Caroline has finally figured out what eyeliner is good for

Eyeliner doesn't work on me. Period. I mean seriously, you're supposed to put it on your eyelid like right against your eye, but it never goes on. I dunno what it is, I guess I just have special eyes.

"1-800 Contacts? They can't have my brand." *looks into the distance* "I have special eyes."
"Look! Look with your special eyes!" *shows box*
"My brand!"
--1800 Contacts commercial (it's cheesy, but I love it :)

The night before last night, I had a revelation. Kind of. I took my useless eyeliner pencil and begin drawing elvish designs next to my eyes, or attempting to anyways, cause they turned awful. I showed my parents and they got a good laugh out of it. Then I went back to the bathroom mirror and managed to draw half of a mustache before my dad saw me from the hallway and we both cracked up. I finished the mustache and showed my mom, and I think she was partially mortified. I added a unibrow and a goatee before the night was over!

So, if you have special eyes, too, and you're sad that you wasted money on eyeliner that has no purpose, now you know what to do with it! I told Molly this is what we're doing at our sleepover on tomorrow night. She draws mine, I draw hers, and I plan on taking pictures :P

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This video.

I know Gwen likes this. This made my day!! "U is for ukilele..."

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Soon, I'm going to be busy, busy, busy. My birthday is in just over two weeks (and one of my bffs, Katelyn, has her b-day in exactly two weeks, on St. Patty's Day!!) Then the weekend after that I'm going on a retreat with my youth group. I have never, ever, been anywhere more than two days without my sister, so this is really a leap of faith for me. About two weeks after that I'm probably traveling up north for my grandfather's funeral. Also, volleyball starts the same week I'm going on the retreat, and I'll have schoolwork and classes to juggle too. I get anxious when I have so much stuff going on like this, and just thinking about the next few weeks is like a weight on my shoulders, but I just gotta give it to God and trust that He's gonna help me through it.

I have a new blog!! It's for photography! There are no posts up yet, but I'll be working on it. I'd appreciate it if you'd give me a follow :) Click HERE

I realized there's no pictures in this post so I should probably add one.

Pictures of you,
pictures of me
hung upon your wall
for the world to see
pictures of you
pictures of me
remind us all of what we used to be

*ahem*

Sorry.

Well, this was probably a pretty boring post and not one of my best, but what's been, like, 9 days since I've posted?? So here you go! Hope you enjoyed :)

xoxo,
your vb-obsessed, phoenix burning day dreaming, robin hood loving, mustache drawing blogger,
caroline

Bet on it

I went for a mile and a half run yesterday.

My muscles hurt.

Haha, I know what you're thinking--wimp!

But cut me a little slack...it's been aging since I've been running. And then when I do go running, I do it like once and then don't do it again for a few months.

Wanna know a little secret?

Oh, I knew you would!

Volleyball season starts in just over a month. I am NOT in shape. I'm not overweight, I'm actually pretty slim and the right weight for being 5'8", but I'm not very fit right now. This is proved by how tired I am today after last night's run.

So here's what I'm gonna do about this. I believe running, as will any other form of exercise, help me during volleyball. And I've got one month to get one shape, so why not get started? :)

Caroline's list for getting in shape

1. Run at least three times a week. I'd like to do it four times, but my mom and I are going to work out a schedule for which days I should run and which I should walk.

2. Upper-arm strength. I think part of the reason my over-hand serves don't go over the net is because I don't have enough power in my upper arms. I'd like to change this by doing ten push-ups each night, and gradually working my way up to more.

3. Crunches. It would would be nice to have my middle nice and firm.

4. Eat. Healthier.

Bleh.

I'm not a healthy eater.

But it's worth it to become a better volleyball player.

5. Practice for at least half an hour outside each day with my volleyball. This includes setting (hitting the ball off your fingertips), passing (hitting the ball on your forearms), hitting and over-hand serving (slamming the ball with the palm of your hand), and under-hand serving (bending down when you serve the ball and hitting it from the front of your hand; this is the serve I use during games, since my over-hand serves still can't get over the net.)

I can't count how many times I've said, I'm gonna exercise! I'm gonna get in shape! I'm going to eat healthier, even though I've said this five hundred times and I never do it! Well, not this time. I realize what a hollow promise that sounds like, but this is something I really want to devote myself to and get done. It's not going to be easy, but I'll be in shape for volleyball season and beyond, and that will be my reward. :)

See number eight? My head is right next to her, smiling.

Oh yeah.

Volleyball.

It's coming.

xoxo,
your obsessed vb player

Cup o' tea, how's your mum?

Have y'all seen that Geico ad? Where the Geico dude and the Gecko are drinking tea? No? Well, it's awesome. :) Now, I shall treat you to some excerpts from my life and things that I've been thinking about lately, so do enjoy =D (because all you want to hear about is me, right? It's all about me. NOT...I was kidding. Sarcasm.) :)

1. Flu. I don't have it, and I really, really, really hope I don't get it. But it's going around my church at the moment, and tomorrow morning I have to work in the nursery with two and three year olds. As I told Shaynie, I plan to keep my bottle of vanilla scented hand sanitizer with me at all times. This morning Paige and my mom and I were going to go get the Flu shot, until my mom did some research online and discovered that the flu shot often doesn't protect against the flu. So we're not going to do it, and I plan instead on taking preventitive (sp?) measures against the flu. Observe:

Eat healthier. I'm not good at this, but eating more fruits and vegetables and drinking more liquid (I read that green tea is good) is one of the first steps to being healthy. It's actually probably the first step. Who knew? :P

Aerobic exercise. It's a bright, beautiful sunny day in the 60's, so soon I'm going to go take advantage of that and go on a nice long walk. And perhaps when I come back, I'll practice with my volleyball in the backyard.

Wash your hands. I already do this a lot, but this is one of the key ways to keep from getting sick. Also, cough and sneeze into the crook of your arm instead of your hand, so germs won't get all over your hands. And secondly, I mean thirdly, wipe down your
faucets and doorknobs with cleaning wipes so they're disinfected.

Drink lots of water and other liquids.

PRAY!

Check out this website for a list of what to do to prevent flu: http://www.ehow.com/how_3451_prevent-flu.html

2. Egypt. I'm sure you've heard what's going on there. Riots, protests, deaths, and the government dissolving? Normally I'm not into politics, but I guess that's when it concerns things like the Stock Market or the politicians or whatever. I find most of that boring. But this thing about Egypt scares me. Did you know that it's like the oldest country still around from the ancient times, from the very beginning? Persia is still here and Iraq is still here, but they've been renamed. Other civilisations like the Sumerians or the Assyrians have been wiped off the face of the earth. Egypt still stands. But with it's government like this, I wonder for how long...I don't mean to be a downer, but this is really serious stuff. Just watching the news makes you like, "Whoaaa..." and wonder about the outcome of the country (haha, sorry about the "whoa", it was the only way I knew how to describe it. And I call myself a writer). I really hope this thing with Egypt just a phase and that it passes.

warning: slight spoilers ahead for Merlin; Nahla, if you haven't finished season three yet, you might not want to read this. :) Molly, you too.

3. I'm gonna move on to a more light-hearted subject: THE SEASON THREE FINALE OF MERLIN. I saw it last night, yes I did. IT WAS GREATTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Omigosh omigosh omigosh they HAD THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUNDTABLE!!!! ARTHUR AND GUINEVERE AND MERLIN AND LANCELOT AND GWAINE ( ♥) AND ELYAN AND PERCIVAL AND LEON!!!!!!!!!!! (+Gaius:) And then the Sword in the Stone!! I have been waiting for both of those things, for the show to actually resemble the ancient legends of Camelot and King Arthur, and last night, even though they took some liberties with it as they always do, it was the most truthful they have ever come to the old legends. It was magical :) I was squealing at the Roundtable and the Excalibur part--just ask Paige :)

l to r: Leon, Percival, Merlin, Arthur, Lancelot, Elyan, and Gwaine

♥

But you know what's just not right? I have to wait until 2012 for season to come out. 2012! How will I survive until then?! As I remarked to Molly, the world can't end in 2012 because we have to see season four of Merlin.

4. I'm taking a Journalism and Economics class starting on Thursday (in addition to my physical science class which is also on Thursday). I'm really excited, cause I haven't been busy enough (isn't that the lament of all you people, that you're too busy? I wish I was) and a Journalism class is right up my alley. :) Plus, Katelyn is in it, which makes it all the better.:) I miss my classes. It's gonna be so nice (and busier:) to have them back.

5. It's a beautiful, sunny day in the 60's, meaning I should save this post for later tonight when it's dark out. We're going to a park in a couple of minutes (I'm gonna bring my volleyball:) so I'll continue this post later!

6. We went to the park and had a lovely time (including taking some pictures of Paige and I kissing Otis, our dog) and there was this big beach volleyball pit with a net, and I forgot my volleyball. Typical Caroline. :)

7. I made these for my characters in Enslaved the other day. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with this book--for those of you who don't know, Enslaved was my first novel, and it's been rewritten three times--but I want to do something. My ideas for it a new version all seem pretty floppy. It irks me, cause the characters are calling to me, but I don't have a plot. :(

Merien; the quote is one of hers

Will
The lyrics are from It's My Life/Confessions by Glee (I don't watch that show, but I like the song.)

Torene

There's a lyric in one of my absolute favorite songs, Viva la Vida by Coldplay, that says, "And I discovered that my castles stand upon pillars of sand". I don't know if I was trying to copy that or not, I don't think it was, but it turned out sounding like that.

Lo and behold, those are my graphic making skills. I get excited when I make things like that, even though they're pretty basic. I have Photoshop on my computer, but I have no clue how to use it. Guess I'm not a graphic designer :)

8. BOOKS. Ha! I just finished my second reading of The King of Attolia today, making that the third book I've finished in 2011...I'm not a very fast reader (the other two were A Conspiracy of Kings and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters, which I got for Christmas). Now I'm going to start On The Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (great title, no?:) and also waiting in my pile are Scarlet, Pegasus, and The Queen of Attolia and The Thief, both of which will be rereads. :) OH! I just realized (not for the first time) that I never finished reading the Benedict Society books. Those were really good. I need to go order them from the library. :)

9. Have you noticed that I've been using wayyy too many parentheses? (yes?)

10. A few nights ago I dreamed that The Patriot was actually a trilogy of three films, and I was the director of them *plus* the Percy Jackson movie. And we won Oscars. So, um, yeah. xD

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Have a wonderful night, my adventurous friends!! Maybe we'll all dream that we win Oscars. :)

I'm dreaming...

of California.

Of blue water, warm sand, and giant palm trees.

Of the time when I went to California when I was eight and we went to this place called La Hoya near San Diego and it was at sunset, and there were this amazing huge cliffs near the road looking over the ocean. There's a picture of me and Paige crouching on them--we were so little. Whenever I think of La Hoya, I think pink sunsets. It was magical, and I wish I could have appreciated it more.

I'm dreaming of running across a beach at sunset with the sun sinking beneath the waves and shedding light across the water. You know when the water washes up on the shore and makes the sand all slick? I love that.

I look out the window and I see a gray sky, a sprinkling of ice on the ground, a wet street, and the temperature is probably somewhere in the 30's.

Sigh.

Maybe the two above scenarios sound totally cliche, but that's the only way I know how to describe how much I miss the ocean and summer. Warmth. Sunshine. Water. Flipflops (or barefeet--even better!), tank tops, lying at the edge of the water and going all stiff and giggling when the cold water rushes up around me.



At least, if it has to be winter, it could grace us with some snow--preferably around six inches, which is what we got the day after Christmas. But it's just ice.

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!

I do believe in magic

The past couple of days, many posts regarding The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader have been appearing quite frequently on my dashboard. I am not here to give you a review of this movie. I am here to say that the latest installment of Narnia was...

incredible.

i'm still trying to process everything. did i love this movie? i'm not sure yet. i certainly didn't hate it. but i think for now it just needs to sink in. and you can be sure that when it comes out on dvd, i'll be watching many times over.

it also left me in quite a daze that i still haven't woken up from. i'm still stuck in narnia. i hope i never wake up.

But this movie also inspired me. Last night after we got back I turned on my laptop and started writing more of Enslaved, and an onslaught of ideas is now upon me. These movies have been a huge inspiration for me with my writing.

So, I'll leave you now with the words of Peter Pan:

I do believe in magic, I do, I do!

do you?