A Ridiculous Tuesday Update

Hai.
I'm tired, oh so tired, today.

Yesterday was... interesting.

I got up and got ready. I was running a leetle beet later than I wanted to be.
I was planning on going to McDonald's at 9 am for their hiring day. I was also planning on checking back at Panera before I went to McD's. It was about 9:15 by the time I left the house. I was all dressed in my interview clothing, ready to interview at McDonald's. I went into Panera and asked to talk to the hiring manager, who I knew was working yesterday because I checked to see when he was working on Monday. I asked him if he had had time to look at my application. He asked what my name was, I told him, and he was kinda like "oh..." and told me to wait a minute. He came back and we sat down in the restaurant area and he asked me a few questions (if I was related to Hannah, what I did when I worked for Mr. H, if I had a car, where I'd want to work, etc).  He told me that he had like, 5 other interviews that day, but he'd "probably hire [me]," but he had to interview the other people. His last interview was at 3:15, so he'd call me after that.

I went to the car and called Mom&Kaite and told them what he said. They said to come home and we'd wait for his call and if it was negative, I could still go to McDonald's and get an interview there.

SO. I came home and Katie and I got started on dipping stuff in chocolate. There is way tooo much stuff to list. If you're seriously interested, I'll make Katie do a "guest post" about the chocolate. :)

I went to lunch with BK @ Chipotle, which was delicious. We shot a video after lunch which involved multiple places and me in a body bag. I will post the link to the video once it's done :) It was fun. Despite the fact that I had to get in and out of a body bag about 7 times. In multiple public places. It'll be a good video. (You'll never see me, but you'll know that I'm there. Ha!)

After all that, we dipped more chocolate... I was on facebook for a while.

And then the phone rang.

The caller ID didn't say that it was Panera, but I answered it. It was indeed Panera.

B, the manager, never straight up said "you got the job," but he asked if I could come to orientation and Planet Bread (their training program) on Saturday. UH YEAHHH.
SO that was exciting!
I called Dad and told him... and then Meme and told her... and then Hannah and told her. Hannah definitely had the best reaction! She screamed and (by her description) ran across the street in glee and jumped in a puddle for good measure! So funny!
But we'll be co-workers this summer. And it'll be suuuuper awesome. :)

After all that shtuff.... I got ready for dance. Ate dinner (leftover Chipotle). Went to Urban Vision for ballet from 5:30-7, and then jazz and modern. I came home and crashed. I was exhausted.

And all of that activity yesterday made me suuuper tired today.
This lovely, crazy, hopefully-well-written post sums up my crazy getting-hired-getting-shot-in-a-body-bag-with-a-camera Tuesday.

Adios my readers!

A Birthday Party

Hey-o! Yesterday was my birthday. It was a faabulous day!

I got up and did school... Opened my card from Meme&Pops... talked to Meme&Pops! Did school and more school. Mom went to the grocery store and then came home and we unloaded stuff and then we went to Tarje and got Icees for lunch (along with leftover quiche!). We had quiche and icees for lunch and watched part of Despicable Me. And thenn I worked on my paper a bit. And then I decorated cupcakes! Here are a few pictures of them:

The caramel colored frosting is peanut butter! Delishussss.

Then people arrived! Sean, Allie, Carrie, Nathan (and Jeff), and Adam came. It was a fun time!
We played Apples To Apples for a while, ate dinner, went to the basement and watched some YouTube videos (haha) and then played Spoons. And then we ate those cupcakes. They were gooooood.
After dessert we went downstairs again and played fooseball and more Apples to Apples. And then people left. It was a funtabulous time overall! Those people are funny. I like them. We should get together more often!

And that was the gist of my day! It was quite fun. And now I'm going to go finish working on my paper.
Hope you're having a lovely Saturday!

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 291

Happy Thanksgiving, readers! I'll have a whole post about what I'm thankful for coming up :)
Today. Has been great. Got up around nine... watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and ate breakfast of home made cinnamon rolls and mint hot chocolate!

The making of the cinnamon rolls last night

yum yum yum

All rolled up!

Yummmmmmmmmmmmm

It looks delectable. I know you want one. 

It was soooo good.

We sat at the table and talked for a long time. Cleaned up from breakfast, got ready for the day. Then Dad and I went out to find a news paper so we could look at the Black Friday Ads. Annnd so we came home and did that and watched part of The Dog Show. 

Here's a random silly picture of Katie and me. She's goofy.

All threee of us. Uhm. Are we sure we're sisters? Because we really don't look alike.

 We brought up all of the Christmas stuff from the basement and then Katie, Hannah, Dad, and I went on a walk while Mom cooked and cooked and cooked (or waited for stuff to cook...).

Birds nest in a tree that I thought was cool lookin'

When we got home it was almost time to eat, but not quite. So we put up the Christmas tree! In 11 minutes. Oh yeah, we're beast.

Katie and Hannah spreading "branches"

You can see where the holes that need to be filled in are...

THEN WE ATE!

Mashed potatoes&gravy, turkey, Sweet potato fries, and stuffing. And peas. But I didn't have peas on my plate at this point.
Along with crescent rolls and jam. And homemade applesauce. It was all delicious!

Such good food! So we cleaned up. Some of us. Others took a nap. ;)
Mom, Katie, and Hannah went on a walk. And now Katie and Hannah are watching a video...
And I'm blogging.

So life is good. :)

Ruth 2:19-23

¹⁹ Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”
   Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.

When Ruth got home, her mother-in-law, Naomi, asked where she had worked and gleaned that day because she had a lot of grain! Ruth told her where she had been working. With Boaz. Boo yahhhhh.


 ²⁰ “The LORD bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.”
 ²¹ Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”

Naomi asked the Lord to bless him. She was so grateful that Boaz would show kindness to Ruth. Ruth had no idea that Boaz was a close relative, a guardian, of theirs. Ruth told her that Boaz had told her to stay with his workers until they finished harvesting all of the grain.


 ²² Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”
 ²³ So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Naomi told Ruth that it would be good to work for him because she would be safe. If she worked somewhere else, she might get hurt/be harmed.
So Ruth just stayed close to the women who gleaned in Boaz's field until the barley and whete were all harvested. All during this time she lived with her mother-in-law. 




And now I'm off to decorate a Christmas tree!

NIPTO, Day 277

Whew.
Hi.

Today was good. Fun. Busy. Fun.
Got up. Did school. Went to LUNCH with my sisters and mom and grandma. Panera is fantastic. (Sierra Turkey sandwich with Broccoli Cheese soup. YUM.)
I like my sisters a whole lot. They make me laugh. :)

I did physics on the way home and then had to leave to babysit... did more physics. Read a photography book for a bit... made Nate a sandwich, watched a little bit of Good Luck Charley... I think. I'm not completely up on my Disney shows haha.
Came home... did I don't know what. OH! I mostly caught up on The LXD on Hulu and watched a little more Survivor (I'm almost caught up! haha)
Ate dinner. Talked to Paige for a little bit. Watched 2 episodes of Psych, a little bit of the Latin Grammys, and now The Office. They're watching Glee on The Office. Soooo weird. Kinda.

Yup yup. So that was my day.

Ecclesiastes 9:1-12
 ¹ So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them. ² All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.
   As it is with the good,
   so with the sinful;
as it is with those who take oaths,
   so with those who are afraid to take them.

This person reflected on everything that's been discussed in the past 8 chapters and came to the conclusion that the righteous and wise people, and what they do and say, are in God's hands. But no one knows whether love or hate awaits them. Hm. Well I know that love awaits me :)
Everyone shares a common destiny. Righteous, wicked, good, bad, clean, unclean, everyone. 
Things with the good are the same with the sinful. Everything's kinda the same. We're all in the same boat. 

 ³ This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. ⁴ Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

The evil on earth is that we all have the same destiny. But we don't. That changed when Jesus came to earth and died for us. Now we have different destinies. Although to begin with, we all have the same destiny. 
The hearts of people are full of evil. If they're not cleansed by Jesus's (Jesus'?) blood. 
But eventually, we die. But while we're living, we have hope. A live dog (pitiful) is better than a dead lion (powerful, but all power is lost). Good reasoning, eh? haha

 ⁵ For the living know that they will die,
   but the dead know nothing;
they have no further reward,
   and even their name is forgotten.
⁶ Their love, their hate
   and their jealousy have long since vanished;
never again will they have a part
   in anything that happens under the sun.

People who are living know that they'll die eventually. Dead people don't know anything. (Dead men tell no tales.) Dead people don't get anything. They're eventually forgotten. Their emotions have disappeared and they're not going to participate in anything that happens on earth. 

 ⁷ Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. ⁸Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. ⁹ Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. ¹⁰ Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.


Go. Go do things that you want to do with gladness. God has approved of what we do... except not. The author tells us to "be clothed in white." Be pure? Sure. Enjoy life with the people you love. Every single meaningless day. Hah. Our lot in life is to enjoy what we do. Because where we're going (where we were going before we had a decision to make) there's not working, planning, knowledge, or wisdom. Enjoy what you have now.




 ¹¹ I have seen something else under the sun:
   The race is not to the swift
   or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
   or wealth to the brilliant
   or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.
 ¹² Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:
   As fish are caught in a cruel net,
   or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by evil times
   that fall unexpectedly upon them.

The race of life isn't a fast one. As Jonathan Acuff once said, it's a marathon, not a sprint. It's not a battle of the strong. Food doesn't come to the people who are smart. Wealth doesn't come to the brilliant, or favor to the learned. Time and chance happen to them all. 
No one knows when they're going to die. Fish are caught in a net, birds in a snare, people in evil times. Traps happen unexpectedly. Expect the unexpected. Or something.


And now I go to bed. Yay.
Tomorrow is school and maybe babysitting. I might not have to babysit. Which is slightly exciting! :)
G'night all!

NIPTO, Day 222

Today was... longish.
I did school. That wasn't long. I finished around 12:30. And then read the PSAT book for a while after lunch. Then I babysat. From about 3:30-5:30. Annnnd came home, ate dinner, put my pawprints on my face and headed over to the stadium for the football game. Took pictures because it was Senior Night for all of the athletes. I took like, 100 pictures of that. It was quite insane. Annnnd I got a musical note airbrushed on my arm. It looks sweet. Minus the fact that it's rubbing off.
I walked around with my friend Ricky for a while... we found two of his friends, Abby and Shawna (such funny people!), and talked to them for a while. Then Kayt&her boyfriend, Jason, got there and we stood around and talked and eventually sat down and watched the halftime show. Then we went to attack band people, because we're cool like that.
And we walked around for a while. Ricky disappeared. Then he came back. And he had these.

If you can't tell, they say "homecoming? :)"

And it was super sweet. And the cupcakes were good. And we handed them out to random people. It was great. :) (I'm still working on an answer about homecoming... I'll let y'all know when there's an answer.)
We just kinda hung out for a while. Ricky&Jason talked Boy Scouts and Kaytee and I had facial-expression conversations. It was great. Mr. Nay gave Jason a talking to. hahah I love Mr. Nay. He's fantastic.

Then Kayt, Jason, and I hung out Kayt's house for a while. I came home eventually (=P) and Mom and Dad were watching The Cosby Show. It was the awesome one that had a bunch of flashbacks. Including the one where they were singing to the grandparents for their anniversary and Rudy does the "Baby!" part. And it's awesome. I should find it. (I can't embed it, but here's the link if you really want to watch it. It's amazing. LOVE LOVE LOVE The Cosby Show! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSvGdfOfLFw&feature=channel)

Here's a video. Owl City (aka Adam Young) is amazing.


And now... onto Joshua? I think so. I love Joshua. Have I mentioned that? Didn't think so. I'll say it again. I love Joshua! :)

Joshua 2:1-24
¹ Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. "Go, look over the land," he said, "especially Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.


Joshua sent some men to go ahead to scout. So they went to Jericho and stayed in Rahab's house. Rahab was a prostitute. 'Nuff said? Yeah.



 ² The king of Jericho was told, "Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land." ³So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: "Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land."

The king heard that there were a couple guys out scouting. And so he sent a message to Rahab telling her bring the men to him.



 ⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. ⁵ At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them." ⁶ (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.)

Rahab took the men and hid them. She then told the messenger guy that she had had the guys in her house, that she didn't know where they had come from, and that she didn't know where they went when they "left." 
They were hiding on her roof. 



 ⁷ So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

Ahahahahaha. So the guys went out of the city to find them, and the gates shut as soon as they left. Stinks for them if they want to get back in.


 ⁸ Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof ⁹ and said to them, "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. ¹⁰ We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. ¹¹ When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. ¹² Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign ¹³ that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death."


Before they went to sleep for the night, Rahab came upstairs and talked to them a little bit. They had heard what God had promised them. They heard what had gone down at the Red Sea. What they did to two kings of a nearby city.
When the people heard those things, they got weak at the knees. Rahab wanted to know that they would be kind to her and her family because she had been nice to them. She wanted a sure sign.

 ¹⁴ "Our lives for your lives!" the men assured her. "If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land."

They promised their lives. They promised that they would treat them well. And that they would be kind to them when God gave them the land.

 ¹⁵ So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall.¹⁶ Now she had said to them, "Go to the hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days until they return, and then go on your way."


She lowered them out the window and out of the city and told them where to hide and for how long.




 ¹⁷ The men said to her, "This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us ¹⁸ unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. ¹⁹ If anyone goes outside your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head; we will not be responsible. As for anyone who is in the house with you, his blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on him. ²⁰ But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear."
 ²¹ "Agreed," she replied. "Let it be as you say." So she sent them away and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.


The men told her that the promises they made wouldn't be valid when they returned unless there was a certain scarlet cord tied in her window.
And they said that she should bring her family into the house. And if they stayed in the house then they would be okay. But if not, it's their own bloody (literally) fault.
She agreed to what they were saying and then they went away. And she tied that scarlet cord in her window.




 ²² When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them. ²³ Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them. ²⁴ They said to Joshua, "The LORD has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us."


They did what Rahab said and got back to camp okay. They told Joshua what had happened and Joshua assured them that the LORD would give the land into their hands.
So awesome.

And now I'm about to fall asleep at the computer typing this. Like, almost literally. I have to be up early for the Practice PSAT (Am I the only person who studies for this test? Probably. =P)
A'ight. I'm too tired to go get my signature, so for now it's going to be what it is. G'night everyone!


Abby

Grocery Shopping.

Mom and I went grocery shopping this afternoon.

It took us two hours.

And we got a lot of food.

People might've thought that all we eat is chicken and chips.

But it's not true.

There's other stuff here, see?

Okay. Now you think all we eat is pasta, chicken, chips, brownies (the red boxes on the bottom of the last picture, and pop. 

That's not true either. It's just what's visible :)

Okay. Here's a picture of MOM's cart. The other pictures were my cart.

And the proof that we got a ton of food? 

How long is the receipt? 

57 inches of food. 

That's a lot.

I'm going to watch The Cosby Show with my remaining family now.

Goodbye