Magnificent memories.

My aunt allowed me to go through pictures that she's taken over the past year and pick out my favorites. The three on the top are from Labor Day. Along with the one in the middle and the one of the right. The one of the left is from Memorial Day, I think and the one on the bottom is from my birthday weekend. On Labor Day I was having a really hard time with everything going on with my Grandma. I spent basically the whole entire time in my room crying and you can see the tears in my eyes in those pictures. I love the way my grandma looks at her whole battle with cancer. She remains positive throughout it all, even when things are tough. i spent a long time talking to her on Thanksgiving and she just thinks it's a bunch of nonsense. That's what she called it. I know that she's not ready to give up, but it hurts me to see her not having a choice...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had our whole family over on Thanksgiving. All 17 of us gathered around three different tables with very much food. This Thanksgiving I was particularly thankful for my family. The fact that we could all be together one more year was amazing. Sadly, i'm afraid it won't that way next year. My Grandma is getting worse as the days pass and my Grandpa is getting worn out. I pray that we can be just as strong next year as we have been this year.

My youth group.

This is my youth group. Tonight we had a thingy for thanksgiving I guess. It was really awesome. We ate first, then did worship, then spent a lot of time in deep prayer. As time went on, I didn't even feel like I was sitting in that room. It felt like I was in heaven. It was one of the most amazing feelings ever. I pray that I can really take something from tonight and apply it to my life. All those things that we were praying. I pray that it all becomes true in my life.

Refrigerator explosion.

This morning my mom had just gotten back from buying all of the things we need for Thanksgiving. We are having all of our family over, so we have a huge 25 pound turkey, five million bags of stuffing, a billion potatoes, a trillion apples. You get the idea. Well..my mom was cleaning out the refrigerator before she put this huge abundance of food in. Washing the shelves and everything. So she took the bottom shelf out, let it sit for a little while to warm up on its own, put it in hot soapy water to wash it, then took it out and was putting it back into the refrigerator when it suddenly exploded right in her hands. Yeah...pretty crazy! So all of this glass went EVERYWHERE! and I was the one that got to shop vac it up.

I don't get joy out of the mundane.

Today was a day that I just kept thinking "I want to go back to sleep, I want to go back to sleep, I WANT to go back to sleep" The only thing that I did today that's worth mentioning is emptied the dishwasher. Yeah...boring, right? I thought so too. I have had a splitting headache since after lunch and it will NOT go away. I took an hour and a half nap and it went away from approximately five minutes. I hate the mundane things of life sometimes...

Making the best of goodbyes.

Today was my last day with my wonderful friends. It was definitely sad to say goodbye to them. I have no idea when the next time is that I see Gina and that makes me sad. But I may get to see Ryan in January at the Jason Gray concert at my church. That would be a lot of fun it if worked out. Gina and I had a fun photoshoot in the back of the car today to make up for what we missed the rest of the weekend being so busy. It was fun. Back to real life tomorrow. Boo!

Fabulous friends.

So..on this fine night Gina, Ryan and I all went out and played pool for two hours. I thought I was really bad at pool, but I guess I was wrong. By the end of the first hour I had won two games and Ryan and won two games. Gina had won none, but that's okay! She was very gracious about it. Then by the end of the second hour Ryan and I just couldn't break the tie. I had won three and he had also done the same. Gina ended up winning two. So she definitely redeemed herself. We went back to their house and Ryan made us frappachino's and we ate some cookies together. Some other very awkward things went on between the pool hall, the car ride and home. Let's just say that my pool stick has a mind of it's own. Ryan has a problem with kissing your hand and hitting the roof while you go under a yellow light, and Ryan likes to bathe with his intruments.

Homemade cookies.

On Friday I went down to Boynton Beach for a fun weekend with my friends Gina and Ryan. Gina is from the downhere message boards and Ryan is her brother. I met them both back in December at my first Jason Gray show. But anyways...we didn't really do much on Friday, but we did made cookies. They were GOOD. Gina is a cookie monster. :-P

The sunset.

This was the beauty that I watched all the way down to Sarah's soccer game on Thursday night. It was so breathtaking. God's creation is so amazing!

Break-in's.

Last night there were apparently 10 car robberies on my street. The house two doors down from me had their car window smashed in and a purse was stolen out of the car. I don't really know why you would leave your purse in your car, but still..it's unfortunate. The house across the street from me was stolen from. Car..same difference. Those are the only two that I know of, but it's still crazy! Our cars were fine. We have two. My mom's and then my brothers. My brother doesn't keep anything valuable in his car and he locks his doors, so that's probably why. The above picture is from when the people from the news station were reporting down the street from us on the 5:30 news. Thank you Jesus for keeping us safe!

The great return of Keturah!

Keturah came home last night, and I got to see her today! Keturah, her boyfriend Wayne, her two brothers and myself drove around town and had adventures together. This afternoon while we were driving around her car definitely over heated, started smoking and couldn't be driven, or it probably would have exploded at any given moment. That was probably the most adventurous thing that happened. I look forward to better adventures than that this next month and a half that she's home.

P.S. I have no idea why my hair looks so bad in this picture. But it does. BOO!

Nikole and the accidental invite.

Tonight my friend Nikole sent me an IM inviting me to a chat on meebo. I checked it out, but it turned out it was accidental. But we then ended up to continue chatting, which was perfectly fine with me! I usually only video chat with my friends from far away lands, but it was nice to see Nikole's face tonight while I was just relaxing after a stressful day.

Joyful memories.

This afternoon I was talking to my wonderful friend, Gina, and she motivated me to get caught up on my memory book. I guess you could call it that. I save things from the really fun things that happen in my life. I started it last May when I went to Cornerstone Florida. There are a lot of concert tickets and stuff like that from concerts. Which is definitely one of my most favorite things. In this picture there are cards from my wonderful friends Julie and Liz. Then some stuff from the Switchfoot show I went to back on April 26th. Definitely one of the best live shows I have ever attended. I have kept all of the cards I have gotten from all of my friends from far away, because I think they are very sweet and they bring joy to my heart. Especially since I still have yet to meet half of them, they allow me to look forward to when we actually do meet face to face.

Beauty from pain.

Tonight we held a surprise birthday party for a lady at my church named Susan. It was a whirlwind of different things. It was fun, as you can see above, it was emotional, but in the end the only word I can use to describe it is beautiful. This woman is so inspirational. She is battling cancer and is a true role model. She constantly has a glowing smile on her face that can light up a whole room. Her radiance just rubs off on you, and when I see her smiling she literally makes my day better. She sits in the very front row in church on Sunday's and is always praising the Lord with all that she has. We went around the room tonight and told her why our lives are better with her in them. I didn't talk, because everyone around the room said all that I wanted to say. Throughout all of this, I couldn't help but to think of two people that are very dear to my heart. My grandma being one of them and Ron being the other. This morning I got news that Ron wasn't doing well at all and that he was being taken off of chemo and starting care with hospice. It literally broke my heart for Ron, Lori and their young son, Ben. I've met all three of them, and they are all so very sweet. Not only that, but I know the pain right after being notified that there will no longer be any treatment to try and kill this wretched thing known as cancer. I was there when my mom got the call from my Grandpa back on August 19th, 2008. I watched it tear my mom's insides up and sat there fearful, because my mom was breaking in two. I sat there not knowing how to handle my emotions. I was scared, worried, sad...I didn't know how to handle it. So I sat in my room completely numb. I believe that I have been numb up until today. Trying to ignore the fact that my Grandma is dying. Hoping that she will be here to see me get married one day. But I know that she won't be. My Grandma means so much to me and she is a total inspiration to me, too. I know that once she leaves this earth and goes to live with Jesus Christ, along with Susan and Ron that they will be in paradise. Living with their King. No longer suffering and in pain. While the ones they left behind may be suffering in their wake, we still have the hope of Jesus Christ. We know where we are going in the end. Jesus will be holding us in the palm of his hand comforting us the whole way. We can get through this. We all can.

I failed today.

I failed to take a picture yesterday, because to be quite honest, my day was extremely dull and boring. Last night I got picked up at 10:30 to see the new James Bond movie with four other guys. Yeah..it was a weird situation. My friend David still had to pick up our other friend Josh from work, so that was another 10 minutes, then 10 more minutes to the mall. By the time we got there it was 11:00 or something and it was too late for us to go into the movie. So David, Josh and myself ended up going to Walmart to buy a movie to go to the house that David is house sitting at and watch it. So Josh bought Get Smart. I saw it when it first came out, and loved it then. I don't watch many movies because I don't like how so many movies have to have sex in them for absolutely no reason at all. Get Smart is a pretty clean movie. Except for a few things that are a little questionable, I enjoyed it. Enough for me to watch it a second time. Which is saying something. I didn't get home until after 2 this morning. Crazy! But fun!

Banjo Kazooie.

Yes, I play video games sometimes. I played a Nintendo 64 for the first time when I was 5 years old. Throughout that time we got many different games to play on it. Banjo Kazooie and Banjo Tooie were two of those games. Well..yesterday Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts came out for Xbox 360. My brother reserved it and bought it yesterday. I've played my fair share these past two days and am loving it! It's so crazy how much STUFF there is to do in this game. I played for quite a few hours today and I feel like i've done nothing. Not only that, but it took me an hour and a half to beat the dumb witch because I don't know how to build my own car. When I said I play video games sometimes, that doesn't mean I actually really know how to play them. Or drive the stinking car either!

A moonlight drive.

The moon was outrageous tonight after church. It was lighting up the whole parking lot while I was sitting there. I watched it on my way home. I love the moon! Just not when it shines brightly through my blinds and keeps me awake at night.

The knot.

The past two days I have had a knot or something on the left side of my neck. I think I must have slept on it wrong or something. But it sure has been uncomfortable.

I ended up taking this picture today. I discovered this setting on my camera called Copy that I had never used before. I absolutely love it though. I love the focusing it does on my photos. I ended up experimenting with it a bit this afternoon taking pictures of flowers and stuff. I'm really pleased with the way they came out.

The Library Card.

This library card has a story of its own. It has over 10 years of stories built into it. I got my very own library card when I was 4 or 5 and I was so proud of myself for it. I always feared that I was going to lose it and then I would be in BIG trouble. I still have yet to lose it, and I don't want to get rid of it now. I laugh every single time I see my little signature on it, then that day comes back into my mind. I remember the trouble I had with that N. I was so frustrated that I messed it up, because I wanted it to look perfect. I miss being 5 years old.

The adventures of Britney and Kaitlyn.

Okay..so we didn't really have any adventures, but it was still fun to hang out together and enjoy each other's company. It had been since February that Britney and I hung out just the two of us, so it was definitely long over due. We had a good time laughing together and she's a really fun girl. I pray that I can be a good influence on her while she's going through high school. She's a few years younger than me, and sometimes things can get pretty confusing while you are in that stage of life. We also spent some time talking about books and through that conversation I ended up borrowing The Chronicles of Narnia which I have never read. I'm a bit behind on the times, I know.

Live Beautiful.

I won the two items above last Sunday. Live Beautiful is owned by the road manager for Downhere. The above items are all hand made and now that I have them in my hands, I absolutely love them. I just got my free Live Beautiful tote and journal this afternoon. The tote is big enough to fit everything I need, and then some. Now I don't have to worry about spending any money on a new purse. The tote is fashionable and definitely roomy. The journal is extremely cute, too! Not only that, but it's also an encouragement to live your life beautifully each day. "You are beautiful. Live Beautiful!" :-)

Supersonic.

Tonight while I was helping out at my uncle's brand new pool hall for the grand opening my cousin asked me if I wanted to go with her and her friend to Sonic. I thought it would be cool to hang out with my cousin, because I don't really ever do that except for at family gatherings, so I said I would go. It had never eaten at sonic before, so it was a new adventure all around. I had been wanting to try the peach tea for the longest time, because that's my favorite. What a let down. My first sip and it tasted like cardboard. I drank the whole thing though, especially after there was a jalapeno that accidentally got up on my sandwich and I almost died. I would probably eat there again sometime, because I really enjoyed my hamburger. I was a little disappointed when the girl didn't ride out on roller skates though...

The Oath.

In my minor break from e-mail, facebook, myspace, message boards, blogging, youtube etc. for I have no idea how long, I am trying to spend more time with God, family, friends, reading, spending time outside. Generally just doing things that time on the internet hinders me from. So I check my stuff in the morning, MAYBE in the afternoon and at night before I go to bed. That is a huge cut back for me, which when I look at it, it absolutely horrendous. I just started this yesterday and am praying that when I am done that it really will have great effect on me in the end. With all honesty it doesn't make me happy that I spend as much time as I do with my face in front of a computer screen. I hate sitting around my house doing nothing all the time. I like being active and feeling accomplished. So today, while it was so busy that I couldn't do school work, I did accomplish and conquer this book this evening. I had been reading it since February on and off. Such a good book! I recommend it. I would write more, but the sleep monster just hit me and bed is calling my name.

I can fix anything!

Where's the duct tape? It's on my power chord for my computer! I noticed a month ago that my power chord was looking like it was going to just snap, but tried to just go easy on it. Then today I noticed that it had gotten significantly worse, so I needed to do something about it. I'm not really sure if it can be replaced or not, but I stuck some duct tape on it and hopefully it will stay intact for now!

Election results?

I am in no way, shape or form in the mood to watch anything about this election. It stresses me out and i'm just so tired of hearing about all of it. So What you see above is what you get this evening. peace out!

P.S. The running shoes won today. :-)

Just a rip your hair out kind of day.

Today was a day where I wanted to go back to sleep and start over. It was annoying, frustrating, the works. I was doing a project for my english class that i've been working on for the past week. I then found out that I had totally put the whole thing together wrong, so I had to 'take it apart' and break it up. That was frustrating, because if I had just read the stinking directions all the way through, I wouldn't have had to do that. It was also an emotional day, too. I was also exhausted and ended up falling asleep before 10.

The running shoes or the chocolate?

That is the question. The answer is the chocolate. Yeah...it won. I'll run this week, right? keep me accountable! :-)

In other news, my day is so screwed up because this time change. Ridiculous!

The CDs.

These are my CD's from the other night. I already had the one in the middle. I just wanted to get it signed. Jason gave me his newest one on top. I bought Rush of Fools and Big Daddy Weaves came along with the fan package. I love music, needless to say. Rush of Fools new album is so good. The one thing I can say about Jason's newest release "Acoustic Storytime" is that it is amazing. This man never ceases to amaze me with the way he crafts his words so gracefully together. Please check him out at www.jasongraymusic.com