Song of the Week: May 31

2 Songs this Week!!

The first one is called Taps and we always sing it as a big camp every night before splitting into cabins for the rest of the night. It is typically also a part of a prayer every night before bed. The lyrics are:

"Day is done,
Gone the sun,
From the lake,
From the hills,
From the sky.
All is well,
Safely rest,
God is nigh"

The 2nd one Mary Kathryn just facebooked me to listen to, and totally related to what I was feeling after camp. It's called Lead Me by Sanctus Real. You can listen to this one in the playlist to the right, and I'm posting the lyrics here. I'm bolding what hits me personally (which is quite a few lines, I know!). Hope you enjoy

"I look around and see my wonderful life
Almost perfect from the outside
In picture frames I see my beautiful wife
Always smiling
But on the inside, I can hear her saying...

“Lead me with strong hands
Stand up when I can't
Don't leave me hungry for love
Chasing dreams, what about us?

Show me you're willing to fight
That I'm still the love of your life
I know we call this our home
But I still feel alone”

I see their faces, look in their innocent eyes
They're just children from the outside
I'm working hard, I tell myself they'll be fine
They're in independent
But on the inside, I can hear them saying...

“Lead me with strong hands
Stand up when I can't
Don't leave me hungry for love
Chasing dreams, but what about us?

Show me you're willing to fight
That I'm still the love of your life
I know we call this our home
But I still feel alone”

So Father, give me the strength
To be everything I'm called to be
Oh, Father, show me the way
To lead them
Won't You lead me?

To lead them with strong hands
To stand up when they can't
Don't want to leave them hungry for love,
Chasing things that I could give up

I'll show them I'm willing to fight
And give them the best of my life
So we can call this our home
Lead me, 'cause I can't do this alone

Father, lead me, 'cause I can't do this alone"

This summer, I hope to be able to show others Christ's love through example. To the kids I teach swim lessons to., to my VBS'ers. to my friends and family. to other Work Crewers, Rachel, staff and campers. To everybody I come into contact with. To be able to lead others through love.

Have a great week ya'll. Summer is so close!!

OH! One quote from this weekend that I loveeee and will be saying often this summer (so get ready!) "I love you and God does too!" :))

24 Hours at Camp

22 hours at camp (plus 2 hours driving) can teach you SOO much. No joke.

-Even if you know who is following you while driving, it still makes you paranoid.
-There is such thing as a speed limit of 7 1/2 mph down the Trail Master.
-Golf carts are a luxury and makes getting from the office to HR2 (cabin) a lot faster than carrying over-night bags like we have to as campers.
-When you are hungry, you will eat anything that is put in front of you. (That's coming from a picky eater!)
-Frisbee throwing is always fun.
-Crayola Paint does not come off very easy in water fountains.
-Turning your cell on silent is really relaxing, and should be done more often.
-Hypoglycemia is hard to explain to people who don't know what it is.
-Camp beds are not the most comfortable things on the planet. Extra padding will definitely be brought for work crew
-Cabins can go from freezing to extremely hot within hours. At midnight you can be freezing and huddling under the covers, at 3 AM you can be sweating through your clothes. Lesson learned: Don't pick a bed in front of the air vents. (Unless, like me, that's the only one left)
-Bottom bunks are A LOT easier to make then top bunks. Why have I always liked top?
-Shane & Shane and Needtobreathe are some of the best artists to wake up to... at 6AM. Or any time I'm guessing :)
-When drink machines (like the ones at restaurant) are out of apple juice, they just dispense water)
-Sweet Gum Praise and Worship is pretty energizing.
-Gaga Ball is totally the best camp game played ever. And should be an Olympic Sport
-Just because you could do high ropes no problem one summer, doesn't mean you won't be deathly afraid the next.
-The Rain Dance song may ward off rain at camp... but not necessarily on the drive home!
-Speed limits dropping from 70 to 50 is REALLY ANNOYING!

And that Cho-Yeh is the BEST place ever, and pretty much like a second home. Within hours I was in love with camp and the new staff that I was meeting. I can't wait to go back for 3 weeks, and I already know it's gonna be hard to leave then. But the experiences had and the relationships made are going to be so amazing and life-changing. The weekend was a total "top-of-the-rollercoaster" experience as my youth group calls it, and that was only one day.

Seeing everything from a counselor's perspective was so cool aswell. I was able to offer personal stories about how everything seems from a camper's point of view, and I thought it was really cool how even though I was 1-4 years younger than the counselors there, my opinion mattered to them, and even though I was the newbie, the work crewer, they made me feel welcomed and loved. Only at camp does that happen. Only at camp.

I could talk for hours and hours (or pages and pages of this blog) about camp and it's importance to me (ask Renee or Mary Kathryn). But, I smell like icky sweatiness so I think I'm gonna go hop in the shower. But don't worry, I'm SURE more camp blog posts will be coming soon :)

SENIOR!!

I can't believe I've seriously wasted 12 years in school. Isn't that ridiculous?? I mean, that's a good 12/17ths of my life. Over 75%! GEESH!!!

That's roughly (saying each school year has 170 days)
2040 days
14280 hours (saying each school day was 7 hours long... Which I know of MANY which have been 5AM-8PM days!)
856800 minutes
Do I even feel like figuring out seconds?
27 TAKS tests (all commended, whoop!!)
Way too many subjects and hours spent on homework to even care about tabulating.

GOODNESS!

BUT: It's the beginning of the end. Well, technically. But I'm not thinkin' about my senior year, because that means college decisions, and Megan won't be in Houston, and senior farewell meets, and AHHH!!! too much to think about!

So instead I'm going to go pack for camp and the meet tomorrow and get some sleep. Next blog post will probably be when I'm on a "Camp Cho-Yeh high!"

Get excited :))

So, once I concur this APUSH final...

So, once I concur this AP US History (APUSH) final here that starts in like 40 minutes (hopefully I'll be done in a little over an hour), HELLO SUMMER!

And an AMAZING first weekend of summer is entail! (Is that the right word, I don't know... but it sounded good!) The final starts at 9:30, I'll be done by 10:15, can't leave till 11:30 probably. BUT, as soon as I slap that scantron down on his table, HELLLLOOOOO SUMMER 2010!

As soon as I leave Falls, I'm going to pick up Renee and we're going shopping. We both have gone stir crazy the past 2 days, plus I have to exchange a swim suit bottom before Cancun, and Aeropostale is having REALLY good sales (like $15 shorts, and $20 swim suits) so we're going to go and get out of Copperfield.

Then I teach swim lessons tonight, which although the new "yay I'm teaching LTS" craze has died, the kids are still super sweet and adorable none-the-less. Even when they don't speak English :)

Tomorrow morning we have a swim meet, and I'm swimming all "off-events" to try and get my Ponderosa cuts. That'll be fun hopefully :)

Tomorrow afternoon is Megan's grad party, so I'm going there for a little while.

THEN...

drumroll please?

.......

I GET TO SPEND THE WEEKEND AT CAMP! A girl from my cabin 2 years ago is going, Anna, and so since I know somebody I feel more comfortable going, and my parents cleared it as long as Mom follows me up on Saturday (although I still think I'm taking dad's GPS just to be sure).

I'm so excited it's unfathomable.

But now I have to go take that APUSH final. BOOO!!!

Bring it on SUMMER 2010!

Milkbone Drivethru?

So since it is practically summer for me, and the rest of the Suddendorf household is still at work/school, of course I wake up with a "to-do" list on my 2nd day of summer. Who would've guessed?

Well, after Mom told me the bank was open till 7:00 last night, and I went last night to deposit my checks and they were CLOSED, that was on my list again today. SO, I loaded up my puppy, stopped and got kolache's at Snowflake's Drive-Thru, and went on to the bank to deposit those checks (again, cough cough).

You know how if you go through the bank and the see kids in the car they'll give you a lollipop for them? (I think I've outgrown the lollipop stage, b/c I didn't get one! :'( ) Well. Let. Me. Tell. You.

They give out Milkbones when they see a puppy in the car! So, yes, they sent a Milkbone through the shoot for KJ.

I had to break off an itty bitty piece for her, and she made a HUGE mess on my shotgun seat with the crumbs (sorry Renee, i did clean it up though!). I just thought that was really funny!! Who woulda guessed?

Flashback to 8th Grade: Laura!!

Laura was the first youth pastor I ever got close to. During 6th grade Roger was at our church, but I was in Confirmation and then didn't really start coming to youth activities, so I didn't know him well. But when Laura came in 7th grade we really connected. I remember I cried my eyes out when she left, she was the one who took us to Breakthru which was the first time I REALLY felt God's presence that I can remember. When she left the summer before my freshman year, I was SO upset.

We got another wonderful youth director, Kelly, and I'm pretty sure I'd feel the same way if she ever left. We also have another super awesome summer intern named Claire who is amazing!

Laura came back tonight to visit and teach Bible Study. She talked about Missions and how regardless of any circumstances we should always be obedient and either "give, go, or pray". Her lesson was really neat (and very teacher-y, haha we had note sheets! :D) and it was SOOO good seeing her again.

There was quite a few flashbacks that occurred: her friend Lindy, "toxic friends" and "disco (ette)". It was so cool :))

I really don't know where I was going with this blog-post. Maybe it's just the fact that it's 9:20 and I don't have school tomorrow so there's no need to go to bed? I don't know, haha.

Coach Labeau

We all got called into the pool today during 7th period for a quick meeting about next season for polo. At first all of JV swimming and varsity polo players were all sitting on the bleachers when Coach Labeau told us she wouldn't be coaching or teaching at Falls next year. Surprisingly, I didn't start crying... until she did.

I've NEVER seen Labeau cry. EVER. Seeing her cry and realizing the coach who convinced me to play polo, the coach that made me fall in love with the sport, the coach who would listen to me complain about swimming and always give me a "it's going to be okay" hug when I was having a bad day, the coach who was the first person to text me last year when I passed out in school and was sitting in Cy-Fair hospital getting EKG's done and trips to the cardiologist, the one who just let me cry when I found out Clay passed away, the coach that sometimes I'd get extremely frustrated with, but who I loved so much wouldn't be coaching polo my senior year made me so upset.

We were so lookin' forward to polo next year. We had big plans for fundraisers so that we could go to tournaments, we wanted to have a senior game with Jersey Village, we wanted to have team-building activities, we wanted it to be the best season ever. I guess we all just thought LaBeau would be there too.

There are 7 seniors that have been playing polo together since freshman year; Mina, Andrew, Matt, Matthew, Jodie, Connor, and me. We've all gotten pretty close, and we all love Labeau. At one point we were like "Coach, just one more year". She promised she'd come to games and she wouldn't just leave us in the dark. That'd she wouldn't completley ditch us for our senior year.

Earlier that day she was talkin' about how the class of 2011 has been her favorite class she has coached. In retrospect, I realize now why she was saying that. BLAH!

After talkin' to swimming, she pulled polo out of the group and sat us down. She talked about how we are a family, and how even if we get the crappiest coach next year, if we even GET a coach next year, that we need to stay together, and pull the team together and push through the season. To be the family we always have been. And not let anyone get in the way of that. It made me think just how thankful I am to have a polo team who I can depend on so much.

So now we have decided to make a book for Labeau. So we are all writing her a letter and I'm combining some team pictures with the letters and pulling it all into a kinda scrapbook type thing. Hopefully she'll like it!

Never our a question mark

"Never put a question mark where God put a period" -- Joel Olsteen

Amanda sends out encouraging Bible verses and Scriptures to a group of girls every morning and they are always wonderful and an incredible way to start off the day. This mornings was no different, and so I figured I'd share. It truly made me think during my drive to school this morning. God knows best and has a plan we cannot even fathom, so why question Him?

<3

Camp This Weekend???

Yesterday for Pentecost our youth group and other members from our church went out to the new property to hang out. We got to write on the unfinished walls, and just chill. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and we had a bunch of fun!

A bunch of us were just sitting on the concrete talking when I hear my phone. Nobody ever calls me, everybody texts, and so I find this strange. It was Rachel (who is work crew boss for Cho-Yeh this summer) calling! I jumped up excited at the chance to talk.

She said that all of work crew was invited to camp this weekend to meet the staff and counselors, to bond and hang out before camp actually starts so that it won't be so overwhelming our first day.

Soo... I really wanna go! It's Friday-Sunday, for whatever part you can show up to. I wouldn't be able to go till Saturday afternoon because of swim and Megan's graduation party, but I really really wanna go!! Camp is amazing the way it is, so getting to go 2 months before I thought I would just sounds awesome.

My parents don't want me driving up there though, so if I can find a ride home then my parents said I could go. But I feel bad asking someone I don't know for a ride home. So we'll see. Hopefully it'll work out!!

:)

"A mess in a dress.. or PJ bottoms"

One of my new favorites songs right now is "According to You" by Orianthi. The jist of the song is this: there is a girl who's ex-boyfriend has a list of everything he doesn't like about her (she's stupid, she's useless, she can't do anything right, she's difficult, she is always changing her mind, etc etc etc) and then it talks about this other guy that loves her because she's beautiful, incredible, always in his head, funny, irresistible, everything he ever wanted. You get the jist of it, yeah?

OK well at one point it says "I'm a mess in a dress..." and for some reason I've loved that line. Not because I am or ever will be voluntarily wearing a dress (don't get me wrong about that!), I really don't know why I like it, but I do.

And these past few days I have been feeling like a mess.. except in PJ bottoms... not a dress..

• Got my braces tightened super tight. OUCH. Didn't eat for 36 hours (and considering I eat every 3-4 hours like clockwork, I was dying!), ice-cream was too cold, everything else was too hot. I couldn't chew. It took me the entire lunch to eat half a peanut butter sandwich. It. was. ridiculous. LUCKILY, mac'n'cheese was edible during dinner tonight, and consequently I ate the entire box. The kind that typically serves our entire family with leftovers. Yeah. Told you I was starving!
  
• Tuesday night during warm-down at practice I was taking it easy and enjoying the long leisurely pace when BONK! I ran into Tori. Or Tori ran into me? I'm not really sure. I guess we had a misunderstanding about splitting the lane vs circle swimming? Now my nose is swollen and bruised. So when we have to wear masks in art. Not fun!
  
• School just needs to end. I get driven to the near point of insanity sitting in there for 8 hours a day. It's ridiculous. I need out! We aren't doing anything... but I really wanna be able to skip most of next week, so can't afford the absences now.
  
• I got a whopping total of like 3 hours of sleep last night because my mouth hurt. Therefore, I was running on minimal sleep and no food for quite a bit of today. I was called a ghost multiple times. And actually fell asleep during school for the first time ever! I'm thinkin this is something to be proud of? Don't worry... it was after a physics test.
  
• SPEAKING OF PHYSICS TESTS, I got my first "A" on one without a curve and ridiculous amounts of bonus points/extra credit the entire year!
  
• Our computer has been being super weird. Like annoying weird! So some Dell guy (who I'm sure was outsourcing from India, but whatever) wiped our entire hard-drive to fix the problem. I was majorly freaked out thinking of all my emails, thousands of pictures, hours worth of music (all bought legally!), hundreds of documents, and everything else that he supposedly was going to back up and restore for us. Not trusting him and worried about him messing up, I had gone and pre-backed everything up before he even attempted to. I was SO panicky those 2 hours though. Luckily, it's all back up and working. Even itunes! Somehow, all my songs got duplicated, but that can be fixed. I'd rather have 2X the amount of songs, than none of them at all! I still need to go download all my software and music conversion stuff, but it's all good. I still have my pictures and my music :)
  

So now I'm thinkin' I'm gonna go get ready to crawl into bed. School tomorrow, then teaching swim lessons! Swim meet against Coles Crossing on Saturday. (That is going to be a whole nother blog. GAH! Somebody's going to get a royal butt-kicking on Saturday, and I'm looking forward to giving it! bahaha oooh swimming :))

Goodnight!!

RFL Pictures!

I put together a YouTube video of all of the pictures that were taken at RFL. I know I never posted many pictures, so I figured I'd share here! I tried to upload directly to the site, but it was only 20% done after sitting for the past hour, and I reallly wanna go to bed, so I figured I'd just give ya'll the YouTube link. Maybe I'll try again when I gain some more patience for technology?

Enjoy :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6-f5iKV6m0

Song of the Week: May 17

Good Music OVERLOAD! Except none of these are on playlist.com, so I've given youtube video sites if you wanna hear them, and once they get published on playlist.com I'll add them! Have a wonderful week!

More Like Falling In Love by Jason Gray

"Give me rules
I will break them
Give me lines
I will cross them
I need more than a truth to believe
I need a truth that lives, moves, and breathes
To sweep me off my feet
It ought to be

More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It's like I'm falling, oh
It's like I'm falling in love

Give me words
I'll misuse them
Obligations
I'll misplace them
'Cause all religion ever made of me
Was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet
It never set me free
It's gotta be

CHORUS

...It's like I'm falling in love, love, love
Deeper and deeper
It was love that made
Me a believer
In more than a name, a faith, a creed
Falling in love with Jesus brought the change in me"

Come As You Are by Pocket Full of Rocks

He's not mad at you
He's not disappointed
His grace is greater still,
than all of your wrong choices
He is full of mercy and he is ever kind
Hear his invitation, His arms are open wide

You can come as you are,
with all your broken pieces
And all your shameful scars
The pain you hold in your heart,
bring it all to Jesus
You can come as you are

Louder than the voice that whispers your unworthy
Hear the sound of love,
that tells a different story
Shattering your darkness and pushing through the lies
How tenderly he calls you,
His arms are open wide

You can come as you are,
with all your broken pieces
And all your shameful scars
The pain you hold in your heart,
bring it all to Jesus
You can come as you are

You can come as you are

You can come as you are with all your broken pieces
And all your shameful scars
The pain you hold in your heart,
bring it all to Jesus
You can come as you are

The Meeting of the Youth Intern

We met our youth intern today, she seems WONDERFUL! She reminded me a lot of a counselor at Cho-Yeh, and had the same typically counselor attitude/personality. Energetic, full of energy. She joined the senior high in a game of Ultimate Dodgeball, reserved just for the high schoolers. We move all the couches and furniture in our youth room into "forts" and "blockades" and play an UTLIMATE game of dodgeball. By the end Claire and I were both standing on filing cabinets and ping-pong tables trying to get as close to the air-vents as possible. We then played one-ball-dodgeball once the Junior High/Senior High combined, and it was awesome! She seemed just like one of us running around and strategizing (no, I don't care that "strategizing" isn't a word!) the game. At the end once we all participated in the Benediction, Jordan, Noah, Renee and I hung around a little while and talked to Claire to get to know her. She seems really cool!! She reminded me SO much of camp, and made me realize just how much I miss that place!

Speaking of camp, leadership starts next week, then staff the next week, then camp the following week. Or something like that. Summer is just around the corner!! I'm looking forward to looking through pictures that get posted on Cho-Yeh's website soon and recognizing the faces of everybody I miss so much!!

How could somebody be so careless?

When we got home from the swim meet today (or... the "lets sit under tents with holes in them, in chairs that are wet, in swimsuits that are cold and won't dry until the coaches will FINALLY call the meet) my neighbor's daughter's kid's puppy (or my neighbor's grandson's puppy I guess) was running around the cul-de-sac. It was raining and cold, and when I saw that our neighbor wasn't even outside, I was flabbergasted. So I ran over to the puppy and picked it up and took it up to the neighbor's house to ring the doorbell and give them back their dog. Nobody answered. BUT every car was in the driveway. I went to go put the puppy back in the backyard when Dad came outside saying that he had already tried that, but there must have been a hole of some sort that the puppy was getting out of. So, I wrapped the puppy in my arms and took him into our garage. I got a dry towel and wrapped him up (he was shaking he was so cold) and just cuddled with the adorable little puppy. Eventually, the puppy got restless so we started playing. He made me realize that MY puppy KJ isn't quite a puppy anymore! Dad came outside and told me to let the puppy go and go get changed out of my still wet and cold swim suit and bring my laundry down. It didn't take Dad long to realize that letting the dog back out into the cold rain wasn't an option to me. So he held the puppy while I ran up and ran through the shower. When I got back downstairs Dad had let the puppy into our backyard, and the puppy (who we still didn't know the name of, it didn't have tags) and KJ were playing and running around the backyard. Both dogs were sopping wet, so I grabbed a towel for each of them and dried them both off. The puppy acted like it had never been played with before, and made me sad thinking that he probably got neglected like my neighbors past dogs. We ended up seeing our neighbor walk outside, so we took the puppy back. He had NO idea it wasn't still in it's cage. (It's 1:00 here... what on Earth would a dog be doing "still in his cage" at 1:00 in the afternoon??) I reluctantly handed over the pup after telling my neighbor that we tried multiple times bringing it back and ended up taking it in and drying it off. Thinking he'd be appreciative. Nope. I asked him what the dog's name was (for future reference next time he's left out) and HE DIDN'T KNOW. He had to ask his daughter. Really? GAH!

How could somebody be so careless??

Pure Happiness

Well I could write an entire blog about this new quality I have noticed in myself that is apparent in my mother: the fact that it's 11:50, I can't sleep, so I've been up being productive studying for physics (until now, when my hand is cramping and I needed a blogging break). But I think I'd rather write (or type) about the pure joy that came in the mail today.

When I got the mail today, my birthday card from my aunt was in the mail. I opened up the card, and a piece of paper fell out. I first assumed it was a picture my cousin drew, but as I opened it up, I could feel the smile stretch across my face. As much as I would've loved a picture from my 3 year old cousin (oh my goodness, she's almost FOUR! what in the world??), this was even better. I've been telling everybody I don't need anything, because well, I don't. So my aunt instead of buying me something I didn't need donated money to Cho-Yeh so somebody else would have the chance to go to camp and experience the same things I do every summer.

I honestly could not have asked for anything better. I love that place so much, and it was truly a wonderful gift. Thinking that instead of getting a gift card for new music or new clothes that I could live without, somebody else gets a chance to have the same life-changing experience I have been lucky enough to have just makes me so happy. It was pure happiness :)

(My birthday was wonderful and amazing. I'm planning on blogging about that this weekend after Kemah on SAT [happy? I fixed it!] because physics has decided to consume the rest of my week. It was a truly phenomenal day though!)

Sisterhood of the Traveling Flip Flops

Megan came over today to eat dinner with us and to meet the grandparents, and with her she brought my birthday present. In a cute bag with flip flops on the front, I see a pair of white flip flops sticking out of the top. I begin to become somewhat curious. What those flip flops were is probably going to be the coolest birthday present this year, I was so excited when I read the card and she explained that these now ordinary white flip flops were to become the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Flip Flops"

We will each write a bit that happens while wearing those flip flops, and then trade them back and forth. Eventually the entire flip flop will be covered with our writing and stories in many different colors, I'm looking forward to it!!!

I'm thinking I'll wear them Friday for Kemah/Birthday Dinner with Megan and Renee, and then that'll be the first thing. I'm so excited!!!

Thanks Megan :)))

CUMCY Mother's Day Video 2010

Oh how I love my team :))

I think Dennis' new motto is "kill them in practice so they are too tired to talk". It sure worked tonight! But even through the what seemed impossible practice, the ridiculous Birthday Swim (thanks a lot Renee.. this story later), and Coach Kris attempting to drown me while I'm swimming by sticking his foot in my face and pushing me underwater multiple times, I realized how much I love my team :). Even though I get frustrated with certain people, and even though sometimes I wanna hop out of the pool and hide in the locker room, I will admit I love my team. They're wonderful :) As I was driving home tonight from practice, Coach Denny honked his horn at me (the friendly honk, not the "idiot learn how to drive-honk") and I was just like "oh, how I love my team!"

But onto Renee's stupid mention of my birthday.

This will be the first time in 3 years I HAVEN'T gone to practice on my birthday, each year I typically regret it because Dennis think it's funny to kill us on our birthdays (how RUDE!), but since my birthday is on a WED this year, I wasn't going to go.

I've been swimming for Denny for 8 years. EIGHT. And not once have I had to endure the "birthday swim". It consists of either a 50/100 (depending on how old you are/what kinda shape we are in) of fly while everybody else lines the lane with kickboards to make waves, making it impossible to swim through without choking.

Well Renee texted our coach and told him my birthday was this week. Therefore, I should have to do a bday swim. Of course, the coaches jumped at the idea. THANKS BEST FRIEND! not.

Luckily, only 8 were at practice tonight, so it wasn't too bad. Dennis gave me fins because I was dying considering I just swam the hardest practice in a while. I timed it right to where I only breathed when nobody was around to splash me, DIDN'T choke on water (score!) and it wasn't too bad. *Sigh of Relief*

But Renee (since I know you read this), what do we say about paybacks? It's ON girl!!

Random Thoughts from the mind of me!

WARNING: Random thoughts below. You have been warned.

Mother's Day was today. Went to church, saw our youth groups AWESOME "Oh Mommy" remake video of "Oh Mandy". Played cards twice today, and lost to Grandpa BOTH times! Then had an interesting time trying to bring Luby's home via take-out since Dad has been sick. The mac'n'cheese was disgusting. But we had cheesecake to make up for it. YUM! Which was the first of atleast 3 cakes this week. SCORE!!!

In exactly a month I'm going to be in Cancun. With that to look forward to remind me again WHY I care about school? Oh yeah, haha, after Wednesday at noon I'm not going to!

I'm currently arguing with Andy Boyd about whether it's "bologna" or "baloney". I'm going to win even though he's probably right because I'm too stubborn, especially when arguing with him.

I REALLY want to be at Cho-Yeh like RIGHT this instant. July 18th won't come fast enough!

Speaking of summer, mine is gone between Cancun, swimming, teaching lessons, Iowa/Michigan, and camp. But it is going to be wonderful and amazing!!

Megan's graduation is in a few weeks. This makes me sad.

I only have to show up to 9 more days of school!!! This makes me happy!

Miriam and Webster DID NOT write the modern English language. They just made the most used dictionary. Big difference.

I miss my cousins!!! And everybody up North. :(

I am SO proud of my Learn to Swimmers who swam WONDERFULLY this weekend at Time Trials! And Jacy, Aubrey, Carina, Chloe, Alexis, and all my other little girls :)

Aubrey sent me THE cutest text message today "Tell your mom I said Happy Mothers Day, because without her I wouldn't have met you" AWW!!

I'm super jealous of college students who are done with school this week. Super. Jealous.

The Praise Band played REALLY good music this morning, it made me happy!

I despise one worded text messages.

And now that Renee (and Charles. and my entire youth group who was at Bible Study early) knows of my fear of rubber bands, I have a feeling they are going to torment me with them. GREAT.

I have become addicted to making boondoggle key-chains. You should look at my truck keys now. Whoever said I didn't have enough key-chains.. think again.

I don't like KSBJ's Sunday night radio show. Therefore, I'm listening to KLOVE.

Pastor Dave's "10 things your mother would never say" list this morning was extremely funny. See below.
1. Well, if Timmy's mom says it's OK, that's good enough for me.
2. How on earth can you see the TV sitting so far back?
3. Yeah, I used to skip school a lot, too.
4. Just leave all the lights on. It makes the house look more cheery
5. Let me smell that shirt. OK, it's good for another week.
6. Go ahead and keep that stray dog, honey. I'll be glad to feed and walk him every day.
7. Don't bother wearing a jacket - the wind-chill is bound to improve.
8. The curfew is just a general time to shoot for. It's not like I'm running a prison around here.
9. I don't have a tissue with me - just use your sleeve.
10. Could you turn the music up louder so I could hear it too?

My name is Kylie. Don't call me something else in the attempt to make me mad. You will succeed.

Layla Grace is still touching lives, even though she joined the angels 2 months ago.

I drove past the Bridgelands on Thursday and lost it. I miss Clayton Gregory Davis.

I don't want to do the APUSH review ANY MORE.

Therfore, I think I might go watch NCIS instead. I think I'm addicted to that show.

I hate my ankles that always hurt and my back that has been achy lately. Very frustrating.

I have stopped writing long elaborate sentence. I'm now blogging in phrases. I just noticed.

May 12th is cooler than May 11th.

I am SO random!!!

Song of the Week: May 10

I stumbled across a Cho-Yeh'ers blog the other day, and she had a blog post about a retreat she had been at where they played this song "Feel the Nails". She had talked about how she had a top-of-the-roller-coaster moment (that's what our youth group calls them anywhos) when this band played the song. So being the music-lover that I am... I had to go check it out.

The lyrics, WOW. I read them before even hearing the song. I love them more then the song, but it wouldn't be a song of the week with just lyrics now would it?

Feel the Nails by Ray Boltz

"They tell me Jesus died
For my transgressions
That he paid that price a long, long time ago
When he gave his life for me
On a hill called Calvary
But there's something else I want to know

Does he still feel the nails
Every time I fail
Can he hear the crowd cry "Crucify" again
Am I causing him pain
Then I know I've got to change
I just can't bear the thought of hurting him.

It seems that I'm so good at breaking promises
And I treat his precious grace so carelessly
But each time he forgives
What if he re-lives
The agony He felt on that tree

Does he still feel the nails
Every time I fail
Can he hear the crowd cry "Crucify" again
Am I causing him pain
Then I know I've got to change
I just can't bear the thought of hurting him.

Holy, holy
Holy is the Lord
Holy Holy
Holy is the Lord

Do you still feel the nails
Every time I fail
Have I crucified you Jesus with my sins
Oh I'm tired of playing games
I really want to change
I never want to hurt you again

Holy, Holy
Holy is the Lord
Holy, Holy
Holy is the Lord"

AP Test 1: DONE

WAHOOO!!!! 1st AP test (test for college credit)is DONE!! After sitting at the Berry Center for 4 hours, answering 80 multiple choice questions (55 minutes) and 3 essays (15 minute reading period for the document, 45 minutes to write the Document Based Question, 35 minutes for each of the Free Response Questions) I was READY to get out of there! It was 6th period by the time we got back to Falls, luckily pre-cal was a free-day and BCIS was a blowoff as per usual.

HOOORAY APUSH IS DONEEE!!

Birthday?

Typically by this time of the year, I'm counting down the days till my birthday. I still kinda am, just because that is the number of days till AP testing is over and my life gets dramatically less stressful.

The past few years I haven't really done anything for my birthday. I think last year Daddy's brothers were in town so we took them out to eat and considered that my "birthday dinner" too. The year before I think I had my best friend of the time spend the night.

This year there's no time to do anything for my birthday. It's in the thick of AP testing. Megan's getting ready for graduation. It's in the middle of swim season for both Renee and I. It's on a Wednesday, so I'll probably get a cookie cake to take to Bible Study that night. I'll probably end up going to Kole's baseball game. Nothing special. There is too much else going on, and there's no way either of my best friends could find a time when all 3 of us aren't busy to get away and do something special.

For a while I wanted my Mom's friend, Missy, to take pictures of all of my friends and I. I was going to get school friends, swimming friends, church friends, everybody together and get good pictures before everybody graduates and moves on. But the friend situation has changed so much since then, that there's no way everybody would get along. For a little while I wanted to go down to Galveston for a day, but with Cancun around the corner, Galveston just seems poopy and disgusting. I wanted to go camping, but it's getting too hot, and I'm not sure everybody else would enjoy it. Maybe Renee, Megan, and I will all go out for dinner and rent a movie or something. Sounds like a typical Saturday night, but if we throw in a cake and some snacks, can't that be considered a birthday?

Another reason I don't like birthdays. Presents. I always feel bad getting presents or asking for anything, because I have everything I need. Yeah, sometimes I would like a new t-shirt, or Nike shorts, or some sheets for camp, but I don't NEED them. I have umpteen dozen swimming t-shirts. I have enough Nike shorts and basketball shorts to survive off of. I have sheets for camp, even though they may be ugly, I have some. I don't NEED anything. Ever since I went on my 1st mission trip and I saw that family who wouldn't get a single present for their birthday, I feel guilty asking for anything. Even when I go shopping with Mom, yeah that shirt might be cute, but I have enough shirts. I don't need anything.

So I don't know where the birthday issue stands. Megan is out of town most of June, I'm out of town all of July and half of August. Renee is out of town certain random weeks. There isn't any time for birthday's anymore. I don't need a party to be happy, all I need is my friends and family, and luckily for me I have both.

Remembering how to Breathe

I woke up this morning on the couch downstairs, the result of another sleepless night. Ever since some drama happened a few weeks ago, I haven't been sleeping well AT ALL. That coupled with the stress that comes with the end of the year, the recommended hours that teenagers are supposed to sleep a night has been no where near met. And when I am sleep deprived I feel crummy. And it's no fun.

So, realizing I still had 4 1/2 days of school I could miss to still be able to exempt finals for the semester, I decided I was not going to school today. My first mental day! Although, unlike dad's mental-health-days, mine was not spent doing something I enjoyed (cough cough golfing, dad!), it was spent studying for AP exams. Again. I laid downstairs till the rest of the family left (somehow their morning seems much more relaxed than mine typically does. Like sitting down to eat breakfast.. I don't know when the last time that happened) then got up and got to work. I read/studied out of my APUSH review book from 7:45-10 (covering about 50 pages and 150 years). From 10-11 I cleaned the bathroom/disaster area so that Mom wouldn't have to when she got home from work tonight. (Kole came home and said MY side of the sink was cleaner than his and made his half of the bathroom look bad.. I really wanna get that on recording or something!) I then went back and read/studied/ate lunch for another hour. I spent about 30 minutes picking up my room (it really wasn't that bad surprisingly), and have now spent the past 3 hours working on the big long APUSH review (33 pages, 500+ questions that require more than a sentence response).

Now, where does the mental-health day come in? Aren't you supposed to be able to relax and catch up and destress during those days? Well, surprisingly, I have. Even though I spent the day doing schoolwork, I'm still a) in my pajamas and b) wearing glasses, and it's wonderful. This weekend didn't seem like much of a weekend, considering I took the SAT on Saturday, and spent Sunday doing apush in between church activities. So atleast today I got a day of quiet before the grandparents come in and AP exams creep up (Friday and next Wednesday!), a day to semi-relax and kinda catch up.

Now... 3 1/2 days I can still miss and exempt. What to do, what to do.

Song of the Week: May 2

Every Saturday night, KSBJ plays more of a harder kind of music (I think it's called Christian Rock). Renee LOVES those 3 hours, I'm pretty sure sometimes she just sits with the radio in her hands and listens to the music. Not to worry, I do that too :)

Last night this song came on while I was studying for AP exams, and I loved the lyrics. Even when life gets tough, we all still have Jesus.

Me and Jesus
by Stellar Kart

"When there's nowhere else to turn
All your bridges have been burned
Feels like you've hit rock bottom
Don't give up it's not the end
Open up your heart again
When you feel like no one
Understands where you are

Someone loves you even when you don't think so don't you know you got
Me and Jesus by your side through the fight you will never be alone on your own you got me and Jesus

After all that we've been through
Be now you know I've doubted too
But everytime my head was in my
Hands you said to me
Hold on to what we got
This is worth any cost so
Make the most of life
That's borrowed
Love like there's no tomorrow"

The end is coming

Today while in sitting and waiting for church to start with my best friend, she turned to me and I could tell she had been tearing up. I immediately start asking what's wrong, who do I need to go get mad at, you know the drill. All she says was "it's almost over". I knew what she meant, prom is over, her senior year is almost over, she's close to graduating and moving to college station. High school is almost done for her.

And then my mind started rolling. This thought has been in the back of my head for a while, one of the reasons why before Megan, I never got close to people older than me. Ever. Because at one point, they always have to leave.

I only have a few months before Megan leaves for A&M. Luckily it's only an hour and 15 minutes away, unlike Canada where she lived last year.

I started crying in church. As per normal we were sitting in the 2nd row in the left, and nobody (as normal) was sitting in front of us, so nobody really saw me crying. Only one other youth grouper showed up to sit with us this mornin, but I don't think she really saw either. It just all of a sudden hit me, she's going to be moving out.

I had been coming to this understanding for quite some time, the fact that she would be going off to college at the end of this year. But the thing is, I often have these thoughts but until they are spoken, they don't seem real. It's like if I keep them locked up in my head, then they are just a figment of my imagination.

I do know this, A&M is only an hour and 15 minutes away. In other words, crisis on either of our parts, it's just a 37.5 minute drive for each of us to meet up. She promised she'd come down to help me go prom dress shopping. I know I'm going to see her again, and I know we'll talk like crazy, but I also know how much I'm going to miss her.

I'm so blessed to have the best friends in my life I do. I know we are all way extremely busy, but we all know that each other is way more important than any busyness will be. I love my friends, they're truly amazing.

So as the end of her senior year does come, I know it's not the end. But until then, I'm making the most of the time we have, and filling it up with memories. ♥

SAT--done!

After 3 days of TAKS testing and sitting in one room for hours on end (and being SILENT), I was not lookin' forward to another standardized test, especially not on a SATURDAY! Ask anybody in my TAKS room, I was sitting/sprawled out on the floor the SECOND the last test was turned in.

But, for some stupid reason I decided to wait and take my SAT in May. Why I didn't take in in say September? Or February? I honestly have no clue. So I pull into Langham at 7:20 this morning, and by 7:45 I'm sitting in a huge room with everybody else who's last name falls between M and T (I think the U-Z room would've been A LOT less crowded!) waiting to get this thing over with.

1 Essay (time limit: 25 minutes)
6 25 minute sections (2 math, 2 critical reading, 2 revise/edit/grammar/usage type things)
2 20 minute sections (1 critical reading, 1 math)
1 10 minute section (revise)

For the SAT the point scale goes like this: correct answer = 1 point, no answer = 0 points, wrong answer = -.25 points. So you get penalized if you guess wrong, so if you don't know it's better to leave it blank. Ultimately, you could end up with a negative score.

Finally, at 1:00 we were all able to leave. THANK GOODNESS! I'm pretty sure my butt wasn't going to last sitting in that chair any longer. I came to the conclusion that the SAT is all about endurance: whoever can get to section 7 without going crazy and losing all motivation will ultimately score the best. I am hoping to get around at 1800, but A&M's SAT requirements are really low, so I should be okay and not have to retake it!

So, I've spent the last 4 days taking standardized testing, 3 to graduate high school, 1 to get into college, so now I get a fun night right?

Wrong.

In the next 2 weeks, I take 2 AP tests for actual college credit. So, the rest of my weekend is dedicated to studying for them!! I take history on Friday the 7th, then English the next Wednesday on my birthday (aww thanks! that's exactly what I wanted, how did you ever guess??). Luckily I already have college credit for the history class because I took it dual-credit (all you have to do is pass the class and you get the credit if you stay in Texas), so as long as I don't go out of state, I have that to fall back on. And English shouldn't be too bad I'm hoping.

So, what am I doing still blogging? Good question, should probably go grab the highlighters and AP Review Books. Oh joy. What a fun Saturday night!?