ilazy-blog

So I did this on Facebook, then I saw Jessica did it on her blog..... so why not?? :D This is sooo my type of blogging. ;)

Step 1: Put your iPod on shuffle

Step 2: Post the first line from the first 20 songs that play no matter how embarrassing
Step 3: Bold over the songs that someone guesses correctly
Step 4: Looking up the lyrics on any search engine is totally cheating and that's not cool. (I trust you guys. :P)

1. She turns like the ocean she tells no emotion

2. Stoplights breakdown we cry last try worlds collide time to decide

3. Ill-M-I, Ill-M-I, Ill-M-I, Ill-M-I and you Illuminati comin' thru - I'll-M-I - tobyMac

4. There's a fracture in the color bar in the back seat of a parked car

5. She never slows down she doesn't know why but - Stand in the Rain - Superchic[k]

6. When he was seeing her you could see he had his doubts

7. I walked the line leave it all behind I've been waiting forever - Everything You Ever Wanted - Hawk Nelson

8. If weakness is a wound that no one wants to speak of then "cool" is just how far we have to fall - I'm not Alright - Sanctus Real

9. I'm a brand new man, I'm a conscious man I'm a man who's burnin' for you - Burn for you - tobyMac

10. I just wasted ten seconds of your life - Crayons can Melt on Us for all I Care - Relient K

11. I found You in the most unlikely way really it was You who found me - Remembering You - Steven Curtis Chapman

12. I know you keep a journal and every page in rippled - Atmosphere - tobyMac

13. Rain falls outside I think the sky must know whats happening tonight

14. Everyone I know needs love like drugs

15. There's a cross on the side of the road where a mother lost a son - We Live - Superchic[k]

16. You got me feeling so fly there ain't a day that goes by - Feelin' so Fly - tobyMac

17. I'm as eloquent as an elephant I'm as headstrong as the Mighty King Kong - Eloquent - Sanctus Real

18. You're in a better place, I've heard a thousand times

19. I hope it snows this week, a snow flake on your cheek

20. I made you promises a thousand times, I tried to hear from heaven

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!

*happy sigh* I love that part of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. And only that part. But don't worry, this isn't another review post.

I'm actually saying that I'm taking a break from blogging until the New Year. So Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy New Year!! See you in 2009!! Ahhhh!!!

~Lizzie

MI2

Well, Jessica, I think you would have liked Tom Cruise's hair. It was kinda long, and very shiny and swishy.

Mission Impossible 2 was ridiculous. Note to self: when Daddy says a movie is awful, it really is. However, the reverse is not always true... think 2001 Space Odyssey. If you haven't seen it, DON'T!

I don't think it's even worth going through everything that was lame about MI2. It was a good movie to watch in the middle of the night when you're exhausted. Just be sure that there's someone really hyper to wake you up for the action parts.

And if anyone has seen it, we should do a spoof where everyone attempts to rip a mask off of everyone else's faces before they speak. It's like, the secret handshake. Directions: grab cheek or hair and pull. But don't pull too hard, in case it isn't a mask.

~Lizzie

Random Discovery

I was reading Emily's blog the other day, and then I checked out all the links in her blog list, and found this guy's blog. I thought he was hilarious, so I checked to see if he had any other blogs and I found this. I think he's absolutely hilarious, but I have no idea who he is, so I've been hesitant to put a link in my sidebar. Sarah convinced me that I should though. So there it is.

~Lizzie

Prince Caspian, Take Two.

So we bought the DVD. (Couldn't resist.) And just watched it again. First of all, the cover is making me sick. It looks so Disney. Sarah even pointed out a sprinkling pixie dust. HOW is that related???

So, with the second watching I've already resigned myself to the fact that they ruined almost everything. (For a more complete review, you may check back to my original post: Prince Caspian) But this time I was actually a little more annoyed with it. I remembered liking Ben Barnes' (Caspian) acting, but this time it struck me as lame. Sometimes he's okay, sometimes... not. And I noticed several phrases from the Pevensies that seemed too modern even for London in the early 1900's, and especially for Narnia.

My disgust and abhorrence for Caspian and Susan's romance has only increased. But now I think more that Caspian doesn't deserve Ramandu's daughter. He and Susan are perfect for each other. Too bad he can't go back to London with her and be replaced by a cooler Caspian who can act.

They've dumbed it down til it's just like all the other greasy cheeseball Disney movies. As a matter of fact, I gagged over so many of the lines this second time that I saw it that it almost equaled High School Musical for gag-worthiness. It's all Andrew Adamson's fault. I despised and loathed Shrek so completely and instantaneously that I didn't even finish watching it. And THAT was the man honored with the responsibility of taking a literary work of art like Narnia and making it a movie? Ah, my feelings require an overly cheesy and dramatic exclamation... "Narnia is about to be annihilated!" *sobs*

Thank goodness for Michael Apted! I'm hoping and almost praying that Voyage of the Dawn Treader will manage to overcome the reputation of its precedors and be more than just another slimy, idiotic Disney movie.

Sarah and I watched the credits. Please don't ask me why, we usually watch the credits in movie theaters, and we watched the credits tonight. Anyway, I noticed some very amusing titles that people were credited with. For example: "2nd 2nd assistant director." Yes, that's two "2nd's." And: "'a' camera 2nd assistant camera." Others were prop-buyers, "2nd payroll assistant" and chaperones. All listed in the credits. Oh, and they also mentioned that the piano used for that production was a Steinway maintained by Steinway and Sons, London. Which I thought was cool. Apparently they actually had a piano... for the music recording I guess. I should watch the credits again and see who the artist was that played the piano.

And now I will avoid watching Prince Caspian.

~Lizzie

Forwards!

This is a "thank-you" email I just received in response to all those "URGENT!!" forwards that get sent around. (I am proud to report that I don't forward them on.)

"I just want to thank all of you for your educational e-mails over the past year. I am totally screwed up now and have little chance of recovery.

I no longer open a public bathroom door without using a paper towel.

Or have them put lemon slices in my ice water without worrying about the bacteria on the lemon peel.

I can't use the remote in a hotel room because I don't know what the last person was doing while flipping through the movie channels.

Nor can I sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed.

I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking one's nose.

Eating a little snack sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of Trans fats I have consumed over the years.

I can't touch any woman's purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom.

I must send my special thanks to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing.

Also, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish.

I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I won't touch margarine, as it is just one molecule away from being plastic.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains, nor do I drink Pepsi or Dr. Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put 'Under God' on their cans.

I can no longer buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm pumping gas.

I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.

And thanks for letting me know I can't boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face, disfiguring me for life.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

Neither will I go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or Fed Ex since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I won't shop at Target since they are French and don't support our American troops or the Salvation Army.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore, and Uzbekistan.

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe.

I can 't do any gardening because I'm afraid I'll get bitten by the brown recluse and my hand will fall off.

If you don't send this e-mail to at least 14,000 people in the next 14 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM tomorrow afternoon and the fleas from 1,000 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician...

Have a wonderful day....

Oh, by the way, a German scientist from Argentina , after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse.

Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late."

~Lizzie

Caroling and Cold Cider

Despite my visions of shotguns and dogs that merit more than a "beware of dog" sign, I actually set off caroling with our group with high spirits. Yes, it felt like summer, and it felt kinda strange, like maybe we were over-obsessed Christmas-in-July carolers. But it was fun, and there were no shotguns, although there were people peeking out windows and then ignoring us. For them we have an altered version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".....

It was great fun until it began to rain. It sprinkled, and then when we started singing it would pour, and then we would head back to the clubhouse, so it would go back to just a mist, and then we would decide to keep going since it stopped raining and then it would start pouring again. We finally gave up and went back to the clubhouse very damp. We were hoping for some hot cider, but we didn't spend enough time caroling, so it was in the crock-pot, not-so-warm.

We had some dessert and barely warm cider, prayed a few minutes and then went home to get into dry clothes. It really was fun, and I hope we'll do it again next week... hopefully without rain.

The games yesterday were really fun, all the way in Greensboro. We spent about 4 hours driving. And we have to go almost all the way back for the games Friday...

Tomorrow is our swim meet with NRCA, Cary Christian and Grace Christian. And Sarah's band concert. It's going to be crazy, and I just hope that the meet is over soon enough that we'll see some of the concert. I'm terrified that we're going to miss the whole thing, and I so want to see it.

~Lizzie

Yum!!

I made Natalie's Cinnamon Breakfast Bisuits for a snack this afternoon. I didn't use the plastic bag to put the icing on, and I think that might have made the icing look a little neater, but who cares if they taste really good anyway? Still, I'm going to try the plastic bag next time. :D

Here's a picture at 3:00...


And here's a picture at 3:05.

Scarves and Free Hot Chocolate

The Lighthouse Homeschool band played at The Lighting of Wake Forest tonight. And as you may have gathered from previous posts, Sarah plays in the band, so we went outside to freeze to death while being supportive. Just kidding, it really was fun. But I was really cold. And I was trying to wear a scarf because I really wanted the extra protection from the cold, but I just can't stand scarves. For some odd reason, when I wear a scarf, it causes me to jut my head forward into bad posture. Which gives me a headache, decreases my air flow, and makes my neck ache.

But the good news was that after I was thoroughly chilled and despairing of ever being warm again, the people who were selling hot chocolate decided to give away the last of it, thereby making it possible for me to have some! It was soooo nice and hot... it warmed my hands up through my gloves, and, of course, warmed my insides too.

We have a really busy week coming up. Monday the boys have basketball practice and Sarah has band, then Tuesday we have swimming and the boys have a basketball game. Wednesday we have swimming and water polo, Sarah has band and her private flute lesson, and then we're going caroling. Thursday we have a light swim practice, a swim meet and Sarah's band concert. Friday is another basketball game and Saturday yet another basketball game. And somewhere in there I'm supposed to be doing school so I can GRADUATE. SO not happening... and have I mentioned that after than insanely crazy week we'll only have two weeks to prepare for Christmas? There are at least 5 parties to plan, a million gifts to buy, food to cook, and then right after that, NEW YEARS.

Wow, just thinking about all that makes me exhausted. I'm going to go get some sleep while I can.

~Lizzie

The series of tagging.

Sadly, this one turned out blurry, but I couldn't bring myself to delete it because it's the only one of both of them that I managed to get. They were evading the camera. Anyway, this is Joel and David on the way to our week vacation at the beach. All the stuff piled in the back behind them is the stuff we "needed" for the week.

The rules are: Go to your Picture file, go to the 5th folder, (and then in my case open the 5th folder in THAT folder), open up the 5th picture, post it, and then tag 5 people.

Unfortunately, Anna got almost everyone that I would have tagged... so I'm tagging some people that may or may not respond: Allie, Marck, Matt, Nick, and Sarah (my sister).

*ponders the reason for the choosing of number 5*

~Lizzie

It's called Thanksgiving, not Turkey Day.

So when I wrote this I wasn't thinking I'd be posting it on the blog. Lizzie read it and said that I had to post it so there ya go. :P
The following is VERY long a perhaps boring, feel free not to read it, and there will be no need for applause at the end. (:P @ Jessica)

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Thanksgiving. It's the only holiday in which gluttony is considered part of the observing the special day. Really though, it's not about food, just look at its name. Thanksgiving may cause us to think about turkey, but it honestly doesn't have the word turkey in it anywhere. 'Thanks' is a expression of gratitude, 'thanksgiving' is the act of giving thanks, so thanksgiving is a day for giving out of 'expressions of gratitude'.
So, who do we give these expressions of gratitude? Probably, the host(ess) of the thanksgiving lunch, and all the people who helped cook all the food. Special thanks may go to the person(s) who cooked that delicious turkey. If any members of your party are Christians, or even simply go to church, or really, if anyone is not an atheist, someone will pray before you eat (or maybe if they forget, after a bite or so) and thank God for the food, friends and family. Perhaps later, your party may take turns telling about what they're thankful for. Everyone says friends and family (duh, no one wants anyone else to think they're not grateful for that) Christians will say they are thankful for their God, who saved them. Probably everyone will think of something they're thankful for, that they'd rather not say. Kids, who don't really think about stuff like that might repeat what a parent said. After that, everyone is glad that's over; now they can eat the rest of the day and not feel ungrateful.

I admit, last year I was one of those kids. I never asked myself what I was thankful for, I just wanted food. (Thanksgiving! Mmm... turkey day) Then when I was asked by some one else, I just repeated my parents. The only thing on my mind was drumsticks and dessert.
This year was different. Very different. First of all the day I described above didn't happen. But I'll get to that later. Also, this year I asked my self the question, 'what am I thankful for?' This is to answer that question.

In order to understand what I'm thankful for, you must understand how my year went. I said it was different, and it was. A lot happened that I never dreamed of in the year before.

Only a month after I couldn't think for myself on what I was thankful for, I got sick. Just a few days before Christmas. It was the sickest I've been in a long, long time. I remember falling asleep on the bathroom floor, because I was too dizzy and tired to make it back to bed. I was still sick when the family came for Christmas. No delicious turkey for me. I was only a little better on Christmas day. Nevertheless, there was something about it that made it a very good Christmas for me. Perhaps it was simply because the worldly part of Christmas was taken away (no food and I couldn't properly enjoy the opening of gifts). All I was left with was the Christmas spirit.

Occasionally, during the basketball season, my sister, brother, dad and I would take the time to cheer for the Raleigh Hawks, the team my swim Coach coached. We were the only people who went to the games regularly, but didn't have family on the team. I took a small amount of pride in that. I thoroughly enjoyed these games, and took a boatload of pictures with my Canon Rebel XTi.

March was the East Coast Homeschool Basketball Championships. I imagine it was 'East Coast' because it was hosted on the east coast. Liberty University in Lynchburg Virginia to be exact. Any homeschool team in America could compete in the championship. I was thrilled when my dad decided to drive nearly 5 hours to watch two games, (the championship games for JV and Varsity) and then drive 5 hours back again. We arrived in the enormous court just in time to see our JV boys lose, and get second. It didn't take me long to realize, second means there was only one team better then us in the whole competition. After a couple hours break, it was the Varsity boys' turn. It was a amazing game. They were tied nearly the whole time, but our boys pulled it out, winning by 2 points in overtime. The best of the best. I was enthralled.

Not at all long after, the baseball season officially cranked up. Coached by the same coach of those awesome basketball guys. Even several of those guys played baseball as well. The teams' name was Raleigh Hawks too. This though, was a bit different, because my younger (but not smaller) brother started playing on the middle school team. I was pleased with this because it meant I could go to all the games... and I did. I tried to savor them, enjoy every minute, and capture the great times with photos and dairy entries. Still, the season swept by quickly leaving me suddenly depressed, and wondering where it had gone.

Sometime in the middle of the baseball season, NRCA's Beauty and the Beast snuck up on us unprepared. Somehow, we managed to get tickets, and after a baseball game, a small group of us headed over early to try and save good seats for a few more people. We arrived early, but too late for good seats. We sat in the very, very back. The rest of our party arrived a few minutes after the performance was supposed to begin, and after we were threatened with having our saved seats taken away for other people if they did not come soon. Fortunately, they were running late, and started just after the rest of our group came. The show was absolutely incredible, even with the bad seats. It was all worth it.

Two years ago, I was thrilled to see one of my ultimate favorite books hit the big screen. C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. since then I counted the days for the second book out of seven to also come to theaters. May 16th was the day Prince Caspian premiered, and I was going to begin to see it within the very first few minutes of that day. I didn't, however think I would see it with friends, though I wished I could. It was last minute, as it is often, but there we were, goofing off in the near-empty theater, and hallway until midnight. I had so much adrenalin I couldn't contain myself. Then again, I didn't exactly try.

Ever since the beginning of the year, North Carolina had been in a drought. Because of this, a law was passed that owners of pools may only open their pools if there was water already in the pool, or if they had a well. Coach, the coach of the basketball, baseball and swim teams owns a out door pool, where we have our summer meets. It had no water in it and there was no well. Or any money for a well. So our summer pool did not open. Instead, we swam inside, as we did over winter, and was always the away team in our meets.

Not only did we swim indoors, we swam long course (50 meters a lap instead of 25) two days of the three our team practiced. I absolutely hated long course. With a burning and undying passion. Because of that I began to hate swim practice. I lived for meets and water polo. Water polo became my passion, a reason to go through with the week. I began to love it even more than I hated long course.

In the middle of these strange changes, the play "Annie" which we'd been working on for some eight months sprang up on us. (plays have a way of doing that) we hadn't even run all the way through on production day. Since there was two performances, the first was like our dress rehearsal. Surprisingly, (but then again, not really) both went rather well. Still, I was glad for not having a main role.

July rolled around. Slowly.
I had turned fifteen in May, and was rather annoyed with myself for still not having taken Driver's Ed. I wanted to do it with people I knew. So when the opportunity came to take it with three other people, I took it. Even though the class was at a high school, so I'd be one of very few homeschoolers, I figured it'd be okay. I'm still not sure if I was right or wrong. On one hand I learned how to drive properly, and had a bit of fun with my friends. I also built a considerable amount of character. It was definitely a experience. On the other hand.... I got headaches almost every day from sitting in front of the computer for so long, the teacher wasn't especially good or nice, and my mind was numb by the end from forcing so much boring information in it. It definitely could have been better.

Now I had been taking private flute lessons for four years, and known of the Lighthouse Christian Homeschool Band for nearly just as long. Mum and Dad seemed to want me to join, but I felt that it was too much of a unknown. I simply didn't know enough about the particular band, or even being in a band in general.

During the baseball season I met the director of the wind ensemble. When he heard of how long I had been playing he told me that he thought I should be good enough to make it.
In my opinion, that suddenly made the band so much less of a unknown. I began to seriously consider trying out. There was one not-so-slight problem. Band Practices were on Monday and Wednesday, and the Wednesday practice conflicted with water polo. Thinking maybe I could skip out on Wednesday every so often in order to play water polo, I tried out, making second and also last chair.

After the first band practice I realized what a bad idea it was to try and play water polo, even only so often. Every Wednesday since, I've showed up at that church where we practice, at least five minutes early. With a undying longing to play water polo inside.
It's not that I don't love band, if I didn't, I could just quit. But I haven't, because I do love it. I just wish that somehow I could do both.

It didn't seem like very long after Annie until theatre started again. This time we were doing "Oklahoma!" I tried out for the part of Laurey, knowing I wouldn't get it, and was not surprised. Nevertheless, I took the time to learn the monologue and song, and then I got stressed because I'm a perfectionist.

With the stress of everything that was happening, I could hardly concentrate on my projects for the NC State Fair. Before I knew it, I was rushing, and didn't finish all that I wanted to enter. I ended up with seven entries. I was very pleased when out of those seven, four won first and one won second. Wining a considerable amount of money.

A very short baseball season followed. My brother practiced but didn't play with the team, and we went to all the games.

Then basketball season started, and both my brothers joined the team. As the first game came up I realized a problem. A considerable amount of games are on Tuesday nights. Theatre is on Tuesday nights. Last year everything seemed to fit together like a puzzle. This year? Not so much. Now I was really glad I didn't get a main role; it wouldn't be so bad when I missed a few rehearsals. I skipped theatre to go to the first two games of the season on Tuesday.

NRCA's production of "It's a Wonderful Life" didn't sneak up us. Who am I kidding? Really, it certainly did. We bought our tickets at the door.
There was a guy I knew who was playing the lead role George Bailey. I was rather looking forward to seeing him play the crazy character. Imagine my surprise and disappointment when I read the playbill, which declared that he would be playing George in the night show. Not the one I was at already. I thoroughly enjoyed the show, but couldn't get over that minor detail. We came back that night just to see the guy I knew play George. I actually enjoyed it more than the first time.

The day before "It's a Wonderful Life" we noticed that my cat, Shadow was acting strange. She was refusing to eat and just sitting around. We tried to figure it out, but when nothing changed we took her to the hospital. She has kidney failure. The doctor's figured there was nothing we could really do, and hinted that we might be wasting our money. Somehow, she got better. Well, enough to come home. It was honestly nothing short of a miracle. She progressed slowly after that, and even stopped eating, but slowly began again.
Today (Thanksgiving) she ate some turkey.
Because of Shadow we went nowhere for Thanksgiving. Normally, we would've gone to my Aunt's and my Grandmother's. Instead we had our own meal, all by ourselves, at home.

What you have just read is what I'm thankful for. Not all of it mind you; it's just the out-of-the-ordinary things. The things which have happened to me... really, the things that made me even think of writing this. Not friends family possessions or food. I am, of course still thankful for those things, and I'm thankful for my loving God. But mostly, I'm thankful to my God.
Thanksgiving has two similar definitions: the act of giving thanks, and, a payer expressing gratitude. This holiday is for giving thanks to God. For everything. What we have and what we don't, what we've lost and what we may lose. The good, bad, the painful and wonderful.
There is nothing for which we should not thank Him.

--Sarah

I'm Thankful For...

I’m thankful for…

God the Father who loved us enough to send His Son to die for our sins, our Lord Jesus who loved us enough to die for us, and the Holy Spirit who leads us and gives us understanding.

My family and friends who know me better than I know myself and yet still love me.

My friends who know me well enough to know that they can barely tolerate me.

Our home, the food, and the clothes that God provides for us.

Shadow coming home and doing better, and Tommy and Twila not being sick, but only fat cats.

God continuing to mold me into what He wants me to be, no matter how slow the progress.

The peace and contentment I’ve found in Jesus.

God’s plans for my future, and that they’re better than my plans.

My assurance of heaven.


Happy Thanksgiving!

~Lizzie

Living Sacrifice

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

~Romans 12:1-2

"...that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice..."

Recently I have decided that it is much more difficult to be a living sacrifice than to die a sacrifice. Obviously I wouldn't actually know, because I have never died. But recently I had begun envying the martyrs who got to die for our Lord. Sometimes this life is so painful, I really don't know if I want to keep on living. However, God has apparently decided that, at least for this moment, that He will be glorified by my continuing to live on this earth. Anyway, I don't know if that's actually what that verse means, but it makes sense to me and it encouraged me.

"...but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

And when I am happy with living, it seems I don't do anything right. I confess, sometimes it seems I'm just too busy to take time to really pray and concentrate on reading my Bible, when I know it's just that I'm not MAKING time. Like right this second, instead of writing this pointless blog post that's really only benefiting me by organizing my own thoughts...
So anyway, that would be the renewing of my mind... praying, reading the Bible, and absorbing what I've read. And according to this verse, that will prove the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Which I admit I've been kinda doubting lately.

There, my two new favorite Bible verses.

~Lizzie

First Law of Iced Drinks

It's happened to everyone. Or, at least, it should have. If it hasn't happened to you, perhaps you are merely protected from this torture by your ignorance of its occurrence, and what I'm getting ready to say will begin your introduction to the horrible experience of ice explosion. But for the sake of my ranting, let's assume it has never happened to you.

It's happened to me too many times to count. I innocently put some ice in my glass, and then pour my chosen beverage. For most of the drink, I blissfully enjoy the refreshing coldness provided by the ice. But then... my drink is almost gone. The ice is packed into one interesting ice formation at the bottom of my glass, and there's one more swallow of liquid left. I tilt the glass slowly, because I'm expecting the ice mass to slide down and hit my lip while I drain the last drops of juice, but instead the ice structure collapses, and that suddenly plentiful last collection of probably red or purple juice sloshes onto my face and streams onto my clean shirt.

It has the effect of making one feel that perhaps one should not have yet graduated from sippy cups, but I determined that it's just the the First Law of Iced Drinks: Ice Will Clump Together and Then Collapse at the Most Inopportune Moment to Cause You as Much Inconvenience and Embarrassment as Possible.

I was further intrigued by my recent scientific discovery when I asked my dad if he'd ever encountered this dangerous phenomenon. He replied that it used to happen to him when he was a teenager. My mind raced. So maybe it was true! Some kind of horrible degeneration of drinking abilities that would suggest that perhaps teenagers should revert to sippy cups! Then Daddy grinned and announced that he'd quickly learned to shake his glass before drinking the last bit.

If it's possible, I felt even more miserable than when I was contemplating myself using sippy cups. Why had I not realized how simple a fix there was? If you never allow your ice to clump into interesting formations then it can't collapse. Apparently I am quite useless at thwarting petty annoyances.

Now I know... but what else am I missing??

~Lizzie

Can't.... breathe.....

*gasp for air* I hate colds. And I think we're running out of tissues... Oh, dear. It was the strangest thing, because this cold just kinda exploded on me (after swimming in the feels-like-it's-38-degrees-instead-of-78 pool) yesterday. I felt fine, until a crazy game of (non-gambling) poker gave me a headache and by the time we got home I had a pretty good cold. It was even worse this morning, and the weirdest part is that Jessica got a cold almost exactly the same way at exactly the SAME TIME.... *insert mysterious music*

In much happier news, Shadow got to come home yesterday and is doing very well. She's only on 400 different kinds of medication, but we're hoping she won't need those too long. She's eating good, and acting normal... for Shadow, anyway. I'm so grateful to God, because on Monday night the vet wasn't giving us much hope, so we went to see her and prayed for her, and the next morning, she was doing SO much better!

~Lizzie

Wow, it's cold.

I just went outside, and realized something fascinating. You see, it's 38 degrees outside. We swim indoors, and supposedly the pool water is 78 degrees. But stepping outside, and diving in the pool feel exactly the same. Actually, stepping outside isn't quite as bad. And I suppose we could be all scientific and say that it's because the air isn't packed as tightly as the water, so it doesn't cover as much of the skin surface, which is why it feels the same.

But I was mostly going for sympathy.

And for those of you who heard about Shadow, (our cat, she's been in the hospital with kidney failure since Sunday) she's doing better this morning!

~Lizzie

I've been tagged!

Annabeth tagged me!

• Link to the person who tagged you.
  
• Post the rules on your blog.
  
• Write Six Random Things about yourself.
  
• Tag a few other people at the bottom of the post.
  
• Leave comments on their blogs, letting them know they've been tagged!
  
• Let the person who tagged you know when you've written the post.

1. I hate it when it rains, and your jeans are just long enough that the hems get wet in puddles, but the you sit down, and the soggy wet edges just BARELY go over the tops of your shoes and get your ankles wet. Or, even worse, you have to take your shoes off and your socks get wet from stepping on the edges of your jeans..... *shudder*

2. I'm very self-conscious, and while on this blog I may seem to be able to speak intelligently, I usually have to know someone very well before I can think about what I'm saying. So I usually end up sounding... well, not-so-intelligent. It works well if I can avoid speaking and not get on a very pathetic ramble where everyone in the conversation gives me strange looks. "Is she okay?" "I dunno, I think she's turned into a robot." "Is there an 'off' switch?"

3. I almost got baptized in a typical church with the typical white robe and the pastor I didn't know. But I chickened out, and then a few years later I got baptized by my dad and our home church leader, in a swimming pool, wearing a T-shirt over my bright green bathing suit. It was so much more special. Some of my life-long friends even came, and we hung out at the pool afterward.

4. I used to have curls. When I was little, I had really long red ringlets. And then one day Mom cut my hair and the curls didn't come back. (Unfairly, Sarah cut her hair short a few years ago and it grew out curly!! *pout*)

5. I am overly obsessed with the color green, and almost anything Irish. I go all out for St. Patrick's Day, and I'm quite annoyed that I was born in America, because that makes me something of a fake, even if I am part Irish. I wish I had an Irish accent, and I want to visit Ireland someday.

6. I love it when it snows, and you've had so much snow already that you don't feel compelled to go outside and play in it, you just sit by the fire with some hot chocolate and read a book. Unfortunately, that almost never happens because we get less and less snow... global warming? :P

I'm going to tag Jessica and Neil.

Today I Am.

I've been thinking about a quote from "When God Writes Your Love Story" by Eric and Leslie Ludy ever since I finished the book who-knows-how-long ago. Krissy Ludy (Eric's sister) is 31 and still single. 18 years ago she chose to remain faithful to her future husband and wait patiently for God to bring him into her life. When asked by her brother, Marky, "Krissy, do you think you're called to singleness?" she paused, reflected a moment, then replied, "Today I am."

I didn't understand how someone could be called to singleness temporarily. It seemed to me that there were people who were called to singleness permanently (like Paul of the Bible) and people who were called to marriage, but were single because the right person wasn't in their life yet. How could she say that "today" she was called to singleness? But after pondering it subconsciously since I finished the book, I finally understand. God may mean for me to be married someday; I don't really know. Until then, He has called me to singleness. I am single now, and maybe I'm meant to be single my whole life. But I don't have to look that far ahead. Today, He has called me to singleness. And today, I am content.

I took Sarah to her art lesson, and went grocery shopping like I usually do on Thursdays. Mornings at grocery stores seem to be mostly moms with young children. Almost every shopping cart has a little car seat, or a little one big enough to sit in the shopping cart seat. I can't resist smiling at kids when I notice that they're looking at me, but they usually don't smile back. They might keep watching, or they might go shy and look away.

Today, though, there was an adorable little boy twisted around backwards in his shopping cart seat to watch me. I was quite flattered, and smiled like I usually do. And he actually smiled back! So I kept smiling at him, he kept smiling back, and kinda ducked his head, like he was shy, still smiling. He was so cute. And then his mom looked up from tucking a blanket around his little sister in her car seat, and smiled when she saw him smiling at me and asked him, "are you flirting?" and hurried off before I recovered my senses enough to tell her that he was adorable.

The most interesting thing was that he looked like me. His hair was exactly the same straw-berry blonde that my hair was when I was about his age. So from now on, whenever I think about my future kids, that's what they'll look like. :P

~Lizzie

Elsie Dinsmore

The Elsie Dinsmore books by Martha Finley were very popular amongst Christian homeschool girls back when I was younger. I even knew a guy who read them. I've read them several times over the course of my life, and my impressions each time were very interesting.

The first time I read them I was 8. I thought Elsie was amazingly perfect. The way all the "good" people treated each other was sickeningly sweet, and the "bad" people weren't too awful. They actually came up with some pretty funny remarks.

The next time I was about 10. I noticed that Elsie actually wasn't perfect; there were at the most, two instances where she was slightly less than perfect. Their interaction with each other were still so sweet as to be sickening, but the "bad" people seemed worse.

I read them again when I was 14. By this time I realized that Elsie definitely wasn't perfect, but still close enough as to put me to shame. Strangely, the the over-use of "dearest" and "darling" in conversations was only becoming more unpleasant for me, even as I realized that Elsie wasn't as good as I'd originally thought, and that the "wicked" relatives were worse than I'd previously thought.

I thought when I'd read them at 14 that I'd probably already changed my opinion as much as I ever would, but I just began reading them again this week, and my opinions have continued to change. Elsie, far from being perfect, really has some pretty petty and childish moments. She and her father are very prejudiced against the "lower class," and while they are kind, they avoid contact unless to preach the gospel. This is particularly annoying to me as I would qualify as the lower class in their million-dollar world. Their frequent use of endearments annoys me even more than it did 3 years ago.

Besides that, their slaves do everything for them, and in one book Elsie admits that she's never so much as put on her own shoes and stockings, and they proclaim themselves tired after something as ridiculous as a carriage ride! And Elsie, as a grown woman, is requested by her father that she not carry her own child! A baby! And I know many 9-10 year old girls who quite frequently carry 2-year-old's with little difficulty. They are pathetically weak, susceptible to disease, and, dare I say, lazy!

The final straw has been this fourth book. Perhaps I will be able to recover some of my former interest in these books, but right now my Southern pride is aroused. They are supposed to be southerners, but they hide in England for the duration of the Civil War, chiding the South for attempting to succeed, from across the Atlantic Ocean. The Civil War was, as some people don't know, actually over state's rights. The federal government was becoming too powerful, so some Southern states decided to leave the Union. I wish the South had won, I think our country would be in a much better position today if they had. I'm completely disgusted with Martha Finley for creating such awful characters.

I can't read them any more. I wish I'd left the Elsie Dinsmore books as a pleasant childhood memory. Perhaps I can erase my memory of this reading and remember it as I did: a fairy-tale story of a little girl too perfect to be real.

~Lizzie

Cookies

Shouldn't chocolate chip cookies be slightly crunchy around the edges and gooey in the middle? Sarah was just criticizing my cookies and said I needed to cook them longer. Tell me this doesn't look good:


I'm highly insulted... although I think I should probably ignore her, because as she was complaining, she ate two of them.

Personally, I LOVE chocolate chip cookies, hot out of the oven, with the chocolate still liquid-y, the middle nice and soft and the edge with a slight crunch.... Yum.

~Lizzie

Brace Yourself

When you see the rushing wind, feel the pouring rain
Hear the thunder now, as the clouds roll in
And you’re blinded by the lightening
Do you also hear that still, small voice saying
It’s okay, you’re not alone
You may be scared to death but I won’t let you go
You may think the sky above is falling
But can you hear Jesus calling?
"Jesus Calling" ~ 33Miles

Thus begins four years of Barack Hussein Obama as the president of the United States. Be prepared for much worse than you were expecting. Trust me, it’s best to imagine the worst. Then you might be pleasantly surprised. Hoping that it won’t be as bad as you thought only sets you up for disappointment. That’s what I get for hoping that McCain would make it. Now I’m fully expecting everything I didn’t want and more: the banning of homeschooling, the beginning of communism, the return of terror attacks, schools becoming training camps for “Hitler” youth, the persecution of Christians, infanticide, the end of the world and the return of our Lord. Actually, the return of Jesus doesn’t fit on that list, because that would be a good thing that I will hope for my whole life. I did want to get married and have a dozen kids first though.

Something gives me the feeling that Obama might not be just ‘an’ anti-Christ, but maybe THE anti-Christ. Yes, I know many people have been suspected of being the anti-Christ for approximately 2000 years. And no, I haven’t really researched it, mostly because I’m freaked out about Obama enough as it is and I have plenty more pleasant ways to spend my time than reconciling his description to the description in the Bible. Not to mention that it’s enough for me that he’s been called “the Messiah” (which he does not deny), that he’s proclaimed himself to be our Savior and that so many people like him despite his creepiness. If Obama gets mortally wounded, I won’t be the least surprised when he rises from the dead…. on the third day. Just horrified and disgusted.

Don’t panic, life on earth has always been pain and frustration cushioned by little pleasantries and sweet moments. It’s just that I only recently realized it. And believe it or not, I'm actually a happy person sometimes... mostly when I don't have time to think about deep things.

Does 'easy' rhyme with 'greasy'?

~Lizzie

Beach Vacation 6

Remember the beach vacation series back in September where I promised to post a video of as soon as I could get it to work? I finally got it to work. So here's the video.

You might notice that I say "Yeah" a total of 4 times in this video. There's a very good reason for my lack of intellectual conversation.... it was not required.

By the way, here's the script if you were wondering what David said:

David: Isn't it cool? (Meaning his skim board)
Me: Yeah
David: Lizzie!
Me: Yeah!
David: Isn't it cool? (He didn't hear my answer the first time)
Me: Yeah!
Joel: Are you doing video?
Me: Yeah
Joel: Huh.

And actually, that's not Joel playing frisbee with himself, it's Bubba.

So I finally got that posted. Whew.

~Lizzie

I am SO special....

We went to the Hawks baseball games today, and I managed to get sunburned. Yes, in November. And I don't mean a light sunburn either. I mean lobster red. Oh, and the bonus?? It's only on the left side of my face, and my left arm, because the sun was to my left. Uh-huh. Let's hear it for the red-heads with pathetically pale skin. *everyone groans*

And sadly, it was the championship weekend, and the Hawks lost their second game and were eliminated. So that's the end of our fall baseball season.

Now begins basketball! I'm excited, since I enjoyed Hawks basketball last year, but this year my own little brothers are on the middle school team! Of course, according to Kara, that just makes the games more stressful. But I'm still looking forward to it.

What I'm not looking forward to is the conflicts with theatre rehearsals. We're going to have at least 4 middle school games on Tuesdays.. the same days as theatre rehearsals. And we're missing several awesome JV/Varsity games because of theatre. I'm already wishing I didn't do theatre this year. It's always a gamble. I mean, I couldn't possibly have known we were going to get stuck with "Oklahoma!" one of my least favorite plays ever. *sigh* But we also might have gotten a good play. It's just frustrating.

Hopefully I'll manage to enjoy "Oklahoma!" but I haven't managed it so far. I am really enjoying voice lessons though! They are absolutely awesome! I've always wanted to do voice, and I finally got to do it this year. It's been fantastic!

And now I'm off to nurse my sunburn.

~Lizzie

Project!

I got these really cute hooks from the blacksmith shop at the fair and I mounted them in my (and Sarah and Joel and David's) bathroom today. I'm very pleased with them, and now have no doubts about whether I really should have paid $7 each for them.

I plan to use them for a very long time. If you come see my house in 10 years, these will probably be in the master bathroom. :P

~Lizzie

Wanted: Big Brother

Sarah and I just got home from a short shopping trip. I needed to return a book to the library, and I wanted to stop at Michael's and get a TINY calligraphy pen, because all the ones I have are too big for writing as small as I want, and we stopped at Target so I could show Sarah a really cute shirt I saw there the other day.

I returned the book to the library, but unfortunately, the library was closed, so I couldn't get the book Mom asked for. And the other consequence of the closed library meant that the two guys sitting in front of the very deserted library made me somewhat terrified to go drop my book in the drop box.

Then we went to Target and Michael's (they're right next to each other) and as I parked the car, I noticed that the gas tank was practically almost completely empty. Not only was the needle in the red, and the warning light lit up, but our car has an electronic screen that announces how many miles are left to an empty tank, for example "20 miles" or "145 miles" and that screen was showing "---". I quickly determined that a gas station would be our next stop.

We went into Michael's, and they didn't have exactly what I was looking for, so I got 2 pens that looked cool just to make myself feel better. And because I had a coupon. So really, I saved money. (Just kidding.)

Then we went over to Target, but I couldn't find the shirt (I saw it at a different Target, and apparently this one didn't carry it.)

So we left to get gas. I made it to the gas station, quite stressed out that I would run out of gas and be stuck on the side of the road.... wishing for a big brother the whole time so he could be the one driving, and so there'd be someone to walk to the gas station with us two girls when the car stopped. But I DID make it, and had to go inside to pay, because I don't have a credit card.

I paid, went back out, pumped my gas, and just as I was getting ready to get in the car, one of the station clerks came out and handed me two cards, front to front, and asked if I'd ever thought about being an escort. I had no idea what an escort was, so I honestly said 'no', and took the cards. I got in the car and looked at them, and immediately realized what I'd just been "invited" to be. The sleazy picture and terms on the card left no doubt. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but I decided to do neither until I got home.

But anyway, all that to say that I really want a big brother now. One of my friends has a great older brother, and she's so protected. I've never been so envious.

Joel's bigger than me now, and I plan on making him into something of an older brother. I just doubt I'll be able to talk him into going shopping with his sisters.

Disgusted, appalled, terrified and humiliated,

~Lizzie

Fair - Second day

Our second day of the fair was yesterday. We went straight to the fair from the pool after swim practice, with our friends, the M's. We got popcorn, and rode some rides... the Pirate-ship, and a roller coaster. Unfortunately, we determined that our favorite ride, The Crazy Mouse, wasn't at the fair this year. :(
Then we went and got Gyros for supper. Our family has a tradition of getting Gyros from John the Greek at the fair. They are soooo good.

After we finished our Gyros, we went to the art building to show off Sarah and David's entries to the M's. Now, this whole time, I hadn't been feeling particularly energetic, after all, I swam 2 hours, and had dance and theatre on Tuesday, and then I swam 2 and a half hours on Wednesday, and then I swam 2 hours right before we went to the fair. While we were in the art building, I started to feel even more tired. So tired that I was even considering just laying on the floor. The floor was disgustingly dirty for one, and laying on the floor not very mature behavior for the other.

Then we ran into some other friends and while we were standing there talking to them, I started to feel sick. And over the next 10 minutes I went from just being tired to being dizzy, shaky and feeling like I might not get to keep the gyro I'd just eaten. Someone very kindly informed me that I was very white (which isn't much of an accomplishment if you know how white I am usually.... but apparently I was abnormally white).

Daddy and Mr. M prayed for me, and then our whole group slowly made our way out of the art building while my family tried to decide if I was going to sit (sleep) in the car while they stayed at the fair a little longer, or if we should all go home. But by the time we got out of the building I was already feeling better. So I decided I'd try to stick it out, and by the time we'd walked over to the rides, I was feeling much better. We watched the some of our friends ride a very scary-looking ride, and by then I felt perfectly normal. It was so cool, I've never had prayer work that quickly on me.

I even decided to ride the Sky Rider, which swings back and forth until it finally flips all the way around and then slowly stops. This concerned some of the group, particularly those who were going to be on the ride with me. I heard a lot of, "You know that this ride can make you sick even if you AREN'T sick already, right?" "Do you want to take a barf bag with you?" "Are you SURE you want to come?" But I felt great, I didn't even feel tired anymore. And the ride didn't make me sick, although it was pretty scary at first. Then I just gave up and enjoyed it. It was fun.

This is a shot I took just because I thought it looked cool.

After the rides, we went over to watch the fireworks. I have a fireworks setting on my camera (yeah, specifically for fireworks!) so I took a bunch of pictures.

Sometimes the camera "over-exposed" the pictures, taking a really long time to click. This was the result. I actually kinda like it. It's somewhat like a movie of the fireworks.

Another blurry over-exposed one.

I like the green...

Yet another over-exposed picture.

This one is also over-exposed. It's kinda weird.



I like the tree in this one. It's weird in a good way. :P

I had two great times at the fair this year. I used to worry that as I got older that maybe I wouldn't enjoy the fair as much, but to the contrary, I'm at the point where I still enjoy the rides and food, but I also enjoy walking around the Village of Yesteryear and other such slightly more intellectual aspects of the fair. Hopefully it will stay that way.

~Lizzie

Fair - First day

We decided to brave the crowds and go to the fair today, to see how all the entries did. We usually avoid going to the fair on the weekends because of the insane amount of people, but we survived today. We spent just the afternoon there and got a good start on our junk food consumption as well, with plans to go back again.

Our little excursion almost got cut off at the beginning, when we were looking for a place to park, and the streets and curbs were lined with cars. Daddy declared (half-seriously) that we were leaving. But we did manage to park, not too far from the gate.

The very first thing we did was to go to the Hobbies and Handicrafts building. Joel got a 4th place for his lego battleship.
Sarah got 3 1st's and 1 2nd.
The pumpkin, the Christmas glass, and the folded T-shirt are hers. As you can see, (or maybe you can't really tell, so that's why I'm making sure) the pumpkin and T-shirt got blue ribbons, and the Christmas glass got a red ribbon.

She also got a blue ribbon for her painted Christmas ornament.

Then we went and got the best corn on the cob ever. We've gotten it every year for a while now, and it when I had braces it would take the rest of the day to get all the corn out of my teeth (not to mention that I wasn't supposed to have corn on the cob....) but it was so worth it! It's so juicy and sweet and greasy..... yum.


And then we trudged along very slowly in a huge throng of people that seemed to hardly be going anywhere.


We enacted a buddy system so that if someone got lost, at least they'd have someone with them. (We're so smart!)


Sarah and I were buddies. We decided to pretend to be twins and walk around with our arms linked all day. Don't laugh, we were being fraternal twins.

We did finally make it over to the art building though, where Sarah and David's painting/drawing didn't win anything. And then we went over to see if David's muffins and lemon bars won, and they didn't win either.


David with his lighthouse drawing. The one directly above his head.

Sarah with her painting of a glass of water (half-full, or half-empty?)

We got our maple syrup cotton candy, and sat under the tree where we always sit to eat our cotton candy. Also where, inevitably, some kind passerby stops and offers to take a picture of all of us.

Joel didn't smile for any of them.

Daddy got this picture of me and Sarah by saying, "Hey, girls!" and clicking when we looked up. Yeah... great faces, right? I just had to share it because some people say we don't look alike.

And then we went to go sit on the same invisible bench we always sit on to take our group picture. This year we didn't get the usually inevitable kind passerby.



Instead, we got a strange and disturbing robot. Sarah and I saw it coming and started whispering to each other, "Don't make eye contact, don't make eye contact...."


It stopped anyway, with its crowd of enthralled followers, (while Daddy was trying to take pictures) and told us to stand up, (we were sitting on an invisible bench! Couldn't it see that? I guess not....) and pay attention. And then the robot said something about how "he's only 21, folks, this is what uncooperative picture subjects does to you!" "Are they always like that?" When he finally left, "Good luck, mister. You're gonna NEED it!"

Then we had some onion rings, and tried to find the Crazy Mouse (our tied-for-favorite ride)... we couldn't find it, but hopefully we'll find it when we go back sometime later this week.

This is us up on a hill, looking for the Crazy Mouse. Or, rather, goofing off after giving up on finding the Crazy Mouse.

Thanks to Mom and Dad for most of the pictures. (If I'm in them, I obviously didn't take them, now did I?)

Installment número dos, coming soon!

~Lizzie

Picture post

He's missing part of his rear leg... poor little thing. Our cats like lizards. But this one was fortunate enough to escape apparently.

I just felt like trying to be all artsy like Sarah... this was my best result.

We went to the State Fair grounds to drop off all of my siblings various competition entries. God was particularly creative with the clouds, don't you think?

Pre-fair busyness.

Notice that the ferris wheel doesn't have seats on it yet.

Something about this sign just struck me as funny.

In the left corner you can see Sarah's shoulder, and part of her painting. In the right corner is my little brother David. His drawing is not in sight... in hindsight, I realize that instead of just taking a picture of this usually very crowded area with no people, I should have waited for Sarah, David and Daddy to walk into the picture. But alas.

We had some trouble with Joel's lego tickets, but Mom and Joel went to the administrative office with the entry receipt and got that straightened out. So between my 3 siblings we had a total of 11 entries... I think.

I can't wait for the fair!

~Lizzie

What a gray day...

It's such an awful depressing day outside (in my opinion) and I'm really tempted to do a dull complaining post.... since not much good has happened to me today. But I think instead that I'll do a wry complaing post and try to wring a chuckle out of my readers.

I slept really hard from 11 to 9, and woke up feeling strange. My entire body ached from swimming, dance, swimming and water polo. And even after sleeping in, I still felt so tired that the last thing I wanted to do was get up. But I did.

And I drove Sarah to her art lesson, and then went grocery shopping. It is a fact well known that precisely 87.22% of all shopping carts are evil. Yes... they have personalities. And those evil 87.22% are adept at picking shoppers who are having not-so-awesome days. You thought you picked the cart? Well, that just shows how sneaky they are. The government could learn some tips from shopping carts.

So today, the particular shopping cart that picked me was innocent looking enough. It was even close to the door, instead of being miles away in the almost-empty, depleted tunnel of shopping cart storage. It even appeared to work fine until I'd gotten so far that I didn't want to go back and get another cart. And then it started swerving to the left. Some carts not so evil as this one will swerve gently, and in wide open spaces. This cart swerved sharper and more suddenly and maliciously than a cart shoved by two young boys, and it made sure to swerve when there was an elaborate display of parmesan cheese nearby. However, that is not the end of this particular cart's talents. It also made turning right insanely difficult.

Besides the annoyance of swerving and not being able to turn right, those two faults combine to make an action worthy of being considered a third fault in its own right. Imagine this.... I'm looking at the organic juices on the right, and to the left are shelves and shelves of wine bottles. (I see you wincing... my story is too predictable.) I finish selecting juice, and begin to move forward. The cart immediately swerves to the left, into the wine bottles. I try to stop and turn the cart to the right to compensate for the swerve to the left and encounter the 2nd fault: turning to the right is almost impossible. The cart then accelerates by itself and sweeps down the entire row of wine bottles, sending them crashing to the floor. People stare and the store employees come running.

Don't worry, it wasn't all that awful. I managed not to hit the wine bottles. But as I jerked the cart to the right with all my screaming muscles, I did see that scenario flash before my eyes. Somewhat how I imagine one sees one's life flash before one's eyes in situations where you think you might die.

After that close call, I made it through the rest of my shopping without further mishaps (thank goodness) and as soon as I was through with the cart, I gave it a nice shove into the brick wall of its home as payback. (Yes, I'm fond of such petty but satisfactory retaliation....)

I got home with Sarah, and even started feeling better. Until we got to swim team. Warm-ups weren't so bad, and we had an easy 50 set. But then, we did 3 200 IM's split lane and I was supposed to lead. (This was because I was in the Silver lane for all that were curiously wondering how I managed to lead Platinum.) I tried, but my muscles were refusing to work well, so I ended up making Sarah lead. And then I sat out the 3rd 200 in an effort to recover. That didn't work either. Then we did 20 25's on the :30. That worked pretty well, actually, cause I barely made it, and then I got out of the pool, climbed on the block and dove off so fast that I didn't have time to get dizzy and fall off the block.

By then I was almost completely exhausted. And we did relays. It's very sad.... there are three things we do in swimming that it seems most everyone enjoys: relays and two games, Sharks & Minnows and Capture the Flag (flip-flop). I have difficulty deciding which I hate more. I used to think that Sharks and Minnows was the worst, but then we played Capture the Flag yesterday and I think it's worse. It goes on longer, and there's the potential for getting grabbed, kicked, scratched and then pulled to the surface and tagged more than once in Capture the Flag. In Sharks and Minnows it only happens once and then you get to be the one grabbing and tagging. You do still get kicked and scratched as a shark though.

However, I'm quite certain that relays involving corkscrew are worse than both of those games. Corkscrew, for those that don't know, is a torturous practice not worthy of being called a stroke. You take one freestyle stroke, and then roll to your back and take one back stroke then roll again and take a freestyle stroke and so on and so forth until you arrive at the wall. Hopefully the wall arrives before the wave of nausea. When I was finished with my leg of the relay my head was pounding, I felt sick, and my muscles were completely limp. I eventually dragged myself out of the pool, mumbled something about leaving early and went to take a nice hot shower and change into my dry clothes.

I survived and made it home, and I feel much better now that I've had a snack and sat around comfortably doing nothing. Hopefully I'll be fine tomorrow because I won't get a relaxing weekend this weekend. We have a lot to do.

~Lizzie

Have you ever felt....

such intense frustration that you felt like you might implode? That tingling kind of sensation that makes you want to slam you entire body against the floor repeatedly? The rip-your-hair-out-and-then-put-yourself-into-a-blissfull-coma agony?

It was a very simple task. I maintain the website for Christian Community Sports. I have an overly obsessive fascination with making everything the same. So on the homepage where there are links to the current sports, it bugged me that the link for basketball was to the "sports" page instead of to the pdf (which wasn't available yet). The pdf became available, and I changed the link to go to the pdf, (that's ALL I changed!) and then put it on the server..... and about half of the information (on only that page!) is immediately erased. See for yourself..... www.christiancommunitysports.com. Does that look right? NO! The file looks fine on my computer, it uploads to the server fine, but as soon as it appears on the server it's half the size (2 KB instead of 4). I've tried renaming it, naming other files "index" and completely recreating the index page from scratch. NONE OF IT WORKED. I am completely and utterly confused. It doesn't make logical sense and I have no idea what to do. And what's really driving me nuts is that IT WAS PERFECTLY FINE THE WAY IT WAS. If I'd only kept a copy of the old page then maybe everything would be fine now.

Or maybe the age of artificial intelligence really is here, and the server is evil and nothing would make it fine. The world is going to explode soon. But don't panic, there are plenty of other planets and we have the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

~Lizzie

Life is so confusing

When I was little, everything was so simple. My tiny world included my family, "friends" and church. I say "friends" in quotes because I didn't understand then what it meant to really be friends with someone; my "friends" were just people whose first names I knew and was permitted to use - all others were adults, who were addressed by their title and last name. I didn't know what it was to dislike someone. I knew simple things that I expected were widely understood and accepted by all Christians, like "all have sinned" and "by grace we are saved through faith." It was unthinkable to me that Christians could disagree on Biblical issues and I believed that God would answer every prayer with the right answer.

In the past 7 years or so, almost everything I believed has been torn from me. People that I considered my friends have shown that they didn't care for me in the least. I realized that friends are harder to come by and people are not nearly so forgiving as I had once thought. I have found that there don't seem to be any Christians who agree on everything, and some don't even agree on principles that I had always considered imperative to being a Christian. And, on top of that, some people claim to be Christians without really being Christians. Like Hitler. And worst of all... that maybe God doesn't always answer prayers with the right answer, because maybe the person asking didn't have enough faith.

I didn't know what it was like to despair. I was perfectly happy and content. And then the real world shattered my pleasant little life. I realized that there is evil all around, in everything. Malicious and horrifying evil, like I had never understood. Even in my understanding of Satan's evil I had never comprehended how wicked he really is. I probably still don't, but my greater understanding sickens me.

Now I feel so lost. My bright, happy world has disappeared like a pleasant dream to a miserable and shocking awakening. I was so secure in all that I understood and now I feel as though I'm being tossed and pulled in a million different directions in the dark. Of everything that I believed, the only truth I have left is God's word. And that I will not relinquish.

~Lizzie

By Popular Demand

Here is a review of a movie that I like! Unfortunately, like all realistic people, I can't help not being *perfectly* pleased, but nevertheless, the enjoyment of this movie outweighed the slight flaws of a little flat acting and a bit too much preachiness.

Time Changer was a really good movie. As a Christian movie, it definitely has a 'B' movie flavor, but they did a really good job making their point interesting. Russell Carlisle is a young professor at a Bible college in 1890, and has written a book that he is hoping his colleagues will endorse. The other men must all unanimously agree to endorse the book, and only one refuses. Dr. Anderson has a slight disagreement with a statement in Dr. Carlisle's book. A seemingly very slight disagreement, which frustrates Dr. Carlisle, as his publisher is anxious to print, and is asking for the endorsement as soon as possible. Dr. Anderson invites Dr. Carlisle to his house to settle their differences.

Upon arriving at Dr. Anderson's house, Dr. Carlisle is sworn to secrecy, and then introduced to a time-traveling machine. Dr. Carlisle doesn't believe that time travel is possible, but Dr. Anderson gives him instructions about the "new world" he will be in, and persuades him to stand in the portal. Dr. Carlisle is transported to 2000, amid some outdated special effects of lightening flashes, and glittery particles left behind floating to the floor.

In 2000, he realizes what Dr. Anderson intended for him to realize: his statement that teaching good morals without Jesus would be beneficial to society, particularly if the people in the society don't want to hear about Jesus, is wrong. Without Jesus' authority, morals mean nothing. He confronts a little girl who stole his hotdog: "Don't you know stealing is wrong?"
"Says who?" Demands the girl as she runs off, having relinquished his hotdog.

He runs into many more shocking things, including an immodestly dressed mannequin, people kissing on TV, God's name being blasphemed in a movie and people in a church being uninterested in the service and more interested in all the activities (among which include going to the blasphemous movie).

After meeting a Christian librarian who helps him with some "research", and a "good" laundry owner named Eddie, Dr. Carlisle prepares to go back to 1890. He visits the church and gives an inspiring message about the culture. Then he stops by Eddie's laundry and gives him a Bible (written in his own language, Spanish) and shares the gospel. On his way back to the alley where the time machine will beam him up, he notices that he's being followed by two cops in the church who have been suspicious of him. They demand an explanation just as the time for his departure is arriving. He has time to tell them that Jesus is coming back and that he was a messenger before the time machine collects him. "Dude, I think we just missed the rapture" one cop mutters as he disappears.

Back at home Dr. Carlisle revises his book and finds a little boy he reprimanded in the beginning of the movie. The young boy tried to steal some marbles, and Dr. Carlisle told him it was wrong; now he tells young Roger about Jesus (and gifts him with a bag of his own marbles).

And thus the happily-ever-after-the-end.

Please be aware that I expect uproarious praise for finally posting a positive review, and certainly do NOT want to hear any criticism for the first movie I selected. I realize that those of you that had issues with my opinion on Eagle Eye will probably disagree with the principles portrayed by this movie, however, the point was that it was a positive review. And I really did like the movie. So there.

~Lizzie