Vanishing Blogger is Back

Hello to any of those who still care about this blog!! It has been too long since I have posted anything. I have some drafts saved, but I never finished any of the posts, so I just gave it up for awhile. Then I realized, how much I missed it. How much it was a part of me to be able to write and to know that others were reading what was just me thinking out loud.

There has been so much going on, so I won't bore you with all the details, but I will say... God is good! I just got back from a wonderful road trip to California. Unfortunately I didn't get to see very many people while I was there (even my own church family!). I mainly spent time showing my friends from IBC around. I was NOT ready to leave, not just cuz I knew it was going to be a LOOOOONNG drive back, but because I forgot how much I missed everyone.

When I got back "home" (Indianapolis home) I began to realize how much I had to do, and that I should have used that free week to do it all! But too late, now I just have to focus a little more than I have been! We have about 3 weeks until Music Fest, so I will definitely be super busy with a lot of different things, including practices. Along with this I have some decisions that I really need to make concerning, WHAT I AM GOING TO DO WITH MY LIFE! I never have been this confused on what is coming next, I have always known exactly what I am going to do... This is where the saying "If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans" comes in. I hear you laughing, Lord!

Needless to say, I became overwhelmed so fast. Then I started a slight moping session, and even called Mom to complain to her about ME. She is always encouraging :). But as soon as I hung up, I went to THE Encourager, and opened my bible, and found these verses
Psalm 18:30-33
30 As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.
31 For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?
32 It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.
33 He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places

Isn't that such a beautiful thing to know? That no matter what happens, God knows what He is doing, and He will strengthen and help, as long as you can trust Him enough to give it all to Him.

Just thought I would bring you up to date on me!! Until next time..

Welcome to 2010

Well, 2009 is over, there is no going back. We've come to a new year, with a fresh clean slate with no mistakes. Of course, there WILL be mistakes, we all know that, but hopefully the mistakes will be smaller than the previous ones.

I have been thinking about what resolutions to make. It really is harder that I originally thought. I feel like I have changed in so many ways, just from last year. So, I don't know what my resolutions are as of yet. I planned on making a list, but that didn't happen. So, I will just take it a step at a time.

“Here's to the bright New Year,and a fond farewell to the old; here's to the things that are yet to come, and to the memories that we hold.”

I'll keep you updated with how my resolutions are going (if I make any!
Until then, goodbye readers, and sorry for letting you down in 2009. ;)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving - noun
1. The act of giving thanks; grateful acknowledgment of benefits or favors
2. An expression of thanks, esp. to God.
3. A public celebration in acknowledgment of divine favor or kindness.
4. A day set apart for giving thanks to God

I am so thankful in so many ways, I could never tell everyone but I COULD give a few of the main reasons I am thankful

1. God - without Him I would be nothing. I still have such a long way to go, but with God with me, I can do it

2. My family - My parents have ALWAYS been there for me. They have been so supportive of every choice I've made, if it is not quite the right decision, they let me know (heheh) and it really has meant much knowing that whatever I decide to do, wherever my life leads me, my parents with be "rooting" me on. Mom always has the best advice, and although I hate to admit some of it, she is right 99% of the time. Daddy is my hero, I want someone just like him. My brothers are also so supportive of me... if not overly protective! I blame them for not having a banquet date! LOL jk.

3. My friends - I have so many good friends, some new and some old, that I am so thankful for. I have been so very blessed with some amazing friendships. But I honestly don't know where I would be without Bekki. She has been there for me, even when I felt I had lost a part of me (and no not to a guy)... And she always knows how to make me smile!!

So all in all... I am just thankful. I could have made the list SO MUCH LONGER, but as you can see, it is late here, and I may not make much sense :-P

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!! God Bless and keep you!

I love the Holidays!

So, yes, I am one of *those* people that absolutely ADORES the holiday season. I have been waiting for this all year! I have been listening to Christmas music already since the first week of November. It's a wonderful feeling! Christmas never, ever gets old to me! One thing that has made me so happy this year though, is that I get to go home! I was a little unsure there for a bit. SOOO... I mainly wrote this cuz I just wanted to put up a Christmas song, :-D cuz I just love it, and because I WILL be home for Christmas!

I'm dreaming tonight, of a place I love
Even more than I usually do
And although I know, it's a long road back
I promise you

I'll be home for Christmas
You can count on me
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents by the tree

Christmas Eve will find you
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams

Yes I am alive! I promise!

Wow.... I seriously don't know where these last three months have gone since I last posted. I have let down my reading audience! So to summarize my life in the past few months... hmmmm school, work, church, practices, and late nights! yup that's pretty much it, with a few trips thrown in there!

So the main reason for me posting, is to let you know that I am going to start posting again!!! Bekki and I were talking about how she felt like she hasn't written much lately, and I haven't written AT ALL on here! I am a failure, but give me another chance! I would say I am going to post pictures, but instead, I'll give you a link of where to find my pictures! And if THAT doesn't work, I'll post pictures! LOL

It's a Never-ending Road Trip

Well it has been a long while since I last posted!! So I figured I had better let everyone know I am alive! It was a crazy few last weeks before we left, and a little emotional too at times... It was hard to leave, yet it wasn't! But we had a fun yard sale the Saturday before we left, then we left around 11 am (due to a few stops before we finally left town) Monday and drove STRAIGHT THROUGH to White Hall Arkansas. We arrived (like how I said that? All professional) at the Corbitt's house around 3:30 pm the next day, then had dinner with them, and spent the night and left for Congress early the next morning!

I have pictures, and will put some up in the near future, but Youth Congress was such fun. We saw so many people we haven't seen in a while, including cousins! Yay for cousins! Our friends kept telling me that I was related to everyone somehow ;P. So now we are back in Arkansas for a few days then on to South Bend to spend a few days with my Aunt Carlene, then to IBC to help out with registration and get this school year started!

Well enough of the updates! I'll try to get those pictures uploaded!

Have Patience... So easy to say...

SOOOOOOOO hard to do! As Thomas Kempis so well said, "All men commend patience, although few are willing to practice it."

patience - noun
1. the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
2. an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay: to have patience with a slow learner.
3. quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care

So many things that we have to be patient for, but our present world has made patience practically impossible. We have

~Fast food restaurants, because who has time to make dinner anymore?
~DRIVE THROUGHs at those same restaurants, because not only don't we have patience to make dinner, we don't have time to get out of the car and enjoy our fast food dinner
~ATMs - because who wants to wait in line at the bank (and you still have to end up waiting in line anyway)
~Drive through ATMs... even better!
~10 items or less lanes at a grocery store
~Carpool Lanes
~the list goes on and on (INCLUDING drive through marriages ceremonies [laughing quite hilariously] sorry... I'm calmed down now)

Now I am not complaining about any of these items as I use them myself (with the exception of the marriage ceremony of course) :P... But we have somehow lost the real meaning of patience, and the fruits that it brings!

Isaiah 40:31 says "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

Teach me patience Lord...

Teach me to wait upon your word,
Teach me to SHOW patience to others
Teach me to be patient during any form of trial
Teach me the true meaning of patience

So I'll just leave you with a song (hehehe) that I used to sing years ago as a child... (if you haven't heard it you MUST listen to it here! It is sung by.... none other than.... HERBERT the SNAIL lol)

Have patience, Have patience
Don't be in such a hurry
When you get impatient
You only start to worry
Remember, Remember
That God is patient too
And think of all the times
When others had to wait for you!

YAY! My laptop is working!

So, as you can tell from my enthusiastic title, MY LAPTOP WORKS!!!!! That is exciting to me. It did take 2 visits from Dell, and a walk-through by phone to get it totally up and running. But thank the Lord that was all free!

So, obviously without a laptop as my companion. I have had a lot more, well, let us (no I do not have a mouse in my pocket, us as in you the reader, and me the blogger)so kindly refer to it as time. Well, other than the time I spent working that is. So a lot of my time, I spent with family, and trying to get stuff done!

One of the things that I noticed was, I MISS BLOGGING!!! Bekki and I were both talking about our random comments on each others' blogs that quickly became comment wars!

Another thing that I noticed was, I miss reading! I used to have such a joy in reading just about anything that I could get.

Yet another thing that I noticed was, I was able to get a lot more sleep than usual!

The point of this??? Heehee... to waste YOUR time reading this!

SOOOOO moving on with this random blog. I leave in two weeks for the Midwest! I am excited. I have a few stops on the way to IBC, all fun and adventurous! YAY me! Can't wait to get back on the road, but can't believe this summer has passed by so fast!

Well, until next time, have a great weekend!

I'm posting again??? What?

Well I surprised myself by wanting to post again today! Well, mainly because I really, really wanted to share this poem. Lol well, not really REALLY, but you know...

IF
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat these two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

I know I am not a Man, or a son... LOL nor will I ever be. But I want to be everyone of the "if"s on this page. I know Rudyard Kipling was not using this in a spiritual sense, but I DO want to "go light the world" for "A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid" (Matt 5:14). Just something to make you think

Pictures and RANDOM Updates!

Well as you see, the promised pictures are above... I don't know where to begin really, this summer has been so eventful! Either I am at church, working, sleeping, out with Bekki, or out of town!!! So many neat youth things, and I was also able to go to Ventura Camp Meeting for one night! And that Thursday I headed up to Northern California to help out at my Uncle and Aunt's church in Tracy, CA (close to San Francisco/San Jose area). It was such a fun, but draining weekend, I taught their sign team 7 songs! I know those girls probably were so glad it was over when we finished Sunday night. I had so much fun though! Then we left Monday and were home that night! And right back to work!

So, my computer is in ICU right now... no signs of life... Seriously... Phillip is still trying to get it to even turn on! UGHHHHH WHY ME???? I hope that it is something that can be fixed... Because I wouldn't survive without having my own computer!

Count-down has officially begun! I leave in 27 days to head back East! Can't wait, I know I am going to miss everyone (kinda :P) but thank GOD for technology! I already have been in touch with a few people from IBC trying to get everything worked out for next school year, including a POSSIBLE trip to Europe with IBC during Spring Break, in March!!!! That would be so neat, but first I need to make sure I can have my old job at American Documents back, so I had to call my coworker and see if she can pull some strings! PRAY SAINTS PRAY... If that doesn't work out, well... God knows! But I mean, come on, if I have a consistent job, and have the income I had last semester, I could pay off the trip before December!

So that is my BIG news lol, other than that... nothing much is going on :D... I have plans on other posts, but no promises for anytime soon (because it seems everytime I say I will keep it up, I don't!)

So, til next time!