Update on My Life

Yeah, so here is an update!! :)

Well, I will begin with Thursday, that is when the excitement began!!

Thursday was Caleb's last game of this year. It was in Montague. It was cold, rainy, and windy!! At the end, me and mom started cheering, and jumping around to stay warm!! Yeah I was a little hyper and was yelling and cheering!! What made it worth it was Spanky's afterwards, and delivering it to Kristin at the Harrington Inn!! :)

Friday evening was another football game! This time the last Varsity game. I sat with my friend Cori. We played against Montague again. It was pretty cold and we ended up losing. At one point, a girl (kind of like a cheerleader) was hit by two football players, she was knocked out, brought to the hospital, and I guess she fractured her neck and had other injuries!! That was crazy and scary!! The girl was Cori's friend and I felt awful for the poor girl!!

Saturday was busy! I helped Chad with fixing the Nissan. It was shaking and stuff. I put a new rotor on the car, replaced a tire, and tightened the lug nuts!! :) I was pretty proud, it was fun!! Then, I headed to the mall with Kristin, that was pretty good! I saw a bunch of clothes I wanted but couldn't get which was sad! At 6:30 we had a birthday party for Jessica, she is turning 10!! As always, I had a good time!! :) I love my family!! While still at the party Caleb called saying that we could start moving in!! Chad was ready to leave then and pack everything up! He wanted to move everything by the end of Sunday! After we politely said goodbye to everyone we left to see the house for the first time! It is pretty awesome, I like it a lot!! :) Oh, yeah, I met the cat, Paws, who drools and has lots of front toes!!

Sunday we got up at 9, and went out to breakfast. I ordered a cinnamon roll and omelet. I was expecting an average size you know, but it was super huge!! I took a picture of it, it was so good and big I didn't even touch my omelet and toast!! I was pretty excited about it!! :P After our breakfast, we went to the house again. Our fun was over! We cleaned, took care of Chad's ex's clothes/stuff, and did other things before we would move in. Grandma and Grandpa helped us out for a lot of the day and Great Grandma toured the house. Okay, so the backyard is amazing!! Alyssa, Charlene, you will LOVE it!! I am so excited to explore it more!! There is so much forest, and it is so beautiful!! Oh, yeah, and I shot a rifle!! It was scary!! I screamed as I shot it and apparently I like moved my leg or something! Chad and Caleb were making fun of me!!

But this weekend was good overall!!

We will be working on moving this week and will be out of this apartment by this weekend!! :) yeah!

An Interesting Story

Well, do I have an interesting story for y'all today!! Hmm... Where to start! I guess I will start with today and work my way back.
So I was in my Culinary Arts Voc today...
We went into the kitchen to wash our hands, put on an apron and hair net, and watch a demonstration...
This guy, Josh, hangs out with these 2 other second year students, and one of them calls me over and says that Josh has something to ask me in private; they quickly walk away. Josh looks in their quickly retreating direction and says something like, "No I don't." or "No I'm alright."
He looks back at me. "Well- I was wondering if you wanted to go to Homecoming with me."
Me, shocked, embarrassed, and feeling really awkward, "Um, I was just going to go alone."
Josh said something like, "Oh."
Before I could say much else the instructor called us to attention and we started the demonstration.
I tried to concentrate the rest of the class. I was reminded that business and pleasure don't mix and thought how awful it could be the rest of the year. TGIF though!

I was super shocked but at the same time kind of knew it was coming. Just yesterday, for example, I read on Yahoo! a story about how to gracefully turn a guy down. I emailed it to myself and put in the comment box "Just say no to Josh." I was joking, and didn't really think I would have to...
I had this feeling he liked me though. In Culinary a few days ago we learned knife skills and Josh "hovered over" me and Shelby, not paying much attention to anyone else.
He was in my Algebra 2 class last year and I just got this feeling he liked me, but then dismissed it.
One day I was walking home and saw him drive by, he was staring at me.        

Yep, so that was interesting!!

Also today...
Our intern teacher said, "...Our program is all about sex." We all looked around with questioning glances, thinking what? He really said our program is all about cents, as in saving money!! Haha, that makes sense.
Oh, yeah, also the intern guy asked if I could get him several onions. I confirmed that they were in the fridge behind me, went in, grabbed two and tried to open the door. Our instructor already said that the door closes, and that you won't get trapped, so don't panic. I remembered all this, and I tried to open the door, I had no idea how to though. There was no doorknob or instructions on how to open the door. It sounds simple but it wasn't. There is a knob and a description that says not to worry you're not trapped. After a little while of me struggling the instructor let me out and made an example of me.
"Don't freak out like Valerie if you get locked out-"
Embarrassed, I mumbled "I wasn't freaking out..."
"I know, I'm just using you as an example. You just need to push the door open."

Lastly, part of our demonstration today was saute-ing. After he was almost done he told everyone to make a single file line and try it. When it was my turn I picked up the pan and tried it. The pan was surprisingly heavy. My attempt wasn't very good. I was walking away, and he made me try it again. That was also embarrassing....

Ooh, yeah, one more thing!!
Today, I went to 2nd Avenue Thrift Store downtown. I had seen that they need volunteers so I went to see if they still did. Turns out they do!! :) I am going to start volunteering the 21st, from 4-6:30!! I'm super excited!!! Hopefully it will be as good as Lean on Me!!

Bible Verses

I started writing down verses that I thought applied to my life, or that I really liked. Then, I decided to share them. So here are some...

1 Timothy 2:9-10

"I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God."

2 Chronicles 1:11-12

"God said to Soloman, "Since this is your heart's desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches, or honor, nor for the death of you enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you..."

2 Corinthians 5:15, 17, 21

"And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again."

17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come."

21, "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Ephesians 4:2, 4-6, 22

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."

4, "There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to one hope when you were called- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. "

22, "You were taught with regard to former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your mind; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. 29, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 31, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

Matthew 25: 40

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' "

Words

Here I am laying on the couch with the laptop, and all the sudden the sun pops out and I decide I must take a walk. It is a beautiful day, sunny, blue sky, great temperature, and I know where I want to go. So, I'm walking along a pretty busy (usually) road, minding my own business, and I hear, "SLUT!!" as a black car cruises by. I'm shocked, nearly laugh, then think about why some girl would yell that at me. Definitely not the clothes: sweater, t-shirt underneath, pants, boots... Then I figure it's got to be the hair. Side part, blonde... Yep, blonde, guess that makes me a slut. So, that one word (slut) sabotages my entire walk. Now every car that goes by I just want to hide, soon I'll be on the quiet road though. Why did that girl even yell that at me? I don't understand, I'm pretty sure she didn't even know me, so why would you do something like that? A stranger's word completely changed my mood, so how much more could a friend's, a family member's?

That got me thinking about words and their affect, both positive and negative. The negative has already been explained. The positive affect? What if that girl had yelled, "You look nice!!" or something similar? My whole attitude would not have been changed, I would have continued on my happy walk. Then I had to wonder: how many times had I changed someone's attitude, for the better or worse? Was I no better than this accusatory girl? How many times have I complimented someone, said an encouraging word to someone in need? How often had I judged others, said my (negative) opinion when it wasn't wanted, or passed someone who was in need?

I guess my walk turned into a lesson on the affect of words.

So watch what you say...

You could change the way someone is feeling...

Sir Francis Drake

Today, our pastor quoted a prayer from Sir Francis Drake. I was reminded of it by Alyssa's blog. It reads:

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, 

when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, 

when we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore. 


Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess,
we have lost our thirst for the waters of life, 
having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity, 
and in our efforts to build a new earth, 

we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim. 


Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, 
where storms will show your mastery, 
where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. 
We ask you to push back the horizon of our hopes, 
and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love. 
This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ.

I also found a quote by him while I was looking for the above prayer.

"There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory."

Sir Francis Drake was the first Englishmen (along with his crew) to circumnavigate- to sail around the globe from 1577-1580.

Anyway, there is a brief history lesson, and some good quotes.