Happy Turkey Day!!!

Well, once again, I haven't posted for like a month. Actually, it really almost has been. But I have realized that I don't have a lot of spare time, but that's ok, because I love my life just the way it is. : )

So... this past month has been good. I've done things like go to a Ravenna concert, the band my cousins Chelsey and Mark and some of their friends are in; play in a piano competition at KCU; go to a Thanksgiving/ Christmas parade (which was last night actually and was really fun), and spend time with my whole family because it seems like we're always having parties (and if it's not someone's birthday, we're celebrating like Columbus Day or something. Just kidding, we don't go that far, but we get together and have fun as often as we can lol). Which is why I'm sooo super excited about tomorrow, because...

It's Thanksgiving!!! I absolutely love the holidays and spending time with my family. So tomorrow, we go up to Nanny's (my dad's mom) and have a wonderful delicious meal (yum yum!). Then we go to Mimi and Papaw's (my mom's parents) and all the family comes in, and we have another yummy yummy meal. And by the end of the day, I am sooo stuffed. But it's ok, because the food is delicious and family is wonderful, and I just can't wait.

So some things I'm thankful for- oh goodness, the list could go on and on. I'm so blessed. But some of the top things are my amazing family, my great school, my wonderful church, my super good friends, my health (although... I do have a sinus infection right now. How ironic. But typically we're all very healthy lol) and my epic God! (Zane, I told you I'd use that sometime =] )
So I'm so blessed and thankful for all that, plus our freedom. We have freedom to worship Jesus whenever, wherever we want, and that is so awesome!

So anyway, everyone have very happy holidays, don't forget to be thankful for allllllllllll God's blessed us with, and happy turkey day!!! : )

Eighteen!!!

Today is my eighteenth birthday and it's been sooo great!!!

Well, for one thing, we don't have school on Mondays, so we got to be home today, and the school my mom teaches at is out for sickness, so she was home today with us too! So it was good bein with them today.

See, the day started out with us thinking we were going to get flu and pneumonia shots, but when we got to the health dept, the flu immunization things weren't even shots! They were just that mist stuff you spray in your nose, so that was no big deal. And then they told us they didn't give people our age pneumonia shots, even though we thought everything about that had been established on the phone earlier. But, I mean, hey, I was fine with not getting two shots today!

Then we went to Wal-Mart on the way home, and Mom bought some ingredients for quiche and other things for my bday. Then we came home and had a super fun day. It was gorgeous outside today, which made me sooo happy and surprised me since it's the end of October. So I spent time outside, and Jacqui, Gabriel (and even Mom for a while), jumped on the trampoline a lot, and we played football on it, which was really fun. Well, ok, football as in my brother had the ball, so I tried to tackle him and get it from him, but that didn't work so well. We just fell on the trampoline and were rolling all over the place, me trying to get the ball from him, and him keeping it from me, and then Jacqui tried to help too. We played that for a while, keeping the football away from the others, and the others like on top of you, trying to get it back. It was quite fun! lol :)

So now Mom's teaching her night class at the college, then when she gets home we're gonna have a little party. I was thinkin today that I'm sooo blessed. I'm surrounded by family and great friends who love me, and a God Who's crazy about each one of us, and He gave us this perfect weather and He made laughter which I love. I laugh a lot. I'm just so happy and thankful and, well, yeah, that's what I was gonna say. So anyway, I've had a super fun day. Oh, and my Nanny who has Alzeheimers just now called while I was typin this and she wished me a happy birthday, and it was so good talking to her. She still does pretty well right now. I mean, she's even still able to live by herself! But that's another reason that I'm so blessed: to still have my Nanny who's doin well, and for all of my wonderful grandparents; my Mimi just called too. :) So I'm just a very happy girl tonight. And I feel so blessed. :)

Fall Break!

Hey everyone-- it's fall outside!!!

Last week was my fall break and it was soooo wonderful. Just wonderful. I have a great school and great friends, and thankfully not a hard work load at all this year-- but I was ready for a break. The week was fun, but it started before that first Monday we got to sleep in. It began Friday evening for our middle/ high school spirit week banquet, or as we affectionately call it, "Formal Hangout." And see, formal hangout is the end to our wonderful spirit week, but I'll have to post about that later. I know I say that all the time, that I'll post later, but when something exciting happens, I want to put that right then. lol. So, oh yes! Formal Hangout...

We were dismissed at 2 on Friday after our fun and very messy olympics. We all had to go home, shower all the chocolate, oatmeal, etc. off of us (don't worry, I really will try to explain later). Then we got all dressed up and met at the picture studio in Sears to, well, get our pictures taken! Then finally, finally we got to go to Melini's. It's this delicious Italian Restaurant, and we were all very hungry. So we ate there (I got a wonderful portion of fettuccini chicken alfredo which was super yummy but also too much to eat. But no worries- I took it home and ate it for lunch the next day=] ) Then we headed back to school where we all got changed from our "formal clothes" into jeans and hoodies and played Keep-Away with a little ball, boys against girls, on the parking lot in the dark and the cold... it was so much fun! lol. We also had a little bonfire and we stood around that some, and we hung out in the gym and ate snacks and talked. It was really fun. We left about midnight and slept in on Saturday. It was so wonderful. That day I did absolutely nothing, and it made me very excited because I knew I was about to have a whole week of relaxation like that. So I'll give a quick over-view of my week. The funny thing is, the weekends encompassing fall break were actually some of the best parts of it, but the week was wonderful too.

Sunday afternoon we had a birthday party for our cousin, but we only got to stay a few minutes because I had choir practice at church, then I led worship, then we had youth. So after church Jacqui, Gabriel, and I went back over to our cousins' house, and we watched Bride Wars with Chelsey and Aunt Chris. It was a fun evening.

Monday- relaxtion. Completely. It was cool but sunshiny out, and I laid on the trampoline in the warm sunshine and was super happy that we were on break.

Tuesday- I had a piano lesson that evening, then we went to Mimi and Papaw's house and ate dinner and visited with them for a while, which is always really fun.

Wednesday- I went with Chelsey and Aunt Chris to help show Chelsey the course for her driving test, then we picked up Jacqui and Gabriel and we went back to Aunt Chris and Uncle Mark's house where we helped them move furniture and such. As we were moving Jesse into Randee's old room, we had House of Heroes playing really loud and we were eating runts candy from like 3 Christmases ago, and it was a blast! Then we ate dinner with them (Aunt Chris made a super yummy meal), then went to youth with Randee and Mark.

Thursday- We went to Mimi and Papaw's again. Fun! :)

Then Friday was the beginning of our fun weekend! We went down to Lexington to stay the night with Aunt Debbie and Leanndra because we were going to the Cincinnati Zoo the next day. But that evening I got to go to one of my best friends' football games in Bourbon Co, and I had a such a good time!!! And since we live like 2 and a half hours or so from there, I hardly ever get to see my friend, so it was really good to see him. Oh, and they won. Hooray!

And Saturday, we went to the zoo! We had a really great time there too. I hadn't been to the zoo in a long time, but it was so much fun. I'm sorry I don't have any pics to post on here, because we saw some really cool animals, but I didn't take my camera in with me, and my brother did, but I don't have his pics on here. But anyway, we saw elephants and lions, rhinos and tigers, seals, bears, birds, gorillas, monkeys... so many pretty, cute animals (and some not so cute. But very entertaining.) I enjoy watching like all of the animals, but I think maybe the tigers were my favorite that day. There was a beautiful mommy tiger and four little cubs and they were sooo cute. But the cutest thing was that the momma was resting there, with her beautiful face and fur, and her big pretty paws crossed so delicately (if a huge tiger can be delicate), and one of her little cubs was behind her just kinda laying there too with its little paw on his momma, and it was so sweet!! They were really cute!!

Then Sunday was homecoming at the church where my Papaw pastors, so we went there and heard great music (from some of our family; 0ur second couins to be exact), heard my uncle (who's also a pastor at a different church) speak, and had a delicious meal. Church dinners are the best.

So my fall break was very, very wonderful. Everyone needs some down time and relaxation once in a while, and I think my week was just about perfect for that. :)

My Beautiful Creator

Oh wow, I can't even begin to put into words my wonderful experience with God last night. It was just way too cool. But I'll try to explain it a little. :)

Well see, lately I've been having my quiet time outside under this huge oak tree on the hill behind our house, and it's such a beautiful, quiet spot. Yesterday it had rained, so I decided I would have my quiet time in bed before I go to sleep like I used to always do. But I really needed to pray, but I just wanted to do it outside where I was alone with God. It was still wet and it was gettin dusky outside, but it had stopped raining, so I went up on our hill and was about to sit down under that special oak tree when I saw and remembered some beautiful honeysuckle growing on a fallen tree just a few yards away. But the beautiful thing about them was that they were white and pink! They were so gorgeous! And I was even more amazed because it's the end of September, and there they are growing! And let me mention a side-note really quick: The other day, on like Sept 21, I was kinda sad because it was like the last day of summer (even though I really like the fall too). It's just that it's been such a wonderful summer, I didn't want to see it go. But after I told God about that, I saw those gorgeous honeysuckle (which typically are summer plants, right?), and I think He was giving me a little hug. Or maybe a big hug, just because He's God and He does that sometimes. So I walked over there and looked at them, and I could smell them- maybe because of the fresh rain- and it was just so pretty. I wanted to get a good picture of them, so I tried to take some, but I just couldn't capture the way they looked as I was seeing them- they were just so beautiful! But here are a few of the pics I got:

This is just some of the beauty I was surrounded by. And this was just the beginning of everything I saw yesterday.

(Ok, in the first pic in this row, do you see the little tiny cluster of white a little to the left above my head? Well, that was the honeysuckle! Just those few little ones! And yet they were growing so prettily. And, well in the other one of me you can't necessarily see the nature around me, but I just thought it'd be a fun pic. lol )

Well, so after I saw these beautiful honeysuckle, I was already pretty much amazed with God and His beauty, so I decided I wanted to see more. So I just began walking. Now see, we don't live on a farm or anything, and we actually don't have many woods either, but there are some behind our house. So I just went walking, and I was praying and praising God for His beauty. That just kept popping into my mind (or it does now anyway). Beauty. God is a huge, mighty, powerful, awesome, star- breathing God (see Louie Giglio speak of this on the How Great is Our God tour), and yet He cares enough about the little things- like us- to make us happy. To excited us. To exhilarate us. We're so blessed to have a creative God. A God of beauty.

Next I went up a little ways to this tree that had fallen and been pulled up out of the ground, and it's roots and everything were so huge, it made a little crevice in the earth. Again, a camera obviously can't capture everything the way I was seeing it, but it helps. A lot. So here's this, well, root...

This might not seem very beautiful to you. Actually it didn't really strike me as beautiful either. But it was soo cool and I just really liked it.

I was in a very wonderful mood by now. Actually I was when I began with the honeysuckle. But I was getting more excited now. I decided to walk around some more. I mean, I had no idea where exactly our property line ended, but our neighbors are all so nice and wonderful, I'm sure they wouldn't mind me walking around in their woods too. I mean, after all, they're woods, right? And plus, who would I be bothering? It's not like most people go hiking around in the rainy woods behind their houses. Well, besides me maybe. So anyway, I walked on, more and more amazed at the beauty and creation around me. And Iwas thinking "Why haven't I done this before? Why don't I do this all the time?? I have an awesome God!" And I realized my problems were very, very small and insignificant compared to our huge amazing God. Yet He cares about them anyway! He cares about me! I was just swept off my feet, and I realized that God was saying "Everything will be ok" and I was just like "God, You are so amazing." He really is. I hope you know that. Because after I came inside, I knew I couldnt keep this to myself. We're supposed to share about what God does for us. We're supposed to tell of His mighty acts, even if that's just a little walk through the woods. So I hope I'm getting my point across. Our God is amazing. I want you to know that OUR GOD IS AMAZING!!!

So I was just thinking all this stuff, and I couldn't really stop smiling. I'm sure it probably was a sight- some 17 year old girl walking around in the woods on a rainy evening with my boots on, my camera in hand, and a smile I couldn't wipe off my face. The good thing is- no one saw me! haha. So anyway, I was seeing all this beautiful stuff, but I obviously couldn't get pictures of it all. But I saw pretty leaves and tiny lavendar flowers and just all kinds of stuff. But this next thing I'm about to show you actually made me smile so much. I don't remember, I may've even laughed or made some exclamation or a gasp or something. Again, a camera can't portray the amazing thing I was seeing. I mean, the whole tree looked like this! But here's a little portion of it:

I did these pics extra big because I wanted you to see how awesome they looked. Like, all this fungi stuff is growing from them and it's absolutely amazing!

Well, then I went on, amazed all the while, and then I saw a maple tree, and I was like "We have a maple tree?!"- I think I said that aloud. So then I got a picture of one of its pretty, wet leaves.

Then I also saw this really cool lookin stump that was pretty and had more of that cool fungi stuff growin on it, along with leaves and other green things. So here's a picture of that too. (Ok, here I was practically in a neighbor's back yard. Well, I guess you wouldn't call it yard, but you know what I mean. I'm sure he wouldn't mind, but after I took the pic, I scurried back into "our" woods for a little while.)

Well, so that is the last picture I took while I was on my little walk with God, although I still saw some cool stuff. But I was (and still am) just so wowed at His creation. At His majesty and His power. His compassion and His creativity. His beauty. I felt so in love with Him. When I came in, I was just so happy- like I still couldn't stop smiling. I took my Bible and went up on our hill to have a prayer time with God, but I didnt even open it up. He ended up not speaking to me throught His Word that day- but through His creation. Through His creativity. And through His beauty.