147 Days

After 147 days of not seeing my best friend, I get to see her tonight!!! Alecia has been studying abroad in Spain since January. Her plane arrives tonight and I will be going with her family to meet her at the airport! I can't wait to have her back home!!!









Helping out at VBS last summer










Taking a break from working in my basement last July









On the train heading to Chicago

Memorial Day

Yesterday at church, Pastor Steve asked anyone who knew someone who had served or is currently serving in the Armed Forces to raise their hand. Though I couldn't see everybody, I would dare say that almost every hand in the congregation was raised. I have multiple friends that are in different branches of the military. Today is a day set aside to remember those who gave their lives for our freedom and those who are currently serving our country. Take a minute to say a prayer for them and their families, or tell them yourself how grateful you are for their service.

Movies

Due to a lack of things to write about, I decided to do this meme that I found on Jennifer's blog.

1. One movie that made you laugh: Alvin and the Chipmunks

2. One movie that made you cry: See Spot Run

3. One movie you loved when you were a child: The Wizard of Oz

4. One movie you’ve seen more than once: Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants

5. One movie you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it: Hmmm...I can't think of one!!

6. One movie you hated:Larry the Cable Guy: Apocalypto

7. One movie that scared you: Final Destination Series

8. One movie that bored you: Lord of the Rings

9. One movie that made you happy: National Treasure

10. One movie that made you miserable: Passion of the Christ

11. One movie you weren’t brave enough to see: Saw

12. One movie character you’ve fallen in love with: Lena Kaligaris

13. The last movie you saw: Ratatouille

14. The next movie you hope to see: Made of Honor

Now tag five people: Anyone that wants to join in…feel free.

Continuation...

Here's 101-200 more things about me :)

101. I love college
102. In January I met Mike
103. He asked me out 2 months later (almost to the day)
104. We’ve been dating for just over 2 months...and it's great! :)
105. I got a new babysitting job for the summer
106. For two very energetic boys
107. I’m going back to Romania again this summer (June 13- July 2)
108. Alone
109. I’m not nervous…yet
110. I can’t wait to go…it’s going to be a whole new experience, I’ll write about it later
111. Which brings us up to today…I can’t think of what else to write…I know there’s so much more about me…I need to come up with 89 more things….oh! here’s an idea!!!

THINGS I HAVE BEEN INVOLVED WITH
112. Science Olympiad (7th grade thru 12th grade)
113. Band (5th grade thru 12th grade)
114. I was band president my senior year
115. NHS (10th thru 12th grade)
116. I was NHS secretary and awareness co-chair my senior year
117. Track (9th grade and 12th grade)
118. Cell group (I’ve been leading since 10th grade…still ongoing…kind of)
119. Youth group (leading this year)
120. Young Children and Worship (don’t even know how long!!)
121. Praise Team (since September ’07)

MY FAVORITE THINGS
122. Ice-cream…any kind really…but especially cookie dough
123. Sunshine
124. Beaches
125. Swimming
126. Chicken…give me a choice between chicken and steak…I’ll take chicken
127. Driving…I love driving!
128. Road trips!
129. Hanging out with my friends
130. Going to Taco Bell
131. Spending hours with Alecia doing absolutely nothing
132. Watching movies
133. Getting all dressed up…every once in a while
134. Singing
135. Trucks
136. Four-wheeling
137. Skiing
138. Spending time with Mike
139. Playing DDR
140. Cooking
141. Baking
142. Creating my own recipes
143. Flip flops!
144. Hanging out with the Hill girls (and the rest of the family too :-) )
145. Late night trips for fast food
146. Being in Romania
147. Taking pictures
148. Writing
149. Being outside
150. Talking
151. Eating
152. Blue
153. Daisies
154. Shopping
155. Laughing
156. Holding babies
157. Music
158. Loud music…with lots of bass
159. Talking online
160. Blogging
161. Facebook
162. Travelling
163. Flying
164. Being random
165. Dreaming
166. Thinking about the future
167. Being a youth group leader
168. Getting mail
169. Learning other languages
170. Speaking other languages
171. Making someone else laugh
172. Being brave
173. Accomplishing something on my own (especially when people thought I couldn’t)
174. Holding hands
175. Running
176. Rollercoasters
177. Disney World
178. Bonfires
179. My friends
180. Washing my car
181. Star gazing
182. Sunsets
183. Picnics
184. Walks in the park
185. Soccer
186. Throwing discus and shotput
187. Watching other people accomplish great things
188. Meeting goals
189. Making someone smile
190. God
191. My church
192. Dogs
193. Dolphins
194. Bumper Stickers
195. Going out for coffee
196. Victoria’s Secret PINK Fresh and Clean
197. Hawaiian pizza
198. Snickers
199. Silver Jewelry
200. Daydreaming

About me

Ya'll ready for this? :)
Finally, here is my "special" 200th post...though actually it's my 202nd post...but that doesn't matter does it? Anyway, I tried to make a list of 200 things about me, in chronological order as much as I could. But when I thought I was done I was at 111 so I made a list of my favorites. Well then I read through my list again, and realized how many things I had left out, but I decided to just leave it. Maybe for my 300th post I'll throw in everything I forgot this time :)
Here goes....

1. I was born December 28, 1988
2. I was born in Ruidoso New Mexico
3. I lived on an Indian Reservation in Mescalero for the first year of my life
4. I don’t remember it
5. We went camping in the white sands desert and I ate sand
6. We moved up to Michigan
7. We lived in someone else’s house in Cutlerville
8. Then we moved to Allendale
9. My brother Nate was born on June 14, 1990
10. I don’t remember that either
11. We lived in a mobile home park
12. There was a swimming pool
13. We had really great neighbors and played outside with them a lot
14. My mom kind of homeschooled me for kindergarten
15. I missed the actual date for starting kindergarten by 27 days, so my mom taught me at home
16. I could read before I started kindergarten
17. I taught myself how to tie my shoes by practicing on a blanket that had tassels on it
18. I met my good friend Sarah in kindergarten…we are still friends
19. I broke my foot in first grade
20. I was sitting on our organ bench, it tipped over and I jumped off. It landed on my foot
21. My dad was laying on the couch…he didn’t even realized how hurt I was
22. My mom didn’t either…we waited until the next morning to go to the doctor. My foot was so swollen it wouldn’t fit into my shoes!
23. It was in the winter so I missed out on sledding!
24. My classmates pushed me down to the lunchroom on my teacher’s wheely chair
25. My mom bought everyone orange Flintstone push-pops when I got my cast off
26. I still have the cast. It was pink
27. After first grade, I met my best friend Alecia…she is still my best friend!
28. I met Mackenzie in second grade
29. On Fridays, we had popcorn day. We could buy a bag of popcorn for 10 cents!
30. I got glasses in third grade
31. I met Alex in fourth grade
32. In fifth grade, my teacher fell off a counter and almost landed on me. It was scary!
33. My friend was killed in an accident when I was in fifth grade. I’ll never forget my mom crying when she told me
34. We moved to our current house
35. My room was the last one finished
36. We finished the upstairs by ourselves…the main floor was done. It’s a modular home
37. I painted my room blue
38. We had the best neighbors ever!
39. I loved middle school
40. In sixth grade I went to a science conference. I hated it
41. In seventh grade, I joined Science Olympiad
42. I placed first in two of my events, Astronomy and Experimental Design
43. In eighth grade I did SO again
44. My friend Mackenzie was my partner for Astronomy. We did not get first place
45. Mackenzie was also my neighbor
46. The neighbors on the other side of us had 4 kids when we moved in.
47. Now they have 7
48. They moved away 3 years ago
49. Now we hardly see our current neighbors
50. In eighth grade I met my friend Monica
51. The three (Alex, Monica, and me) of us were inseparable
52. We would have sleepovers and do crazy beauty experiments
53. Once, we cut up a bunch of lemons, limes, and oranges and put them in the bathtub for a foot soak
54. We made facemasks
55. The pictures are hilarious
56. In 9th grade, I went to homecoming
57. My dress was blue..and backless
58. In the summer of 2004, I went to Romania for the first time
59. There was a group of 8 of us
60. We did children’s ministries in different villages
61. It was an amazing experience
62. I fell in love with the country and the people
63. I knew I was going to go back
64. Alex had an exchange student, Palm, from Thailand
65. I learned a lot from her
66. In 10th grade the four of us went to homecoming together…my dress was white
67. I got my driver’s license in May of 10th grade (2005)
68. I went back to Romania in June
69. Just me and Gerri
70. It was amazing
71. In July, I got hired at Allendale Nursing Home
72. In the laundry department
73. We had an exchange student from Spain stay with us for a month in the summer
74. Her name is Angela
75. My mom was in charge of the exchange program
76. I got to help her
77. I loved it!!!
78. In March of 2006, I got my first car
79. A 1997 Pontiac Sunfire
80. Zack nicknamed it the Green Ghost
81. I still have it
82. My partner and I placed 5th at state for Disease Detectives (Science Olympiad)
83. We were so excited! He picked me up and swung me around!!!
84. We had another exchange student stay with us for couple weeks in the spring
85. I did not go back to Romania that year
86. I started my senior year
87. I was so ready to be done with school!
88. I threw discus and shotput for track
89. I did it my freshman year too…but I liked it more my senior year
90. I wish I had done it all four years of high school
91. I graduated in May 2007
92. I graduated 7th in my class
93. I went back to Romania again
94. My mom and two of my friends came with me and Gerri
95. We did children’s ministries again (are you noticing a pattern here?)
96. I started college in the fall
97. I go to GRCC
98. For Business Administration
99. I want to work in a hotel or restaurant
100. Or maybe run (and own) a bed and breakfast

I'll post the next 100 tomorrow... :)

Remembering...

I want to take today to remember a life that touched many people. A year ago today, we lost that person, Tyler. Tyler had a fun and infectious personality. He sang in the praise team at church and I loved to listen to him and watch him praise God with all he had in him (I especially loved hearing him sing "I'll Fly Away"!) He was always joking around and had an encouraging word for everyone. Though he is missed here on earth by his family and friends, we know that he's singing and dancing with the angels up in Heaven!








This picture was taken at our youth group canoe trip a few years ago.

Collage

Last night was Collage...every year the music department at the High School puts on a "collage" of musical talent. This year's show was much shorter than most, but the talent was still incredible. It was a new experience for me as this was the first year I was actually able to watch Collage instead of participating.







The H.S. concert band opened the show with the theme song from Star Wars. Darth Vader made an appearance and the band director, Tony Bush, defeated him. It was fun to watch!









The show choir was incredible as usual. They preformed a fun jazzy song, Blue Skies.






One of my friends and fellow Color Guard member, Debra, performed a flag routine to the song "Somebody's Someone".











Another friend, PJ, sang "Wherever You Will Go".





My brother, Nate, is in the Jazz band. If you watch the video (I had to link to it on YouTube because it took literally all day, from 10:45-9:56 to try to upload it to blogger), he is the guitarist on the far left. He had told me that he was doing background vocals for a song in Jazz band, but I didn't know it was the one they were doing at Collage! This isn't the type of music that is most common at Collage, but it was a nice change of pace and I enjoyed it. This group is very talented!

Zack and his friend Tyler sang one of my favorite songs, "Fire and Rain". I took a video of it, but I have a feeling Jennifer will be sharing it on her blog. If she doesn't, I'll post it up here.

And yes, I know that this is my 200th post, but I thought Collage was more important. I will post my special post later tonight or tomorrow :)

Clocks

The other day I showed you pictures of my spray painting project...here's the final project...





Before




and after

You might have to click on the picture to see it bigger so you know what I'm talking about but...I think the turpentine I used ruined my clocks!! :( Though I covered up the face of the clocks, some spray paint still got on it. So I used turpentine to clean it off...well, I think that it took the shine off of my clocks, so now they look bad cuz they're all scratched looking. I tried cleaning them with windex but that didn't work, so I might try some buffing stuff and then a shiny coat. Does anyone else have any ideas on how to restore the shine to my clocks????

Pretty Flowers!

I had such a nice surprise when I got home from work today!!!!
When Gerri came home from Romania last summer, she bought back a bunch of flower seeds from the mission house. She thought my dad would like to try to grow them. Well, I was talking to Jennifer one day and we ended up talking about these seeds. Her husband, Mark, works in a greenhouse and I ended up bringing him some of these seeds. He was very excited to get them. Now today, he brought me 8 pots of these flowers which are beautiful! They're not in full bloom now, but they are gorgeous when the flower is full. I will take more pictures later this summer. We are not sure exactly what type of flower these are, but that just makes htem more interesting right?

Today's Project

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am often finding myself with nothing to do...which gives me plenty of time to read blogs, but after a while they're all read and there's nothing to do! Today was an exception. I had a project to do that I was very excited about. You see, for the past year or so we have had this (pointing at this first picture) sitting in my backyard. (Oops! I guess the "before" picture that I took didn't actually take...my camera's been doing that lately.)

This fire pit thing is so rusty, I wondered if it was even worth it. But I sanded it down and it looked better.

Then I coated it with a rust protectant. It's supposed to bond the metal back together and prevent more rust from forming. We'll find out if it works as good as it sounds.

And this is the final product. Nice and black. It's not as shiny as I would have liked, but I had to buy heat resistant spray paint, so you miss out on the fun stuff you know?








If you had stopped by my house today, this is what you would have seen. No makeup, baggy sweatshirt, ripped pants, spray paint and dirty hands. But it's all fun! (Actually the mail lady came and I had to sign for something with icky hands! It was totally worth it though because she brought me my camera battery charger so now I can use my good camera!!!)




This was my next project. My mom bought me these clocks for Christmas. They were almost what I wanted, except they weren't silver. So I bought some metallic/chrome spraypaint...and....






...and painted my hand! Haha....I wasn't thinking about how much paint was on my hand...and now my hand is (still) silver!








This is the final product! I love how they turned out, you can't hardly tell that they are painted plastic instead of metal!

Finding treasures!

I've been out of school for aout 3 weeks now. As you can imagine, I find myself with nothing to do. The other day, I decided to clean out my closet! I wish I had taken a before and after picture, cuz let me tell you, my closet needed a good cleaning! It looks so good now! I threw away a ton of stuff...lots of old school papers and just junk that I have no idea why I was saving it. 3 big trash bags full of junk! Why was I keeping it in the first place?
Well, among the treasures I found was this...



What is this you ask? Well, only one of the best bread toppers out there! It's similar to Nutella, but with a twist....it's from Romania! I also found some other Romanian snacks and a bottle of my favorite drink, Sokata. Jackpot! :)






I had seen this recipe and I thought it sounded delicious! So, I used my Finetti (instead of Nutella) and oh boy! Are these good! They're pretty simple to make and they are really good!
(Disclaimer: I made this post on Wednesday, I just didn't put it up until today! Oops!)

8 in 2008

I can't believe it's check-in time again! Here we go...

1. Make devotions and prayer a priority--I'm not sure I'm doing to well on making them a priority, but I have been doing my devotions every day.

2. Listen more, talk less--I thought I was doing well at this, but I think I've started to back slide. I've got to try harder.

3. Don't choose favorites- pay attention to everyone--I've been doing better I think

4. JOY. Jesus, Others, Yourself--The road to success is long...

5. Be able to run 5 miles by December--I could probably do this now, but I'd be dead at the end. I haven't had the time or inclination to run...horrible isn't it?

6. Keep my room clean--I've been bored...so I've cleaned. More on this later...

7. Live with Kaylyn and Libby for a week this summer (preferably July 21-25)

8. Teach the Hill girls how to cook a full course meal for their parent's anniversary (July 14)--They keep asking me when we're going to get together to cook again....we only have 2 months so we better get busy!!!

a Time to Dance

I just read a great book. a Time to Dance by Karen Kingsbury. I absolutely love the title...and KK is one of my absolute favorite authors! I highly recommend this book. If you're a crying person (which I am not and I did not cry...but that's besides the point), this book will make you cry...and it will also make you smile and laugh. Anyway, the book told of some of the habits of eagles and she related it to our lives as Christians...I thought it was interesting and I thought I would share what I learned with you:

"An eagle almost never eats anything dead...But if it does, if something happens to make him sick, he flies to the highest rock he can find, spreads himself across it, and lets the sun soak out all the poison." After getting into trouble, the eagle had the knowledge to take his pain to the rock and let the sun make him strong again. I guess we could say that we can take our pain to The Rock and let the Son make us strong again.

"The eagle allows the storms to take him to a higher place...The eagle doesn't flap around like the chickens and crows and sparrows. It waits patiently on the rock for the thermal currents, and only then does it take flight. Not by its own efforts, but by the effort of the wind beneath its wings." Again, likening us humans to the eagle, how many times do we try to solve our own problems? We should have faith like the eagle and patiently wait... While other birds are taking cover in the storms, the eagle is soaring.

"An eagle would never fight against the storms of life. He saved his fighting for the serpent. Especially when the snake threatened the eagle's young." Do you see the analogy?

"When the female knows a male is interested, she leads him on a chase through the skies, swooping and diving and soaring high above the hills. When the chase is nearly over, she flies as high as she can and flips on her back, free-falling toward the ground. It is the male's job to place his body over hers and grasp her talons, flapping his wings with all his might to keep her from certain death. Moments before they hit the ground, the female pulls out of the dive and circles the male. Because he had been willing to stay even unto death, he will have proven himself as a mate. The eagles are joined for life from that point on." I hope that someday my future husband and I will experience such selfless love like that!

Now I will leave you to ponder one of my favorite verses, Isaiah 40:31
They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, they will mount up on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint.

What a beautiful day!

It's so beautiful outside...

Go enjoy the sunshine!!!

Yummy :)

I posted over at my recipe blog today.

These two meals go perfectly together!

Herb-roasted Chicken and Vegetables and noodles

Go check it out!!!

And in other news....

This is post 192 for me...8 away from 200.

I'm working on my list of 200 things about me...

this post should be sometime next week

assuming that I have at least 7 interesting things to write about between now and then :)

Stay tuned...

And still more news :)...

Shelly had information about americanchairstore.com on her blog.

Go check out the web site...there's some neat stuff on there!!

Splash

Last night was the last meeting of the school year for Splash (our middle school youth group). We had a really good time and I gotta say I'm really going to miss my girls!!!



Anna and Jessica were entertaining us as we were waiting for pizza. Jessica's facial expression is priceless...and I think Anna should jump hurdles!!
(pictures are clickable)












These four girls are from my group of 6th grade girls.
Hannah, Emma, Jessie, and Grace











The pizza has arrived! Yay for Vitale's!!!












Kaylyn and I built a tower from all the little tables she stole off the pizzas










The youth praise band leading us in one of their original songs







Some of the group....the 8th graders were MIA (playing outside in the woods)







The group of girls inthe back of the room are from my group. They always dance around while singing the songs.








Blake is just the ladies' man. He came over to check out what we were doing during our small group time...and ended up getting decorated with cupcakes :)

These are my girls! I love them like crazy...this picture represents our group perfectly because we're always laughing. We already have plans to get together over the summer.

They were so cute when youth group was over. They all gave me hugs and said they can't wait for next year. They were super excited when I said that I planned to be their leader again next year (Lord willing!)!