was marvelous. Slightly creepy, but marvelous. See, one of my reasons, okay, my only reason, for doing dance camp this year was the fact that I felt ill-equipped to be in the position I am at church, and hoped that it might, in some way, help. I'm young. I'm so young. And I had this mindset that that meant I couldn't do it. And I get there, and what is the Bible study focusing on all week, but young heroes (and heroines!) in the Bible who did amazing things. David. Samuel. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel. Esther. It was incredible.

On the wall in the Bible classroom was a large sheet of butcher paper, which read "God, let us be..." . And every day, after we'd done the Bible study, the teacher handed out little squares of cardstock, on which we were to write one word. Faithful, passionate, and honest were most of mine. Can't remember the third to save me. How cool is God?

But the class I had the hardest time with was my first class of the day. The one I volunteered in. Drama. Now, see, I didn't know I was lacking in ability when it comes to drama. I've always been capable enough for whatever was needed of me. And I've done plenty of it, in my day. Had the lead part in my fair share of Christmas plays. My mom's a drama freak, of course some of it rubbed off on me.

But apparently not. Because, even though this class was geared toward sixth graders, my Juliet was lacking in emotion, my senile old lady made no sense, and I couldn't get loud enough to save my life. I was feeling pretty down on myself until the last day. I'm not usually the kind of person who needs afirmation, but this teacher had managed to take me down a few notches in the self-confidence arena. But then, the last day, I was given an improv character I could actually do something with (an overprotective mother in a screaming match with her seventeen-year-old daughter, who was headed down a bad road), and an opportunity to show off my valley girl accent. Both of which merited "Very good, Ella!" from the teacher. Lol.

The week, as a whole, was an absolute success. Met some people I'll never forget, learned a ton, got a crash course in worship, found some support for the whole thing at church, and met Joan Wilson. Ate lunch in a lunch room, became a pro at packing lunches, making pajamas look cute, and arching my back in ways probably not humanly possible. It was an awesome week. Can't wait 'til next year!!!

The Protest, part 6: Speaking Swahili and Chasing Rare Birds

Hodi! Which, is Swahili, for hello. So, for Vacation Bible School this year, my church did Kingdom of the Son, which was a safari-themed adventure focusing on the Lord's Prayer.

VBS is always an adventure, filled with all kinds of opportunities. Opportunities of all sorts. And, usually, it can go one of two ways. Each situation has two outcomes. You can either wind up feeling really good about yourself, or really really bad. I did my fair share of each, believe you me.

For most of each night, I was Miss Ella, crew leader to the first and second graders, along with Joy, Tori, a lady from our church, and Gabriel, a guy from the youth group. Gabriel was the afterthought. He, umm, wasn't thriving in his first job (read: sat there doing nothing), so the people in charge (read: my mom and Joy's) stuck him with us, knowing we wouldn't let him get away with stuff like that. So, he got the scare-your-pants-off, won't-take-no-for-an-answer, boys-beware crash course in working with children. It was fun. For us, at least. ;)

So our job was to shepherd those little ones entrusted to us from activity to activity. Craft, Bible, Snack, Games, was the order, if I remember correctly.

But for the first twenty minutes of each evening, I was Terry Jaywalker, oversolicitous, overcautious birdwatcher. Twin to Jerry Jaywalker, also oversolicitous, but extremely undercautious, adventure hound/photographer/videographer extraordinaire, played by my dear friend Joy. The two of us hired Ben Bakari (Safari guide/closet evil poacher) to lead us on an expedition into the African plains, in search of adventure (for Jerry) and the rare Blue-Cheeked Bee Eater (for me). But our jeep broke just miles away from the first stop on our safari, Dr. Doolot's Animal Hospital, on an unnamed animal reserve. So we spent the week helping the kind Dr. Doolots with her work, learning all sorts of lessons, embarrassing ourselves (there was that incident with the tranquilizer . . .), and chasing the elusive bird.

But, any more than that would be spoilers. Spoilers!!

It was a fantastic week. The good Lord moved like He always does (five or six salvations, I think). God always uses those little kids, and the lessons they learn, to teach me things I'm too hardheaded to learn any way else. Part of why I love working with kids.

But I'm glad it only happens once a year, because VBS is exhausting.

TTFN!!

The Protest, part 5: Bunnies

Well, this one kind of picks up where the last one left off, with Doctor Who.

It all started one evening while Andrew, Anne, Riley and myself were riding around on the golf cart. (Aside: the golf cart is a new addition to the family. Pawpaw picked it up somewhere as a freebie and got it into working order.) There was a guy over from church to talk to Daddy, and they were sitting in the back yard. And, of course, I was hyper. I mean HYPER. So we're dashing around on the golf cart, and feeling absolutely psychotic, and in a major Doctor Who mood. So we're quoting the show left and right, and I'm screaming "Dust off your converse!" at the top of my lungs. Just for fun, you know.

Then all of a sudden, this rabbit dashes across our path, and Carie screamed at him "Dust off your converse!!"

So I asked, "Why on earth would a bunny wear converse?"

"It would if it was a Time Lord bunny." she said.

So we followed the bunny, but it disappeared. And when I said "What happened to the converse-wearing bunny?"

"It used it's TARDIS to go back in time and steal all our radishes from our garden." Connor replied matter-of-factly.

And thus was born the Evil Converse-Wearing, Radish-Stealing Time Lord Bunny. The end.

The Protest, part 4: Matt Smith

Well, then. On the list of things on dear old Ella's mind, Matt Smith (a.k.a the 11th Doctor) is pretty high up there. Because, well, he's so cool. And when I say cool, I mean cool.

Here is a video of an interview, shortly after Matt got the news that he'd been chosen as the next doctor.

And, this is stupid. I know that just because something is part of my frame of reference doesn't mean that it's a part of everyones. I am most certainly my father's daughter. I've grown up on stuff like this. Which quite possibly makes me a nerd, 'cause I love it. But I don't know if it's something everyone would get, or knows about. Maybe I'm stupid for even wondering, maybe it's a big duh. Everybody knows about Doctor Who. Or maybe I'm being rude for thinking that everyone knows about it just because I do. I quite simply don't know.

So, just in case, Doctor Who is a British, a very British science fiction show. Kind of an iconic thing, over there, so I'm told. Watch the video.

And it's a show I've very recently fallen in love with. How do you not fall in love with such a fantastic show? And the Doctor is such a marvelous character. Very cool.

And as you may've picked up on, when I use the word cool, I mean it in a slightly different sense. Ever read The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald? "You look so cool. Yo always look so cool." Or, possibly, seen The Cat Returns? "Wow, you're cool." Anyway, I digress.

So, yeah, Matt Smith. Cool. And, I guess that's it! Talk to you soon. :)

~Me

The Protest, part 3: Llamas

Now that I'm here, I honestly don't remember what I was going to say about llamas. That's embarrassing. Ummmmm, let's see. There was the bit about the spitting llamas, with Cara. But I already told you about that.

There's also the happy llamas. Which are fun. It's a hand rhyme my little cousin Nikki taught me, which I then taught to all the girls at church, and my little cousin Haley.

But I don't think that was it either. So, umm, llamas?

Wikipedia defines a llama as "a South American camelid, widely used as a pack and meat animal by Andean cultures since pre-hispanic times."

But you didn't care to know that. And I can't think of anything else. So, I guess we'll be wrapping this one up. Ttfn! :)

The Protest, part 2: What's Happening in the Next Few Weeks

VBS. Dance camp. Set Me Free. Thaaaaaattt about sums it up.

VBS. Me, Joy, Tori, and a lady from our church are crew-leading (actually, I think we're Safari Guides this year) for the first and second graders. Which, is pretty much my job of choice. No stupid boy issues this year either, please. I would appreciate that. It has me kinda freaked that I'm working with an adult. Never done that before in all my (four?) years of VBS-ing. All of which have been in the same position, crew leader to first and second graders. And, it being my niche, I consider myself at the very least passable at it, if not by this time somewhat good? Can I say that? And I usually wind up in the position of leader. Not official, just in a group-dynamic kinda way. I don't like taking charge, but I am capable when necessary. So that's usually what I do. Not sure how that's gonna work with an adult in the picture. Am I working with/alongside her? Or am I working under her. Kinda apprehensive about that, but in all things, His will be done. Joy and myself also have another position, but, again, that's a story for another post.

Dance Camp. Five day day camp in Norfolk, all about praise dance. Being the age that I am, I'm 'volunteering' most of the time, while learning under experienced leaders how to lead. Which'll be nice, because that's pretty much the position me and Joy are in with the 'dance group' (we're not official, yet?) at church. So, in that sense, looking forward to it. But, there's the potential (pretty good potential) of running into people I knew growing up, which is always interesting, and I have very low belief in my ability as a dancer, and there'll be people there who've been at it longer than I have with more teaching than I have. I've been on my own as a dancer, without a teacher, for a very long time. Aaaand, I'm not exactly in ballet-dancer shape. So, yeah, the feelings are a little mixed there.

Set Me Free. Sunday, July 25th. The dance-group-ey-thingy at church is presenting a dance to the song Set Me Free by Casting Crowns. And that's the one thing that I'm NOT having mixed/apprehensive feelings about. It's ready. We're ready. God has had his hand on this thing since the beginning, and I couldn't be more proud of the girls. They are w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l wonderful. I'm excited!! Corine is dancing the main part, and she's wonderful. She has so much God-giving talent and ability for it, and she has really made this part her own. And, her dad gets to be here this time. He missed her last dance, and that was really sad, because he is her biggest supporter as a dancer, and one of the biggest supporters of the whole dance thing at our church. And he gets to be here this time, which makes me really happy.

Soooo, I guess thats it? Sweet. Jazzy. (lol, another story for another post). That's all folks! Ttfn! :)

The Protest, part 1: What I've Been Doing These Past Few Weeks

My last post was on June seventh. This means that 'catching up' is not going to be easy, so let me hit the high points.

Aunt Becky, Uncle Jared, and Cara Grace's visit came and went. It was fantastic, albeit far too short. You've noticed how when out-of-town relatives visit, you see your in-town relatives a lot more often? Yeah. That's kind of a cool side effect.

Funniest/Favorite highlights of the visit?

Dad and Calvin (age four) playing 'may I please have my brains back?' Dad pretended to pull Cal's brain out through his ear, then coached him in the correct way to stick his tongue out, drool, and slur "may I please have my brains back?" Which he continued to do for a solid week.

Cara's spitting llamas. She was sitting on the floor playing with Andrew's legos in our family room. They'd come over for dinner. I was sitting in a chair beside her, leaning over to play with her. I made what I thought was a very cute duck, and proceeded to make the duck 'quack' at her with it. She promptly informed me that it looked more like a llama than a duck. To which I replied "Well, I don't know what a llama says." So she told me, "They don't say nuffin', they 'pit (spit)!"

Standing in the kitchen, cooking side-by-side with Nana, Aunt Becky, and Mama. Peeling potatoes at Nana's kitchen table with Aunt Becky. All (*counts on fingers*) twelve? of us piling into the ten-by-ten family room to play music. Which is what we call it when Daddy and Andrew grab their guitars and Aunt Becky and Papaw grab their ukeleles and the rest of us sing along where we can and we play whatever song from the song book sounds best at the time. We managed a pretty decent He Knows My Name, if I do say so myself.

We got together for the last time Monday night. We did dinner, dessert, and music. Mom and Dad started giving each other the 'it's time to go' looks, then Nana says "Hey, don't we wanna look at pictures? So we all take turns putting our camera SD cards into the wii and we look at pictures. The looks begin again, then Nana produces a humongous watermelon and says "Does anybody want watermelon?" And even though we were all full as ticks, everybody did. And as Nana and I are in the kitchen cleaning up, I looked over at her and said, "We're stretching, aren't we?" We were, of course. Everybody knew it.

They left last Tuesday, the same day Grandma and Pawpaw came back from their vacation in Florida. Tuesday afternoon, Mom and I scooted down to NC to pick up Joy so we could go over to the CPC to volunteer, like we always do. We get there and up to the door and our 'boss' informs us (in a whisper) that she's with a client, and didn't need us that day. So I call daddy, and Joy and me wind up sitting in the kitchen at the office for an hour. Which, seeing as how it was us, was a blast.

And that's pretty much it for June. July is gonna have to be a story for another day. Au revoir!

Umm . . . ?

Bonjour. Comment vas tu? Moi, je vais bien. I think. Not so sure. I'll let you know when I figure out.

I kind of hate blogging. I mean, it's great and all. Cool for when you have a thought that won't fit into a facebook status update that you want to share, or when you're really busy and you need a place to make your schedule make sense in your own head, or for trading inside jokes with friends under false names, or when you've got something on your mind that you just HAVE to talk about, and that your family and friends will strangle you if you say another word about, or if you have a beloved aunt who wants to keep up with your life, but lives on the other side of the planet (Love you Aunt Becky!).

But it has its downsides, too. Like when you hate keeping anything like a journal, and are therefore awful at it. Or when you're super-duper busy. Or when the kind of thing you have on your mind isn't exactly the kind of thing you want to project into cyberspace.

That's probably the worst one. Because not everything is blogger-friendly. Some stuff is just . . . bigger . . . than that. But, when that's what you're thinking about, how can you NOT blog about it? And then I start feeling guilty (see Honesty, parts 1 and 2) about not sharing what's on your mind. And then, well, that's when I decide that the pros of blogging just don't outweigh the cons.

So I could tell you what I did over the past few weeks. Or I could tell you what's happening in the next few weeks. Or I could pick some random subject to ramble on about, like Llamas or Matt Smith or bunnies or speaking swahili and chasing rare birds. Okay, so there are ideas for five, no, six blog posts right there. And while I'm not particularly enthralled with any of them, why not? So, a protest against blogging, while being a good girl and posting on my blog, in six parts, coming right up. Well, seven if you count this one, the introduction.

Have a fantastic evening.

~Ella

I Lied

Whoops! I just went back, and realized I didn't say a WORD about slime night last year. Not sure how that happened, because it was epic.

So I guess I may as well just do it this year.

Once a year, several giant vats of slime (cornstarch+water=gooey icky fun) are made, and the youth group congregates in crappy old clothes to enjoy it.

We started with a burping contest (not exactly slimy, but still disgusting, which is the theme of the evening). Both teams picked two volunteers. All volunteers failed. Each team sent their oldest male. It was DISGUSTING!! But my team won. :)

Then the egg toss, which we lost, amid many snide comments from Stephen about "Watch your head, Ella's playing!" Okay, so last year, me and Mr. OverCompetitive himself were on the same team (which was awesomely fun, btw), and wound up as partners for the egg toss. I threw it, he didn't catch it, it landed right SMACK on the head of the guy to his left. We've been arguing ever since about who's fault it was.

Me: But YOU were supposed to catch it!!

Him: How was I supposed to? It was six feet to my left!!

Whatever. So this year, I replied by sticking my tongue out and telling him to shut up.

Then was the...umm...soda-bottle...cup...slime...game? Not sure what to call it. It doesn't have a name. One person lays down on the ground w/a 2-liter soda bottle on their head. Next person runs up w/a cup of slime, tries to pour it in soda bottle. When cup is empty, they switch, pourer becomes lay-er, layer runs and gives cup to next team member, repeat as necessary. First team w/a full bottle wins. We won, both times around.

Then bobbing for worms. Large vat of slime, gummy worms in it. One person steps into vat, two hold them up (man, is it slippery!), proceed to pick out worms w/ your toesies! And, I am becoming known for my nimble toes. My team won that too. :)

Relay races (kiddy pools, tarps, slip-and-slide), which nobody knew who won. Slime wrestling (two people on a slimed tarp, trying to push each other off), which we lost.

Then, the Epic Slime Battle. Several buckets of slime (some still w/gummy worms in them), a load of water balloons for each team, proceed to try to kill each other. :) That was my favorite part of the evening, always is. Everybody tries to get revenge for things that had happened earlier, and revenge is oh-so-sweet, and slimy. Case-and-point, I landed a fantastic, gloppy ball of slime on Stephen's head for the egg comment. He squeegeed it off and flung it at me. Wiped it all down Joy's back. Splashed Brandon for sliming me. Poured it on Corine's unsuspecting head. Loverly.

And that, my dears, was slime night.

Today is testing, last official day of school. Breakfast, a day full of timed, mark-the-bubble tests. Fun. Talk to you later. Thanks for reading! :)

Alright, so, sorry. Ask anybody, keeping anything that resembles a journal is like, the thing I'm worst at. So, you know, whatever.

I only have a minute, 'cause I have to leave to go to the doctor's office. I got bit on the ankle by some kind of bug Monday night at Joy's, and now my ankle is all swollen up. So, I have to go to the doctor's. I hate the doctor's.

So, yeah, spent Monday evening w/Joy and her family, which was fantastic. Btw, hope everybody had a fabulous holiday weekend.

Yesterday was volunteering at the CPC. Oops, hadn't said anything about that yet, had I? Well, me and Joy are volunteering every Tuesday afternoon at the local Crises Pregnancy Center. Which basically means playing with baby clothes, bagging diapers, and lugging stuff up and down the stairs. It's really fun, and it feels good to just go somewhere and be as helpful as you can. It's not very hard work, and they're so appreciative of the help. It just feels good, you know?

Tonight is youth, as usual. Tomorrow=nothing special.

And then Friday (drumroll please!) is SLIME NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only my favorite youth event of the year. I do believe I blogged about it in detail last year. But, it is exactly what it sounds like, A chance to get coated from head to toe in (cornstarch) slime!!!!!

Looking further forward is Aunt Becky, Uncle Jared, and Cara's visit in the (very near!!!) future. Eight days and counting!!! :D

Then VBS, which always comes up faster than expected. This year we're doing Kingdom of the Son: A Prayer Safari, which is all based on the Lord's prayer. I'll be volunteering in the same position as last year, a crew-leader-type person for the 1st and 2nd grade class.

Directly after that is Dance/Worship Arts camp (technically called Exalt) at First Baptist of Norfolk. My aunt has been helping lead that up for years. I haven't gotten involved up to this point, but this year is a little different. With the position me and Joy have been taking in the dance group (if we can really call it that), it would be wise to try to get more equipped. It just makes sense, you know?

And past that, it's all up in the air. Heehehe, I'm a little crazy right now.

Everybody have a great day! :)

Mother's Day

Howdy, folks.

So today is Mother's Day. And I feel like I should take a moment to thank God for all the Moms in my life.

First and foremost, ahead by a million miles of everybody else, is my Mama. I don't know why, but God has seen fit to give me the best one on the planet. She's my best friend, she knows everything about me. I can't ever manage to keep a secret from her for long. She knows what's best for me, and she's not afraid to be the bad guy. Is that weird? That that's one of my favorite things about her? That when it comes to what I need, instead of what I want, she's the one who holds the reins, and occasionally the whip. And no matter how badly I punish her for it, or how much I sulk, she always does what's best for me. I love you, Mama!!!

Second, my two wonderful Grandmothers.

My Nana has been one of my favorite people for as long as I can remember. She's one of those people who just loves and loves and loves and gives and gives and gives, until you think she'd eventually run out. But she never does. And as I get older and get to know her on a more grown-up level, I learn that that's because she's constantly refilling herself from her Jesus. She lives her entire life at His feet. And she is so incredibly humble. I was just realizing last night (we were over at her house) how much she has to teach me. And I cannot wait to start learning.

And my Grandma. I have only recently started to discover her. She's not one of those totally warm people like my Nana, so we were never close when I was young. She's more reserved. She's a lot like me, in that respect. But I've started to really put forth the effort to get to know her these last few weeks, and she's a really remarkable lady.

Then my Aunts.

My Aunt Becky, who was another of those favorite people from when I was really little. Actually, she was always more like another Mom to me, than an Aunt. She's been away for a long time, serving overseas with my Uncle Jared as a missionary. That hasn't been easy. But sometimes, during the summer, they come home for visits. And they're coming home this year!!!!!

And my Aunt Ruth. We haven't been close for a few years now, just because our lives have stopped putting us together so much, but there was a time when we were. She was 'Ms. Ruth' for a while, as my dance teacher. She leads a dance group at her church, that I was a part of for a long time. She's the person who really led me to fall in love with dancing. Everything I know (that I haven't learned by trial-and-error) I learned from her.

And last, but far from least, all my other moms and grandmas. Those wonderful ladies God has placed in my life that love me dearly, and that I don't know what I would do without. Brandice, Joy's mom Mary, Ms. Peggy, Ms. Tammie, Ms. Kellie, Ms. Cindy and Ms. Diane just to name a few. I am so thankful for them!

So take a moment, today, to thank God for all your moms, and to tell them that you love them.

Happy Mother's Day!

Honesty Part 2

Honesty Part 2 is going to be, essentially, a couple of lists.

Firstly, a list of things that, within the last three days, have reiterated to me the importance of honesty.

*Sunday morning, at Joy's house (omg! I didn't post about her bday party. will do that soon).

Her mom wakes us up by blaring christian music at us. The song is "Unspoken" by Jaci Velasquez. It gets stuck in my head. All. Day. Long. Important lyric: "Don't leave your heart

unspoken!"

*Saturday night, the making of a promise to several of my girlfriends to be perfectly honest with them, no matter what.

*More Sunday morning, during the sermon, the line "Hearts are oft broken by words left

unspoken" running through my head over and over and over and over again.

*Yesterday morning, listening to my iPod trying to tune the family out to concentrate on

school. The John Mayer song 'Say' comes on. You probably know it. "Say what you need to

say. Say what you need to say." so on and so forth, about five zillion times.

*This afternoon, reading an email forward from my grandmother, that says things like, "Always tell, what you feel and do what you think.", and "Nobody would remember you if you keep your thoughts secret."

And there have been more, though nothing else comes to mind.

Secondly, while I'm having this soul-bearing moment, I might as well list what's on my mind.

*Life. Get-a-job-get-your-driver's-license-get-a-car-go-to-college-figure-out-what-you're-

doing-with-your-life life. Yeah. Fun. Not.

*Dance. Figuring out where the dance thing is headed at my church, figuring out where

God wants dance to head at my church, figuring out where God wants dance to head with

me and my life, and trying to make sure His will is done.

*My age. I feel trapped, because I'm just a "child" and as such I can only do so much. I have

this fire to make a difference in my generation, and to DO something, to GO somewhere

with my life, and I am absolutely, completely, and utterly S T U C K stuck. But, then, I feel

like the time I have for goofing off, cutting up, and being a kid is almost over, and I want to

make the next two years last ffffffoooooooorrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeevvvvvvvveeeeeeeerrrrrr.

Make any sense to you? Me either.

So, there you have it. My life's problems, in a nutshell. Whoop-dee-doo.

Good night, everybody.

Honesty Part 1

So, you know, honesty is kind of a funny thing. Being honest, I mean. It's sort of a rush.

As you may've guessed, I'm not a very . . . open person. I tend to be the implosive type. I just kind of stuff everything inside. Mom says it's not good for me, that eventually I'm gonna just blow up. The way I see it, that hasn't happened yet.

And it's not that I have, like, trust issues or whatever. My life is just easier when people don't really know what's going on inside my head. I don't have to deal with sympathy, or comfort, or attempts at help.

I'm the kind of person who, when asked "How are you?", will 95% of the time reply "Fine!". No matter what's going on inside my head. I mean, unless it's Joy, or Mom or Dad, or Spring, or a select handfull of other people. I really don't care to have you know about what I'm going through.

Thats part of what I like so much about the internet, and the world of Blogger. There's this safe kind of illusion of anonymity. I know it's fake, but I feel so far removed from real life that it's safe to really be honest.

But that's something that bugs the snot out of me in other people. I can't stand anything that smacks of dishonesty. Probably because it's something I have a hard time with myself. I wish, with all my heart, that everybody (myself included) felt safe enough to be open and themselves all the time. And I'm fiercely jealous of people who are. People who have that confidence.

So it's something I'm trying to work on. I'm trying to get to where, when there really is something wrong, I can tell people. I can speak my mind. I can say what I need to say.

God's working on me in this aspect. In the last three days alone, the topic has come up about seven times, no lie.

So I'm working on it. Which brings me back to where I started.

Forget lying. Telling the truth is a real adrenaline high.

See, I have this guy friend, Brandon. He and I have been through highs and lows in our friendship. We just hit what was probably an all time low (due to some severe miscommunications, misunderstandings, and misconstruing), and are now on our way back up. He's one of those people who I'd like to be open with. But it doesn't come easy. Especially with a guy. I just kind of tend to recoil from that kind of openness with guys.

But we're emailing back and forth right now, and he's being pretty honest with me. Then he asked me, pretty seriously, how I'm doing. I gave the vague reply 'kinda going through some stressful stuff right now, but okay', hoping that would be honest enough to satisfy my newfound conscience, but vague enough to not really tell him anything.

And, of course, he had to ask what kind of stressful stuff.

I was still vague, but more honest than I've been with a lot of people here lately. And, like I said, it's a rush. I'm a bit jittery.

And it feels good, to be honest with people. To not hold back the truth. We should all try it some time.

Have a great day!

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!!! :)

Bonjour Mon Ami

Good morning to all. A very merry December to you!! I'm so glad it's finally here . . . the holiday season is something I wait for and wait for and wait for all year long. It's my absolute favorite. I just can't wait 'til Christmas!!

I WON NANOWRIMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I officially wrote a 50,000 word novel in thirty days . . . and I ACTUALLY finished it!! Like, I ended the story at the same time I ended the word count. 

And now my brayne is broket. lol just kidding. But it kind of does tend to leave you a little bit . . . lost. It's like, now I don't know what to do with myself. Or at least, I wouldn't if I weren't so darn busy.

Take today for example. Besides schoolwork ( :P stupid schoolwork), I have to finish cleaning my room, because it is atrocious and Joy is staying the night on Saturday. 

I need to work on this family-project-thingy that we're doing. See, one of my dad's clients is a building/development company, that just so happens to have a new housing development going up nearby, and they have these brochure-folder-thingies that need to be stuffed with fliers. So to save the company the trouble of finding somebody to do it, and to make a little extra holiday money, my family has taken over the project. It's passably entertaining, and extra money is going to be a good thing. 

Especially considering that I haven't bought the first Christmas present, or even the stuff to make the first Christmas present, as I am planning on hand-making most of my presents this year. And that takes a whole lot of time and effort, which is something I don't have right now, so I'm kind of stressing a little bit. Blah.

And then I have to pack.

'Pack? Why?' you say? Well, because we're moving, that's why. Grr. We're not going far, and it hopefully won't be for very long, so I think that everything will be okay. We're moving between Christmas and New Year's, which means that the big party that I wanted to have is O-U-T out. So I'm kind of bummed, but this too shall pass. 

And now I've gotta go, because the fam is ready for devotions, and after that this crazy day is actually gonna START!! 

Have an awesome day!! God bless! :)