Procrastination

A couple of weeks ago my pastor was preaching about Joseph. When Joseph was in Egypt his brothers came to him asking for food because there was a huge famine. Obviously his brothers didn't know who he was, maybe from all the make up and Egyptian clothes, because Joseph finally revealed who he was. He told his brothers, "Draw near to me." That's what Pastor preached about:) Our church family drawing close to one another. He said that as a family, we should draw together. And we shouldn't have a mask on with our family and hide our faults. I'm going to confess one of my faults to the whole wide world...well everyone who reads my blog :-D

I'm a terrible procrastinator!!! Hence, not a lot of blogs. Also, I've been falling farther behind in my school work. I know usually people get their "new beginning" after New Year's day, but my school work cannot wait that long. So, my new beginning started today, after the little Thanksgiving break we had. I'm going to be a better student, a better blogger, and a better room cleaner:-D So does anyone feel like commenting and telling me their faults so I don't feel all alone?? :-p I'm just kidding!:-) Thanks for bearing with me through all of the "few-and-far-between" posts. I am going to try to do a LOT better!:-)

Thanksgiving

Well ya'll I found something to post about--THANKSGIVING!! *Duh me!!* I'm gonna ramble a little bit, so please bear with me:-D First, I'd like to tell you all some of the things I'm thankful for. 1. I'm thankful for the grace and mercy of the Lord!! I don't know what I would be without it! 2. I'm thankful for my parents! They are THE BEST!! 3. I'm thankful for my sister and brother:-D 4. For my grandparents, which also happen to be my pastor and pastor's wife:-) 5. I'm sooo thankful for all of my friends!! Specifically Laura, Jonah, Monique, Anita, and Brittany! Those are the people that keep me sane;-) 6. For a WARM house!! Ahh! It's wonderful!! When it's 30 degrees outside, you can count on it being 70 degrees inside! (That is if Dad isn't here;) When Dad's here it's about 68:-p) 

I have to say, Thanksgiving is my very favorite day of the year! A lot of people have said, "What about Christmas?" when I've stated that. Well, in my family, Thanksgiving is the "big day." My aunt and uncle and their two kids from Indiana come home for Thanksgiving every year. We we used to have the dinners at different places-my aunt Alicia's, my grandparents' house, our old house, and now we've started having it here at our new house because it's the right size for all of us to get together.

Something I've always liked about our dinners is that we usually have a friend or family of friends over. We used to have a woman in our church that was all alone and we would have her over every year. Now, she's married with her own family, but we have a single mother and her family over. It's always very enjoyable, especially since her daughter is one of my very best friends!

Back to the Christmas thing, we usually don't do anything special for Christmas. I don't know why, but usually we just stay home, open gifts and eat regular food. This year we will probably be having a big meal at my other aunt and uncle's house, so it will change this year:-)

So this year, we had so much fun again! We ate around 1:30, and then sat around giving my baby cousin all kinds of attention:-p We played Liar's Dice-Anthony's are great at it;)-which is sooo much fun!! Then we ate again, (yes we eat a LOT) and did the same thing. We don't have like another sit down meal, but go back and forth from the kitchen:-D So yeah, I think that pretty much describes my day. Eating, playing Liar's Dice, and laughing a TON!


How was your Thanksgiving Day? What are you thankful for?

Saturday 9

My dear faithful blog readers, PLEASE forgive me for my lack of posts lately, and for trying to make up for it with little surveys! I do apologize, but once again I'm posting a little "get-to-know-me" survey. Sorry!:D I'll try to get some different posts next week!:)


1. Tell us about your very favorite (yes we know that's redundant) Thanksgiving.
My favorite Thanksgiving would probably have to be last year's. We had quite a few friends over, but also had our family here. My aunt and uncle from Indiana stayed with us for a while.

2. What are you doing for Turkey Day this year?
The family is coming to our house again this year and we may have a few friends here, too.

3. If you were to go to somebody else’s house, what would be your favorite dish to bring?
I would definitely take apple pie!:D

4. Tell us about the funniest person that you'll be with this Thanksgiving.
Um...that's a hard one!! The men in my family are all hilarious! It's a toss-up between my dad, my uncle, and my grandpa.

5. What would surprise us to know about your Thanksgivings?
Umm....two years ago we finally ended the "tradition" of burning bread sticks! The only reason that it ended is because my uncle got married to a woman from Kansas who is an AMAZING cook! We all pale in comparison to her, so we did our very best and paid close attention to the time the bread sticks cooked;-) (We all just LOVE her! Tim couldn't have married a better coo...er, woman!)
6. Does your usual mix of guests result in drama, or is it a group you’re happy to see?
It's my familia!! Of course I'm happy to see them! Thanksgiving is the only time we're all together!:) We all love each other, so we don't have petty, dramatic arguments:)

7. What did your family do for Thanksgiving when you were a kid? Do you still do it?
Well, considering that I'm still a kid, we still do it:D We always get together and eat a big dinner with the family, and sometimes a single mother from the church, every year:)

8. We know you've been asked this probably 15 times this week. But share with us in 2010, what are you most thankful for?
I would have to say I'm most thankful for my trip to Colorado...if I were to pick one specific thing it would be the wonderful friendships that I have. I have amazing friends that are always there for me:)

9. Okay, the big question: are you going to 'attend' any of the "Black Friday" sales? ...and if you are, are you hard core serious like the 5 am "be there" crowd? Well here's the thing...my mom doesn't like crowds. And since I don't have my license, I won't be shopping on Black Friday.

Confessions of a Two-faced Blogger

Well everyone, after reading my mom's confession post, I decided that I should come clean with all of my lovely blog readers. If you all remember, I posted the day before my birthday about the knowledge I have gained in the past 16 years. One of things I said I have learned was to never wear heels to the mall. Weeellll, I went against my own advice.

Last Friday, my wonderful mother had a surprise birthday party for me. I got some money, and my parents gave me a gift certificate to the Label Shopper, which had a dress that was super cute and I really wanted. Well on Saturday my sister took me to Cranberry to the mall, and we met up with my aunt and uncle. Since my mom's car is in the shop right now, I have no flats to wear. I didn't have the flats on Saturday either, so I decided to wear these really cute, almost flat shoes. They were toeless and backless, so they were kind of like a flip flop.

Long, agonizing story short, my feet were in soooooo much pain by the end of the night!! It was the balls of my feet that were really hurting. I don't know why, but something about those kind of shoes are just extremely painful. I cannot express the amount of pain I was in for about 2 or 3 days. Even in my barefeet I didn't want to walk because of it. So take my first-hand advice for the second time. {[(<"'NEVER'">)]} wear heels to the mall!! (Sorry for all the punctuation....I was trying to emphasize the seriousness of that word:D)

Saturday 9

Well everyone, I have found what I'm going to post on Saturdays:D The "Saturday 9." My mom told me about the website on which I found this nifty little survey. For some really great blog quizzes or little things to post, go to thedailymeme.com. So anyways, here's the little quiz:D


1. When was the last time you cried? This past Tuesday

2. If you could wake up tomorrow with a new talent, what would it be? I don't know if being mulitlingual is a talent, but I would want that! If it's not, I would love to have the talent that artists have.

3. Who is someone (other than yourself) would you like to go back into your past and talk to and why? The little boy I met a Pigeon Forge. I would have loved to learn more about him, where he was from etc., so that I maybe could've tried to find him again someday.

4. What is your favorite meal eating out? Ooo that would have to be eating at a Mexican restaurant! I looove Mexican food! And I always get the chicken salad in the tortilla bowl.

5. Do you feel energized or drained by being in a group situation? If the answer is "it depends," on what does it depend? I have an "it depends" answer. If I am helping organize it, I feel drained. If I'm able to concentrate on just having fun because I'm not helping organize it, I feel very energized.

6. What word do you use far too frequently? I use the word "like" waaay to much!

7. What’s a word you’ve invented? (alternate question: What needs a word but doesn’t have one yet?) I think I invented "Crunk" lol I'm not sure tho....I use it a lot:D

8. Pick out one of your favorite songs. Go to Song Facts and tell us about the song's history.
One of my very favorite songs is by Casting Crowns. It's called "Praise You In This Storm." Here's what songfacts.com has to say about it:
Singer Mark Hall explained in the liner notes of Wow Hits 2008: "This song came out of a relationship that we formed with a family early on. Their young daughter, Erin, was battling cancerous tumors all throughout her lungs. Her mother began including us in emails that she was writing to her group of supporters. They were constantly going back and forth to doctors and hospitals for treatments. I still have most of them. The journey this mom went through was just amazing. There's no way I'll ever be able to understand what she was going through. These emails described the journey of her faith and what her worship would look like. One day it was, 'We're going to be okay. We have faith God is going to do this.' And then another would be like, 'What is the deal? Is he even here?' She passed away earlier this year. We decided to subtitle the song 'Erin's Song' in her honor."

9. What is your absolute favorite piece of furniture you have and why
That would probably have to be a couch cuz it has many faces. You can sit or lie down on it:D

Letting Go

Well, I'm back to my very "experienced" *ahem* advice giving:D This time though, it's a personal lesson that I've learned that I think everyone needs to learn. This lesson is about letting go.

For this blog post, I'm going to address letting go of people, but I know this can be applied to a lot of other things. Letting go of anger, bitterness, sometimes letting go of dreams that aren't meant to be....the list goes on and on. For my personal experience, I've had to let go of some people.

Once upon a time, I had this friend who we'll call John. I met John at a time in my life where I really wanted to have a guy friend. I didn't want a boyfriend or anything like that, but I was just really wanting to have a friend that was a guy. Since there aren't very many guys in my church, and the ones that are in our church aren't my age, I had no guy friends. To some it may not seem like a big deal, but there's just something special about having a guy friend that doesn't have crazy girl emotions and drama.

So anyways, I met John. We were the same age, with the exception of about a month and a half, and we quickly became very good friends. I understood him, he understood me, and he put up with all of my randomness and meaningless babblings. After about 8 months, I realized that are friendship was not what it had been. We no longer treated each other the way we had when we first met-I was quick to get upset and he was quick to have a sharp word or be rude to me.

After a while it began to wear on me. I didn't want to talk to him, I was usually upset with him, and I just didn't want it anymore. I kinda gave myself a pep talk about it. I told myself that I didn't deserve to have someone treat me badly, and I shouldn't constantly have to be on guard to defend my playful picking and joking. I didn't want that emotional strain all the time. I realized that some people come into our lives for a season. Not everyone that we become friends with come into our lives to stay. Sometimes they come into our life for a season. I realized with John that he was there to temporarily provide friendship for me. He wasn't meant to stick around forever. If I were to try to hold on for him, and believe me I did for a while, it would be worse for me. Now, I occasionally talk to him, and when I do it's very pleasant:) I guess the saying, "Familiarity breeds contempt" is very true:)

There's just something about trying to hold on to those "seasonal" people. If it's not meant to be, it will only drag you down and hurt you. I once heard it said that "saying good bye is another way of saying 'I love you'." It's so true! If a relationship whether it be friendship, or a more serious relationship, sometimes when you really love someone, you will be willing to say, "I love you enough to realize that I'm not what's best for you, so I'll let you go."

I hope I wasn't too redundant in this blog post, but I wanted to share my knowledge with other people:D Letting go is sometimes the best thing...better for you, better for the people around you, better for the other member of the relationship:)

Clear the roads!! Wait no, clear the sidewalks! Warn everyone that a dangerous threat is about to arrive!! "What is that threat?" you might wonder. The threat is....

This girl is turning sweeeet 16 tomorrow!! And with those numbers also comes the privilege of getting my driver's permit! Oh yeah!!:D


I figured in honor of my birthday, and in realizing that I am becoming more wise with each year *ahem*, I should post some things I've learned in life thus far:D


1. Make sure to carefully read recipes when you're cooking! If not, you may end up with 8 teaspoons of salt, watery Velveeta shells, very, very doughy snicker doodles, or 6 cups of Crisco! (YES I did this! I thought that bars of Crisco were measured the same wasy as a stick of butter, and the recipe called for 3 cups of Crisco. It was fixable tho. I only had 5 sticks in-unblended- so I took two out:D)


2. ALWAYS do a full-body clothing check before going to church!

(One night as I was down praying at the altar, I reached behind me to adjust my blazer and make sure it was pulled down all the way. To my absolute horror I discovered that the jumper I had on under the jacket was all the way unzipped. Thankfully, it wasn't very noticealbe, and was easily fixed. I can only imagine if I hadn't had the jacket on!!)


3. That the words for a very common church song aren't, "I won't sell it for smoke," but actually, "I won't settle for smoke!"

4. Hairspray is a Pentecostal girl's second best friend. The first is Jesus:D But yes, hairspray is wonderful! Many times my hair has been rebellious, but I whip it back into order with a spritz of hairspray:D

5. Those girls who walk around the mall in very, very tall heels are absolutely C-R-A-Z-Y! It's been my experience that after walking in high heels for about 10 minutes, my feet begin to yell at me to just STOP it! If I don't listen to the yelling, they give me HUGE amounts of pain! And I continue to suffer after I take them off because there is a muscle in my foot that sometimes pulls after walking in heels. So, my advice, do NOT walk around the mall in heels! Ever!

I have learned a couple of more serious lessons. I'm not completely ditsy, just a little:D Sometimes my mind starts working and the house gets a little smoky from all the work going on:D

1. It's a saying as old as the hills. "Never judge someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes." This is soo true! Something that you be able to deal with and come through easily may be the biggest trial of another person's life. And something that may be meaningless to them would be the biggest trial of your life. The Bible also has something to say about judging other people. I like Matthew 7:1 in the Amplified Bible. "Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judge and critized and condemned yoursleves."

2. What goes around truly does come back around. If you're mean and nasty and spiteful towards others, they're going to be mean, nasty, and spiteful back to you. If you show love and kindness to other people, they're going to show love and kindness to you. Isaiah 3: 10-11 of the NIV Bible says, "Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds. Woe to the wicked! Disaster is upon them! They will be paid back for what their hands have done."

3. Respect will get results. If you disrespect someone, don't expect them to be nice and do something for you or listen to what you have to say in return.

4. Things do not last forever:) I used to be pretty high-strung. Then one day, I was thinking-yes the smoke was filling the house- and I thought to myself, "You know, nothing lasts forever. Will this matter in eternity?" That's pretty much how I view things. In life, accidents happen. Things get broken, words are said that shouldn't be said, feelings get hurt, but they aren't going to last forever. That's not a free pass to insult people and be hateful, but if you do accidently hurt someone's feelings, apologize. You might be embarrassed, but it's not going to last forever. If you don't apologize and cause someone to stumble, that may last forever:) So, let's humble ourselves. I don't know why I added that because it really doesn't have anything to do with being high-strung:) But, I've discovered that life is too short...we need to enjoy it while we can:)

Well, that's the wisdom I'v gained in the past 16 years:) Well, not really 16 cuz I didn't discover that when I was a few months old. Anyways, I'm babbling. I hope you all have a wonderful day/evening/whenever you read this:) I love you all! Thanks for being faithful blog-readers:D