sooo......

I'm going back again. :)

Yes, this means what you think it means.

I'm going back to India this summer!!!!







just got an e-mail from my missionary friend, whose family I am planning to stay with. we're looking at mid-August through mid-September. I'll probably be teaching English classes at a Women's Shelter for Domestic Violence, and doing lots of journalism. they're creating a website for this shelter, and want me to do all the text. and they are raising funds for a building project and want me to write the grant proposal. knowing full well I have abosutely no idea how to do this. :) but that would be John. he likes to stretch people to their full potential.


so basically, I need to learn Hindi as fluently as possible before August, learn how to write a grant proposal, figure out what kind of stuff has to go on this website, and raise lots of money. but I'm so incredibly excited....I can't wait to do this stuff!
oh, and he asks in the email, do I dance at all? ummm.....why do you ask? this is slightly frightening to me.



and the best part for you guys is that you don't have to freak out about me missing Camp Hope anymore!

anyway, all this to say, please pray for me in the coming months. I'm going to need lots of it.










*jumps up and down*

how many gods have poured out their hearts/to romance a world that is torn all apart?

missionaries are normal people.

seriously, they are. real, flesh-and-blood people who struggle with the same things everyone else does.

let that sink in for a minute. too often we stick pastors, missionaries, and anyone else involved with ministry up on a pedstal when they shouldn't be there. but they are real people who like to eat ice cream and watch the Superbowl and have hobbies and jobs. they aren't somehow more "in tune" with God than anyone else. one missionary I know in India had practically no communication with God for like three months. she stopped praying. we ALL do this. that 'mountain-valley' thing we call our spiritual life? yeah, missionaries aren't always on the mountain.

as for the pedestal, sometimes it's even easier to be a missionary in a foreign culture than it is to be at home. by putting yourself somewhere completely different from anything you're used to, you're already out of your comfort zone. it's a lot harder to break your 'bubble' in America.

the speaker at Perspectives tonight said something really amazing. well, a ton of really incredible things. but talking about the three eras of modern missions, he shared that in the early 1900's, 100,000 students got involved in missions. 20,000 of the went overseas, and 80,000 supported them from home.

break that down. that's four people supporting one missionary. Dave, our speaker, introduced this new concept. instead of sending missionaries from church to church to family to church, could four families commit to supporting one missionary for a year? splitting up $20,000 between 4 families - so $5,000 each. how incredible for those families to be involved that way? or let's say 8 families will commit. that takes the burden off them a little bit, but it's still incredible involvement. it's a much better idea than a missionary on furlough going all over the country to visit every church that maybe gives them $100 a year. that's not a break.

this is an entirely new concept in missions today. and it's an amazing one. what Dave said tonight, was what he tells his really serious supporters: "give what you can, and then give a little more." people need to see what it's like to sacrifice a little bit. it's one tiny way to break the bubble. I think that's so crazy. we tell God....I can afford to give you this much this month. sorry, but I can't give any more. that would be risky. and heck no I'm not skipping a frapucchino or a movie to give to missions. this is the way MY finances work.

who gave us the money and the command to spread the gospel in the first place?

I don't know....that's just what blew my mind tonight. what do you think? such an entirely new concept to us: give what you can and then give a little more. sacrifice.

and little people know/when little people fight/we may look easy pickins but we've got some bite

ATTENTION ALL PASSERSBY.

kacy has, through evil conniving, traded her dead fish for an entirely live one.

i didn't trade it! it was given to me!

seeing as this fish will not be alive long (she killed off her other one in like two hours flat), she urgently requests your help in naming this new addition to her family, however short-lived.

he's been alive for a week already! he's likely to survive.

thank you for helping us with this endeavor of not sending this poor fish to the grave unnamed.

(he's going to die tonight before anyone comments, i swear.)

he thanks you. and we, commonly known as the Sleepover Mafia, the Terrible Two, the Siamese Twins, the HEY YOU! STOP PLAYING THAT SQUEAKY MUSIC!s, thank you as well.

MARSHMALLOWS.

all you've ever wanted/is in your eyes

HELP! I need your creative juices to find a name for the newest addition to the family.
yes, there's a new pet in the house.
don't worry, it's just a fish.

at my cousin's wedding yesterday, there were betta fish on each table as the centerpiece. the idea was that they would all get taken home. and I talked my parents into taking one home.
he is dark blue. and he needs a name because I can't just call him "little buddy" forever you know.

I'm expecting lots of input from you guys!






oh and by the way, this is my blog's 200th post. I thought that was worthy of mentioning. hey....let's have another party!!!!

from here on out you're just getting older/pick up yourself you'll keep getting closer

the static from my radio alarm jolts me awake every morning. today was louder than usual because I turned it up after the all-nighter to make sure I got up. the tuner dial got bumped so it's not actually on a station - just static.
I drove myself to school because Becca was late (again), but it all worked out because English was cancelled again and she had to stay at the school. I haven't had English since last Friday, and I'm quite happy about this. in French, we started signing up to buy pastries for our pastry-tasting party next Wednesday. so we're all laid back about that, but freaking out for our mid-term this Friday. my studying habits have not been good lately.

once home, I practiced piano for a long time. I haven't practiced much this week, and unfortunately it shows. my teacher is getting a lot more strict with me as I am playing harder music. not doing Hannon or not practicing enough is very obvious. rats.
was interrupted during piano by the phone - it happened to be my penpal calling to make sure he had the right address for the new house, right phone number, wish me happy birthday, etc. we share a birthday, actually, so I wished him happy birthday too. we talked for a while of this and that.

at lunch early because I am currently about to leave for my piano lesson. and I'm teaching tonight...starting a new student. that's always somewhat interesting.

oh yes, and it snowed this morning, though it didn't stick. what the....? it was freezing. yesterday was very warm in comparison. I can't wait for spring.

ok, I have to go. this has been my day so far. not that interesting, I know. let's get a discussion going - I will leave you with a question: what is currently your single favorite movie? (of course I understand if you can only narrow it down to two or three....)






hahahahaha

I am SO tired...

so, yeah, I kind of haven't slept in about twenty-seven hours. I spent the night at Becca's with two other girls from church. and a bunch of us saw Benjamin Button (lame movie) at 9:30 at night, then went back to her house and just talked and chilled for a long time.
about 5:00 AM we started joking about actually pulling an all-nighter. and none of us were tired so as it got later we decided to just do it. I'm the only one who actually made it with no sleep at all. Kelsey caught a few zzzz's while I was in the shower, and Becca crashed around 8 for a couple of hours. Bryn was in an out from about 3 onwards.

me: we sort of stayed up talking for a looong time.
my mom: oh yeah, till when?
me: uhhh.....till we left for church. *grin*

we had such a good time though. and even though I'm exhausted, I didn't come home and die. I actually drove all the way home from church just fine (with my mom in the car though, just in case), and I haven't had to lay down or anything. it's pretty sweet. it was just the longer prayers in church......good thing us girls all sat together. ;)

hmmm, writing a rough draft in this condition should be really interesting though. good thing it's not due until Tuesday! I guess I should get on that before we leave - we might be going glow-golfing tonight. ????

a sweaty-toothed madman

I used to shy away from words I didn't like when I was writing. words like nasty, cruel, sweaty, gross. things that weren't happy and bright and clean. and then I started really reading every word in the books I liked so much, and realized that you can't write a masterpiece without putting some sweat into it. sometimes things are gonna get messy, and you can't really portray that using only words like rivulet and translucent.

I was thinking about writing a little bit. like, I should set aside some time each week to read, and some time to write. it might be cool. it might just help me out in this crazy 17-year old existence.

though I'm not sure how.

that summer feeling

so it's like fifty degrees outside, and everyone's rejoicing because the sun is out. it's that summer feeling - when you haven't seen or heard from the sun in about five months, and all of a sudden you're putting your visor down like, what is that bright thing?! definitely a mood-lifter; everyone on campus seemed a little bit happier today, and possibly more awake.

last night when I got home my dad had put up all the ivy in my room just the way I wanted it, where the wall and the ceiling meet, and it looks SO COOL!!!! I'm really happy - my room looks slightly like something from Jumanji but more like something from LotR. thank goodness.

today I drove myself to school because Becca skipped, and I left my house late so I ended up parking hecka far away in P12 (translate=the middle of nowhere), and decided it might have been faster to walk. closer too......

but driving out of the parking lot I saw this guy jump into the back of his pickup and start climbing through the back window....I think maybe he was trying to get his keys or something. he was in to the waist and his pants were falling down (why do guys wear pants that show half their underwear? NOT attractive...), and he tried to come out so his shirt was coming up too....it sounds gross but it was really really funny. just some random guy picking a different way to get into his car I guess.

I got home and my dad and I were planning to go to Denny's for breakfast, before I had to leave for piano. for those of you who didn't hear, Denny's was giving away free Grand Slams to everyone today from 6-2. We got there at 11:00 and the place was so packed....there was no parking anywhere......we ditched that idea and tried a little cafe instead. unfortunately, they stopped serving breakfast at 11:00 (it was 11:05, go figure), and it wasn't really a sit-down place either. "let's just go to Donut Star" I said.
Donut Star has the world's best, most fantabulous, amazing donuts EVER.
so we did. we got to this tiny little donut shop, picked out a couple, got a hot chocolate, and sat at a sunny table, and just talked.
you know in the Princess Diary when Lily says "my dad and I ran out of things to talk about when I was eight."? sometimes I feel like that too, with my dad. not often, but we haven't seen each other much at all in the last couple of months....he's been gone, I've been gone, and when we are together we usually just annoy each other. so we tried just talking about things, and had a good time together.

the sun helped.





that's been my day so far. tell me about your day.