Visiting Appomattox

This past Saturday, Carolyn and I visited Appomattox Court House National Historic Park. Not only was it full of interactive and rich Civil War-era history, but it is also free to go and visit any time they are open. Because it has been so long since I learned about this time period in history class, I did not realize Appomattox was the site where General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant which ended the Civil War. It is incredible that the place the Civil War ended is only a 30-minute drive outside of Lynchburg!

It was a lot of fun to roam around the historic town and learn about different parts of the Civil War. The Courthouse has been turned into a museum with lots of information, artifacts, and paintings from all over the country telling the narrative of the War. One of the most fascinating parts was reading letters from soldiers to their loved ones; you could really begin to understand what he was going through mentally and emotionally.

We were also able to visit the County Jailhouse, the Tavern, and the McLean House. The Jailhouse was fun to explore, and it was interesting thinking about the kinds of war prisoners that might have been locked up all that time ago. The Tavern also had lots of plaques, information, and paintings to take in. There was a printing press in the Tavern; I thought that was an interesting place to have a printing press, but I suppose that is where people gathered at the time to pass on information. I found it especially interesting reading about Lincoln’s assassination. Because the letter was from a Confederate soldier, he spoke happily about Lincoln’s death. It was shocking because most things you read about Lincoln are positive, and I had never thought about it from the perspective of the Confederacy before.

The last place we visited was the McLean House. They were obviously a wealthy family; their kitchen and slaves’ quarters were located behind the house. However, this House was most interesting because the sitting room was where General Lee actually signed the surrender. It was very cool to see the painting of the surrender alongside the room itself. It looked very similar to how they had the room set up to look like. The slaves’ quarters were interesting because they were not as cramped and run down as most people would think they would be. I think because it was likely the quarters for the slaves who did the housework instead of those who worked in the fields, they probably lived in a little nicer conditions.

It ended up being a beautiful day, and it was a great place to walk around and learn more about history. They also have tours you can take and storytellings you can attend. The storytellers are dressed up in period costumes and speak in antiquated English. It was fun to experience– almost like a mini-Williamsburg! I would definitely recommend going to visit.

Senior Year

So it is the beginning of my senior year, and I have discovering this thing called 'Pinterest'. I am not so sure yet if this is a good or a bad thing, but I seem to be wasting a lot of time on it. There are many great pictures to 're-pin' that are funny, inspirational quotes, great recipes, clothing ideas, etc. There is also this concept that is somewhat new to me of having a 'Bucket List'. Essentially this is just a list of things that you want to do before you die. Looking through different Bucket List pictures makes me feel two very different things. On one hand there are many Bucket List pictures of things that I have done or experienced, and it makes me feel pretty accomplished. On the other hand, there are so many pictures that are of things that are currently out of my reach or will not happen for a long time if ever. Those pictures make me feel young, little, inexperienced. It is all a scary though I guess when I think about I am right on the line of being a teen-aged kid and growing up. I have just begun my very last year of high school as of August 27th, 2012, and I am both very excited and very scared. I have named several of my posts on my blog something along the lines of 'Life as I Know It', and what scares me the most is that "Life as I Know It" is about to drastically change. Change is always something that I have never particularly liked. Although it is something that I've never particularly disliked either. Really what scares me the most about this particular change is that I am the one changing; I am growing up. Most of my life I have been more or less the same kind of person. I was always that person that people would see years later and say, "You haven't changed a bit!!" But now I feel like I am the one changing, not the people or the world around me. I know that I am in the process of making a lot of life-altering decisions, and its a scary thought. It makes me thankful that I have a God who loves me for who I really am and is watching over me through all of this. As I look for answers from Him I wonder how much of what I want or what I think is the right thing to do comes from the desire He placed in my heart, or if it comes from me making an emotion-based conclusion that could be ever changing. The other day I came across this verse in Psalms 27:14, "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." It really hit me that I just need to be patient and wait for God's perfect timing in all these decisions that I often feel like I need an answer to right NOW. It's hard to wait when you just want all of these "problems" to be solved, but I know that God is just teaching me a lesson of patience. I just need to hold to the reminder that God's timing is perfect. It isn't easy; it never is. I had a good reminder of that in a Bible class I'm taking at school when my teacher reminded us that believers are promised that they will suffer. That is sometimes a hard thing to grasp. But is it worth it? Yes.

Life As I Know It (2)

For some reason I only think to write on my blog in the worst of times for the most part. Often it is to write about things in hope that someone will read them, but at the same time not everyone will read them like they would if I post them on facebook or twitter or basically anywhere else. It is out there for anyone to read and yet few people will come across what I have to say. It is a chance to impact a few, whether positively or negatively, and that sometimes makes me wonder how I come across to people who don’t know me.

Nothing has changed since the last time I wrote. If anything, things have only gotten worse. It is like: at the times when you most want to feel wanted, even just by the first person you come across, you are rejected. Not necessarily even in an intentionally hurtful way. We are always hit when we are weakest, intended to be knocked down. Intended to be demolished and broken by the Devil. But that is one of the reasons why God is here. He is our strength when we are weak (always). He is our hope when we are hopeless (always). He is our guide when we are pathless (always). He is our courage when we are fearful (always). He is our comforter when we feel alone. But most importantly He is our savior. Because we will fall. We will fail. We will be afraid. We will feel alone. We will feel powerless, heartless, and hopeless. We are bound to all of these things, which is why it is so important that God became our Savior. He saved us from these things. Only in Him can we escape these things. God is more than just significant; He is everything.

And that is why I know, even in these worst of times, that God is my Savior, and so it will be ok.

Life As I Know It

Whoever said ignorance is bliss had no idea what they were talking about. Not only is ignorance not bliss, but it is also extremely frsutrating, stressful, and harmful to many parts of your life. Especially when it comes to your relationships with other people.

Life right now is not exactly what I would call happy. When pretty much the only person that ever talks to you during the school day is ignoring you and you sit in the middle of the classroom by yourself, clueless about what your doing, and alone. And then you sit and think, and the more you think the more it hurts and the more you wish you could be apathetic. No one ever said it was mature to ingore someone, or to deny that you are ignoring someone that you clearly are, and definitely no one ever said it was loving and forgiving and compassionate. Annoying more and more people seems to be a constant unintentional thing that I do to people. The problem is that people assume that the annoyance is completely intentional or something, either that or they are faulting me for not being perfect as if I could help it. That really frustrates me, not being able to become perfect, always falling, always failing, no matter how much I plead with God to help me never being able to be perfect in this sinful body of mine with my digustingly sinful nature. It is a struggle, and to some may seem stupid, but it is a legit struggle for me in my life. Nor does it help when the imperfect people around me seem to highlight my imperfections to even a greater extent. God help me.

I was reading a devotional study that I am trying to go through, and I came across something that rather struck me. The saying 'Life isn't fair' is rather a horrible thing. People have a sense of justice. And just because life might not be fair does not mean that you should act unfairly. God is just. It says so in 2 Thessalonias 1:6, "God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you." And this is God we are talking about, PERFECTION. Why should we intentionally act unjustly toward others? Everyone knows that when you act unfairly it has bad consequences, it opens us up to disappointment, dishonor, and shame. Now friends may be difficult, but to act justly toward them is honoring to God. That does not mean that if the slap you in the face you need to slap them back, because in reality that is revenge not justice, and therefore the right thing to do may be to show mercy. We need to ask God for the wisdom to know what to do and to not act unjustly.

This song has made me cry many times before, and yet it has a sort of sorrowful comfort in it:
Oh, and when I am alone.
Oh, and when I am alone.
Oh, and when I am alone,
Give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus!
Give me Jesus!
Oh, and when I am alone,
Give me Jesus.

Busy

My December month while school is still going on is going to be incredibly busy.
Dec. 1st - Taekwondo PreTest & Voice Recital Rehearsal
Dec. 2nd - Advanced Drama Class Production
Dec. 4th - Harim's Birthday & Voice Recital
Dec. 6th - Taekwondo Demonstration and Belt Changing Test & Voice Lessons
Dec. 9th - Dad's Birthday & School Winter Concert
Dec. 14th - Youth Group Christmas Party
now add all the usual ECAs I have everyday into that schedule as well as a few lunch time play rehearsals and school work in multitudes (since of course teachers will be making us had stuff in and give lots of tests and quizes before we get a vacation). Also in all my free time I have to figure out when I can read a book report book in the next two weeks.... *cough* *cough* But Christmas time is almost here!! I love Christmas; it's my favorite holiday. This year we are going to Spain & Andorra for a week or so, and then we are also going to Italy (snowboarding in the Alps) with the Brutons for about a week. Fun stuff :)

Friends

God made us to have relationships with one another. God has given me some of the most amazing friends in the entire world. And because life is not easy and I am far from a perfect person, these friendships certainly do not always go "right" or "as planned". But I know with all my heart that my best friends are forever. We may fight, argue, cry, ignore, compete, be stubborn, unsympathetic, insult, or hurt one another, but I know that those things could only end up bringing us closer. I am certain that God did not just put these amazing people in my life for me to use and dispose of. My friends are truely God-given, because in my hardest times those are most of the people that God used to help me cope, and I can only hope that God uses me in the same way for them. I heard an expression once that said something like:"What doesn't kill you will only make you stronger." Sometimes I think that's exactly how God uses the 'bad' situations. Having friends like I do is enough proof in and of itself for me to believe in a loving God. Thank you God. Especially for Harim and Grace, because they have done more for me in the past couple years than I can even comprehend. Gotta luv those besties <3

The Best News I've Had..... Since Like Last Time :)

So I just have had the most amazing thing happen to me like ever :) I just want all you peoples of the world to know that once again I happen to be dating the most amazing guy ever :) So yeah, you know that guy? Luke? Well.... he's mine :D

Song Quotes....

I've always been able relate the most to song lyrics, so here are several quotes that I just really relate to....

"I don't know how to be something you miss...." -Last Kiss by Taylor Swift

"'Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops? What if your healing comes through tears? What if a thousnad sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're here?" -Blessings by Laura Story

"It doesn't matter what you've heard, impossible is not a word. It's just a reason for someone not to try." -What Faith Can Do by Kutless

"Six months gone and I'm still reaching even though I know you're not there. I was playing back a thousand memories, baby, thinking 'bout everything we've been through. Maybe I've been going back too much lately,
when time stood still and I had you..." -If This Was A Movie by Taylor Swift

"I can finally see that you're right there beside me. I am not my own for I have been made new. Please don't let me go, I desperately need you." -Meteor Shower by Owl City

"We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear. And we cry in anger when we cannot feel you near. And we doubt Your goodness, We doubt Your love. As if each promise from Your word is not enough." - Blessings by Laura Story

"Come back, come back, come back to me like you would before you said it's not that easy. Before the fight, before I loved you back..." -If This Was A Movie by Taylor Swift

"I'm finding myself at a loss for words, and the funny thing is it's ok. The last thing I need is to be heard, but to hear what you would say." -Word of God Speak by Kutless

"I used to know my place was a spot next to you, now I'm searching the room for an empty seat....I'm dying to know if it's killing you like it's killing me." -Story of Us by Taylor Swift

"So this is me swallowin my pride standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night. And I go back to December all the time. Turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you, wishing I'd realized what I had when you were mine. I'd go back to December turn around and make it all right. I go back to December all the time." - Back to December by Taylor Swift

"I know people change and these things happen, but I remember how it was back then: Locked up in your arms and our friends are laughing 'cause nothing like this ever happened to them. Now I'm pacing up the hall chasing down your street, flashback to a night when you said to me:
Nothing's gonna change, not for me and you, not before I knew how much I had to lose." -If This Was A Movie by Taylor Swift

"Boy I hear you in my dreams...I feel your whisper across the sea. I keep you with me in my heart. You make it easier when life gets hard." -Lucky by Jason Mraz ft. Colbie Caillat

"If you asked me if I love him, I'd lie." -I'd Lie by Taylor Swift

"I do remember, the swing in your step. The life of the party, you're showing off again. And I roll my eyes and then you pull me in. I'm not much for dancing, but for you I did." -Last Kiss by Taylor Swift

"What if my greatest dissapointments or the achings of this life, is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy. What if trials of this life, the rain, the storms, the hardest nights, are Your mercies in disguise?" - Blessings by Laura Story

"I said leave but all I really want is you to stand outside my window throwing pebbles saying I'm in love with you...." -The Other Side of the Door by Taylor Swift

"'Cause my heart stops without you, there's something about you that makes me feel alive....But if I reached for your hand would your eyes get wide? Who knew the other side could be so green." -Honey and the Bees by Owl City

"I love how you walk with your hands in your pockets. How you kissed me when I was in the middle of saying something, there's not a day when I don't miss those rude interruptions." -Last Kiss by Taylor Swift

"And how you held me in your arms that September night, the first time you ever saw me cry. Maybe this is wishful thinking, probably midless dreaming, but if we loved again I swear I'd love you right." -Back to December by Taylor Swift

Yeah, just some things that I can relate to, and have really helped me to find words to what I'm feeling. Cause as many of you may know, I'm not the best with making what is in my head into words.

Summer Time Part 2

Ok, so I sorta failed with updating you all with the rest of my summer, but it happens. Basically I had an AMAZING time with family this summer, and I also spent two weeks at Camp Orchard Hill (in Dallas, PA). That was a blast, and it definitely helped to give me a better perspective of my future despite the difficulties. I made aMAZing friends there, and I really felt like I had known them most of my life after less than a week, and by the end of the second week we were all practically family. I definitely hope I get to see them all again someday. I also started an online British Literature coarse, which currently I am waaaaaaaay behind on, so yeah, prayer would be great :) Apart from that my summer was chill when I got back from camp. Well chill minus surviving an earthquake and a hurricane both in one week.... yep, that was my summer 2011 in PA :)

Summer Time Part 1

So my summer had indeed begun. It's been going on for a while now and already I have so much to tell. The very beginning was camp. It is called Olive Grove located in a small city called Cirali just outside of Antalya, Turkey. That was a very fun two weeks in which I spent a lot of good time with a lot of good friends and had a lot of good conversations :) It was fun, and to fill in all the details would take more time than I have. The first week I stayed in a small cabin with Cassidy and Clara. The second week I moved into "The House" which was inhabited by the Upperclassmen Girls. I must say I had a ton more fun living in a small house with 10 girls and 2 bathrooms than I originally thought I would. My semi-roommate in the House was Becca, who is pretty awesome :) I had a lot of fun playing 'Speed', 'Spades', 'BS', and 'ERS' with Becca, Cassidy, Serra, and random other people who wanted to play. Thankfully this time during the sneak out I didn't fall asleep (well.... at least only for an hour...). Miraculously Luke and I were actually able to see the sunrise this time, lol xD That was a fun night :) After camp I had a fun time riding back with our family and the Brutons, fun times being squished in a van :D Fouth of July was also a fun day, despite the fact that my parents didn't buy tickets to the Fourth of July party on the Base.
So I spent two weeks not doing much, although I started to get into scrap-booking in my spare time, and I hope to have the time to do more of it in the near future. We then started to travel. We spent a day in Istanbul because we missed our flight from Istanbul to Budapest. On the bright side, I got to see and go inside the Hagia Sofia as well as go into the Grand Bazar, and see the Blue Mosque. We also just walked around and looked at stores and stuff. We didn't have too long, so we only got to go to a few places. Istanbul is nice, really, but I would never want to live there (no offense to all my Istanbul friends). It's just way too tourist-y for my liking of a place to live. But it is a very beautiful city from what I saw, and pretty much everyone knows English (very unlike Ankara). So after our day in Istanbul, we made it to Budapest, Hungary. Budapest is actually two different cities, 'Buda' & 'Pest' that grew together and then were renamed 'Budapest'. We stayed in a Hotel-Apartment in what was called the Jewish Quarter on the Pest side of the town. It really was a beautiful city with the chain bridge and the Danube river going straight through the city. Also the Churches there were gorgeous and filled with amazing.... well, just about everything was amazing about the Churches. One of the Churches we went in, they were actually having a wedding there when we went inside. It was amazingly beautiful. However, I must say, there are couples everywhere in Budapest. Everywhere you turn there are people holding hands or making out :P Just saying, but great city to go with ur boyfriend/girlfriend or whatever significant other, but terrible place to go when you're depressed about you're current single status :P But anyway, we had a fun three days in Budapest, doing everything from seeing the sites, from walking around and shopping, from an evening cruise on the river, to going to Aquaworld. Aquaworld is an indoor waterpark which is aparently the largest indoor waterpark in Europe. It was pretty fun, and probably the most time I've spent in the water in several years :P We were there all day. Meghan, Konnar, and I got to go in these gigantic beachball-like balls that they pumped air into, and we were inside of them, rowling around the wavepool at the waterpark (at which time the waves were turned off). But basically we just pushed each other around, and tried to stand up inside of them and walk (sort of like a hamster in a wheel). It was a fun day :) The day after that we woke up at 3am to go to the airport. We flew from Budapest to Frankfurt to Toronto to Philadelphia in one day, fun stuff :P Lots of long flights, but it was good to finally get here and see family. Still have only seen my mom's parents and one of my uncles as far as family memebers go, but there are more to come and I can't wait :) I shall be going to Camp Orchard Hill come August, as well as starting my online British Literature class, so I would certainly appreciate lots of prayer. Can only hope that my summer will get better from here :) Can't wait to see all my cousins, especially Skylar & Katrina :D However I feel the deep need to have long convo's with Grace Kim and Harim Kim ASAP, which isn't good since I won't be seeing them for a month :P

Cheaper By the Dozen

Oasis’s Production of ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ was a success!!!!!! All the performances went rather well with only very minimal mistakes, and people seemed to enjoy it :) I suppose you guys might want to see some pictures??? :)^^Whether it is epic lines from the play…..

  ^^Or just helping each other out……

^^Or even the guys on the cast getting “revenge” on the directors for making them wear so much makeup…..

^^We just like to have fun xD hehehe :) Annie, my “favorite” daughter ;) After all, I am apparently her 7th favorite mom ;)

^^Did I mention everyone in our cast is the Bomb?? :D

^^Hanging out backstage!!

^^Having fun!~

^^And more fun and hanging out with the cast and crew!! :)

^^Performance Day!!!!! :D

    Don’t you just love our cast?? :) Cause I do!!

^^Cast: Sam Hoard (Mr.Gilbreth/Dad), Kalista Huddleston (Mrs.Gilbreth/Mom), Hanne Larsen (Anne), Sofie Senecal (Ernestine), Luke Bruton (Frank), Meghan Huddleston (Martha), David Lewis (Bill), Alejandra Tristen (Lillian), Nate Raymond (Fred), Hilton Lewis (Dan), Annika Campbell (Jane), Annie Wolfzorn (Jackie), Lyle Lewis, Benniah Campbell, Rascal Lewis (the $5 dog :D), Josh Land (Larry), David Wolfzorn (Joe), Harim Kim (Meg), Sydney Petersen, Mary-Erin Campbell, KangEun Seo, Mason Puckett, Tommy Henry (Mac), Sevda Sulayman (Miss Brill), Nana Lee (Mrs.Fitzgerald), and Yosi Sukotjo (Dr.Burton). Crew: Miss LaMertha, Miss Bagnell, Miss Jones I, Mr.Gissendoner, The Puckett Family, Josh Bruton, and GyeongBae Jeon. I dearly hope I didn’t forget anyone, but great job to everyone!! :)

Nearing Summer...

Exams: only two more days left of them. Hopefully they won’t be too hard, but only two more days and the school work for the school year is officially oooooooooooooooover!!!!! :D

It is almost summer, which I both eagerly await and wish would never come.... Summer, the time of year when there is "abundant sleep" and "no hard school work" to deal with, and also the anticipation of getting to see family members that are greatly missed. Summer, also the time when school ends and where you travel and generally do not see any friends, and sometimes is the last time you ever see some friends. I am not at all looking forward to that part of the summer. I am rather scared that this end of the school year will turn out much like it was two years ago. I am just hoping and praying, and that I will be able to accept whatever God does, because He has a plan. And I am praying that I and everyone else affected by it will be able to cope with His plan, because in the end He does know what is best.

On a positive note, I am very much eagerly awaiting summer because I simply love the last two half-days of school (basically you come to school to socialize with all of your friends). And also, in just a little more than a week I will be in Antalya for Olive Grove!! And let me just say, I love camp :) This will be my sixth time going to Olive Grove, which is crazy to think about. I cannot wait to hang with my camp friends and well as some friends from home here in Ankara :) Also, at least I’ll be doing something active at camp, because every since the play ended, I’ve been feeling awfully lazy *sigh*.

Speaking of the play, Oasis’s Production of ‘Cheaper by the Dozen’ was a success!!!!!! All the performances went rather well with only very minimal mistakes, and people seemed to enjoy it :) I suppose you guys might want to see some pictures??? :) Well I'll post them soon, very soon ;)

So my first plans of course for the summer are spending two weeks in Antalya, Turkey at Olive Grove!! Then we come back to Ankara and spend about two weeks here just chilling. After all, since it will be the middle of July I do not think anyone will really be around to hang out with *sigh*. After that we are off to the US, and possibly going to some country in Europe for a couple days on the way there. Our first week in the US will be spent at the shore with my mom’s side of the family for a week. We’ll be somewhere in New Jersey…. but I cannot wait to see everyone, especially to see my little cousins!! They are getting so big its unbelievable. Skylar, I remember when she was born and I think she’s almost 7 or 8 now!! :O And Krew-buddy, he’s getting so big and tall!! And little Lina Love!! I feel like she was just born!! But she’s the cutest two year old I know :) So big now. The following week we’ll be traveling down to Deep Creek Lake, Maryland to spend a week with my dad’s side of the family!! We did this two years ago and it was so much fun, so it is much anticipated :) Katrina!! Can’t wait to see you and hang :) Then right after that I am going to a Christian camp in Dallas, Pennsylvania for two weeks called Camp Orchard Hill. I am attending a leadership training program there, and I really am looking forward to it :) This will actually be the first time that I will be exposed to genuine American teenagers that aren’t my cousins, so it’ll be interesting to see what it’s like. And I know Mr.Meyer is psyched cause he says I have to call him JJ at camp, lol :D After COH I will be spending about another week in the US to spend time with family and do all the fun stuff like doctor’s and dentist’s appointments :P And then we will be heading back to Ankara a day before school starts again!! Sounds fun, right?? ;) Oh yes, I forgot to mention, on top of all this craziness, I will be taking an online British Literature class over the course of the summer. This will allow me to possibly graduate at the end of next school year if I want to. This is because we do not know exactly how much longer we will be living here, and I really would love to graduate from Oasis, because I love this school to death. I practically live there during the school year after all. And I’ve been attending since 5th grade, one of the “old timers” here, so I’ve grown pretty attached. But at the same time, I’m not so sure that I want to graduate a year ahead of my class, and two years ahead of people my age. I don’t know, we’ll see what God has in store for me.

I’ll conclude by saying that there are people in this world that mean the world to me. Certain people that I know that I will stay in contact with for the rest of my life because of what they mean to me. I thank God for these people every day. And I know that know matter how close or far apart in the world we are, that friendship reaches over any distance (and thank God for facebook!! ;)).

Also, you guys should check out my website that I’ve been making pretty much since the beginning of 2011. Hope you guys like it, and I’m trying to make as many improvements as I can as quickly as I can: http://kalista1996.20x.cc/

Trials

Trials really stink. I know, they are 100% nessecary in the life of a Christian, and that it is all a part of molding a Christian's life. And that is wonderful, it really is. But in the midst of trials, before it's all said and done, they are stinky. It is God's test, God's molding of his childrens lives. It's just, I've never liked tests. And sometimes it's hard to know what exactly God wants you to do during the tests. And sometimes when you jump ahead of God's plan and make the wrong decision, it ruins everything. If I hadn't been in such a hurry, if I hadn't been in such a rush to get rid of pain, to get rid of the trial, then I wouldn't be in the midst of such a much worse one. I guess you just need to learn from your mistakes......

Dear Jesus,

I am not worth it. What you did for me is unspeakable. All that you’ve given to me I don’t deserve, especially not you in my life. It is incomprehensible why you, God, would suffer for me; why would you, God, lay down your life for me? Because you are so genuinely good that my human reason cannot make sense of it. Because your love is amazing, steady, unchanging, and no matter how little I am worth, you love me so much, for some reason, that you would give your life for me. I really can’t, no matter how hard I try, understand why you, God, love me so much when I treat you the way I do, and after all you did for me! How could I treat you the way I do after everything you have done for me without me deserving it in any way, shape, or form? I wish I would treat you the way you deserve to be treated. But thank you God, for doing all you did for me, because without you I am faithless, hopeless, lonely, and purposeless.

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus:

Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

~Philippians 2:5-11~

Christmas Time

I have not posted in a while…. so I decided I need to :) The only problem is I do not know exactly what to write about. I suppose I’ll write about a bunch of different things.

     First I’ll talk about basketball. Basketball season has started, and it is pretty cool. I like to play basketball, but I have not really played in so long that I could definitely be a lot better in areas like….. well….. everything :P We had our first games last weekend, and the first one went pretty well. I think it ended with a final score of 24-11, we didn't win, but did pretty great based on the amount of practice we have had. The second game…… well that was just beyond embarrassing :P We scored zero points the entire game and the other team had I think somewhere in the 20’s. At one point one of the girls on their team smacked me. At this point I felt like knocking her to the ground, but instead I just ran into her so she would not get a foul :P Soon after that was when the cheerleaders came out, and I have nothing against cheerleaders….. except for the ones that just repeat themselves a gazillion times and do not do anything more impressive that jump :P So yeah, basically I was annoyed times a million. Oh well, it made it better that the guys team won both of their games, and the first game they played they pretty much massacred the other team.

Now for an “interesting” topic, how often I get sick. I think I have been sick a gazillion times this school year missing a total of I think 2 weeks of school from being sick. Two weeks ago on Friday I went to the doctor because the throat was in severe pain. He told me I had a really bad throat infection, and that I was not allowed to go back to school until the following Wednesday. This was…. craziness. It hurt my throat when I breathed, coughed, swallowed, yeah…. pretty much did anything :P I was relieved when I got medicine from the doctor though, because we went on Friday and it had been hurting since Wednesday. It was beginning to get unbearable.

  On a happier note, CHRISTMAS!!!! yay!~ I’m dreaming of a whiiiiiiiiiite Christmaaaaaaaaaas! Snow! Snow! Snow! It snowed to Sunday and Monday night, like a lot!! I really thought we’d get a snow day. Sadly enough they did not cancel school on Monday. And even more sadly, after it snowed hard on Monday night, Tuesday morning it rained, washing away a large percentage of the snow on the ground :( It was too sad, and not it isn’t even as cold as it was; it is no longer below 0 degrees!! :( Oh well. But Christmas, it is coming soon!! Only 10 days left until Christmas Day!~ Excitement!~ xD But yeah, I love Christmas time. I love our decorations, Christmas Spirit, the warm feeling of being inside when it is cold spending time with your family, and most of all I love the celebration of MY Savior’s birth!! Glory to the newborn King :) This Christmas Season I feel overly blessed with gifts, mostly not tangible, but that makes them all the better :) Thank you Lord for this time of year, and thank you for the birth of your Son Jesus Christ, my Savior <3

Confusion

I am so confused as to what emotion(s) I am experiencing right now. Maybe annoyance, happiness, anger, peace, sorrow, hopefulness, loneliness, or all of them, or more. I cannot decide, actually I just don’t know, which is the real problem. Actually I might be feeling all of them for different reasons and/or motivations. Now I’m just confusing myself now.

I guess I’ll explain a few.

My first is a mix of hope and peace. I was reading my Bible, and I came across this verse in Jeremiah that I have been looking for, for quite a while now, because I kind of had forgotten what it was about. But I am so happy I found it, especially right now.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Says Jeremiah 29:11. It is a great verse. It words I cannot explain it gives me peace.

Ok, so my next set of emotions: sorrow and anger. I had a sort of fight with my parents. I was not thinking straight and therefore even though I thought before I spoke it did not go over well. Also it did not help that both my parents misunderstood me and I misunderstood my parents. I hope it is all ok now though. I do not like fighting with my parents.

And lastly, happiness. I am a female, a reflection of certain character traits of God. God purposely formed me, cared for me, and made me the way I am, beautiful and perfect in His eyes. God has blessed me and loved me, helped me and held me. What more could I ask for?? What not to be happy about??

The Joys of Life

So I have kind of been ill this past week or so, so I have had a lot of time to just think and do nothing else. For busy people like me who do not get much time to do this, I would actually recommend getting sick just to have thinking time, because if you are truly busy then there is really no other way for thinking time to happen :P True story, lol :)

So basically my mind has been racing about two different things:

1) Joy (specifically related to God)

AND

2) Soccer

Ok, so after that second one anyone reading this is gonna think I’m half crazy to actually spend my valuable time giving a lot of thought into the subject of soccer. But then again, I guess it could be the same for the first thing, depending on who you are and what your personal beliefs are. So basically I am not bothered how you judge be based on what I spend my time thinking about :P :)

So I’ll start off with my first topic. Joy is a very interesting thing. I have observed that teenagers in particular are very specific in what they find joy in. For the majority of all teenagers they either find joy in many, many little and big things, or they find joy in barely anything. I have also observed that adults are not the same as teenagers when it comes to finding joy in things. Of course I am being very stereotypical here; however, in general, adults to not find joy in as many things as that joy filled teenager, but they also find more joy than the teenager that finds joy in practically nothing. I think this is because adults have lived a longer life and had more experiences than teenagers in general. And also, new thing are often the things that bring us the most joy. I may be sounding very confusing, but this is a confusing topic which is why I have spent so much time thinking about it in the first place.

So basically everyone has at least one joy in their life that they literally could not live without. After a lot of though, I have come to realize that God is the number one joy in my life, and I definitely could not live without Him. I mean I do have many other joys in my life, like my cat Mutlu, my books, soccer, running, other sports, music, writing, my amazing best friend :) and my pretty cool boyfriend :) and lots of other things. But honestly I would not have a single one of those things if it were not for God. I mean I may still have them, but either they would be different or for different reasons, and it would not be the same joy. And it makes me so happy that no matter what my situation is, I can find joy in God :)

So my second topic, soccer :D So basically I have been totally psyched about soccer recently. Soccer season is not until spring, but I am so anxious to play soccer, plus I get to play soccer on the AYSL league at the base in about a month, but sadly it might be my last season on the AYSL league cuz I’m getting to old xP But either way I totally cannot wait to play soccer!!! :D The only things I am really worried about are: who are goalie is going to be, and also I am more anxious about who is gonna take Nani’s place as striker, cuz she is awesome but it totally stinks that she’s not going to OIS this year :( We need someone with good aim and that is super fast……. I can’t think of anyone :P Oh well, it’ll all work out and I totally cannot wait to play GCM & IGA this year and hopefully win at least a few games!! :D

Olive Grove

So Olive Grove has actually been over for quite a long while now. I saved this post as a draft a while ago, and even after I finished it I kinda forgot to post it :P So here it is:

We came back on July 4th at 7am. So now I will explain about my OG experience with several pictures:

FIRST WEEK:

^^Serra is extremely happy that I kept her ‘Official Camper’s Photographer’ sign :D

^^Our group for the first week, the Wild Women :)

  ^^Bible Study at the beach

^^Naomi & Konnar – so sweet :) <3

^^Serra’s Drum Set (Carissa, Naomi, and Mason)

^^Tye-Dye

^^Molly is taller!!!!! hahahahaha xD

^^Are Jamie and Jamie cute, or what??

^^At the Eternal Flames

^^Dance Elective

^^Serra’s doing :P :)

^^Cassidy & Me

^^What happens when you give a bunch of highschoolers markers

^^I love my brother very much :) <3

^^Um, Tommy? Is there something you would like to share with us?? lol xD

^^Station during Bonkers

^^The Bonkers!!

  

^^We took pictures of each other taking pictures :)

^^I have noticed that people seem to go a little crazy on the last day of camp (*cough cough* *Josh* *cough*)

^^(Left to Right) Josh, Ashley, Troy, Carissa, Aaron, Naomi, Ben, and Alexis.

^^Those crazy High School Girls!! lol :)

SECOND WEEK:

^^Carissa & Suzan

^^Cassidy & Natalie (my awesome roomies :D) 

^^Leila the Dinosaur, scary, isn’t she?? scary awesome!

^^lol xD Leila and Serra

  ^^Ashley & Cassidy

^^Boat Trip!

 

^^(Left to Right) Leila, Caroline, Lizi, and Tori.

^^Carissa & Molly

^^Luke & Me :)

   ^^Cassidy, Luke, and Me :)

^^Luke falling off the boat….. lol :)

^^Luke and Me again :)

^^And again :)

^^Luke, Me, and Cassidy

^^My Rockin’ Roomies from the First Week :) <3

(Me, Carissa, Allison, Molly)

^^Freshman and Sophomores!! :)

Ownage :)

^^The People Getting Baptised (Left to Right) Ashley, Katie, Suzan, Talya, Anna-Kate, Paulus, and Joe.

^^The Amazing View

^^Roman the Gnarly Narwhal

^^The Drama Group :)

 

^^Leila’s Frog – George

^^Joe “the Nerd,” attempting to hide from Josh, Konnar and Noah

^^My Coolio Roomies Ready for the Par-tey :)

^^Molly in all her Cuteness  :)

^^A Bunch of highschoolers that stayed up all night on the last day of camp (I did it but I’m not in this picture)

And that concludes my two weeks of camp :) It was fun, have lot of memories, and have great friends :) My Favorite Quote of the Week:

“I wonder what altitude we are at…."

-Cassidy Stecklein

(Note: This was stated when we were on the boat trip, on the boat.)