Graduation... YUCK!

Yes I am a member of the class of 2008, and yes I have mixed feelings about it. I mean the whole thing is kinda silly. Take for example a open house. A bunch of people show up and "encourage" you by saying things like "Congrats on completing the last 12 years of schooling! Now only 2-8 more. Oh and by the way you have to PAY for these ones, did I say Congrats?".

Then you have those incredibly boring ceremonies, that the grads make their families sit through. You sit there for hours watching TONS of people you have never met before graduate, then you clap and cheer for the two seconds your grad is on stage and sit through some more mind numbing boredom counting the names until it is over. Thankfully I am home schooled so I got to opt out of the whole graduation ceremony thing. I wouldn't want to subject my sisters to the same torture that I have had to sit through several times already.

Also there is the ritual of senior picture taking. Oh goodie! For someone who doesn't care to get their picture taken, and has low self esteem, this is really no fun. Thankfully Olivia is taking my pictures and she can make almost anything fun. So we got started tonight and tramped all over our poison ivy filled back pasture in search of the perfect picture. After an hour we ended up with some goofy ones...Some good ones...

And some bad ones that were promptly deleted. We have yet to find "the perfect" one but we are going to take some more tomorrow.

Anyways, I guess what I am trying to say is graduating can be silly, boring, frustrating, and annoying, but despite all of these things, it is kind of a big deal. It makes me feel special and I am actually really looking forward to my open house.

Siamese Pretzel Twin! It's AMAZING!

OK so I was sitting here eating pretzels while I uploaded the last post, when I pulled out this amazing and rare SIAMESE PRETZEL TWIN! It was just so cool I couldn't help but share it with you! Now I will eat it... *crunch *crunch... MMMmmmm YUMMY!

Downtown Greenville

This is a watercolor painting I did today of a building I saw while walking around downtown Greenville with Silvana. What was I doing in Greenville? I was on vacation and it was FANTASTIC!

Lets.. Get Ready To... RUMMMBBBBLE!

Tonight as I was taking my shower, I began to ponder deep questions. Questions like, Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? and Who would win in a battle, a Pegasus or a Narwhal? Since the answers to those first two questions can be found quite easily in the Bible I began to contemplate the last.

At first I thought Pegasus hands down. If you have ever been kicked by a horse you know that they can pack quite the wallop, add on some majestic wings and you have a fighting machine. Also they can fly and walk on land where as the Narwhal can only stay in the water. I thought the Narwhals confinment to the sea was it's greatest disadvantage but the more I thought about it I think the fact that they can only be in water is one of its greatest assets!

You see because the Narwhal can not leave the water the Pegasus would have to take the fight to it. Now I have never seen a Pegasus swim but I doubt that they are very good. The Narwhal however is the master of this habitat, flourishing in the deep waters of the ocean, its agile body alows it to cut quickly and deftly through the waves. Also that strong horn protruding out of its forehead can be pretty scarey!

So when it comes down to it I am not quite sure who would win this battle, but I do know that I would like to be sitting a comfortable distance away with a bag of popcorn watching the whole thing. Now that's what I call PRO WRESTLING!

Bees, Shoes, and other Dilemmas

Today was Beekeeper day at the my house! So Mom and I suited up and went outside. What do you have to do to be a beekeeper? Well first you completely cover your entire body. This means wearing my Dad's over sized dress shirt tucked into my old jeans and Olivia's baseball socks pulled up over the pant legs. This ensemble complete with beekeepers hat and gardening gloves was so attractive I feared posting a photo lest I be molested by millions of modeling agencies begging me to come work for them =).

After suiting up we went outside and followed the step by step instructions we found on the Internet. When we were finished, Mrs. Ross called us and told us what we should have done so then we did that. We escaped without a single sting! Hopefully we will have the same favor when we check on them again next week.

Then it was time for work. So I got all dressed in a cute t-shirt and pair of Capri's. Then I went down stairs and couldn't find any shoes that went with it. I normally wear my flip flops but they didn't meet with the work dress code. So afraid of being late I ran upstairs and put on the first pair of jeans I could find, a pair of white socks and my regular work shoes. Later when Mom dropped me off at work, I hopped out of the car and discovered my jeans were about three inches to short revealing my very DORKY white socks. Mom quickly drove me to the shoe store and I bought a pair of very cute shoes.

Now here is the dilemma, the shoes were very cute, comfy and practical, but also not cheap. Especially since I am very poor after coming home from my vacation down south (which was FANTASTIC!). I know it sounds silly and spoiled but the rest of the night I spent debating the value of cute-ness compared to the value of a full bank account while devouring a whole pack of peppermint lifesavers (Yum...)

You Turkey!

Why upload a picture of an old man and a bunch of turkeys? Because

I CAN!

Isaiah 49:23

Ahhh... Summer is finally beginning to arrive here. School is out and Stacy and I just got back from our first vacation down south (it was FANTASTIC!). Unlike everyone else however I have no plans for the summer, but this isn't because I am being an unmotivated teen, it is because I discovered about two years ago that when I trust God with my summers they usually work out ALOT better (actually when I trust God with anything it works out ALOT better!)

In the summer of 2006 I wanted to go work up at Camp Barakel as a technician VERY badly. All of my friends were going, it was my first year to do it and everyone assured me it was one of the most fun things you could possibly do. So I turned in my application for a week in June and waited and prayed.

I waited and waited and then finally I got the news back that I was on the waiting list. 15th on the waiting list! There was still a chance I could get in right? But as the week got closer I didn't move up on the list. I was devastated. I thought I was going to end up doing nothing all summer long. I would simply sit around twiddling my thumbs. But I trusted God

One Sunday morning my Mom got a call from my Aunt Keke who lives in California, and whom I had never met. My Mother and Aunt had lost contact with each other for several years but my Aunt had finally tracked us down. I was so excited and to make it even better my cousin Kitty was going to fly in and stay with us for an entire week! Can you guess what week it was? That's right the exact same week I was going to be at Barakel. Isn't God cool! I was so upset about missing Camp but I would have been ten times more upset if I had missed meeting my cousin for the first time. We had tons of fun getting to know each other and we even went to Cedar Point.

Again in 2007 I had no plans for my summer, then one night I was at my friend Melinda's house and she got a phone call. It was the supervisor of a Camp that was in desperate need of councilors. Melinda asked me and I thought it would be great fun! I also thought that Mother would never let me go. Why would she let me go to a camp for a whole week that she has never even heard of when she gets nervous when I go out for a walk by myself. But I took my eyes of the giants and trusted in God. My mother amazingly said I could go and I had one of the best weeks of my life. I felt so used by God, like he was fulfilling a specific plan for me by using me to fulfil His plan in others. It was amazing and I will never forget it.

After two great summers I was expecting something amazing this year! Something even BIGGER than before. Several opportunities arouse that I was very excited about but they didn't work out so I guess that's not what God wanted me to do. I was feeling a little depressed about the whole situation a few weeks ago I wanted God to come bounding in like the roaring lion he had before. But then I remembered the passage in Isaiah 49:23 "Then you will know that I am the LORD those who hope in me will not be disappointed"! Isn't that an amazing promise! You see this means that whether God swoops down like He did the last two years or if I am just at home working and going to school, God is faithful and if I trust Him I won't be disappointed! God can use me and take me on wonderful adventures just as easily here as He can anywhere else. It may not always be the adventure that I thought I wanted but it will always be GOOD!

But guess what the best part of this entire post is, that promise in Isaiah 49:23 isn't just for me, its for you too! So put your trust in God, the Great I AM this summer and sit and back and watch, it may be a bumpy ride but you are not going to be disappointed!

Words...

...Good Words...
Flippantly
Cherish
Buffalo
Paradox
Kinkachew
Transcribe,
Ninja
Aluminum
Gnome
Mirror
Burn
Enthusiastic
Bleed
Caustic
Llama
DOOM!

...Bad Words...
Nugget
Excrete
Spawn
Moist
Impregnate
Pigmented
*Potato

* It has recently been brought to our attention that Potatoes all over the country have taken extreme offense over this word being added to the list of bad words. The author of this blog would like to formally apologize to any Potatoes who have been through some form of emmotional distress over this. We plan to be more considerate (Oooo good word) in the future.

Meet Stinky...

Have you met my friend Stinky? No, well let me introduce you. Stinky is the air freshener that I received for my birthday. He is supposed to smell "Pine Fresh", however the package should have said "Overwhelmingly Potent". When I first opened the package I was so happy I hung him from my rear view mirror proudly, enjoying the pine-y scent. Then as I went down the highway the smell got stronger and stronger. I tried rolling down the window but it didn't help. My eyes were watering and I couldn't breathe, but I couldn't take him down, HE WAS JUST SO CUTE! If it was my car the adorable gnome would have been left up despite his... highly scented nature, but my Mom said it made her feel like she was going to barf, so my poor air freshener was banished to the glove box and given the nickname Stinky. It took Stinky a long time to lose his strong scent, almost 9 months actually. For a while there he was so strong that when I would lock my ipod in my glove box when I went into work it would come out smelling pine fresh! But Stinky has finally overcome his ... challenges and now he is just a cute gnome that keeps me company while driving.

Doctor Who Coloring Pages!

I can't believe I found Doctor Who coloring pages! Isn't this cool! The ood picture goes out to Fedora and the ood who would be named Frank if oods had names!


You can find more coloring pages here