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After a day of angst yesterday, in which I made myself sick and even more stressed then I ever needed to be, I have decided that I should just listen to God on this matter and pray even harder on it. To anyone that saw me last night, I guess I want to explain why I am really hurt about this. It is not for the reasons you may think, but because I am sick of betrayal and sick of people who claim to be my friends hurting me.  In this situation, it is not so much a betrayal as other times, but it still hurts just as much.  If you want to know more about it, you’ll just have to call me or something because even though I am opening up in this post more than I ever do, I am not going to open up that much.  It has happened to often in mine and my parent’s lives and I want to be done with it.

For those who don’t know. A while ago at our old church Baypointe we went through a pretty big church split. Some of my family’s good friends made accusations against all of us and hurt every one of us more than they intended to I am sure. I have pretended for many years to be optimistic about this whole situation, and every once in a while it will break through what my real feelings are. I was hurt just like the rest of my family, but if all of us were broken, who would be there to pull the family out. So, I stayed as normal as possible and ran with the blows.

Last year I discovered a new band called Needtobreathe. I instantly fell in love with the song, You are Here. So, when their newer CD came out this November, and I heard that they would be in town soon after that, I rushed out to get the CD. Since that time, and after the concert, they have slowly been becoming my favorite band. This song is one that really speaks to me because it is the same story as mine, but without the ending. I have decided to live by this song from now on, and trust in God for everything that comes my way.
If people could pray for me so that I keep this commitment, I need the help. I have a hard time trusting anybody wholeheartedly, probably because of this event, and that has hurt my relationship with God. Thank you.

“Daddy was a preacher,
She was his wife.
Just trying to make the world a little better,
You know, shine a light

People started talking
Just to hear their own voice
Those people tried to accuse my father
Said he’d made the wrong choice

Though it may be painful
You know that time will always tell
Those people have long since gone,
My father never fell.

Even when the rain falls,
Even when the flood starts rising,
Even when the storm comes,
I am washed by the water.

Even when the earth crumbles under my feet,
Even when the ones I love turn around and crucify me
I won’t ever let you down
I won’t fall, won’t fall, won’t fall as long as Your around me.

Even when the rain falls,
Even when the flood starts rising,
Even when the storm comes,
I am washed by the water.

Even when the rain falls,
Even when the flood starts rising,
Even when the storms comes,
I am washed by the water.”

…goes by faster than all the others.

So, long time no post. I have been quite busy, working, along with some other important things. First off, there was New York.

I forget if I ever mentioned New York on here. Well, in choir, we travelled the the city of cities in order to perform at THE carnegie hall. I am not sure what the words would be to describe it. Amazing, wonderful, maybe the most invigorating thing I have ever done. The sheer size of the hall is amazing in itself, and the sound. I can not even begin to describe it. Definetly something that I will remember for the rest of my life.
Graduation was the next week. Not as exciting as everyone said it would be. I am not sure if it has sunken in, even after two months. I may show up to my High School on the 4th instead of college. http://tolky89.voxtropolis.com/files/2007/08/pict4906.jpg
All night party, and then graduation party. My grad party was pretty fun. We had jousting, volleyball, good food, good vegan cupcakes, and, of course, video games at 2 AM.

The rest of the summer will be split up. Otherwise, this entry would take up 4 pages. Mississippi in itself could be split up into 2 or more entries. Until later.

Edit: Ok, after reading my last post I realize that I have already posted about Graduation and my party in depth. The entries are still different, however, so whoever reads this will have to live with a sort of recap.

So I am now officially graduated.  Graduation was fun…it rained, who would have guessed.  Rain, in Michigan?!?  The Senior choir sounded good this year, CRAZY!  And honors even sounded good, which is crazy because no one really knew the song at all.

Senior All Night Party was great.  Kristen, Christine, Rachel, and I all played DDR for a while.  I actually played on light.  I am so lame, but I would be less lame if I bought the game and practiced.  Kristen and I got our fortunes read.  Kristen is going to succeed in art, not have a problem with money, have a close relationship with her mom, and have a great time when she is 20-30.  I will be a good teacher, because I have great leadership skills (in your face NHS).  I will be a hardworker, and so I will always have enough money to get by.  I will also have 2 serious relationships, but one will be a great one, where this mystery guy will be very attentive and caring.  I don’t really believe in that whole thing, but if I did that future would be fine with me.  I did not win a camera or video camera.  The hypnotist was funny, although nothing happened to me at all.  There was no Starbucks, like I was promised, so I was extremely tired.  All-in-all good night.

Next day was graduation party.  Kristen and I had our parties together.  At around 2:30 I went to go and pick up Kristen, but we were not able to leave her house until 3:30 because we had to finish her cupcakes.  So we were about 1 hour and 30 minutes late for our party.  Kristen’s cupcakes were amazing, even if she was disappointed in them because they all melted.  She made Green Tea, Banana Split, Margarita, and some Blueberries and Creme cupcakes.  We have jousting, I lost to Kristen, but won against my Aunt Sandra.  XD!  Played a lot of volleyball with Sam and a bunch of other people.  Sumo wrestled with Christine, Stacy, Kyle O., Kyle Humble, and Shane.  Told Steve our quote about him….Steve the Weave!!!  Got soaking wet in a water fight.  Shaving creamed Kyle Humble’s car, and drew a sheep on the back of Kyle Ottenhoff’s.  Sat around a fire with a bunch of pyro’s.  We burned homework, CFE’s, and the game plan!  Wooot!  Had smores.  Then, after mostly everyone left, the remaining few (Reed, Kyle, Kyle, Stacy, Kristen, Christine, Amanda) played Wii!  All I have to say is that it was so fun…I really need to get one of those, although they are too expensive.  After all of the school kids left, I told myself that I would probably never see them again.

Sunday:  Church….boy was I tired.  Travis got his hair all cut off.  Ate something substantial for the first time in a week (a hotdog).  Saw myself as Dr. Love (superhero thing my dad is talking about).  After church, I went to Borders.  I had picked up the new Paulo Coeltho book, Witch of Portebello, and was looking at some random books about Churchill & FDR, the Mayflower and the settlers of early America, and other random buy 2 get 1 books, and my plans of never seeing the school kids was then destroyed.  For low and behold, Shane stood not 3 feet away from me in a Noodle hat.  So, after a while talking to him, reading a college humor book (how to cheat at life, or something similar to that), meeting his mom, I went and got a hardcover Pride and Prejudice so that Caroline can take the other copy with her, and I went to Blockbuster to go and get Apocolypto.  It was ok, kind of trippy.  I can’t wait until 300 comes out, now that is a great movie of around the same genre.

Today: I am hanging with Christine and Kristen.  Christine is leaving for California on the 11, so I am planning on spending as much time with her as possible before she leaves.  Went to the school to finish a fruit mural.  Didn’t finish it.  Got a whole bunch of cake at Christine’s house.  Heard about her dream where we were driving in a peach shaped car (Kristen has a peach lead hat on) screaming “aaaaaaa”.  hahahha!  XD!!!!   Watched some banana phone, some live action Sailor Moon, some Samurai Pizza Cats, some Naruto, and now we are watching some crazy soap opera (Passions?).   We are probably going to play some Naruto Clash of Ninjas 2 soon, maybe some Super Smash, maybe some Hello Kitty.  Watch some movies?  Eat some Thai food?  So I will update about New York maybe tomorrow, including pictures.

So, in another month, I am graduated.  Seems like just yesterday I was beginning my life in high school, just making some really great friends, and worrying about my future.  Now I am at the end of the rope for high school, having great times with those same great friends, and still worrying about my future.  Some things never change I guess.

This weekend, me and Kristen Uroda and Christine (along with Kristen’s mom), went to Chicago.  We had SOOOOO much fun.  We left my house at about 7 in the morning (they were supposed to get me at 6, so I spent an hour sitting at the computer watching Naruto on youtube).  We took off on a grand adventure, beginning with some dancing in the car to music, and then, as it was inevitable, sleeping.  Apparently they got some good pictures of me in a “coma” like state.  Then we stopped for breakfast, were we commenced talking about childhood memories and children saying things that they shouldn’t.  Back on the road, more sleeping, and soon we were seeing the Chicago skyline.  We are there!!!

Check in the hotel, park, see a ton of army guys (some conference), and go out on the town.  We walked all the way from our Hotel (Congress Blvd. and i cant remember the street name) to Michigan Av and Millennium Park.  We took some great pictures.  We looked at shoes, but did not buy anything.  After a few hours of walking around, we walked to an amazing Thai restaurant.  Got a bubble tea latte, rama noodles, Thai rolls, and some crazy dessert.  I have to admit, the dessert was the only thing that brought the restaurant down in my mind.  The food was delicious, and we were quite happy.  We next went back to the hotel and got ready for a nice evening.  We put on our nice dresses, jewelry, looking quite good.  The only set back, we were supposed to be at our destination by 8, and it was 7:59.  Christine and I ran down the street, about a two blocks, and got there just one minute too late, so we were not seated until 30 minutes later.  Kristen and her mom were still getting ready, and by the time we were let in, they were there also.  Then, the magic began.  Our destination, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  The mission, listen to Mozart and Haydn performed by spectacular musicians.  Mission accomplished.  It was simply the best thing my ears have ever heard.  Learned some new things….in between movements, you are supposed to cough to show your appreciation to the musicians.  Back to the hotel, quick change, and a bus ride to Michigan Av. again.  We walked around, went to Cheesecake factory and Ghiradellis.  A bus ride back, and a very tired crew.  Sleep came, and overtook the room.

Next morning, we all got breakfast.  I will spare you the details (Panera and smoothies).  Then we walked through the park across the street from our hotel.  The day had hardly begun and it was already hot.   Took a cab to the Science Center.  Mission:  See the Body World exhibit.  Mission failed.  It was sold out.  It was the last day of it in town.  Too bad.  I was very excited about the exhibit.  We instead went to look at the genetics and robots exhibits.  The robots were cool.  So another cab ride, this guy was terrible, and we were back at the hotel.  We were already checked out, so we went back to our Thai restaurant so dinner.  Had Pad Prik (stir fry chicken, rice, hot peppers, and green onions), more Thai rolls, and a very good Cappuccino.  It was even better the second time.  They remembered us and sat us in the same place…even the same seats :D.  So then more shopping, Borders, good times.  4 story borders are my favorite.  Bought a new journal.  Then to H&M.  Bought a new coat and some earrings.  The coat it so cool, but a little too late for the season.  Then back to Borders to get some drinks.  On the way back to the bus stop, we pass a popcorn place Chris Mark asked me to stop at for him.  I got in 2 minutes before closing.  Then to the bus stop, were we took our last ride to the hotel.  While waiting for Mrs. Uroda to do something, we played around with a random umbrella, took some crazy pictures, and danced in the streets (it was prom you know).  The ride home was super fun.  We danced for 30 minutes or so, and then we got a little tired.  Christine fell asleep, I read for a while, and Kristen turned on her DS.  Eventually I fell alseep as well, Kristen did too.  Soon we were in Michigan again.  Kristen took over driving, and I took over the front seat.  We listened to music and had a dandy time.  This whole time we were listening to Kristen’s IPod, which was already on red.  We got to Christine’s house and we were still feeling the “groove”, and then, silence.  Poor Zeebo (her ipod) had died.  I got home at 3:30,  dang, and went straight to bed.  And now, I am up, at home, typing this.

Some jokes:

“I can’t stop! “,  “Feel the groove”,  “De-de-de-de”,  “PROMMMMM!”

There were more, but I dont want to type them until the pictures come back.  We saw Kristen’s new school (Chicago Art Institute and we saw some amazing art work).  So much happened, no way I could write about it all.  Senior trip, complete.

So, times have been “hard”. Sure they really have not been, but I can still pretend to say it. It seems somewhat folly to say that my life could be hard because of how blessed I am with my family and friends. I mean, really, I do not understand why I sometimes over-react to things that are not really bad at all. So what if I am not the most popular person in any of my classes, and sometimes I sit by myself in a few classes. That is not what matters about a person. It would be nice to have a few more friends, but the ones I have, I would not trade for anything in the world.
Ok, now that I am finished with that. I am going to New York in less that 40 days. I am going to sing at Carnegie Hall, and I cannot contain my excitement. I graduate in less than 40 days as well. That is probably the craziest thing I have ever heard myself say. I am almost out of high school….wow. That feels amazing. I really cant wait to start my life.
This coming term I have Current Global Issues, which is basically the hardest class you can chose Senior year, in my opinion. All the AP classes wont be doing anything but studying for the AP Exams. This class is a last term last hour class where you write a lot of papers, and work like a madman. But I am really happy. It is going to be probably my favorite class.
Design Concepts is over. I have a lot of art that I want to share, but I need to take pictures of it all, or scan it. Maybe later. It is all ok (although my mom will say it is amazing). I am sad because I really enjoyed taking an art class. I wish I had taken more of them.
And in conclusion to this very sketchy post….We All Look Elsewhere by The Classic Crime!
“Lost sense of direction: nobody knows my name
Confidence: correction
I don’t know how to play that game
A straight line is quicker
A straight line would make me fast
I’ve burned my nose enough to know that straight lines never last

Swallow your soul
And drink from this life
As you choke on your pride
We all look elsewhere
We all look elsewhere

It’s safer inside doors, nobody has to flee
A broken vessel passed the rocks and out to sea
Waiting, wanting, mad with purpose
Now we come to talk to one who has the answer to how

Swallow your soul
And drink from this life
As you choke on your pride

Don’t waste your time if you’ve got it
The tides are turning now
You are not alone
They gave you their worst and you bought it
The lie has been exposed
You are not alone

Like winter that comes quick in early September
The rain clouds that washed me are what I remember
The stones that I threw piled high like a mountain
Which I had to climb before I reached the fountain
If life is a riddle then riddle me this
The blood tasted sweet as it passed by my lips

Don’t, don’t waste your time
Don’t, don’t waste your time
Don’t waste your time
Don’t waste your time if you’ve got it
The tides are turning now
You are not alone
Liar, liar
They gave you their worst and you bought it
The lie has been exposed
You are not alone”

Stolen from my mom who stole it from Erica. I did two versions….this is the first one. And no, mom, I did not change it at all to make it sound better.

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

So, here’s how it works:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool!

Opening Credits:
You Gotta Help Me Out-The Killers

Waking Up:
Gotta Go-TobyMac

First Day At School:
Stories (Down to the Bottom)-TobyMac

Falling In Love:
Fly Me To The Moon-Frank Sinatra

Fight Song:
What Will Be Your Anthem-Bleach

Breaking Up:
Broken Vow-Josh Groban

Prom:
Just Another Name-Lifehouse

Life:
Into Your Heart-Seven Places

Mental Breakdown:
Hand Grenade-Thousand Foot Krutch

Driving:
Audience of One-Sanctus Real

Flashback:
Here I Go Again-Casting Crowns

Getting Back Together:
A Woman in Love-Marlon Brando (cute)

Wedding:
Thank You-KJ-52

Birth of Child:
Spirit-Switchfoot

Final Battle:
Paperthin Hymn-Anberlin

Death Scene:
All The Way Live-Thousand Foot Krutch

Funeral Song:
I Wish I Could Say-Everyday Sunday

Remembrance Song:
Only Getting Started-Steven Curtis Chapman

End Credits:
Just A Story-Everyday Sunday

Good way to not study for exams….hehe.

Well….I decided that I needed to get a new blog going, because the last time I wrote in this one was a long time ago.  Lately I have been busy working, keeping smart, and looking for places to take my next step in life at.  I am staying near home to go to college, have some good scholarships, working on getting more, and most likely rooming with my best buddy in the whole world.

In other news, new haircut is the most recent thing on my plate.  It is quite short, and I am planning on changing my user picture so everyone may view it.  Doctor Who is a great show, no matter how cheasy my sister may think it is.  The new Relient K CD is already my favorite CD ever!!!  The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess is beautiful.  German 4 is a pain.  Verruckt!  And yet I still like the class.  AP Biology is good, my teacher is not teaching because she is having her baby any day now, and we are dissecting fetal pigs.  We are going to start the AP Bio videos soon….they are always the highlight of the class.  Very excited.  I started working in the school’s theater.  I have already run spot light at the school’s annual Rock Show and run the light board at a Middle School Band concert.  This St. Patrick’s Day I get to make trophies for $10 an hour.  XD

My art class is getting pretty good.  I just got 100% on my latest piece.  Maybe I will put that one online to show off.

I wish I lived in England.  Maybe one day….but most likely not.  I don’t think I would like to teach in England, since that is my newly chosen career.  I am thinking of majoring in Social Studies/Political Science and Minoring in Biology or English.  It is really hard to get a Social Studies teaching job in the economy right now, so I may have to change my overall plan just a tad.  I am quite sad though, because while my best friend since 4th grade is going to be rooming with me (if only for 2 years), one of my other really really good friends is going to the Chicago Art Institute or whatever it is called.  She is going to be back for the summer and everything, but I will miss hanging out with her and the rest of the gang.

And so now you know all about what has happened to me in the past….well I just wont say how long it has been between posts, because I don’t really know.

Tchus!

Yeah, I know, you think snakes are creepy, but whatever.  Today is now snake day.  Deal.

So In zoology today, our teacher brought in another animal.  He was stressing how awesome it was the he found one of these because he has never seen one before.  So, yeah, he caught a Blue Racer out behind the school.  Looked a little something like this.  He looked really awesome in person though, because he was shedding his skin, and we got to watch him.  It was cool, and when it was all done, there was this awesome snake skin.  ANd the snake was glistening and it was really smooth.  Totally cool. But it was pretty big, but not full grown.  It could grow to be another 3 feet long, which is crazy, because that is like a 6 foot long snake right outside the school.

So then we got to take a nature walk, and look for more snakes.  If you ever want to catch a snake in your backyard, just put a piece of plywood lying down in the grass, but prop it up a little bit, and in an hour or so you will have a snake, or two, under the plywood.  Good stuff.  Anyways, the nature walk was cool.  I got this awesome net, but I didnt catch anything with it.  I almost caught a Meadow Hawk.  It is a dragonfly, but doesn’t the name sound awesome.  So then, some guy comes running down the trail yelling about how he caught this snake.  It was in his net, and he was swinging it around alot.  I felt really bad for the snake, so I decide to take him out.  Now before you say how stupid I am, it was a garter (not garDNer) snake, and it was quite small.  So I take it out of the net, and he is really agrivated at first.  I finally got him to calm down though, and then he was quite pleasant.  I named him Fred, but he didn’t really like that name, so I re-named him Axel, after-which he was quite pleased.  Then some guy came over and freaked him out, and so he tried to bite me.  Yeah, that was creepy.  I am not afraid of snakes, I just dont like to get bitten.  So eventually I had to let Axel go.  He was an amazing little critter.  Ohh, he was a Eastern Garter Snake, which is really awesome, because his scales are red/orange underneath, and when he breathed, you caught a glimpse of the awesome coloration.  This is kind of what Axel looked like.  Isn’t he a darling.  I got someone to hold him that had never even touched a snake before.  Quite an accomplished day.

SO then in Cross Country, we had a game day.  We played tag, but if you got tagged you just joined to group.  The game was over when everyone was tagged, or when the coach called time.  I never got caught, one of the five.  Then we played…..snake in the grass.  That is where you have some person rolling around in the grass trying to tag the other people.  When you got tagged you had to join them, until everyone was tagged.  I never won that one, but it is quite possibly the best game in the whole world.

And that is why today is snake day.

Yeah, so I have not much to update about.  School started yesterday.  Yeah, it is school and I dont feel like wasting my time on it right now.  My favorite class is zoology with Miles.  He is cool.  He brought in a baby common snapping turtle today.  I picked it up and it was so cute.  It’s little claws were trying to scratch me but they were not sharp.  They just really tickled.    Besides that my classes are ok.  I have lunch with Uroda, for the first time, which is cool.  And Christine is back from California.  YEAH!  Went to a Jazz Festival with Uroda on Sunday.  That was tight.  We had a bunch of fun.  Saw some crazy old guy waving a cane to some jazz.  Then he lifts up his chair and starts waving it as well.  “Darn you kids and your hippie music!”  hahaha.  On the way home, there was a sign on a video game shop.  I only saw some of it, but it said “Are you kids annoying you….?”  That was all I saw, so I told Uroda about it, and she added “Annihilate them!” with some creepy, deep voice.  It was amazing.  I have pictures, and also I have pictures of missions trip.  I will put them up later though.

Our first show choir rehearsal was tonight.  It was ok, except for the fact that I was really tired and all I wanted to do was go home and watch Rockstar:Supernova and chear on my main man Toby.  We are singing “Sing, Sing, Sing”.  You know, the song that was on the Chips Ahoy commercial a few years back.  Great swing song.  I am excited about dancing to it, I love swing!  Done deal.  And apparently we are going to sing “Breaking Free” from High School Musical on Disney channel.  It isn’t my favorite, but my vote will be in the minority.  Evs.  Evs, by the way, was introduced to the TV watching populous by Toby Rand on Rockstar.  It is Australian slang for whatever.  I think it is cool, and I hate when people say whatev.  Bleh.  I think that we should sing some jazz for the winter concert, but I guess no one else does.  We could get a sweet brass ensemble to back us up.  I have such an in with the trumpets right now, or should I say the ninjas.  XD

Hmm, running is going well.  Cross is really fun this year.  Today I couldn’t stay for the hard part of practice because I had an orthodontics appointment.  It is looking good for my teeth.  They filled them, apparently.  All I know is that it was unconfortable.  And I think that I could get these suckers off within the next few months.  woot-ness.  Anyways, practice was a hard 3-mile run, followed by 2-6 build-ups and then strength work.  I only ran a really hard 2 mile (16 minutes), and then I left.  I came back for the build-ups, ran all 6 of them, and then did the loads of strength work that was to be done.  All in all, my muscle hurts, but I feel good.

Just finished rockstar.  Storm went home.  She is good, but I agree with my mom.  She really didn’t fit the band’s style.  I liked her though.  She was such a good performer.  Toby got the encore, which he deserved.  His song was the best!  I have to wait a whole week until the finale.  UGH!  I dont want to wait, I want it to be tomorrow.

I have to stop my update, I must go to school tomorrow.  I wish I could just graduate tomorrow and get it all over with.

I am having one bad week, for reasons unknown.  I really dont know why.  I barely worked this week except for thur. and fri.

When I did work I basically got to play video games a lot, which is pretty much my dream job.  Getting paid for playing video games.  Just minus the kids, cleaning, cooking, and feeling sick all week.  Then running has been horrid.  I really am liking it this year, that is not the reason.  I am having much fun and am enjoying the team and the work outs, to an extent.  It has just been hard on my legs and my knees.  They have never felt this bad before.  I am hoping that it is just the shoes and not my legs.  And worse, my lower right part of my leg is hurting.  That would be in the area of my fibula and I will not miss another season because of some stupid stress fracture.  It better just be shin splints and not my bone fracturing.

And to make things better, I have felt sick for about a month.  Kind of on and off, but I think I am psychologically making myself sick.  I dont want this to interfere with anything that I want to do though.  I hate being sick, because I cant stand not being allowed to do things.

Anyways, now onto the not so gloomy parts of my life.  I have been getting a lot of college things recently and I think I have all next week to work on applications.  YAY!!! I think…..

I am also planning a *before school starts KKRC gang bash* .  If you dont know, which probably all of you dont, KKRC would be my best school friends Kristen (not me), Rachel, and Christine.  Sometimes the gang will change to KKRC+M or +E.  SOmething it is just KKC, or even KK.  Anyways, this bash will probably include laser taggin, DDR, watching strange movies until 5 in the morning, playing tons of Super Smash Bros, and making pancakes and bacon in the morning.  Hopefully I will be able to do an over-nighter without any schedule problems.  I am really looking forward to seeing Christine again.  She has been in California this whole summer, and I am beggining to start to really miss the good old days of Junior year.

I have my first meet next week on Thursday.  A meet in High School consists of a 3.2 mile run.  And it is somewhat fun, if you like to run.  I am kind of excited, but I really dont like the course.  We go there about 4 times per season and I have 4 seasons.  SO that is about 16 races at that one place.  After a while you get sick of the same turns, the same hills (which are somewhat noexistant at this course), and the same long bus ride.

So that is everything that has been going on in Kristen land.  Being busy, stressed, and running my legs off.  YAY!  Everything is back to normal….

I am 17.  YAY!!!  Well technically at 11:57, but whatever.

SO yeah, that is about it.  Horray for me!

So I went to one of my favorite places in the whole world this past week. BROWN CITY FAMILY CAMP!!!!!!!!!!!!! EH! I had so much fun, and I just wish that more people who read my blog could have been there to experience it with me.

So I was there for 5 days, but it seemed to be so much longer in many ways, and yet so short. I made some great new friends, wish I had made more of them though…. and I even found a bunch of kids who will be attending Lake Orion next year, so that made me happy. I can relive the glory days with some BCC buds at school, finally! So, during youth chapel every morning at 10, we learned about so much. It all had to deal with our personal rythmns and how we deal with things that happen in our lives that may hurt/change our rythmn. Our speaker Chris Garner was AMAZING!! He is so awesome! I wish that I had been there for the whole time. Anyways, on Tuesday he talked aobut things that “throw you off your rythmn”. This included noise. This one hit me hard because I never seem to be quiet towards the Lord. I am always running around, listening to music, watching movies or tv, or hanging with my friends. And all of that stuff is good, but I need to have some time set aside for the Lord everyday. This may mean that I may have to drop something extra-curricular. THat was something else that he hit on. He asked everyone if their schedule looked like a schedule of someone who wanted to worship the Lord, and personally, it doesn’t. That part will be hard for me, because I will feel horrible about dropping anything out of my schedule since I have already signed up for so much. I dont know what to drop though. I will have to pray on that one. Then we learned about our choices and how they affected our lives. I learned that My choices will either lead me closer to God or away from him, and there is no in between. I also learned to dream. Not in the sleeping kind of dream, but of my future. Chris read us a portion of the book The Dream Giver, and it made me beleve that there is no way that God would give me the desire to sing, the desire to help and care for others, and the passion to learn new things and to pass it on. This has been especially shown to me through social studies, which has only shown up in my life recently as something that I would ever consider studying past high school. God would never have given me these desires, or these passions without having a plan for them. I believe now, more than ever, that no matter where God leads me I will be ok. It is a huge relief to finally believe that fully. Before I had only believed it partially, and it was putting huge amounts of pressure on me to do everything myself. Now I feel so much better.

John 10:10 “I’ve come to give you life and give you life to the full.”
Romans 12:2 “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Saturday was all about having others see your light. Chris painted a great picture of the light by telling us to go into our bedrooms when we all got back home, wait until dark, turn off all the lights, and sit in the dark. The longer the better. Just sit there and get used to the dark. After 5 minutes or so, light a candle. That single candle holds so much light after that long amount of dark. You will be so sensitive to the light. It is amazing how powerful that one little candle can be. The dark is what the world was like before God created the light, and it is what we were like before Christ died to save us from judgement. The bible says many times that Christ is the light of the world, but Christ said that we are to be a light unto the world, to shine out into the darkness and spread our light to others around us.

I also took a seminar about how to reach out to people. This was lead by one of my recently favorite people, Tim Patch. He is so cool. First Missionary of Clarkston people are awesome! I got first hand experience…..well kind of. I guess you cant count leading and already lead person to Christ, leading a person to Christ. But none-the-less I did it, and it was a complete stranger as well.

I am glad that I have had all of these opportunities, and I am already missing camp life. Waking up at 8 after going to sleep at 12. Going to Chapel at 10 AM, running home, eating lunch, going to small group, going to seminar, playing volleyball, eating dinner, going to chapel at 7 PM (oh I was an usher during youth service…you’ll have to ask me about that one later), eating ice cream, going to Nite Spots or playing cards, and doing everything in between. And worship is always a new experience there. They always play songs that I dont know, but I would love to remember the name of. UGH! Good Times, good times!

My sis made up a new month…Feptembuary.

Went to one crazy movie party last night.  Wicked tight.  It was Tim Burton themed, so there was a lot of strange movies playing.  I helped with decorations, and I brought a bunch of movies.  It was hosted by my friend Kristen Uroda.  We watched Willie Wonka, Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish, Beetlejuice, James and the Giant Peach, and Corpse Bride.  The movies all started at around 7 PM, and we took up a good 2 hours of time playing Super Smash Bros (which I totally dominated a few rounds on). Then we took a random trip to the closed park and ran through the woods, and then a bunch of the trumpets and I decided to be stealth ninjas and lurk in the darkness. It was like 10 PM.  We are those kids that annoy the crap out of everyone because they are running around the streets yelling at odd hours of the night.

So between the movies, food, video games, and ninja trips I was up until 5 AM.  Yeah.  And then we all woke up at 9 AM!!!! Only 4 hours of sleep.  BLEH!!!  Kristen made us all pancakes and bacon, and we cleaned up, and the party was therefore over.  Sadness, to the extreme.  It was the best one so far.  The Star Wars one was cool as well, but it just seemed like people were too reserved.

Took Stacy home, got home, and had to mow the lawn.  Mowing the lawn with only 4 hours of sleep and a sugar high from the night before is not fun!  So then me and Caroline decided to watch Edward Scissorhands, and now we are watching Newsies.  I broke the Tim Burton theme with a Disney Musical about a Newsboys Strike.  Somehow it seems to fit.

So that was pretty much one of the best days of the summer.  I will put pictures up when Uroda puts her’s up.  There are some good ones of us dancing with Oompa Loompas!  XD

So yeah. I have not updated in a while because I have been on a mission’s trip. Last week, our youth group went to Pennsylvania. We were in some county called Schuyllkill (probably didn’t spell it right).. It was really fun. I painted and helped with kids and elderly people. I am really excited about missions right now. I want to go on another one right now. I am thinking that in the near future I may just take a summer long trip. Kind of like my sister just did, but not a Leadership thing. Really I have nothing else to talk about. I will get pictures up as soon as someone gives me some, which might be a while, so be patient.

Um..these are pictures from my trip to California and from my trip to see my grandparents last week.

a cool fountain in Cali., we sat next to it for a while

A fuzz picture of a Jack Sparrow look-a-like, with his pirate girl-friend walking into Hot Topic. XD

A picture of Mr. McManus taking a picture, of me taking a picture of him. Confusing?, I think so.

Michael got in the way of the Buddhist temple that we visited. Just joking.

This picture always makes me think that we are going to start fighting like ninjas or something.

This is my dog, Tigger. I took this picture at my grandparen’s cabin.

This was after I went to go see Pirates 2 with my buddy Kristen Uroda. It is kind of like, “Peace, this is a hold up!”

Hmmm…I dont think I have any more pictures. I will look and post them up later if I have any more.

It has been a while.  yeah, so I haven’t really been doing anything.  Went up north last week, got the cutest picture of my dog, but I cannot post it yet.  Maybe next time.

Went to see pirates with Kristen U. and no one else (because Rachel decided to have a disease and to be tired!  The nerve of some people).  It is good.  I am really mad because of the cliff hanger at the end.  How could they.  Now I have to wait another year until it is resolved.

My most recent revaltion about myself:
My favorite smell is the smell of a new book the first time you open it, right out of the store.

Just bought the Alchemist before I went up north.  I couldn’t put it down, but unfortunetly I had to or else I would miss the Germany match where they lost.  Hmm…there is a lot I could say about that, but I think most of the sour feelings about that game are gone.  All I have to say is that I wish that my teams would have done better.

Last Wednesday I went to Cedar Pointe.  Unless you live in Michigan or Ohio, you probably dont know what that is, so check out their website.  www.cedarpointe.com  To clue you in, it is an amazing amusment park with the best roller coasters in the world.  No joke, it used to hold the record for the tallest and fastest roller coaster, but some other park beat not too long ago.  420 ft tall, hits 120 miles/hour in  4 seconds, and has a incling of 90 degrees and a drop of 90 degrees.  It is great, although the best ride is The Magnum, or maybe the Millenium Force.  I am an adrenaline junky or something.  I love roller coasters.  I am going again in a few weeks, after my missions trip, and I am REALLY excited!

Besides that, I have done nothing.  Just sitting around watching kids.

hm.  My first blog on voxtroplis.  I am quite tempted to copy and paste one of my posts on another blog, but I wont because this deserves some attention.

 

So, I am on vacation in California, which I must say is shaping up into a great vacation.  Met Erica McManus, and had a bunch of fun hanging out in Hollywood with her and her dad, and my dad tagged along as well ;D.  Erica and I went to see nacho libre,  love that movie.  Jack Black deserves much more credit then he is given.

Got chased my Satan on the street.  You may have to see Erica’s blog for the whole story.  If batman and satan were to have a showdown, who would win?  I am going for Batman!

Went to Virgin Records Store, went crazy for an hour.  Bought the new Hawk Nelson CD, which is what the title of this blog came from.  A song called “the one thing I have left.”  Wanted to buy some cool clothes and tons of CD’s, DVD’s, video games, and clothes (even a biography of big foot), but ended up running from temptation.  Went to Claires and bought a sweet bag, which I will post a picture of eventually.

Tomorrow shall be great.  Hanging with the McManus’  again, this time I will get to meet the entire fam.  Possibly am going to ‘the farmer’s market’, which sounds very fun.

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