CANADA!!!!!

Hi everybody!!!

Where do I even start? This trip was so amazing, so fun, so spectacular and awesome, that I don't even know how to begin.

Okay *deep breath*. I guess I'll start at the beginning.

On Sunday, at eight thirty, we left Open Door (my church) in two vehicles, one for the girls, one for the guys (Five guys: Bonoville [his real name is Daniel, but everyone calls him Bonoville], Luke, Landen, Evan, and my bro, Josh). There were five girls: Ruthie, Jenna, Tarra, Becca, and me. The car ride there was amazing, but very long. Nine hours. I was laughing practically the whole time. Ruthie and I were also singing Love Remains The Same, I'm Yours (LOVE THAT SONG!!!), Umbrella, How To Save A Life, Hot And Cold, and the National Anthem at the top of our lungs until Tarra snapped at us to shut up :D. We took pictures, laughed over stupid things, talked, giggled, sung, danced, ate snacks, and Ruthie slept a little bit.

When we got to Canada (crossing the border with no issues), we drove straight to the church in which YouthWorks was hosted. The church was big, musty, and old, but it was awesome to stay in. The bathrooms were like twenty miles away from the bedrooms, but *shrugs* that's okay.

Ruthie, Jenna and I unpacked, and then went down and ate dinner.

After dinner, there's always something called Club, in which everyone gathers together in the Club Room and sang songs and played games and listened to a talk about God. The theme for this summer was being free from everything that binds us down: wealth, fame, sin, self-image, etc.

After that every night, there's Church Group Time, in which every church (there were three churches, one from Arkansas, one from Wisconsin, and the other one was us :D) gathered together and talked about the day. Both groups had like sixteen-eighteen year olds in it, so we were the youngest.

That first night, though, we got assigned our crews. My work crew was Ruthie, Landen, Jack (our AWESOME Open Door leader), and these three amazing Arkansas people, Josh, Hayley and Katelyn. I loved my work crew; everyone got along so well, and I made such great friends with all of them...and they were just awesome. Every day, we got to go to this thrift store called C.A.M., and then... *drum-roll* a nursing home!! I just loved it. I love elderly people-that's just the truth of it.


The next morning, we woke up at seven, and then hurried down to breakfast. After breakfast, we packed bag lunches, and then put them in our crew coolers, and then went to Devotions. I loved Devotions. I LOVE just studying the Bible, and my faith, and striving to be more like Jesus. To add onto the awesomeness, they gave us devotion books!!!!! I loved them.

The first morning, my crew (Crew 6) worked around the church. We went to this huge pile of un-wanted trash and threw it into dumpsters. Smashing glass was highly satisfying :D. I found this awesome coin set in the trash, Canadian coins. It had like eight coins in it, and a few of them weren't even circulated anymore!! The case itself was worth thirty bucks, and the pastor of the church didn't even try to guess the coins, but I would guess like maybe thirty bucks too. The pastor emailed the guy who owned it (the pastor knew for certain he didn't mean to throw that away :D) and the guy said that I could keep it so yeah *applaud* all the souvenirs I need. ^_^ We also hauled old furniture out and thwacked it to pieces with sledge hammers. Ruthie, Hayley and I just picked up chairs and smashed them down onto the pavement, demolishing them that way. :D It was so much fun. Then we smoothed ruts in the parking lot and then ate lunch. After that we went to the nursing home.

I have to say that I absolutely LOVED the nursing home. It was definitely the funnest part of my day. We had a garden party inside one day (it was raining and we couldn't have it outside) and a band came in and played awesome country music. There was this old ninety-three year old lady named Molly, and she was unbelievable. She got up in front of everybody and began dancing her heart out. I was walking past, oblivious, and she grabbed my hand and whirled me around and the next second I was dancing. It was so much fun. Then Landen came and joined me and Molly, and then Ruthie, and then Josh came, and then Jack, and there was this huge circle of dancing people...it was awesome. Then everyone kind of drifts away, until its only me again, and then Molly sits me down in a chair (not out of breath at all) and then pats my cheek, saying, "You're tired, you take a rest and catch your breath." Like I was the old person!! She's SO sweet!! :D

And then my other favorite, Betty, gave me her stuffed cat and so I was dancing in a circle with Molly and this stuffed cat that Betty was convinced was real and her baby. It was so much fun. I miss them all ready... *sniff*

After our afternoon services was over, we would go to a public pool and take showers, then come back to the church and have free hour. Jenna, Ruthie and I would hang out in the game room with everybody else and play violent games of fuse ball and ping pong. *laughs* Jenna and I both have a habit of jumping up and down in agitation during fuse ball :D

Then we would eat dinner, which was always delicious, then go off to evening activities, like five-pin bowling, going to Fort Williams, doing American Idol, and hanging out. American Idol was SO much fun. It wasn't singing, it was doing skits, so our work crew had to get together and make up a skit. They gave us a whole bunch of props, and we had to use all of them, except none of them could actually be used for what they were supposed to be used for. Like a suitcase couldn't be a suitcase. It had to be like a lollipop or something else. And the skit had to be based on what a regular day at YouthWorks would be like if the four main staff people were super heroes. Ours tied for first place with this other crew, and there was a one-liner competition where we were supposed to say things which would not be good to say at YouthWorks. The other crew totally, completely whipped us. Like completely. :D

Then there was Club, where we sang songs, played games, and listened to a talk about God and being free.

The last night, there was a foot-washing ceremony in the place of Club. The main staff leaders for YouthWorks washed the feet of Jack, Natalie, Derrick, and Steve, our Open Door leaders.
Then Natalie would wash the five girls feet, and the other three guy leaders would wash the guys feet. The churches would split off into different rooms, and sit in semi-darkness. Jack prayed for us first, and Jenna, Ruthie, and I started crying and crying during it. We completely broke down. Then we got ourselves together in about twenty minutes, but then it was foot-washing time. Natalie washed my feet and prayed for me, and of course I started crying hard again. Jenna, Ruthie, Becca, Tarra and I were all sobbing. By the end, the girls were all sitting in a circle, praying and crying on each other's shoulders.

That night was the scariest and longest emotional rollarcoaster I've ever been on. One moment I was laughing insanely, the other I was crying, next I was holding Jenna and weeping with her, then I was whispering with Ruthie, then laughing again...it felt so good though just to cry, you know?

The next morning, we woke up early, did chores, packed breakfast, and then left. It was so hard having to say goodbye to all the amazing friends I had made from Arkansas and Wisconsin. Even though they were three or four years older then me, I grew so close to them. Same with the people at the nursing home. It was SO hard to leave.

The car ride home was awesome. I mean AWESOME!!! The guys' car and the girls' car were having dance-offs. So we were stuck in incredibly sticky traffic, like coming to a stand-still, and Jack (driver of the guys' van) was dancing in his seat, but then Derrick (the driver of our van) actually opened his doors, got out on the road, and begin dancing his heart out, whooping and singing loudly. It was SO awesome. The girls had a walky-talky, and the guys had a walky-talky and we were singing rap songs to each other the whole way home. It was so much fun. :D

Canada was incredible. I can't begin to describe the wonderful experience it was for me. God blessed me so much through that trip, and I'm so grateful that I went.

Thanks, everyone, so much for praying. Your prayers helped a lot.

Love you all,

*Waves goodbye*

Goodbye, everybody!!! I'm leaving in a few minutes for church, and the mission trip. I'm SO excited. Prayers for safety would be highly appreciated!
I can't wait for the 7-8 hour drive!! *laughs* My great friend, Jenna, and my friend, Ruthie, are going, so yeah the drive is going to be AWESOME!!!!
Anyway, thanks you guys!

The Journey of Beliefs, FM Static

FM Static

The Voyage Of Beliefs
(Featuring Tricia Brock)

I have 2 brothers and a sister, and a mother,

And a father who taught us that we should

All love one another,

We go to church on Sunday,

In a little green hyundai,

Have some grape juice and crackers,

Then we start again on Monday

[Bridge:]

And it's all fine, and it's all well,

I really want to find what I believe for myself,

'Cause when you're gone,

And I'm still here,

I won't have you to tell me that I should be there

[Refrain:]

I'm tired of making excuses(oh oh oh),

Need to decide for myself...

[Chorus:]

What if I stumble? What if I fall? When I'm on my way to You,

What if I need You? Who do I call?

How do I know I'll get through?

Because I don't wanna ride the fence anymore.

I wanna stand up, and shout it,

And let it be known

[Verse Two:]

I have 2 fathers, and a sister and a brother,

And a mother who taught us that we should

All do unto others,

My homeroom teacher, always talks about her preacher

And she says she talks to God,

But I don't know if I believe her

[Bridge:]

And it's all fine, and it's all well,

I really want to find what I believe for myself,

'Cause when you're gone,

And I'm still here,

I won't have you to tell me that I should be there

[Refrain:]

I'm tired of making excuses(oh oh oh),

Need to decide for myself...

[Chorus:]

What if I stumble? What if I fall?

When I'm on my way to You,

What if I need You? Who do I call?

How do I know I'll get through?

Because I don't wanna ride the fence anymore.

I wanna stand up, and shout it,

And let it be known

[Verse Three:]

And you can tell me,

That I can't make a difference 'cause I'm just one,

But one is all it takes to start it

And you can tell me, That I can't change the world,

Because I'm too young,

But I won't stand here and be your target

And you can push me,

And try to knock me down, but I won't listen,

'Cause I've got nothing left to lose and,

You can hate me, for everything I'm not,

But it won't change this,

'Cause now that I'm here, I'm not moving

[Refrain:]

I'm tired of making excuses(oh oh oh),

Need to decide for myself...

[Chorus:]

What if I stumble? What if I fall?

When I'm on my way to You,

What if I need You? Who do I call?

How do I know I'll get through?

Because I don't wanna ride the fence anymore.

I wanna stand up, and shout it,

And let it be known.

*applause*

I just finished my brother Josh's header!!!!!!! I'm really proud of myself, 'cause it's my very first header that I've made (Hannah from Aspire made mine :D) *laughs* well anyway, go over there and check it out!!!
Josh and I went down to the park near my house, on our bikes, where there is a chain-link fence; I took some photos of him behind the chain-link fence (it doesn't really make sense unless you see the header) and then used the best one for the header.
I worked about an hour on it...so go over there and view the fruit of my labors! :D

Blends...

Alright so I just wanted to share some blends I did recently using Gimp...

This was an old one of Arwen that I had done previously, but I had removed the words "Arwen Undomiel" and added brushes instead.



And this is one I made of my younger sister and brother...Abby and Peter.



And this is another old one of Arwen that I had done, but I added words and brushes... (the words say: "There was also life. You saw the child; you saw my son!")

And one of Sam that I kinda like...

And one of Grima Wormtongue...I have no clue why I made this one (all I did was add text and adjust the hues of the background picture), I guess I was bored. :D



And one of Galadriel (I know, I know, I do a lot of LoTR blends)...



And another picture in which I just added the Softglow effect twice, and wrote text words.



And I kind of like this one of Legolas that I did...



And that's it ^_^

A Cool Quote...

"Adventures are funny things. They may creep out of holes, appear down a seldom trodden path, fall out of a tree, or even arrive in an envelope,
but they always start the same way. Adventures always begin with the unexpected." -Wayne Thomas Batson

I like that quote ^_^ One of my favorite adventure stories of all time began by one old creature giving his adopted nephew a ring in an envelope... :D

A Random Joke...

There were three groups of people arguing over who was going to go to Mars first: the Russians, the Americans, and the blondes. The Russians argued, "We get to go to Mars first because we were the first ones in space!" The Americans retorted, "No, we get to go to Mars first because we were the first ones on the moon!" The blondes spoke up, "Well guess what we don't even want to go to Mars, we are going to the sun." There was a shocked pause, and then the Russians and Americans burst out laughing. The blondes yelled, flushed, "We're not stupid, we're going at night-time!" ^_^

Tag From Jake and Abby

Well I got tagged by Jake and Abby...

What time is it? 2:44 PM
What was the last, outdoor activity you did? a mile jog this morning
Do you have an e-mail address? Yeah
How many followers do you have? 52
How long have you been on the computer today? 20 minutes
Who was the last person you talked on the phone with? A woman named Natalie from my church reminding me about the mission trip and stuff about that.
Are you happy right now? yes *grins*
Do you want to get a horse someday? Yeah, totally!
How many pets do you have? One guinea pig, but only if you don't count my siblings *mischievous grin* jk :D
Do you have a playlist? No
Are you having a fun summer? Uh yeah are you kidding me :D
What books are you reading now? I'm reading The Thief Lord, The Giver (reading it to my younger sister), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
What is the most advanced book you've read? Search me *shrugs*
Do you like your blog? Yeah :D
How many tags have you gotten? No clue, sorry
What is the most recent award you've gotten? The C for Contagious Blog Award
Who gave you your first tag? Hannah, I think...not sure
Who gave you this tag? Jake and Abby
Do you have a three column template? Yep
What are you doing tomorrow? Pretty much nothing except packing for the mission trip
How long have you been on blogger? I have no clue
How many times have you changed your profile pic? I just changed it so yeah only once
What is the most comments you've gotten on a post (not including yourself)? I'm sorry, but I don't know :D
Are you having fun on this tag? You could say that.
What is the one thing you want right now? Hm, well, primarily, I really want a sleepover with Hannah (*glare at her* YOUR turn to plan it...oh yeah...I guess its my turn...*guilty look*), and my mom and I are searching for matching purity rings so I want one of those too but that's pretty much it. Oh, and more followers definitely wouldn't hurt :D
Is your profile name your real name? Yes
What is your favorite animals? Hm well my favorite is horses, but my second favorite is guinea pigs.
What is your favorite movie (chose only one)? Ah...aw man that's pretty much impossible, but if I had to choose one it'd be Lord of the Rings. On second thought...that's three movies. Oh well *shrugs* :D
Have you seen Star Treck? Nope
What are you favorite fictional characters? Arwen/Aragorn/Sam from LoTR, Eragon/Arya from the Inheritance Cycle, Jonas/Kira/Matty from the Giver series, Lucy/Reepicheep/Caspian from Chronicles of Narnia, Dustfinger from the Ink trilogy (that's what they're called, right?), and so many more :D
Are you hungry? No
Should you get off the computer right now? Probably ^_^
And I tag anyone who wants to do it.

The Bathtub Test

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director, "How do you determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalized?" "Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub." "Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup." "No," said the Director, "a normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?"

I love that ^_^

Como Zoo...or not

We didn't end up going to Como Zoo because Peter threw up last night, and we didn't want to spread it to anyone else. Oh well... :D
I played eighteen holes in the PGA Junior Championship this morning; I placed third, but I couldn't win anything because I wasn't signed up for the PGA thing. The director of the golf course just let me play because Vintage was my home course, and he knew my parents really well.
So yeah...that was exhausting but fun. I shot a 79 which is okay. The highlight of it was when I made a 25-foot putt :D
Can't WAIT for the mission trip that I'm going on next week...

The Giver Review (Warning: Spoilers)

I'm going to attempt to write a review on The Giver, by Lois Lowry. Elizabeth J. asked me to write one, so...yeah. This is my first review, so it's not going to turn out that great.

Alright, so first I'm going to copy and paste the plot written by Wikipedia.

The book's setting seems to be a peaceful, utopian community, where all possible steps are taken to eliminate pain or confusion. The people are almost always compliant; family units share their dreams and feelings on a daily basis to diffuse emotional buildup.
This society remains harmonious by assigning jobs to each individual according to a laborious evaluation of their skill, by matching up husbands and wives based on personality to balance out each other, and only allowing two children, one male and one female, per family unit. There is also a subtle theme of technology having only a minimal role in society; throughout the book, it is taken for granted that Jonas's community is without such technologies as television, or radio, although computers are mentioned at one point and there is a two-way microphone/speaker system used for announcements and surveillance. Transportation is mostly limited to bicycles; however, cars and airplanes exist in small numbers for the main use of transporting food, possibly from other communities.
Lowry describes creating the pain-free world of Jonas' Community in her Newbery Award speech:
I tried to make Jonas's world seem familiar, comfortable, and safe, and I tried to seduce the reader. I seduced myself along the way. It did feel good, that world. I got rid of all the things I fear and dislike; all the violence, poverty, prejudice and injustice, and I even threw in good manners as a way of life because I liked the idea of it. One child has pointed out, in a letter, that the people in Jonas's world didn't even have to do dishes. It was very, very tempting to leave it at that.[2]
As time progresses in the novel, however, it becomes clear that the society has lost contact with the ideas of family and love, at least in the "more complete" sense at which Lowry hints. Children are born to designated "Birthmothers" and then family units can apply for children. If the family unit applies for the maximum allowed number of two, it will always be one boy and one girl. This is to keep the genders even. After family units have served the purpose of raising the children in a stable environment, they cease to exist, the parents going to a communal housing facility for childless adults, and the children becoming involved in their work and starting monogenerational families of their own, forgetting their foster parents who are growing old. The community maintains this process using pills which suppress emotions, mainly romantic love, which they refer to as "Stirrings".
All the land near the Community and around the other, similar communities clustered about the nearby river has been flattened to aid agriculture and transportation. A vaguely described system of weather control is used so that the weather remains constant. It is implied that genetic engineering has been used extensively to manipulate human beings so that they physically conform with Sameness.
The Community is run by a Council of Elders that assigns each 12-year-old the job he or she will perform for the rest of his or her life. People are bound by an extensive set of rules touching every aspect of life, which if violated would require a simple but somewhat ceremonious apology. In some cases, violating the rules is "winked at": older siblings invariably teach their younger brothers and sisters how to ride a bicycle before the children are officially permitted to learn the skill. If a member of the community has committed serious infractions three times before, he or she may be punished by "release". "Release" is a procedure which is hinted at by the characters throughout the book. Originally, it is thought of as a process where the "released" is sent to live outside of the community, but still in a good place. Eventually, it is revealed to be a system of euthanasia through lethal injection, employed not only as punishment, but also to ensure a monotony of means by which death occurs. {When the elderly of the community reach a certain age, they, too, are given a lethal injection, and not permitted to die in the natural way. -Bekah}
The book is told from a third-person limited point of view. The protagonist, Jonas, is followed as he awaits the Ceremony of Twelve. Jonas lives in a standard family unit with his mother (a judge) and father (a "Nurturer"). He is selected to be "Receiver of Memory", because of his unusual "Capacity to See-Beyond", which is an ability to do something unusual, such as see color, which the other people cannot. The memories are images from the world as it existed before the time called Sameness, "back and back and back", things that no one else in Jonas's world remembers.
Through the Giver, who becomes his teacher and surrogate grandfather, Jonas telepathically receives memories of things eliminated from his world: violence, sadness, and loss, as well as true love, beauty, joy, adventure, animals, and family. Having knowledge of these complex and powerful concepts alienates Jonas from his friends and family, as well as making him more cynical towards his previously sheltered life, as he often discusses with the Giver. When he experiences "Stirrings", he is told to take pills to suppress his emotions; he does it reluctantly but realizes that he necessarily enjoys them, namely because he has developed feelings for his friend Fiona. Eventually, these revelations prompt Jonas to seek to change the community and return emotion and meaning to the world. He and the Giver plan on doing this by having Jonas leave the community, which would cause all of the memories he was given to be released to the rest of the people, allowing them to feel the powerful emotions that Jonas and the Giver feel. Eventually, Jonas asks the Giver if he ever thinks about his own release. This conversation leads to watching the release of the smaller of a set of twin boys born that morning. Jonas watches in shock and horror as his father talks sweetly to the baby before giving the newborn a lethal injection, and then dumping the body down a garbage chute.
During the course of the novel, Jonas's family temporarily houses a baby named Gabriel, because he is unable to sleep throughout the night and disturbs the other babies in the "Nurturing Center". Jonas learns that unlike the other people in his community, "Gabe" can receive memories from Jonas, which he uses to help calm the baby. Because Gabriel still cannot sleep through the night without crying after the extra year he was given to learn how to sleep soundly, he is now destined to be released. Desperate, Jonas flees the community with Gabe. Also, he was given the instructions from the Giver to flee, and release all the memories that he had stored to the rest of the community. At first, the escape seems successful, with all of the search planes finally giving up their search for Jonas. Soon, however, food runs out and they grow weak. Cold and hungry, Jonas and Gabe begin to lose hope, but then remembering the memory of sunshine Jonas was given, he uses it and regains strength. Jonas begins to lose hope the most, as he no longer cares about himself, but for Gabe's safety; it is here that he feels happy as he remembers his parents and sister, his friends and The Giver. Jonas and Gabriel cross a snow-covered hill in the dark and find a sled on top, which Jonas remembers from the first memory he ever received. He and Gabriel board the sled and go down the hill where they hear music coming from some houses.
The ending is ambiguous, with Jonas depicted as experiencing symptoms of hypothermia. This leaves his and Gabriel's future unresolved. However, their survival is made apparent in Messenger, a sequel novel written much later.

A lengthy plot-overview and review by Wikipedia. :D

Alright, so yes, this community might suggest communism. Communism is "a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general." A utopia, basically. This community discourages individuality, originality, and emotion. There is no color, and throughout your whole life there in the community, you have no decisions to make. Your parents are assigned to you, your clothes are all the same so you do not have to choose every morning, your job is assigned, complete and meek obedience is expected at ALL times. That is just creepy to think about. There is so much freedom here where I live, America, that this community is just so alein to me. So that could be...I don't know, enough for you to put the book down. Maybe.

What I really love about The Giver is just Jonas himself. Jonas is one of the most ideal heroes that I've ever read about. He sacrifices his comfort and risks his life so that his people will have a chance to see these memories that he has been given, and know what they are missing. And his perseverence and toughness is just remarkable. I know that I wouldn't have been able to do what he did when he knew how free and wonderful creation could be, but had to be stuck in this horrible world instead. I would have been driven crazy.

This book is really awesome; I love it. It is one of my favorite books now. I highly recommend reading it.

Sorry, this was a lousy book review...hope it helped :D

100th Post!!

*throw confetti in the air and dance around*
My one hundredth post has arrived!! *applaud* :D
I'm going to attempt to write down 100 things about me...

1. I'm weird.
2. I almost always have a ponytail (or more) around my wrist.
3. I love nail polish.
4. My birthday is June 27th.
5. I'm 12.
6. My friend says my finger's look like Puddleglum's.
7. I like swimming.
8. I love sitting on the deck in the sun and reading. More often than not I fall asleep.
9. I LOVE Lois Lowry's books.
10. I get depressed when I finish a book I really loved.
11. After finishing Beyond the Summerland by L. B. Grahame, I was so angry that Joreiam died that I hurled the book across the room. I kind of overreacted, especially since it wasn't my book. It was my brother's. :D
12. I love this number.
13. I have an obsession with writing my name. :D
14. I love calligraphy.
15. I bite my nails.
16. I love spaghetti.
17. I rewrite awkward paragraphs in books to make them sound better.
18. I also change plots, adjust characters, and generally tinker with the story until I have it the way I would have wrote it.
19. With some books, like the Door Within trilogy and the Giver series, I deeply wish I thought of the plot ideas before the authors' did.
20. I love Tenth Avenue North.
21. I have my own radio. :D
22. I have braces.
23. I'm getting them off hopefully before Christmas.
24. I love chocolate.
25. I am a bad cook.
26. I love reading.
27. And writing (duh).
28. I'm not a fantastic singer or actress.
29. I can be boring.
30. I have two definite sides to me: one is serious and thoughtful and polite, the other is just plain weird and insane.
31. I have amazing friends.
32. I love colorful clothes, but some colors, like orange, I refuse to wear.
33. I hate shopping.
34. The only person I talk regularly on the phone with is Hannah.
35. I have a geinea pig. (*laughs* you all would know that by now woudn't you)
36. I have an awesome family.
37. I am so excited for when I can drive.
38. I have a bank account.
39. I love ice cream.
40. I used to hate hot dogs.
41. I love awards.
42. I am addicted to Gimp.
43. I am a geek.
44. I am not a fantastic artist.
45. I'm blonde.
46. I have hazel/grey eyes.
47. I love health cereals.
48. I hate clowns.
49. I love laughing.
50. I am not particularly fond of math.
51. I am a fast typer.
52. I could talk for hours.
53. I love going on a walk.
54. I'm clumsy.
55. I embarrass myself a lot, and then am unable to stop tormenting myself about it afterwards.
56. I'm sensitive, and get offended pretty easily.
57. I tend to hide my feelings.
58. I have cried over so many movies and countless books.
59. I have finished four diaries, and have almost filled my fifth one.
60. I daydream a lot.
61. When daydreaming, I shut everything else out. Someone could be talking to me, and I won't hear them. :D
62. I like adding and multiply small numbers.
63. I HATE long division.
64. Calculators have saved my life.
65. When I get lost in like a store or something, I start getting paranoid.
66. When I get angry, boy, do I get angry.
67. I love dancing in the rain.
68. I adore blogging.
69. Dafont.com and Obsidian Dawn and (of course) Blogger are three of my favorite websites.
70. I admire Arwen, but not Liv Tyler.
71. I feel bad for celebrities.
72. I love talking on the phone.
73. I have small ears.
74. My feet are big; I wear size eight.
75. I don't really like candy, only chocolate.
76. My favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla.
77. I detest magazines like People.
78. I don't like science.
79. I play the violin and piano.
80. My favorite numbers are 3, 7, 8 (I love the shape of 8), 9, and 12. Oh, and 33.
81. Air 1 is my favorite radio station.
82. I love Lord of the Rings.
83. I unfortunately tend to say a white lie rather then hurt people's feelings by telling the truth.
84. I hate hurting people's feelings.
85. I don't like being called a nerd, but am totally fine with being called a geek.
86. I love the words phlegm, obliterator, obliterate, and thwack. Among many others.
87. I like golfing.
88. I have a lot of imagination.
89. I like being weird.
90. People say I'm funny, but in truth I don't think I am.
91. I have a sense of humor, though.
92. I'm emotional.
93. I love deeply and hate bitterly.
94. Some people bore me incredibly easily, but other people I could spend my whole life with and never be bored.
95. I've went to mass once, but am not a Catholic.
96. I wish Protestants made the Sign of the Cross.
97. I have a lot of respect for elderly people.
98. I love the Inheritance Cycle.
99. I am totally a font freak.
100. My front right tooth is very slightly chipped (weird one to finish it off :D).

I've been reading...

...Gathering Blue, and I just finished it. It's by Lois Lowry, and it is the most amazing book in the world. It is one of the sequels to The Giver, which is also amazing. And I'm half-way through Messenger. Lois Lowry's books are always so...chilling. They're amazing. I love them.

My family just got...

...a guinea pig!!! His name is Musket and he is really old, in face he is five years old (really aged for a guinea pig); he is really tame, because he spent most of his life in a first-grade classroom getting handled by excited little kids.

My awesome neighbors (the ones who took us to the cabin) gave him to us because they already had one, and two guinea pigs, they thought, were too much. So we got him for free. Isn't that awesome??

Here are some photos...

This is Musket in his cage (which we also got for free!):



One of my sister's friends, Nadine, holding Musket...



And a close-up of Musket...

Doesn't he look like a panda? :D He's so adorable.

Nothing really new has happened besides that...

I have a golf tournament at my home course tomorrow morning, and I'm going with my church to this zoo...And I'm also going on a five-day mission trip to Canada with my church and one of my best budzies Jenna is coming too so that's going to be a BLAST!! I'm so excited.

Oh, and last Tuesday (or somewhere around there) I went to the beach with Hannah (Jake, Alex, and their family came too; my brother, Josh is friends with them, and my mom is good friends with their mom) and Chloe, her sister, who is my sister's friend. It was so much fun. Hannah and I had treading water competitions (I cheated... :D; I have to admit it, I am lousy at treading water), swimming races, and violent splashing wars. So yeah. It was really fun. :D It was hilarious, the last half-hour, we were playing catch with this one random guy we didn't even talk to. He just threw the ball, and overshot his friend, and it landed near us, and I got it and threw it back to him, and then a game of catch between him, Hannah, Chloe, Abby and I ensued. He kept throwing it way out by the bouys, and so we finally got tired of fetching it, and he threw it out almost past the swimming boundaries, and we just walked away and forced him to get it *laughs*.

Oh, and I have FIFTY followers now!!!! *applaud* :D

Cabin!!

I just got back from an awesome weekend spent with friends.

At the last second (I didn't know about it until Friday) we decided to accept our family-friends' invitation to hang out with them at their cabin for Saturday-Sunday, and drove up Saturday morning. It was a hour-and-a-half drive to their cabin, and it wasn't that long compared to driving to camp (six hours). The whole weekend was spent fishing, tubing, making s'mores, swimming, water skiing, playing with the dog, sleeping in a tent, and just generally having a blast.

Kelly and Roger are the Mom and Dad, and they have three kids: Ryan, who is like 12, just three or four months older than me, Katie, who is a few months younger than me, and Erin, who is like seven.

Katie and I were playing Uno and B.S. (the most addicting game in the world) the whole entire weekend. We would just sit sipping root beer while playing cards practically the whole time. We also had spitting contests where we would spit the black seeds of our watermelon and have contests to see who could spit the furthest...and Katie always won :D

Tubing was SO much fun. I LOVE tubing :D

Saturday night I was standing on the dock in my swimming suit with my towel wrapped around me, watching Roger water skii. Katie, Joshua, Peter (my two brothers), and Ryan were also watching Roger. Josh walks over to me and says, "Can I have your towel for a second?" and I was like, "uh...okay..." and he takes it and drops it on the dock. I began, "What-?" but Josh grabs me and tosses me off the dock, and...yeah. Threw me into the water. Everyone was laughing... :D

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Yeah, and of course I got sunburnt, but it was a lot of fun.

YES!!!!!

I finally figured out how to download custom brushes on Gimp! Ah!!!
After like a week of browsing the internet looking for tutorials I finally stumbled upon this one and I FINALLY got it!!!
Off to a downloading spree (lol... :D),

Camping

We went camping with two of our family-friends last night, in our backyard. It was awesome.

We had s'mores and root-beer floats, told stories, sang songs, played soccer at midnight in the dark, and...yeah, just had a total blast.

In the morning we had waffles and played Mafia over and over again. And listened to music and threw our flip-flops all over the place and trying to trick each other out of the sun-tanning chairs. :D

My shoulders are completely burnt; yesterday I was reading This Present Darkness on my deck, and I fell asleep, and I was wearing this tank-top, and when I woke up, my neck and shoulders were completely burnt. And my arms and legs were tan, on the verge of being burnt, and my face was a lot tanner then it normally is. *smack head against palm* Now I have this tank-top tan...there are two strips of white and a scoop neck on my shoulders/neck and then brown. It looks like I'm wearing a white tank-top, like when I'm in a swimming suit and stuff. *groan*

Anway, I had a lemonade stand with my neighbor and younger sister Abby (click HERE to go to her blog) in which we sold lemonade (duh), popcorn and candy. We made *count fingers* sixteen bucks, which was pretty good. :D it was fun.

I have to go eat,

Thanks for reading,

Quiz Results...

I was taking a few quizzes and I'm like Riley from National Treasure; Susan, Aslan, and Peter from Narnia; I'd be good in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy movie (I know, dumb quiz, I just felt like taking it :D); I'm like Hermoine in Harry Potter; I'm like Arya from Eragon; Mary-Ann from Gilligan's Island; and I'm more like Sam than Frodo.

Camp!

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!! *applauds* :D
Camp was utterly AMAZING!

Side Note: I just want to say a HUGE thank-you to everybody who prayed for me. Your prayers helped a lot, and you guys are awesome! :D

Here is my cabin picture... (I took a picture of a picture, so its not that great)




From left to right, starting at the top: Sarah, me (I'm the tall one in the purple Aeropostale shirt), Megan, Morgan, Christie (who was the most amazing counsellor ever), then Sarah the camper (the one in the glasses and the dark navy shirt), then Luz, and then Lizzy.

This my two great friends, Lizzy and Megan. Megan, on the right, is a great friend of mine that I have been friends with ever since I was born (we grew up like next door to each other...our dads were best friends all their life), and Lizzy is my favorite out of the whole cabin, excluding Megan.



This is Sarah, an insane, crazy girl who was fun to be around...



And this is Luz (pronounced Loose) who is from Bolivia, speaks Spanish fluently (in fact it was her first language), and has an ADORABLE accent. Luz is the sweetest girl on planet Earth.




And this is Christie. Christie was like a second mom to me, no joke. She is amazing. I hated leaving her behind. We both were tearing up when we said good-bye this morning.





And this is her and Sarah, the counsellor...



And this is Morgan. Morgan wasn't my favorite girl in the world.



Camp was amazing. So, at five thirty every morning, Christie would wake Megan, Luz, Sarah, Lizzy, and I up and we would go run a mile. Christie and I would run the whole thing without stopping, and sometimes Megan would too, but the rest had to walk most of the time with the other counsellor Sarah. And after that, we would go straight to the lake and jump into the freezing cold water and swim for half a mile (or maybe it was a mile...I don't know). Then we would head back to the BIF (Bathroom In Forest) to take a shower and get dressed. After that, we would clean our cabins until 7:50 for Cabin Inspection. Then we would go to ZACHO, which is where we sung amazing songs before breakfast.

Then we would go to breakfast. The food at HoneyRock was so amazing. I loved it. After that, we would go to Cabin Impact, and then Camper Worship, and then our First Activity. The day before, we would choose the activites we wanted to do the next day. There were Crafts, Climbing, Archery, Riflery, Horsemanship, Water Skiing, Swimming, Canoing, Kayaking, and Biking. Then we would go to lunch, then have Rest Hour, which is where everyone would have to sleep for an hour. Then we went to Second Activity, and then had OPA (Optional Play Activity). We could go to the BeeHive (which was a store in which you could buy snacks and stuff like that) or just hang out. Then we had dinner, and then could do whatever we wanted.

The last few days we had a two-night, three-day camping trip, in which our cabin went out into the wilderness and camped. My cabin had to canoe for four hours (two of them were spent jerking canoes through extremely shallow water. Megan and I were in one canoe, and we kept getting left behind by the other canoes...it wasnt that fun at all :D), and then set up the tents, build a fire, and eat dinner. The next morning, we woke up at six o'clock (it was light out, and the counsellors had taken away our watches for the trip, so we thought it was eight) and jumped into Christie and Sarah's tent and demanded breakfast (it was hilarious, Christie laughs and says to Sarah, "I feel like I have six little children!" :D). We had chocolate chip pancakes, and then Christie and Sarah went back to bed for four hours, while Megan, Lizzy and I explored (the rest of the girls played Truth or Dare). We explored for FOUR hours. I have so many cuts on my legs, even my thighs.

Lizzy, Megan and I decided to fabricate some fibs, so we ran back to camp screaming and yelling, claiming we saw a bear. Lizzy was like, "I'm so scared!" and Megan was like, "I peed my pants!!" and I was like "Ah! It got me on the leg!" and I showed Christie this teeny tiny little nick that I had gotten earlier that was still bleeding. Of course no one believed us. So then we went into the woods again and then ran back screaming and yelling about an hour later, saying that we saw a bear fighting a deer. We chased off the bear by yelling, and then the deer gave us his horn as a token of his utmost gratefulness. We even said he bowed. We showed them a stick that looked very slightly similar to a deer's antler as proof. They laughed at us really hard, and didn't believe us, so that didn't work, but it was fun :D

So yeah, then we took down our tents and canoed for about two hours, and then dropped off our canoes at Black Bear, which is this meeting site. I jumped into the lake in my clothes (I forgot my swimming suit) and everyone was swimming. I had to sun-bathe for three hours after that on the dock to dry off. My arms, face, and legs are pretty tan from that. Then we hiked for half-an-hour to our other camp site. We set up tents and had dinner. Then CJ (our cabin-uncle who is utterly awesome) walked four miles to get us s'mores. He's so great. Then we went to bed and the next morning, packed up and hiked for an hour and a half back to camp.

I got my HoneyRock T-shirt signed by 27 people. They were my friends, cabinmates, counsellors, and unit-leaders. Here is a picture of the back of my shirt...





Awesome, huh?

The last day was Family Day, and my family came to hang out with me, which was really awesome. And the night before, we had Banquet, which is where we all got together and celebrated the end of camp.


Well, thanks for reading; I'm SO glad I'm back, even though camp was so utterly fun (and tiring).

Tomorrow I'm camping in my backyard with two families from my small group, so that's going to be fun.

Thanks again everybody who prayed for me,