A peek into the life of Haley Phillips

Thoughts from halftime.

2012-02-09T17:53:00.000-08:00

Who all watched the Superbowl last Sunday? I didn't watch the whole thing, just bits and pieces of it, although I did see the halftime show. Yes, THAT show. The one featuring Madonna, Cee-lo, Nikki Minaj, LMFAO (for those of you who know what that acronym is, I didn't want to write it on here, but it is their name. For those who don't know what it is, you're all the better for it) and another girl I don't know. Lets go through the list, shall we?
Skimpy outfits: check.
Obscene gestures: check.
Backup dancers writhing and roiling onstage: Check x 100+
Freak show performers: check.
And finally Star Wars-esque black choir robes: check.
All these things smooshed together to make a catastrophe of a show that showcased the peaks in secular pop culture and worldly standards. As I watched in shock the things that went on onstage, from the sexualized dance moves to the final explosion banner that proclaimed "World Peace", the things coursing through my mind went from "Oh my goodness" to "I hope my guy friends aren't watching this." I was very embarrassed after watching that show. Not only the facts of what happened in it, but also the fact that I had even watched it. But I also felt degraded. Almost made fun of. I know so many girls that strive daily to remain modest, and when I watch such worldlyness broadcasted for all to see, I can't help but feel like a failure. Why should I work so hard to be modest for the men in my life when they can turn on the TV and see that? It seems like a losing cause. But then I stop and think. By trying to be modest, my sisters in Christ and I are creating a safe haven for our men. They have to deal with the immodesty there, right in their faces, the last thing they need is to get it from us too. Not only are we making a safe haven, but we're also doing something else. Setting a standard. Something that the world apparently doesn't have. And just a random thought to throw in there; what does World Peace have to do with that show? Just saying.

PDA's

2012-02-01T18:52:00.000-08:00

By the way, the PDA I'm talking about is not the little thing that you carry around that tells you when you're supposed to be somewhere. This PDA stands for Public Displays of Affection.
OK, so I've made an observation. Think back in the past....six months or so, about all the movies and things you've seen. Think about all the relationships that were in there. Think about the kisses that took place. Who were they between? Young teenagers? Young people? Were they married? Probably not. Nowadays, any relationship shown onscreen is not between married couples or parents. I've wondered why for sometime. In sitcoms and television shows, the parents are either portrayed as stupid, mean, or clueless. They are workaholics, uncaring, or both. Sometimes divorced, sometimes split, most of the time fighting. Sometimes they're even out of the picture. It makes me wonder what a difference it would make if that was shown more often. Real parents, really caring. Kissing, hugging, being loving to each other. Here is my observation: The reason these couples are not shown is because if something like a real, working relationship were to come to light, it would raise a standard in the world. Parents wouldn't be able to hide behind the fact that "everybody" lives that way anymore. It would raise questions that the world doesn't want to answer. That's why I'm proud my parents raise the bar, and I know several other couples that do too. It makes a difference in a child's life to see their parent's loving each other. Not only does it encourage a child in the fact that their parents aren't in danger of breaking up, but it sets an example for a healthy relationship that the child can aim for. And we can embrace that. One family at a time.

My Sixteenth Birthday :)

2012-02-01T18:02:00.000-08:00

OK, so there's this neat little thing that happened to me this week....I turned sixteen!!!! My sweet family threw me a surprise birthday party last Saturday, and then I had a party that I planned Tuesday to go skating with my friends. :D

My grandparents gave me this beautiful silver charm that says "Sweet 16"!

Birthday breakfast.

Jonine and Felicity

Sarah Jane and I! Mmmm....pizza!

A flutter nutter sandwich from SJ!

The ones in my van! Front: Cassia, me, Hayden. Back: Alexey, Marybeth, Olivia.

Olivia in action!

Me ♥

Haven!

Haven and Hannah!

Jonine and I!

Hayden.

Mrs. Frees and Abby

Willow!

Sarah Jane :)

Alexey, Marybeth, and Gina.

Esther, Hayden, and Katherine.

Willow and Chelsey!

Sisters ♥

All of us!

Lol....That's Dad's head between Olivia and Marybeth :D

We mobbed the drink machine :D

Willow and SJ

New Years Eve!

2012-01-01T12:58:00.000-08:00

OK I know I haven't posted in like.....34 days, but I plan on getting back into it. So I decided to post about New Year's Eve, which we spent with our Heritage friends! The Hudson's were wonderful for having us all over for a New Year's Eve party, complete with basketball, capture the flag, and Catchphrase!

Peeps! Left to right: Felicity, Willow, Olivia (with Hope!) and Jessica.

Marybeth!

Left to right: Felicity, Willow, Olivia, Megan, and Jessica.

Michael.

Josh.

Hayden, Haven, and Hannah!

After the party Haven, Hayden, Hannah (who spent the night with us!) and I went and shot fireworks in our yard.

Making cookies!

2011-12-07T12:15:00.001-08:00

Today we got to keep our little friends Parker and Millie! We decided to do something fun and make Christmas cookies. We also invited Sarah and Sophie to come and make some too! But first we made homemade pizza.

Rolling out dough.

Looks soooooo good.....

Titus, watching the excitement.

Parker and Sarah.

Lol, Sophie and Millie.

Suzi.

Sarah and Park playing with Titus.

Haven and Suzi.

COOKIE DOUGH!!!!

Sophie.

Parker and Titus.

.....I'm not sure about this face, lol. She was sleepy. :)

Voila! Homemade pizza and cheesesticks.

And this is what was left of them. ;)

My fix @.@

Lol, Park.

Sarah.

Millie

Cookies!

Titus, napping.

Making cookies!

We all had a great time and the cookies were awesome! A great way to kick off the Christmas season!

Mistletoe

2011-12-04T15:39:00.001-08:00

Christmas approaches, far too quickly for everything I must do. Today, Bird's Eye Haven was messing with Dad's air rifle, and shot a sprig of mistletoe out of a tree in our yard. So she brought it in, tied a ribbon around it, and hung it in our foyer doorway. As I looked at the mistletoe hanging there, I thought about the history of it....and realized I didn't know the history of it! I knew it was tradition to hang it in a doorway, and everyone knows about kissing under it (although I've never done it before), but I didn't know why. So I dug around on the internet and decided that this would be a good Christmas post. So here goes:

Basically, the legend of the mistletoe began in Scandinavia and in Norse mythology. A Norse goddess decided that the mistletoe should be a symbol of love, not war, as it had previously stood for. So followed the tradition of kissing under it as a sign of love. However, there was a catch. Every time a couple kissed under the mistletoe, they were supposed to pluck a berry off of the sprig. When all the berries were gone, the privilege of kissing under it was revoked. Although in our society, all notions of that has disappeared. Or, as you can see in the picture, the sprig might not have berries, as ours doesn't. The little yellow things on the stem is the berries that have not yet matured.

So there you have it!

For a more in-depth story of the mistletoe, how it got it's name, and uses, see here and here.

My tea.

2011-11-19T15:58:00.001-08:00

I'm sure some of you have little hot drinks you enjoy. Some coffee, others lattes, etc. I don't like coffee (except for Starbuck's Peppermint Mocha! It's like heaven in a cup!) so instead I partake of tea. Green tea to be exact. When my fellow ladies of the house and I went to the Christmas Village in Birmingham, we got tea. Just plain tea leaves from Log Cabin Tea Co. to try. We also got a tea ball. So today I would like to share with you about my tea. :)

First I get the water going. Just plain tap water in a kettle, like the one above, heated until boiling.

While the water's boiling, I get out my mug (below) and tea/tea ball (above).

I carefully measure my tea (about two teaspoons or so) and put it in the tea ball.

Then I close the ball and put it in my cup, putting the little chain hook on the side of the cup so it doesn't fall in.

Then I add the hot water...

And let it steep for awhile, depending on how strong I want it. Then I take out the tea ball and voila! A good cup of tea. :)

When I say....

2011-11-15T16:07:00.001-08:00

When I say...."I am a Christian"
I'm not shouting, "I'm clean livin.'"
I'm whispering, "I was lost,
Now I'm found and forgiven."

When I say..."I am a Christian."
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
And need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... "I am a Christian."
I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak
And need His strength to carry on.

When I say... "I am a Christian."
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
And need God to clean my mess.

When I say... "I am a Christian."
I'm not claiming to be perfect.
My flaws are far to visible
But, God believes I'm worth it.

When I say... "I am a Christian."
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.

When I say... "I am a Christian."
I'm not holier than thou.
I'm just a simple sinner
Who received God's good grace, somehow!

Found here!

Happy Blogaversary!!!!!

2011-11-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

OMGARSH!!!!! I was just reading through and discovered that yesterday with the two year anniversary of my BLOG!!!!!! Awesome! *sigh* Two years with all you lovely people... *crickets* Oh well. It's been fun, hasn't it?! Yeah....Hmm. OK. Well. See ya.

Chik-Fil-A Adventures.

2011-11-10T07:27:00.000-08:00

OK, so there's this place (I'm sure some of you have heard of it), called Chik-Fil-A. *Crowd starts screaming in the background* See, I knew it! Anyway, a new one opened in Pell City today. They do this thing where the first 100 people spend 24 hours in their parking lot and get free chicken! It's a lot more complicated than it sounds, cause you have to be there the day before to get a number, and if there's more than 100 people there, they pick them at random. So there's no set rule that you'll get in. So here's how our adventure threw down: Mom got to Chik-Fil-A at 5:30 AM (yes, that's before the sun rises). She stayed there and filled out paper work and such to get registered. So in the end, 130 showed up, so there was a raffle system. Mom's name was on a list tossed in with 129 other names and were chosen at random to be picked. 100 were picked......Mom was 98. Then we showed up about 7:15 or so and helped her and Mrs. Chrystal (who was #60, by the way) unload the vans and set up the tent...

Our lovely (leaky) tent.

The campsite.

"Tent city" as is became known as.

.....Along with a hundred other people.

The nasty looking sky, which later poured on us.

The sky was pretty bad looking. It eventually rained about three or four times, only two of those were downpours though. It mainly sprinkled. But in the meantime we mainly hung around the parking lot (that's another rule: you can't leave the premises).

Suzi, playing in her walker.

Mom and Mrs. Chrystal.

Sarah and Sophie, playing in the "little tent".

Haven, doing the super model hair flip ;D

Mom and Haven

Sarah

Suzi, napping.

"I think I know you....maybe..."

Hayden

Stroller races!

Suzi

Haves, chilling.

Me, also chilling.

Haven...still chilling....

OUR SHOES!!!!

We all retreated inside when it started raining...

Drawing.

Laying in the tent.

Then it was time for games!!!! We played The Ice Relay Race. Basically, you have two teams of six, a bucket full of ice, an empty bucket, and a big spoon. Your goal: get more ice in your bucket than the other team the fastest. (Our team won the first rounds, but lost in the elimination round).

The Ice Relay Race.

Lots of people braved the rain to play!

Hayden in the blue, me in the red.

I was shivering!

Sarah.

We won!

Dinner.

After we had all shivered in the rain and played in the ice, it was time for dinner, which consisted of chicken nuggets, fries, and a drink.

Isn't it beautiful?!?!?!?! *wipes away tears*

Once everyone was done eating, it was time for more games! There was one where all the kids seven and under had to see who could pull all the tissues out of the tissue box the fastest (Sadly I didn't get a picture, but tissues were EVERYWHERE! Sarah took third place in it.) Then there was one where the kids 11 and under had to see who could hula hoop the longest while doing certain things (like holding their hands above their hands, clapping, etc...)

Hayden, the hula hoop champ.

Then there was the ultimate challenge, for adults only. You had to squeeze all the toothpaste out of a toothpaste container. Simple right? Yeah....and then you had to put it back in. With your mouth.

Toothpaste.

The winner!

"What should we do with this stuff?"

It was disgusting! But their breath was minty fresh ;D

Frrrrreeeezzzzzinnngggggg......

And then it was time for a killer game of ninja! Which the three of us won seven rounds of.

The girl in the green (Kristen) and her friend Kirsten have a blog called Unsafe Behavior (you can find the link here). They and their friends were awesome to hang out with, including playing card Monopoly!

Sarah was hula hooping

All of us at the official opening of Chik-Fil-A in Pell City!!!!!

After a wet, cold, and fitful night's sleep (the only downside to this whole thing) it was time to get up, get the chicken, and go. We spent 24 hours in that Chik-Fil-A parking lot and left with a year's worth of free food. Sounds like a deal to me!

~Haley's List Of Firsts~
~Tent Camping~
~Camping in a parking lot~
~Camping in a CHIK-FIL-A parking lot~
~Meeting a guy who has done this thing 48 TIMES!!!!~
~Winning ninja five times in a row~
~Seeing someone eat toothpaste~
~Watched Tangled in a tent with strangers~
~Played Monopoly in a tent with strangers~
~Seen people...less than pretty....at 4 o'clock in the morning~ (Note on this: We all shared the restrooms in Chik-Fil-A. So if you went at, say, 4 in the morning, there would more than likely be people with bed head in there. Thankfully I went in there with my coat on (it was also the only blasted place with heat!) so I simply flipped the hood up. Although I'm not sure how much of an improvement that was, cause then I looked like I'd just walked out of the getto. Oh well....)
~Shivered so much~
~Seen people play on an XBOX in a tent!~
~Done the Electric Slide in a parking lot~
~Danced in a parking lot (they brought in a DJ!)

A Tu-tutorial (Get it?) ;D

2011-11-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

OK, so Halloween was just four hours away. I needed something to wear, FAST! I wanted to be a cat, but not just any cat, a really cute cat....with a tu-tu! I'd seen the little girls running around with the cute tu-tus made of tulle and fabric and ribbon and such. So I decided to make one! And here's how I did it.

*I apologize in advance for the horrible pictures.

What you need:
A sewing machine (Don't panic, it's just for one straight seam)
Thread in the sewing machine (It can be just about any color, it's not going to be seen)
Tulle (I had two yards of black and one of pink, and I didn't have enough, so I would suggest at least two or three yards of each)
Elastic
Scissors
Fabric or ribbon (if desired; I used fabric)
About three hours.

Step 1: Measure the recipients waist. Make it kind of snug, stretching the elastic a little, so that it'll fluff up when you wear it.

Step 2: Cut the elastic at desired length.

Step 3 (the sewing part! *gasp*): Hold ends together (don't twist the elastic!) and sew a single seam through both thicknesses.

You should now have something like this. *^* Set aside.

Step 4: Fold tulle in half and lay on a surface you can cut on.

Step 5: Cut strips from the tulle (mine were about one inch wide, but do them as thick or thin as you want).

You should end up with something like this. *^*

Now do the other tulle/fabric. You should now have *^these^* items all together.

OK, from here on, I did not get any pictures, so just follow the directions.

Step 6: Take a strip of tulle (which should be folded in half, since that's the way you cut it), and put the cut ends through the elastic circle. Open the folded end and pull the cut ends though the hole, catching the elastic in the middle. Tighten the knot so that it's on the elastic. Repeat for the other tulle strips, ribbon, or fabric.

By the time you get done, you shouldn't be able to see the elastic, like in the picture above.

Step 7: Put it on and wear it proudly!

Quick Halloween costume: Pair the tu-tu with black jeans, a black shirt, a pink furry vest, whiskers and cat ears for a cute cat costume!

The Bailey's Barn Party

2011-10-25T18:59:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday I had a marvelous time at the Baileys barn party!!!! Food, fun, friends, and dancing! And we can't forget the smoked hog. They killed and roasted a WHOLE HOG! That sucker was HUGE!!!! He was good too. ;D We danced some square dances, a few reels, and what barn party is complete without the Chicken Dance and the Electric Slide?! So after feasting and some lively good old county music (performed by the Carol family, my friend Matt and his cousin, the Travers, and a whole lot of other people!), the guys played football and everyone who wanted joined in a good ole game of ninja! There was also a pie contest (congrats to the winners!). By far though the best part had to be the dancing! And I only stepped on one person's feet! YAY!

Whispers on the Pages

2011-10-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

Almost everyone has a favorite Bible. I remember as an eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen year old carrying around my dad's old Bible. He had received a new one for Christmas and had given his old (still in good condition) one to me. By the time I got a new one (for Christmas at age fourteen) that poor Bible was ripped, torn, worn, and bent, but also well loved. I put it away on a shelf when I received my new one. But the other day I was missing it terribly. So I pulled it off it's shelf, laid it on my lap, and opened it. Memories of using it in church, on trips, at midnight when I couldn't sleep, hugging it to my chest while I walked, and all the other times came flooding back. And as I flipped through the pages of that worn, well loved Bible, I heard it. Haley, it said, I've missed you. And I grinned and continued, listening to the whispers on the pages.

Breath

2011-10-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

I dive, deep, letting the water glide over my skin. I reach the bottom, shifting so that I'm sitting on the pool floor. The water pulls my hair upward, floating around my head like a cloud of ink. Small bubbles burst out of my mouth as air escapes. Everything is peaceful, calm. The lights reflect through the water, casting a blue glow. More bubbles escape. My lungs begin to sting, but I ignore them. They sting more. I ignore them still. Finally they win. I push off from the floor, blowing the rest of the air out my mouth as I go. My head breaks the surface and I fling it back, throwing my hair out of my face. Then I open my mouth and....breath.

Stove Top Smores

2011-10-06T19:11:00.000-07:00

Ha ha, this was uber fun to do! :D OK, here's what you need:
1. As many marshmallows as smores (ie, for three smores you'd need three marshmallows)
2. As many whole graham crackers as smores (ie, for three smores you'd need three whole graham crackers)
3. (optional) Chocolate squares, as many as smores. (I'm not gonna make another example, yall get the point :P)
4. Stove top.
5. Fork (preferably not all metal, maybe a plastic or glass handle, since metal heats up quickly)
6. Hands
7. Adult supervision, if necessary
8. Plate
Prep: Break graham crackers in half, giving you two pieces, one for the top and one for the bottom. Place on plate. Put chocolate squares (if desired) on bottom piece. Set near stove.
Step 1: Turn on stove.
Step 2: Place marshmallow on fork.
Step 3: Hold marshmallow over stove eye, turning so that entire marshmallow is cooked evenly. WILL COOK QUICKLY!
Step 4: Remove marshmallow from eye.
Step 5: Using top graham piece, push marshmallow off of the fork and onto the bottom piece.
Step 6: Place top piece on marshmallow.
Step 7: Squish if desired.
Step 8: Eat.

TN 2011

2011-10-04T16:53:00.001-07:00

Sisters <3

Thrift Store Thoughts

2011-09-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

How many of you shop at thrift stores? Yes, you, you, you in the back...ok. Well, I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about when I say your mindset changes when you go in a thrift store. I do it myself. Find a cute pair of GAP jeans, regular who knows what in the store, for $7. And you sit there and think and gripe and add up the discount because the sticker is green and gripe some more because it's fifty percent off and $3.50 just seems like too much to pay for practically brand new GAP jeans from the thrift store. Don't even try to say that you don't do that, cause I know you do! And I have to remind myself, these things were probably $30 in the store (maybe even more!) and I want to gripe about $3.50? COME ON! Then I feel all disgusted with myself for being so nit picky. Then I put the jeans back up because I decide that they wouldn't have fit me right anyway. ;)

Football Season

2011-09-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year! My favorite time of year starts around this time, football season, and lasts through New Year's. I've been thinking, why do I like football season? I've never (and probably never will) played football, never really watched the games until this year, and yet I've always loved this season. I guess it's because of what I know comes with the season. Friends coming over, some of my favorite foods EVER being prepared, the celebration of winning, the weather cooling off, yelling at the TV (I do like that part : D), and I guess just the all around spirit of the game. It brings my family (and friends!) together to enjoy something. Football.

ABC Family

2011-09-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

What is the idea, the morals, of family? According to Wikipedia, they are affinity, marriage, economy, culture, tradition, honor, and friendship. Now we go to the title of this post. ABC Family. When you look at the morals of the shows they produce ( Pretty Little Liars, The Lying Game, The Secret Life of An American Teenager) you won't find the morals and ideas I listed above. Instead you'll find dishonesty, pre-marital sex, homosexuality, backstabbing, drugs, partying, and who knows what other ungodly things. This presses me to ask a question. If this is what the new definition of family, why are people surprised that there is so much sin, teens pregnant out of wedlock, and drugs and drinking out of control? And "Christian" people will list the shows listed above, and many more, as their favorites, the ones they watch every week, same time every day, not missing a single episode. If these are the role models that we teens look to, then no wonder the world is in such a disarray, with teens lives in turmoil. I just have to say, if these shows are the new definition of family, we have much to fear.

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-meditate on these things."
Philipians 4:8

Toast! :D

2011-09-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

OK, the adorable little things you are looking at above are toast earrings!!!! Yes, they are adorable and super easy to make. So I decided to post the pattern. I made it up using yellow and brown floss, but you could change the colors to do whatever you would like! You could also sew beads or embroider colors like purple or red on it for jam, or make it black and say you have burnt toast!

You will need:
1 little skein of yellow, white, or off-white embroidery floss. One skein made both with some leftover.
1 skein of brown embroidery floss.
2 fishhook ear wires.
A size 7 or 1.65 mm steel hook.
Clear nail polish (to make sure the ends don't fray).
Scissors.

*Crochet over ends when possible.

Abbreviations (American terms)
sc = single crochet
sl st = Slip stitch
ch = chain stitch

OK, let's get started!
Row 1: With "bread" color, chain 6.
Row 2: Ch 1, sc in each stitch across (6)
Row 3,4, 5, & 6: Repeat row 2 (6)
Row 7: Ch 1, 5 sc in first stitch, sc in next 4 stitches, 5 sc in last stitch.
*You can now either join the other color in last stitch, or fasten off and join new color with sl st. I did both, one on each earring, and they both work fine. When joining, the color join should be at the bottom of the little bump created by the last 5 sc group. If you sl st the new color, ch 1, then work row 8. If you just joined in last sc, go right into instructions.*
Row 8: With "crust" color, working into the sides of the rows, sc 4 times. At corner, work 2 sc. Along the bottom edge, work 4 sc. In next corner work 2 sc. Then work 4 sc up the side. Now you're at the 5 sc group or "bump". 1 sc, 2 sc in next st, 2 in next st, 1 sc. Work 3 sc, the join earwire in next sc.
*I took the hook out of the loop, pulled the loop up a little, then just threaded the loop through the hole at the bottom of the earwire. MAKE SURE your ear wire is facing the right way so that the wrong side of your work won't be what's facing outward.*
Row 8 cont.: After joining ear wire with sc, sc in next 3 sc. Sc in next st, 2 sc in next st, 2 sc in next stitch, sc in next st, join with sl st in first sc. Fasten off.

Finishing: Weave in ends if you didn't crochet over them. Using clear nail polish, paint the ends so they kind of stick to the fabric. Allow to dry. Put them on with you favorite shirt, go to town, and let everyone "Oooh" and "Aaah" over your fabulous creations!

Book Review: Hero by Mike Lupica

2011-08-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

From the back of the book: Zach Harriman thought he knew his dad. Knicks fan, ex-Harvard football star, special advisor to the President of the United States. And then Tom Harriman's plane crashes under mysterious circumstances and everything Zach thought he knew about his father explodes with it. Now the same people who wanted his father dead want Zach very much alive. Why? Because Tom Harriman was no ordinary man. And because Zach is destined to follow his footsteps. Starting now. As something no one even knows exists...A fourteen-year-old superhero.

Good elements:
The main theme of this book is stated in the title: heroism. People care for each other. They fight and stand up for one another. Some examples: Zach obviously cares very much for his family, particularly his dad. He is devastated by the loss. But although he does love his dad greatly, when (months later) his mom seems to be moving on, he doesn't try to hold her back.
Another example is Zach's best friend, Kate Paredes. She obviously cares for Zach, and he, likewise, returns her love, even to the point of saving her life. Thrice.
And when we do hear from Zach's dad, before he died and from flashbacks, we gather he also loved Zach as much as Zach loved him.
Family friend, affectionately know as "Uncle John", also cares greatly for Zach, even taking a hit for him. Zach's dad dies protecting America.

Sexual elements:
No explicit content, I'm pleased to report. Kate is referred to as Zach's girlfriend, although neither admit to the fact. Mrs. Harriman and Uncle John go out to dinner (months after the crash). "A date?" Zach asks. "A business engagement," Mrs. Harriman responds. Uncle John implies that it IS a date.

Negative elements: Zach does a lot of sneaking out and around, even going to his dad's crash site when his mom strictly forbids it. Twice. Kate, on the first outing, says she'll cover for him. On the second time, she tags along.
Kate and Zach are obviously close, and Spence, super jock of all sports and class president, can't stand it. He regularly bullies Zach because of it. He also picks on Zach because of his poor basketball skills.

Violent elements:
This is a book about a hero. So naturally there are some fight scenes. Zach fights off a bunch of Bads (Mr. Harriman's name for, well, the bad guys) when they hold up him and Kate. Zach roughs up a guy who tries to grab Kate. "...your hands come near her again, and it'll be a lot worse..." he tells him later. Zach's dad describes infiltrating an enemies headquarters, which includes knocking around some guards. Zach get's put in the hospital after being used as a kickball by a giant. Zach beats up and gets beat up. People are shot and shot at.

Spiritual elements:
Mr. Herbert, an almost spiritual being, tells Zach he "has the magic" in him. His dad, apparently, also had it. Zach has many "powers" that make appearances, although it is never made clear where said powers come from. There is also a definite line between good and evil.

Crude/profane language:
Nothing worse than "shut up".

Conclusion:
I greatly enjoyed reading this book and would highly recommend it. A very easy read and a classic heroic tale.

2011-08-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

Well, tonight was a first! I had my first hip hop/jazz dance class! It was really fun! ;D It's a small class, just six girls, the three of us included. I'm the oldest, besides the instructors...yay. Oh well, it's not too bad. We're dancing to DiverseCity by TobyMac!!! <3

2011-08-14T13:15:00.000-07:00

Wow. Long time, no post. I'm going to try to get back into this, after I've been silent for so long!!! Let's see, what should I catch up on???? Just a few weeks ago, Haven and I went with our aunt to Arizona for the first time!!!! All three of us started school this past week. I'm a junior!!! Kind of scared... We're still homeschooling though, but it's scary growing up!

Homemade ice cream :)

2011-06-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, Mom talked Dad into getting a raspberry plant, although it was like $17.99. She said that we would get our money's worth. Last year, it didn't do squat. This year....

The plant, which has been watered this year, since it's right near my potted plants so I remember to water it. :)

We almost got two containers out of this batch that we normally would have had to buy!

So what better way to celebrate than homemade ice cream????

Voila!

2011-06-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

Long time, no post, eh? Well, we've been going a little crazy lately, so I decided to wait until I was a little more sane. :) We haven't been up to much. Right now we're looking forward to the Myrtle Beach trip we're taking with Mom and Dad next week, and Father's Day Sunday.

Beach 2011, Day 4

2011-05-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

Welp, it looks like our little freedom from craziness is about over. Tomorrow we head back to reality where bedtimes and "not eating yogurt at midnight" exist. I had some killer waves today, although I didn't get to ride many of them. I think a storm is coming. It was red flag all the way down the beach. One was even orange! For those of you who don't know the color code for the flags, here's a little crash course.

Green: No undertow (aka, no waves)

Yellow: Some undertow, caution (aka, waves are bigger and worth riding)

Red: Lots of undertow, warning (aka, huge waves, definitely worth riding, but very dangerous (my favorite)

Orange: Water closed (aka, if you get out there, you're writing your death sentence)

Double Orange (one orange flag on top of the other): Beach closed (aka, they're not even risking it)

Purple: Lots of marine life (aka, fish, jellyfish, crabs, etc. are coming up or migrating. A pretty cool time to go down if you want to see lots of fish and stuff). Downside: Jellyfish!

DEFINITION TIME!

Undertow: The current that makes the waves pretty big. If you get caught in the undertow current, you will almost certainly drown. The current sucks you down under the water, then out to sea. If you don't drown when you get sucked under the water, you will probably drown out at sea.

Marine life: Fish, crabs, anything that lives in water.

Caution: Being careful.

Dangerous: Any activity that could cause bodily harm and/or death. Yes, that includes running with scissors.

Beach 2011, Day 3, part 2

2011-05-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

Haven!

A very little boat.

A little boat.

The Beach!!!

Haven.

Our reflection in the window of our balcony.

Me, on our balcony.

Haven, on our balcony.

Haven and I in the meat department at Publix.

I love this picture.

Look at all the Target dogs!

There is a hilarious story about these balls. When Haven and I were little, we jumped them all the time when we went to Target. Well, one time, Haven (while wearing my favorite sweat set!) jumped one. She didn't see the sign that read "FRESH PAINT". Speaking of red, that's what color her legs were. And she completely ruined my sweat set!!!

An awesome candy store we went into. Why awesome? They had samples!!!

I love this shirt!!!!

Now that's what I call a lunch break.

A really cool hat I saw in the Kavu store.

My favorite store today!!! St. Nick's Knife Factory.

Why they sell Beanie Babies in a knife factory, I will never know.

My "big girl" toy.

It's a lot like a dagger.

2011-05-24T16:52:00.000-07:00

Me and my new boyfriend, the Bieb. But I don't think it's going to work out. I don't speak idiot.

Haven doesn't speak it either.

Beach 2011, Day 3, part 1

2011-05-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

Just random pics of our room today!!!

What I've been working on on this trip.

Haven, checking email and Buzzing!

My view.

Me, writing in my journal.

Me, smiling. That's the $8 vest from Aeropostale.

Beach 2011, Day 2

2011-05-23T21:45:00.000-07:00

Today was our second day at the beach. We got to go shopping today, ate at Lambert's: Home of throwed rolls. We also went to TCBY!!!

Haven and I in the car.

In TCBY!

I was watching something. I don't remember what.

My Fudge Brown Sundae.

Haven's Fudge Brownie Sunday.

Haven.

My grandparents.

Haven and I.

The sign speaks for itself.

Haven, on our balcony, looking at the beach.

The beach!!!!!

The pool.

Down the beach, to our right.

To the front.

To the left.

Haven and I on the balcony.

The outlets!

LAMBERT'S!!!

The rolls they throw at you from across the room. It's so lovely to get hit in the head with one. It's also AWESOME!!

Look at this plate!!! I ate, like, three bites of the Country Fried Steak and half of my potatoes.

I love all the flags!

A view from the elevator ride to our room.

Me, walking to the ocean.

Riding waves!

Haven doesn't like the ocean, so she wouldn't get out there, hence no pics of her.

Me, swimming. Although I just look like a blob. :)

Haven and I. Haven's in the yellow.

The Beach 2011, Day 1

2011-05-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

OK, so we finally made it in. After three hours and thirty minutes of homelessness (JK) on the sidewalk, we got to go into our room. Here's pics!

My side of the bed.

Haven, her side of the bed, and most of the room.

My good, trusty boogie board, Wave Rebel. (Yes, it's pink!)

Check out the TV!

Thank you.

All of this stuff...

...fit into this bag.

The living room.

Check out the other TV!

The balcony.

The beach (at night)

The pool, directly below our balcony.

Homeless

2011-05-22T19:15:00.000-07:00

If I told most of you people what was happening to me right now, you probably wouldn't believe me. But I have pictures to prove it. My grandparents, Haven, and I drove nearly ten hours down to Gulf Shores, Alabama for a simple vacation on the beach. Not so simple. We got here and were told that it would two hours before our room was ready. Well, another hotel had a room available. Grudgingly, we accepted the room offer. When we got up there, however, someone had placed fresh fish in the refrigerator, making the whole room smell like fish. So we called and told them we'd wait until the room was done. Since we had already loaded and unloaded the car five times, we decided not to load it again. So we just left our stuff out. But as Haven and I got to talking, we came to a realization. We were homeless, at least of a little while. So we took measures...

Wave Rider

2011-05-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

I love to ride waves on my boogie board. It's one of my favorite things in the whole world to do. To stand at the shoreline where the sand meets the sea and feel the water wash up and soak between your toes and make you gasp with it's chill. To feel the salty air whip across your face and blow your hair to the side, sending water droplets flying. To look out at the rolling, thundering, dangerous ocean and step even closer to it, knowing full well never to underestimate it, but you're going to become vulnerable anyway. To turn your back to the sea, your board in front of you, waiting for just the right wave. And then you feel the swell begin to pull at you, and you push off ever so slightly, laying on your board, then letting the ocean do the rest. To be lifted hight onto the back of a wave and carried to shore, to narrowly escape the danger of having our body slammed into the sandy shore. And if that happens, you get up, pick up your board, turn around, and do it again.

Six Flags 2011

2011-05-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

Six flags was yesterday! I would have made this post last night, but I was so dead tired, all I could think about was sleep. There, unfortunately, aren't any pictures of us actually on the rides. We didn't take the camera into Six Flags, we were afraid we'd lose it or something. So these are pictures we took on the ride home!

Matt

Matt and I

Sarah Jane, Matt, and I, all squished in the backseat.

All of us in the back. Left to right: Half of Sam's head, Sarah Jane, me, Matt, half of Hayden's head. Mom was driving and Haven took the picture.

The sky.

Ting ting.

Ting ting again.

Some guy's antenna that was parked in the Logan's parking lot where we ate after Six Flags.

2011-05-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the day that the Baileys and us (and I'm sure hundreds of other kids) have been counting down to for over eleven days. SIX FLAGS!!!! Homeschool day at Six Flags. I've been going for as long as I can remember, I think since I was six. I'll ask Mom. But we have a dilemma. It's supposed to rain!!!! That totally throws off our plans! Not cool. So we have been praying that it won't rain on Friday. Yall pray too!!!!

It is done!

2011-05-10T10:09:00.000-07:00

I finally did it. I cut my hair. I've been wanting to do this for some time now, been thinking about it, praying about it, and I decided to finally do it. It was like pulling teeth to get anyone to agree to it, but it is done!

Before

After

My 100th Post

2011-05-10T04:34:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that I have posted one hundred posts, one hundred snippets of my life, my thoughts, my opinions, my beliefs? Plus a little attitude. I started this blog two years ago, and it has changed quite a bit since then, as I have grown. Our family has been stuck up on the Internet in pictures. The good, the bad, and the blogged.

The Cutest Thing

2011-05-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Is this not, like, the cutest thing? I was cleaning out my messy drawer (junk drawer, whatever you want to call it) and made this adorable little person with what I found in there. I found the clothes pin, which I acquired from our old church nursery some time ago, the skirt, which is actually a doily I made who knows when, and the markers I used to draw her face. Then, viola! A little clothespin person.

The background is my laptop, from which I run this blog. See all the pretty buttons and my First Avenue Rocks sticker?

Laughs, Sarcasm, and Water Fights

2011-05-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

I had an awesome day at the Bailey's, cleaning out their barn and sorting through the Lee's stuff, which was placed in their barn for safe-keeping after the tornado. Laughs, sarcasm, and water fights were highlights. Tuesday, when we went over there, Matthew was gone the whole day. Well, Sam, Haven, and I were washing things that were covered in mud and dirt with the hose. And it morphed into an all out water war, ending with Sam and I being soaking wet. Well, since it was Sam's house, he could change clothes. I, however, could not, although Sam did give me a coat to wear since it was fifty-three degrees and we were outside. Today, thankfully, it was warmer, and I brought extra clothes. Matt didn't have any grudges since he wasn't there Tuesday, so we all decided to make a truce. It lasted until lunch time. Well, everyone else had headed back outside to start working again, leaving SJ, Matt, and I in the house to finish eating. Well, SJ (Sarah Jane) put on music (SKILLET!!!) and we were all kind of dancing around (SJ was anyway) and Matt and I were watching and Matt was jamming out on an imaginary electric guitar. Well, SJ went into her room to sit on her bed. Matt got some ice out of the freezer and handed me a piece. I assumed he wanted me to back him up when he put the ice down SJ's back. However, when he went to put the ice down SJ's back, I put mine down his. That broke the truce. He attacked me with a squirt bottle. I took off across the yard with him chasing after me. When I came running back to the house, Sam, not wanting to miss out on the action, threw a cup of water on me, soaking my shirt. So I simply threw a cup of water on him. And changed my shirt.

We have all been geeking out about an event coming up, exactly a week from tomorrow. SIX FLAGS!!!! It will be the first time we've gone with the Bailey's to Six Flags, and I have learned that several other families from Heritage, the church we're attending now, are going as well. On top of that, from tomorrow until next Friday it's half price frappuccinos at Starbucks! It's sad to say, but I had to look up how to spell frappuccinos.

Tornado, April 27, 2011

2011-04-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

A piece of paper we found in our yard.
A piece of insulation, also in our yard.
The front of the insulation.
A destroyed trailer (the rest of the pictures were taken in Shoal Creek Valley, where an assumed 30 were killed).
Trees, or what used to be trees.
More trees.
You know it's bad when the fire department gets hit too.
Another tree.
This is what was left of the Lee house when it collapsed on its fifteen occupants, Mr. and Mrs. Lee and their thirteen children. Mr. Lee, an incredible father and man of God, was killed while protecting his children, particularly his oldest son, Jordan. I know that at least four of the children received injuries, three of which were critical. The oldest daughter had a piano fall on her and broke her pelvis. Another has two broken legs. Another of the daughters has a badly sprained ankles, and one of the younger boys was trapped with a beam on his head for three hours. He had a bad concussion.
What was salvaged from the house. I didn't get a picture, but they also had an incredible amount of canned foods, jarred foods, and other food that survived as well.
The Lee truck.
A hole...
...where this tree was.
Another tree down.
The rest of the tree.
Haven standing by it's roots.
More things that were thrown almost half a mile away.
Jordan's truck.

Post-Easter

2011-04-29T05:35:00.000-07:00

I know it's kind of late to be posting Easter pics, but I've been busy lately and haven't had time until now, almost five days after Easter. But it's my blog and I can post when I want to! I might post Christmas pics tomorrow... hee hee.

Mom is wearing the bracelet we gave her for Easter. She also has on the matching necklace.
Haven
Hayden
Me (I made my dress)
A pretty fountain at the lake where we took pictures (that's Chili's in the background).
The Phillips Family
The three of us and Ma-ma and Pa-pa
The three of us
Ma-ma and Pa-pa
Mom and Dad

Running around like a crazy person

2011-04-22T06:08:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it's almost EASTER!?!?! It just seems like yesterday we were celebrating Christmas! This week has been incredibly busy. I have got to stay home one day this whole week. Today Dad is off (Weather Day) but I like to say he's off because it's Good Friday. He can be off for all the president's birthdays and a bunch of other holidays, but he can't be off on a religious holiday, one of the most important for Christians, Easter?! On top of that they teach, let me repeat that, TEACH evolution in schools, he can't be off for a Christian holiday.

Sorry, as you can see I feel strongly about this matter. But I won't vent on all you poor people. :D Anyway, Happy Easter!!!!

Esther: The Real Supergirl

2011-04-17T12:59:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you all know a Supergirl. You know who I'm talking about. The one who always looks fabulous, always says and does the right thing, the one everybody loves. Yes, we all know at least one. And your relationship with that person will be one of two things; you will love her or you will hate her.

Christians call Christian young women and girls may different things to remind them where they stand in God's family. 'Princess' is a common term, because we are the daughters of the King of Kings. That's not a bad thing. I don't mind being called a princess. What girl doesn't, as some point in her life, dream of being a princess? But now that I'm older, I prefer to think of myself as a Supergirl. Or that's what I try to be, anyway. I look at God as my Savior, my Hero, the real, ultimate, Superman. And since we want to live and be like God, I try to be Supergirl. Now I know I'm not a Supergirl and I probably will never be. But there was a girl in the Bible who came very, very close. Her name was Hadassah, or more commonly known as Esther. Esther wasn't necessarily special growing up. The Bible tells us (Esther 2:7) that she was an orphan, raised by her cousin Mordecai. Although it doesn't give details about Esther, the Bible does say that she was "lovely in form and features". In other words, she was beautiful. Now imagine you're Esther, living in Susa in Persia, going about in your normal life, when suddenly some officers come up and say that the king, who just had his wife banished, wants you to come to the palace and leave your home and friends and family to be a possible candidate for the new queen of Persia. You have no choice but to go with them. At the palace you're handed off to another guy named Hegai. How would you act? Would you yell, scream, and demand to be taken home? Would you cry? How about be cranky and mean to everyone? That's not what Esther did. Again, the Bible doesn't go into detail, but it does say she "please Hegai and won his favor". (Esther 2:9) In other words, he liked her. She was probably polite and nice to him. So he rewarded her. He gave her the seven best servants and put her in the best room in the palace.

Now, let's not forget what she was there for. She was there to be trained to be a possible candidate for becoming queen. But she wasn't the only one. Dozens, maybe hundreds of girls from all over the kingdom were there too. Talk about competition! If you think beauty pageants are bad, can you imagine what it would be like to compete for the crown, the chance to rule Persia? On the other side, not only was the competition tough, but so was the emotional stress. In this time in Persia, it didn't matter (if you were a woman) how smart you were, what kind of morals you had, or if you had an education. It all relied on how beautiful you were. To us, that's shallow. We had other things, like personality, that gives us self-worth. But not these girls. If they lost this ultimate beauty pageant, their self-worth and self-esteem would be crushed. They would lose hope for finding a husband. If they weren't good enough for the king, why would they be good enough for anyone else? According to the Bible (Esther 2:12) these girls went through treatments. Like preparing for a pageant. You train, right? How to walk, talk, wave, etc.. These girls went through a whole year of treatments before they even saw the king; six months of perfumes and six months of skin care and cosmetics.

Imagine you've gone through all that and it's finally here. The big day. The day to see the king. You smell great, your skin is like rose petals. Your servants are doing your hair. Then (BONUS!) your supervisor comes in with a whole rack of clothes and tells you to pick what you want. You even have a stylist to give you pointers! If you're like me, you would probably pick the most elaborate thing you can find with the most beautiful jewelry. You probably didn't even listen to the stylist. You know what you want to wear. But not Esther. Esther didn't pick the best, brightest, and most beautiful. Instead, she let the stylist pick out her dress. Again, the Bible doesn't do detail, but I like to think it was simple and elegant, probably the one all the other girls passed over, saying it was too plain. She listened to the stylist. And perhaps the stylist knew that the beautiful, crisp white or the deep, turquoise blue, or the fiery red was the king's favorite color. Or maybe the dress really made Esther glow. Whatever it was that made it special, it worked. The king picked Esther. He chose her out of the all the other girls to be his queen. I'm sure Esther was beyond excited. I'm sure she thought everything was finally going right. That is, until her cousin/father, Mordecai, came and told her her new husband, the king, was about to be assassinated.

What would you have done? Would you have been afraid that they would kill you too? Would you have been happy? If the king died, maybe you could rule!

Esther was neither. Instead, she sent a message to the king and told him what Mordecai had told her. Bet here is where it shows Esther's character. She gave Mordecai the credit. She could have easily taken the credit for saving the king's life. But instead she gave it to Mordecai.

I love a good irony, and the book of Esther is basically one big irony. Mordecai, at the time the king was saved, wasn't rewarded. His name and the story was instead written in the records kept in the court. One night... well, I'll get to that.

Now it like everything is going good for Esther again. Her husband is safe, the assassins have been hanged, and everything was right.

That is, until Mordecai tells Esther that she and all her people, including Mordecai, are about to be annihilated.

For those of you who don't know what annihilated means, I'll tell you. It means killed. Destroyed. Everything dead. You may ask, why would someone do that? How would they do that? Are they going to kill everyone in Persia? Well, no. You see, Esther wasn't just a girl. She was a Jew, one of God's chosen people. This person wanted to kill all the Jews, wipe them out, just like Hitler, only this was way before gas chambers. Instead, they would hang the Jews. Who could this horrible person be? That person, my friends, was Haman. Haman was the king's right hand man, the big cheese, the big man on campus. Well, Haman got a big head about his place and decided that everyone should bow down to him when he came by. Mordecai was a Jew and a soldier or guard at the gate. Well, when Haman came walking in for work, everyone bowed down before him. Everyone, that is, except Mordecai. Mordecai wouldn't bow to Haman. He would bow to no one but God and the king. Well, that peed in Haman's cornflakes, threw off his groove, made him mad. So Haman decided to kill Mordecai. But once he got to thinking about it, he decided to just go ahead and kill all the Jews while he was at it. So Haman talked the king into giving him his signet ring so he could write the decree. He wrote it and sent it to all the kingdom announcing that on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (another reason 13 is unlucky!) all the Jews, every Jewish man, woman, and child, would be killed. Well, of course Mordecai told Esther.

Now, up until this point, Esther hadn't told anyone she was Jewish. Mordecai had warned her not to.

Now, this is starting to look like a fairytale. The peasant girl turns princess, marries the king, and now the world needs saving. You'd think she could just bat her eyelashes at Kind Xerxes and ask him to revers the decree. But unfortunately, that can't happen. You see, the rules of Persia are that if the king signs a decree with his signet ring, the decree can't be reversed. Not only that...well, I'll let Esther tell you herself.

" Hathach went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, "All the king's officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned, the king has but one law: that he be put to death. The only exception is that the king extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king." (Esther 4:9-11)

Basically, Esther was saying there was nothing she could do. She hadn't seen the king in over a month. And she could just waltz into the inner court and demand to see the king: she would be killed. So, technically, her hands were tied. Then Mordecai gave her words of wisdom.

"[Mordecai] sent back his answer. "Do not think that because you are in the king's house, you alone will be saved. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will rise from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 3:13-14)

Mordecai points out that even though Esther is queen, she will perish as well. And Mordecai points out a fact that I try to live by.

Everything happens for a reason.

Esther now has a decision. She could stay silent and escape the death of her people, but die by other means, or she could openly say she was Jewish and accept the consequences. Mordecai wanted Esther to go to the king and beg him for the the lives of her people. But the king had not called for her. If she went before him without permission, he might be so upset, he would extend the scepter and she would die. But if she didn't beg for her life and her people's lives, she would die anyway. What would you have done?

Esther made her decision. She sent word to Mordecai and told him to gather all the Jews together and fast (not eat or drink) for three days. She and her maids would do the same. And after the three days, she would go to the king. Without an invitation.

Her exact words were, "If I perish, I perish." (Esther 4:16)

Three days passed. It was time. Esther dressed in her best gown. Maybe it was the dress she wore the first time she saw the king. She did her hair and makeup. Then she went to the throne room.

You can only imagine. Every step taking you closer to death. She reached the door. Her hand twisted the door handle. The door swung open and Esther walked in. Maybe a gasp went up from the people. The king looked up. Haman (the dirty, rotten, scumbag!) looked up. Esther walked to stand before the king. He looked at her. The soldiers dew their swords, ready to kill Esther. Esther was trembling as the soldiers advanced, ready to strike...

The king stood up. Everyone froze. The king slowly held out his golden scepter. Then he smiled at Esther. Esther, still trembling, reached up and touched the scepter. The soldiers relaxed and sheathed their swords. Esther curtsied to the king.

"What is it, Queen Esther?" the king asked. "What is your request? I will give you anything, even up to half the kingdom."

"If it pleases the king," Esther said. "Let the king and Haman come to the banquet I have prepared."

So the king and Haman went to Esther's banquet. When they had finished dining, the king asked Esther what she wanted again. But Esther simply invited them to dinner again.

OK. So Esther is safe for now. I've always wondered, however, why Esther didn't tell the king the first time she invited them to dinner. Maybe she was still in shock that she had actually went before the king. Who knows?

Well, when Haman left, he was feeling pretty good. He'd had a good dinner made by Queen Esther herself. His head was so big with pride he could barely fit through the palace door. As he was walking everyone was falling down to bow to him. The he reached the gate. Everyone was bowing...except Mordecai.

Well, even though he knew he was going to kill Mordecai in a few weeks, that still popped his pride bubble. He stewed all the way home and finally dumped all his anger and frustration on his friends and wife. In other words, he had a big pity party. Then, on top of pitying him, they suggest something. They tell him to build a gallows seventy-five feet high, then ask the king's permission to hang Mordecai on it. Their suggestion delighted Haman and he had the gallows built.

Well, that night, King Xerxes couldn't sleep. So he had one of his servants read him a bedtime story! No, actually he had them read him the records of what happened in the court. It told how Bigthug, err, Bigthana and Trash, I mean, Teresh tried to assassinate the king and how Mordecai had saved him. Here's what happened.

"That night the king could not sleep. So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. ² And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on King Xerxes. ³Then the king said, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?”

And the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”
⁴ So the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to suggest that the king hang Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.
⁵ The king’s servants said to him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.”
And the king said, “Let him come in.”
⁶ So Haman came in, and the king asked him, “What shall be done for the man whom the king delights to honor?”
Now Haman thought in his heart, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?” ⁷ And Haman answered the king, "For the man whom the king delights to honor, ⁸ let a royal robe be brought which the king has worn, and a horse on which the king has ridden, which has a royal crest placed on its head. ⁹ Then let this robe and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that he may array the man whom the king delights to honor. Then parade him on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’”
¹⁰ Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the robe and the horse, as you have suggested, and do so for Mordecai the Jew who sits within the king’s gate! Leave nothing undone of all that you have recommended." (Esther 6:4-10)

Oh snap! Is that irony or what?! I would've loved to have seen there to see Haman's face. He hared it, but the king had ordered him, so he had to do it. Well, after he had done that all day, he went home and whined to his wife and friends. But just as they were really starting the pity party, the king's servants came to fetch Haman for Esther's second banquet.

Let's set the scene. A long table, laid with the choice, fancy foods, sits in the middle of a beautiful room, its walls covered with tapestries. Musicians play softly in the background.

Esther, the king, and Haman all recline on couches and cushions around the table. Now let's let the Bible tell us what happened next.

So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther’s banquet, ² and as they were drinking wine on the second day, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be granted.”

³ Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. ⁴ For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.^[a]”

⁵ King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?”

⁶ Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is the vile Haman!” (Esther 7: 1-6)

Can you imagine the faces in that room? One minute, Haman's enjoying dinner with the king and queen. The next he's being called the enemy (with good reason, too). The king has now figured out everything that has happened, putting two and two together. He also realizes Haman's part in the scheme. The king was, well, how can I put this lightly. Furious. Yes, I believe that's the word. So furious, in fact, that he doesn't know what to do. He gets up and storms from the room. Meanwhile, Haman is begging Esther for his life. I have to say, if I had been Esther, I believe I would have given this man a piece of my mind. The Bible doesn't tell us what transpires between the time the king left and when he returned, but I would assume Haman was groveling and begging for his life, so to the point that he falls onto the couch Esther was sitting one. Now, every county, government, and society has protocol and manners: what's appropriate and inappropriate. For example, in America, it wouldn't be appropriate for the Secretary of State to be huggy with the President's wife. However, it would be appropriate, although probably not common, for the Secretary of State and President's wife to sit on the same couch. This is not the case in Persia. It was EXTREMELY inappropriate for Haman to be on the same couch as Esther. So, when King Xerxes comes barreling in to find Haman on the same couch as Esther, he assumes the worst. "You dare to molest the queen while she is with me in the house?" King Xerxes bellowed. And when the words had left his mouth, they covered Haman's face." (Esther 7: 8) When is says, "they covered Haman's face", it means they put a sack over his head, blindfolding him. They probably tied him up as well. Well, now they've caught the bad guy. But no one knows what to do with him. Then Harbona, one of the king's servants, announces that Haman has seventy-five feet high gallows standing right beside his house. How convenient. If you'll remember, they were the ones Haman had built earlier that day to hand Mordecai on. (Can someone say IRONY!) I can imagine the king basically saying, "That'll work!" So they hung Haman on the gallows meant for Mordecai. Well, you'd think that Esther and the king and Mordecai would live happily ever after, right? Wrong. There's still the nasty little decree floating around say that on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month all the Jews were to be killed. That date was approaching. Fast. Well, as I said before, if a decree is signed with the king's signet ring, which this one was, it could not be canceled or changed. Now you would think all is lost for the Jews. But Esther's still breathing, isn't she? So she talked the king into issuing a decree, with his signet ring seal thing, saying the Jews could fight against the people who tried to kill them. And boy, did they. On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Mordecai, who had been put in Haman's place as the king's right hand man, led the Jews into battle against their enemies. And they kicked some serious booty. But that's not it! They had so much fun fighting their enemies, they asked King Xerxes if they could do it again the next day! And he let them! In total, on the thirteenth and fourteenth days of the twelfth month, the Jews killed 75,510. Included in that number were Haman's ten sons. Get a load of their names! Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vaizatha. I don't want to know what baby naming website he went to. (If anyone out there is named any of the names listed above, no offense.) So now comes the part where they live happily ever after. Together, Mordecai and Esther established the fourteenth day of the twelfth month (the day the battle ended) as a national Jewish holiday called Purim, derived from the word pur, which means lots, which is what Haman cast to decided what day to have the annihilation on. So in the end, we had many unlikely heroes. King Xerxes turned out not to be such a bad guy. He obviously loved Esther, otherwise he wouldn't have saved her life in the throne room, or protected her from her enemies. Mordecai was just a palace guard, but in the end he was the hero of the Jews and the king's right hand man (plus his savior). And let's not forget one very special young girl who went from being a poor orphan to the queen of Persia and eventually heroine of the Jews. Esther: The Real Supergirl.

Redneck yarn

2011-04-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

I was happy to receive a long awaited package, which came all the way from India. Silk yarn! The ultimate crocheting experience!!!!

One skein of yarn.
The other nine skeins of yarn.
OK. When you get yarn in skeins (the technical name, however, is hank) like this, you have to have this thing called a swift to help you wind the yarn into balls. Swifts can be very expensive and they're not good for anything other than balling yarn, and since that's not the only thing I do and it's rare I get yarn in hanks like this, it wouldn't be practical to buy one. So, of course I turn to the internet. I don't exactly remember the website I found this on, but this is an office chair. I took the wheels off and stuck markers in the holes where the wheels had been. I pulled my skein open, looped it over the markers, and viola! A makeshift, redneck swift.

COOKIES!!!!

2011-04-14T17:52:00.000-07:00

Made ginormous chocolate chip cookies. How ginormous? Well, the recipe makes 48 and I made 12. :D

Nuthin

2011-04-12T15:31:00.000-07:00

That's exactly what happening now. Nuthin. Just the usual thing; school, piano, crocheting, reading, writing, etc. Not much. Haven had ortho appointment today, so we went to Ruby Tuesday. It has been at least five years since I've eaten there! I got the Parmesan Chicken Pasta. It was good. Plus, Mom let me have a few of her sweet potato fries. I think they're my new favorite food.

Love

2011-04-06T16:22:00.000-07:00

OK, this post is going to go a little bit deeper than most of my other posts. But I've been thinking a lot about this lately, especially as I've been dealing with different people, people I care a lot about.

What is love? I mean really. Is it hearts and chocolates on Valentine's Day? Is it kisses and hugs? How about emotions, feelings, and thoughts? Kids my age, teenagers, are always saying how much they love something or someone, when they don't really know what love is. Let's see what the Bible says about love.

~Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, is it not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoiceth in good. It protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7~

According to the Bible, love isn't just emotions racing through someone's mind, body, and soul. It is a series of characteristics that, unfortunately, we do not all have. That is why love isn't automatic. True love, that is. Infatuation is what most teenagers label as love. It is when something or someone strikes you as likeable and consumes every thought, molecule, and atom of your body. When you are infatuated, you are often very protective and jealous, afraid someone or something else will take away the object with which you are infatuated. Love, on the other hand, isn't some split-second emotion that take over your life. Let me break down the verse:

~Love is patient, love is kind.~ Love must first grow. Love must start small and with time, and patience, it will grow into something powerful, much more powerful than infatuation, which will end as quickly as it starts. Love will last forever. People are less likely to leave, break up with, or forget something they've put time into. The kind part? Of course you would be kind to someone you care about!

~It does not envy...~ You wouldn't be envious of someone you love. Instead you would be glad when good things happen.

~It does not boast...~ You shouldn't have to be boastful to someone you love. If they love you back, you should never feel like you have to prove yourself to them.

~It is not proud.~ In this verse, I believe it is talking about "holier than thou" proud. It is good to have pride. It is not good to be prideful.

~It is not rude...~ You wouldn't be rude to someone you care about.

~It is not self-seeking...~ You would not put yourself before someone you love. You would want the best for your lover.

~It is not easily angered...~You wouldn't snap your lover's head off every time they said, did, or commented on something you didn't like!

~It keeps no records of wrongs.~ You wouldn't constantly bring up your lover's wrongs. This is where's God's example is an excellent lead (of course God always has the perfect example, but here it's really spot on.) The Bible says he separates our sins from Him as far as the East is from the West (Psalms 103:12).

~Love does not delight in evil...~ If, for instance, (ladies) your boyfriend says he loves you, and yet tries to get you to do something you both know is wrong, he doesn't really love you. Real love would never want you to do something wrong.

~...but rejoices in truth.~ On the other hand, if they truly loved you, they would encourage you to do what was right.

~It protects...~ You would never want harm to come to someone you love. You would protect them with everything you have, your body, mind, and soul. Sometimes even your life. The Bible says "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

~...trusts...~ I believe this speaks on jealousy. This is another parallel to of love to infatuation. When you are infatuated with someone or something, you are jealous for the person. You are jealous of everyone that takes that person away from you and jealousy often leads to aggressive behavior or doing things or acting ways you wouldn't normally act. When you love someone, and they love you back, you have no need for this kind of jealousy. You should trust your lover enough to know that they wouldn't do anything to betray your trust.

~...hopes...~ Hope is one of my favorite words. If means that no matter what bad things are happening, you are always looking to and believing that good things will happen. This is why so many young girls end up pregnant out of wedlock or with bad marriages. Because they lose hope that they will find the right person.

~...and perseveres.~ This is an important characteristic of love. Perseverance means you keep fighting, no matter how bad everything looks. You keep going and fighting for what you want. If love did not have perseverance, it could never prosper or grow because every time it met an obstacle, it would simply give up. Fireproof is an excellent example of perseverance in love. If Caleb hadn't loved Katherine, he wouldn't have kept fighting for her and they would have divorced and Katherine might have married Gavin, even though he already had a wife, which would have caused even more heart ache and confusion. But because Caleb persevered, he won Katherine's love and the both came to know Christ through the process.

Like I said, this was a little deeper than what I usual post. Some of the verses are pretty self explanatory. But don't take my word for it. Find out for yourself. 1 Corinthians 13. The Love Chapter.

Exploding Potatoes.

2011-04-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

Stadium Fest. Doesn't it make you excited just hearing the name? TobyMac, Rick Burgess, Scott Dawson, Bello the clown, Casting Crowns, and more performed or spoke at Stadium Fest in Spain Park High School football stadium. I, unfortunately, didn't get a picture of TobyMac because it was too dark. :(. But here's the pictures I did get!

This is supposed to be just the parking lot, but this guy was in the way, so he's in the picture too.
Cars. Hundreds and hundreds of cars.
More cars and the parking lot. Plus the school. And a pole.
That's Dad and Have in front of the camera. The rest are strangers and part of the stadium.
That's Rick and Bubba's van.
All of us in the sun.
Sophie in the shade. It's really funny. Sophie was into everything! I even caught her trying to steal some people's Goldfish and some other guy's drink!
Mom and Mrs. Chrystal were trying to fix Sophie's hair.
How do you think it worked?
Dad.
Sarah and Mrs. Chrystal.
Rick Burgess.
Sarah and Hayden's elbow.
Sarah Jane and I, chilling.
The stadium fest sign, the big Jumbo Tron thing, Hayden, and the back of Sarah Jane's head.
Sarah Jane and I, still chilling. Sarah Jane was using her purse as a pillow :D.
The people. There were more than 40,000 and more than 300 got saved!
Sarah Jane
Sophie, wearing her Bob T-shirt. We tried to get a picture with Larry, but we would have had to knock down some three year olds, so we decided against it.
Mom, Haven, and Dad. Haven and Mom matched shirts.
Stadium Fest!!!!
Bello the clown. I wonder how he makes his hair do that....
Hayden, keeping warm since it dropped from eighty degrees to about 40 in two hours.
Scott Dawson.
Casting Crowns, performing. Sarah Jane and I missed it. We were standing in the cotton candy line for TWO HOURS!
Mark Hall of Casting Crowns.

Stadium Fest

2011-04-02T11:52:00.000-07:00

Welp, I'm on my way to Stadium Fest. Yes, I'm blogging in the car, yes, it is awesome, and no, I won't tell you how :D.

Stadium Fest. I'm so excited!!! Playgrounds, Bello the clown, Casting Crowns, TobyMac....It doesn't get much better than that. My friend Sarah Jane is going to get to come with us too, plus we're meeting some more friends there!! They end the big concert and celebration with a huge fireworks display at nine at night. It's going to be a late night. I'll try to take bunches of pics. so all you people who miss it can see it.

Aunt Dee's Birthday!!!!

2011-03-29T18:41:00.000-07:00

Today was my Aunt Dee's birthday. We invited her over for a birthday dinner for the special occasion. I won't tell you her age (she'd kill me), so let's just go with ten years old. :D

The Birthday Lady
We made her a cake that called for marshmallows. So while Haven and I waited for Mom to find one of the ingredients, we got bored. Real bored. And we found something to do...

The cake. It was a Rocky Road cake, which means it had marshmallows, pecans, and chocolate chips! Those are melted chocolate chips on top.

This is the cake glazed with Milky Way icing. Doesn't it look good????
Hayden's banner for Aunt Dee.
Another birthday banner.
The table.
Mom, Haven, and Hayden, all cooking away.
Dinner. Spaghetti with meat sauce.
The special glasses we used for the special occasion!!!

We're Alive!

2011-03-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

Did everyone survive that storm last night? Yes? Yes? Good. We did, thank goodness. Plus we didn't have any property damage that I know of. Besides the grass growing in our flower bed now, thanks to all the rain. But besides that, everything is fine. That was some lightning though! I tell you what, when the lightning is so bright I can count my crochet chains, you know something's wrong. Add in thunder that shakes the house, and you've got yourself a train wreck waiting to happen. Haven, Hayden, and I went to my aunt's, who lives next door, yesterday, and got caught in the downpour walking on the road back. Yes, the highway. But don't worry. We get off the road when there's a car coming. :D. Anyway, we were soaked when we got back home. The only time I've ever been wetter was when my friend Josh and I had to go out in the pouring rain for about three hours, hunting rocks for a Christmas play. We were both soaked! But the three of us weren't that soaked. At least here we had dry clothes to change into!

Lyrics to The Outsiders by NeedtoBreathe

2011-03-18T20:24:00.000-07:00

I feel such a connection with this song. It applys to me in two ways. I, myself, am an outsider. I don't belong in many situations, and stand out every easily. It also applies to me in the Christian standpoint, because we, Christians, are supposed to be outsiders in this world. We're not supposed to be like everyone else. The unbelievers, the lost, should be able to look at our lives and say "They're different. They don't act, dress, talk, walk, look like everyone else. I wonder what makes them different." And that's where Christ steps in. Well, obviously He was there to begin with, otherwise we wouldn't be different. But you know what I mean.

*The Outsiders by NeedtoBreathe*

Shortfalls and little sins.
Close calls where no one wins.
Stand tall, we're running thin.
I'm wearing thin.

Oh oh oh.
Why are we keeping score?

Cause if you're not laughing, who is laughing now?
I've been wondering,
If we stopped sinking, could we stand our ground?
And through everything we've learned...
We've finally come to terms...
We are The Outsiders.

Oh oh oh.
We are The Outsiders.
Oh oh oh.

I'm not leaving without a fight.
I've got my holster around my side.
Just 'cause I'm wrong, it don't make you right.
No, you ain't right. (I love that line! I want to say that to so many people!)

Oh oh oh.
Why are we keeping score?

Cause if you're not laughing, who is laughing now?
I've been wandering, if we stopped sinking, could we stand our ground?
And through everything we've learned...
We finally come to terms...
We are the Outsiders.

Oh oh oh
We are The Outsiders.

^Repeat 6 times^

On the outside
You're free to roam
On the outside
We've found a home
On the outside
There's more to see
On the outside
We choose to be

^Repeat once^

Haven's Birthday

2011-03-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

Haven's birthday was today. She turned 13. The big 1-3. She didn't want a party, so we went out to eat at STIX!!!! That was what Hayden and I were pulling for. Dad and I snuck out at 7:30 this morning and went and bought balloons and bags and cards. I made Haven a laptop case for her birthday, although right now I don't have a picture. :(. But I'll try to get one later.

Us, at the Stix sign.

Haven, at Stix.

Cold Stone Creamery :D. Heaven on Earth. ():)

Haven's cookie cake.

Haven and her cookie cake and sign.

Haven, opening Aunt Dee's card.

Haven with her gifts from Ma ma and Pa pa.

Hayden

Mom

Aunt Dee

Ma ma and Pa pa.

Works and Rewards

2011-03-16T18:33:00.001-07:00

And no, I'm not talking about works on Earth and rewards in Heaven, although that is important. No, I'm talking about slaving all day long in the hot sun shoveling mulch (pieces of bark/wood that goes in a garden) as the work part, and then having a nice weenie roast on an open fire in our fire pit and making smores and roasting "smarshsmallows" (what my four year old friend Sarah calls them). Mom's friend, Mrs. Genia Smith, picked up the hot dog buns for us since we were out (her work) and we invited her to eat with us (the reward). Isn't it cool how all of that works together? So technically we got two rewards for shoveling mulch. We got to roast weenies, smarshsmallows, etc., and the garden in front of our house looks good. So we get two rewards!!! Yay!! Plus we probably got a really good tan. :)

It Approaches...

2011-03-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

Haven's birthday is coming up, as is Hayden's. But I'll worry about Hayden's when it gets here, Haven's is the closest, although they're only three days apart (As in their birth dates, not that they were actually born three days apart. Haven is three years older). Anyway, I don't know what to get the girls! Haven is the hardest to buy for, because she doesn't like anything. And I'm so not exaggerating. She doesn't do any kind of crafts, all she does is write, and she does that on the computer, and she draws a little, but drawing stuff is what everyone got her for Christmas and I'm sure at least one person will give her something like that for her birthday. So I'm stuck out in the cold. I'm thinking about crocheting her a bag out of plarn (plastic bag yarn), but she's always made fun of my bags, like she doesn't like them either!!! I might make her one anyway. Or maybe I'll make her a cute hat. But which one? These are the questions I ask. She doesn't want a party this year, so we're taking her out to eat at whatever restraunt she wants. We're pulling for a restraunt in Birmingham/Trussville so we can go to Cold Stone Creamery for dessert. Personally I'm pulling for Stix, an awesome Chinese/Japanese place with great food. Plus they cook your food right in front of you and if someone orders shrimp, they will chop up a few pieces, then throw them at you to see if you can catch one in your mouth. I've caught three pieces before. It's really cool. I hope she picks there, but who knows? She might pick Zaxby's or something :).

The Homeschool Conference (After)

2011-03-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

Yes, we're back. We've been back for a couple of days now, but since our family just has the worst timing, we've all been sick. I actually got sick on the trip. Thursday night. Severe chills, severe aches, and a cough that could wake the dead were what I dealt with for three days as we attended the conference. Well, the day before we were supposed to leave, Haven got it, then Hayden got it. So after that, we were all out of it. Luckily, we only had a half day of classes that day, so we could just kind of rest.

The walkway to the conference center.

Beautiful trees on the walkway.

The windmill we made in the LEGO Education Class (without directions)

Hayden in I Told You That Would Happen (A class on Bible Prophecy by Dr. Jay Wile (he was hilarious!))

Hayden and I in ITTWGTH (see previous pic.)

See the big JumboTron thing? That was how they made sure everyone could see. And they had microphones so everyone could hear!

There were no seats.

The Lunch Area.

More Lunch Area.

Homeschoolers.

People eating and some guy walking. I wonder what school he goes to. (For all you public schoolers, that's a joke. :D You know, cause we're all homeschooled...)

Me, sick. Yeah, I was there, and I was crocheting. I had an Ibuprofen in me, so I felt OK.

Ballroom C. (Duh!)

People in class (It was Homeschooling Is A Laughing Matter by Heather Hawkins, wife of comedian Tim Hawkins, who we got to see in a concert, by the way!)

A guy, eating.

Still no seats!!! Ugh, they really need to fix that.

Haven, 1) refusing to look at the camera and 2) refusing to sit with us.

The roof.

The hall.

Some homeschoolers. According to Haven, who took the picture, before this they were playing football in the hallway with a normal, bouncy, rubber ball. The blue shirt, on the short kid, said Stick With Jesus, you know, cause they're drum sticks? :D I love Christian jokes.

Washing like a crazy person o_O

2011-03-02T11:31:00.000-08:00

This weekend our washing machine broke down. All you people who don't do your laundry in your house, you won't understand this. For all you people who do the laundry in your house, I hope and pray, for your sakes, you can't relate. It's my week to do laundry (yippee) so naturally it tears up so that whenever I have to do the laundry, it's piled up to the ceiling. So this week I've been washing like a crazy person, trying to get all the laundry done so that we have clean clothes to take on the trip, which is in one day, by the way. :D But besides that, not much has been going on. I'll try to post later about the trip.

Peace, love, and cheese.

The Homeschool Conference

2011-02-28T10:47:00.001-08:00

It is four days until the Homeschool Conference! If you want the technical name, The Mid South Homeschool Convention. If you want the Spanish name, El Conferencia de escuela de casa. If you want what I call it, the Homeschool Conference. I'm so sphyced, I can hardly stand it. Haven and I have been geeking out about it for two weeks now. There's going to be speakers from all over the place, such as Sarah, Steven, and Grace Mally, Ken Ham, Jim Wiess, Dr. Jay Wile (he wrote my biology book!) and, like, twenty five more! It's a three day conference. The workshops, or lectures, start at 8:30 in the morning, last one hour with thrity minute breaks between, and go until 9:30 at night. And, to top off all the Homeschool awesomeness, there's going to be a concert by..................................................TIM HAWKINS!!!!!! (All the fans scream in the background.) I plan to take pics. the whole time so I can share it with you homeschool traitors and other people who care about what happens in my life. *sniff* I'm so touched.

Unposted

2011-02-10T13:12:00.000-08:00

Not much has been happening in Ye Olde Phillips House. Just getting ready for Valentines Day. I must say, Valentines Day is one of my favorite holidays, simply because I'm a romanchick, and I love pink! Plus LOVE is one of my favorite words, right up there with discombobulated.

In honor of Valentines day, I added a new song to my playlist. I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) by Four Tops. Guess what? There's four guys in the group.

My 15th birthday

2011-01-29T08:38:00.000-08:00

This past Friday was my fifteenth birthday party. We had a lot of fun. We played Twister(it was hilarious watching the boys), and Apples to Apples (I don't really know who won :D). We also watched Despicable Me. It was cute, more of a kids thing than for teenagers. I don't care that much for cake, so we had a cookie cake(giant cookie from Great American Cookies) and an ice cream bar(vailla ice cream and skuboos of toppings). Sadness: BFF Josh had to leave kind of early, before the movie, and he didn't get to see me open gifts. But I was really excited that he got to come. His sister had her first baby Tuesday, and Josh and his family drove from SC to come down for that, and they stayed long enough for him to come to the party!

All of us(see below)

All of us(minus Josh): Back row; Kev, Haven, Nathan, me, Sierra, Chelsey, Brandi, Katelyn, Abbey. Front row; Dan, Anna G., Hayden, Anna K.

From Kev (above and next three pics).

Yes, that's candy. And lots of it!!!

From Abbey (above and below)

From Anna G.

From Katelyn

From Anna K.

From Josh(a $20 gift card to BAM)

From Chelsey

From Brandi

From Sierra, Nathan, and Dan

There's some other things I'll have to post later. My computer is being stupid.

Ice ice, Baby

2011-01-10T19:27:00.000-08:00

That's what's on the ground. Ice. No snow, just ice. Sad. But the good news is that when you fall, it doesn't stick like snow would. We went sledding anyway. At 9:30 in the morning we walked a half mile down the road to Mrs. Gale Bagwell's house. She was very nice and let us slide down her hill as much as we wanted. So after nearly three hours of sledding in 32 degree weather, we made the half mile trek back in the ice. I took a shower, since my whole body was numb with cold, and after eating a delicious brunch made by the whole Fam (except Hayden) which consisted of eggs, bacon, biscuits, gravy, and cantalope, I greatly enjoyed lounging around the rest of the day in my fuzzy sweater and comfy pants. I completed a hot pink slouch hat yesterday as we watched the snow fall outside. It's pretty. I'll try to post pics later.

I'm currently watching the Auburn Kittys-I mean...Kittys- vs. the Oregon Quacks-I mean Ducks- crocheting, eating sunflower seeds, and surfing the Web. I'm going for the Ducks. I mean, I wouldn't mind if AU won, it would be good for the State of Alabama, having two Heisman winners and two championships, but somebody needs to put Cam Superman Newton in his place. AU has a bad habit of, if they win a few games, they get a big head. Go Ducks!

SSSSSSNNNNOOOOOOOWWWWWW!!!

2011-01-09T17:41:00.000-08:00

To my fellow bloggers and non-blogging peeps,

IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!!! It's coming down so hard! It's only been a few hours and it's already sticking on the ground. The only problem is that it iced first. If we step on the stairs, we'll fall down and get a crack in our butts. Get it? 'Cause we already have cracks in our butts....sorry, that was reaching. :D. Anyway, I'll try to update about the....I can't believe I'm saying this!.....SNOW!

The Movies

2011-01-07T17:00:00.001-08:00

Today I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader with Mom, Haven, Hayden, and Josh. I really enjoyed it. If I could describe it with one word, that word would be 'wow'. The specail effects are AWESOME! They always do such a good job with those movies. They even threw in some Christian references and stuff. I was proud. I don't think I blinked the whole time. Wow.

Game night

2011-01-06T19:03:00.000-08:00

Tonight, friend Josh (the one that moved) got to come back for a few days. So tonight we had him over for a game night and blonde brownies. We played Apples to Apples and Scrabble. Josh won Scrabble and Hayden won Apples to Apples. Some of my cards, which I think describe me(:D) are exciting, spicy, talented, chunky, adorable, and magical. Some of Haven's cards were aged, clean, nasty, mysterious, some of Hayden's were classic, saintly (:D), offensive, intense, stereotyped, and some of Josh's were unforgettable, obnoxious, squeaky clean, friendly, and timeless.

HOMESCHOOLING ROX!!!

2011-01-02T18:18:00.000-08:00

You know, I've been thinking a lot about the pros and cons of homeschooling. Trust me, you don't want to get me started on the whole homeschooling vs. public schooling thing (I have a lot to say), but I might put a few things on here.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not bagging on public schoolers. Some of my closest friends go to public school and we're the only ones in our family that homeschool. All my cousins go to or went to public school. I'm merely stating fact and some of my opinion.

Common argument: Homeschoolers are unsocialized.
In my oppinion, homeschoolers are some of the most socialized people on earth. I know dozens of homeschoolers who will talk your ears off. I must admit, however, that some homeschoolers are unsocialized, but that's because they aren't invovled in much. Like Haven, Hayden, and I are involved in drama, choir, Hardins Chapel Academy homeschool group, and other things, so we get a chance to talk to and be around other people. In these settings, because of the vast grade levels that participate, we are forced to know how to communicate with people of different age and grade levels. I personally can have a conversation with a 4 yr. old to a 94 yr. old.
People argue that public schoolers are more socialized because they interact with people all day. That may be true, but they are only social with people of their own age group, because that's the only people they know about and socialize with. Sure, they may be able to talk to a teacher, but mostly that's only on school related subjects, not on normal, everyday subjects. Some kids homeschool because they are reclusive. In those situations, they wouldn't be social if they homeschooled or not.

Homeschool Pro #1:
You choose your curriculum. You have the power. Homeschooling, I believe, is especially good for Christian families. When you homeschool, you can choose to have a Bible course along with other subjects, and there are Christian based curriculums. In public schools, however, there is no Christianity allowed, none whatsoever. A boy I know of was ridiculed by his classmates for bringing his Bible to school. In homeschooling, being bullied and ridiculed for what you believe, how you dress, your hairstyle, what instrument you play, etc. doesn't happen. For the most part, it's just you and your family. Which brings me to....

Homeschool Pro #2:
You have one on one learning. In public school, you are thrown into a classroom with about twenty other students and one teacher. And in 30 to 45 minutes, that single teacher has to teach a lesson and try to make sure all the students get it. And if one student doesn't get it, the teacher can't move on in the lesson until that student gets it, which slows down the other students in their learning process. And then there's the guy that always sits behind you, pulling your hair or thumping your ear or asking for a pencil or sheet of paper or making noise etc, distracting you from the lesson. With homeschooling, however, you don't have that problem. It's just you and the lesson or video. No distractions (well, depending on your attention span), and if your parent is the teacher, then that person can focus solely on you. You have a better learning experience.

Homeschool Pro #3:
You learn at your own pace. In public school, you basically learn at the speed of the slowest person in the room. If that student doesn't get the topic or isn't done with their work or test, then the rest of the class can't move on until that student is done. With homeschooling you can learn at your own pace. Haven and I do video lessons from Abeka academy in Pensacola, Florida. If I watch a video and my teacher teaches something that I don't understand, I can re-watch the video until I get it. Also, I'm not rushed. I can pause the video and take as long as I need on a problem, or I can fast forward the video if I get done before the video.

Homeschool Pro #4:
The versatility. Ever heard of a thing called unschooling? It's a version of homeschooling where you don't have a set curriculum. Instead, you make everything a learning experience. Like, for instance, if you were baking biscuits and it called for 1 cup of buttermilk, you might get on the Internet and look up how buttermilk is made. Or if you found a worm in the yard, you might disect the worm and look at how it works.
I kind of consider part of my school unschooling. To be honest, in my opinion, I haven't had a formal grammar lesson in years. I learn most of my stuff from reading. All my knowledge of sentence structures, how to spell certain words, and some of my information I get from reading. From reading books, I learn and see how a word is spelled. I see it in action and how to use it properly. So, if I'm writing that word, I can usually tell if it's spelled wrong or not just by looking at it.
Anyway, I was talking about versatility. Whenever we have a doctor's appointment or a dentist appointment or we have to go get groceries or somebody's sick, we don't have to have a school excuse. We can either get up early and get our school done or we can not do school and catch it up later. Haven, I, and Hayden go on vacation with our grandparents several times in the year, most of the time when public school is in session. We either double up the week before, do it while we're up there, or double up the week after.

Homeschool Pro #5:
Homeschoolers tend to be more intellegent. I'm not saying public schoolers are dumb. It's just a proven fact that homeschoolers tend to be more intellegent than public schoolers. There are several contributers. (See previous Pros) Public schoolers don't have the one on one that most homeschoolers do. Public schoolers learn less in a day than homeschoolers (the whole learning as slow as the slowest person in the room thing). Homeschooling curriculum tends to be more challenging than public school curriculum. For instance, I've used Abeka curriculum almost my entire homeschooling life (I've never been in public school) and they start teaching s0me algebra in fourth grade. Fourth grade!!! Most public schoolers don't start algebra until the eighth grade.

Well, I've got to stop for now. I'll try to post the cons next time. Peace!!!!

Christmas Pictures!!!!

2011-01-02T16:09:00.000-08:00

This is a compilation of several events that have happened in December. I have other pics, but since it takes forever to load them, I might load them later, but not tonight.

CHRISTmas Eve...

Haven in front of my grandparents tree.

Hayden in front of our grandparents tree.

Me in front of our grandparents tree.

Haven and I.

The Fam.

Us 3 and Ma-ma and Pa-pa.

Ma-ma and Pa-pa.

Mom and Dad.

Us 3.

#$%#$#^#&#&#*##(##(#(#()#(*##*&#&#^#&

Christmas at the Outlaws....err, I mean Inlaws....

Grandparents house on Dad's side. (Look at the snow!)

Snow (and my hand).

Snow!!!!!!!!!!

My cous David who is on leave from the Navy.

Another of my cousins, Brandy, with her dauughter, Reagan.

Christmas dinner with the Family. The WHOLE family.

More SNOW!!!!!

SSSSSNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leena, Reagan's big sis.

Brandy and Reagan, who just woke up.

Grandaddy and Sarah's tree.

Aunt Lexi and I.

Grandaddy, getting his present, a coat.

Haven and I on the couch, Uncle Jay in the orange and Uncle Joey in the red.

Aunt Lexi, who was in from Arizona, and David, her son.

Grandaddy.

Haven's snowman. Those are peanuts, not acorns.

Hayden and I in the snow, having a snowball fight.

Mom and Dad in the snow.

The Fam in the snow. Yes, it was 32 degrees outside, yes, I was in short sleeves, and no, I wasn't going to put on a jacket.

!)&(#^(#^(#^%(#^(#&@)#*@)$&@($(&

My cousin Marie's wedding!!!!

Reagan.

The bride and groom.

Hayden and Reagan. Aren't they cute?!?!?!?!

Me. The glasses were a present from my uncle.

!*)$#*^@$^#$^)#^)@#$*^@)#$^*@#

My new yarn holder!!!!!!

My misc. yarn level.

My black and dark blue yarn level.

My blue and green yarn level.

The whole Megillah.

More hobbies that I have put down for the time being.

More stuff.

Yarn needed to be balled.

More UFO's.

My UFO (Un Finished Objects) holder.

New Year (again)

2011-01-01T17:22:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry. I have to blog again, especially after the Alabama game today. I wonder where Michigan was, because the only people I saw on the field was Bama. :D. Yeah, it's like "Hey, Michigan, your butts look all beat up. Oh yeah, that's cause we just got done kicking them all over the field, over the moon and back!"

Also we went to the mall this afternoon and there were some strange people there. The strangest were two people, a guy with purple hair and a chick with orange hair. Dad said they looked like rejects from the School for Elves.

NEW YEAR!!!!!

2011-01-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

It's the New Year!!! In exactly 30 days and approximately 2 hours I turn 15! I have given some thought about my resolutions. Lately I've been bummed. One of my best friends moved to SC this week. Josh, whom I've known ever since he was born (I'm six months older), has left the little town of Ragland behind to go to the excitement of new friends and a new town...and a new house...and new everything! Ha! Get it? New Year, new stuff....?

Anyway.... New Year resolutions!!! I'm super excited. I got a new Bible for Christmas from my parents and I'm loving it! It's got a bunch of neat reading plans, including a plan for new Christians, A Tour Of The Bible In 30 Days, A Character Journey (the one I'm starting), and, my personal favorite, Stories You've Probably Never Heard. That's next month's plan. Anyway, Res. time!

1. Follow a Bible reading plan.
2. Re-learn to knit.
3. Learn to spin, either by wheel, drop spindle, or both.
4. Read as many books as possible.
5. Keep room at least mostly neat.
6. Blog at least once a week.

I'll start with those. N0 need in making resolutions I can't keep!

Nork

2010-10-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

Haven and I, pre-Race

All the peeps on the bus

Haven, Anna K., and I

Mr. Danny(yes, that's a bean bag, and yes, we were moving.)

My number.

The following pics. were taken in a moving car by me, myself, and Haven on our mountain trip. We saw a bear and took a picture of it, but 1. it's not very good and b. I haven't downloaded it on my computer.

Smoky's!!!!!!

2010-10-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

Haven and I were goofing off with the camera when Hayden went swimming.

The hat I made on the way up here

Haven and I, falling off the bed

I was trying to take pictures in a moving car.

Haven

Hayden, all blue with her blue purse, shirt, and gameboy

Pa pa

Ma ma

Me. Check out the haircut.

Before After

The Smoky Mountains

2010-10-03T18:37:00.000-07:00

We're in the Smoky Mountains!!!! It's absolutely beautiful up here. Our hotel has an excellent view of the mountains, and even though it's only our first day(and it rained the whole time), I'm totally sphyced about the rest of this week. And don't even go all over me about how "sphyced" is spelled. I've been riding in a car for nearly four hours.

Mrs. Bunt's Party!!!

2010-10-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

This past Tuesday, September 28th, Mrs. Geri Bunt turned 70 years young. Here are some pics. from her surprise birthday party, held at the gym at church.

Greg Brown

Sarah Brazzolotto, the back of Mr. Brack, Mathew Brazzolotto's profile

The Party!

Mr. Steven, Kimberly, Mrs. Geri, Katelyn, Mrs. Kathy

Mr. Roy, Nathan, Dan, Mrs. Geri, Mrs. Sue, Sierra

There's actually a really funny story about Nathan. We were getting some punch at the punch bowl at the party. Well, Amy Gentry walked up to get some as well. I had already got my punch, and Nathan told Amy to get her punch first. Amy has a son about three years old. Well, she told Nathan to go, since he was there first. Well, he told her to go, ladies first. Well as she walked up, he said, "Yeah, age before beauty."

2010-09-25T14:21:00.000-07:00

Birthdays are like boogers. The more you have, the harder it is to breathe.
~Seen by Esteban Martinez on a card.

Dissapointment

2010-09-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

Watching Alabama get creamed by Arkansas. An Arkansas player looked like he almost got his leg broke.

Oh the time!!!!

2010-09-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

It seems like it's been years since I've blogged! Now that school has started back full swing with the rest of my life, I find myself running out of time for everything!

We had our AWANA kick off weenie roast last night. COLOR 7 performed along with HCYDrama team. We sang Lean On Me, Big House, and Blessed Be Your Name. There were around thirty to forty people that were there, so there was a good turn out.

I'm so sphyced! I found this neat little video on how to recycle sweaters to make yarn! It makes perfect sense, I don't know why I didn't think of it myself. But it seems really easy, so next time we go to the thrift store....MWAHAHAHAHAHAHH!!!!!!!!

TKD!!!

2010-08-26T19:29:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had Tae Kwon Do( a.k.a TKD). And we broke boards! Stuart asked everyone to try to break the boards with a Knife-hand Strike( hold your hand flat and tighten your fingers a tight as you can). We usually do it on cinder blocks, using a hammer fist( making a fist and brining it straight down). But tonight Stuart held it and we broke it. Haven and I were the only ones who broke it with the Knife-hand. Everyone else couldn't do it and either broke it hammer fist or with their knee. I'm so excited! When I broke it, I didn't even feel it!

Again!

2010-08-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

Today ran/(you know the rest) two more miles. We went to Pell City Lakeside Park Nature Trail (I bet they don't put that on T-shirts). My legs are killing me! I'm so glad I don't have to work out with Anna G. tomorrow. I don't think I could make it! Then we went to Winn Dixie. I happened to catch a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror, right before we left. I looked like I had been hit by a truck! Mom said she knew I would figure it out sooner or later. :D

Running

2010-08-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

Tonight I ran/walked/jogged three miles in 40 minutes. It was pretty fun, even though exhausting. I used to to the whole run/walk etc., but one thing I noticed was different. I ran with music tonight. It made all the difference! I don't know what it does, but if you have an upbeat, peppy, get up and dance song, exercising(I think I spelled that wrong) is no big deal. Example: I was going to songs like Something Beautiful by The Newsboys, Get Back Up by Toby Mac, Free To Be Me by Franccessca Battistelli, etc. all upbeat songs, while Haven was going to He Is! by Aaron Jeffrey. I love that song, the drama team is doing a drama to it, but that is a very slow, very gentle song. That song is so slow, it has 12/4 timing! Sorry, piano joke. Anyway, Haven made it 1 1/2 miles. She was going so slow! So if anyone doubts that music has an effect on what you do, try running to different types of music.

Well after I came home and took a shower, I decided to make a smoothie. Here is a recipe, composed by yours Haley, that is delicious, but has a little kick.

Tripple Berry Smoothie
Appr. 1/2 cups of blueberries
Appr. 7 strawberries, frozen (but you can use fresh)
Ice(if using fresh strawberries)
Appr. 1 cup of vanilla almond milk(But reg. milk will work too)
Appr. 1 cup of raspberries
Appr. 3 tblsp. of vanilla yogurt

Blend all the ingredients in blender. Pour into awesome looking glass. Give everyone a taste, then drink it down. :D

Untitled

2010-08-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

You've got a pretty bad personality when even Jesus would give you a loving slap upside the head.

Place Title Here

2010-08-17T19:31:00.000-07:00

So today I went out to eat with the family. We went to this place called Jade E. Garden in Pell City. The food was really good. I LOVE their chicken on a stick. I don't really know the real name, but that's exactly what it is, chicken on a stick. I think you could put anything on a stick and it would taste good. :D. My only problem with that place is that they need to get some real desserts. Their deserts were more like glorified cardboard. They had these cookie things, and, no kidding, I'll bet there was paper inside. Anyway, other than the cardboard, really enjoyed it. Then we hit the Thrift Store! I found some cute jeans and a skirt, plus two books and a shirt. Oh yeah, raking it in. :D.

Recently I've been reading a book called Preparing To Be A Help Meet by Debi Pearl. It's been really good so far. What's cool is that she classifies all the men into three different personality categories, The Prophets, The Priests, and The Kings. She lists all the characteristics of each personality and you can basically, by checking your own personality, figure out what kind of guy is best for you! I've been going through all the stuff and discerning what categories my guy friends all fit into. She also has personality categories for the girls, too. The Dreamers, The Servants, and The Go-To Gals. I'm a Go-To Gal. I'm always into everything, very oppinionated, and good at leading other people. But I also have a little bit of Dreamer in me in the fact I do alot of the Arts a.k.a music, art, etc. and a tiny amount of Servant in that I like to help others.

Ussses

2010-08-11T19:18:00.000-07:00

Hey this is Haley and Brandi! It's, like, 9:20 and Brandi's parents still aren't here to pick her up! But don't worry, we're having a ball. From tipping over in chairs, to having Brandi smushed with falling food. Oh, yeah. We're hott, and we know it. Don't you wish you were here? Yeah, tonight we had drama, and we went through the whole He Is! drama. It was awesome!

Cute quote

2010-08-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

A good friend will bail you out of jail. A true friend will be sitting beside you saying "Dude, that was fun!"

IT'S COMING!! SCHOOL!!! AHHHHH!!!!!

2010-08-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

It starts today for me. I'm ssooooooo not ready. It just seems like you blink and POOF! Summer's gone. It's very sad. Anyway, I have about seven-ish subjects, different ones on different days. So far I like my Geometry teacher, Mr. Collins. I'm taking DVD courses from Abeka Academy in Pensacola, Florida.

Today

2010-08-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

Today I went to a friend's birthday party and another friend's going away party. Roy is heading off to college and Sierra turned 16! All drivers beware! :D Ayway, we swam for five hours! I'm so waterlogged, I think there is actually water swishing around in my brain. My BFF Brandi and I had a bet to see who could not talk to our friends Nathan and Josh the longest. I won, but I decided to see how long I could go. I went four hours. Oh yeah! Brandi talked in the first five minutes. :D

In a week, precisely, we have our Tae Kwon Do demonstration. I'm so excited. We're going to be doing it to music!

My Weekend (so far...)

2010-07-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

I spent a good deal of my weekend crocheting. A friend of Haven, Hayden, and I's turned nine, so I made her a little purse. I also recieved a new laptop bag(I say new. It's a hand-me-down). It's black. With nothing on it. .....Yeah. So, if any of ya'll know me, I don't mind black, as long as it has a little POP! of color. So I crocheted some patches and sewed them on. Yes, I sewed through canvas with a needle, by hand. Oh, yeah. Anyway, I also recently completed a friend's birthday gift. So here they are....

Somer's purse.

My POP! Dad said the crown(white thing in the middle) looked

like a snake in a bathtub! Thanks Dad. So supportive.

All my projects.

The awesome hat.

I'd also like to send a special shout out to my gorgeous models! Thank you, Hayden, for modeling the hat and Haley (me), for modeling the purse!

I recently (last Sunday) joined the youth band at church. It consists (so far) of Chad (guitar), Caleb (bass), Mrs. Pam (singing), Katelyn (guitar), Anna K. (guitar), Brandi (guitar), Abby (guitar), Josh (drums), and me (piano). We all sing, except for Caleb. He barely talks. Anywho, we're supposed to perform tomorrow night. "Blessed be your name", with Anna K. doing the entro!

Joke

2010-07-15T07:48:00.000-07:00

Grandson: "Grandma, can I interview you?"

Grandma: "Sure sweety. Why do you want to interview me?"

Grandson: "Well, I'm supposed to interview the oldest person I know."

Grandma: "Hey, I'm not that old. Now your grandfather, he's old. He's so old, whent God said "Let there be light", he's the one that flicked the switch."

Crochet birds

2010-07-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

Aren't they adorable??? They only took, like, three hours of work apiece! I'm no sure what to name them, but they remind me of a bride and groom. But I'm thinking about making the girl(white one) a halo. They also remind me of like the angel and devil that sit on your shoulers, you know, in movies and stuff. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do. But just go ahead and bask in their cuteness!!!

Laying Tile

2010-07-13T11:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is SWEAT on the back of my shirt.

Aunt Dee

Me, laying tile. Cause I'm hot like that.

Doesn't it look awesome????

How many people does take to mix a bucket of mud?
Three. Two people to hold the drill and one person to hold the bucket.

My shoulders are on fire

2010-07-07T06:17:00.000-07:00

Maybe not literally, but it sure feels like it. Yesterday, we went to Spring Valley Beach in Bluntsville. We stayed in the sun for eight hours, and boy, can you tell it. My shoulders are bright red, and my dad has been calling me Reddy. I barely slept last night. But we had alot of fun. Nathan, Sierra, Violetta, Nadia, Mrs. Chrystal, Kristen, Josh, Jeremiah, Mrs. Stacie, Camron, Rachel, Luke, Parker, Ellie, Mom, Dad, Haven, Hayden, me, Trip, Logan, Elliot, Joe, Tammy, Mrs. Stacie's mom Mrs. Candy, Mrs. Stacie's grandmother, Me-maw, and Brittney all came, and we rented a pavilion, and cooked out. We rode all the rides at least twice, and I rode the concrete ones about eleven times. Sierra and I had an experience on the concrete slides. She and I went down together. Half-way down the slide, I lost my mat. Sierra was right behind me, so before I could grab my mat, BAM! Sierra hit me and we both went rolling down the slide. Well, we were going pretty fast, so I was slamming into the side of the slide and Sierra was on top of me. Finally, I grabbed a hold of Sierra and we both just went down on her mat. It was alot of fun, even though it was tiring. They had remodeled the kiddy area, and they now had a bucket that dumps water every few minutes.

The 4th of July

2010-07-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

Last night was the 4th of July celebration at Hardin's Chapel. It was AWESOME! Some of our Tae Kwon Do friends got to come. I watched the show with Brandi, Kevin, Nathan, Anna Gail, and Chelsey. We were all piled on top of Brandi's car hood, and Cody and Jesse stood with us. I think they would have been on the hood too, if there had been room. The fireworks were beautiful, and it was almost as much fun watching the guys lighting them get blown up. Josh was down there, with his dad, Kinsman, David Thrasher, Austin, and probably some other guys I didn't see. We had real, high-tech guy doing the lighting. They didn't even use matches. They use blowtorches.

The last drama :(

2010-07-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the last drama!!! It's also the end of VBS. But the last one is really cool, because we solve the mystery and there's a really big chase and the hero is the one least expected. I'm real excited.
Tonight we have Tae Kwon Do, if they don't cancel it. Mr. Stuart wants to do a demonstration at Rainbow Omega in July sometime, but we haven't even started working on a routine or anything, so maybe they'll have it tonight and we'll be able to. VBS has been lots of fun this week, and I'm going to miss all my kids. I've made alot of new little friends, and I'm sure they'll miss me too. Maybe I'll be in their class next year. Maybe. Anyway, I found out just a few weeks ago the drama team is performing at a church in Pell City. We doing about....well, at least seven dramas that day, maybe a few more, including Who Am I, by Casting Crowns, which is a drama I did many, many years ago. Anyway, it's been about four weeks since I've done Tae Kwon Do, so it'll be good to be back in ye old uniform.

VBS!!!!!

2010-06-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

VBS (Vacation Bible School) officially kicked off yesterday. I'm working with the 7 & 8 year olds. My class is pretty good, and my fellow helpers are Belle, Chelsey, and Nathan Cotton. Our team leader is Angel Phillips. The dramas are going well. I didn't mess up on any of my parts today, even though I did have to cover for Brandi once. Our theme is The Egypt Files.

2010-06-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

The day of the drama draws nearer and nearer. Our team is scattered abroad. Nathan, Sierra, and Katelyn are in South Carolina, while Brandi, Haven, Chelsey, Chad, Abby, Josh, and I are here in Good Ole' Dixie. I just hope that everyone knows their lines when they get back, 'cause we're only going to have one day where everyone can practice together. Yeah. So I'm cramming to memorize the last two days of the drama(s). I'm worried about my big, long line as well. I keep leaving out an important part. And, on top of everything, my crocheting isn't coming out right! The world is coming to an end, don't I know it!

Practice, Practice, Practice

2010-06-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

Yes. That's what I've been doing for the past few days. Practice piano. Practice drama. Practice piano. Practice drama. I found out an incredibly wonderful thing today. Brandi is going to be playing the guitar with me Sunday so one: I won't be alone, and two: I won't be alone. She's doing all the songs with me except Battle Hymn of The Republic. It's such a relief 'cause if she didn't, it would just be me, myself, and Mr. Terry. Scary. Not that I don't like Mr. Terry. He plays the drums very well. It's just that people can hear my mistakes easier with just the drums.

Stressing

2010-06-22T05:33:00.000-07:00

OK, so it is a week before several big things happen. First thing: I play the piano at church. Normally it would be like, "So what, Haley? You play the keyboard almost every Sunday for the 'going out music' no one ever listens to. What's the prob?" The prob is that I'll be doing all the songs that Sunday. It's Mrs. Madlyn's day off, and she asked me to fill in. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem. What makes it a problem is the fact that I've been gone for nearly two weeks, thus haven't been able to practice, thus making my skills a little less than perfect. So I have all week to practice, right? Wrong. Thus bringing us to problem B. Second thing: VBS is coming up in a week. I'm in the drama, and have to memorize 5 dramas. No prob. The only thing is it cuts into my piano time! HHHHUUUUUHHHHH!!! I'll just have to find a balance. Maybe.

Cool River Tubing

2010-06-19T20:21:00.000-07:00

Today and yesterday we went tubing on the Chatahoochee River. It was interesting. Haven and I got separated from Mom, Dad, and Hayden, so we struck up a conversation with this kid named Michael. He was sweet, and he was separated from his family too, so we all latched together and floated for about an hour and a half, braving water falls, sharp rocks, snakes (not joking), and getting stuck. The snake thing was really true and kind of creepy. There was a snake on the shore where we were passing, and this guy was trying to wrangle it with the push sticks used to get un-stuck when you're tubing. Well, anyway, the point is, the snake ended up back in the water, right where I was swimming and Michael and Haven were floating. Well, everyone, including us, freaked out, and there was a mad dash as everyone scrambled to get back into their floats. Well, today, Haven and I, well it was more like I, saw a snake in the shallows of the water. I freaked out again, but I think it got scared away. And good riddance. Today, Haven and I didn't actually meet anyone. We had an unspoken race with this couple that was floating down the river. We accidentally splashed them, then they splashed us, then splashed them again, and so on and so forth until it ended up in a big race to see who could finish the tubing first. Haven and I won. When we were passing them, they were kind of sore losers because they called us 'smart-a--'s' and kept saying 'sh--'. So Haven and I got out of there pretty fast. I got a good sunburn on my legs. They hurt like crazy, especially when I'm playing the piano in shorts, and my legs stick to the wood. Yeah.

Stone Mountain!!

2010-06-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

So today we went to Stone Mountian, Georgia. Mom and Dad suprised us by getting us tickets to something called........ATLANTA FEST!!!! Today, Superchick performed. We were going to get an autograph. In fact, we were first in line! Then we found out, because of the storm raging, they decided not to do the signing. So we headed to the laser light show. And guess what! Turns out, rain tends to make things not happen. Well, the light show did happen. And we went to it. We just sat in freezing cold, drenching, bone-chilling rain for thirty minutes.

To get our tickets, we had to drive to another part of the park, not the main gate. We had to find some place called Special Events Meadow. I asked Mom why they have to make everything sound like air freshener. Well, high and mighty Special Events Meadow turned out to be a big parking lot. Go figure. We also did the Sky Hike. That's where you're strapped into a harness-thingy, then ropes are connected to a track over head that let's you walk on ropes and single beams 12, 25, and 36 feet in the air. Unfortunately, I didn't make it past the first level. The harness rubbed my sunburn, so I had to stop and take it off. But I did conquer one of my fears. Actually two. First of all, I'm very skiddish. I can't handle things jumping out at me, especially in movies. It's so bad, we once went with our homeschool group to the Georgia Aquarium. We went to see a 4-d movie about a little fish who goes on a tour of the ocean. Yeah, kiddy stuff. Well, during the movie, they have like little spray bottles on the backs of the seats in front of you that spray you during the movie, wind blowing, small puffs of air, that kind of thing, to make the movie more real. Well, during the movie, a little puff of air hit me on the back of the leg. And I screamed, scareing the Ford kids half to death. I'm very skiddish. So today, we went to see another 4-d movie called Journey To The Center Of The Earth. They had vines wrapping around you, dinosaurs drooling on you, rain falling on you, the ground shaking, that sort of thing. Well it was a living nightmare for me. But I thought I handled it well. I didn't scream at least. I just curled up in a ball in my seat and watched the movie from between my fingers. The other fear was I made it to the top of the climbing wall. I'm also very scared of heights. But I made it, and beeped the little horn at the top. Stone Mountian!!!!!!!!!!