Sleep over!!

That's the great thing about sharing a room with your sister; you get sleepovers every night! Some are more amusing than others....... Tuesday night was one.

First, we were trying to figure out how many more 4-hour days of swimming are left, and how many I would have had left if I missed the practice Thursday. We bantered back and forth, "3 more Thursdays" "no, 2 more Thursdays... plus the Tuesdays which makes.... 5 days" "no, I think it'll be 3 Thursdays" "no, it'll only be 2!" and so forth. We finally decided to abandon mathematical equations of that difficulty at 12:30am.

So then we were discussing another topic (about my evil-ness in supposedly poisoning Sarah's mind against someone [I didn't!!]) and she said, "Ooh, that would make you Gollum! And that would make me Sam!!"
I humphed insultedly, and then she said, "Oh, wait... actually, that would make me Frodo...." *snicker* "and *so-and-so* Sam."
I said that I thought we were abandoning mathematics since it was so late (early) and we were obviously not functioning well, and she asked if that was math.
"Well, you have to decide if 'a' equals 'b' or 'c'. "
She thought for a moment and then asked, "Would that make me 'b' or 'c'?"
I stared at her dark shape on the other side of the room. "That would make you 'a'."
And we collapsed into giggles.

Then she wailed, "Oh, I'm so blonde! Is my hair changing color?"

This brought to mind a quote from about a year ago. We were looking at pictures, and Sarah goes, "It looks like my head is connected to my neck! Oh... wait.. it is."

Then Wednesday night we had too much caffeinated tea with supper... we ended up staying up til 3 in the morning. We ate a bag of chips, and played this great game where we listened to our not-iPods and guessed what song the other person was listening to by the way they were bouncing/bobbing their head/pretending to sing. It was fun... but not something that I'd let just anybody see me do. I'm sure I looked dorky.

So Thursday (after going to bed at 3, mind you) Joel and I had a little swim competition. You see, we're pretty close to the same speed, and we have a tendency to pass one another. On Tuesday I was making a hard interval, and Joel had already missed, but he wouldn't let me pass him, so I missed the interval. And yes, I confess that I was pretty frustrated. So Daddy decided that we would swim 10 50's on the :45 (the interval that we did on Tuesday [and that basically means that you have to swim 2 laps in 45 seconds, 10 times]) and the one who makes the most gets the permanent right to go in front of the other person.

And I confess.... I was prideful about that. I mean, he missed an interval before I did, and that's why he messed me up. Surely I could beat him... right?? What I didn't count on was him making ALL 10. And thereby qualifying for the Platinum team. (We have 4 levels... Masters for parents, Blue [which is the easiest], Silver [harder] and Platinum. The top. He is officially a Platinum member. I'm still Silver. I only made 8. I'm so bummed. And the really sad part is that if I'd managed to get a good night's sleep, I probably could have done it. :(

Kara and I had a very interesting discussion about courting Thursday night. I might even do a whole post about it. Basically we were discussing why we might say 'no' and whether you should have feelings for the guy before you say 'yes' to courting. But it's really made me rethink a lot about what I believe about courtship. I'm kinda uncertain right now.. still mulling it over. Fortunately, it's not an issue right now, because I certainly don't have guys lining up at my door. :P And Daddy would likely say that I'm too young anyway. I tend to agree.

Faith for the Man He'll Become
This one was just an interesting point of view. Not really an article that I need at the moment.... but I realized that I was kinda expecting the spiritual qualities that I see in older men in younger men, and it's true, "The qualities you can see in a 50-year-old man's life were developed over 50 years. There are 25 more years of growth ahead for the 25-year-old man before it's fair to compare them."

You Made Me Sin
"In the same way, when we get squeezed by the circumstances of life (an inevitability), we ooze the overflow of our hearts. We usually don't like what we see, so we blame the squeeze. We blame the circumstances. "I wouldn't have reacted that way if I hadn't been tired." Or, "I only said that because I was hot, thirsty, and uncomfortable." That's our default setting: blame the circumstances."

What Girls Wish You Knew
Before you ask, yes, there is a "What Guys Wish You Knew." There's a link at the bottom of this article if you'd rather read that. I decided to share this one because it clarified some things that I only half understood about myself. And yes, guys, those are exactly what we wish you really knew. But girls, this is for you, so if you happened to be like me, you can finally understand those vague ideas.

You know, growing up is so depressing. There's so much of a burden that comes with the knowledge you gain. When I was a kid, I didn't worry about anything. Now I see so many things on a different level.... everything is so much deeper. It's richer, and possibly more enjoyable than the blissful obliviousness of childhood... but still, I see things now that hurt me.. that I never would have noticed as a kid. And I'm not sure that I ever felt emotional pain as physically as I do now. All I can hope is that I'll outgrow it. That just seems like such an unlikely possibility now though, especially since it's been years since I've outgrown clothes. Ah well.

I don't want to end on a depressing note, so I'm going to share my favorite Bible verse (as of today anyway): "Even youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:30-31 (KJV)

~Lizzie