Constant Battle

It's actually been kind of funny. Lately, I really feel as though God has been preparing me for something. I'm not sure what that something is yet, but I know that when it comes, I'll be prepared. I've been having friend issues again (shocker) and this time it seems as though it's more so than it has been before just because I've been friends with this person for such a long time. I won't get into my latest frustration with her, but they've been constantly building up and we've been butting heads more and more. I'm not really sure whether this is connected to these spiels or not, but this year it's been really interesting as my comfort zone has been getting bigger and stretching more as I find myself going out of my comfort zone a little bit more. And as stated at the beginning of this, I really feel like God is preparing me for something. And something big. So although the frustrating events themselves are not the greatest things in the world, it's strange how I feel a sense of calmness about all this, and yet not so very strange at all...

Merry Christmas - Third Day

I got the Third Day Christmas CD last year, and the main reason I wanted the CD was because of this song. I cry when I sit and really listen to this song, as it hits so close to the heart for my family. It seems to be our Christmas theme song year after year (well, not quite our theme song...), and hopefully next Christmas we will be able to sing the last verse of this song!!

P.S. You don't necessarily have to watch the video, mostly I just want to share the song...

27 Things

Well, as today is Thanksgiving on this 27th day of November, I thought that I'd share 27 things that I'm thankful for.

1. Through Jesus' death on the cross and RESURRECTION, I've been adopted into God's family and have eternity to spend with Him.
2. I am so incredibly blessed with an amazing family and friends.
3. Although I often complain about school (mostly getting up early and the mass of AP Euro homework I have), I have the privilege to get a good education.
4. This is most likely/hopefully the last Thanksgiving without little miss Hannah!
5. God gave us such an amazing guide book for life.
6. Different languages and that we're able to learn them.
7. Giraffes.
8. The ability to travel around the world.
9. Weather diversity- life is so much more interesting having sun, rain, snow, etc. instead of just one.
10. Blankets, sweatshirts, and mittens.
11. Jawbones- think of how difficult it would be to eat if you had to move your mouth with your hands!
12. Little kids' laughs and fascination with everything.
13. Movies.
14. Our sponsered child, Slindile Sli, whose birthday is today!! I could also legally start driving today as it's 6 months since/until my birthday...
15. The internet- so many wonderful people it would be more difficult to keep in touch with without the internet!
16. Music.
17. Season 5 of LOST starts again on January 21. :)
18. My AP European History class- it's so much work but so worth it.
19. Photography.
20. Christmas.
21. Memories.
22. Being so close to a friend that you're even friends with their siblings and parents.
23. Toothbrushes- I can hardly stand an hour with nasty whatever it is on your teeth that makes them feel all gross, I can't imagine going any longer with that. Blech.
24. Inside Jokes.
25. The color yellow- it's just so happy!
26. Animal crackers, banana bread, alfredo, and fruit salad.
27. Every single person who's reading this. I love you all so much!!

Procrastinating

Well, there's been a lot of procrastinating going on with me lately. I've failed to post on this in over a month again, and am procrastinating on writing my essay for AP Euro on the discussion we had in class about the Enlightenment (specifically Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau). I have no desire whatsoever to write this essay, especially since I've very sleep deprived as I've stayed up late working on other papers and reading and wonderful things like that for the same class. On the plus side, all my work and sleep sacrifice paid off for my test today. I just checked online and found out I got a B- which is AMAZING for that class!!! The highest test grade I've had all year is a B. It's been really interesting seeing my perspective on grades change, though. Any time before this year, if I didn't get A's in my classes, the world was coming to an end. Now, my opinion on how well I did has to do with how hard I worked and how much I learned. Take for example, The Reformation chapter that we did. I got a D on that test (*gasp*), but I learned a lot and found it really interesting. Although it bugged me a bit at first because I thought I actually knew the stuff (of course, it never fails that the stuff I know really well is the stuff that isn't on the test...), I'm finding that that's one of the chapters that I've retained the most information about. Just yesterday, I was talking to our pastor about all this history stuff and I practically rambled off all of Martin Luther's life plus some other random facts about the Reformation. It was actually pretty cool.

So youth group. We've met thrice now (I find thrice a fun word to say... or type, in this case) and it's been really good all three times!! Jer has gone through some different parables and I find it so cool that although they're parables that I've read/heard multiple times, there are still so many new things that can be pulled out of them!! Afterwards has been good, too. I've gotten to talk with people that I only see once a week otherwise and that's been cool, too. Bekah and I have kind of stuck together like we're joined at the hip lately at church and have recently decided that we really need to be more sociable with other people. So yesterday after church, I spent my time talking to Pastor Matt, Jessie and her siblings (I hadn't seen her sister Rachel in forever and her brother Austin, I've only met a couple times before), and Heather. I love devloping new relationships with people and it was just really cool talking to everyone.

Jessie and I are also doing a study together. We're going to go through
The Sovereignty of God by A. W. Pink. We met for the first time last week on Tuesday and mostly just decided what we were going to do for the next week (which is tomorrow, and I still haven't read the Introduction, which is what we were supposed to do for tomorrow), worked on our memory verse for youth group, and just talked. It was really neat talking to her, which I haven't really done one-on-one with her since Mississippi. I'm super excited to see how this develops!!

Well, I really need to go and finish this paper and hopefully, it won't be so long until next time!! Just shoot an e-mail my way when it's been too long and I'll hopefully get right on updating! :)

It's been WAY too long!

Well, I apologize, it's been over a month since I've given you an update!! It's been pretty crazy around here. I've been getting a ton of homework in AP Euro, but I still really love that class. We just finished the Reformation, which was pretty sweet. The test was on Wednesday, and I thought that I was pretty well prepared for it and actually felt like I knew most of it pretty well. Of course, most of the stuff that I knew really well wasn't on the test, but I still think I did okay. The multiple choice is what's difficult. They're worded so strangely, but I suppose our teacher only does that to get us used to the format of the AP test at the end of the year. We had a four day weekend for some teahcher's convention this week, and it was nice being able to have a social life again instead of spending my evenings working on homework!

I do have some exciting news, though! Our church is officially starting a youth group on October 29!!!!!!! I'm SUPER excited!!!!! Katie and Jeremiah are leading it at their house from 7:00 to 9:00. Jeremiah's not exactly sure what we're going to do yet, but I'm so excited! Maybe that'll be a motivation for me to give y'all an update soon to tell you how it goes. :)

ADOPTION NEWS!!!! ...oh, and the First Week of School

So the past seemingly forever, whenever we've been asked about the adoption, it's been a sigh and a rolling of the eyes. It was always so far away and never seemed to get any closer. But a few days ago, my dad told me that the referrals were at February 9th (I think) and our date is March 13th. Basically meaning, that all the adoption websites are predicting we'll get our referral in FEBRUARY!!!!! That's only six months away which is SO much better than waiting until this summer. Besides that information, I don't really know much about it, but I just thought I'd share with y'all the exciting news!!

Another "exciting" thing recently was the first week of school. So far, my AP European History class is my favorite. By quite a bit, actually. That's one of the two classes we've actually done something in. On Thursday night, I spent almost two hours reading six pages of my textbook. I took about two pages of notes, plus 11 vocabulary words. Of course, I took a couple 5 minute breaks, but still, that's a pretty hefty time to spend on six pages... Hopefully that time will shorten up as the year goes on. The only other class we've really done anything in is Math. The rest of my day is pretty boring as of now. Hopefully that will get better, too...

Well, Andrew has a football game in about an hour and I should probably go and get ready for that. But there'll be more updates coming!

More Pictures

At the request of Jenny, here's some more pictures from our Mississippi trip!

Mudding


Bethany painting


After splatter painting


Meal time (which we all looked forward to just so that we could have a break and be able so sit down without feeling guilty!)


Zach sanding


Trees


My first time seeing the ocean!! (which we got to swim in on Thursday night, also another highlight of the week)


GIANT SPIDER


House on stilts (as they all were)


Spoons


Pickle's house

Mrs. Sippi

Woah, guys, sorry it's taken me so long to write this! It's now been a week and a half since I got back from Mississippi. It was SO HOT down there! Mostly because of the humidity... So besides the extreme heat, it was a really, really, good week. I could spend about 5 times the writing to talk about only bits and pieces of the week, so I'll just highlight my three favorite specific things of the week (in chronological order, not by favorite, because I'd be on here forever trying to decide what to put in what place).

1. Creative painting with Bethany. Bethany, my dad, me, and kind of my brother (he was only for a little while) spent Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning painting the future bunk houses. Pickle, a good friend of Katie's (from church), and also the woman in charge while we were down there, gave us permition to be creative. So that's excactly what we did. After running out of the blue paint we were using, we had to be creative and use some lighter blue paint to finish up the blue walls. We did that by making the lighter blue into "clouds". Observe:




Then on Tuesday morning, we painted the second bunk house:




Painting in those rooms was like being in a sauna, but once you got to the fun stuff, it made it all worth it. :)

2. Playing spoons. That was definately the most intese game of spoons I've ever played and I loved it! At one point we actually bent the leg of a metal chair... it was pretty crazy. The other group down there helping for the week from New York (the Bronx), came into the dining area (where we were playing) to have some ice cream and we got some pretty crazy looks from them. I wish I got some good pictures of that, but all of the pictures are of us before someone got four of a kind...

3. Spending Thursday afternoon talking with Jessie. Thursday morning I had been pretty useless, so at lunch, Jessie asked if I wanted to go to Pickle's house (which was the main project for the week) and help her mud/sand. We ended up spending more time talking than mudding/sanding. We spent a good portion of time just laying down upstairs or on the floor of the church. But it was such a good talk!! Well, talks. I got to know her SO much better. We talked about struggles, our pasts, relationships with family and friends, things we hoped for, and so much more!! There are some things that Jessie now knows that I'm pretty sure no other human on the planet knows about me. I am SO thankful for the huge blessing that she (well, and everyone else at our church) has been!!

(Our "matching" shirts... both green, same type of writing, same underlining thing...)



The Group

Canoe Trip

I just got back from a canoe trip that we went on with our "youth group" at church. We stayed at Katie and Jeremiah's (the unoffical youth leaders, I guess you could say) house on Friday night and left for the trip on Saturday morning. There were eight of us on the trip: Katie and Jer, Annaka (who is the same age as I am), Bekah and Ethan, Matt (who came as a leader/youth-mostly leader, though :) ), Jessie (who is acctually in public school and it's been really cool being able to talk with her about our struggles in school; she's going to be a senior at Chippewa this year), and me. On our first night camping out, we played battleship-in the river with our canoes. Basically there were two people per canoe and two canoes would go out and try to tip the other one. Jessie and I were together and we went against Jer and Bekah two or three times (three, I think) and did not last long any of those times!! Before we went into battle, Jessie and I had gotten in the canoe and she was in the back and had never been in the back so we were going to try to switch places.... without getting out of the canoe. It worked pretty well, acctually, until we had to turn... then we tipped and I have to say that may have been one of my favorite parts of the trip. Another favorite was after we had been tipped, Jessie and I had both wanted to go into the air pocket in the canoe and I'm not quite sure why, but we were laughing SO hard everytime we got under there. It was definately fun! On our second night camping out, Bekah and I were doing shadow puppets.... little bunny Foo Foo. :) except the light was so big that I had to use both my arms to make little bunny Foo Foo and Bekah had to be the arm. The best part of that, though, was turning into goons. :) Jer's devotions were absolutely amazing, too. We went through the armor of God and talked about each piece of armor and the purposes that they served on a Roman soldier and how that relates to us. It was definately really cool and challenging, also. There were also a lot of really cool conversations that I had, talking about how awesome God is and things that we struggle with and awesome ways God has worked in our lives. Katie, Annaka, Jessie, and I (and another girl from church, Kaera, but she wasn't on the trip) are doing the Kay Arthur Lord, I Want to Know You study of the names of God and the first one is Elohim-strong creator-so it was really amazing being out on the river right after studying that. That study has been so awesome and we've only met twice so far (and are trying to finish by the end of summer)! But that's a whole nother (hmm... how would you write that?) subject. And seeing how I was talking a mile a minute coming home from that on Wednesday, and this entry is already pretty long (as it usually is), I'll maybe save that until later. But we'll just put it at this- I'm SUPER excited because God has definately been working in me and changing my heart to desire Him so much more!!! And it's most definately been amazing for me to undergo that awesome change! And well... I guess that's mostly what I have to say for today. We'll be leaving for Mississippi on Sunday with a few other people from church (Spence-who organzied this trip, Jessie, Bethany, and Zack-or maybe it's Zach? but I just met him last night, which is kind of sad since there's only like 40 or so people who go to our church! But we've got this whole week to get to know everyone, and I already know most of them at least farily well, but this will still be good to get to know each other that much more! :) ). So anyways, we'll be leaving on Sunday and will be gone for a week, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to post anything down there-probably not- but although I don't have pictures from the canoe trip (unless I can get them from Katie somehow), I will have pictures for you from Mississippi!!

Kirsten Returns... for a while, at least

I was at camp this past week- Camp Forest Springs. So much happened that I'm pretty sure I would bore you all if I told you everything... even if all I told you was exciting. Of course, if you really do want to hear all about it, feel free to call or e-mail or something, but otherwise I'll just give you the one (or maybe two) biggest things I got out of camp.

The biggest thing is that as of Wednesday, I was REALLY convicted that I needed a more personal relationship with Jesus. As I was praying that night and many girls around me were crying (it was the girls' night when all the boys were on their camp-out), this random image came to my mind of me running up to Jesus and just giving Him a great, big hug. And I wanted so badly to tell Him that He had always been my very best friend. At this point in my life, if I were to be taken home right now, I'm not sure if I would be able to tell Him that. I want so badly for Him to be my best friend, and I've gone around saying that He was my best friend, but I haven't acctually had an extremely personal relationship with Him. I've prayed and read my Bible, but often times it just feels like going through the actions. And I definately know that I don't pray even a fraction of the amount that I should be praying (of course, I'm pretty sure you can never pray enough). So I've decided to give up my "thinking time" before I go to bed (which I'm pretty sure kept me up an unhealthily amount of time) and I pray before I go to bed and just keep talking to God until I fall asleep. It keeps me up a little while, sure, but there's something very calming about talking to God. I've also started my day praying, too, right when I wake up. It's been incredible and I love it! God is SO good!!

Another thing is that we talked a little bit about the universe this week and on Friday night, my cabin walked up to the recreation field and looked up at the stars and talked. I find it so amazing how in a universe so huge and awesome, God still cares about me and loves me personally. It makes me feel so small and insignificant, but even how small I am compared to all that, God still sees me as his daughter. His princess. Again, I think, wow. God is SO amazing!!

I guess I should probably get to bed because last week was full of late nights and it's been late nights since I've been home, too, and I am wiped!! Maybe I'll talk more about camp later, but I'll for sure keep you updated on everything else!!

Picture Update!!

I figure, I haven't done a picture update in a while (come to think of it... have I ever??) so I thought I would share some of my favorite pictures out of the many from this past week or so!

Baseball Game

This is probably my favorite picture ever taken of my mom. :)


Andrew and I


I love this picture of Andrew, too!


Andrew, my Aunt Paula, and I


Grandma Joan


Zoo

Mr. Pelican


GIRAFFES!!!


Me with the giraffe-I held this smile for about 4 years before my mom took the picture because she was "waiting for the giraffe to cooperate."


The prarie dogs remind me of Flagstaff when we saw a ton of them on our way to church. I was going to try to get a picture of one standing up with it's "arms" in the air like on the cover of that book we used for youth group, but that didn't really work out... :)


Alligator


80's Workout outfit

Rachel came over and we were going to do an 80's dance video together to match my outfit, but ended up doing a Latin dance one, instead. That's okay, though, because I got to do a kickboxing video from the 80's today (which I LOVED) that matched my outfit, so everything worked out. :)

Great Choruses

I've come across some really cool songs that have some pretty amazing choruses and I just thought that I would share!


Sometimes the sun stays hidden for years
Sometimes the sky rains night after night
When will it clear
But our hope endures the worst of conditions
It's more than our optimism
Let the earth quake
Our hope is unchanged

Our Hope Endures, Natalie Grant


After all this has passed
I still will remain
After I've cried my last
There'll be beauty from pain
Though it won't be today
Someday I'll hope again
And there'll be beauty from pain
You will bring beauty from my pain

Beauty From Pain, Superchick


Meanwhile back at my heart
I'm desperate for all that You are
See through me and take me apart
Meanwhile back at my soul
Mend me, please make me whole
You know just where to start
Back at my heart, back at my heart

Back at my Heart, Natalie Grant


As the thunder rolls
I barely hear Your whisper through the rain
"I'm with you"
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away

And I'll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
And every tear I've cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

Praise You in this Storm, Casting Crowns


Nothing but Jesus, nothing but Jesus for me -
His cross set before me so Jesus is all I can see.
Lord, seize my heart, assert Your right,
And put all other loves to flight:
Nothing but Jesus, nothing but Jesus for me.

Nothing But Jesus

Favorite Authors

I was tagged with this by Jenny and sorry it's taken me so long!! I was just catching up on my daily dose of Jenny today when I saw this!

Who is your favorite author and why?

After thinking for quite a while about this, I think I would have to say Jodi Picoult because there are few authors that I will read their books because they're the one who wrote them. I've only read two of her books (Nineteen Minutes and My Sister's Keeper), but I thoroughly enjoyed both and have put a couple of reserves on some of her books at the library. One of the reasons I like her books is because she deals with such different/interesting topics. Although there are a couple things in the books that I don't agree with, I really enjoyed them besides that.


Who was your first favorite author and why?

Probably Judy Bloom. I used to love reading her Fudge books. I don't really remember anything about them now (I can barely remember what the titles were!), but I do remember that when I was in third or fourth grade, I wrote a letter to her giving suggestions for what other topics she should write her books on. :)


Who is the newest addition to your favorite authors and why?

This goes back to Jodi Picoult again. I just started reading her books earlier this year and have really enjoyed them. I've also had fun reading Stephenie Meyer (who- for those of you who've heard me talking about this- wrote the vampire books :) ). The books are different, but strangely addicting...


I would tag some of you guys, but the only other person I know on Blogger is Jenny and she's obviously already done it! So I guess just e-mail them to me or some other way! I'd love to hear who some of your favorites are!!

Fireworks-less Fourth and Evangelism

This was my first year of my entire existence that I haven't watched fireworks on the fourth of July. It was acctually quite tragic. We went to a baseball game the day before and there were fireworks after that, so my family decided we already saw all the fireworks we needed to see. So although we did get to see fireworks, it wasn't on the Fourth. I may be scarred for life! Okay, not really, but maybe for the rest of this week... As some of you know, I have an immune system like none other. I heal fast. :)

This morning, instead of going to church with my grandparents like we usually do when we're in Chicago, we went to church with my aunt. She calls it "the loud church" because 1)the church is really big, 2)there's a big choir, 3)it's a gospel choir (which I LOVED, by the way), and 4)everyone-big congregation-gets really into it and claps a lot. I loved it!! I really want to be in a gospel choir sometime and talking to my dad about it, I just found out that we acctually have a gospel choir in Eau Claire that's open to the community!! Yet another thing to put on my list of things I want to do this fall... (including possibly trying out for My Fair Lady at the State Theatre because I LOVE that musical-although I have no idea what part I would be able to get-or Beauty and the Beast at the Children's Theatre, cross country, a possible job at The Living Room-my favorite cafe in Eau Claire, and a few other ambitions). So the worship was awesome and then there was the sermon. There was a guest speaker (sorry, I don't remember his name...) and he talked about evangelism today. He spoke from 1 Corinthians 3:4-9. How one person plants, another waters, but it's God who makes the growth happen. But what really got to me was the stories that he told. There's no way that I could be able to tell the full stories-accurately or short enough-but I'll try to kind of sum one of them up. The first one was about a girl named Maria who lived in Brazil. She had been a Christian for three days and while in church that Sunday, heard the pastor talking about evangelizing. Maria made a promise that she would share what God had done in her life and planned on sharing on at least one of her bus rides home. Both rides, she sat next to an old, grouchy, elderly person and didn't share with either one of them. So when she was about to go to bed that night, she remembered that she promised God that she would share what He had done in her life with at least one person. So she got this idea to get out the phone book and she closed her eyes and pointed at a name in the phone book and then called the house. Maria started freaking out again when the guy who answered the phone sounded angry and said, "Who is this??" a couple times, so she just sang this song that was sung at church that morning when people were called down if they wanted to recieve Christ. It turns out that the man and his wife were both saved that night after talking with Maria. Later, she found out that the man had slipped into depression and no longer wanted to live. His wife didn't want to live if he wasn't living, so she was going to commit suicide with him. The guy went out and bought a bottle of insect killer and mixed it into 2 glasses of an alcoholic beverage and the couple was lifting the glasses to their mouths when the phone rang. Hearing that, I got goosebumps (or as a friend of ours calls them, glory pimples). Shivers were going up and down my spine and I was so close to crying. After hearing the message, I really feel like there's one friend in particular that I need to talk to (Alyssa, for those of you who have heard about her before and I've felt like I need to talk with her about my faith before). So I e-mailed her hoping to get together at the end of this week when we're home, and before I go to camp. So please be praying for Alyssa and that her eyes would be opened and that when I get the chance to talk to her, that it wouldn't be me speaking to her, but God speaking through me!! Because we all know that there's nothing that I could do or say by myself that would make anything as awesome as that happen!!

So Blessed!!

Last night, I was able to have a sleepover with my friend from church, Annaka (the one who teaches us dance), and really enjoyed that! It was so cool being able to get to know her a bit more and be able to hear about all her experiences-good, and bad. Then this morning, Katie from church came and picked us up and we went to The Living Room (aka my absolute favorite place to go for chai and other such drinks). So Annaka and Katie and I sat outside and got to have a cool talk.T hen the owner, Michelle, came out and sat down to talk to us. That was kind of fun, too. I had mentioned earlier that I was supposed to have gotten a job this summer, but I didn't want to work fast-food and hadn't really looked that seriously into it anyway, and I had said that I would acctually love to work at The Living Room, but I didn't know if they hired since it's a family-run place. So when Michelle was talking to us, Katie asked if they were hiring in the fall. Michelle asked if she was looking for a place to work and Katie just looked towards me and said, "Well, someone is," and just smiled. I was super excited to hear that Michelle said that she would keep me in mind!!! They only have seven people on their staff and won't just hire anyone, so that was really cool! We ended up talking to Michelle longer that we had planned for and didn't leave the cafe until 11:15 and I had a babysitting job at 11:30! And I still needed to run home to find out where they lived. I knew that they were near the middle school I went to, but didn't know exactly where. Katie offered to drive me there and after getting their address, still needed to call the the person I was babysitting for to get directions. We eventually made it there at about 11:35. Thankfully, Allison (who I was babysitting for) was just fine with it. She only wanted me there early to explain some things about watching Lydia (who was born about a month and a half ago and absolutely GORGEOUS!!). After showing me everything, we still had about ten minutes to talk before her student got there. So for the hour that I was watching Lydia, I just walked around the neighborhood with the stroller and now here's my point that I've been trying to get to. So I was walking around and the sky was blue and everything around me was green and I was thinking about my day and all those people in my life and I just felt this total feeling of being overwhelmed. I was thinking of how totally blessed I am! I have these awesome people in my life... awesome Christians that I can talk to and be around and I just felt extremely blessed and it was really cool. I am SO glad that God has put the people He has into my life! They are such and encouragement and such a blessing and for that, I am truely thankful!!!

SUPERCHICK!!!

For those of you who don't know, the new Superchick CD came out yesterday, and I so convienently was able to stop at the Family Christian Bookstore on my way walking home from Olive Garden with my friend. So I bought the CD and had just enough money to get it and I am definately loving it!!! Yet again, Superchick has another amazing CD!!! I've listened through the CD twice now, and two of the songs that I especially like are Crawl (Carry Me Through) and Cross The Line. I do have to clarify that on Crawl, I was a little bit confused by the first line of the chorus: And if I had to crawl/Well you'd crawl, too. The song is being sung to God and so I was a bit confused by that, but after talking to my dad, he referenced the verse of the Bible talking about weeping when others weep and rejoicing when others rejoice... So it makes a bit more sense now. Here are the lyrics to Crawl. Let me know what you think!!

How long will this take?
How much can I go through?
My heart, my soul aches
I don't know what to do
I bend, but don't break
Somehow I'll get through
Cause I have You

And if I had to crawl
Well You'd crawl too
I stumble and I fall
Carry me through
The wonder of it all
Is You see me through

O Lord, where are you?
Do not forget me here
I cry in silence
Can you not see my tears

When all have left me
And hope has disappeared
You'll find me here

Rebelution!!

Yesterday, my family and I got up at 5:30 in the morning in order to be able to leave for Minneapolis by 6:30 so that we could get to the Rebelution by 8:00 to register. I can't really say that getting up at 5:30 is something I enjoy (getting up at 6:00 in the school year is bad enough!) but it was definately worth it!!! Alex and Brett Harris, who started the blog, The Rebelution, recently wrote the book Do Hard Things. The book and the blog is all about teenagers rebelling against low expectations. The link to the blog is www.therebelution.com and I strongly encourage all of you guys to check it out!! Anyway, the tour was absolutely amazing!! The singing was awesome and the preaching was great! There's so much to talk about from yesterday, but I'll only point out the things that stood out to me the most. One thing, that I know is in the book (I've only read the first 4 chapters so far...) and got me when I read it, too, is talking about the elephant (on the blog, there's a couple links on the right hand side-go to the Myth of Adolescence parts 1 and 2). Summing it all up, an elephant will stay put if it just has a rope tied around its back right leg that's attatched to a wooden pole because when it's younger, it's attatched to a tree with a chain and when the elephant gets older, once it feels that resistance from the rope, it gives up. The elephant could easily break that rope and run away, but there are "shackles around its mind" and therefore gives up. (Okay, so that was kind of a not-so-good summary of it, so I guess you now have to go check out the blog :)) The elephant was compared to teenagers because we could do so much more than we do, but because of our culture and their low expectations for us, we've given up-we have shackels on our minds, too. Another thing that stood out to me was when Brett was talking about how the challenges that we face now are no more difficult to us than the challenges we've faced in the past. But now, as we grow older, if math is hard for us, we just say, "I'm not a math person," and it's accepted as an excuse. But if a toddler who is being potty-trained (I found this part quite funny, but it was also very true) is having issues with the whole training, and if they were to say, "I'm just not a potty person," that would be no excuse. They would keep being pushed until they were potty trained. But going back to the old challenges/new challenges things, he said that a high schooler learning algebra was no harder for them than a 2nd grader learning basic math functions was for them. And thinking about it, I remember when I was learning division in 3rd grade, and I wondered why 7 divided by 3 couldn't work. I definately had the same type of confusion this year in geometry. Although the problems were more complex and difficult, it wasn't (much) harder for me than when I was learning division. And knowing that was super encouraging knowing that I've gone through challenging things in the past, but that I'm able to get through the new challenges that I face, also.
Oh, and also the title of the book was a thing that I've come home really excited about- doing hard things. I really want to challenge myself to do things that are difficult for me. Except almost all of the things that are really difficult for me (mostly talking to people I don't know/I'm not comfortable with) are things that I would be more able to doing at school. So right now, my hard thing is acctually finding a hard thing I can do right now... :) haha not really. But I definately am brainstorming!!
I really hope you guys check out the blog and tell me what you think!! I've found (and this is acctually something they pointed out in the last session) that sticking with doing things (in this case, hard things) is somuch easier to stick to when you have good friends/companions to do it with and it would be awesome if I could stick with you!! :)

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Andrew had his Fever Fest today, which is this day-long baseball tournament. They played two games- one at noon and one at 4:00. They won the first game easily-in an hour and fifteen minutes, 5 innings, 6 to 0. Their second game was the championship game and I really wanted them to win. They've worked so hard this year and done so well, but I suppose the other team has, too. For a while, they were ahead by quite a bit, but in the 4th inning, ended up beind by four, which is what the game ended up being. They lost, 12 to 8, but it was a really good game and although it didn't sound close, it really was. I was really excited because Andrew got a really great hit and got a double off of it. It was pretty sweet. :) Also, for those of you who know Josiah, he got a triple, which was also extremely exciting, and Jake, too, got a really sweet hit. It was a really fun day. Although, being out in the sun forever, I got a pretty bad sunburn (the worst I've had) and I really hope it doesn't peel, because I've never experienced that before and I hope not to have to!! There's also this really weird rash-like thing on my arms and I acctually got that last year at Fever Fest, too. It looks like I had an allergic reaction to something and I'm pretty sure that I'm allergic to the sun one day out of the year. :) There have been days where I've been out in the sun for even longer amounts of time (like the camping trip I went on with the girls from church a few weeks ago) and that never happens, so I'm not really sure what's up with Fever Fest, but oh well!! I got some pictures from today, so maybe I'll try to put those up once I get them on the computer, although they're mostly of Andrew as catcher, and you can't really see his face, but still. All in all, today was pretty intense, very fun, and just amazing. :)

Intense

It has been way too long since I've written in here and SO much has happened!! If you're reading this today, it's pretty much going to be a novel, just so you know...

So, to get the smallest thing out of the way (which I have been counting down the days for for 3 months-that just shows you how intense everything else is) SCHOOL IS OUT!!!!!! I'm definately really excited for this summer! I started my summer book list already (I've probably got almost 20 books on there!) For today, I think I'm just going to relax for reasons that I'll share later.

Secondly, last week on Wednesday, my parents showed me this little boy named Tong Ju on the America World website that my parents felt pretty strongly about. They asked Andrew and I what we thought and asked us to pray about it. I went from Wednesday-being almost dead set against it because I had become very attatched to a sister, to Sunday-after praying about it, felt like we really needed to look at Tong Ju's full file, to this past Wednesday-after giving the file to our doctor, we learned that this little boy probably had fetal alchohol syndrome, which explains why he's so small, active, and why his IQ scores were so low. Our doctor said that he would possibly never be able to live on his own, he would have difficulty learning to speak the language, and he really needed to have a stable living environment. Living in Eau Claire for 7 years has been the longest time we've ever lived in one place and after praying about it, felt like we probably weren't going to be the best family for him. He was absolutely the most adorable little boy I've ever seen. And over those few days that we all really believed he was going to be a part of our family, I grew pretty attatched to him. So please be praying for Tong Ju!!

Lastly (maybe, because there has still been a TON that has happened within the past few weeks), yesterday, as I was biking home from school, the plastic bag that I had my sweatshirt in got caught between my wheel and the metal bar by my wheel, making my front wheel stop, and I flew over the handlebars and slid on my face. My friends, Rachel and Laura, were biking home with me and Laura came pretty close to crying. For the first 5 seconds after the crash, I just looked up and really had no idea what was going on, but eventually figured it out and got up with some help from my friends. I acctually started laughing when I got up, so even though I'm pretty sore today, I dont think I broke anything. I went to the chiropractor today and got adjusted, got my nerves and muscles tested and some other stuff, but the x-ray machine kinda broke, so we're waiting until Monday when I go back in to get checked out again. The spot on my forehead was a pretty sweet color red, though, so that was cool. :) I'm kind of bummed, though, because Bekah left for Pennsylvania yesterday morning, so by the time she gets back, it'll probably be mostly healed and I think she would probably appreciate it. It would also be kinda fun because I think she would probably be able to laugh at me (in a friendly way, of course), instead of pity, which would be a nice change. I took pictures, though, so I guess I'll just show those to her when she gets back!





There was also last night's end of the year party, today's issue with another friend's party, camping last weekend, and a really good talk I got to have with Katie from church, but maybe that will have to wait until later.

Love you guys and miss you lots!!

It Happens

As some of you guys probably already know, Steven Curtis Chapman's youngest daughter, Maria, was hit accidentially by one of her older brothers while she was in the driveway. I'm not sure how accurately I can give this information, so I'll just give you guys the link.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080521/TUNEIN/80521174/1005/ENTERTAINMENT

Although these things are extremely devastating, and I can't even begin to imagine how difficult it is for all of them, but these things happen and through it all, God is still in control and it's all part of His ultimate plan. So keep the Chapman family in your prayers!!

On a much different note, David Archuleta didn't win American Idol last night, but he'll have no difficulty getting a record deal, and I'll of course buy his CD, so it's all good. I've heard that American Idol controls you for like 5 years after you win, anyways.

Only nine more days of school and counting!! And then... oh happy summer!! :)

Have a marvelous rest of your week guys! And don't forget to pray for the Chapman family!!

EEP!!!

The only reason I'm on the computer this early is that I'm waiting for the shower and really don't have much to do right now. Anyways, last night was the final performance night of American Idol and David Archuleta (my favorite) totally blew me away. His last performance was a song that he had already done (and had already done amazing on) and I was a little bit worried that he chose a song that he already did, but I acctually think that you were maybe supposed to... No matter what you were supposed to sing, he did even more amazing last night than the first time!! To give you an idea of the performance:



Have a marvelous day!! :-)

Apocalyptica

My eye doctor acctually was the one to inform me about these guys when I told him I played cello, so I just checked them out now and... woah. It's pretty intense. So I thought I'd share in case you guys were interested!





So... you guys think that I should join?? :-)

Prince Caspian!!

I FINALLY saw Prince Caspian today at 5:15!!!! Yes, I am well aware that it only came out yesterday, (if anyone should know that, it would be me!) but that was forever ago!!! You see, we were going to see it for my friend, Laura's birthday party yesterday, but she made her younger brother cry by telling him he needed to change his shirt more than once every 5 days and got grounded. She could still have the party, just not go to the movie.... so we went bowling instead. It was kind of strange logic, but I don't have any right to say anything since I'm not Laura's parents and also don't know everything about everything that's going on. So yes, the party was still fun and I won when we played bowling!!! ....with an 87 :)It was acctually really fun. We watched The Island and Mean Girls last night and Cloverfield this morning. The thing with Cloverfield is that they had a creative idea with the whole movie being like a home video, but the thing was that sometimes it was really confusing and you never really found out what in the world the monster thing was or why it was there or where it came from or what happened after the attack. I thought it was kind of lame. It was kind of a waste of an hour and fifteen minutes. So then we made ratatouille for French class which was.... interesting. :) We wanted to make our ratatouille different from other people using that recipie (there were 4 or 5 recipies that we could choose from) and so we had to go back to my house to look up other recipies to see what we could add to it because Laura's parents have blocked off pretty much everything on the internet for her to use. So it was raining (well, heavy sprinkling) on our way back to my house and all I had was a t-shirt. When we got to my house, the front door was locked (my parents were gone and my brother was at a friend's house) and I couldn't get the gate open, so we had to "break in" by climbing over the fence. We decided that it probably looked like we were teenage delinquents breaking into some random house or something and hoped that our next-door-neighbors weren't home. So we finally got inside and once we got the computer turned on and the internet up, a couple of our other friends who stayed behind at the house to keep working on the ratatouille called and said that we were done. So we basically went over there for nothing, but oh well. We got a pretty good laugh out of the whole thing. :)
So now... PRINCE CASPIAN!!!! I never acctually finished re-reading the book, and am kind of glad that I didn't because otherwise I would have sat there critiquing everything that didn't exactly follow the book. There were a few things that they could have done in the movie and more like the book that would have made other things less confusing for the people who hadn't read the book. There was also one really strange thing in the movie that happened that wasn't in the book and one really awful thing that they did in the movie that most definately was not in the book that I got really mad at them for adding. If you've seen the movie already, you'll probably know what I'm talking about and if you don't, feel free to e-mail me and ask me... I'll be more than willing to share with you how I really feel!! ;) Anyways, in all, I did enjoy the movie... just minus the tiny lack of description and that one really lame thing. :)

Happy Birthday!!!

Well, this seems to be the month of birthdays and just thought I'd say a quick Happy Birthday to all of you guys who DO have a birthday in May!!

May 12-Eric
May 13-Laura
May 15-Mrs. Botzet
May 17-Jordan, Micah K.
May 25-Pastor Lee
May 26-Maria
May 27-Katie R.
May 29-Jenny
May 30-Grandma Joan

Well, I'm hoping that I didn't forget anyone, although I'm pretty sure I probably did.... so Happy Birthday to everybody!!!

Also VERY exciting May event.... PRINCE CASPIAN COMES OUT ON THE 16TH!!!!!!!!! I am so excited for that you wouldn't even believe it!!!!!! I'm acctually in the process of re-reading the book right now since I haven't read it since about 5th grade and I really don't remember what happens in it. Acctually there's kind of a funny story to go along with that... On Sunday I decided I was going to start reading through that before the movie came out on Friday and when I went to go get the book, all of the Narnia books were there except for that one. So my little brother, Andrew, had been reading them and that was the last one he read (forever ago, I might add) and when I asked him for it back, he couldn't find it. I made him look for half an hour with no luck and so when my parents went out to run some errands, they got me a new copy-with movie pictures!!! I was pretty pumped... but still kinda dissappointed that I no longer have my complete acctual set... so I'm still looking for the book, just not as thouroughly (if that's even how you spell that). So I read the first 3 chapters on Sunday night and haven't had a chance to read it since then until today in French after my test, so now I have chapter 4 read. I guess I'd better get going on that. :)

A Very Sleep-deprived Kirsten

Some of you guys know this, but I've kind of had a history of having a bunch of headaches constantly all around one period of time. The first time (that I acctually remember doing something about them), they got better after we started going to the chiropractor. The second time, they got better after I started taking cold lunch ALL the time (because otherwise my lunch money would run out and I would forget to pack lunches... oops) and got some protein in me during the middle of the day. And now, I'm having them again. After talking with my chiropractor today and with my parents, we think the reason might be that I'm super sleep deprived. If I'm LUCKY, I get 7 hours of sleep, and I need about 9 and a half. There's also the stress factor. All of a sudden, all my teachers have decided that we need more homework and I've got homework coming out of my ears. I've also got a bunch of after school activities that I've been doing, and I have like NO time for much of anything else. I've been getting really anxious for school to end, but also am looking for a summer job. So, I'm off to bed now (about an hour earlier than normal) and hopefully after a while, I won't be so sleep deprived and I hopefully won't keep having these headaches!

Earth Science + important project = bad grade for Kirsten!!

Alright, so I've got this project for Earth Science where we have to make the layers of the earth. We get to use one container, and have to make it as if we stuck that container into the core of the earth... what we would see. The layers have to be proportional, and similar structure and composition. I have pretty much NO ideas (especially what to do about the liquid layer) and if you guys happen to read this by tomorrow (Sunday, May 3) and have any ideas for how to make this work... that would be lovely!! My container is an old peanut butter jar, if that makes any difference.

So... here's a mini update on Kirsten's life: Last night I went out to Applebee's with a couple friends and afterwards went to the college campus worship thing, Unified. The first half of the night, there were only a couple of songs I knew, but towards the last half I knew a lot of them and it was really cool because in one of the songs, I think almost every person in the room (for those of you guys who have been to UWEC, Hibbard 100 was completely filled and just about overflowing) had their hands raised and it was really amazing. It felt like being at camp again. Being surrounded by a TON of people whose hearts are on fire for God. Acctually, it's kind of similar to what church is like for me nowdays. Well, minus the TONS of people. But the same type of atmosphere. It was really cool. Now today, I went to a few friends' Irish dance recital and they did amazing. One of my friends acctually had a migrane and her back was hurting and sat out on the first couple dances she was supposed to do, but was able to get back in there for the last dances. They all did a really good job! The recital was at our old church and it was really cool because I walked in, and everything was familliar, but it just wasn't home. It didn't feel like I was going there for church or youth group or anything else. It felt like I was going there to watch some friends in a dance recital and it was such a blessing to feel that. To have a church family and a church home away from that, which truly did feel like home. God has most definately blessed my family and me with this new group of people at our new church... our family. It's pretty amazing how God can put a bunch of people in your life at church and just about instantly, you can already be family. That's what happened at the church that we're at now, and not kidding, there are some things that they know about me that not even some of my closest friends from school know about me and I think that's pretty cool!! I'm definately seeing the reason why they're called brothers and sisters in Christ!!!!!!

I'm Okay!!

Alright, well we went to Urgent Care around 7:00 and got back a little bit after 9:00. After talking to the doctor, he thought that it could be some build up in my intestines, appendicitis, or an infection in my gall bladder. So I had blood drawn, x-rays were taken, and a urinary sample. After everything, the x-rays pretty much gave it away. There was gas in my intestines and my intestines were trying to squeeze to get it out or something like that. So now I'm just waiting for the cramping to go away and maybe I'll end up going to school later. I missed last Wednesday, part of Friday, yesterday, and now at least some of today. I really SHOULD go to school, but the thing is... what's the use if I'm not even going to be getting anything out of it because I'm too worried about cramping? Oh, and the doctor did say that the cramping should go away and if it doesn't, we should go back in to get it checked out because in the early stages of appendicitis, the white blood cell count can be normal. So there's still a chance of appendicitis, but that's (thankfully) not what he thinks it is as of right now!! Thanks for your prayers!

??

Ok, normally it's pretty much impossible to get me sick... but in the past month or so, I've gotten stay-at-home sick 2 (maybe 3 today) times. Yesterday was #2. My parents thought I had what my dad had a week ago, which included stomach ickiness and a headache. Andrew acctually came home around 1:15 or so sick, too. The only difference was that he got sick, threw up, went and took a 2 hour nap and he was pretty much all better. So anyways, now today... I was in the shower and randomly got this major crampinng/pinching-like feeling on my right side to the point where I couldn't move anything, or take my hand off my side or it would be quite a bit more painful. Breathing even hurt a little bit if I sucked in too much air at once. It got a bit better after I got out of the shower, and now it's only minorly hurting, but we're still taking me to Urgent Care to check it out. I have to keep reminding myself that God is in control and whatever happens, He's got it all worked out and it will be for His glory. Oops... time to go!!! Please be praying!!

Procrastinating

I think that internet is terrible for me because that's pretty much how I procrastinate. I really need to practice (but I prefer not to when my family is here because I feel weird...) and I really need to get caught up in Pride & Prejudice for English. I love that book, but it's not the kind of book where you can just sit down and read it forever. So anyways, I figured that it's been a week since I last posted, and I figured, "Hmm... maybe I should do that..." So after this, I need to do some of the stuff I need to get done.
I had a few pretty awesome things happen this week. The first one being on Wednesday. We had a field trip for English to the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis to see A Midsummer Night's Dream. I wasn't really sure what to excpect, and almost leaning a bit towards expecting it to be kinda boring and confusing. That was not the case AT ALL. It was SO funny!!! I acctually started crying at parts because it was so funny. It was set in more modern day time, but stuck to the Shakespeare language, which they did in the newer version of Romeo & Juliet movie. We watched the end of that in English class and I really didn't like it. But I really loved how they did it at the Guthrie. We also got to talk to some of the people involved in the play before we saw it and we got to talk to one of the actors, which was my favorite person in the play. He was hillarious!!
Then on Friday I went on another field trip for Orchestra. We went to the Minnesota Science Museum and then saw the Minnesota Orchestra. The science museum was really fun. We did this really weird animation thing where you're supposed to plan your poses out and when they put them all together, it kinda looks like you're moving. We did something kinda like the wave. I think the coolest that we saw, though, was the mummy. I was totally fascinated. It was really cool in a disgusting, amazing kind of way. Then we all got to go off on our own for dinner and I and 4 friends went to this Chinese place which was really good. One of my friends spilled her water all over me and got rice in my shoe because they were giving me blisters and I had them off. But it's all good. I survived. :)
Last night we went over to a couple's house (Katie and Jeremiah) from our church and Katie made white chili for us and it was AMAZING!! Katie had called earlier in the day and acctually said that she was really glad that it was cold out so she could make it for us and show it off. She's so funny. :) So after that, we played Monopoly for like 3 hours and still didn't finish. I had the most money and property at the end, and was given the title of winner for that game. I've never won that game, so it was pretty much a "woah!" moment. I had so much fun playing, though! I'm pretty sure I would've lost, though, if Katie and everyone hadn't kept reminding me when people landed on my spots.
Then today, I went to a WoCo concert, which was really cool. Their themes were hope and love. Their first song, they were all in the aisles and all the lights were completely turned off and it was really cool. I got chills. There were also dancers to one of my favorite songs and they did this REALLY weird interpretive-like dance to the song and I honestly really didn't like it. I thought it was really weird and kind of distracting. But oh well. What can you do, right? Over all, the concert was really amazing!! Yay WoCo!! :)
Well... time to go get that stuff done. But I don't know... you might have a whole 'nother (I say that all the time, but have NO idea how to write it) version of this to read if I feel the need to procrastinate again!


Just kidding. :)

Recovering

I've got a couple of things that I'm recovering from today. 1) My cold that I got last weekend and still trying to get over it. 2) My extremely busy day yesterday!! It was fun, though. Jess came and picked me up around 10:00 yesterday morning and we went to The Living Room and I got my favorite chai in the world (their raspberry chai) and a lemon poppyseed muffin (which was also very good). We had a really good talk about a lot of stuff. It was super nice to see her again! About two minutes after I got dropped off at home, Elizabeth R. came over (and I haven't seen her since December) and I had my first grilling experience. It took us about an hour to grill our piece of chicken for our grilled chicken salad. It was fun, though. :) The salad was acctually really good, and I'd say it was worth the wait. After making our salad, we had an "intense" game of horse, which wasn't really very intense. About two minutes after Elizabeth's parents came to pick her up, Bekah got to our house because we went to hear John Piper with a few of my dad's students that he does a Bible study with. Bekah and I DID get into a pretty intense alphabet game where you have to find the letters on the signs. The first way we played it, it was just any letter you saw. The second game was the intense one. You could only do letters at the beginning of a word. There was this one street we were on where we got Q, V, AND X (plus all the ones in between). We had a little bit more trouble with the Y, but we eventually got it on a sign that said, "Thank You". It was pretty fun. :) As we were leaving Bethehem, though, there were a couple of damsels in distress having car trouble, and so all the guys were on the ground checking the car out, acting like they knew what they were doing. It was so funny and even more so because my dad got out his phone and took pictures, but we weren't supposed to laugh to give it away. Bekah and I had a pretty tough time with that one. :) Then we went to this AMAZING place for dinner, Annie's, and they had these malts, which were HUGE. The were absolutely AMAZING, though!! I was determined to finish mine. It was kind of funny because none of the guys finished their's, but Andrew and I finished ours. Bekah found that quite amusing. Then we played this game on the way home where each person says only one word. We had a repeated theme of eating, melons, chickens, and purple animals. The best one, though, was about Queen Fanny, the purple elephant, who ate gas stations, porkchops and other elephants (okay, so maybe that's a bit... weird... but it was pretty funny when we came up with it). All in all, it was a really fun day, but a lot to recover from!!

The Lord's Prayer

Okay, you guys, these are both SUPER ADORABLE!!!! (I especially love the little girl singing the Lord's Prayer :))

Oeuf

Okay, so my brother always makes fun of me for saying, "oeuf" whenever I pick up something heavy or have difficulties getting into the car, so I just thought that I'd point out that it is, in fact, a word. ....Alright, so it's a word in French, but a word none the less. And that word also means "egg" but oh well. Just thought I'd clear that up. :)

So anyways, this weekend was super hectic, it was insane. On Friday, I babysat my brother while my parents went to the Viennese Ball and came down with a pretty awful cold. That night, after hassles with getting Andrew to bed, I woke up around 12:45 because of a stuffy nose and loud parents and didn't fall back asleep until a little bit before 2:00. For some reason, my body just didn't want to sleep and I woke up Saturday morning around 7:30-ish (and on Saturdays, I'd usually still be sleeping until at LEAST 8:30). So all day Saturday I was freaking out calling a friend of mine because she was going to let me borrow one of her dresses for Saturday night when I got to be my dad's date to the Viennese Ball. After calling my friend a number of times and I got no call back, I resorted to calling one of the girls in my dad's choir, who we're also very good friends with her and her family, who have adopted 2 kids from China. So I went over to her dorm and tried on three dresses. One didn't fit, one went down too low, and the one that I ended up taking with me wasn't quite as dressy as I would have liked. So it was about 3:30 and we had to be at the university by 5:30 if we were going to have time to eat. So my mom and I sped off to the mall, where we quickly looked for an inexpensive dress at Deb. My mother found a dress which I absolutely adored once I tried it on, (I was so proud of her for picking out something that I liked so much) and it was only $30. So it was about 4:05 and my mother and I zipped back home and tried to get me ready as quickly as possible. We did make it on time and after we ate, I sat in the room where they do the opening ceremony for what seemed like forever. It was FREEZING in there, too. And I could've sworn that there was a breeze where we were sitting. My dad and I enjoyed laughing at the freshman guys in the men's choir because they had NO idea what they were singing when they did the Beautiful Danube (in German) and pretended to mouth the words for like 3/4 of it. (After just reading that, we sound kinda mean, but honestly, we really weren't that mean ;) ) So we did a bunch of polka (a few songs with my dad and a few with one of my buddies from the China tour in 2005) and some swing, too. We ended up leaving a little bit after 11:00 because my feet were killing me and we had to get up in the morning for church. By the time I got to bed, it was around midnight. On Sunday, after church and then lunch, my mom remembered my recital (which I was REALLY hoping she wouldn't) at the last minute because I had asked about something I was going to do this weekend. So I had to go play in that, even though I was feeling really sick, but my teacher moved me up so I played 4th instead of 3rd to last. Which was nice because then we got to leave right after I got done playing. A very lovely part of my Sunday, though, was that I got a call from Jenny, and it was so good to talk to her and acctually hear her voice again! It totally made my day. :) So I guess for the most part, that's my weekend in a nutshell and it's looking like I'm going to have another crazy weekend this week, but I'm looking forward to every single thing and it should be quite fun, even though it will be hectic!!

Insane

Well, I've had an insane couple of days. I'd have to say that yesterday was a lot better than today, though. So yesterday, was Wednesday, meaning we had dance. But Bekah wasn't able to make and so my mom drove me to Chippewa Falls and just spent the lesson time at Higher Grounds. So we basically did the normal stretching stuff and reviewing of the ballet positons and things of that sort. And we went over our dance and did some swing dancing. But there was something that we haven't done. We did 100 different kinds of sit-ups. It was totally insane and I'm pretty sure I've felt it all day long! Apparently, we're working on our 6 packs. :) So then next week, we're doing 200 and adding push-ups!! Yes, definately insane! So after dance, after some talking to our mothers, Annaka came back to Eau Claire with us (after stopping at her house for nicer clothes) to see Bethany play in her senior recital-which she did AMAZING in!! So we had quite a bit of fun sitting in my room talking and listening to music. It's really cool because I just feel so comfortable with her and we've both decided we need to do something like that again soon.

So today.... I was sort of an emotional wreck. I'm not sure quite what set it off, but I got way too stressed out and when my mom picked me up from the nasty weather of rain/snow (it was pretty much raining slush) I just started crying. I kinda felt bad because she got all shocked and was trying to help, but there's only so much you can do when you're driving and all I really needed was a hug. So I got home and talked about just one of the things that set me off and then she told me to go take a hot shower and then we could talk more. Which was a really good thing for me to do. It gave me some time to just cool down, chill out, and start thinking more logically than emotionally. Most of all, it was a good time to just pray. Basically, what happened in a nutshell was that I've been slapped in the face with the reality and sin of the world. A lot of contravercial topics have been coming up lately. With the whole school shooting thing, I overheard a few people in geometry talking and one of them asked, "If someone were to come into your classroom and tell anyone who believed in God to stand up, would you do it?" and 2 out of the three of them said they wouldn't and the other one said yes, but sort of hesitated. And all of them claim to be Christians. It was a sad thing to be listening to. Then there's been the whole issue with the Health teacher at the middle school I went to, who just announced to all of her classes that she was a homosexual. Acctually, some of you guys may acctually hear about that, because I've heard that there are newspapers and news stations that are picking up this story all around the country. I acctually had her when I was in 6th and 7th grade and she... well, there were some inappropriate things that came up. And yes, I know there will be uncomfortable things that come up, but these were things that were not in the curriculum. So those plus friend drama issues... yes, AGAIN... (which was acctually the main reason) have made my day quite interesting and emotional.

Well, I've got two tests tomorrow... one in Geometry, and the other in History, which is on ALL of WWII. A lot of stuff. I'm thinking maybe I should go over that again before tomorrow.... And hopefully I'll be a little bit less emotional by then!!

April 18th

So there's been this really big rumor going around school that some kid was going to come to school on Friday, April 18th (the anniversary of Columbine) with a gun. Almost everyone I've talked to outside of Laura and Rachel and people, have said they're not going to school that day because they were so freaked out. This has gotten so serious that our principal spent a few minutes over the announcement system talking about it. So you'd think that hearing that there's the slightest possibility that some kid might be coming into my school would freak me out, but the cool thing is that I've just felt this calmness throughout hearing about this. The thing is that even if there were to be a shooting, and I were to be shot, and I died, it's not a moment before God wanted me home. Whatever happens, God has had it planned since... well, since forever. That's the cool thing about being a follower of Christ- we don't need to fear death, we can acctually look forward to it. I just read Revalation 21 a few nights ago and was just overjoyed and so excited. I think the coolest part of that chapter, is that the reason we won't need a sun or any other light because that's how great God's glory is. God's glory gives us light. That's just so amazing!! And applying that to the whole kid with a gun thing... it's the same God. The same God whose glory will give off light is the same God who will be sovereign and get glory from whatever happens on April 18th. Which is so amazingly comforting and just awesome.

LONG Weekend

My goodness, I've done just about as much this weekend as I would in and entire week, which is pretty insane. So as I had said before, Laura and I went to Alyssa's house on Friday for her birthday, but we ended up not going to Mall of America since Laura wasn't going to be able to go. I was sort of expecting it to be a little ackward, but it wasn't, for the most part. We acctually had a conversation about homosexuals (I think because our Health teacher from middle school just officially announced that she was a homosexual) but it was kind of encouraging talking to her, because she didn't seem to talk about it like she was in favor of it. She almost seemed a bit uncomfortable with it, which was cool, because that isn't RIGHT. So I've been praying for her a lot lately, and really feel like I need to be talking with her (which is what Piper's sermon was on last night, and I'll talk about that part of my weekend, just not right now) but I'm not completely sure how. The thing is, she's heard the basic story of Jesus, so I'm not entirely sure where to start. And there's no possible way I could ever justly describe how amazing Christ is and what He did. So if you could be praying for that, and praying for Alyssa, that would pretty much be amazing. :)

So on Friday night, we stayed up until 3:00 in the morning (which was not smart, but they started watching a movie and if there's a movie on, there's no way I'll be able to fall asleep... especailly if I haven't seen it, which I hadn't) and I had to get up at 7:16 (I like setting my alarm for unusual times :) ). I acctually ended up waking up around 7:00 because Alyssa's younger siblings were playing Blues's Clues on the computer, and there computer was about 6 feet from where we were sleeping, and they were being quite loud about it. So anyways, my parents came to pick me up at 7:40 because I had Solo Ensemble. I played around 8:30ish and was SUPER nervous- to the point where I was shaking. I messed up so many times it was insane. One of my friends came in to listen because she was there to play with some other saxaphone players and had just finished and wanted to hear me play because she never had. Afterwards, she said that she thought it was really good, and my parents said that they thought it was good, but I thought that it was terrible. It turns out that Rachel (one of my friends who I've talked about with some of you), who played later in the day, checked what I got when she was there... and it was a two. Which is what I expected, but it was still kind of dissappointing. This is the first time I've gotten a two, so it's kind of a bummer. Especially because I thought I was pretty prepared... I just freaked out and got nervous. Oh well, I'll live.

Yesterday, the Van Goors, McDermotts, Murrays, Julie Webber, and our family headed out to Minneapolis around 10:00 because we were going to see the sports show. The women (besides Bekah, Hannah, and I) opted out and went shopping while everyone else went to the show. Bekah and I went off on our own after about half an hour because the men were walking too slow. After about half an hour by ourselves, we figured it might have been smart to bring one of the three cell phones in our group of people and went off looking for them. We pretty much spent the three hours looking for them and wishing we had money to buy ice cream. We all got back together at 4:00 and then found out that they did all of this really cool stuff that we never saw, so it was kind of a bummer, but oh well. After meeting back up with the ladies, we went over to Bethlehem for their Saturday night service. Piper preached basically about evangelizing. He spoke from 1 Peter 1:23 (I think?) to 2:3. I think my favorite point he made was when he was talking about how people talk too much when they're drunk. So then he went into how when we're learning about God and growing in our relationship with Him, we should keep wanting more and more and more until we're so drunk that we can't shut up and that we should constantly be talking about Him. There were A LOT of really great things said last night, but I think that was what stuck out most to me.

So that's pretty much my weekend in a nutshell (even though looking at how much I wrote... it's kind of a lot). And now I've got to go finish taking some pictures for Photography (since I haven't been home all weekend, and now have to do it today) and then I have to read 4 more chapters of Pride and Prejudice for English... but I don't really consider that homework because I love that book and probably would end up reading it today anyways. :) I hope you guys have a marvelous rest of your day of rest!

Ick...

Well, today has been... interesting. I was starting to feel sick last night at McDermott's and thought I was pretty much better this morning. It kinda turned out that I was wrong... I got to second hour Photography, and got an awful headache and started getting really warm. Then my stomach threatened to turn me upside-down. So between 2nd and 3rd hour, I called my mom and she came to get me. I tried laying down for about an hour and a half, but never fell asleep. So I got up, at some crackers and watched My Girl, which I had never seen before. I watched it on our Netflix online thing. If you haven't seen the movie, though, I recommend it. It was super cute, except I cried through the last half an hour, which probably wasn't good for my headache... but it was a really cute movie. I've still got that headache, and I'm starting to get warm again, which I was hoping wouldn't happen. I really wanted to go to Bible study tonight, and we're starting When I don't Desired God, but it's okay because we also just started that last night at McDermott's. It's still a bummer, though.

I acctually have a prayer request, though. On Friday, a non-Christian friend of mine, Alyssa, is having her birthday party. It's an overnight thing and then on Saturday we're going to Mall of America. Laura is also going to that, and it's just going to be the three of us. So Alyssa and I have been getting pretty close lately, and so my prayer request is that this weekend Laura and I would be able to minister to her. I've also been thinking about sometime bringing her to church with my family. So just be praying for this weekend, and for her in general. Thanks!!!

Spring Cleaning

Alright, so yesterday... I spent probably a bit over 7 hours cleaning my room. No, it wasn't THAT messy... I just went all out cleaning it. I cleaned off my dressers and desk, under my bed (which wasn't that messy because I cleaned under there a bit over a month ago), I went through all of my drawers in my desk (which were pretty much overflowing) and threw away most of the stuff, cleaned out the corners of my room that I haven't touched in probably a year (ick, I know), vacuumed for like half an hour because there was so much that I hadn't vacuumed in forever, and rearranged my room. Oh, and the obvious picking up the stuff on the floor. I'm still not completely done because when I moved my stuff around, I had to put some other stuff out of the way. But I decided not to do that today. So anyways... I'm pretty exhausted.

Church this morning was amazing, as always, though. One thing that really stuck out to me was when he was talking about hoping and specifically for Heaven. So we looked at this verse (which I sadly can't remember what it was) that said Heavens which referenced the invisible spiritual kingdom around us. It was really cool and I've been thinking about that a lot today. Annaka (yes, I've been spelling her name wrong... so sorry to Annaka!!) and her family weren't there today, which was sad. I'll see her on Wednesday for dance, though. But it still wasn't quite the same without her. You know how when you get together with a group of friends, and there's one person missing that's usually there, and it's just different? Not bad, but just different? Well, it was kind of like that... I did miss her, though.

It's about time to go to the McDermott's (Jake is already here... so I've had an interesting day since he got here...) and I still need to finish folding some sheets. So I'd better get going!! But I will hopefully be back on soon!

Exciting News!!

Alright, well, I completely forgot the last time I wrote to tell you about the exciting news!! So here it is.... my dad's choir's international tour will be to..... SOUTH AFRICA!!!!!! I'm so pumped it's incredible!!!! I want to go SO badly and I really hope we can make that happen!! It may get complicated if that's around the time that we go to China to get Hannah, but there are ways to make sure that those dates don't end up for the same time. If that would be the case, they can push up our travel date to go to China a few weeks. But if they're going to be right next to each other like BAM BAM, it might not work out so well with missing school and stuff. Also, the expenses.... It's not exactly the cheapest thing to go to China or South Africa... I still really hope that we can make it work though!! It's like my dream to go to Africa!! So that would definately be cool!! I don't really know much more than that, but I'll be sure to keep you guys updated!