FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

School at last! I'm usually pretty excited to start a new school year, even though summer is delightful and I never entirely want it to end. I started my SENIOR YEAR (How exciting!) yesterday and so far it's going very well. It's been a bit of a challenge to give up sleeping in, having a lot of leisure time, and not having to think to hard unless I chose to, but it's all excellent for my character and I enjoy it, too.

So here is a little look at a day in the life of me right now:
It's 6:55. A catchy ringtone alarm on my cell phone startles me awake, and I sneak downstairs in an attempt to not wake up my brother. After grabbing a snack and a glass of water, and donning some work-out clothing, I excercise for half an hour, then of course shower and gorge on whatever looks good try to have a healthy breakfast (since it is better breakfast month!). If I didn't dawdle around, I should have about an hour to spend with the Lord, reading my Daily Bible, a passage from Philippians, and a few pages of Stepping Heavenward, and some prayer time. At 9:00 I either spend the morning doing chores or working on preserving vegetables with my mom, or else start school and do chores in the afternoon.

At any rate, I do some of those chores and some school, somewhere amidst the day. Since it is my last year, I don't have many real classes left, so I have the privilege of reading a systematic theology book (it is so huge - I don't know if I'll ever finish it!) and studying to obtain my certification as a biblical counselor with NANC. (Soon I'll have to start writing essays... ohh that's the scary part.) Also, I am still learning Spanish and piano, which are lots of fun. In a couple of weeks I will be starting my history class and physics. But over all, I don't have too much school to do and I have time for homemaking, journaling, drawing, phone calls, friends, and other misc. blessings.

I am just SO excited about this school year!

Blessings galore :)

My brother, Zach, turned 19 yesterday! Woo-hoo! Also, my grandpa came to visit, which was really neat because he lives far away and we don't see him very often. We all had brownies and ice cream to celebrate Zach's birthday last night, and he's also having a party tomorrow night. What fun!

Sunday School was a real blessing to me last night. We talked about sharing our faith, and some of the essentials of it. Our youth group is planning a 3-day rafting (and camping) trip for mid-August - I can't wait!

This morning my grandpa stayed for breakfast, and left around 9:00 AM. We've done some chores and such today, but it has been a restful day overall. I got a chance to read a couple chapters of the book, "A Quest for More" by Paul David Tripp, which a mentioned in a previous post.Only one more chapter left! It is SUCH a good book; God has taught me so much through it! You really should read it - it's very helpful and encouraging!

August 28-30, 2009

Wow! It's been a busy weekend! On Friday we headed out in the morning to go see some of our friends from PA who we were meeting at a mall a couple of hours away from our house. We got delayed by a whole bunch of stuff - road work, traffic, etc. and we got there almost an hour late, which was a bummer since we only had a short amount of time. We met our friends at the mall, then window shopped for a little while, just talking and enjoying ourselves. We had conflicting interests though... my friend Emily and I wanted to look around in Deb, but the boys wanted to go to Zumiez. We all just sort of went around and had fun and then went to Subway for lunch. We ate and then continued to walk around and look at stuff. Emily and I went to Deb and tried on some really pretty prom dresses. The one she tried on was yellow and she looked like Belle from Beauty and the Beast! It was really pretty. I tried on one that was off-white and really fluffy and lacy and it was so pretty. If it was a little longer and was pure white it would have looked just like a wedding dress! It was really, really pretty. After that we had to leave, so we said goodbye and headed to my grandparents' house to stay for the night.

The next morning we had to go to a funeral for my Great Grandmother. I was really encouraged to find out that in her last days she had accepted Christ as her Savior and so now she is in heaven with Jesus! Hallelujah!! After the funeral and a meal we headed home.

On Sunday, my mom and I had nursery during the morning service. There ended up being 7 kids there - all under the age of 3! It was pretty busy, one was wailing and crying for her mommy, one was really tired, one had an accident in the middle of the floor, and the rest were playing happily, but quite noisily! It was fun though; I love little kids. I found out that a family in our church who lives about 15 minutes away from us is in need of a babysitter, so I am REALLY excited about that!! I love babysitting!

Today I got up early and did chores throughout the morning. We had auditions today for a skit called "Everything" that our youth group is doing on September 19th, so I headed out to go to that around 11 AM. Different people tried out for different parts, and after a lot of practice we finally decided who the cast would be. I didn't get a part and was pretty bummed about that at first, but I'm glad because we got the perfect people for each part. After we had the parts chosen we practiced it a few more times. It went very well for a first practice. I'm really excited to see what God will do with it!

And I think that pretty much sums up my weekend. God is good! :)

Surprise Party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Disclaimer: This was actually written on Wednesday, July 29, but I couldn't post it then. So, pretend it's the 29th as you're reading this! Sorry about that.

Wow! So, I really have a lot to say! So way back on Sunday I went to church and was able to put in the final details for a surprise birthday party for my friend, Brittney.

Then, on Monday, I went shopping all afternoon/evening for the party. Well, that's not all I shopped for, but a lot of it. We (my mom and I) went to Wal-mart and shopped for food for the party and also got Brittney a present and got most of the decorations at Dollar Tree. Now, Dollar Tree has some nice things and I really was able to do some good decorating with their stuff, but their balloons are TERRIBLE! They pop for no reason at all!! Anyway, we got all the things for the surprise birthday party, and we also went to salvation army, and I got 2 nice skirts for $5!! I love second-hand stores. My mom also went birthday shopping for me (I waited on a bench by the entrance =]) because my birthday is this Saturday! We got home at almost 9 PM, exhausted, but it was a good day.

On Tuesday, I cleaned the whole house. I cleaned the bathrooms, washed dishes, folded laundry, vacuumed, and everything! Whenever we do something big in our home I get all OCD and everything has to just PERFECT. So I did that, and baked cupcakes, and did some stuff like that in preparation.

Today was a CRAZY day! I got up at 7:40, which was later than I had planned, so then I rushed like crazy. I took a shower and got dressed quickly, then tidied up the house again quickly, and went straight to decorating. I did banners, posters, streamers, balloons, and SO many fun things!! It looked absolutely awesome. We left around 12:10 to get everyone rounded up. The people who came were: Brittney, Emily, Kyla, Ally, Becca, and I. We went to pick up Emily first, then headed towards Brittney's house. We had a couple stops to make along the way, including picking up Kyla, and then we met Ally and Becca at the end of Brittney's road. Then we all got into our vehicle and my mom drove us to her house. We got party noisemakers, jumped out of the vehicle, and ran and barged into the house without knocking (yes, Brittney's mom knew we were coming =]) and blew all the noisemaker horns as loud as we could and RAN into Brittney's bedroom and shocked her out of her mind!!! She was so confused as to what was going on. See, her birthday was actually 9 days ago, so she totally wasn't expecting this. When we started singing Happy Birthday she understood it was a belated birthday surprise, and she was stunned enough at that! Then we told her that there was a totally decked out party planned and that she was coming to my house to party all day, she was TOTALLY surprised!! It was the most hilarious thing ever. Her face was priceless! She looked stunned, surprised, excited, and even scared! When we came in she was absolutely speechless! So once she got her wits together, we headed back in our van to our home where the party was set up, and played awesome fun games like Mad Gab, Catch Phrase, and Apples to Apples, and we opened presents, ate, laughed, and had an AMAZING time!! Then all but Emily (who wasn't able to come) headed out for prayer meeting. So we were sad we had to leave Emily. :( But that was the official end of the party and then we went to prayer meeting and that was good too. So all in all, today was one of the BEST days I've had in a long time!!! I LOVE MY AWESOME FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM!!!!! :D :D :D <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 !!!!!!!!!!!

Another day done...

Today was actually a busy day. I spent the morning doing yard work and washing our van and vacuuming it. It's hard to keep a minivan clean when you live on a dirt road! So I spent the morning in the hot sun sweating and working hard. But it feels good. Then this afternoon I attempted to sew. Yes, that's right - sew. I mean, I have always hated sewing and I'm horrible at it. And, I don't have the patience. But, I tried it. I thought I'd start with something simple and small, since I don't have a sewing machine. So I tried to make an A-line doll's skirt. I cut it, and then hemmed the bottom of it by hand, which took a long time. And, I only ended up bleeding in one place! Haha. :) Then after all that work, I realized I cut it totally wrong to make an A-line skirt, so it will either be a wrap-around skirt or a shawl. Anyway, I think I will cut some more fabric tomorrow or the next day and try again for an A-line. Then I went to prayer meeting tonight, and it was very encouraging. I'm especially thankful for all of my good friends, it's so nice to talk to all of them. And speaking of friends, I'm having my awesome friend, Vicki, over tomorrow afternoon and I'm very much looking forward to that. :) I also fell asleep while sewing today and slept for like an hour. Haha. It seems like I'm always tired lately. I take a nap almost every day. I love sleeping. lol. So that's how my day has been today, and now I think I'll go outside and roller-blade and maybe listen to my mp3 player. :)