Five Minute Friday - Welcome

Friday is a day when tons of people sit down for five minutes and WRITE on a subject. Then they all link up over at thegypsymama.com :)






This week's topic was "Welcome"
GO.
Welcome.

Welcome to our home. Welcome to America. Welcome to the USA.
Words I've heard a lot of in the past week.
Claire is here. My new French sister. I love her dearly. She's a sweet girl, and we get along oh so very well.
Her English is great, and my attempts at mimicking French are horrible.
It was a joy to welcome her.

Welcome is more than just a hello. Welcome is a feeling, a feeling of belonging. A feeling that the people around you WANT you to be around. A feeling I long to give people, a feeling I long to feel.
All anyone wants is to be welcomed, right? I could be wrong, but that's my opinion.

Feeling welcomed can be the best thing in the world. A "WELCOME" from a family member you haven't seen in a long time, or that you just saw, can give you that warm fuzzy feeling that nothing else in the world can. It's a feeling of being loved, no matter how much time you've been away. A feeling of... well, welcome!

Welcome is a feeling that this blog post brings. Just being able to write for 5 minutes is welcome. Even when I should be doing other things at this late hour, writing is what I needed. I haven't written in a long time. Writing feels welcoming.

Summer is welcome as well. Being slightly lazy, getting my exercise on, swimming, sunning. All welcome things in my busy, crazy life.
STOP.

That's all for me :)
Welcome to my blog ;)


I'm linking up here.

This should probably have a title, huh?

Hey!
Hannah told me that I have to keep blogging until she's done with school.
SO I continue to blog.

Saturday was... fairly boring. I read a whole lot. I went to Panera with BK for a bit to go over Easter stuff. Then we went to the AIRPORT and picked up KATIE! Then we came home and ate dinner and generally relaxed. We also ate cupcakes.

Sunday morning I got up and got ready. Kayla's family picked me up and we went to church. Sunday school was good. And then church. Yes. That was good too.

When we got home we ate lunch (birthday lunch) and I opened presents and we played BananaGrams, which I had just opened. Then it was time for Hannah to go back to Kent and me to go to The620 stuff.

I headed to Green Valley for Easter Sunday practice. Played guitar for a bit while waiting for people to get there. Sam and I traded songs (haha) and then we practiced. And then I headed to Kayla's house and they gave me a ride to youth group. Youth group was good. We planned a few things and got through our study.
I got home and then called BK to let him know how many more people were coming to Space Pirates vs Na'vi. He said they were still at the church, so I headed over there again and helped them shoot a video for God.Bar. Came home... relaxed a bit. Went to bed.

Got up this morning. Ate breakfast. Got ready for the day. Went a bunch of places with Kaite checking back at places jobs wise and picking up applications. We came home, ate lunch, filled out applications.
I babysat... annnnnd yes. We ate dinner, cleaned up, and went on a walk.
Now we're finishing watching You Again, which is a brilliantly funny, well cast, movie!

And then bed. And then McDonalds tomorrow morning bright and early for their hiring day. And then checking back at Panera. Woooooooo. Yay job hunting!

A'ight. I'm out for the night.

Lil Sibs Weekend

Hey!
Last weekend was an exciting one, however I'm a terrible blogger and haven't recorded it here! We (Me, EDD, EDP, ELT, and ENT) went to Kent State for what the title of this post clearly states: Lil' Sibs Weekend!
It was SO much fun!

Friday after I got home from babysitting, I finished packing up all my stuff and Mom, Dad, and I headed to Urban Vision to pick the girls up! On the way there (about half way), we realized that we had forgotten the release forms that their parents had signed and it was going to be impossible to turn around, get the forms, and get back in time to pick the girls up and get to Kent on time to get signed in.

So we decided that we were going to try to print some more and have their parents sign them again.
We got to Urban Vision and picked the girls up, Dad ran in and started the process of printing the papers. It took longer than expected, but we still managed to leave Akron around the time that we thought we would. And their forms got signed! So no worries there.

We got to Kent and picked up Hannah at her dorm and then headed to Eastway to sign in. It was CRAZY busy, however there was no one in the S-Z last name sign-in line! Which was a miracle. So we got signed in, got wristbands, and headed out. We started handing out t-shirts and realized that they had given us the wrong t-shirt sizes! So Hannah and Mom ran back in an got the correct t-shirt sizes and then it was off to dinner!

We ate at the Student Center (aka The Hub) and it was delishus. After dinner we said goodbye to the 'rents and headed back to Hannah's dorm where there was some Wii goin' on. We were a leetle beet confused and played Ninja for a while, but then Hannah realized where we actually needed to be, so we relocated and played Wii for a little bit. After a while more people showed up and Hannah and a couple of the girls had gone to a friend's room down the hall, so the few of us who were left relocated to P's room and hung out there for a bit and did some arts/crafts. So that was fun! P is an extremely nice person who knew the girls from Urban Vision.

After we left P's room, we went back to Hannah's room and got ready for bed and watched Despicable Me/fell asleep. I was in the "fell asleep" category. College will kill me. I'm quite certain of it!

In the morning we (Hannah and I!) slept in as much as possible and then got up and ate breakfast in Hannah's room. After brekkers we headed out to Centennial Field where some stuff was supposed to be happening. There was sand-art, pictures, and a face-painting station. Around 11 there was a guy from the Akron Zoo there with a few animals, so we saw that. He had a python (GORGEOUS), a parrot (very funny and cute, however I would never want to own one), and a scorpion (whose sting was less lethal than a bee sting! Interesting, eh?).

After all that stuff we headed back to Hannah's room to get changed for SWIMMING, what EDP was so excited about!
They all got changed (Eh Ler and I didn't because she wasn't feeling well) and we headed to the Rec center. We ate lunch there (we had tickets for a free lunch... which consisted of a hot-dog, a bag of chips, and a can of pop. Yay?) and then Eh Ler and I walked back to Hannah's room and watched Alice In Wonderland. After that, Eh Ler took a nap and I had a quiet time and watched part of How To Train Your Dragon.
They got back from swimming around 4 o'clock and showered and whatnot and then we headed to DINNER.

We ate dinner at Eastway with Michelle. We talked and laughed a whole lot! There was a group of h2o people eating there as well, so Kait and Maegan came over and talked to us for a while.

We sat in our corner booth after dinner for about an hour and played cards and then headed to the Kiva for Tangled!

We stood in the lobby for a while because they hadn't opened the doors yet. Yes, we were early, but we didn't want to not get seats. It had seemed like a lot of people were going to see Tangled, so we wanted to get there early. They opened the doors and we sat down (three (EDP, EDD, ENT) in front of three (Me, Eh Ler, Hannah) so we didn't take up as much room, or w/e). Hannah Yurk came and sat by us... she also knows the girls from Urban Vision! (It was crazy how many people they knew hah!)

We watched Tangled, which was AMAZING even the third time around. I love love love this movie and hope that I receive it tomorrow for my birthday!
It was fantastic.

After Tangled we headed to the car where Mom and Dad were waiting for us! We went back to Hannah's room and gathered our stuff and went home.

It was a great, tiring weekend full of laughter!
And that's that for Lil Sibs Weekend!

TRUTH: I can be a slacker.

My sister kindly posted on my wall (and I read the e-mail that got sent to my, well, e-mail. I'm off Facebook until next Saturday.) and told me that she doesn't know what's going on in my life if I don't blog.
Hence, I'm blogging, and I'm a slacker.

Last time I blogged... was on Friday? But that wasn't even really a complete blog post. That was a Five Minute Friday. So... the last time I blogged was... LAST Monday. Errr. Yeah. I'm a slacker. I started a post, but never finished it.
Here's what I had written so far:

Not much has been happening minus minor heath issues. But even that's not that much.

Monday-Didn't feel good. Had heartburn.
Tuesday-Lightheaded, dizzy, sinus headache, generally not feeling good.
Wednesday- Almost completely better.

That was it so far. We ended up not going to Urban Vision/Ballet because I knew that I couldn't teach/help out at UV much, and Mom wasn't feeling well either. And it was spring break for dance, so I didn't have to worry about that.

Wednesday I was almost completely fine. I went to school and everything. Went to bible study. That was about it for Wednesday I think.

Thursday I did school, babysat (and it feels like I had to fight him to read... but I don't remember. It obviously wasn't that bad!), and went to see Annie Jr. at the High school, put on by the Middle school. Sam and Matt (fellow youth groupies) were in it and it was really fun! I love musicals. There's just something about them that makes me very happy.

Friday I did school, babysat, and then the Rhorigs, Hares, and Horstmans came over. It was SO much fun! We ate dinner and whatnot and then all of us kids went downstairs and played Catchphrase and Wii Bowling. So that was fun. Eventually we all wandered upstairs and sat with the adults. And then people left. :(

Saturday I slept in... annnd... I don't really remember what I did in the morning/afternoon. The Karen girls came over. We hung out and stuff. Played outside some. Did some Sudoku. They went home and we ate dinner and then watched some Monk. And then we went to bed.

Sunday: Got up, went to Sunday School. Kay taught, which was fun! She talked about Crazy Love by Francis Chan, which is currently on hold for me at the library. Aaaaand then it was church time. And so we did that thing. haha. After church there was a chili luncheon. So we ate chili. And talked. And Jeremiah ate all of Nathan's fruit while he was getting something else. It was quite funny.
After church we came home and I finished painting the moon on our Space Pirates (v Navi) flag. We went on a walk. I went to Nazirite DNA. Which we actually didn't read. We ended up praying that entire time. And then we prayed some more. We started a prayer wall. Which I want to add to tonight while I'm at my bible study! Then there was youth group.Which was fun, as always.
We ended up staying until almost 9 (an hour after youth group ends) taking pictures on BK's computer. HILARIOUS. I love those people. Well, at that point it was me, Kayla, Aliza, Sam, Erin, and Brandon. But we eventually left. Haha. Then Dad and I took Kayla home. Annnnd then I typed up my lit questions and watched Undercover Boss and then went to bed.

Monday: Got up, went to school. Did school in study hall. Ate taco salad for lunch. Talked to Christopher and Kaitlyn! They came to visit Julia because they're on spring break this week. So that was fun.
Then Lit class. And SAT. Those were pretty normal.
Came home. And I'm pretty sure I was on the computer the rest of the day? Don't really remember. I think we watched more Monk because Chuck was not on this week. Went to bed.

Tuesday (yesterday!): Got up, got ready, went to Panera with Katie, went to Pet Supplies Plus to get food for Rigby, Katie's snake, and then came home. Did a little school, went back up to Panera to introduce myself to their hiring manager. Came home. Did more school. Watched Make it or Break it during lunch. Yay! Went to Urban Vision (Gym, Reading, Gym, Computer Lab-math, Dinner (pasta), Reading, homework)

I went up to the ballet studio about half an hour before class started to finish choreographing their dance and to prep a little bit. Ballet class was altogether toooooo short. We have 6 (probably 7) classes (if I have one during spring break) left before their performance. *Cue freak out* haha

After ballet I went to dance. We learned more of Black&Gold (Jazz dance) and worked a WHOLE lot on Aha! It's going to be such a good dance. It's a creepy doll dance. And we're creepy all right. It's so good. Haha

After dance I came home and crashed.

Today I got up, got ready, went to Spanish class. Spanish was different today because we worked on our Ejercicios on our own/in groups but without Mrs. Jones. So. That was interesting. And probably a whole lot less productive than if Mrs. Jones had been helping us, but I think it was good for us to do them on our own.
Kind of. When she told us that she wasn't helping, Sean looked at me and was like "Okay, Abby, give us all the answers!" And I told him that they might have to do the exercises "sin migo tambien" haha (without me too).
After Spanish was study hall... where I did almost all of my school. Then Mom came. And took me home for reasons which you will find out in a moment.

I ate lunch/watched an episode of Monk. Finished Physics. Had a bit o' a quiet time. Got dressed in my interview clothing and went to Chipotle. They had open interviews today, so I went! Unfortunately, I did not get a job. You have to be 18 to work there. Which seems slightly dumb, but it's the rules. So I came home and caught up on blogs a bit and now I'm writing this! After this... I might watch a movie or some TV. Chillax, you know.

That's it for me!
Hope you're doing well, whoever you are. And that you got through this post. It seems lengthy. However, I'm not re-reading it. I will run spell-check though! hah
Adios!

NIPTO, Day 342

Whew! Today has been a whirlwind!
I got up and got ready for the day and then headed to Brandon's house for youth leadership. We planned a bunch of stuff for the next couple of months. So that's exciting!
After that we went to Wooster to meet up with Uncle Randy, Aunt Mary Jo, Kata, and Troy! It was super fun to catch up with everyone :)
After we caught up with them, we went to Coccia House for dinner. Awesomesauce pizza. Seriously, the sauce was awesome. Super good pizza. And then we came home. And I had officially been gone for 10 hours.
So we watched some TV (What Not To Wear and Psych) and now I'm blogging. And will probably go to bed after this.

Sooooo NIPTO?

Haggai 2:10-19
 ¹⁰ On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Haggai: ¹¹ “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Ask the priests what the law says: ¹² If someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of their garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, olive oil or other food, does it become consecrated?’”

   The priests answered, “No.”

God decided to ask the priests some questions. And here's what he asked them: If someone carries "holy" food of some sort, does what they're carrying it with become holy? The answer... uhhh no. 

 ¹³ Then Haggai said, “If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?”

   “Yes,” the priests replied, “it becomes defiled.”

Then God (through Haggai) asked if a person who was defiled by touching a dead person touches something else, does whatever that person touch become defiled? The answer: Yes, yes it does. 

 ¹⁴ Then Haggai said, “‘So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,’ declares the LORD. ‘Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.

God saw the people of that time as defiled. Whatever they did and offered was seen as defiled because they weren't a holy and consecrated people.

 ¹⁵ “‘Now give careful thought to this from this day on—consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the LORD’s temple. ¹⁶ When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. ¹⁷ I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me,’ declares the LORD.

Give careful thought. That is a phrase that is used a whole lot in this book. It seems like these people didn't think carefully about anything, really. But maybe they did. But God told them to think carefully and to think about how things were before anything had been laid for His temple. When things weren't as plentiful. God had plagued them, but they didn't go back to him.

¹⁸ ‘From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid. Give careful thought: ¹⁹ Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.

   “‘From this day on I will bless you.’”

God told them that, from that day on, they were to think carefully about the day when the foundation of the temple was laid. They were to think about what they had. Because from that day forward God said he would bless him. 

That is all for tonight.
May God bless you from this day on.

Christmas Conversation Collage

I'm just making that up based on hype.

You're like God. You like everybody.

If I get deathly ill, we won't know what to blame it on!

Katie makes eating an adventure.

Jesus wasn't a perfect little angel baby. There are ways to be difficult without sinning. Like crying all the time.

"If it tasted like a donkey's back side, I'd still eat it if it's ice cream cake!"  "Then I'm going to make you a ice cream cake that tastes like a donkey's back side!"

"Now we need footwear!"

It takes one, and a vacuum, to tango!

"Always use 'drank'!" "I'm so drankkk"

There's a fine line between Shawn Spencer and the Grinch.

Who needs Google when you have Martha?!

I looked up 'Oliver Twit' instead of 'Oliver Twist'!

"When do we go? Where do I get my visa? Passport?" "Monterey is in California..." "Oh..."

I can see the Pacific ocean from France!

Don't forget the vodka soup.

Llama face! Cassarole!

I'm depressed. But I'm still joyful!

"If stone soup is made of stones, and vodka soup is made of vodka, then what's ballerina soup made of?" "Satin."

"If apple juice is made out of apples, and orange juice is made of oranges, then what is Jesus juice made of?" "Fermented grapes, dear."

"I want beef bacon!"

"You're an Arkansas for lifer"

"Tape? What's TAPE?"

"That girl has mad aloe"

"Stop tangoing with the floor"

"I don't believe you." "You don't have to."

"Were they taken in the same heist? Nevermind. I just wanted to say heist."

"I speak punnish!"

"I wish she would just say 'squirrel!' and be done with it already!"

"Don't say that word!" "What word?" "Katie!"

"If I murdered someone in the hallway, could I move them into the storage closet?"

"I'm dreaming of a white Martin Luther King Jr. Day...." *everyone else busts up laughing* "OH!"

"I love having our family together!"


And thus concludes all the crazy sayings that happened over Christmas break!

NIPTO, Day 333

Oh man! Today was... good? I don't really know. Ha.


Got up kinda late. Sat around the table with Katie, Hannah, Nick, and Lauren for a long while. They left around 11:30... Took a shower, swept the hardwood floors, then caught up on internet stuff. Ate lunch... did I don't know what? Then I babysat. And read a lot while I babysat. Came home and helped shovel the driveway... read for a while... ate dinner... contemplated getting Blizzards in the blizzard... went out to get Blizzards in said blizzard, survived, ate said blizzards and watched an episode of Psych, an episode of What Not To Wear, and an episode of some show that Kelly Ripa hosted. Hah. (I also worked on a project that I just started for the church website. Part of it is up there! Look at the header picture. I did the one of the pastors. :)


And now it's 11:20 PM and I need to go to bed. Because I'm going to be up LATE tomorrow night. Tomorrow night IS THE Great American Chicken Hunt: PART III. And therefore I will be up until 3 AM probably. And so yeah. I'm going to get this done and go to SLEEP. And this might be one of the saddest (not will make you cry, but depressing in a... cute... way?) videos I've seen in a while.


NIPTO!


Colossians 3:5-11
 ⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.


Anything that is within us that is earthly needs to die spiritually. Or physically. But it needs to go away. Because of these earthly things that we give ourselves to, the wrath of God is coming. He won't hold off forever, so we need to put those things away and embrace Jesus Christ. 




⁷ You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.


Those are the things that we used to do. That's how we used to live. Now we need to get rid of anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language. We should no longer walk as we used to. That's how the world acts. We need to not act like the world. We need to be legitimately different. The world wants legitimately different people. They just don't know it. Or maybe they do. Some do. Some crave to be different. So they take up things that will only lead them to destruction. But following Jesus, legitimately and wholeheartedly, will make you different in such an extreme way that people won't be able to not notice you. That's how I want to live. I want to live in a way that is crazy different from the rest of the world. I don't want to act like everyone else. I don't want to do the things the world does. I want to be a changed person. For pete's sake! I'm part of a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a purchased people (1 Peter 2:9). 
Whew. </rant>


⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.


We should not lie. Lying will dig you a hole faster than you can shovel dirt back into it. It's just not a good thing. We shouldn't lie because we're not who we used to be. We've put on our "new self." And our new self is renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Uhm. Wow! I've been listening to (over and over! aka I've listened to it twice in the past 3 days and will probably listen to it again tomorrow or tonight) this sermon given at the OneThing conference. Brandon went to this conference and told Hannah and myself that we should listen to this. So I did. And it's amazing. It's about how we were created in the image of our creator for his GLORY. Here's the link to the page of all the sermons. It's called Created for the Glory of God by Allen Hood. (Thursday Evening) It was so good. I listened to it while cleaning and it made me a happy person. It's so worth the hour to listen to. So go listen to it!




¹¹ Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.


In this place... God's kingdom?... there wasn't (isn't?) discrimination. People weren't looked on by where they were born or what family they were born into. Everyone was in Christ and therefore was Christ. So Christ is all and is in all. 
Whew.




Wow. That was longer than I was expecting it to be. But that's okay. That's GOOD. I haven't had a good healthy rant like that in a while :)


And now I shall go to my bed. And sleep. For a good long time!
Tomorrow is figuring out school stuff, babysitting, packing, and going to the Great American Chicken Hunt. (The GACH is an Amazing Race style race where we have to figure out riddles and then go to a location and do some kind of challenge. Like have someone try to pump 5¢ of gas. Erm. Yeah. Crazy. but it should be super fun! I'm sure I'll post all about it after I'm rested up on Saturday! :)


Adios my readers :) 

Movie Marathon Conversation Collage

The ridiculous ramblings sayings that are taken out of context from our Johnny Depp movie marathon! [Tuesday night&Wednesday]. Enjoy! (I'm posting this on facebook too... :)


... short people are awkward and weird.

"I speak broken punnish" is even funnier than "I speak punnish"!

Helicopters are aerodynamically weird. They shouldn't be able to fly.

They have pre-dug holes!

Is this an inter-racial relationship because your socks are colored?

I don't care about anything.

We would have a lot more purple and orange in the world. I'll tell you that!

Jesus is a cop-out for anything. Except squirrels.

You think he's not listening until he is.

I just happened. Oh man.

I'd really rather that Jesus was not your feet.

It's like two people with braces kissing. They figure it out.

I don't like Hollywood. No one gets shot!

It would take off and take your pants with it!

Our dad is an estrogen-hardy man.

The brown one was beautiful. Why does he need a grey one?

It's a Twix commercial!

Her dress is like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants!

It's Hannah Yackley!

As if there's a thing as lawful seduction?

Nooo! Why?!?! So she's a witch! (I have this written down, but have NO recollection of what it was about...)

She went off with the government censorship guy!

"I think that's proper for 'dead.'" "Oh! So that means you're available?"

You can run and tell that, homeboy!

Oh my gosh they took the back of the house off!

They were dead the whole time?!

He's snoring. *bursts of giggles*

It's like there's a tiny man being strangled in your freezer.

I had to literally remove him!

NIPTO, Day 325

Ahhhhhhhh.
Today has been good.
Got up. Ate breakfast. Read until it was almost lunch time. Got ready for the day. Had a family meeting to figure the next few days out. Ate lunch. Went for a walk. Went to Giant Eagle to get Ramona and Beezus from the Red Box. Went to the library to pick a couple things up. Came home and did my stretching routine while Katie and Dad went to pick up Eh Dah Doe, Eh Dah Po, Ehne Thau, and Be Bin. They got here and we all caught up a little bit... then Mom, Hannah, Eh Dah Doe, and I played Monopoly Deal. Then Katie and Ehne Thau joined us and Mom left to finish dinner... then we ate dinner. And now we're watching Despicable Me. Except I'm blogging because I've seen it 3 times in the past 5 days. Hah.
Tomorrow we're taking the Karen girls back and then we're going to see Secretariat at the dollar theater and then I'm spending the night at Carrie's house! So that should be fun! :)
I will hopefully be able to blog in the morning... and thereby not break my "blog every day for a year" "resolution." A month and a bit before I'm "done." Ya know.

NIPTO!

Colossians 1:9-14
⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, ¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.


My "New Years Resolution": To pray like these people did. They prayed like no one was business. They prayed and prayed and prayed. They didn't stop praying. They were in constant communication with God. They asked God to give the people of Colosse with wisdom and understanding so that they would live a life worthy of the knowledge of God. They prayed that they would be strengthened so that they would have patience and endurance. And they gave to God who qualified them to share the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. Whew. That's some crazy awesome prayer. 




¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.


Rescued. God has rescued us. This reminds me of Jon Acuff's latest Serious Wednesday post. He's rescued us and he brought us into his kingdom with his son. His son that he gave for our redemption.
Crazy. 


And now I go back to watching movies with the girls. I believe that Ramona&Beezus is up next! :)
Adios!

NIPTO, Day 324

Helloooooo!

Yesterday and today were both great!
Yesterday... we got up late... went on a walk... did some stuff that I don't remember... played Monopoly Deal, ate dinner, listened to Dad read some of Gazelles, Baby Steps, and 37 Other things Dave Ramsey Taught me about Debt, watched Little Women, then got ready for bed. After that Katie, Hannah, and I sat around in the living room with Cinderella (Rodgers and Hammerstine) on in the background and talked. Then went to sleep. Got up this morning and got ready. Then we went to the mall! Hannah and I went to Forever 21, Claire's, Bath&Body Works, a puzzle store, Sears, Payless, and Charlotte Russe!
Then we got lunch... (at three pm). And... went on a walk? Played a lot of Monopoly Deal. Ate dinner. And now we're watching Confessions of A Shopaholic.

Annnnd now NIPTO.

Colossians 1:3-8
 ³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— ⁵ the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel ⁶ that has come to you.


Paul and Timothy would always thank God when they prayed for the people of Colasse. Why? They heard that they were faithful and loving. The love that they had for others came from the hope that they had in heaven. 




 In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. ⁷ You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, ⁸ and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.


The gospel was being spread because they heard it and understood it. They learned it from Epaphras. He was faithful to God and to God's people. 






And I think that's where I'm going to leave it tonight. I'm going to head to bed early. 
The Karen girls are coming over tomorrow and are spending the night, and then on Thursday I'm going to see a movie with Carrie, and then I'm spending the night at her house! So I need to get a decent night's sleep. 
Goooodnight!

NIPTO, Day 323

Hey-o.
I'm going to be super lazy today. And my sisters are waiting on me so I can stare at their faces.
So.

I'm going to start Colossians... so
Colossians 1:1-2

 ¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

 ² To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ:

   Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

Paul and Timothy (again!) wrote this book to the brothers and sisters in Colossae. They were writing to God's holy people. To people who were faithful to Christ.

Grace and peace. That's what they "sent" them with this letter. 

That is me being lazy. Now I'm going to watch a movie and sleep in the living room with my sisters! =D

NIPTO, Day 322

Yesterday was sooooo much fun!
We got up at the crack of 8. "Woke" the parents up. Opened presents. Got ready for the day. Ate breakfast. Opened more presents. Got ready for people coming over. People came over. Those people were Aunt Lynne, Uncle Paul, Aunt Lisa, and Jeff. And Meme&Pops were already here.
So we ate lunch and sat and talked for a long while... the guys started getting tired/antsy, so the ladies started to clean up... then we read a version of the Christmas story... and talked some more... then did our white-elephant exchange. After that we opened presents from Aunt Lynne and Katie... ate dessert... ate some more dinner... sat around and chatted... around... 6:30 or 7, people started to leave. We cleaned up some more, got ready for bed, and then watched Despicable Me. Which is one of my favorite movies. (I can't wait until Tangled comes out on DVD! Maybe for my birthday...)

So that was our day/night.

Today was music practice, music, sunday school/small group, music, church, hanging out with people for a bit, coming home and eating lunch, watching Million Dollar Money Drop and Minute To Win It and a little bit of the Survivor season finale, watching some Psych, eating some food, watching an episode of What Not To Wear, eating some more food, playing Scrabble Slam and watching Undercover Boss (we watched a lot of TV today!), and then listening to Dad read "Gazelles, Baby Steps, and 37 Other things Dave Ramsey Taught me about Debt" by Jon Acuff. Then playing a bunch of Fast Typer 2 on Facebook. hah. That game is addictive.

But now... NIPTO. And I haven't actually thought of something to read yet... I'm thinking about doing the end of Isaiah... but I haven't decided yet. I might do something like... Jude. I don't know I'm going to ask Hannah. Ha.
I'm going to be lazy and "take one more day off" (I'm reading this, but not commenting on it) and posting
Matthew 2:1-23
¹ After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ² and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
 ³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
 ⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
   are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
   who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
 ⁷ Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. ⁸ He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
 ⁹ After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. ¹⁰When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. ¹¹ On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

The Escape to Egypt

 ¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” ¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
 ¹⁶ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷ Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
 ¹⁸ “A voice is heard in Ramah,
   weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
   and refusing to be comforted,
   because they are no more.”

The Return to Nazareth

 ¹⁹ After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰ and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” ²¹ So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³ and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.


That's all for today. I'll try to put some pictures or somefink up on facebook or here tomorrow from Christmas!
G'night, all!

NIPTO, Day 320 - Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas Eve!

I'll give you a brief rundown of what's happened so far today and what will happen today. And then I'm going to post an excerpt from the Christmas story in the Bible.
So. Today. Got up, ate breakfast, got ready for the day, hung out and talked... chopped some onions. Went to lunch at Panera Bread (like we've done every year for the past 3 years!), went to Target to get eggs. Came home. The rest of the day will consist of baking and cooking. I'm speaking at GVUMC's Christmas Eve service at 4 o'clock. Just for about 2 minutes about Alpha. Then I'll come home... we'll probably eat dinner. Then head to the Christmas Eve service at our church. Then we'll come home, eat some shrimp cocktail and cookies/sweets, then we'll go to bed uncharacteristically early. So that's Christmas Eve in a nutshell.

I just read this story. And it's so awesome. I'll post the actual birth of Christ tomorrow. But this is today's section. Take the time to read it. It's completely worth it. Think about it too!


Luke 1:26-56
²⁶ In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, ²⁷ to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

 ²⁹ Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰ But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

 ³⁴ “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

 ³⁵ The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. ³⁷ For no word from God will ever fail.”

 ³⁸ “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Mary Visits Elizabeth

 ³⁹ At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, ⁴⁰ where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. ⁴¹ When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴² In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! ⁴³ But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴ As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵ Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Mary’s Song

 ⁴⁶ And Mary said:

   “My soul glorifies the Lord
 ⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸ for he has been mindful
   of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
 ⁴⁹ for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
   holy is his name.
⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him,
   from generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
   he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones
   but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
   but has sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
   remembering to be merciful
⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever,
   just as he promised our ancestors.”

 ⁵⁶ Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

A crazy couple of days...

Okay. So. Yesterday. Friday. I did school and whatnot. I watched Elf. Annnnnnd I didn't have to babysit!

Around 4:00, Katie and Hannah got home from school for BREAK! So they'll be home until January. So that's exciting. So we hauled all their stuff upstairs and to the basement and made sure that the house was in party form. Then, at 7:00, we had a partay! Well, my parents had a party. It was their annual neighborhood Christmas party that Katie, Hannah, and I "crashed." Read: we were the only teenagers there. So we talked to people, ate food, talked to people some more and whatnot. We had a white-elephant gift exchange which was awesomeee. And I laughed A TON. Because my next door neighbor is hilarious. And yeah. So that was really fun. People left around 11. We cleaned up. I blogged. I went to bed.

Got up this morning, got ready and whatever. Went to play practice. Read my lines. Read some other people who weren't there's lines. Ate two pieces of pizza. Came home. Flat ironed my hair and put makeup on. Got dressed for ze wedding. Ran around trying to find last minute pieces of outfits. Annd then we were off!

Ahhhh. The Kline-Wyszynski wedding. It was gorgeous. The church that it was at was beautiful. Lauren looked gorgeous. As did her maids of honor&brides maids. I cried. Of course. I always cry at weddings. But yes, it was gorgeous all around.

Here are some pictures of the wedding, and a couple from the reception!

Lauren and Tim exchanging rings

Lighting the unity candle.

The parents praying with Lauren and Tim

Aaaaaaand the kiss. :)

Mr & Mrs

It was great to see people that we hadn't seen in a long time, too!

Me, Morgan, and Katelyn!
We were the three musketeers back in the day!

Me&Erin&Hailee! :) 

Hailee, Erin, Erin, Hannah, and Katie :)

Lauren and Katie... friends since 6 mo. and birth, respectively! 

Tony dancing. Baaahaha. Love that kid.

The faaam! :)

Mom&Dad dancing... dawwwww

Yay for weddings (drinks all around! hah!)

Their wedding was discreetly OSU themed. (Bridesmaid dresses were red, tables had grey center cloth things, flowers were white w/ red, centerpieces were dark red...)
Here are a couple pictures of the cakes that were on every table. It kind of gives it away. ;)

Sooo pretty! 

Delicious too!

Buckeyes on top too!

But now I'm exhausted. And I have church and play practice and the actual PLAY tomorrow! So I think I'm going to head to bed.
Hope you enjoyed this!

NIPTO, Day 303

Heyoooo.
It's still snowing. It's been snowing for... days? Maybe 3? Maybe 4? All I know is that there is a LOT of snow out there.

We're not going to Urban Vision today. Mom's back has been acting up, so we're just going to chill at home. I think Dad's coming home to take me to dance. So that's good.
We'd have to be leaving... right now. But we don't. So that's nice. I think I might go out in the snow later... I love the snow. :)
I might also do my nails. I haven't painted my nails in a long time.

But for now, NIPTO.

Philippians 1:27-30
²⁷ Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel ²⁸ without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God.


Whatever happens. No exceptions. We should always act in such a way that we are worthy of carrying the gospel. Even though we're never really worthy, we should act like we are! haha. 
Paul was saying that if they acted like they were worthy of the gospel, then he would know, whether or not he saw them, that they were standing firm in their faith. He would know that they weren't frightened by those who opposed them. 
If they did this, then that would be a sign that their opposition would be destroyed, but that they would be saved by God. 




²⁹ For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, ³⁰ since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.


Their salvation was given to them on behalf of Christ, not just to believe in them, but to suffer for him too. They were going through the same thing that Paul (or Timothy) was going through. They saw that he went through it. Then Paul (or Timothy) heard that he was still going through that struggle. 
Our struggles are never really over, are they?




Well. I'm going to go read or paint my nails or something. Yup yup. 


OHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Yeah. Happy (21st) birthday to my favorite [oldest] sister! :) Love you, girl!

And now. I'm off.... [my rocker] ;)
Adios!

NIPTO, Day 301

Hola!
Today was good.
I went to Small Group. Then church. Thennnn we came home. And ate lunch. Then... played Set? I don't really remember what we did this afternoon. I know Katie and Hannah packed... and then at some point we played more Set. And ate ice cream pie. And then we packed it up and headed to Kent, dropped Katie and Hannah off at their dorm, went to Gabriel Brothers, then to church again for the youth group Christmas party :)

Annnnnnd Dad's talking on the phone to my oldest girl cousin who just announced that she's ENGAGED! Soo yes! That's super exciting!!!! :D (They're thinking about getting married in Wooster!)

And on that note... on to NIPTO!

Philippians 1:15-18a
¹⁵ It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.


Woah. Some people tell other people about God because they're envious and have some kind of rivalry. But others "preach Christ" out of goodwill. 




¹⁶ The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. ¹⁷ The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.


Those who tell people about God out of goodwill do that because they have love. They know that [Paul or Timothy] was there, in prison, because they were defending the gospel. The others preach the gospel because they think that they can get [Paul or Timothy] in trouble while [Paul or Timothy] is in prison. Those people aren't nice.




¹⁸ But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.


But what does it matter... What does it matter? I would think it matters a whole lot. But it doesn't. What matters is that Christ is preached. Whether from false motives or true. Wow. That's... a tough thing to truly mean! But whoever wrote this did. And because of that they rejoiced!




And now I go to bed. After I do 3 SAT questions (SAT question of the day) and print 2 copies of my paper. So yes. I'm off to do that!