Waiting...

Keith Green is one of my all-time FAVORITE singers! Wow. He has some GREAT songs! My brother and I have been listening to him non-stop for the past few weeks! "Make My Life A Prayer To You" is my favorite!!
Well, we have been pretty busy, with all of the "Christmas stuff" going on! Lot's of performances... Rebekah had two ballet performances. It always makes me cry when I see her dance. She is SUCH a great ballerina. And she is SO grown up! :'(  She practices at her ballet school everyday. We are constantly taking her to Springfield. Sometimes I'm frustrated with how much she practices... but it's really her passion. And she's going to be a professional as soon as she's out of high school. *insert extremely jealous frown*oh well... I guess the Lord has something else, great, planned for me! It can be very frustrating, staying at home and being the "babysitter" for my brother all the time. But I know it's important. I know this is where God has me, for a reason! I need to make the most of this, and stop complaining. Who am I to second-guess what the Lord has set before me? :)
I had a GREAT time at the Christmas party on Friday! Agh. It was great to see Rachel, and Tabitha! (You both mean SO much to me! )
I have been contemplating "career paths" and what I'm interested in... My Dad and I were talking the other night about "medical careers" and I think it would be SO cool to be a "Surgeons Assistant". I don't know... you don't have to go through five years of training, to do that, most people can get there degree in about two years at OTC, which would be great... because I don't want to spend all my time in college... I really just want to get married! I know I'm going to do some sort of "mission work", with Muslims, and any sort of degree in the "medical field" can open a lot of doors abroad. Well, that's what has been on my heart, lately... Just praying for direction!    Hebrews 12:1 "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."  

I'm Dreaming Of a White Christmas!

Christmas time is here! All of Sunday all of us "kids" decorated our rooms for the "Christmas Competition"  (whoever has the best decorated room wins) Rebekah and I spent all day organizing, de-cluttering and decorating our room! We have a small pink Christmas tree and we made orange, blue, and pink snowflakes to hang from the ceiling :) It's pretty cute! I have a lot of black and white turn-of-the-century photographs, so "black and white vintage" and the "pink modern" are a really fun combination. I am so excited about Christmas! I have been listening to the "Relient K" Christmas album, and one song that has really stood out to me is "I Celebrate The Day"  the lyrics are so great! My favorite Christmas song ever, is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" the words are just so beautiful!
Anyway. I haven't sewn ANYTHING in almost a month and I am REALLY wanting to sew a dress! I have been saving my money for a while now... and I found a vintage pattern on ebay that I L.O.V.E.D. -so I bought it! I'm REALLY hoping it comes soon! I have been so "day-dreamy" today! Paying attention for school was really hard, and I completely RUINED an attempt to make a coconut cream pudding. Waaaaaaay too much salt :( Let's hope I don't burn dinner! haha ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow. I can't believe I haven't posted ANYTHING in SO long! Golly Moses. Well, let me see if I can catch you up on the "craziness" that's been going on around here ;) The piano recital -that we all dread- was last week, and since I was sick I didn't have to go! Agh. what a relief. I have never been so happy to be sick! I did miss choir though... I didn't get to see Rachel on Friday.. :'(... which was sad....  (I saw "The Tourist" again, and it made me miss you! ) On Sunday we had a family come to our church from New York, they were just visiting... Such a cute family... they are a folk band (and pretty popular up there) so the dad played an AMAZING piano, and the wife played the accordion -which made us sound like a "polka church" ;D  I have been babysitting a lot, and there is NEVER a dull moment with that little kid ;-) He asks the weirdest random questions! "I know our bodies are filled with blood...but WHY?" or "Are you English? You must be, because if you were French I wouldn't be able to understand you." :) Agh, it's so funny! Well, for Thanksgiving this year we are going to be having two of Dad's half brothers come over... I am happy and stressed at the same time... The youngest is married and has a daughter, he has come so far, and is actually a cool, fun, SWEET guy now... he is always asking questions about God and stuff. He has come a looong way. He used to be "horrible" -we aren't even going to go there! But I can't really say the same about the other brother... he is very "rough". Full of "colorful" talk and r.e.a.l.l.y scary morals! I know as a Christian I am supposed to love him, but that is very difficult sometimes! Oh well, and it doesn't help that since he lost his house, him and his girlfriend with her son will be living with us for an "indefinite" amount of time!Gosh :/  Pray for our sanity! I am excited about watching the "Thanksgiving Parade" on T.V. in the morning (which is a tradition) and then my sisters and I bundle up in coats and run the mile loop around our house :) And at midnight all of us "kids" stay up for 12:00 (which is NOT as hard as it used to be! LOL) when we can "officially" listen to Christmas music!  On a random note... I am addicted to coffee! I used to only want coffee if it was a "Frappuchino Starbucks" thing   but just recently I have really started liking normal hot coffee! Agh. Yummmm!

The Northern Loop :)

Well, vacation has been great so far :-)  We started on Wednesday, and drove up to Kansas City, then we stopped in Clear Lake, Iowa and saw the "Surf Ballroom" where Buddy Holly played his last concert. Then we drove to Minneapolis and stayed there for three days! We got a really nice hotel room and there was a big Indian wedding going on that weekend, so there were SO many beautiful Indian families there in their traditional, (VERY COLORFUL) dress! <3 <3 Yep, it was a GREAT city, and there were so many different nationalities that it didn't even feel like I was in America! ... Emily, Katie and I saw 'Pink Martini' in concert, and than  we all went to the 'Mall Of America' and it was *amazing*, there were three floors of awesomeness, a theme park and a very large sea aquarium!  Emily and I both got matching dresses!    ...After we left Minneapolis we went to see the head-waters of the Mississippi River! ..that was really neat... and today we played on the shore of Lake Superior! Right now I'm sitting in our hotel room in 'Sault Ste. Marie' Michigan (which across the river from Canada)  :D :D ... Well, my life has been busy and exciting! ... but I REALLY miss you, Rachel! ;) I wish you were here!

Summer Time, and Everything's BUSY!

Well, this week has been busy! I have been babysitting, swimming, cleaning our pool...which is VERY time consuming, shopping and hanging out with friends! There are so many weddings this summer, it's so awesome!We went to one yesterday, and it was SUPER SWEET!  We are getting ready to go on vacation, Wednesday! I'm SO EXCITED! I LOVE traveling!! We always have "mystery" vacations... we never know really where we are going until the "day of" and then... even that's subject to change! We just roll with the flow! We are such a hippie family! I love it! So, We are thinking of going North, or North East this year! My Mom has four states left before she has visited all fifty.... and she hopes to go to all of them before her fiftieth birthday (which is in two years)  - So...Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin and Alaska are left. WOW just the thought of us going to Alaska in the future, gives me chill-bumps! That would be SUCH an adventure! It would almost be like leaving the country!
Today, I'm going to sew one of my dresses for vacation! It's a red 1950's dress! I'm really happy about it! (If I have time... I will make a purple and white one also..but I don't think I will have time!)

 Here is our house :)

 This is the road I walk every day! I pick lots and lots of flowers in this field!

 I found this picture today, and just had to put it on here! Awwww....

Here is a picture of some of my friends at Camp! This picture was taken during 'Staff Training'

SUMMER!

I know I haven't posted any thing in such a long time!! This summer has been very busy for me! I spent pretty much the whole month of June at Camp David of The Ozarks J That was a BLAST!!  Camp was such a growing experience for my faith, this year! God is SO awesome!!       My family went to St. Louis for an evening to watch ‘Shakespeare in The Park’ perform ‘The Taming Of The Shrew’! They moved the time period to the fifties! The set looked like it came off the cover of a vintage ‘LIFE’ magazine!    ……On a side note: We have new neighbors! I can’t wait to get to know them better!   4^th of July was GREAT! In the morning we went to our little town’s parade, and I saw Rachel!! <3 I had a blast hanging out with her! And we both bought “red flair” hair extensions! I can’t wait for choir to start next month! I miss seeing her and Charity on a regular basis!!   Okay, here is my stupid “teenager story” for the week… I went with Katie to the License Bureau to get my permit renewed…  My permit has been expired for a while now, so I have just put it in my journal… there is a little pocket to put it in, and it’s actually a really cute picture, because I was so young, and SO excited to get my permit! So I walked into the building, and handed the guy my permit… he updates some information… and  from behind the desk I couldn’t see all that he was doing… but I heard this horrible machine sound and I asked if I would be able to have it back when he when he was done. And the guy just drops his jaw and says in a “sorry” voice: “Oh, I forgot to ask you if you wanted it back… I’m sorry, I just shredded it…” I was SO sad!! He tried to re-print me one, but his computer was not co-operating! So when he took my new picture, I saw it and it was HORRIBLE. And so, I asked if he could do another picture (because they usually let you do that…) he said “Oh, I’m sorry… it’s too late, this is what it’s gonna have to be.” I was SO mad… when I got in my car, I cried *all * the way home… Golly Moses, I felt like an emotional stupid teenager, afterwards, but I was SO sad!  …and I still hate my new picture!  :S oh well… I’m sure everyone has a similar story…    

Spring is such a busy time of year!!

This week has been very busy! School is coming to an end, my sister Emily is graduating from Highschool on Saturday, and on Monday, Emily, Rebekah and I are going to be in Rolla for the next four weeks working at Camp David of the Ozarks. So with packing and shopping and sewing my costume for camp (the camp "theme" this year is going to be "sea faring" and my dress is very beautiful!) and with our end of the year Choir performance my life has been a little hectic! I am also going to babysit our neighbor's two year old son, this Saturday :) I love babysitting! Last night I watched the movie "Sahara" for the first time :-) I really liked it! Steve Zahn was SO hilarious! On a side note, I have been trying to decide what book to start reading! If you have a favorite book that you think I should read, please tell me!

Entering the New World of 'Blogger'

This is my first attempt to start a blog! I'm really excited! I don't really have any *major*  themes for this blog... so I'm just going to fill it with little random thoughts! :)  First off, I am sixteen years old, I play the piano, and I am learning the Mandolin, I have four siblings (Katie, Emily, Rebekah and Matthew) and two wonderful parents! My mother home-schools us! I have a beautiful fat and fluffy cat named Pierre -he is my sweetheart ;) I am in choir, and we meet on Fridays in Springfield... that is the highlight of my week, because I have the most *amazing* friends, there! God has blessed me in so many ways, I have SO much to be thankful for!