Mom, Pris, and Kezzi went to MO for a few days and C&ace and I are taking care of things around here. Luckily we're off for nearly all of our school.

A couple days ago I got my hair cut pretty short compared to how it usually is and compared to the rest of the girls. I like just having something different.

It's really funny, there's this 5 year old boy at church who really likes me for some reason, and tells me I'm his girlfriend. It's so cute. He said he likes my haircut. I was so flattered.

About the cartoon pix...don't ask. (No, actually C&ace found it.) I thought it was funny.

I went to youth group last night and they were having a game where each of the small group leaders picked their 10 favorite songs and we had to guess who the song was by and who chose it. Our team didn't win. I only knew one of the songs and I had no idea what kind of music the group leaders liked. In our small group, we talked about what it means to have a "cross centered life" which is the title of the next book we'll be studying. Basically the question was, "How often do we think about what Jesus did for us on the cross, and how often do we thank Him?" and just that we should live our lives reminding ourselves daily.

Well, my voice has been totally messed up and it's getting worse. I try to talk and I just squeak. I try to sing along with the new CD's C&ace got with her and well...it's pretty bad. lol.

(Okay I've gotta say this. As I'm sitting here, C&ace is playing the song Juke Box Blues from Walk the Line Soundtrack...and she's dancing around square dancing by herself while doing the Charleston [if you can imagine that, but you probably don't want to: )] with a spatula for a banjo...and singing along!! Whoa! I know, very weird! Just thought I'd share that. :0)

Another funny thing, Luke, Abel, and our cousins Josh and Paul are outside right now making a mud slide out of the yard running the hose and getting completely filthy muddy sliding down it. Looks like they're having a great time while ruining the part of the yard that already had no grass growing on it. They felt bad and tried to "fix" it by planting weeds there. Totally pathetic. They look like a bunch of cave men all covered from head to toe in mud.

Anyway, (I'm trying to focus here) here's a Barlow Girl song that really describes how I've felt lately. It's so awesome how God shows Himself to us in new ways all the time.

~

I walked with you

Just like we've done for so long

You seem so near

But even that's become so common

It's not just You, just been together so long

That I thought I knew everything about You

But today I saw

Did You open my eyes?

'Cause I feel like I've just seen You for the first time

~

I didn't see You

But God I want to

You've come alive

And I think I've fallen harder than the first time

~

Was I so blind?

How did I now see You?

Yet in all that time

You never left my side

So for all my life I will live to know You

So here I am, I'll take Your hand

~

I see Your face I feel You close

The love You've always shown me

Won't miss it now can't waste a day

Jesus I'm Yours completely

...Or not(?)~(reffering to previous post title)

Okay, I'm back. ...Yeah I know I've been pretty slack lately with blogging. It's been about 2 weeks since last post.

Anyway, all of us girls decided late one night to sleep outside on our hill without a tent, just sleeping bags. It was fun but Kezzi and Pris wimped out in the middle of the night and went back inside to sleep in their warm, dry beds. : )

A while ago we went up to the lake, and even though the water was chilly the beach felt great.

But so much for that great spring weather though. It's been record cold around here for this spring. A lot of the new leaves are wilted and discolored. It was pretty bad having to dress warm for Easter. It actually snowed briefly (very briefly) on good Friday.

However, despite the cold, I have had some time outdoors. We've been doing this really neat nature program and it's got me down by our creek some.

I was totally creeped out this morning. I found a brown recluse and luckily killed it successfully. I've found one every day for the past three days. I was proud of myself for not running to ask someone else to kill it while I let it get away. (That's typical for me.)

Dance has been going good. Just a week off after HiStory got me pretty out of shape. I've been doing more at home like I'm supposed to, and I've been pretty sore. Our recital is coming up quick. It's in May, and we just learned one piece yesterday and have others that still need to be finished. It bad for me because it takes me a while to learn the choreography. Oh well.

Well, we were gonna have a bonfire tonight with some friends, but it's been raining hard so we'll have to hang out inside. Bummer.

Kezzi's started learning the guitar and it's amazing how quick she's starting to play songs. She's been playing constantly so no wonder. It's awesome. We've been having a good time with it. Her and I have spent all day singing with her on the guitar.

Spring is here!

I've spent just about every day lately outdoors going on walks, hiking to the creek, and enjoying great weather. All the redbud trees and flowers are starting to bloom and the yard's looking pretty again. I feel sorry for Candace way up north where it's still like winter. But she'll be home very soon!

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Friday we went to our cousin's baseball game and afterward a few of us went bowling so our cousin Lily, who has a seizure disorder, could play. It was pretty funny when one time she threw the ball into the gutter even though there were gutter guards.

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I had 2 of my friends spend the night Saturday. We camped out in the camper at the top of our hill and we had a lot of fun eating junk food and staying up late. That evening we had a cookout at our house with 4 other families and later Dad got his huge amount of fireworks out that he'd saved for just such an occasion. The boys had a great time putting on a show for us.

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Today Pris and I went shopping and it was a successful trip, but it's pretty sad how hard it is to find modest clothes these days. Especially now that it's springtime. But I am liking the new style for girls long shorts. It's nice to be able to dress in style but still be modest. I just wish there were more options than there are for girls who want to dress right.

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I've been reading a book called You Are My Hiding Place by Amy Carmichael. A part I just read is about learning to lean on God. Here's a quote that really spoke to me.

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"His hand has grasped me, in recent days, as my understanding opens up to the word trust.

Trust, I have learned, means: to lean on, to place my confidence upon (Young's Analytical Concordance).... And after this discovery, I've found many verses in the Psalms that provide great comfort when translated in this way. For instance, 'I have trusted in [leaned on, placed confidence in] your lovingkindness.' (Psalm 13:5). So I may say: That lovingkindness which has loved me with everlasting love, which forgives and cleanses and will never tire of me--that lovingkindness, Lord, I lean on. Doesn't this tell us something about the love of God--and isn't it just like Him to let us know that He wants us to lean on, not only His lovingkindness, but His very self?"

HiStory Weekend

I haven't had time to blog lately 'cause we've been so busy with all day rehearsals, out of town company, and performances. Well, overall this weekend went great. I think the first one which was on Friday, and the last one on Sunday night, were the best. (That is, for me anyway.) It was so neat, seeing everyone involved come together for this like they did.

It was hard dancing for 4 days in a row, but it was way worth it and the whole thing was really awesome. It was incredible how God just anointed the whole production. The place was pretty packed out every night and we sold a lot of tickets, so that was good. I'm hoping we can do it again before too long. We've actually talked about going on tour to a few states, so, who knows?

~

We have a new craze going on with all the boys around here. They all have air-soft guns and have been shooting and battling a lot. Last night I went over to Lori and Kenny's to help babysit, or maybe it was just an excuse to hang out and play with baby Sarah. It was really funny when Kenny got home, because he got out the air soft guns guns and he and Josh started shooting at each other across the room with me caught in the middle. Yikes! It got pretty crazy (as always). Later they started useing a basball bat and trying to hit the plastic bebees. Pretty hard.

~

For the last few days we've been helping out at the Beck's house they're renting. They now have a ton of stuff, thanks to the people who have given it, and are overwhelmed with it all so we've been going over to help sort and organize. It's amazing how it makes a huge difference everyone just giving a little .

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Well, Pris got a car for real this time and it's actually hers. With the last one the dealers were asking more for it than it was worth. It's a silver '02 grand prix Pontiac. It's a lot cooler then the other one and a lot more sporty.

A few days ago some very good friends of ours the Beck's, lost everything. Their house burnt down and nearly everything was lost. They did save a couple of small things, but they have to start all over with nothing. We are thankful that God kept everyone safe with no injuries. You can read more about what happened at shadybrookacres and theprissycloset. Please keep them in your prayers. I can't imagine what it would be like to have everything gone so quick.

~

Earlier that day we did a lot of gardening and outside work. I can't believe it's already time for gardening again. We rented a tractor and Dad tore down our pool and cleared a lot of brush with it. Were getting rid of it because we can't finish the railing on it soon enough and we have neighbors with little kids and with no gate or railing, it might be dangerous. It was getting old and falling apart anyway. We're also getting chickens this spring, and I get to be the one in charge of taking care of them. (Oh boy.)

Well, there were consequences from all that fun at the creek. I have a whole bunch of poison ivy and it's killing me. I have some on my face too. It's not fun stuff that's for sure.

~

We're taking off school this week for spring break, so that'll be pretty nice. We have company coming, and HiStory rehearsals taking up a few mornings so Mom decided to let this be a week off.

Pris got a car Saturday. It's a white '96 Buick Riviera and in really good condition. Still, we joke about it being a grandma car. It was even previously owned by an older lady. Dramatic difference from Candace's purple bug. I guess the cars say something about their personalities don't you think?

~

Last night at 10:30, on the spur of the moment, our whole family decided to go out for ice cream. The place we wanted to go wasn't opened that late, so we went to McDonalds. Picture this: a family of 9 crowds into a, (for the most part) empty restaurant late at night and once they take forever to order, they all crowd around a small table laughing and going crazy making racket and acting like a bunch of teenagers (adults included). Once they finally leave, they peel out in the parking lot in a mini van. Yeah, that's us. And in case you're wondering, we did get some weird looks, especially driving out of there, a few people at a table turned around and looked at us like "What in the world?" when we pulled out. Very embarrassing I have to say, but I'm sort of used to it by now. I guess I've just excepted that a have a weird family.

"I'm not sure, but I think I'm confused."

See if you can get any of these. I found this one below on the Internet.

This is a really confusing but funny quote from the book Alice in Wonderland.

A piece of advice:

"'Be what you seem to be'--or if you like it simply--'Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'"

Whew, what was all that? I'm sure you had to read it a few times. It reminds me of what Bilbo says in The Fellowship of the Ring.

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

Yeah, pretty confusing and sorta pointless I know. Anyway, there's not been much going on around here lately. Today I think I'm having a bit of bad luck though. This morning I ruined a loaf of bread because Mom forgot to tell me something. Later I burned a sandwich because I forgot about it. (Forgetting things is pretty frequent for me. I forget just about anything and everything.) And a little later, I opened a cupboard and a cup came crashing down, nearly hitting my head, shattering 3 plates and breaking a few cups. I'd better be careful today or I'll ruin something else : ).

This afternoon a few of us hiked down to the creek again and had a lot of fun. You can read about in at Kezzi's blog. She just posted about it.

We had a HiStory rehearsal yesterday, and it lasted all day from 9-5. It felt like an extremely long day. I'm really excited that it's only in 2 weeks. It's gonna be awesome. I can't wait!

Anyway, it was my turn to get sick so I had to stay home from church alone all day today with nothing to do but watch movies and lay around. I decided to watch The Passion for the first time, and wow, it was very tough to watch but it really had a lot of impact on me. I hadn't seen it yet because when it came out, everyone said I wouldn't be able to handle it since I already tend to be sensitive and emotional. They were probably right. I was crying through the whole thing. It made Jesus' death so much more real than it ever has been to me. I'm glad I saw it before we do HiStory because it'll make my parts in it easier to portray what I'm trying to. One of my dance teachers said I needed to work on the acting and my facial expressions now that I have the steps.

This evening I went over to our cousins next door. They were doing some work on their house and I came over to help and hang out. They're a riot. Their whole family, especially my aunt and uncle, are in this craze and are totally obsessed with Napoleon Dynamite (which is pretty weird since it's usually not the adults it's the kids). They don't say anything without having something to do with it, whether it's a direct quote or an altered one to fit the occasion. We'd say something to Uncle Kenny and he'd take forever to think of an answer that a line from the movie would fit. It kinda got contagious after a while of nonstop Napoleon Dynamite, whatever you want to call it,(obsession?) and I couldn't stop. Josh and Uncle Kenny were telling me about a really funny idea they have of filming their own version of it and altering things in it to make the scenes fit to everything in their life. I didn't know you could do a spoof on a movie that was already so weird. They also had a few more ideas for some things that maybe eventually we'll get to film.