...

I've been having a wonderful Christmas break so far, but I'm ready to move back into the dorms next Wednesday. Christmas was wonderful. I got all I asked for and more, including a new camera, digital picture frame, cell phone, movie musicals (MY FAVES!) and some cute new t-shirts that I love! Santa was super kind to me this year! We got Rock Band too, which is so much fun! I can rock out pretty hard on those drums! :)

A few updates:

~I'm still working out. I wasn't feeling well the first week of the break, and the second week of the break I was in Georgia, but I'm still working out. Santa brought me Sweatin to the Oldies 1--4 and I've loved dancing to them. They're so much fun! I should probably get back to the gym and do more strength training, but I'm just lazy. 2 pounds a week is my goal!

~I cut off all of my hair as a Christmas present to myself. It's really cute--really different, but really cute.

~Sad day. Emily and Elizabeth (my camp buddies and best friends in my dorm) aren't coming back to NWCC next semester. I know they're following God's will, but MY will is that they stay with me for forever. I know it's selfish of me, but you would be too! lol. I'm going to see them on Wednesday! We're gonna shoot off some fireworks and hang out and such. It'll be fun! I can't wait to see them again!

I have been incredibly financially irresponsible the last few years. So I'm making a New Years resolution starting TODAY to not spend any more debit card money on fast food. If I'm going to eat fast food, i'm going to pay cash for it. Ugh. I have a feeling that once school starts back up, i'm going to hate myself for this, but it needs to be done. I'm also not buying ANY more clothes until the ones I'm wearing are falling off of me. I've spent more money on clothes that I don't need than I have on groceries or anything else. And I'm also going to start saving and tithing my money. at least 10% to the church and at least $10 to savings each month. I want to bring glory to God with my finances like I do with the rest of my life. For some reason I think money is an area in my life that i can hide from God, but I know that's just not true. So, here ya go, God!

I realized not too long ago, that I've lived a very materialistic, instant gratification sort of life-style. I get what I want when I want it or I go crazy. I don't NEED anything at the moment, but I have this crazy urge to go spend money I don't have on something I won't use. It's ridiculous. So I'm changing that--one step at a time. I need to LEARN to be content the way Paul was in Philippians 4.

Anyways, here's some pictures that I've taken with my new camera over this Christmas break!

Oh Christmas Tree!



Mom's gonna kill me when she sees this but I don't care! :)

my favorite picture... Dad quit singing the song, so Pete had to pick up the drums AND vocals... so he stuck the mic down his shirt!

Christmas Craziness in 413

We had Christmas in out dorm tonight, Alyssa, Sarah, and myself. We've had Christmas decorations up since October, but tonight we finally got a chance to celebrate the end of the semester and go absolutely, absurdly, insane!! It was WONDERFUL!! We practiced our makeup for CATS, dressed up as something really loud from the 80's or something, and then took sweet Christmas pictures. it was sooo much fun!!

I did mine and Sarah's makeup. I was very proud of how feline we looked!

Not sure what to call this one... just plain weird, i guess!!! but it was a blast!

She's a GIANT!!!! we look so... weird. :)

our friend, will came over and helped us take the pics.. we had fun hanging out with him!!

MY ROOMIES!!! (and our beautiful Christmas Decorations!!!

wow

I didn't realize how long it's been since my last post. I'm terribly sorry about that! :)

Just a little update in the life of me:
1. this semester is finally over--well... almost. I have to finish out this week and next monday but then i'm home free!!! Praise the LORD!!
2. CATS is going well. We have at least 2 songs choreographed and almost all of the others have been worked on vocally. It seems to be a slow process but we're learning! It's a lot of fun--especially the dancing. I miss tapping, but I'm LOVING having to do it now! I expect to see you all at this thing: February 26th-March 1
3. I have a new commitment--and it involves a boy. :) His name is Dan... and he's my TRAINER!!! (so really my commitment is to me, and not to him, but it's fun to say it like that lol) I figured I should get in shape for the musical so mom hooked me up with Dan. He's been kicking my butt lately--and i love it. I can leg press over 150 lbs. he was about as shocked as i was. lol
4. I miss my camp friends. That's really all i can say about that.
5. I can't wait for Christmas to get here. I love Christmas. I love being with my family at Christmas. I love sitting at home and not doing anything at Christmas. (I have a feeling Dan's not gonna like that about me very much :P). I just love Christmas in general.

Well that's really been about it with me lately. I'm really just trying desperately hard to find excuses to not study for this silly Lit exam. Who's idea was it to cram 350 years of literature in one class anyway? ugh. Anyway, Love ya Mean it!!!

God moment

I was thinking tonight about a boy I went to highschool with, J.T., who had been bitten by a spider in middle school. The doctors did whatever they had to do to remove the poison from his body. However, in eleventh grade, years after the spider was forgotten about, he was suddenly faced with heart failure. The poison from the spider years ago had infected his heart. Luckily, the doctors found a heart just in time and J.T. is fully recovered and healthy.

God laid it on my heart tonight that that poison from the spider bite is sin. You can do whatever you think you have to do to remove it from your life, but until you have a full heart transplant, that poison stays with you.

I don't know if you understand what I'm getting at, but I think it's time for some major heart surgery. Luckily for us, it's not as painful or as long a recovery as J.T.'s was.

i miss my buddies!!!

I'm sitting here, in my dorm room.. lonely, but not alone. My "sisters" are out of town visiting their parentals. My "brothers" are in Jackson--even though they were both going to be here this weekend, they postponed and are now having a great time... 4 hours away. I miss my friends!!!

I can't wait for this weekend though! I'm plannin a whole load of NOTHING while my best buddies in the whole world are here, in Tobie-town, to love on and joke on... but mostly joke on. It's funny how we NEVER get to see each other. and you'd think that when we do finally get together that we'd be as nice as possible... but no. we love stepping on each others' toes and we love having our toes stepped on. it's an interesting friendship. :)

I MISS THEM!!!

fewer distractions, more time!

It's amazing how much more time you have when you cut out some of the distractions in your life. Today I've been, dare I say it? BORED!

I'm hiding my phone for the rest of the night and probably all day tomorrow. I'll keep it around in case of an emergency, but I won't be using it for any other reason. It's so distracting. Today in class I got caught checking it, and then I realized when I sat down to do my homework, I didn't have a clue about what we discussed in class. ALSO, I realized the other day when I sat down to do my Bible study, that I wasn't able to focus on God's word because my friends were texting me, and I was texting back. So I'm hiding it. I guess need to invest in an alarm clock and greeting cards.

I also deleted my facebook account today. DELETED it. This is a huge deal for me. If you think my phone sounds like a distraction, you should see me with facebook. It's ridiculous how much I use it. The chat feature is awesome and I can stay so connected with my friends on it. But then today, it hit me... I'm more attatched to my facebook than I am to the friends anyway. I get on to see how many new comments I can get on a photo or if someone has "poked" me or to beat my friends in the number of friends they have. It's insane how addicted I am to that website. So I deleted it. I know it's kind of rash and a bit impulsive, but I think it will be for my benefit. Now maybe I can get online for research without taking a detour to facebook. And maybe I can sit down at my desk and read, without getting distracted by friends who want to chat with me.

I know I may become a little less connected with my friends, but I'll become a lot more connected with my Savior without those distractions, and a lot more connected with my school work.

Pray, though. because it's HARD work.

I have a job!!

Hallelujah, praise the LORD!!! He has provided yet again with another wonderful job! At least it seems wonderful so far. I'm working on the registers at Fred's and while it's no Camp Lakeside, it's money in the bank and a wonderful opportunity to make my God known in Senatobia! It's gonna be tough to balance 20 hours of school work with 30 hours of Fred's work, and still have time for 8 hours of sleep each night, but I think I can manage it. I'm sooo excited!!

small update!!!

Ms. Vandyke got smart and moved me to second soprano--it's still high, but within my range. And Ms. Vandyke wants me to take voice lessons to learn how to sing 1st soprano so I can be moved back up and I'm fine with that. :)

We perfom in 4 weeks!!!!

Yes I realize it has been 23 days since my last post, and I apologize deeply for it. It's been extremely hectic around here with the start of school and job begging and what not. So I'll catch you guys up.

I moved into my dorm a week and a half ago, and it's been wonderful. I'm living with the most amazing friend i could ever ask for, and two other girls who i'm hoping to make amazing friends out of! It's been fun being dumb and not having parents around to yell at you for it!! And my scooter has been a huge hit on campus. It's so funny.

Last weekend (the 15th) Joseph and Joel spent the weekend with us. it was heavenly! I love those boys! I made Joseph a red velvet cake in celebration of his birthday, and i have to say, it was delicious! and saturday we went to the ZOO!!! I've never been to the Memphis Zoo before and it was so much fun! We saw elephants and rhinos and hippos and polar bears!!! It was so cool. i loved it! I've convinced the boys to buy themselves scooters and they claim that it won't be long before they're putting around Starkville and Jackson. I can't wait to see that. OH! And Joseph got another tattoo--i helped design it. It looks really good. We had such a good time hanging out together and playing the Wii and going to haunted churches. Fun times. I miss those boys a lot.

The day after Joel and Joseph left, school started. I'm taking 20 hours this semsester, and it's really stressful, but I know i can handle it. Mondays are the worst, I have class at 8,9,10,11, choir at 12, and then a lab at 1, so I don't get a break from class until about 3 pm. I'm really hungry and tired and cranky on Mondays. Today was okay though because it rained and i played in it. It was so much fun. I loved it.

I'm finally in choir and I love it--most of the time. I've been told that I'm mezzo-soprano, or 1st alto--right there in the middle somewhere. Ms. Vandyke, the el stupido choir teacher, has me singing FIRST SOPRANO!!! the highest in the ranges. HOLY MOLY, it's hard. my poor little voice can't go that high and sound pretty, and it's a little intimidating to sit next to these freshmen with the most amazingly beautiful soprano voices. But, Ms. Vandyke thinks i can do it, and I know i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me... I just have to get over that fear. :)

ESTA BIEN!!! Well, to be completely honest, nothing else has happened in the last 3 weeks that is worth writing about. :) Plus I have 2 lit tests to study for and some philosophy homework to do...

Be Grateful.

At camp over the summer, I was known for my phrase, "Be grateful." I loved it, but to be honest, I only said it to stop those kids from complaining about everything. lol. I wasn't really aware of all I had to be grateful for.

So since I've been home, Elizabeth and Mallory and I have been asking each other EVERYDAY to list 5 things that we're thankfull for. You have to say them out loud and you have to have something different each day, and you have to be specific. It really makes you realize how GOOD God is!

So here are my 5 things that I'm grateful for today:

1. A country where I can freely talk about 5 things God has blessed me with.
2. People who prove that this world is not completely lost
3. A creative God. No two people are the same, no two trees are identical.
4. A colorful world--I couldn't come up with His colors!
5. A gracious God. We don't deserve these blessings, but He gives them to us anyway.

Your turn!! What are you gratefull for?

Small update!

The scooter is LEGAL!!! And I haven't stopped driving it yet. It's so much fun to drive around town and have people honk and wave at me. I love to toot my own little squeaky horn right back. I drove it up to Walmart the other day and I had a bunch of people saying that they were going to look into getting themselves a scooter because of gas and such. It's such a blast! I can't wait for school to start so my classmates can see it. I can't wait to get teased about it because then I can tease right back about not having to spend $40 to fill it up!! Oh! I just can't wait.

Since I've been home from camp I've seen 3 of my co-counselor friends on a daily basis, and I've talked to every single one of them almost every day. But this week, my friend, Elizabeth, and I will be making a special trip to Starkville to visit one our favorite sweet heart, Joseph. (I call him sweet heart because he absolutely HATES it. He's a marine, and it ruins his reputation). I am sooo excited to go! I can't wait to just get away. Not that I don't just love Senatobia and being home and stuff, but camp gave me an opportunity to miss home, and now I miss having to miss it. So i'm going to run away to Starkville just long enough to miss home. lol. I'm making no sense at all, but I don't care. That's the only picture I have of the three of us--we're doing some kind of crazy cheer at camp. This week is going to be so much fun!

Missing...

Holy moly, man! I'm totally missing these guys. They were some of the best people I've ever met in my life. That's Miles, Joseph, Joel, Blake, Me, Mallory, Brienne, Ms. Veda, Elizabeth and Emily. They're so wonderful.

And I miss them.

An AMAZING story...

Summer is almost over--we have about 3 weeks before school starts back up. And let me just say that this summer is going to the be one of the most memorable summers that I've ever had. I've made some wonderful friends and met some wonderful children. I've really been loving my life lately. I loved camp so much that I started thinking about changing my major to elementary education. I love those kids and I long to teach them everything. So I've really been considering it.

We left camp Saturday afternoon and we all promised to stay in touch. I cried on the way home just because I know it doesn't work that way. Anyway, after being home for about 2 hours, I got a call from the sweetest sister counselors, Emily and Elizabeth, saying that they wanted to come spend time with me. So about 3 hours after that, I was in the company of my counselor friends. I told them about wanting to change my major and I asked for them to pray for me. Then, they called Joel, another counselor, and he wanted to come visit us all in Senatobia. So by 4:00 Sunday afternoon, 4 of the 8 counselors were together again. It was wonderful!

The last week at camp, one of the counselors, Blake, told me about the church that he leads worship for and I told him that I was going to come see him. He didn't believe me. But when Joel, Emily, and Elizabeth showed up at my doorstep, we made plans to travel to Oxford to hang out with Blake. I have to say, Blake's church is AWESOME. It's an Anglican church, and the people there were so sweet and so welcoming. We happened to come on a night that they were doing to communion, which made me nervous. But it was nice.

ANYWAY, back to the actual story. During communion I started praying that God would really just show me which way to go with my education. I like those flashing neon lights, ya know. So I was praying. And next thing I know, the President, David, had his hand on my head, praying with me. I heard him say, "God, thank you for your child and thank you that she's following you. God, please bless the people that she will be leading and, God, bless the children that she's going to be leading."

TALK ABOUT A FLASHING NEON LIGHT! I just started trembling and shaking. David had never met me before, yet God told him what to say to me. It was absolutely amazing. So today, me and my counselor friends are going to Northwest to change my major to Elementary Education! Wish me luck!

Camp Lakeside Week 4

What an AMAZING week at camp this was!! We had 52 kids signed up at the beginning of the week--an all-time record for Camp Lakeside. Six kids decided in the beginning of the week that they were bored and they wanted to go home. I hated to see them go, but I also hated their attitudes towards the experience they were getting, so we said good riddance to them and had an AWESOME God-filled week! We had ELEVEN children come to know Christ! ELEVEN!!!! That's an AMAZING number!! What an AMAZING GOD we serve!!! Here are some things that happened this week:

...

_______

Me and my very very good friend and coworker stayed in Wildwood cabin, along with 13 of the sweetest girls EVER!! It was so awesome to see and hear how God was present in each of these girls' lives. They were so sweet. And they ALL had something to say--every moment that I was around. I told them at one point that my name wasn't "Ms. Red" anymore, and that they had to guess my new name before I would listed to them. It was interesting hearing the things they made up for me!! The picture above was taken at 11:30 on the last night of camp. We told the girls that if they cleaned up, we had a surprise for them, so they cleaned and we had a DANCE PARTY!!! YMCA!!!!!

The next day, the last day of camp, we had some extra time in our cabins before swim time. We were all hanging out, talking and telling funny stories. Somehow the radio just happened to turn on thanks to one of the little girls and we had yet another dance party. It was so much fun to watch the girls go crazy over songs like YMCA and Wild Thing and Mony Mony. I was tired, so I was chilling on my bed, and I had a few of the girls rubbing my back and talking to me and stuff. Well the next thing I know, those girls who had been so sweet to rub my back, are pushing me on the FLOOR. I hit the ground, and I hear "get her! Get her!" I'm thinking to myself, "Oh dear. This is going to end badly" I look up, and they've all got SHAVING CREAM in their hands, running after Emily, who has been so busy dancing that she had NO IDEA what is about to hit her. Poor thing got creamed--bad. But it was SOOO funny!!!

Also on the last day, it rained like crazy! The sky was lighting up with lightning, so it cut into the kids' swim time. But I don't think it bothered them. We played and danced in the rain like nothing had ever happened. The lightning died down, but the kids were having so much playing in the rain. So the counselors snuck into the gated pool area, locked the door, and waited for the kids to notice. It was so funny watching them bang on gates and scream "We want in!!" hahahaha!! Of course, being the good guy counselors that they are, I got pushed in the pool, fully clothed. It was soo much fun. Oh, and yes, we did finally let the kids in to swim, but not until I got those silly boys back!!!

The talent show was amazing this week. We had 15 kids sign up to do all sorts of talents. There was singing, flexibility demonstrations, piano playing, dancing, and bouncing balls 100 times. It was so nice. At the end of every talent show Mr. Blake, the worship leader, surprises the kids with "Great Balls of Fire" and everyone gets up and dances and it's just a GREAT way to end the week. Then we announce the winners (everyone is a winner at Camp Lakeside!). This week, in the middle of Great Balls of Fire, we were very rudely interrupted. About 10 seconds before the song ended and about 3 minutes before the end of the talent show, everything went silent. Our guest preacher for the week had unplugged our AMP and then proceeded to yell at Blake (in front of parents, kids, and counselors) about how we should all be ashamed of bringing that music into the church (this was a talent show, not a worship service) and we should be ashamed to call ourselves Christians because we listened to that music (heaven forbid he finds out what we were listening to at the dance party!). OH AND he mentioned that we shouldn't bring the world into the church (being a preacher, shouldn't that be your desire? Isn't that how the world gets saved, by bringing them into the church?) ANYWAY, the night ended on a really sour note, and the parents, hearing and seeing the tension between the counselors and what-not, decided to leave. There were no rewards given, there was no "Goodnight, we had a great week" speech. It just ended sourly.

BUT I won't say that that little episode spoiled the whole week. It was an AMAZING week at camp. I can't wait for next week (day camp!). Although it makes me very sad to think that camp is almost over. I'm desperately going to miss the place--and the PEOPLE! Holy moly! God really knew what He was doing when He put us counselors together. I've made some AMAZING friends these past few weeks! (NOTE: I found out this past week that Emily and I will be in the same dorm building this next fall!!! I'm sooo excited about that!!)

Youth week at Camp Lakeside

Holy Toledo this was a tough tough week at camp. We had more youth here this week, than the camp has seen in the last 2 years combined! All together we had 38 kids!!! Most of the kids that were there this week have been coming to camp for 4 or 5 years, and apparently the camp has made some dramatic changes--changes that those kids don't like. So it was tough dealing with kids who were used to getting away with things that we were told not to let them get away with, and on top of that, they were just plain rowdy.

I'm mostly talking about the boys, by the way. They were crazy, and they liked to have fun. I like to have fun, but jumping off of the roof of the pavilion does not sound like fun to me. Once again, I was known as the mean counselor to a lot of these boys simply because I wouldn't let them do what they wanted to do (like talk during worship, hit other people, throw rocks, stick shaving cream in people's ears, and throw people into the pool). Some of the boys even said that they hated camp because the counselors never let them have any fun. Oh well. It's not all about having fun, it's about praising God. Yes we do have fun while we worship, but it shouldn't be all about having fun. God deserves all the glory!

We had a group of about 12 kids from a local church come this week and they were ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! They showed us all the respect that we asked for and more. They set such a good example for the crazier kids--in fact, there were a few times that they calmed the others down. They loved to worship, they loved to sing, they loved performing the skits, and they just absolutely melted my heart with their kindness. I think had they not been there, the crazy boys would have driven me into madness!

The girls were a different story. They were so sweet and so caring. I have ZERO complaints about our girls. Holy moly they were wonderful! We started with 6 girls in my cabin, but one of them got hurt and decided to go home early, and her cousin who was also in our cabin left with her. So we ended up with four for the week. But then, in the evenings, two of our girls had softball games and practices that they couldn't miss, so for a few hours each days we only had 2 girls to take care of. But all of them were so sweet and kind and FUNNY!!! The last night we just went stupid and started getting "ghetto" and then we were indians. And then we were ghetto indians. "Oh no you dinnet, guh. HOW"

We did the messy games again and it was extremely messy this time. we added raw eggs to almost every event just to make it gross. And the funny thing is that it was so hot outside that by the time we were done with the games, most of the eggs had started to cook. :) it was cool. This week we also had shaving cream wars and water balloon wars. And the counselors all creamed the kids in a water balloon ambush on the last night. We were a little cruel and bought a huge water gun and filled it with ICE water! ooh it was so fun!

Overall, it was really an AMAZING camp experience. It was tough and it definitely tried my patience, but it was great. I'm so glad that youth week is just before my week long break! Now I have a full week to recuperate before we go back for another week of 2nd grade through 6th grade. Then the week after that is day camp and the evenings will be just me, the counselors, and the swimming pool! I can't wait!

Camp Week 2

Oh my word. I thought last week was exhausting, but this week took the cake. We had 25 children, ages 9-16, with hormones and attitudes, and above all, wonderful, fun-loving spirits. They were definitely a handfull at times, but so funny and sweet (usually). Most of them had been to Camp Lakeside before, so they thought they had precedence over the other campers (and the new counselors, sometimes), but I managed to nip that in the bud. It's amazing what one phrase will do a child's attitude: "5 minutes out of pool time." I hate to say that I became known as the mean counselor, but I really got sick of ungrateful attitudes and back talking. Now I know how mom felt when I was that age.


Speaking of bad attitudes, there was something off about this week. I had the worst attitude in the world for the first half of the week and I couldn't figure out why. I was cranky, I snapped at my coworkers and some of the campers, and I felt horrible about it. So I prayed. Sadly it was the last night of the week with the campers that I finally asked God what was going on in my life. I think it was just that I wasn't surrendering myself to Him. I was taking too much control and it was blowing up in my face. But anyway, the campers all gave me a BIG hug before they left and told me they loved me.

Monday we all got to know each other and played a LOT of really fun games. We had a lot of kids whose names were similar, so learning names was difficult. T.J., J.C. (John Cody), Cody, Carrie. We had a Hannah who looked like a Morgan, and a Morgan who looked like a Mona, and Magen, who was just out there. LOL. It was difficult. Then we all painted ceramic crosses and they were fired up and made shiny and pretty. The kids really loved that.





Wednesday we played Messy Games, which was really gross. Ingredients for messy games included: peanut butter, jelly, sardines, vinegar, hot sauce, SPAM, poopy diapers (chocolate pudding and raw egg mashed together in a diaper which was then smashed in someone's face.) It was gross.













these were quite possibly the FOULEST shirts EVER in the whole wide world. soaked for hours in a combination of vinegar, hotsauce, molasses, tartar sauce, and sardine juice. YUCK!!!





clean up for the messy games was just as fun as the games themselves!!! We showered everyone with the water hose!!!


Thursday was the Talent Show, which was so wonderful. And yet so sad, because we had to say goodbye to our campers. :( but they all did a wonderful job. And we truly had a WONDERFUL week!!!








We had 2 campers get saved this week. They absolutely MELTED MY HEART!!!
T.J. got saved Tuesday night, after we talked about prayer. He didn't tell anyone, though. We do weekly surveys that the kids fill out and the first question was What did you like best about camp? T.J.'s answer: "the counselors were cool and I got saved." We talked to him about it, and he understood everything about what it means to be saved. We rejoiced so much with him. He announced it at evening worship on Thursday night in front of all of the camp, and most of the campers' parents. (I wish I had a picture of him to show you)


LeeAnn was in my cabin, and such a sweet sweet girl. At the invitation at the end of evening worship, she broke down in tears saying she needed Jesus. Me and Brie (the counselor in the cabin) prayed with her and her life changed for forever. Emily said that when LeeAnn walked out of the room after her prayer, she could tell that LeeAnn was full of the Holy Spirit. Her face just GLOWED. Not long after T.J.'s announcement to the world, LeeAnn stepped on stage and said "I have Jesus" and the whole room burst out with applause and screaming and jumping for joy. It was wonderful.


At the end of the night, all of the counselors piled into a car and rode 20 minutes to Grenada for some pizza. What a perfect way to end to the week!!!!

Camp week 1

Holy moly it has been an extremely exhausting and extremely spirit-filled week at camp. I'll start from the beginning.

I'm not sure what I was expecting to see when we drove past the sign that said Camp Lakeside, but this place was not quite what I imagined. I guess I was thinking it was going to be a huge place with 10 or 12 cabins, plenty of facilities, and lots of concrete and places to get away from bugs. But it wasn't.

Let's try 4 cabins to split between the guys and the girls, and one small cabin for the camp director, a small gym, a nice pool, and one very small dining hall all lined up down a gravel road about 200 feet long. It wasnt much, but it was just enough for us.

We had 14 children come to camp (7 boys and 7 girls) and 7 of them made a decision for the Lord this week!!

and not only that, but we had so much fun!! I bonded with all of the counselors and all of the children, and we played volleyball, shot 22 riffles, did archery, played kickball, learned some new songs, went canoeing, swam (2x a day!!), and praised the LORD!!! It was so wonderful!!

however my camera's batteries decided that even though they were brand new, they didn't want to work. so I didn't take any pictures of this first week. but i promise that next week there will be some pictures up!!

God is so big and He is definetely working in Camp Lakeside. He doesn't need top-notch facilities to work, and He showed me that this week. Oh my goodness!! It was just such an amazing week at camp. I can't wait to see what else God has in store for this place!!

Recital Time!

The recital is finally over and I'm so happy that I don't have to worry about it any more. Now I can worry about packing for camp!!! Everything went well. It was really long, and I was extremely tired, and I had to pray a million times for patience (a lot of the girls were just riding on my last nerve today!) But it went well. I don't know who decided to wax the floor just before curtain, but it was nice and slippery!! Luckily, I don't think anyone fell--but I sure had a few close calls in my dances!! Check out some of the pictures that were taken at the recital (go to gallery and then Gym Plus Dance Recital)

Batman was so cool. I hate that mom ran out of memory, because the end of it was the coolest part. We all melt in a ripple and it looks so freaky. Too bad you don't get to see it. :) Those costumes were SOOOOOO short. Holy cow! I will NEVER be wearing that again. lol

This was my FAVORITE dance in the whole recital (probably because Ms. Mindy let us dance to Michael Buble's version of "Spiderman"). Let's just say, I was a VERY happy camper to tap dance each week! And it took WEEKS of practice, but I think I did rather well for a first year dancer! The girl in the middle, Brianna, is an eight year dancer and I was so thrilled that I could keep up with her!

top to bottom: Undriana, Me, Mary Alice, Brianna.

Josh (left) and Drew (right) came to watch me today, and I was SOOOO excited!!!! I love those boys and since Pete and Ryan decided they were too good to come, I was THRILLED to have support from my friends!!! Silly me didn't take any pictures with them... in fact, I didn't take any pictures for myself at all! :)

Recital Nerves

I'm sooo incredibly nervous about the recital today. I've never been this nervous about performing in my entire life. I have no problem with public speaking, I enjoy being in plays. I love to sing for people. But there's just something about this dancing thing that's driving me crazy with nerves.

I think it's because when I'm in a play, a completely different character is on display. When I'm singing in front of people, my voice is on display. But dancing is all about my body. And frankly, I'm not so comfortable with putting my body out there for the world to see.

It's ridiculous how bored I am.

okay, I'm having a really wierd night right now. I didn't do ANYTHING today. Well I had dance at 6 pm and I didn't get out until 8:30, and I came home starving and sweaty, and tired. but now i'm wired. you know the dog from the beggin'strips commercial?? yeah, well i don't know what he feels like all the time, but I'm pretty sure it's REALLY similar to the way I feel right now. i feel like squealing. for no good reason. The oooohhh shiny syndrome is in FULL SWING!!! but it's it's too late to make any noise. so here are some pics from a recent dress-up day that stemmed from another incredibly boring day.



I have really big eyes.
and Ryan is wierd. i don't like to look a the camera.
This is my HUGE hair from Musical Comedy Murders. i mean... it was HUGE!!!!!!


i like to make silly faces. :)
and ryan is really wierd

my new scooter!!!! I love it soooo much!!! it's my favorite car i've ever had!! any suggestions for names?


Okay. I'm bored with this. however, I promise that there will be more pictures to come around Sunday or so. That's when my RECITAL is!!! AAAHHH!!! i'm so excited about it. Here's the story... We're all at a sleepover, and dancing around and singing. and then we fall asleep. then we wake up and we watch cartoons! and all of the dances are about the cartoons that we watch. There's pink panther, carebears, power rangers, spiderman, teletubies, i think there's dora, too. and batman. and the jetsons. I'm spiderman and batman. it's going to be amazing!!!! if Sunday will just get here! and then i have NOTHING to do next week except shop for things for camp (so if you want to do something... ANYTHING, drop me a line)!!! and then Saturday I'm going to a baseball game to celebrate my birthday and watch fireworks, and then I leave for camp SUNDAY!! woot!!! okay now i'm really excited. Everything is falling into place. And I'm getting anxious and excited about the recital and camp. it's making the time pass soooooooo sloooooooooooooowlyyyyyyyyy. ugh. i just sneezed.

i just realized how horrible my spelling and grammar is when i get excited. but i don't have the patience right now to correct it. oh well. stinks to be you!. AAAAHHHH.... hyper. sorry. :D

i'm happy tonight. and now it's almost 11. so i'm signing off and saying goodnight. GOOD NIGHT!!! i just sneezed again.