Well, That Was Easy

Today was the day: moving day. We moved all of our storage stuff yesterday, which took forever. I was definitely expecting today to be even more stressful. This morning I woke up around 6:30. I took a shower, and you know, did general “get ready” type things, which is all fine and dandy. Then at 7:30 I left my house to pick up my friend Arkadiy, who lives waaay out. When I finally got to his house around 8:15, my mom called and told me that everyone had come to the house by 8 to help out, and that they were “flying” through everything, and to hurry up and get there. By the time I got to my house, everything was almost done. All of our furniture and basically all of our boxes were loaded. In fact, I don’t think I personally loaded anything…oops. The people we had helping us worked so hard, that we had our entire house, furniture and all in a matter of 45 minutes! That’s insane, seeing as it took us five hours just to do our garage yesterday.

Towards the beginning of this week, when we were just finding out that we were going to be moving this weekend, we figured out that we were gonna need to ask some people to help us out. We have really heavy furniture, and mom, Gabe, and I weren’t gonna be able to lift it all by ourselves. So I asked around, and mom asked around, and we found some people to help us out. Actually, we found a lot of people to help us out. That’s why it went so quickly. Also, even more people met us at Potter to help out than had been at our house. So we were totally set, and it took us a total of two hours, including travel time, to get everything loaded up. It’s craziness. That’s the easiest move we’ve ever had, for sure. So, not only did we finish everything in two hours, we’ve also got half of the house unpacked now. Everything is running so smoothly that I feel like there must be a catch…

That’s not the most exciting thing that has happened recently, though. Yesterday, when I checked the mail, I got my acceptance letter to AIM. I cannot explain how happy that made me. I mean, it’s been my plan to go all along, but now it’s official. I was actually emailing the AIM secretary earlier on this week about something, and she told me that she’d gotten all my stuff in finally about a week before that, and that my acceptance letter was in the mail. I was sooo pumped when I got that email. I took a screenshot, of course. And called my mom, but she was busy, so I texted Ryan. I was just so happy that I had to tell someone. Now I just have to go at raising support with a vengeance. If anyone out there in the blogosphere wants to hook me up with some money I’d be eternally grateful to you. ;)

I’m exhausted from moving this morning, and I really wish I could take a nap…but I have to be at the church to work on some VBS stuff, because that starts tomorrow. YAY! VBS at Alvaton is one of my favorite things…we always have a few nights of VBS which is lots of fun, singing and learning and all that, but then on July 4^th we have our annual fireworks show, and it’s pretty much the best in Bowling Green. Last year we were even on the news. Ha. I really love my church and there is nothing I love more than spending time with my family there. I’m gonna miss them more than anything in the whole world. It seriously kills me that I have to leave them.

That’s all I have time to write for now, so I guess that’s that. <3

living in fast forward.

Oh man. The last couple weeks have been so busy and I know the next couple aren't gonna be any different. That's okay, though. I like it better this way. Several interesting and exciting things have happened.

I went to church camp! I've been going to church camp since I was in the fourth grade, which is the youngest you can start at our church. I've never missed a year and it's always been one of my favorite parts about summer. This was my last year as a camper, and I probably won't get the chance to be a counselor for awhile, so it was bittersweet. But, overall, it was a fun week and I got tons closer to people that I was just kind of friends with before. One of the saddest parts about church camp was the last day, when I had to say bye to A-Pot for a whole five weeks! It's gonna kill me to have the sole other member of team cra missing for that long. ;)

When I got home from church camp, my mom was waiting with a huge bomb...we're moving. She had kind of hinted at that for awhile, but I really didn't want it to be true. You see, this is the last house that's going to be my house with my mom. And it's been a really good house. I've loved living here a lot, and I know she and Gabe have as well. So, anyway, it's all happened so fast. We're moving in a week. A week. It feels weird to know that when I pack up all the stuff in my room it's not gonna have another home until August. Maybe not even then, I'm sure there's some stuff that I won't be taking that will just be sitting in storage. It's gonna be an emotional experience for sure.

So, we've been working on packing, but also I've had 2 yard sales so far. I was initially planning on only having one big one, but as more and more people brought me stuff I knew there was no way that I was gonna be able to store it all...I guess it's my fault for having generous friends. ;) I've made quite a bit of money that way so far, but I still definitely have more to sell. I'll have maybe one more sale this summer, and then leave the rest of the stuff for my mom to have another sell with more of her stuff later on in the fall or something. There's so much that I'm sure there'll be some left over. I'm just excited for the look on the people who help us move face's when we open up our garage to load up. That'll be funny.

In the midst of all this packing and organizing, I got asked to baby sit every day this week. 9am-2pm. It's a good thing, I know. I'll be making money which will be nice but it just adds to me level of stress knowing that I'm gonna baby sit all day, which wears me out, and then come home and have huge tasks to do because our house has to go from completely unpacked and home like to a bunch of boxes in a matter of a week. It's frustrating, since I don't want to move to begin with, and now I have to stress about it. I know, it's a bad attitude, and I'm trying to make it better, I'm just bummed.

Everything will be alright, though. God has us in his hands and everything works out when we're using His timing. And I know both my mom and I have been praying for God to take care of this, so I know He is.

Finally, I'm still just waiting to hear back about my AIM application...I hate waiting and they notoriously take forever. I suppose I'll just have to wait on God's timing for this as well. So there's that.

It's 1:43 am so I'd probably better get to bed since I have to chase after two crazy kids tomorrow.

Raising Support Has Kicked My Butt.

Oh my y'all. I've spent the last four days completely and totally focused on my support letters. Even though I haven't technically been accepted to AIM yet, I am fairly certain that I will be, so I'm just gonna go ahead and raise support. I've decided to do several different things to work toward this goal.

For one, I decided that I'm gonna have a yard sale. I sent an email out to people that go to my church asking for donations, and my garage is already full! It really makes me so happy. I know that more people are planning to donate some stuff, too. God is bringing things together so well. I just am loving this whole experience right now.

Then, I decided that I'm gonna have a car wash, and ask the youth group to help me. The band has done this for a lot of years, and we always make quite a bit of money, so I'm hoping it will work out well. You know, a "free" yard sales where you ask for donations. I think it'd be really awesome to do that, and so I'm gonna try and see if I can raise some money that way.

Another thing I'm going is trying to find odd jobs to do. Someone asked me the other day if I was working this summer. I told them no, because I don't have an actual "job." But I did tell them that I plan on doing any kind of work that anyone will let me do. Yard work, cleaning out their attic, babysitting. Whatever it is, I'm willing to do it. I need money, and if someone is kind enough to offer me an opportunity to make some money, then I'm totally gonna take it.

Anyway, the support letter process has been tedious. It was a long process with several steps. First I had to write the actual letter. Then, I had to gather up all the addresses that I wanted to use (this was fairly easy because our church has a directory, and I also just sent out graduation invitations, so I had all my familie's addresses in one place). Then I addressed all the envelopes, all 150 of them. It bout killed my wrist. Then, I made tons and tons of copies. Potter was nice enough to let me use their copy machine and paper, which saved me tons of money. Then, I signed all the letters and put them all into their envelopes. This morning I went to the post office and dropped $115 on stamps. Who knew stamps were so stinking expensve?! I sure didn't. But, at least my mom was willing to pay for them and I didn't have to.  Now they're all finished and I couldn't be more relieved,

It's not like the work is over, though. In fact, the work is still beginning. I'm gonna have to make calls, and then organize the yard sale, and the car wash. I'm really grateful for a couple things, though. I'm grateful to my mother for putting off everything that she had on her to-do list to help me do all of this. She's the most wonderful, supporting mother. God really knew what he was doing when He made her my mother, and that's something that I'll thank Him for every day for as long as I live.

I'm also really grateful for the wonderful, supporting church family that is really backing me up on all of this. I didn't really know what a lot of them would think about all of this, but it's something that has been a pleasant surprise. I know for sure that I don't deserve them, and all the love they've given me. But I'll always love Alvaton and hold them dearly in my heart.

Anyway, I have to finish packing for church camp, which I know is going to be an experience. Last year it wasn't so awesome, but I'm trying to keep an open mind with this, so we'll all just wait and pray that it goes well. Goodnight and good luck. ;)

GO! Is Good :)

This week, I attended a camp called GO! Camp. I had to leave two days early, which was a bummer, but the two days I was there were really incredible. I just feel like so many things happened that it's gonna be really hard to fit it all into one blog post. Or one set of words. I don't even know because this week, God did some really mind blowing things for me.

First of all:  I met Kevin K.O. Olusola. I can not explain how awesome that was. If anyone doesn't know who he is, he's the beat boxer for a band called Pentatonix. I happen to be a huge fan of theirs, and it was kind of surreal to see him beat box and play cello at the same time, since that's what he's really well known for. He's a great Christian guy, and he's genuinely nice. While he was there, he talked to all of us about being innovative and creating things because God created us to be creative beings. He told us that we're all singers, we just have different voices. Which can be taken literally or figuratively. Figuratively, this means that we all have ways to praise God, we just have different ways to do it, based on the gifts God has blessed us with. This made me feel really good, because I feel like I'm always comparing myself to other people. I try not to let myself, because I've known all along that I had a different set of gifts than other people, and that I'm good at something that other people aren't. But I'm human and sometimes I can't help but wonder why I can't be good at some things other people are good at that I'm not. For example: some people are really great with kids. I'm not. I always felt kind of weird about that, because it seems like, as a woman, it should just be wired into my DNA to be good with children. But, I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that it's just not my thing. I'm sure someday I'll be a mother, and I'll try my best to be a good one, and I'm gonna be crazy in love with my kids, but I'm just not there yet. I have a different "medium" in which I serve God. That's all. I'm really grateful for Kevin coming and talking about that. It was awesome.

Also, I happened to see K.O. and kid president beat box together. That's unforgettable. ;)

Second: I'M GOING TO BE IN A KID PRESIDENT VIDEO. You see, Kid President's brother in law in the creator/director of GO! camp. But, being in a Kid President video isn't really the coolest part (though it IS cool...). A project that Brad (director of GO!) is doing this summer with Robbie (otherwise known as Kid President) is giving ordinary people celebrity treatment. For instance, giving someone a random standing ovation for doing something completely ordinary. Or, throwing someone an awards ceremony and just giving them a bunch of awards. But, what we did was even cooler, in my opinion. We threw a lady a parade. Just this normal woman who works at the post office in Henderson, TN. Some people dressed in marching band uniforms, some wore marching bands hats. They made make shirt drums out of buckets, and somehow some people even found some horns to play. We all made posters. The police in Henderson even barricaded the streets for us, just like in a real parade. So we all marched to the post office (which is really right across the street, because Henderson is small) and then Brad went in and brought her outside. They gave her a tiara and a sash and we all screamed and cheered for her. She cried, and it was the sweetest thing. You know that's something she's never going to forget, and it's so awesome to be a part of making someone feel good like that. It was a very moving experience, and I'd love to do that for more people.

Third: We did this activity called The Need. The Need is really cool. Because we had so many people there, we got into circles of about 10 and we all got a card. We each wrote down a need and then turned it back in. They all got redistributed, and people looked through the different stacks, and took a need that they thought they could meet. I wrote down that I was trying to raise support and also that I needed to get a car. Someone initially texted me and told me that they could give me a ride to Texas in August, and I politely told them that it wasn't really what I needed, but that I appreciated their willingness. We talked for a few more minutes about what it really was that I needed. It was a good conversation, and they offered to help me find a car. Of course, I agreed, because any help is helpful.

But during this whole process, I got very discouraged, because I just realized how much I don't have ready for the fall. I still need to raise monthly support and all this other stuff, plus I had the fact that I need a car hanging over my head. I'll be honest, I've never let my emotions get this out of control. And that's really saying something. Anyone who saw me Monday night probably thinks that I'm the biggest baby. I was just sobbing and feeling really lousy. I was questioning myself, I was questioning God, I was questioning all of my decisions about what I want to do with my life. And then something really cool happened...

You see, if I could pick out a car that I really wanted, it would be a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Tuesday morning, I woke up with a really bad headache from crying so much, and just kind of still feeling lousy. Well, the person who had texted me the night before texted me and told me that she thought she had a car for me. Ok, I was hesitant, I wanted to ask a lot of questions before I agreed to anything. So, obviously my first question was...what kind of car. She told me that it was a Jeep Cherokee. Which got me excited, because it's obviously really really close to what I wanted. She said that it has 180,000 miles on it, and that her dad was selling it. He wanted $700 up front (which is really good, because the only reason I don't have a car is because my mom doesn't have a huge sum of money right up front, and $700 isn't that bad. Then he wants $200 a month after that, until we've paid it off. He wants $1,500 total for it. Which means that I can pay my car off before November. Which is, like, the most exciting thing to me. Then, she sent me a picture of the car. It's a Grand Cherokee...with a purple tint. If I had picked a car for myself, it would have been that!!! It was one of those "stand in awe of God" moments. Because, while He doesn't always rush in and save me in huge, obvious ways when I'm feeling doubtful, He did this time. It just made me feel so much better. Because, not only is one of the biggest items on my "To Get" list now taken care of, it's also the car that I want. Which there was NO guarantee of whenever I was waiting for my mom to take me car shopping. I just feel that much firmer in my conviction that this is what I'm supposed to be doing. The biggest lesson I learned from this is that God really will take care of me, it's just not ususally in the package that I'm expecting it to come in.

Fourth: We packaged food for this organization called Feed My Starving Children. We made these things called Manna Packs (how cool is that name?) because they’re all the nutrients someone needs in one day. They all dried out, but you take them and boil them for about 20 minutes, and then you have a rice dinner. Doing that was so awesome, and really humbling. Because I have 3 full meals offered to me every day. These kids get a rice pack. And they’re really, really grateful for it. Which is awesome. I just wish I had that attitude, too. So I’m gonna work on making that my attitude. I’m gonna work at being grateful for things even if they’re not something that makes me comfortable, or that’s out of what I’m spoiled with. Anyway, making these Manna Packs was really awesome. Our team made 23 boxes full (at 36 bags a piece…that makes 828 packs…which means that will feed 828 children all the nutrients they need for a day.) By the way, there were at least 20 stations working all at once, and there were 3 times that everyone went in and packed food. So we packed a lot of meals. It feels so good to do something useful with your hands, and to know that ultimately you could be helping save somenes life. Talk about a great feeling.

I was really sad that I had to leave two days early. I definitely did not want to. But, we have church camp next week, and I have a long list of things that I have to accomplish before then. So this really was the best decision for me. I just know there was more to learn and to be a part of before I left. But I’m really grateful for GO! and I would really reccmmend it to anyone who is interested in serving…or even if you’re not interesting in serving. Because it can probably make you interested. Any way, it was really awesome. I’d love to go back as staff sometime in the future. Ok, I’m gonna get going on my 17 foot long list now. That’s all.

09-13 :)

Lately, I suppose because so many things are changing, I've been feeling nostalgic. So I thought I'd go through old Facebook pictures. I decided that it might be fun to put them all together in one place and kind of reflect on the last 4 years. This will definitely be long, but I'm so beyond caring. I'm enjoying it.

FRESHMAN: '09-'10

Ok, there aren't a ton of pictures from Freshman year, because I was really awkward and didn't like to be in pictures so much. But here are the few that I do have.

Freshman year, I was introduced to marching band...and I kind of fell in love. It was just like this whole new world opened up and I really just loved it. This is my friend Erin and I, I guess at band camp (because the school is cold, so we wore sweats in the afternoon, I guess.) Also, take note of my douchebag sweatshirt. I made interesting fashion choices when I was a young'un.

Leadership retreat 2010 happened to be our first ever youth trip with Ryan, which was pretty awesome. Jumping pictures were pretty popular during this time, and continued to be a hot trend through the rest of high school...let's just say, I have a lot of jumping pictures from high school. I don't know why we thought they were so cool...

INDOOR. Ok, if marching band was like falling in love, indoor was 1000x more intense than that. I love love love indoor drumline. Like, the music aspect is there, which is awesome. But with indoor comes a whole new level of performance, which is lots of fun. (BTW, our show freshman year was called "Pop" and it was basically everything from pop music to pepsi...)

I WENT TO DISNEY WORLD. IT WAS AWESOME. THAT IS ALL.

SUMMER '10

Summer 2010 was, as I like to say, the best, most life changing summer of my life. I found God, and happiness. I remembered what love was, and all kinds of other wonderful things. I could go on and on.

Uplift at Harding is the best. And our youth group shirts are pretty cool, too. (I'm actually wearing mine as I type this...weird.)

 I got baptized. Best day of my life. Never looking back, either.

SOPHOMORE: '10-'11

Marching band 2010. Carnival of the Animals. The music was awesome. The concept was awesome. We kicked butt.

Read Dateable with the youth group, and learned the importance of holding on to your candy bar. (Babe Ruth...one heck of a candy bar...)

New Year's lock-ins are always fun. This was my team, we called ourselves the Little Monsters because Lady Gaga is a cool chick, and also our youth minister does not like her, which made it all the more fun.

Leadership Retreat '11. Tons 'O Fun

 

I got my permit, and quickly learned what a terrible teacher my mother is...(love you, mom.)

Indoor 2011 was truly a life changing experience. It's not something that I told a whole lot of people about, but when we did Nevermore, and I learned how to play marimba, it really awakened my determinated spirit, and it gave me all kinds of self confidence that I didn't have before.

SRT 2011... We did service work, and then went to the World of Coke, and did touristy stuff in Chicago...

I rode a train for the first time. :)

SUMMER '11

Me and my "man"...this became a joke throughout the whole summer. Eventually, all the other girls got "men" too and we went on dates...this was especially fun at church camp...

Church camp 2011...all I can say is awesome! The senior girls cabin (which I got to stay in, even though I was only a sophomore...) had a window that was right next to the boy's bathroom. So, at night, when the guys were going to shower and stuff, we would just open our window and talk to them as they were going in and coming out. And, because at this point we all had our "men" it was even more interesting. I've seriously never laughed so hard in my whole entire life. I have so many stories I could tell from that week alone that it's not even funny.

JUNIOR YEAR: '11-'12

The pictures from this year are kind of all over the place, which is weird. But there are really random spans of time between them. I'm not sorry. ;)

Marching band 2011, "What's Out There". This was a really interesting show concept, but it was unfortunate because the judges didn't really like it. It kinda sucked, because it was like no matter how well we did they weren't pleased. But it was a fun show to do, and I think that's all that matters in the end.

Fall retreat 2011 was kind of boring. It was something new that we tried, with all kinds of people that we didn't know and stuff like that. It was kind of a let down. However, I did bring a pair of pants that was somehow big enough for four of us. They almost ripped, which would have been really unfortunate. But we ended up figuring out a way to walk in them without them ripping, so all was good there. I laughed so hard during this, and it made for a couple really funny pictures.

Our first youth group thanksgiving at Ryan and Melinda's house. Basically, we just went over there and they made thanksgiving dinner for us. The first thanksgiving they'd ever cooked. It was really awesome to sit around with my best friends, and talk about things that we were grateful for and stuff. And, you know, good food is good food.  

CYC was really fun. We went to Gatlinburg, stayed in a cabin, and had lots of other fun. I love Gatlinburg, and I loved all the other fun things that go along with a fun trip like that. Our cabin even had a swimming pool built in on the bottom floor.

Indoor '12. "The Race"...the show concept was literally all about this guy who was running a race. We played tons of popular songs, such as Flight of the Bumblebee, Black & Yellow, and We Are The Champions...it was fun to perform, but I tend to like darker shows rather than the ones where you have to be all happy and bouncy. Intense is fun.

SRT 2012 was fun. This picture makes me smile, because the only reason Brennen is hugging me is because he lost a bet. It makes me laugh a lot, because under normal circumstances, he doesn't hug me. It's so rare, but it's caught on camera.



OH MY GOODNESS YOU GUYS. This is where Remember The Titans was filmed. Seriously, it's so beautiful on this college campus. I'd totally go to school there, if it wasn't for the fact that it costs a lot of money. More than your average college education. Which, as we all know, ain't so cheap itself.

SUMMER '12

Oddly enough, this is probably the section where I have the most pictures. But, as my phone got reset, I don't have them anymore. They're all on hard copy, and stuff. So they can't go here. It's unfortunate.

Summer camp 2012. This year was a bit different because we didn't go to the place we'd been going to forever. We decided this year that we would go to Taylor Christian Camp with some other churches. None of us were very happy with this, and it wasn't something that was kind of a sore subject. The week had a lot of bad qualities, but it had good ones at the same time. Good thing: several people got baptized. Bad thing: there were a lot of harsh rules and rigidity.

SENIOR (!!!!) '12-'13

AHHHHH! Finally. Unfortunately, I don't have, like, any pictures from the first semester of Senior year. So these are basically all pictures from the spring semester of senior year.

We started having a girl's night in youth group. It's fun to go and hang out, just the girls. Also, isn't Elsie the most presh?

CYC and staying in Gatlinburg...beautiful and fun as always. :) I especially enjoy sitting in the hot tub and looking out at the mountains, having girl talk. Something really special happened on this trip. One night, the girls were upstairs before lights out, and we all decided to have prayer time. I really like to pray, and it was awesome that they asked me to pray for all of us. They all gave me prayer requests, and I prayed and it was incredible. I could really feel that all of us just opened our hearts in that moment, and we were all connected and we truly felt for each other. I just felt so surrounded by love. It was the best. I loved it a lot more than I can explain.

Y'all...I flew to Texas. All by myself. It was so scary, and incredible, and so many other things. I enjoyed my time there so much, and it was a week that I'll for sure never forget. I can't wait to go back to Texas in the fall...this time to live. You all have no idea how awesome that sounds to me. I can't even explain. :)

NEW YORK CITY. I already talked about that, but it was important, so I obviously included it. (P.S. TEAM NONIE!)

My last ever Lads To Leaders...you all can't even understand how bittersweet that is. But, anyway, Angel Ann, Sydney, and I did a then and now picture from when we were younger to then. It was lots of fun and I really love this picture. However, this is the trip where I got the Norovirus. Basically, the Norovirus is death. At least, it made me want to die. I was just so sick, it was terrible. And it's DISGUSTING. Anyway, I love Lads To Leaders, and it makes me want to cry, thinking about how last time was my last time ever. So sad.

Ok, this wasn't really an important event, but this IS an important girl. I love Elsie so much, you guys, and I'm SO glad that she's part of my life. Her Elsie smile just brightens my day whenever I'm around her.

I've already talked about senior banquet, but I love this guy, and this picture. This, my friends, is Taylor Morgan Clary. <3

Had anti-prom with Kaitlin and Courtney. It was lots of fun, and I'll never forget going out to dinner then then taking pictures on the square with them. I laughed so hard, especially when this guy scared Kaitlin. But that's another story for a different day...

Prom. You know how it is.

I LOVE MITCHELL CORDER AND I'M GONNA MISS HIM SO MUCH. This was "field day" though...my last one ever, hallelujah.

Band banquet. The last one I'll ever be a part of. As a senior, we got to give speeches and stuff like that. it was really cool. This is a really excellent picture. I have so much respect for this man, and he just means so much to me. He came into my life at a very crucial time. I didn't really have a father figure, and he was a huge aide in reminding me that not all men completely suck. I love Mr. Morrison so much.

This picture kind of stinks, but whatever. I had my last ever band concert. It's so unreal to me that I'll never play with the Greenwood band again. It's bittersweet. However, at the concert, we played movie night pieces, and basically, I ruined a song. We were playing music from The Hobbit, and I had a part that required sever different instruments. I somehow managed to knock EVERYTHING over in the middle of a sad, serious part. It was loud, and obnoxious, and everyone knew it was me. Embarrassing. Oh well, I'll own it. I will for sure miss band, though. It's probably the only thing I'm going to miss from high school.

Graduation practice was an interesting experience. It was really boring and it felt totally pointless. This guy sat behind me, and he would just say all these completely random things that were obviously lies. They were funny, though. So oh well.

I graduated. And that's the end.

 Needless to say, while high school hasn't been the best, I have had some really, really, fun times. :)

I can't wait to see what the rest of my life holds...