Life that's new

I really don't like posting now that my blog is private--I can reach so fewer people, and it's a hassle commenting on blogs that don't have access to mine. Anyways. :)

I'm really excited for 2011. This year, which will end in one hour (one hour! eep!) has been a good one. It's had its ups and downs. My grandfather passed away three days before Christmas. I won Nanowrimo. Grandpa was in and out of the hospital numerous times. There were trials, big ones, for my personal walk with Jesus. I could almost feel Satan shooting his fiery darts at me. It hurt. A lot. But Jesus, being the good Savior that he is, helped me get through it--and learn from it. I can't say it was enjoyable (I mean, come on; when is it ever?) but I think I'm stronger because of it.

I made friends this year. Two girls who have become two of my best friends, and I hope they'll truly be my friends forever. I met Katelyn in March in a writing class, and we got to know each other after a few months. Sadly, she spent the entire summer (grr!) in New Jersey, but she came home (yay!) and we've become really strong friends. Hey, we're both writers and photographers and bloggers and Christians and homeschoolers. How much more alike can you get? (Ok, we don't look anything alike. At all. But that's alright.) God has blessed me so much, and I am so thankful for a wonderful Christian friend like her. Love you, girlie!


Then, in April, from this lovely little website we call Blogger, I met Shaynie. I was just blog hopping and happened to find her blog (I have no idea where I found it) and man, am I glad I did. We always got along well, but towards the beginning of fall we started chatting/emailing with each other, and we started to become really good friends. Shaynie completed Nanowrimo like a week and a half before it ended. I, on the other hand, was struggling with a word count that was pretty behind. But this girl pulled me through. She wrote me an incredible pep talk and I pulled through and won that horribly painful writing contest (note to self: don't do Nanowrimo next year...possibly...). I didn't want to dissapoint Shaynie, so I had to kick Nano's butt. Now, two months later, we're close friends, and definitely friends for life. :)

And then there's Miss Molly. I can't say she's one of the best friends I met in 2010, since I met her in 2009. But then, last New Year's, I didn't know Molly nearly as well as I do now. I am so thankful for this friend. We may be as different as day and night, but we're Peanut Butter and Jelly, Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, Spongebob and Patrick, Shawn and Gus. (I had to fit all the best friends I could think of.XD) We really are sisters, buddies, amigas, and Robin Hood and Merlin fanatics forever.:)

photo credit to Pixel Paige

I am thankful for my life. My friends. You incredible on Blogger, cause you make my day. My family, because that's what keeps us together. My grandfather's life. And I'm thankful for new life, and how Jesus can turn an old year into a new one full of hopes and promises and any amount of dreams that can come true. That may sound really cliche, but as Molly once told me, sometimes the cliche phrases are really the most true. Anything can happen, because this is life, and when you put in God's hands, you're in for a wild ride. One that will take you to places you never expected.

I want to write this year. I want to push myself to my limits and make the volleyball gold league. I want to save my money for a camera, I want to eat healthier, I want to run, I want to draw, I want to cook.

But what I really want is Jesus. I fool myself into thinking I need the above things (Ok...you really do need your health XD) but when it comes down to it, what's left? Is it the camera or the volleyball or the sketches? Nuh-uh. It's Jesus, and it all comes down to him. So give him the glory, because in the end, it's his anyways.

{MY picture, but I didn't put a watermark on it, so don't steal}

I wanted to share this verse that was a huge comfort to me during my struggle:

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." --Ephesians 6:12 (and typed from memory, too ^_^)

Satan doesn't want us to live. He wants to weigh us down with how life can be hard sometimes. And while it can be, that's not the point. Because Jesus came to give life, and he certainly did give it. So it's the least we can do to honor him by living it.

It felt good to write this, even if no one else sees it until tomorrow or the next day. I need to get my thoughts out. :)

So thank you, Jesus, for Molly, for Katelyn, and for Shaynie. Thank you for Lorna and Olivia and Julianna and Alyssa and Christina and Stephanie and Guin and all the people you've blessed me with. Thank you for my family. For my best friend/sister (no, really, she is my sister) Paige. For my parents, my grandma, my nana on the other side. For life, writing, volleyball, water, music, health, laughter, swimming, jumping, hyperness, and everything else I love.

Bring in 2011. Bring in new beginnings, new stories, new laughter, quiet days, and a chance to begin again. Let yourself really live. I know I want to!

favorite photo taken of me in 2010...thanks Livia!

O Come o come Emmanuel...

I was trying to think of a more creative title. :) I know I probably don't have any right to post, seeing that I've been a very naughty blogger, but I have a good reason--nobody sees my posts, anyways, so I was kind of like, "What's the point?" until I remember to get permission to make my blog public again. I always forget, meaning I don't post, and when I don't post, I forget...oh, I have a question. Does anyone know why only this and the previous post show up on my page? I don't what I did wrong, and I can't fix it. Please shout it out if you know. :)

Anyways, that be not the subject of this post! I'm here to say, Happy Christmas! Or Merry Christmas, if you like. Getting into the Christmas spirit had been difficult for me this year, but last night at our church's Christmas Eve service, I felt like I truly remembered the reason for the season. You know how you can know these things, but it doesn't sink in? Well, last night it did. :)

Christmas isn't called Christmas for nothing...where do you think the "Christ" part came from? ;)

So, to all of my lovely blogger friends, who are reading this or not, a very Merry Christmas to you and your family! Tear open wrapping paper with glee, decorate sugar cookies, try on your new herringbone newsboys cap a hundred times. (Someone didn't get one of those this morning...no, not at all...) I love all that stuff, but let me join the chorus of everyone else reminding us what Christmas is all about.

Thank you, Lord, for coming down to earth and dying for us, and giving us the privilege of spending eternity with you. Everyday you save me, and I honestly don't know how I would get through life without you. Thank you for loving me, and being my best friend.

Happy birthday, Jesus!

Happy Independence Day!

This will just be a short post to say,

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!




I hope you have a safe and blessed day with your friends and family, and remember to keep the troops overseas in your prayers. Because of them we are free.

Daddy...

Dear Daddy... Happy Father's Day to the best dad I could ever have. God knew what he was doing when he made me your daughter. I couldn't ask for better, and I would never want anyone else in your special place.

Dear Daddy... I wonder where it is that I get my sense of humor? I love laughing with you and making you laugh. I love quoting lines from our favorite movies. I love it when you say something and I can follow up with something straight out of Napolean Dynamite.

Dear Daddy... I love being different. How many other girls get to watch Formula 1 with their daddies on Sunday afternoons? I love that we can watch it together and have a grand 'ol time of it. I never would have become interested in car racing if it hadn't been for you. And how many other girls knew their Marvel comic characters? Thanks to you, I do.

Dear Daddy... We're both writers. We may write very different things but this is just another thing that we share. Putting words on a page, stringing together a perfect sentence, we both love doing that and we understand each other. When we sat and edited and Enslaved together, I loved that. Having an editor for a dad is simply spectacular (most of the time:P).

Dear Daddy... I love when you practice volleyball with me in the background. I always want to play my best and hit the ball as much as I can when I practice with you. You make me want to do my best.

Dear Daddy... You and my (fantastic, awesome, amazing) mom raised me in an evironment where I was taught to love and follow God, the Creator and author of Life. My savior. My faith is the most important thing to me, and growing up in a household that loved and loves God launched that. You two are my biggest heroes.

Dear Daddy... Have I mentioned that I love you?

He is not here, for He has risen!

I'm in a Phantom of Opera mood. I'm listening to the main song right now... oh! Listen to that organ! Amazing! Sing once again with me, a sweet duet... my power over you, grows stronger yet. AHHH. I love it! I actually fell asleep watching the movie, but I'm in love with the music.


I ask you, is this not Razo? Isn't it? It's a pic of Ben Barnes from a few years ago. Or it could be Finn. Which do you think? Finn or Razo?

I've decided that Lucy Griffiths (BBC Robin Hood) is totally Torene.


My volleyball practice the other night was amazing!! I am finally getting my under-hand serve right! There's a lot more team spirit between the girls now, and I think we feel more comfortable around each other now. My first game is on the 13th!

But most of all, more than any of that other stuff... Happy Easter!

Matthew 28:6: He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

Yesterday, Good Friday, Jesus was crucified. He didn't have to. He could've let us humans die.

And yet he did have to. Because he had the power to say no, but he didn't. He could have denied everything, but he didn't. He died an excruciating, horrible death, for people who were sinning and angry and had no right to be saved by him.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." --John 3:16

Thank you, Lord. Every day in my life is yours.

I will be seeking first the kingdom of my God... --Natalie Grant, Deeper Life

Merry Christmas!

Merry, merry Christmas to everybody! It's been hard for me to remember this year that Christmas is actually about Jesus' birth, with all the C-mas music and cookie baking and present shopping and looking forward to seeing family. I mean, all that's great, but it's not the real reason for the season! And, in the words of my friend Casey, "Jesus is the Christ in CHRIST-mas!"

"I can tell you what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown. Lights, please? 'And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were sore afraid. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will to men." That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown." (that's a mixture of my NIV version Bible and what Linus said in 'A Charlie Brown Christmas.')

Again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!