~It's The Story Of Me~

Blessings

2011-03-20T18:29:00.001-07:00

So, Mom and I heard this song on the radio at separate times and we both decided I have to sing it for special music at church. :)

I love it because, as she says, we pray for comfort and easy lives, but God knows what we need and He gives it to us. It's hard sometimes, but we know He loves us :)

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home,

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

Heaven

2011-02-23T19:47:00.000-08:00

Tonight Pastor was talking again about Heaven. I love thinking about it! And like he said, we should all do it much more often. It puts everything in perspective.
My favorite part about tonight was what he said about rest. I always though physical rest, but it will be spiritual rest! Where we don't have to battle with sin. Just think how much energy we exert on a daily basis, mostly mental energy, on fighting sin! It will be soooo nice when we don't have to worry about it anymore!

Another bit of heaven, my English class is DONE! my paper is turned in and I don't have to look at it anymore. Yay! And bio will be done Monday. Can't wait!!

update of the last 3 years

2011-02-17T17:58:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to talk about the last three years. They have been rather depressing if you ask me. On a happy note, my sister is married to Matt. :) I have a nephew James who is adorable! :)
Well, two days ago was great lol I started writing about that... but I started off on a rant and don't remember what other great things happened that day considering that was more than 48 hours ago. So.
Today was a productive day, in spite of it being a Saturday. Got some major cleaning done today. Yaya. And we talked to Morgan and James on Skype!!! He is SO cute! Shar and Joe talked to her for 3 hours. We went shopping and I got a pair of grey dress pants, only pair I picked up and they fit and were 99 cents! I was happy.
And because I've spent tons of money lately on clothes at goodwill (whoops :), I had to skinnifie some tank tops I got, and hem work pants. So I did that tonight; it'd been forever since I'd sewn. I loved it though. :)

Just something I thought of tonight.... Its so good to be happy again. :) I didn't realize how much I missed it!

Well Ms. MaryAnn.... there's the update. :)

Georgia!

2008-06-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

Long story.
Thursday night(May 29th) I went to bed by 10, because I had to wake up at 3:30 the next morning, so I could leave my house by 4, so I could be on my plane when it left at 5:45 a.m. I couldn't fall asleep though. I was excited, but it wasn't the kind that keeps you up for hours on end. I don't know what was the matter with me. Anyway, I kept waking up in the middle of the night. I'd check my clock and say, "is this night EVER going to end?!?!" The last time I woke up, for some reason I thought that I didn't have to get up until 6:30... don't ask me why. I have no idea. When I looked at my clock it read 5:44. Again, the thought about the night never ending. I groaned in my bed. After lying there for about 15 seconds... I realized my plane left in less then one minute! I raced out of my bed screaming MOM MOM MOM!! Little did I know my sheet was twisted around my ankle when I lept out of bed, so I tripped, falling out of my bed, but that didn't stop me! I ran upstairs yelling, "Mom! We have to leave RIGHT NOW!" The first thing she said to me was, "Hannah, it's okay. Your flight's been delayed." I would swear to you, my heart skipped a few beats. I was so relieved I hadn't missed it. She explained the whole story to me. Around 12:30 a.m. she couldn't sleep and started thinking... Since Atlanta was only my connecting flight, and I was getting off there... my luggage would go to Orlando. Oh snap! Nobody had even thought of my luggage. She was pondering what to do. 2 a.m. the phone rang. (I didn't hear it thank goodness!) It was the airport. The woman on the other line was informing Mom that my flight was going to be delayed about three hours. Mom explained to her the situation. We found out that I was definitely not supposed to just leave without going on my second flight. The woman was so sweet about it. She and Mom stayed on the phone for at least and hour and the lady rebooked my flight there, so I would have only a direct flight to Atlanta, while nothing with my flight home was tampered with. God had this planned out in a way I couldn't imagine. Everything happened at just the right time. It made me feel special, and rather guilty. Often people get angry if their flight is delayed, or something happens that messes up their schedule, but then you think.... there's always a reason why that happened. I was that reason. God delayed that plane for me so that everything would work out. Mom had come down to my room in the middle of the night to turn off my alarm clock, so I could get a few extra hours sleep. I love her. :) When she was helping me with the final touches with my luggage, we found out it was too heavy. After taking out some unnecessary things we were able to put my stuff in a smaller suit case. Unfortunately we had to wake up poor Joey because by the time Mom would get home Morgan would already be at work. (Sharon was at a friend's house) I felt so bad for Mom. She hadn't gotten ANY sleep the night before. I was very grateful for all she did though. :) But she's back to her old self now, so I'm assuming she caught up on her sleep.
My flight there was rather uneventful. When I got to the airport I got lost, and didn't know where to go to find Elaine(my cousin who was picking me up). After calling here and wandering about for about 40 minutes I found her at the baggage claim. They had already gotten my bag. The luggage I used was sort of the 'family' (and I mean my entire Dad's side) luggage, so every family has one. My cousin Sarah who was with Elaine recognized it before I even got there and she grabbed it for me. All was well. I was finally in GA!!
We had a great conversation in the car on the way home. It was about two hours to their house, but we stopped for lunch. So we three girls, and Halle, got to have a nice long chat. :) I felt so bad for Elaine and Sarah though. They were both sick. I really hoped I wouldn't get sick and I didn't. Whoot! After a couple days and LOTS of tissues, they were both well again for the wedding. :)
When we got to the Martin's house, Pete was the only one home. He ran outside, picked me up and spun me around. I must say, I've never gotten a welcome like that before, but it was so great to see my cousin again! When every body got home, the party began. Well... not really. Just hanging out, but it was still oodles of fun!
Pete had to go run some errands so I went with him. Starting the day I got there, and throughout the course of the trip, Pete was training me how to tell the difference between a 2008 Mustang, and the older ones. Driving with him was great fun. He's a safe driver and everything, but he picks on me mercilessly, and I missed that.lol He also went into a gas station and bought me some sour candy. I'm telling ya, my cousins know me well! When he got in the car he said, "Hannah, remember this. People always own you." Yeah, I'll definitely remember that. When we got home Josh(Sarah's boyfriend) came over. And then Dan the Man(Bessie's then fiance, of course they're married now. :) came. I had met him briefly when I came down for Tim's wedding, but never really got a chance to talk to him. He is so stinking hilarious! Especially when he and Daniel talk. Goodness gracious, I was laughing so hard. After dinner, Dan, Elizabeth and I went to see Prince Caspian. It was awesome! While we were waiting for the movie to start I got to look at all of their engagement pictures. They were SO cute!
When the movie ended, they took me to Dan's house so I could see it. It really is a beautiful house, and especially nice for two just starting out. They did a great job decorating it. I also got to see Bessie's wedding China. It was gorgeous. :D
As far as I can remember nothing too eventful happened again that night.
The next morning Pete and I went to Chick Fila for breakfast to have the ever famous Chicken Biscuit. I must say, it was pretty good. :D When we got home we went with Aunt Mary and Mary Kate to go to Mary's softball game. Of course, they dominated! I was so proud of Mary. She is definitely one of the best on her team. Unfortunately... I got sunburned that day. Bad sunburn. After the game we went to Longhorn(kind of like Outback or some place like that) to celebrate Mary's victory. When we walked in, the hostess was getting ready to seat us...... now, pause a minute. You gotta think how this looks. Pete is 16, but he looks about 18, he's 6 foot or so. Mary is a big girl, only 13, but she looks at least 15, she's about 5'9(I'd say, I could be wrong) And Aunt Mary, who's rather tall. And then me. 5' Hannah who looks 10 years old. The lady offered me a kids menu. Oh my word, I am NEVER going to live this down! At lunch Pete and Mary kept calling me a kid and stuff... I have to say, it was hilarious, and they actually had some pretty good disses! :D But I kid you not, Pete told every single person he came in contact with that week. It was very interesting.... but seriously, I'll never be able to live this down.lol
I don't remember exactly what happened Sat night.... Oh wait yes I do! We went to the pottery place. It was the girls' night out. It was kind of Lizzy's bridal party thing. It was Lizz, Sarah, Mary, Aunt Mary, Elaine and Halle(her two month old daughter), Lizzie's friend Jamie, Madie, and me. We got the party room there. Painting the stuff was super fun! When Lizzy finished her plate, she doodled on a piece of paper there, and had a great time with it. :)

By 7:30 we were all pretty hungry, so we were going to eat at a place in the plaza. Madie called Tim(who I hadn't seen yet, but was dying to!!!) to see if he'd like to come and have dinner with us. I was so glad he came! Of course we had out reunion with "Shut up Hannah!" "Shut up Timothy!" And so on and so forth.lol Inside joke from years ago. :) Dinner was great. Rather funny. Aunt Mary about fell out of her chair when she saw me wipe my mouth on my sleeve.lol Aunt Mary's very big on etiquette and such. I said that I actually looked like a girl that day. Instead of wearing a baggy tee shirt and basketball shorts and tennis shoes, I actually wore, a less baggy shirt, long jean shorts and flip flops! I went way out of my comfort zone to look nice. lol Elaine thought that was hilarious! It was a good night. :) Then we headed over to Tim and Madie's house. I hadn't seen their house yet. It's a really cute little place. :D I also got to see all their wedding pictures, which were beautiful!
Sunday I went to church with Peter and Daniel. Which is also the church where Tim and Madie go, so we saw them there. It was kind of interesting fitting all three of us into Daniel's little three seater Ford Ranger. But we managed. :) Church was good. And after....hm.... what'd we do after? Oh yes! We went back to the Martin's house and had a big gathering there. Elaine, Ty(her husband) and their two kids Will and Halle. Dan, and all the residents of the Martin household. Dan and Daniel grilled hamburgers and hot dogs... man they were good! We watched some softball, and then I watched the Ultimate Gift while the girls were gone getting shoes to go with the Bridesmaids dresses. That night I went to church with Daniel. After church we went to the home of some friend's of his that were moving that week. We played ultimate frizzbee. I'm not at all good at frizzbee, but it was really fun! Then we went over to Tim and Madies to pick up a pressure washer because Daniel had to do the house(they're doing major fix up on the house the Martin's just bought). When we came home we watched the Office with Pete as is tradition in the Martin household.lol So much fun!
Okay, I'm a little sick of typing, so I'll write more later. I hope you guys read this, but if you didn't I totally understand.lol It was way long.

Tea Party

2008-04-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

Last night be good friend Savannah spent the night. We wanted to do something fun, so, we had a tea party with Shar, Alyssa, Ben and Joe. She came over around 4, we watched Monk and then picked up another friend of mine, Bianca. Unfortunately, Bianca had to leave at 6:30, but Savannah stayed and we walked up to Fareway to buy a cake mix, frosting, sour gummy worms, cream savers, popcorn, ice cream and dinner mints. When we came home we backed the cake.

Don't laugh at the hole! Sadly I didn't get a pic of it when it was finished, but we just put chocolate frosting on it. Yum!
While that was baking, we set the table. We didn't have a table cloth so we decided to take all the little napkins we had and just spread them on the table. Then we got a few knick knacks and decorated the table. 'Twas beautiful!

To make this tea party even more fun we dressed up! Alyssa and Sharon dressed up too! We were all so pretty.lol And Joe, being the dear that he is, even put on a suit and a tie to play along.
The pics of the girls and Joe and on Savannah's camera, but here's me and her.

We dressed while the cake was cooling. Then we put on every apron in the house(I had five, I think she had three or four) and finished preparing the food without destroying out dresses. It was just too hot in those dresses, in a hot kitchen to have tea, so we had lemonade. Shar and Alyssa made chocolate covered pretzels.

Man, Savannah's got all the good pics. I'll have to get them from her.lol Anyway.
We had originally planned to have it at midnight, but we were way ahead of schedule(yay!) and had it at 10. Whoot! During the actual dinner Joe and Ben wanted to be waiters. They were so cute, and did a really good job. After they served the food, they sat down to eat with us. We had the cake, water, lemonlade(that's the way I say it), carrots, celery, grapes, the chocolate covered pretzels, and the little mint thingys. We saved the ice cream, popcorn and gummy worms for later in the night. We laughed so much that night! Alyssa and Shar were hilarious.
After eating a lot, Sav and I changed to do the dishes. It really didn't take as long as we thought it would. Hooray for dishwashers!
When the dishes were done, Shar, Alyssa, Sav and I went downstairs and watched Extreme Days! Savannah loved it. Alyssa had seen it before, but it was so hilarious as usual. I fell asleep just cuz I was incredibly beat. I found out this morning that Sharon and Lyssa had thrown food at me when I was sleeping. This didn't surprise me because they've done it before. But since I don't remember it, I didn't mind.lol
It was definitely the most fun tea party I've had in quite a while! I want to do it again. :)

for you Ms. MaryAnn

2008-04-01T11:21:00.000-07:00

Busy weekend last week. But it was awesome!
Friday night we had a surprise birthday party for Madeline(spelling?). It was great to see her shocked face when she walked into the kitchen of her house and saw everyone jump out shouting 'Surprise!!' 'Twas terrific. We played games, some were difficult. One knowledge game Madeline and I were on a team and Mrs. MaryAnn asked us questions. Of course we dominated! lol It was great. We made a good team. A little later we played flashlight tag and sardines with everyone(except the moms) outside. That was a blast! Chant was my little buddy for the evening. I love that kid. During one game of sardines the only people left were Sharon, Maddie Knipp and Isabelle. We decided to have a little fun with them. Colin howled and I wish you could have heard those girls scream... it was hilarious!! Love you Muffin! lol That was most definitely the highlight of the night. We got home around midnight and I was plum tired.
Saturday I woke up at noon(ahhh sleeping in!) and cleaned the house for 3 hours. In the afternoon Sara came over to practice for Singspiration and to watch Extreme Days and spend the night. Practice went well, and it was pretty funny too. Sara liked Extreme Days, how could you not?! That night we just hung out. At 9 we popped in Love Comes Softly. She loved it and when we were going to bed(haha) at 11:30, we put in the second one to fall asleep. But Willie was just SOOOO cute, it was impossible to fall asleep with a movie he's in!! Especially since Sara and I were raving the whole time about how gorgeous he was.lol Good times Sara! She wanted to watch the next one.lol Well, it was like 1:45, and we had to be at church early the next morning to sing in praise team. Regardlessm, we put the third one in too.lol I fell asleep in the middle of it, but Sara watched the whole thing. Surprisingly we had voices the next morning! =D
Sunday was great. Sat night Morgan was practicing for offertory and Sara, Morgan and I just started singing. All our voices flowed so wonderfully, we decided to do the special for offertory. It sounded pretty good if I do say so myself. The sermon was great as always.
After church Matt, Morgan, Steve and I went out for our traditional Sunday lunch. Red Robin was the place. 'Twas very good. Then Morgan and I went into Ulta, the new makeup store in Shadow Lake, while the boys went to Borders. Then all of us headed over to Penny's. Fun stuff! We had to come home after that because Morgan and Steve had to practice for that night. Unfortunately, we all car pulled with Morgan, so Matt had to stay there when he wanted pie.lol When Morgan and Steve were done, Morgan and I practiced and wound up switching the song we were doing that night. Over at Matt's we watched part of a show, had pie and finally headed off for church.
I sang two songs(duets of course) and helped played guitar for congregational singing. Very busy night. But all went well and as far as I could tell, everybody did GREAT at singspiration!
When we came home the singles, oh excuse me-College and Career class came over for a snac. That was fun!
There was also some amazing news that I received that night... but since everyone knows about it... I'm not gonna tell. But can I say that I was and am still terribly excited?!
Anyway... that was my weekend. Very fun in my opinion.

2008-02-28T19:56:00.000-08:00

Well, I need to update. I don't have a whole lot of time, and my life really isn't all that interesting right now. This song has been stuck in my head for quite sometime and I love it. Promise of a Lifetime by Kutless it's an amazing song, listen to it.

I have fallen to my knees
As I sing a lullaby of pain
I'm feeling broken in my melody
As I sing to help the tears go away
Then I remember the pledge You made to me

(Chorus)
I know You're always there
To hear my every prayer inside I'm clinging to
The promise of a lifetime
I hear the words You say
To never walk away from Me and leave behind
The promise of a lifetime

Will You help me fall apart
Pick me up, take me in Your arms
Find my way back from the storm
And You show me how to grow through the change
I still remember the pledge You made to me

(Chorus)
I know You're always there
To hear my every prayer inside I'm clinging to
The promise of a lifetime
I hear the words You say
To never walk away from Me and leave behind
The promise of a lifetime

I am holding on to the hope I have inside
With You I will stay through every day
Putting my understanding aside
I am comforted

(Chorus)
To know You're always there
To hear my every prayer inside I'm clinging to
The promise of a lifetime
I hear the words You say
To never walk away from Me and leave behind
The promise of a lifetime

(Chorus)
I know You're always there
To hear my every prayer inside I'm clinging to
The promise of a lifetime
Looking back at me
I know that You can see my heart is open to
The promise of a lifetime

update for Mr. Folken

2008-01-29T15:01:00.001-08:00

Well I was told that I should update more often, so here it is. =)
Um...... hm.... what to do, what to do.....
Ah, well good news, I'm completely caught up with school! All of us really buckled down today and got done pretty early.
We found out that Dad will be able to come back to Nebraska after Korea! Yay. He was very happy about that. ;D
My Aunt will probably be visiting the end of Feb! =D It's gonna be so fun with her here. She's coming then because Mom will have two weeks off from school. Whoot whoot!
Mom had a job interview today. She's had a few with this company and I'm pretty stinking sure they're going to hire her. =D
I've been keeping busy with a lot of nothing. School, babysitting, hanging out with Dad and the kiddies, church and guitar. (not all of those are nothing. ;)
Our whole family is completely addicted to Monk. When Shar and Joe were gone we watched it every single day. And since it's now on at 3 and 4 we watch those too. =) It's so nice having a tv guardian!
I might write about Joe's party on Saturday. We're having it early because Dad is leaving. His real birthday is Valentines Day... yeah, he's my lover boy. =) lol

update

2008-01-21T08:53:00.001-08:00

Okay, dudes and dudets. I haven't written in a while so I thought I'd 'break it down.'
As of now, Sharon and Joe are gone in beautiful sunny, Florida... the little rats. jk... mostly. ;) So I'm just chilling with Mom and Morgan this week. Should be pretty cool! I plan on watching some good movies with Mom like Anne of Green Gables(all of them) and all the Love Comes Softly movies.... Ah... this should be a nice crying week.

Lol... While I'm thinking about it, the new years eve bash at church was completely amazing! I had so much stinking fun! We went frolicking outside, and when I say frolic I mean skipping.LOL... Good jokes that night as well! And we played Mofia quite a bit. So, we have a group, known as the Man-Han-Clan. It's pretty much THE best group ever! Here's a pic we took that night. It was fantastic!!

We look great don't we? I mean, come on, be serious. =P That's all of us. Jim, Marc, me and Andrew... we're working on getting the t-shirts in, isn't that right Jim?
Dad got a Wii! Oh my goodness. :) It's over at his house so when we go over there, that's pretty much what we do. He doesn't have any games except the ones that already come with it, which is completely fine with me. =D
Well I gotta go. I'll write more when anything interesting happens. ;)

Christmas!

2007-12-24T19:22:00.000-08:00

Well... tomorrow's Christmas! =D I'm quite excited.
The Christmas Eve service tonight was wonderful. I loved all the music, everybody did a great job.
Dad came a little after we got home. Matt S., Steve and amazingly all of our family is here. =) Shocking to have us all in one place. We each opened one gift tonight as is customary in our family. Sharon got a phone from Morgan. She was tickled to death.lol Joe got the Spider-Man trilogy from Morgan. =D We are all excited about that, we're watching the third one now. Morgan got a really pretty silver bracelet from Mom. Dad got a Pac-Man game thing from us. He was playing it a while ago and I must say everyone in the living room was very into the game. Mom didn't open anything. =( She's gonna wait till tomorrow. I got all four Love Come Softly movies from Mom!! I haven't seen the fourth one, but I did see most of the first and second and all of the third, they are wonderful! I highly recommend them to girls... I'm not sure if guys would appreciate them as much.lol
Tomorrow we plan on getting up rather early. Dad's coming around 7, and glory hallelujah, Steve is, most likely coming earlier than that. Joy. Sharon is more excited than any of us I think. =P
Hope you all have a completely wonderful and joyous, very Merry Christmas!

Freaky!

2007-12-05T13:56:00.001-08:00

Dad just came over a few minutes ago. I opened the door and he looked at me and said, "I'm glad you're alright." I was confused and asked what? He told me to turn on the news. I don't know if you all already know, but there was a shooting at Von Maur in Westroads Mall around 2:00 this afternoon. Yesterday we went to the mall and for the first time entered that same department store. It gave me chills to think we were there just a day before a shooting! Luckily the guy shot himself(sorry I know it's bad to like people killing themselves but in my opinion if they have the nerve to deliberately kill someone else, they deserve it). My aunt just called and is on the phone with my mom right now. Uncle TJ heard about the shooting and told her to call to make sure we are okay. Ahhh... it just freaks me out! Okay, I'm alright now. As soon as I saw it on the news and realized it, I remembered what Pastor said on Sunday night... how God is protecting us even when we don't realize it. What if Dad had come home last night instead of Monday night... and we went to the mall today? What if the guy suddenly got the urge to go the the mall on Tuesday instead of Wednesday? It just amazes me how God has His strong hand on my family and I.

Guilty

2007-12-04T19:21:00.000-08:00

I feel kinda bad since I haven't posted anything in a while... my bad. Things haven't been extremely busy, but pretty close.
First of all, Christmas shopping! I've had the most fun shopping this year. It helps when you have a 'job' so you have money to spend. I was able to get a bunch of things for my family, I hope they like them. =D Christmas this year hasn't come fast enough, I know it always seems that way... but especially this year. On like Dec. 1 I thought it was Christmas the next day. Sharon especially is excited. The house looks really nice because Morgan set up everything we had.
Updates on the Allen kids. Well Isaiah has some teeth in now! =D He's so cute... and he's starting to walk which unfortunately allows him to get into everything with results in me having to clean it up... go figure. Frankie and Madlyn are growing up really fast. Madlyn is so helpful with Isaiah and knows what to do for everything that happens. Frankie is just a sweetie pie. He comes up and gives me hugs and says I love you for no reason... he also helps me whenever I need it. =)
Here they are.

There's not too much spectacular news accept that I finally got some good candy! Also I think I might be getting sick.lol

The Altar and the Door

2007-11-19T18:33:00.000-08:00

The other day I got Mom the new Casting Crowns cd for Christmas... unfortunately she saw it in my purse and thought I bought it. So she got it early. =) But I've been enjoying it more than her. You have got to listen to these songs, they're amazing! Here's some of my favorites so far. I haven't listened to all of them, but the ones I have I've really liked. =D

East to West: This is a pretty popular song, and it's got a really good message.

Here I am Lord and I’m drowning
In Your sea of forgetfulness
The chains of yesterday surround me
I yearn for peace and rest
I don’t want to end up where You found me
And it echoes in my mind
Keeps me awake tonight

I know You’ve cast my sin as far
As the East is from the West
And I stand before You now
As though I’ve never sinned
But today I feel like I’m just one mistake away
From You leaving me this way

Jesus, can You show me just how far the East is from the West?
Cause I can’t bear to see the man I’ve been
Rising up in me again
In the arms of Your mercy I find rest
You know just how far the East is from the West
From one scarred hand to the other

I start the day, the war begins
Endless reminding of my sin
And time and time again
Your truth is drowned out by the storm I’m in
Today I feel like I’m just one mistake away
From You leaving me this way

I know You’ve washed me white
Turned my darkness into light
I need Your peace to get me through
To get me through this night
I can’t live by what I feel
About the truth Your word reveals
And I’m not holding onto You
But You’re holding onto me
You’re holding onto me

Prayer for a Friend: I could really relate to this one. It reminds us that even though it's so hard to see a friend or loved one straying from the Lord, God is still in control.

Lord, I lift my friend to you
I’ve done all that I know to do
I lift my friend to you

Complicated circumstances
Have clouded his view
Lord, I lift my friend up to you

I fear that I won’t have the words
That he needs to hear
I pray for your wisdom, Oh God
And a heart that’s sincere
Lord, I lift my friend up to you

Lord, I lift my friend to you
My best friend in the world, I know

He means much more to you
I want so much to help him
But this is something he has to you
And, Lord, I lift my friend up to you

‘Cause there’s a way that seems so right to him
But you know where that leads
He’s becoming a puppet of the world
Too blind to see the strings
Lord, I lift my friend up to you
My friend up to you

Lord, I lift my friend to you
I’ve done all that I know to do
I lift my friend to you

What This World Needs: This is such an accurate song! I love it. Ya'll need to listen to this one.

What this world needs
Is not another one-hit wonder with an axe to grind
Another two-bit politician peddling lies
Another three-ring circus society

What this world needs
Is not another sign-waving SUPER- THAT thinks he's better than you
Another ear-pleasing candy man afraid of the truth
Another prophet in an Armani suite

What this world needs is a Savior who will rescue
A Spirit who will lead
A Father who will love them
In their time of need
A savior who will rescue
A Spirit who will lead
A Father who will love
That's what this world needs

What this world needs
Is for us to care more about the inside than the outside
Have we become so blind that we can't see
God's gotta change your heart before he changes a shirt
What this world needs
Is for us to stop hiding behind our relevance
Blending in so well that people can't see the difference
And it's the difference that sets the world free

People aren't confused by the gospel
They're confused by us
Jesus is the only way to God
But we are not the only way to Jesus
This world doesn't need my tie, my hoodie
My denomination or my translation of the bible
They just need Jesus
We can be passionate about what we believe
But we can't strap ourselves to the gospel
'Cause we're slowing it down
Jesus is going to save the world
But maybe the best thing we can do
Is just get out of the way

Your Word is Alive: You may have also heard this one, I think it's been on the radio once or twice. This song has a wonderful message, it reminds me of our Awana class at church when we were studying the Word of God. Hebrews 4:12

Looking out from His throne
The Father of light and of men
Chose to make Himself known
And show us the way back to him

Speaking wisdom and truth
Into the hearts of peasants and Kings
He began to unveil
The Word that would change the course of all things

With eyes wide open all would see

The Word is alive
And it cuts like a sword through darkness
With a message of life to the hopeless and the frail
Breathing life into all who believe

The Word is alive
And the world and its glories will fade
But His truth it will not pass away
It remains yesterday and forever the same
The Word is alive

Simple strokes on a page
Eternity's secrets revealed
Carried on from age to age
It speaks truth to us even still

As the rain falls from heaven
Feeds the earth before it returns
Lord, let your Word fall on us
And bring forth the fruit you deserve
With eyes wide open let us see

The bible was inscribed over a period of 2000 years
In times of war and in days of peace
By kings, physicians, tax collectors, farmers, fishermen, singers and shepherds
The marvel is that a library so perfectly cohesive
Could have been produced by such a diverse crowd
Over a period of time which stagers the imagination
Jesus is it's grand subject our good is designed and the Glory of God is its end

This is a terrific cd so far. I have yet to listen to all of the songs, but I felt I should put the lyrics of my favorites for ya'll to see. God really convicted/encouraged me through these songs and this band I hope He does the same for you!

What have you been doing lately?

2007-11-17T19:29:00.000-08:00

It's been a little while, so I thought I'd write a little bit about what's been happening. Really not too much, but some things.
I don't know if I've mentioned it or not, but Dad got a guitar! =) I've been teaching him some stuff but he is taking a few lessons before he goes to Korea. Since he's gotten his, he, Joe and I have been playing a lot together. I got really interested in some new songs. I can play a lot more now. I've got some sweet Christmas music!
Wednesday night we went to see the Heartland Gospel Singers and the Blackwood Brothers. Krista hitched a ride with us. =) On the way there and back all we did was listen to my iPod, it about killed Mom(lol) but we enjoyed it oh so much!

The singing was amazing! I was so proud of all the guys. =) The Blackwood Brothers were pretty cool too. Poor Joe and Marcus were getting really bored and tired. But not till the very end. On the way home we stopped at Subway and ran into literally, everyone! It was cool though.

Thursday night my Grandmother(Mom's mom) came to visit. We were up till one talking so we were all pretty tired on Friday. That day we did some school and chores and stuff while Mom was at school. Later Dad took us girls to Penny's to see the pictures. (I'll post them later hopefully) He left after a bit so Morg, Shar and I went shopping for a while. While we were out we bought a BUNCH of pig out food that was absolutely delicious! Then we came home and watch Princess Diaries. Fun night!

Today we went grocery shopping and I got Mom a digital camera. I'd been wanting to get her one for a while and this one was excellent quality and was mega on sale. Then we all went to her LPN pinning. I was SO proud of her! She's just an amazing student(top in her class by the way, GO MOM!), mom, friend, Christian, and person. I appreciate her so much, even if we don't always say it, come on guys... aren't Mom's just the best thing God ever gave you?!
She got a rose, a chocolate bar,lol, and a light up candle at the ceremony.

After we had cake and punch. =P Then Dad wanted to take all of us out to dinner. It was very nice of him to do so and we had a completely great time! I really miss all of us going out to dinner together. But now, when we do do it, it's more special and I think we have even more fun than we ever did! All of us. Unfortunately Joe went to a birthday party and wasn't there this time.

Georgia part II

2007-11-08T10:44:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry it's taken me a few days to get this on here, I know I've said this a lot, but I have been really busy! And when I get a spare minute to write about it, it's past 10 so I can't get on the pc. But here it is! =D
Getting up early didn't bother me all that much. I was too excited to sleep on the plane! Dad slept some of the time and I listened to music, watched tv with him, and just looked out the window and thought. I know... something is definitely wrong with me. When we flew into Milwaukee the sun was just rising... I didn't get a very good picture of it, but it was so beautiful!

When we got to the airport in Atlanta we rented a car and I must say it was the most out of date modern car I've ever seen. It was a Jeep Compass either an 06 or 07, it looked nice, but looks are deceiving. It didn't have power locks, so every time we got in Dad had to open his door then stretch across the seat to unlock my door. And the windows were manual too. He and my cousin James asked if they even made cars like this anymore. But it was a form of transportation so we took it. =)
I pleaded with Dad to take me to Chik Fila since we don't have one here. We finally found one that we could get to and ate there. It was SO good! =D After that my lack of sleep was catching up to me, so while Dad watched I Love Lucy and drove I slept for an hour and a half.
Okay, before I continue with the rest of the story I'm gonna write what cousins are in which family. This might help you keep them straight and look back for reference.

Uncle Mel, Aunt Cheryl, James(16), Kyle(14) and Kayla(8) Adamson. Aunt Cheryl is my Dad's sister and they live in Florida.

Aunt Jo Woida... that's it about her. She's Dad's oldest sister. She lives in Florida too.... she's one of my best friends, even though there's 40 years difference in our ages.lol

Grandmom and Granddad Woida, my Dad's parents who also live in Florida.

Uncle Jay, Aunt Julia, Jordan(13), Jessica(7) Woida, Uncle Jay married Aunt Julia like three years ago and she already had three children from a previous marriage. Justin is 15 but he wasn't able to come to the wedding. Uncle Jay is Dad's brother

Uncle Lee and Aunt Lorriane, my Dad's brother and his wife, they live in Pennsylvania.

Now for the big one. Aunt Mary is Dad's sister. She has seven kids. (Uncle Pete died 4 years ago in a motorcycle accident)
Elaine(26?) married Tye in 2003 they have a 18 month old son Will, Elaine is pregnant with their second child. Funny thing.... it's due on April 12th, which happens to be Peter and Mary Kate's birthday too!
Elizabeth(24) She is also one of my best friends. I can talk to her about anything and we laugh at everything together. I call her Bessy, Lizzy and Elizabeth.
Timothy(23) if you didn't already know he's the one who got married. He and I get along so well. Seriously. He and his brothers are the big brothers I never had. We joke around with each other a lot!
Daniel(19) I call him Danny boy. He is the most amazing guitar player I've ever met. And he's so stinking funny! We have almost the exact same taste in music too.
Sarah(17 next month) Sarah is just a great person. She's really pretty and she sings, plays the piano and violin. She sang Mighty is the Power of the Cross at Tim's wedding.
Pete(15) ..... Pete is just amazing. I talk to him a lot on myspace. He's really funny, and plays football. I think he's the first person who got me interested in football actually. He made me feel really ignorant when we played before, so I figured I'd find something out about the sport.
Mary Kate(12) Mary and I have our on and off times. Sometimes when we visit we're the best of friends, and other times we can't stand each other.lol But this time we got along. =) She's really sweet and fun to be around.

Okay, now that you pretty much know who everyone is, I'll continue.

When we drove up to Aunt Mary's I was so excited I wanted to jump out of the car when it was still moving. There was no cars in the parking lot though. (we call the Martin driveway a parking lot because they have so many drivers in the family, it is a parking lot ;) I saw Kyle on the porch. I got out of the car and he saw Dad and I and looked surprised. He was one of the few that didn't know we were coming. I gave him a big hug. His voice had gotten so deep and he got taller too. Shocking... everyone gets taller except for me.
The only people in the house were Uncle Mel, James, Kyle and Grandmom. (Granddad was still in the hospital[Aunt Jo drove up Grandmom] we didn't know if he'd be able to come up for the wedding) Dad and I took Grandmom to the hotel. We checked in and got changed for the rehearsal dinner. We left at 5:20 to get there at 6. We didn't know where it was.
When we did find it Lizzy was out to greet us. I was SO happy to see her!!! She said Tim would be really excited because he didn't know I was coming. It took a lot to keep this a secret from him. We walked into the sanctuary and I spotted him talking to people. I just walked up to him and hugged him. To my dismay he wasn't surprised at all. He was happy to see me, but didn't give me the shocking look I had hoped for. But all the people that knew we were coming did! Aunt Mary, Sarah, Mary Kate, Elaine, Tye, Aunt Cheryl, Aunt Jo... all of them! When I gave Sarah a hug, Pete saw me and looks kind of surprised. I was happy about that.
Everyone had gotten taller and their voices deeper... it was just wonderfully strange.

This is Bessy and me at the rehearsal.

The rehearsal was about an hour and then we all went in for dinner. James asked me to sit with him and the guys, which is where I spent most of my time for the rest of the trip. There was one family we had been friends with forever, but I didn't remember any of their kids accept Abby the oldest, and she didn't come. So I met Paul(16), John(13) and Sam(8). James, Pete and Kyle kept making fun of my outdated phone. I told them I'd work on getting a new one. ;) The meal was good and we got to just hang out and talk. Towards the end they had a time for everyone who wanted to, to say something about Tim and Madie. (MAY-DEE) It was really sweet. But I loved the fact that they were all talking about how God worked it out. James was tickling me through the whole thing though. I really don't think we've ever gotten along so well! Paul didn't believe we were cousins....lol I guess James was acting a little lovely dovey, usually we act rather nasty to each other, in a fun way.
After the rehearsal there was a slide show of pics of Tim and Madie. It took about an hour and I'm not even kidding! Their engagement pictures were so cute!
Dad had already taken Grandmom back to the hotel and I stayed with Aunt Jo to help clean up. When that was done we went to Aunt Mary's to help her there. At 11:30 we finally went home. It'd been a whole week since Aunt Jo and I had had a long conversation! So we had a lot to catch up on.lol I got a wonderful sleep that night... a full 7 and a half hours!
The next morning Dad got me up to go downstairs in the hotel and have breakfast with everyone.
To our dismay we had to be at the church by 11 for family pictures. Lol... James and I were bored so we messed around. We were going into the church with Paul to get something to drink, James asked if he could get on my back. He really wasn't that heavy, but in high heels and a skirt, it was a little uncomfortable. Here's some pics we took on our own while we were sitting there. It was really fun to be able to catch up with one another.

They were trying to get the immediate family all set up for a picture.

James took this pic of me.

This was a cute one of Aunt Mary and Tim.

This one cracks me up! That's Aunt Mary, Aunt Jo and Dad. Bunch of characters.

James

Pictures for Tim's side ended at 12 so most of us headed over to Elaine's for lunch. Thank God Granddad did make it to the wedding!! Dad was scared he'd never see him again... because he's going to Korea and Granddad's health is going down fast.
Here's some pics we took of Kyle and me and the girls.

This is Kayla, Kyle and Jessica. Aren't they cute?!

Me with the girlies.

The wedding was beautiful! Everything about it was centered around Christ. They also mentioned Uncle Pete, which got a lot of people crying. I was able to talk to Tim some. I really miss him. He's not gonna be able to come visit us a lot anymore... unless he brings Madie. I'm happy for him and all, but it's just not gonna be the same ya know what I mean? Madie seems really nice though. I can't wait to get to know her better! =)

This is a blurry pic of them, but aren't they cute?!

Me and Jessie again. I loved her dress!

After the wedding we went to Aunt Mary's house to chill for the rest of the afternoon/evening. Daniel played some guitar for me. I love his voice and his playing. Then we watched some football. And the guys went outside to play football. =D I didn't want to butt in, cause I've been known to do that, so I stayed inside. But a few minutes later James came in a asked me to go out there with them. My catching was way off that night. I mean, more than usual. I watched mostly. But James was distracting me when Pete threw me a pass and it hit me smack dab in the stomach. It hurt. But I was okay. Once again, James wanted me to give him a piggy back ride. Aren't I nice to him?! After the Orsers(some other old friends who came) left it was just Paul, John, Sam, Jordan, Pete, James and I. I was talking to James, Pete and Paul while Jordan was playing football with John. I had my back to them when John threw a pass and hit me in the back of the head/neck. I could swear they were all trying to get rid of me! lol It hurt about the same as the stomach blow, but I was alright. Paul said we should put our hoods on. He, James and I had hoodies on so we did. Pete was wearing a polo so I said, "Pete, man you don't fit in." He said, "Well... I've always been a leader, never a follower." lol... The way he said it was completely like him. Ya gotta know him to get it.
I spent the night there that night. Sunday morning I went to church with Lizzy. She had a baby shower to go to after, so Sarah picked me up and drove me home. That afternoon I hung out with Daniel and Pete. We talked, listened to music and watched Pete play football X-box or something. Pete let me talk to his girlfriend Courtney. I tease him about her all the time. Here's a pic of him talking to her.

People think Sarah and I look alike. We do usually, but I didn't think we did here. What do you think?

Then Danny boy took us over to Elaine's for dinner. Dad and I spent the night there because it was closer to the airport. On the ride there we rocked out to Skillet! We were in Tim's truck, it was Daniel, Pete, Marykate and me. Way fun! The only person who wasn't enjoying it was Pete, but he has a poor taste in music.
Later that night, when everyone when home, we had said our goodbyes, given hugs, Elaine, Dad, Lizzy and I talked for a few hours. Tye was watching tv and Will was sleeping. We talked about everything from relationships, to cars breaking down, to work, to... just everything! It was so much fun! It was really hard to say by to Lizzy and Pete, but I hope I can go back down next summer! =D

Georgia

2007-11-01T19:54:00.000-07:00

Today was way busy and I'm so tired! Last night I was up till two hanging out with Sharon and doing school. Today I caught up on all of my school(I was very proud of myself) and left to go babysit. Shockingly the guy was late coming home so I had to stay later. Then Sharon and I went over to the Long's house to have a party with the Single's girls and the little girls. That was a whole bundle of fun! lol I was exhausted so I only played with the little girls for a while, but I have a good time with them. =)
Now I need take a shower and PACK!! I'll have to get up really early because Dad is going to be at the house at 4:30 at which time I must be ready to go.
I'm not sure exactly what time we get to Atlanta, but it should be around 2 or something. We'll probably head over to Aunt Mary's and see everyone. I'm tickled to death! But I probably won't be seeing my grandparents. =( Please pray for my grandfather(the one that was here in August), he will probably have to have his kidney out. His health is, for lack of a better word, awful, and he's not a Christian. We don't know how much time he has left. Please pray for him.
Aside from that I can't wait to see all my cousins! I never really have fit in at the Martins though.... they're all giants.lol I'm so not kidding. My cousin Pete is like 6'3 and he's just a year older than me. But I want to see the look on his face when we walk in the door.... and Timothy too. Wow, this is going to be so much fun!!
I'm also looking forward to the one-on-one time with Dad. It's been a while since we've been able to talk the way we used to. I have a feeling it's going to be rather hard for both of us now... if you know what I mean by that. Please pray for me not to do anything I'll regret and that by God's grace Dad might get saved on this trip.
Well I really need to go now. Time is running out, and I don't want to be too much of a bear tomorrow. ;)

Becca's surprise party

2007-10-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

Last night was Becca's surprise 16th birthday party. Krista and Kelly and Kellie came over early to help me decorate, get the food ready and hang out, thought we didn't have time to hang out due to my lack of planning. Kellie had to leave around 8, so then it was just Krista, Kelly and I. We brought the coffee table down with Joe's help and set everything up. They were hiding downstairs in the dark when Becca came in. I practically ran down the stairs, flipped on the and we all yelled "SURPRISE!!!" Becc said we hurt her ear pretty badly, other than that it was a success as a surprise. =)
We watched The Secret Garden then Hannah and Morgan came downstairs. It wasn't quiet at all then, so we pretty much ignored the movie-Morgan and Kelly tried to watch it but didn't have much luck. The cake Mrs. Emory bought was lovely and tasted really good. My home-made piniada went very well too. But we couldn't figure out how to hang it so Morgan suggested rolling down the stairs, which we did.

Hannah didn't come till later. =( But this is a really good picture of the three of them. =)

There she is!
It was a really fun night! I'm so happy we were able to have it. =D Happy Birthday Becca! Those balloons were priceless! ;P Ya had to be there...

Awana

2007-10-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

Tonight was... how do you say it... BUSY!
Luckily I got off babysitting about two hours early! =D so I was able to eat something before I left for awana. I knew tonight would be really busy, but I didn't think it'd be that bad.
When we got to church I did the normal stuff I do in the office. Of course, when Mrs. Sneed is actually there no one needs anything, but as soon as she leaves there's a stampede.lol Okay, well maybe it's not that bad. Mom had to buy a shirt for Joe, someone came in because they just bought their daughter a new Spark vest and the seam was ripped already(faulty job by the maker), and someone came in and had to pay dues for only 8 weeks for three kids, and buy books for all of them. Oh yes and thank you so much Mrs. Kersey for your help with that! I was a little confused but she helped me through all of it. =D In addition to all this, I forgot where the checks went! Not good. But I figured out a solution. =)
After that I handed out the envelopes to the leaders. I really had nothing to do until around 7:30 when I had to get the cookies out and poor water before I had to run into game time and keep score, afterwhich I would have to go back into the kitchen to serve said items, and then go to the office to keep the tally of games and sections, and get discovery stickers and badges and such. Busy, busy, busy.
I killed the half hour by listening to my ipod and double checking things. Around 7 I went to the kitchen to get all the ice in the ice thing to put into cups and pitcher later. Rachel Winter was my helper and she did a WONDERFUL job!! Thank you so much Rachel! She helped me with the ice, refilled some of the trays and rotated when I was filling the water(she filled the pitchers). She also cut the cookie bags so they'd be ready to serve when I got back from game time. I was a tad late as scorekeeper from my mess in the kitchen. But I did get there and was even able to play a game withe the kids. When that was over I raced to the kitchen where Mom and Rachel already held down the fort. Thanks Mom!! Love you! =D It really wasn't complicated and with the three of us, it went quickly and smoothly. Much thanks to both my helpers and for cleaning up the kitchen.
Back at the office I had to write down the number of clubbers and leaders. Also keeping track of the points scored by sections and game time. There were 5 or 6 badges that had to be dealt with and a mix up with two of them. Mr. Phillips was great and stayed behind with to lock up the church. Thanks Mr. Phillips! I still have some work to do tomorrow night... but the majority of it is done. I feel much better now that I have explained it to someone/no one maybe. Thanks for reading it!

shopping..... story of my life! Well... at least one of the chapters

2007-10-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

Well first of all yes I did have an amazing time at the pizza bash! I was a very funny time. =)
Today Joe went with Dad to a skate park and then over to his place for the afternoon. Morgan was off work by this time and Mom had done most of her homework sooo..... we went shopping! =D Fun right? Yeah, well. Alyssa, Shar's friend(I love her too! =) came with us also.
First stop was Goodwill... naturally.lol It was the most crowded I have ever seen it! We stayed there for almost an hour and didn't find anything... sigh... but Mom said we could head over to TJ Max. But before we got there she had to run to Hy-Vee (Bakers' enemy) to get a few things. Now comes the awkward part....
We pulled up in our parking place and I saw an old friend from school. Ian now worked here. He was an absolute nut in school, but incredibly funny! He also asked me out of Valentines Day in eighth grade... I'm pretty sure it was a joke, but nonetheless, a little awkward, but of course I said "UH NO!" lol... it wasn't as mean as it sounds.
To our left I saw a guy working with the carts and he looked extremely familiar. After a few glances I finally figured out who he was. His name was Joe. He was a nice guy a grade ahead of me. We were had Pottery-I together when I was in high school. He asked me if I would be his date for homecoming! Let's just say I was caught a little off guard. I didn't like him in that way at all! but rumor had it he liked me. We were friends but because it was a dance and a date and he was almost sixteen when I was 13, Mom said absolutely not. It really hurt him, but there was nothing I could do. I didn't go to homecoming myself and he said he wasn't going to go if I didn't go with him. I'm still not sure if he ever went, I hope he did go and had a good time though. =)
I don't think he ever saw me while we were in the store, but it was completely weird seeing him. I think Ian did see me but because him asking me out was most likely a joke, and we were good friends after that, it wasn't nearly as weird. =)
After that experience we went to TJ Max. Unfortunately I didn't find anything there either, but Shar found a cute pair of jeans. We also tried on hats. Amanda and Michael I've got a question for you. Was that were ya'll went shopping when Amanda and Michael took those pics of the hats and sunglasses? Because I saw the same black hat with the feathery thing around the side/top of it. And the golfing hat Michael wore. Shar looked really good in the black one but I looked awful in it. lol.... I'm just not very much a hat person.... sigh... But I did try on some really nice leather(or fake leather, not sure) gloves... great for motorcycle riding. =)
Then we picked up Joe from Dad's and came home. They had made some pizza that was absolutely delicious! =D

Today's plans

2007-10-12T15:55:00.000-07:00

Getting up this morning was a real pain.... well as every morning is. I was exhausted last night but luckily I was able to get some sleep and I feel much better!
Today was a bunch of fun!
I did some school: Chemistry, correcting math, finish the Magician's Nephew, and the God's World history thing. After that Morgan took Shar and me to Wal-Mart because she had to get some wooden hangers that were on sale. We played her phone because she downloaded music onto it and we were walking down the aisles of the store rocking to Jesus Freak, Must Have Done Something Right, I'm Taking You With Me and a lot more! Walking side by side it was seriously like a scene from a movie... we only get to act like sisters in that way every so often, so it was special. =D
When we got home we ate lunch and then Mom left to go to the hospital to get info for work tomorrow. While she was gone(Morgan was at work) Shar, Joe and I took pics for Mom for Christmas. She wanted some nice black and white pictures of us that Morgan matted, for Christmas. So PLEASE don't tell her! Shar had a lot of fun dressing up and we got some great photos! But we're still not done yet.
Tonight we have the pizza party, so that should be fun. Marc is coming over to play with Joe while Shar and I are gone.... I hope Mom will let us stay up late when we get back. A few weeks ago she made us go to bed at 11. I hit the sack later than that on weekdays! But I hope that was just a one time thing. =D
bye. =)

Church

2007-10-08T18:42:00.000-07:00

Sunday was simply amazing. The Sunday school lesson was really good. The time went by so fast! We basically took a 'test' to see how well we knew the Bible and where to find things. It was all in the old testament though... it was very interesting I thought. I was happy to find out the most of the people in Sunday school got the right answers! lol .... Needless to say I would have been a little disappointed if they didn't know them.
The actually service was amazing. We switched it up, which completely confused me, but it was fun. The singing was like it's never been before. It was loud and joyful, full of praise! And the songs were were singing were very worshipful. And then Mrs. Knipp sang I Am by Nicole Nordeman. That's one of my many favorite songs! I loved the way she made it personal too. She said '3 kids and a dream' instead of 2 kids and a dream.
The sermon was great. Pastor talked about how a true, born again believer will sin, but cannot do it habitually and continually. He also talked about how believers are born of God and we're new creatures in Him! That was special to hear and just a good reminder that we are God's children and He loves us so much!
Sunday night's lesson was a rerun but was as powerful as ever. It was about how important it is not to water down the gospel when witnessing. And it's so true! It takes away the power of the Word when we leave out the part about Hell and sin. And if you think about it... it makes it that much more special for us. If Jesus just 'loved' us, that'd be great and all... but to know that He took our sin, when He knew no sin and died for us, that we might not go to Hell and live eternally with Him!!! ... it's just.... indescribable! Praise God for all He's done for us!

Valas Pumpkin Patch

2007-10-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Valas Pumpkin Patch. It was way fun!
For the first part of the trip we learned about the growth of apples and I was with Alyssa and Katie Long. The 'lesson' was very thorough and all who heard are that much smarter and know more about apples. =D lol After that Alyssa ditched me for Sharon so Katie, her friend Emily, and I rode the hay ride and went pumpkin picking! It was SO muddy! But we got some pretty sweet pumpkins. =)
Then the whole group split up mostly by families so the rest of the time it was just Mom, Sharon, Joe Man and I.
We went into some haunted houses, ate lunch at a picnic area, visited a petting zoo thingy and Joe got to feed some goats. I think he really enjoyed that. =)
We also go to see the pig races! It was so funny, and very, very corny. But the cutest part was some kids not too far away. They were about 5 or 6 years old and there was a kissing booth right next to the stands. Before the race started, they took turns in the booth.lol And then they all started dancing. It was adorable because they were so little! =D

We got this amazing kettle corn! A huge bag so we have almost all of it left over.... Even Mom liked it.
Lol... at the beginning of the trip we passed a thing that said something about Bones...it was dead pirates but it reminded me of a story.
I looked everywhere for postcards but they didn't have any. The first shop we went into had only two different ones at that was at the beginning, so I figured I'd shop around a little... never found any. So my apologies, but if you ever get the opportunity to go, take it! It's a lot of fun! =D
Well I gotta scoot.

Babysitting

2007-10-04T18:17:00.000-07:00

Today I got to babysit the Allen kids down the street. I started sitting for them when there were just two kids. Then Mrs. Allen got pregnant and Isaiah is now 8 months! I only sat for them one time since he was born and I must say, he's much bigger than he was then.lol It was fun though.... I got to play with him a lot.
I think his favorite part was swinging out back. He smiles all the time. =D It's so cute! But, like all babies he's a drooler. I also had to change him because he peed all over his clothes... fun fun.
I jumped on the trampoline with Frankie and Madelyn. I think they got a kick out of it. They're not as little as they used to be though... =( Frankie talked a lot before but he didn't talk nearly as well as he does now. And Madelyn... she's a regular little mother to Isaiah and a great helper. Unfortunately she and Frankie remind me of Sharon and Joe in the fact that they pick on each other as much as possible.
Of course I got a kick out of watching a bunch of Hannah Montana!lol
It was long, but it was fun and I had a good time. Those kids are getting so old and I haven't even know them for very long!
I get to spend a lot of time with them. I sit with them Sat. from 7 to 10 or 11 a.m. and then for the next six weeks I'm there from 2:30 to 6:30 on Tuesday and Thursday. But I'll still be at AWANA. =)

Sleepover

2007-09-29T15:45:00.000-07:00

Last night I slept over at Krista's house and boy was it fun!!
Her mom let us walk down to Goodwill after dinner to go shopping. From the pics, you should be able to see we had a pretty amazing time! This morning we went to Reruns(LOL We're watching What's Happening! If you guys have ever seen that, you know exactly what I mean.) and got some more great stuff, but I don't have any pics. Oh... just to let you know, we didn't get the stuff we tried on. *wink wink*

This dress was gorgeous. We saw it the last time we went shopping but never tried it on. I was like, "eh, what's the harm. Let's do it!" I actually almost fit, and it was beautiful!

Krista looked lovely in it, and was looking at the birds in the corner of the dressing room.lol

This was the train of the dress. It was really, really hard to carry.

Krista just looked too cute in this red dress!

Shopping with Krista.... goodwill style.

2007-09-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

OH my goodness!! AMANDA! I finally got this pics to work on my computer! I have no idea what was wrong or how I fixed it, but I really don't care. =D Here they are.

This was one of the dresses I tried on but Krista and I didn't like it as much as the one I got. It was rather tight!

These are pics of the dress I got for the Christmas dinner. I love it!

Lol... I wanted proof for Kellie and Becca that I did try on shoes, even though nothing can compare to my tennis shoes. =) I did get a pair of boots though(not either of the ones shown) for $6! Oh yay.

My day... I know you all care so much =P

2007-09-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah and before I forget this is my 70th post. Yay!
Today was rather busy. I got up, didn't eat breakfast, and did the usual. Bible, prayer and some school. We at lunch and left at about 12:30 to go pick up Maddie and Marc to go to the gym. That was a bunch of fun! On the way there we listened to the High School Musical 2 soundtrack that Maddie brought. The whole time we were at the gym we were singing the songs. We played basketball, soccer and volleyball. Mom even played volleyball! I gotta say it was... entertaining. lol Nah, she really did well and I'm proud of her. =)
We took them home and were at the Knipps for 15 minutes or so and came home because Mom had to cook dinner and I had to mow. I was already tired from going to bed at almost one, and going to the gym, mowing wasn't exactly on my list of 'fun' at that moment. But the back was atrocious because I hadn't done it in over two weeks, so I did it. I must say... the lawn looks SO much better! and we can walk through the grass without having our knees itch like crazy...okay maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit.lol
I didn't eat dinner because I had to take a shower and then leave for church, so I'm rather hungry right now. But anyway... that was my very eventful day, it was fun, but I'm kind of glad it's over. =)
Now I really want to go read Piercing the Darkness and eat something! =) Peace out!

Life's not fair

2007-09-19T18:40:00.000-07:00

We've all heard the saying "Life's not fair." Well it certainly is true! But... as you might not have thought, it's a good thing for us it isn't! =D
What's fair?... You're a sinner. Is it 'fair' that God was gracious and merciful to us and saved us from our sin? Is it fair to Him for us to reject Him for so long and then when life gets tough we realize how much we need Him and decide to except Him?
Let's talk about Jesus. Was it fair for Him to be hanged on a cross, even though He never sinned in His life?! Think about it though... God had a plan. If Jesus hadn't died and payed the price for our sin, and rose again on the third day, would we have the opportunity God has given us, to know Him and be free from sin and live eternally with Him?
What is fair? I'll tell ya what's fair. It's fair for us to live in our sin... or rather be dead in our sin, and die and live in Hell forever permanently separated from God. That's what's fair! We can never do anything on our own to reach God's standard of holiness. BUT! Because God is loving towards us, He sent His Son to die for our sins, that we may live eternally with Him in Heaven!! Aren't you glad life's not fair!! =D
We had an AWESOME lesson tonight! I was totally pumped. It was about salvation. Not for unbelievers, but for believers. It was in I Peter 1:4-9. We have salvation, and we should be so excited, thankful, grateful, and ecstatic about it we can't explain it! Just the very thought that we are saved should bring joy to our lives. I was a little blow away when Mr. Long said that God would honor, praise and glorify us. It was confusing to me because I was thinking, "Hey, wait a minute... that doesn't sound right. We should be glorifying Him, not the other way around. For what are we? Poor sinners who can't stand on one foot without God in our lives. We didn't save ourselves, God saved us and we've certainly don't nothing worthy of praise." Well getting back to my point earlier, life's not fair! =) If we follow God here on earth, do His will, and live for Him, it says in the Bible that we will get crowns, glorified bodies like Christ, and God will say to us, "Well done my good and faithful servant." If that's not motivation to live for our Lord Jesus Christ than I don't know what is!! But it definitely shouldn't be because we want rewards, but because we know what God has done for us and we want to serve Him, even though there is no way we will ever be able to repay all that He's done for us! It reminded Mr. Long of the song, Joy Unspeakable... you all know it, so did we. So we began singing, and I could tell some of the others were as excited as I was by this point! =)
He also brought up a point that people think we're absolutely nuts when we can't stop talking about Him, His Word and our salvation. It's especially confusing to unbelievers when a person is going through a very difficult time and continue to praise God. He gave a perfect example in Acts 5:40-42, when Peter and some of the other apostles were beaten for preaching the Word of God. They praised God departing "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple, and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ." Wow. They were still praising God after being beaten for doing what they were told to!
On the way home tonight we were listening to the radio and this song came on, I heard it and was like, "Oh my goodness! This goes right along with tonights lesson!" Hopefully this will help you to remember that God has a plan for what's happening in your life. Don't remember that "there's a plan for everything..." Remember that God has a plan for everything, and that makes it much more comforting. He will never leave you or forsake you. And when you hear someone saying "life's not fair" say "You're right! Dog gonit, life's NOT fair, Praise God for that!!" Then look at their face... this maybe a perfect opportunity to witness.... God has a plan for everything...

Plans

2007-09-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

Today should be rather interesting and very fun. =) I have to work at 1 to clean the house that I used to clean every other week. Well I haven't been over there since Dad's come back from Iraq, so it should be extremely filthy for me! Right after that I have to come home, get packed and go to Pizza Machine for Kellie's party.
I made her a scrapbook with all our pics together. I really hope she likes it! =D I was up till 3:20 last night working on it!! I spend the night at her house. I'm going to church tomorrow, but I'll be so tired. I hope I don't, but if I do happen to fall asleep(I'm already exhausted from getting only 6 hours of sleep, when I needed at least 11.lol) please, please, please wake me up! I hope I do get some sleep tonight though. =)
See most of ya'll tomorrow!

AWANA

2007-09-12T09:10:00.000-07:00

Last night was the first AWANA night of the year. I was going to work in AWANA until I found out that I'm two years too young. =( I hoped that there was something I could do. Turns out there was. I spent the whole night helping Mrs. Sneed, who, I found out, is awsome! She showed me how to work the copy machine(yes it's pathetic I know, I didn't know how to work the copier... pin a rose on my nose.), fill out order forms, fill orders, and I got to run all over the stinking church about seven times delivering papers! It was definitely a blast! Next week we're going to work on stuff for stores. I won't be helping her every week unfortunately, but I should work often and when I'm not, I'll either be in nursery, store, kitchen or anything else they might need me to do. =) Awana rocks!

More great news

2007-09-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

Well after being home for two months we learned to day that Dad is scheduled to leave for Korea in Feb.!! Can I tell you how much I didn't want to hear this? He'll be there for a year instead of 4 months, the longest he's ever been away. At least we've got five more months before he leaves again. Lol he wasn't too happy about it tonight. Oh well... nothin I can do about it. So I'll live with it. =)

2007-09-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

This is a pic of us girls yesterday. I really love this pic, and Morgan helped me edit it for the second one.

Funny pics

2007-09-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to St. Joseph Missouri to see our friends the Ballews. We toured the city a little bit and then went to see some museums. Here's some of the funny pics. =) I've got more if you want to see them. =P

The purple building was funny enough, but what was on it was better.

Lol this was at the Pony Express museum, they had a pump and you could pump water into a trough.

Amber was trying to pull me away with the rope! =(

This was the Victorian Outhouse right outside the Patee House Museum.

Cassie and I thought this was an ordinary couch....not at all.

IT WAS A FAINTING COUCH! lol

Football!

2007-09-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to my first football game! It was amazing! Unfortunately we got crushed. Papillion LaVista was playing the #1 team in the state and they beat us 42 to 10... talk about a cream.
One of the best parts was seeing all my friends that I hadn't seen in about six months! A lot of them recognized me but couldn't quite place me and then they'd go, "OH my goodness!!(well actually they said something different but I'm not gonna write it ;) HANNAH! I haven't seen you in forever!" It was awsome!
Kellie and I tried watching the game but she doesn't know the first thing about football, lol I don't even think she knows what a touchdown is. So, being the marvelous friend that she is, she left me to go hang out with some other friends. I tagged along for a while, but I came to see the game, and I wasn't exactly comfortable with some of my old friends from school, they'd changed a lot.
So, I sat down a made a couple new friends! The one I hung out with the most was Destiny. She was 14! It was so unusual to find another 14 year old in high school, but she was a freshman, so that explained it quickly. We became good friends very quickly, she just moved here in July and her dad is in the army, so we had a lot in common. ;) I invited her to church tomorrow so she might come, I'm not sure yet. But she lives on the street right behind me. =D
The game got boring because we were being pummled so badly, so we talked for the most part. When the game was over I found Kellie and we left and she came over here to spend the night. Even though I didn't get to hang out with Kellie that much, it was still a really fun night, and I know she had a lot of fun too! I can't wait to go to another game. =)

Hangin out with Dad

2007-09-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

Thursday night Shar, Joe and I slept over at Dad's house. It was really, really fun! Earlier that day Dad and I went to mow the lawn for a lady in Papillion and after that, we came back home so he could teach me how to edge our yard. Naturally when we got to Dad's, he and I had to take showers rather quickly after eating pizza for dinner. When I got out Dan, Dad's roommate, and I went to Target to pick up some games to play that night. There was one game we saw called Finish Lines. I'd never heard of it before but it looked fun so we got it and brought it back home, along with some skittles and warheads! Dad was, of course, very good at the game. The point of the game is to get 11 tiles on your side. Getting tiles is sometimes easy, sometimes not. They give you the first part(could be a word, could be almost a paragraph) of a phrase and you have to finish it. They have different categories like, movies, music, quotes. It's really fun! I was on a team with him and we played against Shar, Joe and Dan. We whooped 'em. =) They wanted another chance so Dad and I agreed. Unfortunately we lost that game but we didn't play a tiebreaker. We should have though.
Dad was too chicken to try a Warhead... but Sharon and I enjoyed them a lot. =) The rest of the night we watched Brady Bunch...Lol... but we loved it.
In the morning Dad took us to the park to play football, soccer, basketball and baseball. Being there for about two hours we just ate a picnic lunch and played basketball and baseball. Lol Baseball was so funny! We usually designate Dad to be the pitcher since none of us are very good at it. But he hardly pitched at all. We took turns. A few broken bones, several lumps on heads, brused arms... it was a blast! Jk Jk Jk....But it was pretty interesting to see how each of us pitched, luckily we didn't video tape it. Joe was actually quite good, good hits too. I declare, I don't think there's a sport that he's not good at! Except maybe sportsmanship...lol

Kellie and I

2007-08-30T12:20:00.001-07:00

Kellie took a bunch of pics last night on the way home.

Sunday afternoon

2007-08-30T09:36:00.001-07:00

Sharon, Alyssa and I had SO much fun playing with my camera! We took some video's, watch them please. And leave comments! =)

Jonas Brothers Hannah Montana

2007-08-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, I don't know if you guys have seen this episode of Hannah Montana yet, but it is stinking hilarious!! There's only one part in this video that I want you to see but I couldn't just cut it out, so you'll have to watch the whole thing. Sorry. But the part where they're in the studio is so funny! I about fell off the couch when I was watching it!! What that part if you don't get to see the rest of it, I promise it'll be worth you're time!

Pics with my new camera

2007-08-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

These are some of the pics I first took with my camera, it was so much fun!

Sharbear and Alyssa in the kitchen. Sharon's camera shy...

Alyssa and I. =) I love that girl.

I love this picture of Shary!

Another one of Alyssa and I.

Sharon's gone coo-coo! But I really like this picture of us.

I love my Mommy!

Babysitting the Long girls

2007-08-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

I babysat Katie, Alyssa and Emily Long for four days in a row. On Tuesday Mrs. Long was home, she and her Mom just went out for a few hours, they also took Lilian. It was a fun day. We went to the park, had lunch and played. I think..lol it was a long time ago. The last week has felt like a month and it was all smushed together so I'm not entirely sure what happened on each day, so I apologize if I mess things up.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I arrived at their house at 6:15! That's torture! I love Pastor and all and I respect him completely but seriously, I don't believe anyone deserves to get up before 7, ever. I was hoping the girls would still be in bed(I was told they usually don't get up till at least 7), but no. They were all up bright and early to meet me as soon as I walked in the door. I appreciated this of course and felt quite loved, but I'm just not used to that, that early in the morning. We usually didn't do much before breakfast which was at 7:30. Sometimes I read them a story, other times we played or tried to figure out how to work the dog gone tv! That thing is torture to try and figure out. It was awful but on the last day Katie and I got it down pat, and could get a movie ready in less than 45 minutes, which was good for us. ;P
After breakfast we'd do a variety of things. One day we did stamps, another we went to the park. They really liked it when I read to them so we did that a lot too. Lol the girls have a little Bible for kids(not the Chrildrens Bible, but something like that) that is extrememly simple. I'm talkin a sentence a page. Alyssa wanted me to read the whole book to her! It wasn't terrible, I turned pages more than I read. But since I was extremely tired my eyes were hurting while I was reading it to her so we stopped in the middle of the book, after about 100 pages. I think it took us all of 10 minutes to cover that much. To say the least, time does not fly very quickly when you're watching three little girls, believe me!
On Wednesday I got to change my first poopy diaper! Woohoo! It was nasty I'm tellin ya. I almost threw up! Luckily, I didn't have to go through the same experience until Friday, but it was a little better that time, but it scared me for life.
Being the silly goose that I am, on Wednesday I voluteered to take the girls to the park and have a picnic. They were extremely excited about this! =D I made sandwhiches, packed grapes, drinks, chips and the house key, a good thing to have when leaving the house. I got all the girls' shoes on, Katie carried the backpack and like usual Alyssa and Emily wanted me to carry them both at the same time! On the way there I carried Emily and I told Alyssa I'd carry her on the way back. We locked up the house and were walking on the sidewalk I said "SNAP!, I forgot to bring napkins!" Lol I laughed at myself, it's kind of a family joke, Mom used to forget napkins every time we went somewhere. I decided there was no way I was going to turn around now and get some so we continued on our way. Then we heard Joe barking, the dog, not my brother.lol I figured he'd be ok outside for twenty minutes or so, it was a nice day. We got to the park pretty quickly, it was only three houses down, but still quite a journey with three girls. We sat down at a picnic table, got out the sandwhiches, grapes, drinks and chips and Alyssa prayed for the food. After eating about four bites of my sandwhich Alyssa said, "Hannah, I have to go the the bathroom." Oh my word, can I tell you how much I didn't want to hear this?! I was a little upset inside, but not at her and I knew it wasn't her fault, it was mine. I should have remembered what Mom had taught us before we went anywhere. "Everybody go to the bathroom!" She'd say.... how could I forget?! I said to her, "Can't you hold it?" "No... I really have to go!" Ugh! Katie was very helpful at this time. "Hannah, I'll got unlock the house and let her in." Since Katie was five, and the house was less than a block away, and I really didn't feel like taking everything back home and Emily just to go to the bathroom... so I said ok. I gave Katie the key and saw them both race down the sidewalk to the house. Then I saw Alyssa run back up to the park about a minute later. She said, "Hannah! Katie can't get the door unlocked, we need you to come and get the house open!" By this time she was about to wet her pants, so I grabbed Emily and my phone, left all the food there, and ran down with the girls as fast as I could with a toddler on my hip. Emily was having a great time bouncing around, thank goodness someone way having fun through all of this. Turns out they had the key in the wrong lock, that's why they couldn't get it open. I unlocked it as fast as I could and Alyssa ran inside to go to the bathroom. I told Katie to run in and let the dog in and get two paper towels. After about one minute we were all back outside again, walking up the hill to eat our lunch that still sat untouched(well, as far as we knew.lol) at the table. After that whole ordeal was over, we ate and then played at the park for a little while.
The exciting part of this experience was having the oven catch on fire. Yeah, it was a very interesting week. I was cooking a frozen pizza and some chicken for lunch when the I opened the door to the oven and found that it was full of smoke. I thought some food might be at the bottom of it, so I found a large plastic spoon ans scooped out two pieces of tin foil. There was ashes, which I tried to scoop up but couldn't, but no food. I figured the smoke would go away soon enough. I called Mom just to make sure, but she wasn't answering. A few minutes later I saw flames at the bottom of the oven! Katie and Alyssa were up and saw it. I was freaking out a little so they started whimpering. I calmed down for the most part and told them to just go the their room but be quiet because Emily was still sleeping. As soon as I saw the fire I turned off the oven and opened the door and just blew on the fire.lol I called Mom frantically, but once again, no answer. Then I called Miss Mindy(Mrs. Long left her number to call if there was an emergency). While it was ringing her house the fire went out. I told her what had happened and she said to just leave the oven off, take the food out and finish cooking it in the toaster oven, which I did. The girls came out, Emily woke up and we ate our lunch. I was a little shaken up, but ok.
The word I use to describe last week, and my entire life actually is interesting. But we did have some great times! I was able to get a little bit of insight of what mothers go through, the good and bad. So now I have a special relationship with each one of the girls. =D

The Overcomers of Fear! Lol

2007-08-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the youth group went to Worlds of Fun. I must say it was way sweet!! All of the rides were a blast. At first I didn't think I'd really enjoy it though because I'm not much of a rider when it comes to amusement parks. Most people don't see me as a chicken when it comes to things like that before they ride with me. I much prefered riding the kidding rides rather than roller coasters and thrillers. BUT! Big news! I went on all the roller coasters there! We split up into two or three groups and for a bit Sharon wasn't with me. We(Krista, Hiedi, Kelly, Josh, and I) were supposed to meet they guys(pretty much all the guys except Josh and Kyle E.) at the Patriot. Well they didn't show up.lol But they rest of the girls did! Becca and all the younger girls, Sharon, Maddie, Rachel and Sidney. Sharon and Maddie ran up to me immediately ran up to me and said that they had ridden the Patriot and Sharon rode the Boomerang for the first time!! I was shocked and quite happy for them since they were both scared to death to ride! They talked me into it and I went on the Patriot. It was awsome!! For my first upsidedown roller coaster I loved it! After that I was gonna be a daredevil and ride the Mamba with them. I was scared of course but since there wasn't any upsidedowns, I figured I could do it. =) That was a blast too! I even put up me hands through almost the entire thing.
Then we went to the Boomerang.... I must admit it seemed a lot of turns and twists for my taste but when I actually rode it it was way fun. It was kind of bumpy though.
We had the group kinda.lol The Overcomers of Fear! 'Twas very silly be we loved it! Shar, Maddie and I started it. I think Rachel should be in it too though! =D She went on her first roller coasters ever yesterday! Go Rachel! And the first one she rode was the boomerang. She told me later she was scared to do it, she overcomed her fear quick. She was braver than all of us. =) So, Sharon, Maddie, and anyone else who's reading this, what do ya think? Should we invite Rachel to be a 'fear overcomer with us?' lol
We got home at about 1:30 last night and I was exhausted and still am, so I'm out. I'll see you guys at the kfc in a few hours.

At Kellies

2007-07-29T21:38:00.001-07:00

I'm at Kellies right now(I'm actually spelling her name right this time! Lol) Her brother Pat is a dingiling! I'm am threating to beat him up and I must say, it's not failing! Andrew was right, I'm a lot more intimidating than I thought. He's being mean to me, so I'm defending myself, and it's never been so much fun! Tonight's going to be great! We're(Kellie, Pat and I) going to watch Anne of
Green Gables, do a Bible study(which Pat is going to LOVE!!), listen to some hardcore Skillet, and some of my other favorites, and just hang out. Wow, I'm laughing really really hard right now and I'm way tired. This night is going to be WAY fun!

Visiting relatives

2007-07-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

Wow, today was definetly one of the most boring day's of my life! Grandmom and Granddad know some relatives of ours, my granddad's cousin and their son. It took over 5 hours!! Can I tell you how tired I was of talk by then?... I love hanging out with elderly people, they're so kind and consiterate, but get real. Shar and Joe did a fabulous job, they didn't complain out loud(except to me, but I was ok with that) once! =D They're learning! I figured I could put up with it for my grandparents and their friends. I also felt lonely for them. His cousin was in the hospital and he can't talk hardly at all, so we only stayed there for about 45 minutes..lol but we spent all of the time with his wife, a good friend of Granddads. I felt so bad for her, she was so lonely. You could see the excitement in her face when we drove up and the disappointment when we left. It was interesting to meet her, her husband and son, but not something I'd volunteer to do often. =P

P.S.My humble apologizes for my spelling errors. I was tired.Lol But thanks for stickin up for me Michael.

They're here!! And today's plans

2007-07-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

Well my grandparents are finally here! They drove to the airport in Orlando and got there at 7 a.m. yesterday morning and were there until 8:30 at night!! I felt so bad for them. But their connecting flight was in Milwuakee, and they got here in Omaha at midnight last night. We(Mom and we kids) weren't even supposed to pick them up, but Dad came and picked the kids, except Morgan she went to bed because she had to work early this morning, to the airport to pick them up.
The ride in the car back was simply hilarious! My grandparents were bickering like I've never seen them do before! But they love each other, so it's all good. =) lol We were up till like 2:30 last night talking a catching up. It was fun but we were all exhausted! I'm suprised they didn't collapse right when they walked in the door, and it was 3:30 for them with the time change.
Today we are going to the KFC, I can't wait! But don't blame me if I fall over playing today, I'm really beat and half asleep. So as far as I know, all of the peeps that even read my blog will get to meet them today. =D See you in a few hours!

Things....

2007-07-26T19:17:00.000-07:00

Well my grandparents were supposed to get in at midnight tonight... stinky! But they might be able to get in at 10:30, we still don't know. But I guess we'll find out soon enough. =D I can't wait to see them.
Morgo's birthday is tomorrow, she'll be 18! She'll so old... We're just going to have a family party, and Steveo.LOL But it should be fun! =D

Grandmom and Granddad's visit! =D

2007-07-26T08:26:00.000-07:00

Well today at around 3 my grandparents(Dad's side) are flying in from Florida for two weeks! =D I haven't seen them in a year so it should be quite a fun reunion. I also haven't seen them since Mom and Dad split up so that will be a little interesting.lol I'm talking on the phone with Granddad right now. Their flight from Orlando was canceled so I don't even know when they're going to be here anymore. Everything is up in the air at the moment so I'll keep you posted. =D But they should be here sometime soon! Well I'm talking to my aunt now, and she told me that the plane had a fuel problem, so it's a good thing they found out before they were in the air. We hope they'll leave Orlando by 2:30, if they're lucky.
Grandmom and Granddad's visits are always so much fun. Every time we get together with them we play Queen of Spades, but we just call it spades. They used to stay up late, Gmom, Gdad, Mom and Dad and play but we had to go to be because they were having 'adult time'... yugh! I hated adult time, I wanted to spend time with them too! =( But Mom said this time since Mom has to go to bed early for school and Dad won't be here all the time, that we can stay up late and play with them since we're old enough now! hehe. I feel old.lol
Well anyway, please pray for their flight to be safe and they'll get here soon without any trouble, my Grandfather isn't the most patient person in the world....

I'm home!!

2007-07-24T04:59:00.000-07:00

It was an amazing trip, the Table Rock Lake is absolutely beautiful! We had a lot of fun doing various things. Swimming in the lake, visiting Ripleys Believe it or Else, miniture golfing...oh! And in the process of that I fell into a holly bush and poked myselft! It HURT! But I was ok. :) We also play a lot of pool in the basement. I could usually beat Sharon and Joe, but Dad for the most part pummeled everyone. lol The house was totally amazing! There were three floors and it was something like you'd find in the woods, which I liked. We just got back last night. I went to bed about midnight, but do to some person calling the wrong number on my cell I got up at 6:30! so I thought I'd write something. See most of you on Wednesday night, I hope. :)

Later..

2007-07-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

Well I'm going to the lake now. I'll be in Branson Missiouri for a few days. Dad and the kids are going. See you guys later! =D

VBS

2007-07-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

Wow... where do I start. Yesterday was a little hectic. It wasn't too terribly bad but not that great either. The skit didn't go well yesterday and after we were done with that, we did nothing else the entire time! It was fun but a little boring. Today was super! The skits went so much better and we did more of them so we weren't sitting around doing nothing! I think everyone had more fun today and weren't ready to rip out there hair. Everything went very smoothly and I have a feeling it will go this way the rest of the week. =D I hope the kids are learning a lot because all of the workers are working very hard and really doing a great job! But through it all... I just hope God is being glorified!

happenings in the Woida household

2007-07-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

Well yes Dad did come back safe and sound! It was great, we've spent the past few days with him.
KFC yesterday was soo much fun! I love KFCs. Basketball was amazing! (Sorry I stepped on your foot Kersey!) I got sunburned though...sigh...I'll get over it. And then passing out the VBS flyers was really fun too. And get this bit, they changed Vacation Bible School to "Very Exciting Bible School"....*confused look* What's up with that?! Any Bible school is exciting... why add more words in there? I'm a rather old fashioned person sometimes and like to stick to the old way of things... I think we should take a vote on which is better VBS or VBS? I think it's pretty clear don't you? lol
Well speaking of which. I need to work on my lines for the skit I have to do. Andrew and I tried on our amazing costumes last night. And as I said, they're pretty amazing.lol I am Jilliam the Couragous! Lol It should be really fun week. I hope a bunch of kids get saved. That's the best thing in the world to witness, a child giving their live to Christ. I can't explain it, but you can just feel the angels surrounding the area... it's awsome! Well, it's established now that since Pastor said awsome, in public, during a sermon, where everyone could hear him, and it was related to anything spiritual or biblical at all, that we can say it now! =D

Daddy, youth group, amazing!

2007-07-11T19:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry I keep writing about this, but it's one of the biggest things in my life at the moment and I'm totally excited! And besides... you guys are my friends so I tell you! lol
Dad's coming home tonight! He got an earlier flight and he comes in at 10:40. I'm sooo happy!
And for those who were at youth group tonight... Man that was fun! I love Bible Jeopardy! It was stinking fun! I new a lot of those answers... oh sorry my bad... I new a lot of the 'questions' lol I hate that rule, but it was really fun! =) And the lesson was really really good too. I don't remember ever studying that psalm before..

2007-07-10T10:57:00.000-07:00

Guess what?! I am FINALLY caught up on all my school! I haven't been caught up since before I went to Mexico! It took me forever to finish all my backed up math, but I did it and now I'm happy. =)
Daddy comes home the day after tomorrow. I can actually text him now! I can't explain how excited I am that he's coming home!
My grandparents are coming on the 26th. I haven't seen them in a year. And then Morgan's turning 18 on the 27th, so there's going to be a lot of celebration this month.
I'm a little on the depressed side right now... but I'll be ok. =P
We put the trampoline up a few days ago. A few months ago I could do a pretty mad backflip, but now I chickened out and am afraid to do it again...
I need to mow the lawn too... So much to do, so little time...
LOL So many rocks...so little Mexicans...! Sara is so funny...

Babysitting

2007-07-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

Today I did a mega amount of babysitting, but it was amazing!
At 3 I went over to the Longs house to watcht the three older girls... we went to the park and cleaned up there room. I also got to hold Lillian for the first time. What a cutie! It was really really fun and I'm looking forward to August when I can sit with them for three days.. =)
When I came home I ate dinner and then had to leave again to babysit another family. We watched Big Fat Liar. Love that movie! I got to take care of a 5 month old baby... his name is Isaiah and my was he a happy baby! It was a totally joy to take care of him, although he spit up on me...ugh! But it was really really fun!
I've had a very interesting day, but I need to go to bed now...I'm exhausted!

More fantastic news!

2007-07-02T11:37:00.001-07:00

On the way home from the church Sat. night I heard that Dad was coming home on the 12th of July instead of the 25th!! I started crying in the car I was so excited! I get to see Dad in less than two weeks, it was a huge blessing God gave to me, He knew I needed it! =D
Next great news.... I get to stay in Nebraska until at least March of 2009! I wanted to stay here for a little longer than we had planned, Nov of 2008. And God answered that prayer too!
God has just been so good to me I can't even describe it! Yes there have been things in the past week that have gone majorly wrong but God has brought me through all of that, and it's time for me to just thank Him for all He has done for me.

Mexico

2007-07-02T11:37:00.000-07:00

Well this will take forever to write, so I won't mention every detail about the trip, but I'll tell you right now, it was amazing!
The cultural things were rather different than here in the US. You couldn't flush the toilet paper, which was absolutely disgusting! And at our institute the girls' toilets didn't flush, we had to get buckets of water to do it. Last night I found out that the guys toilets actually flushed! Blimie.... But it wasn't all that bad, it just took some getting used to. =)
The mountains were absolutely the most beautiful thing ever! Every morning I went up on the roof to see the sunrise. I as up on the roof probably more than I was on dry ground! lol A lot of people went up there though.... you just couldn't help but stare at it.
I also got to meet a bunch of new little kiddies! A bunch of children got saved at VBS. It was such an amazing experience, I can't even descibe it.
God worked in my life a lot that week. He taught me about prayer, forgiveness, patience and obedience. I'm so very happy I was able to go on the trip. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

Mexico

2007-06-19T19:25:00.002-07:00

Well this is probably the last post until I leave for Mexico Friday morning. I can't wait to get down there! Actually I think that all of the people who even read my blog are going to I won't even go into the details because pete's sake... you already know them! It's going to be way fun! On the ride down I'm totally bringing a coloring book and crayons. I really want to get a Toy Story one but Morgan and I couldn't find one at Wal-mart...sigh.
I can't wait to see what God is going to do in Mexico. I hope that tons of kids get saved! I absolutely love seeing people accept Christ, especially children. It's so exciting to see them grow in the Lord and hungry to know more about Him and the Bible. I can, with a clear concience...lol say that this trip is going to be awsome!

PRAISE GOD!

2007-06-12T21:04:00.000-07:00

Kellie and I were on myspace earlier tonight. A friend of hers from her old school posted a bulletin saying that God was confusing her. Kellie asked me if I could give her any advice. So I accepted her as a friend, myspace style. She was having problems with a boy, I won't go into details, but she was very confused. I helped her all I could but she told me that she believes in God but doesn't have a 'religion' yet. So naturally I found this the perfect opprotunity to witness! I told her how God doesn't want a religion, He wants your heart. I explained the gospel message to her and she was very interested. She told me she was going to accept Jesus into her heart, and I just found out that she really did! Is that amazing or what?! I tell ya God gives us soooo many opprotunities to witness to people, sometimes they're black and white and other times we have to look for them. But nonetheless I was tickled to death! God sure is giving me practice for the missions trip. =) I hope I have a chance to witness to several kids down in Mexico. But please pray for this girl. Her name is Emily and she's 15. Just because she's now a believer doesn't mean she's done. I know it's God's desire to see her grow in Him, just as it is His desire for every Christian. So please pray for her and thank God for leading her to Him!

Swimming at Mark's

2007-06-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Mark picked us, meaning me Sharon and Joe, up to go swimming at his apartment pool. I didn't think it'd be all that great of an afternoon but I was proven wrong.
When we arrived at Mark's apartment his friend Aliesha was there... I didn't know her before this but she used to go to the church. Anyway she and her baby Chloe were in Nebraska to visit her family and old friends. Chloe was almost 8 weeks old and is completely adorable! Me being the babylover that I am held her for quite a while. I miss babies sooo much! Oh yeah! I am definetly having at least 7 kids. =)
At the pool we had a load of fun. I told Mark I'd kill him if the water was really cold. Yes I know I am a violent person but hey, it's Mark! =) I jumped in the water and of course it was freezing, but after a minute or so it felt really nice... I got to work a lot on my diving since the water was 8 ft. We all had a blast! Lol Mark was throwing each of us into the water forwards and backwards. Unforunately it didn't go very well when he threw me. But Shar and Joe got some really good jumps in! =) After that we went inside and Mom came and picked us up. While we waited I got to hold Chloe again and she fell asleep. I love babies! When Mom came she hung around for a while to talk with Aliesha and Mark. It was fun. And on our way home we stopped by Burger King because Mom had a five dollar gift card. I tell ya that's the best way to go out to eat. =P
It was definetly a really fun day!

I got a facebook!

2007-06-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

Well as you can see from the title I got a facebook. It's really really cool and I think you guys should get one. Especially if you can't have a myspace. It's really cool and very fun, and safe =) I stil have to work a lot on mine but I have a lot of stuff on it so far. Thanks Jacob for your help!

Constipated

2007-06-07T11:33:00.001-07:00

I've only heard this song a few times but it's hilarious! You'll love it. =P

Ok peeps, START PRAYING!

2007-06-02T14:13:00.001-07:00

I'm in the middle of witnessing to a friend of mine down the street. His name is David and he's 12 yrs. old. I won't go into the details but I've been talking to him and showing the gospel to him in the Bible. He agrees with parts of it but just doesn't want to accept Jesus and give his life to Him yet. I know God has already got him thinking but it's very hard for me at this point. He'll seem interested for a little bit but then will take salvation lightly. He at first thought that works saved him. Fortunately God has changed his mind about that, or so he says. It is my will and I'm sure God's that he come to Christ and have his life changed! However I know God is powerful and completely able to do all things, but I truly do not believe that this can be done without prayer. So PLEASE! pray for this him. And also pray for me please that God's will will be done and that He will give me the right words to speak. Please guys! Pray that God will soften David's heart, that he might come to salvation.

MUD!!!!!!

2007-05-31T16:50:00.000-07:00

Well when I came home today I found my sister and her two friends messing up the backyard...ok maybe I'm exaggerating. lol Becca came over so we decided to help. They were smoothing out the land where we are going to put the pool because last year it was very uneven. Anyway.... The girls were just having fun and had absolutely no idea what they were supposed to be doing! And being the fun sucker that I am I stepped in so we could get the job done and go swimming as soon as possible. They dumped water on the dirt to make it easier to level...I'm not sure exactly what in the world they were thinking but when Becca and I showed up, that's what we had to work with.
There was mud everywhere! We finally got it somewhat level...well good enough...lol We were absolutely filthy! It was great! Since we had our regular clothes on, we were careful not to mess them up, but our arms and legs were covered in mud... We all took our fair shares of 'almost falls' but I don't believe anyone got too badly damaged. =) We took an outdoor bath which took longer than taking a shower and changing our clothes would have....but it was way fun! =)
When Becc and I were all cleaned up she saw Sharon and one of her friends outside messing it up again! So I ran outside and sucked the fun yet again! I shouted "OK NO NO NO NO! We just got it right and you're NOT going to mess it up!" Yeah I get a little tense when the work I've done is being destroyed. But it was all good because they were just checking out the level which we weren't going to do until everything dried so it'd be accurate....but it was all good nonetheless.
Mud has never been so much fun! I plan on taking a mud bath very, very soon! =)

Papio Fun Park!

2007-05-29T17:40:00.002-07:00

Today I went to Papio fun park with some friends, which only turned out to be one friend,lol. Kellie and I arrived at around 12:10. Travis was supposed to be there at 12:15 but didn't show up until 12:30...what a jerk! lol jk And Kellie's friend was supposed to come at 12:30, but unfortunately he didn't show up at all. Anyway it was supposed to thunderstorm and rain today, which would mean we wouldn't be able to do go carts(which Travis swore he could cream me at) or mini golf or water wars(yes I know you get wet in that anyway...)with out getting really wet or struck by lighting. lol Well it hardly rained today so we got to do the outdoor stuff afterall! =) It was an answer to prayer, Mom and I had prayed this morning that it wouldn't rain for a little bit so we could be outside and have fun. I love God! I know He had fun riding right there next to me! =) When Travis showed up we rode go carts! Of course I refused to loose to him so I won. When we came back inside it was every man(or woman since there was only one 'man'lol) for him/herself in lazer tag! It was really fun but blimie because I lost by a lot! lol Oh well.
Golfing was a blast! I really like mini golfing especially when I play with people who knock the ball of the course nearly every time...lol Kellie was definetly the funniest person there! She took strokes anywhere from 7 to 21! It was hilarious! But Travis kept cheating by hitting the ball with his foot instead of the club. Big suprise right? lol It was sooo funny! Then he left to get food, Kellie and I had already eaten, and did his paper route and never returned. Ok with me and Kellie! Since it was just the two of us we didn't have to take anyone elses opinion into consideration.
We rode the go carts at least 7 or 8 times! =) It was great! And even though it was a little chilly we had a water war. We were both soaked! No offense to any guys reading this, but it was sooo incredibly fun with no guys there! =)
Lol there were two junior guys working at the go carts. One time when Kellie and I were riding one of them did something and said a bad word. Kellie told the other one "he better not say any bad words, she'll hit him!" And the guy said "no she won't" and Kellie was like "Oh yes she will!" lol He said "Do you know how quickly she can get kicked out of the park if she did?..." Unfortunately I heard none of this conversation until he said the last line. I turned aroun and was like "What! Why am I being thrown out of the park?!" Then the guy who swore apologized for his language so I forgave him...lol That was a funny incident. =)
One of the last times the go carts were ridden by us there a little smartaleck boy that kept bumping Kellie and he also cut me off. (bumping was against the rules) I was furious because he got away with it so and I planned to let him have a piece of my mind! Unforunatly I couldn't catch up to him because of what he did, but Kellie had the situation under control! She was riding his but for at least 5 laps! You go girl! =) Kellie and I got right back in line and rode again, with him real close. I took off before Kellie so I was after him first. It took a lap or two but I cut him off and he knew exactly what I meant by the dirty look in my eye as I passed him! ;) Kellie gave me a thumbs up and a smile for this maraculous achievement! lol When we got in line to return our cars and I was right behind him. I yelled "hey kid! Watch you're driving maniac!" Of course he played dumb, which wasn't very hard for him, and was like "what'd I do?" in an innocent voice. I was steamed but very happy that Kellie and I had taught him a lesson.
I was really tired by the end of the day, but it was definetly a splendid day nonetheless! =)

Becca This is for You!

2007-05-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

Well as you might have guessed Becca came over last night! It was a blast. We did what girls do and talked pretty much all night. =) I fell asleep during the movie we were watching....=( Sorry! It was the first time we'd been able to hang out in a while and even though we see each other every week, it was good to catch up!

The trip to South Dakota

2007-05-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

We left at 7:30 a.m. Wenesday morning off to see Mt. Rushmore and other well known sites in S.D. The drive up was fabulous! We all listened to music and for the first few hours I slept.lol I was exhausted! long story.
Before we arrived at the hotel on a local base, we stopped by the Badlands. It was sooooo incredible awsome! God's creation is amazing, amen? AMEN! lol It was beautiful and you could see for miles and miles. It's been so long since I've seen mountains. We took pics so I'll get them on when I can. And on the way out of it when we were driving there was a little whispy cloud right under the sun. The entire cloud was a rainbow. It was soo cool! We checked into the hotel and stopped by a corner grocery store to get sandwhiches for dinner. That night we went to Mt. Rushmore. I had already been there once before and honestly wasn't all that impressed, but for some reason this time it was amazing! We went to the ceremony and saw it lit up. It was great! I loved it, but it was really stinking cold! lol
Thursday was really good. In the morning we went grocery shopping at the commisary. We got honey buns, donuts, and breadfast bars. They were good! =P After driving for quite a long time we showed up at a Mammoth site. It was interesting. There were so many fossils in one spot!
After that we went to a park to take a wild life drive. We heard it was really good and you could see all sorts of animals. However, this wasn't the case when we went... out of the entire 2 hr. drive we saw a squirrel and a prairie dog. Pathetic huh? And it cost twelve dollars to drive around and see mountains! I loved the view though, it was gorgous! Somewhat connected to this we were in search of the 'needle eye rock.' It took at least an hour to find it! And we saw more animals on this trip than we did on the wildlife drive! Buffalo were everywhere... =) When we finally found it we were like " oh well that's neat. Ok lets get back in the car." Litteraly! It was cool but not worth the time. Blimie.
That night we went to a dinner that was held in a barn. It was really neat! It was kind of like a buffet. The food was delicious! And they had entertainment. Four men and one woman played a bunch of folk music and sang. Now that's the kind of country music I like! It was really neat! Lol the only thing with it that was a little odd was that we were the youngest people there! There were one young couple maybe in their 30's and two teenagers aside from my family. The rest were without a doubt 50, 60 or older. I felt like we were in a nursing home.lol But it was a really fun night anyway!
The ride home was good too. Pretty much the entire time we were listening to the Adventures in Odyssey cds. It was totally amazing!
Oh and one of the best parts! Only a few hours from home we saw a whole rainbow! And when I say 'whole' I mean it. We saw both ends of it and even drove underneath it! It was amazing!
We got home at about ten Friday night. It was an exhausting trip but a great one! =)

The weekend

2007-05-21T11:47:00.000-07:00

Wow this has been such a busy weekend! I'm exhausted!
Friday night Kellie and Bianca came over and spent the night. It was sooo fun! We fertilized the lawn and washed Kipper.lol not things typically done at sleepovers.. and over course we talked until 4:30, something usually done at girls' sleepovers.lol Well Kellie fell asleep early but she always does that...

Saturday I had to wake up at 9:20 and I had to work at ten. I had only gotten about 5 hours of sleep so I was really tired and slow on the job. When I came home I went to the Knipps house to work on Mom's birthday dinner. That was fun! Michael and I had to go to the store to get some ingredients, came home and a family from the homeschool group was over. Collin gave a 'speech' so called on the topic of fruits and vegetables...lol Suprisingly it was interesting and I was making salad at the time... Later that night Marcus begged me to jump with him on the trampoline. So I did and after that Michael and I took the kids to the park. That was fun but we were tired, it had been a long day. The girls and Joe went home earlier so Marc, Michael and I went to a place where you could see a beautiful view for miles and miles....It was amazing! When we got back to the Knipps house Joe and Marc were on a team against me and Michael in Super Smash Bros. We won two out of three..I think..correct me if I'm wrong please. =) Altogether a really fun day! But definetly a tiring one and I got to bed a midnight...sigh..

Sunday was also really good. I worked in toddler church, I love kids! especially little ones. =) When we got home from church we went to the park to play baseball. That was interesting.lol I pitched for some of the time and almost hit every batter! lol sorry guys...The ride to AWANA was so fun! I kept teasing Morgan...for reasons unknown.lol I was sad that that was our last night of AWANA but it will be nice to have a little break.
Instead of a sermon Sunday night, an elderly couple at our church gave their testimony. I almost cried about seven times! lol, no joke. Their faith in God and how God got them through their struggles was outstanding! I needed to hear that and God knew it. Even though you know that God is always with you, it's nice to be reminded of it =) Know what I mean?... Last night was also the youth snac. I love snacs! Last night it was at the home of the Nupsons. I played football and a little b-ball. I could almost touch their rim! I sang litterly all night long! (Sorry to those of you who are reading this if it was annoying.) It was insane how much I sang but I loved every minute of it! On the ride home Michael sang Amazing Grace with some SOUL! It sounded great and of course everybody joined in.
Overall one of the best weekends I've ever had, but very, very tiring! =)

Mommy's b-day!

2007-05-18T14:18:00.000-07:00

Well it's difficult to get your mother a birthday present when her birthday is only six days after Mothers Day! But I think I got her something that never fails(at least with her). Chocolate! She loves chocolate for reasons beyond me. Her birthday is tomorrow, she's gonna be 40! Old lady right? Well don't tell her I said that.lol A friend's(who shall be nameless.lol) mom and I are planning a suprise dinner for her! I'm soooo excited and I can't wait till she sees it! =) I hope we can make it a really special day. She's def. the best mom ever! And I mean that with much seriousness.

Plans for the summer starting next week =)

2007-05-17T15:28:00.000-07:00

Well nothing major has happened in my life recently but I haven't posted anything in a while so I figured I'd say what's happening next week.
We get off school for about two weeks starting Wednesday of next week! We're going to Mt. Rushmore for a few days, just the family. =) It should be great!
When we return we'll put up our pool in the backyard. Now THAT will be fun! =) I plan to swim everyday if possible! The only thing that I'm not ecspecially looking forward to is all of the neighborhood kids coming over and swimming. They did last year and it wasn't too bad but it was loud! lol It should be fun anyway =)
During the summer I'm scheduled to babysit..a lot! But that brings in quite a bit of cash so that's a good thing =) I also had to do school most likely to days a week....sigh... I have a feeling I'll get over it though.
And probably the biggest thing happening this summer, the missions trip! This will be my first. I absolutely love car trips, ecspecially with the youth group! =) It should be interesting though, driving for two days straight. I really need to work on getting skirts, and work on my Spanish...it's not my best language...so whoever's reading this please remind me to do those things..thanks! =)
I lied another big thing is happening this summer. My Daddy's coming home! I can't wait! Last time I talked to him he said he had 51 days left but that was a few days ago so he's going to be home very soon! =)
Well that's my summer schedule very full huh?....lol

At Kellie's

2007-05-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

I konw you don't care and that's fine but this is whats going on right now and I haven't posted anything in a few days... well I spent the night at Kellies Mom's last night! It's sooo fun! We were on the computer a LOT last night but then we watched A Walk to Remember. I love that movie! But Kellie fell asleep....lolI tried to wake her up quite a few times but I knew she was tired so I let her sleep. She has two of the funniest dogs in the world...they've been fighting all morning, it's so funny! We're taking them for a walk now so I might write more later.

Last night....

2007-05-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

Last night was soooo fun! =) Mom, Joe Man and I went to Michaels piano recital last night. It was great! He and Jared did a duet, a somewhat jazzy version of Amazing Grace, it was sooo sweet!
Afterwards the guys(Michael, Kersey and Kyle) and the littler guys(Joe and Marc) went to an enormous dirt mound. After seeing them diappear over the hill Maddie and I took off after them. lol I've never had some much fun running barefoot and in a skirt! =) When we arrived at the top of the dirt pile Joe and Marc were tumbling down a very steep side getting their clothes filthy..they were havin the time of their lives! lol Then all three guys lined up and raced down the hill! I'm not sure but I think it was a tie....lol but Michael did a faceplant once he got down...it was soooo funny! Maddie decided she wasn't going to be a chicken. She climbed down and when she got about 3/4 the way down she ran. Now it was my turn... I'm daredevil but I'm not stupid... but just because I figured it wouldn't hurt just this once. lol I was scared to death! Ok maybe I'm overexaggerating just a little bit =P I ran down at full speed, in my sisters skirt and shirt,lol, and couldn't stop so I had to jump over some little fence thingy to slow down. It was completely amazing!!! I loved it and ran back up =)
Right after that we all went over to the Knipps house to celebrate Mr. Mickey's 40th b-day! My goodness he's old...lol jk We sang a little while being accompanied by Elmer. The last thing we did was play manhunt. We only got to play one round and I must say that was interesting. We were Team Fool! lol It was really fun =) I was trying to open the gate and I thought the door was stuck, so I yanked on it as hard as I could and something flew and hit my arm. It hurt! My friend Hannah informed me that I had busted a bungie cord that was put there to secure the gate! ..lol whoopsy! =P Since I was a seeker I checked under the deck for people. While I was in there a nameless person closed the door and locked it! lol It was funny but very strange because I later found that this person was on my team! lol It was weird, but I had a fantastic night! (I have the scars to prove it.lol)

Guess what guys!.....

2007-05-11T10:08:00.000-07:00

I'm finally 5'!!! Is that fantastic news or what?... I checked the other day but unfortunatly I forgot to post something about it. but now I am I can no longer be called a midget!

The day so far....

2007-05-09T10:45:00.001-07:00

One of the interesting things that happened this morning was Joe Man tickling me. If you don't already know, I'm the most ticklish person you'll ever meet, I like being tickled but not too much. Anyway Joe was tickling me and I said to him," Stop Joe! Or I'll rip your face off!" Of course I was kidding but we were havin fun =) lol and then Mom said, "Ooooo Joe you'd better stop. You'd sure look funny with no face!" lol I LOVE my mom! She's soooo funny, ecspecially when she doesn't try to be. =) Love ya Mommy! =)
A few minutes ago my silly little sister, Sharon, poored ranch dressing on my head!!!! =O I was infuriated! (if that's not a word it is now =P) lol because 'idolism' is definetly a word.... lol Andrew's so funny =) But anyway back to my salad dressing story. I was so made but of course I was laughing. =) And then she and Joe rubbed it in with their hands,UGH! So now I have to go take a shower..sigh.....

Spider Man 3....yes again..

2007-05-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

HOLY COW! I just got back from watching Spider Man 3! It was soooo cool! I'm usually not extemely interested in a lot of action movies...but this one was totally amazing! The fights were great and some of the moves were completely insane! I loved every minute of it! Sorry I know I'm shouting a lot but seriously it was good....lol The love story in it was also really good, but(without giving the movie away) it kinda let ya down...well in my opinion. I definetly need to see it again soon =) If you haven't already seen it, GO NOW! You'll love it!

I love this song!

2007-05-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

Seriously I love this song! I've heard it about 932,573 times in about two and a half months...lol Every Little Thing by Hawk Nelson! =)

Spider Man 3

2007-05-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

Yo Ya'll! Spider Man 3 comes out tomorrow! I liked the first and second and I can't wait to see the third. Should be sweet! I hear there are supposed to be three new villians...lol..but it should be pretty neat.

Fishing, shopping, whatever

2007-05-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

I was sooo tired this morning!..ugh....but Mark took my and my sibs fishing in the freezing cold wind, (yes I'm a weenie =( ) But it was very fun! I was the last one to catch anything but I caught 5 fish and everyone else only caught like 3. =) but I was nice goin fishing after not goin for a lonnnnngggg time. =)
later on we went out to lunch and Mark bought me a Ben Roethlisberger(qb for the pittsburgh steelers) jersey(a late b-day present). Later on we got ice cream, cause ice cream is just so good =)

Yesterday...fun fun! =)

2007-04-30T10:08:00.001-07:00

Well I had a terrific b-day! I got an iPod! from my mom( I LOVE HER!) And jewlery, cd's, shirts, make-up,pillows, and of course, candy =P Thank you everybody! You made the day very special! =) And I was a church most of the time yesterday so that was even better! =)
My aunt was here and we had a fabulous time=) I declare she is the funniest person ever! We played pool down stairs last night, wow oh wow, that was hilarious!
I got to talk to my dad yesterday. That was fun but he called my cell and I didn't know who he was.... for a while, lol
We just got home from Cabela's. I had never been there before, but boy! is that a fun store... I got a t-shirt and it's definetly sweet!

Today, or....tomorrow....

2007-04-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

Well I know I've mentioned it a lot but I'll only turn 14 once and I'm not allowed to get on the computer on Sundays so..... for now lets just say its my birthday! I'm soooo looking forward to it! Church should be awsome tomorrow, not that church isn't always awsome. =)

Weekend....company....b-day...all that stuff! =)

2007-04-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend is going to be amazing! well at least I hope so =P today we are going skating with the homeschool group, and I'm going shopping with my friends later. After that my friends (Becca and Kellie =) are going to see Facing the Giants with the youth group at church. That will be really fun! At 9:42(I like to be exact on things like that...lol) my aunt is flying in from Florida for my birthday! busy day right?.... I'm not sure what's happening on Saturday but most likely something fun =) Sunday I work in childrens church and of the course it's also the most famous day of the year! A singing group from OCA is coming to church to perform, unfortunately I won't be able to see them =( Then of course there's AWANA and Sunday night church, and Football! =) lol overall this should be a pretty rad weekend =)

Finally Members!

2007-04-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

Sunday my family joined Heartland Baptist Church. This was long overdue but Mom didn't know if she wanted to become a member only to have to leave the church two years later. But anyhow we joined and it was wonderful! I love our church and it feels so good to officially be a part of it =)

Family members in Iraq =( please pray for them

2007-04-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

Bumming news here..... I just found out that my cousin has to stay in Iraq for another 9 months! Due the the order that soldiers in the army have an extended term in Iraq. Do you know how much that stinks?..... His name is Scott and he's fighting, and when I say fighting I mean seriously fighting. About six weeks ago a piece of a bomb or something flew about a foot from his face! He said that God was really protecting him and a lot of people must be praying for him. Scott is a Christian but he needs all the prayer he can get so please pray for him and his wife. She lives in Germany(they were married about two months before he went overseas) and naturally misses him and is a bit lonely. So please just keep them in your prayers.
Luckily Dad doesn't have to stay longer than expected like Scott. He comes home in just a few months! But please pray for his saftey and his salvation...
well thats about it =)

Facing the Giants

2007-04-21T20:11:00.000-07:00

Wow! I just finished watching "Facing the Giants." If that isn't a movie that displays God's power I don't know what is. If you haven't seen that movie yet then you are coming over to my house and watching it.=) It is definetly one of the best movies I've ever seen, it displays God's power so well and was a huge encouragement to me to completely trust God to do in my life whatever He wishes.
If God can speak to hearts through movies just think what volumes He can speak through the life of a believer! Let it be told all around the world that nothing is impossible with God! Trust me, after seeing this movie you will want to proclaim that all over the earth!

Progressive Din Din

2007-04-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

Last night was the progressive dinner with my youth group. It was a really fun night! If you don't know what it is, a progressive dinner is when you go to someone's house for one part of the meal. All of the people's houses we went to were families from our church. Everything was delicous.... I'm probably ate way too much but hey! I'm a growing girl..lol or so they tell me. =P
Since it was a Hawiian theme I wore a skirt thinking it might be a little bit formal but no..... it was jeans all the way! I felt really out of place but it was fun just the same.=) I even won limbo(shocker huh?.... ) I also met new friends last night. Michael brought his friend from Texas, her name is Rebekkah. She had gone to the church a several years ago but had to move, so she only remembered a few people. She's really nice and apparently has "heard a lot about me" lol
We headed home at about 10:30, I was tired but it was definetly an amazing night! =)

Sewing pj's fun fun! =P

2007-04-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

Ok, so here's the thing(lol that one was for you Marcus! =P ) but anyway today I was working on my pj's...... ugh!..... those things get on my nerves! I've been cutting and pinning and sewing them for a few weeks now, inconsistantly of course..... I finally got a lot done today! =) I gotta admit it was kind of fun. My shirt is ready except for the buttons and all I have to put on my pants is a hem and put the elastic in the waistband! =) Isn't that exciting?.... I'm sure I just took a load off your mind....lol =P

Pics from last summer

2007-04-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

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I really like these pictures.... they were taken in Florida last summer on vacation. p.s. You're welcome to the nameless person who wanted me to post some pics on my blog =)

Sadie Hawkins Dance!

2007-04-17T13:16:00.001-07:00

I love this song and the music video is hilarious! Hope ya'll like it too! =P

The Zoo

2007-04-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

Is the zoo amazing or what!? We went to the Henry Dorly Zoo today....... you know since we're homeschooled..lol It was great! I've been there several times but it always astounds me to see the different kinds of creature God made! We saw a bird, and I'm not even kidding(I would never lie to you..lol) it was every color you could imagine..... It was like someone got a bunch of markers and painted squares on it. T'was amazing!
Personally my favorite part of going to any zoo is seeing the aquairium. Sharks are my favorite animal! They're soooooo neat! And while we were looking at the other tanks leading up to "The big one"(line from Toy Story by the way) I saw an octopus! Man that thing was showin off. lol It was really cool though... I never realized how big their noses are! =P
It was a fun "school day" considering thats all we did for school....

Disecting pellets......EEWWW!

2007-04-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm, in most cases, not a sissy, However...... today at the homeschool meeting we disected owl pellets. I thought that it was poop, but no... owl pellets are what an owl spits up after eating an animal whole. This piece of throw up hardens after it is spit up. It contains the entire skeleton of the animal eaten. We had to touch it with our bare hands and pull it apart barely even using a tool......GROSS! It was one of the most disgusting things I have ever done. I have to admit though, beyond that unbearable stench, it was neat to find all the bones in the...uh....stuff. lol Word of advice is you ever disect an owl pellet..... make sure you have a cold so you can't smell it and at least where rubber gloves.... =)

Wednesday Night Lesson

2007-04-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

Church last night was amazing! At youth group Aaron was talking about a co-worker who had recently given up Christianity. We called this man Bob.lol. Anyway Bob had a very good point....he said that the worst thing Christians have working against them is themselves. Bob was wondering that if God is so powerful and almighty why don't we see more effects of Him through His people.... Of course this man wasn't a born again believer and he is one of those of which he is accusing....but the point that Aaron was driving home was that true, born again Christians should always watch their testimony. People watch Christians more than we think. If the world doesn't see a change in us....then why would they even want to be saved? If we are proffessing Christ we should act like it. Believers should not be conformed of this world. I think that true Christians should examine themselves and see if they are really living a life for Christ.... afterall Christ is all that matters....
That was the story at the beginning of the lesson.... The lesson itself was on spiritual gifts. We were studying I Corinthians 12, the first seven verses. Aaron was dicussing what spiritual gifts are for.... They are for the unity of the body of Christ. They all work together for the common good. This shouldn't be a newsflash but if it is, ok, IT IS ALL FOR GOD! God is the only thing that matters and if we use what He has given to us( for everything is given to us by God) and follow Him..... He will be glorified! That message really touched my heart to always be living for Christ and to let Him use me in a way that my life may be used to glorify Him.

Now I feel sad......

2007-04-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

I had to get up at 7:30 this morning to babysit some kids down the street. A friend slept over last night so she came along..... When we arrived at the house we were playin with the Mary(5 or 6 yrs. old) She wanted to play hide and go seek. So all of us played Mary, her borther Shane, my friend Kellie and I. Mary decided she wanted to be on Kellie's team because she was prettier.... Don't get me wrong Kellie is a very pretty girl... but you just don't say stuff like that to you babysitter who plays with you all the time! =( So Shane and I got to hide first and Mary said "Ok, you boys go and hide now" My jaw hit the floor! I was appalled! Not only was I considered ugly today but I was also called a boy.... talk about self esteem hitting an alltime low.....

Is this mean or what?

2007-04-08T22:08:00.001-07:00

I was talkin to a friend the other day who shall be nameless.... we talk over the computer a LOT. Anyway this friend asked me why I never talk to them in real life. I asked them the same question. Of course nothing got accomplished this way so yesterday at church I thought I would be nice and talk to them. I said hi to them and asked how they were... this nameless person ignored me. A friend I was walking with asked if this person even answered and they answered her and said no, then returned to their previous conversation...... I tell ya.... try to make an effort and be the nice person and what do ya get?....... Is it my imagination or was this person bein rude?....

This person is probably reading this right now and knows exactly who I'm talking about... =)

Easter!

2007-04-08T22:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry I didn't post this yesterday but I'm not allowed on the computer on Sundays. HAPPY EASTER! Christ is risen! Easter for me was rather amazing.....We went to church this morning(totally great) and afterwards the church had an Easter lunch kind of a potluck. That I must say was really, really fun! I sat with my friends and another one of my friend's parents..... that was interesting to say the least......but they are pretty rad none the less. =) Then I came home and took a nap. When I did wake up I watched a Veggietales video and the Easter Story Keepers with my family. Fabulous shows for those of you who may have not seen them. Hope everyone had a great day! =) And never, ever forget what Easter is all about.

Bad News!!!....

2007-04-06T13:24:00.001-07:00

Get this! I just found out this morning that we will be leaving Nebraska earlier than we expected. NOT COOL! My family thought that we were going to move in Feb. 2009, this however is no longer the plan....... we are most likely going to leave in Nov. 2008 due to my moms nursing schedule.. UGH!!!!!! I just hope that our house doesn't sell for another 5 years...lol..... but on a serious note Mom needs to find nursing work in Nebraska that will pay enough money to support us and these outragous Nebraskan taxes.....lol. You know what to do.... pray that God's will would be done in this situation whether we have to move or not.....

The Gym

2007-04-06T13:24:00.000-07:00

I am sooooo tired! We went to the gym this morning for like three hours with a family from church. It was a bottomload of fun! We played basketball, then volleyball. Volleyball is what really wore me out! Ugh. I was running all over the place! But I had a really good time playin since it had been a while since the last time I'd played. Afterwards we went to the soccer field to play football..... seriously can you ever have a bad time playing football? I think not. Then all of the kids were playing knock it down.... and AWANA game. This was fun when my friend and I took our shoes off and were knocking it down before the others could......ah...... good times! =) All in all an exhausting but fantastic morning...

"Where be Jack's pistol?"

2007-04-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I was reading a book, and a man in the book lost his dog. He went and found it and said
"there be my dog" no joke! It was the funniest thing! It reminded me of The Pirates of the Carribean. You know when Balbosa said, "You're right, where be Jack's pistol?" I found that quite humorous. =)

First post Yah!

2007-04-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

HI! I finally got a blog! I'm rather new at this....... so if you have any suggestions please tell me =) Just about everyone who sees this should know that I love smiley faces! You know what to do from there!