Weekend Update

Hai.

Just so y'all know, one of my summer goals is to blog every day. I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't, but it's on my list for every day.

This weekend was BUSY. But it was super fun!
I posted on Friday, right? Yeah. I did. Okay.
Saturday. Got up and moseyed around. Got ready for work. Worked from 11-3. Came home and ate. Meme&Pops were here. We sat around outside and talked and caught up. It was super fun!
We got Chiptole for dinner, which was delicious. After dinner we went for a walk. When we got home we played Wits&Wagers which is a SUPER fun game! :) We also watched an episode of Chuck (Chuck vs Agent X) which was AAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZIIIINGGGGGGGGG. Chuck is just SO GOOD. I'm so sad that this next season is the last one :( But I'll live.

Sunday we did music at church, which went well. After church we came home for about 5 minutes (probably a little bit longer) and then went to Canton for a bridal shower! It was fun :) After the bridal shower I was home long enough to grab a bagel and keys and then went to the very end of the Youth Leadership meeting that was going on... which turned into PROM planning committee meeting! :)

We prayed a little bit and then hung out and chatted and ate and whatnot. They played this fantastically funny game where we came up with different scenarios and people had to come up with break-up lines in like, 15 seconds. QUITE funny.

Brandon talked about warning signs in a relationship. It was really good. (We're doing the Summer Lovin' series at The620.) To see the videos (from past weeks and eventually this week!) go to http://vimeo.com/live620!
After youth group, I dropped Kaylala off at her house and came home. Meme and I watched the Billboard music awards a bit and then Katie, Hannah, Mom & Dad got home from their walk. We sat around and they ate their Frosties. Eventually we went to bed. And that was my day!

From 8:30am-8:30pm I was home for less than 15 minutes. Just a fun fact. Hah.

Today has been... normal?

Got up, ate breakfast, Meme&Pops left, I read some of my history, took a shower, caught up on blogs, ate lunch, watched a bit of The Sound of Music, read over my physics stuff that I'm taking a test on, and now I'm blogging. I should really go over the test w/ Mom... sooo,
Adios for now!

Just another Manic Wednesday... Wait, that's not right.

Hello!

I've been kinda slacking on the blogging front. It's something I'm hoping to do more of over the summer. It's on my daily to-do list.

Life has been good.

Monday I didn't have BoW... because school is pretty much over! But I had a dentist appointment and went to the library, bank, and grocery store with Mom.
When we got home I had lunch and watched The Biggest Loser from a couple of weeks ago. I babysat in the afternoon... which was fairly uneventful. After that I ate dinner with the fam minus dad (because he golfs on Monday nights) and then headed off to dance! "Dance on a Monday?", you say? Yes. Dance on a Monday. It was a makeup class for one of the crazy snowdays that we've had.
I came home and... relaxed for a bit? I don't remember. Took a shower, went to bed. You know the drill.

Tuesday morning... got up... did school... Watched Make It Or Break It.
Thennnnn *drum roll please* we had a girls tea thingy! Yeah, I should have a better name for it, but I don't. But we had coffee and cookies and chocolate covered stuff. Annnnnd yes. We talked about life and whatnot. Annnnd.... after that... I don't remember what I did, honestly. But we ate dinner and then headed out to the Falls. Mom&Dad had a meeting, Katie was meeting with a couple of friends, and I had dance. On a Tuesday. Like normal. Came home, took a shower, went to bed.

Wednesday! Aka today.
Got up, ate a little bit, did a couple days worth of physics, and a couple days worth of history. Ate lunch. One of Katie and Hannah's friends, Whitney, is over for the day... she got here during lunch-time, and we talked and whatnot, ate, watched this video of Katie reading something... that was really funny... to her. It was actually quite hilarious. She was laughing until she was crying. Good stuff.

Then we went on an up-and-down-the-street walk because it looked like it was going to rain. And it did indeed rain.

Hannah and Whitney (who will be referred to from here on out as "The Crazies") went out in the rain. I went on the porch and took pictures of them. They're crazy.

Annd now they're talking. Annnnnnd I have to work soon. So. I shall be done for now.
But I hope this was a fairly good, comprehensive update!

Until later,

Now I have to think of blog titles...

because I'm not "doing" NIPTO any more. After a while it was just me. Like, really. JUST me.
But yes.

Today was a good day. I SLEPT IN. And it was delicious. If sleep can be delicious.
Got ready for the day and such. Did school. Ate lunch and watched the end of The Biggest Loser from Tuesday night. Did some more school. Caught up on physics, especially. I was like, 3 days behind. But I got caught up.

Got the mail. It was ALL for me. All both pieces of mail. One of them was my "official" ACT scores. So that was nice. Now I need to apply to Akron U. (I just started looking at that stuff and I think I'll start applying!)

Then I babysat and such. We started (emphasis on the word STARTED) reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Like, the first 3 pages. But I think we'll get through it. :)

Came home and started this blog post. Started my Akron U application. Ate dinner. Worked on SAT Math with Dad. And I really NEED to start READING the questions carefully. Because there were probably 6 questions that I got wrong because of dumb mistakes. Therefore, I should get over 600. But who knows. We'll find out in about a month. haha.

Now we're watching American Idol. It's the results show. The top 24 performed over the past 2 nights and they're cutting TWELVE (12) people tonight. CRAZY, right? I was asking Mom&Dad why they were cutting it so short this year, and Dad said something to the effect of "because they never know what Steven Tyler is going to say" haha. His speech is rather volatile. It's scary.

But I think that's all for tonight. Three of my favorites are through so far! But there are 7 to go... and then 2 wild cards that the judges will pick. And they're dragging it out over 2 hours.
SO we will see.

I'm out for tonight!

SWEET FREEDOM... but not yet.

I finished my LAST in-car driving session today! Which means that I can get my driver's license! As soon as I get my certificate and the horn on the car (Honda-diddy) is fixed.
So I will have sweet freedom sometime in the next couple weeks. But SOON! :D

Sweet freedom is not quite mine... I have some school left to do... which I should do during the commercial breaks of American Idol. They're picking the Top 24 tonight! There's a kid who is a mix of Joe Lew, Kevin K, and Zach Roys. CRAZY. He looks like all three of them. And all three of them are musical. His biggest resemblance to Zach is his CRAZY long curly bright red hair! Love him. haha
I love all three of those guys! :)

hmmm... Dancing at the Falls game went well! I messed up a bit, but nothing major! It's sooooo much easier to do double turns on the gym floor. So that's nice. It's like it's slick, but you still have enough traction that you don't go flying. It just doesn't really make sense. haha

School. Uhg. I have a lot of it left to do. So I think I'm going to sign off and do some physics. And eat some pudding. :)

Adios mi amigos!

Tornado Tuesday and Wiped-Out Wednesday

SO. You want to hear about yesterday and today? Well, you're in the right spot!
Yesterday: Got up and did school or whatever... that was uneventful. Then I went to Urban Vision and sat in the gym/played with the kids for... an hour and a half ish? LaTajare came and sat on my lap for a long time. She had a headache and wasn't up for running around in the crazy gym. I loved just having her sit on my lap. She's such a sweetheart!
While I was in the gym, Jeff came in and was taking a couple of the kids out to talk about prayer requests and how things are going and whatnot, and he came in and saw me and was like "Oh! I need to talk to you!" Annnd he offered me an internship at Urban Vision this summer! So I'm thinking about that... I still need a little more information and stuff. So yeah. But that was exciting!

I also taught (in the loosest sense of the word!) my first ballet (if you can call it that...) class yesterday, too! It was... harder than I thought it would be! An hour is a really long time to keep eight 9-11 year olds occupied with ballet. Soo yeah. It was good... for the most part. I have some books from the library out on ballet&teaching dance and whatnot. (But they say that there's nothing you can get from a book that you can't get from a television faster... hm... maybe I should watch some TV shows or instructional DVDs about teaching? hahaha)
After teaching Mom&I dropped Eh Dah Po off and then I went to my dance classes. Annnnnd yeah. Those were good too. We learned a sweet combination for Jazz that might be in our new dance... still haven't decided what we're dancing to yet. (Grenade by Bruno Mars or another song that I'm not quite sure what it is... maybe Politics of Dancing? Not sure. The combination was to Grenade. Super sweet!)
We looked at 2 dance costume catalogs for a specific costume for our modern class, but Nancy, apparently, didn't leave the right book. Annnnd we lifted Emma and didn't drop her (kinda!) so that's good. Annnd I drove home and that went well.
I ate when I got home because I was starving and we always talk about food during dance, so I ate and blogged and did whatever. And that kept me up until 11:30.

Today: I got up too early. But I actually got up on time. It was just too early for my body's clock. I didn't get my allotted 9 hours of sleep. I only got... *gasp* EIGHT.
Got ready and whatnot. Went to Spanish class with the Runers. Made it through class. Did my physics and then had to move classrooms. Did more school. Ate lunch. Sat in Mom's class and did school. Packed up and went to the library while Mom went to the grocery store. I got a bunch of movies and a few books. So yes. Then we came home and put groceries away, finished geometry, and relaxed! And to relax I watched Stick It. Then Mom and I ate dinner, I helped her clean up and stuff, and then I did NIPTO.
And RIGHT NOW I'm watching American Idol and blogging. Next commercial break I'm going to start getting ready for bed.
The new season of American Idol is... decent. I like the judges more than I thought I would.
And I'm going to sign off and turn the computer off for the night! :)

Goodnight! I hope this was a good update!

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 285

Hey.

The Wizard of Oz was fantastic. Just like I thought it would be! :)
From 6:41pm to 9:55pm, I took 774 pictures. Erm... yeah. I don't have a problem or anything. (That's 4.3 pictures per minute. Yup. I took the time to figure that out. Really. NO problem here... keep moving along! Nothing to see...)

After TWOO wasn't so great. But I'm not going into details. It just wasn't great.

Today's been school, a run to Target, babysitting (with Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks in hand), and getting ready for the Open House that's happening at my house tomorrow. (You should stop by! 10am-3pm :)

Chuck has been watched. (AWESOME. But it's to be continued, kinda. =/)
Now I'm watching Monsters Inc. I haven't seen this movie in foreverrrrrrr. It's soo good though! :)

NOW. I figure out what I'm reading/blogging about. Ruth.

Ruth 1:1-5
¹ In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. ² The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.


Alrighty. Background information! So there's a famine. And this guy from Bethlehem (where Jesus was born hundreds of years later!) moved with his wife and two sons to Moab. The man's name was Elimelek. His wife was Naomi. His sons were Mahlon and Kilion. Pretty simple.





 ³ Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.

Alas, Naomi's husband died, and she was left to live with her two sons. 


⁴ They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, ⁵ both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

Both of them married women from Moab. One of them was Orpah and the other one was Ruth. After about ten years, both of their husbands died. All of Naomi's immediate family had died. This meant that she had pretty much nothing. Women didn't really have "rights" back in the day. But there were certain laws that protected them. As we'll see later. So. We've got Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth left living together.... we'll see what happens next tomorrow!




And now I go to bed. I have to actually get UP in the morning (on a Saturday morning! *gasp*) to help set more stuff up for the Open House! So. I shall blog again tomorrow. And should put pictures from The Wizard of Oz on facebook sometime... hmmm....
A'ight.
G'night.

NIPTO, Day 283

Heyyyy all.
Lots has happened since I last blogged! Well... not lots. But enough to make a lengthy "I did this and then that" section. Hah.

So. Yesterday. Went to Urban Vision. Was in the Gym. Ate dinner. Helped Ehne Thau with her homework. Went to ballet. Got my butt (or biceps... No. My butt) kicked by Lauren. Went to Jazz&Modern. Got nice bruises on my knees from modern. Annnnd then came home and went to bed.

Got up this morning, got ready, went to school. Spanish class, study hall, lunch, Mom's class, cleaned up. Went to the bank and the grocery store. Came home. Did school. Watched last week's Survivor. E-mailed  pictures to Kayt's soccer coach for a slideshow. Ate dinner. Finished e-mailing pictures. Watched the end of last week's Survivor that I hadn't gotten to, watched Glee (You should check out this and this from this past week's episode!). And here I am.

Soooooo...... NIPTO? Yeah.
Ecclesiastes 12:1-8

¹ Remember your Creator
   in the days of your youth,
before the days of trouble come
   and the years approach when you will say,
   “I find no pleasure in them”— 

Remember who created you. Remember him when you're young, before you have trouble, before you find no pleasure in your life.

² before the sun and the light
   and the moon and the stars grow dark,
   and the clouds return after the rain; 

Remember God before the sun comes up and before it goes down. Remember him before the clouds return after a rain.

³ when the keepers of the house tremble,
   and the strong men stoop,
when the grinders cease because they are few,
   and those looking through the windows grow dim;
⁴ when the doors to the street are closed
   and the sound of grinding fades;
when people rise up at the sound of birds,
   but all their songs grow faint; 

Remember God when people tremble, strong men grow weak, and the windows grow dim. When the doors on the street are closed, remember who created you. 

⁵ when people are afraid of heights
   and of dangers in the streets;
when the almond tree blossoms
   and the grasshopper drags itself along
   and desire no longer is stirred.
Then people go to their eternal home
   and mourners go about the streets.

Remember God when people are afraid and are in danger. Remember who created you when there are beautiful blossoms on the trees. Remember him when animals drag along.

People will eventually go to their eternal homes and those who mourn them will be in the streets. 

 ⁶ Remember him—before the silver cord is severed,
   and the golden bowl is broken;
before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
   and the wheel broken at the well,
⁷ and the dust returns to the ground it came from,
   and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Remember God before the pretty things break and the dust returns to where it came from and the spirit returns to the one who gave it. 

Remember.

 ⁸ “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.
   “Everything is meaningless!"

Joyful, isn't it? Yeah. No. Meaningless. Everything is meaningless. But we need to remember our creator nonetheless.

And now. I'm going to go to bed. And I hope to blog tomorrow afternoon... because I'm going to see THE WIZARD OF OZ tomorrow night!!!!!!!!!!! I'm super pumped. If you couldn't tell by the massive amount of exclamation points that are ^^ up there.
So. I'm going to go to bed so I can get sleep. And get up and get work done!

Hope y'all had a gooooood day :)

NIPTO, Day 256

Hi.

I'm tired today.

Alpha was good yesterday. We talked about satan's schemes. And how to combat them with the armor of God. I think next week will focus more on the armor of God.

I stood around and talked to Don and Keith after because Erin had to talk to Pastor Jennifer about something and Erin's my ride home, soo yeah. That was kind of fun. They're funny guys.
Came home, watched the very end of Survivor, watched Monday's Chuck and then went to bed. It was GREAT!
I slept for... 9 1/2 hours. Gloooorious. I love sleep. It was good.
Got up, ate breakfast, and did school. Watched Pushing Daisies (Season 2, Ep. 1) during lunch. Did the ACT drill... and now I'm blogging. And listening to Dave Ramsey. Yaaaay! I babysit in about an hour... sooo NIPTO.

Hosea 11:1-11
¹ "When Israel was a child, I loved him,
       and out of Egypt I called my son.


This chapter is about God's love for Israel. 
When Israel was young, God loved them. He called them out of Egypt and claimed them as his family.


 ² But the more I called Israel,
       the further they went from me.
       They sacrificed to the Baals
       and they burned incense to images.
 ³ It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
       taking them by the arms;
       but they did not realize
       it was I who healed them.
 ⁴ I led them with cords of human kindness,
       with ties of love;
       I lifted the yoke from their neck
       and bent down to feed them.

The more God called them, though, the more they pulled away from God. 
He taught Ephraim to walk. Like a parent teaches a baby. Ephraim didn't realize that God healed them, that he "led them with cords of human kindness." He lifted a yoke from their neck and fed them himself.
Ungrateful little wretches. (Aren't we ungrateful little wretches too, though? Yeah. We are.)


 ⁵ "Will they not return to Egypt
       and will not Assyria rule over them
       because they refuse to repent?
 ⁶ Swords will flash in their cities,
       will destroy the bars of their gates
       and put an end to their plans.
 ⁷ My people are determined to turn from me.
       Even if they call to the Most High,
       he will by no means exalt them.


Because they refused to repent of their sins, they would return to Egypt and be ruled over by Assyria. Swords would put an end to their plans. 
They were determined to turn and run from God. Even if they called on God, he wouldn't  honor them. By no means.


 ⁸ "How can I give you up, Ephraim?
       How can I hand you over, Israel?
       How can I treat you like Admah?
       How can I make you like Zeboiim?
       My heart is changed within me;
       all my compassion is aroused.

God asks how he could give up Ephraim and hand them over to Israel, treat them like Admah, or make them like Zeboiim.
God was all about carrying out his wrath against them, but he changed and was compassionate.


 ⁹ I will not carry out my fierce anger,
       nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim.
       For I am God, and not man—
       the Holy One among you.
       I will not come in wrath. 


God wouldn't carry out his anger against Ephraim. Because he was God, and not man, the only holy hone in their midst, he wouldn't come in wrath. Exciting! haha




 ¹⁰ They will follow the LORD;
       he will roar like a lion.
       When he roars,
       his children will come trembling from the west.
 ¹¹ They will come trembling
       like birds from Egypt,
       like doves from Assyria.
       I will settle them in their homes,"
       declares the LORD.

The nations would follow the LORD. He will roar like a lion (ASLAN! YEAH BUDDY!). And when he roars, his children will come to him, trembling. Like birds from Egypt or doves from Assyria. They be settled in their homes by God.

Amazing. Well... It's almost time for me to go babysit... soooo I'll be back tomorrow! More from Hosea comin' your way :)

Have a good one! (Even if it did just start to rain where I am...)

NIPTO, Day 201

Blah. Blah. Blah.
That's kind of how I feel right now.

I'm watching Chuck right now... It's almost over! Season 4 starts on September 20th. Gotta get caught up. But we're in the last minutes of the season finale.

Today... I slept in... wasn't ready for the day until 12. Ate brunch, I guess.
Played the piano for a bit... watched the second half of an episode of The Office that I had started during lunch...
I read for a while.
Then I got my hair cut!

Before

After!

I really love it!
So I was there for a long time... then I came home and did I don't know what.
We ate dinner, went on a walk, and are now watching Chuck! And it's almost over. I really really love this show...  =D ... Okay. It's over (and it's late. Like almost always.)

NIPTO, I guess.

Acts 19:13-22

¹³Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out."
Seems... self explanatory? But the question is, did it work? Were they "authorized?"  


¹⁴Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. ¹⁵(One day) the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" ¹⁶Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

Sooooo there were these 7 guys (brothers... sons of a Jewish chief priest) were going around driving out these evil spirits. The evil spirit started talking to them (through the person it was possessing? I'm guessing Yes.) He knew who Jesus and Paul were, and knew about their authority, but he didn't know anything about these guys. Then the guy who was possessed jumped them and beat them. Erm. Don't mess with things you're not in charge of?


 ¹⁷When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. ¹⁸Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. ¹⁹A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. ²⁰In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

After the attack happened, a lot of people knew about it. And the people in Ephesus were scared... and they held Jesus' name high! It deserves to be held in a place of honor.
A lot of the people who believed in Jesus came and confessed what they had done wrong, things that were evil (is this where "confession" started?)
Some of the people who had practiced sorcery came and burned their stuff... their very expensive stuff!
Because of all of these people's public acts, God's word spread around quickly and it was powerful. The word of God still is powerful. I don't think we tap into its power as much as we could. We go there when we're... tired. When we're in need of something. But what about going to the Bible for celebratory reasons? A few verses in Psalm were brought to my attention recently and I love love love them! Psalm 126:1-3 *See the bottom of the post!*





 ²¹After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. "After I have been there," he said, "I must visit Rome also." ²²He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.
Paul kept on traveling! He went to Jerusalem, going through Macedonia and Achaia. And he decided that once he had gone to those 3 cities that he was going to go to Rome. But he sent a couple of "the guys" along to... somewhere while he stayed in the province of Asia a bit longer.




A'ight. I'm out. I'm tired. I have to get my rest! I'm helping with the K-1 group tomorrow at GVUMC's Back to School Bash! It should be a blasttt. I'm looking forward to it... but I'm not looking forward to getting up tomorrow. But I'm trusting God to help me. He's pretty awesome like that. And to help me to have a good attitude. yup.
Alllll right. It's night-night time for Abby.
G'night everyone! (Have I mentioned lately that y'all are awesome? I didn't think so. Y'all are awesome!)

¹ When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion,

we were like men who dreamed.

² Our mouths were filled with laughter, 

   

our tongues with songs of joy.

Then it was said among the nations, 

 "The LORD has done great things for them."

³ The LORD has done great things for us,

and we are filled with joy.

(sorry the spacing is funky. I don't know how to change it. It's funky.)

NIPTO, Day 110

tHello blog readers!

It's another beautiful day here in OH (IO)!
Hannah and I went on a walk this morning before it got too hot. I like walking at 7 because it's about 60 degrees. And that's perfect. :) And then Mom&Dad&Uncle Randy (My dad's brother) went on a walk this evening and it was another perfect evening (more like 70 degrees). And there were a couple gorgeous clouds. I took some pictures. I should put them up. I'm soooo lazy. =P I've been slacking on the pictures side of things recently. I'll try to get some up this weekend. Try being the operative word. No promises ;)

So You Think You Can Dance started last night. Season seven is going to be off the hook! There are so many good dancers! It makes me feel like I'm not a very good dancer, but whatever. I'm good enough. I actually just read a post on Stuff Christians Like (a hilarious blog that is addicting. Don't say I didn't warn you!) this morning that was a good reminder to not belittle myself. If you'd like to read this post, you can click here! Don't be fooled by his silly start. It gets good!

FreeRice.com is a fun place. I was just doing some vocab. It's good for my SAT prep... YAY (not really "yay"... But you get the picture)
You can also do languages and geography... and chemistry and art and a bunch of other stuff. It's really fun :) You should check it out.
Oh! And I almost forgot to mention that for every answer you get right, 10 grains of rice are donated to a third world country through the World Food Program. Cool, eh?

I'm talking with Hannah. I like talking to Hannah. We usually have random conversations. And it's nice to be able to complain to someone who just listens and makes an occasional comment. (muahaha. I love talking about Hannah while I'm talking to her. (Compassion! WOOT =P) She knows exactly what I'm talking about. Again: Muahaha)

Alrighty. I think it's time to NIPTO. (I was going to be all like "do you like how I made nipto a verb?" But then I realized that nipto is a verb. Oops. YAY me.) (On a completely unrelated note, I'm glad that function+t doesn't do anything because Hannah's fn&ctrl keys are switched...)
Romans 14:9-12
 ⁹For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

You might be wondering what "this very reason" is if you didn't read my blog post yesterday. Admittedly, that was a long time ago. (Ya know, all of 36 hours or something like that!) Paul's "very reason" is because we belong to Christ in life and death. As is stated in verse 8. If you're on my home-page, you can scroll down to yesterday's post and read about that :)
But because we belong to Christ in life and death, he died and returned to life so that he can... commiserate isn't the right word... be sympathetic to us? I'm not sure. But I think you probably get my drift.


¹⁰You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.

Paul's like "You. Yeah. You. Why are you judging other people? Why do you look down on your brother who is your equal? We're all going to be judged some day. It's not our job to judge others. Even though some may feel like it is. (For judges, it is their job. But their not judging people spiritually.)


¹¹It is written:
   " 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord,
   'every knee will bow before me;
      every tongue will confess to God.' "

I love this picture. Every knee bowing down. Every tongue confessing. Every. Single. Person. Crazy!


¹²So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. 


And once we all bow down and confess... we're going to give God an account of ourselves. Erm. I always thought that God was the one judging... and that he knew everything... Why do I have to give an account of myself to God? 
To be honest, I'm not completely sure. But maybe tomorrow will hold some answers. 



It's late. Like, tomorrow late. So I'm going to go to sleep now. And give my sister her laptop back... I kind of hijacked it when she went to work. Because mine has been acting up. I'm pretty sure I restarted it 10 times before noon. But I'm not sure how many count as "full" restarts... because it would freeze while booting. Ohhhhh dear. I need mi padre to look at it tomorrow. It's frustrating. But I'm thankful that Hannah has a computer that she's willing to let her little sister borrow for a while :) Thanks, Hannah!
My readers thank you too... unless, of course, they hate my blog and would rather that I don't post anything for a day.... (And to be technical, I didn't post anything on the 28th of May... but it's going to say that I posted something on the 28th of May.)
Ok. I'm starting to ramble. If I keep going, I might reveal my deepest darkest secrets under the influence of lack of sleep. Or tiredness. Yeah. The second one.

Goodnight dear readers (or good morning to Katie, who's getting up to go to Prague today! Lucky duck... You can read her blog here. It's pretty cool. I like it. Although I might be a little bit partial. Because she's my sister and all. But whatever. Go read her blog. It's good!!)
Goodnight!

NIPTO, Day 107

Good morning lovely blog-readers!

It's been a good, productive morning for me! I got up and went for a walk around the neighborhood with worship music in hand/ear. Grad party pictures are uploading to facebook as I type...(or not... I'll try to get them up later today! I just need to steal Hannah's laptop for about 15 minutes at some point today!) And I'm eating breakfast! So it's been a good morning for me :)

The Chuck Season 3 finale was last night. It was faaaantabulous. Dad walked in from golfing to many squeals. "Every Monday night..." That's what Chuck does to a person. (Katie, if you have any spare time, you should really watch those last few episodes!) They wrapped a lot of stuff up, but opened a whole new can of worms that will probably blow my socks off! haha

This morning while I was walking, I kind of set a goal for myself. I'm pretty sure that it's plausible. I want to run a 5K this fall. I think. I would have all summer to "train." And it would be a good motivation to get up in the morning and exercise!
I think if I walked every morning, and eventually started jogging, then actually running, I could work up the stamina/speed. I think my goal would be a race in the fall.
Okay. Now I've looked, and the only "good" race (really close to home/5k) I can find is in a month. I'm not sure if I can get up to running 3 miles in a month... Hm.
There is another one that could be promising... it's pretty close by and it's in the beginning of October. I could do it by October.

Now I'm excited. I want to do this. Running (jogging is probably more appropriate) was something I did a lot of a couple years ago, but I kind of fell out of the habit of doing it. I want to get back into it this summer. I think getting up earlier and getting my day started this school year will make it a lot easier to get up and go for a jog this summer. Not to mention the sun rises at like, 6... so it's not even dark outside! :)

Day 23 of 100 Days of Holiness.  I think it's telling me that deciding to run isn't a bad idea. The verse at the end? Isaiah 40:31 "...those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Either that or I'm just looking for affirmation that running isn't a bad idea! hah.

N'O time!

Romans 13:8-10 (3 verses. Ambitious, I know.)
⁸Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

This is so interesting. He's basically saying: Don't have debt. Except when you love one another. Because when you love other people, it fulfills the law.

  
⁹The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

There's not much to say about this verse. All of the commandments are summed up in the last one: Love your neighbor as yourself. Simple.

¹⁰Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Love does not harm. It fulfills the law. Love is healing. 


It's a good song. I like it :)

Well. I'm going to start an application for Target... maybe they'll hire me...

Have a good day! 
 

NIPTO, Day 57

Heeewboy. Chuck just ended. I have to wait three weeks for it to come back. It was crazy. It always ends with a cliffhanger. And I HATE IT. And then they give you commercials for when it comes back and you just want to see it!! UHG. *sigh* Okay. Focus. (Wrote a "Not Me! Monday" post about Chuck... tee hee hee. ) Focus. Now my dad is watching the NCAA final... (Go Butler?) FOCUS: NIPTO.

Just because there's a little bit left in each book after the resurrection and because I don't have this week's NIPTO, here's that little bit that's left in each book. In the case of the book of John, there's a whole extra chapter that isn't in the other books.

Matthew 28:16-20: ¹⁶Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."


Jesus gives the disciples the great commission: to make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything he commanded them. This is our church's "base verse"(??) I think that's what you would call it.. or something like that. But the association that our church is with is called Great Commission Ministries. Get it? Got it. Good. (Court Jester! Oh yeaaah)




Mark 16:15-20: ¹⁵He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. ¹⁶Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. ¹⁷And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; ¹⁸they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."
 ¹⁹After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. ²⁰Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it. 


The great commission but different. Mark tells more of what the people who accept the great commission will do. 
Then Jesus goes up to heaven and sits down next to God. Sweet.

Luke 24:50-53:⁵⁰When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. ⁵¹While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. ⁵²Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. ⁵³And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.


Luke just records the ascension. Which is like.... fantastic? I mean, really. Jesus just goes up into heaven. Right before their eyes. THEN they stay at the temple and continuously praise God. I'm not that "good." I'm terrible in-fact. I don't think I do my "15 minutes of prayer" a day. I'm not "good" at praying. It seems kind of uncomfortable to me. I'm going to try to remedy this tomorrow morning. I'm going to try to get up at the crack of dawn (6:30. That's early after spring break...) and go for a walk and pray... and try to not be distracted by Chuck... =P
I wish I could say that I continually praise God. I don't. I complain. A lot. Which needs to stop. I need to be thankful for what I have and give thanks to God for it. Probably more about that in a different post. =P (Maybe at Thanksgiving?)



John 21:1-25-v25: Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.


I love that verse. It's sweet. It's basically like: Jesus did so many amazing things, that there isn't enough room or enough words to do the things he did justice. So we just have to wonder. 




I think it's time for me to go to bed. Getting up early awaits me. SCHOOL awaits me tomorrow. EW. I'll survive. =D
Goodnight!

NIPTO, Day 48

Ahhhhhh. Today has been a fantastic day. Sleeping in: good. Setting up for/the Easter egg hunt: fun. Eating lunch and jamming to Queen: faaaantastic. Going to see Alice In Wonderland in 3D:... SO MUCH FUN! Alice In Wonderland was an amazing movie. It was the first 3D movie I've ever been to. It was sweeeet. Definitely cool. Johnny Depp is an amazing actor. The graphics were amazing. It was great.

After dinner we went on a walk... it was sunset-y and gorgeous. I took some pictures.  

Robin. Tree. Moon.

Tree. Pretty.

Pretty sky...

The sky looked soft... I wanted to touch it.

Trees.

Today was great. It's nice to just be around my family... and laugh. And sing. We laugh so much that it's ridiculous. And we burst into song at random times throughout the day whenever anyone makes a reference to a song or just thinks of a song. It's great. I love it. 

Right now I'm just chilling in the living room, waiting for my dad to get Chuck set up so Katie can catch up!! (Have I mentioned that Chuck's my favorite tv show?? haha)

One Scotcharoo (rice-crispy-treat w/ chocolate&butterscotch) and one episode of Chuck later.... NIPTO time!

Acts 13:30-But God raised him [Jesus] from the dead. That's what it's all about. It's about Jesus dying on the cross. It's about him being dead for 3 days. It's about God raising Jesus from the dead. 

Proverbs 27:19-As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man. I've heard again and again that your heart reflects your actions. But really, whatever you prioritize in your heart, you're going to prioritize in life. It's a good practice (that I don't do very often... heh) to take some time to examine your heart and what's goin' on in there. 

Revelation 22:5-There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. I've been picking verses that tell about light this week. I think it's extremely symbolic. Light=God/holiness, Dark=Satan/sin. Simple as that. 

bwahhhh. it's late. I'm going to SLEEP now! WOOT! Doing music at church tomorrow. Should be a good time. NOW: onwards to the land of dreams... 

[What do a writing desk and a raven have in common?]

NIPTO, Day 42

Oh dear. It's late. Sunday nights are not my favorite because: Sunday night is a school night. Uhf. Contrary to almost everyone, I like Mondays... for the most part. There's school... there's class, which is different than school, and there is CHUCK. My favorite television show that is currently on the air on a channel that we get. (Psych is on the air too, but we don't get USA =P) Chuck is currently suspenseful... but I can't say anything about it because I believe that my sister, Katie, who is not caught up on Chuck, reads this. Oh my. I'm tired. I can tell. I'm talking about random stuff. Kind of... it's random in a related sort of way? Okay. Nipto time.

Proverbs 21:21-He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity, and honor. I like it... but it's seriously too late for me to think straight...

That's all you're getting for tonight. I know it seems lame, but I did all my other reading... soooo, not quite so lame. If you want to read more about what I did this past weekend, you can read this post. It's interesting I think... there are pictures at least! So go check that out. :)
Goodnight!

NIPTO, Day 20

Right now I am sitting in my living room watching Olympic exhibition ice dancing/skating while my family figures out what we're actually going to watch tonight! It's going to be Monk or Psych, but we're not sure which yet. :) Looks like it'll be an episode of Monk. Oh yeah, my oldest sister is home annd she is the "treat boat," which is an extremely affectionate term in the Yackley home because she gets the ice cream, brownies, whatever sweets we have in our home. She might be the only one who is willing enough to actually get ice cream! So now I get to sit and eat moose-tracks ice cream with a brownie! =D I love my family and their love for sweets. It makes me think of last summer while we were in Georgia with my dad's family.

Us cousins

ate a FULL half gallon of Blue-Bell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

in 10 minutes

Ten people. Ten minutes. One half-gallon of ice cream later..... we were happy :)

It made me happy finding those pictures on facebook. =D It made me look through my cousin, uncle, father, and my pictures!

NIPTO-ooo.

Luke 23:20- Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. I think that Pilate takes a lot of the blame for Jesus' death. But he really wanted to free Jesus because he said to the crowds "Why? What crime has this man committed? I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty. Therefore I will have him punished and then release him." in verse 22. But the people were extremely persistent, and therefore, Jesus was crucified. It's amazing how much power a crowd can have.

Proverbs 27:17- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. This verse really compels me to really challenge myself and the other participants in NIPTO. When we challenge one another, we grow. Exciting, eh?

Revelation 21:4- He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. How awesome is that?! No pain. No worries. Just to be in the presence of the LORD. YAHWEH. I can't even fathom it. It's fantastic.

Man. I need to SLEEP. Gotta get up early to do music at church tomorrow morning... or this morning by the time I'm actually posting this! Crazy.

Goodnight all!