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.

Hola

Hey!
Time to update from Wednesday before work to now.
Wait. Laundry is calling....
Done! :)

Sooooo Wednesday...  Went to work. Worked. Was fairly uneventful. Had to do some e-learning for barista and the new celebration that's coming out soon :)
I made my first cafe mocha by myself. Closed by myself-ish. Had some help, which was good. I really need to learn how to take the bagel slicer apart and put it back together. That would be good. It seems like Allen is the only person who knows how to take it apart/put it back together.

Came home. Ate a little bit. Took a shower. Went to bed.

Thursday morning James came over for breakfast. He was here when I got up. Kaite was making pancakes. Whitney was still here. So we had a little party at breakfast :) The pancakes were good except for the fact that Kaite forgot to put the salt in. Oops. I was eating one of the first ones and was like, this doesn't taste quite right. I went through like "did you put only wheat flour in these," "did you put sugar in these," and that was really about it. But we put peanut butter and syrup and sometimes powdered sugar on them. DElishus.

I did some school... or tried to. James was doing some KaRen stuff, Kaite was doing her class online, Hannah was... helping James and... doing I don't know what else, Whitney was watching videos or something. We ended up watching part of the That Choir Thang Variety Show from 2005. Crazy stuff. Katie and I also ran up to the plaza about job scheduling stuff.

James left before lunch because he was having lunch with his dad. We ate lunch kinda late... I don't remember what I did after lunch. Hm. Oh well! haha
Dinner was quiche, delicious! After dinner we went for a walk and then had a surprise Mother's Day since Hannah got home on Mother's Day weekend. Katie made a cake and we had ordered some books that Mom had wanted. For fun we played Wits and Wagers which was really fun! And then we watched an episode of Chuck-Chuck vs the Family Volkoff. I think tonight we're going to do pretty much the same thing! I know the next Chuck (and maybe the next one after that!) is going to be watched tonight.
After all that it was time for bed. I sat in bed and read a few chapters of the next installment of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Goooood books.

This morning I got up and ate breakfast. After brekkers I mowed the yard. Took a shower. Caught up on blogs. Ate lunch and watched Glee. Did some schooool. Talked to Kayt about prom pictures tomorrow. Did some more school. Drank an Icee and talked with the girls. Played the piano some. Did some laundry. Now I'm blogging and waiting for laundry to be done. Yay!

Dinner tonight is Bubble Pizza! I'm excited because we haven't had Bubble Pizza in a LONG time.

Today is also FRIDAY which means Five Minute Friday! So look for that later :)
Until my Five Minutes are up,

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!

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!

Five Minute Friday - Friendship

The Gypsy Mama does Five Minute Friday on, you guessed it, Fridays! The theme for this week was friendship. So I decided to write some :)


We're sitting in a room with pounding music.
But we're just sitting.
Holding each other.
I'm praying for her and crying. She's so beautiful... I hope she knows that.
I can feel the bass through my feet, it pounds in my head and chest.
I don't even know what song this is.
But I'm glad I'm sitting here with her. My best friend.
The one who's been there for me through thick and thin.
Have I mentioned that she's beautiful?
Our hands are entwined. I stare at them. I love just being. Being with someone that I love. Being makes life simpler, even when it's complicated.
I don't know what she's thinking. I'm pretty sure she's crying too. I could be wrong.
A tear falls off my cheek and onto my shoulder.
My head is on her shoulder. Her head is on top of mine. I close my eyes and talk to God. I ask him to protect her and heal her. I ask that she would be protected. That she would feel his love every single day of her life and that she would never forget it.
I squeeze her hand and we let go of each other. We sit up a little bit and look at each other.
I wipe the tears off my face and laugh a little bit. She laughs too. I love her laugh.
She gives me a hug. I tell her I love her. She tells me she loves me.
We sit next to each other and continue to worship the God who created us and brought us together.
I thank him for it.

Time's up!

{I'm linking up here}

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!

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!

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 300

Three. Hundred. Days. Of. Blogging. For realz. Wow.
Only a couple of months left until I hit a year. Wow.wow.wow.wow.

So. Yesterday. Carrie came over. We ate dinner, played Bananagrams, got into our PJs and watched That Thing You Do (HEY GUYS! Was that our fan? tee hee hee), and Newsies. It was the first time I'd seen Newsies and it was really good! I loved the music from it :)

Then we went to bed. Because it was almost midnight. And we were tired. So then we got up in the morning, ate Monkey Break, and then Katie and Hannah and Dad got home and Mrs. Jones got to our house all at the same time. Soooo Carrie left and then the stories from Chicago began. (Kate and Dad went to Chicago so that Katie could go to the French Consulate to get her visa for her going to France in the spring semester.)
So we sat around for a while... and then we split up to do our various things. I drove Katie (and Dad) to the BMV so Kate could get her license renewed, and then we got home... goofed around on the piano for a while, went on a walk, played Set, watched an episode of Chuck, watched The Story of Stuff, ate dinner, watched Katie and Hannah open presents, talked to Meme for a while, watched another episode of Chuck, got ice cream pie, and then watched another episode of Chuck. And now Katie and Hannah are watching another episode of Chuck and I'm half watching it. But I'm also blogging.
So. Yes. NIPTO.

Philippians 1:12-14
¹² Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.


Paul and Timothy both were imprisoned for what they believed and taught. 
They both wrote this. But I'm thinking this is Paul writing... but whoever wrote it is put aside. 
What happened to this guy helped to advance the gospel. 
He used the worst situations to his advantage. To God's advantage. 




¹³ As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. ¹⁴ And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.


Because of how he behaved and reacted to his situation, it was obvious that he wasn't in chains for himself/something he had done. He was there for God. And because of his chains, people were becoming more confidant. They were less fearful about sharing the gospel. And that, my friends, is awesome!




A'ight. I'm going to finish watching this episode of Chuck and then go to bed! Church in the mornin'!
Adios my readers!

NIPTO, Day 261

Hi everyone.

Today has been a very long day. 

Got up (with much... trepidation? not really. Just didn't feel like getting up.), got ready, did a tiny bit of school, went to the dentist, did some school in the waiting area, went home, did more school, ate lunch and watched Pushing Daises, and then did more school. Then we went to Urban Vision (after a lot of hemming and hawing about whether we should go or not because the weather wasn't looking so great. Big storm went through... sometime today. We were at Urban Vision in their large brick building and I didn't hear or see a thing.). I was in the Gym for the entire time, except for dinner and homework. Dinner was super yum. Rice and sloppy joes, applesauce and a cupcake. Pumpkin cupcake. YUM.

I got ready for ballet and went upstairs... I'll have to take some pictures of the "studio" eventually to put  up here. Annnd we did ballet. And then I went to dance for two hours. I got my jazz shoes (exciting! Now I don't fall when I spin! And I can actually do decent turns!). Annd yeah. I drove home with Dad... I was talking to him in the car... There are two girls who are in jazz who aren't in modern. E and K. As soon as they left, almost everyone started making fun of K. It was so sad. Like, it wasn't even anything... super serious, but it was still mean. They are mean girls. I sat back and didn't really do anything, but if they do anything next week, something's gonna go down. It's saddening and disappointing to see five or six girls who are nice people get so mean about something little. It's rude and hurtful. It makes you wonder what they say about you behind your back. I know I shot up a prayer during that. I just didn't know what to do. I wanted to say something and stick up for her, but I wasn't sure what to say. One of the girls even asked me, "Are you friends with her?" and I was like, "Well... kinda? We talk a little bit." And she was like, "Oh. Okay." and then started/kept talking about her. 

It makes you realize how shallow people are. And how immature and stupid high school girls are/can be. 

I guess that right now all I can do is pray and do something if they do anything next week. I'm not going to let this go. K is a nice person and doesn't deserve to be treated like that behind her back. 

*Deep breath*

Moving on. To NIPTO.

I think I'm going to start Ecclesiastes. Here is some great background information on Ecclesiastes! (It's a PDF, just so you know.)

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

¹ The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

 ² "Meaningless! Meaningless!"
       says the Teacher.
       "Utterly meaningless!
       Everything is meaningless."

In the words of the Teacher, a son of David, the king of Jerusalem: Meaningless. Everything is utterly meaningless. Hm. I wonder why. Let's keep reading.

 ³ What does man gain from all his labor
       at which he toils under the sun?

 ⁴ Generations come and generations go,
       but the earth remains forever.

 ⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets,
       and hurries back to where it rises.

What do we get from working under the sun? People come, people go. The earth is here forever. The sun rises, the sun sets, the sun rises again.

I'm sensing... a little bit of monotony. 

 ⁶ The wind blows to the south
       and turns to the north;
       round and round it goes,
       ever returning on its course.

 ⁷ All streams flow into the sea,
       yet the sea is never full.
       To the place the streams come from,
       there they return again.

The wind blows in circles. All streams go to the sea, but the sea is never full. Where the streams come from, they go back to.

 ⁸ All things are wearisome,
       more than one can say.
       The eye never has enough of seeing,
       nor the ear its fill of hearing.

 ⁹ What has been will be again,
       what has been done will be done again;
       there is nothing new under the sun.

All things are wearisome. Everything that you do is going to get tiring. The eye never has enough seeing and the ear never has enough hearing. That could go on forever. 

What has been will be again, and what has been done will be done again. 

The author makes a bold statement. "there is nothing new under the sun."

Wow. Uh... okay. Keep reading. (The author is kind of a Debbie Downer. (or Negative Nancy, if you will.))

 ¹⁰ Is there anything of which one can say,
       "Look! This is something new"?
       It was here already, long ago;
       it was here before our time.

Is there anything that we can really claim newness for? Well. Not really. Pretty much everything has been here. That's something interesting to think about. Because people are making "new" things every day. But how new are they really?

 ¹¹ There is no remembrance of men of old,
       and even those who are yet to come
       will not be remembered
       by those who follow.

There is no remembrance of the people of the past. The people who are yet to come won't even be remembered by the people who follow them.

All depressing. Huh.

Debbie Downer. 

Annnnd moving on again. I know six people who have birthdays today.

Kaytee, Connie, Josh, Christine, Janaya, and Ye Shen.

So Happy birthday to all of them! Even though I don't think any of them read my blog... haha

I'm going to go to bed now. Spanish class tomorrow! Ole! haha 

Hope you all had a fantastic day :)

To my best friend...

of 8 (is that right? I think so!) years. Happy Birthday.
You are a beautiful person. And I love you very much.
Today I started to reminisce... playing "indians," the tree house, the creek, catching fish, walks around the neighborhood, sitting on your front porch even when we have other things we should be doing, Tarbucks runs and walking around Target even when we don't need anything, youth group, football games, me coming to your soccer games and screaming "I LOVE THE KEEPERRRRR!" as loud as I can and then attacking you after the game. Laughter, tears, good times, and bad. You've been there through it all.

People. You don't understand. This girl is amazing.  She's the girl who will ask me how I'm doing and get a real answer out of me. She'll let me cry on her shoulder and she'll whisper in my ear that school is stupid. She's the one who knows the most about me. I'm probably in the top 2 of people who know the most about her. She's amazing. She's my best friend. And I love her very much.

Happy 17th birthday, Katie. You're a special person. Don't ever forget it.

Much love,

NIPTO, Day 250

Today was a good day! A very good day...
I did school. Ate lunch. Wrote most of a paper. And went to Tarbucks with my best friend.
That was fantastic. We hadn't done it in a long time. And it was way overdue. And the coffee was delicious (Toffee Mocha. YUM!). And the talk was great. I love her. She helps me through soooo much. Love you, Kayt!
Kaytee and I then sat in her kitchen for about... three hours. And it was great. I love her so much. Have I mentioned that??

Yeah. Then I came home and ate dinner and watched Twitches with the Karen girls. And now I'm blogging.
Tomorrow is going to be a marathon day. Eh. PSAT, Alpha "all day" thing, then Halloween at the Ham's. It should be super fun, but I just won't have any down time. But it'll still be fun :) (I should also take the over 1,500 pictures that I have on my camera... )

So NIPTO? Yup.
Hosea 6:1-3
¹ "Come, let us return to the LORD.
       He has torn us to pieces
       but he will heal us;
       he has injured us
       but he will bind up our wounds.


The Israelites said they would return to God. He had kind of ripped them apart, but they knew that he would heal them. He injured them, but they knew he would heal them and take care of their wounds.




 ² After two days he will revive us;
       on the third day he will restore us,
       that we may live in his presence.


They knew God would revive and restore them so they could live in his presence. They knew that it would be awesome to live in God's presence.



 ³ Let us acknowledge the LORD;
       let us press on to acknowledge him.
       As surely as the sun rises,
       he will appear;
       he will come to us like the winter rains,
       like the spring rains that water the earth."


The Israelites knew they had to acknowledge God. They wanted to press on to acknowledge them. They knew that God would appear. Like the sun appears each day. Like the rain came in the winter and spring.
Now let's see if they keep it up...


And now, I must away to bed. Tomorrow is the PSAT and I have to get up early =/
Lamesauce test! haha
I'll probably blog again late tomorrow night.
Sooooo yeah. Later taters!

Homecoming!

I've been told that I should write a post about homecoming. (And I said I would write one and it is now Wednesday. My apologies.)

Saturday was.... crazy. I took a PPSAT and drove to Boston Mills with Dad to get him his packet for the marathon on Sunday, and then we stopped and got flowers for Ricardo's boutonnière. Came home and went down to La Casa de Fullers and did Meg's nails and my nails and then came home, did a couple random things, made Ricardo's boutonnière, finished getting ready and then the evening's festivities began.

I went down to Kayt's and we took pictures. Here are some pictures! :) (Blogger does horrible things to the quality of these pictures! Sorry =/)

This is me. :)

This is also me!

This is not me. This is Jason and Kaytee.

Half of this is me. The other half is my friend and date for the night, Ricky.
(Who should really smile more *coughcough*)

This is me and Kaytee. Best friends for 8 years. Love that girl to death!

This is our entire group, L-R: Alexis, Jason, Katie, Shelby, Ricky, Me, Mary

All the girls :)

My corsage

Ricky's boutonnière (the picture should really be flipped. Sorry about that!)

Then we headed south towards the airport and went to dinner at the 365th Fighter Group for dinner. Very nice! Dinner was delish and we talked a lot about school (academic challenge! haha). We went out on the patio after dinner and took some more pictures. Some of us, some of the airport/airplanes. 

Ricardo y yo (That's "Ricky and me" in Spanish, y'all)

Jason, Katie, Ricky, and myself. I'd say we're a cute group :)

Airport! Couldn't resist putting a couple not-us pictures in :)

Plane taking off. They were mad at me because I didn't have my camera out to get it taxing around the first time =P

Barbed wire and a pretty sunset!

Mary and Shelby in front of the telephone booth outside the fighter group! 

Then we headed to the dance!

Centerpieces on the tables! So cute! :)

Becca & me (one of my new friends :)

Me&Meg :)

After the dance we went to Kayt's house and watched Iron Man 2. I think we can agree that a good night was had by all!

Thumbs up!