NIPTO, Day 122

AHRGGGGG.
no. I'm not a pirate. I'm FRUSTRATED!
WordPress (another blogging site) is being extremely frustrating. I want to log on so I can work on some posts for liveGrounded. Buuuut it's not letting me log in... and my password-reset emails aren't going through. Uhg. I'm done with that for the night!
Today was mostly uneventful. I cleaned a bit this morning... watched most of Harry Potter 3 this afternoon with Hannah... went to my piano lesson, came home, ate dinner/watched the next to last episode of Chuck, facebooked, watched So You Think You Can Dance... and now, 2ish hours later, I'm blogging... not knowing how it got to be 2ish hours later!
Something exciting on SYTYCD is that a guy from Wapakoneta (aka kinda hick-town-almost-everyone-is-a-farmer) Ohio made the TOP 6 GUYS! So that's really exciting!! And Nigel got lost in Ohio. From Columbus to Wapakoneta, it took him 4 hours... that's normally a... 1 1/2-2 hour drive? Yeahh...
My grandparents live about 15 minutes away from Wapakoneta... also affectionately known as Wapak (pronounced Wa-puck. It's great. Don't you love Ohio accents??) Nigel couldn't pronounce Wapakoneta to save his life! (wa-pu-kon-etta... that's pretty much how you pronounce it. Katie could probably give you a much better phonetic version. She is taking phonetics right now :)
Yeah. So I was/am excited about that :)

NIPTO, Dear NIPTO
It's late and I am tired
Shall we "git 'er dun"?



Ephesians 1:15-23
15For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.

Red flag/Question: Do we give thanks for other people who are faithful? Do we do it enough? Do we do it at all?? 
Get this: He has "not stopped giving thanks for [them]" Uhm... WOW. We take other Christians for granted. We take people who are faithful for granted. We should be thankful for them. We should thank God for them. We should pray for them. We need to be a community who gives thanks for each other!


17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

This should be our prayer for others. That God would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Not for any old reason though. So that "you may know him better." BETTER. Not get to know him... know him BETTER. They're already acquainted with this person of God. But to get to know him better, we must have the Spirit inside of us.


18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

I don't know about you, but I need to learn how to pray more like THIS! 
We have this hope that God has called us to. But we might not see it if our eyes are closed! Our inheritance is enormous. And God's power is great. And we can tap into that power. The power that GOD exerted when he raised JESUS from the dead. The power that placed Jesus as God's right-hand man. 
This power is above rules set by other authorities. It is above other powers and other dominions. It is above titles that can be given to it. Not just now, but in the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and YEARS to come!

22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Everything is under Jesus' feet. And Jesus is the head over everything for the church. The church is his body. It fills him. It fills he who fills everything in every way. It's so crazy and exciting! 
I'm discovering that our God is a crazy and exciting God. He's not dead. He's alive. He has a sense of humor... sometimes we don't find it funny though! He loves us. And there's nothing we can do about it! Which seems funny. But it's true.

Okay. I've got another kind of sacriligious thing... Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows clip! Trailer really. But it's sweet. I'm excited for these 2 movies!

Awesome, no? Yes? YES!

I thought I would also include this. I love this song :) Enjoy! 


Adios amigos!




P.S. Did you spot the poetry in my post? ;)

NIPTO, day 121

Helloooo. I'm sitting here. Watching Sense and Sensibility (the BBC version). NOT laughing at my sister. (I laughed just a little bit when they were getting the ice situated on her cheeks. But I wasn't laughing at her?)
She got her wisdom teeth out today. They said it went well. She ate some Jell-o a little bit ago... She's just kind of chilling now. We finished The Princess Diaries and are watching Sense and Sensibility now :) 3 hours is a nice long time for a movie. Ahhahahaha I forgot that Sir John was Mr. Weasley!

Booooo the second disc wasn't the right one! Somone didn't check them before they returned them to the library! *sigh*  So we are going to have a Harry Potter marathon. Numero 1 is in now :)
Daniel Radcliff was itty bitty!! SO cute hahaha.


Okay. It's night time now. I cleaned my room some more today. I took the mattress off of my bed. I vacuumed underneath it which was FANNNTASTIC.
I'm bunking my beds sometime soon... so that's exciting. Rearranging rooms is fun! :) Clean rooms are the best! ... if only I could keep it clean now...


liveGrounded went live today! That's super exciting! I'm looking forward to writing for it :) Go check it out! It's sweet.

NIPTO today! Woot!
Ephesians 1:11-14
¹¹In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, ¹²in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

I was talking about God's will yesterday. And it comes up again. Everything "works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will." Nothing that happens is outside of God's will. And everything goes according to his will so that everything can be for the praise of his glory.


¹³And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.


When you heard the word of truth you were included in Christ. Having believed you were marked in Christ with a seal, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guarantees our inheritance until we are redeemed. It's crazy. All of it. Simply CRAZY!







This might be a little sacrilegious...
But this was fantastic. Glee has good music, okay??



I'm going to go to sleep now. Or get ready for bed... and clean everything that was on my desk off my bed and onto the other bed... *sigh* cleaning is a crazy process!
I'm going to try to blog in the morning tomorrow. Which might mean actually setting an alarm. *GASP* I haven't done that yet this week. I also need to practice piano. HEH. I'm not sure if I'm going to Encounter tomorrow either... I'll have to ask about that!
Good ________ <-- Time of day!

NIPTO, Day 120

Hi.
It's kinda late. But I'm blogging. It's pretty quiet around here right now. Everyone else has to get up early tomorrow. Hannah's getting her wisdom teeth out. Mom got a lot of movies from the library today. And I made jell-o. And Mom bought pudding at the store today. We're prepared. We also have the entire dance recital for her to watch if she wants it!

I started cleaning my room today. Mostly changing my clothes from winter/spring clothes to summer clothes. And cleaning surfaces. Like my dresser. It's mostly cleaned off. But I'm still in the "messier before cleaner" stage. It's kind of frustrating. I really need to dust and vacuum tomorrow. It's kind of gross...
I'm wondering if I could take my mattress off of my bed to vacuum under my bed... before I bunk them. I think it'd be a good idea. I just need a little bit of help ;)
I've been listening to Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" for a while. I finished the 4th book and am about 1/3 of the way through the 5th. Listening to something while you clean makes things go a LOT faster!

After dinner today we went on a walk and put fliers in/on mail boxes for Mom's M. Y. Study Skills (I think it should actually be Skillz, but my opinion was not given. And it might deter people from having their child tutored... haha) and for our newest "Second Self Household Help" idea... to read more about these you can go here :)

Then we came home and watched a movie. The Nanny Diaries. It was good. A little bit sad though. The fact that there are a ton of kids who are raised by someone who isn't their parent when their parents are around. There are definitely circumstances where extra help is needed, but when a child wants the nanny more than Mom or Dad.... it's sad.
I think the movie did a really good job of portraying the situation. It's based on a novel that was written by two former NY nannies. So it's kinda accurate. The book&movie aren't based on any particular family. Just a mix of all the families that both of them had nannied for and had observed too. It was an interesting movie.



Today for NIPTO we start Ephesians! It's the next book we're going to tackle :) I'm also going to be reading a Psalm a day. And it just so happens that Psalm 1 has 6 verses. So you're going to get 6 verses analyzed by me over the course of this week. Plus some tidbits from other Psalms probably!

Ephesians 1:1-10
 ¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
      To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:
 ²Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This book/letter was written by Paul to the church in Ephesus. 
Paul was an apostle of Jesus by the will of God. The will of God seems like such a confusing and complex thing to us. It's really just what God wants us to do... and that's not exactly complicated. We're the ones who are complicated. We screw things up because we don't listen. We don't like what God has planned for us... but is there really any other option? Isn't following God and his plan for your life the only way you'll feel completely fulfilled and satisfied?
These are the questions I ask myself. 

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

 ³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Oh my goodness! This is so crazy. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. In the heavenly realms. I'm not exactly sure what kind of "conditional" that is, but yeah. It's still sweet. No matter what circumstances you put around. But watch out. It gets even better. Keep reading.


⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

He chose us. To be holy. To be blameless. He chose to adopt us. Because he wanted to. Because it was in accordance with is pleasure and will. It was to praise his glorious grace. That he gave to us. For free. Tell me that's not ridiculous. It's so impossible to get my mind around it! God's love is so amazing. (steady and unchanging. Your love is a mountain firm beneath my feet. Your love is a mystery, how you gently lift me. When I am surrounded, your love carries me.) Ahh bursting into song. :)
But seriously. It's crazy. God's crazy. And I think that's how he likes it...
 

⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace ⁸that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

So we're saved through Jesus's blood. And our forgiveness of our sins directly corresponds to the riches of God's grace. How could we be forgiven without grace? And when he gives us forgiveness, he also gives us wisdom and understanding. It's lavished upon us. It's not a burden. It's a gift.


⁹And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

These verses reminded me of a sermon that my Dad did last year in March. I would encourage you to go watch it here. It's fantastic. He might "re-vamp" it for LT this summer. Or have Tom Short re-vamp it. Or something. The theme for LT this year is "unleashed" I think. So it would go along with things quite nicely. But you'll have to watch/read it if you want to know what I'm talking about ;)

I feel kind of funny not really writing anything about these 2 verses... but I feel like my dad explains things much better. The sermon isn't exactly on these 2 verses or whatever, but I think it still all corresponds. 


Psalm 1:1
 ¹ Blessed is the man
       who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
       or stand in the way of sinners
       or sit in the seat of mockers. 


When we walk with God and don't hold to the things of the world, when we don't listen to people who tell us to do the wrong thing, when we don't stand in the way of sinners, and when we don't become mockers, we're blessed.


I'm going to go to sleep now. I'm going to try to not laugh at my sister too much tomorrow. I've promised that I won't take any pictures... *sigh* I guess I'll have to keep my promise... unless I can get the OK while she's still drugged up =P Just kidding. I would never do that. I'm a much better sister. I wouldn't exploit my sister while she's under the influence of drugs. (All legal, of course).

Okay. Really. I'm going to sleep now. Good night! 

Driving With Abby-Major roads

I went driving yesterday. It was a milestone for me. I drove on a major road.
I drove to the Panera that is half a mile from our house. That wasn't too bad. Except not turning when I could've. But I didn't. I waited. The people behind me were probably mad. But whatever.
Thennnn I drove to Giant Eagle. Which is like, 5 miles from our house. Maybe farther. Maybe not. Probably less.
But to get to Giant Eagle, I drove on ARLINGTON ROAD. That's a big deal. And they're doing construction. It was a good time. And I didn't die. It was good. And I parked semi-successfully. I had to back out a bit and pull in again, but it was okay.
Driving back was uneventful... except for not realizing that I was going SUPER (for Boettler) fast. I was going down a hill though. So it was okay. And I braked. We didn't crash. I didn't get pulled over. We did what we needed to do. And I have a feeling I'm going to be running a lot of errands now =P Not that I mind! :)

Dinner time soon!

NIPTO, Day 119

HALLELUJAH! Blogger is working again! It's been down for over 19 hours I'm guessing. CRAZY. Here is "today's" post!
(It's actually at about 5:30 on Monday. Heh. NOT my fault =P)


AHHHHHHHHHH Blogger's down right now. So I'm writing this in an OpenOffice document. Boo hiss blogger for being down when I want to BLOG! * sigh* oh well.


It's really late. But here's a brief recap of my day:

Get up in the morning... take my sweet time getting ready for church because we only have to go to the 11 o'clock service (SCORE)
Go to church. (This seems like it was about a week ago!)
Come home. Eat lunch. Go on a walk? Yeah.
Go to Panera to check on my application status.
DRIVE to Giant Eagle to get something Mom needed for dinner.
Shower/get ready for the recital.
Leave&pick up Eh Dah Doe, Eh Ler Tha, Ehne Thau, and Hser Ler Moo. Put makeup on in the car. Get to the high school. Find the dressing room&get the presents for Nancy, Amy, and Jackie (we got 3 new stools for the studio) into the dressing room. Then we chilled. Practiced dances. Helped other people get ready for their dances.
Then we danced. The first one was Standing Still. I don't have video of it on me right now. I'll have to cut some of the video that Dad took and post it or something. Standing still went OK. I messed up a little bit, but it wasn't that noticeable. It was just annoying because I was in the front. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now.
Then the seniors did their dance. I have it video taped from back stage. Which isn't great. But it's okay. I'll probably post it sometime. It's way too late to think about that right now.

Then intermission. And people scrambling. One of the girls forgot a couple of her costumes at home. So intermission was a little bit longer than planned. But it was okay. Annnnd then we danced again. Just for Now this time. Hannah is the outcast in the dance. She did a fantaaaastic job being upset and stuff. Then we rushed off stage to help a couple of the girls change because they had 2 dances to change before their next song. And one of the girls had to be over on the other side. She started the dance. And was freaking out a little bit. But she got there in plenty of time! So all was well.

Then we did bows and whatnot. And then we did Pants on the Ground. A fantastic finale dance. Annd then they brought out the presents and stuff. And a lot of people cried. And lots and lots of hugs went around. And lots of pictures were taken. It was great. And sad. And I saw a friend that I hadn't seen in 2 years! So that was exciting. She might be dancing next year and I really hope she does! I missed her :)

Then we dropped the Karen girls off at their respective houses. And then we went to Arby's and got Jamoca shakes. They were delicious. And then we came home and watched the dances that we wanted to watch. And now it's now. And I'm using the words “and” and “then” a lot. But it's late. Excuse my poor writing quality =P
Quick story about Panera and then I'm done. Driving with Abby goes up tomorrow.

So I go into Panera and wait in line. I ask for “Big Ben” because that's the manager who hires people. I talked to “Little Ben” who doesn't hire people. Here's kind of how it went:

Me: Hey, can I talk to Big Ben?
Little Ben: Today was his last day...
Me: ooookay... uhm... I turned in an application about a month ago, and I know he said you guys weren't hiring then, but I was wondering if there would be an opening soon or what...
LB: Well, Lenny is the guy you would want to talk to... You're Hannah's sister right?
Me: Yeah. I am. Do you know when Lenny is working next?
LB: I should know... but I don't. Let me check. … comes back Tomorrow from 5-1. You could call around 9 because we're not very busy around then usually
Me: would it be better for me to come in or call?
LB: Probably to call. Then Lenny can pull your application out and put it in the short stack. But your best bet might be for Hannah to listen for if anyone gets fired. If you call on the day that someone gets fired, 9 out of 10 times you'll get an interview. We can always give you an interview, but once you're there it's about selling yourself to Lenny.
Me: Thanks :)

And that's kind of how it went. I'm going to go to bed now. This probably isn't going to get published until tomorrow. Sorry about that. Stupid blogger... =P

No NIPTO today, actually. There was a talent show at the church and that was at 7. And we had the recital at 7. So we were both kind of busy beforehand. But there will be NIPTO tomorrow :)

I'm tired. I feel like the makeup that's caked on my face is sinking into my pores. It's kinda gross. =P

Soooooo good night!