Sha Booya

Hey There...

2007-04-30T19:00:00.000-04:00

So I definately forgot my password to sign on to blogger its been so long. haha. Finally, after 10 minutes I had to reset it. Well folks..I'M DONE!!! *gasps for air* ...lately I've been finishing up on some major projects such as writing an essay in French and then reading it out to the class, making a movie, and painting..which is now displayed in the school library for all to see. I had my last 2 finals today and now I just have to wait around until I graduate on Thurs with my associates. It's sad really, everyone will be leaving soon and the blothpick is already lingering in the air around me.

Well I'm still working at Babies "R" Us. They have me mostly on register these days because they could tell that I didn't enjoy guest service too much. But I fill in when I need to. I've been placed in infant care and apparell too a few times. So I still love working there, it puts me in a good mood oddly enough, and I plan on staying there for the summer. I need to work more hours there or I might get a 2nd job somewhere because I don't think I'll be taking summer courses...but that's still up in the air.

In other news, I was accepted into the University of South Florida and as far as I know I'll be going there and majoring in Studio Art. I just feel like I'm going there because it's practical, and I don't know what else to do, so...it is what it is.

Next week my folks and I are flying out west to Arizona to have our li'l vacation time. Gonna go to many a parks, see the grand canyon and all that.. so I'm pretty excited =) Then shortly after that it's looking like I might go up north to spend some time with the girls and going camping like we did last year. haha, I wonder how my work will like that...I might have to start lookin for a new job. People give me a hard time because I'm always requesting off and flying out to who knows where.

ok then...God bless and thanks for still clicking on my link to see if i'm still alive!

My life

2007-02-20T22:06:00.000-05:00

So things have been busy and new and interesting. I started working at Babies R Us two weeks ago. I didn't realize that they would throw me at guest services right off the bat. I thought I would just be at the registers. But no, "we trust you" they say, whatever that's suppose to mean. Actually it depends on which manager is there whether i'm at the register or guest service. So I've been thrown back and forth. I don't really want to be in guest services because it's the hardest job. When you're there your in charge of all the register people, when they go on break, calling them up front when they've disappeared and telling them everything else to do and helping them out when something goes wrong. Meanwhile, we're at the desk taking returns, arguing with customers, ringing up people, answering and transferring phone calls. It's somewhat scary to me. Everytime the phone rings I look longingly at the other person at GS for some compassion, and they answer the phone. Then there is the fun part of getting on the intercom for ALL to hear you as you request somebody to go somewhere. ugh. But hey, I'm always up for a little bit of a challenge once and a while, and I like the power =) I always feel the power when I come around and cash out registers at the end of the night. Only trust worthy people are allowed to do that =p plus that i'm 22 helps too. Most people there are 18, 19, and not to mention pregnant. They say I need to get with the program, but I say I think I'll get married first. They laugh and thats that.
Yeah, so its interesting. I'm in the spanish area of Tampa, so 90% percent of my co-workers are spanish of some sort. It's fun when people come up and start chatting to me in spanish. I feel so honored and just wish I could play along, but lo, I say like a little white girl, "sorry, do you speak english?"
Another thing is just remembering what the world is like. I've been so cooped up in my christian environments you forget about the outside. The first night I was there I was asked if I smoked weed. Then the next night after work I was asked if I wanted to get some drinks. For me I feel like i'm back in time, about 5 years ago when I was out in the work force, but unfortunately back then I gave into some of the pressures of my co-workers. Now, I'm reminded that I'm a different person and it's just fun (in my own way) to say "no, i don't do that or that, nope not even that".
Fun times.
So in other news...Remember my post about tricycle guy? He was this guy who rode on his bike up and down my street and he always stopped by and asked us for money. One day he even helped himself to some of our sodas on the front porch. Well, he died alone in his apartment last week. We were wondering where he was because we always see him on the street. The mystery was solve because my dad works with the guy who delivers his mail. He said he asked the landlord and he said that the neighbors complained about a bad odor and they found him a few days later dead in his apartment.
If you remember that post, I was very upset with the guy. I just couldn't understand the nerve of some people. When he came by the house I was mad. When he waved to me by the bus stop as I drove by, I was mad. I just looked the other way. Now, I feel terrible as you can imagine. God has a reason for the people and events that come in our lives. I thought he was just a stingy, lazy man who wouldn't do himself anygood. But come to find out he was lonely, seeking for a little help and companionship anywhere a person would open their door to him. It's so sad to me that a person could die in their apartment and no one would even know or care for days. And whats more sad is that I wanted to slam my door on him while he was alive. If he, or anyone knocked I wouldn't answer. I writing metaphorically of course. I mean I understand that I shouldn't just open the door to anyone when I'm home by myself. My point is, my heart was closed and I would not by any circumstances show any love, and I don't like that about myself. People, if someone is asking for help or for a little companionship, have an open door. God put tricycle man in our lives and we thought it would be for a lifetime we would have to deal with this, but it was only for a year. That's all the time we had to minister to him. Sorry, I was just going to inform you of his death, I didn't know all this would come out. God bless you all.

Mat 25:43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in; I was naked, and you did not clothe Me; I was sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me.
Mat 25:44 Then they will also answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to You?
Mat 25:45 Then He shall answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.

Hiya

2007-02-02T00:12:00.000-05:00

Guess what?? I'm not a bum anymore. I gots myself a real job. I wouldn't really call myself a bum going to college full time and all, but I have felt slightly like one since my semester is an easier one. So I had an interview 2 Tuesdays ago and hadn't heard from them so I didn't consider it anymore and moved on with life. Then, lo and behold, they called last night and said that it just took a while to get my background check through, and that I got the job! So...what is this job? It's like my #2 dream job ever (the first is Best Buy). Well not really, but I have been thinking about working here for the last year or so. Ok..so you're looking at, or rather you're reading something that this person wrote, the new cashier for Babies R'US! Cashier for now, but the manager thought apparel is in the near future. Score! It's not very practical for me, seeing that i'm not having any kids anytime soon, so what am I gonna use my 10% discount for? I guess I could buy lots of presents for all my new li'l cousins, or I could invest in some of their furniture (not cribs really... more like a lamp, or an endtable).

Thankyou so much for those who prayed and for those for were in faith for my job hunting. It wasn't even a painful process. I just filled out an application online and suddenly i'm in the work force after 5 years of being out of it. Have a good weekend everyone! Tonight we watch our school's performance of Fiddler on the Roof! I know you're just so jealous =p.

And now here's a picture just to make things more interesting. Chow

2007-01-29T23:23:00.000-05:00

Just because

2007-01-21T17:07:00.000-05:00

A fun Buffalo Avenue Day

2007-01-15T20:11:00.000-05:00

Tuuurtle.

So my mom likes to call Martin King Jr. Day Buffalo Avenue Day instead because the street that's by my house called Martin Luther King Jr. used to be called Buffalo Ave. Ok anyways...Kimberly and I wanted to have a fun day together since we never really get to do much because of classes and nonstop h/w. So first we went to the Florida Aquarium.

This seahorse almost made me cry because it was so cute. Not just because it's a seahorse, but because it was slowly drifting down..down..down the tank, and on another sea creature of some sort no less. I didn't even notice it was a real live creature until I saw the picture on the computer. I thought he was just catching a ride on twig.

I put these sea dragons up for Claire and Andrea =)

Then Kim and I went to see the Extreme Makeover house they are building in Tampa. So thats an exciting story. On Saturday some of my family and me went to see the house. It was almost done and they were about to move in the furniture. We didn't see anyone famous like Ty (he wasn't even there that day) but it was still neat to watch. Then Leah was interviewed about coming out and seeing the action and it was on the news later that night! Coolness. Here is the house. Oh by the way, the old house was ruined when a small airplane flew right into their home and thankfully no one was in the house at the time. So here it is.

And here is Leah (and sleeping Jeremiah) getting interviewed by ABC news. This show airs on March 4th, 8pm so make sure you see it!! Maybe you'll see me in the background. Ok, go out and shoot you some buffalo!

Let's go back to the 80's

2007-01-11T19:18:00.000-05:00

I can't believe this is the decade I was born into. So...we've been doing some garage cleaning for about 4 days and here are some lost treasures we have found. Here are my awesome pants I used to wear that have sunglasses...birds...flag kites...golf flags..shark fins?

And this lovely shirt is another piece of clothing we found. I sure wish they had 80's day at school. Maybe I'll just wear it anyway around town and represent my alphabet knowledge. Then everyone will know that i'm a top notch college student.

2007-01-09T18:08:00.000-05:00

Vacation is over and the goose is getting fat. I don't really know what that means but it's true..somewhere. Kimberly is back in our domain and school is back in session. My first day back was a weiry day...just kidding! It was a breeze. I had Christian Evidences (apologetics class all over again!) went to chapel, played some golf (i'm 1 out of the 2 girls in that class) and then after my 4 hour break I went to my design class. Pretty rough eh? Bible, golf and art. How can it get any better than that? Tomorrow I'll have Computers, Corinthians and back to French (blah). My semester is pretty easy. I've been looking forward to my last semester since I started school because I knew it would be mostly electives and all the hard stuff would be out of the way. So I have been considering getting a part time job for the evenings, so you can shoot up a lil prayer for me when you think of it, that I'll find the right place and the right hours.

Happy New Year

2007-01-02T23:59:00.000-05:00

Well its been a loverly winter break and there is only a week left of it. Let's see...I have slept, shopped, golfed, filled out my university application, cleaned, went to a cookie party, and watched movies. I went to busch gardens on Christmas eve (a new tradition)... So nothing too exciting you can see. I traveled to GA last weekend for the men's retreat. No, not really, I traveled up with my uncle and he went and I hung out with SA. I had such an awesome time. It was just the change in scenery I needed. Some of us girls went to Stone Mountain. I've never been there before and it was all foggy and misty, pretty kewl I thought. When we got to the top we looked at the non-existent view and used the restrooms. I just needed to take care of my sniffles and when I walked out one of the girls pointed out that I had toilet paper stuck to my shoe. It really happens!! I've seen that on movies but didn't really know that it actually happens. So I just walked back to the rest room and ripped it off. hehehe. Ok..anyway, it was fun.

After stone mountain SA and I partied at B + CP's house. Then on Sunday we went to church, partied at D +PP's, and I went to my first watch night service ever. It was a great way to start off the new year.

Happy new year everyone. God bless. Tomorrow I attempt once again the annual garage clean out, should be exciting.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T22:53:00.000-05:00

Hey ya'll. Merry merry christmas! Hope it was good for ya. Lucky for you I decided to tone down my template ;) Ok..I don't know what else to write.

Jeremiah

2006-12-14T21:43:00.000-05:00

This is my way cool cousin Jeremiah. Look how deep and contemplative he is at only 3 months old.

Count your blessings

2006-11-27T16:39:00.000-05:00

I'm kinda feeling sad so I decided that I should write my thanksgiving post now and count my blessings. I was going to do this like 5 times before, but everytime it just looked like too much work to me. Maybe I'll make a list instead of going into detail about everything.

1. My school, even though right now I'm upset with it. Oh, I'm not suppose to write that... Let's stay positive here! I enjoy how they have events to look forward to. Like banquets, trips, going to disney, and sports.
2. My classes, everyone is useful in some way. I have an epistles class that contradicts some of my beliefs, but hey, I get to talk about it with KJ later on in the day and reason why they aren't rigth =p.
Then I have my voice class, I just love the teacher so much. He's young, funny, and just makes my day. It's like therapy going to him because he tells me to OPEN UP! and don't be timid. He makes me shout things like, "stop it!" in a high voice just to see how loud I can get, haha. He makes me hold my face while I sing so I'll feel more support and so I won't move my head around. I think I might be his biggest challenge =)Oh and his wife sells MK like me. And just to mention, my next solo is "Down my the Salley Gardens" maybe some of you are familiar with that??
The last class I'll mention is my areobics class. I really enjoy it even though I feel like I might die in the middle of pushups and it's 8 in the morn. But I feel like I have more energy and it just makes me want to exercise more! huh, think of that.
3. I'm thankful that KJ is here. Who knew that someone I went to bible school with would live in my house? I only dreamed of it and the timing of it worked out very well. It's great to have her support at the church, she has pretty much taken over sunday school and I'm not complaining =) We've sung songs at church, she'll help me with my singing for my performances. Sometimes we'll just sing for the fun of it during our breaks. I have someone to watch Jane Austin movies (well, any movie really)with and go to volleyball games, basketball games, and it was great times playing football together.
4. Naomi. That's my cat. She is just the greatest thing ever and I got her just about 1 year ago. She plays fetch, we chase each other another the house, and she'll curl on my lap while I do homework.
5. Mary Kay. Even though I haven't done much with it since school has started, it's been a blessing. It has pushed me to talk to people I just wouldn't naturally talk to and it ends up being really fun and uplifting.
6. Jeremiah! This past week I've been on break and I've gotten the chance to spend lots of time with my baby cousin Jeremiah for the first time. It's nice to have a baby in the family and a close one so I can really have a chance to get to know him and be around. I would put a pic up but my digital camera has gone wacko and won't work anymore. But he's a "chunker" they say.
7. I'm thankful to be young and still in that stage of "what am I doing with my life." I haven't been stressed out by this question YET, so right now it's just fun to have my hopes, dreams, ambitions, new adventures and all that stuff. Right now I've been thinking about going into the art program at USF. Running into my old high school art teacher at the library really encouraged it. He told me how people, no better than I was, have some pretty good jobs right now and they really enjoy them.
On the other hand, mom suggests to me to go to a technical school here and work in the hospital to see if I would really like being a nurse or not. So...it's just this big unknown and it's exciting to me. I can't wait for the day when people ask me what my major is, I can say ______ instead of "um, i really don't know." Right now I just kinda want to fill in the blank and I don't really care with what!
8. Church- I'm thankful for all the members and for my pastor. It's been a blessing to have him around these past few years. Last sunday's service was very good. He talked about the parabole of the servants getting their master's talents and what they did with them. He talked about how right now we can invest what Jesus has given us so it can grow, and when He comes back He'll ask us what we've done with it. Did we just bury it and not think about it anymore like one servant did, or will we invest it into something that will bear the fruits of it. I've heard this passage before lots of times, but for some reason never could find the application to it for my life until this service. Then after that service, one of the members invited me and Kim to go to the golf driving range tonight. I haven't done that in a while, so it should be fun.
9. Mainly, I'm thankful for my parents and God. If not for them, I wouldn't be able to write any of my thankfuls on this list. Everything comes from them.

Ok, so I didn't just write a list after all. I went into detail, but it was good for me. I feel a whole lot um, less-depressed then I did when I started writing. "Praise the Lord for the Lord" as they say.

My trip to Disney World

2006-11-19T17:22:00.000-05:00

..and I blew the place up. Not really, but isn't it a cool pic? I took it right as all the fireworks exploded all at once.

It was a school trip and I went with Jane and met up with some other friends there. It was lots of fun. Jane and me got stuck on a ride and they had to come rescue us. So we got a free fast pass so we didn't have to wait in lines. Ok, I pretty much posted this so you didn't have to see tricycle guy anymore. I have to get back to my french. C-ya.

Tricycle guy!

2006-10-13T00:29:00.000-04:00

No, I'm not happy about the tricycle guy. It's more of an angry exclamation mark. Let me explain...So,there's this guy who is about in his 50's or so, who lives on my street. Everyday he slowly pedals up and down in his shorts and button up t-shirt on my street on his tricycle with a basket in front. It all started a couple of years ago when this random man came ringing on the doorbell and I answered it. Here was this man, looked like a normal, nice kind of creature. He gave me this whole story of how he has diabetes and that he despately needed some food. Blah blah blah, it all came down to "can I get some money?" Oooh sure, what the hay. So I gave him a few dollars and he said how nice I was and then he went on his merry way. Was this the last we'll see Mr. tricycle on our porch? NO SIR! It is now a weekly tradition.
The next time around, my dad answered and he gave him some money too. Then I told my dad how he came by before asking for money. Well, my dad being the nice person that he is, can hardly say no to him and so the man keeps coming back like a stray cat, and the money keeps rollin. Then once my mom answered and actually offered to give him food, but no, he wanted the money instead. Now when Kimberly and her family were down here going to the college orientation stuff, he was right in front of my house "pulled over" by a cop. It was perfect timing, the family goes crusing by my house seeing a police car right out front. It was one of those great first impressions of my neighborhood. I think some people might of complained so the cop was giving him a warning. Since then, he hasn't come by in a couple of months. Well earlier this week Kim and I were home during lunch break and I went to take a nap. I thought I was dreaming, but was awakened by the doorbell. I got out of bed and went to the front window to see if I could see who it was. Kimberly said, "It's the tricycle man, don't answer it!" Oh dear, why is he here?? We waiting for a while and then he finally left. I went back to my nap and later Kim told me how she saw him put two drinks in his pocket. Ok, here is where I get a little fired up. We had a few packs of sodas and waters out on the porch just waiting for someone to put them away. So this guy just comes and helps himself to our drinks! Theft!!! Grr, so it's not a big deal, it's just drinks, but it was OUR drinks and he thought he had every right to take what he wanted because we "went there" to get him money! I told my mom later and she decided it was time to bring in the drinks. So today I was home for a little while and it was time to go to chapel. I open the door and there he was in front of our house. He saw me and just turned himself around. That's right buddy, you better turn yourself around. I got in my car and drove pass him and he had the nerve to turn right back around and return to his mission, to steal more drinks. Ha! the drinks weren't there and so here is my mom, who was home at the time, peering out the window and watching him. He went up to the porch and apparently saw nothing of interest to him so he went back to his bike.
Maybe I'm just a very possessive type of person (only child syndrome!) but would this not make you a little angry?? It you had something dear to you on your own property and it was just taken away by someone who tries to make your life harder than it already is?? I would like to hear your thoughts. And I know, love your neighbor as yourself and keep forgiving no matter how many drinks he takes...but still!

Ma cousine Aubrey

2006-10-09T21:33:00.000-04:00

Let this cheer up your day.

The V is for Victory

2006-09-28T00:10:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we had another football game, and it was against my society from last year (i'm such a traitor!). It was a very close game. I couldn't even tell you all the details because everytime defense was out there (like Kimberly) I couldn't watch because the director was reviewing our next plays. I think we took it a little too seriously, but it was fun. Once, I looked up from our huddle when people started shouting and there was Kimberly sprinting down the field with the football!! I missed out on her awesome interception, but saw her leave everyone in the dust and score a touchdown. "That's my roommate!!!" is what I shouted, which is what everyone always shouts when their roommate does something awesome. Well anyway, WE WON!
After the game we drove down to Clearwater Christian College to visit Jeff L. cuz our girls were playing volleyball with their girls. Our school didn't win, but it was fun anyway to visit Jeff and it was the first school game i've ever been to.
Then....(yeah it was a busy day) we went to our society's devotional. They always give out paper plate rewards and Kim got one for "best intersection." That's what Roger, who's from D.R., called it at least. He gets his words mixed up sometimes since english isn't his first language and all. Next i'll be getting my paper plate reward for widest reception..ha, um...ok anyways, I'm happy because I just finish a meaningless assignment copying 9 pages worth of definitions and... tomorrow I'll be at Fairwood!! Happy feasting everyone.

We lose..X2

2006-09-19T19:57:00.000-04:00

Here we were, at the Devil Rays vs. Orioles. Yee haw. We lost =( But it was great fun! Alot of the students went and we were sitting in the nose bleed section, but we moved and we were right there by the Orioles bunker. It was sweet! Here is Kimberly taking a quick snap shot before the security guy came to get her. Hehe.

And here is "Ray-Man" coming to greet us and he flicked Kimberly in the head, or something like that, because she's a Red Sox's fan. The kid made him do it. Go to Kim's blog for more info on the kid.

Today was our football game against K.O. who is the most athletic society.
We lost =( At least I got to be the quarterback for one play and pass to Kim, but unfortunately it was blocked. Well i'm beat! Hopefully my "roomie" will fill ya'll in on more details. Peace.

Wooo

2006-09-12T22:51:00.000-04:00

Hi peoples! I haven't blogged in so long, whats my deal? Ok, time for a speedy post....So school has been pretty good. The first few weeks I was sickly and then had all these minor annoying problems, like having a bump on my tongue and having to put teething gel on to numb it so I could talk everytime!...that problem is over and everything else is getting better.
Enough about my problems...areobics is pretty awesome. I feel so healthy and fit. Not really, but maybe I will someday. I thought it would give me lots of energy and help in class, but its just made me more tired and sore, ha. Another note worthy class is my voice class. My teacher is only 26 or 27 and he's really funny. There are only 11 of us so its a nice good size, and I have to sing solo 2 times during the semester. Like dress up and everything! Sceeryness!
The last thing I'll mention is GO PHI SIGMA CHI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (my society)Because...TODAY WE WON OUR FOOTBALL GAME!! I'm just really excited because last year I was on Arete, which NEVER won in any sports. And today we play our first game and we won! Kimberly and I got out there in our blue and white and played like mad and won 12 to 7. Yesterday was exciting at practice because it was sooo muddy. We were just a slipping and a sliding everywhere.

Here is the back of everyone! Aren't you excited. I wasn't in the mood to get all photographerish, but you can get an idea of what its all about. And there you see Kimberly cheering and screaming on the left side.
Ok, until next time...

Hundred Acre Wood

2006-08-30T17:39:00.000-04:00

Hey peoples. I'm really excited because I never noticed the add more pictures link so you don't have to just put one pic up at a time when you post. And I've been blogging for how long now?? No wonder I always have trouble getting up more then one picture. You guys have been missing out on so much because I didn't think my computer was cooperating!! Sigh. Well, anyways, here are pictures of Jeremiah's nursery. Robbie did the characters and props out of paper. Leah, Sharon, and Katie cut out hundreds of leaves from paper, so that they're actually coming out at you with a 3-D affect. I did alot of the painting/background stuff. Peggy from church helped out with some painting too. Let me know what you think!!

Watching the dogs and school

2006-08-24T23:09:00.000-04:00

The day after vacation I house-sat and dog-sat for this lady my mom works with at the hospital. It was great fun running the house and pretending to live on my own for a while. She has 5 dogs and 4 cats. The dogs are all inside and they are a handle full. Well, not really, but compared to my one little cat. I mentioned before that I was scared about sleeping with all of them, but I ended up sleeping with only 3. The little one, sparkles, kept wanted to get under the covers, and once I let him and he turned around and poked his head out like a human and kept sighing these sighs of relief. One had legs so short he couldn't jump on the bed so he cried and cried until I finally lifted him up and then he cried louder. Once he got settled it was ok. The older one laid at the foot of the bed and the two others were content on the floor thankfully! Well I just wanted to briefly mention that just in case anyone was wondering how that all went. It went very well and I'll probably be doing this again once a year or so for this lady.
In other news, school started today. My first class was kickboxing at 8am. We didn't do any labor yet, just introduction stuff. Then I had a break until chapel. Kimberly and I walked there and took our assigned seats next to each other. We sang "Higher Ground," a well known hymn, and it was nice to be singing that next to her again, since bible school. All our classes were in the same building today for the rest of the day, then we came back to my house for lunch. The rest of the day went well. My voice class got cancelled and then I had old testament poetry left. I'm leaving out alot of details. I suddenly feel very tired! Here is just a quit update. I'll be back with more =)

vacation continuation

2006-08-19T15:49:00.000-04:00

...here I am 5 years later to tell you what I did on the rest of my vacation. The next big highlight of the week was our camping trip! I've always wanted to go camping. Not the park at the campgrounds type camping, but real camping. So I was excited to go with some procampers so I didn't have to figure things out,and it was also nice going with some not so procampers, just take a guess who. So I waited around and packed up Friday morning for Sara and Melissa to come back from volunteering at the PRC. When they got back we packed up into Melissa's car and Sara's dad and her brother Chris pack the canoes and such and got into their truck. We followed them to the Merrimack River in NH. I didn't really understand the whole plan of drifting but I didn't really care to know because it makes it more of a surprise. So I didn't know that we were loading up canoes and kayaks then just drifting down to our site, then doing it again the next moring, then again the next day. But it sure was fun and very relaxing.

Here I am in a canoe with Melissa who didn't have a hat, so the next best thing is a t-shirt of course.
We came to our spot after about 3 hours of drifting. We pulled ashore and set up camp. There was a path leading up to a field of squash above us, where we went later that night to gaze at the stars. It was nice to see them again. We made us a fire and had hamburgers for dinner and then I listened to everyone talk about the good ol'times and the pets they use to have running around. Us girls tried to position ourselves in the tents so that we weren't getting jabbed by a rock or a root in our backs. It worked out pretty good, and I felt like I got the best sleep ever, even if I felt like I was lieing down hill a little bit. In the morning some of us heard a beaver splashing its tail in the river.
After breakfast we packed up and drifted on the down the river. I was amused how I made use of the time and started to clip and file my nails. Now thats a Mary Kay consultant camping for ya. I just felt a little too distracted to burying my nose in a book, especially when the little rapids were right ahead.
The next place we set up was bigger and the ground more smoother. I think we got a better night's sleep. A rope swing was right across the river so people kept coming and using it so it wasn't the quietest place. We swang on the rope 2 times or so but there were alot people waiting around so we were done.
One cool thing was when I got in touch with my old love of fishing. My dad and I used to go when I was younger but its been a while. Sara's dad gave me some pointers and let me use his fishing pole. Once we went up to a rock across the river where there were supposibly a plethera of fish. Sara, her dad and me went and I caught 4 fish! Sara's dad did all the dirty work and threw them back in. I think maybe it was the same stupid fish latching on over and over, but thats just my opinion. That evening one of Sara's cousins joined our group of campers and it was fun watching her dad and him go at it with each other with their talk,just messing around. The next morning we packed up for the last time and drifed down to our cars. I fished a little as we drifted but with no luck.
Camping was so much fun. I kept saying that I was born for this. I guess now I have no more purpose in life. We talked about making this a yearly tradition. Maybe they'll come down and camp in Florida next time.
After camping we dropped by Fairwood to watch some of the digging up the frong lawn excitment and then went to the Lyman's to have a backporch dinner.
Monday In Rhode Island Sara, Amy and me met up with Elizabeth and spent the day with her. It was great fun and we introduced her to The Office, hehe.
I came back Tuesday and Wednesday went to a lady's house to housesit and dogsit while she went on vacation. We'll save that for another rainy day.
But the greatest current news of all is that right across the hallway is my old room now filled with Kimberly's things!!!!!!!!

The End...Or really, just the beginning.

New arrival

2006-08-16T09:11:00.000-04:00

Here is my new cousin, Jeremiah.

This is the only pic I had of him not covering his face. I'll keep trying to get some good ones.

Boston

2006-08-13T19:50:00.000-04:00

I've been home for about a week now and I had such a wonderful time in up north! I'm going to be posting alot in the next few days so keep checking my blog if you care to see pictures of Leah's baby, of the nursery, and some dogs. First is first though.

The first big excursion was our trip to Boston! We took a train (SL,MB, and me) in the morning. Our trip's focus was to look and explore art. And we sure did. We went into about 5 galleries and at the end of the day went to the Museum of Fine Arts. We were thankful it wasn't boiling hot or hailing rocks on us, the latter was predicted, but it was a beautiful day and even got nice and cool in the evening. We wondered the streets, sat at the park, and took the T. I was so confused about what the T was for the longest time before I rode it. The museum was awesome. I was really tired at that point but it was still fun to walk around with SL. Four hours later we left and went out into the empty streets of Boston again. This is the most exciting part of the day because as we were walking water balloons came flying at us! Not only water but sand was packed into the balloons as well. Yeah, we were attacked pretty much by some gang of boys across the street. We weren't too happy and just kept walking. We were too tired to take on some gang at that point, so we just let it go.

Well I need to go and celebrate my cousin's birthday. We'll just call this part one of my trip. Tootles.

YaY

2006-08-01T13:13:00.000-04:00

I found my camera! It was a miracle. I was in bed and saying a last minute prayer that I would find it. My mind then started to trace back when I last saw it and all that. I knew it was when I took it to Walmart to get some pics developed but then I didn't know where I put it after that. Then it hit me! It was in my mom's car in the consule. I checked there before but I forgot that it's two consules (sp?) in one and I forgot to look in the bigger one. I got out of bed, went outside, and there it was! So thanks for your prayers. Ok..now I'm off.

Off we go

2006-07-31T14:02:00.000-04:00

Or off I go rather. The family is spitting up vacations. My parents could only get off time that I had to be here. So they're going to Maine but first I'm going to Rhode Island! Tomorrow! I'm looking forward to hanging out with my dear friends who have a whole itinerary planned out! Well, not quite, but I was quite impressed with all they planned.
When I get back, I have another job. This one is different from cleaning houses, selling Mary Kay, being a secretary, and painting murals. I don't think I mentioned that one yet. Well anyway, I'm going to be house sitting/dog sitting. I'm pretty excited and amused because I just don't do the dog thing. I had 2 dogs in my life. One was given away very quickly after we got him, and the other was adopted by my aunt Sharon.
So, I went to this lady's house yesterday, someone my mom works with, and met her FIVE dogs and four cats. Five dogs! I think she might find me abused and mangled on the floor when she gets back. Ok, really they were all nice dogs, so I don't have to worry about that. One looked mean but he was more scared then any of them. She showed me where I can sleep and she mentioned how the dogs like to sleep with her. I was like, Oh...which ones? and she said all of them do. oh my. So maybe i'll be mangled in my sleep, thats great. So here I am, going from not one creature stirring in my bed (not even the cat), to five big beasts a stirring. Maybe they can have the bed and I'll just sleep on the couch. Yeah, sounds good.

Well I have to pack.

Pray that I'll find my camera!!

Summer things

2006-07-19T22:18:00.000-04:00

Summer is just speeding along. I finished up my painting class on Tuesday. It was a good experienced and I learned alot. The class was just a room full of girls of all sorts of different ages and personalities. They were all nice and enjoyable. One time (another roach story!) I went into the girls restroom and when I was walking out, lo and behold there was a huge, sickly lookin roach trying to climb up the wall, but without success. I got out of there as fast as I could. Another girl in my class was walking towards the restroom and I neglected to tell her about the bug, figuring who else is really scared of those things? Well I was walking away and heard a very loud gasp. Oops...she quickly came back out and I apologized for not giving her any warning. She said, "It was like..tall." Some of the other girls left the room to go look at it or something. Um..yeah, so this class was pretty relaxed as you can tell. So thats my lil story.
My other lil story is when I was starting my self protrait, one girl asked where I was in the picture and I held my head high and said thats when I was in Israel, on the Sea of Galilee. She wowed and all that and asked me if it was religious. Then she told me that she went to NY city on a missions trip once. Hmm, interesting. The last day of class we were displaying all our paintings and when they were looking at my self portrait, she yelled, tell them where you are! So I had to announce to the class of me being in Israel. And I didn't mind of course.
So thats all over..sigh. I am thinking about pursuing more art classes, but probably not until next year. In other news, I did my first Mary Kay skin care classes. It's about time. Actually the first was with the church ladies. I thought it might be a fun thing to do together, and it was good practice for me because I had another class today with strangers. They both went really well. The one with strangers was with this lady that I met at Shapes. She goes there to sell jewelry and we swapped parties. I'm having one for her at the end of the month and if any of you local ladies would like to come please let me know. She has some really cute stuff. It was really storming weather today, so 2 of the girls didn't show up tonight at the party. So I only had 3 total, but at least I got 2 bookings out of it.
I'm looking forward to getting out of this stormy weather and heading up to the heat of the north. I'm leaving for Rhode Island on August 1st throught the 8th. Hurray! On the 10th my cousin is having her baby, then school will be in full swing shortly after that. At least this time I don't have to go at it alone!! I'm so exciting about having KJ go to my school. It's really hard for me to imagine, but the more I pass the school the more I picture us running across the street together to get to chapel on time. Haha. Just kidding, we should be fine. Ok then, I'm hoping to get some of my paintings up, but I want to finish them first. So maybe by next April??

Thanks!

2006-07-09T23:17:00.000-04:00

Thankyou to you ladies who helped me earn my pearls of sharing from Mary Kay. I've always wanted pearls ;)

Anyone need a happy reminder?

2006-07-01T22:22:00.000-04:00

Finally, a finished product.

2006-06-28T10:31:00.000-04:00

I've been in this class for over a month and this is the only painting I've finish, maybe. #1 and 2 still aren't done, but now I'm working on #4 so I don't know if I'll ever finish. This one was the fun one. We had to pick out an artist and copy their style. This painting was done with just a palet knife, no brushes.

I gotta run. I just got a call from my friend saying that everyone is asking her where the new Mary Kay Satin Hands stuff is at shapes and that I need to get down there quick cuz she don't have any. I guess squirting my potions and lotions really paid off.

Terror of the Fleas

2006-06-17T14:10:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone. It might be just me, but I think this is the most hilarious picture of my cat ever. I was laying on my bed and looked down at her and saw her all curled up in her bag peer at me through the hole. I had to laugh out loud because it just struck me as so cute.

Moving on...So this week I worked and yesterday I got my first paycheck from working with my director! I was pretty excited. But I had to hand it over to mom because i'm still in debt to her =/ Working for her was great. It's just been alot of fun and laid back. I cleaned her house on Wednesday and it was fun cuz I had the house all to my self. The husband has been telling me about how bad the fleas are in their yard since their dog died last week. I didn't really believe him about how bad he described it until yesterday. I just walked to their door and they called me over to the other door. I went inside and waited for Grace to get off the phone. After a few minutes I looked down and I was covered...COVERED in fleas!! They were crawling all over my jeans and working up to my shirt. It was terrible. I had a minor panic attack, went outside and started brushing them off. But when I brushed them off more would jump on. Well I got most of them off after a while, went back inside and spent the next 2 hours picking them off one by one. Then I kept feeling them all over after that. Ugh. It was really bad folks. I mean you go outside and suddenly you have a black leg. It was really that awful. They were sorta embarassed and felt really bad. After all, they were just jumping on me for some reason. Her husband went out there to spray them down so it was safe to go to my car after work. So thats my story.
Other then that I went to shapes total fitness with my friend (we do this about every 2 weeks)and sell MK. I was finally brave enough to go to the locker room and get the ladies some satin hands treatment by the sinks. At first they were like, oh my why is this girl bugging me, but after they did the treatment they were like, wow! how much is this stuff?? It's amazing. Then suddenly I wouldn't feel so weird about squirting potions and lotions at this total stranger.

Oh right... I have a blog.

2006-06-12T15:41:00.000-04:00

Ok...I don't know why I'm never blogging anymore. Now that I have more time on my hands I don't seem to want to anymore. I guess when I was in school I wanted an excuse to take a break from studying so I would write in my blog, which is still productive in a way. So anywho...this morning I worked for my mary kay director Grace. This is the 2nd time I worked for her. I've just been training for the most part. Learning where she keeps all her inventory (lots of creams, miracle sets, and makeup!) Shes been doing this for 7 years now and owns 2 pink caddys and is about to receive her new 2007 one pretty soon. I do filing for her and computer work. It's been fairly easy and enjoyable. I might be doing some house cleaning and even cooking for her in the future. It's interesting because she was a very shy person back in the day. She went to school for elementary education and taught for one year and that was enough for her. So she was a stay at home mom and then got into the Mary Kay buisness and blossomed into this social butterfly and was very successful making 100 grand a year. So I think she sees alot of herself in me and wants to see me succeed like she did. So hey, I'm not complaining! Oh, and to make something clear, I have sold over 1,000 in products but I haven't really earned anything for myself yet. I'm still in debt to my mom because she bought me my first order and we had to order enought to receive free products. So I'm not rich people! I'm in debt. But I'm quickly repaying it back. Phew! Now people can stop calling me for money =p .
So have you heard that we have a hurricane coming?? Well it's just a warning right now, but only 4 more mph winds and it's a hurricane...and one thats passing right over us. It's so early! How did this just sneak up on me like that? I didn't know about anything until yesterday. Why didn't we move to Dublin when we had the chance?? Sigh.
Signing out.

2006-06-03T23:13:00.000-04:00

Ok, its been eeeeons since i've written. So, the wedding was awesome and I felt so honored to be a part of it. It was so nice to see everyone again and to have them all hangin out in my hood, especially when we went bowling. After driving Marie to the airport at 5am I pretty much crashed... in my bed that is. I got a fever monday and tuesday it was still hanging on, but I felt alot better. Ok...I'm not feeling very creative so maybe i'll write the tails of a bride's maid later. But all is well. Painting class has been fun and Mary Kay is going very well so far. I have reach to selling 1,000 dollars in products. Yay! Maybe i'll quit college and make this my offical career, hows that sound?? hahaha. Ok, until next time.

strictly business

2006-05-14T22:59:00.000-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there!

I just wanted to get the word out that i'm a Mary Kay beauty consultant now and I posted my website link on the right. So if you ever feel the need to beautify yourself or buy a gift for someone you adore, this is the place to do it! Thanks, thats all!

and it begins again!

2006-05-11T15:46:00.000-04:00

Aww yes, summer break...roller coasters, movies, beaches, and of course Disney's Princess Classics on ice. My summer break was one that I'll never forget. But let me not focus on the past, it's time to move and get my focus on school again! Yeah, so after a week of summer break I'm back in school. But it's fun school (I hope) this time. Today was my first class of Painting I. After class was out I excitedly called Melissa up to talk about line, texture, balance, and all those elements of art AND STUDIO! woo! So about 6 hours of class time a week, then 10 extra hours of work outside of class. I guess I won't be remodeling the whole house again this summer =(
Although it will be alot of work for a summer course, I'm still really really excited about it!
In other news...I've been hunting around for a job. I've applied at Jo-Ann Fabrics, Famous Footwear. I got an application for Babies-R-Us but haven't done anything with that yet. My friend Amber might hook me up with a job too, and it's looking positive, but I won't say anything till I know for sure. Man, what a long post..peace out.

It's over

2006-05-06T12:23:00.000-04:00

It's all over folks. The last exam was on Wednesday which was American History. Those history exams are a killer. You have your multiple choice section, then you have 4 i.d.'s to write. That's writing a paragraph about a person or event. Then he had you write one out of 2 essays and I wrote about the civil rights movement from 1945 to 1965 and there is just not enough time to sqeeze all that info into an essay. But that was actually the exam I did the best on, but not good enough (grr). Then when I was done I walked outside and took a deep breath and smiled. I had accomplished one year of college, and survived! Of course after that, the running around wasn't quite over. I went out to celebrate, going to the beach, watching movies, riding roller coasters...etc. Then there was graduation, graduations parties, signing yearbooks, and then saying goodbyes..sigh.
I woke up this morning and I just don't really know what to do with myself. All my friends are hundreds of miles away now and there is no one at home. I thank God though that there is going to be a spectacular wedding soon...and I'll see people again and a few girls will be staying at my house. And up to that point I'll be so busy I'll be able to bury my blothpick (Zajone's "rebound effect")deep down inside my consciousness..muahhahaha, at least until my feelings reach that level of homeostasis. Yeah! I went to college!

Art...My New Direction?

2006-04-25T01:08:00.000-04:00

Well folks, only 9 more days and I'll be through with my first year of college. It's been a pretty good year, but maybe I can expound on that later. This week is "dead week" where there aren't suppose to be any tests (even though I have one Wednesday) or big papers or anything due. You just simply study for your exams, which start Saturday and go through to Wednesday. Then it's all summer fun from then on out. Well...no exactly. I was searching around today for places that were hiring, but no luck. I'm going to take a painting I class in Ybor at the community college. I decided that I need to take some kind of art class, just to see if that's something that I would like to concentrate on. Because really, this scattered academic thing isn't working for me. I feel at this point that I need to be focused on one subject and I'm realizing more and more (or being reminded) that I'm a visual person and maybe I should just focus on art. Yesterday, for example, I was having dinner at Olive Garden. I went to the restroom and when I walked into the bathroom I was thinking how the tiles were sorta bland, and if I would ever want something like that in my bathroom. Then I decided that I would if I had some deep red flowers in there to accent the copper color on the walls...Ahhhhh! Ok...it was at that point where I was like, ok...I think I need to give art a real try. My eyes have way more fun then my brain. So art has always been an interest of mine, and I was so into it during my high school days, but then it sorta wore off when I got to bible school. So everyone...I'm diving back in! We'll see how it goes. One problem is that I'm half way to getting my AA degree and it seems silly to stop now. So i'll probably get my degree, then move on from there to whatever I feel led to do. And hey, just for the fun of it, I'll tell you some of my art history. It all started when I was 13. I just wanted to see if I would like painting, so I got a picture of Van Gogh's starry night, and painted it. I spent hours and hours in my room painting this thing. After that I signed up for painting at school. Then one of my very few accomplishments in life happened. When I was a senior in high school, my art teacher suggested I enter into a high school art contest that was to take place at the Tampa Museum of Art. So I gave it a shot. The teacher and I built a huge canvas in class and I took it home and prayed that I would know what to paint on it. I tried a landscape, but I didn't like how it was turning out. So then I used a picture I took of some roses and painted that. It was submitted into the museum and then hung up for all to see. It was pretty exciting. I didn't win anything, but I was just happy to see my own work hanging up in the Tampa museum. The summer after high school I went to San Francisco to attend a high school art program where high school kids spent 6 weeks in the city going to the Academy Art College and taking 3 classes. I took painting, drawing, and photography. It was ALOT of fun. It was great to walk all around the city with my big ol' art board looking like a real artist. Those 6 weeks really helped my skills, especially in the drawing area. Well then it was off to bible school. I had an occasional burst of inspiration...like asking Elizabeth to be my model and painting her outside, having an art class with some of the girls by painting a bowl of fruit, and the drawings for the school yearbooks.
Well, I didn't really know where this post would go...but it all led to art. Here are just a few of my thoughts and I'm trusting God to lead me in the right direction.

Spring Banquet

2006-04-15T21:04:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday was the big school event of the year, the Spring Banquet. I just wanted to post a few pics.

This is the man that everyone looks up to, I mean down to, coach and "dorm-daddy" Rene and next to him my banquet escort Zach.

Cheesecake!

I don't really have an explaination for this one.

One week ago....

2006-04-09T15:49:00.000-04:00

So I've been wanting to write about this but haven't had the chance quite yet. Last Saturday night Mom, Dad, Robbie, Sharon, Katie and me went to this Christian coffee shop for "Open Mic Night" that they have the frist Saturday of every month. You already know where this is going! Well my dad and Robbie went to this last month and my dad got up and played a few of his songs. He did the same this time, played and sang 2 of his songs. Well I was already thinking about trying to sing something before we got there. A guy who works there started to walk around the room asking for people to sign up to sing or play something. He got to our table and I was still a little scared but I asked if I could see the songs they have available for karoke. I saw "I'll fly away" on there and thought it was the hymn because I know that some modern day christian groups sing it, but I didn't reckonize the group FFH. The guy came back a few minutes later and said that he would sign me up and if I didn't want to do it then I didn't have to (yeah right!). So after a hour or so it was my turn to sing. I told them my name and where I was from and that I went to college. They started to play the song and it definately wasn't the hymn. So, kinda embarrassed, I had to tell them to stop it and because it wasn't what I thought it would be. Well they asked me what I wanted to sing and they got out a hymn book. Then one guy got up on the stage to play the keyboard, one guy got on the drums, and a lady came up to be my back up singer! It was pretty exciting. So I "sang" and I told people to have mercy and to sing along..please. So people sang along, clapped their hands and shouted some nice things. What an adrenlin rush. After I was done they wanted me to sing something else but I couldn't decide on another hymn under so much pressure so I got off stage and headed towards my table. People cheered and shook my hand as I went back to my seat. There weren't alot of young people there, maybe 3 others my age and a few kids that Katie played with. It was alot of fun and I plan on going back next month, this time prepared with at least 2 songs.

Naomi

2006-04-06T18:02:00.000-04:00

she has some kind of power that makes me sleepy all the time

Kimberly's Visit

2006-03-31T21:11:00.000-05:00

Another visitor! This time it was Kimberly coming down during her spring break to visit my college to see if she would really want to come here. So who knows! This is a pic of us in front of the school chapel and she got hooked up with a whole box of strawberries, some sort of bribe I presume. Well I say, if thats what it takes to get her here then bribe away! =p
So, she got here around Tuesday evening and I picked her up and we went straight to school because there was a film festival going on so we went to that so she could soak up all the FC environment possible to get an idea of what it's all about. Then on to Chic-fil-a! But anyway...her and her dad had an official tour while I was locked away in a room with my councelor trying to decide what classes to sign up for for next semester. We met back up and went to chapel. After that KJ came to my music literature and psychology class. THEN we met up with her dad and ate in the cafeteria (my first time ever!) and sat with some of the admissions people. Then a little later they both attended my NT bible class. That was great having MR. M sitting behind me like a student. One of the students walked in and was very startled to see him sitting there and was like, "Whoa! You're not one of the usual students." Fun times.
By the way let me tell you my classes for next year...and no, no bowling OR golf this time!
For PE this time I'm gonna get toned and fit in a 8am Aerobics class
then I have...
Intermediate French
Old Testament Poetry and Wisdom Literature
Liberal Arts Math
New Testament Epistles: Ephesians& Colossians
Marriage and the Family
and....Voice Class!

Hello there...

2006-03-21T13:46:00.000-05:00

Hey...so it has been a while since i've written. I decided to do it now since I have 10 minutes before class starts. So...I'm so thankful for a wonderful spring break! The first few days Fritha, her cousin Amanda, and I shopped non-stop for our bride's maid dress. Oh and for those of you who don't know, I'm going to be a bride's maid at Jeff and Fritha's wedding =) I was just excited to go to a wedding because it's been so long, but to actually be in one!!...I was thrilled. So it was a little bit of a trial, but a fun one. For me at least. First we were looking for formal dresses, then we switched back to casual. And first we were looking for different colors, then switched back to blues. Oy! So I did find a dress but returned it and found another dress the next day that was blue. Amanda found her a dress too so all was well.

On Wednesday Fritha and I got up at 5am and flew up to New Hampshire. It was so nice to see all the 3rd year girls and some others that I hadn't seen in a while. I even met a few new people. So it was a great time of fellowship and worship. The meetings really met my heart and I heard some things that I needed to hear. Well class is about to start now, but I just wanted to let people know that I'm still alive!! God bless!

1 class down 6 to go

2006-03-01T22:56:00.000-05:00

Yay! It is finally done. The movie project, that is. It was showed today in class and I stayed up till 3:30am working on it last night. The procrastinating stunt man came up with a good idea for the movie. He suggested that we take some footage from the "bushman group", which is a group of guys that do crazy pranks in the middle of the night. So I got some footage and we interviewed some of the guys last night. I went home and editted my little heart out. It was fun actually. I love doing this kind of stuff. The exciting thing now is I finally got a firewire link on my computer so I can get my footage from my camera to the computer. So hopefully you'll be seeing some video blogs. Hooray for a saturday afternoon activity! Everyone liked the film by the way. I didn't win the ultimate prize (I don't even know what it was) but i'm sure I would of gotten 2nd place if there was the opportunity. So...there ya have it. I just wanted to let everyone know that i'm still alive and that intro to windows class is over!! Now...I need to start this research paper thats due on Monday =/ theres always something.

Geared up and ready to go

2006-02-20T22:47:00.000-05:00

Yes, so it's 11pm and I just got some dunkin' donuts ice coffee and i'm ready to go! I don't really need to stay up late, but I'm in the cramming spirit. Plus, I won't have anytime to do it tomorrow. Tomorrow we're playing basketball against a real sporty society, then there is Arete meeting, then math lab. So I'm going to attempt to work on my psychology research paper tonight, or at least get a good start on it. I had to pick a chapter from the text book and write about how that section could be useful to christians, and how it's biblical..or not biblical. Nice assignment huh? It is nice actually, at any other college a psychology class would be so humanistic and anti-christian.
Lets see...what else is going on...ah yes, another group project is in the works at school and you know how I love those. This is for good ol' intro to windows class and my group is the only group with just two people. We kinda got the short end of the stick. So I'm stuck with Cody and it's not necessary a bad thing, but when I asked him today if he wanted to get together for some brainstorming, he was like, "I can't today. I'm going diving this afternoon." Diving?? "Oh that's cool cuz I was just going to do some rock climbing..yeah, so maybe tomorrow then." What on earth?? Did I get stuck with a procrastinating stunt man. Just my luck. I actually asked if he wanted to start planning 3 weeks ago. What was I thinking? Haven't I learned by now that people don't like to get things done and over with like me. I need to just let things go until 3 days before the project and then gear up my working under pressure panic skills. The project by the way is to make a movie with windows movie maker. Kinda funny, because lately i've been playing around with that anyway and now i'll get a grade for it. I just haven't a clue to what were going to do it about yet(maybe diving??).

2006-02-16T23:57:00.000-05:00

Naomi just wanted to say hey to everybody.

Lecture Week

2006-02-10T22:41:00.000-05:00

Alright Claire...a new post 2 years later. Sorry about my stale blog. Tonight is the night to freshen it up a little since the Sabbath is finally here. Well this week has been one of the highlight weeks of the school semester. It has been "lecture week" and I surrived it. It reminded me alot of the feast. We had people from all the over the United States coming to Tampa and some gave lectures. The theme of the week was "Portraits of Isaiah." Bible classes, p.e. classes, and chapel were cancelled, which was great for me. All week I only had 1 or 2 classes to go to a day. I made it to 3 lectures. The first was about a sunday school curriculum that a church made up and it got me inspired. Now I want to put up some interactive bill boards in my classroom...but we'll see, haha (and speaking of sunday school, I officially have a brand new student...the one that I wrote a while ago that could burp the alphabet). Another one I went to was biblical artifacts in U.S. museums and the last one was one looking into the book of Isaiah. All very interesting and enriching. I wish I could have gone to more, like the womens lectures. So the school was doubled in size. Student's families, pastors, missionaries, and the like. Very interesting.
Thankyou all who commented on my last post. My mom read each one out loud to my dad and they appreciated the different opinions. I think they are actually planning on moving up there in a few years..they are actually in that mind set now. Kinda scary. Now I just need to decide what I'm going to do. To go with, or to not go with?? I always thought that someday I'll end up living up there. It's just in my blood, there is no escaping it.
In other news...this is a pic of my new baby cousin, or 2nd cousin, Aubrey Marie. How cute is she?? I finally saw her for the first time tonight and she was born early-mid December. She slept the whole night then at last woke up and opened her pretty blue eyes. It has been like 10 years since we've had a baby in the family, so everyones real excited.

lets take a poll

2006-01-30T23:34:00.000-05:00

My parents got really "giddy" (term my dad used), when they read about the house for sale on Charcoal road in Dublin in the last church newsletter. They were really excited about it. They looked it up online and almost wanted to sell this house on the spot and move. They are ready to get out of the traffic, the heat, and the ghettoness that is building around us. Now that a few days have past, they realize more and more how unrealistic it would be to move there..or at least not right now. Dad has 3 more years until retirement, so we have to hold out until then. Also, mom kinda dreads the snow and year round winters, but does think of it as a nice alternative to the city life. Oh goodness, I just couldn't imagine me living in Dublin!! But who knows what will happen. This has opened their eyes to possibilities for the future. Of course that house won't be for sale forever, but probably some house in the area will be when it comes time to pack up and move. Well ya'll pray about it and mom wanted me to take a poll of what you guys think of us living there...could we really handle the snow, cold, ice, long commutes, and the chilling silence of the night? Let us know.

My Back

2006-01-25T22:47:00.000-05:00

So this is my back...I just think chiropractics is so fasinating so I had to post my back results. I went to Healing Hands today to get my back checked out. I don't have any big back pain or anything but last time I went regularly my consentration rate was up and it took care of other minor aches and pains going on. It was exciting to see this graphic of my spine activity...the technology these days I tell ya. The left figure is the ideal person and to the right is me. Ha ha ha, alot of activity going on. I'm so used to the old fashioned Keene Chiropractor, where he slaps you on a table, lays his hands on your back, says a prayer and you're done. Here there there were tests after tests and then a crazy table that made me feel like I was floating in stormy water. Then finally the adjustment (popcorn) precedure. What fun. Oh and I found out that I have scoliosis, huh, think of that. It's not that bad really but we're going to see if we can treat that during future visits.

Contents of my mother's closet

2006-01-19T19:03:00.000-05:00

Hold on to your seats everybody. This is not a drill. The contents you see in this photograph may be disturbing but it is reality. Reality that still lays all over the living room couch, floor, table, piano, and cat. This is half the contents of my parent's room. It seems much worst once you have it all spread out in the open like this.

So this is my current mission. Hopefully one day soon my parents will have a beautiful, neat, peaceful bedroom. I wish I could kick them out for a weekend so I can finish.

Correct Form: the foundation of a good bowler

2006-01-16T23:09:00.000-05:00

The first week back to school went good. I love all my professors and I am assigned a chapel seat by friends! Hurray. It has always been kinda stressful before sitting in between 2 girls I didn't know and trying to come up with something to talk about a minute before the singing and chapel began. Now I can relax because i'm among friends and who cares if we have great discussions or not. The best incident of all this week was when I hit my leg with the bowling ball in bowling class. I never really knew my form was all wrong. So it was my turn to bowl and I wanted to do it right.. when it came to the letting go of the ball part (um..i.e. bowling) my brain and legs were fighting each other and I didn't know what to do. So at the last second somehow the ball smacked my leg and rolled gracefully into the gutter. That is what happens in the awkward stage of bowling form correction and you can really hurt yourself in the process... *sigh*. Now I have a huge, awesome bruise on the back of my leg. Alright, well the holiday (I actually got it off today!!) is over now so I shall go read about America or psychology or music or possibly the correct way to bowl.

2006-01-15T23:21:00.000-05:00

Jerusalem's Shouq

Watch the video

The market place in new city of Jerusalem.

Hello Vloggerdom!

2006-01-15T23:20:00.000-05:00

Ok everyone check out my awesome video. Well it's my first ever played with on the computer...and don't laugh at the music! Actually you can. It was music that came with the computer. That and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 were my only music options. This is only done with my digital camera. I haven't even begun to play around with my video camera yet. I can just tell this is going to consume me and completely end my social life once and for all. And p.s. hope Shouq is spelled right, is it?. Its been a while.

The chase is on

2006-01-10T21:39:00.000-05:00

The nights of late and days of short are over now that school is back in session. I had a wonderful time with Melissa. I told her to bring some of my stuff that I left up in the bible school attic. Well good thing because she brought me my snow suit! And my ski boots. She almost brought my huge mary poppins snow coat but I stopped her in time. She didn't really realize that she brought my snow gear. She just saw the sheets on the top of the bag and just grabbed it, but that was pretty funny. The next day we went to swim with the manatees. I'm becoming a pro at this. Well I suggested it since it was such a neat experience and saw one online for only $25. Hahaha..well you get what you pay for. Actually it was an interesting experience and just another one of those Melissa and Lisa episodes that I wouldn't give back for the world. So the guy told me that the place looks like disney world, so I couldn't miss it. Oh yeah, disney world all right. More like a little blue shack on the side of the rode with a fire pit and a cadillac in the yard. Actually I guess it was a little like disney world because of the mermaids, manatees, and octopus on the building.
It was sorta looking like we were the only ones going on the tour and sure enough we were. We hopped in the van and drove to Crystal River. It was like going with family. It was us, the tour man, and his wife (I think). Everytime they spoke Melissa and I perked up our ears to hear what interesting fact he was stating about manatees, but everytime he was only talking to his wife about the errands they needed to run after the tour. We got out to a little cove and we got to the end of the boat to get ready to jump when he told us to. Unexpectedly he said that he was going to poor warm water down our wet suits so when we got in the river we wouldn't feel the cold so much. So yeah...he dumped water on us, and it was pretty chilly I thought. Well one manatee was spotted so he cried out, "jump, jump girls!". So franticly we jumped in the water and started to swim towards the swirls. You have to understand that there were 3 other tour boats out there. So the people, manatee ratio was like 35 to 2. It was so dark and murky so it was sorta frighting to look down towards the darkness and watch for a 2,000 pound cow to emerge. Well we did chase a mom and her calf and Melissa touched the tail or something. We got back on the boat and searched other areas of the river. We spotted another one and swam after it. Another problem was that we were catching them during nap time. So when we spotted one we would have to hover over it for 10 minutes and wait for it to emerge to get a breath. That wasn't really too fun. Then once it started to stir we would hear the tour guide screaming, "Get in front of them!". So we were scrambling to swim ahead so we could cut it off and maybe get a chance to play with it. We never were able to get in front, they were just too fast. One time we spotted one and we were both chasing after a mom and a calf and it disappeared from my sight but Melissa was going full force after them and I was left behind. Actually I heard them shouting from the boat to get another one that they spotted. So I hesitated, looked over to see Melissa swimming further and further away and looked back at the boat. I really hated chasing them all on my own. It was scary in that murky water and I saw big fish with needle noses swimming around..and the sun! The sun was playing nasty tricks on my eyes under the water. So many lurky shadows. Well I swam but couldn't find where the manatee went. Another time we huddle over a manatee for a while as it dozed and more and more people gathered around. Once it stirred the whole swarm of people started chasing the manatee. I got kicked and I think I punched someone. It was dangerous business. No one caught it before it settled back down on the bottom. Well you get the picture. It was a hunting mission and not a very successful one. But really the warm and windy whether was to blame.
The next day we decided to go to the mall and the first minute we walked in, a boy walked up to us and gave us this whole speel of how he lost his money and his i.d. and that he was such a nerd for telling us all this. Our favorite line, "You guys are like my best friends right now." We tossed him a few bucks and kept walking. We still can't figure out if it was a big scam or not..but most likely.
After a day of rest to try to get rid of our colds (Mel especially) we drove up to GA. It was a great rode trip. I brought my video camera and we taped some highlights of our trip like stopping at a citus station to see the 13 foot gator on display and also me accidently driving though a truck weigh station because I thought it was our exit. When we got there we had an awesome little get together with friends and played some mind boggling games. The best part was getting the tour of 3 beautiful houses and being able to stay in one. Then on Sunday I drove back home all alone and got home around 12:30am. The trip was very inspirational in a few ways. One, I'm now inspired to get my video clips hooked up so I can start video blogging. Oh, this is mostly because of a Saturday spent at Brad & Claire's watching some sweet video blogs. It was also inspiring just to be with friends and getting to know people better. It just gives me fresh courage for a new semester of school. The batteries were charged so to speak.
So how about I write about my first day back at school some other day since I have written way over my normal boundaries.

Happy New Year

2006-01-02T00:48:00.000-05:00

Well it's that time of year again. The time when it gets cool enough to get out in the garage and get rid of some junk. Last year over Christmas break we cleaned the right side of the garage and that was enough work for the year. Friday we attempted to clean the left side which has alot more stuff to sort through. We got a late start so didn't accomplish all that much except filling 5 trash bags. Last year we filled 15. A majority of that stuff hasn't even been looked at since we moved in the house in 1992, so you can just imagine the goodies we find. Such as this lovely mouse skeleton that apparently died as it was eating through the cookbook.

Let this be a reminder to us of the consequences of gluttony.
My cousin found a diary that I had when I was 7 or something and page after page said how I love cats, how I love my friends, how I love my cousin (who found the diary) and love, love, love. I used to be such a loving little person. So we didn't get the whole side cleared out but we did make a hole and maybe, just maybe some day we'll be able to fit a car in there! Wow, I just can't imagine it.

I just love this cat! She grants such joy to our quiet little house hold. This is one of her favorite napping spots, right on top of a plastic bag. Not exactly what I would think of as a comfortable sleeping spot, but whatever floats her boat.
Changing the subject again..I'm going to have another visitor! Melissa is flying in tomorrow and we're going to hang out here for a few days then road trip up to GA then i'll leave her there and drive back home in time for school. God is good! Two visitors within one holiday break. God bless.

It's late

2005-12-23T02:08:00.000-05:00

Break has been going very well for me. First of all this is my new kitty Naomi. She likes the computer just as much as I do. It has been a joy having her in our family. She brings a fresh wave of joy and stress in the household. The joy is when she curls up on the couch with me to watch a movie and when she leaps a few feet in the air like a lemer at the sound of nothing. The stress is when she attacks everything on the bottom end of the Christmas tree. My poor tree has nothing on the bottom of it because everything attacked has been moved up to the top where the cat can't reach. So it's looking a lil unbalanced, so I don't like to look at it much.
Towards the end of last week Elizabeth from the hills came to visit me. Another fresh wave of joy and stress. Just kidding about the stress part, but we shared lots of joy going out to a cuban restaurant where she dared to try yuka (some kind of root) and also dared to ride the roller coaster at Busch Gardens that shoots 90 degrees downward that I have yet been able to ride. She went on with me! That made my day. Another thing she dared to do with me was to play golf. I took her to the driving range and was happy to see my coach there because he gave us a good discount. She never tried golf before and said towards the end that she was very humbled by the sport. We had a good time. I would hit the ball and hear her swing 9 times and finally on the 10th time she hit the ball and it bounced 3 feet in front of her. Oh the joy. But really...she did get the hang of it and did rather well because I wasn't hearing her swing at the air anymore but saw the ball sail through the air. So lets give a hand to all the brave activities she took on without much hesitation.
While she was in town the church had their Christmas program. Two members of the church and I have been working for weeks trying to set up a marionette show for the church. I suggested we do the play "Gifts for Madge and Guy" like the bible school did last year at the dessert banquet. Here is a picture of the marionettes and the stage set up as a little town. The play itself went pretty well and plan on doing a few more performances.

Today it was about 60 degrees. I went to Busch Gardens and people were bundled up like they were going skiing. I just don't understand these Florida people anymore. Here I was wearing a short sleeved t-shirt and wanting to go on water rides. My cousins thought I was coo-coo. Later on we went to Chuch-E-Cheese to my friend Amber's daughter's b-day party. I beat her brother, boyfriend, and cousin in the basketball game they have there. Hurray for the high on the pedestal moments in life. Here is a pic of Amber and me. She has been my buddy since art class in 11th grade.

Merry Christmas everyone! I'm excited =)

2005-12-12T23:24:00.000-05:00

THE FINALS ARE OVER AND DONE!! MY FIRST COLLEGE SEMESTER IS OVER!!

Plop

2005-12-07T21:14:00.000-05:00

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer- Romans 12:12

I was just skimming through a bible promises for the graduate book and wanted to put some kind of quote in just for the fun of it. This one just sorta sums it up for me.
Tomorrow is the last day of class. I repeat. The last day of class! Crazyness. Friday is study day, so no classes that day. Saturday I have 3 exams and 2 exams on Monday. I'm trying to not to stress out and it's certainly working because I'm always doing something fun and keep forgetting to study.
Well Monday wasn't too fun actually. On Tuesday we had to give a group presentation on the special olympics and it's worth 30% of our grade. Our group met up once last week and they talked about everything except the actual project. Then Sunday I went to meet them and no one showed up! Kids! They are way to relaxed these days. So Monday rolls around and I'm like..ok...maybe it's time to work on our speech?? I did at least know what I was suppose to research. I went to the dorm to see if I could skout out the girls in the group and found one. She apologized for not showing up because she was watching a movie that night. Well I just smiled and politely asked if we were going to get together today since the speech is TOMORROW. She was going to find the rest of the group and then call me later. Well I go on campus around 8. Does she ever call?? What do you think? So I just hung around, walked in the pouring rain, and listened to my friend tell me how my group was going to fail and that was that. Thanks. I did find the girl in the library working on our powerpoint around 10 and she said she ran into the rest of the group earlier and got some information and said I could send the research I got her whenever. Whenever?? It's 10:30 at night and we give our speech tomorrow morning! Well I remained calm, went home and sent her my information. So the next day the group finally arrived to class and the one who was speaking about my research just shugged me off when I wanted to talk to him and make sure he knew what to say. Well ok...I'll just sit here and hope everything goes well. One member didn't even dress up and we were all suppose to be in our sunday best. In conclusion, although we totally didn't deserve it, we received a decent B grade. I'm glad that's over with and I decided that I don't like working in groups anymore.
Tuesday afternoon I was invited to play golf with some other students. It was the best game ever! I got par 2 times and I never have before. And it was nice to keep up with the other members of the group. And I had forgotten the joy of driving a golf cart =) The whole experience just made me love the game even more. I tell you, there is no greater joy then to hit the golf ball, lose sight of it for 4 seconds, then see it plop so pretty on the green.
Then today I went to the zoo for extra credit in biology. So now to study or not to study? It's awfully late now, how bout bed instead? Sounds good to me. I'm the worst student ever.

break and such

2005-11-29T22:31:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving Break!!! is so over. But it was really awesome! This week at school I crave for people not just to ask how my break was but what I did during the break. But no one ever did so I had to tell them to ask me.
So some friends came down from NJ and PA (hint hint) so my fellow graduate and I had our 5 month reunion. They joined my family on Thanksgiving and we had a good time. I forgot how crowded our Thanksgivings were. I also forgot how our family makes way too much food every time. We had 3 turkeys, and like 15 different kinds of pie. That night I went down to Apollo Beach and stayed there the rest of my break. The next day we went sailing! I had never even been on a sailboat before and then suddenly I was steering and sailing all by my little self. I almost capsized at the very beginning but balanced myself out and then bursted forth into the water. Four of us were out there shooting the breeze. Really there wasn't much of a breeze, but just enough to learn on and have a little fun.
The day after that I did just what this picture shows. I got into a wicked tight unbreathable wetsuit, put on my neon flippers and bonded with a calf just like this one. I was kinda intimatidated by the huge adult manatees so I chilled out with the baby. They love to be rubbed on their stomachs and in their armpits if you ever get the chance to swim with them. I was swimming with Jeff and Kathy towards the deep part where the spring is and suddenly a huge 6 foot tarpon emerged out of the deep with its mouth gaping open. My heart skipped a beat but I was surprised at how calm I was. Then we snorkled around in another spring, no manatees, but it was a beautiful spot. The water was warmish and very clear.
Anyways...back to school again. When I mentioned how I swam with the manatees some gave me a puzzled look. Oh yeah, their not from florida so some didn't know what they looked like and we had to google it. Today was my golf tournament. It was pretty anticlimatic having found out about it just today that it was going to be today. I was planning on practicing real games and everything but never got the chance. Me and my friend Jane were the only girls that showed up. They put me in a group of 3 and we had alot of fun. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get through the course. I got bit up so bad by stupid mosquitoes. It was a nice warm night, kinda muggy because it rained all day yesterday. Well I didn't do so hot, but its been like 4 years since I've played a game. So I feel like I'm being very vague right now and I'm too lazy and tired to get into detail. Peace out.

Happy Thanksgiving

2005-11-24T13:50:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday in church we wrote out a list of things we were thankful for and shared them with one another. Let me see if I can recall my list...
First of all, I'm thankful to be home for thanksgiving! It's been 4 years since I've spent Thanksgiving with the family. Last 3 year's dinners were spent at NJ and RI. Then 4 years ago I was just remembering that I had to work that day. So yay for not having a job or being away! And I am very grateful to the families for inviting me to their Thanksgiving dinners, it was such a blessing to go to a home away from home.
I am also thankful for college. Tuesday, after the last class before break, I got all blothpicky heading home. I actually missed school! Or it might of been that usually this time of year I'm packing up and going somewhere exciting, and instead I get to drive 2 miles down the rode like I do everyday and that's it, this is the break. All the other students pack up and drive/fly away home. But that's ok..Oh yeah, school. School is going so well. I've had my points when I just wanted to run away and go to the nearest community college, but then I have other days where I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I'm just so blessed and forget it all the time. Like one evening some of us from school went downtown and had a picnic at a university, and I was walking around wishing that I could go to a big school like that. Then the students of that school started to emerge and when I listened to how they talk and act it reminded me to be thankful for the school God has lead me to, at least I don't have to ever put up with that kind of behavior. This semester I've only heard one cuss word, and the occasional immature remarks or singing during chapel. That's it! I would of done anything to be in that kind of environment during high school. In high school I had to deal with language every minute, skimpy clothes, fights breaking out in the cafeteria, crude behavior, bathrooms catching on fire because people tossing their lit up weed or cigarettes in the trashcan, etc..........Sorry for the tangent.
Now I'm out of time, but Praise the Lord for the thorns as well as the roses.

Giddy about Golf

2005-11-18T23:06:00.000-05:00

Last night the school put on the play Harvey. Ahh, I just love it. I watched it for the first time at the old Tampa Theater last summer with my dad on father's day and it was so good. I was excited to hear that FC was going to perform it. So... I would say that it was the best $3 I've ever spent. The funny parts were when they replaced liquor terms, in the orginal movie, with cajun wings. The part where Jimmy Stewart lights up a cigerette is replace with eating orginal glazed donuts. Ahh..the joys of going to a christian school.
Oh and I haven't donated plasma yet. After searching 3 different places for the donation center, I didn't even have the right paper work so I couldn't do it that day. It was a failed mission.
This afternoon my parents and I were going to go out to eat at Carraba's and mom mentioned how she wished the place had butter for the bread instead of just the olive oil you dip it in. Well we went there and it wasn't going to open until 4, so we went to some other Italian restaurant. The food was really good and we had a wonderful time. It was the same idea about the bread. No butter, just oil. So lo and behold I glance up and mom is buttering her bread from a stick of butter she stored away in her purse (at least it was in a ziplock bag). So I thought that was pretty funny and threatened her of putting this in my blog. Well, it's not like she cares so it wasn't much of a threat. I'm sure she feels clever about the whole butter idea and wants the world to do the same. So there is a solution for you antidipping people. Pro-Spread!
In other news...In about 3 weeks there will be a golf tournament. We have had unsuccessful attempts at softball and football and now the golf season lays heavily apon us. Or more like heavily apon me. There can be only 4 on the team and guess what?? No one wants to sign up. Well, I've been looking forward to this all year so I was the first one on the list and I guess some other guy finally gave in and decided to do the martyr role and sign. Great! 2 people. Well pa-shaw on all those who are missing out on such a great opportunity. I already have started to practice my putting skills in golf class and am going to start playing some real games this week. Now I want to go to the store and get some lil golfing shoes and gloves and hire my own personal caddy and golf cart driver. hehehe. Ok, I'm becoming giddy. I bid you good night.

Quotes, Banquet, and a random ?

2005-11-15T12:09:00.000-05:00

More mom quotes...

"Lets see if I can clear some of my clutter." Mom and me were sitting in the drive-thru for the bank and as we wait she decides to clean her purse out. She says this as she pulls out 6 medical gloves that she always brings home from work.

"I just need a loaf of bread with a stereo."

"Can you smell my feet and tell me if they smell like gas?" This was too funny how it sounded. Well earlier that day she somehow spilt gas on her feet when she was filling up the car.

Dad finds a pinecone in the yard and attempts to throw it in the trash but mom came to its rescue, "Don't throw it away, the grandkids can play with it." Anyone up for a painful game of catch? Well she was actually thinking that the kids can create little christmas trees with them, so if they start saving up pinecones now they'll have enough to make crafts in 10 years...again...the whole grandkid thing??

Ok, enough of that. So I was scared to post this picture of me and only me but I finally decided to do it (I'll just make it really small). So here I am at the Fall Banquet. It was on Friday night at a beautiful hotel and I had a lovely time. Everyone got all prettied up and sat at a table with 12 other people. Some of the teachers spoke, we sang hymns, watched a slide show and listened to live music as we ate. Then of course took alot pictures. I following my friend around as she hopped from one person to the next because I think she thought I was her personal photographer for the evening.

Has anyone ever donated plasma? Well I'm doing it tomorrow for some gas money. I'll let you know how it goes.

The End.

Hurray!

2005-11-10T16:01:00.000-05:00

Victory! I feel happy and relieved at this moment. Scary assignments are finally behind me. First of all, I survived the girls dorm just fine last Friday. We did nothing to do with Star Wars. It was a fun night spent with friends, and after curfew more and more girls came into the room I was staying in. I think there were up to 7 of them in the room and the youngins kept me up until 2am.
This has been an interesting week. The annual Fall Banquet is tomorrow, so the whole week is themed around it. Monday was twin day, Tues was "Girl be nice to Guy day," meaning the girls have to do something nice for whoever they are going to the banquet with. It was funny to watch all the girls swarm around the mail room with their chocolates and little notes with ribbons tied around them. Then there is hillbilly day. Then today is "Guy be nice to Girl day." Such excitement in the air. I wish you could hear the sarcastic way I just said that in my head. So lets talk about the important stuff...our last football game was on Tuesday and GUESS WHAT!!! yeah, we lost. So the football season is now over and next is what I've really been waiting for...GOLF! That starts in a few weeks.
Today I gave my last and final speech! It's been a burden on me for a month now. It was fun though. I started with my opening sentence, then my teacher is like, "Hold on, don't start yet" oops. Then I started over again and the projection died and I lost my powerpoint. So I had to start yet again! The class and I got a laugh after I said, "I read in the St. Petersburg Times..." for the 3rd time. When everyone is done with their speeches the class will pick 4 finalists and then we split into groups and do a group presentation. So we'll see....
And the last cool thing that happened was me and a kid were talking and I was telling him how I kept the sabbath and a few other things that our church do. Now he wants to have a bible study about the sabbath (he thinks it would be a good practice, think of that!) and did Jesus really keep it. He says that Jesus never did, and if he did then it was only until he died on the cross and then no one had to keep it anymore. This is what the whole school believes. So if you have any suggestions on what I can say or look up in scripture just let me know. I have ideas of course, but maybe you can point something out that I haven't noticed before. Sometime soon I'm also suppose to talk/have a bible study with some of the girls about courtship. What fun.

Just a thought...by Mrs.Krunk

2005-11-05T23:07:00.000-05:00

One of my patients recently told me her brother died. I wasn’t sure if this was true or not, but I told her I was sorry and asked her questions about him, was he younger, older, etc? Any other siblings living? But the most amazing part to me was when she said, "I guess that $500.00 is gone in the grave with him." I didn’t really know what to say about that, so I just agreed with her. But then, she said, "I loaned him that money in 1947 and he never gave it back." Wow!! That blew me away. I told her I thought she should forgive him and let him rest in peace since it’s almost 60 years. I don’t know what she thought, but I thought, Lord help me to be a forgiving person and to not hold a grudge against someone ever. Well, my lesson for the week, month, or year.

Unknown World

2005-11-04T15:06:00.000-05:00

Tonight, I will attempt to sleep in unknown territory. The girl's dorm that is. It will be my first time staying there and I'm scared of what I might encounter. They have already talked of playing risk...Star Wars version. Noooooooooooo! And then watching Star Wars III. Double Nooooooooooo! So now I prepare myself, body and soul, at home before the long journey before me. I'll let you know how it goes...if I'm still alive to tell it.

Destined to be Old...Always

2005-11-03T00:20:00.000-05:00

Well here I am. No, not as Mama from Mama's House, but as Little Red Ridinghood's grandmother for Halloween.

Football was fun once again. I got to be the quarterback for one play because no one else can catch a football. We did alot of double passes and once a triple pass, all being passed off to me I might add. I finally ripped a flag off of a girl today, I always tend to miss. Oh, and did I mention that we lost?

Queen of Croquet

2005-10-31T22:34:00.000-05:00

(Uncle) Joe didn't know what was coming to him when he invited me to play with the big boys in croquet the other night. I demoslished them all, hahahaha. I didn't really expect to, but it just happened. They said it was the golf lessons i'm taking. Yeah, whatever. I have to rub it in their face somehow and putting on my blog is the #1 solution.
Anywho, life has been busy. I should be doing homework right now, but as always, I play on the computer instead. I figure blogging is part of homework too. It's more important to stay in touch with my friends then learn about DNA replication and the Punic Wars. Actually, now that I've mentioned the Punic Wars, its really been my week's fasination. I'm doing a book report on Hannibal and have to write an essay for the History test coming up on the Punic Wars. And every once and a while mom will shout from the living room, "The Hannibal story is on tv." Yay! I put down the book and snuggle on the couch and watch what I should be reading.
Phonathon is finally over! I only went to two of them. Today they annouced that we won 1st place! So we're not really total losers after all. Speaking of losing, we lost another football game. I actually had fun playing that time, which is a break-through for me. Especially with football. I think deep inside I miss the girls crying out SPORTS TONIGHT! in the kitchen when we were cleaning up after dinner. I would always sigh and struggle with the decision to go or not. But now that i'm with my level of sports people I feel more confident and pumped up to give it all I got for the losers. Man, I can't wait till we start volleyball!
So tonight I went tricker treating with some cousins. I was going to Deb from Nypolean Dynamite. I got a poser outfit and it just wasn't quite right. I figured if it wasn't perfect then no one would have a clue of who I was suppose to be. I ended up being grandma from little red riding hood. My cousin was little red and my uncle, the wolf. Why is it that when I dress up i'm either old, poor, or just tacky?
Ok, need to get back to work. I have 2 tests and a huge speech that's worth 20% of my grade coming up on Friday. Woo!

A beautiful day to have a hurricane

2005-10-24T12:53:00.000-04:00

Alright, so I didn't have to use my emergency bag today as I had thought a week ago. Oh my goodness, it's such a beautiful day!! I love hurricanes. And it's cold. I opened the doors this morning and really didn't expect to feel 60 degree winds blowing in my face. I dashed around the house turning off the a/c and opening all the windows. Now the sun has just come out. Another happy moment was when classes got cancelled today, so my fall break that I've been on has been extended one more day. Ok, well it's just looking too good outside and I must get out there.

Homework?? The World is Coming to an End!

2005-10-18T23:20:00.000-04:00

On Sunday my pastor had a really good service. It was a definite wake up call for all of us. He talked about being ready for the end times. He didn't focus on the spiritual part so much as the practical part, and it was really interesting. If an emergency were to happen and you had to evacuate, could you leave your home in one hour? Oh sure, that's easy, I thought. But actually when I got home and started looking at all the stuff I had, it was a little overwhelming. What would I grab and what would I be able to live without? How could I leave my house in just one hour? Well he asked us this question. He talked about some of the troubles going on today in the world, like the spreading of the bird flu, earthquakes, and hurricanes. Then he showed us a duffle bag he bought from the flea market and suggested that we make ourselves an emergency bag just in case we ever did need to leave our home in a hurry. Store it in your closet or car.
Later that day when my mom and I got home from our outings, dad said that there was a storm forming and could become a strong hurricane going straight into Tampa. I was like, ok... time to make my emergency bag now. I was really amazed. Did the Lord really just give us a head's up and to make sure we're prepared? Mom already had some bookbags she bought so we started making the bags up. Mine still isn't completely ready, but almost!
Well it is a hurricane now and it looks like it's going more towards the keys, but it's hard to predict at this time it's direct path. It's still going to cover the whole state it looks like. So that's whats been on my mind lately. Even if nothing really happens, it's just a good knock on the head that things are happening and not only should we be spiritually ready, but it's time to start mentally preparing ourselves for future emergencies. Everyone pack your bags!

I love the little children

2005-10-17T21:54:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I just wanted to clarify that I really like kids. I just now realize my error in my last post and I laughed so hard. I mean the tears were rolling. So if you didn't catch it, apparently I spent my last Saturday encouraging children up a fire ladder and then pushing them off to their doom. Usually I catch my didn'ts and my dids when they are in the wrong place. And I'm calling everybody right now to tell them, because you know when something strikes you so funny and you just want to share it with the world?? That's how I feel right now, but no one is answering their phone. So I guess I'm alone with this and my laughter won't reach it's full potential. I have to take advantage of these moments because they don't happen too often. Especially after having an iced latte with extra sugar. Ok so that is that. I really didn't spend my sabbath pushing kids off of ladders.

My day, week, life...whatever

2005-10-15T23:09:00.000-04:00

My korean friend, that speaks Russian, from Uzbekistan in our golf class.

Hallway is done! Hurrah. I just need to jazz it up with some artwork or photographs. Same with the poor bare kitchen walls. Well I had a pretty good Sabbath. As you may have read my woes of my past post about doing community service today. I really didn't stay that long so it wasn't bad at all. It was actually a little fun, not the getting up at 7am part. So it was at the fire station
and they were having open house. They do this every year and kids come and learn about fire safety. I was mostly stationed at the ladder. I just encouraged them up the ladder and made sure they did fall to their doom. Thankfully no one got hurt. And the ladder really wasn't the popular activity of the day. The popular one was the "burning" barn and the kids had to put it out with a real fire hose to save the piggy and the cow. Awesome. I was telling the arete president guy that I was going to leave and people were all like "go to the phoneathon and steal some seats". Ugh. I was kinda mad. Don't these people know that they already took my day of rest from me, and now they are trying to get me to do more work?? Well they didn't know, so I forgive them.
I was going to play some golf, but it was too hot and crowded. So I went to the park instead with a friend. Yay! I found someone who will tune my guitar. Oh, there's a fun story. I'm totally afraid to tune my guitar ever again. The last time I did it, 2 summers ago, the string snapped on me and wacked me in my glasses and slit my wrist. So yeah, now I just can't do it. It's really sad. I just need to get over my fear. Now I occasionally have my cousin or some random person tune it for me.
Alright, can't think anymore...

++++++++++++++++++++++++

2005-10-12T22:43:00.000-04:00

Hmm...that's the first time I receieve NO comments at all on a post. What does this tell me? O'well, forward march. Today I feel a lot better. Yesterday I hated school, but it's alright again. It's amazing what sleep can do for you.
When I came home for during my break my mom was painting the hallway! I'm so happy. It's really amazing. The peacock wallpaper is now covered and out of sight. It wasn't really peacock wallpaper.For some reason it looked like that to me. So if you ever decide to do any home improvement, like making a room into a real guess room, it won't stop there. Oh no. It goes on and on and you just can't stop yourself. Well it's something I've learned over the summer. The guess room clean up and redecor begat the rearranged living room (thanks again Marie), the living room begat the painting of the bathroom, the bathroom begat a paint job in the kitchen, the kitchen begat new tile in the kitchen and bathroom, and that begat the painted hallway.
Each time you make a room look nice, the rest of the house looks worse in comparison. So you just keep going until all is unified in color, tone and beauty.
Farewell.

So tired...

2005-10-11T22:30:00.000-04:00

I'm so beat! I haven't felt this tired in so long. I think I hate Tuesdays with a passion now adays. Oh wait, "This is the day the Lord has made." I forgot. Well I rejoice but still...at the end of a long day like this it's hard to rejoice or at least until I crawl into bed.
Well the first reason I dislike Tuesday is because I have lab and so get out of school later. Then today was the girls football game. Since my society is the smallest we got just enough girls to come and play. That was good, but then there isn't any other girls to trade off with when some of us get tired. So we're stuck no matter what. Well it was a good game. I never made any touch downs, but I had a few good runs with the ball. And a bit of advice to you...if you're playing flag football, make sure you tie your shorts tight around your waist! And that is all I will say about that. So moving along... I was dead after the game. My face was glowing like a hot pepper. We lost by a few points and that's it. So 30 minutes after the game it was time for arete meeting. So I race home, change and race back to school. I went in to the wrong room, walking in on another group oops, and finally find my group. Then 1 hour later the phonathon starts. This is when societies compete against each other by calling alumni and friends and asking them to donate for student schlorships. So that went on for 2 hours and how many pledges did I get?? One. What a waste of time. And that one person was a generous friend of mine. Then the secretary got me to sign up for community service at a fire station on Saturday. Boo hooo hooooooooooo, I really want to cry right now. WHY! why did I give in?? It wouldn't be so bad but it's starts at 7:30 in the morning. So yeah, I'll be crying myself to sleep tonight.
I'm happy about one thing. Two mid-terms done, one more to go and I haven't even started to study for it yet =/

This is the day....

Ask a Nurse

2005-10-10T14:08:00.000-04:00

Ok everybody, Mom suddenly decided she wanted to become a blog writer. I told her how we could team up so here she is.

You know that call center where you can call and ask a nurse about some sign or symptom you might be having? Well this is my feelings about being a nurse and some of the humorous(maybe) things that happened to me today.
First of all, you don’t really want to be working on Sunday when you should be with your family attending church services and eating out, visiting etc. But there you, 0730 fixing some coffee and wondering where your CNA’s for the day are. It’s kind of hard to pass medications, bathe, feed and get out of bed 12 mostly dependent patients who don’t really care if you have help or not. Well, JD calls @ 0745, says he is waiting for the bus and will be late. Nevermind that he is supposed to be at work @ 0730. Then you search in vain for NV, another CNA., not there. Well she switched with ER and ER has already started her assignment elsewhere. So finally my help is rounded up and I can start passing medications. So you think how many medications can these elderly folks be taking that it requires a nurse most of the morning to pass out? On average they take 10-15 medications apiece. OK so I start singing some hymn in my head because I don’t want to hear some of the other pleasantries going on around me, and I know that my first patient is always in a not so pleasant mood. I try my best to make her happy, it never works. So in I go pills in hand and raise the head of her bed so she won’t choke as she takes her pills. She has told before not to ask if she wants to take her pills (just pour in mouth and leave.) OK."What are you raising my head for," she asks, like I’m poking needles in her foot or something. "I have your pills,"I respond sweetly as I keep singing, "What a friend I have in Jesus" in my head. She replies by snatching them from my hand and spilling them on the floor. Isn’t that sweet, I think. Well I gather them up and she reluctantly takes them, but puts in her last snide remark by suggesting that it’s a miracle that I gave her cold water instead of warm. And off I go hoping that the rest of the patients are more cooperative than she was. Mostly they are, JD finally arrives and things go pretty well until I come to another pleasant fellow who mostly refuses his medications and just wants to be left alone.In I go to his room and I know he’ll start complaining about the food as soon as I go in."Blessed hope of the coming of the Lord," fills my head. "I can’t eat this food," he says, with a few choice words thrown in. He might weight about as much as a 10 year old. Must of had a great diet at home!! Never mind that, he wants some icecream or cookies @ 10 o’clock in the morning. There are none on the floor at that time, so I give him my cereal bar, no thanks or anything. He gives it some nasty look but I guess he ate it. I didn’t hear from him again until noon when he complained that his lunch was yuk.. Lord bless him. The rest of the day went pretty well. Anyway the Bucs lost as I left my district (my group of patients). Perfect end to perfect day. PTL

Little House of Horrors

2005-10-09T14:15:00.000-04:00

This one goes out to you people of the north, when visiting Florida, are fasinated by lizards and point out every single one you see. You know who you are!
Can anyone take a guess of what happened to this poor lizard? It would be interesting to know if you were able to tell by the picture or not. Well I was going out to the garage to do some laundry and I looked by the door and saw a not so beautiful siloette of a flattened little foot sticking out. Oh no, I thought. I looked on the other side of the door and this is what I saw. It made me laugh out loud. It's just the funniest little sight ever. Somehow this lizard got stuck in between the door and when someone shut it, squish. Flat as a pancake.
This really isn't anything new. We find little sights of horror every once in a while in this house. I won't go into all of them, but my pets...my poor little pets. I had so many pets growing up. I went through a phrase where I had parakeet after parakeet. Sometimes 2 at a time.
Right before my first day of 8th grade my friend and I came back to my house and I heard a horrible squaking. I knew what that meant. It meant that the cat got into my room and was attacking my birds. My heart started racing as I ran to my room dreading what I was going to find. Well one of my birds was pinned in the corner by my cat with it's tail feathers all ripped off. I turned around and my favorite parakeet, Beethoven, was eaten. All that was left of him was his head, lying right in the middle of the hallway. Oooh the horror! I ran outside screaming at my cat. I mourned that whole day.
I don't ususally find bird heads lying around, but you get the idea. All the critters in the yard and in the neighborhood know, that blazed on top of the front door, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

The New Look

2005-10-06T20:11:00.000-04:00

I wish I could find the pictures I took of the old kitchen. O'well. Some of you know. Here's the new look. Mom made the curtains :)

With Opened Eyes

2005-10-05T10:55:00.000-04:00

I've been noticing a pattern recently. When reading your blogs I've noticed that alot of us, when remembering Andrew, were very distrot and heavy hearted and then minutes later the peace and joy would flood our souls. The same happened with me. It was on the 2nd and the sadness suddenly hit me. That whole day was sweeping through my mind all over again. I started writing a letter and it was all darkness and hopelessness, but then I read a poem. It opened my eyes to see the peace and assurance of God and His plan. The tears stopped and there was peace, peace, wonderful peace! I'm thankful that God has opened up our eyes recently to see the bigger picture through poems, songs, friends, prayer and even movie posters.

Midnight Madness

2005-10-01T12:08:00.000-04:00

Ah. I can sigh a sigh of relief now that the week is over. The bible, history and english tests are over. My informative speech is done with, the kitchen and bath tile have been laid and Midnight Madness passed without anyone getting too hurt. This is one of my friends getting ready for the big event. Midnight Madness is when all the societies meet together in the gym and show off their stuff. We played games like tug a war, and the bat relay race when you spin around the bat ten times and try to run back as quick as you can to your team. That was a funny sight. We loss at both of these.The basketball team was introduced to us and we watched them play a game. Then came the big moment. The moment when the societies show their cheers. We've been practicing for weeks. Our cheer was involving Star Wars and we were pretending to be the vast and might society or empire and had a fighting screen between us and the bad guys (the other societies). At the end of the night we gathered together to sing some hymns. I start hearing my group behind me yelling to everyone to stop and call a doctor. Some of us stop and look to see what's going on and lo and behold an Arete girl was on the floor. She had fainted! Eyes glazed over and everything. I don't blame her, I wanted to faint myself because it was getting a little stuffy and hot among the vast crowd. But she woke up and all was well.

Freaky, isn't it? And as for the tile it's finally done! All week we've had our whole kitchen moved into the living room. It's been a bit crowded. Then when the tile was laid in the bathroom the toilet was moved into the shower, so I haven't had a bathroom all week. Then we couldn't walk in the kitchen for a day or two so we never knew what to do for food. Well it's all over now and it looks sooo much better. I'll kinda miss the spanish tile guys. It was fun to have some different culture in this house hold. They even brought over some of their family. Actually it was just because he needed a ride over here, so they brought him. Adios Amigos.

Left Behind

2005-09-24T21:26:00.000-04:00

A new left behind series has begun. That is, me being left behind by dad so he can go to the feast and leave mom and me behind in this high heat crock pot. So let's see...I think college is becoming a reality now. Midterms draw nigh, papers are due next week and my speech is on the day after the tests. I will conquer! Rats, I just had to look up conquer in the dictionary. I hate when I forget how to spell. So yes! Conquer I will.
I have a pic of the student center which is not that exciting. I brought my camera to school Friday to take some pics and this is as far as I got. I kinda forgot to keep taking pictures when an ambulance arrived and I got distracted. I still don't know what that was all about.
Nothing really exciting happened, it was just simply a good week. Tuesday nurses were at school all day sucking the bloood out of us all (blood donation if that wasn't clear). Well not me, and one of my excuses is that I was just getting over being sick.
But it was fun, being a competition of which society will give the most blood. Being the smallest society we didn't win. Thursday stated out fun because I had golf and no one showed up! It was a little drizzly because of the hurricane so it was just me and my friend Jane, who persisted on me picking her up and driving her to class. Sure it's not like it's that out of the way or anything. So we got the instructor all to ourselves, watching our every move. Which is fine because the golf competitions are coming up.
Thursday night I was at school because our teacher was having a bible review for the test coming up and afterwards I found out about devotions that apparently happen every Thurs night. Huh, wish I knew this before (off campus students always get left out). So I decided to stay for that and I was rather impressed. We sung for the first half hour and then a student gave a message about how we're all sinners. Boy, they sure do concentrate on the bad, but I suppose some students needed to hear it seeing their reaction of tearing up and such. It actually reminded me of well, me a few years ago. Alot of those kids have come from some bad places in their lives and are wanting to escape the old life by coming to this college. So it's encouraging to see their response.
Speaking of sermonettes, my public speaking teacher asked if anyone in the room has ever spoken from the pulpit. Oh dear I thought should I raise my hand or not? Well a few guys raised their hand and I then proudly raised my hand too. Ha, he looks at me and says, "Really?" "Well sort of.". I wish I could of explained myself because the school doesn't encourage the fact of women praying in public (or leading prayer, I'm not sure) and especially not speaking at the pulpit! So now to all in the room I'm a fire-breathing feminist preaher. O'well could be worse I guess.
Happy Feast to you all. Which reminds me, in class we have been learning about the feasts and although to others in the room Passover, First Fruits and Ingathering are just names of old history, to me it's been something much more. As the professor writes the names of the feasts on the board God hasn't let me forget about the fruitful 3 years of feasts that I experienced and that I can still part take of it right here, home or class, and right now.

These are a few of my favorite things

2005-09-16T22:46:00.000-04:00

How sad that all my peoples are back in bible school and I'm not there with them. The blogging and IMing now come to a halt. To cheer me up I'll write a few of my recent favorite things in life.
* Cold sweet iced tea
* Picking out tile to lay in the kitchen to match the freshly painted walls
* Singing unfamiliar hymns in chapel while everyone else around me sounds like Josh Groban's and Charolette Church's
* Golf
* Looking at all the posters in class of the Sea of Galiee, Garden of Gethsemane and the panoramic shot of Jerusalem and thinking, "I've been to all those places"
* Knowing quite a bit about the twelve tribes when everyone else in the room seem a little lost
* Being the last group to finish science lab, everytime
* Doing my research paper on great white sharks
* Plugging in a just bought wall flower air freshener
* Going to Arete meeting and being completely lost in their lil' group cheer, "Arete, smartay, always winning, always grinning, always having fun! GOOOOOOO RIVER RATS!" (??)
* Last but certainly not least hanging with my mom and recently writing down some of her quotes....
It all started with this one. "Do you think you can look under my bed to see if you can find any peanut butter?"
It was a great laugh getting on my hands and knees to look under the bed for some lost groceries. We were actually collecting different canned foods to donate to the victims of Katrina and mom thought that they would of course want some peanut butter.
"Maybe...they went....somewhere." This is the answer I get when I ask her where she thinks my aunt and uncle could be when my cousin was trying to get a hold of them. Yeah thanks, real helpful.
"Think I could sell my teeth?" Mom asked me this as we were pulling up into the parking space in front of the pawn shop.
"My nose feels like a sand pit." This just happened today. She was rubbing her nose inspecting it because she recently got skin cancer cut off of her nose.
"Come to your little mama Bobby Lou." Apparently the son that i'm going to have is named Bobby Lou. She said this out of the blue as we discussed the huge house i'm going to own and she is going to be over there all the time baby sitting my kids, and the favorite grandson, Bobby Lou.
Well this is all I got for the moment. And I realize that these might not make any sense to those of you who don't know my mom at all. But I know a few of you know where I'm going with this. Happy Sabbath!!

slowly but surely

2005-09-10T23:31:00.000-04:00

First of all, this pic has nothing to do with anything. I just felt like putting a pic here to add interest. I thought was cute that this frog is always hanging out with this metal frog, thinking of it as his own protector.
So lately I've been a little down and out because the biggest point of going to college here was for the christian fellowship. To start life after bible school afresh and anew haveing some companion fellow believers by my side. Well, it just didn't seem to be happening that way. The first day with orientation I knew this might not come so easy. Everyone is all buddy buddy with their room mates and dorm neighbors. The instant I say to someone I'm off campus they just turn around and start walking away! They want nothing to do with an outsider. Even my parking spot is so far away because I don't stay in a dorm. And the people...so white, so cheery, so young. Alright, so it's not the end of the world.
There is good news. Last week after Labor day I finally started to get to know a few girls. One is in my golf class and she needed a ride back to school so I got to know her a little. Then I was talking to this girl in 2 of my classes more and more and she brought me to her dorm room. Yay! first time in the dorms! Then I find out that her roommate is the one who sits next to me in chapel (asigned seating). Then the girl from my golf class I just wrote about comes in the room. I then find out that she is the roommate of the girl i've been talking to in my eng. and bible class. Ok one more...my very first friend that I met at orientation was lost forever. I was always looking for her but I never saw her. Well bible class gets out and there she is coming out the other door. She was in my bible class that whole time! She was looking for me too she said, but unfortunely I changed my shirt. Ha ha, get it? Then she invited me to her dorm room. Yes 2 visits in the same week. THEN it turns out that all these girls are in the same Arete club as me. Coincidence? I think not. God is just so good at putting the pieces all together way before you even have the slightest clue about anything. Here I thought I was an old college freshman doomed to eternal lonliness, but thankfully he had other plans. So slowly BUT SURELY I'm meeting some nice people.
I don't know if anyone else does this. But after leaving bible school I'm trying to find my new Mel, my new KJ, my new BJ and so forth. Well I've only found one. My new BJ! During our softball game she was guiding me where to stand and what to do. She has this great sense of humor and she is just all around cool like B :p So one down and 7 to go.
Oh and I went to the "talent show" tonight with Amber. It was pretty good despite some accidents. Once these boys were on the stage doing stunts with their bike and skateboard and one boy was break dancing in the back ground. Well they decide to be cool and all jump and bike off the front of the stage. Well the guy on the bike jumps down and wacks this old guy sitting in the audience and then he tries to play it off spinning his bike around and just ends up almost hitting the man in the face with his back tire. Yeah, real talented.

Arete

2005-09-08T17:58:00.000-04:00

Arete-greek for virture? or something like that. Well Arete is the society I'm in. There are like 5 or 6 different societies and I picked this one because I heard that they weren't the very athletic ones, haha. Well the different societies play against each other in sports. Today was our first game! We played softball against Phi Beta. They won, no surprise, 5 to 1. I struck out very gracefully if I may say so myself. But it was really exciting because I've never been in a club or team before that competes against other teams.
CREST- Christian research explorers in science something something something. Yeah uh...this is the other club i'm in. I'm only in it because I'll get extra credit in biology. I should also be in the WTO something club that's meeting tonight, but I think I'm all clubbed out. This is the women only club that does devotions, has guest speakers come in and even teaches how to make communion bread. wooo!
Ok I feel way to distacted to write anything else. Have a good day everyone!

Minister Joe Wright

2005-09-05T19:38:00.000-04:00

This is an e-mail I got today that's being passed around school. This prayer was given by Minister Joe Wright in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate.

"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!"

"The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India , Africa and Korea. "

2005-09-02T21:02:00.000-04:00

Isn't this the cutest little pineapple ever?? It popped up in our front yard. I have the envelope next to it just to show you how small it is.

Oh Goodness

2005-08-31T14:06:00.000-04:00

OK, who in the world gets sore from golfing?? Well apparently I do. The whole right side of me is stiff. I've been walking around like a cripple. Here I was laughing at the idea that the school wants to keep their students fit by having golfing as an option of sports.

Go Falcons!

2005-08-25T17:42:00.000-04:00

Ha ha. I just wanna apologize to you all about my college and only college writings. I'm just so excited about it! I can't believe I made it to college. I'm only the 2nd person in my extended florida family to go in the last 30 years or so. I'm also just excited to see where it all leads to.
What is at the end of this road?? Who knows. I would of never guessed before coming to bible school that I would go for a whole 3 years, meet life long friends, go to Israel two times, and just basically have my whole life changed! So it's neat to see where the next road is going to lead.
Today was the first day of classes and it went really well. I never got lost and didn't have any nervous breakdowns. The first class ever in my college career...drum roll please....GOLF! Yessss. How exciting, you guys didn't know you knew the next Tiger Woods did you?? We didn't do anything really, he just explained what the class is going to be like and then let us go. Then there was chapel and man! those kids can sing! It was almost moving to hear everyone around me sing Lord lift me onto higher ground. Then I went on to public speaking and they even apply biblical applications to public speaking. He was all like, "In the beginning was the WORD..." so words are important you see? Then onto bible class. The teacher talked about how important the Old Testament is and that we shouldn't ever leave it out. He's really fun and my homework is to read the bible tonight, I think I can handle that. Yeah, and basically I've heard everything that he said before, thanks Mr. M. So that was that. Oddly enough I think the most exciting part of the whole college experience is having my own on campus mail box! What can I say? I'm my father's daughter.
So thankyou everyone for your prayers. It's been so encouraging going to this school, meeting alot of christian people. I'm really impressed with how the school operates all and all, it just like bible school all over again, except 500 more students. Singing and chapel everyday, prayers at the beginning or end of classes and biblical applications being thrown at you all the time.

The new phase of life begins.......

2005-08-23T00:05:00.000-04:00

So I hate these comment spammers. Is there anything I can do about it? I feel so overwhelmed right now and classes haven't even started! O'well, I'm sure it's perfectly normal freshman panic syndome or something. Well I didn't make it in the choir, but I'm kinda releived. I think the Lord knew that maybe it would be too much for me right now. At least I tried, and at least I was in the Fairwood Choir for 3 whole years =). Now I can join some other club i've been looking into.
Well I'm excited, I think. Can I tell you all my classes?? Ok so first there is Western Civ of course. Then English 1102, History and Geography: Old Testament (everyone has to have some kind of bible class every weekday). Then there is Biology and the lab with that and Golf I and Public Speaking.
Yesterday was orientation. It started at 8 and went on and on. I got home finally at 4 but then had to go back again for the the teacher ceremony. Devotions started at 9:30 but at that point I couldn't do anymore. I was so tired, I took off my dress shoes and ran a long way to my car in the pouring rain. It was really fun actually and it helped to get rid of some of that building stress.
So just about everyone I met was from some another state. I talked to only 2 Florida people. People were pretty nice but I felt a little out of the loop because everyone there is living on campus except maybe 10%. So everyone is walking around with their new best friend, their roommate. I walked around with a girl from Idaho for a little while. I'm so glad she stepped on my shoes from behind me or we wouldn't of never met. She reminded me of a young Pat M. =) And she was obsessed with Disney. She had a disney shirt on but then later I noticed her disney purse. Oooh my. But I don't know if I'll ever see her again. Then some boy from Georiga started talking to me on and on about how he wants to open a Chic-fil-la some day and how rich he's going to be. "That's just great" I thought, moving on now. I sneaked away as he started talking with another group. Twice we got together in a little group and some "older" students talked about the rules of the school and dressing modestly and all that. Alot of the students didn't take the rules so well. Then we played stupid games like flemigo tag. I won't even explain. I have to go back to school to meet with the group one more time in about 1 hour. Ok enjoy the rest of your summer.

Oh yeah

2005-08-22T00:19:00.000-04:00

I was just reading Sara's blog and forgot all about the Andrew Card guy. So that was cool. Andrew Card who works with the president. He was the guy who wispered to the president on 9/11 that something bad had happened as Bush was talking to the elementary school children. He has house just a few houses away from the camp. Everytime we drove buy the security people would always eyeball us and my dad would endlessly mimick what they were probably saying to each other, such as, "Hold your fire, I think they'rel just passing through". One day we sat on the porch spying on them with our binoculars. It was a funny sight. Here the body guard guys were standing on their own boat, arms crossed, watching the family intensely as they raced around the lake tubing, having a wonderful time laughing and talking. I think I saw Andrew Card flip over into the water. How cool is that??

done being a maniac

2005-08-21T23:06:00.000-04:00

I was going to put off blogging for a little while, but then just decided i'd better do it now before things get too busy. Maine was great. I had a wonderful little break. Two funerals on one vacation, i'd say that's a record. So let me see, well Saturday I was having a panic attack because I really thought that going on a plane would make my head swell up and I was just bound to die. Thankfully I remembered that God has an endless supply of peace so I grabbed hold of some and I was fine, and I didn't die after all.
It's been a few years since being up at our camp so when I looked at it I asked my parents if they thought the neighbors were embarrassed living next to this little shack. It's pretty awesome really, wish I had a picture. It has a string of lights hanging across the front. Not just any lights, but colored owl lights from the 70's. Also a string of shell lights in the bushes. Then there are the 3 flemigos in the front, about 5 wind chimes, 8 bird feeders. It doesn't lack character, that's for sure. Inside, for those who are Napoleon Dynamite fans, Melissa said that it looks alot like his house, but a miniture version. You know, knit-nacs everywhere, floral brass pictures on the panel walls. Chairs from the 50's. And you feel like your walking up and down some slopes, especially in the kitchen area. The dining room slopes downward quite a bit. In about 5 years that camp will probably slide down into the lake. Oh and it's pretty hard core camping. All plumbing comes from the lake itself, which can make things a little difficult.
I didn't do much of anything. I think the best part was going to Fairwood for a few hours. Also having Melissa and Sara come up and visit me for the day. But other than that I went to my great aunt Ruth's burial service (never met her). We visited my uncle Russel a few times, showed him how to put his anqiue license plates on ebay and went to LLBean. Yippeee. Oh, and of course we swam in the lake a few times. When Sara and Melissa visited, we spent alot of the time collecting clams and talking alot about how we're going to steam them just for the fun of it.
The day the girls were there we were on our way to get some pizza to celebrate my birthday early. On the way there I wanted to stop at a redemption place to get rid of my cans and bottles, I was so excited! So we saw a big sign that said something something redemption here. So I went to my parent's car to ask them what I was suppose to do next and 2 girls come out and asked us if we needed help getting somewhere. I was like, "uh, no but thanks" thinking that was a little strange. I got my bags of cans and walked into the building. The 2 girls on the couch turn their heads and look at me. Oh no I thought, "Is this your house??" "yes" they said. Oops. That was embarrassing. I guess that redemption place went out of business quite a few years ago. But why have that sign still up?? Well they were nice and told me how to get to the real redemption place. And here Melissa and Sara sat in their happy little car laughing at the whole show. So anyway the pizza was really good oh and I almost got a whole $2 from the cans. That was worth it.
It was really sad to leave. I had to say more good-byes after too short of time. Then knowing that I was about to fly back down just to leap into scary college stuff. Sure enough, once we got back home it was time to go to school for the parent/student cookout. We missed the cookout part and just went to the parent orientation.
Today after church I did the scariest thing ever! I tried out for the Florida College Chorus. Oooh my. How dreadful. Actually it really wasn't that bad. I went to the school not knowing at all where to go for tryouts. Thankfully some students were just getting back from church and they pointed out where to go. I walked into the room with 4 people staring at me. I didn't know what to do, I didn't realize there was a sign up sheet on the door. Scrolling down the long list there wasn't an opening until 7pm. Oh goodness, I can't do that. I'm pretty lucky I guess, because no one was really around yet so they decided to squeeze me in. I looked at the paper and saw that I would have to sight read, or sing, or whatever you call it. I was about to walk out right then and there. The first guy came out saying, "Oh man, I never thought I sung so bad." That gave me a little encouragement. The girl came out saying that they would squeeze me in now so in I went in front of the scary music director people. First I had to do the sight singing, ugh. Then sing after the piano, then sing "This is my Father's world" w/o music. At least it was something I knew. I played that song on the guitar 100 times in bible school. Well it was over and I sighed a big sigh of relief as well the directors did too, ha. So i'll see if my name made it on "the list" or not tomorrow. As long as I get involved in something i'll be happy.
You can pray that i'll make it through the week and i'll meet the right friends. Tomorrow orientation, next day orientation, then class along with skating parties, concerts, singing, beach picnics and so just way too much social activity going on if you ask me.

2005-08-12T13:21:00.000-04:00

Well i'm still glad it's all over with, but the second I pulished that last blog everything went spiraling down hill from there. So maybe getting your wisdom teeth out isn't the easiest thing in the world. Now I know. It all started when I took some meds for the pain, even though there was no pain. It said on the label all bold "MAY CAUSE DIZZINESS". Well that should be fun I thought. That's when I went on the computer to tell you all how well and dandy everything has been going. Once I clicked publish post the dizziness hit me so fast I could hardly wait for the publishing to be done. I ran to bed and waited for it to pass. Then through out the day I was either in bed, or just feeling sick. When I turned on the tv everything that moved and made a noise make me sick. Once my dad opened the front door and the noise of the crickets pouring in made me sick. There was no end to it. Well right now I feel pretty good, but can't be sure it will last. Hopefully it will last because tomorrow I have an early flight. = /
Oh yeah, I probably won't be writing in my blog for a while because i'm going on vacation. Flying up to Manchester tomorrow, maybe stopping at Fairwood to get some of my stuff and throw a party with the girls. Then on Sunday we're headed up to Maine to stay at the old family camp. Have a good weekend everybody.

yay, it's done!

2005-08-11T14:04:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to say that two dreaded things that made my summer look scary are over. The first thing was my algebra class. I had my last class/finals on Tuesday. God really did carry me through, and far better then expected. The next thing was getting my wisdom teeth out. All four of them at once, all impacted. It was the easiest thing ever. Thankyou to those who prayed for me. I went to the surgeon at 7:30am. Went to the room where they straped me down, put in an iv, and put oxygen over my nose. When they did that I was like oh no, quick! have to tell him I won't be around next for the check up. "I'm going on vacation, but i'll call you when I get back", and then I was out. Whew, did it. 20 minutes later they carried me to the recovery room, but I don't remember that at all. 20 minutes later I woke up and they asked if I was ready to go home. I couldn't believe it was already over. They carried me to the car, just like you said Claire, like an old lady. I slept at home and when I woke up I just started bleeding like mad. Blood was everywhere, I was trying to chage the guaze in my mouth but was no good. I had to do it over and over. It just kept gushing. I was panicing because mom went to the store, and I just thought that it would never stop! It was like a horror movie, but I'll say no further on that. I prayed that it would just stop, PLEASE. After a few minutes it did stop and I went back to sleep. So far I haven't experience any pain, but my cheeks are still swelled up like a chipmunk's. The only nusiance I see, other then the bleeding, is that i'm so hungry all the time. Yesterday I could only drink cold drinks and I would of done anything for a big fat steak . At least today I can go beyond the drinks and eat a big tub of KFC's mashed potatoes!

Just call me Miss Fix It

2005-08-08T01:04:00.000-04:00

Well since I can't seem to easily go to sleep let me tell you my little adventure with the VCR, getting chills yet? Earlier today I scrammbled online in desperation to see if any fix it man was on. Last night I was watching..well i'm afraid to say it because then you all will think for sure that i'm totally obsessed...uh, just use your imagination. So anyway, I was watching this movie on Saturday and stopped it because we were going to church game night, woo. Oh and may I just add that I was Doctor Bob in mofia, outlaw, or whatever you wanna call it, and the outlaw shot two people and then I picked those same two people right after wards. Make any sense? I don't know but everyone else was impressed. So, back to the story. I was going to watch it later that night and turned on the tv. It just made a strange noise and then the tv just shut off again. It did this everytime I turned the stupid thing on. Well the video was stuck, and this was a video that I rented from the library! So I had these dreaded thoughts of paying $200 worth of bills for late fees, damage fees, getting the video stuck in your tv fees. So then today I remembered that the video was still stuck and it wasn't just going to unstuck it's self (can I use that word?). So that's when I came online and online 2 people were on and one said to e-mail Brad and maybe take the tv apart. The other just plainly said, "Open up the VCR." Oh yeah and there was, "Why are you still living in the stone age?". Take it apart eh? Well it was the only way to steer clear from the $200 dollars that I didn't have for some old 70's movie. So I unplugged the tv, brought it out to the living room and told my mom, "I'm bringing it out here just in case I get electrocruted." She laughs. So I start unscrewing all these screws and pulled it apart. Mom started helpping after a while. Dad finally comes along and says,"What are you silly girls doing?? Let a man do his job!"......oh ...wait, that's not what he said excatly. It was more like, "Well I need to get out and do something, think it's too late to go to the park?" Then he was off. So, hopelessly left alone, we were on the verge of giving up. The tape just wasn't going to come out. Then with one last prayer I yanked some part, I don't know, and wondered if the wires could unsnap or not. They could of course and now we could have better access to the tape. Well finally we got it out! HURRAH! It was victory at last.
I was looking at all the tv parts on the living room floor and asked my mom if we could just throw it in the trash. It was only the backroom tv and it had been seeing better days. Well she encouraged me to put it back together, just to see if I could, she said. Well I did...and it doesn't work. Now that I think about it, don't call me Miss Fix It because I didn't fix anything. All I did was tear apart the tv and get a tape out. Sigh, but that's the best I can do i'm afraid.

2005-08-04T12:29:00.000-04:00

Honeymoon Island

2005-08-04T12:21:00.000-04:00

Now this is how the South makes an ice coffee. Hmmm, you want one right now don't you?

My Adventures with Sara

2005-08-04T12:05:00.000-04:00

I just love it when new englanders come to visit me. God has been good to me once again with a wonderful visit from Sara L. I'm so glad it worked out for her to come! I told her soon after graduation, "I'm already feeling it girl (that is, the horrid blothpick feeling) so you better come visit me this summer." Well she got the tickets, even after my threats and my constantly calling and IMing her to see if she got them yet.

Well if you're going to be bored with my list of what we did then stop reading now... OK, so, first off I surprised her (sorta) with tickets to the devil rays vs. red sox game that I just purchased the day before. She pretty much knew that was most likely what the surprise was going to be (thanks alot Kimberly). Well it was that scary game when Clement got hit in the face by the ball. We had no idea what was going on because when you're actually at the game they don't tell you nothin, as i'm sure most of you know. But thankfully he's doing ok now. The game went on and what a good game it was! I didn't even know who to cheer for. I was pulled between my home team, and my other home team (by heart). I just decided to go for the devil rays because they needed my support. There were way more red sox fans then devil ray fans it seemed.

So that was that. My mom had tickets to Busch Gardens so we took advantage and went there the next day. I wanted to ride the new roller coaster Shieka that goes straight 90 degrees down. Well Sara needed to work her way up in the roller coaster world so we started out small and worked our way to the bigger coasters. Poor Andrea got pushed on the scariest one the first thing when I went with her (sorry Andrea). That was the roller coaster we got on last and it was still a big no no for Skieka.

The next day after I got out of class we went to a cool store when they have all name brand clothes but it's all thifth store prices called Plato's closet. Now i can't remember what we did. O'well, Friday we painted the kitchen, most of it. Saturday we went canoeing. I also should say that the whole time here we were gator hunting. Sara wanted to see one in the wild so we were on a mission. But no gators were seen on that day. But we did get lost! How we got lost on a little river I'm not really sure, but we accomplised it. We just passed the place where we were suppose to stop and get out, but we got there eventually (45 minutes later).

Saturday night we went to see a Wizard of Oz play with my Dad, Robbie and Katie. That was pretty fun, the performance was a little sad, but hey, it was their opening night and they were all nervous i'm sure. My uncle wants me to audition for the next play coming up, Charlie Brown the musical! Something very small inside of me wants to audition just for the fun of it, but not a musical. That's just too much.

Then Sunday we went to church and had a bible sword competition. Then you'll have to go to Sara's blog to read her story about our lunch afterwards (Saralee85.blogspot.com) hehehe, poor girl. So it was funny because she always attracted some kind of attention. She was either wearing her red sox shirt or she would just look spanish. Like for example, she was wearing her Damon shirt and some drunk guy just yells out "Yankee" and then he was like, "I thought that would get your attention." Then at the airport some guy waiter said after we sat down,"I can't believe you seated a red sox fan" to the other waiter. Oh brother! Get a life. Then the spanish thing. People would just start speaking spanish to her out of no where. She does look spanish, especially down here with her black curly hair. Then people thought I was spanish too because I was with her. Even on the canoe, when we were soaking up the nature around us some guys shout "HOLA!" to us from the bank.

Monday we went to Rainbow Springs with Lori and Jimmy. It was a pretty nice day, and it never rained, just thundered a little. Sara and I took a walk and she was in awe of the huge spider and I kept trying to catch little bugs to throw in the web. Then we were on our way back and she gasped and grabbed my arm and I was like what is wrong with this girl?? But I looked down and saw a snake next to us on the side walk and I started laughing. Then the sad Tuesday came. We took one last expedition to find some gators at Lettace Lake Park. We were getting on the boardwalk and this time I gasped and wacked Sara (on accident) because I didn't want her to walk right past the snake making his way off the boardwalk. She took a picture and then we kept going. Lo and behold a GATOR! Just a baby one but it was a victorious sighting only a few hours before I had to drive her to the airport. We walked to the tower and saw 2 more gators! It was a happy time. Usually when you look for them you never find them, well we proved that theory wrong. So it was awesome. Thankyou Sara for coming, and I miss you and hope to see you soon!

2005-07-25T21:46:00.000-04:00

Before Shot..eeek!

Guest Room finally done

2005-07-25T21:36:00.000-04:00

Remember this old shot of the guest room/computer room? Well when I posted this old pic I had no idea how the room really would turn out. Well my inspiration came from Jane Austin movie watching and reading Pride and Prejudice. And because I'm just interested in the victorian times! So I decided to put my obsession with the 1800's into use and decorate the room with that kind of theme. Of course I don't have 1000's of dollars to spend on antiques or anything, but with a little thirft store shopping, and a little bit of scouting my parents room I captured my my vision close enough. Tell me what you think.

2005-07-25T21:32:00.001-04:00

window shot

2005-07-25T21:32:00.000-04:00

back wall

2005-07-25T21:30:00.000-04:00

This jewery box was just collecting dust in my parents room.

Design on a Dime

2005-07-19T17:03:00.000-04:00

Alright alright. Things have been on the run. I've been keeping myself busy with house projects. As some of you know I was working on the guest room. Remember the before picture? Well it's almost done so i'll keep you posted, haha. Um..oh, then I went on the verge to redo the bathroom right in the middle of everything else, so that's been going on too. Now it's a tropical beach escape, hehehe, but not really, only my attempt of one. Kitchen is about to be done once Sara gets here, hurry up girl!
Off the subject, i'm about to get my wisdom teeth pulled. Maybe in 2 weeks or something. I want to hear about your extraction experience if you please. Let me know if it was fun (cough), or if you don't remember it, or give me your horror story, just don't scare me too bad. Ok Peace out.

Get with It

2005-07-14T13:16:00.000-04:00

Come on people. The boys' and girls' week are over. Convention is done so lets start blogging again!