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!