Beach Pictures

More coming later.

Captions on the bottom!

The girls :) Left to right, up the back: Amanda, Ellie, Kirsten, me, Cassidy. And in the middle, Bri.

YMCA :D (I'm C, btw.)

Cassidy, me, Ellie, Bri, Amanda, Kirsten.

Wheee!

Amanda and me in the knee-deep tide pool :D

Happiness :D

Mrs. Martha pushed me off! :O XD

>:D LET'S JUMP!

WHAAAA! XD

Charades: "How. In the HECK. Am I supposed to act that out???"

Charades fail XD

Climbing "Kendra's Cliff."

...I really don't know.

Cinderbelle.

Always and forever, FOOTIE PAJAMAS.

~Kendra

Beach Trip Recap

I'm back :)

W-O-W.

I have a big imagination, but I cannot imagine having a better Sweet 16 celebration than this beach trip. That was AMAZING. I LOOOOOOOVE my girlfriends. We're all really nice, really fun, really real, and really not into drama. We all got along great the whole time, no cattiness, no backstabbing, just a really fun beach trip. It was perfect. Lemme just hit the high spots...

Wednesday:
We drove down. That was fun. Long, but fun. We watched the Bourne Identity in the car, and ate dinner at McDonald's.

We got to the beach at around 9pm, but were locked out of the house! My dad had forgotten that my uncle had changed the locks, and we had to drive the realestate office and get the new key XD

We finally got into the house and dumped our stuff off. Then, we decided to walk on the beach a little. The house is great; you just walk out the back door, down the steps, and TA-DA, the beach :D It was totally dark, and kinda cold. We were all just standing around, but I got tired of that and ran for the water. I sprinted up this little hill at full speed.

All the sudden, no ground under me! I was freefalling! O.O *scream* Then I hit the sand. I was totally shocked and disoriented. Wha...?

I had fallen off a mini-cliff! Instead of sloping back down, the sand hill dropped off into a 5ft tall cliff!

Honestly, it was AWESOME. It was just like those scary dreams where you fall off a cliff: a burst of adrenaline, shock, fear, and you wonder what you're supposed to do about it...Then I hit the cushy sand XD

As weird as it sounds, I'd totally do it again. There's nothing like the sheer adrenaline of running off a cliff in the dark :D

Thursday:
Lots of pj-wearing, and my grandpa came! We girls walked all the way to the pier (only to find it was closed and "closely monitored with surveillance cameras" -_-), and Amanda and I walked all in the icy cold, knee-deep tide pools :D

Fajitas for dinner, then charades.

Just so you know, I HATE charades. If I could pick one game NEVER, EVER, EVER to play EVER, EVER, EVER it would be charades. I suck at it. Like, you would not BELIEVE how bad I suck. I mostly stand there looking like a deer-in-the-headlights while my teammates coach me through it >.<

After the TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO-GOOD, VERY BAD game of cha-shootme-rades, we watched "Pirates of the Caribbean". Well, we started to. We didn't finish it; we only got about halfway through it before we decided it wasn't worth keeping our eyes shut and went to our bedrooms XD

Of course, just because we girls were all in bed doesn't mean we went to SLEEP. We all stayed up and talked with our roommates for quite a while methinks XD

Friday:
We were all tired. I was tired. But it was fun. I kinda don't remember much about FriDAY, but FriNIGHT was the BEST.

Amanda and I weren't feeling very good (Kirsten blames the icy tide pools. Maybe she's right...), so we and Ellie and Kirsten went downstairs to veg.

We four talked for hours. HOURS. I love those girls. We had so much fun just talking and laughing and sharing secrets and talking about what makes good friends and on and on and ON.

We also--well, I say "we". Cavender's number got extracted, and Ellie and Kirsten decided to prank call him.

Me: "Nu."
Them: "Yep." *dials*
Me: "He's gonna know it's us."
Them: "No, he won't!"
Me: "Yes. He will. He's not an idiot."

They call anyway. He plays along, which kinda made Ellie's prank-calling day. I was kinda like >.< but he didn't mind, so it was 'kay :D

>more girly talk<

"Let's call him again."

...okay...

So, we did. Amanda talked to him first (well, kind of all of us did. He was on speaker.), then the phone got passed around and ended up with me. Lots of laughs over all this XD

At about midnight, we hung up with Cavender and most of the girls went to their own rooms. We were all kinda squished in our little room. Have you ever tried fitting three girls in a twin bed? It is not easy.

I was sooooooo tired. I rolled over against the wall and went in and out of wakefulness. They tried to keep me awake, but without muck success until Ellie started texting weird things to Cavender. Then I was like -___- *wakes up*. Only she never sent them, so then I went back to sleep.

I don't remember a whole lot about the rest of the night XD

Saturday:
*sob* Cleaning and leaving day. It was the warmest, sunniest day of all. Go freaking figure. *sigh*

We cleaned the house really fast (everyone is awesome, btw) and were on the road by 11am. We stopped at Subway and Wendy's for lunch, watching the Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum in the car. I was SO TIRED. And wearing my trucker hat again :D Pictures possibly coming soon.

The ride home was short and filled with silence, Jason Bourne, and iPods. Then we dropped everyone off at their respective houses, and Ellie's sister came and got her from my house.

I felt pretty...peaceful after everyone was gone XD But I miss them.

I am so. freaking. tired. You wouldn't believe it. I was getting in bed TWO HOURS AGO when my dad told me that my skating hero Apolo Ohno was gonna skate tonight. I was like -______- but I got up and watched him...He just now finished all his races.

Bronze. Frick.

Okay, I'mma go pass out now. Sorry if this doesn't make a lot of sense. I'll polish it tomorrow :D

kBai.

~Kendra

P.S. Friends are the best things ever.

Beach

I can't believe I haven't mentioned it much before. But, guess what?

I'm going to the beach with some people for my Sweet 16 :D We're leaving today and coming back Saturday. I might have internet, but even if I do, I probably won't post XD I'll be busy having lots of fun. I'll let you know how it was when I get back, but for now, goodbye!

If you wouldn't mind saying a prayer for safety and for us not to be too swamped in schoolwork while we're there, that would be great, lol :) Thanks, y'all!

~Kendra

P.S. I may have Kyle update if something REALLY MONUMENTAL happens. Like if we crash into the ocean or something. That'd be pretty monumental. Or if I decide to move to the beach. Or if we discover cold fusion by accident. Something like that. Or maybe just if we're having a really epic time. We shall see.

kBai.

~Me again

The Beaches of Ministry

Memory Day! :D A peek into my past...

When I was around two years old, I attended play practice for the Christmas play at my church. I was too little to have a part, but I went along anyway, I guess. During a break in practicing, the adults went aside to talk about some details and make some decisions. Meanwhile, I convinced the older children and teenagers to march around the sanctuary being camels. When the adults looked up from their planning, there was a train of teenagers stomping around the sanctuary pretending to be camels—with me at the front of the procession.

Haha, I don't know if that should really count as a memory--I don't remember it all that well. Mostly I've just heard the story told.
----------------------
First: Thank you, Rochelle Blue for the question! Yay!! So, the rest of you guys are off the hook--for now -.-

Classical Conversations (my weekly "school") was today. It went much better than last week. My class is slowly getting back to its old self. In biology, we looked at a piece of thread and some cheek cells under a microscope. That was pretty interesting, fun, and funny :) I had the best cheek cells :D Lots of epitheleal (spelling??) cells to sketch.

Cassidy and her family stayed for dinner (Domino's pizza), and we went to the revival service at another church where our church band played again.

We have the best church ever :P We play real music, clap, sing, and praise God! Some of the people were kind of shocked that we actually had DRUMS and ELECTRICE GUITARS, but after a few minutes, they seemed to like it. Of course, by the end of the songs, the 23 people who showed up from our church were basically the only people still standing :)

I liked the pastor's sermon a lot. He talked about how funny it is that we make plans, clear our schedules, pack up, load up the car, rent a beach house, take our stuff down to the beach, put on sunblock, set up the chairs, and then try our very best not to get wet or sandy.

Huh?

He said that that's kind of how some of us Christians are about God. We're really excited, but then we get to the "beach" of ministry where it can get a little uncomfortable, and we're ready to step back out of the water. It was really thought-provoking, and the pastor was really funny.

Well, I'm supposed to get off the computer at 10:15 since school started, and it's 10:20 right now, so I better go. Thanks for reading, and PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, don't hesitate to ask questions for Question Day :)

Thanks for reading, y'all!

OHH! I almost forgot! (Shame on you, Kendra.) I've been tagged by the lovely Bethany, a fellow LotR fan.

Rules: Tell 30 things about yourself! It's as easy as that.

1. I have never ridden in an air plane.

2. I can sometimes make my eyes change between blue and green, and once I made one blue and one green at the same time. I don't know if that's even really possible, though. Maybe it was just the light.

3. I used to have hair almost down to my waist.

4. I can speak Elvish a TINY bit.

5. I wear my mood ring on my left ring finger all the time, and when I get married, all my friends joke that we'll have to have a Ceremonial Removing of the Mood Ring :P

6. My favorite candy is M&Ms and Hershey Kisses.

7. I hate jelly beans and skittles.

8. So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.

9. I'm obsessed with names.

10. I love eerie sounding music.

11. Indian (like, the Asian kind, not the Native American kind, lol)/Arabic culture is my favorite.

12. I take a long time to make decisions of the heart.

13. I like pizza hot, warm, and cold, and I will eat it three meals a day for days on end if posisble. I never get tired of it. Really. Never.

14. I'm terrified of crane flies.

15. Only about six people call me by my really-obvious nickname.

16. I love food, but I don't like to eat. (I cannot explain this at all.)

17. I'm addicted to the computer.

18. I used to start tons of clubs when I was younger.

19. I used to want to be the first woman president.

20. Getting new followers makes my day. (Really, it does. I have no idea why. I guess it's just good to know that people care about what I have to say.)

21. I go to the best church ever XD

22. My biggest, deepest desire is to have an older brother.

23. My favorite books ever are the "Farsala Trilogy" by Hilari Bell.

24. I *love* the classic Disney movies (especially Aladin).

25. I love the Disney show Phineas and Ferb.

26. So do my parents. We actually got my dad a Phineas and Ferb beach towel for his birthday.

27. I'm singing the Cheetah Girls' "It's Over" for my audition. IF, that is, I can find the sheet music...*moan*

28. Kendra means "fire-sprung", but Kenda means "from the clear, cool water"

29. Smells remind me of things.

30. I have a weakness for older brother characters.

The end :)

I tag...

Abby
GracieTheFirst
Cavender
BJHamrick
Ciaraaa:)

It's...Okay To Be Back

We're home! I would say it's good to be back, but, well...vacation is pretty awesome, and I really still love my old house, so coming home was kind of...a downer :(


Brighter side: Vacation was pretty good! We stayed a whole extra day so that I could swim. Aw! I was so happy that my family would do that for me. It was great. There were some truly hilarious people that hung out at the pool. I laughed out loud several times. There was one family with two little boys, an older boy, mom, dad, grandma and grandpa. They were really something :) Southern and...not the most well-mannered family ever ;) Still, they weren't really obnoxious, and they were pretty funny. Their hotel room was on the third floor, overlooking the pool. They kept leaving stuff out on the balcony to let it dry, and it would fall off the railing. Once they yelled down at my mom and dad to get a flip flop for them, but mostly they just kept coming down and getting the fallen item and going back up. Once, I saw them spying on me with bonoculars. Lols! The older boy seemed like the most polite of them all. He was definitely in the redneck category, but he was considerate and seemed nice, too.


Uh-oh side: My mom almost lost all her favorite jewelry! When we decided to stay another night, that was fine with the hotel people, but we had to switch rooms. She accidentally left her jewelry in the drawer of the first room we stayed in. We didn't notice until this morning when we were packing up. She knew she'd left it in the drawer of the first room, so we called the front desk and they checked it out. It wasn't in the drawer, and it wasn't in the lost and found. OH NO! Well, after a few minutes of tragedy and panicking, it turns up in the lost and found after all. The maid had put the jewelry case and stuff in a grocery bag, so the lady looking through the lost and found hadn't recognized it from the description. Go figure.


Redder side: I got sunburned in my new bathing suit! I used to never wear stuff like the one I'm wearing this year, so my chest, like never saw the light of day. Apparently, when your skin isn't used to any sun at all, exposing it to the intense rays of the beach sun is a bad idea with only SPF 6 on. I have lobster chest. Ouch.


Specialer side: It's picture day! I would upload a photo from our trip, but the camera is dead, and anyway, I'm not good at that kind of stuff, lol! So, here's something else instead:



Not exactly what you think of when someone says "beach", but it's pretty, so, whatever ;)


Familiar side: We're going to watch National Treasure tonight! Always a favorite.

Written side: That random scene for "The Mirror" is going really nicely! I can't wait till I figure out what to do with it...lol!


Hmm...I know there was something I was going to say...Oh well. Must not have been very important otherwise I'd have remembered, right? Let's hope.

Carpe diem!

Chillaxin' with Chicken Noodle

Hala!

We're at a different hotel now, and it's much nicer. Not that Pawpaw's motel was gross or something, this is just better. The beds are (thankfully) bigger. Lizzy is a bed hog and I will be glad to have more room. Love you, sis :D

We went to a church that my mom's friend goes to. It was pretty cool. The music was good, but I like our church band better. This church had lights and stuff, though.

I sat out and roasted by the pool again today. No new tan to speak of. Well, okay, maybe a little now that I actually LOOK at my legs.

We're right on the beach. I mean, the hotel is, I'm not on the beach right now, but I sure plan to be. Being at the beach always gets my creativity going. I'll think of a million things to write, but none of it has anything to do with "The Mirror", unfortunately.

I wrote some more of The Random Scene yesterday, and it went really well. Some things that I've had in mind and some lines that I've had in mind for a long time came into play. I really want to put the scene in the book, but I have no clue where...or when...or how to get to that point in the story...*sigh* Such is the life of a writer. Lol ;)

Tonight is supposed to be a low-key evening. We're heating up chicken-noodle soup and just chilling. YAY! I hate it on vacation if we're just GOING GOING GOING all the time. Vacation is about relaxing, isn't it?

Tomorrow I plan to take a walk on the beach. Alone. Possibly I'll take my note-book along. I don't know. There're so many people on the beach. We pretty much only ever come to the beach in the off-season. I've actually never been to the beach in the summer, much less on a weekend. It is CROWDED! And not even particularly crowded, my mom says. But I'll feel weird walking around with note-book if everyone is staring at me. And I'll have to worry about looking cute/pretty. How annoying is that, I ask you? I know boys aren't supposed to notice much, but sometimes I wish they were all blind. I look fine in a bathing suit, I guess, but I always feel like they're *staring* at me. It's irritating, not to mention uncomfortable. Well, at least it is when I'm trying to write something or just relax.

Okaaaaaay. I'll get off this odd and slightly awkward subject now.

That's about all I have to say for now, I guess. Oh, today is God Day.

This is going to be short: Look around you. Everything is so complex and beautiful. How could this have just happened? I'm just saying. Everything is so...intricate that it *couldn't* just happen.

It couldn't.

God is awesome, people!

~Kendra

That's Just the Way I Write

I can't post for very long; my mom said as soon as she comes back from visiting my grandpa in the lobby, I have to get off. Grrr.

It's been a fun day mostly. The parents went to a one day practicum, so Lizzy and I had the motel room to ourselves all day. We went to breakfast with Pawpaw and then went by Wal-Mart to get something for him. When we got back, the maid still hadn't come to clean up our room and stuff, and we didn't want to be in her way, so we just put on bathing suits and went out to sit by the pool (well, Lizzy swam. I...can't right now).

That was at 10:45. The maid didn't come until 1:00. Yeah, we were sitting by the pool waiting and ROASTING for over two hours. Lol, it was okay, though. Really, really, hot, but hopefully I got tanner or something...HAHAHA, I WISH. Lol :)

I wrote a scene of "Creepy" (I mean, "The Mirror". I still mess that up sometimes), but I have no idea what it is or where it goes. Yeah, I know, that's weird, but I do that sometimes. Er, I mean, it just happens. I'll get an idea that has nothing to do with what's going on in the book, and I just have to write it.

The scene I wrote is of Darren and Paige and they're in a beautiful field near a cottage. They're staying at the cottage with...some person that's taking care of them. I didn't think about that yet. Paige thinks the view is gorgeous, and Darren whole-heartedly agrees. Then, he starts up a deep converstation about where they want to spend their future, Sorayoni, or Earth.

I haven't finished writing it yet, so I don't know how it turns out. I usually don't know that kind of stuff until the character says it. It's kind of an inefficient way of writing, I guess, but it feels more real to me when the characters do the talking and I just write it down.

That's pretty much all that's happened today except me FREEZING in the motel room. My mom and Lizzy like it FREEZING, so that's how it is. If I suddenly stop typing, it's because my fingers have frozen and fallen off.

Well, today is Carpe Noctem day, and if I were home, I'd be typing out a post on Evolution right now. Unfortunately, I left my notes at home. (Yes, I outline my "Carpe Noctem: Evolution" posts. Yes, I am that nerdy.)

So, without further ado, I will just say CARPE DIEM and let you go do that. TTYL!

~Kendra

P.S. Ooh, also, I'm trying to think of what Darren should want to be when he grows up. So, any people reading this of the male persuasion, give me your ideas. You don't have to know Darren to think of them, just say all the stuff you've ever wanted to be so I can take it into consideration. Also, you have until midnight tonight to memorize the theme song to a kid's TV show. Get busy.

CHALLENGE! And Vacation-ness

Hola! This is Kendra Logan live from a motel on vacation!

The drive was like five hours yesterday, so that wasn't too fun, but I've had a pretty good time so far. My grandpa is awesome. We got here at around eight last night and went to eat at Elizabeth's Pizza.

Okay, I have some things to say about THAT :) You know those books that I've been talking about lately ("The Mortal Instruments" trilogy)? Well, the Elizabeth's looked just like this little diner from the books, and the hostess looked EXACTLY!!!! like the main character! We found out her name, but it wasn't Clarissa/Clary, it was Ashley.

Also, when I was craning my neck for a look at the hostess, a busboy saw me and was like, "Oh, are you looking for your server?" It was really sweet. *blink* Nevermind. He was just sweet. And kind of cute :)

After dinner, we came home and watched some TV. The hilarious movie "Get Smart" was on, so we watched that until a little after 11:30pm. Then I turned it off and went to sleep. I woke up and was wide awake at 2:30am, though, so that was annoying. I went back to sleep at 3:03am. (I remember these things, lol.)

I didn't eat breakfast this morning...no, yeah, I did. I ate a piece of my mom's zucchini bread that we brought. It's really good. We hung around the room until 11:30 and then we went out to eat with my grandpa 'cause it's his birthday. We went to the K&W Cafeteria and one of the waitress ladies told him "happy birthday" in Chinese. It was cool.

Then, we went to Great Outdoor Provision because my dad is interesting in buying a kyak that you can paddle with your feet. (They're cool.) Then we bought him a belt at Stein Mart because he forgot his at home.

Then we came back to the motel and did the pool until like 4:30pm. Then I came in and got on the computer and checked email, facebook, and read all the blog posts people have written since Wednesday. Then, we went to eat dinner. It was at a really good seafood place, but I wasn't hungry so I just got a baked potatoe, which was really good! Then, we went to Baskin Robbins and got ice cream. I got lemon sorbet and it was REALLY GOOD.

Then, my pocketbook strap broke on me -_-

We decided to go to the mall. So we poked around for a little while, and got some stuff at Bath & Body Works. Then, my mom went with Lizzy to look in Claire's, while Daddy offered to take me to Belk to see if we could find me a new pocketbook. (He can be so sweet and thoughtful sometimes.) Pawpaw (my grandpa, obviously, lol) opted to go with us.

On the way to Belk, I saw this little store called Ping's Tibet. The clothes in the window were really...weird. One looked like a wedding dress with weird ruffles and a fur cape. A shirt looked like a Japanese kimono. I turned to Daddy and was like, "Can we go in there just really quick? If we don't have time that's okay, I don't really think I'm gonna buy anything." Daddy said it was okay, though, so we went into the store.

It was so cool! All the stuff was handmade and Ping (the owner of the store) goes to Tibet and brings back all the stuff. The Tibetians have this thing with yaks the store guy (Matt; leave it to my dad to befriend the salesguy ;)) said. He showed us pictures of Tibet and Tibetians and a yak that Ping brought back (the pictures, not the yak, lol). I ended up buying this cool silver ring with a little black jewel.

Just in case you didn't know, rings are my thing. Now you know what to get me for my birthday! :D Just kidding.

We DID actually end up going to Belk to look for a pocketbook. I ended up getting one!!! It's awesome, and I'm pretty sure it's, like, a really in-style brand. Can you believe it? I bought something FASHIONABLE! I'm so bad at that. Anyway, I don't remember the brand and I'm too lazy to get up and look (lol), but it's got like a giraffe print and the strap and trim are pink and it's leather. It's big, but it doesn't LOOK big. I can EASILY fit all my junk in it, and I have TONS of room left over!! There's a pocke down the middle that I can perfectly fit, get this, A BOOK! How great is that?

So, this brings us to where I am now, watching Phineas and Ferb and typing this. So far, vacation is pretty good. Thanks for reading this ridiculously long and rambling post.

Oh, wait, a Challenge! AND, I have a proposition:

No one does my challenges, so maybe let's try some incentive. Every time you complete a challenge, you get an award to put on your blog. Get five awards and I'll...advertise your blog on my blog super convincingly for a week.

*sigh* I'm not good at this. Just do the challenge and tell me about it.

CHALLENGE: Memorize the lyrics to a kid's show theme song. Arthur, Phineas and Ferb, Dora Explorer, you get the idea.

So, carpe diem! DO THE CHALLENGE.

~Kendra

P.S. I'm typing on Daddy's laptop and he doesn't have my signature code saved on here, so you have to put up with that boring thing.

"Stargirl" and Vacation Heads Up

Well, the temporary Jace obsession is fading fast, so there's good news for you ;) He's still awesome and everything, and the books are very good, but you don't have to worry about any more Jace pictures or quotes, I don't think.

Although, since this IS Quote Day, I'll probably post one of his quotes anyway, but that will be the end most likely.

I woke up at ten o'clock today. Ah, there's nothing like sleeping late, then looking out the window and seeing it's sunny, warm, and breezy outside. I ate two Pop-Tarts, finished reading a book called "Stargirl", and then got on here to resume my life as a computer nerd. We might be going to the lake later today, though, so I'll get out then :)

I just want to say a little about "Stargirl". It's written by Jerry Spinelli. (He's written other stuff, but the only other thing I've read, I think, is "Loser".) I really like "Stargirl". It's not one of my favorite books necessarily, but it's provocative and well-written, even if the style is a little odd. I'll post what it says on the back of the book:

"She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitter shadow of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew."

Stargirl is a very interesting character, and the whole book is just like one eye-opening experience after another. It makes you think about things in a whole new way. It's a really strange book, but I would recommend it to anyone. It's relatively small, only 186 pages long. I could probably read it in a day, but it's pretty good reading.

I'm going on vacation tomorrow, to the beach! Yay! My grandpa lives really close to the beach and he works at a hotel. We're going to stay at the hotel and be with him some, too, because his brithday is the 10th.

I really like my grandpa. He's fun and always looks for the good things in life. He's funny, but not on purpose. He's terrible with directions, which makes for some hilarious stories. He's always so put-together. He wears nice business suits and seems like the kind of person you can ask things and depend on. Everyone likes him. He's easy to get along with, is considerate and kind, and a good worker. He's an awesome grandpa and I love him a lot.

I'll be gone until Tuesday, but my dad is bringing his laptop along and the hotel has WiFi, so I might be able to post. I don't know for sure. We'll see.

I haven't written "Mirror" in a little while. Hmm. I'm in another block. This time it's because I don't know where I'm going with this. I don't know what I want to happen for sure, or how to end it. I have several possible endings, all of them good, but I don't know which one to chose. Oh well; I guess I'll figure it out eventually, right? Hm.

Thanks for reading this jumble of odd thoughts! I hope your day is going well!

OH! I almost forgot! It's Quote Day! But I don't I'll do a Jace quote after all. I think I'll do a Stargirl quote:

"And...I see. I hear. But not with my eyes and ears. I'm not outside my world anymore, and I'm not really inside it either. The thing is, there's no dfference anymore between me and the universe. The boundary is gone. I am it and it is me. I am a stone, a cactus thorn. I am rain. I like that most of all, being rain."

Hourglass Nebula and My Life

How's this for awesome? It's supposed to be the hourglass nebula. Isn't it beautiful? I'm not really sure if it actually is the hourglass nebula, though, because it doesn't look like an hourglass, or any of the other pictures of the hourglass nebula. But no matter what it is, it's stunning, isn't it?

As I was looking at it, it sort of looks like someone climbing a steep mountain. The wind is blowing, and the person's hair is blowing. There's also like this huge cloud of evil trying to keep the person from making it to the top. Maybe the person is trying to get that red star thing. Do you see all this? Okay, let me see if I can describe it more, just in case you have no idea what I'm talking about, lol!

You see the red star, right? It's sitting in the middle of a mountain. Just the top of the mountain. You see the four rays of light coming out of the star? The top left ray points to a person. The greenish blob is the head, and the person is almost lying on the mountain, it's struggling so much. The wind is blowing, and the person's hair is blowing up and in front of his face. Behind the person (you can't miss this, lol) is a huge cloud of evil and misfortune, swirling darkly, just waiting to knock the person off the mountain.

Do you see it? Okay, well, that's my Picture of the Week :)

---------------------------

Okay, I like the specialty posts and everything, but they feel somehow impersonal. I feel like I never post anymore, even though I'm posting every day. It's weird. So, I'm just going to take a little bit to recap my life over the past few days, like I used to. Okay? :)

Okay, so Friday was the start to an amazing weekend. Hot, sunny, and just perfect weather. My dad took our little sunfish sailboat out and had a great time. I just took a walk with my dog while listening to the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. THAT was cool, let me tell ya :D The music really added something special to my walk through the woods.

Saturday, my dad took the sailboat out again, and I just hung out on the beach with a bunch of my church friends. It was so much fun!! I went on the Fords' boat for the first time in over a year! YAY! It was just awesome. Just like old times. I went barefoot the whole day, so my feet are getting tough already ;D

Sunday, WE DID IT AGAIN! My dad took the sailboat out, and even more people came down to the beach. Like, our whole church almost. Well, okay, not exactly, but like eight families were there. I love my church friends. They're just like extra family. Tons of parents and siblings, all mine :)

That was the best weekend I've ever had. I had so much fun! Indescribably amazing. Wow.

And tonight, I'M GOING TO THE BOOKSTORE!!!!!! Isn't that awesome? I have a list of like twenty-five books I need to read, lol! I'm sure I won't be able to get them all tonight, but I'll get some at least! And I'm going summer clothes shopping, but only a little. Just a couple of pairs of shorts and maybe a T-shirt or two. Nothing extreme. I'm procrastinating the extreme shopping ;)

The only thing that's sad right now is how Mirror is going. It's going as bad as it's ever been. I'm actually thinking I might not finish it. I have a bunch of people who are so excited about it, and I hate to disappoint them, but it's just going so badly, I can't imagine completing it now! :'( But I HAVE TO!! I just HAVE TO! But how? It's going SO BADLY. I haven't really written it in so long.

*giant sigh* I've had rough patches before. After all, when I started this book, I wrote a few pages, and then didn't pick back up until nearly a YEAR later. This is just a rough patch. It'll be okay. I'll finish it, edit it, and it'll be great.

I hope.

Well, that's my past few days and tonight. Hope you weren't bored ;) Carpe this aestas diem!

Been There Done That and Allergies

Okay, I'm not really sure where exactly in the Bible this is, but at church today, we sang a song about God being everlasting; how he doesn't grow weary, and how he's completely all-powerful. And so I got to thinking, "Well, isn't that great? He can't know how I feel then, can he? Mr. I-Can-Blow-Up-The-World-With-One-Word can't possibly understand my struggle to grasp physical science!"

And then I had another thought!

THAT'S WHY HE SENT JESUS, BOZO!

See, that's why my God is so cool! He's like three in one! The all-powerful, world-creating God who listens to your every word (only not in a creepy way :D), the Holy Spirit who can help you randomly when you're in a tight spot without you even having to ask, and finally, JESUS, who might be my favorite "piece" of God. He totally gave up paradise to come down to Earth and experience life WITH us! Aside from taking all the penalty for our being sinners obviously, I think one of the most important reasons for Jesus coming to Earth was so that he could tell us that he knows how we feel.

God is cool, but Jesus has BEEN THERE. He's been made fun of, gotten super hungry, had his parents not understand him, been deserted by his closest friends, felt that frustration when you're trying to explain something and people JUST AREN'T GETTIN' IT, and ALL THAT STUFF! Jesus has been through, like, everything!

So, when I pray now, I don't have to be all stuck up thinking that God is so sheltered and he doesn't even know what I'm going through. Now I can just remember that, well, Jesus does. He's a classic case of Been There Done That And Got the Robe.

--------------------------

Well, it's kinda late, and I'm really tired, so I think I'm just gonna be out! Oh, but last night and this morning, my eye puffed up because of allergies! Yeah, it sucks: I'm allergic to pollen. *sigh* Oh well, must enjoy summer anyway! I went down to the beach again, but I cut my foot going barefoot ALL DAY yesterday, so walking around a ton kinda hurt :( And now I have this creepy rash on my left thigh from who-knows-what, and it's freaking me out! Well, not totally, just a little. Mostly I just don't want it to get worse...so, pray for my allergies, cross your fingers, whatever works for you! ;) Carpe this aestas diem!

Best Day Ever!

Sorry for posting twice in one day, but I just had to say that I had the most amazing day ever!! The Fords took us out on their boat!! So much fun! And we played on the beaches, too. :D Best day ever!!